matters with which I should have no possible concern, if you were
simply an acquaintance. But when you talk to a man about his
daughter--?'

'I acknowledge freely your right of inquiry.'

'And I know nothing of your means;--nothing whatever. I
understand that you live as a man of fortune, but I presume that
you earn your bread. I know nothing of the way in which you earn
it, nothing of the certainty or amount of your means.'

'Those things are of course matters for inquiry; but may I
presume that you have no objection which satisfactory answers to
such questions may not remove?'

'I shall never willingly give my daughter to anyone who is not
the son of an English gentleman. It may be a prejudice, but that
is my feeling.'

'My father was certainly not an English gentleman. He was a
Portuguese.' In admitting this, and subjecting himself at once
to one clearly-stated ground of objection,--the objection being
one which, though admitted, carried with it neither fault nor
disgrace,--Lopez felt that he had got a certain advantage. He
could not get over the fact that he was the son of a Portuguese
parent, but by admitting that openly he thought he might avoid
present discussion on matters which might, perhaps, be more
disagreeable, but to which he need not allude if the accident of
birth were to be taken by the father as settling the question.