"Why is it base? I can only tell you the truth."
"So be it. You will find that I mean what I have said."
"So do I, Mr. Wharton."
"As to my daughter, she must, of course, do as she thinks fit."
"She must do as I think fit, Mr. Wharton."
"I will not argue with you. Alas, alas; poor girl!"
"Poor girl, indeed! She is likely to be a poor girl if she is treated in this way by her father. As I understand that you intend to use, or to try to use, authority over her, I shall take steps for removing her at once from your house." And so the interview was ended.
Lopez had thought the matter over, and had determined to "brazen it out," as he himself called it. Nothing further was, he thought, to be got by civility and obedience. Now he must use his power. His idea of going to Guatemala was not an invention of the moment, nor was it devoid of a certain basis of truth. Such a suggestion had been made to him some time since by Mr. Mills Happerton. There were mines in Guatemala which wanted, or at some future day might want, a resident director. The proposition had been made to Lopez before his marriage, and Mr. Happerton probably had now forgotten all about it;—but the thing was of service now. He broke the matter very suddenly to his wife. "Has your father been speaking to you of my plans?"
"Not lately;—not that I remember."
"He could not speak of them without your remembering, I should think. Has he told you that I am going to Guatemala?"