What should he do next?  This sum of money of which Marie wrote so easily was probably large.  It would not have been worth the while of such a man as Mr Melmotte to make a trifling provision of this nature.  It could hardly be less than L50,000,—­might probably be very much more.  But this was certain to him,—­that if he and Marie were to claim this money as man and wife, there could then be no hope of further liberality.  It was not probable that such a man as Mr Melmotte would forgive even an only child such an offence as that.  Even if it were obtained, L50,000 would not be very much.  And Melmotte might probably have means, even if the robbery were duly perpetrated, of making the possession of the money very...