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There was a considerable difference between the ages of my

parents, but this circumstance seemed to unite them only closer

in bonds of devoted affection. There was a sense of justice in my

father's upright mind which rendered it necessary that he should

approve highly to love strongly. Perhaps during former years he

had suffered from the late-discovered unworthiness of one beloved

and so was disposed to set a greater value on tried worth. There

was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to my

mother, differing wholly from the doting fondness of age, for it

was inspired by reverence for her virtues and a desire to be the

means of, in some degree, recompensing her for the sorrows she

had endured, but which gave inexpressible grace to his behaviour

to her. Everything was made to yield to her wishes and her

convenience.