more and more towards
his benefactor with each moment in which he was allowed to dwell on a
sister's praises. At length Mr Rathbone enquired how he who was so
ready to make known the exertions of others, was himself going on in the
world. "If you do not object to give me your confidence, Charles," said
he, "I am as much interested in your concerns, as in your sisters."

Charles thanked him, and said there was but little to tell; and that
little he communicated at once. He told Mr Rathbone the amount of his
salary, and that of his expenditure. He told him how he was
endeavouring to qualify himself for a higher situation, and what were
the hopes which he ventured to indulge of affording his sisters some
substantial assistance in time. At present he could do but little: the
first year he had by great self-denial saved three pounds. This year he
hoped to send Jane a five pound note on Midsummer Day, and in a year or
two he had the prospect of a large salary.

Mr Rathbone questioned him closely as to his manner of living, and his
plans of economy. Accustomed as he was to a very lavish expenditure,
such economy as Charles's struck him with wonder; and he was surprised
to find that so far from being despised by the young men among whom he
was thrown, Charles was regarded with respect by all, with affection by
some. He did not live in close, grudging solitude: he had lost none of
the spirit of generous sociality which he brought with him to London,
and preserved there, in spite of its chilling and counteracting
influences. He was benevolent; he was generous. His purse he could in
conscience open to none but his sisters; but his heart was open, his
head was busy, and his hands were ready, whenever an opportunity of
doing good occurred. Some of the young men with whom his situation
connected him, gave entertainments to their friends, or made parties to
go to places of public amusement. Charles could not do this; nor did he
wish to offer, or accept, obligations of this kind; but all his
companions readily acknowledged, from their own experience, that Charles
had both the power and the inclination to do good. One had been ill,
and had been nursed by Charles night and day, or as much of the day as
he could call his own, so carefully and tenderly, that he owed his
recovery in part, and the whole of what alleviation his disease
admitted, to his benevolent care. Another had displeased Mr Gardiner,
it was feared irremedia