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diff --git a/old/7265.txt b/old/7265.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a59cf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7265.txt @@ -0,0 +1,35033 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The History of Pendennis, by William Makepeace Thackeray + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The History of Pendennis + +Author: William Makepeace Thackeray + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7265] +Posting Date: July 25, 2009 +Last Updated: February 16, 2017 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS *** + + + + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen + + + + + +THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS + +By William Makepeace Thackeray + + +TO DR. JOHN ELLIOTSON + + +My Dear Doctor, + +Thirteen months ago, when it seemed likely that this story had come to +a close, a kind friend brought you to my bedside, whence, in +all probability, I never should have risen but for your constant +watchfulness and skill. I like to recall your great goodness and +kindness (as well as many acts of others, showing quite a surprising +friendship and sympathy) at that time, when kindness and friendship were +most needed and welcome. + +And as you would take no other fee but thanks, let me record them here +in behalf of me and mine, and subscribe myself, + +Yours most sincerely and gratefully, + +W. M. THACKERAY. + + + + +PREFACE + + +If this kind of composition, of which the two years' product is now laid +before the public, fail in art, as it constantly does and must, it at +least has the advantage of a certain truth and honesty, which a work +more elaborate might lose. In his constant communication with the +reader, the writer is forced into frankness of expression, and to speak +out his own mind and feelings as they urge him. Many a slip of the pen +and the printer, many a word spoken in haste, he sees and would recall +as he looks over his volume. It is a sort of confidential talk between +writer and reader, which must often be dull, must often flag. In the +course of his volubility, the perpetual speaker must of necessity lay +bare his own weaknesses, vanities, peculiarities. And as we judge of a +man's character, after long frequenting his society, not by one speech, +or by one mood or opinion, or by one day's talk, but by the tenor of his +general bearing and conversation; so of a writer, who delivers himself +up to you perforce unreservedly, you say, Is he honest? Does he tell +the truth in the main? Does he seem actuated by a desire to find out and +speak it? Is he a quack, who shams sentiment, or mouths for effect? Does +he seek popularity by claptraps or other arts? I can no more ignore good +fortune than any other chance which has befallen me. I have found many +thousands more readers than I ever looked for. I have no right to say +to these, You shall not find fault with my art, or fall asleep over my +pages; but I ask you to believe that this person writing strives to tell +the truth. If there is not that, there is nothing. + +Perhaps the lovers of 'excitement' may care to know, that this book +began with a very precise plan, which was entirely put aside. Ladies +and gentlemen, you were to have been treated, and the writer's and the +publisher's pocket benefited, by the recital of the most active horrors. +What more exciting than a ruffian (with many admirable virtues) in St. +Giles's, visited constantly by a young lady from Belgravia? What +more stirring than the contrasts of society? the mixture of slang and +fashionable language? the escapes, the battles, the murders? Nay, up to +nine o'clock this very morning, my poor friend, Colonel Altamont, was +doomed to execution, and the author only relented when his victim was +actually at the window. + +The 'exciting' plan was laid aside (with a very honourable forbearance +on the part of the publishers), because, on attempting it, I found that +I failed from want of experience of my subject; and never having been +intimate with any convict in my life, and the manners of ruffians and +gaol-birds being quite unfamiliar to me, the idea of entering into +competition with M. Eugene Sue was abandoned. To describe a real rascal, +you must make him so horrible that he would be too hideous to show; and +unless the painter paints him fairly, I hold he has no right to show him +at all. + +Even the gentlemen of our age--this is an attempt to describe one of +them, no better nor worse than most educated men--even these we cannot +show as they are, with the notorious foibles and selfishness of their +lives and their education. Since the author of Tom Jones was buried, no +writer of fiction among us has been permitted to depict to his utmost +power a MAN. We must drape him, and give him a certain conventional +simper. Society will not tolerate the Natural in our Art. Many ladies +have remonstrated and subscribers left me, because, in the course of the +story, I described a young man resisting and affected by temptation. + +My object was to say, that he had the passions to feel, and the +manliness and generosity to overcome them. You will not hear--it is best +to know it--what moves in the real world, what passes in society, in the +clubs, colleges, mess-rooms,--what is the life and talk of your sons. +A little more frankness than is customary has been attempted in this +story; with no bad desire on the writer's part, it is hoped, and with no +ill consequence to any reader. If truth is not always pleasant, at +any rate truth is best, from whatever chair--from those whence graver +writers or thinkers argue, as from that at which the story-teller sits +as he concludes his labour, and bids his kind reader farewell. + +Kensington, Nov. 26th, 1850. + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER + I Shows how First Love may interrupt Breakfast + II A Pedigree and other Family Matters + III In which Pendennis appears as a very young Man indeed + IV Mrs. Haller + V Mrs. Haller at Home + VI Contains both Love and War + VII In which the Major makes his Appearance + VIII In which Pen is kept waiting at the Door, while the Reader + is informed who little Laura was + IX In which the Major opens the Campaign + X Facing the Enemy + XI Negotiation + XII In which a Shooting Match is proposed + XIII A Crisis + XIV In which Miss Fotheringay makes a new Engagement + XV The Happy Village + XVI More Storms in the Puddle + XVII Which concludes the First Part of this History + XVIII Alma Mater + XIX Pendennis of Boniface + XX Rake's Progress + XXI Flight after Defeat + XXII Prodigal's Return + XXIII New Faces + XXIV A Little Innocent + XXV Contains both Love and Jealousy + XXVI A House full of Visitors + XXVII Contains some Ball-practising + XXVIII Which is both Quarrelsome and Sentimental + XXIX Babylon + XXX The Knights of the Temple + XXXI Old and New Acquaintances + XXXII In which the Printer's Devil comes to the Door + XXXIII Which is passed in the Neighbourhood of Ludgate Hill + XXXIV In which the History still hovers about Fleet Street + XXXV Dinner in the Row + XXXVI The Pall Mall Gazette + XXXVII Where Pen appears in Town and Country + XXXVIII In which the Sylph reappears + XXXIX In which Colonel Altamont appears and disappears + XL Relates to Mr. Harry Foker's Affairs + XLI Carries the Reader both to Richmond and Greenwich + XLII Contains a Novel Incident + XLIII Alsatia + XLIV In which the Colonel narrates some of his Adventures + XLV A Chapter of Conversations + XLVI Miss Amory's Partners + XLVII Monseigneur s'amuse + XLVIII A Visit of Politeness + XLIX In Shepherd's Inn + L In or near the Temple Garden + LI The Happy Village again + LII Which had very nearly been the last of the Story + LIII A Critical Chapter + LIV Convalescence + LV Fanny's Occupation's gone + LVI In which Fanny engages a new Medical Man + LVII Foreign Ground + LVIII 'Fairoaks to let' + LIX Old Friends + LX Explanations + LXI Conversations + LXII The Way of the World + LXIII Which accounts perhaps for Chapter LXII + LXIV Phillis and Corydon + LXV Temptation + LXVI In which Pen begins his Canvass + LXVII In which Pen begins to doubt about his Election + LXVIII In which the Major is bidden to Stand and Deliver + LXIX In which the Major neither yields his Money nor his Life + LXX In which Pendennis counts his Eggs + LXXI Fiat Justitia + LXXII In which the Decks begin to clear + LXXIII Mr. and Mrs. Sam Huxter + LXXIV Shows how Arthur had better have taken a Return Ticket + LXXV A Chapter of Match-making + LXXVI Exeunt Omnes + + + + + +PENDENNIS + + + +CHAPTER I. Shows how First Love may interrupt Breakfast + + +One fine morning in the full London season, Major Arthur Pendennis +came over from his lodgings, according to his custom, to breakfast at a +certain Club in Pall Mall, of which he was a chief ornament. As he +was one of the finest judges of wine in England, and a man of active, +dominating, and inquiring spirit, he had been very properly chosen to +be a member of the Committee of this Club, and indeed was almost the +manager of the institution; and the stewards and waiters bowed before +him as reverentially as to a Duke or a Field-Marshal. + +At a quarter past ten the Major invariably made his appearance in the +best blacked boots in all London, with a checked morning cravat that +never was rumpled until dinner time, a buff waistcoat which bore the +crown of his sovereign on the buttons, and linen so spotless that Mr. +Brummel himself asked the name of his laundress, and would probably have +employed her had not misfortunes compelled that great man to fly the +country. Pendennis's coat, his white gloves, his whiskers, his very +cane, were perfect of their kind as specimens of the costume of a +military man en retraite. At a distance, or seeing his back merely, you +would have taken him to be not more than thirty years old: it was only +by a nearer inspection that you saw the factitious nature of his rich +brown hair, and that there were a few crow's-feet round about the +somewhat faded eyes of his handsome mottled face. His nose was of the +Wellington pattern. His hands and wristbands were beautifully long and +white. On the latter he wore handsome gold buttons given to him by his +Royal Highness the Duke of York, and on the others more than one elegant +ring, the chief and largest of them being emblazoned with the famous +arms of Pendennis. + +He always took possession of the same table in the same corner of the +room, from which nobody ever now thought of ousting him. One or two +mad wags and wild fellows had in former days, and in freak or bravado, +endeavoured twice or thrice to deprive him of this place; but there was +a quiet dignity in the Major's manner as he took his seat at the next +table, and surveyed the interlopers, which rendered it impossible for +any man to sit and breakfast under his eye; and that table--by the fire, +and yet near the window--became his own. His letters were laid out there +in expectation of his arrival, and many was the young fellow about town +who looked with wonder at the number of those notes, and at the seals +and franks which they bore. If there was any question about etiquette, +society, who was married to whom, of what age such and such a duke was, +Pendennis was the man to whom every one appealed. Marchionesses used to +drive up to the Club, and leave notes for him, or fetch him out. He was +perfectly affable. The young men liked to walk with him in the Park or +down Pall Mall; for he touched his hat to everybody, and every other man +he met was a lord. + +The Major sate down at his accustomed table then, and while the waiters +went to bring him his toast and his hot newspaper, he surveyed his +letters through his gold double eye-glass. He carried it so gaily, you +would hardly have known it was spectacles in disguise, and examined one +pretty note after another, and laid them by in order. There were large +solemn dinner cards, suggestive of three courses and heavy conversation; +there were neat little confidential notes, conveying female entreaties; +there was a note on thick official paper from the Marquis of Steyne, +telling him to come to Richmond to a little party at the Star and +Garter, and speak French, which language the Major possessed very +perfectly; and another from the Bishop of Ealing and Mrs. Trail, +requesting the honour of Major Pendennis's company at Ealing House, +all of which letters Pendennis read gracefully, and with the more +satisfaction, because Glowry, the Scotch surgeon, breakfasting opposite +to him, was looking on, and hating him for having so many invitations, +which nobody ever sent to Glowry. + +These perused, the Major took out his pocket-book to see on what days he +was disengaged, and which of these many hospitable calls he could afford +to accept or decline. + +He threw over Cutler, the East India Director, in Baker Street, in order +to dine with Lord Steyne and the little French party at the Star and +Garter--the Bishop he accepted, because, though the dinner was slow, he +liked to dine with bishops--and so went through his list and disposed of +them according to his fancy or interest. Then he took his breakfast +and looked over the paper, the gazette, the births and deaths, and the +fashionable intelligence, to see that his name was down among the guests +at my Lord So-and-so's fete, and in the intervals of these occupations +carried on cheerful conversation with his acquaintances about the room. + +Among the letters which formed Major Pendennis's budget for that morning +there was only one unread, and which lay solitary and apart from all the +fashionable London letters, with a country postmark and a homely seal. +The superscription was in a pretty delicate female hand, and though +marked 'Immediate' by the fair writer, with a strong dash of anxiety +under the word, yet the Major had, for reasons of his own, neglected up +to the present moment his humble rural petitioner, who to be sure could +hardly hope to get a hearing among so many grand folks who attended +his levee. The fact was, this was a letter from a female relative of +Pendennis, and while the grandees of her brother's acquaintance were +received and got their interview, and drove off, as it were, the patient +country letter remained for a long time waiting for an audience in the +ante-chamber under the slop-bason. + +At last it came to be this letter's turn, and the Major broke a seal +with 'Fairoaks' engraved upon it, and 'Clavering St. Mary's' for a +postmark. It was a double letter, and the Major commenced perusing the +envelope before he attacked the inner epistle. + +"Is it a letter from another Jook," growled Mr. Glowry, inwardly, +"Pendennis would not be leaving that to the last, I'm thinking." + +"My dear Major Pendennis," the letter ran, "I beg and implore you to +come to me immediately "--very likely, thought Pendennis, and Steyne's +dinner to-day--"I am in the very greatest grief and perplexity. My +dearest boy, who has been hitherto everything the fondest mother could +wish, is grieving me dreadfully. He has formed--I can hardly write it--a +passion, an infatuation,"--the Major grinned--"for an actress who +has been performing here. She is at least twelve years older than +Arthur--who will not be eighteen till next February--and the wretched +boy insists upon marrying her." + +"Hay! What's making Pendennis swear now?"--Mr. Glowry asked of himself, +for rage and wonder were concentrated in the Major's open mouth, as he +read this astounding announcement. + +"Do, my dear friend," the grief-stricken lady went on, "come to me +instantly on the receipt of this; and, as Arthur's guardian, entreat, +command, the wretched child to give up this most deplorable resolution." +And, after more entreaties to the above effect, the writer concluded +by signing herself the Major's 'unhappy affectionate sister, Helen +Pendennis.' + +"Fairoaks, Tuesday"--the Major concluded, reading the last words of the +letter--"A d---d pretty business at Fairoaks, Tuesday; now let us +see what the boy has to say;" and he took the other letter, which was +written in a great floundering boy's hand, and sealed with the large +signet of the Pendennises, even larger than the Major's own, and with +supplementary wax sputtered all round the seal, in token of the writer's +tremulousness and agitation. + +The epistle ran thus: + +"Fairoaks, Monday, Midnight. + +"My Dear Uncle,--In informing you of my engagement with Miss Costigan, +daughter of J. Chesterfield Costigan, Esq., of Costiganstown, but, +perhaps, better known to you under her professional name of Miss +Fotheringay, of the Theatres Royal Drury Lane and Crow Street, and of +the Norwich and Welsh Circuit, I am aware that I make an announcement +which cannot, according to the present prejudices of society at least, +be welcome to my family. My dearest mother, on whom, God knows, I would +wish to inflict no needless pain, is deeply moved and grieved, I am +sorry to say, by the intelligence which I have this night conveyed to +her. I beseech you, my dear Sir, to come down and reason with her +and console her. Although obliged by poverty to earn an honourable +maintenance by the exercise of her splendid talents, Miss Costigan's +family is as ancient and noble as our own. When our ancestor, Ralph +Pendennis, landed with Richard II. in Ireland, my Emily's forefathers +were kings of that country. I have the information from Mr. Costigan, +who, like yourself, is a military man. + +"It is in vain I have attempted to argue with my dear mother, and +prove to her that a young lady of irreproachable character and lineage, +endowed with the most splendid gifts of beauty and genius, who devotes +herself to the exercise of one of the noblest professions, for the +sacred purpose of maintaining her family, is a being whom we should all +love and reverence, rather than avoid;--my poor mother has prejudices +which it is impossible for my logic to overcome, and refuses to welcome +to her arms one who is disposed to be her most affectionate daughter +through life. + +"Although Miss Costigan is some years older than myself, that +circumstance does not operate as a barrier to my affection, and I am +sure will not influence its duration. A love like mine, Sir, I feel, is +contracted once and for ever. As I never had dreamed of love until I saw +her--I feel now that I shall die without ever knowing another passion. +It is the fate of my life. It was Miss C.'s own delicacy which suggested +that the difference of age, which I never felt, might operate as a bar +to our union. But having loved once, I should despise myself, and +be unworthy of my name as a gentleman, if I hesitated to abide by my +passion: if I did not give all where I felt all, and endow the woman who +loves me fondly with my whole heart and my whole fortune. + +"I press for a speedy marriage with my Emily--for why, in truth, +should it be delayed? A delay implies a doubt, which I cast from me +as unworthy. It is impossible that my sentiments can change towards +Emily--that at any age she can be anything but the sole object of my +love. Why, then, wait? I entreat you, my dear Uncle, to come down and +reconcile my dear mother to our union, and I address you as a man of the +world, qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes, who will not feel any +of the weak scruples and fears which agitate a lady who has scarcely +ever left her village. + +"Pray, come down to us immediately. I am quite confident that--apart +from considerations of fortune--you will admire and approve of my +Emily.--Your affectionate Nephew, Arthur Pendennis, Jr." + +When the Major had concluded the perusal of this letter, his countenance +assumed an expression of such rage and horror that Glowry, the +surgeon-official, felt in his pocket for his lancet, which he always +carried in his card-case, and thought his respected friend was going +into a fit. The intelligence was indeed sufficient to agitate Pendennis. +The head of the Pendennises going to marry an actress ten years his +senior,--a headstrong boy going to plunge into matrimony. "The mother +has spoiled the young rascal," groaned the Major inwardly, "with her +cursed sentimentality and romantic rubbish. My nephew marry a tragedy +queen! Gracious mercy, people will laugh at me so that I shall not dare +show my head!" And he thought with an inexpressible pang that he must +give up Lord Steyne's dinner at Richmond, and must lose his rest and +pass the night in an abominable tight mail-coach, instead of taking +pleasure, as he had promised himself, in some of the most agreeable and +select society in England. + +And he must not only give up this but all other engagements for some +time to come. Who knows how long the business might detain him. He +quitted his breakfast table for the adjoining writing-room, and there +ruefully wrote off refusals to the Marquis, the Earl, the Bishop, and +all his entertainers; and he ordered his servant to take places in +the mail-coach for that evening, of course charging the sum which +he disbursed for the seats to the account of the widow and the young +scapegrace of whom he was guardian. + + + + +CHAPTER II. A Pedigree and other Family Matters + + +Early in the Regency of George the Magnificent, there lived in a small +town in the west of England, called Clavering, a gentleman whose name +was Pendennis. There were those alive who remembered having seen his +name painted on a board, which was surmounted by a gilt pestle and +mortar over the door of a very humble little shop in the city of Bath, +where Mr. Pendennis exercised the profession of apothecary and surgeon; +and where he not only attended gentlemen in their sick-rooms, and ladies +at the most interesting periods of their lives, but would condescend to +sell a brown-paper plaster to a farmer's wife across the counter,--or to +vend tooth-brushes, hair-powder, and London perfumery. For these facts +a few folks at Clavering could vouch, where people's memories were more +tenacious, perhaps, than they are in a great bustling metropolis. + +And yet that little apothecary who sold a stray customer a pennyworth of +salts, or a more fragrant cake of Windsor soap, was a gentleman of +good education, and of as old a family as any in the whole county of +Somerset. He had a Cornish pedigree which carried the Pendennises up to +the time of the Druids, and who knows how much farther back? They had +intermarried with the Normans at a very late period of their family +existence, and they were related to all the great families of Wales and +Brittany. Pendennis had had a piece of University education too, and +might have pursued that career with great honour, but that in his second +year at Cambridge his father died insolvent, and poor Pen was obliged +to betake himself to the pestle and apron. He always detested the trade, +and it was only necessity, and the offer of his mother's brother, a +London apothecary of low family, into which Pendennis's father had +demeaned himself by marrying, that forced John Pendennis into so odious +a calling. + +He quickly after his apprenticeship parted from the coarse-minded +practitioner his relative, and set up for himself at Bath with his +modest medical ensign. He had for some time a hard struggle with +poverty; and it was all he could do to keep the shop and its gilt +ornaments in decent repair, and his bed-ridden mother in comfort: but +Lady Ribstone happening to be passing to the Rooms with an intoxicated +Irish chairman who bumped her ladyship up against Pen's very door-post, +and drove his chair-pole through the handsomest pink bottle in +the surgeon's window, alighted screaming from her vehicle, and was +accommodated with a chair in Mr. Pendennis's shop, where she was brought +round with cinnamon and sal-volatile. + +Mr. Pendennis's manners were so uncommonly gentlemanlike and soothing, +that her ladyship, the wife of Sir Pepin Ribstone, of Codlingbury, in +the county of Somerset, Bart., appointed her preserver, as she called +him, apothecary to her person and family, which was very large. Master +Ribstone coming home for the Christmas holidays from Eton, over-ate +himself and had a fever, in which Mr. Pendennis treated him with the +greatest skill and tenderness. In a word, he got the good graces of the +Codlingbury family, and from that day began to prosper. The good company +of Bath patronised him, and amongst the ladies especially he was beloved +and admired. First his humble little shop became a smart one: then he +discarded the selling of tooth-brushes and perfumery, as unworthy of a +gentleman of an ancient lineage: then he shut up the shop altogether, +and only had a little surgery attended by a genteel young man: then he +had a gig with a man to drive him; and, before her exit from this world, +his poor old mother had the happiness of seeing from her bedroom window +to which her chair was rolled, her beloved John step into a close +carriage of his own, a one-horse carriage it is true, but with the arms +of the family of Pendennis handsomely emblazoned on the panels. +"What would Arthur say now?" she asked, speaking of a younger son of +hers--"who never so much as once came to see my dearest Johnny through +all the time of his poverty and struggles!" + +"Captain Pendennis is with his regiment in India, mother," Mr. Pendennis +remarked, "and, if you please, I wish you would not call me Johnny +before the young man--before Mr. Parkins." + +Presently the day came when she ceased to call her son by the name of +Johnny, or by any other title of endearment or affection; and his house +was very lonely without that kind though querulous voice. He had his +night-bell altered and placed in the room in which the good old lady +had grumbled for many a long year, and he slept in the great large +bed there. He was upwards of forty years old when these events befell; +before the war was over; before George the Magnificent came to the +throne; before this history indeed: but what is a gentleman without his +pedigree? Pendennis, by this time, had his handsomely framed and glazed, +and hanging up in his drawing-room between the pictures of Codlingbury +House in Somersetshire, and St. Boniface's College, Cambridge, where +he had passed the brief and happy days of his early manhood. As for the +pedigree he had taken it out of a trunk, as Sterne's officer called for +his sword, now that he was a gentleman and could show it. + +About the time of Mrs. Pendennis's demise, another of her son's patients +likewise died at Bath; that virtuous woman, old Lady Pontypool, +daughter of Reginald twelfth Earl of Bareacres, and by consequence +great-grand-aunt to the present Earl, and widow of John second Lord +Pontypool, and likewise of the Reverend Jonas Wales, of the Armageddon +Chapel, Clifton. For the last five years of her life her ladyship had +been attended by Miss Helen Thistlewood, a very distant relative of the +noble house of Bareacres, before mentioned, and daughter of Lieutenant +R. Thistlewood, R.N., killed at the battle of Copenhagen. Under Lady +Pontypool's roof Miss Thistlewood found a comfortable shelter, as far as +boarding and lodging went, but suffered under such an infernal tyranny +as only women can inflict on, or bear from, one another: the Doctor, who +paid his visits to my Lady Pontypool at least twice a day, could not but +remark the angelical sweetness and kindness with which the young lady +bore her elderly relative's insults; and it was, as they were going in +the fourth mourning coach to attend her ladyship's venerated remains to +Bath Abbey, where they now repose, that he looked at her sweet pale face +and resolved upon putting a certain question to her, the very nature of +which made his pulse beat ninety, at least. + +He was older than she by more than twenty years, and at no time the most +ardent of men. Perhaps he had had a love affair in early life which he +had to strangle--perhaps all early love affairs ought to be strangled or +drowned, like so many blind kittens: well, at three-and-forty he was a +collected quiet little gentleman in black stockings with a bald head, +and a few days after the ceremony he called to see her, and, as he felt +her pulse, he kept hold of her hand in his, and asked her where she +was going to live now that the Pontypool family had come down upon the +property, which was being nailed into boxes, and packed into hampers, +and swaddled up with haybands, and buried in straw, and locked under +three keys in green baize plate-chests, and carted away under the eyes +of poor Miss Helen,--he asked her where she was going to live finally. + +Her eyes filled with tears, and she said she did not know. She had a +little money. The old lady had left her a thousand pounds, indeed; and +she would go into a boarding-house or into a school: in fine, she did +not know where. + +Then Pendennis, looking into her pale face, and keeping hold of her cold +little hand, asked her if she would come and live with him? He was old +compared to--to so blooming a young lady as Miss Thistlewood +(Pendennis was of the grave old complimentary school of gentlemen and +apothecaries), but he was of good birth, and, he flattered himself, of +good principles and temper. His prospects were good, and daily +mending. He was alone in the world, and had need of a kind and constant +companion, whom it would be the study of his life to make happy; in +a word, he recited to her a little speech, which he had composed that +morning in bed, and rehearsed and perfected in his carriage, as he was +coming to wait upon the young lady. + +Perhaps if he had had an early love-passage, she too had one day hoped +for a different lot than to be wedded to a little gentleman who rapped +his teeth and smiled artificially, who was laboriously polite to the +butler as he slid upstairs into the drawing-room, and profusely civil +to the lady's-maid, who waited at the bed-room door; for whom her old +patroness used to ring as for a servant, and who came with even more +eagerness; who got up stories, as he sent in draughts, for his patient's +amusement and his own profit: perhaps she would have chosen a different +man--but she knew, on the other hand, how worthy Pendennis was, how +prudent, how honourable; how good he had been to his mother, and +constant in his care of her; and the upshot of this interview was, that +she, blushing very much, made Pendennis an extremely low curtsey, and +asked leave to--to consider his very kind proposal. + +They were married in the dull Bath season, which was the height of +the season in London. And Pendennis having previously, through a +professional friend, M.R.C.S., secured lodgings in Holles Street, +Cavendish Square, took his wife thither in a chaise and pair; conducted +her to the theatres, the Parks, and the Chapel Royal; showed her +the folks going to a drawing-room, and, in a word, gave her all the +pleasures of the town. He likewise left cards upon Lord Pontypool, upon +the Right Honourable the Earl of Bareacres, and upon Sir Pepin and Lady +Ribstone, his earliest and kindest patrons. Bareacres took no notice +of the cards. Pontypool called, admired Mrs. Pendennis, and said Lady +Pontypool would come and see her, which her ladyship did, per proxy of +John her footman, who brought her card, and an invitation to a concert +five weeks off. Pendennis was back in his little one-horse carriage, +dispensing draughts and pills at that time: but the Ribstones asked him +and Mrs. Pendennis to an entertainment, of which Mr. Pendennis bragged +to the last day of his life. + +The secret ambition of Mr. Pendennis had always been to be a gentleman. +It takes much time and careful saving for a provincial doctor, whose +gains are not very large, to lay by enough money wherewith to purchase +a house and land: but besides our friend's own frugality and prudence, +fortune aided him considerably in his endeavour, and brought him to +the point which he so panted to attain. He laid out some money very +advantageously in the purchase of a house and small estate close upon +the village of Clavering before mentioned. Words cannot describe, nor +did he himself ever care to confess to any one, his pride when he found +himself a real landed proprietor, and could walk over acres of which +he was the master. A lucky purchase which he had made of shares in a +copper-mine added very considerably to his wealth, and he realised with +great prudence while this mine was still at its full vogue. Finally, he +sold his business at Bath, to Mr. Parkins, for a handsome sum of ready +money, and for an annuity to be paid to him during a certain number of +years after he had for ever retired from the handling of the mortar and +pestle. + +Arthur Pendennis, his son, was eight years old at the time of this +event, so that it is no wonder that the latter, who left Bath and the +surgery so young, should forget the existence of such a place almost +entirely, and that his father's hands had ever been dirtied by the +compounding of odious pills, or the preparation of filthy plasters. The +old man never spoke about the shop himself, never alluded to it; called +in the medical practitioner of Clavering to attend his family when +occasion arrived; sunk the black breeches and stockings altogether; +attended market and sessions, and wore a bottle-green coat and brass +buttons with drab gaiters, just as if he had been an English gentleman +all his life. He used to stand at his lodge-gate, and see the coaches +come in, and bow gravely to the guards and coachmen as they touched +their hats and drove by. It was he who founded the Clavering Book Club: +and set up the Samaritan Soup and Blanket Society. It was he who brought +the mail, which used to run through Cacklefield before, away from that +village and through Clavering. At church he was equally active as a +vestryman and a worshipper. At market every Thursday, he went from pen +to stall, looked at samples of oats, and munched corn, felt beasts, +punched geese in the breast, and weighed them with a knowing air, and +did business with the farmers at the Clavering Arms, as well as the +oldest frequenter of that house of call. It was now his shame, as it +formerly was his pride, to be called Doctor, and those who wished to +please him always gave him the title of Squire. + +Heaven knows where they came from, but a whole range of Pendennis +portraits presently hung round the Doctor's oak dining-room; Lelys and +Vandykes he vowed all the portraits to be, and when questioned as to +the history of the originals, would vaguely say they were 'ancestors of +his.' You could see by his wife's looks that she disbelieved in +these genealogical legends, for she generally endeavoured to turn the +conversation when he commenced them. But his little boy believed them to +their fullest extent, and Roger Pendennis of Agincourt, Arthur Pendennis +of Crecy, General Pendennis of Blenheim and Oudenarde, were as real +and actual beings for this young gentleman as--whom shall we +say?--as Robinson Crusoe, or Peter Wilkins, or the Seven Champions of +Christendom, whose histories were in his library. + +Pendennis's fortune, which, at the best, was not above eight hundred +pounds a year, did not, with the best economy and management, permit +of his living with the great folks of the county; but he had a decent +comfortable society of the second-best sort. If they were not the roses, +they lived near the roses, as it were, and had a good deal of the odour +of genteel life. They had out their plate, and dined each other round +in the moonlight nights twice a year, coming a dozen miles to these +festivals; and besides the county, the Pendennises had the society of +the town of Clavering, as much as, nay, more than they liked: for Mrs. +Pybus was always poking about Helen's conservatories, and intercepting +the operation of her soup-tickets and coal-clubs. Captain Glanders (H. +P., 50th Dragoon Guards) was for ever swaggering about the Squire's +stables and gardens, and endeavouring to enlist him in his quarrels +with the Vicar, with the Postmaster, with the Reverend F. Wapshot +of Clavering Grammar School, for overflogging his son, Anglesea +Glanders,--with all the village in fine. And Pendennis and his wife +often blessed themselves, that their house of Fairoaks was nearly a mile +out of Clavering, or their premises would never have been free from +the prying eyes and prattle of one or other of the male and female +inhabitants there. + +Fairoaks lawn comes down to the little river Brawl, and on the other +side were the plantations and woods (as much as were left of them) of +Clavering Park, Sir Francis Clavering, Bart. The park was let out in +pasture and fed down by sheep and cattle, when the Pendennises came +first to live at Fairoaks. Shutters were up in the house; a splendid +freestone palace, with great stairs, statues, and porticos, whereof you +may see a picture in the 'Beauties of England and Wales.' Sir Richard +Clavering, Sir Francis's grandfather, had commenced the ruin of the +family by the building of this palace: his successor had achieved the +ruin by living in it. The present Sir Francis was abroad somewhere; +nor could anybody be found rich enough to rent that enormous mansion, +through the deserted rooms, mouldy clanking halls, and dismal galleries +of which, Arthur Pendennis many a time walked trembling when he was a +boy. At sunset, from the lawn of Fairoaks, there was a pretty sight: +it and the opposite park of Clavering were in the habit of putting on a +rich golden tinge, which became them both wonderfully. The upper windows +of the great house flamed so as to make your eyes wink; the little river +ran off noisily westward, and was lost in a sombre wood, behind which +the towers of the old abbey church of Clavering (whereby that town +is called Clavering St. Mary's to the present day) rose up in purple +splendour. Little Arthur's figure and his mother's, cast long blue +shadows over the grass; and he would repeat in a low voice (for a +scene of great natural beauty always moved the boy, who inherited this +sensibility from his mother) certain lines beginning, "These are thy +glorious works, Parent of Good; Almighty! thine this universal frame," +greatly to Mrs. Pendennis's delight. Such walks and conversation +generally ended in a profusion of filial and maternal embraces; for to +love and to pray were the main occupations of this dear woman's life; +and I have often heard Pendennis say in his wild way, that he felt that +he was sure of going to heaven, for his mother never could be happy +there without him. + +As for John Pendennis, as the father of the family, and that sort of +thing, everybody had the greatest respect for him: and his orders +were obeyed like those of the Medes and Persians. His hat was as well +brushed, perhaps, as that of any man in this empire. His meals were +served at the same minute every day, and woe to those who came late, +as little Pen, a disorderly little rascal, sometimes did. Prayers were +recited, his letters were read, his business dispatched, his stables +and garden inspected, his hen-houses and kennel, his barn and pigstye +visited, always at regular hours. After dinner he always had a nap with +the Globe newspaper on his knee, and his yellow bandanna handkerchief on +his face (Major Pendennis sent the yellow handkerchiefs from India, and +his brother had helped in the purchase of his majority, so that they +were good friends now). And so, as his dinner took place at six o'clock +to a minute, and the sunset business alluded to may be supposed to have +occurred at about half-past seven, it is probable that he did not much +care for the view in front of his lawn windows or take any share in the +poetry and caresses which were taking place there. + +They seldom occurred in his presence. However frisky they were before, +mother and child were hushed and quiet when Mr. Pendennis walked into +the drawing-room, his newspaper under his arm. And here, while little +Pen, buried in a great chair, read all the books of which he could lay +hold, the Squire perused his own articles in the 'Gardener's Gazette,' +or took a solemn hand at picquet with Mrs. Pendennis, or an occasional +friend from the village. + +Pendennis usually took care that at least one of his grand dinners +should take place when his brother, the Major, who, on the return of +his regiment from India and New South Wales, had sold out and gone upon +half-pay, came to pay his biennial visit to Fairoaks. "My brother, Major +Pendennis," was a constant theme of the retired Doctor's conversation. +All the family delighted in my brother the Major. He was the link which +bound them to the great world of London, and the fashion. He always +brought down the last news of the nobility, and was in the constant +habit of dining with lords and great folks. He spoke of such with +soldierlike respect and decorum. He would say, "My Lord Bareacres has +been good enough to invite me to Bareacres for the pheasant shooting," +or, "My Lord Steyne is so kind as to wish for my presence at Stillbrook +for the Easter holidays;" and you may be sure the whereabouts of my +brother the Major was carefully made known by worthy Mr. Pendennis to +his friends at the Clavering Reading room, at Justice-meetings, or at +the County-town. Their carriages would come from ten miles round to call +upon Major Pendennis in his visits to Fairoaks; the fame of his fashion +as a man about town was established throughout the county. There was a +talk of his marrying Miss Hunkle, of Lilybank, old Hunkle the Attorney's +daughter, with at least fifteen hundred a-year to her fortune: but my +brother the Major refused this negotiation, advantageous as it might +seem to most persons. "As a bachelor," he said, "nobody cares how poor I +am. I have the happiness to live with people who are so highly placed in +the world, that a few hundreds or thousands a year more or less can make +no difference in the estimation in which they are pleased to hold me. +Miss Hunkle, though a most respectable lady, is not in possession of +either the birth or the manners, which would entitle her to be received +into the sphere in which I have the honour to move. I shall live and die +an old bachelor, John: and your worthy friend, Miss Hunkle, I have +no doubt, will find some more worthy object of her affection, than a +worn-out old soldier on half-pay." Time showed the correctness of the +surmise of the old man of the world; Miss Hunkle married a young French +nobleman, and is now at this moment living at Lilybank, under the title +of Baroness de Carambole, having been separated from her wild young +scapegrace of a Baron very shortly after their union. + +The Major was a great favourite with almost all the little establishment +of Fairoaks. He was as good-natured as he was well bred, and had a +sincere liking and regard for his sister-in-law, whom he pronounced, +and with perfect truth, to be as fine a lady as any in England, and +an honour to the family. Indeed, Mrs. Pendennis's tranquil beauty, her +natural sweetness and kindness, and that simplicity and dignity which a +perfect purity and innocence are sure to bestow upon a handsome woman, +rendered her quite worthy of her brother's praises. I think it is not +national prejudice which makes me believe that a high-bred English lady +is the most complete of all Heaven's subjects in this world. In whom +else do you see so much grace, and so much virtue; so much faith, and +so much tenderness; with such a perfect refinement and chastity? And by +high-bred ladies I don't mean duchesses and countesses. Be they ever so +high in station, they can be but ladies, and no more. But almost every +man who lives in the world has the happiness, let us hope, of counting +a few such persons amongst his circle of acquaintance--women, in whose +angelical natures, there is something awful, as well as beautiful, to +contemplate; at whose feet the wildest and fiercest of us must fall down +and humble ourselves;--in admiration of that adorable purity which never +seems to do or to think wrong. + +Arthur Pendennis had the good fortune to have a mother endowed with +these happy qualities. During his childhood and youth, the boy thought +of her as little less than an angel,--as a supernatural being, all +wisdom, love, and beauty. When her husband drove her into the county +town, or to the assize balls or concerts there, he would step into the +assembly with his wife on his arm, and look the great folks in the face, +as much as to say, "Look at that, my lord; can any of you show me a +woman like that?" She enraged some country ladies with three times her +money, by a sort of desperate perfection which they found in her. Miss +Pybus said she was cold and haughty; Miss Pierce, that she was too proud +for her station; Mrs. Wapshot, as a doctor of divinity's lady, would +have the pas of her, who was only the wife of a medical practitioner. In +the meanwhile, this lady moved through the world quite regardless of all +the comments that were made in her praise or disfavour. She did not seem +to know that she was admired or hated for being so perfect: but carried +on calmly through life, saying her prayers, loving her family, helping +her neighbours, and doing her duty. + +That even a woman should be faultless, however, is an arrangement not +permitted by nature, which assigns to us mental defects, as it awards to +us headaches, illnesses, or death; without which the scheme of the world +could not be carried on,--nay, some of the best qualities of mankind +could not be brought into exercise. As pain produces or elicits +fortitude and endurance; difficulty, perseverance; poverty, industry +and ingenuity; danger, courage and what not; so the very virtues, on the +other hand, will generate some vices: and, in fine, Mrs. Pendennis had +that vice which Miss Pybus and Miss Pierce discovered in her, namely, +that of pride; which did not vest itself so much in her own person, as +in that of her family. She spoke about Mr. Pendennis (a worthy little +gentleman enough, but there are others as good as he) with an awful +reverence, as if he had been the Pope of Rome on his throne, and she +a cardinal kneeling at his feet, and giving him incense. The Major she +held to be a sort of Bayard among Majors: and as for her son Arthur she +worshipped that youth with an ardour which the young scapegrace accepted +almost as coolly as the statue of the Saint in Saint Peter's receives +the rapturous osculations which the faithful deliver on his toe. + +This unfortunate superstition and idol-worship of this good woman was +the cause of a great deal of the misfortune which befell the young +gentleman who is the hero of this history, and deserves therefore to be +mentioned at the outset of his story. + +Arthur Pendennis's schoolfellows at the Greyfriars School state that, as +a boy, he was in no ways remarkable either as a dunce or as a scholar. +He did, in fact, just as much as was required of him, and no more. If +he was distinguished for anything it was for verse-writing: but was his +enthusiasm ever so great, it stopped when he had composed the number +of lines demanded by the regulations (unlike young Swettenham, for +instance, who, with no more of poetry in his composition than Mr. +Wakley, yet would bring up a hundred dreary hexameters to the master +after a half-holiday; or young Fluxmore, who not only did his own +verses, but all the fifth form's besides). He never read to improve +himself out of school-hours, but, on the contrary, devoured all the +novels, plays, and poetry, on which he could lay his hands. He never was +flogged, but it was a wonder how he escaped the whipping-post. When he +had money he spent it royally in tarts for himself and his friends; +he has been known to disburse nine and sixpence out of ten shillings +awarded to him in a single day. When he had no funds he went on tick. +When he could get no credit he went without, and was almost as happy. +He has been known to take a thrashing for a crony without saying a +word; but a blow, ever so slight from a friend, would make him roar. To +fighting he was averse from his earliest youth, as indeed to physic, the +Greek Grammar, or any other exertion, and would engage in none of them, +except at the last extremity. He seldom if ever told lies, and never +bullied little boys. Those masters or seniors who were kind to him, he +loved with boyish ardour. And though the Doctor, when he did not know +his Horace, or could not construe his Greek play, said that that boy +Pendennis was a disgrace to the school, a candidate for ruin in this +world, and perdition in the next; a profligate who would most likely +bring his venerable father to ruin and his mother to a dishonoured +grave, and the like--yet as the Doctor made use of these compliments +to most of the boys in the place (which has not turned out an unusual +number of felons and pickpockets), little Pen, at first uneasy and +terrified by these charges, became gradually accustomed to hear them; +and he has not, in fact, either murdered his parents, or committed any +act worthy of transportation or hanging up to the present day. + +There were many of the upper boys, among the Cistercians with whom +Pendennis was educated, who assumed all the privileges of men long +before they quitted that seminary. Many of them, for example, smoked +cigars--and some had already begun the practice of inebriation. One had +fought a duel with an Ensign in a marching regiment, in consequence of a row at +the theatre--another actually kept a buggy and horse at a livery stable +in Covent Garden, and might be seen driving any Sunday in Hyde Park with +a groom with squared arms and armorial buttons by his side. Many of +the seniors were in love, and showed each other in confidence poems +addressed to, or letters and locks of hair received from, young +ladies--but Pen, a modest and timid youth, rather envied these than +imitated them as yet. He had not got beyond the theory as yet--the +practice of life was all to come. And by the way, ye tender mothers and +sober fathers of Christian families, a prodigious thing that theory of +life is as orally learned at a great public school. Why, if you could +hear those boys of fourteen who blush before mothers and sneak off in +silence in the presence of their daughters, talking among each other--it +would be the women's turn to blush then. Before he was twelve years old +and if while his mother fancied him an angel of candour, little Pen +had heard talk enough to make him quite awfully wise upon certain +points--and so, Madam, has your pretty little rosy-cheeked son, who is +coming home from school for the ensuing Christmas holidays. I don't say +that the boy is lost, or that the innocence has left him which he +had from 'Heaven, which is our home,' but that the shades of the +prison-house are closing very fast over him, and that we are helping as +much as possible to corrupt him. + +Well--Pen had just made his public appearance in a coat with a tail, or +cauda virilis, and was looking most anxiously in his little study-glass +to see if his whiskers were growing, like those of more fortunate youths +his companions; and, instead of the treble voice with which he used to +speak and sing (for his singing voice was a very sweet one, and he used +when little to be made to perform 'Home, sweet Home,' 'My pretty Page,' +and a French song or two which his mother had taught him, and other +ballads for the delectation of the senior boys), had suddenly plunged +into a deep bass diversified by a squeak, which when he was called upon +to construe in school set the master and scholars laughing--he was about +sixteen years old, in a word, when he was suddenly called away from his +academic studies. + +It was at the close of the forenoon school, and Pen had been unnoticed +all the previous part of the morning till now, when the Doctor put him +on to construe in a Greek play. He did not know a word of it, though +little Timmins, his form-fellow, was prompting him with all his might. +Pen had made a sad blunder or two when the awful Chief broke out upon +him. + +"Pendennis, sir," he said, "your idleness is incorrigible and your +stupidity beyond example. You are a disgrace to your school, and to your +family, and I have no doubt will prove so in after-life to your country. +If that vice, sir, which is described to us as the root of all evil, +be really what moralists have represented (and I have no doubt of the +correctness of their opinion), for what a prodigious quantity of future +crime and wickedness are you, unhappy boy, laying the seed! Miserable +trifler! A boy who construes [Greek word], instead of [Greek word], but at sixteen +years of age is guilty not merely of folly, and ignorance, and dulness +inconceivable, but of crime, of deadly crime, of filial ingratitude, +which I tremble to contemplate. A boy, sir, who does not learn his Greek +play cheats the parent who spends money for his education. A boy who +cheats his parent is not very far from robbing or forging upon his +neighbour. A man who forges on his neighbour pays the penalty of his +crime at the gallows. And it is not such a one that I pity (for he will +be deservedly cut off), but his maddened and heart-broken parents, who +are driven to a premature grave by his crimes, or, if they live, drag on +a wretched and dishonoured old age. Go on, sir, and I warn you that the +very next mistake that you make shall subject you to the punishment of +the rod. Who's that laughing? What ill-conditioned boy is there that +dares to laugh?" shouted the Doctor. + +Indeed, while the master was making this oration, there was a general +titter behind him in the schoolroom. The orator had his back to the door +of this ancient apartment, which was open, and a gentleman who was quite +familiar with the place, for both Major Arthur and Mr. John Pendennis +had been at the school, was asking the fifth-form boy who sate by the +door for Pendennis. The lad grinning pointed to the culprit against +whom the Doctor was pouring out the thunders of his just wrath--Major +Pendennis could not help laughing. He remembered having stood under that +very pillar where Pen the younger now stood, and having been assaulted +by the Doctor's predecessor years and years ago. The intelligence +was 'passed round' that it was Pendennis's uncle in an instant, and a +hundred young faces wondering and giggling, between terror and laughter, +turned now to the new-comer and then to the awful Doctor. + +The Major asked the fifth-form boy to carry his card up to the Doctor, +which the lad did with an arch look. Major Pendennis had written on the +card, "I must take A. P. home; his father is very ill." + +As the Doctor received the card, and stopped his harangue with rather +a scared look, the laughter of the boys, half constrained until then, +burst out in a general