late. Perhaps he might have overshot himself in the course of his
perseverance. A young lady of Emilia's fortune and attractions could
not fail to find herself surrounded by temptations, which few women can
resist. She might have misinterpreted the meaning of some paragraph or
taken umbrage at an unguarded expression in one of Peregrine's letters.
She might have been tired out by his obstinate peculiarity, or, at the
long run, construed it into madness, slight, or indifference; or, rather
than waste her prime in fruitless endeavours to subdue the pride of
a headstrong humourist, she might have listened to the voice of some
admirer, fraught with qualifications sufficient to engage her esteem and
affection. But all these possibilities were providentially prevented by
an accident attended with more important consequences than any we have
hitherto recounted.

Early one morning Pipes was disturbed by the arrival of a messenger, who
had been sent express from the country by Mr. Clover, with a packet for
the lieutenant, and arrived in town overnight; but as he was obliged to
have recourse to the information of Jack's correspondent in the city,
touching the place of his abode, before he demanded entrance at the
Fleet the gate was shut; nor would the turnkeys admit him, although he
told them that he was charged with a message of the utmost consequence;
so that he was fain to tarry till daybreak, when he, at his earnest
solicitation, was allowed to enter.

Hatchway, opening the packet, found a letter enclosed for Peregrine,
with an earnest request that he should forward it to the hands of that
young gentleman with all possible despatch. Jack, who could not dive
into the meaning of this extraordinary injunction, began to imagine
that Mrs. Clover lay at the point of death, and wanted to take a last
farewell of her brother; and this conceit worked so strongly upon his
imagination, that, while he huddled on his clothes, and made the best of
his way to the apartment of our hero, he could not help cursing, within
himself, the folly of the husband in sending such disagreeable messages
to a man of Peregrine's impatient temper, already soured by his own
uneasy situation. This reflection would have induced him to suppress the
letter, had not he been afraid to tamper with the ticklish disposition
of his friend, to whom, while he delivered it, "As for my own part,"
said he, "mayhap I may have as much natural affection as another, but
when m