"And I will be equally so to you now. Both I and your daughter are absolutely ruined unless you reconsider your purpose."
"If you mean money by reconsideration,—present money to be given to you,—I certainly shall not reconsider it. You may take my solemn assurance that I will give you nothing that can be of any service to you in trade."
"Then, sir,—I must tell you my purpose, and give you my assurance, which is equally solemn. Under those circumstances I must leave England, and try my fortune in Central America. There is an opening for me at Guatemala, though not a very hopeful one."
"Guatemala!"
"Yes;—friends of mine have a connection there. I have not broken it to Emily yet, but under these circumstances she will have to go."
"You will not take her to Guatemala!"
"Not take my wife, sir? Indeed I shall. Do you suppose that I would go away and leave my wife a pensioner on your bounty? Do you think that she would wish to desert her husband? I don't think you know your daughter."
"I wish you had never known her."
"That is neither here nor there, sir. If I cannot succeed in this country I must go elsewhere. As I have told you before, £20,000 at the present moment would enable me to surmount all my difficulties, and make me a very wealthy man. But unless I can command some such sum by Christmas everything here must be sacrificed."
"Never in my life did I hear so base a proposition," said Mr. Wharton.