After his promotion he often came home with my uncle to dinner.

I think this was done, perhaps, with a view of civil treatment, on the first occasion; but afterward, it was continued because my uncle could not bear to leave business when he left the office, and because he could talk on the matters which were dearer to him than his dinner, with this junior, in whom he took unqualified delight.

He often wrote letters in the evening, which my uncle dictated, and he sometimes did not go away till eleven o'clock at night.

The first time he came, I did not notice him very much.

It was not unusual for Uncle Leonard to be accompanied by some gentleman who talked business with him during dinner; and being naturally shy, and moreover, on this occasion, in the middle of a very interesting book, at once timid and indifferent, I slipped away from the table the moment that I could.