The way in which the Bensons
heard most frequently of the family of their former friends, was
through Mr. Farquhar. He called on Mr. Benson about a month after
the latter had met Jemima in the street. Mr. Farquhar was not in
the habit of paying calls on any one; and, though he had always
entertained and evinced the most kind and friendly feeling
towards Mr. Benson, he had rarely been in the Chapel-house. Mr.
Benson received him courteously, but he rather expected that
there would be some especial reason alleged, before the
conclusion of the visit, for its occurrence; more particularly as
Mr. Farquhar sat talking on the topics of the day in a somewhat
absent manner, as if they were not the subjects most present to
his mind. The truth was, he could not help recurring to the last
time when he was in that room, waiting to take Leonard a ride,
and his heart beating rather more quickly than usual at the idea
that Ruth might bring the boy in when he was equipped. He was
very full now of the remembrance of Ruth; and yet he was also
most thankful, most self-gratulatory, that he had gone no further
in his admiration of her--that he had never expressed his regard
in words--that no one, as he believed, was cognisant of the
incipient love which had grown partly out of his admiration, and
partly out of his reason. He was thankful to be spared any
implication in the nine-days' wonder which her story had made in
Eccleston.
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