"With leave to tell to Flora that which you shall communicate."
"You may whisper it to her, but to no one else, without my special leave and licence."
"I agree to those terms, and will religiously preserve them."
"I do not doubt you for one moment; and now I will tell to you what never yet has passed my lips to mortal man. Now will I connect together some matters which you may have heard piecemeal from others."
"What others are they?"
"Dr. Chillingworth, and he who once officiated as a London hangman."
"I have heard something from those quarters."
"Listen then to me, and you shall better understand that which you have heard. Some years ago, it matters not the number, on a stormy night, towards the autumn of the year, two men sat alone in poverty, and that species of distress which beset the haughty, profligate, daring man, who has been accustomed all his life to its most enticing enjoyments, but never to that industry which alone ought to produce them, and render them great and magnificent."
"Two men; and who were they?"
"I was one. Look upon me! I was of those men; and strong and evil passions were battling in my heart."