shout. "Silence!" roared out the Doctor stamping +with his foot. Pen looked up and saw who was his deliverer; the Major +beckoned to him gravely with one of his white gloves, and tumbling down +his books, Pen went across. + +The Doctor took out his watch. It was two minutes to one. "We will take +the Juvenal at afternoon school," he said, nodding to the Captain, and +all the boys understanding the signal gathered up their books and poured +out of the hall. + +Young Pen saw by his uncle's face that something had happened at home. +"Is there anything the matter with my mother?" he said. He could hardly +speak, though, for emotion, and the tears which were ready to start. + +"No," said the Major, "but your father's very ill. Go and pack your +trunk directly; I have got a postchaise at the gate." + +Pen went off quickly to his boarding-house to do as his uncle bade him; +and the Doctor, now left alone in the schoolroom, came out to shake +hands with his old schoolfellow. You would not have thought it was the +same man. As Cinderella at a particular hour became, from a blazing and +magnificent Princess, quite an ordinary little maid in a grey petticoat, +so, as the clock struck one, all the thundering majesty and awful wrath +of the schoolmaster disappeared. + +"There is nothing serious, I hope," said the Doctor. "It is a pity to +take the boy away unless there is. He is a very good boy, rather idle +and unenergetic, but he is a very honest gentlemanlike little fellow, +though I can't get him to construe as I wish. Won't you come in and have +some luncheon? My wife will be very happy to see you." + +But Major Pendennis declined the luncheon. He said his brother was very +ill, had had a fit the day before, and it was a great question if they +should see him alive. + +"There's no other son, is there?" said the Doctor. The Major answered +"No." + +"And there's a good eh--a good eh--property I believe?" asked the other +in an off-hand way. + +"H'm--so so," said the Major. Whereupon this colloquy came to an end. +And Arthur Pendennis got into the postchaise with his uncle never to +come back to school any more. + +As the chaise drove through Clavering, the hostler standing whistling +under the archway of the Clavering Arms, winked the postilion ominously, +as much as to say all was over. The gardener's wife came and opened the +lodge-gates, and let the travellers through with a silent shake of the +head. All the blinds were down at Fairoaks--the face of the old footman +was as blank when he let them in. Arthur's face was white too, with +terror more than with grief. Whatever of warmth and love the deceased +man might have had, and he adored his wife and loved and admired his son +with all his heart, he had shut them up within himself; nor had the boy +been ever able to penetrate that frigid outward barrier. But Arthur had +been his father's pride and glory through life, and his name the last +which John Pendennis had tried to articulate whilst he lay with his +wife's hand clasping his own cold and clammy palm, as the flickering +spirit went out into the darkness of death, and life and the world +passed away from him. + +The little girl, whose face had peered for a moment under the blinds as +the chaise came up, opened the door from the stairs into the hall, and +taking Arthur's hand silently as he stooped down to kiss her, led him +upstairs to his mother. Old John opened the dining-room door for the +Major. The room was darkened with the blinds down, and surrounded by all +the gloomy pictures of the Pendennises. He drank a glass of wine. The +bottle had been opened for the Squire four days before. His hat was +brushed, and laid on the hall table: his newspapers, and his letter-bag, +with John Pendennis, Esquire, Fairoaks, engraved upon the brass plate, +were there in waiting. The doctor and the lawyer from Clavering, who had +seen the chaise pass through, came up in a gig half an hour after +the Major's arrival, and entered by the back door. The former gave a +detailed account of the seizure and demise of Mr. Pendennis, enlarged on +his virtues and the estimation in which the neighbourhood held him; on +what a loss he would be to the magistrates' bench, the County Hospital, +etc. Mrs. Pendennis bore up wonderfully, he said, especially since +Master Arthur's arrival. The lawyer stayed and dined with Major +Pendennis, and they talked business all the evening. The Major was his +brother's executor, and joint guardian to the boy with Mrs. Pendennis. +Everything was left unreservedly to her, except in case of a second +marriage,--an occasion which might offer itself in the case of so +young and handsome a woman, Mr. Tatham gallantly said, when different +provisions were enacted by the deceased. The Major would of course take +entire superintendence of everything under this most impressive and +melancholy occasion. Aware of this authority, old John the footman, when +he brought Major Pendennis the candle to go to bed, followed afterwards +with the plate-basket; and the next morning brought him the key of the +hall clock--the Squire always used to wind it up of a Thursday, John +said. Mrs. Pendennis's maid brought him messages from her mistress. +She confirmed the doctor's report, of the comfort which Master Arthur's +arrival had caused to his mother. + +What passed between that lady and the boy is not of import. A veil +should be thrown over those sacred emotions of love and grief. The +maternal passion is a sacred mystery to me. What one sees symbolised +in the Roman churches in the image of the Virgin Mother with a bosom +bleeding with love, I think one may witness (and admire the Almighty +bounty for) every day. I saw a Jewish lady, only yesterday, with a +child at her knee, and from whose face towards the child there shone +a sweetness so angelical, that it seemed to form a sort of glory round +both. I protest I could have knelt before her too, and adored in her the +Divine beneficence in endowing us with the maternal storge, which began +with our race and sanctifies the history of mankind. + +So it was with this, in a word, that Mrs. Pendennis comforted herself +on the death of her husband, whom, however, she always reverenced as the +best, the most upright, wise, high-minded, accomplished, and awful of +men. If the women did not make idols of us, and if they saw us as we see +each other, would life be bearable, or could society go on? Let a man +pray that none of his womankind should form a just estimation of him. +If your wife knew you as you are, neighbour, she would not grieve much +about being your widow, and would let your grave-lamp go out very +soon, or perhaps not even take the trouble to light it. Whereas Helen +Pendennis put up the handsomest of memorials to her husband, and +constantly renewed it with the most precious oil. + +As for Arthur Pendennis, after that awful shock which the sight of his +dead father must have produced on him, and the pity and feeling which +such an event no doubt occasioned, I am not sure that in the very moment +of the grief, and as he embraced his mother and tenderly consoled her, +and promised to love her for ever, there was not springing up in his +breast a feeling of secret triumph and exultation. He was the chief now +and lord. He was Pendennis; and all round about him were his servants +and handmaids. "You'll never send me away," little Laura said, tripping +by him, and holding his hand. "You won't send me to school, will you, +Arthur?" + +Arthur kissed her and patted her head. No, she shouldn't go to school. +As for going himself, that was quite out of the question. He had +determined that that part of his life should not be renewed. In the +midst of the general grief, and the corpse still lying above, he had +leisure to conclude that he would have it all holidays for the future, +that he wouldn't get up till he liked, or stand the bullying of the +Doctor any more, and had made a hundred of such day-dreams and resolves +for the future. How one's thoughts will travel! and how quickly our +wishes beget them! When he with Laura in his hand went into the kitchen +on his way to the dog-kennel, the fowl-houses, and other his favourite +haunts, all the servants there assembled in great silence with their +friends, and the labouring men and their wives, and Sally Potter +who went with the post-bag to Clavering, and the baker's man from +Clavering--all there assembled and drinking beer on the melancholy +occasion--rose up on his entrance and bowed or curtseyed to him. +They never used to do so last holidays, he felt at once and with +indescribable pleasure. The cook cried out, "O Lord," and whispered, +"How Master Arthur do grow!" Thomas, the groom, in the act of drinking, +put down the jug alarmed before his master. Thomas's master felt the +honour keenly. He went through and looked at the pointers. As Flora put +her nose up to his waistcoat, and Ponto, yelling with pleasure, hurtled +at his chain, Pen patronised the dogs, and said, "Poo Ponto, poo Flora," +in his most condescending manner. And then he went and looked at Laura's +hens, and at the pigs, and at the orchard, and at the dairy; perhaps +he blushed to think that it was only last holidays he had in a manner +robbed the great apple-tree, and been scolded by the dairymaid for +taking cream. + +They buried John Pendennis, Esquire, "formerly an eminent medical +practitioner at Bath, and subsequently an able magistrate, a benevolent +landlord, and a benefactor to many charities and public institutions in +this neighbourhood and county," with one of the most handsome funerals +that had been seen since Sir Roger Clavering was buried here, the clerk +said, in the abbey church of Clavering St. Mary's. A fair marble +slab, from which the above inscription is copied, was erected over the +Fairoaks' pew in the church. On it you may see the Pendennis coat of +arms, and crest, an eagle looking towards the sun, with the motto 'nec +tenui penna,' to the present day. Doctor Portman alluded to the deceased +most handsomely and affectingly, as "our dear departed friend," in his +sermon next Sunday; and Arthur Pendennis reigned in his stead. + + + + +CHAPTER III. In which Pendennis appears as a very young Man indeed + + +Arthur was about sixteen years old, we have said, when he began to +reign; in person (for I see that the artist who is to illustrate this +book, and who makes sad work of the likeness, will never be able to take +my friend off) he had what his friends would call a dumpy, but his mamma +styled a neat little figure. His hair was of a healthy brown colour, +which looks like gold in the sunshine, his face was round, rosy, +freckled, and good-humoured, his whiskers (when those facial ornaments +for which he sighed so ardently were awarded to him by nature) were +decidedly of a reddish hue; in fact, without being a beauty, he had such +a frank, good-natured kind face, and laughed so merrily at you out of +his honest blue eyes, that no wonder Mrs. Pendennis thought him the +pride of the whole county. Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen he +rose from five feet six to five feet eight inches in height, at which +altitude he paused. But his mother wondered at it. He was three inches +taller than his father. Was it possible that any man could grow to be +three inches taller than Mr. Pendennis? + +You may be certain he never went back to school; the discipline of the +establishment did not suit him, and he liked being at home much better. +The question of his return was debated, and his uncle was for his +going back. The Doctor wrote his opinion that it was most important +for Arthur's success in after-life that he should know a Greek play +thoroughly, but Pen adroitly managed to hint to his mother what a +dangerous place Greyfriars was, and what sad wild fellows some of the +chaps there were, and the timid soul, taking alarm at once, acceded to +his desire to stay at home. + +Then Pen's uncle offered to use his influence with His Royal Highness +the Commander-in-Chief, who was pleased to be very kind to him, and +proposed to get Pen a commission in the Foot Guards. Pen's heart leaped +at this: he had been to hear the band at St. James's play on a Sunday, +when he went out to his uncle. He had seen Tom Ricketts, of the fourth +form, who used to wear a jacket and trousers so ludicrously tight, that +the elder boys could not forbear using him in the quality of a butt or +'cockshy'--he had seen this very Ricketts arrayed in crimson and gold, +with an immense bear-skin cap on his head, staggering under the colours +of the regiment. Tom had recognised him and gave him a patronising nod. +Tom, a little wretch whom he had cut over the back with a hockey-stick +last quarter--and there he was in the centre of the square, rallying +round the flag of his country, surrounded by bayonets, crossbelts, +and scarlet, the band blowing trumpets and banging cymbals--talking +familiarly to immense warriors with tufts to their chins and Waterloo +medals. What would not Pen have given to wear such epaulettes and enter +such a service? + +But Helen Pendennis, when this point was proposed to her by her son, put +on a face full of terror and alarm. She said she "did not quarrel with +others who thought differently, but that in her opinion a Christian had +no right to make the army a profession. Mr. Pendennis never, never would +have permitted his son to be a soldier. Finally, she should be very +unhappy if he thought of it." Now Pen would have as soon cut off his +nose and ears as deliberately, and of aforethought malice, made his +mother unhappy; and, as he was of such a generous disposition that he +would give away anything to any one, he instantly made a present of his +visionary red coat and epaulettes and his ardour for military glory to +his mother. + +She thought him the noblest creature in the world. But Major Pendennis, +when the offer of the commission was acknowledged and refused, wrote +back a curt and somewhat angry letter to the widow, and thought his +nephew was rather a spooney. + +He was contented, however, when he saw the boy's performances out +hunting at Christmas, when the Major came down as usual to Fairoaks. +Pen had a very good mare, and rode her with uncommon pluck and grace. He +took his fences with great coolness, and yet with judgment, and without +bravado. He wrote to the chaps at school about his top-boots, and his +feats across country. He began to think seriously of a scarlet coat: +and his mother must own that she thought it would become him remarkably +well; though, of course, she passed hours of anguish during his absence, +and daily expected to see him brought home on a shutter. + +With these amusements, in rather too great plenty, it must not be +assumed that Pen neglected his studies altogether. He had a natural +taste for reading every possible kind of book which did not fall into +his school-course. It was only when they forced his head into the waters +of knowledge, that he refused to drink. He devoured all the books at +home from Inchbald's Theatre to White's Farriery; he ransacked the +neighbouring book-cases. He found at Clavering an old cargo of French +novels, which he read with all his might; and he would sit for hours +perched upon the topmost bar of Doctor Portman's library steps with +a folio on his knees, whether it were Hakluyt's Travels, Hobbes's +Leviathan, Augustini Opera, or Chaucer's Poems. He and the Vicar were +very good friends, and from his Reverence, Pen learned that honest taste +for port wine which distinguished him through life. And as for that dear +good woman, Mrs. Portman, who was not in the least jealous, though her +Doctor avowed himself in love with Mrs. Pendennis, whom he pronounced +to be by far the finest lady in the county--all her grief was, as she +looked up fondly at Pen perched on the book-ladder, that her daughter, +Minny, was too old for him--as indeed she was--Miss Myra Portman being +at that period only two years younger than Pen's mother, and weighing as +much as Pen and Mrs. Pendennis together. + +Are these details insipid? Look back, good friend, at your own youth, +and ask how was that? I like to think of a well-nurtured boy, brave and +gentle, warm-hearted and loving, and looking the world in the face with +kind honest eyes. What bright colours it wore then, and how you enjoyed +it! A man has not many years of such time. He does not know them whilst +they are with him. It is only when they are passed long away that he +remembers how dear and happy they were. + +In order to keep Mr. Pen from indulging in that idleness of which +his friend the Doctor of the Cistercians had prophesied such awful +consequences, Mr. Smirke, Dr. Portman's curate, was engaged at a liberal +salary, to walk or ride over from Clavering and pass several hours daily +with the young gentleman. Smirke was a man perfectly faultless at a +tea-table, wore a curl on his fair forehead, and tied his neck-cloth +with a melancholy grace. He was a decent scholar and mathematician, and +taught Pen as much as the lad was ever disposed to learn, which was not +much. For Pen had soon taken the measure of his tutor, who, when he came +riding into the court-yard at Fairoaks on his pony, turned out his toes +so absurdly, and left such a gap between his knees and the saddle, that +it was impossible for any lad endowed with a sense of humour to respect +such an equestrian. He nearly killed Smirke with terror by putting +him on his mare, and taking him a ride over a common, where the county +fox-hounds (then bunted by that staunch old sportsman, Mr. Hardhead, of +Dumplingbeare) happened to meet. Mr. Smirke, on Pen's mare, Rebecca (she +was named after Pen's favourite heroine, the daughter of Isaac of York), +astounded the hounds as much as he disgusted the huntsman, laming one +of the former by persisting in riding amongst the pack, and receiving a +speech from the latter, more remarkable for energy of language, than +any oration he had ever heard since he left the bargemen on the banks of +Isis. + +Smirke confided to his pupil his poems both Latin and English; and +presented to Mrs. Pendennis a volume of the latter, printed at Clapham, +his native place. The two read the ancient poets together, and rattled +through them at a pleasant rate, very different from that steady +grubbing pace with which the Cistercians used to go over the classic +ground, scenting out each word as they went, and digging up every root +in the way. Pen never liked to halt, but made his tutor construe when he +was at fault, and thus galloped through the Iliad and the Odyssey, the +tragic playwriters, writers, and the charming wicked Aristophanes (whom +he vowed to be the greatest poet of all). But he went at such a pace +that, though he certainly galloped through a considerable extent of the +ancient country, he clean forgot it in after-life, and had only such a +vague remembrance of his early classic course as a man has in the House +of Commons, let us say, who still keeps up two or three quotations; or +a reviewer who, just for decency's sake, hints at a little Greek. Our +people are the most prosaic in the world, but the most faithful; and +with curious reverence we keep up and transmit, from generation +to generation, the superstition of what we call the education of a +gentleman. + +Besides the ancient poets, you may be sure Pen read the English with +great gusto. Smirke sighed and shook his head sadly both about Byron and +Moore. But Pen was a sworn fire-worshipper and a Corsair; he had them by +heart, and used to take little Laura into the window and say, "Zuleika, +I am not thy brother," in tones so tragic that they caused the solemn +little maid to open her great eyes still wider. She sat, until the +proper hour for retirement, sewing at Mrs. Pendennis's knee, and +listening to Pen reading out to her of nights without comprehending one +word of what he read. + +He read Shakspeare to his mother (which she said she liked, but didn't), +and Byron, and Pope, and his favourite Lalla Rookh, which pleased her +indifferently. But as for Bishop Heber, and Mrs. Hemans above all, +this lady used to melt right away, and be absorbed into her +pocket-handkerchief, when Pen read those authors to her in his kind +boyish voice. The 'Christian Year' was a book which appeared about that +time. The son and the mother whispered it to each other with awe--faint, +very faint, and seldom in after-life Pendennis heard that solemn +church-music: but he always loved the remembrance of it, and of the +times when it struck on his heart, and he walked over the fields full of +hope and void of doubt, as the church-bells rang on Sunday morning. + +It was at this period of his existence, that Pen broke out in the Poets' +Corner of the County Chronicle, with some verses with which he was +perfectly well satisfied. His are the verses signed 'NEP.,' addressed +'To a Tear;' 'On the Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo;' 'To Madame +Caradori singing at the Assize Meetings;' 'On Saint Bartholomew's Day' +(a tremendous denunciation of Popery, and a solemn warning to the people +of England to rally against emancipating the Roman Catholics), etc., +etc.--all which masterpieces, Mrs. Pendennis no doubt keeps to this day, +along with his first socks, the first cutting of his hair, his bottle, +and other interesting relics of his infancy. He used to gallop Rebecca +over the neighbouring Dumpling Downs, or into the county town, which, if +you please, we shall call Chatteris, spouting his own poems, and filled +with quite a Byronic afflatus as he thought. + +His genius at this time was of a decidedly gloomy cast. He brought his +mother a tragedy, in which, though he killed sixteen people before the +second act, it made her laugh so, that he thrust the masterpiece into +the fire in a pet. He projected an epic poem in blank verse, 'Cortez, +or the Conqueror of Mexico, and the Inca's Daughter.' He wrote part of +'Seneca, or the Fatal Bath,' and 'Ariadne in Naxos;' classical pieces, +with choruses and strophes and antistrophes, which sadly puzzled poor +Mrs. Pendennis; and began a 'History of the Jesuits,' in which he +lashed that Order with tremendous severity, and warned his Protestant +fellow-countrymen of their machinations. His loyalty did his mother's +heart good to witness. He was a staunch, unflinching Church-and-King man +in those days; and at the election, when Sir Giles Beanfield stood on +the Blue interest, against Lord Trehawk, Lord Eyrie's son, a Whig and +a friend of Popery, Arthur Pendennis, with an immense bow for himself, +which his mother made, and with a blue ribbon for Rebecca, rode +alongside of the Reverend Doctor Portman, on his grey mare Dowdy, and +at the head of the Clavering voters, whom the Doctor brought up to plump +for the Protestant Champion. + +On that day Pen made his first speech at the Blue Hotel: and also, it +appears, for the first time in his life--took a little more wine than +was good for him. Mercy! what a scene it was at Fairoaks, when he rode +back at ever so much o'clock at night. What moving about of lanterns +in the court-yard and stables, though the moon was shining out; what a +gathering of servants, as Pen came home, clattering over the bridge and +up the stableyard, with half a score of the Clavering voters yelling +after him the Blue song of the election. + +He wanted them all to come in and have some wine--some very good +Madeira--some capital Madeira--John, go and get some Madeira,--and there +is no knowing what the farmers would have done, had not Madam Pendennis +made her appearance in a white wrapper, with a candle--and scared those +zealous Blues so by the sight of her pale handsome face, that they +touched their hats and rode off. + +Besides these amusements and occupations in which Mr. Pen indulged, +there was one which forms the main business and pleasure of youth, if +the poets tell us aright, whom Pen was always studying; and this young +fellow's heart was so ardent, and his imagination so eager, that it is +not to be expected he should long escape the passion to which we allude, +and which, ladies, you have rightly guessed to be that of Love. Pen +sighed for it first in secret, and, like the love-sick swain in Ovid, +opened his breast and said, "Aura, veni." What generous youth is there +that has not courted some such windy mistress in his time? + +Yes, Pen began to feel the necessity of a first love--of a consuming +passion--of an object on which he could concentrate all those vague +floating fancies under which he sweetly suffered--of a young lady to +whom he could really make verses, and whom he could set up and adore, in +place of those unsubstantial Ianthes and Zuleikas to whom he addressed +the outpourings of his gushing muse. He read his favourite poems over +and over again, he called upon Alma Venus the delight of gods and men, +he translated Anacreon's odes, and picked out passages suitable to his +complaint from Waller, Dryden, Prior, and the like. Smirke and he +were never weary, in their interviews, of discoursing about love. The +faithless tutor entertained him with sentimental conversations in place +of lectures on algebra and Greek; for Smirke was in love too. Who could +help it, being in daily intercourse with such a woman? Smirke was madly +in love (as far as such a mild flame as Mr. Smirke's may be called +madness) with Mrs. Pendennis. That honest lady, sitting down below +stairs teaching little Laura to play the piano, or devising flannel +petticoats for the poor round about her, or otherwise busied with the +calm routine of her modest and spotless Christian life, was little aware +what storms were brewing in two bosoms upstairs in the study--in +Pen's, as he sate in his shooting jacket, with his elbows on the green +study-table, and his hands clutching his curly brown hair, Homer under +his nose,--and in worthy Mr. Smirke's, with whom he was reading. Here +they would talk about Helen and Andromache. "Andromache's like my +mother," Pen used to avouch; "but I say, Smirke, by Jove I'd cut off my +nose to see Helen;" and he would spout certain favourite lines which +the reader will find in their proper place in the third book. He +drew portraits of her--they are extant still--with straight noses and +enormous eyes, and 'Arthur Pendennis delineavit et pinxit' gallantly +written underneath. + +As for Mr. Smirke he naturally preferred Andromache. And in consequence +he was uncommonly kind to Pen. He gave him his Elzevir Horace, of which +the boy was fond, and his little Greek Testament which his own mamma +at Clapham had purchased and presented to him. He bought him a silver +pencil-case; and in the matter of learning let him do just as much or +as little as ever he pleased. He always seemed to be on the point of +unbosoming himself to Pen: nay, he confessed to the latter that he +had a--an attachment, an ardently cherished attachment, about which +Pendennis longed to hear, and said, "Tell us, old chap, is she handsome? +has she got blue eyes or black?" But Doctor Portman's curate, heaving a +gentle sigh, cast up his eyes to the ceiling, and begged Pen faintly +to change the conversation. Poor Smirke! He invited Pen to dine at his +lodgings over Madame Fribsby's, the milliner's, in Clavering; and +once when it was raining, and Mrs. Pendennis, who had driven in her +pony-chaise into Clavering with respect to some arrangements, about +leaving off mourning probably, was prevailed upon to enter the curate's +apartments, he sent out for pound-cakes instantly. The sofa on which +she sate became sacred to him from that day: and he kept flowers in the +glass which she drank from ever after. + +As Mrs. Pendennis was never tired of hearing the praises of her son, we +may be certain that this rogue of a tutor neglected no opportunity of +conversing with her upon that subject. It might be a little tedious to +him to hear the stories about Pen's generosity, about his bravery +in fighting the big naughty boy, about his fun and jokes, about his +prodigious skill in Latin, music, riding, etc., but what price would he +not pay to be in her company? and the widow, after these conversations, +thought Mr. Smirke a very pleasing and well-informed man. As for +her son, she had not settled in her mind whether he was to be Senior +Wrangler and Archbishop of Canterbury, or Double First Class at Oxford, +and Lord Chancellor. That all England did not possess his peer, was a +fact about which there was, in her mind, no manner of question. + +A simple person, of inexpensive habits, she began forthwith to save, +and, perhaps, to be a little parsimonious, in favour of her boy. There +were no entertainments, of course, at Fairoaks, during the year of her +weeds. Nor, indeed, did the Doctor's silver dish-covers, of which he +was so proud, and which were flourished all over with the arms of +the Pendennises, and surmounted with their crest, come out of the +plate-chests again for long, long years. The household was diminished, +and its expenses curtailed. There was a very blank anchorite repast when +Pen dined from home: and he himself headed the remonstrance from the +kitchen regarding the deteriorated quality of the Fairoaks beer. She was +becoming miserly for Pen. Indeed, who ever accused women of being just? +They are always sacrificing themselves or somebody for somebody else's +sake. + +There happened to be no young woman in the small circle of friends who +were in the widow's intimacy whom Pendennis could by any possibility +gratify by endowing her with the inestimable treasure of a heart which +he was longing to give away. Some young fellows in this predicament +bestow their young affections upon Dolly, the dairymaid, or cast the +eyes of tenderness upon Molly, the blacksmith's daughter. Pen thought +a Pendennis much too grand a personage to stoop so low. He was too +high-minded for a vulgar intrigue, and, at the idea of an intrigue or a +seduction, had he ever entertained it, his heart would have revolted as +from the notion of any act of baseness or dishonour. Miss Minny Portman +was too old, too large, and too fond of reading 'Rollin's Ancient +History.' The Miss Boardbacks, Admiral Boardback's daughters (of St. +Vincent's, or Fourth of June House, as it was called), disgusted +Pen with the London airs which they brought into the country, from +Gloucester Place, where they passed the season, and looked down upon Pen +as a chit. Captain Glanders's (H.P., 50th Dragoon Guards) three +girls were in brown-holland pinafores as yet, with the ends of their +hair-plaits tied up in dirty pink ribbon. Not having acquired the art of +dancing, the youth avoided such chances as he might have had of meeting +with the fair sex at the Chatteris' Assemblies; in fine, he was not in +love, because there was nobody at hand to fall in love with. And the +young monkey used to ride out, day after day, in quest, of Dulcinea; and +peep into the pony-chaises and gentlefolks' carriages, as they drove +along the broad turnpike roads, with a heart beating within him, and +a secret tremor and hope that she might be in that yellow postchaise +coming swinging up the hill, or one of those three girls in beaver +bonnets in the back seat of the double gig, which the fat old gentleman +in black was driving, at four miles an hour. The postchaise contained a +snuffy old dowager of seventy, with a maid, her contemporary. The three +girls in the beaver bonnets were no handsomer than the turnips that +skirted the roadside. Do as he might, and ride where he would, the fairy +princess that he was to rescue and win, had not yet appeared to honest +Pen. + +Upon these points he did not discourse to his mother. He had a world +of his own. What generous, ardent, imaginative soul has not a secret +pleasure-place in which it disports? Let no clumsy prying or dull +meddling of ours try to disturb it in our children. Actaeon was a brute +for wanting to push in where Diana was bathing. Leave him occasionally +alone, my good madam, if you have a poet for a child. Even your +admirable advice may be a bore sometimes. You are faultless; but it +does not follow that everybody in your family is to think exactly like +yourself. Yonder little child may have thoughts too deep even for +your great mind, and fancies so coy and timid that they will not bare +themselves when your ladyship sits by. + +Helen Pendennis by the force of sheer love divined a great number of +her son's secrets. But she kept these things in her heart (if we may +so speak), and did not speak of them. Besides, she had made up her mind +that he was to marry little Laura, who would be eighteen when Pen was +six-and-twenty: and had finished his college career, and had made +his grand tour, and was settled either in London, astonishing all the +metropolis by his learning and eloquence at the bar, or better still in +a sweet country parsonage surrounded with hollyhocks and roses, close to +a delightful romantic ivy-covered church, from the pulpit of which Pen +would utter the most beautiful sermons ever preached. + +While these natural sentiments were waging war and trouble in honest +Pen's bosom, it chanced one day that he rode into Chatteris, for the +purpose of carrying to the County Chronicle a tremendous and thrilling +poem for the next week's paper; and putting up his horse according to +custom, at the stables of the George Hotel there, he fell in with an old +acquaintance. A grand black tandem, with scarlet wheels, came rattling +into the inn yard, as Pen stood there in converse with the hostler about +Rebecca; and the voice of the driver called out, "Hallo, Pendennis, +is that you?" in a loud patronising manner. Pen had some difficulty in +recognising under the broad-brimmed hat and the vast great-coats and +neckcloths, with which the new-comer was habited, the person and figure +of his quondam schoolfellow, Mr. Foker. + +A year's absence had made no small difference in that gentleman. A youth +who had been deservedly whipped a few months previously, and who spent +his pocket-money on tarts and hardbake, now appeared before Pen in one +of those costumes to which the public consent, that I take to be quite +as influential in this respect as 'Johnson's Dictionary,' has awarded +the title of "Swell.' He had a bull-dog between his legs, and in his +scarlet shawl neckcloth was a pin representing another bull-dog in gold: +he wore a fur waistcoat laced over with gold chains; a green cutaway +coat with basket-buttons, and a white upper-coat ornamented with +cheese-plate buttons, on each of which was engraved some stirring +incident of the road or the chase; all which ornaments set off this +young fellow's figure to such advantage, that you would hesitate to say +which character in life he most resembled, and whether he was a boxer en +goguette, or a coachman in his gala suit. + +"Left that place for good, Pendennis?" Mr. Foker said, descending from +his landau and giving Pendennis a finger. + +"Yes, this year--or more," Pen said. + +"Beastly old hole," Mr. Foker remarked. "Hate it. Hate the Doctor: hate +Towzer, the second master; hate everybody there. Not a fit place for a +gentleman." + +"Not at all," said Pen, with an air of the utmost consequence. + +"By gad, sir, I sometimes dream, now, that the Doctor's walking into +me," Foker continued (and Pen smiled as he thought that he himself +had likewise fearful dreams of this nature). "When I think of the diet +there, by gad, sir, I wonder how I stood it. Mangy mutton, brutal beef; +pudding on Thursdays and Sundays, and that fit to poison you. Just +look at my leader--did you ever see a prettier animal? Drove over from +Baymouth. Came the nine mile in two-and-forty minutes. Not bad going, +sir." + +"Are you stopping at Baymouth, Foker?" Pendennis asked. + +"I'm coaching there," said the other, with a nod. + +"What?" asked Pen, and in a tone of such wonder, that Foker burst out +laughing, and said, "He was blowed if he didn't think Pen was such a +flat as not to know what coaching meant." + +"I'm come down with a coach from Oxford. A tutor, don't you see, old +boy? He's coaching me, and some other men, for the little go. Me and +Spavin have the drag between us. And I thought I'd just tool over and +go to the play. Did you ever see Rowkins do the hornpipe?" and Mr. +Foker began to perform some steps of that popular dance in the inn yard, +looking round for the sympathy of his groom and the stable-men. + +Pen thought he would like to go to the play too: and could ride home +afterwards, as there was a moonlight. So he accepted Foker's invitation +to dinner, and the young men entered the inn together, where Mr. Foker +stopped at the bar, and called upon Miss Rincer, the landlady's fair +daughter, who presided there, to give him a glass of 'his mixture.' + +Pen and his family had been known at the George ever since they came +into the country; and Mr. Pendennis's carriages and horses always put up +there when he paid a visit to the county town. The landlady dropped the +heir of Fairoaks a very respectful curtsey, and complimented him +upon his growth and manly appearance, and asked news of the family at +Fairoaks, and of Doctor Portman and the Clavering people, to all of +which questions the young gentleman answered with much affability. But +he spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Rincer with that sort of good nature with which +a young Prince addresses his father's subjects; never dreaming that +those bonnes gens were his equals in life. + +Mr. Foker's behaviour was quite different. He inquired for Rincer and +the cold in his nose, told Mrs. Rincer a riddle, asked Miss Rincer when +she would be ready to marry him, and paid his compliments to Miss Brett, +the other young lady in the bar, all in a minute of time, and with a +liveliness and facetiousness which set all these ladies in a giggle; and +he gave a cluck, expressive of great satisfaction, as he tossed off his +mixture which Miss Rincer prepared and handed to him. + +"Have a drop," said he to Pen, "it's recommended to me by the faculty as +a what-do-you-call-'em--a stomatic, old boy. Give the young one a glass, +R., and score it up to yours truly." + +Poor Pen took a glass, and everybody laughed at the face which he made +as he put it down--gin, bitters, and some other cordial was the compound +with which Mr. Foker was so delighted as to call it by the name of +Foker's own. As Pen choked, sputtered, and made faces, the other took +occasion to remark to Mr. Rincer that the young fellow was green, very +green, but that he would soon form him; and then they proceeded to order +dinner--which Mr. Foker determined should consist of turtle and venison; +cautioning the landlady to be very particular about icing the wine. + +Then Messrs. Foker and Pen strolled down the High Street together--the +former having a cigar in his mouth, which he had drawn out of a case +almost as big as a portmanteau. He went in to replenish it at Mr. +Lewis's, and talked to that gentleman for a while, sitting down on the +counter: he then looked in at the fruiterer's, to see the pretty girl +there, to whom he paid compliments similar to those before addressed to +the bar at the George; then they passed the County Chronicle office, for +which Pen had his packet ready, in the shape of 'Lines to Thyrza,' but +poor Pen did not like to put the letter into the editor's box while +walking in company with such a fine gentleman as Mr. Foker. They met +heavy dragoons of the regiment always quartered at Chatteris; and +stopped and talked about the Baymouth balls, and what a pretty girl was +Miss Brown, and what a dem fine woman Mrs. Jones was. It was in vain +that Pen recalled to his own mind what a stupid ass Foker used to be +at school--how he could scarcely read, how he was not cleanly in his +person, and notorious for his blunders and dulness. Mr. Foker was no +more like a gentleman now than in his school days: and yet Pen felt a +secret pride in strutting down High Street with a young fellow who +owned tandems, talked to officers, and ordered turtle and champagne for +dinner. He listened, and with respect too, to Mr. Foker's accounts of +what the men did at the University of which Mr. F. was an ornament, and +encountered a long series of stories about boat-racing, bumping, College +grass-plats, and milk-punch--and began to wish to go up himself to +College to a place where there were such manly pleasures and enjoyments. +Farmer Gurnett, who lives close by Fairoaks, riding by at this minute +and touching his hat to Pen, the latter stopped him, and sent a message +to his mother to say that he had met with an old schoolfellow, and +should dine in Chatteris. + +The two young gentlemen continued their walk, and were passing round the +Cathedral Yard, where they could hear the music of the afternoon service +(a music which always exceedingly impressed and affected Pen), but +whither Mr. Foker came for the purpose of inspecting the nursery-maids +who frequent the Elms Walk there, and who are uncommonly pretty at +Chatteris, and here they strolled until with a final burst of music the +small congregation was played out. + +Old Doctor Portman was one of the few who came from the venerable gate. +Spying Pen, he came and shook him by the hand, and eyed with wonder +Pen's friend, from whose mouth and cigar clouds of fragrance issued, +which curled round the Doctor's honest face and shovel hat. + +"An old schoolfellow of mine, Mr. Foker," said Pen. The Doctor said +"H'm": and scowled at the cigar. He did not mind a pipe in his study, +but the cigar was an abomination to the worthy gentleman. + +"I came up on Bishop's business," the Doctor said. "We'll ride home, +Arthur, if you like?" + +"I--I'm engaged to my friend here," Pen answered. + +"You had better come home with me," said the Doctor. + +"His mother knows he's out, sir," Mr. Foker remarked; "don't she, +Pendennis?" + +"But that does not prove that he had not better come home with me," the +Doctor growled, and he walked off with great dignity. + +"Old boy don't like the weed, I suppose," Foker said. "Ha! who's +here?--here's the General, and Bingley, the manager. How do, Cos? How +do, Bingley?" + +"How does my worthy and gallant young Foker?" said the gentleman +addressed as the General; and who wore a shabby military cape with a +mangy collar, and a hat cocked very much over one eye. + +"Trust you are very well, my very dear sir," said the other gentleman, +"and that the Theatre Royal will have the honour of your patronage +to-night. We perform 'The Stranger,' in which your humble servant +will---" + +"Can't stand you in tights and Hessians, Bingley," young Mr. Foker said. +On which the General, with the Irish accent, said, "But I think ye'll +like Miss Fotheringay, in Mrs. Haller, or me name's not Jack Costigan." + +Pen looked at these individuals with the greatest interest. He had never +seen an actor before; and he saw Dr. Portman's red face looking over the +Doctor's shoulder, as he retreated from the Cathedral Yard, evidently +quite dissatisfied with the acquaintances into whose hands Pen had +fallen. + +Perhaps it would have been much better for him had he taken the parson's +advice and company home. But which of us knows his fate? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. Mrs. Haller + + +Having returned to the George, Mr. Foker and his guest sate down to +a handsome repast in the coffee-room; where Mr. Rincer brought in +the first dish, and bowed as gravely as if he was waiting upon the +Lord-Lieutenant of the county. Mr. Foker attacked the turtle and venison +with as much gusto as he had shown the year before, when he used to make +feasts off ginger-beer and smuggled polonies. Pen could not but respect +his connoisseurship as he pronounced the champagne to be condemned +gooseberry, and winked at the port with one eye. The latter he declared +to be of the right sort; and told the waiters there was no way of +humbugging him. All these attendants he knew by their Christian names, +and showed a great interest in their families; and as the London coaches +drove up, which in those early days used to set off from the George, +Mr. Foker flung the coffee-room window open, and called the guards and +coachmen by their Christian names, too, asking about their respective +families, and imitating with great liveliness and accuracy the tooting +of the horns as Jem the ostler whipped the horses' cloths off, and the +carriages drove gaily away. + +"A bottle of sherry, a bottle of sham, a bottle of port and a shass +caffy, it ain't so bad, hay, Pen?" Foker said, and pronounced, after all +these delicacies and a quantity of nuts and fruit had been dispatched, +that it was time to "toddle." Pen sprang up with very bright eyes, and +a flushed face; and they moved off towards the theatre, where they paid +their money to the wheezy old lady slumbering in the money-taker's box. +"Mrs. Dropsicum, Bingley's mother-in-law, great in Lady Macbeth," Foker +said to his companion. Foker knew her, too. + +They had almost their choice of places in the boxes of the theatre, +which was no better filled than country theatres usually are in spite +of the "universal burst of attraction and galvanic thrills of delight" +advertised by Bingley in the play-bills. A score or so of people +dotted the pit-benches, a few more kept a kicking and whistling in the +galleries, and a dozen others, who came in with free admissions, were +in the boxes where our young gentlemen sate. Lieutenants Rodgers and +Podgers, and young Cornet Tidmus, of the Dragoons, occupied a private +box. The performers acted to them, and these gentlemen seemed to hold +conversations with the players when not engaged in the dialogue, and +applauded them by name loudly. + +Bingley the manager, who assumed all the chief tragic and comic parts +except when he modestly retreated to make way for the London stars, who +came down occasionally to Chatteris, was great in the character of the +'Stranger.' He was attired in the tight pantaloons and Hessian boots +which the stage legend has given to that injured man, with a large cloak +and beaver and a hearse feather in it drooping over his raddled old +face, and only partially concealing his great buckled brown wig. He had +the stage jewellery on too, of which he selected the largest and most +shiny rings for himself, and allowed his little finger to quiver out +of his cloak with a sham diamond ring covering the first joint of the +finger and twiddling in the faces of the pit. Bingley made it a favour +to the young men of his company to go on in light comedy parts with +that ring. They flattered him by asking its history. The stage has its +traditional jewels as the Crown and all great families have. This had +belonged to George Frederick Cooke, who had had it from Mr. Quin, +who may have bought it for a shilling. Bingley fancied the world was +fascinated with its glitter. + +He was reading out of the stage-book--that wonderful stage-book which +is not bound like any other book in the world, but is rouged and tawdry +like the hero or heroine who holds it; and who holds it as people never +do hold books: and points with his finger to a passage, and wags his +head ominously at the audience, and then lifts up eyes and finger to +the ceiling professing to derive some intense consolation from the work +between which and heaven there is a strong affinity. Anybody who +has ever seen one of our great light comedians, X., in a chintz +dressing-gown, such as nobody ever wore, and representing himself to the +public as a young nobleman in his apartments, and whiling away the time +with light literature until his friend Sir Harry shall arrive, or his +father shall come down to breakfast--anybody, I say, who has seen the +great X. over a sham book has indeed had a great pleasure and an abiding +matter for thought. + +Directly the Stranger saw the young men, he acted at them; eyeing them +solemnly over his gilt volume as he lay on the stage-bank showing his +hand, his ring, and his Hessians. He calculated the effect that every +one of these ornaments would produce upon his victims: he was determined +to fascinate them, for he knew they had paid their money; and he saw +their families coming in from the country and filling the cane chairs in +his boxes. + +As he lay on the bank reading, his servant, Francis, made remarks upon +his master. + +"Again reading," said Francis, "thus it is, from morn to night. To him +nature has no beauty--life no charm. For three years I have never seen +him smile" (the gloom of Bingley's face was fearful to witness during +these comments of the faithful domestic). "Nothing diverts him. O, if +he would but attach himself to any living thing, were it an animal--for +something man must love." + +[Enter Tobias (Goll) from the hut.] He cries, "O, how refreshing, +after seven long weeks, to feel these warm sunbeams once again. Thanks, +bounteous heaven, for the joy I taste!" He presses his cap between his +hands, looks up and prays. The Stranger eyes him attentively. + +Francis to the Stranger. "This old man's share of earthly happiness can +be but little. Yet mark how grateful he is for his portion of it." + +Bingley. "Because though old, he is but a child in the leading-string of +hope." (He looks steadily at Foker, who, however, continues to suck the +top of his stick in an unconcerned manner.) + +Francis. "Hope is the nurse of life." + +Bingley. "And her cradle--is the grave." + +The Stranger uttered this with the moan of a bassoon in agony, and fixed +his eyes on Pendennis so steadily, that the poor lad was quite put out +of countenance. He thought the whole house must be looking at him; and +cast his eyes down. As soon as ever he raised them Bingley's were at +him again. All through the scene the manager played at him. When he was +about to do a good action, and sent off Francis with his book, so +that that domestic should not witness the deed of benevolence which he +meditated, Bingley marked the page carefully, so that he might continue +the perusal of the volume off the stage if he liked. But all was done +in the direct face of Pendennis, whom the manager was bent upon +subjugating. How relieved the lad was when the scene ended, and Foker, +tapping with his cane, cried out "Bravo, Bingley!" + +"Give him a hand, Pendennis; you know every chap likes a hand," +Mr. Foker said; and the good-natured young gentleman, and Pendennis +laughing, and the dragoons in the opposite box, began clapping hands to +the best of their power. + +A chamber in Wintersen Castle closed over Tobias's hut and the Stranger +and his boots; and servants appeared bustling about with chairs and +tables--"That's Hicks and Miss Thackthwaite," whispered Foker. "Pretty +girl, ain't she, Pendennis? But stop--hurray--bravo! here's the +Fotheringay." + +The pit thrilled and thumped its umbrellas; a volley of applause was +fired from the gallery: the Dragoon officers and Foker clapped their +hands furiously: you would have thought the house was full, so loud were +their plaudits. The red face and ragged whiskers of Mr. Costigan were +seen peering from the side-scene. Pen's eyes opened wide and bright as +Mrs. Haller entered with a downcast look, then rallying at the sound of +the applause, swept the house with a grateful glance, and, folding +her hands across her breast, sank down in a magnificent curtsey. +More applause, more umbrellas; Pen this time, flaming with wine and +enthusiasm, clapped hands and sang "bravo" louder than all. Mrs. Haller +saw him, and everybody else, and old Mr. Bows, the little first fiddler +of the orchestra (which was this night increased by a detachment of the +band of the Dragoons, by the kind permission of Colonel Swallowtail), +looked up from the desk where he was perched, with his crutch beside +him, and smiled at the enthusiasm of the lad. + +Those who have only seen Miss Fotheringay in later days, since her +marriage and introduction into London life, have little idea how +beautiful a creature she was at the time when our friend Pen first set +eyes on her: and I warn my reader, as beforehand, that the pencil which +illustrates this work (and can draw an ugly face tolerably well, but is +sadly put out when it tries to delineate a beauty) can give no sort of +notion of her. She was of the tallest of women, and at her then age of +six-and-twenty--for six-and-twenty she was, though she vows she was only +nineteen--in the prime and fulness of her beauty. Her forehead was vast, +and her black hair waved over it with a natural ripple (that beauties +of late days have tried to imitate with the help of the crimping-irons), +and was confined in shining and voluminous braids at the back of a neck +such as you see on the shoulders of the Louvre Venus--that delight of +gods and men. Her eyes, when she lifted them up to gaze on you, and ere +she dropped their purple deep-fringed lids, shone with tenderness and +mystery unfathomable. Love and Genius seemed to look out from them and +then retire coyly, as if ashamed to have been seen at the lattice. Who +could have had such a commanding brow but a woman of high intellect? She +never laughed (indeed her teeth were not good), but a smile of endless +tenderness and sweetness played round her beautiful lips, and in the +dimples of her cheeks and her lovely chin. Her nose defied description +in those days. Her ears were like two little pearl shells, which the +earrings she wore (though the handsomest properties in the theatre) +only insulted. She was dressed in long flowing robes of black, which she +managed and swept to and fro with wonderful grace, and out of the folds +of which you only saw her sandals occasionally; they were of rather +a large size; but Pen thought them as ravishing as the slippers of +Cinderella. But it was her hand and arm that this magnificent creature +most excelled in, and somehow you could never see her but through them. +They surrounded her. When she folded them over her bosom in resignation; +when she dropped them in mute agony, or raised them in superb command; +when in sportive gaiety her hands fluttered and waved before her, like +what shall we say?