CHAPTER XX
JEMIMA REFUSES TO BE MANAGED
It was no wonder that the lookers-on were perplexed as to the
state of affairs between Jemima and Mr. Farquhar, for they two
were sorely puzzled themselves at the sort of relationship
between them. Was it love, or was it not? that was the question
in Mr. Farquhar's mind. He hoped it was not; he believed it was
not; and yet he felt as if it were. There was something
preposterous, he thought, in a man nearly forty years of age
being in love with a girl of twenty. He had gone on reasoning,
through all the days of his manhood, on the idea of a staid,
noble-minded wife, grave and sedate, the fit companion in
experience of her husband. He had spoken with admiration of
reticent characters, full of self-control and dignity; and he
hoped--he trusted, that all this time he had not been allowing
himself unconsciously to fall in love with a wild-hearted,
impetuous girl, who knew nothing of life beyond her father's
house, and who chafed under the strict discipline enforced there.
For it was rather a suspicious symptom of the state of Mr.
Farquhar's affections, that he had discovered the silent
rebellion which continued in Jemima's heart, unperceived by any
of her own family, against the severe laws and opinions of her
father. Mr. Farquhar shared in these opinions; but in him they
were modified, and took a milder form. Still, he approved of much
that Mr.
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