and was strictly proper. But his way of talking to women and about
them was more odious than the way of a debauchee. He invariably called
them "the ladies," or more exactly, "the leedies"; and he hardly ever
spoke to a "leedy" without a smirk and some faint attempt at a joke.

One of the customs of the chapel was what were called Dorcas meetings.
Once a month the wives and daughters drank tea with each other; the
evening being ostensibly devoted to making clothes for the poor. The
husband of the lady who gave the entertainment for the month had to
wait upon the company, and the minister was expected to read to them
while they worked.

It was my lot to be Mr. Snale's guest two or three times when Mrs.
Snale was the Dorcas hostess. We met in the drawing-room, which was
over the shop, and looked out into the town market-place. There was a
round table in the middle of the room, at which Mrs. Snale sat and made
the tea. Abundance of hot buttered toast and muffins were provided,
which Mr. Snale and a maid handed round to the party.

Four pictures decorated the walls. One hung over the mantelpiece. It
was a portrait in oils of Mr. Snale, and opposite to it, on the other
side, was a portrait of Mrs. Snale. Both were daubs, but curiously
faithful in depicting what was most offensive in the character of both
the originals, Mr. Snale's simper being preserved; together with the
peculiarly hard, heavy sensuality of the eye in Mrs. Snale, who was
large and full-faced, correct like Mr. Snale, a member of the church, a
woman whom I never saw moved to any generosity, and cruel not with the
ferocity of the tiger, but with the dull insensibility of a cartwheel,
which will roll over a man's neck as easily as over a flint. The third
picture represented the descent of the Holy Ghost; a number of persons