'If I had anything, I'd give you all that I had.'
'And he's taken to drinking that hard that he's never rightly sober from morning to night.' As she told this story of her husband's disgrace, the poor woman burst into tears.'Who's to trust him with business now? He's that broken-hearted that he don't know which way to turn,--only to the bottle.And Lopez has done it all,--done it all! I haven't got a father, ma'am, who has got a house over his head for me and my babies.Only think if you was turned out into the street with your baby, as Iam like to be.'
'I have no baby,' said the wretched woman through her tears and sobs.
'Haven't you, Mrs Lopez? Oh dear!' exclaimed the soft-hearted woman, reduced at once to pity.'How was it then?'
'He died, Mrs Parker,--just a few days after he was born.'
'Did he now? Well, well.We all have our troubles, I suppose.'
'I have mine, I know,' said Emily, 'and very, very heavy they are.I cannot tell you what I have had to suffer.'
'Isn't he good to you?'
'I cannot talk about it, Mrs Parker.What you tell me about yourself has added greatly to my sorrows.My husband is talking of going away--to live out of England.'
'Yes, at a place they call,--I forgot what they call it, but Iheard it.'
'Guatemala,--in America.'
'I know.Sexty told me.He has no business to go anywhere, while he owes Sexty such a lot of money.He has taken everything, and now he is going to Kattymaly!' At this moment Mr Wharton knocked at the door and entered the room.As he did so Mrs Parker got up and curtsied.
'This is my father, Mrs Parker,' said Emily.'Papa, this is Mrs Parker.She is the wife of Mr Parker, who is Ferdinand's partner.She has come here with bad news.'
'Very bad news, indeed, sir,' said Mrs Parker, curtseying again.
Mr Wharton frowned, not as being angry with the woman, but feeling that some further horror was to be told him of his son-in-law.'I can't help coming, sir,' continued Mrs Parker.
'Where am I to go if I don't come? Mr Lopez, sir, has ruined us root and branch,--root and branch.'
'That at any rate is not my fault,' said Mr Wharton, 'But she is his wife, sir.Where am I to go if not to where he lives? Am I to put up with everything gone, and my poor husband in the right way to go to Bedlam, and not to say a word about it to the grand relations of him who did it all?'
'He is a bad man,' said Mr Wharton.'I cannot make him otherwise.'
'Will he do nothing for us?'
'I will tell you all I know about him.' Then Mr Wharton did tell her all that he knew, as to the appointment at Guatemala and the amount of salary which was to be attached to it.'Whether he will do anything for you, I cannot say;--I should think not, unless he be forced.I should advise you to go to the offices of the Company in Coleman Street and try to make some terms there.
But I fear,--I fear that it will all be useless.'
'Then we may starve.'
'It is not her fault,' said Mr Wharton, pointing to his daughter.
'She has had no hand in it.She knows less of it than you do.'
'It is my fault,' said Emily, bursting out in self-reproach,--'my fault that I married him.'
'Whether married or single he would have preyed upon Mr Parker to the same extent.'
'Like enough,' said the poor wife.'He'd prey upon anybody as he could get hold of.And so, Mr Wharton, you think that you can do nothing for me.'
'If your want be immediate I can relieve it,' said the barrister.
Mrs Parker did not like the idea of accepting direct charity, but, nevertheless, on going away did take the five sovereigns which Mr Wharton offered to her.
After such an interview as that the evening between the father and the daughter was not very happy.She was eaten up by remorse.Gradually she had learned how frightful was the thing she had done in giving herself to a man of whom she had known nothing.And it was not only that she had degraded herself by loving such a man, but that she had been persistent in clinging to him though her father and all his friends had told her of the danger which she was running.And now it seemed that she had destroyed her father as well as herself! All that she could do was to be persistent in her prayer that he would let her go.'Ihave done it,' she said that night, 'and I could bear it better, if you would let me bear it alone.' But he only kissed her, and sobbed over her, and held her close to his heart with his clinging arms,--in a manner in which he had never held her in their old happy days.
He took himself to his own rooms before Lopez returned, but she of course had to bear her husband's presence.As she had declared to her father more than once, she was not afraid of him.
Even though he should strike her,--though he should kill her,--she would not be afraid of him.He had already done worse to her than anything that could follow.'Mrs Parker has been here to-day,' she said to him that night.
'And what did Mrs Parker have to say?'
'That you ruined her husband.'
'Exactly.When a man speculates and doesn't win of course he throws the blame on someone else.And when he is too much of a cur to come himself, he sends his wife.'
'She says you owe him money.'
'What business have you to listen to what she says? If she comes again, do not see her.Do you understand me?'
'Yes, I understand.She saw papa also.If you owe him money, should it not be paid?'
'My dearest love, everybody who owes anything to anybody should always pay it.That is so self-evident that one would almost suppose that it might be understood without being enunciated.
But the virtue of paying debts is incompatible with an absence of money.Now, if you please, we will not say anything more about Mrs Parker.She is not at any rate a fit companion for you.'
'It was you who introduced her.'
'Hold your tongue about her,--and let that be an end of it.Ilittle knew what a world of torment I was preparing for myself when I allowed you to come and live in your father's house.'