Domestic fiction; England -- Fiction; Mothers and sons -- Fiction; Religious fiction; Unmarried mothers -- Fiction
Mr Farquhar had
been taught to dread impulses as promptings of the devil. Sometimes,
if he tried to present her father's opinions before her in another
form, so as to bring himself and her rather more into that state
of agreement he longed for, she flashed out upon him with the
indignation of difference that she dared not show to, or before,
her father, as if she had some diviner instinct which taught her
more truly than they knew, with all their experience; at least, in
her first expressions there seemed something good and fine; but
opposition made her angry and irritable, and the arguments which he
was constantly provoking (whenever he was with her in her father's
absence) frequently ended in some vehemence of expression on her part
that offended Mr Farquhar, who did not see how she expiated her anger
in tears and self-reproaches when alone in her chamber. Then he would
lecture himself severely on the interest he could not help feeling in
a wilful girl; he would determine not to interfere with her opinions
in future, and yet, the very next time they differed, he strove to
argue her into harmony with himself, in spite of all resolutions to
the contrary.
Mr Bradshaw saw just enough of this interest which Jemima had excited
in his partner's mind, to determine him in considering their future
marriage as a settled affair. The fitness of the thing had long ago
struck him; her father's partner--so the fortune he meant to give
her might continue in the business; a man of such steadiness of
character, and such a capital eye for a desirable speculation as
Mr Farquhar--just the right age to unite the paternal with the
conjugal affection, and consequently the very man for Jemima, who
had something unruly in her, which might break out under a _régime_
less wisely adjusted to the circumstances than was Mr Bradshaw's (in
his own opinion)--a house ready-furnished, at a convenient distance
from her home--no near relations on Mr Farquhar's side, who might be
inclined to consider his residence as their own for an indefinite
time, and so add to the household expenses--in short, what could
be more suitable in every way? Mr Bradshaw respected the very
self-restraint he thought he saw in Mr Farquhar's demeanour,
attributing it to a wise desire to wait until trade should be rather
more slack, and the man of business more at leisure to become the
lover.
As for Jemima, at times she thought she almost hated Mr Farquhar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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