CHAPTER VI.
AN ADVERTISEMENT In a morning newspaper of March 187--, that is to chapter, appeared a singular advertisement.
"WANTED, human companionship.

A young man of four-and-twenty wishes to find a congenial associate of about his own age.

He is a student of ancient and modern literatures, a free-thinker in religion, a lover of art in all its forms, a hater of conventionalism.

Would like to correspond in the first instance.

Address O.W., City News Rooms, W.C." An advertisement which, naturally, might mean much or little, might be the outcome of an idle whim, or the despairing cry of a hungry heart.
It could not be expected to elicit many replies; and brought indeed but one.
Behind the counter of a chemist's shop in Oxford Street there served, day after day, a young assistant much observed of female customers.