has been given as her fortune."

"Oh, quite so;--part of it, you mean."

"I mean just what I say."

"I call it part of it, because, as you observed just now, our living
here will be the same as though you made Emily an allowance."

"Ah;--well; you can look at it in that light if you please. John has
the key of the cellar. He's a man I can trust. As a rule I have port
and sherry at table every day. If you like claret I will get some a
little cheaper than what I use when friends are here."

"What wine I have is quite indifferent to me."

"I like it good, and I have it good. I always breakfast at 9.30.
You can have yours earlier if you please. I don't know that there's
anything else to be said. I hope we shall get into the way of
understanding each other, and being mutually comfortable. Shall we
go upstairs to Emily and Mrs. Roby?" And so it was determined that
Emily was to come back to her old house about eight months after her
marriage.

Mr. Wharton himself sat late into the night, all alone, thinking
about it. What he had done, he had done in a morose way, and he was
aware that it was so. He had not beamed with smiles, and opened his
arms lovingly, and, bidding God bless his dearest children, told them
that if they would only come and sit round his hearth he should be
the happiest old man in London. He had said little or nothing of his
own affection even for his daughter, but had spoken of the matter as
one of which the pecuniary aspect alone was important. He had found
out that the saving so effected would be material to Lopez, and had
resolved that there should be no shirking of the truth in what he was
prepared to do. He had been almost asked to take the young married
couple in, and feed them,--so that they might live free of expense.
He was willing to do it,--but was not willing that there should be
any soft-worded, high-toned false pretension. He almost read Lopez to
the bottom,--not, however, giving the man credit for dishonesty so
deep or cleverness so great as he possessed. But as regarded Emily,
he was also actuated by a personal desire to have her back again as
an element of happiness to himself. He had pined for her since he had
been left alone, hardly knowing what it was that he had wanted. And
now as he thought of it all, he was angry with himself that he had
not been more loving and softer in his manner to her. She at any rate
was honest. No doubt of that crossed his mind. And now he had been
bit