Even Barrow or Jeremy Taylor would sound dull and stale if fired off in a flat, fierce monotone, without emphasis or modulation.

To-night, at every page that turns, my heart declines lower and lower down.

It is ended now; so is the short prayer that follows it.

We all rise, and father stands with his hawk-eyes fixed on the servants, as they march out, _counting_ them.
The upper servants are all right; so are the housemaids, cookmaids, and lesser scullions.

Alas! alas! there is a helper wanting.
Having listened to and _dis_believed the explanation of his absence, father leads the way into supper, but the little incident has taken the bloom off his suavity.
Sir Roger has deposited the bag--still wrapped in its paper coverings--on a chair, in a modest and unobtrusive corner of the dining-room, ready for presentation.