r heads; Mr. Buckminster, as
the charming Dickens has it, _so_ "respectable;" Thomas, all spirit and
enthusiasm; and Charles doing all in his power not to fall asleep.

At the table the young minister, with that interesting and most delicate
face of his; his tall, wasted figure bending forward, his fair,
emaciated hands resting upon the book, from which, in a voice low and
feeble, but most penetrating and sweet, he read.

They would come back to the drawing-room in such a composed, happy,
cheerful frame of mind. The general more remarkably so. He felt more
self-satisfaction than the others; because the course of proceeding was
so new to him that he imagined it to be very particularly meritorious. A
bit of a pharisee you will think--but not the least of that, I assure
you. Only people, at their first trying of such paths, do often find
them most peculiarly paths of pleasantness and ways of peace; and, this
sort of peace, this being at ease with the conscience, is, to be sure,
very soothing and comfortable.

In short, nothing could proceed better than things did; and every one
was quite content but the charming match-maker, Catherine.

She watched, and watched with the greatest interest; but watch as she
might, she could detect no symptoms of falling in love upon the part of
Mr. St. Leger.

He spent, indeed, the whole of his mornings either in his own room or in
the library, absorbed in the books of divinity, of which there happened
to be a very valuable collection; a collection which had slept
undisturbed upon the shelves for many and many a long year. These
afforded to him a source of interest and improvement which he had never
enjoyed since he had left the too often neglected library of the small
college where he had been educated. He was ready to devour them. Every
moment of time he considered his own--and the whole of the morning was
chiefly at his disposal--was devoted to them; with the exception, be it
mentioned, of a large portion, which, when the weather would allow, was
spent in visiting among the poor at that end of the parish.

At dinner Mr. St. Leger for the first time joined the family party. When
he did, however, it must be confessed, he made ample amends for his
absence, and was excessively agreeable. He had great powers of
conversation, and evidently considered it his duty to exert himself to
raise the tone of conversation at the general's table, so as to make the
time pass pleasantly with the old m