76 A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL.

Sunday, the clergyman, who was one of the best of
men, although one of the most rigid, called on the
Osbornes, as he had been doing for some days on his
delinquent flock, to remonstrate with so respectable a
man, and so good a church-goer as Mr. Osborne, on
allowing his apprentices to frequent places of such
awful wickedness as theatres !

Williams was faint with apprehension lest the
clergyman knew also of his passion and his acquaint-
ance with the fair Jessie ; the patten-maker and his
wife knew of it; Tom Bassett knew of it; oh, it
must come out! He felt quite ill, and went into
the upper warehouse, looking like anything but a
bold lover, where he sat down on a resin-tub,
waiting for the judgment which he feared might be
at hand.

Mr. Oshorne @as a very good, kind-hearted man,
good to the poor, and charitable in the gospel-sense
of the word to all mankind. He thought players
bad, low people ; but, for his part, he saw no use in
commencing a crusade against them. We should
never exterminate them, they would exist ‘spite of
us; and people, he said, would go to theatres to be
amused. People must be amused ; he saw no harm
in it at all. He had had some thoughts, he said, of
going himself ; and as to his apprentices—why, if his
young men were good and steady, and attended to
their business, he thought it only right now and then
to give them a bit of pleasure. He had always done
so; he had been forty years in business; had had
about seven-and-twenty apprentices, all of whom,
for what he knew, had turned out well. He thought
that was a proof that his system was not a very bad
one ; and with all respect for the clergyman, whom