a lover of variety;
but, perhaps, your honour will let me return the suspicion, Are you not
a favourite of the muse?"

"I cannot say that I am," said I. "I value myself only on my common
sense--the very antipodes to genius, you know, according to the orthodox
belief."

"Common sense!" repeated my companion, with a singular and meaning
smile, and a twinkle with his left eye. "Common sense. Ah, that is not
my forte, Sir. You, I dare say, are one of those gentlemen whom it is
very difficult to take in, either passively or actively, by appearance,
or in act? For my part, I have been a dupe all my life--a child might
cheat me! I am the most unsuspicious person in the world."

"Too candid by half," thought I; "the man is certainly a rascal; but
what's that to me? I shall never see him again;" and true to my love
of never losing an opportunity of ascertaining individual character, I
observed, that I thought such an acquaintance very valuable, especially
if he were in trade; it was a pity, therefore, for my sake, that my
companion had informed me that he followed no calling.

"Why, Sir," said he, "I am occasionally in employment; my nominal
profession is that of a broker. I buy shawls and handkerchiefs of poor
countesses, and retail them to rich plebeians. I fit up new married
couples with linen, at a more moderate rate than the shops, and procure
the bridegroom his present of jewels, at forty per cent. less than the
jewellers; nay, I am as friendly to an intrigue as a marriage; and when
I cannot sell my jewels, I will my good offices, A gentleman so handsome
as your honour, may have an affair upon your hands: if so, you may
rely upon my secrecy and zeal. In short, I am an innocent, good-natured
fellow, who does harm to no one for nothing, and good to every one for
something."

"I admire your code," quoth I, "and whenever I want a mediator between
Venus and myself, will employ you. Have you always followed your present
idle profession, or were you brought up to any other?"

"I was intended for a silversmith," answered my friend; "but Providence
willed it otherwise; they taught me from childhood to repeat the Lord's
prayer; Heaven heard me, and delivered me from temptation--there is,
indeed, something terribly seducing in the face of a silver spoon!"

"Well," said I, "you are the honestest knave I ever met, and one would
trust you with one's purse for the ingenuousness with which you own you
would steal it. Pray, think