. I know that a sum of L20,000, with my experience in
the use of money, would give us a noble income. But I
would not condescend to ask a question which might lead to
a supposition that I was marrying her for her money and
not because I loved her.

You now know, I think, all that I can tell you. If there
be any other questions I would willingly answer them. It
is certainly the case that Emily's fortune, whatever you
may choose to give her, would be of infinitely greater use
to me now,--and consequently to her,--than at a future
date which I sincerely pray may be very long deferred.

Believe me to be,
Your affectionate son-in-law,

FERDINAND LOPEZ.

A. Wharton, Esq.

This letter he himself took up to town on the following day, and
there posted, addressing it to Wharton Hall. He did not expect very
great results from it. As he read it over, he was painfully aware
that all his trash about caravels and cargoes of sulphur would not
go far with Mr. Wharton. But it might go farther than nothing. He
was bound not to neglect Mr. Wharton's letter to him. When a man
is in difficulty about money, even a lie,--even a lie that is sure
to be found out to be a lie,--will serve his immediate turn better
than silence. There is nothing that the courts hate so much as
contempt;--not even perjury. And Lopez felt that Mr. Wharton was the
judge before whom he was bound to plead.

He returned to Dovercourt on that day, and he and his wife dined
with the Parkers. No woman of her age had known better what were
the manners of ladies and gentlemen than Emily Wharton. She had
thoroughly understood that when in Herefordshire she was surrounded
by people of that class, and that when she was with her aunt, Mrs.
Roby, she was not quite so happily placed. No doubt she had been
terribly deceived by her husband,--but the deceit had come from the
fact that his manners gave no indication of his character. When she
found herself in Mrs. Parker's little sitting-room, with Mr. Parker
making florid speeches to her, she knew that she had fallen among
people for whose society she had not been intended. But this was a
part, and only a very trifling part, of the punishment which she felt
that she deserved. If that, and things like that, were all, she would
bear them without a murmur.

"Now I call Dovercourt a dooced nice little place," said Mr. Parker,
as he helped her to the "bit of fish," which he told her he