y."

"But remember," said Mr Benson, "how strict Mr Bradshaw has always
been with his children. It is no wonder if poor Richard was a coward
in those days."

"He is now, or I'm much mistaken," answered Miss Benson. "And Mr
Bradshaw was just as strict with Jemima, and she's no coward. But
I've no faith in Richard. He has a look about him that I don't like.
And when Mr Bradshaw was away on business in Holland last year, for
those months my young gentleman did not come half as regularly to
chapel, and I always believe that story of his being seen out with
the hounds at Smithiles."

"Those are neither of them great offences in a young man of twenty,"
said Mr Benson, smiling.

"No! I don't mind them in themselves; but when he could change back
so easily to being regular and mim when his father came home, I don't
like that."

"Leonard shall never be afraid of me," said Ruth, following her own
train of thought. "I will be his friend from the very first; and I
will try and learn how to be a wise friend, and you will teach me,
won't you, sir?"

"What made you wish to call him Leonard, Ruth?" asked Miss Benson.

"It was my mother's father's name; and she used to tell me about him
and his goodness, and I thought if Leonard could be like him--"

"Do you remember the discussion there was about Miss Bradshaw's name,
Thurstan? Her father wanting her to be called Hepzibah, but insisting
that she was to have a Scripture name at any rate; and Mrs Bradshaw
wanting her to be Juliana, after some novel she had read not long
before; and at last Jemima was fixed upon, because it would do either
for a Scripture name or a name for a heroine out of a book."

"I did not know Jemima was a Scripture name," said Ruth.

"Oh yes, it is. One of Job's daughters; Jemima, Kezia, and
Keren-Happuch. There are a good many Jemimas in the world, and some
Kezias, but I never heard of a Keren-Happuch; and yet we know just as
much of one as of another. People really like a pretty name, whether
in Scripture or out of it."

"When there is no particular association with the name," said Mr
Benson.

"Now, I was called Faith after the cardinal virtue; and I like my
name, though many people would think it too Puritan; that was
according to our gentle mother's pious desire. And Thurstan was
called by his name because my father wished it; for, although he was
what people called a radical and a democrat in his ways of talking
and thinking, he was very proud