do so
a post or two before you. As he has come round I suppose I ought to
show myself civil. What he says about the rest of his money is of
course absurd. I shall ask him nothing about it, but no doubt after a
bit he will make permanent arrangements." Everything in the business
wounded her more or less. She now perceived that he regarded this
L3000 only as the first instalment of what he might get, and that his
joy was due simply to this temporary success. And then he called her
father absurd to her face. For a moment she thought that she would
defend her father; but she could not as yet bring herself to question
her husband's words even on such a subject as that.

He did write to Mr. Wharton, but in doing so he altogether laid aside
that flighty manner which for a while had annoyed her. He thoroughly
understood that the wording of the letter might be very important to
him, and he took much trouble with it. It must be now the great work
of his life to ingratiate himself with this old man, so that, at any
rate at the old man's death, he might possess at least half of the
old man's money. He must take care that there should be no division
between his wife and her father of such a nature as to make the
father think that his son ought to enjoy any special privilege of
primogeniture or of male inheritance. And if it could be so managed
that the daughter should, before the old man's death, become his
favourite child, that also would be well. He was therefore very
careful about the letter, which was as follows:--

MY DEAR MR. WHARTON,

I cannot let your letter to Emily pass without thanking
you myself for the very liberal response made by you to
what was of course a request from myself. Let me in the
first place assure you that had you, before our marriage,
made any inquiry about my money affairs, I would have told
you everything with accuracy; but as you did not do so
I thought that I should seem to intrude upon you, if I
introduced the subject. It is too long for a letter, but
whenever you may like to allude to it, you will find that
I will be quite open with you.

I am engaged in business which often requires the use of
a considerable amount of capital. It has so happened that
even since we were married the immediate use of a sum of
money became essential to me to save me from sacrificing a
cargo of guano which will be of greatly increased value in
three months' ti