OR, SETTLED AT LAST. A NOVEL BY THEODORE E. HOOK, ESQ. AUTHOR OF "SAYINGS AND DOINGS," "JACK BRAG," "THE PARSON'S DAUGHTER," &c. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. Pickering Chatto - Ivol. 3,37 7-11-39- Hunt. PEREGRINE BUNCE; OR, SETTLED AT LAST. CHAPTER I. Ir the reader in the plenitude of his good-nature and imaginativeness will fancy himself in a remarkably snug, well-warmed, thick-carpeted, red damask-curtained room, which would have been square had not one of its corners been cut off, or rather, filled up, in order to afford space for an ample fire-place surmounted by a wellcarved oaken chimney-piece, in which fireplace a grate fully stored with flaming coals topped by a brisk, dry, crackling log, gave out its heat and light; he will find himself (although invisible to them) in the society of two gentle VOL. I. B men-either, a worthy in his way, as he may perhaps hereafter discover-but as opposite in character and attributes as he will see them in position, vis-à-vis, or rather toe to toe, on the hearth-rug; before which stands a table, whereon, sparkling like diamonds and rubies by the fire's light, appear divers and sundry bottles and glasses, in different degrees of fulness and emptiness, towering like the domes and minarets of a Mohammedan city over heaps of walnut-shells which had "discharged their cargoes," ," and piles of grapes and pears, and other fruits, affording ample and concurring evidence that the season of the year in which our story opens was autumn. The men, social and sociable as they were, exhibited, as has been already said, a striking contrast to each other: the one, an old uncle, sarcastic, blunt, odd, generally considered shrewd, and universally voted disagreeable; the other, a young nephew whose chance of being his uncle's heir mainly depended, as he and |