At the age of fifty he was still living in a poor house in an obscure quarter.

He earned enough for his actual needs, and was under no pressing fear for the morrow, so long as his faculties remained unimpaired; but there was no disguising from himself that his life had been a failure.

And the thought tormented him.
Now there had come unexpectedly a gleam of hope.

If indeed, the man Rackett thought of offering him the editorship of The Study he might even yet taste the triumphs for which he had so vehemently longed.

The Study was a weekly paper of fair repute.