th her; and perhaps Jemima
may like Mr Farquhar, and he may not like her. It seems such a little
while since her hair was turned up, and he has always been a grave
middle-aged man ever since I can recollect; and then, have you never
noticed how often he finds fault with her--almost lectures her?"

"To be sure," said Mary; "but he may be in love, for all that. Just
think how often papa lectures mamma; and yet, of course, they're in
love with each other."

"Well! we shall see," said Elizabeth.

Poor Jemima little thought of the four sharp eyes that watched her
daily course while she sat alone, as she fancied, with her secret in
her own room. For, in a passionate fit of grieving, at the impatient,
hasty temper which had made her so seriously displease Mr Farquhar
that he had gone away without remonstrance, without more leave-taking
than a distant bow, she had begun to suspect that rather than not be
noticed at all by him, rather than be an object of indifference to
him--oh! far rather would she be an object of anger and upbraiding;
and the thoughts that followed this confession to herself, stunned
and bewildered her; and for once that they made her dizzy with hope,
ten times they made her sick with fear. For an instant she planned
to become and to be all he could wish her; to change her very nature
for him. And then a great gush of pride came over her, and she set
her teeth tight together, and determined that he should either love
her as she was, or not at all. Unless he could take her with all
her faults, she would not care for his regard; "love" was too noble
a word to call such cold, calculating feeling as his must be, who
went about with a pattern idea in his mind, trying to find a wife to
match. Besides, there was something degrading, Jemima thought, in
trying to alter herself to gain the love of any human creature. And
yet, if he did not care for her, if this late indifference were to
last, what a great shroud was drawn over life! Could she bear it?

From the agony she dared not look at, but which she was going to risk
encountering, she was aroused by the presence of her mother.

"Jemima! your father wants to speak to you in the dining-room."

"What for?" asked the girl.

"Oh! he is fidgeted by something Mr Farquhar said to me, and which
I repeated. I am sure I thought there was no harm in it, and your
father always likes me to tell him what everybody says in his
absence."

Jemima went with a heavy heart in