第88章

He sent her no present, nor did he say a word beyond this; but in her anger against the Hertfordshire people she never included Arthur Fletcher.She pored over the little note a score of times, and wept over it, and treasured it up among her most inmost treasures, and told herself that it was a thousand pities.

She could talk, and did talk, to Ferdinand about the Whartons, and about old Mrs Fletcher, and described to him the arrogance and the stiffness and the ignorance of the Hertfordshire squirearchy generally; but she never spoke to him of Arthur Fletcher,--except in that one narrative of her past life, in which, girl-like, she told her lover of the one other lover who had loved her.

But these things of course gave a certain melancholy to the occasion which perhaps was increased by the season of the year,--by the November fogs, and by the emptiness and general sadness of the town.And added to this was the melancholy of old Mr Wharton himself.After he had given his consent to the marriage he admitted a certain amount of intimacy with his son-in-law, asking him to dinner, and discussing with him matters of general interest,--but never, in truth, opening his heart to him.

Indeed, how can any man open his heart to one whom he dislikes?

At best he can only pretend to open his heart, and even this Mr Wharton would not do.And very soon after the engagement Lopez left London and went to the Duke's place in the country.His objects in doing this and his aspirations in regard to a seat in Parliament were all made known to his future wife,--but he said not a word on the subject to her father; and she, acting under his instructions, was equally reticent.'He will get to know me in time,' he said to her, 'and his manner will be softened towards me.But till that time shall come, I can hardly expect him to take a real interest in my welfare.'

When Lopez left London not a word had been said between him and his father-in-law as to money.Mr Wharton was content with such silence, not wishing to make any promise as to immediate income from himself, pretending to look at the matter as though he should say that, as his daughter had made herself her own bed, she must lie on it, such as it might be.And this silence certainly suited Ferdinand Lopez at the time.To tell the truth of him--though he was not absolutely penniless, he was altogether propertyless.He had been speculating in money without capital, and though he had now and again been successful, he had also now and again failed.He had contrived that his name should be mentioned here and there with the names of well-known wealthy commercial men, and had for the last twelve months made up a somewhat intimate alliance with that very sound commercial man Mr Mills Happerton.But his dealings with Mr Sextus Parker were in truth much more confidential than those with Mr Mills Happerton, and at the present moment poor Sexty Parker was alternately between triumph and despair as things this way or that.

It was not therefore surprising that Ferdinand Lopez should volunteer no statements to the old lawyer about money, and that he should make no inquiries.He was quite confident that Mr Wharton had the wealth which was supposed to belong to him, and was willing to trust his power of obtaining a fair portion of it as soon as he should in truth be Mr Wharton's son-in-law.