They threw me out. It seems I had broken every rule they had ever made.
It was worse than State's prison."

"Are you in a position to judge?" asked Geoffrey coolly.

"No," said McVay, as if he nevertheless had information on the subject.

"Well, you will be soon," said Holland, not sorry for an opportunity to
point out that his heart was not softened by recollections of his school
days. But McVay appeared to ignore this intimation.

"Yes," he said ruminatively; "I've done a lot of things in my time."

"Well, I don't want to hear about them," said Geoffrey, who had no
intention of being drawn into an intimate interchange. The burglar
looked more surprised than angered at this shortness, and only said:

"Would you have any objection to my putting a match to that fire?"

"No," said Geoffrey, and McVay, with wonderful dexterity, managed to
start a cheering blaze with his left hand.

For a few minutes Geoffrey's determined attention to his book
discouraged his companion, but presently rapping the pages of Tristram
Shandy with the back of his hand, he exclaimed:

"Sterne! Ah, there was a man! Something of my own type, too, it
sometimes strikes me. Capable, you know, really a genius, but so
unfortunately different from other people. Ordinary standards meant
nothing to him--too original--sees life from another standpoint,