20 POLITENESS. 



connected in this large commercial town 

 indeed, he has since risen to considerable 

 wealth and importance in it; and I could 

 but feel myself flattered with this mark 

 of attention. He pressed me very hard 

 to stop a day with him, but I was so 

 bent on getting home as speedily as 

 possible, that I politely declined ; and, 

 after half-an-hour's chat, chiefly on busi- 

 ness affairs, I took my leave of him, 

 and got into the coach. 



My companions were a gentleman and 

 his two daughters, from the West Indies, 

 one of whom carried a parrot, and the 

 other a small monkey, in their respective 

 laps. With this company was I doomed 

 to sit, cramped up, as it were, in a band- 

 box, two long days and a night for we 

 did not arrive in London till seven the 

 next evening and glad was I to have 

 got thus far on my journey home- 

 ward. 



