He was rather vexed that he had not been able to say his say and give Laura a certain packet that he had in his possession; and as the afternoon presently clouded over and it began to pour with rain, he hardly knew what to do with himself till the bright idea occurred to him that he would ask Mrs.Melcombe to show him the old house.
Up and down stairs and into a good many rooms they all three proceeded together.

Hardly any pictures to found a question or a theory on; no old china with a story belonging to it; no brown books that had been loved by dead Melcombes.

This could not have been a studious race.

Not a single anecdote was told of the dead all the time they went over the place, till at last Mrs.Melcombe unlocked the door of a dark, old-fashioned sitting-room upstairs, and going to the shutters opened one of them, saying, "This is the room in which the dear old grandmother spent the later years of her life." This really was an interesting old room.

Laura and Amelia folded back the shutters with a genuine air of reverence and feeling.