On the other hand, the quiet temperament of my mother required some more exciting cause than the affections of her husband, to quicken those germs of deep, placid, womanly love, that certainly lay dormant in her heart, like seed withering with the ungenial cold of winter.

The last meeting of such a pair was not likely to be attended with any violent outpourings of grief.
My ancestor, notwithstanding, was deeply struck with the physical changes in the appearance of his wife.
"Thou art much emaciated, Betsey," he said, taking her hand kindly, after a long and solemn pause; "much more so than I had thought, or could have believed! Dost nurse give thee comforting soups and generous nourishment ?" My mother smiled the ghastly smile of death; but waved her hand, with loathing, at his suggestion.
"All this is now too late, Mr.Goldencalf," she answered, speaking with a distinctness and an energy for which she had long been reserving her strength.

"Food and raiment are no longer among my wants." "Well, well, Betsey, one that is in want of neither food nor raiment, cannot be said to be in great suffering, after all; and I am glad that thou art so much at ease.

Dr.Etherington tells me thou art far from being well bodily, however, and I am come expressly to see if I can order anything that will help to make thee more easy." "Mr.Goldencalf, you can.

My wants for this life are nearly over; a short hour or two will remove me beyond the world, its cares, its vanities, its--" My poor mother probably meant to add, its heartlessness or its selfishness; but she rebuked herself, and paused: "By the mercy of our blessed Redeemer, and through the benevolent agency of this excellent man," she resumed, glancing her eye upwards at first with holy reverence, and then at the divine with meek gratitude, "I quit you without alarm, and were it not for one thing, I might say without care." "And what is there to distress thee, in particular, Betsey ?" asked my father, blowing his nose, and speaking with unusual tenderness; "if it be in my power to set thy heart at ease on this, or on any other point, name it, and I will give orders to have it immediately performed.