ifle, I am
kept so confoundedly short."

When Jemima returned with her little store, even her careless,
selfish brother was struck by the wanness of her face, lighted by the
bed-candle she carried.

"Come, Mimie, don't give it up. If I were you, I would have a good
try against Mrs Denbigh. I'll send you the bonnet as soon as ever
I get back to town, and you pluck up a spirit, and I'll back you
against her even yet."

It seemed to Jemima strange--and yet only a fitting part of this
strange, chaotic world--to find that her brother, who was the last
person to whom she could have given her confidence in her own family,
and almost the last person of her acquaintance to whom she could look
for real help and sympathy, should have been the only one to hit upon
the secret of her love. And the idea passed away from his mind as
quickly as all ideas not bearing upon his own self-interests did.

The night, the sleepless night, was so crowded and haunted by
miserable images, that she longed for day; and when day came, with
its stinging realities, she wearied and grew sick for the solitude of
night. For the next week, she seemed to see and hear nothing but what
confirmed the idea of Mr Farquhar's decided attachment to Ruth. Even
her mother spoke of it as a thing which was impending, and which she
wondered how Mr Bradshaw would like; for his approval or disapproval
was the standard by which she measured all things.

"Oh! merciful God," prayed Jemima, in the dead silence of the night,
"the strain is too great--I cannot bear it longer--my life--my
love--the very essence of me, which is myself through time and
eternity; and on the other side there is all-pitying Charity. If she
had not been what she is--if she had shown any sign of triumph--any
knowledge of her prize--if she had made any effort to gain his dear
heart, I must have given way long ago, and taunted her, even if I did
not tell others--taunted her, even though I sank down to the pit the
next moment.

"The temptation is too strong for me. Oh Lord! where is Thy peace
that I believed in, in my childhood?--that I hear people speaking
of now, as if it hushed up the troubles of life, and had not to be
sought for--sought for, as with tears of blood!"

There was no sound nor sight in answer to this wild imploring cry,
which Jemima half thought must force out a sign from Heaven. But
there was a dawn stealing on through the darkness of her night.

It was glorious weather for t