 family. The lady, who, in all
probability, expected that he would endeavour to appease her with all the
tenderness of filial submission, was so much exasperated at his cavalier
behaviour, that her constitution could not support the transports of her
spirits; and she was carried off by her women, in a fit, while the officious
clergyman was dismiss'd after his pupil, with all the circumstances of disgrace.
    Our hero having thus made his quarters good, took possession of the best
apartment in the house, and sent notice of his arrival to Mr. Clover, who, with
his wife, visited him in less than an hour, and was not a little surprised to
find him so suddenly settled in his father's house. The meeting of Julia and her
brother was extremely pathetic. She had always loved him with uncommon
tenderness, and looked upon him as the ornament of her family; but she had heard
of his extravagancies with regret, and tho' she considered the stories that were
circulated at his expence, as the malicious exaggerations of his mother and her
darling son, her apprehension had been grievously alarmed by an account of his
imprisonment and distress, which had been accidentally conveyed to that country
by a gentleman from London, who had been formerly of his acquaintance: she could
not, therefore, without the most tender emotions of joy, see him, as it were,
restored to his rightful inheritance, and re-established in that station of life
which she thought he could fill with dignity and importance.
    After their mutual expressions of affection, she retired to her mother's
chamber, with a view to make a second offer of her service and attendance, which
had been already rejected with scorn since her father's death; while Peregrine
consulted his brother-in-law, about the affairs of the family, so far as they
had fallen within his cognizance and observation.
    Mr. Clover told him, that though he was never favoured with the confidence
of the defunct, he knew some of his intimates, who had been tampered with by
Mrs. Pickle, and even engaged to second the remonstrances by which she had often
endeavoured to persuade her husband to settle his affairs by a formal will; but
that he had from time to time evaded their importunities with surprising excuses
of procrastination, that plainly appeared to be the result of invention and
design, far above the supposed pitch of his capacity; a circumstance from which
Mr. Clover concluded, that the old gentleman imagined his life would not have
been secure, had he once taken such a step as must have rendered
