SECOND CHAPTER

by Charles Dickens

　　IT happened in THIS wise - But, looking at those words, and comparing them with my formeropening, I find they are the self-same words repeated. This is themore surprising to me, because I employ them in quite a newconnection. For indeed I declare that my intention was to discardthe commencement I first had in my thoughts, and to give thepreference to another of an entirely different nature, dating myexplanation from an anterior period of my life. I will make athird trial, without erasing this second failure, protesting thatit is not my design to conceal any of my infirmities, whether theybe of head or heart.