uncharitable to conclude that the pretended saint was as bold a sinner as ever paid infamous courtship to religion, and as such was studiously to be avoided. I turned my attention from him to Tomkins. There was no grossness about him, no brutality, no abominable vice. In the hour of my defeat and desertion, he had extended to me his sympathy, and, more in sorrow than in anger, I am convinced he voted for my expulsion from the church when he found that his vote, and twenty added to it, would not have been sufficient to protect me. He could not act in opposition to the wishes of his friend and patron, Mr Clayton, but very glad would he have been, as every word and look assured me, to meet the wishes of us both, had that been practicable. If the great desire of Jehu Tomkins' heart could have been gratified, he never would have been at enmity with a single soul on earth. He was a soft, good-natured, easy man; most desirous to be let alone, and not uneasily envious or distressed to see his neighbours jogging on, so long as he could do his own good stroke of business, and keep a little way before them. Jehu was a Liberal too--in politics and in religion--in every thing, in fact, but the one small article of _money_, and here, I must confess, the good dissenter dissented little from the best of us. He was a stanch Conservative in matters connected with the _till_. For his private life it was exemplary--at least it looked so to the world, and the world is satisfied with what it sees. Jehu was attentive to his business--yes, very--and a business life is not monotonous and dull, if it be relieved, as it was in this case, by dexterous arts, that give an interest and flavour to the commonest pursuits. Sometimes a customer would die--a natural state of things, but a great event for Jehu. First, he would "improve the occasion" to the surviving relatives--condole and pray with them. Afterwards he would _improve_ it to himself, in his own little room, at night, when all the children were asleep, and no one was awake but Mrs Tomkins and himself. Then he would get down his ledger, and turn to the deceased's account-- "----How _long_ it is thou see'st, And he would gaze 'till it became _much longer_;"