I have had an almost solitary day, except for meals.  I like being here in a way; there is no strain about it.  That is the best of blood-relationship; there is no need to entertain or to be entertained.  My brother-in-law, Charles, is an excellent fellow, full to the brim of small plans and designs for his parish; my sister is a very simple and unworldly person, entirely devoted to her husband and children.  My nephews and nieces, four in number, three girls and a boy, do not, I regret to say, interest me very deeply; they are amiable, healthy children, with a confined horizon, rather stolid; they never seem to quarrel or to have any particular preferences.  The boy, who is the youngest, is to come to my house at Upton when he is old enough; but at present I am simply a good-natured uncle to the children, whose arrival and whose gifts make a pleasant little excitement.  Our talk is purely local, and I make it my business to be interested.  It is all certainly very restful.  Sometimes—­as a rule, in fact—­when I stay in other people’s houses, I have a sense of effort; I feel dimly that a certain brightness is expected of me; as I dress in the morning I wonder what we shall talk about, and what on earth I shall do between breakfast and lunch.  But here I have a fire in my bedroom all day, and for the first time, I am permitted to smoke there.  I read and write all the morning; I walk, generally alone, in the afternoon.  I write before dinner.  The result is that I am perfectly content.  I sleep like a top; and I find myself full of ideas.  The comfort of the whole thing is that no one is afraid that I am not amused, and I myself do not have the uneasy sense that I am bound, so to speak, to pay for my entertainment by being brisk, lively, or sympathetic.  The immediate consequence is, that I get as near to all three qualities as I ever get.  We simply live our own lives quietly, in company.  My presence gives a little fillip to the proceedings; and I myself get all the benefit of change of scene, together with simple unexhausting companionship.

Hark! it is midnight!  The soft murmur of bells rises on the clear air, toppling over in a sweet cascade of sound, bringing hope and peace to the heart.  In the attic above I hear the children moving softly about, and catch the echo of young voices.  They are supposed to be asleep, but I gather that they have been under a vow to keep awake in turn, the watcher to rouse the others just before midnight.  The bells peal on, coming in faint gusts of sound, now loud, now low.

I suppose if I were more simple-minded I should have been thinking over my faults and failures, desiring to do better, making good resolutions.  But I don’t do that.  I do desire, with all my heart, to do better.  I know how faltering, how near the ground my flight is.  But these formal, occasional repentances are useless things; resolutions do little but reveal one’s weakness more patently.  What I try to do is simply to uplift my heart with