received it, paying the whole of his personal expenses from the proceeds of his perquisites, which need not have been very considerable for that purpose. Though he stood fair before the world, his moral character was indescribably loathsome and abhorrent, and I felt relieved when he went away. A few days after he had arrived, a stout, ecclesiasticallooking personage, of about fifty, having a languishing lady on his arm, and followed by a Moorish-looking man, in rather doubtful garb, knocked boldly at the door, and demanded to see the drawing-rooms. The girl showed them. up. The lady then threw herself upon the sofa and declared she would not search any further, as the house was tolerable, and she was exhausted with the labour they had gone through. The gentleman, who handed me a card, inscribed the "Rev. Mr. Something," agreed to the terms I proposed for the drawing-room floor and an additional bed-room for "Queero," so they called the blackamoor, whom, the gentleman accommodatingly observed, I might put where I chose, as he could sleep anywhere, and was not given to complain of his quarters. They took possession of the rooms at once, the lady remaining on the sofa, while the gentleman and Queero set off in a cab to fetch their luggage from the hotel where they had been staying for a few days, having recently arrived in England. On their return, Queero, having stowed away their trunks and packages, was ordered into the kitchen, an arrangement for which I had not bargained, but against which, finding the man could speak no English, and that he was not, from his attractions, likely to entangle the affections of my maid of all work, I did not think proper to object. Here he was proud to make himself useful, and after cleaning his master's boots and clothes, would draw water, scour knives or pots, or do anything-grinning and chattering the while in the most laughable and incomprehensible way, vastly to the amusement of my two little boys, whom after a few days it was impossible to keep away from him. He ate

his meals in the kitchen, after his master and mistress had sent down the dishes; and had an appetite that was never satisfied so long as anything remained to be consumed.

I do not pretend to be void of the curiosity which is said to be characteristic of the sex, and I will confess to puzzling myself a good deal to no purpose on the score of Queero. It was so strange a position which the man, who was a mere savage, occupied, that I could not make it out. The reverend gentleman, his master, never spoke to him but with an assumption of the greatest dignity, while his mistress loathed the very sight of him, and would not have passed him on the stairs, or approached him closely, for any earthly consideration; though she tolerated his presence in the drawing-room, upon occasions, like one submitting to unavoidable tortures. These occasions were invariably when visitors arrived, when Queero always formed one of the party, and jabbered long and loudly in his native dialect, in reply to questions from his reverend patron in the same tongue. When the guests were gone he descended again to the kitchen-but two or three times in the week he dressed himself in a gentlemanly suit and rode out with his master early in the evening, not returning till late at night.

The mystery came out at last My commercial lodger happening one evening to follow the crowd into a great public meeting, was startled by the spectacle of Queero on the platform in the character of an African Prince, addressing the assembly with an enthusiasm which, combined with most rapid gesticulations, threw him into a violent perspiration, and the audience into a rapture of delight. The reverend Something stood by his side, and interpreted his address to the assembly. My informant was very jocose on the subject-wondered where the missionary had bagged the prince and set himself earnestly to calculate the profits of the speculation, which he estimated at an enormous sum, and marvelled where it all went to. I wish to make no

remarks on this serious matter, as I am incapable of judging of such things; but if the man was a prince in his own country, as the parson, in my hearing (for I was curious enough to go and witness Queero's performance) said he was, I think it is rather hard that he should have been compelled to turn shoe-black in ours. This remarkable triad remained with me three months; and though the lady could do nothing for herself but talk and ring the bell, which latter she would do twenty times a day to summon the servant to poke the fire, I was sorry when they went away, as they paid me well and punctually.

