They are far from exhibiting in their
countenances that contentment of mind which is a "continual feast," and
yet something has transpired that gives them, for the time being, an
unusual degree of pleasurable emotion.
The father leaves his seat, and with folded arms he begins to pace slowly
backward and forward the length of the apartment with an air of pompous
dignity, while ever and anon a smile of extreme selfishness plays on his
lips. He has received intelligence which he considers by no means
displeasing.
The mother, to whom nature has been rather niggardly in the endowment of
outward charms, is loaded with a superabundance of golden ornaments, in
the vain attempt to supply the lack of the natural with the artificial.
In her eye you look in vain for intelligence, or in her countenance for
benevolence; but she smiles! yea, indeed, with something the mother is
evidently pleased.
The two sons, in making a declaration of their brotherhood to a stranger,
would stand in no danger of being suspected on that point as deceivers.
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