he said nothing further to his daughter, but sat with
her, silent and disconsolate. Later in the evening, after she had
gone to her room, Everett came in while the old man was still walking
up and down the drawing-room. "Where have you been?" asked the
father,--not caring a straw as to any reply when he asked the
question, but roused almost to anger by the answer when it came.

"I have been dining with Lopez at the club."

"I believe you live with that man."

"Is there any reason, sir, why I should not?"

"You know that there is a good reason why there should be no peculiar
intimacy. But I don't suppose that my wishes, or your sister's
welfare, will interest you."

"That is severe, sir."

"I am not such a fool as to suppose that you are to quarrel with
a man because I don't approve his addressing your sister; but I
do think that while this is going on, and while he perseveres in
opposition to my distinct refusal, you need not associate with him in
any special manner."

"I don't understand your objection to him, sir."

"I dare say not. There are a great many things you don't understand.
But I do object."

"He's a very rising man. Mr. Roby was saying to me just now--"

"Who cares a straw what a fool like Roby says?"

"I don't mean Uncle Dick, but his brother,--who, I suppose, is
somebody in the world. He was saying to me just now that he wondered
why Lopez does not go into the House;--that he would be sure to get a
seat if he chose, and safe to make a mark when he got there."

"I dare say he could get into the House. I don't know any well-to-do
blackguard of whom you might not predict as much. A seat in the House
of Commons doesn't make a man a gentleman as far as I can see."

"I think every one allows that Ferdinand Lopez is a gentleman."

"Who was his father?"

"I didn't happen to know him, sir."

"And who was his mother? I don't suppose you will credit anything
because I say it, but as far as my experience goes, a man doesn't
often become a gentleman in the first generation. A man may be very
worthy, very clever, very rich,--very well worth knowing, if you
will;--but when one talks of admitting a man into close family
communion by marriage, one would, I fancy, wish to know something of
his father and mother." Then Everett escaped, and Mr. Wharton was
again left to his own meditations. Oh, what a peril, what a trouble,
what a labyrinth of difficulties was a daughter! He must either be
known as a st