a lot of money, and now it turns out that you haven’t got any.  And I haven’t got any, and we should have nothing to live upon.  It’s out of the question.  But, upon my word, I’m very sorry, for I like you very much, and I really think we should have got on uncommon well together.’  That was the kind of speech that he suggested to himself, but he did not know how to find for himself the opportunity of making it.  He thought that he must put it all into a letter.  But then that would be tantamount to a written confession that he had made her an offer of marriage, and he feared that Melmotte,—­or Madame Melmotte on his behalf, if the great man himself were absent...