Miss Monro was anxious about her own improvement.

Mr.
Ness was deep in a new edition of "Horace," which he was going to bring out with notes.

I believe Dixon would have been keener sighted, but Ellinor kept Mr.Corbet and Dixon apart for obvious reasons--they were each her dear friends, but she knew that Mr.Corbet did not like Dixon, and suspected that the feeling was mutual.
The only change of circumstances between this year and the previous one consisted in this development of attachment between the young people.
Otherwise, everything went on apparently as usual.

With Ellinor the course of the day was something like this: up early and into the garden until breakfast time, when she made tea for her father and Miss Monro in the dining-room, always taking care to lay a little nosegay of freshly- gathered flowers by her father's plate.

After breakfast, when the conversation had been on general and indifferent subjects, Mr.Wilkins withdrew into the little study so often mentioned.