A preface is usually an excrescence on a good book, and a vain apology for a worthless one; - Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

It was delightful to wake up early and refreshed, and come down to this sunshiny, cheerful breakfast-table, where, though nothing was grand, all was thoroughly comfortable.

The sheriff listened uneasily to a sound, very uncommon at elections, of the populace expressing an opinion contrary to that of the lord of the soil.

I watched too, with that sort of lonely delight — the one shadow upon it being that it is so lonely — with which all one's life one is accustomed to watch beautiful and vanishing things.