one of the
heroes discovered in the prize he had made, the very wife of his bosom;
and his companion perceived that he had stumbled in the dark upon
his own mother. Their mutual astonishment was unspeakable at this
eclaircissement, which produced a universal silence for the space
of several minutes. During this pause, the ladies having recollected
themselves, an expostulation was begun by the elder of the two, who
roundly took her son to task for his disorderly life, which laid her
under the disagreeable necessity of watching his motions, and detecting
him in such an infamous place.

While the careful mother thus exercised her talent for reprehension,
the hopeful young gentleman, with a hand in each fob, stood whistling
an opera tune, without seeming to pay the most profound regard to his
parent's reproof; and the other lady, in imitation of such a consummate
pattern, began to open upon her husband, whom she bitterly reproached
with his looseness and intemperance, demanding to know what he had to
allege in alleviation of his present misconduct. The surprise occasioned
by such an unexpected meeting, had already, in a great measure,
destroyed the effects of the wine he had so plentifully drunk, and
the first use he made of his recovered sobriety, was to revolve within
himself the motives that could possibly induce his wife to give him
the rendezvous in this manner. As he had good reason to believe she
was utterly void of jealousy, he naturally placed this rencontre to the
account of another passion; and his chagrin was not at all impaired by
the effrontery with which she now presumed to reprimand him. He listened
to her, therefore, with a grave, or rather grim, aspect; and to the
question with which she concluded her rebuke, answered, with great
composure, "All that I have to allege, madam, is, that the bawd has
committed a mistake, in consequence of which we are both disappointed;
and so, ladies, your humble servant." So saying, he retired, with
manifest confusion in his looks; and, as he passed through the
audience-chamber, eyeing the conjurer askance, pronounced the epithet
of precious rascal, with great emphasis. Meanwhile, the junior, like
a dutiful child, handed his mamma to her chair; and the other client,
after having reviled the necromancer, because he could not foresee this
event, went away in a state of mortification.

The coast being clear, Peregrine came forth from his den, and
congratulated his friend upon