used, and who would think also that a general offence would have
been committed against good social manners, if his daughter were
to be asked for her hand without his previous consent. Should he
absolutely refuse,--why then the battle, though it would be a
desperate battle, might perhaps be fought with other strategy;
but, giving to the matter his best consideration, Lopez thought
it expedient to go at once to the father. In doing this he would
have no silly tremors. Whatever he might feel in speaking to the
girl, he had sufficient self-confidence to be able to ask the
father, if not with assurance, at any rate without trepidation.
It was, he thought, probable that the father, at the first
attack, would neither altogether accede, or altogether refuse.
The disposition of the man was averse to the probability of an
absolute reply at the first moment. The lover imagined that it
might be possible for him to take advantage of the period of
doubt which would be created.

Mr Wharton was and had for a great many years been a barrister
practising in the Equity Courts,--or rather in one Equity Court,
for throughout a life's work, now extending to nearly fifty
years, he had hardly ever gone out of the single Vice-
Chancellor's Court which was much better known by Mr Wharton's
name than by that of the less eminent judge who now sat there.
His had been a very peculiar, a very toilsome, but yet probably a
very satisfactory life. He had begun his practice early, and had
worked in a stuff gown till he was nearly sixty. At that time,
he had amassed a large fortune, mainly from his profession, but
partly also by the careful use of his own small patrimony and by
his wife's money. Men knew that he was rich, but no one knew the
extent of his wealth. When he submitted to take a silk gown, he