I had
employed in the former instance, of seeking some third person to stand
between me and the disposal of my industry. I might find an individual
ready to undertake this office in my behalf; but where should I find the
benevolent soul of Mrs. Marney? The person I fixed upon was a Mr.
Spurrel, a man who took in work from the watchmakers, and had an
apartment upon our second floor. I examined him two or three times with
irresolute glances, as we passed upon the stairs, before I would venture
to accost him. He observed this, and at length kindly invited me into
his apartment.

Being seated, he condoled with me upon my seeming bad health, and the
solitary mode of my living, and wished to know whether he could be of
any service to me. "From the first moment he saw me, he had conceived an
affection for me." In my present disguise I appeared twisted and
deformed, and in other respects by no means an object of attraction. But
it seemed Mr. Spurrel had lost an only son about six months before, and
I was "the very picture of him." If I had put off my counterfeited
ugliness, I should probably have lost all hold upon his affections. "He
was now an old man," as he observed, "just dropping into the grave, and
his son had been his only consolation. The poor lad was always ailing,
but he had been a nurse to him; and the more tending he required while
he was alive, the more he missed him now he was dead. Now he had not a
friend, nor any body that cared for him, in the whole world. If I
pleased, I should be instead of that son to him, and he would treat me
in all respects with the same attention and kindness."

I expressed my sense of these benevolent offers, but told him that I
should be sorry to be in any way burthensome to him. "My ideas at
present led me to a private and solitary life, and my chief difficulty
was to reconcile this with some mode of earning necessary subsistence.
If he would condescend to lend me his assistance in smoothing this
difficulty, it would be the greatest benefit he could confer on me." I
added, that "my mind had always had a mechanical and industrious turn,
and that I did not doubt of soon mastering any craft to which I
seriously applied myself. I had not been brought up to any trade; but,
if he would favour me with his instructions, I would work with him as
long as he pleased for a bare subsistence. I knew that I was asking of
him an extraordinary kindness; but I was urged on the one hand by the
most