"My uncle was a studious, solitary man, but he was not formerly a recluse.

He was not much of a correspondent but he kept up some sort of communication with his friends.

He used, for instance, to write to me sometimes, and, when I came down from Cambridge for the vacations, he had me to stay with him at his rooms." "Is there anything known that accounts for the change in his habits ?" "Yes, there is," replied Marchmont.

"We shall come to that presently.

To proceed with the narrative: On the fifteenth of last March he was found dead in his chambers, and a more recent will was then discovered, dated the twelfth of November of last year.