r of a certain
convent in that place, for which Mr. Hornbeck set out in a few days with
his troublesome charge.

CHAPTER XLII.

Peregrine resolves to return to England--Is diverted with the odd
Characters of two of his Countrymen, with whom he contracts an
acquaintance in the Apartments of the Palais Royal.

In the mean time our hero received a letter from his aunt, importing
that the commodore was in a very declining way, and longed much to see
him at the garrison; and at the same time he heard from his sister, who
gave him to understand that the young gentleman, who had for some
time made his addresses to her, was become very pressing in his
solicitations; so that she wanted to know in what manner she should
answer his repeated entreaties. Those two considerations determined the
young gentleman to retain to his native country; a resolution that was
far from being disagreeable to Jolter, who knew that the incumbent on a
living which was in the gift of Trunnion was extremely old, and that
it would be his interest to be upon the spot at the said incumbent's
decease.

Peregrine, who had resided about fifteen months in France, thought he
was now sufficiently qualified for eclipsing most of his contemporaries
in England, and therefore prepared for his departure with infinite
alacrity; being moreover inflamed with the most ardent desire of
revisiting his friends, and renewing his connections, particularly with
Emilia, whose heart he by this time, thought he was able to reduce on
his own terms.

As he proposed to make the tour of Flanders and Holland in his return
to England, he resolved to stay at Paris a week or two after his affairs
were settled, in hope of finding some companion disposed for the same
journey; and, in order to refresh his memory, made a second circuit
round all the places in that capital, where any curious production of
art is to be seen. In the course of this second examination he chanced
to enter the Palais Royal, just as two gentlemen alighted from a fiacre
at the gate; and all three being admitted at the same time, he soon
perceived that the strangers were of his own country. One of them was a
young man, in whose air and countenance appeared all the uncouth
gravity and supercilious self-conceit of a physician piping-hot from his
studies; while the other, to whom his companion spoke by the appellation
of Mr. Pallet, displayed at first sight a strange composition of levity
and assurance.