On raising his head they perceived that this fine and patriarchal representative of the truthful integrity and simple manners of a bygone class had passed into a life where neither age nor care can oppress the spirit, and from whose enjoyment no fear of separation can ever disturb it.
It is unnecessary to describe the sorrow which they felt.

It must be sufficient to say that seldom has grief for one so far advanced in years been so sincere and deep.

Age, joined to the knowledge of his affectionate heart and many virtues, had encircled him with a halo of love and pious veneration which caused his disappearance from among them to be felt, as if a lamb of simple piety and unsullied truth had been removed from their path for ever.
That, indeed, was a busy and a melancholy day with the M'Mahons; for, in addition to the death of the old grandfather, they were obliged to receive farewell visits to no end from their relations, neighbors, and acquaintances.

Indeed it would be difficult to find a family in a state of greater distress and sorrow.

The auction, of course, was postponed for a week--that is, until after the old man's funeral--and the consequence was that circumstances, affecting the fate of our _dramatis personae_ had time to be developed, which would otherwise have occurred too late to be available for the purposes of our narrative.