None of them, except myself, from the nature of my functions, and Mr.Collins, from the antiquity of his service and the respectableness of his character, approached Mr.Falkland, but at stated seasons and for a very short interval.

They knew him only by the benevolence of his actions, and the principles of inflexible integrity by which he was ordinarily guided; and though they would sometimes indulge their conjectures respecting his singularities, they regarded him upon the whole with veneration, as a being of a superior order.
One day, when I had been about three months in the service of my patron, I went to a closet, or small apartment, which was separated from the library by a narrow gallery that was lighted by a small window near the roof.

I had conceived that there was no person in the room, and intended only to put any thing in order that I might find out of its place.

As I opened the door, I heard at the same instant a deep groan, expressive of intolerable anguish.

The sound of the door in opening seemed to alarm the person within; I heard the lid of a trunk hastily shut, and the noise as of fastening a lock.