atonement for a _few amiable weaknesses_, while the unpaid tradesman is
exposed to ruin by their vengeance if he refuses to trust them, and to a
jail if he continue to do it.

CHAPTER XI.

The three days previous to my leaving London were passed with Sir John
and Lady Belfield. Knowing I was on the wing for Hampshire, they
promised to make their long intended visit to Stanley Grove during my
stay there.

On the first of these days we were agreeably surprised at the appearance
of Dr. Barlow, an old friend of Sir John, and the excellent rector of
Mr. Stanley's parish. Being obliged to come to town on urgent business
for a couple of days, he was charged to assure me of the cordial welcome
which awaited me at the Grove. I was glad to make this early
acquaintance with this highly respectable divine. I made a thousand
inquiries about his neighbors, and expressed my impatience to know more
of a family in whose characters I already felt a more than common
interest.

"Sir," said he, "if you set me talking of Mr. Stanley, you must abide by
the consequences of your indiscretion, and bear with the loquacity of
which that subject never fails to make me guilty. He is a greater
blessing to me as a friend, and to my parish as an example and a
benefactor than I can describe." I assured him that he could not be too
minute in speaking of a man whom I had been early taught to admire, by
that exact judge of merit, my late father.

"Mr. Stanley," said the worthy doctor, "is about six-and-forty, his
admirable wife is about six or seven years younger. He passed the early
part of his life in London, in the best society. His commerce with the
world was, to a mind like his, all pure gain; for he brought away from
it all the good it had to give, without exchanging for it one particle
of his own integrity. He acquired the air, manners, and sentiments of a
gentleman, without any sacrifice of his sincerity. Indeed, he may be
said to have turned his knowledge of the world to a religious account,
for it has enabled him to recommend religion to those who do not like it
well enough to forgive, for its sake, the least awkwardness of gesture,
or inelegance of manner.

"When I became acquainted with the family," continued he, "I told Mrs.
Stanley that I was afraid her husband hurt religion in one sense as much
as he recommended it in another; for that some men who would forgive him
his piety for the sake of his agreeableness, would be led t