a week to come: sometimes, indeed,
the postscript contains a hint of an expected "whereas," or strong
suspicions of an act of insolvency, but always couched in the most
consolatory terms, hoping the dividend will turn out to be better than
present circumstances might lead them to expect. In his visits to his
customers he is the most courteous, obliging fellow imaginable; there is
no trouble he thinks too much if he is likely to obtain his last account
and a fresh order; then, too, his generosity is unbounded: he invites
the tradesman to take wine with him at his inn, inquires kindly
after all the family, hopes business is thriving, makes an offer of
~251~~doing any thing for him along the road, and bows himself and his
pattern-cards out of the shop, with as much humility and apparent
sense of obligation as the most expert courtier could put on when his
sovereign deigns to confer upon him some special mark of his royal
favour. It is at his inn alone that his independence breaks forth, and
here he often assumes as much consequence as if he was the head of the
firm he represents, and always carried about him a _plum_ at least in
his breeches pocket. This is a general character, and one, too, formed
upon no slight knowledge of commercial men; but with all this, the man
of the world will admire them and seek their company; first, that his
accommodations are generally better, and the charges not subject to the
caprice of the landlord; and, secondly, for the sake of society; for
what on earth can be more horrible than to be shut up in a lone room,
a stranger in a provincial town, to eat, drink, and pass the cheerless
hour, a prey to solitude and _ennui_?

But there is sometimes a little fastidiousness about these _knights of
the saddle-bag_, in admitting a stranger to hob and nob with them;
to prevent a knowledge, therefore, of our pursuits, my friend Bob was
instructed, before entering the room, to sink the arts, and if any
inquisitive fellow should inquire what line he travelled in, to reply,
in the print line; while your humble servant, it was agreed, should
represent some firm in the spring trade; and thus armed against
suspicion, we boldly marched into the commercial-room just as the
assembled group of men of business were sitting down to dinner, hung
our hats upon a peg, drew our chairs, uninvited, to the table, fully
prepared to feel ourselves at home, and do ample justice to the
"bagmen's banquet."

The important pre