'I'm all right,' said Felix, feeling very uncomfortable at the time. This great effort of his life was drawing very near. There had been a pleasurable excitement in talking of running away with the great heiress of the day, but now that the deed had to be executed,--and executed after so novel and stupendous a fashion, he almost wished that he had not undertaken it. It must have been much nicer when men ran away with their heiresses only as far as Gretna Green. And even Goldsheiner with Lady Julia had nothing of a job in comparison with this which he was expected to perform. And then if they should be wrong about the girl's fortune! He almost repented. He did repent, but he had not the courage to recede. 'How about money though?' he said hoarsely.
'You have got some?'
'I have just the two hundred pounds which your father paid me, and not a shilling more. I don't see why he should keep my money, and not let me have it back.'
'Look here,' said Marie, and she put her hand into her pocket. 'I told you I thought I could get some. There is a cheque for two hundred and fifty pounds. I had money of my own enough for the tickets.'
'And whose is this?' said Felix, taking the bit of paper with much trepidation.
'It is papa's cheque. Mamma gets ever so many of them to carry on the house and pay for things. But she gets so muddled about it that she doesn't know what she pays and what she doesn't.' Felix looked at the cheque and saw that it was payable to House or Bearer, and that it was signed by Augustus Melmotte. 'If you take it to the bank you'll get the money,' said Marie. 'Or shall I send Didon, and give you the money on board the ship?'
Felix thought over the matter very anxiously. If he did go on the journey he would much prefer to have the money in his own pocket. He liked the feeling of having money in his pocket. Perhaps if Didon were entrusted with the cheque she also would like the feeling. But then might it not be possible that if he presented the cheque himself he might be arrested for stealing Melmotte's money? 'I think Didon had better get the money,' he said, 'and bring it to me to-morrow, at four o'clock in the afternoon, to the club.' If the money did not come he would not go down to Liverpool, nor would he be at the expense of his ticket for New York. 'You see,' he said, 'I'm so much in the City that they might know me at the bank.' To this arrangement Marie assented and took back the cheque. 'And then I'll come on board on Thursday morning,' he said, 'without looking for you.'