that as I chose
to become the wife of my husband,--as I insisted on it in opposition
to all my friends,--as I would judge for myself,--I am bound to put
up with my choice. If this had come upon me through the authority of
others, if I had been constrained to marry him, I think I could have
reconciled myself to deserting him. But I did it myself, and I will
abide by it. When he bids me go, I shall go." Poor Mr. Wharton went
to his chambers, and sat there the whole day without taking a book
or a paper into his hands. Could there be no rescue, no protection,
no relief! He turned over in his head various plans, but in a vague
and useless manner. What if the Duke were to prosecute Lopez for the
fraud! What if he could induce Lopez to abandon his wife,--pledging
himself by some deed not to return to her,--for, say, twenty or even
thirty thousand pounds! What if he himself were to carry his daughter
away to the continent, half forcing and half persuading her to make
the journey! Surely there might be some means found by which the
man might be frightened into compliance. But there he sat,--and did
nothing. And in the evening he ate a solitary mutton chop at The
Jolly Blackbird, because he could not bear to face even his club, and
then returned to his chambers,--to the great disgust of the old woman
who had them in charge at nights. And at about midnight he crept away
to his own house, a wretched old man.

Lopez when he left Manchester Square did not go in search of a new
home for himself and his wife, nor during the whole of the day did
he trouble himself on that subject. He spent most of the day at the
rooms in Coleman Street of the San Juan Mining Association, of which
Mr. Mills Happerton had once been Chairman. There was now another
Chairman and other Directors; but Mr. Mills Happerton's influence had
so far remained with the Company as to enable Lopez to become well
known in the Company's offices, and acknowledged as a claimant for
the office of resident Manager at San Juan in Guatemala. Now the
present project was this,--that Lopez was to start on behalf of the
Company early in May, that the Company was to pay his own personal
expenses out to Guatemala, and that they should allow him while there
a salary of L1000 a year for managing the affairs of the mine. As far
as this offer went, the thing was true enough. It was true that Lopez
had absolutely secured the place. But he had done so subject to the
burden of one very se