'Nor his family; nor anything of their antecedents? He is a man fallen out of the moon.All that is nothing to us as passing acquaintances.Between men such ignorance should I think bar absolute intimacy;--but that may be a matter of taste.But it should be held to be utterly antagonistic to any such alliance as that of marriage.He seems to be a friend of yours.You had better make him understand that it is quite out of the question.
I have told him so, and you had better repeat it.' So saying, Mr Wharton went upstairs to dress, and Everett, having received his father's instructions, went away to the club.
When Mr Wharton reached the drawing-room, he found Mrs Roby alone, and he at once resolved to discuss the matter with her before he spoke to his daughter.'Harriet,' he said abruptly, 'do you know anything of Mr Lopez?'
'Mr Lopez! Oh, yes, I know him.'
'Do you mean that he is an intimate friend?'
'As friends go on London, he is.He comes to our house, and Ithink that he hunts with Dick.' Dick was Mr Roby.
'That's a recommendation.'
'Well, Mr Wharton, I hardly know what you mean by that,' said Mrs Roby, smiling.'I don't think my husband will do Mr Lopez any harm; and I am sure Mr Lopez won't do my husband any.'
'I dare say not.But that's not the question.Roby can take care of himself.'
'Quite so.'
'And so I dare say can Mr Lopez.' At this moment Emily entered the room.'My dear,' said her father, 'I am speaking to your aunt.Would you mind going downstairs and waiting for us? Tell them we shall be ready for dinner in ten minutes.' Then Emily passed out of the room, and Mrs Roby assumed a grave demeanour.
'The man we are speaking of has been to me and has made an offer for Emily.' As he said this he looked anxiously into his sister-in-law's face, in order that he might tell from that how far she favoured the idea of such a marriage,--and he thought that he perceived at once, that she was not averse to it.'You know it is quite out of the question,' he continued.
'I don't know why it should be out of the question.But of course your opinion would have great weight with Emily.'
'Great weight! Well;--I should hope so.If not, I do not know whose opinion is to have weight.In the first place, the man is a foreigner.'
'Oh, no;--he is English.But if he were a foreigner many English girls marry foreigners.'
'My daughter shall not;--not with my permission.You have not encouraged her, I hope.'
'I have not interfered at all,' said Mrs Roby.But this was a lie.Mrs Roby had interfered.Mrs Roby, in discussing the merits and character of the lover to the young lady, had always lent herself to the lover's aid,--and had condescended to accept from the lover various presents which she could hardly have taken had she been hostile to him.
'And now tell me about herself.Has she seen him often?'
'Why, Mr Wharton, he has dined here, in the house, over and over again.I thought you were encouraging him.'
'Heavens and earth!'
'Of course she has seen him.When a man dines at a house he is bound to call.Of course he has called,--I don't know how often.And she has met him round the corner.'--"Round the corner" in Manchester Square, meant Mrs Roby's house in Berkeley Street.--'Last Sunday they were at the Zoo together.Dick got them tickets.I thought you knew about it.'
'Do you mean that my daughter went to the Zoological Gardens alone with this man?' the father asked in dismay.
'Dick was with them.I should have gone, only I had a headache.
Did you not know that she went?'
'Yes,--I heard about the Gardens.But I heard nothing about the man.'
'I thought, Mr Wharton, you were all in his favour.'
'I am not at all in his favour.I dislike him particularly.For anything I know he may have sold pencils about the streets like any other Jew-boy.'
'He goes to church, just as you do,--that is, if he goes anywhere; which I dare say he does about as often as yourself, Mr Wharton.' Now Mr Wharton, though he was a thorough and perhaps bigoted member of the Church of England, was not fond of going to church.
'Do you mean to tell me,' he said, pressing his hands together, and looking very seriously into his sister-in-law's face; 'do you mean to tell me that she--likes him?'
'Yes;--I think she does like him.'
'You don't mean to say--she's in love with him?'
'She has never told me that she is.Young ladies are shy of making such assertions as to their own feelings before due time for doing so has come.I think she prefers him to anybody else;and that were he to propose to herself, she would give him her consent to go to you.'
'He shall never enter this house again,' said Mr Wharton passionately.
'You must arrange that with her.If you have so strong an objection to him.I wonder that you should have had him here at all.'
'How was I to know? God bless my soul!--just because a man was allowed to dine here once or twice! Upon my word, it's too bad.'
'Papa, won't you and aunt come down to dinner?' asked Emily, opening the door gently.Then they went down to dinner, and during the meal nothing was said about Mr Lopez.But they were not very merry together, and poor Emily felt sure her own affairs had been discussed in a troublesome manner.