you it is probable that I have ever had the
happiness to meet you before? I cannot help fancying so--yet as I have
never been in the watch-house, or the Old Bailey, my reason tells me
that I must be mistaken."

"Not at all, Sir," returned my worthy; "I remember you well, for I
never saw a face like yours that I did not remember. I had the honour
of sipping some British liquors, in the same room with yourself one
evening; you were then in company with my friend Mr. Gordon."

"Ha!" said I, "I thank ye for the hint; I now remember well, by the same
token, that he told me you were the most ingenious gentleman in
England; and that you had a happy propensity of mistaking other people's
possessions for your own; I congratulate myself upon so desirable an
acquaintance." [Note: See Vol. II, p. 127.]

My friend, who was indeed no other than Mr. Job Jonson, smiled with
his usual blandness, and made me a low bow of acknowledgment before he
resumed:

"No doubt, Sir, Mr. Gordon informed you right. I flatter myself few
gentlemen understand better than myself, the art of appropriation;
though I say it who should not say it, I deserve the reputation I have
acquired. Sir, I have always had ill fortune to struggle against, and
have always remedied it by two virtues--perseverance and ingenuity.
To give you an idea of my ill fortune, know that I have been taken
up twenty-three times, on suspicion; of my perseverance, know that
twenty-three times I have been taken up justly; and of my ingenuity,
know that I have been twenty-three times let off, because there was not
a tittle of legal evidence against me."

"I venerate your talents, Mr. Jonson," replied I, "if by the name of
Jonson it pleaseth you to be called, although, like the heathen deities,
I presume that you have many other titles, whereof some are more
grateful to your ears than others."

"Nay," answered the man of two virtues--"I am never ashamed of my
name; indeed, I have never done any thing to disgrace me. I have never
indulged in low company, nor profligate debauchery: whatever I
have executed by way of profession, has been done in a superior and
artistlike manner; not in the rude, bungling way of other adventurers.
Moreover, I have always had a taste for polite literature, and went
once as apprentice to a publishing bookseller, for the sole purpose
of reading the new works before they came out. In fine, I have never
neglected any opportunity of improving my mind; and the