Mr. Farquhar - the old one, which she had formerly
believed to be true, that he was a man acting up to a high standard of lofty
principle, and acting up without a struggle (and this last had been the
circumstance which had made her rebellious and irritable once); the new one,
which her father had excited in her suspicious mind, that Mr. Farquhar was cold
and calculating in all he did, and that she was to be transferred by the former,
and accepted by the latter, as a sort of stock-in-trade - these were the two Mr.
Farquhars who clashed together in her mind. And in this state of irritation and
prejudice, she could not bear the way in which he gave up his opinions to please
her; that was not the way to win her; she liked him far better when he
inflexibly and rigidly adhered to his idea of right and wrong, not even allowing
any force to temptation, and hardly any grace to repentance, compared with that
beauty of holiness which had never yielded to sin. He had been her idol in those
days, as she found out now, however much at the time she had opposed him with
violence.
    As for Mr. Farquhar, he was almost weary of himself; no reasoning, even no
principle, seemed to have influence over him, for he saw that Jemima was not at
all what he approved of in woman. He saw her uncurbed and passionate, affecting
to despise the rules of life he held most sacred, and indifferent to, if not
positively disliking, him; and yet he loved her dearly. But he resolved to make
a great effort of will, and break loose from these trammels of sense. And while
he resolved, some old recollection would bring her up, hanging on his arm, in
all the confidence of early girlhood, looking up in his face with her soft, dark
eyes, and questioning him upon the mysterious subjects which had so much
interest for both of them at that time, although they had become only matter for
dissension in these later days.
    It was also true, as Mr. Bradshaw had said, Mr. Farquhar wished to marry,
and had not much choice in the small town of Eccleston. He never put this so
plainly before himself, as a reason for choosing Jemima, as her father had done
to her; but it was an unconscious motive all the same. However, now he had
lectured himself into the resolution to make a pretty long absence from
Eccleston, and see if, amongst his distant friends, there was no