Before they had left, I had let my remaining bed-room, with the use of my own sitting-room, to a teacher of languages, who came in and went out at all hours of the day and night too, having stipulated for a latch-key. For months before I got used to it, I lay awake whenever he was out, till I heard him let himself in and go to bed; but this feeling passed away in time, and I learned to sleep whenever leisure could be found for so unprofitable employment of time. A few weeks after the missionary had left, the drawing-rooms were taken by a new-married couplethe husband a clerk in a mercantile house. Their rounds of visiting and receiving visits led to a succession of late hours and vigils on my part which laid me up at length with fatigue. When, after a fortnight's illness, I rose from my bed, I found that my teacher of languages-he was a German-had departed without paying his bill, leaving me his creditor to the extent of nearly seven pounds. I had never seen any of his money, as he had proposed paying quarterly when his pupils paid him. Shortly after this, the young. couple, anticipating parental duties, hired a small cottage and removed to it. They were succeeded in less than a month by two friends, clerks in a banking-house, who passed their evenings generally in smoking and fiddling together, varied with card-parties in winter time. These

two young gentlemen understood economy, if one may judge of their practice within doors, to perfection. They never breakfasted on Sunday, because they dined with me at one o'clock, at the cost of eighteen pence a head. At Michaelmas, one of them had a goose sent him, and made me a present of it, mentioning, at the time, that he should take the liberty of inviting his partner and the gentleman in the front parlour to dinner on Sunday when it would be dressed. The accompaniments to the goose, together with the pastry, cost me nine shillings: the three gentlemen cleared the whole, with the exception of the little which I ate myself, and thus my dinner cost me six times the amount they were accustomed to pay for theirs, while the liberal donor plumed himself on his generosity. I dared not hazard a hint of the different notions I entertained, for fear of offending and losing my lodgers.

In the room of the teacher of languages came the secretary to a benevolent society, a man of a very religious turn. He agreed to board with me (taking his dinner on week-days in the City), at the lowest charge which with safety I could name. His acquaintance among religious people in the neighbourhood was pretty large, and he was often absent at meals; but lest I should gain by this, he kept an accurate register of every meal he missed, and balanced them off by inviting a party of ten or a dozen to tea or supper, when he had sufficient arrears outstanding to enable him to exhibit such hospitality without a demand on his purse. Being, in his way, a conscientious man, he felt some qualms that his guests should sweeten their grog with my sugar; but recollecting that when he was absent I sat without a fire, he told me that I should consider the coals thus saved a fair set-off against the lumps of sugar consumed by his friends, who he had not the sense to see were really entertained at my expense. He married, after three months' courtship, a lady of property; and, I have no doubt, takes excellent care of it.

At parting, this careful Christian recommended a traveller to a firm in the City to take his place at the same time cautioning me to make the necessary inquiries, as he made it a point to be responsible for nobody. This traveller, who was but a sorry sort of fellow, stayed three months, often lying in bed the whole of the day, having been discharged by the firm, and waiting for a new engagement. He never paid me a farthing, and when at last he got an appointment in Manchester, walked off without even saying that he was going, leaving nothing behind him but an empty trunk, value three-and-sixpence.

At the end of my first year I began to review my speculation, and drew out as well as I could a debtor and creditor account of my affairs for the past twelvemonth. The landlord of my house had assured me that the rent and taxes together would be under £60, and I found them accordingly to be £59 188. 6d. My whole receipts from lodgers had been £129 12s. Od., out of which I had paid £10 for wages to servant, £12 12s. Od. for wood and coal, leaving £47 1s. 6d. to pay for the maintenance of four persons, the partial board of the lodgers, and incidental expenses. The reader will not be surprised to hear that I had drawn considerably upon my little stock of money, and that I looked forward to the final close of the speculation in no very hopeful spirit.

The second year brought experience with it, and the dearly-bought knowledge of a multitude of shifts and contrivances to save a penny by the avoidance of expenditure. I knew by this time that the proper education of my boys was not to be thought of, and sent them to a cheap dayschool, where, for five shillings a quarter each, they were roughly taught the elements of commercial knowledge. I have never been able to do more for them in that way; and up to the last twelve months, that is for more than seven years, I have made all their clothing with my own hands.

I need not go on with the catalogue of the different cha