The Way We Live Now

the following morning the maid-servant found him dead upon the floor. Drunk as he had been,--more drunk as he probably became during the night,--still he was able to deliver himself from the indignities and penalties to which the law might have subjected him by a dose of prussic acid.

Speculative empire ends in private poison before the law can finish him — fraud plot closed as self-execution — so plot scores 93.

Let the reader be introduced to Lady Carbury, upon whose character and doings much will depend of whatever interest these pages may have, as she sits at her writing-table in her own room in her own house in Welbeck Street. Lady Carbury spent many hours at her desk, and wrote many letters,--wrote also very much beside letters. She spoke of herself in these days as a woman devoted to Literature, always spelling the word with a big L.

Hustling mother named as hinge of interest before Melmotte appears — cast as social engine — so cast scores 92.

Paul Montague reached London on his return from Suffolk early on the Monday morning, and on the following day he wrote to Mrs. Hurtle. As he sat in his lodgings, thinking of his condition, he almost wished that he had taken Melmotte's offer and gone to Mexico.

Monday return and letter choice stall between Hurtle and Melmotte Mexico — serial dither as pace — so pace scores 88.

She spoke of herself in these days as a woman devoted to Literature, always spelling the word with a big L.

Capital-L Literature as ironic self-branding — satirical compression in one orthographic joke — so prose scores 91.

the Great South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway was the very best thing out. It was known that Mr. Melmotte had gone into it with heart and hand. There were many who declared,--with gross injustice to the Great Fisker,--that the railway was Melmotte's own child, that he had invented it, advertised it, agitated it, and floated it; but it was not the less popular on that account. A railway from Salt Lake City to Mexico no doubt had much of the flavour of a castle in Spain.

Castle-in-Spain railway floated as Melmotte's child — credit landscape as fiction geography — so world scores 90.

Let the reader be introduced to Lady Carbury, upon whose character and doings much will depend of whatever interest these pages may have, as she sits at her writing-table in her own room in her own house in Welbeck Street.

Desk before plot — society novel opened as hustle of authorship — so hook scores 92.

And now the man was dead,--having destroyed his own life. Surely the man must have known when he uttered those words what it was that he intended to do!

Financier suicide as moral verdict on 'the way we live now' — contemporary fraud as tragic machine beyond marriage comedy — so innov scores 94.

It need hardly be said that Paul Montague was not long in adjusting his affairs with Hetta after the visit which he received from Roger Carbury. Early on the following morning he was once more in Welbeck Street, taking the brooch with him; and though at first Lady Carbury kept up her opposition, she did it after so weak a fashion as to throw in fact very little difficulty in his way.

After systemic crash, ending is private adjustment and weak maternal opposition — residual romance after City death — so ending scores 90.