Is it still your wish that I should proceed with it ?" "Yes, yes," said Yorke; "go on.

I was a fool to interrupt you." But the chaplain noticed that the young man held his open palm before his face, under pretense of shielding it from the fire, and that his cheeks grew scarlet as the tale went on, nevertheless.
"Carew was not seventeen then, when he left school for the house of a gentleman of the name of Hardcastle, in Berkshire, as his private pupil.
It was understood that he was to have his particular care and attention, but not his exclusive services.

There were one or two other pupils--rather queer ones as it would seem; but Mr.Hardcastle advertised in the newspapers for lads of position, but neglected education--young fellows, in short, who had proved unmanageable at home--and undertook to reform them by his system.

It was no wonder, then, that Carew found some strange companions.

The strangest of all, however, under the circumstances, was surely the tutor's niece, Miss Hardcastle herself." "Why strangest ?" interrupted Yorke.
"I think Mrs.Carew the elder meant to imply that this young lady, being possessed of great physical advantages, should have been the last person selected by Mr.Hardcastle as his housekeeper, and the companion of his pupils, and the more so since he was well aware, as it afterward turned out, that she had already succeeded in victimizing (such was Mrs.
Carew's expression) one of these very lads.