The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

Chapter CIV

Volume Four, Chapter CIV 555 street to the other, affording unspeakable satisfaction to the multitude, as well as to our hero and his introductor, who were spectators of the whole scene. Thus was our adventurer initiated in the society of Yelpers, tho’ he did not as yet fully understand the nature of his office, which was explained by the young physician, who chid him for his blunt behaviour in the case of the medal; and gave him to understand , that their patron’s favour was neither to be gained, nor preserved by any man that would pretend to convict him of a mistake: he therefore counselled him to respect this foible, and cultivate the old gentleman with all the zeal and veneration, which a regard to his own character would permit him to pay. This task was the easier to one of our young gentleman’s pliant disposition, because the virtuoso’s behaviour was absolutely free from that insolent self-conceit, which he could not bear without disgust: the senior was, on the contrary, mild and beneficent; and Pickle was rather pleased than shocked at this weakness, because it flattered his vanity with the supposition of his own superior sense. Cautioned in this manner, Peregrine profited so much by his insinuating qualifications , that, in a very little time, he was looked upon as one of the chief favourites of the patron, to whom he dedicated a small occasional poem; and every body believed he would reap the fruits of his attachment, among the first of the old gentleman’s dependants. chapter civ. Peregrine finding himself neglected by Sir Steady Steerwell, expostulates with him in a letter; in consequence of which, he is forbid his house, loses his pension, and incurs the reputation of a lunatick. This prospect of success, together with his expectations from the minister, whom he did not neglect, helped to comfort him under the reverse of fortune which he had undergone, and the uncertainty of the law-suit, which he still maintained for the recovery of his ten thousand pounds. The lawyers, indeed, continued to drain his pocket of money, while they filled his brain with unsubstantial hope; and he was actually obliged to borrow money from his bookseller, on the strength of the translation, in order to satisfy the demands of those ravenous harpies, rather than lay the Misanthrope under any difficulties, or have recourse to his friend Hatchway, who lived at the garrison, intirely ignorant of his distress: and this was not at all alleviated by the arrival of the Indiaman, in which he had ventured seven hundred pounds, as we have already observed; for he was given to understand, that the borrower was left dangerously ill at Bombay when the ship sailed, and that his chance for retrieving his money was extremely slender. 556 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle So situated, it is not to be supposed that he led a life of tranquillity, tho’ he made a shift to struggle with the remonstrances of misfortune: yet such a gush of affliction would sometimes rush upon his thought, as overwhelmed all the ideas of his hope, and sunk him to the very bottom of despondence. Every equipage that passed him in the street, every person of rank and fortune that occurred to his view, recalled the gay images of his former life, with such mortifying reflection as stabbed him to the very soul. He lived, therefore, incessantly exposed to all the pangs of envy and disquiet. When I say envy, I do not mean that sordid passion, in consequence of which a man repines at his neighbour’s success, howsoever deserved; but that self-tormenting indignation which is inspired by the prosperity of folly, ignorance and vice. Without the intervening gleams of enjoyment, which he felt in the conversation of a few friends, he could not have supported his existence; or, at least, he must have suffered some violent discomposure of the brain: but one is still finding some circumstance of alleviation, even in the worst of conjunctures; and Pickle was so ingenious in these researches, that he maintained a good battle with disappointment, till the revolution of the term at which he had received his pension of three hundred pounds. However, seeing the day elapse, without touching his allowance, notwithstanding his significant method of presenting himself at the minister’s levee, when the year was expired, he wrote a letter to Sir Steady, reminding him...