第45章

MR WHARTON COMPLAINS.

'I think you have betrayed me.' This accusation was brought by Mr Wharton against Mrs Roby in that lady's drawing-room, and was occasioned by a report that had been made to the old lawyer by his daughter.He was very angry and almost violent;--so much so that by his manner, he gave considerable advantage to the lady whom he was accusing.

Mrs Roby undoubtedly had betrayed her brother-in-law.She had been false to the trust reposed in her.He had explained his wishes to her in regard to his daughter, to whom she had in some sort assumed to stand in place of a mother, and she, while pretending to act in accordance with his wishes, had directly opposed them.But it was not likely that he would be able to prove her treachery though he might be sure of it.He had desired that the girl should see as little as possible of Ferdinand Lopez, but had hesitated to give a positive order that she should not meet him.He had indeed himself taken her to a dinner party at which he knew that she would meet him.But Mrs Roby had betrayed him.Since the dinner party she had arranged a meeting at her own house in behalf of the lover,--as to which arrangement Emily Wharton had herself been altogether innocent.

Emily had met the man in her aunt's house, not expecting to meet him, and the lover had had an opportunity of speaking his mind freely.She also had spoken hers freely.She would not engage herself without her father's consent.With that consent she would do so,--oh, so willingly! She did not coy her love.He might be certain that she would give herself to no one else.Her heart was entirely his.But she had pledged herself to her father, and on no consideration would she break that pledge.She went on to say that after what had passed she thought that they had better not meet.In such meetings there could be no satisfaction, and must be much pain.But he had her full permission to use any arguments that he could use with her father.On the evening of that day she told her father all that had passed,--omitting no detail either of what she had said or of what had been said to her--adding a positive assurance of obedience, but doing so with a severe solemnity and apparent consciousness of ill-usage which almost broke her father's heart.

'Your aunt must have laid him there on purpose,' Mr Wharton had said.But Emily would neither accuse nor defend her aunt.'I at least knew nothing of it,' she said.'I know that,' Mr Wharton had ejaculated.'I know that.I don't accuse you of anything, my dear,--except of thinking that you understand the world better than I do.' Then Emily had retired and Mr Wharton had been left to pass half the night in perplexed reverie, feeling that he would be forced ultimately to give way, and yet certain that by doing so he would endanger his child's happiness.

He was so angry with his sister-in-law, and on the next day, early in the morning, he attacked her.'I think you have betrayed me,' he said.

'What do you mean by that, Mr Wharton?'

'You have had this man here on purpose that he might make love to Emily.'

'I have done no such thing.You told me yourself that they were not to be kept apart.He comes here, and it would be very odd indeed if I were to tell the servants that he is not to be admitted.If you want to quarrel with me, of course you can.Ihave always endeavoured to be a good friend to Emily.'

'It is not being a good friend to her, bringing her and this adventurer together.'

'I don't know why you call him an adventurer.But you are so very odd in your ideas! He is received everywhere, and is always at the Duchess of Omnium's.'

'I don't care a fig about the Duchess.'

'I dare say not.Only the Duke happens to be Prime Minister, and his house is considered to have the very best society in England, or indeed, Europe, can give.And I think it is something in a young man's favour when it is known that he associates with such persons as the Duke of Omnium.I believe that most fathers would have a regard to the company which a man keeps when they think of their daughter's marrying.'

'I ain't thinking of her marrying.I don't want her to marry; --not this man at least.And I fancy the Duchess of Omnium is just as likely to have scamps in her drawing-room as any other lady in London.'

'And do such men as Mr Happerton associate with scamps?'

'I don't know anything about Mr Happerton,--and I don't care anything about him.'

'He has 20,000 pounds a year out of his business.And does Everett associate with scamps.'

'Very likely.'

'I never knew anyone so much prejudiced as you are, Mr Wharton.

When you have a point to carry there's nothing you won't say.Isuppose it comes from being in the courts.'

'The long and short of it is this,' said the lawyer, 'if I find that Emily is brought here to meet Mr Lopez, I must forbid her to come at all.'

'You must do as you please about that.But to tell you the truth, Mr Wharton, I think the mischief is done.Such a girl as Emily, when she has taken it into her head to love a man, is not likely to give him up.'

'She has promised to have nothing to say to him without my sanction.'

'We all know what that means.You'll have to give way.You'll find that it will be so.The stern parent who dooms his daughter to perpetual seclusion because she won't marry the man he likes, doesn't belong to this age.'

'Who talks about seclusion?'

'Do you suppose that she'll give up the man she loves because you don't like him? Is that the way girls live nowadays? She won't run away with him, because she's not one of that sort; but unless you're harder-hearted than I take you to be, she'll make your life a burden to you.And as for betraying you, that's nonsense.

You've no right to say it.I'm not going to quarrel with you whatever you may say, but you've no right to say it.'