rious stipulation. He was to become proprietor
of 50 shares in the mine, and to pay up L100 each on those shares. It
was considered that the man who was to get L1000 a year in Guatemala
for managing the affair, should at any rate assist the affair, and
show his confidence in the affair to an extent as great as that. Of
course the holder of these 50 shares would be as fully entitled as
any other shareholder to that 20 per cent. which those who promoted
the mine promised as the immediate result of the speculation.

At first Lopez had hoped that he might be enabled to defer the actual
payment of the L5000 till after he had sailed. When once out in
Guatemala as manager, as manager he would doubtless remain. But by
degrees he found that the payment must actually be made in advance.
Now there was nobody to whom he could apply but Mr. Wharton. He was,
indeed, forced to declare at the office that the money was to come
from Mr. Wharton, and had given some excellent but fictitious reason
why Mr. Wharton would not pay the money till February.

And in spite of all that had come and gone he still did hope that if
the need to go were actually there he might even yet get the money
from Mr. Wharton. Surely Mr. Wharton would sooner pay such a sum than
be troubled at home with such a son-in-law. Should the worst come to
the worst, of course he could raise the money by consenting to leave
his wife at home. But this was not part of his plan, if he could
avoid it. L5000 would be a very low price at which to sell his wife,
and all that he might get from his connection with her. As long as
he kept her with him he was in possession at any rate of all that Mr.
Wharton would do for her. He had not therefore as yet made his final
application to his father-in-law for the money, having found it
possible to postpone the payment till the middle of February. His
quarrel with Mr. Wharton this morning he regarded as having little or
no effect upon his circumstances. Mr. Wharton would not give him the
money because he loved him, nor yet from personal respect, nor from
any sense of duty as to what he might owe to a son-in-law. It would
be simply given as the price by which his absence might be purchased,
and his absence would not be the less desirable because of this
morning's quarrel.

But, even yet, he was not quite resolved as to going to Guatemala.
Sexty Parker had been sucked nearly dry, and was in truth at this
moment so violent with indignation