第54章

Feeling this very strongly, and disliking this man greatly,--disliking him, that is to say, in the view of this close relation,--I have felt myself to be justified in so far opposing my child by the use of a high hand.I have refused my sanction to the marriage both to him and to her,--though in truth I have been hard set to find any adequate reason for doing so.I have no right to fashion my girl's life by my prejudices.My life has been lived.Hers is to come.In this matter I should be cruel and unnatural were I to allow myself to be governed by any selfish inclination.Though I were to know that she would be lost to me forever, I must give way,--if once brought to a conviction that by not giving way I should sacrifice her young happiness.In this matter, Arthur, I must not even think of you, though I love you well.I must consider only my child's welfare;and in doing so I must try to sift my own feelings and my own judgement, and ascertain, if it be possible, whether any distance to the man is reasonable or irrational;--whether I should serve her or sacrifice her by obstinacy of refusal.I can speak to you more plainly than to her.Indeed I have laid bare to you my whole heart and my whole mind.You have all my wishes, but you will understand that I do not promise you my continued assistance.'

When he had so spoken he put out his hand and pressed his companion's arm.Then he turned slowly into a little by-path which led across the park up to the house, and left Arthur Fletcher standing alone by the river's bank.

And so by degrees the blow had come full home to him.He had been twice refused.Then rumours had reached him,--not at first that he had a rival, but that there was a man who might possibly become so.And now this rivalry, and its success, were declared to him plainly.He told himself from this moment that he had not a chance.Looking forward he could see it.He understood the girl's character sufficiently to be sure that she would not be wafted about, from one lover to another, by change of scene.

Taking her to Dresden,--or to New Zealand, would only confirm in her passion such a girl as Emily Wharton.Nothing would shake her but the ascertained unworthiness of the man,--and not that unless it were ascertained beneath her own eyes.And then years must pass by before she would yield to another lover.There was a further question, too, which he did not fail to ask himself.

Was the man necessarily unworthy because his name was Lopez, and because he had not come of English blood?