dozen times, at least."

"What can be wrong now?" I thought, as I walked straight along the
passage to Mr. Craven's office.

"Patterson," he said, as I announced my return.

"Yes, sir?"

"I spoke hastily to you this morning, and I regret having done so."

"Oh! sir," I cried. And that was all. We were better friends than ever.
Do you wonder that I liked my principal? If so, it is only because I am
unable to portray him as he really was. The age of chivalry is past; but
still it is no exaggeration to say I would have died cheerfully if my
dying could have served Mr. Craven.

Life holds me now by many and many a nearer and dearer tie than was the
case in those days so far and far away; nevertheless, I would run any
risk, encounter any peril, if by so doing I could serve the man who in
my youth treated me with a kindness far beyond my deserts.

He did not, when he came suddenly to town in this manner, stop at
his own house, which was, on such occasions, given over to charwomen
and tradespeople of all descriptions; but he put up at an
old-fashioned family hotel where, on that especial evening, he asked
me to dine with him.

Over dessert he opened his mind to me on the subject of the "Uninhabited
House." He said the evil was becoming one of serious magnitude. He