With Mr.Weston this last hour was well employed, for he not only read, but studied the Holy Scriptures.
Possessed of an unusually placid temperament, there had occurred in his life but few events calculated to change the natural bent of his disposition.

The death of his wife was indeed a bitter grief; but he had not married young, and she had lived so short a time, that after a while he returned to his usual train of reflection.

But for the constant presence of his son, whose early education he superintended, he would have doubted if there ever had been a reality to the remembrance of the happy year he had passed in her society.
With his hand resting on the sacred page, and his heart engrossed with the lessons it taught, he was aroused from his occupation by a loud noise proceeding from the kitchen.

This was a most unusual circumstance, for besides that the kitchen was at some distance from the house, the servants were generally quiet and orderly.

It was far from being the case at present.