"And we are such dolts! such asses! such brute beasts! such stocks! such stones! that here we go on from day to day, enjoying the life he gives us, eating the bread and meat he gives us, drinking his good refreshments, resting upon his warm beds, and so on.... Every day, and every day, and every day--and who among us, I, most especially for one, ever thinks, except may be by scuttling through a few rigmarole words--ever thinks, I say, of thanking _Him_ for it--of lifting up a warm, honest heart, of true real thanking, I mean? Of loving Him the better, and trying to serve and please Him the better--when He, great and powerful as He is--Lord of all the lords, emperors, and kings, that ever wore crowns and coronets in this world--condescends to _let_ us thank Him, to _like_ us to thank Him, and to take pleasure in our humble love and service!" Ha paused--every eye was fixed upon the speaker. "And, therefore," continued Thomas, turning to the laundry-maid, who stood there with a tear in her eye; "therefore, Mistress Mary, I _am_ pleased with, and I do _like_ these new ways of going on, as you say; and I bless God, and hope to do it well in my prayers this night, for having at last made of us what I call a regular Christian family." * * * * * I have told you, a little in the way of anticipation, that the popularity of Mr. St. Leger's new measures was not confined to the kitchen; but that the general, by slow steps, gradually conformed to the new usages established at the Hazels. Lettice and Catherine had not long to take it it turns to stay out with him, playing backgammon, at the time of evening prayers. At first it was a polite--"Oh, pray don't think of staying in the drawing-room upon my account; I can do very well by myself."... Next it was, "Nay, rather than that, I will go into the library too; why should I not?" He began to feel, at first, probably, from a vague sense of propriety only, but before long from better reasons, that it was not very seemly for the master of the house alone to be absent, when the worship of God was going on in his family. So there he might, as I told you, ere long be seen, regularly at night--in the morning more and more regularly--muttering the responses between his teeth at first; at length, saying them aloud, and with greater emphasis than any of the rest of the little congregation. His once majestic figure, now bent with age, towering above the rest; and his eagle eye of authority, still astonishingly piercing, rolling round from time to time, upon the watch to detect and rebuke, by a glance, the slightest sign of inattention upon the part of any of those assembled.