CHAPTER I.THE LIBRARY.
I had just finished my studies at Oxford, and was taking a brief holiday from work before assuming definitely the management of the estate.

My father died when I was yet a child; my mother followed him within a year; and I was nearly as much alone in the world as a man might find himself.
I had made little acquaintance with the history of my ancestors.

Almost the only thing I knew concerning them was, that a notable number of them had been given to study.

I had myself so far inherited the tendency as to devote a good deal of my time, though, I confess, after a somewhat desultory fashion, to the physical sciences.

It was chiefly the wonder they woke that drew me.