MRS PARKER'S SORROWS.
The end of February had come, and as far as Mrs Lopez knew she was to start for Guatemala in a month's time.And yet there was so much indecision in her husband's manner, and apparently so little done by him in regard to personal preparation, that she could hardly bring herself to feel certain that she would have to make the journey.From day to day her father would ask her whether she had made her intended purchases, and she would tell him that she had still postponed the work.Then he would say no more, for he himself was hesitating, doubtful what he would do, and still thinking that when at last the time should come, he would buy his daughter's release at any price that might be demanded.He had seen Lopez more than once, and had also seen Mr Hartlepod.Mr Hartlepod had simply told him that he would be very happy to register the shares on behalf of Lopez as soon as the money was paid.Lopez had been almost insolent in his bearing.'Did Mr Wharton think,' he asked, 'that he was going to sell his wife for 5,000 pounds?' 'I think you will have to raise your offer,' Mr Walker had said to Mr Wharton.That was all very well.Mr Wharton was willing enough to raise the offer.He would have doubled the offer could he thereby have secured the annihilation of Lopez.'I will raise it if he will go without his wife, and give her a written assurance that he would never trouble her again.' But the arrangement was one which Mr Walker found it very difficult to carry out.So things went on till the end of February had come.
And during all this time Lopez was still a resident in Mr Wharton's house.'Papa,' she said to him one day, 'this is the cruellest thing of all.Why don't you tell him he must go?'
'Because he would take you with him.'
'It would be better so.I could come and see you.'
'I did tell him to go--in my passion.I repented of it instantly, because I should have lost you.But what did my telling matter to him? He was very indignant, and yet he is still here.'
'You told him to go?'
'Yes;--but I am glad that he did not obey me.There must be an end of it soon, I suppose.'
'I do not know, papa.'
'Do you think he will not go?'
'I feel that I know nothing, papa.You must not let him stay always, you know.'
'And what will become of you when he goes?'
'I must go with him.Why should you be sacrificed also? I will tell him that he must leave the house.I am not afraid of him, papa.'
'Not yet, my dear;--not yet.We will see.'
At this time Lopez declared his purpose one day of dining at the Progress, and Mr Wharton took advantage of the occasion to remain at home with his daughter.Everett was now expected, and there was a probability that he might come on this evening.Mr Wharton therefore returned from his chambers early; but when he reached the house he was told that there was a woman in the dining-room with Mrs Lopez.The servant did not know what woman.She had asked to see Mrs Lopez, and Mrs Lopez had gone down to her.
The woman in the dining-room was Mrs Parker.She had called at the house about half-past five, and Emily had at once come down when summoned by tidings that a "lady" wanted to see her.
Servants have a way of announcing a woman a lady, which clearly expresses their own opinion that the person in question was not a lady.So it had been on the present occasion, but Mrs Lopez had at once gone to her visitor.'Oh, Mrs Parker, I am so glad to see you.I hope you are well.'
'Indeed then, Mrs Lopez, I am very far from well.No poor woman, who is the mother of five children, was ever farther from being well than I am.'
'Is anything wrong?'
'Wrong, ma'am.Everything is wrong.When is Mr Lopez going to pay my husband all the money he has took from him?'
'Has he taken money?'
'Taken! he has taken everything.He has shorn my husband as bare as a board.We're ruined, Mrs Lopez, and it's your husband has done it.When we were at Dovercourt, I told you how it was going to be.His business has left him, and now there is nothing.What are we to do?' The woman was seated on a chair, leaning forward with her two hands on her knees.The day was wet, the streets were half mud and half snow, and the poor woman, who had made her way through the slush, was soiled and wet.'Ilook to you to tell me what me and my children is to do.He's your husband, Mrs Lopez.'
'Yes, Mrs Parker, he is my husband.'
'Why couldn't he let Sexty alone? Why should the like of him be taking the bread out of my children's mouths? What had we ever done to him? You're rich.'
'Indeed I am not, Mrs Parker.'
'Yes, you are.You're living here in a grand house, and your father's made of money.You'll know nothing of want, let the worst come to the worst.What are we to do, Mrs Lopez? I'm the wife of that poor creature, and you're the wife of the man that has ruined him.What are we to do, Mrs Lopez?'
'I do not understand my husband's business, Mrs Parker.'
'You're one with him, ain't you? If anybody has ever come to me and said my husband had robbed him, I'd never have stopped till Iknew the truth of it.If any woman had ever said to me that Parker had taken the bread out of her children's mouths, do you think that I'd sit as you are sitting? I tell that Lopez has robbed us,--has robbed us, and taken everything.'
'What can I say, Mrs Parker;--what can I do?'
'Where is he?'
'He is not here.He is dining at his club.'
'Where is that? I will go there and shame him before them all.
Don't you feel no shame? Because you've got things comfortable here, I suppose it's all nothing to you.You don't care, though my children were starving in the gutter,--as they will do.'
'If you knew me, Mrs Parker, you wouldn't speak to me like that.'
'Know you! Of course I know you.You're a lady, and your father's a rich man, and your husband thinks no end of himself.
And we're poor people, so it don't matter whether we're robbed and ruined or not.That's about it.'