Free THE PRIME MINISTER by DAVID SKILTON

dismay.
    ‘Dick was with them. I should have gone, only I had a headache. Did you not know she went?’
    ‘Yes; – I heard about the Gardens. But I heard nothing of the man.’
    ‘I thought, Mr Wharton, you were all in his favour.’
    ‘I am not at all in his favour. I dislike him particularly. For anything I know he may have sold pencils aboutthe streets like any other Jew-boy.’
    ‘He goes to church, just as you do, – that is, if he goes anywhere; which I dare say he does about as often as yourself, Mr Wharton.’ Now Mr Wharton, though he was a thorough and perhaps a bigoted member of the Church of England, was not fond of going to church.
    ‘Do you mean to tell me,’ he said, pressing his hands together, and looking very seriously intohis sister-in-law’s face; ‘do you mean to tell me that she – likes him?’
    ‘Yes; – I think she does like him.’
    ‘You don’t mean to say – she’s in love with him?’
    ‘She has never told me that she is. Young ladies are shy of making such assertions as to their own feelings before the due time for doing so has come. I think she prefers him to anybody else; and that were he to propose to herself, shewould give him her consent to go to you.’
    ‘He shall never enter this house again,’ said Mr Wharton passionately.
    ‘You must arrange that with her. If you have so strong an objection to him, I wonder that you should have had him here at all.’
    ‘How was I to know? God bless my soul! – just because a man was allowed to dine here once or twice! Upon my word, it’s too bad!’
    ‘Papa, won’t you and auntcome down to dinner?’ said Emily, opening the door gently. Then they went down to dinner, and during the meal nothing was said about Mr Lopez. But they were not very merry together, and poor Emily felt sure that her own affairs had been discussed in a troublesome manner.

CHAPTER 5
‘No one knows anything about him’
    Neither at dinner, on that evening at Manchester Square, nor after dinner, as long as Mrs Roby remained in the house, was a word said about Lopez by Mr Wharton. He remained longer than usual with his bottle of port wine in the dining-room; and when he went upstairs, he sat himself down and fell asleep, almost without a sign. He did not ask for a song,nor did Emily offer to sing. But as soon as Mrs Roby was gone, – and Mrs Roby went home, round the corner, somewhat earlier than usual, – then Mr Wharton woke up instantly and made inquiry of his daughter.
    There had, however, been a few words spoken on the subject between Mrs Roby and her niece, which had served to prepare Emily for what was coming. ‘Lopez has been to your father,’ said Mrs Roby,in a voice not specially encouraging for such an occasion. Then she paused a moment; but her niece said nothing, and she continued, ‘Yes, – and your father has been blaming me, – as if I had done anything! If he did not mean you to choose for yourself, why didn’t he keep a closer look-out?’
    ‘I haven’t chosen anyone, Aunt Harriet.’
    ‘Well; – to speak fairly, I thought you had; and I have nothingto say against your choice. As young men go, I think Mr Lopez is as good as the best of them. I don’t know why you shouldn’t have him. Of course you’ll have money, but then I suppose he makes a large income himself. As to Mr Fletcher, you don’t care a bit about him.’
    ‘Not in that way, certainly.’
    ‘No doubt your papa will have it out with you just now; so you had better make up your mind whatyou will say to him. If you really like the man, I don’t see why you shouldn’t say so, and stick to it. He has made a regular offer, and girls in these days are not expected to be their father’s slaves.’ Emily said nothing further to her aunt on that occasion, but finding that she must in truth ‘have it out’ with her father presently, gave herself up to reflection. It might probably be the case thatthe whole condition of her future life would depend on the way in