"_I_ have taken shares for Lord Alfred," said Melmotte, putting very heavy emphasis on the personal pronoun. "If it suits me to advance money to Lord Alfred Grendall, I suppose I may do so without asking your lordship's consent, or that of Sir Felix Carbury." "Oh, certainly. I don't want to make inquiry as to what you do with your money." "I'm sure you don't, and, therefore, we won't say anything more about it. You wait awhile, Lord Nidderdale, and you'll find it will come all right. If you've got a few thousand pounds loose, and will put them into the concern, why, of course you can sell; and, if the shares are up, can sell at a profit. It's presumed just at present that, at some early day, you'll qualify for your directorship by doing so, and till that is done, the shares are allocated to you, but cannot be transferred to you." "That's it, is it," said Lord Nidderdale, pretending to understand all about it. "If things go on as we hope they will between you and Marie, you can have pretty nearly any number of shares that you please;--that is, if your father consents to a proper settlement." "I hope it'll all go smooth, I'm sure," said Nidderdale. "Thank you; I'm ever so much obliged to you, and I'll explain it all to Carbury." CHAPTER XXIII. "YES;--I'M A BARONET." How eager Lady Carbury was that her son should at once go in form to Marie's father and make his proposition may be easily understood. "My dear Felix," she said, standing over his bedside a little before noon, "pray don't put it off; you don't know how many slips there may be between the cup and the lip." "It's everything to get him in a good humour," pleaded Sir Felix. "But the young lady will feel that she is ill-used." "There's no fear of that; she's all right. What am I to say to him about money? That's the question." "I shouldn't think of dictating anything, Felix." "Nidderdale, when he was on before, stipulated for a certain sum down; or his father did for him. So much cash was to be paid over before the ceremony, and it only went off because Nidderdale wanted the money to do what he liked with." "You wouldn't mind having it settled?" "No;--I'd consent to that on condition that the money was paid down, and the income insured to me,--say £7,000 or £8,000 a year. I wouldn't do it for less, mother; it wouldn't be worth while." "But you have nothing left of your own." "I've got a throat that I can cut, and brains that I can blow out," said the son, using an argument which he conceived might be efficacious with his mother; though, had she known him, she might have been sure that no man lived less likely to cut his own throat or blow out his own brains. "Oh, Felix! how brutal it is to speak to me in that way." "It may be brutal; but you know, mother, business is business. You want me to marry this girl because of her money." "You want to marry her yourself."