the house itself by a short and narrow corridor that
communicated with the entrance-hall. This shop I turned into a rude
study for scientific experiments, in which I generally spent some early
hours of the morning, before my visiting patients began to arrive. I
enjoyed the stillness of its separation from the rest of the house; I
enjoyed the glimpse of the great chestnut-trees, which overtopped the
wall of the school-garden; I enjoyed the ease with which, by opening the
glazed sash-door, I could get out, if disposed for a short walk, into
the pleasant fields; and so completely had I made this sanctuary my own,
that not only my man-servant knew that I was never to be disturbed when
in it, except by the summons of a patient, but even the housemaid
was forbidden to enter it with broom or duster, except upon special
invitation. The last thing at night, before retiring to rest, it was the
man-servant's business to see that the sash-window was closed, and the
gate to the iron palisade locked; but during the daytime I so often went
out of the house by that private way that the gate was then very seldom
locked, nor the sash-door bolted from within. In the town of L----
there was little apprehension of house-robberies,--especially in the
daylight,--and certainly in this room, cut off from the main
building, there was nothing to attract a vulgar cupidity. A few of the
apothecary's shelves and cases still remained on the walls, with, here
and there, a bottle of some chemical preparation for experiment; two or
three worm-eaten, wooden chairs; two or three shabby old tables; an
old walnut-tree bureau without a lock, into which odds and ends were
confusedly thrust, and sundry ugly-looking inventions of mechanical
science, were, assuredly, not the articles which a timid proprietor
would guard with jealous care from the chances of robbery. It will be
seen later why I have been thus prolix in description. The morning after
I had met the young stranger by whom I had been so favourably impressed,
I was up as usual, a little before the sun, and long before any of my
servants were astir. I went first into the room I have mentioned, and
which I shall henceforth designate as my study, opened the window,
unlocked the gate, and sauntered for some minutes up and down the silent
lace skirting the opposite wall, and overhung by the chestnut-trees
rich in the garniture of a glorious summer; then, refreshed for work,
I re-entered my study, and was soo