re see if he spoke the
truth. Satisfied at last, he sank slowly into his chair; and they
were silent for a little space, waiting to perceive if he would wish
for any further information just then. At length he put his hands
slowly together in the clasped attitude of prayer, and said--"Thank
God!"

CHAPTER XXXII

The Bradshaw Pew Again Occupied

If Jemima allowed herself now and then to imagine that one good would
result from the discovery of Richard's delinquency, in the return of
her father and Mr Benson to something of their old understanding and
their old intercourse--if this hope fluttered through her mind, it
was doomed to disappointment. Mr Benson would have been most happy
to go, if Mr Bradshaw had sent for him; he was on the watch for
what might be even the shadow of such an invitation--but none came.
Mr Bradshaw, on his part, would have been thoroughly glad if the
wilful seclusion of his present life could have been broken by the
occasional visits of the old friend whom he had once forbidden the
house; but this prohibition having passed his lips, he stubbornly
refused to do anything which might be construed into unsaying it.
Jemima was for some time in despair of his ever returning to the
office, or resuming his old habits of business. He had evidently
threatened as much to her husband. All that Jemima could do was to
turn a deaf ear to every allusion to this menace, which he threw out
from time to time, evidently with a view to see if it had struck deep
enough into her husband's mind for him to have repeated it to his
wife. If Mr Farquhar had named it--if it was known only to two or
three to have been, but for one half-hour even, his resolution--Mr
Bradshaw could have adhered to it, without any other reason than the
maintenance of what he called consistency, but which was in fact
doggedness. Jemima was often thankful that her mother was absent,
and gone to nurse her son. If she had been at home, she would have
entreated and implored her husband to fall back into his usual
habits, and would have shown such a dread of his being as good as his
word, that he would have been compelled to adhere to it by the very
consequence affixed to it. Mr Farquhar had hard work, as it was,
in passing rapidly enough between the two places--attending to his
business at Eccleston; and deciding, comforting, and earnestly
talking, in Richard's sick-room. During an absence of his, it
was necessary to apply to one of the p