of one eye and the use of one arm through the injuries he received at some in the war the other was a sad faced poetical looking man of good birth as i understood who had been by his family on the occasion of his with the cook his name was and his chief peculiarity that he was so regular in his that he could always tell the time of day by the state of that he was in he would cock his head think over his own � the letters and then give you the hour fairly correctly an unusual drink would him however and if you forced the pace in the morning he would and go to bed about tea time with a full conviction that all the had gone mad these two strange were among the craft to whom old had in his own words thrown a rope and long after i had gone to bed i could hear the of their glasses and the tapping of their pipes against the in the room below well when i had finished my empty house i found that there was one villa to let which undoubtedly was far the most suitable for my purpose in the first place it was fairly cheap � forty pounds or fifty with taxes the front looked well it had no garden it stood with the well to do quarter upon the one side and the poorer upon the other finally it was almost at the of four roads one of which was a main of the town altogether if i had ordered a house for my purpose i could hardly have got anything better and i was thrilled with apprehension lest some one should get before me to the agent i hurried round and burst into the the letters office with a which rather startled the clerk inside his replies however were the house was still to let it was not quite the quarter yet but i could enter into possession i must sign an agreement to take it for one year and it was usual to pay a quarter s rent in advance i don t know whether i turned colour a little in advance i said as carelessly as i could it is usual or well that depends of upon the not that it matters much said i heaven forgive me still if it is the same to the firm i may as well pay by the quarter as i shall do afterwards what names did you propose to give he asked my heart gave a bound for i knew that all was right my uncle as you know won his in the and though i have seen nothing of him i knew that he was the man to pull me out of this tight corner there s my uncle sir alexander lis the letters more said i he would be happy to answer any inquiry and so would my friend dr of i brought him down with both barrels i could see it by his eyes and the curve of his back i have no doubt that that will be quite satisfactory said he perhaps you would kindly sign the agreement i did so and drew my hind foot across the the die was cast come what might i was on my hand for a would you like the key now i nearly snatched it out of his hands then away i ran to take possession of my property never shall i forget my feelings my dear when the key in the lock and the door flew open it was my own house � all my very own i shut the door again the noise of the street died down and i had in that empty hall such a sense of soothing privacy as had never come to me before in all my life it was the first time that i had ever stood upon boards which were not paid for by another then i proceeded to go from room to room the letters with a delicious sense of there were two upon the ground floor sixteen feet square each and i saw with satisfaction that the wall papers were in fair condition the front one would make a consulting room the other a waiting room though i did not care to reflect who was most likely to do the waiting i was in the highest spirits and did a step dance in each room as an official then down a winding wooden stair to the where were kitchen and dimly lit and as i entered the latter i stood staring in every corner piles of human jaws were grinning at me the place was a in that half light the effect was but as i approached and picked up one of them the mystery vanished they were of plaster of paris and were the evidently of the who had been the last tenant a more welcome sight was a huge wooden with drawers and a fine cupboard in the corner it only wanted a table and a chair to be a furnished room then i ascended again and went up the first of stairs there were two other good sized o the letters apartments there one should be my bedroom and the other a spare room and then another flight with two more one for the servant when i had one and the other for a guest from the windows i had a view of the gray back of the city with the bustle of green tree tops it was a windy day and the clouds were drifting swiftly across the heavens with glimpses of blue between i don t know how it was but as i stood looking through the panes in the empty rooms a sudden sense of my own individuality and of my responsibility to some higher power came upon me with a � which was 