ee how she expiated her anger
in tears and self-reproaches when alone in her chamber. Then he would
lecture himself severely on the interest he could not help feeling in
a wilful girl; he would determine not to interfere with her opinions
in future, and yet, the very next time they differed, he strove to
argue her into harmony with himself, in spite of all resolutions to
the contrary.

Mr Bradshaw saw just enough of this interest which Jemima had excited
in his partner's mind, to determine him in considering their future
marriage as a settled affair. The fitness of the thing had long ago
struck him; her father's partner--so the fortune he meant to give
her might continue in the business; a man of such steadiness of
character, and such a capital eye for a desirable speculation as
Mr Farquhar--just the right age to unite the paternal with the
conjugal affection, and consequently the very man for Jemima, who
had something unruly in her, which might break out under a _regime_
less wisely adjusted to the circumstances than was Mr Bradshaw's (in
his own opinion)--a house ready-furnished, at a convenient distance
from her home--no near relations on Mr Farquhar's side, who might be
inclined to consider his residence as their own for an indefinite
time, and so add to the household expenses--in short, what could
be more suitable in every way? Mr Bradshaw respected the very
self-restraint he thought he saw in Mr Farquhar's demeanour,
attributing it to a wise desire to wait until trade should be rather
more slack, and the man of business more at leisure to become the
lover.

As for Jemima, at times she thought she almost hated Mr Farquhar.

"What business has he," she would think, "to lecture me? Often I can
hardly bear it from papa, and I will not bear it from him. He treats
me just like a child, and as if I should lose all my present opinions
when I know more of the world. I am sure I should like never to know
the world, if it was to make me think as he does, hard man that he
is! I wonder what made him take Jem Brown on as gardener again, if he
does not believe that above one criminal in a thousand is restored to
goodness. I'll ask him, some day, if that was not acting on impulse
rather than principle. Poor impulse! how you do get abused. But I
will tell Mr Farquhar I will not let him interfere with me. If I
do what papa bids me, no one has a right to notice whether I do it
willingly or not."

So then she tried to defy Mr F