favoured amongst the religious world. The most eloquent expounders; the
most gifted missionaries, the most interesting converts from foreign
islands, were to be found at her sumptuous table, spread with the produce
of her magnificent gardens. Heaven indeed blessed those gardens with
plenty, as many reverend gentlemen remarked; there were no finer grapes,
peaches, or pineapples in all England. Mr. Whitfield himself christened
her; and it was said generally in the City, and by her friends, that Miss
Hobson's two Christian names, Sophia and Alethea, were two Greek words,
which, being interpreted, meant wisdom and truth. She, her villa and
gardens, are now no more; but Sophia Terrace, Upper and Lower Alethea
Road, and Hobson's Buildings, Square, etc., show every quarter-day that
the ground sacred to her (and freehold) still bears plenteous fruit for
the descendants of this eminent woman.

We are, however, advancing matters. When Thomas Newcome had been some
time in London, he quitted the house of Hobson, finding an opening,
though in a much smaller way, for himself. And no sooner did his business
prosper, than he went down into the north, like a man, to a pretty girl
whom he had left there, and whom he had promised to marry. What seemed an
imprudent match (for his wife had nothing but a pale face, that had grown
older and paler with long waiting) turned out a very lucky one for
Newcome. The whole countryside was pleased to think of the prosperous
London tradesman returning to keep his promise to the penniless girl whom
he had loved in the days of his own poverty; the great country clothiers,
who knew his prudence and honesty, gave him much of their business when
he went back to London. Susan Newcome would have lived to be a rich woman
had not fate ended her career within a year after her marriage, when she
died giving birth to a son.

Newcome had a nurse for the child, and a cottage at Clapham, hard by Mr.