He was usually in the house as late as ten o'clock in the morning, and rarely came in before twelve at night.
Soon after Mr.Burton became a member of Mrs.Darlington's household, he began to show particular attentions to Miriam, who was in her nineteenth year, and was, as we have said, a gentle, timid, shrinking girl.

Though she did not encourage, she would not reject the attentions of the polite and elegant stranger, who had so much that was agreeable to say that she insensibly acquired a kind of prepossession in his favour.
As now constituted, the family of Mrs.Darlington was not so pleasant and harmonious as could have been desired.

Mr.Scragg had already succeeded in making himself so disagreeable to the other boarders, that they were scarcely civil to him; and Mrs.Grimes, who was quite gracious with Mrs.Scragg at first, no longer spoke to her.

They had fallen out about some trifle, quarrelled, and then cut each other's acquaintance.

When the breakfast, dinner, or tea bell rang, and the boarders assembled at the table, there was generally, at first, an embarrassing silence.