“If you give way to a temper which, although you have never dared to show it to me, I am well aware exists, although I hoped the habits of self-examination I had instilled had done much to cure you of manifesting it.  At one time, Richard promised to be the more headstrong of the two; now, I must desire you to take pattern by him.  Yes,” he continued, falling into his old train of thought, “it would be a most fortunate connection for you in every way.  I should have you under my own eye, and could still assist you in the formation of your character, and I should be at hand to strengthen and confirm your principles.  Mr. Farquhar’s connection with the firm would be convenient and agreeable to me in a pecuniary point of view.  He——­” Mr. Bradshaw was going on in his enumeration of the advantages which he in particular, and Jemima in the second place, would derive from this marriage, when his daughter spoke, at first so low that he could not hear her, as he walked up and down the room with his creaking boots, and he had to stop to listen.

“Has Mr. Farquhar ever spoken to you about it?” Jemima’s cheek was flushed as she asked the question; she wished that she might have been the person to whom he had first addressed himself.

Mr. Bradshaw answered—­

“No, not spoken.  It has been implied between us for some time.  At least, I have been so aware of his intentions that I have made several allusions, in the course of business, to it, as a thing that might take place.  He can hardly have misunderstood; he must have seen that I perceived his design, and approved of it,” said Mr. Bradshaw, rather doubtfully; as he remembered how very little, in fact, passed between him and his partner which could have reference to the subject, to any but a mind prepared to receive it.  Perhaps Mr. Farquhar had not really thought of it; but then again, that would imply that his own penetration had been mistaken, a thing not impossible certainly, but quite beyond the range of probability.  So he reassured himself, and (as he thought) his daughter, by saying—­

“The whole thing is so suitable—­the advantages arising from the connection are so obvious; besides which, I am quite aware, from many little speeches of Mr. Farquhar’s, that he contemplates marriage at no very distant time; and he seldom leaves Eccleston, and visits few families besides our own—­certainly, none that can compare with ours in the advantages you have all received in moral and religious training.”  But then Mr. Bradshaw was checked in his implied praises of himself (and only himself could be his martingale when he once set out on such a career) by a recollection that Jemima must not feel too secure, as she might become if he dwelt too much on the advantages of her being her father’s daughter.  Accordingly, he said, “But you must be aware, Jemima, that you do very little credit to the education I have given you, when you make such an impression as you must have done to-day, before Mr. Farquhar could have said what he did of you!”