But the inky devil sat close upon his shoulders.

Where would he be at the end of three months if Mr.Wharton would do nothing for him,--and if a certain venture in guano, to which he had tempted Sexty Parker, should not turn out the right way?
He believed in the guano and he believed in Mr.Wharton, but it is a terrible thing to have one's whole position in the world hanging upon either an unwilling father-in-law or a probable rise in the value of manure! And then how would he reconcile himself to her if both father-in-law and guano should go against him, and how should he endure her misery?
The inky devil had forced him to ask the question even before they had reached Dover.

"Does it matter ?" she had asked.

Then for the time he had repudiated his solicitude, and had declared that no question of money was of much consequence to him,--thereby making his future task with her so much the more difficult.

After that he said nothing to her on the subject on that their wedding day,--but he could not prevent himself from thinking of it.