'Certainly, my lord,' said Melmotte. 'I'll show your lordship the way.' The Marquis did not speak to his son, but poked at him with his stick, as though poking him out of the door. So instigated, Nidderdale followed the financier, and the gouty old Marquis toddled after them.
Madame Melmotte was beside herself with trepidation. 'You should not have been made to come up at all,' she said. 'Il faut que vous vous retiriez.'
'I am very sorry,' said Sir Felix, looking quite aghast. 'I think that I had at any rate better retire,' said Miss Longestaffe, raising herself to her full height and stalking out of the room.
'Qu'elle est méchante,' said Madame Melmotte. 'Oh, she is so bad. Sir Felix, you had better go too. Yes indeed.'
'No,' said Marie, running to him, and taking hold of his arm. 'Why should he go? I want papa to know.'
'Il vous tuera,' said Madame Melmotte. 'My God, yes.'
'Then he shall,' said Marie, clinging to her lover. 'I will never marry Lord Nidderdale. If he were to cut me into bits I wouldn't do it. Felix, you love me; do you not?'
'Certainly,' said Sir Felix, slipping his arm round her waist.
'Mamma,' said Marie, 'I will never have any other man but him;--never, never, never. Oh, Felix, tell her that you love me.'
'You know that, don't you, ma'am?' Sir Felix was a little troubled in his mind as to what he should say, or what he should do.
'Oh, love! It is a beastliness,' said Madame Melmotte. 'Sir Felix, you had better go. Yes, indeed. Will you be so obliging?'
'Don't go,' said Marie. 'No, mamma, he shan't go. What has he to be afraid of? I will walk down among them into papa's room, and say that I will never marry that man, and that this is my lover. Felix, will you come?'
Sir Felix did not quite like the proposition. There had been a savage ferocity in that Marquis's eye, and there was habitually a heavy sternness about Melmotte, which together made him resist the invitation. 'I don't think I have a right to do that,' he said, 'because it is Mr Melmotte's own house.'
'I wouldn't mind,' said Marie. 'I told papa to-day that I wouldn't marry Lord Nidderdale.'
'Was he angry with you?'
'He laughed at me. He manages people till he thinks that everybody must do exactly what he tells them. He may kill me, but I will not do it. I have quite made up my mind. Felix, if you will be true to me, nothing shall separate us. I will not be ashamed to tell everybody that I love you.'