ention he had always paid to his ease
and satisfaction; since he well knew that he had ever looked upon him in
the light of a friend rather than as a counsellor or tutor; and desired
his company in France with a view of promoting his interest, not for any
emolument he could expect from his instruction. This being the case, he
was at liberty to consult his own inclinations, with regard to going or
staying; though he could not help owning himself obliged by the concern
he expressed for his safety, and would endeavour, for his own sake, to
avoid giving him any cause of disturbance in time to come.

No man was more capable of moralizing upon Peregrine's misconduct than
himself: his reflections were extremely just and sagacious, and attended
with no other disadvantage but that of occurring too late. He projected
a thousand salutary schemes of deportment, but, like other projectors,
he never had interest enough with the ministry of his passions to bring
any of them to bear. He had, in the heyday of his gallantry received a
letter from his friend Gauntlet with a kind postscript from his charming
Emilia; but it arrived at a very unseasonable juncture, when his
imagination was engrossed by conquests that more agreeably flattered his
ambition; so that he could not find leisure and inclination, from that
day, to honour the correspondence which he himself had solicited. His
vanity had, by the time, disapproved of the engagement he had contracted
in the rawness and inexperience of youth; suggesting, that he was born
to such an important figure in life, as ought to raise his ideas
above the consideration of any such middling connections, and fix his
attention upon objects of the most sublime attraction. These dictates
of ridiculous pride had almost effaced the remembrance of his amiable
mistress, or at least so far warped his morals and integrity, that he
actually began to conceive hopes of her altogether unworthy of his own
character and her deserts.

Meanwhile, being destitute of a toy for the dalliance of his idle hours,
he employed several spies, and almost every day made a tour of the
public places in person, with a view of procuring intelligence of Mr.
Hornbeck, with whose wife he longed to have another interview. In this
course of expectation had he exercised himself a whole fortnight, when,
chancing to be at the Hospital of the Invalids with a gentleman lately
arrived from England, he no sooner entered the church than he perc