CHAPTER 1 ... Folds ofscarletdraperyshut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clearpanesof glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves in my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beatshrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long andlamentableblast. … John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than I, for I was but ten; large andstoutfor his age, with adingyand unwholesome skin; thicklineamentsin a spaciousvisage, heavy limbs and large extremities. Hegorgedhimself habitually at table, which made himbilious, and gave him a dim andblearedeye with flabby cheeks. He ought no…