'Don't make me go.I should only cry.I have been crying all day, and the whole of yesterday.' Then she buried her face upon his knees, and sobbed as though she would break her heart.
He couldn't at all understand it.Though he distrusted his son-in-law, and certainly did not love him, he had not as yet learned to hold him in aversion.When the connection was once made he had determined to make the best of it, and had declared to himself that as far as manners went the man was well enough.He had not as yet seen the inside of the man, as it had been the sad fate of the poor wife to see him.It had never occurred to him that his daughter's love had failed her, or that she could already be repenting what she had done.And now, when she was weeping at his feet and deploring the sin of the dinner party, --which, after all, was a trifling sin,--he could not comprehend the feelings which were actuating her.'I suppose your Aunt Harriet made up the party,' he said.
'He did it.'
'Your husband?'
'Yes;--he did it.He wrote to the women in my name when Irefused.' Then Mr Wharton began to perceive that there had been a quarrel.'I told him Mrs Leslie oughtn't to come here.'
'I don't love Mrs Leslie,--nor, for the matter of that,--Lady Eustace.But they won't hurt the house, my dear.'
'And he has had the dinner sent in from a shop.'
'Why couldn't he let Mrs Williams do it?' As he said this, the tone of his voice for the first time became angry.
'Cook has gone away.She wouldn't stand it.And Mrs Williams is very angry.And Barker wouldn't wait at table.'
'What's the meaning of it all?'
'He would have it so.Oh, papa, you don't know what I've undergone.I wish,--I wish we had not come here.It would have been better anywhere else.'
'What would have been better, dear?'
'Everything.Whether we lived or died, it would have been better.Why should I bring my misery to you? Oh, papa, you do not know,--you can never know.'
'But I must know.Is there more than this dinner to disturb you?'
Oh, yes;--more than that.Only I couldn't bear that it should be done in your house.'
'Has he--ill-treated you?'
Then she got up, and stood before him.'I do not mean to complain.I should have said nothing only that you have found us in this way.For myself I will bear it all, whatever it may be.
But, papa, I want you to tell him that we must leave this house.'
'He has got no other home for you.'
'He must find one.I will go anywhere.I don't care where it is.But I won't stay here.I have done it myself, but I won't bring it upon you.I could bear it all if I thought that you would never see me again.'
'Emily!'
'Yes;--if you would never see me again.I know it all, and that would be best.' She was now walking about the room.'Why should you see it all?'
'See what, my love?'
'See his ruin, and my unhappiness, and my baby.Oh--oh--oh!'
'I think so very differently, Emily, that under no circumstances will I have you taken to another home.I cannot understand much of all this as yet, but I suppose that I shall come to see it.
If Lopez be, as you say, ruined, it is well that I have still enough for us to live on.This is a bad time just now to talk about your husband's affairs.'
'I did not mean to talk about them, papa.'
'What would you like best to do now,--now at once.Can you go down again to your husband's friends?'
'No;--no;--no.'
'As for the dinner, never mind about that.I can't blame him for making use of my house in my absence, as far as that goes,--though I wish he could have contented himself with such a dinner as my servants could have prepared for him.I will have some tea here.'
'Let me stay with you, papa, and make it for you.'
'Very well, dear.I do not mean to be ashamed to enter my own dining-room.I shall, therefore, go in and make your apologies.'
Thereupon Mr Wharton walked slowly forth, and marched into the dining-room.
'Oh, Mr Wharton,' said Mrs Dick, 'we didn't expect you.'
'Have you dined yet, sir?' asked Lopez.
'I have dined early,' said Mr Wharton.'I should not now have come in to disturb you, but that I have found Mrs Lopez unwell, and she has begged me to ask you to excuse her.'
'I will go to her,' said Lopez, rising.
'It is not necessary,' said Wharton.'She is not ill, but hardly able to take her place at table.' Then Mrs Dick proposed to go to her dear niece, but Mr Wharton would not allow it, and left the room, having succeeded in persuading them to go on with their dinner.Lopez certainly was not happy during the evening, but he was strong enough to hide his misgivings, and to do his duty as host with seeming cheerfulness.
