on. But up to that moment
he had never mixed his daughter and Ferdinand Lopez in his thoughts
together. And now, the idea having come upon him, he looked at the
aspirant with severe and unpleasant eyes. It was manifest to the
aspirant that the first flash of the thing was painful to the father.

"Yes, sir. I know how great is my presumption. But, yet, having
ventured, I will hardly say to entertain a hope, but to have come to
such a state that I can only be happy by hoping, I have thought it
best to come to you at once."

"Does she know anything of this?"

"Of my visit to you? Nothing."

"Of your intentions;--of your suit generally? Am I to understand that
this has any sanction from her?"

"None at all."

"Have you told her anything of it?"

"Not a word. I come to ask you for your permission to address her."

"You mean that she has no knowledge whatever of your--your preference
for her."

"I cannot say that. It is hardly possible that I should have learned
to love her as I do without some consciousness on her part that it is
so."

"What I mean is, without any beating about the bush,--have you been
making love to her?"

"Who is to say in what making love consists, Mr. Wharton?"

"D---- it, sir, a gentleman knows. A gentleman knows whether he has
been playing on a girl's feelings, and a gentleman, when he is asked
as I have asked you, will at any rate tell the truth. I don't want
any definitions. Have you been making love to her?"

"I think, Mr. Wharton, that I have behaved like a gentleman; and that
you will acknowledge at least so much when you come to know exactly
what I have done and what I have not done. I have endeavoured to
commend myself to your daughter, but I have never spoken a word of
love to her."

"Does Everett know of all this?"

"Yes."

"And has he encouraged it?"

"He knows of it, because he is my most intimate friend. Whoever the
lady might have been, I should have told him. He is attached to me,
and would not, I think, on his own account, object to call me his
brother. I spoke to him yesterday on the matter very plainly, and he
told me that I ought certainly to see you first. I quite agreed with
him, and therefore I am here. There has certainly been nothing in his
conduct to make you angry, and I do not think that there has been
anything in mine."

There was a dignity of demeanour and a quiet assured courage which
had its effect upon the old lawyer. He felt that he could not st