unsocial life in the old rambling house which had been his father's
before him.

I was but a child of six years when destiny placed me under his charge,
and with him I remained eleven years; a scared, repressed little thing,
revelling in strange fancies in the spidery attic rooms, and looking down
through the dusty cobwebbed windows upon the life and movement below,
unconscious that I formed a part of that active humanity.

Thus I lived until I entered my seventeenth year. For the last two years
my mind had been expanding and growing discontented with my lot. The
moroseness of my uncle, the sullenness of his housekeeper, the gloom and
dinginess of the bare rooms had grown insupportable to me. These alone I
might have endured, but added to them were other sources of disquiet, not
the least of which being hints from the housekeeper that it was time I
began to do something for myself. Youth, pride, and ambition stirred
within me, and I actively set about looking, for a situation.

I had not long to wait; in one of the weekly papers, of which my uncle
took many, I one day discovered an advertisement, which to my morbid
fancy seemed sent by fate especially to me.

A young lady was wanted to take charge of the education of a boy of
eleven years. Upon reading this advertisement, I immediately sat down and
wrote a letter, offering my services.

By return mail I received a note acknowledging the receipt of mine, and
stating that as I was the only applicant and my testimonials
satisfactory, I was accepted.