--like the snowy doves before the chariot of Venus--it +was with these arms and hands that she beckoned, repelled, entreated, +embraced, her admirers--no single one, for she was armed with her own +virtue, and with her father's valour, whose sword would have leapt from +its scabbard at any insult offered to his child--but the whole house; +which rose to her, as the phrase was, as she curtseyed and bowed, and +charmed it. + +Thus she stood for a minute--complete and beautiful--as Pen stared at +her. "I say, Pen, isn't she a stunner?" asked Mr. Foker. + +"Hush!" Pen said, "she's speaking." + +She began her business in a deep sweet voice. Those who know the play +of the 'Stranger,' are aware that the remarks made by the various +characters are not valuable in themselves, either for their sound sense, +their novelty of observation, or their poetic fancy. In fact, if a man +were to say it was a stupid play, he would not be far wrong. Nobody +ever talked so. If we meet idiots in life, as will happen, it is a great +mercy that they do not use such absurdly fine words. The Stranger's talk +is sham, like the book he reads and the hair he wears, and the bank he +sits on, and the diamond ring he makes play with--but, in the midst +of the balderdash, there runs that reality of love, children, and +forgiveness of wrong, which will be listened to wherever it is preached, +and sets all the world sympathising. + +With what smothered sorrow, with what gushing pathos, Mrs. Haller +delivered her part! At first, when as Count Wintersen's housekeeper, and +preparing for his Excellency's arrival, she has to give orders about the +beds and furniture, and the dinner, etc., to be got ready, she did so +with the calm agony of despair. But when she could get rid of the stupid +servants and give vent to her feelings to the pit and the house, she +overflowed to each individual as if he were her particular confidant, +and she was crying out her griefs on his shoulder: the little fiddler +in the orchestra (whom she did not seem to watch, though he followed her +ceaselessly) twitched, twisted, nodded, pointed about, and when she +came to the favourite passage, "I have a William too, if he be still +alive--Ah, yes, if he be still alive. His little sisters, too! Why, +Fancy, dost thou rack me so? Why dost thou image my poor children +fainting in sickness, and crying to--to--their mum--um--other," when +she came to this passage little Bows buried his face in his blue cotton +handkerchief, after crying out "Bravo." + +All the house was affected. Foker, for his part, taking out a large +yellow bandanna, wept piteously. As for Pen, he was gone too far for +that. He followed the woman about and about--when she was off the stage, +it and the house were blank; the lights and the red officers, reeled +wildly before his sight. He watched her at the side-scene--where she +stood waiting to come on the stage, and where her father took off her +shawl: when the reconciliation arrived, and she flung herself down on +Mr. Bingley's shoulders, whilst the children clung to their knees, and +the Countess (Mrs. Bingley) and Baron Steinforth (performed with great +liveliness and spirit by Garbetts)--while the rest of the characters +formed a group round them, Pen's hot eyes only saw Fotheringay, +Fotheringay. The curtain fell upon him like a pall. He did not hear a +word of what Bingley said, who came forward to announce the play for +the next evening, and who took the tumultuous applause, as usual, for +himself. Pen was not even distinctly aware that the house was calling +for Miss Fotheringay, nor did the manager seem to comprehend that +anybody else but himself had caused the success of the play. At last +he understood it--stepped back with a grin, and presently appeared with +Mrs. Haller on his arm. How beautiful she looked! Her hair had fallen +down, the officers threw her flowers. She clutched them to her heart. +She put back her hair, and smiled all round. Her eyes met Pen's. Down +went the curtain again: and she was gone. Not one note could he hear +of the overture which the brass band of the dragoons blew by kind +permission of Colonel Swallowtail. + +"She is a crusher, ain't she now!" Mr. Foker asked of his companion. + +Pen did not know exactly what Foker said, and answered vaguely. He could +not tell the other what he felt; he could not have spoken, just then, to +any mortal. Besides, Pendennis did not quite know what he felt yet; it +was something overwhelming, maddening, delicious; a fever of wild joy +and undefined longing. + +And now Rowkins and Miss Thackthwaite came on to dance the favourite +double hornpipe, and Foker abandoned himself to the delights of this +ballet, just as he had to the tears of the tragedy, a few minutes +before. Pen did not care for it, or indeed think about the dance, except +to remember that that woman was acting with her in the scene where she +first came in. It was a mist before his eyes. At the end of the dance he +looked at his watch and said it was time for him to go. + +"Hang it, stay to see The Bravo of the Battle-Axe," Foker said, +"Bingley's splendid in it; he wears red tights, and has to carry Mrs. B. +over the Pine-bridge of the Cataract, only she's too heavy. It's great +fun, do stop." + +Pen looked at the bill with one lingering fond hope that Miss +Fotheringay's name might be hidden, somewhere, in the list of the actors +of the after-piece, but there was no such name. Go he must. He had a +long ride home. He squeezed Foker's hand. He was choking to speak, but +he couldn't. He quitted the theatre and walked frantically about the +town, he knew not how long; then he mounted at the George and rode +homewards, and Clavering clock sang out one as he came into the yard +at Fairoaks. The lady of the house might have been awake, but she only +heard him from the passage outside his room as he dashed into bed and +pulled the clothes over his head. + +Pen had not been in the habit of passing wakeful nights, so he at once +fell off into a sound sleep. Even in later days and with a great deal +of care and other thoughtful matter to keep him awake, a man from long +practice or fatigue or resolution begins by going to sleep as usual: +and gets a nap in advance of Anxiety. But she soon comes up with him and +jogs his shoulder, and says, "Come, my man, no more of this laziness, +you must wake up and have a talk with me." Then they fall to together in +the midnight. Well, whatever might afterwards happen to him, poor little +Pen was not come to this state yet; he tumbled into a sound sleep--did +not wake until an early hour in the morning, when the rooks began to +caw from the little wood beyond his bedroom windows; and--at that very +instant and as his eyes started open, the beloved image was in his mind. +"My dear boy," he heard her say, "you were in a sound sleep and I would +not disturb you: but I have been close by your pillow all this while: +and I don't intend that you shall leave me. I am Love! I bring with me +fever and passion: wild longing, maddening desire; restless craving and +seeking. Many a long day ere this I heard you calling out for me; and +behold now I am come." + +Was Pen frightened at the summons? Not he. He did not know what was +coming: it was all wild pleasure and delight as yet. And as, when three +years previously, and on entering the fifth form at the Cistercians, his +father had made him a present of a gold watch which the boy took from +under his pillow and examined on the instant of waking: for ever rubbing +and polishing it up in private and retiring into corners to listen to +its ticking: so the young man exulted over his new delight; felt in his +waistcoat pocket to see that it was safe; wound it up at nights, and at +the very first moment of waking hugged it and looked at it.--By the way, +that first watch of Pen's was a showy ill-manufactured piece: it never +went well from the beginning, and was always getting out of order. And +after putting it aside into a drawer and forgetting it for some time, he +swapped it finally away for a more useful time-keeper. + +Pen felt himself to be ever so many years older since yesterday. There +was no mistake about it now. He was as much in love as the best hero in +the best romance he ever read. He told John to bring his shaving water +with the utmost confidence. He dressed himself in some of his finest +clothes that morning: and came splendidly down to breakfast, patronising +his mother and little Laura, who had been strumming her music lesson for +hours before; and who after he had read the prayers (of which he did not +heed one single syllable) wondered at his grand appearance, and asked +him to tell her what the play was about? + +Pen laughed and declined to tell Laura what the play was about. In fact +it was quite as well that she should not know. Then she asked him why he +had got on his fine pin and beautiful new waistcoat? + +Pen blushed and told his mother that the old schoolfellow with whom +he had dined at Chatteris was reading with a tutor at Baymouth, a very +learned man; and as he was himself to go to College, and as there were +several young men pursuing their studies at Baymouth--he was anxious to +ride over--and--and just see what the course of their reading was. + +Laura made a long face. Helen Pendennis looked hard at her son, troubled +more than ever with the vague doubt and terror which had been haunting +her ever since the last night, when Farmer Gurnett brought back the news +that Pen would not return home to dinner. Arthur's eyes defied her. She +tried to console herself, and drive off her fears. The boy had never +told her an untruth. Pen conducted himself during breakfast in a very +haughty and supercilious manner; and, taking leave of the elder and +younger lady, was presently heard riding out of the stablecourt. He went +gently at first, but galloped like a madman as soon as he thought that +he was out of hearing. + +Smirke, thinking of his own affairs, and softly riding with his toes +out, to give Pen his three hours' reading at Fairoaks, met his pupil, +who shot by him like the wind. Smirke's pony shied, as the other +thundered past him; the gentle curate went over his head among the +stinging-nettles in the hedge. Pen laughed as they met, pointed towards +the Baymouth road, and was gone half a mile in that direction before +poor Smirke had picked himself up. + +Pen had resolved in his mind that he must see Foker that morning; he +must hear about her; know about her; be with somebody who knew her; and +honest Smirke, for his part, sitting up among the stinging-nettles, +as his pony cropped quietly in the hedge, thought dismally to himself, +ought he to go to Fairoaks now that his pupil was evidently gone away +for the day. Yes, he thought he might go, too. He might go and ask Mrs. +Pendennis when Arthur would be back; and hear Miss Laura her Watts's +Catechism. He got up on the little pony--both were used to his slipping +off--and advanced upon the house from which his scholar had just rushed +away in a whirlwind. + +Thus love makes fools of all of us, big and little; and the curate had +tumbled over head and heels in pursuit of it, and Pen had started in the +first heat of the mad race. + + + + +CHAPTER V. Mrs. Haller at Home + + +Without slackening her pace, Rebecca the mare galloped on to Baymouth, +where Pen put her up at the inn stables, and ran straightway to Mr. +Foker's lodgings, which he knew from the direction given to him by that +gentleman on the previous day. On reaching these apartments, which +were over a chemist's shop whose stock of cigars and sodawater went off +rapidly by the kind patronage of his young inmates, Pen only found Mr. +Spavin, Foker's friend, and part owner of the tandem which the latter +had driven into Chatteris, who was smoking, and teaching a little dog, a +friend of his, tricks with a bit of biscuit. + +Pen's healthy red face, fresh from the gallop, compared oddly with the +waxy debauched little features of Foker's chum; the latter remarked it. +"Who's that man?" he thought, "he looks as fresh as a bean. His hand +don't shake of a morning, I'd bet five to one." + +Foker had not come home at all. Here was a disappointment!--Mr. Spavin +could not say when his friend would return. Sometimes he stopped a day, +sometimes a week. Of what college was Pen? Would he have anything? There +was a very fair tap of ale. Mr. Spavin was enabled to know Pendennis's +name, on the card which the latter took out and laid down (perhaps Pen +in these days was rather proud of having a card)--and so the young men +took leave. + +Then Pen went down the rock, and walked about on the sand, biting his +nails by the shore of the much-sounding sea. It stretched before him +bright and immeasurable. The blue waters came rolling into the bay, +foaming and roaring hoarsely: Pen looked them in the face with blank +eyes, hardly regarding them. What a tide there was pouring into the +lad's own mind at the time, and what a little power had he to check it! +Pen flung stones into the sea, but it still kept coming on. He was in +a rage at not seeing Foker. He wanted to see Foker. He must see Foker. +"Suppose I go on--on the Chatteris road, just to see if I can meet him," +Pen thought. Rebecca was saddled in another half hour, and galloping +on the grass by the Chatteris road. About four miles from Baymouth, the +Clavering road branches off, as everybody knows, and the mare naturally +was for taking that turn, but, cutting her over the shoulder, Pen passed +the turning, and rode on to the turnpike without seeing any sign of the +black tandem and red wheels. + +As he was at the turnpike he might as well go on: that was quite clear. +So Pen rode to the George, and the hostler told him that Mr. Foker was +there sure enough, and that "he'd been a makin a tremendous row the +night afore, a drinkin and a singin, and wanting to fight Tom the +postboy: which I'm thinking he'd have had the worst of it," the man +added, with a grin. "Have you carried up your master's 'ot water to +shave with?" he added, in a very satirical manner, to Mr. Foker's +domestic, who here came down the yard bearing his master's clothes, most +beautifully brushed and arranged. "Show Mr. Pendennis up to 'un," and +Pen followed the man at last to the apartment, where, in the midst of an +immense bed, Mr. Harry Foker lay reposing. + +The feather bed and bolsters swelled up all round Mr. Foker, so that you +could hardly see his little sallow face and red silk nightcap. + +"Hullo!" said Pen. + +"Who goes there? brother, quickly tell!" sang out the voice from the +bed. "What! Pendennis again? Is your Mamma acquainted with your absence? +Did you sup with us last night? No stop--who supped with us last night, +Stoopid?" + +"There was the three officers, sir, and Mr. Bingley, sir, and Mr. +Costigan, sir," the man answered, who received all Mr. Foker's remarks +with perfect gravity. + +"Ah yes: the cup and merry jest went round. We chanted and I remember I +wanted to fight a postboy. Did I thrash him, Stoopid?" + +"No, sir. Fight didn't come off, sir," said Stoopid, still with perfect +gravity. He was arranging Mr. Foker's dressing-case--a trunk, the gift +of a fond mother, without which the young fellow never travelled. It +contained a prodigious apparatus in plate; a silver dish, a silver mug, +silver boxes and bottles for all sorts of essences, and a choice of +razors ready against the time when Mr. Foker's beard should come. + +"Do it some other day," said the young fellow, yawning and throwing up +his little lean arms over his head. "No, there was no fight; but there +was chanting. Bingley chanted, I chanted, the General chanted--Costigan +I mean.--Did you ever hear him sing 'The Little Pig under the Bed,' +Pen?" + +"The man we met yesterday," said Pen, all in a tremor, "the father +of---" + +"Of the Fotheringay,--the very man. Ain't she a Venus, Pen?" + +"Please sir, Mr. Costigan's in the sittin-room, sir, and says, sir, you +asked him to breakfast, sir. Called five times, sir; but wouldn't wake +you on no account; and has been here since eleven o'clock, sir---" + +"How much is it now?" + +"One, sir." + +"What would the best of mothers say," cried the little sluggard, "if she +saw me in bed at this hour? She sent me down here with a grinder. She +wants me to cultivate my neglected genus--He, be! I say, Pen, this isn't +quite like seven o'clock school,--is it, old boy?"--and the young fellow +burst out into a boyish laugh of enjoyment. Then he added--"Go in and +talk to the General whilst I dress. And I say, Pendennis, ask him to +sing you 'The Little Pig under the Bed;' it's capital." Pen went off in +great perturbation, to meet Mr. Costigan, and Mr. Foker commenced his +toilet. + +Of Mr. Foker's two grandfathers, the one from whom he inherited a +fortune was a brewer; the other was an earl, who endowed him with the +most doting mother in the world. The Fokers had been at the Cistercian +school from father to son; at which place, our friend, whose name could +be seen over the playground wall, on a public-house sign, under which +'Foker's Entire' was painted, had been dreadfully bullied on account +of his trade, his uncomely countenance, his inaptitude for learning and +cleanliness, his gluttony and other weak points. But those who know how +a susceptible youth, under the tyranny of his schoolfellows, becomes +silent and a sneak, may understand how in a very few months after his +liberation from bondage, he developed himself as he had done; and became +the humorous, the sarcastic, the brilliant Foker, with whom we have made +acquaintance. A dunce he always was, it is true; for learning cannot be +acquired by leaving school and entering at college as a fellow-commoner; +but he was now (in his own peculiar manner) as great a dandy as he +before had been a slattern, and when he entered his sitting-room to join +his two guests, arrived scented and arrayed in fine linen, and perfectly +splendid in appearance. + +General or Captain Costigan--for the latter was the rank which he +preferred to assume--was seated in the window with the newspaper held +before him at arm's length. The Captain's eyes were somewhat dim; and he +was spelling the paper, with the help of his lips, as well as of those +bloodshot eyes of his, as you see gentlemen do to whom reading is a rare +and difficult occupation. His hat was cocked very much on one ear; +and as one of his feet lay up in the window-seat, the observer of such +matters might remark, by the size and shabbiness of the boots which the +Captain wore, that times did not go very well with him. Poverty seems +as if it were disposed, before it takes possession of a man entirely, to +attack his extremities first: the coverings of his head, feet, and +hands are its first prey. All these parts of the Captain's person were +particularly rakish and shabby. As soon as he saw Pen he descended from +the window-seat and saluted the new-comer, first in a military manner, +by conveying a couple of his fingers (covered with a broken black glove) +to his hat, and then removing that ornament altogether. The Captain was +inclined to be bald, but he brought a quantity of lank iron-grey hair +over his pate, and had a couple of whisps of the same falling down +on each side of his face. Much whisky had spoiled what complexion Mr. +Costigan may have possessed in his youth. His once handsome face had now +a copper tinge. He wore a very high stock, scarred and stained in many +places; and a dress-coat tightly buttoned up in those parts where the +buttons had not parted company from the garment. + +"The young gentleman to whom I had the honour to be introjuiced +yesterday in the Cathadral Yard," said the Captain, with a splendid bow +and wave of his hat. "I hope I see you well, sir. I marked ye in the +thayatre last night during me daughter's perfawrumance; and missed ye +on my return. I did but conduct her home, sir, for Jack Costigan, though +poor, is a gentleman; and when I reintered the house to pay me respects +to me joyous young friend, Mr. Foker--ye were gone. We had a jolly night +of ut, sir--Mr. Foker, the three gallant young dragoons, and your 'umble +servant. Gad, sir, it put me in mind of one of our old nights when I +bore His Majesty's commission in the Foighting Hundtherd and Third." And +he pulled out an old snuff box, which he presented with a stately air to +his new acquaintance. + +Arthur was a great deal too much flurried to speak. This shabby-looking +buck was--was her father. The Captain was perfumed with the +recollections of the last night's cigars, and pulled and twisted the +tuft on his chin as jauntily as any young dandy. + +"I hope, Miss F--, Miss Costigan is well, sir," Pen said, flushing up. +"She--she gave me greater pleasure, than--than I--I--I ever enjoyed at +a play. I think, sir--I think she's the finest actress in the world," he +gasped out. + +"Your hand, young man! for ye speak from your heart," cried the Captain. +"Thank ye, sir, an old soldier and a fond father thanks ye. She is +the finest actress in the world. I've seen the Siddons, sir, and +the O'Nale--they were great, but what were they compared to Miss +Fotheringay? I do not wish she should ashume her own name while on +the stage. Me family, sir, are proud people; and the Costigans of +Costiganstown think that an honest man, who has borne Her Majesty's +colours in the Hundred and Third, would demean himself, by permitting +his daughter to earn her old father's bread." + +"There cannot be a more honourable duty, surely," Pen said. + +"Honourable! Bedad, sir, I'd like to see the man who said Jack Costigan +would consent to anything dishonourable. I have a heart, sir, though +I am poor; I like a man who has a heart. You have: I read it in your +honest face and steady eye. And would you believe it"? he added, after a +pause, and with a pathetic whisper, "that that Bingley who has made his +fortune by me child, gives her but two guineas a week: out of which she +finds herself in dresses, and which, added to me own small means, makes +our all?" + +Now the Captain's means were so small as to be, it may be said, quite +invisible. But nobody knows how the wind is tempered to shorn Irish +lambs, and in what marvellous places they find pasture. If Captain +Costigan, whom I had the honour to know, would but have told his +history, it would have been a great moral story. But he neither would +have told it if he could, nor could if he would; for the Captain was +not only unaccustomed to tell the truth,--he was unable even to think +it--and fact and fiction reeled together in his muzzy, whiskified brain. + +He began life rather brilliantly with a pair of colours, a fine person +and legs, and one of the most beautiful voices in the world. To his +latest day he sang with admirable pathos and humour those wonderful +Irish ballads which are so mirthful and so melancholy: and was always +the first himself to cry at their pathos. Poor Cos! he was at once brave +and maudlin, humorous and an idiot; always good-natured, and sometimes +almost trustworthy. Up to the last day of his life he would drink with +any man, and back any man's bill: and his end was in a spunging-house, +where the sheriff's officer, who took him, was fond of him. + +In his brief morning of life, Cos formed the delight of regimental +messes, and had the honour of singing his songs, bacchanalian and +sentimental, at the tables of the most illustrious generals and +commanders-in-chief, in the course of which period he drank three times +as much claret as was good for him, and spent his doubtful patrimony. +What became of him subsequently to his retirement from the army, is no +affair of ours. I take it, no foreigner understands the life of an Irish +gentleman without money, the way in which he manages to keep afloat--the +wind-raising conspiracies, in which he engages with heroes as +unfortunate as himself--the means by which he contrives, during most +days of the week, to get his portion of whisky-and-water: all these are +mysteries to us inconceivable: but suffice it to say, that through all +the storms of life Jack had floated somehow, and the lamp of his nose +had never gone out. + +Before he and Pen had had a half-hour's conversation, the Captain +managed to extract a couple of sovereigns from the young gentleman for +tickets for his daughter's benefit, which was to take place speedily; +and was not a bona fide transaction such as that of the last year, when +poor Miss Fotheringay had lost fifteen shillings by her venture; but was +an arrangement with the manager, by which the lady was to have the sale +of a certain number of tickets, keeping for herself a large portion of +the sum for which they were sold. + +Pen had but two pounds in his purse, and he handed them over to the +Captain for the tickets; he would have been afraid to offer more lest he +should offend the latter's delicacy. Costigan scrawled him an order for +a box, lightly slipped the sovereigns into his waistcoat, and slapped +his hand over the place where they lay. They seemed to warm his old +sides. + +"Faith, sir," said he, "the bullion's scarcer with me than it used to +be, as is the case with many a good fellow. I won six hundthred of 'em +in a single night, sir, when me kind friend, His Royal Highness the +Duke of Kent, was in Gibralther." And he straightway poured out to Pen +a series of stories regarding the claret drunk, the bets made, the races +ridden by the garrison there, with which he kept the young gentleman +amused until the arrival of their host and his breakfast. + +Then it was good to see the Captain's behaviour before the devilled +turkey and the mutton chops! His stories poured forth unceasingly, and +his spirits rose as he chatted to the young men. When he got a bit +of sunshine, the old lazzarone basked in it; he prated about his +own affairs and past splendour, and all the lords, generals, and +Lord-Lieutenants he had ever known. He described the death of his +darling Bessie, the late Mrs. Costigan, and the challenge he had sent +to Captain Shanty Clancy, of the Slashers, for looking rude at Miss +Fotheringay as she was on her kyar in the Phaynix; and then he described +how the Captain apologised, gave a dinner at the Kildare Street, where +six of them drank twinty-one bottles of claret, etc. He announced that +to sit with two such noble and generous young fellows was the happiness +and pride of an old soldier's existence; and having had a second glass +of Curacoa, was so happy that he began to cry. Altogether we should +say that the Captain was not a man of much strength of mind, or a very +eligible companion for youth; but there are worse men, holding much +better places in life, and more dishonest, who have never committed half +so many rogueries as he. They walked out, the Captain holding an arm of +each of his dear young friends, and in a maudlin state of contentment. +He winked at one or two tradesmen's shops where, possibly, he owed a +bill, as much as to say, "See the company I'm in--sure I'll pay you, my +boy,"--and they parted finally with Mr. Foker at a billiard-room, where +the latter had a particular engagement with some gentlemen of Colonel +Swallowtail's regiment. + +Pen and the shabby Captain still walked the street together; the +Captain, in his sly way, making inquiries about Mr. Foker's fortune +and station in life. Pen told him how Foker's father was a celebrated +brewer, and his mother was Lady Agnes Milton, Lord Rosherville's +daughter. The Captain broke out into a strain of exaggerated compliment +and panegyric about Mr. Foker, whose "native aristocracie," he said, +"could be seen with the twinkling of an oi--and only served to adawrun +other qualities which he possessed, a foin intellect and a generous +heart,"--in not one word of which speech did the Captain accurately +believe. + +Pen walked on, listening to his companion's prate, wondering, amused, +and puzzled. It had not as yet entered into the boy's head to disbelieve +any statement that was made to him; and being of a candid nature +himself, he took naturally for truth what other people told him. +Costigan had never had a better listener, and was highly flattered by +the attentiveness and modest bearing of the young man. + +So much pleased was he with the young gentleman, so artless, honest, +and cheerful did Pen seem to be, that the Captain finally made him an +invitation, which he very seldom accorded to young men, and asked Pen if +he would do him the fever to enter his humble abode, which was near at +hand, where the Captain would have the honour of inthrojuicing his young +friend to his daughther, Miss Fotheringay? + +Pen was so delightfully shocked at this invitation, and was so stricken +down by the happiness thus suddenly offered to him, that he thought he +should have dropped from the Captain's arm at first, and trembled lest +the other should discover his emotion. He gasped out a few incoherent +words, indicative of the high gratification he should have in being +presented to the lady for whose--for whose talents he had conceived such +an admiration--such an extreme admiration; and followed the Captain, +scarcely knowing whither that gentleman led him. He was going to see +her! He was going to see her! In her was the centre of the universe. +She was the kernel of the world for Pen. Yesterday, before he knew her, +seemed a period ever so long ago--a revolution was between him and that +time, and a new world about to begin. + +The Captain conducted his young friend to that quiet little street +in Chatteris, which is called Prior's Lane, which lies in the +ecclesiastical quarter of the town, close by Dean's Green and the +canons' houses, and is overlooked by the enormous towers of the +cathedral; there the Captain dwelt modestly in the first floor of a low +gabled house, on the door of which was the brass plate of 'Creed, Tailor +and Robe-maker.' Creed was dead, however. His widow was a pew-opener in +the cathedral hard by; his eldest son was a little scamp of a choir-boy, +who played toss-halfpenny, led his little brothers into mischief, and +had a voice as sweet as an angel. A couple of the latter were sitting +on the door-step, down which you went into the passage of the house; +and they jumped up with great alacrity to meet their lodger, and plunged +wildly, and rather to Pen's surprise, at the swallow-tails of the +Captain's dress-coat; for the truth is, that the good-natured gentleman, +when he was in cash, generally brought home an apple or a piece of +gingerbread for these children. "Whereby the widdy never pressed me for +rint when not convanient," as he remarked afterwards to Pen, winking +knowingly, and laying a finger on his nose. + +Pen tumbled down the step, and as he followed his companion up the +creaking old stair, his knees trembled under him. He could hardly see +when he entered, following the Captain, and stood in the room--in her +room. He saw something black before him, and waving as if making a +curtsey, and heard, but quite indistinctly, Costigan making a speech +over him, in which the Captain, with his usual magniloquence, expressed +to "me child" his wish to make her known to "his dear and admirable +young friend, Mr. Awther Pindinnis, a young gentleman of property in +the neighbourhood, a person of refoined moind, and enviable manners, +a sincare lover of poethry, and a man possest of a feeling and +affectionate heart." + +"It is very fine weather," Miss Fotheringay said, in an Irish accent, +and with a deep rich melancholy voice. + +"Very," said Mr. Pendennis. In this romantic way their conversation +began; and he found himself seated on a chair, and having leisure to +look at the young lady. + +She looked still handsomer off the stage, than before the lamps. All her +attitudes were naturally grand and majestical. If she went and stood up +against the mantelpiece her robe draped itself classically round her; +her chin supported itself on her hand, the other lines of her form +arranged themselves in full harmonious undulations--she looked like a +Muse in contemplation. If she sate down on a cane-bottomed chair, her +arm rounded itself over the back of the seat, her hand seemed as if +it ought to have a sceptre put into it, the folds of her dress fell +naturally round her in order, like ladies of honour round a throne, +and she looked like an empress. All her movements were graceful and +imperial. In the morning you could see her hair was blue-black, her +complexion of dazzling fairness, with the faintest possible blush +flickering, as it were, in her cheek. Her eyes were grey, with +prodigious long lashes; and as for her mouth, Mr. Pendennis has given +me subsequently to understand, that it was of a staring red colour, with +which the most brilliant geranium, sealing-wax, or Guardsman's coat, +could not vie. + +"And very warm," continued this empress and Queen of Sheba. + +Mr. Pen again assented, and the conversation rolled on in this manner. +She asked Costigan whether he had had a pleasant evening at the George, +and he recounted the supper and the tumblers of punch. Then the father +asked her how she had been employing the morning. + +"Bows came," said she, "at ten, and we studied Ophalia. It's for the +twenty-fourth, when I hope, sir, we shall have the honour of seeing ye." + +"Indeed, indeed, you will," Mr. Pendennis cried; wondering that she +should say 'Ophalia,' and speak with an Irish inflection of voice +naturally, who had not the least Hibernian accent on the stage. + +"I've secured 'um for your benefit, dear," said the Captain, tapping his +waistcoat pocket, wherein lay Pen's sovereigns, and winking at Pen, with +one eye, at which the boy blushed. + +"Mr---the gentleman's very obleging," said Mrs. Haller. + +"My name is Pendennis," said Pen, blushing. "I--I--hope you'll--you'll +remember it." His heart thumped so as he made this audacious +declaration, that he almost choked in uttering it. + +"Pendennis"--she answered slowly, and looking him full in the eyes, with +a glance, so straight, so clear, so bright, so killing, with a voice so +sweet, so round, so low, that the word and the glance shot Pen through +and through, and perfectly transfixed him with pleasure. + +"I never knew the name was so pretty before," Pen said. + +"'Tis a very pretty name," Ophelia said. "Pentweazle's not a pretty +name. Remember, papa, when we were on the Norwich Circuit, Young +Pentweazle, who used to play second old men, and married Miss Rancy, the +Columbine; they're both engaged in London now, at the Queen's, and get +five pounds a week. Pentweazle wasn't his real name. 'Twas Judkin gave +it him, I don't know why. His name was Harrington; that is, his real +name was Potts; fawther a clergyman, very respectable. Harrington was in +London, and got in debt. Ye remember; he came out in Falkland, to Mrs. +Bunce's Julia." + +"And a pretty Julia she was," the Captain interposed; "a woman of fifty, +and a mother of ten children. 'Tis you ought to have been Julia, or my +name's not Jack Costigan." + +"I didn't take the leading business then," Miss Fotheringay said +modestly; "I wasn't fit for't till Bows taught me." + +"True for you, my dear," said the Captain: and bending to Pendennis, +he added, "Rejuiced in circumstances, sir, I was for some time a +fencing-master in Dublin (there's only three men in the empire could +touch me with the foil once, but Jack Costigan's getting old and stiff +now, sir), and my daughter had an engagement at the thayater there; and +'twas there that my friend, Mr. Bows, who saw her capabilities, and is +an uncommon 'cute man, gave her lessons in the dramatic art, and made +her what ye see. What have ye done since Bows went, Emily?" + +"Sure, I've made a pie," Emily said, with perfect simplicity. She +pronounced it "Poy." + +"If ye'll try it at four o'clock, sir, say the word," said Costigan +gallantly. "That girl, sir, makes the best veal and ham pie in England, +and I think I can promise ye a glass of punch of the right flavour." + +Pen had promised to be at home to dinner at six o'clock, but the rascal +thought he could accommodate pleasure and duty in this point, and was +only too eager to accept this invitation. He looked on with delight and +wonder whilst Ophelia busied herself about the room, and prepared for +the dinner. She arranged the glasses, and laid and smoothed the little +cloth, all which duties she performed with a quiet grace and good +humour, which enchanted her guest more and more. The "poy" arrived from +the baker's in the hands of one of the little choir-boy's brothers +at the proper hour: and at four o'clock Pen found himself at +dinner--actually at dinner with the greatest tragic actress in the +world, and her father--with the handsomest woman in all creation--with +his first and only love, whom he had adored ever since when?--ever since +yesterday, ever since for ever. He ate a crust of her making, he poured +her out a glass of beer, he saw her drink a glass of punch--just one +wine-glass full--out of the tumbler which she mixed for her papa. She +was perfectly good-natured, and offered to mix one for Pendennis too. It +was prodigiously strong; Pen had never in his life drunk so much spirits +and water. Was it the punch, or the punch-maker who intoxicated him? + +During dinner, when the Captain, whom his daughter treated most +respectfully, ceased prattling about himself and his adventures, Pen +tried to engage the Fotheringay in conversation about poetry and about +her profession. He asked her what she thought of Ophelia's madness, and +whether she was in love with Hamlet or not? "In love with such a little +ojous wretch as that stunted manager of a Bingley?" She bristled with +indignation at the thought. Pen explained it was not of her he spoke, +but of Ophelia of the play. "Oh, indeed; if no offence was meant, none +was taken: but as for Bingley, indeed, she did not value him--not that +glass of punch." Pen next tried her on Kotzebue. "Kotzebue? who was +he?"--"The author of the play in which she had been performing so +admirably." "She did not know that--the man's name at the beginning +of the book was Thompson," she said. Pen laughed at her adorable +simplicity. He told her of the melancholy fate of the author of the +play, and how Sand had killed him. It was for the first time in her life +that Miss Costigan had ever heard of Mr. Kotzebue's existence, but she +looked as if she was very much interested, and her sympathy sufficed for +honest Pen. + +And in the midst of this simple conversation, the hour and a quarter +which poor Pen could afford to allow himself, passed away only too +quickly; and he had taken leave, he was gone, and away on his rapid road +homewards on the back of Rebecca. She was called upon to show her mettle +in the three journeys which she made that day. + +"What was that he was talking about, the madness of Hamlet, and the +theory of the great German critic on the subject?" Emily asked of her +father. + +"'Deed then I don't know, Milly dear," answered the Captain. "We'll ask +Bows when he comes." + +"Anyhow, he's a nice, fair-spoken pretty young man," the lady said: "how +many tickets did he take of you?" + +"Faith, then, he took six, and gev me two guineas, Milly," the Captain +said. "I suppose them young chaps is not too flush of coin." + +"He's full of book-learning," Miss Fotheringay continued. "Kotzebue! He, +he, what a droll name indeed, now; and the poor fellow killed by Sand, +too! Did ye ever hear such a thing? I'll ask Bows about it, papa, dear." + +"A queer death, sure enough," ejaculated the Captain, and changed +the painful theme. "'Tis an elegant mare the young gentleman rides," +Costigan went on to say; "and a grand breakfast, intirely, that young +Mister Foker gave us." + +"He's good for two private boxes, and at leest twenty tickets, I should +say," cried the daughter, a prudent lass, who always kept her fine eyes +on the main chance. + +"I'll go bail of that," answered the papa, and so their conversation +continued awhile, until the tumbler of punch was finished; and their +hour of departure soon came, too; for at half-past six Miss Fotheringay +was to appear at the theatre again, whither her father always +accompanied her; and stood, as we have seen, in the side-scene watching +her, and drank spirits-and-water in the green-room with the company +there. + +"How beautiful she is," thought Pen, cantering homewards. "How simple +and how tender! How charming it is to see a woman of her commanding +genius busying herself with the delightful, though humble, offices of +domestic life, cooking dishes to make her old father comfortable, and +brewing drink for him with her delicate fingers! How rude it was of me +to begin to talk about professional matters, and how well she turned the +conversation! By the way, she talked about professional matters herself; +but then with what fun and humour she told the story of her comrade, +Pentweazle, as he was called! There is no humour like Irish humour. Her +father is rather tedious, but thoroughly amiable; and how fine of him, +giving lessons in fencing after he quitted the army, where he was the +pet of the Duke of Kent! Fencing! I should like to continue my fencing, +or I shall forget what Angelo taught me. Uncle Arthur always liked me +to fence--he says it is the exercise of a gentleman. Hang it. I'll take +some lessons of Captain Costigan. Go along, Rebecca--up the hill, old +lady. Pendennis, Pendennis--how she spoke the word! Emily, Emily! how +good, how noble, how beautiful, how perfect, she is!" + +Now the reader, who has had the benefit of overhearing the entire +conversation which Pen had with Miss Fotheringay, can judge for himself +about the powers of her mind, and may perhaps be disposed to think that +she has not said anything astonishingly humorous or intellectual in the +course of the above interview. She has married, and taken her position +in the world as the most spotless and irreproachable lady since, and +I have had the pleasure of making her acquaintance: and must certainly +own, against my friend Pen's opinion, that his adored Emily is not a +clever woman. The truth is, she had not only never heard of Kotzebue, +but she had never heard of Farquhar, or Congreve, or any dramatist in +whose plays she had not a part: and of these dramas she only knew the +part which concerned herself. A wag once told her that Dante was born +at Algiers: and asked her,--which Dr. Johnson wrote first, 'Irene,' or +'Every Man in his Humour.' But she had the best of the joke, for she had +never heard of Irene or Every Man in his Humour, or Dante, or perhaps +Algiers. It was all one to her. She acted what little Bows told +her--where he told her to sob, she sobbed--where he told her to laugh, +she laughed. She gave the tirade or the repartee without the slightest +notion of its meaning. She went to church and goes every Sunday, with a +reputation perfectly intact, and was (and is) as guiltless of sense as +of any other crime. + +But what did our Pen know of these things? He saw a pair of bright +eyes, and he believed in them--a beautiful image, and he fell down +and worshipped it. He supplied the meaning which her words wanted; and +created the divinity which he loved. Was Titania the first who fell in +love with an ass, or Pygmalion the only artist who has gone crazy about +a stone? He had found her; he had found what his soul thirsted after. +He flung himself into the stream and drank with all his might. Let those +say who have been thirsty once how delicious that first draught is. As +he rode down the avenue towards home--Pen shrieked with laughter as he +saw the Reverend Mr. Smirke once more coming demurely away from Fairoaks +on his pony. Smirke had dawdled and stayed at the cottages on the way, +and then dawdled with Laura over her lessons--and then looked at Mrs. +Pendennis's gardens and improvements until he had perfectly bored out +that lady: and he had taken his leave at the very last minute without +that invitation to dinner which he fondly expected. + +Pen was full of kindness and triumph. "What, picked up and sound?" he +cried out laughing. "Come along back, old fellow, and eat my dinner--I +have had mine: but we will have a bottle of the old wine and drink her +health, Smirke." + +Poor Smirke turned the pony's head round, and jogged along with Arthur. +His mother was charmed to see him in such high spirits, and welcomed Mr. +Smirke for his sake, when Arthur said he had forced the curate back to +dine. He gave a most ludicrous account of the play of the night before, +and of the acting of Bingley the Manager, in his rickety Hessians, and +the enormous Mrs. Bingley as the Countess, in rumpled green satin and a +Polish cap; he mimicked them, and delighted his mother and little Laura, +who clapped her hands with pleasure. + +"And Mrs. Haller?" said Mrs. Pendennis. + +"She's a stunner, ma'am," Pen said, laughing, and using the words of his +revered friend, Mr. Foker. + +"A what, Arthur?" asked the lady. + +"What is a stunner, Arthur?" cried Laura, in the same voice. + +So he gave them a queer account of Mr. Foker, and how he used to be +called Vats and Grains, and by other contumelious names at school: and +how he was now exceedingly rich, and a Fellow Commoner at St. Boniface. +But gay and communicative as he was, Mr. Pen did not say one syllable +about his ride to Chatteris that day, or about the new friends whom he +had made there. + +When the two ladies retired, Pen, with flashing eyes, filled up two +great bumpers of Madeira, and looking Smirke full in the face said, +"Here's to her!" + +"Here's to her," said the curate with a sigh, lifting the glass and +emptying it, so that his face was a little pink when he put it down. + +Pen had even less sleep that night than on the night before. In +the morning, and almost before dawn, he went out and saddled that +unfortunate Rebecca himself, and rode her on the Downs like mad. Again +Love had roused him--and said, "Awake, Pendennis, I am here." That +charming fever--that delicious longing--and fire, and uncertainty; he +hugged them to him--he would not have lost them for all the world. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. Contains both Love and War + + +Cicero and Euripides did not occupy Mr. Pen much for some time after +this, and honest Mr. Smirke had a very easy time with his pupil. Rebecca +was the animal who suffered most in the present state of Pen's mind, +for, besides those days when he could publicly announce his intention of +going to Chatteris to take a fencing-lesson, and went thither with the +knowledge of his mother, whenever he saw three hours clear before him, +the young rascal made a rush for the city, and found his way to Prior's +Lane. He was as frantic with vexation when Rebecca went lame, as Richard +at Bosworth, when his horse was killed under him: and got deeply into +the books of the man who kept the hunting-stables at Chatteris for the +doctoring of his own, and the hire of another animal. + +Then, and perhaps once in a week, under pretence of going to read a +Greek play with Smirke, this young reprobate set off so as to be in time +for the Competitor down coach, stayed a couple of hours in Chatteris, +and returned on the Rival which left for London at ten at night. +Once his secret was nearly lost by Smirke's simplicity, of whom Mrs. +Pendennis asked whether they had read a great deal the night before, or +a question to that effect. Smirke was about to tell the truth, that he +had never seen Mr. Pen at all, when the latter's boot-heel came grinding +down on Mr. Smirke's toe under the table, and warned the curate not to +betray him. + +They had had conversations on the tender subject, of course. It is good +sport (if you are not yourself engaged in the conversation) to hear two +men in love talk. There must be a confidant and depositary somewhere. +When informed, under the most solemn vows of secrecy, of Pen's condition +of mind, the curate said, with no small tremor, "that he hoped it was no +unworthy object--no unlawful attachment, which Pen had formed"--for +if so, the poor fellow felt it would be his duty to break his vow and +inform Pen's mother, and then there would be a quarrel, he felt, with +sickening apprehension, and he would never again have a chance of seeing +what he most liked in the world. + +"Unlawful, unworthy!" Pen bounced out at the curate's question. "She is +as pure as she is beautiful; I would give my heart to no other woman. +I keep the matter a secret in my family, because--because--there are +reasons of a weighty nature which I am not at liberty to disclose. But +any man who breathes a word against her purity insults both her honour +and mine, and--and dammy, I won't stand it." + +Smirke, with a faint laugh, only said, "Well, well, don't call me out, +Arthur, for you know I can't fight;" but by this compromise the wretched +curate was put more than ever into the power of his pupil, and the Greek +and mathematics suffered correspondingly. + +If the reverend gentleman had had much discernment, and looked into the +Poet's Corner of the County Chronicle, as it arrived in the Wednesday's +bag, he might have seen 'Mrs. Haller,' 'Passion and Genius,' 'Lines to +Miss Fotheringay, of the Theatre Royal,' appearing every week; and other +verses of the most gloomy, thrilling, and passionate cast. But as these +poems were no longer signed NEP by their artful composer, but subscribed +EROS, neither the tutor nor Helen, the good soul, who cut all her son's +verses out of the paper, knew that Nep was no other than that flaming +Eros, who sang so vehemently the character of the new actress. + +"Who is the lady," at last asked Mrs. Pendennis, "whom your rival is +always singing in the County Chronicle? He writes something like you, +dear Pen, but yours is much the best. Have you seen Miss Fotheringay?" + +Pen said yes, he had; that night he went to see the "Stranger," she +acted Mrs. Haller. By the way, she was going to have a benefit, and +was to appear in Ophelia--suppose we were to go--Shakspeare, you know, +mother--we can get horses from the Clavering Arms. Little Laura sprang +up with delight, she longed for a play. + +Pen introduced "Shakspeare, you know," because the deceased Pendennis, +as became a man of his character, professed an uncommon respect for the +bard of Avon, in whose works he safely said there was more poetry than +in all 'Johnson's Poets' put together. And though Mr. Pendennis did not +much read the works in question, yet he enjoined Pen to peruse them, and +often said what pleasure he should have, when the boy was of a proper +age, in taking him and mother to see some good plays of the immortal +poet. + +The ready tears welled up in the kind mother's eyes as she remembered +these speeches of the man who was gone. She kissed her son fondly, and +said she would go. Laura jumped for joy. Was Pen happy?--was he ashamed? +As he held his mother to him, he longed to tell her all, but he kept his +counsel. He would see how his mother liked her; the play should be the +thing, and he would try his mother like Hamlet's. + +Helen, in her good humour, asked Mr. Smirke to be of the party. That +ecclesiastic had been bred up by a fond parent at Clapham, who had an +objection to dramatic entertainments, and he had never yet seen a play. +But, Shakspeare!--but to go with Mrs. Pendennis in her carriage, and +sit a whole night by her side!