This would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years in England.

He begged my father to let me live with him and he was very kind to me in his way.

When he was sober he used to be fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would make me his representative both with the servants and with the tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite master of the house.

I kept all the keys and could go where I liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in his privacy.

There was one singular exception, however, for he had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or anyone else to enter.