chamber and
a bed, which he would insist upon my sharing with him.

My faculties were thus kept upon the stretch of wonder. Every new act of
kindness in this man surpassed the fondest expectation that I had
formed. I saw no reason why I should be treated with benevolence. I
should have acted in the same manner if placed in the same
circumstances; yet it appeared incongruous and inexplicable. I know
whence my ideas of human nature were derived. They certainly were not
the offspring of my own feelings. These would have taught me that
interest and duty were blended in every act of generosity.

I did not come into the world without my scruples and suspicions. I was
more apt to impute kindnesses to sinister and hidden than to obvious and
laudable motives.

I paused to reflect upon the possible designs of this person. What end
could be served by this behaviour? I was no subject of violence or
fraud. I had neither trinket nor coin to stimulate the treachery of
others. What was offered was merely lodging for the night. Was this an
act of such transcendent disinterestedness as to be incredible? My garb
was meaner than that of my companion, but my intellectual
accomplishments were at least upon a level with his. Why should he be
supposed to be insensible to my claims upon his kindness? I was a youth
destitute of experience, money, and friends; but I was not devoid of all
mental and personal endowments. That my merit should be discovered, even
on such slender intercourse, had surely nothing in it that shocked
belief.

While I was thus deliberating, my new friend was earnest in his
solicitations for my company. He remarked my hesitation, but ascribed it
to a wrong cause. "Come," said he, "I can guess your objections and can
obviate them. You are afraid of being ushered into company; and people
who have passed their lives like you have a wonderful antipathy to
strange faces; but this is bedtime with our family, so that we can defer
your introduction to them till to-morrow. We may go to our chamber
without being seen by any but servants."

I had not been aware of this circumstance. My reluctance flowed from a
different cause, but, now that the inconveniences of ceremony were
mentioned, they appeared to me of considerable weight. I was well
pleased that they should thus be avoided, and consented to go along with
him.

We passed several streets and turned several corners. At last we turned
into a kind of court which seemed to