For this purpose I
persuaded the girl's uncle, with the aid of some of his friends, to
take me into his household--for he dwelt hard by my school--in
return for the payment of a small sum. My pretext for this was that
the care of my own household was a serious handicap to my studies,
and likewise burdened me with an expense far greater than I could
afford. Now, he was a man keen in avarice, and likewise he was most
desirous for his niece that her study of letters should ever go
forward, so, for these two reasons, I easily won his consent to the
fulfillment of my wish, for he was fairly agape for my money, and
at the same time believed that his niece would vastly benefit by my
teaching. More even than this, by his own earnest entreaties he
fell in with my desires beyond anything I had dared to hope,
opening the way for my love; for he entrusted her wholly to my
guidance, begging me to give her instruction whensoever I might be
free from the duties of my school, no matter whether by day or by
night, and to punish her sternly if ever I should find her
negligent of her tasks. In all this the man's simplicity was
nothing short of astounding to me; I should not have been more
smitten with wonder if he had entrusted a tender lamb to the care
of a ravenous wolf.
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