--he could not resist the idea of so much +pleasure, and made a feeble speech, in which he spoke of temptation and +gratitude, and finally accepted Mrs. Pendennis's most kind offer. As he +spoke he gave her a look, which made her exceedingly uncomfortable. She +had seen that look more than once, of late, pursuing her. He became more +positively odious every day in the widow's eyes. + +We are not going to say a great deal about Pen's courtship of +Miss Fotheringay, for the reader has already had a specimen of her +conversation, much of which need surely not be reported. Pen sate with +her hour after hour, and poured forth all his honest boyish soul to her. +Everything he knew, or hoped, or felt, or had read, or fancied, he told +to her. He never tired of talking and longing. One after another, as his +thoughts rose in his hot eager brain, he clothed them in words, and told +them to her. Her part of the tete-a-tete was not to talk, but to appear +as if she understood what Pen talked (a difficult matter, for the +young fellow blurted out no small quantity of nonsense), and to look +exceedingly handsome and sympathising. The fact is, whilst he was making +one of his tirades--and delighted, perhaps, and wondering at his own +eloquence, the lad would go on for twenty minutes at a time--the lovely +Emily, who could not comprehend a tenth part of his talk, had leisure to +think about her own affairs, and would arrange in her own mind how they +should dress the cold mutton, or how she would turn the black satin, or +make herself out of her scarf a bonnet like Miss Thackthwaite's new +one, and so forth. Pen spouted Byron and Moore; passion and poetry: her +business was to throw up her eyes, or fixing them for a moment on his +face, to cry, "Oh, 'tis beautiful! Ah, how exquisite! Repeat those +lines again." And off the boy went, and she returned to her own simple +thoughts about the turned gown, or the hashed mutton. + +In fact Pen's passion was not long a secret from the lovely Emily or her +father. Upon his second visit, his admiration was quite evident to both +of them, and on his departure the old gentleman said to his daughter, as +he winked at her over his glass of grog, "Faith, Milly darling, I think +ye've hooked that chap." + +"Pooh, 'tis only a boy, papa dear," Milly remarked. "Sure he's but +a child." Pen would have been very much pleased if he had heard that +phrase--he was galloping home wild with pleasure, and shouting out her +name as he rode. + +"Ye've hooked 'um any how," said the Captain, "and let me tell ye he's +not a bad fish. I asked Tom at the George, and Flint, the grocer, where +his mother dales--fine fortune--drives in her chariot--splendid park and +grounds--Fairoaks Park--only son--property all his own at twenty-one--ye +might go further and not fare so well, Miss Fotheringay." + +"Them boys are mostly talk," said Milly, seriously. "Ye know at Dublin +how ye went on about young Poldoody, and I've a whole desk full of +verses he wrote me when he was in Trinity College; but he went abroad, +and his mother married him to an Englishwoman." + +"Lord Poldoody was a young nobleman; and in them it's natural: and ye +weren't in the position in which ye are now, Milly dear. But ye mustn't +encourage this young chap too much, for, bedad, Jack Costigan won't have +any thrifling with his daughter." + +"No more will his daughter, papa, you may be sure of that," Milly said. +"A little sip more of the punch,--sure, 'tis beautiful. Ye needn't be +afraid about the young chap--I think I'm old enough to take care of +myself, Captain Costigan." + +So Pen used to come day after day, rushing in and galloping away, and +growing more wild about the girl with every visit. Sometimes the Captain +was present at their meetings; but having a perfect confidence in +his daughter, he was more often inclined to leave the young couple to +themselves, and cocked his hat over his eye, and strutted off on some +errand when Pen entered. How delightful those interviews were! The +Captain's drawing-room was a low wainscoted room, with a large +window looking into the Dean's garden. There Pen sate and talked--and +talked--Emily, looking beautiful as she sate at her work--looking +beautiful and calm, and the sunshine came streaming in at the great +windows, and lighted up her superb face and form. In the midst of the +conversation, the great bell would begin to boom, and he would pause +smiling, and be silent until the sound of the vast music died away--or +the rooks in the cathedral elms would make a great noise towards +sunset--or the sound of the organ and the choristers would come over the +quiet air, and gently hush Pen's talking. + +By the way, it must be said that Miss Fotheringay, in a plain shawl +and a close bonnet and veil, went to church every Sunday of her life, +accompanied by her indefatigable father, who gave the responses in +a very rich and fine brogue, joined in the psalms and chanting, and +behaved in the most exemplary manner. + +Little Bows, the house-friend of the family, was exceedingly wroth at +the notion of Miss Fotheringay's marriage with a stripling seven or +eight years her junior. Bows, who was a cripple, and owned that he was a +little more deformed even than Bingley the manager, so that he could +not appear on the stage, was a singular wild man of no small talents and +humour. Attracted first by Miss Fotheringay's beauty, he began to teach +her how to act. He shrieked out in his cracked voice the parts, and his +pupil learned them from his lips by rote, and repeated them in her +full rich tones. He indicated the attitudes, and set and moved those +beautiful arms of hers. Those who remember this grand actress on the +stage can recall how she used always precisely the same gestures, looks, +and tones; how she stood on the same plank of the stage in the same +position, rolled her eyes at the same instant and to the same degree, +and wept with precisely the same heart-rending pathos and over the same +pathetic syllable. And after she had come out trembling with emotion +before the audience, and looking so exhausted and tearful that you +fancied she would faint with sensibility, she would gather up her hair +the instant she was behind the curtain, and go home to a mutton-chop and +a glass of brown stout; and the harrowing labours of the day over, she +went to bed and snored as resolutely and as regularly as a porter. + +Bows then was indignant at the notion that his pupil should throw her +chances away in life by bestowing her hand upon a little country squire. +As soon as a London manager saw her he prophesied that she would get +a London engagement, and a great success. The misfortune was that the +London managers had seen her. She had played in London three years +before, and failed from utter stupidity. Since then it was that Bows +had taken her in hand and taught her part after part. How he worked and +screamed, and twisted, and repeated lines over and over again, and with +what indomitable patience and dulness she followed him! She knew that he +made her: and let herself be made. She was not grateful, or ungrateful, +or unkind, or ill-humoured. She was only stupid; and Pen was madly in +love with her. + +The post-horses from the Clavering Arms arrived in due time, and carried +the party to the theatre at Chatteris, where Pen was gratified in +perceiving that a tolerably large audience was assembled. The young +gentlemen from Baymouth had a box, in the front of which sate Mr. Foker +and his friend Mr. Spavin, splendidly attired in the most full-blown +evening costume. They saluted Pen in a cordial manner, and examined +his party, of which they approved, for little Laura was a pretty little +red-cheeked girl with a quantity of shining brown ringlets, and Mrs. +Pendennis, dressed in black velvet with the diamond cross which she +sported on great occasions, looked uncommonly handsome and majestic. +Behind these sate Mr. Arthur, and the gentle Smirke with the curl +reposing on his fair forehead, and his white tie in perfect order. He +blushed to find himself in such a place--but how happy was he to be +there! He and Mrs. Pendennis brought books of 'Hamlet' with them to +follow the tragedy, as is the custom of honest countryfolks who go to a +play in state. Samuel, coachman, groom, and gardener to Mr. Pendennis, +took his place in the pit, where Mr. Foker's man was also visible. It +was dotted with non-commissioned officers of the Dragoons, whose band, +by kind permission of Colonel Swallowtail, were, as usual, in the +orchestra; and that corpulent and distinguished warrior himself, with +his Waterloo medal and a number of his young men, made a handsome show +in the boxes. + +"Who is that odd-looking person bowing to you, Arthur?" Mrs. Pendennis +asked of her son. + +Pen blushed a great deal. "His name is Captain Costigan, ma'am," he +said--"a Peninsular officer." In fact it was the Captain in a new +shoot of clothes, as he called them, and with a large pair of white kid +gloves, one of which he waved to Pendennis, whilst he laid the other +sprawling over his heart and coat-buttons. Pen did not say any more. And +how was Mrs. Pendennis to know that Mr. Costigan was the father of Miss +Fotheringay? + +Mr. Hornbull, from London, was the Hamlet of the night, Mr. Bingley +modestly contenting himself with the part of Horatio, and reserving his +chief strength for William in 'Black-Eyed Susan,' which was the second +piece. + +We have nothing to do with the play: except to say that Ophelia looked +lovely, and performed with admirable wild pathos laughing, weeping, +gazing wildly, waving her beautiful white arms, and flinging about her +snatches of flowers and songs with the most charming madness. What an +opportunity her splendid black hair had of tossing over her shoulders! +She made the most charming corpse ever seen; and while Hamlet and +Laertes were battling in her grave, she was looking out from the back +scenes with some curiosity towards Pen's box, and the family party +assembled in it. + +There was but one voice in her praise there. Mrs. Pendennis was in +ecstasies with her beauty. Little Laura was bewildered by the piece, and +the Ghost, and the play within the play (during which, as Hamlet lay +at Ophelia's knee, Pen felt that he would have liked to strangle Mr. +Hornbull), but cried out great praises of that beautiful young creature. +Pen was charmed with the effect which she produced on his mother--and +the clergyman, for his part, was exceedingly enthusiastic. + +When the curtain fell upon that group of slaughtered personages, who +are despatched so suddenly at the end of 'Hamlet,' and whose demise +astonished poor little Laura not a little, there was an immense shouting +and applause from all quarters of the house; the intrepid Smirke, +violently excited, clapped his hands, and cried out "Bravo, Bravo," as +loud as the Dragoon officers themselves. These were greatly moved,--ils +s'agitaient sur leurs bancs,--to borrow a phrase from our neighbours. +They were led cheering into action by the portly Swallowtail, who waved +his cap--the non-commissioned officers in the pit, of course, gallantly +following their chiefs. There was a roar of bravos rang through the +house; Pen bellowing with the loudest, "Fotheringay! Fotheringay!" and +Messrs. Spavin and Foker giving the view-halloo from their box. Even +Mrs. Pendennis began to wave about her pocket-handkerchief, and little +Laura danced, laughed, clapped, and looked up at Pen with wonder. + +Hornbull led the beneficiaire forward, amidst bursts of enthusiasm--and +she looked so handsome and radiant, with her hair still over her +shoulders, that Pen hardly could contain himself for rapture: and he +leaned over his mother's chair, and shouted, and hurrayed, and waved his +hat. It was all he could do to keep his secret from Helen, and not say, +"Look! That's the woman! Isn't she peerless? I tell you I love her." But +he disguised these feelings under an enormous bellowing and hurraying. + +As for Miss Fotheringay and her behaviour, the reader is referred to a +former page for an account of that. She went through precisely the same +business. She surveyed the house all round with glances of gratitude; +and trembled, and almost sank with emotion, over her favourite +trap-door. She seized the flowers (Foker discharged a prodigious bouquet +at her, and even Smirke made a feeble shy with a rose, and blushed +dreadfully when it fell into the pit). She seized the flowers and +pressed them to her swelling heart--etc., etc.--in a word--we refer +the reader to earlier pages. Twinkling in her breast poor old Pen saw a +locket which he had bought of Mr. Nathan in High Street, with the last +shilling he was worth, and a sovereign borrowed from Smirke. + +'Black-Eyed Susan' followed, at which sweet story our gentle-hearted +friends were exceedingly charmed and affected: and in which Susan, with +a russet gown and a pink ribbon in her cap, looked to the full as lovely +as Ophelia. Bingley was great in William. Goll, as the Admiral, looked +like the figure-head of a seventy-four; and Garbetts, as Captain +Boldweather, a miscreant who forms a plan for carrying off Black-eyed +Susan, and waving an immense cocked hat says, "Come what may, he will be +the ruin of her"--all these performed their parts with their accustomed +talent; and it was with a sincere regret that all our friends saw the +curtain drop down and end that pretty and tender story. + +If Pen had been alone with his mother in the carriage as they went home, +he would have told her all, that night; but he sate on the box in the +moonshine smoking a cigar by the side of Smirke, who warmed himself +with a comforter. Mr. Foker's tandem and lamps whirled by the sober old +Clavering posters as they were a couple of miles on their road home, +and Mr. Spavin saluted Mrs. Pendennis's carriage with some considerable +variations of Rule Britannia on the key-bugle. + +It happened two days after the above gaieties that Mr. Dean of Chatteris +entertained a few select clerical friends at dinner at his Deanery Home. +That they drank uncommonly good port wine, and abused the Bishop over +their dessert, are very likely matters: but with such we have nothing at +present to do. Our friend Doctor Portman, of Clavering, was one of the +Dean's guests, and being a gallant man, and seeing from his place at +the mahogany the Dean's lady walking up and down the grass, with her +children sporting around her, and her pink parasol over her lovely +head--the Doctor stept out of the French windows of the dining-room +into the lawn, which skirts that apartment, and left the other white +neckcloths to gird at my lord Bishop. Then the Doctor went up and +offered Mrs. Dean his arm, and they sauntered over the ancient velvet +lawn, which had been mowed and rolled for immemorial Deans, in that +easy, quiet, comfortable manner, in which people of middle age and good +temper walk after a good dinner, in a calm golden summer evening, when +the sun has but just sunk behind the enormous cathedral-towers, and the +sickle-shaped moon is growing every instant brighter in the heavens. + +Now at the end of the Dean's garden there is, as we have stated, Mrs. +Creed's house, and the windows of the first-floor room were open to +admit the pleasant summer air. A young lady of six-and-twenty, whose +eyes were perfectly wide open, and a luckless boy of eighteen, blind +with love and infatuation, were in that chamber together; in which +persons, as we have before seen them in the same place, the reader +will have no difficulty in recognising Mr. Arthur Pendennis and Miss +Costigan. + +The poor boy had taken the plunge. Trembling with passionate emotion, +his heart beating and throbbing fiercely, tears rushing forth in spite +of him, his voice almost choking with feeling, poor Pen had said those +words which he could withhold no more, and flung himself and his whole +store of love, and admiration, and ardour at the feet of this mature +beauty. Is he the first who has done so? Have none before or after +him staked all their treasure of life, as a savage does his land and +possessions against a draught of the fair-skins' fire-water, or a couple +of bauble eyes? + +"Does your mother know of this, Arthur?" said Miss Fotheringay, slowly. +He seized her hand madly and kissed it a thousand times. She did not +withdraw it. "Does the old lady know it?" Miss Costigan thought to +herself, "well, perhaps she may," and then she remembered what a +handsome diamond cross Mrs. Pendennis had on the night of the play, and +thought, "Sure 'twill go in the family." + +"Calm yourself, dear Arthur," she said, in her low rich voice, and +sniffled sweetly and gravely upon him. Then, with her disengaged hand, +she put the hair lightly off his throbbing forehead. He was in such a +rapture and whirl of happiness that he could hardly speak. At last he +gasped out, "My mother has seen you, and admires you beyond measure. +She will learn to love you soon: who can do otherwise? She will love you +because I do." + +"'Deed then, I think you do," said Miss Costigan, perhaps with a sort of +pity for Pen. + +Think she did! Of course here Mr. Pen went off into a rhapsody through +which, as we have perfect command over our own feelings, we have no +reason to follow the lad. Of course, love, truth, and eternity were +produced: and words were tried but found impossible to plumb the +tremendous depth of his affection. This speech, we say, is no business +of ours. It was most likely not very wise, but what right have we to +overhear? Let the poor boy fling out his simple heart at the woman's +feet, and deal gently with him. It is best to love wisely, no doubt: but +to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. Some of +us can't: and are proud of our impotence too. + +At the end of his speech Pen again kissed the imperial hand with +rapture--and I believe it was at this very moment, and while Mrs. Dean +and Doctor Portman were engaged in conversation, that young Master +Ridley Roset, her son, pulled his mother by the back of her capacious +dress and said-- + +"I say, ma! look up there"--and he waggled his innocent head. + +That was, indeed, a view from the Dean's garden such as seldom is seen +by Deans--or is written in Chapters. There was poor Pen performing a +salute upon the rosy fingers of his charmer, who received the embrace +with perfect calmness and good humour. Master Ridley looked up and +grinned, little Miss Rosa looked at her brother, and opened the mouth of +astonishment. Mrs. Dean's countenance defied expression, and as for Dr. +Portman, when he beheld the scene, and saw his prime favourite and dear +pupil Pen, he stood mute with rage and wonder. + +Mrs. Haller spied the party below at the same moment, and gave a start +and a laugh. "Sure there's somebody in the Dean's garden," she cried +out; and withdrew with perfect calmness, whilst Pen darted away with his +face glowing like coals. The garden party had re-entered the house when +he ventured to look out again. The sickle moon was blazing bright in +the heavens then, the stars were glittering, the bell of the cathedral +tolling nine, the Dean's guests (all save one, who had called for his +horse Dumpling, and ridden off early) were partaking of tea and buttered +cakes in Mrs. Dean's drawing-room--when Pen took leave of Miss Costigan. + +Pen arrived at home in due time afterwards, and was going to slip off to +bed, for the poor lad was greatly worn and agitated, and his high-strung +nerves had been at almost a maddening pitch when a summons came to him +by John the old footman, whose countenance bore a very ominous look, +that his mother must see him below. + +On this he tied on his neckcloth again, and went downstairs to the +drawing-room. There sate not only his mother, but her friend, the +Reverend Doctor Portman. Helen's face looked very pale by the light of +the lamp--the Doctor's was flushed, on the contrary, and quivering with +anger and emotion. + +Pen saw at once that there was a crisis, and that there had been a +discovery. "Now for it," he thought. + +"Where have you been, Arthur?" Helen said in a trembling voice. + +"How can you look that--that dear lady, and a Christian clergyman in the +face, sir?" bounced out the Doctor, in spite of Helen's pale, appealing +looks. "Where has he been? Where his mother's son should have been +ashamed to go. For your mother's an angel, sir, an angel. How dare you +bring pollution into her house, and make that spotless creature wretched +with the thoughts of your crime?" + +"Sir!" said Pen. + +"Don't deny it, sir," roared the Doctor. "Don't add lies, sir, to your +other infamy. I saw you myself, sir. I saw you from the Dean's garden. I +saw you kissing the hand of that infernal painted---" + +"Stop," Pen said, clapping his fist on the table, till the lamp +flickered up and shook, "I am a very young man, but you will please to +remember that I am a gentleman--I will hear no abuse of that lady." + +"Lady, sir," cried the Doctor, "that a lady--you--you--you stand in your +mother's presence and call that--that woman a lady!---" + +"In anybody's presence," shouted out Pen. "She is worthy of any place. +She is as pure as any woman. She is as good as she is beautiful. If any +man but you insulted her, I would tell him what I thought; but as you +are my oldest friend, I suppose you have the privilege to doubt of my +honour." + +"No, no, Pen, dearest Pen," cried out Helen in an excess of joy. "I +told, I told you, Doctor, he was not--not what you thought:" and +the tender creature coming trembling forward flung herself on Pen's +shoulder. + +Pen felt himself a man, and a match for all the Doctors in Doctordom. He +was glad this explanation had come. "You saw how beautiful she was," he +said to his mother, with a soothing, protecting air, like Hamlet with +Gertrude in the play. "I tell you, dear mother, she is as good. When you +know her you will say so. She is of all, except you, the simplest, the +kindest, the most affectionate of women. Why should she not be on the +stage?--She maintains her father by her labour." + +"Drunken old reprobate," growled the Doctor, but Pen did not hear or +heed. + +"If you could see, as I have, how orderly her life is, how pure and +pious her whole conduct, you would--as I do--yes, as I do"--(with a +savage look at the Doctor)--"spurn the slanderer who dared to do her +wrong. Her father was an officer, and distinguished himself in Spain. He +was a friend of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, and is intimately +known to the Duke of Wellington, and some of the first officers of our +army. He has met my uncle Arthur at Lord Hill's, he thinks. His own +family is one of the most ancient and respectable in Ireland, and indeed +is as good as our own. The Costigans were kings of Ireland." + +"Why, God bless my soul," shrieked out the Doctor, hardly knowing +whether to burst with rage or laughter, "you don't mean to say you want +to marry her?" + +Pen put on his most princely air. "What else, Dr. Portman," he said, "do +you suppose would be my desire?" + +Utterly foiled in his attack, and knocked down by this sudden lunge of +Pen's, the Doctor could only gasp out, "Mrs. Pendennis, ma'am, send for +the Major." + +"Send for the Major? with all my heart," said Arthur Prince of Pendennis +and Grand Duke of Fairoaks, with a most superb wave of the hand. And the +colloquy terminated by the writing of those two letters which were laid +on Major Pendennis's breakfast-table, in London, at the commencement of +Prince Arthur's most veracious history. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. In which the Major makes his Appearance + + +Our acquaintance, Major Arthur Pendennis, arrived in due time at +Fairoaks, after a dreary night passed in the mail-coach, where a stout +fellow-passenger, swelling preternaturally with great-coats, had crowded +him into a corner, and kept him awake by snoring indecently; where a +widow lady, opposite, had not only shut out the fresh air by closing all +the windows of the vehicle, but had filled the interior with fumes of +Jamaica rum and water, which she sucked perpetually from a bottle in +her reticule; where, whenever he caught a brief moment of sleep, the +twanging of the horn at the turnpike-gates, or the scuffling of his huge +neighbour wedging him closer and closer, or the play of the widow's +feet on his own tender toes, speedily woke up the poor gentleman to +the horrors and realities of life--a life which has passed away now and +become impossible, and only lives in fond memories. Eight miles an hour, +for twenty or five-and-twenty hours, a tight mail-coach, a hard seat, a +gouty tendency, a perpetual change of coachmen grumbling because +you did not fee them enough, a fellow-passenger partial to +spirits-and-water,--who has not borne with these evils in the jolly old +times? and how could people travel under such difficulties? And yet they +did, and were merry too. Next the widow, and by the side of the Major's +servant on the roof, were a couple of school-boys going home for the +midsummer holidays, and Major Pendennis wondered to see them sup at the +inn at Bagshot, where they took in a cargo of ham, eggs, pie, pickles, +tea, coffee, and boiled beef, which surprised the poor Major, sipping a +cup of very feeble tea, and thinking with a tender dejection that Lord +Steyne's dinner was coming off at that very moment. The ingenuous ardour +of the boys, however, amused the Major, who was very good-natured, and +he became the more interested when he found that the one who travelled +inside with him was a lord's son, whose noble father Pendennis, of +course, had met in the world of fashion which he frequented. The +little lord slept all night through, in spite of the squeezing, and +the horn-blowing, and the widow; and he looked as fresh as paint (and, +indeed; pronounced himself to be so) when the Major, with a yellow face, +a bristly beard, a wig out of curl, and strong rheumatic griefs shooting +through various limbs of his uneasy body, descended at the little +lodge-gate at Fairoaks, where the porteress and gardener's wife +reverentially greeted him, and, still more respectfully, Mr. Morgan, his +man. + +Helen was on the look-out for this expected guest, and saw him from her +window. But she did not come forward immediately to greet him. She knew +the Major did not like to be seen at a surprise, and required a little +preparation before he cared to be visible. Pen, when a boy, had incurred +sad disgrace by carrying off from the Major's dressing-table a little +morocco box, which it must be confessed contained the Major's back +teeth, which he naturally would leave out of his jaws in a jolting +mail-coach, and without which he would not choose to appear. Morgan, +his man, made a mystery of mystery of his wigs: curling them in private +places: introducing them mysteriously to his master's room;--nor without +his head of hair would the Major care to show himself to any member +of his family, or any acquaintance. He went to his apartment then and +supplied these deficiencies; he groaned, and moaned, and wheezed, and +cursed Morgan through his toilet, as an old buck will, who has been up +all night with a rheumatism, and has a long duty to perform. And +finally being belted, curled, and set straight, he descended upon the +drawing-room, with a grave majestic air, such as befitted one who was at +once a man of business and a man of fashion. + +Pen was not there, however; only Helen, and little Laura sewing at her +knees; and to whom he never presented more than a forefinger, as he did +on this occasion after saluting his sister-in-law. Laura took the finger +trembling and dropped it--and then fled out of the room. Major Pendennis +did not want to keep her, or indeed to have her in the house at all, and +had his private reason for disapproving of her: which we may mention on +some future occasion. Meanwhile Laura disappeared and wandered about +the premises seeking for Pen: whom she presently found in the orchard, +pacing up and down a walk there in earnest conversation with Mr. Smirke. +He was so occupied that he did not hear Laura's clear voice singing out, +until Smirke pulled him by the coat and pointed towards her as she came +running. + +She ran up and put her hand into his. "Come in, Pen," she said, "there's +somebody come; uncle Arthur's come." + +"He is, is he?" said Pen, and she felt him grasp her little hand. He +looked round at Smirke with uncommon fierceness, as much as to say, I +am ready for him or any man.--Mr. Smirke cast up his eyes as usual and +heaved a gentle sigh. + +"Lead on, Laura," Pen said, with a half fierce, half comic air--"Lead +on, and say I wait upon my uncle." But he was laughing in order to +hide a great anxiety: and was screwing his courage inwardly to face the +ordeal which he knew was now before him. + +Pen had taken Smirke into his confidence in the last two days, and after +the outbreak attendant on the discovery of Doctor Portman, and during +every one of those forty-eight hours which he had passed in Mr. +Smirke's society, had done nothing but talk to his tutor about Miss +Fotheringay--Miss Emily Fotheringay--Emily, etc., to all which talk +Smirke listened without difficulty, for he was in love himself, most +anxious in all things to propitiate Pen, and indeed very much himself +enraptured by the personal charms of this goddess, whose like, never +having been before at a theatrical representation, he had not beheld +until now. Pen's fire and volubility, his hot eloquence and rich +poetical tropes and figures, his manly heart, kind, ardent, and hopeful, +refusing to see any defects in the person he loved, any difficulties in +their position that he might not overcome, had half convinced Mr. Smirke +that the arrangement proposed by Mr. Pen was a very feasible and prudent +one, and that it would be a great comfort to have Emily settled at +Fairoaks, Captain Costigan in the yellow room, established for life +there, and Pen married at eighteen. + +And it is a fact that in these two days the boy had almost talked over +his mother, too; had parried all her objections one after another with +that indignant good sense which is often the perfection of absurdity; +and had brought her almost to acquiesce in the belief that if the +marriage was doomed in heaven, why doomed it was--that if the young +woman was a good person, it was all that she for her part had to ask; +and rather to dread the arrival of the guardian uncle who she foresaw +would regard Mr. Pen's marriage in a manner very different to that +simple, romantic, honest, and utterly absurd way in which the widow was +already disposed to look at questions of this sort. + +For as in the old allegory of the gold and silver shield, about which +the two knights quarrelled, each is right according to the point from +which he looks: so about marriage; the question whether it is foolish or +good, wise or otherwise, depends upon the point of view from which you +regard it. If it means a snug house in Belgravia, and pretty little +dinner-parties, and a pretty little brougham to drive in the Park, and +a decent provision not only for the young people, but for the little +Belgravians to come; and if these are the necessaries of life (and they +are with many honest people), to talk of any other arrangement is an +absurdity: of love in lodgings--a babyish folly of affection: that can't +pay coach-hire or afford a decent milliner--as mere wicked balderdash +and childish romance. If on the other hand your opinion is that people, +not with an assured subsistence, but with a fair chance to obtain it, +and with the stimulus of hope, health, and strong affection, may take +the chance of Fortune for better or worse, and share its good or its +evil together, the polite theory then becomes an absurdity in its turn: +worse than an absurdity, a blasphemy almost, and doubt of Providence; +and a man who waits to make his chosen woman happy, until he can drive +her to church in a neat little carriage with a pair of horses, is no +better than a coward or a trifler, who is neither worthy of love nor of +fortune. + +I don't say that the town folks are not right, but Helen Pendennis was +a country-bred woman, and the book of life, as she interpreted it, told +her a different story to that page which is read in cities. Like most +soft and sentimental women, matchmaking, in general, formed a great +part of her thoughts, and I daresay she had begun to speculate about +her son's falling in love and marrying long before the subject had ever +entered into the brains of the young gentleman. It pleased her (with +that dismal pleasure which the idea of sacrificing themselves gives to +certain women) to think of the day when she would give up all to Pen, +and he should bring his wife home, and she would surrender the keys and +the best bedroom, and go and sit at the side of the table, and see him +happy. What did she want in life, but to see the lad prosper? As an +empress certainly was not too good for him, and would be honoured by +becoming Mrs. Pen; so if he selected humble Esther instead of Queen +Vashti, she would be content with his lordship's choice. Never mind +how lowly or poor the person might be who was to enjoy that prodigious +honour, Mrs. Pendennis was willing to bow before her and welcome her, +and yield her up the first place. But an actress--a mature woman, who +had long ceased blushing except with rouge, as she stood under the eager +glances of thousands of eyes--an illiterate and ill-bred person, very +likely, who must have lived with light associates, and have heard +doubtful conversation--Oh! it was hard that such a one should be chosen, +and that the matron should be deposed to give place to such a Sultana. + +All these doubts the widow laid before Pen during the two days which +had of necessity to elapse ere the uncle came down; but he met them with +that happy frankness and ease which a young gentleman exhibits at +his time of life, and routed his mother's objections with infinite +satisfaction to himself. Miss Costigan was a paragon of virtue and +delicacy; she was as sensitive as the most timid maiden; she was as pure +as the unsullied snow; she had the finest manners, the most graceful wit +and genius, the most charming refinement and justness of appreciation in +all matters of taste; she had the most admirable temper and devotion to +her father, a good old gentleman of high family and fallen fortunes, who +had lived, however, with the best society in Europe: he was in no hurry, +and could afford to wait any time,--till he was one-and-twenty. But he +felt (and here his face assumed an awful and harrowing solemnity) that +he was engaged in the one only passion of his life, and that DEATH alone +could close it. + +Helen told him, with a sad smile and shake of the head, that people +survived these passions, and as for long engagements contracted +between very young men and old women--she knew an instance in her own +family--Laura's poor father was an instance--how fatal they were. + +Mr. Pen, however, was resolved that death must be his doom in case +of disappointment, and rather than this--rather than baulk him, in +fact--this lady would have submitted to any sacrifice or personal pain, +and would have gone down on her knees and have kissed the feet of a +Hottentot daughter-in-law. + +Arthur knew his power over the widow, and the young tyrant was touched +whilst he exercised it. In those two days he brought her almost into +submission, and patronised her very kindly; and he passed one evening +with the lovely pie-maker at Chatteris, in which he bragged of his +influence over his mother; and he spent the other night in composing a +most flaming and conceited copy of verses to his divinity, in which he +vowed, like Montrose, that he would make her famous with his sword and +glorious by his pen, and that he would love her as no mortal woman had +been adored since the creation of womankind. + +It was on that night, long after midnight, that wakeful Helen, passing +stealthily by her son's door, saw a light streaming through the chink of +the door into the dark passage, and heard Pen tossing and tumbling, and +mumbling verses in his bed. She waited outside for a while, anxiously +listening to him. In infantile fevers and early boyish illnesses, many a +night before, the kind soul had so kept watch. She turned the lock very +softly now, and went in so gently, that Pen for a moment did not see +her. His face was turned from her. His papers on his desk were scattered +about, and more were lying on the bed round him. He was biting a pencil +and thinking of rhymes and all sorts of follies and passions. He was +Hamlet jumping into Ophelia's grave: he was the Stranger taking Mrs. +Haller to his arms, beautiful Mrs. Haller, with the raven ringlets +falling over her shoulders. Despair and Byron, Thomas Moore and all the +Loves of the Angels, Waller and Herrick, Beranger and all the love-songs +he had ever read, were working and seething in this young gentleman's +mind, and he was at the very height and paroxysm of the imaginative +frenzy when his mother found him. + +"Arthur," said the mother's soft silver voice: and he started up and +turned round. He clutched some of the papers and pushed them under the +pillow. + +"Why don't you go to sleep, my dear?" she said, with a sweet tender +smile, and sate down on the bed and took one of his hot hands. + +Pen looked at her wildly for an instant--"I couldn't sleep," he +said--"I--I was--I was writing."--And hereupon he flung his arms round +her neck and said, "O mother! I love her, I love her!"--How could such a +kind soul as that help soothing and pitying him? The gentle creature did +her best: and thought with a strange wonderment and tenderness that it +was only yesterday that he was a child in that bed; and how she used to +come and say her prayers over it before he woke upon holiday mornings. + +They were very grand verses, no doubt, although Miss Fotheringay did not +understand them; but old Cos, with a wink and a knowing finger on +his nose, said, "Put them up with th' other letthers, Milly darling. +Poldoody's pomes was nothing to this." So Milly locked up the +manuscripts. + +When then, the Major being dressed and presentable, presented himself to +Mrs. Pendennis, he found in the course of ten minutes' colloquy that +the poor widow was not merely distressed at the idea of the marriage +contemplated by Pen, but actually more distressed at thinking that the +boy himself was unhappy about it, and that his uncle and he should have +any violent altercation on the subject. She besought Major Pendennis +to be very gentle with Arthur: "He has a very high spirit, and will +not brook unkind words," she hinted. "Dr. Portman spoke to him rather +roughly--and I must own unjustly, the other night--for my dearest boy's +honour is as high as any mother can desire--but Pen's answer quite +frightened me, it was so indignant. Recollect he is a man now; and be +very--very cautious," said the widow, laying a fair long hand on the +Major's sleeve. + +He took it up, kissed it gallantly and looked in her alarmed face with +wonder, and a scorn which he was too polite to show. "Bon Dieu!" thought +the old negotiator, "the boy has actually talked the woman round, and +she'd get him a wife as she would a toy if Master cried for it. Why +are there no such things as lettres-de-cachet--and a Bastille for young +fellows of family?" The Major lived in such good company that he might +be excused for feeling like an Earl.--He kissed the widow's timid hand, +pressed it in both his, and laid it down on the table with one of his +own over it, as he smiled and looked her in the face. + +"Confess," said he, "now, that you are thinking how you possibly can +make it up to your conscience to let the boy have his own way." + +She blushed and was moved in the usual manner of females. "I am thinking +that he is very unhappy--and I am too----" + +"To contradict him or to let him have his own wish?" asked the other; +and added, with great comfort to his inward self, "I'm d----d if he +shall." + +"To think that he should have formed so foolish and cruel and fatal an +attachment," the widow said, "which can but end in pain whatever be the +issue." + +"The issue shan't be marriage, my dear sister," the Major said +resolutely. "We're not going to have a Pendennis, the head of the house, +marry a strolling mountebank from a booth. No, no, we won't marry into +Greenwich Fair, ma'am." + +"If the match is broken suddenly off," the widow interposed, "I don't +know what may be the consequence. I know Arthur's ardent temper, +the intensity of his affections, the agony of his pleasures and +disappointments, and I tremble at this one if it must be. Indeed, +indeed, it must not come on him too suddenly." + +"My dear madam," the Major said, with an air of the deepest +commiseration "I've no doubt Arthur will have to suffer confoundedly +before he gets over the little disappointment. But is he, think you, the +only person who has been so rendered miserable?" + +"No, indeed," said Helen, holding down her eyes. She was thinking of her +own case, and was at that moment seventeen again--and most miserable. + +"I, myself," whispered her brother-in-law, "have undergone a +disappointment in early life. A young woman with fifteen thousand +pounds, niece to an Earl--most accomplished creature--a third of her +money would have run up my promotion in no time, and I should have +been a lieutenant--colonel at thirty: but it might not be. I was but a +penniless lieutenant: her parents interfered: and I embarked for +India, where I had the honour of being secretary to Lord Buckley, when +commander-in-Chief--without her. What happened? We returned our letters, +sent back our locks of hair (the Major here passed his fingers through +his wig), we suffered--but we recovered. She is now a baronet's wife +with thirteen grown-up children; altered, it is true, in person; but her +daughters remind me of what she was, and the third is to be presented +early next week." + +Helen did not answer. She was still thinking of old times. I suppose +if one lives to be a hundred: there are certain passages of one's early +life whereof the recollection will always carry us back to youth again, +and that Helen was thinking of one of these. + +"Look at my own brother, my dear creature," the Major continued +gallantly: "he himself, you know, had a little disappointment when +he started in the--the medical profession--an eligible opportunity +presented itself. Miss Balls, I remember the name, was daughter of an +apoth--a practitioner in very large practice; my brother had very +nearly succeeded in his suit.--But difficulties arose: disappointments +supervened, and--and I am sure he had no reason to regret the +disappointment, which gave him this hand," said the Major, and he once +more politely pressed Helen's fingers. + +"Those marriages between people of such different rank and age," said +Helen, "are sad things. I have known them produce a great deal of +unhappiness.--Laura's father, my cousin, who--who was brought up with +me"--she added, in a low voice, "was an instance of that." + +"Most injudicious," cut in the Major. "I don't know anything more +painful than for a man to marry his superior in age or his inferior in +station. Fancy marrying a woman of low rank of life, and having your +house filled with her confounded tag-rag-and-bobtail of relations! Fancy +your wife attached to a mother who dropped her h's, or called Maria +Marire! How are you to introduce her into society? My dear Mrs. +Pendennis, I will name no names, but in the very best circles of London +society I have seen men suffering the most excruciating agony, I have +known them to be cut, to be lost utterly, from the vulgarity of their +wives' connections. What did Lady Snapperton do last year at her dejeune +dansant after the Bohemian Ball? She told Lord Brouncker that he might +bring his daughters or send them with a proper chaperon, but that she +would not receive Lady Brouncker who was a druggist's daughter, or +some such thing, and as Tom Wagg remarked of her, never wanted medicine +certainly, for she never had an h in her life. Good Ged, what would +have been the trifling pang of a separation in the first instance to the +enduring infliction of a constant misalliance and intercourse with low +people?" + +"What, indeed!" said Helen, dimly disposed towards laughter, but yet +checking the inclination, because she remembered in what prodigious +respect her deceased husband held Major Pendennis and his stories of the +great world. + +"Then this fatal woman is ten years older than that silly young +scapegrace of an Arthur. What happens in such cases, my dear creature? +I don't mind telling you, now we are alone that in the highest state +of society, misery, undeviating misery, is the result. Look at Lord +Clodworthy come into a room with his wife--why, good Ged, she looks like +Clodworthy's mother. What's the case between Lord and Lady Willowbank, +whose love match was notorious? He has already cut her down twice +when she has hanged herself out of jealousy for Mademoiselle de Sainte +Cunegonde, the dancer; and mark my words, good Ged, one day he'll not +cut the old woman down. No, my dear madam, you are not in the world, but +I am: you are a little romantic and sentimental (you know you are--women +with those large beautiful eyes always are); you must leave this matter +to my experience. Marry this woman! Marry at eighteen an actress of +thirty--bah bah!--I would as soon he sent into the kitchen and married +the cook." + +"I know the evils of premature engagements," sighed out Helen: and as +she has made this allusion no less than thrice in the course of the +above conversation, and seems to be so oppressed with the notion of long +engagements and unequal marriages, and as the circumstance we have +to relate will explain what perhaps some persons are anxious to know, +namely who little Laura is, who has appeared more than once before us, +it will be as well to clear up these points in another chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. In which Pen is kept waiting at the Door, while the Reader +is informed who little Laura was. + + +Once upon a time, then, there was a young gentleman of Cambridge +University who came to pass the long vacation at the village where +young Helen Thistlewood was living with her mother, the widow of the +lieutenant slain at Copenhagen. This gentleman, whose name was +the Reverend Francis Bell, was nephew to Mrs. Thistlewood, and by +consequence, own cousin to Miss Helen, so that it was very right that he +should take lodgings in his aunt's house, who lived in a very small way; +and there he passed the long vacation, reading with three or four pupils +who accompanied him to the village. Mr. Bell was fellow of a college, +and famous in the University for his learning and skill as a tutor. + +His two kinswomen understood pretty early that the reverend gentleman +was engaged to be married, and was only waiting for a college living to +enable him to fulfil his engagement. His intended bride was the daughter +of another parson, who had acted as Mr. Bell's own private tutor in +Bell's early life, and it was whilst under Mr. Coacher's roof, indeed, +and when only a boy of seventeen or eighteen years of age, that the +impetuous young Bell had flung himself at the feet of Miss Martha +Coacher, whom he was helping to pick peas in the garden. On his knees, +before those peas and her, he pledged himself to an endless affection. + +Miss Coacher was by many years the young fellow's senior and her +own heart had been lacerated by many previous disappointments in the +matrimonial line. No less than three pupils of her father had trifled +with those young affections. The apothecary of the village had +despicably jilted her. The dragoon officer, with whom she had danced so +many many times during that happy season which she passed at Bath with +her gouty grandmamma, one day gaily shook his bridle-rein and galloped +away never to return. Wounded by the shafts of repeated ingratitude, can +it be wondered at that the heart of Martha Coacher should pant to find +rest somewhere? She listened to the proposals of the gawky gallant +honest boy, with great kindness and good-humour; at the end of his +speech she said, "Law, Bell, I'm sure you are too young to think of such +things;" but intimated that she too would revolve them in her own virgin +bosom. She could not refer Mr. Bell to her mamma, for Mr. Coacher was a +widower, and being immersed in his books, was of course unable to take +the direction of so frail and wondrous an article as a lady's heart, +which Miss Martha had to manage for herself. + +A lock of her hair, tied up in a piece of blue ribbon, conveyed to the +happy Bell the result of the Vestal's conference with herself. Thrice +before had she snipt off one of her auburn ringlets, and given them +away. The possessors were faithless, but the hair had grown again: +and Martha had indeed occasion to say that men were deceivers when she +handed over this token of love to the simple boy. + +Number 6, however, was an exception to former passions--Francis Bell was +the most faithful of lovers. When his time arrived to go to college, and +it became necessary to acquaint Mr. Coacher of the arrangements that had +been made, the latter cried, "God bless my soul, I hadn't the least idea +what was going on;" as was indeed very likely, for he had been taken in +three times before in precisely a similar manner; and Francis went to +the University resolved to conquer honours, so as to be able to lay them +at the feet of his beloved Martha. + +This prize in view made him labour prodigiously. News came, term after +term, of the honours he won. He sent the prize-books for his college +essays to old Coacher, and his silver declamation cup to Miss Martha. In +due season he was high among the Wranglers, and a fellow of his +college; and during all the time of these transactions a constant tender +correspondence was kept up with Miss Coacher, to whose influence, and +perhaps with justice, he attributed the successes which he had won. + +By the time, however, when the Rev. Francis Bell, M.A., and Fellow and +Tutor of his College, was twenty-six years of age, it happened that Miss +Coacher was thirty-four, nor had her charms, her manners, or her temper +improved since that sunny day in the springtime of life when he found +her picking peas in the garden. Having achieved his honours he relaxed +in the ardour of his studies, and his judgment and tastes also perhaps +became cooler. The sunshine of the pea-garden faded away from Miss +Martha, and poor Bell found himself engaged--and his hand pledged +to that bond in a thousand letters--to a coarse, ill-tempered, +ill-favoured, ill-mannered, middle-aged woman. + +It was in consequence of one of many altercations (in which Martha's +eloquence shone, and in which therefore she was frequently pleased to +indulge) that Francis refused to take his pupils to Bearleader's Green, +where Mr. Coacher's living was, and where Bell was in the habit of +spending the summer: and he bethought him that he would pass the +vacation at his aunt's village, which he had not seen for many +years--not since little Helen was a girl and used to sit on his knee. +Down then he came and lived with them. Helen was grown a beautiful young +woman now. The cousins were nearly four months together, from June to +October. They walked in the summer evenings: they met in the early morn. +They read out of the same book when the old lady dozed at night over the +candles. What little Helen knew, Frank taught her. She sang to him: she +gave her artless heart to him. She was aware of all his story. Had he +made any secret?--had he not shown the picture of the woman to whom +he was engaged, and with a blush,--her letters, hard, eager, and +cruel?--The days went on and on, happier and closer, with more kindness, +more confidence, and more pity. At last one morning in October came, +when Francis went back to college, and the poor girl felt that her +tender heart was gone with him. + +Frank too wakened up from the delightful midsummer dream to the horrible +reality of his own pain. He gnashed and tore at the chain which bound +him. He was frantic to break it and be free. Should he confess?--give +his savings to the woman to whom he was bound, and beg his +release?