SURRENDER.
The letter given in the previous chapter was received at Wharton Hall late in the evening of the day on which it was written, and was discussed among all the Whartons that night.Of course there was no doubt as to the father's going up to town on the morrow.
The letter was just such a letter as would surely make a man run to his son's bedside.Had the son written himself it would have been different; but the fact that the letter had come from another man seemed to be evidence that the poor sufferer could not write.Perhaps the urgency with which Lopez had sent off his dispatch, getting his account of the fray ready for the very early day mail, though the fray had not taken place till midnight, did not impress them sufficiently when they accepted this as evidence of Everett's dangerous condition.At this conference at Wharton very little was said about Lopez, but there was a general feeling that he had behaved well.'It was very odd that they should have parted in the park,' said Sir Alured.'But very lucky that they should not have parted sooner,' said John Fletcher.If a grain of suspicion against Lopez might have been set afloat in their minds by Sir Alured's suggestion, it was altogether dissipated by John Fletcher's reply;--for everybody there knew that John Fletcher carried common sense for the two families.Of course they all hated Ferdinand Lopez, but nothing could be extracted from the incident, as far as its details were yet known to them, which could be turned to his injury.
While they sat together discussing the matter in the drawing-room Emily Wharton hardly said a word.She uttered a little shriek when the account of the affair was first read to her, and then listened with silent attention to what was said around her.When there had seemed for a moment to be a doubt,--or rather a question, for there had been no doubt,--whether her father should go at once to London, she had spoken just a word.'Of course you will go, papa.' After that she said nothing till she came to him in his own room.'Of course I will go with you tomorrow, papa.'
'I don't think that will be necessary.'
'Oh, yes.Think how wretched I should be.'
'I would telegraph to you immediately.'
'And I shouldn't believe the telegraph.Don't you know how it always is? Besides we have been more than the usual time.We were to go to town in ten days, and you would not think of returning to fetch me.Of course I will go with you.I have already begun to pack my things, and Jane is now at it.' Her father, not knowing how to oppose her, yielded, and Emily before she went to bed had made the ladies of the house aware that she also intended to start the next morning at eight o'clock.
During the first part of the journey very little was said between Mr Wharton and Emily.There were other persons in the carriage, and she, though she had determined in some vague way that she would speak some words to her father before she reached their own house, had still wanted time to resolve what those words should be.But before she had reached Gloucester she had made up her mind, and going on from Gloucester she found herself for a time alone with her father.She was sitting opposite to him, and after conversing for a while she touched his knee with her hand.
'Papa,' she said, 'I suppose I must now have to meet Mr Lopez in Manchester Square?'
'Why should you have to meet Mr Lopez?'
'Of course he will come there to see Everett.After what has occurred you can hardly forbid him the house.He has saved Everett's life.'
'I don't know that he has done anything of the kind,' said Mr Wharton, who was vacillating between different opinions.He did in his heart believe that the Portuguese whom he so hated had saved his son from the thieves, and he also had almost come to the conviction that he must give his daughter to the man,--but at the same time he could not as yet bring himself to abandon his opposition to the marriage.
'Perhaps you think the story is not true.'
'I don't doubt the story in the least.Of course one man sticks to another in such an affair, and I have no doubt that Mr Lopez behaved as any English gentleman would.'
'Any English gentleman, papa, would have to come afterwards and see the friend he had saved.Don't you think so?'
'Oh yes,--he might call.'
'And Mr Lopez will have an additional reason for calling,--and Iknow he will come.Don't you think he will come?'
'I don't want to think anything about it,' said the father.
'But I want you to think about it, papa.Papa, I know you are not indifferent to my happiness.'
'I hope you know it.'
'I do know it.I am quite sure of it.And therefore I don't think you ought to be afraid to talk to me about what must concern my happiness so greatly.As far as my own self and my own will are concerned I consider myself as given away to Mr Lopez already.Nothing but his marrying some other woman,--or his death,--would make me think of myself as otherwise than as belonging to him.I am not a bit ashamed of owning my love--to you or to him, if the opportunity were allowed me.I don't think there should be concealment about anything so important between people who are so dear to each other.I have told you that Iwill do whatever you bid me about him.If you say that I shall not speak to him or see him I will not speak to him or see him--willingly.You certainly need not be afraid that I should marry without your leave.'
'I am not in the least afraid of it.'
'But I think you should think over what you are doing.And I am quite sure of this,--that you must tell me what I am to do in regard to receiving Mr Lopez in Manchester Square.' Mr Wharton listened attentively to what his daughter said to him, shaking his head from time to time as though almost equally distracted by her passive obedience and by her passionate protestations of love; but he said nothing.When she had completed her supplication he threw himself back in His seat and after a while took his book.It may be doubted whether he read much, for the question as to his girl's happiness was quite as near his heart as she could wish it to be.
