'Oh, papa, don't do that;--pray don't do that. He didn't steal it. I only gave it him to take care of for us. He'll give it you back again.'
'I shouldn't wonder if he lost it at cards, and therefore didn't go to Liverpool. Will you give me your word that you'll never attempt to marry him again if I don't prosecute him?' Marie considered. 'Unless you do that I shall go to a magistrate at once.'
'I don't believe you can do anything to him. He didn't steal it. I gave it to him.'
'Will you promise me?'
'No, papa, I won't. What's the good of promising when I should only break it. Why can't you let me have the man I love? What's the good of all the money if people don't have what they like?'
'All the money!--What do you know about the money? Look here,' and he took her by the arm. 'I've been very good to you. You've had your share of everything that has been going;--carriages and horses, bracelets and brooches, silks and gloves, and every thing else.' He held her very hard and shook her as he spoke.
'Let me go, papa; you hurt me. I never asked for such things. I don't care a straw about bracelets and brooches.'
'What do you care for?'
'Only for somebody to love me,' said Marie, looking down.
'You'll soon have nobody to love you if you go on this fashion. You've had everything done for you, and if you don't do something for me in return, by G----, you shall have a hard time of it. If you weren't such a fool you'd believe me when I say that I know more than you do.'
'You can't know better than me what'll make me happy.'
'Do you think only of yourself? If you'll marry Lord Nidderdale you'll have a position in the world which nothing can take from you.'
'Then I won't,' said Marie firmly. Upon this he shook her till she cried, and calling for Madame Melmotte desired his wife not to let the girl for one minute out of her presence.
The condition of Sir Felix was I think worse than that of the lady with whom he was to have run away. He had played at the Beargarden till four in the morning and had then left the club, on the breaking-up of the card-table, intoxicated and almost penniless. During the last half hour he had made himself very unpleasant at the club, saying all manner of harsh things of Miles Grendall;--of whom, indeed, it was almost impossible to say things too hard, had they been said in a proper form and at a proper time. He declared that Grendall would not pay his debts, that he had cheated when playing loo,--as to which Sir Felix appealed to Dolly Longestaffe; and he ended by asserting that Grendall ought to be turned out of the club. They had a desperate row. Dolly of course had said that he knew nothing about it, and Lord Grasslough had expressed an opinion that perhaps more than one person ought to be turned out. At four o'clock the party was broken up and Sir Felix wandered forth into the streets, with nothing more than the change of a ten pound note in his pocket. All his luggage was lying in the hall of the club, and there he left it.