Abchurch Lane is not a grand site for the offices of a merchant prince.  Here, at a small corner house, there was a small brass plate on a swing door, bearing the words ‘Melmotte & Co.’  Of whom the Co was composed no one knew.  In one sense Mr Melmotte might be said to be in company with all the commercial world, for there was no business to which he would refuse his co-operation on certain terms.  But he had never burdened himself with a partner in the usual sense of the term.  Here Fisker found three or four clerks seated at desks, and was desired to walk upstairs.  The steps were narrow and crooked, and the rooms were small and irregular.  Here he stayed for a while in a small dark apartment in which ‘The Daily Telegraph&rsquo...