n did not show himself in the breakfast-room till Mr. Wharton was
gone. "I've got to go to your father to-day," he said to his wife,
"and I thought it best not to begin till we come to the regular
business. I hope he does not mean to be unreasonable." To this she
made no answer. "Of course you think the want of reason will be all
on my side."

"I don't know why you should say so."

"Because I can read your mind. You do think so. You've been in the
same boat with your father all your life, and you can't get out of
that boat and get into mine. I was wrong to come and live here.
Of course it was not the way to withdraw you from his influence."
She had nothing to say that would not anger him, and was therefore
silent. "Well; I must do the best I can by myself, I suppose.
Good-bye," and so he was off.

"I want to know," said Mr. Wharton, on whom was thrown by
premeditation on the part of Lopez the task of beginning the
conversation,--"I want to know what is the nature of your operation.
I have never been quite able to understand it."

"I do not know that I quite understand it myself," said Lopez,
laughing.

"No man alive," continued the old barrister almost solemnly, "has a
greater objection to thrust himself into another man's affairs than
I have. And as I didn't ask the question before your marriage,--as
perhaps I ought to have done,--I should not do so now, were it not
that the disposition of some part of the earnings of my life must
depend on the condition of your affairs." Lopez immediately perceived
that it behoved him to be very much on the alert. It might be that
if he showed himself to be very poor, his father-in-law would see
the necessity of assisting him at once; or, it might be, that
unless he could show himself to be in prosperous circumstances,
his father-in-law would not assist him at all. "To tell you the
plain truth, I am minded to make a new will. I had of course made
arrangements as to my property before Emily's marriage. Those
arrangements I think I shall now alter. I am greatly distressed with
Everett; and from what I see and from a few words which have dropped
from Emily, I am not, to tell you the truth, quite happy as to your
position. If I understand rightly you are a general merchant, buying
and selling goods in the market?"

"That's about it, sir."

"What capital have you in the business?"

"What capital?"

"Yes;--how much did you put into it at starting?"

Lopez paused a moment. He