Stephen's work for the day was done: he took great pains to tell her at this time every thing which he had seen or heard which could give her the least amusement.

She looked forward all through her long lonely days to the evenings, as a child looks forward to Saturday afternoons.

Like all invalids whose life has been forced into grooves, she was impatient and unreasonable when anybody or any thing interfered with her routine.

A five minutes' delay was to her a serious annoyance, and demanded an accurate explanation.

Stephen so thoroughly understood this exactingness on her part that he adjusted his life to it, as a conscientious school-boy adjusts his to bells and signals, and never trespassed knowingly.