He went to business in the morning, and came back at night, and fell asleep after dinner, and woke up and read prayers--and next day to business and back, and sleeping and waking and reading prayers--and no break in it, week after week, month after month, except on Sunday, which was always the same Sunday; the same church, the same service, the same dinner, the same book of sermons in the evening.

Even when we had a fortnight once a year at the seaside, we always went to the same place and lodged in the same cheap house.

The few friends we had led just the same lives, and were beaten down flat by just the same monotony.

All the women seemed to submit to it contentedly except my miserable self.

I wanted so little! Only a change now and then; only a little sympathy when I was weary and sick at heart; only somebody whom I could love and serve, and be rewarded with a smile and a kind word in return.