He wrote Miss Travers innumerable letters: he advised her as to her reading and sent her books and tickets for places of amusement: he even insisted that she should be better dressed, and pressed money upon her to buy bonnets and clothes and frequently invited her to his house for dinners and parties.

The friendship went on in this sentimental kindly way for some five or six years till 1860.
The wily Serjeant knew enough about human nature to feel that it was necessary to discover some dramatic incident to change benevolent sympathy into passion, and he certainly found what he wanted.
Miss Travers, it appeared, had been burnt low down on her neck when a child: the cicatrice could still be seen, though it was gradually disappearing.

When her ears were being examined by Dr.Wilde, it was customary for her to kneel on a hassock before him, and he thus discovered this burn on her neck.

After her hearing improved he still continued to examine the cicatrice from time to time, pretending to note the speed with which it was disappearing.

Some time in '60 or '61 Miss Travers had a corn on the sole of her foot which gave her some pain.