But the unacknowledged bond
between them now was their grief, and sympathy, and pity for Ruth;
only in Jemima these feelings were ardent, and would fain have
become active; while in Mr Farquhar they were strongly mingled
with thankfulness that he had escaped a disagreeable position,
and a painful notoriety. His natural caution induced him to make
a resolution never to think of any woman as a wife until he had
ascertained all her antecedents, from her birth upwards; and the
same spirit of caution, directed inwardly, made him afraid of giving
too much pity to Ruth, for fear of the conclusions to which such
a feeling might lead him. But still his old regard for her, for
Leonard, and his esteem and respect for the Bensons, induced him to
lend a willing ear to Jemima's earnest entreaty that he would go and
call on Mr Benson, in order that she might learn something about the
family in general, and Ruth in particular. It was thus that he came
to sit by Mr Benson's study fire, and to talk, in an absent way, to
that gentleman. How they got on the subject he did not know, more
than one-half of his attention being distracted; but they were
speaking about politics, when Mr Farquhar learned that Mr Benson took
in no newspaper.

"Will you allow me to send you over my _Times_? I have generally
done with it before twelve o'clock, and after that it is really
waste-paper in my house. You will oblige me by making use of it."

"I am sure I am very much obliged to you for thinking of it. But do
not trouble yourself to send it; Leonard can fetch it."

"How is Leonard now?" asked Mr Farquhar, and he tried to speak
indifferently; but a grave look of intelligence clouded his eyes as
he looked for Mr Benson's answer. "I have not met him lately."

"No!" said Mr Benson, with an expression of pain in his countenance,
though he, too, strove to speak in his usual tone.

"Leonard is not strong, and we find it difficult to induce him to go
much out-of-doors."

There was a little silence for a minute or two, during which Mr
Farquhar had to check an unbidden sigh. But, suddenly rousing himself
into a determination to change the subject, he said:

"You will find rather a lengthened account of the exposure of Sir
Thomas Campbell's conduct at Baden. He seems to be a complete
blackleg, in spite of his baronetcy. I fancy the papers are glad to
get hold of anything just now."

"Who is Sir Thomas Campbell?" asked Mr Benson.

"Oh, I thought you might