I found in him the first congenial companion I had met since she died.

I shared his studies, and--and the rest you know.
But now," said he, as once more I was about to speak, "you will wonder what all this has to do with the questions I asked you just now.

You may guess or you may not; I don't know.

This is why.

When she died, and I madly deserted all the scenes of my old happiness, my two orphan children were left in the charge of a nurse, a young married woman then, whose name was Shield.