The very fact of their having taken lodgings at Mr. Aird's house,
situated as it was in Soho, a respectable but far from fashionable
locality, argued but moderate means, and placed the artist out of all
suspicion of setting his pretty daughter as a matrimonial snare for
Charley. She was pretty enough and good enough, the old man justly
thought, for him or for his betters; and though he regarded the
good-will which the young people evidently entertained for one another
with favor, he saw in it neither condescension nor advantage. Solomon,
much engaged in business affairs away from home, and estimating,
besides, the power of love at a low rate, was not seriously alarmed at
the growing attachment between his son and Agnes, nor would have been
had it advanced much farther. He thought he had only to say "No," to put
a stop to it at any point. Still he had determined to place the boy out
of the reach of such temptation as a pretty girl living beneath the same
roof must always offer to susceptible youth; and hence it was that Mrs.
Coe had engaged new lodgings. But even now, so lightly did his father
think of the matter, that Charley was still to be permitted to visit at
Mr. Aird's daily, and take his drawing-lessons as heretofore.
An excuse for the change of residence had been afforded in the fact that
Soho was too far from the parks, in which alone Mrs.
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