Master Humphrey's Clock, Charles Dickens [a court of thorns and roses ebook free .TXT] 📗

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Master Humphrey’s Clock

by Charles Dickens

July, 1996 [Etext #588]

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Master Humphrey’s Clock by Charles Dickens Scanned and proofed by David Price ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

Master Humphrey’s Clock

by Charles Dickens

CHAPTER I - MASTER HUMPHREY, FROM HIS CLOCK-SIDE IN THE CHIMNEY CORNER

THE reader must not expect to know where I live. At present, it is true, my abode may be a question of little or no import to anybody; but if I should carry my readers with me, as I hope to do, and there should spring up between them and me feelings of homely affection and regard attaching something of interest to matters ever so slightly connected with my fortunes or my speculations, even my place of residence might one day have a kind of charm for them. Bearing this possible contingency in mind, I wish them to understand, in the outset, that they must never expect to know it.

I am not a churlish old man. Friendless I can never be, for all mankind are my kindred, and I am on ill terms with no one member of my great family. But for many years I have led a lonely, solitary life; - what wound I sought to heal, what sorrow to forget, originally, matters not now; it is sufficient that retirement