--there was time yet--he temporised. No living might fall in for +years to come. The cousins went on corresponding sadly and fondly: the +betrothed woman, hard, jealous, and dissatisfied, complaining bitterly, +and with reason, of her Francis's altered tone. + +At last things came to a crisis, and the new attachment was discovered. +Francis owned it, cared not to disguise it, rebuked Martha with her +violent temper and angry imperiousness, and, worst of all, with her +inferiority and her age. + +Her reply was, that if he did not keep his promise she would carry his +letters into every court in the kingdom--letters in which his love was +pledged to her ten thousand times; and, after exposing him to the world +as the perjurer and traitor he was, she would kill herself. + +Frank had one more interview with Helen, whose mother was dead then, and +who was living companion with old Lady Pontypool,--one more interview, +where it was resolved that he was to do his duty; that is, to redeem his +vow; that is, to pay a debt cozened from him by a sharper; that is, to +make two honest people miserable. So the two judged their duty to be, +and they parted. + +The living fell in only too soon; but yet Frank Bell was quite a grey +and worn-out man when he was inducted into it. Helen wrote him a letter +on his marriage, beginning "My dear Cousin," and ending "always truly +yours." She sent him back the other letters, and the lock of his +hair--all but a small piece. She had it in her desk when she was talking +to the Major. + +Bell lived for three or four years in his living, at the end of which +time, the Chaplainship of Coventry Island falling vacant, Frank applied +for it privately, and having procured it, announced the appointment to +his wife. She objected, as she did to everything. He told her bitterly +that he did not want her to come: so she went. Bell went out in Governor +Crawley's time, and was very intimate with that gentleman in his later +years. And it was in Coventry Island, years after his own marriage, and +five years after he had heard of the birth of Helen's boy, that his own +daughter was born. + +She was not the daughter of the first Mrs. Bell, who died of island +fever very soon after Helen Pendennis and her husband, to whom Helen had +told everything, wrote to inform Bell of the birth of their child. "I +was old, was I?" said Mrs. Bell the first; "I was old, and her inferior, +was I? but I married you, Mr. Bell, and kept you from marrying her?" and +hereupon she died. Bell married a colonial lady, whom he loved fondly. +But he was not doomed to prosper in love; and, this lady dying in +childbirth, Bell gave up too: sending his little girl home to Helen +Pendennis and her husband, with a parting prayer that they would +befriend her. + +The little thing came to Fairoaks from Bristol, which is not very far +off, dressed in black, and in company of a soldier's wife, her nurse, +at parting from whom she wept bitterly. But she soon dried up her grief +under Helen's motherly care. + +Round her neck she had a locket with hair, which Helen had given, ah +how many years ago! to poor Francis, dead and buried. This child was all +that was left of him, and she cherished, as so tender a creature would, +the legacy which he had bequeathed to her. The girl's name, as his dying +letter stated, was Helen Laura. But John Pendennis, though he accepted +the trust, was always rather jealous of the orphan; and gloomily ordered +that she should be called by her own mother's name; and not by that +first one which her father had given her. She was afraid of Mr. +Pendennis, to the last moment of his life. And it was only when her +husband was gone that Helen dared openly to indulge in the tenderness +which she felt for the little girl. + +Thus it was that Laura Bell became Mrs. Pendennis's daughter. Neither +her husband nor that gentleman's brother, the Major, viewed her with +very favourable eyes. She reminded the first of circumstances in his +wife's life which he was forced to accept, but would have forgotten much +more willingly and as for the second, how could he regard her? She was +neither related to his own family of Pendennis, nor to any nobleman +in this empire, and she had but a couple of thousand pounds for her +fortune. + +And now let Mr. Pen come in, who has been waiting all this while. + +Having strung up his nerves, and prepared himself, without at the door, +for the meeting, he came to it, determined to face the awful uncle. He +had settled in his mind that the encounter was to be a fierce one, and +was resolved on bearing it through with all the courage and dignity of +the famous family which he represented. And he flung open the door and +entered with the most severe and warlike expression, armed cap-a-pie as +it were, with lance couched and plumes displayed, and glancing at his +adversary, as if to say, "Come on, I'm ready." + +The old man of the world, as he surveyed the boy's demeanour, could +hardly help a grin at his admirable pompous simplicity. Major Pendennis +too had examined his ground; and finding that the widow was already +half won over to the enemy, and having a shrewd notion that threats and +tragic exhortations would have no effect upon the boy, who was inclined +to be perfectly stubborn and awfully serious, the Major laid aside the +authoritative manner at once, and with the most good-humoured natural +smile in the world, held out his hands to Pen, shook the lad's passive +fingers gaily, and said, "Well, Pen, my boy, tell us all about it." + +Helen was delighted with the generosity of the Major's good-humour. +On the contrary, it quite took aback and disappointed poor Pen, whose +nerves were strung up for a tragedy, and who felt that his grand +entree was altogether baulked and ludicrous. He blushed and winced with +mortified vanity and bewilderment. He felt immensely inclined to begin +to cry--"I--I--I didn't know that you were come till just now," he said: +"is--is--town very full, I suppose?" + +If Pen could hardly gulp his tears down, it was all the Major could do +to keep from laughter. He turned round and shot a comical glance at +Mrs. Pendennis, who too felt that the scene was at once ridiculous and +sentimental. And so, having nothing to say, she went up and kissed Mr. +Pen: as he thought of her tenderness and soft obedience to his wishes, +it is very possible too the boy was melted. + +"What a couple of fools they are," thought the old guardian. "If I +hadn't come down, she would have driven over in state to pay a visit and +give her blessing to the young lady's family." + +"Come, come," said he, still grinning at the couple, "let us have as +little sentiment as possible, and, Pen, my good fellow, tell us the +whole story." + +Pen got back at once to his tragic and heroical air. "The story is, +sir," said he, "as I have written it to you before. I have made the +acquaintance of a most beautiful and most virtuous lady; of a high +family, although in reduced circumstances: I have found the woman in +whom I know that the happiness of my life is centred; I feel that +I never, never can think about any woman but her. I am aware of +the difference of our ages and other difficulties in my way. But my +affection was so great that I felt I could surmount all these; that we +both could: and she has consented to unite her lot with mine, and to +accept my heart and my fortune." + +"How much is that, my boy?" said the Major. "Has anybody left you some +money? I don't know that you are worth a shilling in the world." + +"You know what I have is his," cried out Mrs. Pendennis. + +"Good heavens, madam, hold your tongue!" was what the guardian was +disposed to say; but he kept his temper, not without a struggle. "No +doubt, no doubt," he said. "You would sacrifice anything for him. +Everybody knows that. But it is, after all then, your fortune which Pen +is offering to the young lady; and of which he wishes to take possession +at eighteen." + +"I know my mother will give me anything," Pen said, looking rather +disturbed. + +"Yes, my good fellow, but there is reason in all things. If your mother +keeps the house, it is but fair that she should select her company. When +you give her house over her head, and transfer her banker's account +to yourself for the benefit of Miss What-d'-you-call-'em--Miss +Costigan--don't you think you should at least have consulted my sister +as one of the principal parties in the transaction? I am speaking to +you, you see, without the least anger or assumption of authority, such +as the law and your father's will give me over you for three years to +come--but as one man of the world to another,--and I ask you, if you +think that, because you can do what you like with your mother, therefore +you have a right to do so? As you are her dependent, would it not have +been more generous to wait before you took this step, and at least to +have paid her the courtesy to ask her leave?" + +Pen held down his head, and began dimly to perceive that the action on +which he had prided himself as a most romantic, generous instance of +disinterested affection, was perhaps a very selfish and headstrong piece +of folly. + +"I did it in a moment of passion," said Pen, floundering; "I was not +aware what I was going to say or to do" (and in this he spoke with +perfect sincerity) "But now it is said, and I stand to it. No; I neither +can nor will recall it. I'll die rather than do so. And I--I don't want +to burthen my mother," he continued. "I'll work for myself. I'll go on +the stage, and act with her. She--she says I should do well there." + +"But will she take you on those terms?" the Major interposed. "Mind, I +do not say that Miss Costigan is not the most disinterested of women: +but, don't you suppose now, fairly, that your position as a young +gentleman of ancient birth and decent expectations forms a part of the +cause why she finds your addresses welcome?" + +"I'll die, I say, rather than forfeit my pledge to her," said Pen, +doubling his fists and turning red. + +"Who asks you, my dear friend?" answered the imperturbable guardian. "No +gentleman breaks his word, of course, when it has been given freely. But +after all, you can wait. You owe something to your mother, something to +your family--something to me as your father's representative." + +"Oh, of course," Pen said, feeling rather relieved. + +"Well, as you have pledged your word to her, give us another, will you +Arthur?" + +"What is it?" Arthur asked. + +"That you will make no private marriage--that you won't be taking a trip +to Scotland, you understand." + +"That would be a falsehood. Pen never told his mother a falsehood," +Helen said. + +Pen hung down his head again, and his eyes filled with tears of +shame. Had not this whole intrigue been a falsehood to that tender and +confiding creature who was ready to give up all for his sake? He gave +his uncle his hand. + +"No, sir--on my word of honour, as a gentleman," he said, "I will never +marry without my mother's consent!" and giving Helen a bright parting +look of confidence and affection unchangeable, the boy went out of the +drawing-room into his own study. + +"He's an angel--he's an angel," the mother cried out in one of her usual +raptures. + +"He comes of a good stock, ma'am," said her brother-in-law--"of a good +stock on both sides." The Major was greatly pleased with the result of +his diplomacy--so much so, that he once more saluted the tips of Mrs. +Pendennis's glove, and dropping the curt, manly, and straightforward +tone in which he had conducted the conversation with the lad, assumed +a certain drawl which he always adopted when he was most conceited and +fine. + +"My dear creature," said he, in that his politest tone, "I think it +certainly as well that I came down, and I flatter myself that last botte +was a successful one. I tell you how I came to think of it. Three years +ago my kind friend Lady Ferrybridge sent for me in the greatest state of +alarm about her son Gretna, whose affair you remember, and implored +me to use my influence with the young gentleman, who was engaged in an +affaire de coeur with a Scotch clergyman's daughter, Miss MacToddy. I +implored, I entreated gentle measures. But Lord Ferrybridge was furious, +and tried the high hand. Gretna was sulky and silent, and his parents +thought they had conquered. But what was the fact, my dear creature? The +young people had been married for three months before Lord Ferrybridge +knew anything about it. And that was why I extracted the promise from +Master Pen." + +"Arthur would never have done so," Mrs. Pendennis said. + +"He hasn't,--that is one comfort," answered the brother-in-law. + +Like a wary and patient man of the world, Major Pendennis did not press +poor Pen any farther for the moment, but hoped the best from time, and +that the young fellow's eyes would be opened before long to see the +absurdity of which he was guilty. And having found out how keen the +boy's point of honour was, he worked kindly upon that kindly feeling +with great skill, discoursing him over their wine after dinner, and +pointing out to Pen the necessity of a perfect uprightness and openness +in all his dealings, and entreating that his communications with his +interesting young friend (as the Major politely called Miss Fotheringay) +should be carried on with the knowledge, if not approbation, of Mrs. +Pendennis. "After all, Pen," the Major said, with a convenient frankness +that did not displease the boy, whilst it advanced the interests of the +negotiator, "you must bear in mind that you are throwing yourself away. +Your mother may submit to your marriage as she would to anything else +you desired, if you did but cry long enough for it: but be sure of this, +that it can never please her. You take a young woman off the boards of +a country theatre and prefer her, for such is the case, to one of the +finest ladies in England. And your mother will submit to your choice, +but you can't suppose that she will be happy under it. I have often +fancied, entre nous, that my sister had it in her eye to make a marriage +between you and that little ward of hers--Flora, Laura--what's her name? +And I always determined to do my small endeavour to prevent any such +match. The child has but two thousand pounds, I am given to understand. +It is only with the utmost economy and care that my sister can provide +for the decent maintenance of her house, and for your appearance and +education as a gentleman; and I don't care to own to you that I had +other and much higher views for you. With your name and birth, sir--with +your talents, which I suppose are respectable, with the friends whom +I have the honour to possess, I could have placed you in an excellent +position--a remarkable position for a young man of such exceeding small +means, and had hoped to see you, at least, try to restore the honours of +our name. Your mother's softness stopped one prospect, or you might have +been a general, like our gallant ancestor who fought at Ramillies and +Malplaquet. I had another plan in view: my excellent and kind friend, +Lord Bagwig, who is very well disposed towards me, would, I have little +doubt, have attached you to his mission at Pumpernickel, and you might +have advanced in the diplomatic service. But, pardon me for recurring +to the subject; how is a man to serve a young gentleman of eighteen, who +proposes to marry a lady of thirty, whom he has selected from a booth in +a fair?--well, not a fair,--a barn. That profession at once is closed to +you. The public service is closed to you. Society is closed to you. You +see, my good friend, to what you bring yourself. You may get on at the +bar to be sure, where I am given to understand that gentlemen of merit +occasionally marry out of their kitchens; but in no other profession. +Or you may come and live down here--down here, mon Dieu! for ever" +(said the Major, with a dreary shrug, as he thought with inexpressible +fondness of Pall Mall), "where your mother will receive the Mrs. Arthur +that is to be, with perfect kindness; where the good people of the +county won't visit you; and where, by Gad, sir, I shall be shy of +visiting you myself, for I'm a plain-spoken man, and I own to you that +I like to live with gentlemen for my companions; where you will have to +live, with rum-and-water--drinking gentlemen--farmers, and drag through +your life the young husband of an old woman, who, if she doesn't quarrel +with your mother, will at least cost that lady her position in society, +and drag her down into that dubious caste into which you must inevitably +fall. It is no affair of mine, my good sir. I am not angry. Your +downfall will not hurt me farther than that it will extinguish the hopes +I had of seeing my family once more taking its place in the world. It is +only your mother and yourself that will be ruined. And I pity you both +from my soul. Pass the claret: it is some I sent to your poor father; I +remember I bought it at poor Lord Levant's sale. But of course," added +the Major, smacking the wine, "having engaged yourself, you will do +what becomes you as a man of honour, however fatal your promise may be. +However, promise us on our side, my boy, what I set out by entreating +you to grant,--that there shall be nothing clandestine, that you will +pursue your studies, that you will only visit your interesting friend at +proper intervals. Do you write to her much?" + +Pen blushed and said, "Why, yes, he had written." + +"I suppose verses, eh! as well as prose? I was a dab at verses myself. I +recollect when I first joined, I used to write verses for the fellows in +the regiment; and did some pretty things in that way. I was talking to +my old friend General Hobbler about some lines I dashed off for him in +the year 1806, when we were at the Cape, and, Gad, he remembered every +line of them still; for he'd used 'em so often, the old rogue, and had +actually tried 'em on Mrs. Hobbler, sir--who brought him sixty thousand +pounds. I suppose you've tried verses, eh, Pen?" + +Pen blushed again, and said, "Why, yes, he had written verses." + +"And does the fair one respond in poetry or prose?" asked the Major, +eyeing his nephew with the queerest expression, as much as to say, "O +Moses and Green Spectacles! what a fool the boy is." + +Pen blushed again. She had written, but not in verse, the young lover +owned, and he gave his breast-pocket the benefit of a squeeze with his +left arm, which the Major remarked, according to his wont. + +"You have got the letters there, I see," said the old campaigner, +nodding at Pen and pointing to his own chest (which was manfully wadded +with cotton by Mr. Stultz). "You know you have. I would give twopence to +see 'em." + +"Why," said Pen, twiddling the stalks of the strawberries, "I--I," +but this sentence never finished; for Pen's face was so comical and +embarrassed, as the Major watched it, that the elder could contain his +gravity no longer, and burst into a fit of laughter, in which chorus +Pen himself was obliged to join after a minute: when he broke out fairly +into a guffaw. + +It sent them with great good-humour into Mrs. Pendennis's drawing-room. +She was pleased to hear them laughing in the hall as they crossed it. + +"You sly rascal!" said the Major, putting his arm gaily on Pen's +shoulder, and giving a playful push at the boy's breast-pocket. He +felt the papers crackling there sure enough. The young fellow was +delighted--conceited--triumphant--and in one word, a spoony. + +The pair came to the tea-table in the highest spirits. The Major's +politeness was beyond expression. He had never tasted such good tea, and +such bread was only to be had in the country. He asked Mrs. Pendennis +for one of her charming songs. He then made Pen sing, and was delighted +and astonished at the beauty of the boy's voice: he made his nephew +fetch his maps and drawings, and praised them as really remarkable +works of talent in a young fellow: he complimented him on his French +pronunciation: he flattered the simple boy as adroitly as ever lover +flattered a mistress: and when bedtime came, mother and son went to +their several rooms perfectly enchanted with the kind Major. + +When they had reached those apartments, I suppose Helen took to her +knees as usual: and Pen read over his letters before going to bed: just +as if he didn't know every word of them by heart already. In truth there +were but three of those documents and to learn their contents required +no great effort of memory. + +In No. 1, Miss Fotheringay presents grateful compliments to Mr. +Pendennis, and in her papa's name and her own begs to thank him for his +most beautiful presents. They will always be kept carefully; and Miss +F. and Captain C. will never forget the delightful evening which they +passed on Tuesday last. + +No. 2 said--Dear Sir, we shall have a small quiet party of social +friends at our humble board, next Tuesday evening, at an early tea, when +I shall wear the beautiful scarf which, with its accompanying delightful +verses, I shall ever, ever cherish: and papa bids me say how happy he +will be if you will join 'the feast of reason and the flow of soul' in +our festive little party, as I am sure will be your truly grateful Emily +Fotheringay. + +No. 3 was somewhat more confidential, and showed that matters had +proceeded rather far. You were odious yesterday night, the letter said. +Why did you not come to the stage-door? Papa could not escort me on +account of his eye; he had an accident, and fell down over a loose +carpet on the stair on Sunday night. I saw you looking at Miss Diggle +all night; and you were so enchanted with Lydia Languish you scarcely +once looked at Julia. I could have crushed Bingley, I was so angry. +I play Ella Rosenberg on Friday: will you come then? Miss Diggle +performs--ever your E. F. + +These three letters Mr. Pen used to read at intervals, during the +day and night, and embrace with that delight and fervour which such +beautiful compositions surely warranted. A thousand times at least he +had kissed fondly the musky satin paper, made sacred to him by the hand +of Emily Fotheringay. This was all he had in return for his passion +and flames, his vows and protests, his rhymes and similes, his wakeful +nights and endless thoughts, his fondness, fears and folly. The young +wiseacre had pledged away his all for this: signed his name to endless +promissory notes, conferring his heart upon the bearer: bound himself +for life, and got back twopence as an equivalent. For Miss Costigan was +a young lady of such perfect good-conduct and self-command, that she +never would have thought of giving more, and reserved the treasures of +her affection until she could transfer them lawfully at church. + +Howbeit, Mr. Pen was content with what tokens of regard he had got, and +mumbled over his three letters in a rapture of high spirits, and went to +sleep delighted with his kind old uncle from London, who must evidently +yield to his wishes in time; and, in a word, in a preposterous state of +contentment with himself and all the world. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. In which the Major opens the Campaign + + +Let those who have a real and heartfelt relish for London society and +the privilege of an entree into its most select circles, admit that +Major Pendennis was a man of no ordinary generosity and affection, +in the sacrifice which he now made. He gave up London in May,--his +newspapers and his mornings--his afternoons from club to club, his +little confidential visits to my Ladies, his rides in Rotten Row, his +dinners, and his stall at the Opera, his rapid escapades to Fulham or +Richmond on Saturdays and Sundays, his bow from my Lord Duke or my Lord +Marquis at the great London entertainments, and his name in the Morning +Post of the succeeding day,--his quieter little festivals, more select, +secret, and delightful--all these he resigned to lock himself into a +lone little country house, with a simple widow and a greenhorn of a son, +a mawkish curate, and a little girl of ten years of age. + +He made the sacrifice, and it was the greater that few knew the extent +of it. His letters came down franked from town, and he showed the +invitations to Helen with a sigh. It was beautiful and tragical to +see him refuse one party after another--at least to those who could +understand, as Helen didn't, the melancholy grandeur of his self-denial. +Helen did not, or only smiled at the awful pathos with which the Major +spoke of the Court Guide in general: but young Pen looked with great +respect at the great names upon the superscriptions of his uncle's +letters, and listened to the Major's stories about the fashionable world +with constant interest and sympathy. + +The elder Pendennis's rich memory was stored with thousands of these +delightful tales, and he poured them into Pen's willing ear with +unfailing eloquence. He knew the name and pedigree of everybody in the +Peerage, and everybody's relations. "My dear boy," he would say, with a +mournful earnestness and veracity, "you cannot begin your genealogical +studies too early; I wish to Heavens you would read in Debrett every +day. Not so much the historical part (for the pedigrees, between +ourselves, are many of them very fabulous, and there are few families +that can show such a clear descent as our own) as the account of family +alliances, and who is related to whom. I have known a man's career in +life blasted by ignorance on this important, this all-important subject. +Why, only last month, at dinner at my Lord Hobanob's, a young man, who +has lately been received among us, young Mr. Suckling (author of a +work, I believe), began to speak lightly of Admiral Bowser's conduct for +ratting to Ministers, in what I must own is the most audacious manner. +But who do you think sate next and opposite to this Mr. Suckling? +Why--why, next to him was Lady Grampound Bowser's daughter, and opposite +to him was Lord Grampound Bowser's son-in-law. The infatuated young man +went on cutting his jokes at the Admiral's expense, fancying that +all the world was laughing with him, and I leave you to imagine Lady +Hobanob's feelings--Hobanob's!--those of every well-bred man, as the +wretched intru was so exposing himself. He will never dine again in +South Street. I promise you that." + +With such discourses the Major entertained his nephew, as he paced the +terrace in front of the house for his two hours' constitutional walk, or +as they sate together after dinner over their wine. He grieved that Sir +Francis Clavering had not come down to the park, to live in it since his +marriage, and to make a society for the neighbourhood. He mourned that +Lord Eyrie was not in the country, that he might take Pen and present +him to his lordship. "He has daughters," the Major said. "Who knows? +you might have married Lady Emily or Lady Barbara Trehawk; but all those +dreams are over; my poor fellow, you must lie on the bed which you have +made for yourself." + +These things to hear did young Pendennis seriously incline. They are +not so interesting in print as when delivered orally; but the Major's +anecdotes of the great George, of the Royal Dukes, of the statesmen, +beauties, and fashionable ladies of the day, filled young Pen's soul +with longing and wonder; and he found the conversations with his +guardian, which sadly bored and perplexed poor Mrs. Pendennis, for his +own part never tedious. + +It can't be said that Mr. Pen's new guide, philosopher, and friend +discoursed him on the most elevated subjects, or treated the subjects +which he chose in the most elevated manner. But his morality, such as it +was, was consistent. It might not, perhaps, tend to a man's progress +in another world, but it was pretty well calculated to advance his +interests in this; and then it must be remembered that the Major never +for one instant doubted that his views were the only views practicable, +and that his conduct was perfectly virtuous and respectable. He was a +man of honour, in a word: and had his eyes, what he called, open. He +took pity on this young greenhorn of a nephew, and wanted to open his +eyes too. + +No man, for instance, went more regularly to church when in the country +than the old bachelor. "It don't matter so much in town, Pen," he said, +"for there the women go and the men are not missed. But when a gentleman +is sur ses terres, he must give an example to the country people: and +if I could turn a tune, I even think I should sing. The Duke of Saint +David's, whom I have the honour of knowing, always sings in the country, +and let me tell you, it has a doosed fine effect from the family pew. +And you are somebody down here. As long as the Claverings are away you +are the first man in the parish: and as good as any. You might represent +the town if you played your cards well. Your poor dear father would have +done so had he lived; so might you.--Not if you marry a lady, however +amiable, whom the country people won't meet.--Well, well: it's a painful +subject. Let us change it, my boy." But if Major Pendennis changed the +subject once he recurred to it a score of times in the day: and the +moral of his discourse always was, that Pen was throwing himself away. +Now it does not require much coaxing or wheedling to make a simple boy +believe that he is a very fine fellow. + +Pen took his uncle's counsels to heart. He was glad enough, we have +said, to listen to his elder's talk. The conversation of Captain +Costigan became by no means pleasant to him, and the idea of that tipsy +old father-in-law haunted him with terror. He couldn't bring that man, +unshaven and reeking of punch, to associate with his mother. Even about +Emily--he faltered when the pitiless guardian began to question him. +"Was she accomplished?" He was obliged to own, no. "Was she clever?" +Well, she had a very good average intellect: but he could not absolutely +say she was clever. "Come, let us see some of her letters." So Pen +confessed that he had but those three of which we have made mention--and +that they were but trivial invitations or answers. + +"She is cautious enough," the Major said, drily. "She is older than +you, my poor boy;" and then he apologised with the utmost frankness and +humility, and flung himself upon Pen's good feelings, begging the lad to +excuse a fond old uncle, who had only his family's honour in view--for +Arthur was ready to flame up in indignation whenever Miss Costigan's +honesty was doubted, and swore that he would never have her name +mentioned lightly, and never, never would part from her. + +He repeated this to his uncle and his friends at home, and also, it must +be confessed, to Miss Fotheringay and the amiable family, at Chatteris, +with whom he still continued to spend some portion of his time. Miss +Emily was alarmed when she heard of the arrival of Pen's guardian, and +rightly conceived that the Major came down with hostile intentions to +herself. "I suppose ye intend to leave me, now your grand relation has +come down from town. He'll carry ye off, and you'll forget your poor +Emily, Mr. Arthur!" + +Forget her! In her presence, in that of Miss Rouncy, the Columbine +and Milly's confidential friend of the Company, in the presence of the +Captain himself, Pen swore he never could think of any other woman but +his beloved Miss Fotheringay; and the Captain, looking up at his foils +which were hung as a trophy on the wall of the room where Pen and he +used to fence, grimly said, he would not advoise any man to meddle +rashly with the affections of his darling child; and would never believe +his gallant young Arthur, whom he treated as his son, whom he called +his son, would ever be guilty of conduct so revolting to every idaya of +honour and humanity. + +He went up and embraced Pen after speaking. He cried, and wiped his +eye with one large dirty hand as he clasped Pen with the other. +Arthur shuddered in that grasp, and thought of his uncle at home. +His father-in-law looked unusually dirty and shabby; the odour of +whisky-and-water was even more decided than in common. How was he to +bring that man and his mother together? He trembled when he thought that +he had absolutely written to Costigan (enclosing to him a sovereign, the +loan of which the worthy gentleman had need), and saying that one day +he hoped to sign himself his affectionate son, Arthur Pendennis. He +was glad to get away from Chatteris that day; from Miss Rouncy the +confidante; from the old toping father-in-law; from the divine Emily +herself. "O, Emily, Emily," he cried inwardly, as he rattled homewards +on Rebecca, "you little know what sacrifices I am making for you!--for +you who are always so cold, so cautious, so mistrustful;" and he thought +of a character in Pope to whom he had often involuntarily compared her. + +Pen never rode over to Chatteris upon a certain errand, but the Major +found out on what errand the boy had been. Faithful to his plan, Major +Pendennis gave his nephew no let or hindrance; but somehow the constant +feeling that the senior's eye was upon him, an uneasy shame attendant +upon that inevitable confession which the evening's conversation would +be sure to elicit in the most natural simple manner, made Pen go less +frequently to sigh away his soul at the feet of his charmer than he had +been wont to do previous to his uncle's arrival. There was no use trying +to deceive him; there was no pretext of dining with Smirke, or reading +Greek plays with Foker; Pen felt, when he returned from one of his +flying visits, that everybody knew whence he came, and appeared quite +guilty before his mother and guardian, over their books or their game at +picquet. + +Once having walked out half a mile, to the Fairoaks Inn, beyond the +Lodge gates, to be in readiness for the Competitor coach, which changed +horses there, to take a run for Chatteris, a man on the roof touched his +hat to the young gentleman: it was his uncle's man, Mr. Morgan, who was +going on a message for his master, and had been took up at the Lodge, as +he said. And Mr. Morgan came back by the Rival, too; so that Pen had the +pleasure of that domestic's company both ways. Nothing was said at home. +The lad seemed to have every decent liberty; and yet he felt himself +dimly watched and guarded, and that there were eyes upon him even in the +presence of his Dulcinea. + +In fact, Pen's suspicions were not unfounded, and his guardian had +sent forth to gather all possible information regarding the lad and +his interesting young friend. The discreet and ingenious Mr. Morgan, a +London confidential valet, whose fidelity could be trusted, had been +to Chatteris more than once, and made every inquiry regarding the +past history and present habits of the Captain and his daughter. He +delicately cross-examined the waiters, the ostlers, and all the inmates +of the bar at the George, and got from them what little they knew +respecting the worthy Captain. He was not held in very great regard +there, as it appeared. The waiters never saw the colour of his money, +and were warned not to furnish the poor gentleman with any liquor for +which some other party was not responsible. He swaggered sadly about the +coffee-room there, consumed a toothpick, and looked over the paper, and +if any friend asked him to dinner he stayed. Morgan heard at the George +of Pen's acquaintance with Mr. Foker, and he went over to Baymouth to +enter into relations with that gentleman's man; but the young student +was gone to a Coast Regatta, and his servant, of course, travelled in +charge of the dressing-case. + +From the servants of the officers at the barracks Mr. Morgan found that +the Captain had so frequently and outrageously inebriated himself +there, that Colonel Swallowtail had forbidden him the messroom. The +indefatigable Morgan then put himself in communication with some of the +inferior actors at the theatre, and pumped them over their cigars and +punch, and all agreed that Costigan was poor, shabby, and given to debt +and to drink. But there was not a breath upon the reputation of Miss +Fotheringay: her father's courage was reported to have displayed itself +on more than one occasion towards persons disposed to treat his daughter +with freedom. She never came to the theatre but with her father: in his +most inebriated moments, that gentleman kept a watch over her; finally +Mr. Morgan, from his own experience added that he had been to see her +act, and was uncommon delighted with the performance, besides thinking +her a most splendid woman. + +Mrs. Creed, the pew-opener, confirmed these statements to Doctor +Portman, who examined her personally, and threatened her with the +terrors of the Church one day after afternoon service. Mrs. Creed had +nothing unfavourable to her lodger to divulge. She saw nobody; only +one or two ladies of the theatre. The Captain did intoxicate himself +sometimes, and did not always pay his rent regularly, but he did when +he had money, or rather Miss Fotheringay did. Since the young gentleman +from Clavering had been and took lessons in fencing, one or two more had +come from the barracks; Sir Derby Oaks, and his young friend, Mr. +Foker, which was often together; and which was always driving over from +Baymouth in the tandem. But on the occasions of the lessons, Miss F. was +very seldom present, and generally came downstairs to Mrs. Creed's own +room. + +The Doctor and the Major consulting together as they often did, groaned +in spirit over that information. Major Pendennis openly expressed his +disappointment; and, I believe, the Divine himself was ill pleased at +not being able to jack a hole in poor Miss Fotheringay's reputation. + +Even about Pen himself, Mrs. Creed's reports were desperately +favourable. "Whenever he come," Mrs. Creed said, "She always have me +or one of the children with her. And Mrs. Creed, marm, says she, if +you please, marm, you'll on no account leave the room when that young +gentleman's here. And many's the time I've seen him a lookin' as if +he wished I was away, poor young man: and he took to coming in +service-time, when I wasn't at home, of course: but she always had one +of the boys up if her Pa wasn't at home, or old Mr. Bowser with her a +teaching of her her lesson, or one of the young ladies of the theayter." + +It was all true: whatever encouragements might have been given him +before he avowed his passion, the prudence of Miss Emily was prodigious +after Pen had declared himself: and the poor fellow chafed against her +hopeless reserve, which maintained his ardour as it excited his anger. + +The Major surveyed the state of things with a sigh. "If it were but a +temporary liaison," the excellent man said, "one could bear it. A young +fellow must sow his wild oats, and that sort of thing. But a virtuous +attachment is the deuce. It comes of the d----d romantic notions boys +get from being brought up by women." + +"Allow me to say, Major, that you speak a little too like a man of the +world," replied the Doctor. "Nothing can be more desirable for Pen +than a virtuous attachment for a young lady of his own rank and with +a corresponding fortune--this present infatuation, of course, I must +deplore as sincerely as you do. If I were his guardian I should command +him to give it up." + +"The very means, I tell you, to make him marry to-morrow. We have got +time from him, that is all, and we must do our best with that. + +"I say, Major," said the Doctor, at the end of the conversation in which +the above subject was discussed--"I am not, of course, a play-going +man--but suppose, I say, we go and see her." + +The Major laughed--he had been a fortnight at Fairoaks, and strange to +say, had not thought of that. "Well," he said, "why not? After all, it +is not my niece, but Miss Fotheringay the actress, and we have as good +a right as any other of the public to see her if we pay our money." So +upon a day when it was arranged that Pen was to dine at home, and pass +the evening with his mother, the two elderly gentlemen drove over to +Chatteris in the Doctor's chaise, and there, like a couple of jolly +bachelors, dined at the George Inn, before proceeding to the play. + +Only two other guests were in the room,--an officer of the regiment +quartered at Chatteris, and a young gentleman whom the Doctor thought he +had somewhere seen. They left them at their meal, however, and hastened +to the theatre. It was Hamlet over again. Shakspeare was Article XL. +of stout old Doctor Portman's creed, to which he always made a point of +testifying publicly at least once in a year. + +We have described the play before, and how those who saw Miss +Fotheringay perform in Ophelia saw precisely the same thing on one +night as on another. Both the elderly gentlemen looked at her with +extraordinary interest, thinking how very much young Pen was charmed +with her. + +"Gad," said the Major, between his teeth, as he surveyed her when +she was called forward as usual, and swept her curtsies to the scanty +audience, "the young rascal has not made a bad choice." + +The Doctor applauded her loudly and loyally. "Upon my word," said he, +"She is a very clever actress; and I must say, Major, she is endowed +with very considerable personal attractions." + +"So that young officer thinks in the stage-box," Major Pendennis +answered, and he pointed out to Doctor Portman's attention the young +dragoon of the George Coffee-room, who sate in the box in question, and +applauded with immense enthusiasm. She looked extremely sweet upon him +too, thought the Major: but that's their way--and he shut up his natty +opera-glass and pocketed it, as if he wished to see no more that night. +Nor did the Doctor, of course, propose to stay for the after-piece, so +they rose and left the theatre; the Doctor returning to Mrs. Portman, +who was on a visit at the Deanery, and the Major walking home full of +thought towards the George, where he had bespoken a bed. + + + + +CHAPTER X. Facing the Enemy + + +Sauntering slowly homewards, Major Pendennis reached the George +presently, and found Mr. Morgan, his faithful valet, awaiting him at the +door of the George Inn, who stopped his master as he was about to take a +candle to go to bed, and said, with his usual air of knowing deference, +"I think, sir, if you would go into the coffee-room, there's a young +gentleman there as you would like to see." + +"What, is Mr. Arthur here?" the Major said, in great anger. + +"No, sir--but his great friend, Mr. Foker, sir. Lady Hagnes Foker's +son is here, sir. He's been asleep in the coffee-room since he took his +dinner, and has just rung for his coffee, sir. And I think, p'raps, you +might like to git into conversation with him," the valet said, opening +the coffee-room door. + +The Major entered; and there indeed was Mr. Foker, the only occupant of +the place. He was rubbing his eyes, and sate before a table decorated with +empty decanters and relics of dessert. He had intended to go to the play +too, but sleep had overtaken him after a copious meal, and he had flung +up his legs on the bench, and indulged in a nap instead of the dramatic +amusement. The Major was meditating how to address the young man, but +the latter prevented him that trouble. + +"Like to look at the evening paper, sir?" said Mr. Foker, who was always +communicative and affable; and he took up the Globe from his table, and +offered it to the new-comer. + +"I am very much obliged to you," said the Major, with a grateful bow and +smile. "If I don't mistake the family likeness, I have the pleasure +of speaking to Mr. Henry Foker, Lady Agnes Foker's son. I have the +happiness to name her ladyship among my acquaintances--and you bear, +sir, a Rosherville face." + +"Hullo! I beg your pardon," Mr. Foker said, "I took you,"--he was going +to say--"I took you for a commercial gent." But he stopped that phrase. +"To whom have I the pleasure of speaking?" he added. + +"To a relative of a friend and schoolfellow of yours--Arthur Pendennis, +my nephew, who has often spoken to me about you in terms of great +regard. I am Major Pendennis, of whom you may have heard him speak. May +I take my soda-water at your table? I have had the pleasure of sitting +at your grandfather's." + +"Sir, you do me proud," said Mr. Foker, with much courtesy. "And so you +are Arthur Pendennis's uncle, are you?" + +"And guardian," added the Major. + +"He's as good a fellow as ever stepped, sir," said Mr. Foker. + +"I am glad you think so." + +"And clever, too--I was always a stupid chap, I was--but you see, sir, I +know 'em when they are clever, and like 'em of that sort." + +"You show your taste and your modesty, too," said the Major. "I have +heard Arthur repeatedly speak of you, and he said your talents were very +good." + +"I'm not good at the books," Mr. Foker said, wagging his head--"never +could manage that--Pendennis could--he used to do half the chaps' +verses--and yet"--the young gentleman broke out, "you are his guardian; +and I hope you will pardon me for saying that I think he's what we call +flat," the candid young gentleman said. + +The Major found himself on the instant in the midst of a most +interesting and confidential conversation. "And how is Arthur a flat?" +he asked, with a smile. + +"You know," Foker answered, winking at him--he would have winked at the +Duke of Wellington with just as little scruple, for he was in that state +of absence, candour, and fearlessness which a man sometimes possesses +after drinking a couple of bottles of wine--"You know Arthur's a +flat,--about women I mean." + +"He is not the first of us, my dear Mr. Harry," answered the Major. "I +have heard something of this--but pray tell me more." + +"Why, sir, you see--it's partly my fault. He went to the play one +night--for you see I'm down here readin' for my little go during the +Long, only I come over from Baymouth pretty often in my drag--well, +sir, we went to the play, and Pen was struck all of a heap with Miss +Fotheringay--Costigan her real name is--an uncommon fine gal she is too; +and the next morning I introduced him to the General, as we +call her father--a regular old scamp and such a boy for the +whisky-and-water!--and he's gone on being intimate there. And he's +fallen in love with her--and I'm blessed if he hasn't proposed to her," +Foker said, slapping his hand on the table, until all the dessert began +to jingle. + +"What! you know it too?" asked the Major. + +"Know it! don't I? and many more too. We were talking about it at mess, +yesterday, and chaffing Derby Oaks--until he was as mad as a hatter. +Know Sir Derby Oaks? We dined together, and he went to the play: we were +standing at the door smoking, I remember, when you passed in to dinner." + +"I remember Sir Thomas Oaks, his father, before he was a Baronet or +a Knight; he lived in Cavendish-square, and was physician to Queen +Charlotte." + +"The young one is making the money spin, I can tell you," Mr. Foker +said. + +"And is Sir Derby Oaks," the Major said, with great delight and anxiety, +"another soupirant?" + +"Another what?" inquired Mr. Foker. + +"Another admirer of Miss Fotheringay?" + +"Lord bless you! we call him Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and Pen +Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. But mind you, nothing wrong! No, no! +Miss F. is a deal too wide-awake for that, Major Pendennis. She plays +one off against the other. What you call two strings to her bow." + +"I think you seem tolerably wide-awake, too, Mr. Foker, Pendennis said, +laughing. + +"Pretty well, thank you, sir--how are you?" Foker replied, +imperturbably. "I'm not clever, p'raps: but I am rather downy; and +partial friends say I know what's o'clock tolerably well. Can I tell you +the time of day in any way?" + +"Upon my word," the Major answered, quite delighted, "I think you may be +of very great service to me. You are a young man of the world, and +with such one likes to deal. And as such I need not inform you that our +family is by no means delighted at this absurd intrigue in which Arthur +is engaged." + +"I should rather think not," said Mr. Foker. "Connexion not eligible. +Too much beer drunk on the premises. No Irish need apply. That I take to +be your meaning." + +The Major said it was, exactly; though in truth he did not quite +understand what Mr. Foker's meaning was: and he proceeded to examine +his new acquaintance regarding the amiable family into which his nephew +proposed to enter, and soon got from the candid witness a number of +particulars regarding the House of Costigan. + +We must do Mr. Foker the justice to say that he spoke most favourably +of Mr. and Miss Costigan's moral character. "You see," said he, "I +think the General is fond of the jovial bowl, and if I wanted to be very +certain of my money, it isn't in his pocket I'd invest it--but he has +always kept a watchful eye on his daughter, and neither he nor she will +stand anything but what's honourable. Pen's attentions to her are talked +about in the whole Company, and I hear all about them from a young lady +who used to be very intimate with her, and with whose family I sometimes +take tea in a friendly way. Miss Rouncy says, Sir Derby Oaks has been +hanging about Miss Fotheringay ever since his regiment has been down +here; but Pen has come in and cut him out lately, which has made the +Baronet so mad, that he has been very near on the point of proposing +too. Wish he would; and you'd see which of the two Miss Fotheringay +would jump at." + +"I thought as much," the Major said. "You give me a great deal of +pleasure, Mr. Foker. I wish I could have seen you before." + +"Didn't like to put in my oar," replied the other. "Don't speak till I'm +asked, when, if there's no objections, I speak pretty freely. Heard your +man had been hankering about my servant--didn't know myself what was +going on until Miss Fotheringay and Miss Rouncy had the row about the +ostrich feathers, when Miss R. told me everything." + +"Miss Rouncy, I gather, was the confidante of the other." + +"Confidant? I believe you. Why, she's twice as clever a girl as +Fotheringay, and literary and that, while Miss Foth can't do much more +than read." + +"She can write," said the Major, remembering Pen's breast-pocket. + +Foker broke out into a sardonic "He, he! Rouncy writes her letters," he +said; "every one of 'em; and since they've quarrelled, she don't know +how the deuce to get on. Miss Rouncy is an uncommon pretty hand, whereas +the old one makes dreadful work of the writing and spelling when +Bows ain't by. Rouncy's been settin' her copies lately--she writes a +beautiful hand, Rouncy does." + +"I suppose you know it pretty well," said the Major archly upon which +Mr. Foker winked at him again. + +"I would give a great deal to have a specimen of her hand-writing," +continued Major Pendennis, "I dare say you could give me one." + +"No, no, that would be too bad," Foker replied. "Perhaps I oughtn't to +have said as much as I have. Miss F.'s writin' ain't so very bad, I dare +say; only she got Miss R. to write the first letter, and has gone on +ever since. But you mark my word, that till they are friends again the +letters will stop." + +"I hope they will never be reconciled," the Major said with great +sincerity; "and I can't tell you how delighted I am to have had the good +fortune of making your acquaintance. You must feel, my dear sir, as a +man of the world, how fatal to my nephew's prospects in life is this +step which he contemplates, and how eager we all must be to free him +from this absurd engagement." + +"He has come out uncommon strong," said Mr. Foker; "I have seen his +verses; Rouncy copied 'em. And I said to myself when I saw 'em, 'Catch +me writin' verses to a woman,--that's all.'" + +"He has made a fool of himself, as many a good fellow has before him. +How can we make him see his folly, and cure it? I am sure you will give +us what aid you can in extricating a generous young man from such a pair +of schemers as this father and daughter seem to be. Love on the lady's +side is out of the question." + +"Love, indeed!" Foker said. "If Pen hadn't two thousand a year when he +came of age----" + +"If Pen hadn't what?" cried out the Major in astonishment. + +"Two thousand a year: hasn't he got two thousand a year?--the General +says he has." + +"My dear friend," shrieked out the Major, with an eagerness which +this gentleman rarely showed, "thank you!--thank you!--I begin to see +now.--Two thousand a year! Why, his mother has but five hundred a year +in the world.--She is likely to live to eighty, and Arthur has not a +shilling but what she can allow him." + +"What! he ain't rich then?" Foker asked. + +"Upon my honour he has no more than what I say." + +"And you ain't going to leave him anything?" + +The Major had sunk every shilling he could scrape together on an +annuity, and of course was going to leave Pen nothing; but he did not +tell Foker this. "How much do you think a Major on half-pay can save?" +he asked. "If these people have been looking at him as a fortune, they +are utterly mistaken--and--and you have made me the happiest man in the +world." + +"Sir to you," said Mr. Foker, politely, and when they parted for +the night they shook hands with the greatest cordiality; the younger +gentleman promising the elder not to leave Chatteris without a further +conversation in the morning. And as the Major went up to his room, and +Mr. Foker smoked his cigar against the door pillars of the George, Pen, +very likely, ten miles off; was lying in bed kissing the letter from his +Emily. + +The next morning, before Mr. Foker drove off in his drag, the +insinuating Major had actually got a letter of Miss Rouncy's in his own +pocket-book. Let it be a lesson to women how they write. And in very +high spirits Major Pendennis went to call upon Doctor Portman at the +Deanery, and told him what happy discoveries he had made on the previous +night. As they sate in confidential conversation in the Dean's oak +breakfast-parlour they could look across the lawn and see Captain +Costigan's window, at which poor Pen had been only too visible some +three weeks since. The Doctor was most indignant against Mrs. Creed, +the landlady, for her duplicity, in concealing Sir Derby Oaks's constant +visits to her lodgers, and threatened to excommunicate her out of the +Cathedral. But the wary Major thought that all things were for the best; +and, having taken counsel with himself over night, felt himself quite +strong enough to go and face Captain Costigan. + +"I'm going to fight the dragon," he said, with a laugh, to Doctor +Portman. + +"And I shrive you, sir, and bid good fortune go with you," answered the +Doctor. Perhaps he and Mrs. Portman and Miss Myra, as they sate with +their friend, the Dean's lady, in her drawing-room, looked up more than +once at the enemy's window to see if they could perceive any signs of +the combat. + +The Major walked round, according to the directions given him, and soon +found Mrs. Creed's little door. He passed it, and as he ascended to +Captain Costigan's apartment, he could hear a stamping of feet, and a +great shouting of "Ha, ha!" within. + +"It's Sir Derby Oaks taking his fencing lesson," said the child, who +piloted Major Pendennis. "He takes it Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays." + +The Major knocked, and at length a tall gentleman came forth, with a +foil and mask in one hand, and a fencing glove on the other. + +Pendennis made him a deferential bow. "I believe I have the honour of +speaking to Captain Costigan--My name is Major Pendennis." + +The Captain brought his weapon up to the salute, and said, "Major, the +honer is moine; I'm deloighted to see ye." