He tried so many strange ways of getting a living--it was almost like reading a story-book." The suppression of the name suggested a suspicion from which Iris recoiled.

Was it possible that her maid could be ignorantly alluding to Lord Harry?
"Do you remember this hero's adventures ?" she said.
"I can try, Miss, if you wish to hear about him." The newspaper narrative appeared to have produced a vivid impression on Rhoda's mind.

Making allowance for natural hesitations and mistakes, and difficulties in expressing herself correctly, she repeated with a singularly clear recollection the substance of what she had read.
IX THE principal characters in the story were an old Irish nobleman, who was called the Earl, and the youngest of his two sons, mysteriously distinguished as "the wild lord." It was said of the Earl that he had not been a good father; he had cruelly neglected both his sons.

The younger one, badly treated at school, and left to himself in the holidays, began his adventurous career by running away.

He got employment (under an assumed name) as a ship's boy.