Goodwin might be said to possess a similar disposition; but he was of a more quiet and unobtrusive character than his cheerful neighbor.

His mood of mind was placid and serene, and his heart as tender and affectionate as ever beat in a human bosom.

His principal enjoyment lay in domestic life--in the society, in fact, of his wife and one beautiful daughter, his only child, a girl of nineteen when our tale opens.

Lindsay's family consisted of one son and two daughters; but his wife, who was a widow when he married her, had another son by her first husband, who had been abroad almost since his childhood, with a grand-uncle, whose intention was to provide for him, being a man of great wealth and a bachelor.
We have already said that the two families were upon the most intimate and friendly terms; but to this there was one exception in the person of Mrs.Lindsay, whose natural disposition was impetuous, implacable, and overbearing; equally destitute of domestic tenderness and good temper.
She was, in fact, a woman whom not even her own children, gifted as they were with the best and most affectionate dispositions, could love as children ought to love a parent.

Utterly devoid of charity, she was never known to bestow a kind act upon the poor or distressed, or a kind word upon the absent.