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ful behind the counter. We had a plentiful table appropriated for us, to which we retired in turn during the hours of business; commodious and airy chambers; and, in short, enjoyed every comfort we could desire.
For the first month of my probation, I behaved extremely well, and by my quickness and assiduity, gained the good opinion of my employers, who wrote of me in the most favourable terms to my friends in S———shire; nor did my expenses exceed my allowance for pocket-money, which was fully adequate to every rational enjoyment.
Among my fellow apprentices, was a young man named King, some years older than myself, with whom, from a similarity of sentiments, I formed a close intimacy. He was of an excellent disposition, but a great lover of pleasure; and as his servitude was far advanced, and his prospects peculiarly flattering, he was under very little restraint, but gave the rein to his passion for dissipation. His expenses were profuse, but whether he indulged in them at the expense of his probity, I could never ascertain. He soon introduced me to several young men of his own stamp, and I became in a short time as great a rake as the best of them: nor was our conversation confined to our own sex; scarcely a night passing without our visiting one or other of those houses consecrated to the Cyprian goddess, with which the town of Liverpool abounds.
