The books formed a queer collection.

There were medical works, philosophical works, histories, novels, most of them French, and other volumes of a sort that I imagine are generally kept under lock and key; also some that had to do with occult matters.
There was even a Bible.

I opened it thoughtlessly, half in idle curiosity, to see whether it was ever used, only to replace it in haste.

For at the very page that my eye fell on, I remember it was one of my favourite chapters in Isaiah, was a stamp in violet ink marked H.M.'s Prison--well, I won't say where.
I may state, however, that the clue enabled me in after years to learn an episode in this man's life which had brought about his ruin.

There is no need to repeat it or to say more than that gambling and an evil use of his medical knowledge to provide the money to pay his debts, were the cause of his fall.