e went?"

"Yes;--I heard about the Gardens. But I heard nothing of the man."

"I thought, Mr. Wharton, you were all in his favour."

"I am not at all in his favour. I dislike him particularly. For
anything I know he may have sold pencils about the streets like any
other Jew-boy."

"He goes to church just as you do,--that is, if he goes anywhere;
which I dare say he does about as often as yourself, Mr. Wharton."
Now Mr. Wharton, though he was a thorough and perhaps a bigoted
member of the Church of England, was not fond of going to church.

"Do you mean to tell me," he said, pressing his hands together, and
looking very seriously into his sister-in-law's face; "do you mean to
tell me that she--likes him?"

"Yes;--I think she does like him."

"You don't mean to say--she's in love with him?"

"She has never told me that she is. Young ladies are shy of making
such assertions as to their own feelings before the due time for
doing so has come. I think she prefers him to anybody else; and that
were he to propose to herself, she would give him her consent to go
to you."

"He shall never enter this house again," said Mr. Wharton
passionately.

"You must arrange that with her. If you have so strong an objection
to him, I wonder that you should have had him here at all."

"How was I to know? God bless my soul!--just because a man was
allowed to dine here once or twice! Upon my word, it's too bad!"

"Papa, won't you and aunt come down to dinner?" said Emily, opening
the door gently. Then they went down to dinner, and during the meal
nothing was said about Mr. Lopez. But they were not very merry
together, and poor Emily felt sure that her own affairs had been
discussed in a troublesome manner.

CHAPTER V

"No One Knows Anything About Him"

Neither at dinner, on that evening at Manchester Square, nor after
dinner, as long as Mrs. Roby remained in the house, was a word said
about Lopez by Mr. Wharton. He remained longer than usual with his
bottle of port wine in the dining-room; and when he went upstairs,
he sat himself down and fell asleep, almost without a sign. He did
not ask for a song, nor did Emily offer to sing. But as soon as Mrs.
Roby was gone,--and Mrs. Roby went home, round the corner, somewhat
earlier than usual,--then Mr. Wharton woke up instantly and made
inquiry of his daughter.

There had, however, been a few words spoken on the subject between
Mrs. Roby and her niece which had served to p