solicitations for my company. He remarked my hesitation, but ascribed it
to a wrong cause. "Come," said he, "I can guess your objections and can
obviate them. You are afraid of being ushered into company; and people
who have passed their lives like you have a wonderful antipathy to
strange faces; but this is bedtime with our family, so that we can defer
your introduction to them till to-morrow. We may go to our chamber
without being seen by any but servants."

I had not been aware of this circumstance. My reluctance flowed from a
different cause, but, now that the inconveniences of ceremony were
mentioned, they appeared to me of considerable weight. I was well
pleased that they should thus be avoided, and consented to go along with
him.

We passed several streets and turned several corners. At last we turned
into a kind of court which seemed to be chiefly occupied by stables. "We
will go," said he, "by the back way into the house. We shall thus save
ourselves the necessity of entering the parlour, where some of the
family may still be."

My companion was as talkative as ever, but said nothing from which I
could gather any knowledge of the number, character, and condition of
his family.




CHAPTER IV.