his wealthy host, which she resented with all the loathing of a
pre-occupied heart; and she had longed to be a man, to speak out her
wrath at this paltering with right and wrong. She had felt grateful
to Mr Benson for his one clear, short precept, coming down with a
divine force against which there was no appeal; and now to have Mr
Farquhar taking the side of expediency! It was too bad.

"Nay, Jemima!" said Mr Farquhar, touched, and secretly flattered by
the visible pain his speech had given. "Don't be indignant with me
till I have explained myself a little more. I don't understand myself
yet; and it is a very intricate question, or so it appears to me,
which I was going to put, really, earnestly, and humbly, for Mr
Benson's opinion. Now, Mr Benson, may I ask, if you always find it
practicable to act strictly in accordance with that principle? For
if you do not, I am sure no man living can! Are there not occasions
when it is absolutely necessary to wade through evil to good? I am
not speaking in the careless, presumptuous way of that man yonder,"
said he, lowering his voice, and addressing himself to Jemima more
exclusively; "I am really anxious to hear what Mr Benson will say
on the subject, for I know no one to whose candid opinion I should
attach more weight."

But Mr Benson was silent. He did not see Mrs Bradshaw and Jemima
leave the room. He was really, as Mr Farquhar supposed him,
completely absent, questioning himself as to how far his practice
tallied with his principle. By degrees he came to himself; he found
the conversation still turned on the election; and Mr Hickson, who
felt that he had jarred against the little minister's principles,
and yet knew, from the _carte du pays_ which the scouts of the
parliamentary agent had given him, that Mr Benson was a person to be
conciliated, on account of his influence over many of the working
people, began to ask him questions with an air of deferring to
superior knowledge, that almost surprised Mr Bradshaw, who had been
accustomed to treat "Benson" in a very different fashion, of civil
condescending indulgence, just as one listens to a child who can have
had no opportunities of knowing better.

At the end of a conversation that Mr Hickson held with Mr Benson, on
a subject in which the latter was really interested, and on which he
had expressed himself at some length, the young barrister turned to
Mr Bradshaw, and said very audibly,

"I wish Donne had been here. Th