He showed me the rooms--one for myself, and one for my servant.
Wretched as they were, the loneliness of the situation recommended them to me.

I made no objections; and I consented to pay the rent that was asked.

The one thing that remained to be done, in the interests of my tranquillity, was to ascertain if any other persons lived the cottage besides my new landlord.

He wrote his answer to the question: 'Nobody but my daughter.' With serious misgivings, I inquired if his daughter was young.

He wrote two fatal figures: '18'.
"Here was a discovery which disarranged all my plans, just as I had formed them! The prospect of having a girl in the house, at the age associated with my late disagreeable experience of the sensitive sex, was more than my irritable temper could endure.