It needed the wisdom of the serpent as well as the paw of the lion to do it, and if anyone was likely to succeed, it was Freckleton.
For Freckleton, hermit as he was, seemed to know more about every fellow in Templeton than anyone else.

Where and when he made their acquaintance, no one knew and no one inquired.

But certain it was no one knew the weak points of this boy and the good points of that better than he.

And, as we have seen already, he was a "dark" man; hardly anyone knew him.

They knew he had won the Bishop's Scholarship and was reputed prodigiously learned.