'I am so glad to see you. What an age it is since we met.'
'Hardly since the Melmottes' ball,' said Hetta.
'Hardly indeed. I have been here once since that. What has brought Roger up to town?'
'I don't know what it is. Some mystery, I think. Whenever there is a mystery I am always afraid that there is something wrong about Felix. I do get so unhappy about Felix, Mr Montague.'
'I saw him to-day in the city, at the Railway Board.'
'But Roger says the Railway Board is all a sham,'--Paul could not keep himself from blushing as he heard this,--'and that Felix should not be there. And then there is something going on about that horrid man's daughter.'
'She is to marry Lord Nidderdale, I think.'
'Is she? They are talking of her marrying Felix, and of course it is for her money. And I believe that man is determined to quarrel with them.'
'What man, Miss Carbury?'
'Mr Melmotte himself. It's all horrid from beginning to end.'
'But I saw them in the city to-day and they seemed to b the greatest friends. When I wanted to see Mr Melmotte he bolted himself into an inner room, but he took your brother with him. He would not have done that if they had not been friends. When I saw it I almost thought that he had consented to the marriage.'
'Roger has the greatest dislike to Mr Melmotte.'
'I know he has,' said Paul.
'And Roger is always right. It is always safe to trust him. Don't you think so, Mr Montague?' Paul did think so, and was by no means disposed to deny to his rival the praise which rightly belonged to him; but still he found the subject difficult. 'Of course I will never go against mamma,' continued Hetta, 'but I always feel that my cousin Roger is a rock of strength, so that if one did whatever he said one would never get wrong. I never found any one else that I thought that of, but I do think it of him.'
'No one has more reason to praise him than I have.'
'I think everybody has reason to praise him that has to do with him. And I'll tell you why I think it is. Whenever he thinks anything he says it;--or, at least, he never says anything that he doesn't think. If he spent a thousand pounds, everybody would know that he'd got it to spend; but other people are not like that.'