certain professing
Christians in those days) Sophia Alethea Hobson--a woman who,
considerably older than Mr. Newcome, had the advantage of surviving
him many years. Her mansion at Clapham was long the resort of the most
favoured amongst the religious world. The most eloquent expounders; the
most gifted missionaries, the most interesting converts from foreign
islands, were to be found at her sumptuous table, spread with the
produce of her magnificent gardens. Heaven indeed blessed those gardens
with plenty, as many reverend gentlemen remarked; there were no finer
grapes, peaches, or pineapples in all England. Mr. Whitfield himself
christened her; and it was said generally in the City, and by her
friends, that Miss Hobson's two Christian names, Sophia and Alethea,
were two Greek words, which, being interpreted, meant wisdom and truth.
She, her villa and gardens, are now no more; but Sophia Terrace, Upper
and Lower Alethea Road, and Hobson's Buildings, Square, etc., show every
quarter-day that the ground sacred to her (and freehold) still bears
plenteous fruit for the descendants of this eminent woman.

We are, however, advancing matters. When Thomas Newcome had been some
time in London, he quitted the house of Hobson, finding an opening,
though in a much smaller way, for himself. And no sooner did his
business prosper, than he went down into the north, like a man, to a
pretty girl whom he had left there, and whom he had promised to marry.
What seemed an imprudent match (for his wife had nothing but a pale
face, that had grown older and paler with long waiting) turned out a
very lucky one for Newcome. The whole countryside was pleased to think
of the prosperous London tradesman returning to keep his promise to the
penniless girl whom he had loved in the days of his own poverty; the
great country clothiers, who knew his prudence and honesty, gave him
much of their business when he went back to London. Susan Newcome would
have lived to be a rich woman had not fate ended her career within a
year after her marriage, when she died giving birth to a son.

Newcome had a nurse for the child, and a cottage at Clapham, hard by Mr.
Hobson's house, where he had often walked in the garden of a Sunday,
and been invited to sit down to take a glass of wine. Since he had left
their service, the house had added a banking business, which was greatly
helped by the Quakers and their religious connection; and Newcome,
keeping his account ther