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. Negotiation + + +The Major and Captain Costigan were old soldiers and accustomed to face +the enemy, so we may presume that they retained their presence of mind +perfectly; but the rest of the party assembled in Cos's sitting-room +were, perhaps, a little flurried at Pendennis's apparition. Miss +Fotheringay's slow heart began to beat no doubt, for her cheek flushed +up with a great healthy blush, as Lieutenant Sir Derby Oaks looked at +her with a scowl. The little crooked old man in the window-seat, who +had been witnessing the fencing-match between the two gentlemen (whose +stamping and jumping had been such as to cause him to give up all +attempts to continue writing the theatre music, in the copying of which +he had been engaged) looked up eagerly towards the new-comer as the +Major of the well-blacked boots entered the apartment distributing the +most graceful bows to everybody present. + +"Me daughter--me friend, Mr. Bows--me gallant young pupil and friend, +I may call 'um, Sir Derby Oaks," said Costigan, splendidly waving his +hand, and pointing each of these individuals to the Major's attention. +"In one moment, Meejor, I'm your humble servant," and to dash into the +little adjoining chamber where he slept, to give a twist to his lank +hair with his hair-brush (a wonderful and ancient piece), to tear off +his old stock and put on a new one which Emily had constructed for him, +and to assume a handsome clean collar, and the new coat which had been +ordered upon the occasion of Miss Fotheringay's benefit, was with the +still active Costigan the work of a minute. + +After him Sir Derby entered, and presently emerged from the same +apartment, where he also cased himself in his little shell-jacket, which +fitted tightly upon the young officer's big person; and which he, and +Miss Fotheringay, and poor Pen too, perhaps, admired prodigiously. + +Meanwhile conversation was engaged between the actress and the +new-comer; and the usual remarks about the weather had been interchanged +before Costigan re-entered in his new 'Shoot,' as he called it. + +"I needn't apologoise to ye, Meejor," he said, in his richest and most +courteous manner, "for receiving ye in me shirt-sleeves." + +"An old soldier can't be better employed than in teaching a young one +the use of his sword," answered the Major, gallantly. "I remember in old +times hearing that you could use yours pretty well, Captain Costigan." + +"What, ye've heard of Jack Costigan, Major," said the other, greatly. + +The Major had, indeed; he had pumped his nephew concerning his new +friend, the Irish officer; and whether he had no other knowledge of the +Captain than what he had thus gained, or whether he actually remembered +him, we cannot say. But Major Pendennis was a person of honour and +undoubted veracity, and said that he perfectly well recollected meeting +Mr. Costigan, and hearing him sing at Sir Richard Strachan's table at +Walcheren. + +At this information, and the bland and cordial manner in which it was +conveyed, Bows looked up, entirely puzzled. "But we will talk of these +matters another time," the Major continued, perhaps not wishing to +commit himself; "it is to Miss Fotheringay that I came to pay my +respects to-day;" and he performed another bow for her, so courtly and +gracious, that if she had been a duchess he could not have made it more +handsome. + +"I had heard of your performances from my nephew, madam," the Major +said, "who raves about you, as I believe you know pretty well. But +Arthur is but a boy, and a wild enthusiastic young fellow, whose +opinions one must not take au pied de la lettre; and I confess I was +anxious to judge for myself. Permit me to say your performance delighted +and astonished me. I have seen our best actresses, and, on my word, I +think you surpass them all. You are as majestic as Mrs. Siddons." + +"Faith, I always said so," Costigan said, winking at his daughter; +"Major, take a chair." Milly rose at this hint, took an unripped satin +garment off the only vacant seat, and brought the latter to Major +Pendennis with one of her finest curtseys. + +"You are as pathetic as Miss O'Neill," he continued, bowing and seating +himself; "your snatches of song reminded me of Mrs. Jordan in her best +time, when we were young men, Captain Costigan; and your manner reminded +me of Mars. Did you ever see the Mars, Miss Fotheringay?" + +"There was two Mahers in Crow Street," remarked Miss Emily; "Fanny was +well enough, but Biddy was no great things." + +"Sure, the Major means the god of war, Milly, my dear," interposed the +parent. + +"It is not that Mars I meant, though Venus, I suppose, may be pardoned +for thinking about him," the Major replied with a smile directed in full +to Sir Derby Oaks, who now re-entered in his shell-jacket; but the +lady did not understand the words of which he made use, nor did the +compliment at all pacify Sir Derby, who, probably, did not understand it +either, and at any rate received it with great sulkiness and stiffness, +scowling uneasily at Miss Fotheringay, with an expression which seemed +to ask what the deuce does this man here? + +Major Pendennis was not in the least annoyed by the gentleman's +ill-humour. On the contrary, it delighted him. "So," thought he, "a +rival is in the field;" and he offered up vows that Sir Derby might be, +not only a rival, but a winner too, in this love-match in which he and +Pen were engaged. + +"I fear I interrupted your fencing lesson; but my stay in Chatteris +is very short, and I was anxious to make myself known to my old +fellow-campaigner Captain Costigan, and to see a lady nearer who had +charmed me so much from the stage. I was not the only man epris last +night, Miss Fotheringay (if I must call you so, though your own family +name is a very ancient and noble one). There was a reverend friend of +mine, who went home in raptures with Ophelia; and I saw Sir Derby Oaks +fling a bouquet which no actress ever merited better. I should have +brought one myself, had I known what I was going to see. Are not those +the very flowers in a glass of water on the mantelpiece yonder?" + +"I am very fond of flowers," said Miss Fotheringay, with a languishing +ogle at Sir Derby Oaks--but the Baronet still scowled sulkily. + +"Sweets to the sweet--isn't that the expression of the play?" Mr. +Pendennis asked, bent upon being good-humoured. + +"'Pon my life, I don't know. Very likely it is. I ain't much of a +literary man," answered Sir Derby. + +"Is it possible?" the Major continued, with an air of surprise. You +don't inherit your father's love of letters, then, Sir Derby? He was a +remarkably fine scholar, and I had the honour of knowing him very well." + +"Indeed," said the other, and gave a sulky wag of his head. + +"He saved my life," continued Pendennis. + +"Did he now?" cried Miss Fotheringay, rolling her eyes first upon the +Major with surprise, then towards Sir Derby with gratitude--but the +latter was proof against those glances: and far from appearing to +be pleased that the Apothecary, his father, should have saved Major +Pendennis's life, the young man actually looked as if he wished the +event had turned the other way. + +"My father, I believe, was a very good doctor," the young gentleman said +by way of reply. "I'm not in that line myself. I wish you good morning, +sir. I've got an appointment--Cos, bye-bye--Miss Fotheringay, good +morning." And, in spite of the young lady's imploring looks and +appealing smiles, the Dragoon bowed stiffly out of the room, and the +clatter of his sabre was heard as he strode down the creaking stair; +and the angry tones of his voice as he cursed little Tom Creed, who was +disporting in the passage, and whose peg-top Sir Derby kicked away with +an oath into the street. + +The Major did not smile in the least, though he had every reason to be +amused. "Monstrous handsome young man that--as fine a looking soldier as +ever I saw," he said to Costigan. + +"A credit to the army and to human nature in general," answered +Costigan. "A young man of refoined manners, polite affabilitee, and +princely fortune. His table is sumptuous: he's adawr'd in the regiment: +and he rides sixteen stone." + +"A perfect champion," said the Major, laughing. "I have no doubt all the +ladies admire him." + +"He's very well, in spite of his weight, now he's young," said Milly; +"but he's no conversation." + +"He's best on horseback," Mr. Bows said; on which Milly replied, +that the Baronet had ridden third in the steeple-chase on his horse +Tareaways, and the Major began to comprehend that the young lady herself +was not of a particular genius, and to wonder how she should be so +stupid and act so well. + +Costigan, with Irish hospitality, of course pressed refreshment upon his +guest: and the Major, who was no more hungry than you are after a Lord +Mayor's dinner, declared that he should like a biscuit and a glass of +wine above all things, as he felt quite faint from long fasting--but he +knew that to receive small kindnesses flatters the donors very much, and +that people must needs grow well disposed towards you as they give you +their hospitality. + +"Some of the old Madara, Milly, love," Costigan said, winking to his +child--and that lady, turning to her father a glance of intelligence, +went out of the room, and down the stair, where she softly summoned her +little emissary Master Tommy Creed: and giving him a piece of money, +ordered him to go buy a pint of Madara wine at the Grapes, and +sixpennyworth of sorted biscuits at the baker's, and to return in a +hurry, when he might have two biscuits for himself. + +Whilst Tommy Creed was gone on this errand, Miss Costigan sate below +with Mrs. Creed, telling her landlady how Mr. Arthur Pendennis's uncle, +the Major, was above-stairs; a nice, soft-spoken old gentleman; that +butter wouldn't melt in his mouth: and how Sir Derby had gone out of +the room in a rage of jealousy, and thinking what must be done to pacify +both of them. + +"She keeps the keys of the cellar, Major," said Mr. Costigan, as the +girl left the room. + +"Upon my word you have a very beautiful butler," answered Pendennis, +gallantly, "and I don't wonder at the young fellows raving about her. +When we were of their age, Captain Costigan, I think plainer women would +have done our business." + +"Faith, and ye may say that, sir--and lucky is the man who gets her. +Ask me friend Bob Bows here whether Miss Fotheringay's moind is not even +shuparior to her person, and whether she does not possess a cultiveated +intellect, a refoined understanding, and an emiable disposition?" + +"O of course," said Mr. Bows, rather drily. "Here comes Hebe blushing +from the cellar. Don't you think it is time to go to rehearsal, Miss +Hebe? You will be fined if you are later"--and he gave the young lady a +look, which intimated that they had much better leave the room and the +two elders together. + +At this order Miss Hebe took up her bonnet and shawl, looking uncommonly +pretty, good-humoured, and smiling: and Bows gathered up his roll of +papers, and hobbled across the room for his hat and cane. + +"Must you go?" said the Major. "Can't you give us a few minutes more, +Miss Fotheringay? Before you leave us, permit an old fellow to shake +you by the hand, and believe that I am proud to have had the honour +of making your acquaintance, and am most sincerely anxious to be your +friend." + +Miss Fotheringay made a low curtsey at the conclusion of this gallant +speech, and the Major followed her retreating steps to the door, where +he squeezed her hand with the kindest and most paternal pressure. Bows +was puzzled with this exhibition of cordiality: "The lad's relatives +can't be really wanting to marry him to her," he thought--and so they +departed. + +"Now for it," thought Major Pendennis; and as for Mr. Costigan he +profited instantaneously by his daughter's absence to drink up the rest +of the wine; and tossed off one bumper after another of the Madeira from +the Grapes, with an eager shaking hand. The Major came up to the table, +and took up his glass and drained it with a jovial smack. If it had been +Lord Steyne's particular, and not public-house Cape, he could not have +appeared to relish it more. + +"Capital Madeira, Captain Costigan," he said. "Where do you get it? I +drink the health of that charming creature in a bumper. Faith, Captain, +I don't wonder that the men are wild about her. I never saw such eyes in +my life, or such a grand manner. I am sure she is as intellectual as she +is beautiful; and I have no doubt she's as good as she is clever." + +"A good girl, sir,--a good girl, sir," said the delighted father; "and +I pledge a toast to her with all my heart. Shall I send to the--to the +cellar for another pint? It's handy by. No? Well, indeed sir, ye may say +she is a good girl, and the pride and glory of her father--honest old +Jack Costigan. The man who gets her will have a jew'l to a wife, sir; +and I drink his health, sir, and ye know who I mean, Major." + +"I am not surprised at young or old falling in love with her," said the +Major, "and frankly must tell you, that though I was very angry with my +poor nephew Arthur, when I heard of the boy's passion--now I have seen +the lady I can pardon him any extent of it. By George, I should like to +enter for the race myself, if I weren't an old fellow and a poor one." + +"And no better man, Major, I'm sure," cried Jack enraptured. + +"Your friendship, sir, delights me. Your admiration for my girl brings +tears to me eyes--tears, sir--manlee tears--and when she leaves me +humble home for your own more splendid mansion, I hope she'll keep a +place for her poor old father, poor old Jack Costigan."--The Captain +suited the action to the word, and his bloodshot eyes were suffused with +water, as he addressed the Major. + +"Your sentiments do you honour," the other said. "But, Captain Costigan, +I can't help smiling at one thing you have just said." + +"And what's that, sir?" asked Jack, who was at a too heroic and +sentimental pitch to descend from it. You were speaking about our +splendid mansion--my sister's house, I mean. + +"I mane the park and mansion of Arthur Pendennis, Esquire, of Fairoaks +Park, whom I hope to see a Mimber of Parliament for his native town of +Clavering, when he is of ege to take that responsible stetion," cried +the Captain with much dignity. + +The Major smiled as he recognised a shaft of his own bow. It was he who +had set Pen upon the idea of sitting in Parliament for the neighbouring +borough--and the poor lad had evidently been bragging on the subject to +Costigan and the lady of his affections. "Fairoaks Park, my dear sir," +he said. "Do you know our history? We are of excessively ancient family +certainly, but I began life with scarce enough money to purchase my +commission, and my eldest brother was a country apothecary: who made +every shilling he died possessed of out of his pestle and mortar." + +"I have consented to waive that objection, sir," said Costigan +majestically, "in consideration of the known respectability of your +family." + +"Curse your impudence," thought the Major; but he only smiled and bowed. + +"The Costigans, too, have met with misfortunes; and our house of Castle +Costigan is by no manes what it was. I have known very honest men +apothecaries, sir, and there's some in Dublin that has had the honour of +dining at the Lord Leftenant's teeble." + +"You are very kind to give us the benefit of your charity," the Major +continued: "but permit me to say that is not the question. You spoke +just now of my little nephew as heir of Fairoaks Park and I don't know +what besides." + +"Funded property, I've no doubt, Meejor, and something handsome +eventually from yourself." + +"My good sir, I tell you the boy is the son of a country apothecary," +cried out Major Pendennis; "and that when he comes of age he won't have +a shilling." + +"Pooh, Major, you're laughing at me," said Mr. Costigan, "me young +friend, I make no doubt, is heir to two thousand pounds a year." + +"Two thousand fiddlesticks! I beg your pardon, my dear sir; but has the +boy been humbugging you?--it is not his habit. Upon my word and honour, +as a gentleman and an executor to my brother's will too, he left little +more than five hundred a year behind him." + +"And with aconomy, a handsome sum of money too, sir," the Captain +answered. "Faith, I've known a man drink his clar't, and drive his +coach-and-four on five hundred a year and strict aconomy, in Ireland, +sir. We'll manage on it, sir--trust Jack Costigan for that." + +"My dear Captain Costigan--I give you my word that my brother did not +leave a shilling to his son Arthur." + +"Are ye joking with me, Meejor Pendennis?" cried Jack Costigan. "Are ye +thrifling with the feelings of a father and a gentleman?" + +"I am telling you the honest truth," said Major Pendennis. "Every +shilling my brother had, he left to his widow: with a partial reversion, +it is true, to the boy. But she is a young woman, and may marry if he +offends her--or she may outlive him, for she comes of an uncommonly +long-lived family. And I ask you, as a gentleman and a man of the world, +what allowance can my sister, Mrs. Pendennis, make to her son out of +five hundred a year, which is all her fortune,--that shall enable him +to maintain himself and your daughter in the rank befitting such an +accomplished young lady?" + +"Am I to understand, sir, that the young gentleman, your nephew, and +whom I have fosthered and cherished as the son of me bosom, is an +imposther who has been thrifling with the affections of me beloved +child?" exclaimed the General, with an outbreak of wrath.--"Have you +yourself been working upon the feelings of the young man's susceptible +nature to injuice him to break off an engagement, and with it me adored +Emily's heart? Have a care, sir, how you thrifle with the honour of John +Costigan. If I thought any mortal man meant to do so, be heavens I'd +have his blood, sir--were he old or young." + +"Mr. Costigan!" cried out the Major. + +"Mr. Costigan can protect his own and his daughter's honour, and will, +sir," said the other. "Look at that chest of dthrawers, it contains +heaps of letthers that that viper has addressed to that innocent child. +There's promises there, sir, enough to fill a bandbox with; and when I +have dragged the scoundthrel before the Courts of Law, and shown up his +perjury and his dishonour, I have another remedy in yondther mahogany +case, sir, which shall set me right, sir, with any individual--ye mark +me words, Major Pendennis--with any individual who has counselled your +nephew to insult a soldier and a gentleman. What? Me daughter to be +jilted, and me grey hairs dishonoured by an apothecary's son. By the +laws of Heaven, Sir, I should like to see the man that shall do it." + +"I am to understand then that you threaten in the first place to publish +the letters of a boy of eighteen to a woman of eight-and-twenty: and +afterwards to do me the honour of calling me out," the Major said, still +with perfect coolness. + +"You have described my intentions with perfect accuracy, Meejor +Pendennis," answered the Captain, as he pulled his ragged whiskers over +his chin. + +"Well, well; these shall be the subjects of future arrangements, but +before we come to powder and ball, my good sir,--do have the kindness to +think with yourself in what earthly way I have injured you? I have told +you that my nephew is dependent upon his mother, who has scarcely more +than five hundred a year." + +"I have my own opinion of the correctness of that assertion," said the +Captain. + +"Will you go to my sister's lawyers, Messrs. Tatham here, and satisfy +yourself?" + +"I decline to meet those gentlemen," said the Captain, with rather a +disturbed air. "If it be as you say, I have been athrociously deceived +by some one, and on that person I'll be revenged." + +"Is it my nephew?" cried the Major, starting up and putting on his hat. +"Did he ever tell you that his property was two thousand a year? If he +did, I'm mistaken in the boy. To tell lies has not been a habit in our +family, Mr. Costigan, and I don't think my brother's son has learned +it as yet. Try and consider whether you have not deceived yourself; or +adopted extravagant reports from hearsay--As for me, sir, you are at +liberty to understand that I am not afraid of all the Costigans in +Ireland, and know quite well how to defend myself against any threats +from any quarter. I come here as the boy's guardian to protest against +a marriage, most absurd and unequal, that cannot but bring poverty and +misery with it: and in preventing it I conceive I am quite as much your +daughter's friend (who I have no doubt is an honourable young lady) as +the friend of my own family: and prevent the marriage I will, sir, by +every means in my power. There, I have said my say, sir." + +"But I have not said mine, Major Pendennis--and ye shall hear more from +me," Mr. Costigan said, with a look of tremendous severity. + +"'Sdeath, sir, what do you mean?" the Major asked, turning round on the +threshold of the door, and looking the intrepid Costigan in the face. + +"Ye said, in the coorse of conversation, that ye were at the George +Hotel, I think," Mr. Costigan said in a stately manner. "A friend shall +wait upon ye there before ye leave town, sir." + +"Let him make haste, Mr. Costigan," cried out the Major, almost beside +himself with rage. "I wish you a good morning, sir." And Captain +Costigan bowed a magnificent bow of defiance to Major Pendennis over the +landing-place as the latter retreated down the stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. In which a Shooting Match is proposed + + +Early mention has been made in this history of Mr. Garbetts, Principal +Tragedian, a promising and athletic young actor, of jovial habits +and irregular inclinations, between whom and Mr. Costigan there was a +considerable intimacy. They were the chief ornaments of the convivial +club held at the Magpie Hotel; they helped each other in various bill +transactions in which they had been engaged, with the mutual loan of +each other's valuable signatures. They were friends, in fine: although +Mr. Garbetts seldom called at Costigan's house, being disliked by Miss +Fotheringay, of whom in her turn Mrs. Garbetts was considerably jealous. +The truth is, that Garbetts had paid his court to Miss Fotheringay +and been refused by her, before he offered his hand to Mrs. G. Their +history, however, forms no part of our present scheme--suffice it, +Mr. Garbetts was called in by Captain Costigan immediately after his +daughter and Mr. Bows had quitted the house, as a friend proper to be +consulted at the actual juncture. He was a large man, with a loud voice +and fierce aspect, who had the finest legs of the whole company, and +could break a poker in mere sport across his stalwart arm. + +"Run, Tommy," said Mr. Costigan to the little messenger, "and fetch Mr. +Garbetts from his lodgings over the tripe shop, ye know, and tell 'em +to send two glasses of whisky-and-water, hot, from the Grapes." So Tommy +went his way; and presently Mr. Garbetts and the whisky came. + +Captain Costigan did not disclose to him the whole of the previous +events, of which the reader is in possession; but, with the aid of the +spirits-and-water, he composed a letter of a threatening nature to Major +Pendennis's address, in which he called upon that gentleman to offer no +hindrance to the marriage projected between Mr. Arthur Pendennis and his +daughter, Miss Fotheringay, and to fix an early day for its celebration: +or, in any other case, to give him the satisfaction which was usual +between gentlemen of honour. And should Major Pendennis be disinclined +to this alternative, the Captain hinted, that he would force him to +accept by the use of a horsewhip, which he should employ upon the +Major's person. The precise terms of this letter we cannot give, for +reasons which shall be specified presently; but it was, no doubt, +couched in the Captain's finest style, and sealed elaborately with the +great silver seal of the Costigans--the only bit of the family plate +which the Captain possessed. + +Garbetts was despatched then with this message and letter; and bidding +Heaven bless 'um the General squeezed his ambassador's hand, and saw him +depart. Then he took down his venerable and murderous duelling-pistols, +with flint locks, that had done the business of many a pretty fellow +in Dublin: and having examined these, and seen that they were in a +satisfactory condition, he brought from the drawer all Pen's letters and +poems which he kept there, and which he always read before he permitted +his Emily to enjoy their perusal. + +In a score of minutes Garbetts came back with an anxious and crestfallen +countenance. + +"Ye've seen 'um?" the Captain said. + +"Why, yes," said Garbetts. + +"And when is it for?" asked Costigan, trying the lock of one of the +ancient pistols, and bringing it to a level with his oi--as he called +that bloodshot orb. + +"When is what for?" asked Mr. Garbetts. + +"The meeting, my dear fellow?" + +"You don't mean to say, you mean mortal combat, Captain," Garbetts said, +aghast. + +"What the devil else do I mean, Garbetts?--I want to shoot that man that +has trajuiced me honor, or meself dthrop a victim on the sod." + +"D---- if I carry challenges," Mr. Garbetts replied. "I'm a family +man, Captain, and will have nothing to do with pistols--take back your +letter;" and, to the surprise and indignation of Captain Costigan, his +emissary flung the letter down, with its great sprawling superscription +and blotched seal. + +"Ye don't mean to say ye saw 'um and didn't give 'um the letter?" cried +out the Captain in a fury. + +"I saw him, but I could not have speech with him, Captain," said Mr. +Garbetts. + +"And why the devil not?" asked the other. + +"There was one there I cared not to meet, nor would you," the tragedian +answered in a sepulchral voice. "The minion Tatham was there, Captain." + +"The cowardly scoundthrel!" roared Costigan. "He's frightened, and +already going to swear the peace against me." + +"I'll have nothing to do with the fighting, mark that," the tragedian +doggedly said, "and I wish I'd not seen Tatham neither, nor that bit +of----" + +"Hold your tongue, Bob Acres. It's my belief ye're no better than a +coward," said Captain Costigan, quoting Sir Lucius O'Trigger, which +character he had performed with credit, both off and on the stage, and +after some more parley between the couple they separated in not very +good humour. + +Their colloquy has been here condensed, as the reader knows the main +point upon which it turned. But the latter will now see how it is +impossible to give a correct account of the letter which the Captain +wrote to Major Pendennis, as it was never opened at all by that +gentleman. + +When Miss Costigan came home from rehearsal, which she did in the +company of the faithful Mr. Bows, she found her father pacing up and +down their apartment in a great state of agitation, and in the midst of +a powerful odour of spirits-and-water, which, as it appeared, had not +succeeded in pacifying his disordered mind. The Pendennis papers were on +the table surrounding the empty goblets and now useless teaspoon which +had served to hold and mix the Captain's liquor and his friend's. +As Emily entered he seized her in his arms, and cried out, "Prepare +yourself, me child, me blessed child," in a voice of agony, and with +eyes brimful of tears. + +"Ye're tipsy again, Papa," Miss Fotheringay said, pushing back her sire. +"Ye promised me ye wouldn't take spirits before dinner." + +"It's to forget me sorrows, me poor girl, that I've taken just a drop," +cried the bereaved father--"it's to drown me care that I drain the +bowl." + +"Your care takes a deal of drowning, Captain dear," said Bows, mimicking +his friend's accent; "what has happened? Has that soft-spoken gentleman +in the wig been vexing you?" + +"The oily miscreant! I'll have his blood!" roared Cos. Miss Milly, +it must be premised, had fled to her room out of his embrace, and was +taking off her bonnet and shawl there. + +"I thought he meant mischief. He was so uncommon civil," the other said. +"What has he come to say?" + +"O Bows! He has overwhellum'd me," the Captain said. "There's a hellish +conspiracy on foot against me poor girl; and it's me opinion that +both them Pendennises, nephew and uncle, is two infernal thrators and +scoundthrels, who should be conshumed from off the face of the earth." + +"What is it? What has happened?" said Mr. Bows, growing rather excited. + +Costigan then told him the Major's statement that the young Pendennis +had not two thousand, nor two hundred pounds a year; and expressed his +fury that he should have permitted such an impostor to coax and wheedle +his innocent girl, and that he should have nourished such a viper in his +own personal bosom. "I have shaken the reptile from me, however," said +Costigan; "and as for his uncle, I'll have such a revenge on that old +man, as shall make 'um rue the day he ever insulted a Costigan." + +"What do you mean, General?" said Bows. + +"I mean to have his life, Bows--his villanous, skulking life, my boy;" +and he rapped upon the battered old pistol-case in an ominous and savage +manner. Bows had often heard him appeal to that box of death, with which +he proposed to sacrifice his enemies; but the Captain did not tell him +that he had actually written and sent a challenge to Major Pendennis, +and Mr. Bows therefore rather disregarded the pistols in the present +instance. + +At this juncture Miss Fotheringay returned to the common sitting-room +from her private apartment, looking perfectly healthy, happy, and +unconcerned, a striking and wholesome contrast to her father, who was in +a delirious tremor of grief, anger, and other agitation. She brought in +a pair of ex-white satin shoes with her, which she proposed to rub as +clean as might be with bread-crumb: intending to go mad with them upon +next Tuesday evening in Ophelia, in which character she was to reappear +on that night. + +She looked at the papers on the table; stopped as if she was going to +ask a question, but thought better of it, and going to the cupboard, +selected an eligible piece of bread wherewith she might operate on the +satin slippers: and afterwards coming back to the table, seated herself +there commodiously with the shoes, and then asked her father, in her +honest, Irish brogue, "What have ye got them letthers, and pothry, and +stuff, of Master Arthur's out for, Pa? Sure ye don't want to be reading +over that nonsense." + +"O Emilee!" cried the Captain, "that boy whom I loved as the boy of +mee bosom is only a scoundthrel, and a deceiver, mee poor girl:" and he +looked in the most tragical way at Mr. Bows, opposite; who, in his turn, +gazed somewhat anxiously at Miss Costigan. + +"He! pooh! Sure the poor lad's as simple as a schoolboy," she said. "All +them children write verses and nonsense." + +"He's been acting the part of a viper to this fireside, and a traitor +in this familee," cried the Captain. "I tell ye he's no better than an +impostor." + +"What has the poor fellow done, Papa?" asked Emily. + +"Done? He has deceived us in the most athrocious manner," Miss Emily's +papa said. "He has thrifled with your affections, and outraged my own +fine feelings. He has represented himself as a man of property, and it +turruns out that he is no betther than a beggar. Haven't I often told ye +he had two thousand a year? He's a pauper, I tell ye, Miss Costigan; a +depindent upon the bountee of his mother; a good woman, who may marry +again, who's likely to live for ever, and who has but five hundred a +year. How dar he ask ye to marry into a family which has not the means +of providing for ye? Ye've been grossly deceived and put upon, Milly, +and it's my belief his old ruffian of an uncle in a wig is in the plot +against us." + +"That soft old gentleman? What has he been doing, Papa?" continued +Emily, still imperturbable. + +Costigan informed Milly, that when she was gone, Major Pendennis told +him in his double-faced Pall Mall polite manner, that young Arthur had +no fortune at all, that the Major had asked him (Costigan) to go to the +lawyers ("wherein he knew the scoundthrels have a bill of mine, and I +can't meet them," the Captain parenthetically remarked), and see the +lad's father's will and finally, that an infernal swindle had been +practised upon him by the pair, and that he was resolved either on a +marriage, or on the blood of both of them. + +Milly looked very grave and thoughtful, rubbing the white satin shoes. +"Sure, if he's no money, there's no use marrying him, Papa," she said +sententiously. + +"Why did the villain say he was a man of prawpertee?" asked Costigan. + +"The poor fellow always said he was poor," answered the girl. "'Twas you +would have it he was rich, Papa--and made me agree to take him." + +"He should have been explicit and told us his income, Milly," answered +the father. "A young fellow who rides a blood mare, and makes presents +of shawls and bracelets, is an impostor if he has no money;--and as for +his uncle, bedad I'll pull off his wig whenever I see 'um. Bows, here, +shall take a message to him and tell him so. Either it's a marriage, or +he meets me in the field like a man, or I tweak 'um on the nose in front +of his hotel or in the gravel walks of Fairoaks Park before all the +county, bedad." + +"Bedad, you may send somebody else with the message," said Bows, +laughing. "I'm a fiddler, not a fighting man, Captain." + +"Pooh, you've no spirit, sir," roared the General. "I'll be my own +second, if no one will stand by and see me injured. And I'll take my +case of pistols and shoot 'um in the Coffee-room of the George." + +"And so poor Arthur has no money?" sighed out Miss Costigan, rather +plaintively. "Poor lad, he was a good lad too: wild and talking +nonsense, with his verses and pothry and that, but a brave, generous +boy, and indeed I liked him--and he liked me too," she added, rather +softly, and rubbing away at the shoe. + +"Why don't you marry him if you like him so?" Mr. Bows said, rather +savagely. "He is not more than ten years younger than you are. His +mother may relent, and you might go and live and have enough at Fairoaks +Park. Why not go and be a lady? I could go on with the fiddle, and the +General live on his half-pay. Why don't you marry him? You know he likes +you." + +"There's others that likes me as well, Bows, that has no money and +that's old enough," Miss Milly said sententiously. + +"Yes, d---- it," said Bows, with a bitter curse--"that are old enough +and poor enough and fools enough for anything." + +"There's old fools, and young fools too. You've often said so you silly +man," the imperious beauty said, with a conscious glance at the old +gentleman. "If Pendennis has not enough money to live upon, it's folly +to talk about marrying him: and that's the long and short of it." + +"And the boy?" said Mr. Bows. "By Jove! you throw a man away like an old +glove, Miss Costigan." + +"I don't know what you mean, Bows," said Miss Fotheringay, placidly, +rubbing the second shoe. "If he had had half of the two thousand a year +that Papa gave him, or the half of that, I would marry him. But what is +the good of taking on with a beggar? We're poor enough already. There's +no use in my going to live with an old lady that's testy and cross, +maybe, and would grudge me every morsel of meat." (Sure, it's near +dinner time, and Suky not laid the cloth yet.) "And then," added Miss +Costigan quite simply, "suppose there was a family?--why, Papa, we +shouldn't be as well off as we are now." + +"'Deed, then, you would not, Milly dear," answered the father. + +"And there's an end to all the fine talk about Mrs. Arthur Pendennis +of Fairoaks Park--the member of Parliament's lady," said Milly, with a +laugh. "Pretty carriages and horses we should have to ride!--that you +were always talking about, Papa! But it's always the same. If a man +looked at me, you fancied he was going to marry me; and if he had a good +coat, you fancied he was as rich as Crazes." + +"--As Croesus," said Mr. Bows. + +"Well, call 'um what ye like. But it's a fact now that Papa has married +me these eight years a score of times. Wasn't I to be my Lady Poldoody +of Oystherstown Castle? Then there was the Navy Captain at Portsmouth, +and the old surgeon at Norwich, and the Methodist preacher here last +year, and who knows how many more? Well, I bet a penny, with all your +scheming, I shall die Milly Costigan at last. So poor little Arthur +has no money? Stop and take dinner, Bows; we've a beautiful beef-steak +pudding." + +"I wonder whether she is on with Sir Derby Oaks," thought Bows, whose +eyes and thoughts were always watching her. "The dodges of women beat +all comprehension; and I am sure she wouldn't let the lad off so easily, +if she had not some other scheme on hand." + +It will have been perceived that Miss Fotheringay, though silent in +general, and by no means brilliant as a conversationist, where poetry, +literature, or the fine arts were concerned, could talk freely, and with +good sense, too, in her own family circle. She cannot justly be called +a romantic person: nor were her literary acquirement great: she never +opened a Shakspeare from the day she left the stage, nor, indeed, +understood it during all the time she adorned the boards: but about a +pudding, a piece of needle-work, or her own domestic affairs, she was +as good a judge as could be found; and not being misled by a strong +imagination or a passionate temper, was better enabled to keep her +judgment cool. When, over their dinner, Costigan tried to convince +himself and the company, that the Major's statement regarding +Pen's finances was unworthy of credit, and a mere ruse upon the old +hypocrite's part so as to induce them, on their side, to break off the +match, Miss Milly would not, for a moment, admit the possibility of +deceit on the side of the adversary: and pointed out clearly that it +was her father who had deceived himself, and not poor little Pen who +had tried to take them in. As for that poor lad, she said she pitied +him with all her heart. And she ate an exceedingly good dinner; to the +admiration of Mr. Bows, who had a remarkable regard and contempt for +this woman, during and after which repast, the party devised upon the +best means of bringing this love-matter to a close. As for Costigan, +his idea of tweaking the Major's nose vanished with his supply of +after-dinner whisky-and-water; and he was submissive to his daughter, +and ready for any plan on which she might decide, in order to meet the +crisis which she saw was at hand. + +The Captain, who, as long as he had a notion that he was wronged, was +eager to face and demolish both Pen and his uncle, perhaps shrank from +the idea of meeting the former, and asked "what the juice they were to +say to the lad if he remained steady to his engagement, and they broke +from theirs?" "What? don't you know how to throw a man over?" said Bows; +"ask a woman to tell you?" and Miss Fotheringay showed how this feat was +to be done simply enough--nothing was more easy. "Papa writes to Arthur +to know what settlements he proposes to make in event of a marriage; and +asks what his means are. Arthur writes back and says what he's got, and +you'll find it's as the Major says, I'll go bail. Then papa writes, and +says it's not enough, and the match had best be at an end." + +"And, of course, you enclose a parting line, in which you say you +will always regard him as a brother," said Mr. Bows, eyeing her in his +scornful way. + +"Of course, and so I shall," answered Miss Fotheringay. "He's a most +worthy young man, I'm sure. I'll thank ye hand me the salt. Them +filberts is beautiful." + +"And there will be no noses pulled, Cos, my boy? I'm sorry you're +baulked," said Mr. Bows. + +"Dad, I suppose not," said Cos, rubbing his own.--"What'll ye do about +them letters, and verses, and pomes, Milly, darling?--Ye must send 'em +back." + +"Wigsby would give a hundred pound for 'em," Bows said, with a sneer. + +"'Deed, then, he would," said Captain Costigan, who was easily led. + +"Papa!" said Miss Milly.--"Ye wouldn't be for not sending the poor boy +his letters back? Them letters and pomes is mine. They were very long, +and full of all sorts of nonsense, and Latin, and things I couldn't +understand the half of; indeed I've not read 'em all; but we'll send +'em back to him when the proper time comes." And going to a drawer, +Miss Fotheringay took out from it a number of the County Chronicle and +Chatteris Champion, in which Pen had written a copy of flaming verses +celebrating her appearance in the character of Imogen, and putting +by the leaf upon which the poem appeared (for, like ladies of +her profession, she kept the favourable printed notices of her +performances), she wrapped up Pen's letters, poems, passions, and +fancies, and tied them with a piece of string neatly, as she would a +parcel of sugar. + +Nor was she in the least moved while performing this act. What hours the +boy had passed over those papers! What love and longing: what generous +faith and manly devotion--what watchful nights and lonely fevers might +they tell of! She tied them up like so much grocery, and sate down and +made tea afterwards with a perfectly placid and contented heart: while +Pen was yearning after her ten miles off: and hugging her image to his +soul. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. A Crisis + + +Meanwhile they were wondering at Fairoaks that the Major had not +returned. Dr. Portman and his lady, on their way home to Clavering, +stopped at Helen's lodge-gate, with a brief note for her from Major +Pendennis, in which he said he should remain at Chatteris another day, +being anxious to have some talk with Messrs. Tatham, the lawyers, whom +he would meet that afternoon; but no mention was made of the transaction +in which the writer had been engaged during the morning. Indeed the note +was written at the pause after the first part of the engagement, and +when the Major had decidedly had the worst of the battle. + +Pen did not care somehow to go into the town whilst his uncle was there. +He did not like to have to fancy that his guardian might be spying at +him from that abominable Dean's grass-plat, whilst he was making love +in Miss Costigan's drawing-room; and the pleasures of a walk (a delight +which he was very rarely permitted to enjoy) would have been spoiled if +he had met the man of the polished boots on that occasion. His modest +love could not show in public by any outward signs, except the eyes +(with which the poor fellow ogled and gazed violently to be sure), but +it was dumb in the presence of third parties; and so much the better, +for of all the talk which takes place in this world, that of love-makers +is surely, to the uninitiated, the most silly. It is the vocabulary +without the key; it is the lamp without the flame. Let the respected +reader look or think over some old love-letters that he (or she) has had +and forgotten, and try them over again. How blank and meaningless +they seem! What glamour of infatuation was it which made that nonsense +beautiful? One wonders that such puling and trash could ever have made +one happy. And yet there were dates when you kissed those silly letters +with rapture--lived upon six absurd lines for a week, and until the +reactionary period came, when you were restless and miserable until you +got a fresh supply of folly. + +That is why we decline to publish any of the letters and verses which +Mr. Pen wrote at this period of his life, out of mere regard for the +young fellow's character. They are too spooney and wild. Young ladies +ought not to be called upon to read them in cold blood. Bide your time, +young women; perhaps you will get and write them on your own account +soon. Meanwhile we will respect Mr. Pen's first outpourings, and keep +them tied up in the newspapers with Miss Fotheringay's string, and +sealed with Captain Costigan's great silver seal. + +The Major came away from his interview with Captain Costigan in a state +of such concentrated fury as rendered him terrible to approach! "The +impudent bog-trotting scamp," he thought, "dare to threaten me! Dare to +talk of permitting his damned Costigans to marry with the Pendennises! +Send me a challenge! If the fellow can get anything in the shape of a +gentleman to carry it, I have the greatest mind in life not to baulk +him.--Psha! what would people say if I were to go out with a tipsy +mountebank, about a row with an actress in a barn!" So when the Major +saw Dr. Portman, who asked anxiously regarding the issue of his battle +with the dragon, Mr. Pendennis did not care to inform the divine of the +General's insolent behaviour, but stated that the affair was a very ugly +and disagreeable one, and that it was by no means over yet. + +He enjoined Doctor and Mrs. Portman to say nothing about the business at +Fairoaks; whither he contented himself with despatching the note we have +before mentioned. And then he returned to his hotel, where he vented +his wrath upon Mr. Morgan his valet, "dammin and cussin upstairs and +downstairs," as that gentleman observed to Mr. Foker's man, in whose +company he partook of dinner in the servants' room of the George. + +The servant carried the news to his master; and Mr. Foker having +finished his breakfast about this time, it being two o'clock in the +afternoon, remembered that he was anxious to know the result of the +interview between his two friends, and having inquired the number of +the Major's sitting-room, went over in his brocade dressing-gown, and +knocked for admission. + +Major Pendennis had some business, as he had stated, respecting a +lease of the widow's, about which he was desirous of consulting old Mr. +Tatham, the lawyer, who had been his brother's man of business, and who +had a branch-office at Clavering, where he and his son attended market +and other days three or four in the week. This gentleman and his client +were now in consultation when Mr. Foker showed his grand dressing-gown +and embroidered skull-cap at Major Pendennis's door. + +Seeing the Major engaged with papers and red-tape, and an old man with a +white head, the modest youth was for drawing back--and said, "O, you're +busy--call again another time." But Mr. Pendennis wanted to see him, +and begged him, with a smile, to enter: whereupon Mr. Foker took off +the embroidered tarboosh or fez (it had been worked by the fondest +of mothers) and advanced, bowing to the gentlemen and smiling on them +graciously. Mr. Tatham had never seen so splendid an apparition before +as this brocaded youth, who seated himself in an arm-chair, spreading +out his crimson skirts, and looking with exceeding kindness and +frankness on the other two tenants of the room. "You seem to like my +dressing-gown, sir," he said to Mr. Tatham. "A pretty thing, isn't it? +Neat, but not in the least gaudy. And how do you do, Major Pendennis, +sir, and how does the world treat you?" + +There was that in Foker's manner and appearance which would have put +an Inquisitor into good humour, and it smoothed the wrinkles under +Pendennis's head of hair. + +"I have had an interview with that Irishman (you may speak before my +friend, Mr. Tatham here, who knows all the affairs of the family), and +it has not, I own, been very satisfactory. He won't believe that my +nephew is poor: he says we are both liars: he did me the honour to hint +that I was a coward, as I took leave. And I thought when you knocked at +the door, that you might be the gentleman whom I expect with a challenge +from Mr. Costigan--that is how the world treats me, Mr. Foker." + +"You don't mean that Irishman, the actress's father?" cried Mr. Tatham, +who was a dissenter himself, and did not patronise the drama. + +"That Irishman, the actress's father--the very man. Have not you heard +what a fool my nephew has made of himself about the girl?"--Mr. Tatham, +who never entered the walls of a theatre, had heard nothing: and Major +Pendennis had to recount the story of his nephew's loves to the lawyer, +Mr. Foker coming in with appropriate comments in his usual familiar +language. + +Tatham was lost in wonder at the narrative. Why had not Mrs. Pendennis +married a serious man, he thought--Mr. Tatham was a widower--and kept +this unfortunate boy from perdition? As for Mr. Costigan's daughter, he +would say nothing: her profession was sufficient to characterise her. +Mr. Foker here interposed to say he had known some uncommon good people +in the booths, as he called the Temple of the Muses. Well, it might be +so, Mr. Tatham hoped so--but the father, Tatham knew personally--a +man of the worst character, a wine-bibber and an idler in taverns and +billiard-rooms, and a notorious insolvent. "I can understand the +reason, Major," he said, "why the fellow would not come to my office +to ascertain the truth of the statements which you made him.--We have +a writ out against him and another disreputable fellow, one of the +play-actors, for a bill given to Mr. Skinner of this city, a most +respectable Grocer and Wine and Spirit Merchant, and a Member of the +Society of Friends. This Costigan came crying to Mr. Skinner,--crying in +the shop, sir,--and we have not proceeded against him or the other, as +neither were worth powder and shot." + +It was whilst Mr. Tatham was engaged in telling this story that a third +knock came to the door, and there entered an athletic gentleman in a +shabby braided frock, bearing in his hand a letter with a large blotched +red seal. + +"Can I have the honour of speaking with Major Pendennis in private?" +he began--"I have a few words for your ear, sir. I am the bearer of a +mission from my friend Captain Costigan,"--but here the man with the +bass voice paused, faltered, and turned pale--he caught sight of the red +and well-remembered face of Mr. Tatham. + +"Hullo, Garbetts, speak up!" cried Mr. Foker, delighted. + +"Why, bless my soul, it is the other party to the bill!" said Mr. +Tatham. "I say, sir; stop I say." But Garbetts, with a face as blank as +Macbeth's when Banquo's ghost appears upon him, gasped some inarticulate +words, and fled out of the room. + +The Major's gravity was also entirely upset, and he burst out laughing. +So did Mr. Foker, who said, "By Jove, it was a good 'un." So did the +attorney, although by profession a serious man. + +"I don't think there'll be any fight, Major," young Foker said; and +began mimicking the tragedian. "If there is, the old gentleman--your +name Tatham?--very happy to make your acquaintance, Mr. Tatham--may send +the bailiffs to separate the men;" and Mr. Tatham promised to do so. The +Major was by no means sorry at the ludicrous issue of the quarrel. "It +seems to me, sir," he said to Mr. Foker, "that you always arrive to put +me into good-humour." + +Nor was this the only occasion on which Mr. Foker this day was destined +to be of service to the Pendennis family. We have said that he had +the entree of Captain Costigan's lodgings, and in the course of the +afternoon he thought he would pay the General a visit, and hear from his +own lips what had occurred in the conversation, in the morning, with Mr. +Pendennis. Captain Costigan was not at home. He had received permission, +nay, encouragement from his daughter, to go to the convivial club at +the Magpie Hotel, where no doubt he was bragging at that moment of his +desire to murder a certain ruffian; for he was not only brave, but he +knew it too, and liked to take out his courage, and, as it were, give it +an airing in company. + +Costigan then was absent, but Miss Fotheringay was at home washing the +tea-cups whilst Mr. Bows sate opposite to her. + +"Just done breakfast I see--how do?" said Mr. Foker, popping in his +little funny head. + +"Get out, you funny little man," cried Miss Fotheringay. + +"You mean come in, answered the other.--Here we are!" and entering the +room he folded his arms and began twirling his head round and round with +immense rapidity, like Harlequin in the Pantomime when he first issues +from his cocoon or envelope. Miss Fotheringay laughed with all her +heart: a wink of Foker's would set her off laughing, when the bitterest +joke Bows ever made could not get a smile from her, or the finest +of poor Pen's speeches would only puzzle her. At the end of the +harlequinade he sank down on one knee and kissed her hand. "You're the +drollest little man," she said, and gave him a great good-humoured slap. +Pen used to tremble as he kissed her hand. Pen would have died of a +slap. + +These preliminaries over, the three began to talk; Mr. Foker amused his +companions by recounting to them the scene which he had just witnessed +of the discomfiture of Mr. Garbetts, by which they learned, for the +first time, how far the General had carried his wrath against Major +Pendennis. Foker spoke strongly in favour of the Major's character for +veracity and honour, and described him as a tip-top swell, moving in the +upper-circle of society, who would never submit to any deceit--much more +to deceive such a charming young woman as Miss Foth. + +He touched delicately upon the delicate marriage question, though he +couldn't help showing that he held Pen rather cheap. In fact, he had a +perhaps just contempt for Mr. Pen's high-flown sentimentality; his own +weakness, as he thought, not lying that way. "I knew it wouldn't do, +Miss Foth," said he, nodding his little head. "Couldn't do. Didn't like +to put my hand into the bag, but knew it couldn't do. He's too young for +you: too green: a deal too green: and he turns out to be poor as Job. +Can't have him at no price, can she, Mr. Bo?" + +"Indeed he's a nice poor boy," said the Fotheringay rather sadly. + +"Poor little beggar," said Bows, with his hands in his pockets, and +stealing up a queer look at Miss Fotheringay. Perhaps he thought and +wondered at the way in which women play with men, and coax them and win +them and drop them. + +But Mr. Bows had not the least objection to acknowledge that he thought +Miss Fotheringay was perfectly right in giving up Mr. Arthur Pendennis, +and that in his idea the match was always an absurd one: and Miss +Costigan owned that she thought so herself, only she couldn't send away +two thousand a year. "It all comes of believing Papa's silly stories," +she said; "faith I'll choose for meself another time"--and very likely +the large image of Lieutenant Sir Derby Oaks entered into her mind at +that instant. + +After praising Major Pendennis, whom Miss Costigan declared to be +a proper gentleman entirely, smelling of lavender, and as neat as a +pin,--and who was pronounced by Mr. Bows to be the right sort of fellow, +though rather too much of an old buck, Mr. Foker suddenly bethought him +to ask the pair to come and meet the Major that very evening at dinner +at his apartment at the George. "He agreed to dine with me, and I think +after the--after the little shindy this morning, in which I must say the +General was wrong, it would look kind, you know.--I know the Major fell +in love with you, Miss Foth: he said so." + +"So she may be Mrs. Pendennis still," Bows said with a sneer--"No, thank +you, Mr. F.--I've dined." + +"Sure, that was at three o'clock," said Miss Costigan, who had an honest +appetite, "and I can't go without you." + +"We'll have lobster-salad and champagne," said the little monster, +who could not construe a line of Latin, or do a sum beyond the Rule of +Three. Now, for lobster-salad and champagne in an honourable manner, +Miss Costigan would have gone anywhere--and Major Pendennis actually +found himself at seven o'clock seated at a dinner-table in company with +Mr. Bows, a professional fiddler, and Miss Costigan, whose father had +wanted to blow his brains out a few hours before. + +To make the happy meeting complete, Mr. Foker, who knew Costigan's +haunts, despatched Stoopid to the club at the Magpie, where the General +was in the act of singing a pathetic song, and brought him off to +supper. To find his daughter and Bows seated at the board was a surprise +indeed--Major Pendennis laughed, and cordially held out his hand, which +the General Officer grasped avec effusion as the French say. In fact he +was considerably inebriated, and had already been crying over his own +song before he joined the little party at the George. He burst into +tears more than once, during the entertainment, and called the Major his +dearest friend. Stoopid and Mr. Foker walked home with him: the Major +gallantly giving his arm to Miss Costigan. He was received with great +friendliness when he called the next day, when many civilities passed +between the gentlemen. On taking leave he expressed his anxious desire +to serve Miss Costigan on any occasion in which he could be useful to +her, and he shook hands with Mr. Foker most cordially and gratefully, +and said that gentleman had done him the very greatest service. + +"All right," said Mr. Foker: and they parted with mutual esteem. + +On his return to Fairoaks the next day, Major Pendennis did not say what +had happened to him on the previous night, or allude to the company in +which he had passed it. But he engaged Mr. Smirke to stop to dinner; and +any person accustomed to watch his manner might have remarked that there +was something constrained in his hilarity and talkativeness, and that +he was unusually gracious and watchful in his communications with his +nephew. He gave Pen an emphatic God-bless-you when the lad went to bed; +and as they were about to part for the night, he seemed as if he was +going to say something to Mrs. Pendennis, but he bethought him that if +he spoke he might spoil her night's rest, and allowed her to sleep in +peace. + +The next morning he was down in the breakfast-room earlier than was his +custom, and saluted everybody there with great cordiality. The post +used to arrive commonly about the end of this meal. When John, the old +servant, entered, and discharged the bag of its letters and papers, the +Major looked hard at Pen as the lad got his--Arthur blushed, and put his +letter down. He knew the hand, it was that of old Costigan, and he did +not care to read it in public. Major Pendennis knew the letter, too. He +had put it into the post himself in Chatteris the day before. + +He told little Laura to go away, which the child did, having a thorough +dislike to him; and as the door closed on her, he took Mrs. Pendennis's +hand, and giving her a look full of meaning, pointed to the letter under +the newspaper which Pen was pretending to read. "Will you come into the +drawing-room?" he said. "I want to speak to you." And she followed him, +wondering, into the hall. + +"What is it?" she said nervously. + +"The affair is at an end," Major Pendennis said. "He has a letter there +giving him his dismissal. I dictated it myself yesterday. There are a +few lines from the lady, too, bidding him farewell. It is all over." + +Helen ran back to the dining-room, her brother following. Pen had jumped +at his letter the instant they were gone. He was reading it with a +stupefied face. It stated what the Major had said, that Mr. Costigan +was most gratified for the kindness with which Arthur had treated +his daughter, but that he was only now made aware of Mr. Pendennis's +peecupiary circumstances. They were such that marriage was at present +out of the question, and considering the great disparity in the age of +the two, a future union was impossible. Under these circumstances, and +with the deepest regret and esteem for him, Mr. Costigan bade Arthur +farewell, and suggested that he should cease visiting, for some time at +least, at his house. + +A few lines from Miss Costigan were enclosed. She acquiesced in the +decision of her Papa. She pointed out that she was many years older +than Arthur, and that an engagement was not to be thought of. She +would always be grateful for his kindness to her, and hoped to keep his +friendship. But at present, and until the pain of the separation should +be over, she entreated they should not meet. + +Pen read Costigan's letter and its enclosure mechanically, hardly +knowing what was before his eyes. He looked up wildly, and saw his +mother and uncle regarding him with sad faces. Helen's, indeed, was full +of tender maternal anxiety. + +"What--what is this?" Pen said. "It's some joke. This is not her +writing. This is some servant's writing. Who's playing these tricks upon +me?" + +"It comes under her father's envelope," the Major said. "Those letters +you had before were not in her hand: that is hers." + +"How do you know?" said Pen very fiercely. + +"I saw her write it," the uncle answered, as the boy started up; and his +mother, coming forward, took his hand. He put her away. + +"How came you to see her? How came you between me and her? What have +I ever done to you that you should--Oh, it's not true! it's not +true!"