"Heavens and earth!" "Of course she has seen him. When a man dines at a house he is bound to call. Of course he has called,--I don't know how often. And she has met him round the corner."--"Round the corner," in Manchester Square, meant Mrs. Roby's house in Berkeley Street.--"Last Sunday they were at the Zoo together. Dick got them tickets. I thought you knew all about it." "Do you mean that my daughter went to the Zoological Gardens alone with this man?" the father asked in 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 about the 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 into his 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, she would 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 aunt come 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 V "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.