life in his chambers, breakfasting
there, reading there, writing there, and sleeping there. He did not
altogether desert the lodge at Fulham, and the two girls who lived
there. He would not even admit to them, or allow them to assert that
he had not his home with them. Sometimes for two nights together,
and sometimes for three, he would be at the villa,--never remaining
there, however, during the day. But on Sundays it may almost be said
that he was never at home. And hence arose the feeling that of all,
this went the nearest to create discord between the father and the
daughters. Sir Thomas was always in Southampton Buildings on Sundays.
Did Sir Thomas go to church? The Miss Underwoods did go to church
very regularly, and thought much of the propriety and necessity of
such Sunday exercises. They could remember that in their younger days
their father always had been there with them. They could remember,
indeed, that he, with something of sternness, would require from them
punctuality and exactness in this duty. Now and again,--perhaps four
times in the year,--he would go to the Rolls Chapel. So much they
could learn, But they believed that beyond that his Sundays were kept
holy by no attendance at divine service. And it may be said at once
that they believed aright.

Sir Thomas's chambers in Southampton Buildings, though they were dull
and dingy of aspect from the outside, and were reached by a staircase
which may be designated as lugubrious,--so much did its dark and
dismantled condition tend to melancholy,--were in themselves large
and commodious. His bedroom was small, but he had two spacious
sitting-rooms, one of which was fitted up as a library, and the
other as a dining-room. Over and beyond these there was a clerk's
room;--for Sir Thomas, though he had given up the greater part of
his business, had not given up his clerk; and here the old man, the
clerk, passed his entire time, from half-past eight in the morning
till ten at night, waiting upon his employer in various capacities
with a sedulous personal attention to which he had probably not
intended to devote himself when he first took upon himself the duties
of clerk to a practising Chancery barrister. But Joseph Stemm and Sir
Thomas were not unlike in character, and had grown old together with
too equal a step to admit of separation and of new alliance. Stemm
had but one friend in the world, and Sir Thomas was that friend. I
have already said that Sir Thomas