117
that very day if I was prepared. Mr. Giffard further informed me that he was on the point himself of leaving the business to the management of his two partners, (Fisher and Pettit) and should retire to a country-house he possessed at Hammersmith: that as one of these partners only resided in the house, and he was a bachelor, it would be necessary that I should board myself, for which expense I should be allowed fifteen shillings a week, and for my services twelve more. Though this allowance was comparatively trifling, I agreed to the terms, as my only intention was to purloin all I could lay my Hands on, and in two or three months to abscond, and change the scene of action. As to my duty, it was to attend the shop, to make out bills of parcels, keep a set of books, and occasionally to carry out light packages.
I immediately brought my trunk of clothes, &c., to the house, and had a small bureau bedstead assigned me in a little room behind the shop; in which room during the day, a number of young women were employed in making up fancy-habits, character-dresses, dominos, &c. In a few days Mr. Giffard, with his family, left the house, and there only remained Mr. Pettit, the junior partner, myself, and a woman servant. The second partner (Fisher,) was a tailor, who superintended thirty or forty men, constantly employed in a large workshop on the attic story, in making gentlemen's clothes, and
