that the touching of pitch will defile still prevailed with him. He
was a gentleman;--and would have felt himself disgraced to enter the
house of such a one as Augustus Melmotte. Not all the duchesses in the
peerage, or all the money in the city, could alter his notions or
induce him to modify his conduct. But he knew that it would be useless
for him to explain this to Lady Carbury. He trusted, however, that one
of the family might be taught to appreciate the difference between
honour and dishonour. Henrietta Carbury had, he thought, a higher turn
of mind than her mother, and had as yet been kept free from soil. As
for Felix,--he had so grovelled in the gutters as to be dirt all over.
Nothing short of the prolonged sufferings of half a life could cleanse
him.

He found Henrietta alone in the drawing-room. 'Have you seen Felix?'
she said, as soon as they had greeted each other.

'Yes. I caught him in the street.'

'We are so unhappy about him.'

'I cannot say but that you have reason. I think, you know, that your
mother indulges him foolishly.'

'Poor mamma! She worships the very ground he treads on.'

'Even a mother should not throw her worship away like that. The fact
is that your brother will ruin you both if this goes on.'

'What can mamma do?'