ST. ALBA:NS 79 



had furnished me with, which I did not feel disposed to 

 risk again. 



It will be thouofht, too, that I should have been 

 grateful to the friend through whose means I had been 

 put into a little ready cash ; but so perverse is the human 

 heart, that my feelings were of the very opposite nature ; 

 and I seemed, in anticipation, to loathe the very appear- 

 ance of the man to whom I ought to have considered 

 myself indebted. Tiiere was, however, nothing in 

 common between us ; his manners were coarse, his 

 associations vulgar ; conversation he had none ; and 

 whatever his morals may have been, abstinence seemed to 

 me to be his only virtue, and that a very negative one ; 

 it must be confessed, therefore, that it was chiefly 

 my dislike to be seen with him, in the company of those 

 I took to be gentlemen — indeed some of whom I knew 

 were — than any repugnance I had to the fascinating vice, 

 that kept me from repeating my visit. 



Glad of an opportunity of absenting myself from 

 the locality of my daily attendance, and stealing into the 

 country — above all, to avoid my last night's companion, 

 I rose, dressed, and had an early breakfast ; then, putting 

 a change into my carpet bag, and taking it in my hand, I 

 strolled leisurely towards the " Peacock " at Islington. 

 St. Albans was the attraction, but it was in vain that my 

 inclination — true as the magnetic needle to the pole — 

 turned in that direction. 



The Bedford coach coming up, I got on it, and had 

 a very pleasant ride through AYelwyn, Hitchin, and 

 Sheftord, to that neat little county town. After taking 

 my dinner at the " Swan," and sauntering about the 