--Pen broke out with a wild execration. "She can't have done it of +her own accord. She can't mean it. She's pledged to me. Who has told her +lies to break her from me?" + +"Lies are not told in the family, Arthur," Major Pendennis replied. "I +told her the truth, which was, that you had no money to maintain her, +for her foolish father had represented you to be rich. And when she knew +how poor you were, she withdrew at once, and without any persuasion of +mine. She was quite right. She is ten years older than you are. She +is perfectly unfitted to be your wife, and knows it. Look at that +handwriting, and ask yourself, is such a woman fitted to be the +companion of your mother?" + +"I will know from herself if it is true," Arthur said, crumpling up the +paper. + +"Won't you take my word of honour? Her letters were written by a +confidant of hers, who writes better than she can--look here. Here's +one from the lady to your friend, Mr. Foker. You have seen her with Miss +Costigan, as whose amanuensis she acted"--the Major said, with ever so +little of a sneer, and laid down a certain billet which Mr. Foker had +given to him. + +"It's not that," said Pen, burning with shame and rage. "I suppose what +you say is true, sir, but I'll hear it from herself." + +"Arthur!" appealed his mother. + +"I will see her," said Arthur. "I'll ask her to marry me, once more. I +will. No one shall prevent me." + +"What, a woman who spells affection with one f? Nonsense, sir. Be a man, +and remember that your mother is a lady. She was never made to associate +with that tipsy old swindler or his daughter. Be a man and forget her, +as she does you." + +"Be a man and comfort your mother, my Arthur," Helen said, going and +embracing him: and seeing that the pair were greatly moved, Major +Pendennis went out of the room and shut the door upon them, wisely +judging that they were best alone. + +He had won a complete victory. He actually had brought away Pen's +letters in his portmanteau from Chatteris: having complimented Mr. +Costigan, when he returned them, by giving him the little promissory +note which had disquieted himself and Mr. Garbetts; and for which the +Major settled with Mr. Tatham. + +Pen rushed wildly off to Chatteris that day, but in vain attempted to +see Miss Fotheringay, for whom he left a letter, enclosed to her +father. The enclosure was returned by Mr. Costigan, who begged that all +correspondence might end; and after one or two further attempts of +the lad's, the indignant General desired that their acquaintance might +cease. He cut Pen in the street. As Arthur and Foker were pacing the +Castle walk, one day, they came upon Emily on her father's arm. She +passed without any nod of recognition. Foker felt poor Pen trembling on +his arm. + +His uncle wanted him to travel, to quit the country for a while, and +his mother urged him too: for he was growing very ill, and suffered +severely. But he refused, and said point-blank he would not go. He would +not obey in this instance: and his mother was too fond, and his uncle +too wise to force him. Whenever Miss Fotheringay acted, he rode over to +the Chatteris Theatre and saw her. One night there were so few people in +the house that the Manager returned the money. Pen came home and went +to bed at eight o'clock, and had a fever. If this continues, his mother +will be going over and fetching the girl, the Major thought, in despair. +As for Pen, he thought he should die. We are not going to describe his +feelings, or give a dreary journal of his despair and passion. Have not +other gentlemen been baulked in love besides Mr. Pen? Yes, indeed: but +few die of the malady. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. In which Miss Fotheringay makes a new Engagement + + +Within a short period of the events above narrated, Mr. Manager Bingley +was performing his famous character of 'Rolla,' in 'Pizarro,' to a house +so exceedingly thin, that it would appear as if the part of Rolla was +by no means such a favourite with the people of Chatteris as it was with +the accomplished actor himself. Scarce anybody was in the theatre. Poor +Pen had the boxes almost all to himself, and sate there lonely, with +bloodshot eyes, leaning over the ledge, and gazing haggardly towards the +scene, when Cora came in. When she was not on the stage he saw nothing. +Spaniards and Peruvians, processions and battles, priests and virgins of +the sun, went in and out, and had their talk, but Arthur took no note +of any of them; and only saw Cora whom his soul longed after. He said +afterwards that he wondered he had not taken a pistol to shoot her, so +mad was he with love, and rage, and despair; and had it not been for his +mother at home, to whom he did not speak about his luckless condition, +but whose silent sympathy and watchfulness greatly comforted the simple +half heart-broken fellow, who knows but he might have done something +desperate, and have ended his days prematurely in front of Chatteris +gaol? There he sate then, miserable, and gazing at her. And she took no +more notice of him than he did of the rest of the house. + +The Fotheringay was uncommonly handsome, in a white raiment and leopard +skin, with a sun upon her breast, and fine tawdry bracelets on her +beautiful glancing arms. She spouted to admiration the few words of her +part, and looked it still better. The eyes, which had overthrown Pen's +soul, rolled and gleamed as lustrous as ever; but it was not to him +that they were directed that night. He did not know to whom, or remark +a couple of gentlemen, in the box next to him, upon whom Miss +Fotheringay's glances were perpetually shining. + +Nor had Pen noticed the extraordinary change which had taken place on +the stage a short time after the entry of these two gentlemen into the +theatre. There were so few people in the house, that the first act +of the play languished entirely, and there had been some question of +returning the money, as upon that other unfortunate night when poor Pen +had been driven away. The actors were perfectly careless about their +parts, and yawned through the dialogue, and talked loud to each other +in the intervals. Even Bingley was listless, and Mrs. B. in Elvira spoke +under her breath. + +How came it that all of a sudden Mrs. Bingley began to raise her voice +and bellow like a bull of Bashan? Whence was it that Bingley, flinging +off his apathy, darted about the stage and yelled like Dean? Why did +Garbetts and Rowkins and Miss Rouncy try, each of them, the force of +their charms or graces, and act and swagger and scowl and spout their +very loudest at the two gentlemen in box No. 3? + +One was a quiet little man in black, with a grey head and a jolly +shrewd face--the other was in all respects a splendid and remarkable +individual. He was a tall and portly gentleman with a hooked nose and a +profusion of curling brown hair and whiskers; his coat was covered with +the richest frogs-braiding and velvet. He had under-waistcoats, many +splendid rings, jewelled pins and neck-chains. When he took out his +yellow pocket-handkerchief with his hand that was cased in white kids, +a delightful odour of musk and bergamot was shaken through the house. +He was evidently a personage of rank, and it was at him that the little +Chatteris company was acting. + +He was, in a word, no other than Mr. Dolphin, the great manager from +London, accompanied by his faithful friend and secretary Mr. William +Minns: without whom he never travelled. He had not been ten minutes in +the theatre before his august presence there was perceived by Bingley +and the rest: and they all began to act their best and try to engage his +attention. Even Miss Fotheringay's dull heart, which was disturbed at +nothing, felt perhaps a flutter, when she came in presence of the famous +London Impresario. She had not much to do in her part, but to look +handsome, and stand in picturesque attitudes encircling her child and +she did this work to admiration. In vain the various actors tried to win +the favour of the great stage Sultan. Pizarro never got a hand from him. +Bingley yelled, and Mrs. Bingley bellowed, and the Manager only took +snuff out of his great gold box. It was only in the last scene, when +Rolla comes in staggering with the infant (Bingley is not so strong +as he was and his fourth son Master Talma Bingley is a monstrous large +child for his age)--when Rolla comes staggering with the child to Cora, +who rushes forward with a shriek, and says--"O God, there's blood upon +him!"--that the London manager clapped his hands, and broke out with an +enthusiastic bravo. + +Then having concluded his applause, Mr. Dolphin gave his secretary a +slap on the shoulder, and said, "By Jove, Billy, she'll do!" + +"Who taught her that dodge?" said old Billy, who was a sardonic old +gentleman. "I remember her at the Olympic, and hang me if she could say +Bo to a goose." + +It was little Mr. Bows in the orchestra who had taught her the 'dodge' +in question. All the company heard the applause, and, as the curtain +went down, came round her and congratulated and hated Miss Fotheringay. + +Now Mr. Dolphin's appearance in the remote little Chatteris theatre may +be accounted for in this manner. In spite of all his exertions, and the +perpetual blazes of triumph, coruscations of talent, victories of good +old English comedy, which his play-bills advertised, his theatre (which, +if you please, and to injure no present susceptibilities and vested +interests, we shall call the Museum Theatre) by no means prospered, +and the famous Impresario found himself on the verge of ruin. The great +Hubbard had acted legitimate drama for twenty nights, and failed to +remunerate anybody but himself: the celebrated Mr. and Mrs. Cawdor +had come out in Mr. Rawhead's tragedy, and in their favourite round +of pieces, and had not attracted the public. Herr Garbage's lions and +tigers had drawn for a little time, until one of the animals had +bitten a piece out of the Herr's shoulder; when the Lord Chamberlain +interfered, and put a stop to this species of performance: and the grand +Lyrical Drama, though brought out with unexampled splendour and success, +with Monsieur Poumons as first tenor, and an enormous orchestra, had +almost crushed poor Dolphin in its triumphant progress: so that great +as his genius and resources were, they seemed to be at an end. He was +dragging on his season wretchedly with half salaries, small operas, +feeble old comedies, and his ballet company; and everybody was looking +out for the day when he should appear in the Gazette. + +One of the illustrious patrons of the Museum Theatre, and occupant of +the great proscenium-box, was a gentleman whose name has been mentioned +in a previous history; that refined patron of the arts, and enlightened +lover of music and the drama, the Most Noble the Marquis of Steyne. His +lordship's avocations as a statesman prevented him from attending the +playhouse very often, or coming very early. But he occasionally appeared +at the theatre in time for the ballet, and was always received with the +greatest respect by the Manager, from whom he sometimes condescended +to receive a visit in his box. It communicated with the stage, and when +anything occurred there which particularly pleased him, when a new face +made its appearance among the coryphees, or a fair dancer executed a +pas with especial grace or agility, Mr. Wenham, Mr. Wagg, or some other +aide-de-camp of the noble Marquis, would be commissioned to go behind +the scenes, and express the great man's approbation, or make the +inquiries which were prompted by his lordship's curiosity, or his +interest in the dramatic art. He could not be seen by the audience, for +Lord Steyne sate modestly behind a curtain, and looked only towards the +stage--but you could know he was in the house, by the glances which all +the corps-de-ballet, and all the principal dancers, cast towards his +box. I have seen many scores of pairs of eyes (as in the Palm Dance in +the ballet of Cook at Otaheite, where no less than a hundred-and-twenty +lovely female savages in palm leaves and feather aprons, were made to +dance round Floridor as Captain Cook) ogling that box as they performed +before it, and have often wondered to remark the presence of mind of +Mademoiselle Sauterelle, or Mademoiselle de Bondi (known as la petite +Caoutchoue), who, when actually up in the air quivering like so many +shuttlecocks, always kept their lovely eyes winking at that box in which +the great Steyne sate. Now and then you would hear a harsh voice from +behind the curtain cry, "Brava, Brava," or a pair of white gloves wave +from it, and begin to applaud. Bondi, or Sauterelle, when they came down +to earth, curtsied and smiled, especially to those hands, before they +walked up the stage again, panting and happy. + +One night this great Prince surrounded by a few choice friends was in +his box at the Museum, and they were making such a noise and laughter +that the pit was scandalised, and many indignant voices were bawling out +silence so loudly, that Wagg wondered the police did not interfere +to take the rascals out. Wenham was amusing the party in the box +with extracts from a private letter which he had received from Major +Pendennis, whose absence in the country at the full London season had +been remarked, and of course deplored by his friends. + +"The secret is out," said Mr. Wenham, "there's a woman in the case." + +"Why, d---- it, Wenham, he's your age," said the gentleman behind the +curtain. + +"Pour les ames bien nees, l'amour ne compte pas le nombre des annees," +said Mr. Wenham, with a gallant air. "For my part, I hope to be a victim +till I die, and to break my heart every year of my life." The meaning of +which sentence was, "My lord, you need not talk; I'm three years younger +than you, and twice as well conserve." + +"Wenham, you affect me," said the great man, with one of his usual +oaths. "By ---- you do. I like to see a fellow preserving all the +illusions of youth up to our time of life--and keeping his heart warm +as yours is. Hang it, sir, it's a comfort to meet with such a generous, +candid creature.--Who's that gal in the second row, with blue ribbons, +third from the stage--fine gal. Yes, you and I are sentimentalists. Wagg +I don't think so much cares--it's the stomach rather more than the heart +with you, eh, Wagg, my boy?" + +"I like everything that's good," said Mr. Wagg, generously. "Beauty and +Burgundy, Venus and Venison. I don't say that Venus's turtles are to be +despised, because they don't cook them at the London Tavern: but--but +tell us about old Pendennis, Mr. Wenham," he abruptly concluded--for his +joke flagged just then, as he saw that his patron was not listening. In +fact, Steyne's glasses were up, and he was examining some object on the +stage. + +"Yes, I've heard that joke about Venus's turtle and the London Tavern +before--you begin to fail, my poor Wagg. If you don't mind I shall be +obliged to have a new Jester," Lord Steyne said, laying down his glass. +"Go on, Wenham, about old Pendennis." + +"Dear Wenham,"--he begins, Mr. Wenham read,--"as you have had my +character in your hands for the last three weeks, and no doubt have torn +me to shreds, according to your custom, I think you can afford to +be good-humoured by way of variety, and to do me a service. It is a +delicate matter, entre nous, une affaire de coeur. There is a young +friend of mine who is gone wild about a certain Miss Fotheringay, an +actress at the theatre here, and I must own to you, as handsome a woman, +and, as it appears to me, as good an actress as ever put on rouge. She +does Ophelia, Lady Teazle, Mrs. Haller--that sort of thing. Upon my +word, she is as splendid as Georges in her best days, and as far as I +know, utterly superior to anything we have on our scene. I want a London +engagement for her. Can't you get your friend Dolphin to come and see +her--to engage her--to take her out of this place? A word from a noble +friend of ours (you understand) would be invaluable, and if you could +get the Gaunt House interest for me--I will promise anything I can in +return for your service--which I shall consider one of the greatest that +can be done to me. Do, do this now as a good fellow, which I always said +you were: and in return, command yours truly, A. Pendennis." + +"It's a clear case," said Mr. Wenham, having read this letter; "old +Pendennis is in love." + +"And wants to get the woman up to London--evidently," continued Mr. +Wagg. + +"I should like to see Pendennis on his knees, with the rheumatism," said +Mr. Wenham. + +"Or accommodating the beloved object with a lock of his hair," said +Wagg. + +"Stuff." said the great man. "He has relations in the country, hasn't +he? He said something about a nephew, whose interest could return a +member. It is the nephew's affair, depend on it. The young one is in +a scrape. I was myself--when I was in the fifth form at Eton--a +market-gardener's daughter--and swore I'd marry her. I was mad about +her--poor Polly!"--here he made a pause, and perhaps the past rose up to +Lord Steyne, and George Gaunt was a boy again not altogether lost.--"But +I say, she must be a fine woman from Pendennis's account. Have in +Dolphin, and let us hear if he knows anything of her." + +At this Wenham sprang out of the box, passed the servitor who waited at +the door communicating with the stage, and who saluted Mr. Wenham with +profound respect; and the latter emissary, pushing on and familiar +with the place, had no difficulty in finding out the manager, who was +employed, as he not unfrequently was, in swearing and cursing the ladies +of the corps-de-ballet for not doing their duty. + +The oaths died away on Mr. Dolphin's lips, as soon as he saw Mr. Wenham; +and he drew off the hand which was clenched in the face of one of +the offending coryphees, to grasp that of the new-comer. "How do, Mr. +Wenham? How's his lordship to-night? Looks uncommonly well," said the +manager smiling, as if he had never been out of temper in his life; and +he was only too delighted to follow Lord Steyne's ambassador, and pay +his personal respects to that great man. + +The visit to Chatteris was the result of their conversation: and Mr. +Dolphin wrote to his lordship from that place, and did himself the +honour to inform the Marquess of Steyne, that he had seen the lady about +whom his lordship had spoken, that he was as much struck by her talents +as he was by her personal appearance, and that he had made an engagement +with Miss Fotheringay, who would soon have the honour of appearing +before a London audience, and his noble and enlightened patron the +Marquess of Steyne. + +Pen read the announcement of Miss Fotheringay's engagement in the +Chatteris paper, where he had so often praised her charms. The Editor +made very handsome mention of her talent and beauty, and prophesied her +success in the metropolis. Bingley, the manager, began to advertise "The +last night of Miss Fotheringay's engagement." Poor Pen and Sir Derby +Oaks were very constant at the play: Sir Derby in the stage-box, +throwing bouquets and getting glances.--Pen in the almost deserted +boxes, haggard, wretched and lonely. Nobody cared whether Miss +Fotheringay was going or staying except those two--and perhaps one more, +which was Mr. Bows of the orchestra. + +He came out of his place one night, and went into the house to the box +where Pen was; and he held out his hand to him, and asked him to come +and walk. They walked down the street together; and went and sate upon +Chatteris bridge in the moonlight, and talked about Her. "We may sit +on the same bridge," said he; "we have been in the same boat for a long +time. You are not the only man who has made a fool of himself about that +woman. And I have less excuse than you, because I am older and know her +better. She has no more heart than the stone you are leaning on; and it +or you or I might fall into the water, and never come up again, and she +wouldn't care. Yes--she would care for me, because she wants me to teach +her: and she won't be able to get on without me, and will be forced to +send for me from London. But she wouldn't if she didn't want me. She has +no heart and no head, and no sense, and no feelings, and no griefs or +cares, whatever. I was going to say no pleasures--but the fact is, she +does like her dinner, and she is pleased when people admire her." + +"And you do?" said Pen, interested out of himself, and wondering at the +crabbed homely little old man. + +"It's a habit, like taking snuff, or drinking drams," said the other. +"I've been taking her these five years, and can't do without her. It was +I made her. If she doesn't send for me, I shall follow her: but I know +she'll send for me. She wants me. Some day she'll marry, and fling me +over, as I do the end of this cigar." + +The little flaming spark dropped into the water below, and disappeared; +and Pen, as he rode home that night, actually thought about somebody but +himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. The happy Village + + +Until the enemy had retired altogether from before the place, Major +Pendennis was resolved to keep his garrison in Fairoaks. He did not +appear to watch Pen's behaviour or to put any restraint on his nephew's +actions, but he managed nevertheless to keep the lad constantly under +his eye or those of his agents, and young Arthur's comings and goings +were quite well known to his vigilant guardian. + +I suppose there is scarcely any man who reads this or any other novel +but has been baulked in love some time or the other, by fate and +circumstance, by falsehood of women, or his own fault. Let that worthy +friend recall his own sensations under the circumstances, and apply +them as illustrative of Mr. Pen's anguish. Ah! what weary nights and +sickening fevers! Ah! what mad desires dashing up against some rock +of obstruction or indifference, and flung back again from the +unimpressionable granite! If a list could be made this very night in +London of the groans, thoughts, imprecations of tossing lovers, what a +catalogue it would be! I wonder what a percentage of the male population +of the metropolis will be lying awake at two or three o'clock to-morrow +morning, counting the hours as they go by knelling drearily, and rolling +from left to right, restless, yearning and heart-sick? What a pang +it is! I never knew a man die of love certainly, but I have known +a twelve-stone man go down to nine-stone five under a disappointed +passion, so that pretty nearly quarter of him may be said to have +perished: and that is no small portion. He has come back to his old +size subsequently; perhaps is bigger than ever: very likely some new +affection has closed round his heart and ribs and made them comfortable, +and young Pen is a man who will console himself like the rest of us. We +say this lest the ladies should be disposed to deplore him prematurely, +or be seriously uneasy with regard to his complaint. His mother was, but +what will not a maternal fondness fear or invent? "Depend on it, my dear +creature," Major Pendennis would say gallantly to her, "the boy will +recover. As soon as we get her out of the country we will take him +somewhere, and show him a little life. Meantime make yourself easy about +him. Half a fellow's pangs at losing a woman result from vanity more +than affection. To be left by a woman is the deuce and all, to be sure; +but look how easily we leave 'em." + +Mrs. Pendennis did not know. This sort of knowledge had by no means come +within the simple lady's scope. Indeed she did not like the subject or +to talk of it: her heart had had its own little private misadventure and +she had borne up against it and cured it: and perhaps she had not much +patience with other folk's passions, except, of course, Arthur's, whose +sufferings she made her own, feeling indeed very likely in many of the +boy's illnesses and pains a great deal more than Pen himself endured. +And she watched him through this present grief with a jealous silent +sympathy; although, as we have said, he did not talk to her of his +unfortunate condition. + +The Major must be allowed to have had not a little merit and +forbearance, and to have exhibited a highly creditable degree of family +affection. The life at Fairoaks was uncommonly dull to a man who had the +entree of half the houses in London, and was in the habit of making +his bow in three or four drawing-rooms of a night. A dinner with Doctor +Portman or a neighbouring Squire now and then; a dreary rubber at +backgammon with the widow, who did her utmost to amuse him; these were +the chief of his pleasures. He used to long for the arrival of the +bag with the letters, and he read every word of the evening paper. He +doctored himself too, assiduously,--a course of quiet living would suit +him well, he thought, after the London banquets. He dressed himself +laboriously every morning and afternoon: he took regular exercise up +and down the terrace walk. Thus with his cane, his toilet, his +medicine-chest, his backgammon-box, and his newspaper, this worthy and +worldly philosopher fenced himself against ennui; and if he did not +improve each shining hour, like the bees by the widow's garden wall, +Major Pendennis made one hour after another pass as he could, and +rendered his captivity just tolerable. After this period it was remarked +that he was fond of bringing round the conversation to the American war, +the massacre of Wyoming and the brilliant actions of Saint Lucie, the +fact being that he had a couple of volumes of the 'Annual Register' in +his bedroom, which he sedulously studied. It is thus a well-regulated +man will accommodate himself to circumstances, and show himself calmly +superior to fortune. + +Pen sometimes took the box at backgammon of a night, or would listen to +his mother's simple music of summer evenings--but he was very restless +and wretched in spite of all: and has been known to be up before the +early daylight even; and down at a carp-pond in Clavering Park, a +dreary pool with innumerable whispering rushes and green alders, where +a milkmaid drowned herself in the Baronet's grandfather's time, and her +ghost was said to walk still. But Pen did not drown himself, as perhaps +his mother fancied might be his intention. He liked to go and fish +there, and think and think at leisure, as the float quivered in the +little eddies of the pond, and the fish flapped about him. If he got a +bite he was excited enough: and in this way occasionally brought home +carps, tenches, and eels, which the Major cooked in the Continental +fashion. + +By this pond, and under a tree, which was his favourite resort, Pen +composed a number of poems suitable to his circumstances over which +verses he blushed in after days, wondering how he could ever have +invented such rubbish. And as for the tree, why it is in a hollow of +this very tree, where he used to put his tin-box of ground-bait, and +other fishing commodities, that he afterwards--but we are advancing +matters. Suffice it to say, he wrote poems and relieved himself very +much. When a man's grief or passion is at this point, it may be loud, +but it is not very severe. When a gentleman is cudgelling his brain to +find any rhyme for sorrow, besides borrow and to-morrow, his woes are +nearer at an end than he thinks for. So were Pen's. He had his hot +and cold fits, his days of sullenness and peevishness, and of blank +resignation and despondency, and occasional mad paroxysms of rage and +longing, in which fits Rebecca would be saddled and galloped fiercely +about the country, or into Chatteris, her rider gesticulating wildly on +her back, and astonishing carters and turnpikemen as he passed, crying +out the name of the false one. + +Mr. Foker became a very frequent and welcome visitor at Fairoaks during +this period, where his good spirits and oddities always amused the Major +and Pendennis, while they astonished the widow and little Laura not a +little. His tandem made a great sensation in Clavering market-place; +where he upset a market stall, and cut Mrs. Pybus's poodle over the +shaven quarters, and drank a glass of raspberry bitters at the Clavering +Arms. All the society in the little place heard who he was, and looked +out his name in their Peerages. He was so young, and their books so old, +that his name did not appear in many of their volumes; and his mamma, +now quite an antiquated lady, figured amongst the progeny of the Earl +of Rosherville, as Lady Agnes Milton still. But his name, wealth, and +honourable lineage were speedily known about Clavering, where you may be +sure that poor Pen's little transaction with the Chatteris actress was +also pretty freely discussed. + +Looking at the little old town of Clavering St. Mary from the London +road as it runs by the lodge at Fairoaks, and seeing the rapid and +shining Brawl winding down from the town and skirting the woods of +Clavering Park, and the ancient church tower and peaked roofs of the +houses rising up amongst trees and old walls, behind which swells a +fair background of sunshiny hills that stretch from Clavering westwards +towards the sea--the place looks so cheery and comfortable that many a +traveller's heart must have yearned towards it from the coach-top, and +he must have thought that it was in such a calm friendly nook he would +like to shelter at the end of life's struggle. Tom Smith, who used to +drive the Alacrity coach, would often point to a tree near the river, +from which a fine view of the church and town was commanded, and inform +his companion on the box that "Artises come and take hoff the Church +from that there tree--It was a Habby once, sir:"--and indeed a pretty +view it is, which I recommend to Mr. Stanfield or Mr. Roberts, for their +next tour. + +Like Constantinople seen from the Bosphorus; like Mrs. Rougemont viewed +in her box from the opposite side of the house; like many an object +which we pursue in life, and admire before we have attained it; +Clavering is rather prettier at a distance than it is on a closer +acquaintance. The town so cheerful of aspect a few furlongs off, looks +very blank and dreary. Except on market days there is nobody in the +streets. The clack of a pair of pattens echoes through half the place, +and you may hear the creaking of the rusty old ensign at the Clavering +Arms, without being disturbed by any other noise. There has not been a +ball in the Assembly Rooms since the Clavering volunteers gave one to +their Colonel, the old Sir Francis Clavering; and the stables which +once held a great part of that brilliant, but defunct regiment, are now +cheerless and empty, except on Thursdays, when the farmers put up there, +and their tilted carts and gigs make a feeble show of liveliness in the +place, or on Petty Sessions, when the magistrates attend in what used to +be the old card-room. + +On the south side of the market rises up the church, with its great grey +towers, of which the sun illuminates the delicate carving; deepening the +shadows of the huge buttresses, and gilding the glittering windows and +flaming vanes. The image of the Patroness of the Church was wrenched out +of the porch centuries ago: such of the statues of saints as were within +reach of stones and hammer at that period of pious demolition, are +maimed and headless, and of those who were out of fire, only Doctor +Portman knows the names and history, for his curate, Smirke, is not +much of an antiquarian, and Mr. Simcoe (husband of the Honourable Mrs. +Simcoe), incumbent and architect of the Chapel of Ease in the lower +town, thinks them the abomination of desolation. + +The Rectory is a stout broad-shouldered brick house, of the reign of +Anne. It communicates with the church and market by different gates, and +stands at the opening of Yew-tree Lane, where the Grammar School +(Rev. ---- Wapshot) is; Yew-tree Cottage (Miss Flather); the butchers' +slaughtering-house, an old barn or brew-house of the Abbey times, and +the Misses Finucane's establishment for young ladies. The two schools +had their pews in the loft on each side of the organ, until the +Abbey Church getting rather empty, through the falling-off of the +congregation, who were inveigled to the Heresy-shop in the lower town, +the Doctor induced the Misses Finucane to bring their pretty little +flock downstairs; and the young ladies' bonnets make a tolerable show +in the rather vacant aisles. Nobody is in the great pew of the Clavering +family, except the statues of defunct baronets and their ladies: there +is Sir Poyntz Clavering, Knight and Baronet, kneeling in a square +beard opposite his wife in a ruff: a very fat lady, the Dame Rebecca +Clavering, in alto-relievo, is borne up to Heaven by two little +blue-veined angels, who seem to have a severe task--and so forth. How +well in after life Pen remembered those effigies, and how often in youth +he scanned them as the Doctor was grumbling the sermon from the +pulpit, and Smirke's mild head and forehead curl peered over the great +prayer-book in the desk! + +The Fairoaks folks were constant at the old church; their servants had +a pew, so had the Doctor's, so had Wapshot's, and those of Misses +Finucane's establishment, three maids and a very nice-looking young man +in a livery. The Wapshot Family were numerous and faithful. Glanders and +his children regularly came to church: so did one of the apothecaries. +Mrs. Pybus went, turn and turn about, to the Low Town church, and to the +Abbey: the Charity School and their families of course came; Wapshot's +boys made a good cheerful noise, scuffling with their feet as they +marched into church and up the organ-loft stair, and blowing their noses +a good deal during the service. To be brief, the congregation looked as +decent as might be in these bad times. The Abbey Church was furnished +with a magnificent screen, and many hatchments and heraldic tombstones. +The Doctor spent a great part of his income in beautifying his darling +place; he had endowed it with a superb painted window, bought in the +Netherlands, and an organ grand enough for a cathedral. + +But in spite of organ and window, in consequence of the latter very +likely, which had come out of a Papistical place of worship and +was blazoned all over with idolatry, Clavering New Church prospered +scandalously in the teeth of Orthodoxy; and many of the Doctor's +congregation deserted to Mr. Simcoe and the honourable woman his wife. +Their efforts had thinned the very Ebenezer hard by them, which building +before Simcoe's advent used to be so full, that you could see the backs +of the congregation squeezing out of the arched windows thereof. Mr. +Simcoe's tracts fluttered into the doors of all the Doctor's cottages, +and were taken as greedily as honest Mrs. Portman's soup, with the +quality of which the graceless people found fault. With the folks at the +Ribbon Factory situated by the weir on the Brawl side, and round which +the Low Town had grown, Orthodoxy could make no way at all. Quiet +Miss Myra was put out of court by impetuous Mrs. Simcoe and her female +aides-de-camp. Ah, it was a hard burthen for the Doctor's lady to +bear, to behold her husband's congregation dwindling away; to give +the precedence on the few occasions when they met to a notorious +low-churchman's wife who was the daughter of an Irish Peer; to know that +there was a party in Clavering, their own town of Clavering, on which +her Doctor spent a great deal more than his professional income, who +held him up to odium because he played a rubber at whist; and pronounced +him to be a Heathen because he went to the play. In her grief she +besought him to give up the play and the rubber,--indeed they could +scarcely get a table now, so dreadful was the outcry against the +sport,--but the Doctor declared that he would do what he thought right, +and what the great and good George the Third did (whose Chaplain he had +been): and as for giving up whist because those silly folks cried out +against it, he would play dummy to the end of his days with his wife and +Myra, rather than yield to their despicable persecutions. + +Of the two families, owners of the Factory (which had spoiled the Brawl +as a trout-stream and brought all the mischief into the town), the +senior partner, Mr. Rolt, went to Ebenezer; the junior, Mr. Barker, +to the New Church. In a word, people quarrelled in this little place +a great deal more than neighbours do in London; and in the Book Club, +which the prudent and conciliating Pendennis had set up, and which ought +to have been a neutral territory, they bickered so much that nobody +scarcely was ever seen in the reading-room, except Smirke, who, though +he kept up a faint amity with the Simcoe faction, had still a taste for +magazines and light worldly literature; and old Glanders, whose white +head and grizzly moustache might be seen at the window; and of course, +little Mrs. Pybus, who looked at everybody's letters as the Post brought +them (for the Clavering Reading-room, as every one knows, used to be +held at Baker's Library, London Street, formerly Hog Lane), and read +every advertisement in the paper. + +It may be imagined how great a sensation was created in this amiable +little community when the news reached it of Mr. Pen's love-passages at +Chatteris. It was carried from house to house, and formed the subject of +talk at high-church, low-church, and no-church tables; it was canvassed +by the Misses Finucane and their teachers, and very likely debated by +the young ladies in the dormitories for what we know; Wapshot's big boys +had their version of the story, and eyed Pen curiously as he sate in his +pew at church, or raised the finger of scorn at him as he passed through +Chatteris. They always hated him and called him Lord Pendennis, because +he did not wear corduroys as they did, and rode a horse, and gave +himself the airs of a buck. + +And if the truth must be told, it was Mrs. Portman herself who was the +chief narrator of the story of Pen's loves. Whatever tales this candid +woman heard, she was sure to impart them to her neighbours; and after +she had been put into possession of Pen's secret by the little scandal +at Chatteris, poor Doctor Portman knew that it would next day be about +the parish of which he was the Rector. And so indeed it was; the whole +society there had the legend--at the news-room, at the milliner's, at +the shoe-shop, and the general warehouse at the corner of the market; at +Mrs. Pybus's, at the Glanders's, at the Honourable Mrs. Simcoe's soiree, +at the Factory; nay, through the mill itself the tale was current in a +few hours, and young Arthur Pendennis's madness was in every mouth. + +All Dr. Portman's acquaintances barked out upon him when he walked the +street the next day. The poor divine knew that his Betsy was the author +of the rumour, and groaned in spirit. Well, well,--it must have come +in a day or two, and it was as well that the town should have the real +story. What the Clavering folks thought of Mrs. Pendennis for spoiling +her son, and of that precocious young rascal of an Arthur for daring +to propose to a play-actress, need not be told here. If pride exists +amongst any folks in our country, and assuredly we have enough of it, +there is no pride more deep-seated than that of twopenny old gentlewomen +in small towns. "Gracious goodness," the cry was, "how infatuated the +mother is about that pert and headstrong boy who gives himself the +airs of a lord on his blood-horse, and for whom our society is not good +enough, and who would marry an odious painted actress off a booth, where +very likely he wants to rant himself. If dear good Mr. Pendennis had +been alive this scandal would never have happened." + +No more it would, very likely, nor should we have been occupied in +narrating Pen's history. It was true that he gave himself airs to the +Clavering folks. Naturally haughty and frank, their cackle and small +talk and small dignities bored him, and he showed a contempt which he +could not conceal. The Doctor and the Curate were the only people Pen +cared for in the place--even Mrs. Portman shared in the general distrust +of him, and of his mother, the widow, who kept herself aloof from the +village society, and was sneered at accordingly, because she tried, +forsooth, to keep her head up with the great County families. She, +indeed! Mrs. Barker at the Factory has four times the butcher's meat +that goes up to Fairoaks, with all their fine airs. + +Etc. etc. etc.: let the reader fill up these details according to his +liking and experience of village scandal. They will suffice to show +how it was that a good woman occupied solely in doing her duty to her +neighbour and her children, and an honest, brave lad, impetuous, and +full of good, and wishing well to every mortal alive found enemies and +detractors amongst people to whom they were superior, and to whom they +had never done anything like harm. The Clavering curs were yelping all +round the house of Fairoaks, and delighted to pull Pen down. + +Doctor Portman and Smirke were both cautious of informing the widow of +the constant outbreak of calumny which was pursuing poor Pen, though +Glanders, who was a friend of the house, kept him au courant. It may be +imagined what his indignation was: was there any man in the village +whom he could call to account? Presently some wags began to chalk +up 'Fotheringay for ever!' and other sarcastic allusions to late +transactions, at Fairoaks' gate. Another brought a large playbill from +Chatteris, and wafered it there one night. On one occasion Pen, riding +through the Lower Town, fancied he heard the Factory boys jeer him; and +finally going through the Doctor's gate into the churchyard, where some +of Wapshot's boys were lounging, the biggest of them, a young gentleman +about twenty years of age, son of a neighbouring small Squire, who lived +in the doubtful capacity of parlour-boarder with Mr. Wapshot, flung +himself into a theatrical attitude near a newly-made grave, and began +repeating Hamlet's verses over Ophelia, with a hideous leer at Pen. +The young fellow was so enraged that he rushed at Hobnell Major with a +shriek very much resembling an oath, cut him furiously across the face +with the riding-whip which he carried, flung it away, calling upon the +cowardly villain to defend himself, and in another minute knocked the +bewildered young ruffian into the grave which was just waiting for a +different lodger. + +Then with his fists clenched, and his face quivering with passion and +indignation, he roared out to Mr. Hobnell's gaping companions, to know +if any of the blackguards would come on? But they held back with a +growl, and retreated as Doctor Portman came up to his wicket, and Mr. +Hobnell, with his nose and lip bleeding piteously, emerged from the +grave. + +Pen, looking death and defiance at the lads, who retreated toward +their side of the churchyard, walked back again through the Doctor's +wicket, and was interrogated by that gentleman. The young fellow was +so agitated he could scarcely speak. His voice broke into a sob as he +answered. "The ------ coward insulted me, sir," he said; and the Doctor +passed over the oath, and respected the emotion of the honest suffering +young heart. + +Pendennis the elder, who like a real man of the world had a proper and +constant dread of the opinion of his neighbour, was prodigiously annoyed +by the absurd little tempest which was blowing in Chatteris, and tossing +about Master Pen's reputation. Doctor Portman and Captain Glanders had +to support the charges of the whole Chatteris society against the young +reprobate, who was looked upon as a monster of crime. Pen did not +say anything about the churchyard scuffle at home; but went over to +Baymouth, and took counsel with his friend Harry Foker, Esq., who drove +over his drag presently to the Clavering Arms, whence he sent Stoopid +with a note to Thomas Hobnell, Esq., at the Rev. J. Wapshot's, and a +civil message to ask when he should wait upon that gentleman. + +Stoopid brought back word that the note had been opened by Mr. Hobnell, +and read to half a dozen of the big boys, on whom it seemed to make a +great impression; and that after consulting together, and laughing, Mr. +Hobnell said he would send an answer "arter arternoon school, which the +bell was a-ringing: and Mr. Wapshot he came out in his Master's gownd." +Stoopid was learned in academical costume, having attended Mr. Foker at +St. Boniface. + +Mr. Foker went out to see the curiosities of Clavering meanwhile; but +not having a taste for architecture, Doctor Portman's fine church did +not engage his attention much and he pronounced the tower to be as +mouldy as an old Stilton cheese. He walked down the street and looked +at the few shops there; he saw Captain Glanders at the window of the +Reading-room, and having taken a good stare at that gentleman, he wagged +his head at him in token of satisfaction; he inquired the price of meat +at the butcher's with an air of the greatest interest, and asked "when +was next killing day?" he flattened his little nose against Madame +Fribsby's window to see if haply there was a pretty workwoman in her +premises; but there was no face more comely than the doll's or dummy's +wearing the French cap in the window, only that of Madame Fribsby +herself, dimly visible in the parlour, reading a novel. That object was +not of sufficient interest to keep Mr. Foker very long in contemplation, +and so having exhausted the town and the inn stables, in which there +were no cattle, save the single old pair of posters that earned a scanty +livelihood by transporting the gentry round about to the county dinners, +Mr. Foker was giving himself up to ennui entirely, when a messenger from +Mr. Hobnell was at length announced. + +It was no other than Mr. Wapshot himself, who came with an air of great +indignation, and holding Pen's missive in his hand, asked Mr. Foker "how +dared he bring such an unchristian message as a challenge to a boy of +his school?" + +In fact Pen had written a note to his adversary of the day before, +telling him that if after the chastisement which his insolence richly +deserved, he felt inclined to ask the reparation which was usually given +amongst gentlemen, Mr. Arthur Pendennis's friend, Mr. Henry Foker, was +empowered to make any arrangements for the satisfaction of Mr. Hobnell. + +"And so he sent you with the answer--did he, sir?" Mr. Foker said, +surveying the Schoolmaster in his black coat and clerical costume. + +"If he had accepted this wicked challenge, I should have flogged him," +Mr. Wapshot said, and gave Mr. Foker a glance which seemed to say, "and +I should like very much to flog you too." + +"Uncommon kind of you, sir, I'm sure," said Pen's emissary. "I told my +principal that I didn't think the other man would fight," he continued +with a great air of dignity. "He prefers being flogged to fighting, +sir, I dare say. May I offer you any refreshment, Mr.? I haven't the +advantage of your name." + +"My name is Wapshot, sir, and I am Master of the Grammar School of this +town, sir," cried the other: "and I want no refreshment, sir, I thank +you, and have no desire to make your acquaintance, sir." + +"I didn't seek yours, sir, I'm sure," replied Mr. Foker. "In affairs +of this sort, you see, I think it is a pity that the clergy should be +called in, but there's no accounting for tastes, sir." + +"I think it's a pity that boys should talk about committing murder, sir, +as lightly as you do," roared the Schoolmaster; "and if I had you in my +school----" + +"I dare say you would teach me better, sir," Mr. Foker said, with a bow. +"Thank you, sir. I've finished my education, sir, and ain't a-going back +to school, sir--when I do, I'll remember your kind offer, sir. John, +show this gentleman downstairs--and, of course, as Mr. Hobnell likes +being thrashed, we can have no objection, sir, and we shall be very +happy to accommodate him, whenever he comes our way." + +And with this, the young fellow bowed the elder gentleman out of the +room, and sate down and wrote a note off to Pen, in which he informed +the latter that Mr. Hobnell was not disposed to fight, and proposed to +put up with the caning which Pen had administered to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. More Storms in the Puddle + + +Pen's conduct in this business of course was soon made public, and +angered his friend Doctor Portman not a little: while it only amused +Major Pendennis. As for the good Mrs. Pendennis, she was almost +distracted when she heard of the squabble, and of Pen's unchristian +behaviour. All sorts of wretchedness, discomfort, crime, annoyance, +seemed to come out of this transaction in which the luckless boy had +engaged; and she longed more than ever to see him out of Chatteris for a +while,--anywhere removed from the woman who had brought him into so much +trouble. + +Pen, when remonstrated with by this fond parent, and angrily rebuked by +the Doctor for his violence and ferocious intentions, took the matter au +grand serieux, with the happy conceit and gravity of youth: said that he +himself was very sorry for the affair, that the insult had come upon him +without the slightest provocation on his part; that he would permit no +man to insult him upon this head without vindicating his own honour, and +appealing with great dignity to his uncle, asked whether he could have +acted otherwise as a gentleman, than as he did in resenting the outrage +offered to him, and in offering satisfaction to the person chastised? + +"Vous allez trop vite, my good sir," said the uncle, rather puzzled, for +he had been indoctrinating his nephew with some of his own notions upon +the point of honour--old-world notions savouring of the camp and pistol +a great deal more than our soberer opinions of the present day--"between +men of the world I don't say; but between two schoolboys, this sort of +thing is ridiculous, my dear boy--perfectly ridiculous." + +"It is extremely wicked, and unlike my son," said Mrs. Pendennis, with +tears in her eyes, and bewildered with the obstinacy of the boy. + +Pen kissed her, and said with great pomposity, "Women, dear mother, +don't understand these matters--I put myself into Foker's hands--I had +no other course to pursue." + +Major Pendennis grinned and shrugged his shoulders. The young ones were +certainly making great progress, he thought. Mrs. Pendennis declared +that that Foker was a wicked horrid little wretch, and was sure that he +would lead her dear boy into mischief, if Pen went to the same College +with him. "I have a great mind not to let him go at all," she said: and +only that she remembered that the lad's father had always destined him +for the College in which he had had his own brief education, very likely +the fond mother would have put a veto upon his going to the University. + +That he was to go, and at the next October term, had been arranged +between all the authorities who presided over the lad's welfare. Foker +had promised to introduce him to the right set; and Major Pendennis laid +great store upon Pen's introduction into College life and society by +this admirable young gentleman. "Mr. Foker knows the very best young men +now at the University," the Major said, "and Pen will form acquaintances +there who will be of the greatest advantage through life to him. The +young Marquis of Plinlimmon is there, eldest son of the Duke of Saint +David's--Lord Magnus Charters is there, Lord Runnymede's son, and a +first cousin of Mr. Foker (Lady Runnymede, my dear, was Lady Agatha +Milton, you of course remember); Lady Agnes will certainly invite him to +Logwood; and far from being alarmed at his intimacy with her son, who +is a singular and humorous, but most prudent and amiable young man, to +whom, I am sure, we are under every obligation for his admirable conduct +in the affair of the Fotheringay marriage, I look upon it as one of the +very luckiest things which could have happened to Pen, that he should +have formed an intimacy with this most amusing young gentleman." + +Helen sighed, she supposed the Major knew best. Mr. Foker had been very +kind in the wretched business with Miss Costigan, certainly, and she +was grateful to him. But she could not feel otherwise than a +dim presentiment of evil; and all these quarrels, and riots, and +worldliness, scared her about the fate of her boy. + +Doctor Portman was decidedly of opinion that Pen should go to College. +He hoped the lad would read, and have a moderate indulgence of the +best society too. He was of opinion that Pen would distinguish himself: +Smirke spoke very highly of his proficiency: the Doctor himself had +heard him construe, and thought he acquitted himself remarkably well. +That he should go out of Chatteris was a great point at any rate; and +Pen, who was distracted from his private grief by the various rows and +troubles which had risen round about him, gloomily said he would obey. + +There were assizes, races, and the entertainments and the flux of +company consequent upon them, at Chatteris, during a part of the months +of August and September, and Miss Fotheringay still continued to act, +and take farewell of the audiences at the Chatteris Theatre during that +time. Nobody seemed to be particularly affected by her presence, or her +announced departure, except those persons whom we have named; nor could +the polite county folks, who had houses in London, and very likely +admired the Fotheringay prodigiously in the capital, when they had been +taught to do so by the Fashion which set in in her favour, find anything +remarkable in the actress performing on the little Chatteris boards. +Many genius and many a quack, for that matter, has met with a similar +fate before and since Miss Costigan's time. This honest woman meanwhile +bore up against the public neglect, and any other crosses or vexations +which she might have in life, with her usual equanimity; and ate, drank, +acted, slept, with that regularity and comfort which belongs to people +of her temperament. What a deal of grief, care, and other harmful +excitement does a healthy dulness and cheerful insensibility avoid! Nor +do I mean to say that Virtue is not Virtue because it is never tempted +to go astray; only that dulness is a much finer gift than we give it +credit for being; and that some people are very lucky whom Nature has +endowed with a good store of that great anodyne. + +Pen used to go drearily in and out from the play at Chatteris during +this season, and pretty much according to his fancy. His proceedings +tortured his mother not a little, and her anxiety would have led her +often to interfere, had not the Major constantly checked, and at the +same time encouraged her; for the wily man of the world fancied he saw +that a favourable turn had occurred in Pen's malady. It was the violent +efflux of versification, among other symptoms, which gave Pen's guardian +and physician satisfaction. He might be heard spouting verses in the +shrubbery walks, or muttering them between his teeth as he sat with +the home party of evenings. One day prowling about the house in Pen's +absence, the Major found a great book full of verses in the lad's study. +They were in English, and in Latin; quotations from the classic authors +were given in the scholastic manner in the foot-notes. He can't be very +bad, wisely thought the Pall-Mall Philosopher: and he made Pen's mother +remark (not, perhaps, without a secret feeling of disappointment, for +she loved romance like other soft women), that the young gentleman +during the last fortnight came home quite hungry to dinner at night, +and also showed a very decent appetite at the breakfast-table in the +morning. "Gad, I wish I could," said the Major, thinking ruefully of his +dinner pills. "The boy begins to sleep well, depend upon that." It was +cruel, but it was true. + +Having no other soul to confide in--for he could not speak to his mother +of his loves and disappointments--his uncle treated them in a scornful +and worldly tone, which, though carefully guarded and polite, yet jarred +greatly on the feelings of Mr. Pen--and Foker was much too coarse to +appreciate those refined sentimental secrets--the lad's friendship for +the Curate redoubled, or rather, he was never tired of having Smirke for +a listener on that one subject. What is a lovee without a confidant? +Pen employed Mr. Smirke, as Corydon does the elm-tree, to cut out his +mistress's name upon. He made him echo with the name of the beautiful +Amaryllis. When men have left off playing the tune, they do not care +much for the pipe: but Pen thought he had a great friendship for Smirke, +because he could sigh out his loves and griefs into his tutor's ears; +and Smirke had his own reasons for always being ready at the lad's call. + +Pen's affection gushed out in a multitude of sonnets to the friend of +his heart, as he styled the Curate, which the other received with +great sympathy. He plied Smirke with Latin Sapphics and Alcaics. The +love-songs multiplied under his fluent pen; and Smirke declared and +believed that they were beautiful. On the other hand, Pen expressed a +boundless gratitude to think that Heaven should have sent him such a +friend at such a moment. He presented his tutor with his best-bound +books, and his gold guard-chain, and wanted him to take his +double-barrelled gun. He went into Chatteris and got a gold pencil-case +on credit (for he had no money, and indeed was still in debt to Smirke +for some of the Fotheringay presents), which he presented to Smirke, +with an inscription indicative of his unalterable and eternal regard +for the Curate; who of course was pleased with every mark of the boy's +attachment. + +The poor Curate was naturally very much dismayed at the contemplated +departure of his pupil. When Arthur should go, Smirke's occupation and +delight would go too. What pretext could he find for a daily visit to +Fairoaks and that kind word or glance from the lady there, which was as +necessary to the Curate as the frugal dinner which Madame Fribsby served +him? Arthur gone, he would only be allowed to make visits like any other +acquaintance: little Laura could not accommodate him by learning the +Catechism more than once a week: he had curled himself like ivy round +Fairoaks: he pined at the thought that he must lose his hold of the +place. Should he speak his mind and go down on his knees to the widow? +He thought over any indications in her behaviour which flattered his +hopes. She had praised his sermons three weeks before: she had thanked +him exceedingly for his present of a melon, for a small dinner-party +which Mrs. Pendennis gave: she said she should always be grateful to +him for his kindness to Arthur, and when he declared that there were no +bounds to his love and affection for that dear boy, she had certainly +replied in a romantic manner, indicating her own strong gratitude and +regard to all her son's friends. Should he speak out?