And then from time to time little rumours reached her ears which made her aware that, in the teeth of all Mr Melmotte's social successes, a general opinion that he was a gigantic swindler was rather gaining ground than otherwise. 'Your host is a wonderful fellow, by George!' said Lord Nidderdale. 'No one seems to know which way he'll turn up at last.' 'There's nothing like being a robber, if you can only rob enough,' said Lord Grasslough,--not exactly naming Melmotte, but very clearly alluding to him. There was a vacancy for a member of parliament at Westminster, and Melmotte was about to come forward as a candidate. 'If he can manage that I think he'll pull through,' she heard one man say. 'If money'll do it, it will be done,' said another. She could understand it all. Mr Melmotte was admitted into society, because of some enormous power which was supposed to lie in his hands; but even by those who thus admitted him he was regarded as a thief and a scoundrel. This was the man whose house had been selected by her father in order that she might make her search for a husband from beneath his wing!
In her agony she wrote to her old friend Julia Triplex, now the wife of Sir Damask Monogram. She had been really intimate with Julia Triplex, and had been sympathetic when a brilliant marriage had been achieved. Julia had been without fortune, but very pretty. Sir Damask was a man of great wealth, whose father had been a contractor. But Sir Damask himself was a sportsman, keeping many horses on which other men often rode, a yacht in which other men sunned themselves, a deer forest, a moor, a large machinery for making pheasants. He shot pigeons at Hurlingham, drove four-in-hand in the park, had a box at every race-course, and was the most good-natured fellow known. He had really conquered the world, had got over the difficulty of being the grandson of a butcher, and was now as good as though the Monograms had gone to the crusades. Julia Triplex was equal to her position, and made the very most of it. She dispensed champagne and smiles, and made everybody, including herself, believe that she was in love with her husband. Lady Monogram had climbed to the top of the tree, and in that position had been, of course, invaluable to her old friend. We must give her her due and say that she had been fairly true to friendship while Georgiana--behaved herself. She thought that Georgiana in going to the Melmottes had not behaved herself, and therefore she had determined to drop Georgiana. 'Heartless, false, purse-proud creature,' Georgiana said to herself as she wrote the following letter in humiliating agony.