Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/425

TffOMAS TEGG. 385 Coming down the stairs of his new lodgings, " I was met by a good-looking, fresh-coloured, sweet-coun- tenanced country girl ; and without thinking of the impropriety I ventured to wink as she passed. On looking up the stairs, I saw my fair one peeping through the balusters at me. I was soon on speaking terms with her, and told her I wanted a wife, and bade her look out for one for me ; but if she failed in the search she must take the office herself. After waiting a short time, no return being made, I acted on this agreement. Young and foolish both, we were married at St. Bride's church, April 20, 1800. ... I was most happy in my choice, and cannot write in adequate terms of my dear partner, who possesses four qualities seldom found in one woman good nature, sound sense, beauty, and prudence." After his marriage, he again opened a shop in St. John's Street, Clerkenwell, and here he "wrote all night and worked all day," while his partner was drinking himself to death. His wife was ill, two of the children died, and the future looked terribly gloomy ; for a " supposed friend " prevailed upon him to discount a bill for 172 14^. gd. out of his little capital of two hundred pounds, and the bill, of course, turned out to be utterly worthless. In this strait he acted with much energy, dissolved his partnership, called a meeting of his creditors, and found a friend who nobly came forward as a security ; and he left his home, declaring he would never return until he could pay the uttermost farthing. "God," he writes solemnly, " never forsook me. A man may lose his property and yet not be ruined ; peace and pride of heart may be more than equivalents." Tegg now took out a country auction licence,