A man with a passion for bric-à-brac is always stumbling over antique bronzes, intaglios, mosaics¹, and daggers² of the time of Benvenuto Cellini; the bibliophile³ finds creamy vellum folios and rare Alduses and Elzevirs waiting for him at unsuspected bookstalls; the numismatist⁴ has but to stretch forth⁵ his palm to have priceless coins drop into it. My own weakness is odd people, and I am constantly encountering them. It was plain that I had unearthed⁶ a couple of very queer specimens⁷ at Bayley's Four-Corners. I saw that a fortnight afforded me too brief an opportunity to develop the richness of both, and I resolved to devote my spare time to Mr. Jaffrey alone, instinctively⁸ recognizing in him an unfamiliar⁹ species. My professional work in the vicinity of Greenton left my evenings and occasionally an afternoon unoccupied; these intervals¹⁰ I purposed to employ in studying and classifying my fellow-boarder. It was necessary, as a preliminary step, to learn something of his previous history, and to this end I addressed myself to Mr. Sewell that same night.