have come to see you before, but I
didn't know where you was. How quick you hurried off, that morning!'

'I was amenable to my papa's directions,' said Miss Charity.

'I wish he had given me his direction,' returned her cousin, 'and then
I should have found you out before. Why, I shouldn't have found you even
now, if I hadn't met him in the street this morning. What a sleek, sly
chap he is! Just like a tomcat, an't he?'

'I must trouble you to have the goodness to speak more respectfully of
my papa, Mr Jonas,' said Charity. 'I can't allow such a tone as that,
even in jest.'

'Ecod, you may say what you like of MY father, then, and so I give you
leave,' said Jonas. 'I think it's liquid aggravation that circulates
through his veins, and not regular blood. How old should you think my
father was, cousin?'

'Old, no doubt,' replied Miss Charity; 'but a fine old gentleman.'

'A fine old gentleman!' repeated Jonas, giving the crown of his hat an
angry knock. 'Ah! It's time he was thinking of being drawn out a little
finer too. Why, he's eighty!'

'Is he, indeed?' said the young lady.

'And ecod,' cried Jonas, 'now he's gone so far without giving in, I
don't see much to prevent his being ninety; no, nor even a hundred. Why,
a man with any feeling ought to be ashamed of being eighty, let alone
more. Where's his religion, I should like to know, when he goes flying
in the face of the Bible like that? Threescore-and-ten's the mark, and
no man with a conscience, and a proper sense of what's expected of him,
has any business to live longer.'

Is any one surprised at Mr Jonas making such a reference to such a
book for such a purpose? Does any one doubt the old saw, that the Devil
(being a layman) quotes Scripture for his own ends? If he will take the
trouble to look about him, he may find a greater number of confirmations
of the fact in the occurrences of any single day, than the steam-gun can
discharge balls in a minute.

'But there's enough of my father,' said Jonas; 'it's of no use to go
putting one's self out of the way by talking about HIM. I called to ask
you to come and take a walk, cousin, and see some of the sights; and
to come to our house afterwards, and have a bit of something. Pecksniff
will most likely look in in the evening, he says, and bring you home.
See, here's his writing; I made him put it down this morning when he
told me he shouldn't be back before I came here; in case you wouldn't
believe me. There'