was convinced that Peregrine was certainly and bona fide mad as a March
hare; and, by the help of this intimation, began to recollect some
symptoms of distraction which appeared in his last visit; he remembered
a certain incoherence in his speech, a violence of gesture and wildness
of look, that now evidently denoted a disturbed understanding; and he
determined, for his own credit and security, to disentangle himself from
such a dangerous acquaintance.

With this view, he, in imitation of Sir Steady, commanded his gate to be
shut against our adventurer; so that, when he went to know the result of
his lordship's conference with the minister, the door was flung in his
face, and the janitor told him through an iron grate, that he needed not
to give himself the trouble of calling again, for his lord desired to
be excused from seeing him. He spoke not a word in answer to this
declaration, which he immediately imputed to the ill offices of the
minister, against whom he breathed defiance and revenge, in his way to
the lodgings of Cadwallader; who, being made acquainted with the manner
of his reception, begged he would desist from all schemes of vengeance,
until he, Crabtree, should be able to unriddle the mystery of the whole,
which he did not doubt of unveiling by means of his acquaintance with a
family in which his lordship often spent the evening at whist.

It was not long before he had the desired opportunity: the nobleman
being under no injunctions or obligation to keep the affair secret,
discovered the young gentleman's misfortune, by way of news, to the
first company in which he happened to be; and Peregrine's name was not
so obscure in the fashionable world, but that his disorder became the
general topic of conversation for a day; so that his friend soon partook
of the intelligence, and found means to learn the particulars of the
minister's information, as above related. Nay, he was in danger of
becoming a proselyte to Sir Steady's opinion, when he recalled and
compared every circumstance which he knew of Pickle's impatience and
impetuosity. Indeed, nothing more easily gains credit than an imputation
of madness fixed upon any person whatsoever: for when the suspicion of
the world is roused, and its observation once set at work, the wisest,
the coolest man upon earth, will, by some particulars in his behaviour,
convict himself of the charge: every singularity in his dress and manner
(and such are observable in every p