He took a lodging close by, that he might be with them earlier, and stay later; and, when nothing else was wanted of him, he was always ready to discourse on his violin.

Sometimes Tom enjoyed his music much, though he found no little fault with his mode of playing, for Tom knew something about everything, and could render many a reason; at other times, he preferred having Mary read to him.
On one of these latter occasions, Mary, occupied in cooking something for the invalid, asked Joseph to read for her.

He consented, but read very badly--as if he had no understanding of the words, but, on the other hand, stopping every few lines, apparently to think and master what he had read.

This was not good reading anyway, least of all for an invalid who required the soothing of half-thought, molten and diluted in sweet, even, monotonous sound, and it was long before Mary asked him again.
Many things showed that he had had little education, and therefore probably the more might be made of him.

Mary saw that he must be what men call a genius, for his external history had been, by his own showing, of an altogether commonplace type.
His father, who was a blacksmith before him, and a local preacher, had married a second time, and Joseph was the only child of the second marriage.