Domestic fiction; England -- Fiction; Mothers and sons -- Fiction; Religious fiction; Unmarried mothers -- Fiction
Jemima did see; did understand. She understood, too, why certain
packets were put carefully on one side, apart from the rest of the
purchases of Swiss toys and jewellery, by which Mr Farquhar proved
that none of Mr Bradshaw's family had been forgotten by him during
his absence. Before the end of the evening, she was very conscious
that her sore heart had not forgotten how to be jealous. Her brother
did not allow a word, a look, or an incident, which might be supposed
on Mr Farquhar's side to refer to Ruth, to pass unnoticed; he
pointed out all to his sister, never dreaming of the torture he was
inflicting, only anxious to prove his own extreme penetration. At
length Jemima could stand it no longer, and left the room. She went
into the schoolroom, where the shutters were not closed, as it only
looked into the garden. She opened the window, to let the cool night
air blow in on her hot cheeks. The clouds were hurrying over the
moon's face in a tempestuous and unstable manner, making all things
seem unreal; now clear out in its bright light, now trembling and
quivering in shadow. The pain at her heart seemed to make Jemima's
brain grow dull; she laid her head on her arms, which rested on the
window-sill, and grew dizzy with the sick weary notion that the earth
was wandering lawless and aimless through the heavens, where all
seemed one tossed and whirling wrack of clouds. It was a waking
nightmare, from the uneasy heaviness of which she was thankful to be
roused by Dick's entrance.
"What, you are here, are you? I have been looking everywhere for you.
I wanted to ask you if you have any spare money you could lend me for
a few weeks?"
"How much do you want?" asked Jemima, in a dull, hopeless voice.
"Oh! the more the better. But I should be glad of any trifle, I am
kept so confoundedly short."
When Jemima returned with her little store, even her careless,
selfish brother was struck by the wanness of her face, lighted by the
bed-candle she carried.
"Come, Mimie, don't give it up. If I were you, I would have a good
try against Mrs Denbigh. I'll send you the bonnet as soon as ever
I get back to town, and you pluck up a spirit, and I'll back you
against her even yet."
It seemed to Jemima strange--and yet only a fitting part of this
strange, chaotic world--to find that her brother, who was the last
person to whom she could have given her confidence in her own family,
and almost the last person of her acquaintance to whom she could look
for real help and sympathy, should have been the only one to hit upon
the secret of her love. And the idea passed away from his mind as
quickly as all ideas not bearing upon his own self-interests did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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