Chapter III.
The Household of a Virtuoso.
Ah! how sorry a Thing is it, when a Man's Absence from his own Home is felt by all the Household to be a Relief! My poor Father kept his Word, of not coming nigh us, for a good While; and, could we have been assured of his being well, and doing well, there would have been no Alloy to our Comfort under the Deprivation, however we might feel ashamed to acknowledge it.
The unfortunate Habit of buying Things he did not want, had become a Kind of Disease, that I verily think he could no longer controul; but it might have been checked in its first Beginnings in early Life, for it could not have been born with him. How careful should People be to shun the first Temptations to needless and lawless Expenditure! instead of putting themselves in the Way of it, as I am free to say many do, out of mere Wantonness. 'Tis they that keep up our Lace-Shops and Auctions, on whose Spoils unprincipled Dealers grow rich, while honester People cannot get their Bills paid by them, and so are ruined. Lady Betty's Man had scarce left us, when I went to my Father's Wardrobe, to put away some Linen I had been repairing; when, in one of the Drawers, I came upon five Pairs of red Silk Stockings, worth eight or ten Shillings the Pair, that had never been so much as put on! He had bought them, years ago, to wear with his Sad-coloured Coat and Scarlet Waistcoat; but the Fashion for them had already gone by, and one Pair would have sufficed a Man that needed 'em so seldom; whereas, I warrant, he took an Half-Dozen.
To return to the Matter in Hand. When I carried Mr. Fenwick his Chocolate and Rusks, I found him with Writing Implements and Papers all about, hurriedly affixing his fine Carnelion Seal to a somewhat bulky Packet. I said, "Dear Heart, Sir, are you prudent, do you think, in writing so much?"