And if Melmotte would come and be smiled upon by herself, be flattered as she thought that she could flatter him, be told that he was a god, and have that passage about the divinity of joining ocean to ocean construed to him as she could construe it, would not the great man become plastic under her hands? 
And if Melmotte would visit her and be smiled upon and flattered, would not the great man become putty under her hands? 