to my infinite surprise I found myself in a pawnbroker's shop! It was
in the neighbourhood of Newgate Street; for he had no idea whatever in
practice either of time or space, nor did he in any degree regard method
in the conduct of business. There were several women in the shop in
brown and grey cloaks with squalling children: some of them were
attempting to persuade the children to be quiet, or at least, to scream
with moderation; the others were enlarging upon and pointing out the
beauties of certain coarse and dirty sheets that lay before them to a
man on the other side of the counter. I bore this substitute for our
proposed tea some minutes with tolerable patience, but as the call did
not promise to terminate speedily, I said to Shelley, in a whisper, "Is
not this almost as bad as the Roman virtue?" Upon this he approached the
pawnbroker: it was long before he could obtain a hearing, and he did not
find civility. The man was unwilling to part with a valuable pledge so
soon, or perhaps he hoped to retain it eventually; or it might be, that
the obliquity of his nature disqualified him for respectful behaviour.
A pawnbroker is frequently an important witness in criminal proceedings:
it has happened to me, therefore, afterwards to see many specimens of
this kind of banker; they sometimes appeared not less respectable than
other tradesmen, and sometimes I have been forcibly reminded of the
first I ever met with, by an equally ill conditioned fellow. I was so
little pleased with the introduction, that I stood aloof in the shop,
and did not hear what passed between him and Shelley. On our way to
Covent-Garden, I expressed my surprise and dissatisfaction at our
strange visit, and I learned that when he came to London before, in
the course of the summer, some old man had related to him a tale of
distress,--of a calamity which could only be alleviated by the timely
application of ten pounds; five of them he drew at once from his
pocket, and to raise the other five he had pawned his beautiful solar
microscope! He related this act of beneficence simply and briefly, as if