ad lived alone,
nourishing his own fancies, and reading much in a library of curious
books that was in the house. The boy's health had been too tender for
him to go to school; but when he was eighteen, he seemed stronger, and
his father sent him to a university, more for the sake of being relieved
of the boy's presence than for his good. And there, being unused to the
society of his equals, he had been much flouted and despised for his
feeble frame; till a certain bitter ambition sprang up in his mind, like
a poisonous flower, to gain power and make himself a name; and he had
determined that as he could not be loved he might still be feared; so he
bided his time in bitterness, making great progress in his studies;
then, when those days were over, he departed eagerly, and sought and
obtained his father's leave to betake himself to a university of Italy,
where he fell into somewhat evil hands; for he made a friendship with an
old doctor of the college, who feared not God and thought ill of man,
and spent all his time in dark researches into the evil secrets of
nature, the study of poisons that have enmity to the life of man, and
many other hidden works of darkness, such as intercourse with spirits of
evil, and the black influences that lie in wait for the soul; and he
found Anthony an apt pupil. There he lived for some years till he was
nearly thirty, seldom visiting his home, and writing but formal letters
to his father, who supplied him gladly with a small revenue, so long as
he kept apart and troubled him not.

Then his father had died, and Anthony came home to take up his
inheritance, which was a plentiful one; he sold his land, and visiting
the town of Garchester, by chance, for it lay near his home, he had
lighted upon the Slype House, which lay very desolate and gloomy; and as
he needed a large place for his instruments and devices, he had bought
the house, and had now lived there for twenty years in great loneliness,
but not ill-content.

To serve him he had none but a man and his wife, who were quiet and
simple people and asked no questions; the wife cooked his meals, and
kept the rooms, where he slept and read, clean and neat; the man moved
his machines for him, and arranged his phials and instruments, having a
light touch and a serviceable memory.

The door of the house that gave on the street opened into a hall; to
the right was a kitchen, and a pair of rooms where the man and his wife
lived. On the left wa