I panted for the unravelling of an adventure with an anxiety, perhaps almost equal to that of the man whose future happiness or misery depended on its issue.

I read, I devoured compositions of this sort.

They took possession of my soul; and the effects they produced were frequently discernible in my external appearance and my health.

My curiosity, however, was not entirely ignoble: village anecdotes and scandal had no charms for me: my imagination must be excited; and when that was not done, my curiosity was dormant.
The residence of my parents was within the manor of Ferdinando Falkland, a country squire of considerable opulence.

At an early age I attracted the favourable notice of Mr.Collins, this gentleman's steward, who used to call in occasionally at my father's.