my girl to you?’ Felix still looked at him but did not dare to contradict a single statement made.  Yet when the man told him that he had not a brass farthing he thought of his own thousand pounds which were now in the man’s pocket.  ’You’re a baronet, and that’s about all, you know,’ continued Melmotte.  ’The Carbury property, which is a very small thing, belongs to a distant cousin who may leave it to me if he pleases;—­and who isn’t very much older than you are yourself.’

‘Oh, come, Mr Melmotte; he’s a great deal older than me.’

’It wouldn’t matter if he were as old as Adam.  The thing is out of the question, and you must drop...