The attorney, although he was bound to be staunch to his own client, and to his own house in opposition to Mr Squercum, nevertheless was becoming doubtful in his own mind as to the genuineness of the letter which Dolly was so persistent in declaring that he had not signed. Mr Longestaffe himself, who was at any rate an honest man, had given it as his opinion that Dolly had not signed the letter. His son had certainly refused to sign it once, and as far as he knew could have had no opportunity of signing it since. He was all but sure that he had left the letter under lock and key in his own drawer in the room which had latterly become Melmotte's study as well as his own. Then, on entering the room in Melmotte's presence,--their friendship at the time having already ceased,--he found that his drawer was open. This same Mr Bideawhile was with him at the time. 'Do you mean to say that I have opened your drawer?' said Mr Melmotte. Mr Longestaffe had become very red in the face and had replied by saying that he certainly made no such accusation, but as certainly he had not left the drawer unlocked. He knew his own habits and was sure that he had never left that drawer open in his life. 'Then you must have changed the habits of your life on this occasion,' said Mr Melmotte with spirit. Mr Longestaffe would trust himself to no other word within the house, but, when they were out in the street together, he assured the lawyer that certainly that drawer had been left locked, and that to the best of his belief the letter unsigned had been left within the drawer. Mr Bideawhile could only remark that it was the most unfortunate circumstance with which he had ever been concerned.
The marriage with Nidderdale would upon the whole be the best thing, if it could only be accomplished. The reader must understand that though Mr Melmotte had allowed himself considerable poetical licence in that statement as to property thirty times as great as the price which he ought to have paid for Pickering, still there was property. The man's speculations had been so great and so wide that he did not really know what he owned, or what he owed. But he did know that at the present moment he was driven very hard for large sums. His chief trust for immediate money was in Cohenlupe, in whose hands had really been the manipulation of the shares of the Mexican railway. He had trusted much to Cohenlupe,--more than it had been customary with him to trust to any man. Cohenlupe assured him that nothing could be done with the railway shares at the present moment. They had fallen under the panic almost to nothing. Now in the time of his trouble Melmotte wanted money from the great railway, but just because he wanted money the great railway was worth nothing. Cohenlupe told him that he must tide over the evil hour,--or rather over an evil month. It was at Cohenlupe's instigation that he had offered the two bills to Mr Bideawhile. 'Offer 'em again,' said Cohenlupe. 'He must take the bills sooner or later.'