He had desired that his girl should see as little as possible of Ferdinand Lopez, but had hesitated to give a positive order that she should not meet him.

He had indeed himself taken her to a dinner party at which he knew that she would meet him.

But Mrs.Roby had betrayed him.

Since the dinner party she had arranged a meeting at her own house on behalf of the lover,--as to which arrangement Emily Wharton had herself been altogether innocent.

Emily had met the man in her aunt's house, not expecting to meet him, and the lover had had an opportunity of speaking his mind freely.