 him. She was afraid that she had
betrayed the deep, passionate regard with which she had long looked upon him.
She was lost in delight at her own happiness. She was silent for a time. At
length she said -
    »I don't think you know how faithful I have been to you ever since the days
when you first brought me pistachio-candy from London - when I was quite a
little girl.«
    »Not more faithful than I have been to you,« for in truth, the recollection
of his love for Ruth had utterly faded away, and he thought himself a model of
constancy; »and you have tried me pretty well. What a vixen you have been!«
    Jemima sighed; smitten with the consciousness of how little she had deserved
her present happiness; humble with the recollection of the evil thoughts that
had raged in her heart during the time (which she remembered well, though he may
have forgotten it) when Ruth had had the affection which her jealous rival
coveted.
    »I may speak to your father; may not I, Jemima?«
    No! for some reason or fancy which she could not define, and could not be
persuaded out of, she wished to keep their mutual understanding a secret. She
had a natural desire to avoid the congratulations she expected from her family.
She dreaded her father's consideration of the whole affair as a satisfactory
disposal of his daughter to a worthy man, who, being his partner, would not
require any abstraction of capital from the concern, and Richard's more noisy
delight at his sister's having hooked so good a match. It was only her
simple-hearted mother that she longed to tell. She knew that her mother's
congratulations would not jar upon her, though they might not sound the full
organ-peal of her love. But all that her mother knew passed onwards to her
father; so for the present, at any rate, she determined to realise her secret
position alone. Somehow, the sympathy of all others that she most longed for was
Ruth's; but the first communication of such an event was due to her parents. She
imposed very strict regulations on Mr. Farquhar's behaviour; and quarrelled and
differed from him more than ever, but with a secret joyful understanding with
him in her heart, even while they disagreed with each other - for similarity of
opinion is not always - I think not often - needed for fulness and perfection of
love.
    After Ruth's detection, as Mr. Bradshaw used to call it, he