--or should he +delay? If he spoke and she refused him, it was awful to think that the +gate of Fairoaks might be shut upon him for ever--and within that door +lay all the world for Mr. Smirke. + +Thus, oh friendly readers, we see how every man in the world has his own +private griefs and business, by which he is more cast down or occupied +than by the affairs or sorrows of any other person. While Mrs. Pendennis +is disquieting herself about losing her son, and that anxious hold she +has had of him, as long as he has remained in the mother's nest, whence +he is about to take flight into the great world beyond--while the +Major's great soul chafes and frets, inwardly vexed as he thinks what +great parties are going on in London, and that he might be sunning +himself in the glances of Dukes and Duchesses, but for those cursed +affairs which keep him in a wretched little country hole--while Pen +is tossing between his passion and a more agreeable sensation, +unacknowledged yet, but swaying him considerably, namely, his longing +to see the world--Mr. Smirke has a private care watching at his bedside, +and sitting behind him on his pony; and is no more satisfied than the +rest of us. How lonely we are in the world; how selfish and secret, +everybody! You and your wife have pressed the same pillow for forty +years and fancy yourselves united. Psha, does she cry out when you have +the gout, or do you lie awake when she has the toothache? Your artless +daughter, seemingly all innocence and devoted to her mamma and her +piano-lesson, is thinking of neither, but of the young Lieutenant with +whom she danced at the last ball--the honest frank boy just returned +from school is secretly speculating upon the money you will give him, +and the debts he owes the tart-man. The old grandmother crooning in the +corner and bound to another world within a few months, has some business +or cares which are quite private and her own--very likely she is +thinking of fifty years back, and that night when she made such an +impression, and danced a cotillon with the Captain before your father +proposed for her: or, what a silly little overrated creature your wife +is, and how absurdly you are infatuated about her--and, as for your +wife--O philosophic reader, answer and say,--Do you tell her all? Ah, +sir--a distinct universe walks about under your hat and under mine--all +things in nature are different to each--the woman we look at has not the +same features, the dish we eat from has not the same taste to the one +and the other--you and I are but a pair of infinite isolations, with +some fellow-islands a little more or less near to us. Let us return, +however, to the solitary Smirke. + +Smirke had one confidante for his passion--that most injudicious woman, +Madame Fribsby. How she became Madame Fribsby, nobody knows: she had +left Clavering to go to a milliner's in London as Miss Fribsby--she +pretended that she had got the rank in Paris during her residence in +that city. But how could the French king, were he ever so much disposed, +give her any such title? We shall not inquire into this mystery, +however. Suffice to say, she went away from home a bouncing young lass; +she returned a rather elderly character, with a Madonna front and a +melancholy countenance--bought the late Mrs. Harbottle's business for +a song--took her elderly mother to live with her; was very good to the +poor, was constant at church, and had the best of characters. But there +was no one in all Clavering, not Mrs. Portman herself, who read so many +novels as Madame Fribsby. She had plenty of time for this amusement, +for, in truth, very few people besides the folks at the Rectory and +Fairoaks employed her; and by a perpetual perusal of such works (which +were by no means so moral or edifying in the days of which we write, as +they are at present) she had got to be so absurdly sentimental, that in +her eyes life was nothing but an immense love-match; and she never +could see two people together, but she fancied they were dying for one +another. + +On the day after Mrs. Pendennis's visit to the Curate, which we have +recorded many pages back, Madame Fribsby settled in her mind that Mr. +Smirke must be in love with the widow, and did everything in her power +to encourage this passion on both sides. Mrs. Pendennis she very seldom +saw, indeed, except in public, and in her pew at church. That lady had +very little need of millinery, or made most of her own dresses and caps; +but on the rare occasions when Madame Fribsby received visits from +Mrs. Pendennis or paid her respects at Fairoaks, she never failed to +entertain the widow with praises of the Curate, pointing out what an +angelical man he was, how gentle, how studious, how lonely; and she +would wonder that no lady would take pity upon him. + +Helen laughed at these sentimental remarks, and wondered that Madame +herself did not compassionate her lodger, and console him. Madame +Fribsby shook her Madonna front, "Mong cure a boco souffare," she said, +laying her hand on the part she designated as her cure. "It est more +en Espang, Madame," she said with a sigh. She was proud of her intimacy +with the French language, and spoke it with more volubility than +correctness. Mrs. Pendennis did not care to penetrate the secrets of +this wounded heart: except to her few intimates she was a reserved and +it may be a very proud woman; she looked upon her son's tutor merely +as an attendant on that young Prince, to be treated with respect as a +clergyman certainly, but with proper dignity as a dependant on the +house of Pendennis. Nor were Madame's constant allusions to the Curate +particularly agreeable to her. It required a very ingenious sentimental +turn indeed to find out that the widow had a secret regard for Mr. +Smirke, to which pernicious error however Madame Fribsby persisted in +holding. + +Her lodger was very much more willing to talk on this subject with his +soft-hearted landlady. Every time after that she praised the Curate to +Mrs. Pendennis, she came away from the latter with the notion that +the widow herself had been praising him. "Etre soul au monde est bien +ouneeyoung," she would say, glancing up at a print of a French carbineer +in a green coat and brass cuirass which decorated her apartment--"Depend +upon it when Master Pendennis goes to College, his Ma will find herself +very lonely. She is quite young yet.--You wouldn't suppose her to be +five-and-twenty. Monsieur le Cury, song cure est touchy--j'ang suis +sure--Je conny cela biang--Ally Monsieur Smirke." + +He softly blushed; he sighed; he hoped; he feared; he doubted; he +sometimes yielded to the delightful idea--his pleasure was to sit in +Madame Fribsby's apartment, and talk upon the subject, where, as +the greater part of the conversation was carried on in French by the +Milliner, and her old mother was deaf, that retired old individual (who +had once been a housekeeper, wife and widow of a butler in the Clavering +family) could understand scarce one syllable of their talk. + +Thus it was, that when Major Pendennis announced to his nephew's tutor +that the young fellow would go to College in October, and that Mr. +Smirke's valuable services would no longer be needful to his pupil, +for which services the Major, who spoke as grandly as a lord, professed +himself exceedingly grateful, and besought Mr. Smirke to command +his interests in any way--thus it was, that the Curate felt that the +critical moment was come for him, and was racked and tortured by those +severe pangs which the occasion warranted. + +Madame Fribsby had, of course, taken the strongest interest in the +progress of Mr. Pen's love affair with Miss Fotheringay. She had been +over to Chatteris, and having seen that actress perform, had pronounced +that she was old and overrated: and had talked over Master Pen's passion +in her shop many and many a time to the half-dozen old maids, and old +women in male clothes, who are to be found in little country towns, and +who formed the genteel population of Clavering. Captain Glanders, H.P., +had pronounced that Pen was going to be a devil of a fellow, and +had begun early: Mrs. Glanders had told him to check his horrid +observations, and to respect his own wife, if he pleased. She said it +would be a lesson to Helen for her pride and absurd infatuation about +that boy. Mrs. Pybus said many people were proud of very small things, +and for her part, she didn't know why an apothecary's wife should give +herself such airs. Mrs. Wapshot called her daughters away from that +side of the street, one day when Pen, on Rebecca, was stopping at the +saddler's, to get a new lash to his whip--one and all of these people +had made visits of curiosity to Fairoaks, and had tried to condole with +the widow, or bring the subject of the Fotheringay affair on the tapis, +and had been severally checked by the haughty reserve of Mrs. Pendennis, +supported by the frigid politeness of the Major her brother. + +These rebuffs, however, did not put an end to the gossip, and slander +went on increasing about the unlucky Fairoaks' family. Glanders (H.P.), +a retired cavalry officer, whose half-pay and large family compelled +him to fuddle himself with brandy-and-water instead of claret after he +quitted the Dragoons, had the occasional entree at Fairoaks, and kept +his friend the Major there informed of all the stories which were +current at Clavering. Mrs. Pybus had taken an inside place by the coach +to Chatteris, and gone to the George on purpose to get the particulars. +Mrs. Speers's man, had treated Mr. Foker's servant to drink at Baymouth +for a similar purpose. It was said that Pen had hanged himself for +despair in the orchard, and that his uncle had cut him down; that, on +the contrary, it was Miss Costigan who was jilted, and not young Arthur; +and that the affair had only been hushed up by the payment of a large +sum of money, the exact amount of which there were several people in +Clavering could testify--the sum of course varying according to the +calculation of the individual narrator of the story. + +Pen shook his mane and raged like a furious lion when these scandals, +affecting Miss Costigan's honour and his own, came to his ears. Why was +not Pybus a man (she had whiskers enough), that he might call her out +and shoot her? Seeing Simcoe pass by, Pen glared at him so from his +saddle on Rebecca, and clutched his whip in a manner so menacing, that +that clergyman went home and wrote a sermon, or thought over a sermon +(for he delivered oral testimony at great length), in which he spoke +of Jezebel, theatrical entertainments (a double cut this--for Doctor +Portman, the Rector of the old church, was known to frequent such), and +of youth going to perdition, in a manner which made it clear to every +capacity that Pen was the individual meant, and on the road alluded to. +What stories more were there not against young Pendennis, whilst he +sate sulking, Achilles-like in his tent, for the loss of his ravished +Briseis? + +After the affair with Hobnell, Pen was pronounced to be a murderer as +well as a profligate, and his name became a name of terror and a byword +in Clavering. But this was not all; he was not the only one of the +family about whom the village began to chatter, and his unlucky mother +was the next to become a victim to their gossip. + +"It is all settled," said Mrs. Pybus to Mrs. Speers, "the boy is to go +to College, and then the widow is to console herself." + +"He's been there every day, in the most open manner, my dear," continued +Mrs. Speers. + +"Enough to make poor Mr. Pendennis turn in his grave," said Mrs. +Wapshot. + +"She never liked him, that we know," says No. 1. + +"Married him for his money. Everybody knows that: was a penniless +hanger-on of Lady Pontypool's," says No. 2. + +"It's rather too open, though, to encourage a lover under pretence of +having a tutor for your son," cried No. 3. + +"Hush! here comes Mrs. Portman," some one said, as the good Rector's +wife entered Madame Fribsby's shop, to inspect her monthly book of +fashions just arrived from London. And the fact is that Madame Fribsby +had been able to hold out no longer; and one day, after she and her +lodger had been talking of Pen's approaching departure, and the Curate +had gone off to give one of his last lessons to that gentleman, Madame +Fribsby had communicated to Mrs. Pybus, who happened to step in with +Mrs. Speers, her strong suspicion, her certainty almost, that there was +an attachment between a certain clerical gentleman and a certain lady, +whose naughty son was growing quite unmanageable, and that a certain +marriage would take place pretty soon. + +Mrs. Portman saw it all, of course, when the matter was mentioned. What +a sly fox that Curate was! He was low-church, and she never liked him. +And to think of Mrs. Pendennis taking a fancy to him after she had +been married to such a man as Mr. Pendennis! She could hardly stay five +minutes at Madame Fribsby's, so eager was she to run to the Rectory and +give Doctor Portman the news. + +When Doctor Portman heard this piece of intelligence, he was in such +a rage with his curate, that his first movement was to break with Mr. +Smirke, and to beg him to transfer his services to some other parish. +"That milksop of a creature pretend to be worthy of such a woman as Mrs. +Pendennis," broke out the Doctor: "where will impudence stop next!" + +"She is much too old for Mr. Smirke," Mrs. Portman remarked: "why, poor +dear Mrs. Pendennis might be his mother almost." + +"You always choose the most charitable reason, Betsy," cried the Rector. +"A matron with a son grown up--she would never think of marrying again." + +"You only think men should marry again, Doctor Portman, answered his +lady, bridling up. + +"You stupid old woman," said the Doctor, "when I am gone, you shall +marry whomsoever you like. I will leave orders in my will, my dear, +to that effect: and I'll bequeath a ring to my successor, and my Ghost +shall come and dance at your wedding." + +"It is cruel for a clergyman to talk so," the lady answered, with a +ready whimper: but these little breezes used to pass very rapidly over +the surface of the Doctor's domestic bliss; and were followed by a great +calm and sunshine. The Doctor adopted a plan for soothing Mrs. Portman's +ruffled countenance, which has a great effect when it is tried between a +worthy couple who are sincerely fond of one another; and which, I think, +becomes 'John Anderson' at three-score, just as much as it used to do +when he was a black-haired young Jo of five-and-twenty. + +"Hadn't you better speak to Mr. Smirke, John?" Mrs Portman asked. + +"When Pen goes to College, cadit quaestio," replied the Rector, +"Smirke's visits at Fairoaks will cease of themselves, and there will be +no need to bother the widow. She has trouble enough on her hands, with +the affairs of that silly young scapegrace, without being pestered by +the tittle-tattle of this place. It is all an invention of that fool, +Fribsby." + +"Against whom I always warned you,--you know I did, my dear John," +interposed Mrs. Portman. + +"That you did; you very often do, my love," the Doctor answered with a +laugh. "It is not for want of warning on your part, I am sure, that I +have formed my opinion of most women with whom we are acquainted. Madame +Fribsby is a fool, and fond of gossip, and so are some other folks. But +she is good to the poor: she takes care of her mother, and she comes +to church twice every Sunday. And as for Smirke, my dear----" here the +Doctor's face assumed for one moment a comical expression, which Mrs. +Portman did not perceive (for she was looking out of the drawing-room +window, and wondering what Mrs. Pybus could want cheapening fowls +again in the market, when she had bad poultry from Livermore's two days +before)--"and as for Mr. Smirke, my dear Betsy, will you promise me that +you will never breathe to any mortal what I am going to tell you as a +profound secret?" + +"What is it, my dear John!--of course I won't," answered the Rector's +lady. + +"Well, then--I cannot say it is a fact, mind--but if you find that +Smirke is at this moment--ay, and has been for years--engaged to a young +lady, a Miss--a Miss Thompson, if you will have the name, who lives +on Clapham Common--yes, on Clapham Common, not far from Mrs. Smirke's +house, what becomes of your story then about Smirke and Mrs. Pendennis?" + +"Why did you not tell me this before?" asked the Doctor's wife.--"How +long have you known it?--How we all of us have been deceived in that +man!" + +"Why should I meddle in other folks' business, my dear?" the Doctor +answered. "I know how to keep a secret--and perhaps this is only an +invention like that other absurd story; at least, Madame Portman, I +should never have told you this but for the other, which I beg you to +contradict whenever you hear it." And so saying the Doctor went away to +his study, and Mrs. Portman seeing that the day was a remarkably fine +one, thought she would take advantage of the weather and pay a few +visits. + +The Doctor looking out of his study window saw the wife of his +bosom presently issue forth, attired in her best. She crossed the +Market-place, saluting the market-women right and left, and giving a +glance at the grocery and general emporium at the corner: then entering +London Street (formerly Hog Lane), she stopped for a minute at +Madame Fribsby's window, and looking at the fashions which hung up +there,--seemed hesitating whether she should enter; but she passed on +and never stopped again until she came to Mrs. Pybus's little green gate +and garden, through which she went to that lady's cottage. + +There, of course, her husband lost sight of Mrs. Portman. "Oh, what a +long bow I have pulled," he said inwardly--"Goodness forgive me! and +shot my own flesh and blood. There must be no more tattling and scandal +about that house. I must stop it, and speak to Smirke. I'll ask him to +dinner this very day." + +Having a sermon to compose, the Doctor sat down to that work, and was so +engaged in the composition, that he had not concluded it until near five +o'clock in the afternoon: when he stepped over to Mr. Smirke's lodgings, +to put his hospitable intentions, regarding that gentleman, into effect. +He reached Madame Fribsby's door, just as the Curate issued from it. + +Mr. Smirke was magnificently dressed, and as he turned out his toes, he +showed a pair of elegant open-worked silk stockings and glossy pumps. +His white cravat was arranged in a splendid stiff tie, and his gold +shirt studs shone on his spotless linen. His hair was curled round his +fair temples. Had he borrowed Madame Fribsby's irons to give that curly +grace? His white cambric pocket-handkerchief was scented with the most +delicious eau-de-Cologne. + +"O gracilis puer,"--cried the Doctor.--"Whither are you bound? I wanted +you to come home to dinner." + +"I am engaged to dine at--at Fairoaks," said Mr. Smirke, blushing +faintly and whisking the scented pocket-handkerchief, and his pony +being in waiting, he mounted and rode away simpering down the street. +No accident befell him that day, and he arrived with his tie in the very +best order at Mrs. Pendennis's house. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. Which concludes the first Part of this History + + +The Curate had gone on his daily errand to Fairoaks, and was upstairs in +Pen's study pretending to read with his pupil, in the early part of that +very afternoon when Mrs. Portman, after transacting business with Mrs. +Pybus, had found the weather so exceedingly fine that she pursued her +walk as far as Fairoaks, in order to pay a visit to her dear friend +there. In the course of their conversation, the Rector's lady told +Mrs. Pendennis and the Major a very great secret about the Curate, Mr. +Smirke, which was no less than that he had an attachment, a very old +attachment, which he had long kept quite private. + +"And on whom is it that Mr. Smirke has bestowed his heart?" asked Mrs. +Pendennis, with a superb air but rather an inward alarm. + +"Why, my dear," the other lady answered, "when he first came and used +to dine at the Rectory, people said we wanted him for Myra, and we were +forced to give up asking him. Then they used to say he was smitten in +another quarter; but I always contradicted it for my part, and said that +you----" + +"That I," cried Mrs. Pendennis; "people are very impertinent, I am sure. +Mr. Smirke came here as Arthur's tutor, and I am surprised that anybody +should dare to speak so----" + +"'Pon my soul, it is a little too much," the Major said, laying down the +newspaper and the double eye-glass. + +"I've no patience with that Mrs. Pybus," Helen continued indignantly. + +"I told her there was no truth in it," Mrs. Portman said. "I always +said so, my dear: and now it comes out that my demure gentleman has been +engaged to a young lady--Miss Thompson, of Clapham Common, ever so +long: and I am delighted for my part, and on Myra's account, too, for +an unmarried curate is always objectionable about one's house: and of +course it is strictly private, but I thought I would tell you, as it +might remove unpleasantnesses. But mind: not one word, if you please, +about the story." + +Mrs. Pendennis said, with perfect sincerity, that she was exceedingly +glad to hear the news: and hoped Mr. Smirke, who was a very kind and +amiable man, would have a deserving wife: and when her visitor +went away, Helen and her brother talked of the matter with great +satisfaction, the kind lady rebuking herself for her haughty behaviour +to Mr. Smirke, whom she had avoided of late, instead of being grateful +to him for his constant attention to Arthur. + +"Gratitude to this kind of people," the Major said, "is very well; but +familiarity is out of the question. This gentleman gives his lessons and +receives his money like any other master. You are too humble, my good +soul. There must be distinctions in ranks, and that sort of thing. I +told you before, you were too kind to Mr. Smirke." + +But Helen did not think so: and now that Arthur was going away, and she +bethought her how very polite Mr. Smirke had been; how he had gone on +messages for her; how he had brought books and copied music; how he had +taught Laura so many things, and given her so many kind presents, her +heart smote her on account of her ingratitude towards the Curate;--so +much so, that when he came down from study with Pen, and was hankering +about the hall previous to his departure, she went out and shook hands +with him with rather a blushing face, and begged him to come into her +drawing-room, where she said they now never saw him. And as there was to +be rather a good dinner that day, she invited Mr. Smirke to partake of +it; and we may be sure that he was too happy to accept such a delightful +summons. + +Eased, by the above report, of all her former doubts and misgivings +regarding the Curate, Helen was exceedingly kind and gracious to Mr. +Smirke during dinner, redoubling her attentions, perhaps, because Major +Pendennis was very high and reserved with his nephew's tutor. When +Pendennis asked Smirke to drink wine, he addressed him as if he was a +Sovereign speaking to a petty retainer, in a manner so condescending, +that even Pen laughed at it, although quite ready, for his part, to be +as conceited as most young men are. + +But Smirke did not care for the impertinences of the Major so long as he +had his hostess's kind behaviour; and he passed a delightful time by her +side at table, exerting all his powers of conversation to please her, +talking in a manner both clerical and worldly, about the Fancy Bazaar, +and the Great Missionary Meeting, about the last new novel, and the +Bishop's excellent sermon about the fashionable parties in London, an +account of which he read in the newspapers--in fine, he neglected +no art, by which a College divine who has both sprightly and serious +talents, a taste for the genteel, an irreproachable conduct, and a +susceptible heart, will try and make himself agreeable to the person on +whom he has fixed his affections. + +Major Pendennis came yawning out of the dining-room very soon after his +sister and little Laura had left the apartment. "What an unsufferable +bore that man is, and how he did talk!" the Major said. + +"He has been very good to Arthur, who is very fond of him," Mrs. +Pendennis said,--"I wonder who the Miss Thompson is whom he is going to +marry?" + +"I always thought the fellow was looking in another direction," said the +Major. + +"And in what?" asked Mrs. Pendennis quite innocently,--"towards Myra +Portman?" + +"Towards Helen Pendennis, if you must know," answered her +brother-in-law. + +"Towards me! impossible!" Helen said, who knew perfectly well that such +had been the case. "His marriage will be a very happy thing. I hope +Arthur will not take too much wine." + +Now Arthur, flushed with a good deal of pride at the privilege of having +the keys of the cellar, and remembering that a very few more dinners +would probably take place which he and his dear friend Smirke could +share, had brought up a liberal supply of claret for the company's +drinking, and when the elders with little Laura left him, he and the +Curate began to pass the wine very freely. + +One bottle speedily yielded up the ghost, another shed more than half +its blood, before the two topers had been much more than half an hour +together--Pen, with a hollow laugh and voice, had drunk off one bumper +to the falsehood of women, and had said sardonically, that wine at any +rate was a mistress who never deceived, and was sure to give a man a +welcome. + +Smirke gently said that he knew for his part some women who were all +truth and tenderness; and casting up his eyes towards the ceiling, and +heaving a sigh as if evoking some being dear and unmentionable, he took +up his glass and drained it, and the rosy liquor began to suffuse his +face. + +Pen trolled over some verses he had been making that morning, in which +he informed himself that the woman who had slighted his passion could +not be worthy to win it: that he was awaking from love's mad fever, and, +of course, under these circumstances, proceeded to leave her, and to +quit a heartless deceiver: that a name which had one day been famous in +the land, might again be heard in it: and, that though he never should +be the happy and careless boy he was but a few months since, or his +heart be what it had been ere passion had filled it and grief had +well-nigh killed it; that though to him personally death was as welcome +as life, and that he would not hesitate to part with the latter, but for +the love of one kind being whose happiness depended on his own,--yet +he hoped to show he was a man worthy of his race, and that one day the +false one should be brought to know how great was the treasure and noble +the heart which she had flung away. + +Pen, we say, who was a very excitable person, rolled out these verses in +his rich sweet voice, which trembled with emotion whilst our young poet +spoke. He had a trick of blushing when in this excited state, and his +large and honest grey eyes also exhibited proofs of a sensibility so +genuine, hearty, and manly, that Miss Costigan, if she had a heart, must +needs have softened towards him; and very likely she was, as he said, +altogether unworthy of the affection which he lavished upon her. + +The sentimental Smirke was caught by the emotion which agitated +his young friend. He grasped Pen's hand over the dessert dishes and +wine-glasses. He said the verses were beautiful: that Pen was a poet, a +great poet, and likely by Heaven's permission to run a great career in +the world. "Go on and prosper, dear Arthur," he cried; "the wounds under +which at present you suffer are only temporary, and the very grief you +endure will cleanse and strengthen your heart. I have always prophesied +the greatest and brightest things of you, as soon as you have corrected +some failings and weaknesses of character, which at present belong to +you. But you will get over these, my boy; you will get over these; and +when you are famous and celebrated, as I know you will be, will you +remember your old tutor and the happy early days of your youth?" + +Pen swore he would: with another shake of the hand across the glasses +and apricots. "I shall never forget how kind you have been to me, +Smirke," he said. "I don't know what I should have done without you. You +are my best friend." + +"Am I, really, Arthur?" said Smirke, looking through his spectacles; +and his heart began to beat so that he thought Pen must almost hear it +throbbing. + +"My best friend, my friend for ever," Pen said. "God bless you, old +boy," and he drank up the last glass of the second bottle of the famous +wine which his father had laid in, which his uncle had bought, which +Lord Levant had imported, and which now, like a slave indifferent, was +ministering pleasure to its present owner, and giving its young master +delectation. + +"We'll have another bottle, old boy," Pen said, "by Jove we will. +Hurray!--claret goes for nothing. My uncle was telling me that he +saw Sheridan drink five bottles at Brookes's, besides a bottle of +Maraschino. This is some of the finest wine in England, he says. So +it is, by Jove. There's nothing like it. Nunc vino pellite curas--cras +ingens iterabimus aeq,--fill your glass, Old Smirke, a hogshead of it +won't do you any harm." And Mr. Pen began to sing the drinking song out +of Der Freischuetz. The dining-room windows were open, and his mother +was softly pacing on the lawn outside, while little Laura was looking at +the sunset. The sweet fresh notes of the boy's voice came to the widow. +It cheered her kind heart to hear him sing. + +"You--you are taking too much wine, Arthur," Mr. Smirke said +softly--"you are exciting yourself." + +"No," said Pen, "women give headaches, but this don't. Fill your glass, +old fellow, and let's drink--I say, Smirke, my boy--let's drink to +her--your her, I mean, not mine, for whom I swear I'll care no more--no, +not a penny--no, not a fig--no, not a glass of wine. Tell us about the +lady, Smirke; I've often seen you sighing about her." + +"Oh!" said Smirke--and his beautiful cambric shirt front and glistening +studs heaved with the emotion which agitated his gentle and suffering +bosom. + +"Oh--what a sigh!" Pen cried, growing very hilarious; "fill, my boy, and +drink the toast, you can't refuse a toast, no gentleman refuses a +toast. Here's her health, and good luck to you, and may she soon be Mrs. +Smirke." + +"Do you say so?" Smirke said, all of a tremble. "Do you really say so, +Arthur?" + +"Say so; of course, I say so. Down with it. Here's Mrs. Smirke's good +health: Hip, hip, hurray!" + +Smirke convulsively gulped down his glass of wine, and Pen waved his +over his head, cheering so as to make his mother and Laura wonder on the +lawn, and his uncle, who was dozing over the paper in the drawing-room, +start, and say to himself, "That boy's drinking too much." Smirke put +down the glass. + +"I accept the omen," gasped out the blushing Curate. "Oh my dear Arthur, +you--you know her----" + +"What--Myra Portman? I wish you joy; she's got a dev'lish large waist; +but I wish you joy, old fellow." + +"Oh, Arthur!" groaned the Curate again, and nodded his head, speechless. + +"Beg your pardon--sorry I offended you--but she has got a large waist, +you know--devilish large waist," Pen continued--the third bottle +evidently beginning to act upon the young gentleman. + +"It's not Miss Portman," the other said, in a voice of agony. + +"Is it anybody at Chatteris or at Clapham? Somebody here? No--it ain't +old Pybus? it can't be Miss Rolt at the Factory--she's only fourteen." + +"It's somebody rather older than I am, Pen," the Curate cried, looking +up at his friend, and then guiltily casting his eyes down into his +plate. + +Pen burst out laughing. "It's Madame Fribsby; by Jove, it's Madame +Fribsby. Madame Frib. by the immortal Gods!" + +The Curate could contain no more. "O Pen," he cried, "how can you +suppose that any of those--of those more than ordinary beings you have +named could have an influence upon this heart, when I have been daily in +the habit of contemplating perfection! I may be insane, I may be madly +ambitious, I may be presumptuous--but for two years my heart has been +filled by one image, and has known no other idol. Haven't I loved you as +a son, Arthur?--say, hasn't Charles Smirke loved you as a son?" + +"Yes, old boy, you've been very good to me," Pen said, whose liking, +however, for his tutor was not by any means of the filial kind. + +"My means," rushed on Smirke, "are at present limited, I own, and my +mother is not so liberal as might be desired; but what she has will be +mine at her death. Were she to hear of my marrying a lady of rank +and good fortune, my mother would be liberal, I am sure she would be +liberal. Whatever I have or subsequently inherit--and it's five hundred +a year at the very least--would be settled upon her and--and--and you at +my death--that is." + +"What the deuce do you mean?--and what have I to do with your money?" +cried out Pen, in a puzzle. + +"Arthur, Arthur!" exclaimed the other wildly; "you say I am your dearest +friend--Let me be more. Oh, can't you see that the angelic being I +love--the purest, the best of women--is no other than your dear, dear +angel of a--mother." + +"My mother!" cried out Arthur, jumping up and sober in a minute. "Pooh! +damn it, Smirke, you must be mad--she's seven or eight years older than +you are." + +"Did you find that any objection?" cried Smirke piteously, and alluding, +of course, to the elderly subject of Pen's own passion. + +The lad felt the hint, and blushed quite red. "The cases are not +similar, Smirke," he said, "and the allusion might have been spared. A +man may forget his own rank and elevate any woman to it: but allow me to +say our positions are very different." + +"How do you mean, dear Arthur?" the Curate interposed sadly, cowering as +he felt that his sentence was about to be read. + +"Mean?" said Arthur. "I mean what I say. My tutor, I say my tutor, has +no right to ask a lady of my mother's rank of life to marry him. It's +a breach of confidence. I say it's a liberty you take, Smirke--it's a +liberty. Mean, indeed!" + +"O Arthur!" the Curate began to cry with clasped hands, and a scared +face, but Arthur gave another stamp with his foot and began to pull at +the bell. "Don't let's have any more of this. We'll have some coffee, if +you please," he said with a majestic air; and the old butler entering at +the summons, Arthur bade him to serve that refreshment. + +John said he had just carried coffee into the drawing-room, where his +uncle was asking for Master Arthur, and the old man gave a glance +of wonder at the three empty claret-bottles. Smirke said he thought +he'd--he'd rather not go into the drawing-room, on which Arthur +haughtily said, "As you please," and called for Mr. Smirke's horse to +be brought round. The poor fellow said he knew the way to the stable and +would get his pony himself, and he went into the hall and sadly put on +his coat and hat. + +Pen followed him out uncovered. Helen was still walking up and down the +soft lawn as the sun was setting, and the Curate took off his hat and +bowed by way of farewell, and passed on to the door leading to the +stable court, by which the pair disappeared. Smirke knew the way to the +stable, as he said, well enough. He fumbled at the girths of the saddle, +which Pen fastened for him, and put on the bridle and led the pony into +the yard. The boy was touched by the grief which appeared in the other's +face as he mounted. Pen held out his hand, and Smirke wrung it silently. + +"I say, Smirke," he said in an agitated voice, "forgive me if I have +said anything harsh--for you have always been very, very kind to me. But +it can't be, old fellow, it can't be. Be a man. God bless you." + +Smirke nodded his head silently, and rode out of the lodge-gate: and Pen +looked after him for a couple of minutes, until he disappeared down the +road, and the clatter of the pony's hoofs died away. Helen was still +lingering on the lawn waiting until the boy came back--she put his +hair off his forehead and kissed it fondly. She was afraid he had been +drinking too much wine. Why had Mr. Smirke gone away without any tea? + +He looked at her with a kind humour beaming in his eyes "Smirke is +unwell," he said with a laugh. For a long while Helen had not seen the +boy looking so cheerful. He put his arm round her waist, and walked her +up and down the walk in front of the house. Laura began to drub on the +drawing-room window and nod and laugh from it. "Come along, you two +people," cried on Major Pendennis, "your coffee is getting quite cold." + +When Laura was gone to bed, Pen, who was big with his secret, burst +out with it, and described the dismal but ludicrous scene which had +occurred. Helen heard of it with many blushes, which became her pale +face very well, and a perplexity which Arthur roguishly enjoyed. + +"Confound the fellow's impudence," Major Pendennis said as he took his +candle, "where will the assurance of these people stop?" Pen and +his mother had a long talk that night, full of love, confidence, and +laughter, and the boy somehow slept more soundly and woke up more easily +than he had done for many months before. + +Before the great Mr. Dolphin quitted Chatteris, he not only made an +advantageous engagement with Miss Fotheringay, but he liberally left +with her a sum of money to pay off any debts which the little family +might have contracted during their stay in the place, and which, mainly +through the lady's own economy and management, were not considerable. +The small account with the spirit merchant, which Major Pendennis had +settled, was the chief of Captain Costigan's debts, and though the +Captain at one time talked about repaying every farthing of the money, +it never appears that he executed his menace, nor did the laws of honour +in the least call upon him to accomplish that threat. + +When Miss Costigan had seen all the outstanding bills paid to the +uttermost shilling, she handed over the balance to her father, who broke +out into hospitalities to all his friends, gave the little Creeds more +apples and gingerbread than he had ever bestowed upon them, so that the +widow Creed ever after held the memory of her lodger in veneration, and +the young ones wept bitterly when he went away; and in a word managed +the money so cleverly that it was entirely expended before many days, +and that he was compelled to draw upon Mr. Dolphin for a sum to pay for +travelling expenses when the time of their departure arrived. + +There was held at an inn in that county town a weekly meeting of a +festive, almost a riotous character, of a society of gentlemen who +called themselves the Buccaneers. Some of the choice spirits of +Chatteris belonged to this cheerful club. Graves, the apothecary (than +whom a better fellow never put a pipe in his mouth and smoked it), +Smart, the talented and humorous portrait-painter of High Street, +Croker, an excellent auctioneer, and the uncompromising Hicks, the able +Editor for twenty-three years of the County Chronicle and Chatteris +Champion, were amongst the crew of the Buccaneers, whom also Bingley, +the manager, liked to join of a Saturday evening, whenever he received +permission from his lady. + +Costigan had been also an occasional Buccaneer. But a want of +punctuality of payments had of late somewhat excluded him from the +Society, where he was subject to disagreeable remarks from the landlord, +who said that a Buccaneer who didn't pay his shot was utterly unworthy +to be a Marine Bandit. But when it became known to the 'Ears, as the +Clubbists called themselves familiarly, that Miss Fotheringay had made +a splendid engagement, a great revolution of feeling took place in the +Club regarding Captain Costigan. Solly, mine host of the Grapes (and I +need not say, as worthy a fellow as ever stood behind a bar), told +the gents in the Buccaneers' room one night how noble the Captain had +behaved; having been round and paid off all his ticks in Chatteris, +including his score of three pound fourteen here--and pronounced that +Cos was a good feller, a gentleman at bottom, and he, Solly, had always +said so, and finally worked upon the feelings of the Buccaneers to give +the Captain a dinner. + +The banquet took place on the last night of Costigan's stay at +Chatteris, and was served in Solly's accustomed manner. As good a plain +dinner of old English fare as ever smoked on a table was prepared by +Mrs. Solly; and about eighteen gentlemen sate down to the festive board. +Mr. Jubber (the eminent draper of High Street) was in the Chair, +having the distinguished guest of the Club on his right. The able and +consistent Hicks officiated as croupier on the occasion; most of the +gentlemen of the Club were present, and H. Foker, Esq., and Spavin, +Esq., friends of Captain Costigan, were also participators in the +entertainment. The cloth having been drawn, the Chairman said, +"Costigan, there is wine, if you like," but the Captain preferring +punch, that liquor was voted by acclamation: and 'Non Nobis' having been +sung in admirable style by Messrs. Bingley, Hicks, and Bullby (of the +Cathedral choir, than whom a more jovial spirit "ne'er tossed off a +bumper or emptied a bowl"), the Chairman gave the health of the 'King!' +which was drunk with the loyalty of Chatteris men, and then without +further circumlocution proposed their friend 'Captain Costigan.' + +After the enthusiastic cheering which rang through old Chatteris had +subsided, Captain Costigan rose in reply, and made a speech of twenty +minutes, in which he was repeatedly overcome by his emotions. + +The gallant Captain said he must be pardoned for incoherence, if his +heart was too full to speak. He was quitting a city celebrated for +its antiquitee, its hospitalitee, the beautee of its women, the manly +fidelitee, generositee, and jovialitee of its men. (Cheers.) He was +going from that ancient and venerable city, of which while Mimoree +held her sayt, he should never think without the fondest emotion, to a +methrawpolis where the talents of his daughther were about to have full +play, and where he would watch over her like a guardian angel. He should +never forget that it was at Chatteris she had acquired the skill which +she was about to exercise in another sphere, and in her name and his own +Jack Costigan thanked and blessed them. The gallant officer's speech was +received with tremendous cheers. + +Mr. Hicks, Croupier, in a brilliant and energetic manner, proposed Miss +Fotheringay's health. + +Captain Costigan returned thanks in a speech full of feeling and +eloquence. + +Mr. Jubber proposed the Drama and the Chatteris Theatre, and Mr. Bingley +was about to rise but was prevented by Captain Costigan, who, as long +connected with the Chatteris Theatre and on behalf of his daughter, +thanked the company. He informed them that he had been in garrison, at +Gibraltar, and at Malta, and had been at the taking of Flushing. The +Duke of York was a patron of the Drama; he had the honour of dining with +His Royal Highness and the Duke of Kent many times; and the former had +justly been named the friend of the soldier. (Cheers.) + +The Army was then proposed, and Captain Costigan returned thanks. In the +course of the night he sang his well-known songs, 'The Deserter,' +'The Shan Van Voght,' 'The Little Pig under the Bed,' and 'The Vale of +Avoca.' The evening was a great triumph for him--it ended. All triumphs +and all evenings end. And the next day, Miss Costigan having taken leave +of all her friends, having been reconciled to Miss Rouncy, to whom +she left a necklace and a white satin gown--the next day, he and Miss +Costigan had places in the Competitor coach rolling by the gates of +Fairoaks Lodge--and Pendennis never saw them. + +Tom Smith, the coachman, pointed out Fairoaks to Mr. Costigan, who sate +on the box smelling of rum-and-water--and the Captain said it was a +poor place--and added, "Ye should see Castle Costigan, County Mayo, me +boy,"--which Tom said he should like very much to see. + +They were gone and Pen had never seen them! He only knew of their +departure by its announcement in the county paper the next day: and +straight galloped over to Chatteris to hear the truth of this news. They +were gone indeed. A card of 'Lodgings to let' was placed in the dear +little familiar window. He rushed up into the room and viewed it over. +He sate ever so long in the old window-seat looking into the Dean's +garden: whence he and Emily had so often looked out together. He walked, +with a sort of terror, into her little empty bedroom. It was swept out +and prepared for new-comers. The glass which had reflected her fair face +was shining ready for her successor. The curtains lay square folded on +the little bed: he flung himself down and buried his head on the vacant +pillow. + +Laura had netted a purse into which his mother had put some sovereigns, +and Pen had found it on his dressing-table that very morning. He gave +one to the little servant who had been used to wait upon the Costigans, +and another to the children, because they said they were very fond of +her. It was but a few months back, yet what years ago it seemed since +he had first entered that room! He felt that it was all done. The +very missing her at the coach had something fatal in it. Blank, weary, +utterly wretched and lonely the poor lad felt. + +His mother saw She was gone by his look when he came home. He was eager +to fly too now, as were other folks round about Chatteris. Poor Smirke +wanted to go away from the sight of the syren widow. Foker began to +think he had had enough of Baymouth, and that a few supper-parties at +Saint Boniface would not be unpleasant. And Major Pendennis longed to be +off, and have a little pheasant-shooting at Stillbrook, and get rid +of all annoyances and tracasseries of the village. The widow and Laura +nervously set about the preparation for Pen's kit, and filled trunks +with his books and linen. Helen wrote cards with the name of Arthur +Pendennis, Esq., which were duly nailed on the boxes; and at which both +she and Laura looked with tearful wistful eyes. It was not until long, +long after he was gone, that Pen remembered how constant and tender the +affection of these women had been, and how selfish his own conduct was. + +A night soon comes, when the mail, with echoing horn and blazing lamps, +stops at the lodge-gate of Fairoaks, and Pen's trunks and his uncle's +are placed on the roof of the carriage, into which the pair presently +afterwards enter. Helen and Laura are standing by the evergreens of the +shrubbery, their figures lighted up by the coach lamps; the guard cries +all right: in another instant the carriage whirls onward; the lights +disappear, and Helen's heart and prayers go with them. Her sainted +benedictions follow the departing boy. He has left the home-nest in +which he has been chafing, and whither, after his very first flight, he +returned bleeding and wounded; he is eager to go forth again, and try +his restless wings. + +How lonely the house looks without him! The corded trunks and book-boxes +are there in his empty study. Laura asks leave to come and sleep in +Helen's room: and when she has cried herself to sleep there, the mother +goes softly into Pen's vacant chamber, and kneels down by the bed on +which the moon is shining, and there prays for her boy, as mothers only +know how to plead. He knows that her pure blessings are following him, +as he is carried miles away. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. Alma Mater + +Every man, however brief or inglorious may have been his academical +career, must remember with kindness and tenderness the old university +comrades and days. The young man's life is just beginning: the boy's +leading-strings are cut, and he has all the novel delights and dignities +of freedom. He has no idea of cares yet, or of bad health, or of +roguery, or poverty, or to-morrow's disappointment. The play has not +been acted so often as to make him tired. Though the after drink, as +we mechanically go on repeating it, is stale and bitter, how pure and +brilliant was that first sparkling draught of pleasure!--How the boy +rushes at the cup, and with what a wild eagerness he drains it! But +old epicures who are cut off from the delights of the table, and are +restricted to a poached egg and a glass of water, like to see people +with good appetites; and, as the next best thing to being amused at a +pantomime one's-self is to see one's children enjoy it, I hope there may +be no degree of age or experience to which mortal may attain, when he +shall become such a glum philosopher as not to be pleased by the sight +of happy youth. Coming back a few weeks since from a brief visit to the +old University of Oxbridge, where my friend Mr. Arthur Pendennis passed +some period of his life, I made the journey in the railroad by the side +of a young fellow at present a student of Saint Boniface. He had got an +exeat somehow, and was bent on a day's lark in London: he never stopped +rattling and talking from the commencement of the journey until its +close (which was a great deal too soon for me, for I never was tired of +listening to the honest young fellow's jokes and cheery laughter); and +when we arrived at the terminus nothing would satisfy him but a hansom +cab, so that he might get into town the quicker, and plunge into the +pleasures awaiting him there. Away the young lad went whirling, with +joy lighting up his honest face; and as for the reader's humble servant, +having but a small carpet-bag, I got up on the outside of the omnibus, +and sate there very contentedly between a Jew-pedlar smoking bad cigars, +and a gentleman's servant taking care of a poodle-dog, until we got +our fated complement of passengers and boxes, when the coachman drove +leisurely away. We weren't in a hurry to get to town. Neither one of us +was particularly eager about rushing into that near smoking Babylon, or +thought of dining at the Club that night, or dancing at the Casino. Yet +a few years more, and my young friend of the railroad will be not a whit +more eager. + +There were no railroads made when Arthur Pendennis went to the famous +University of Oxbridge; but he drove thither in a well-appointed coach, +filled inside and out with dons, gownsmen, young freshmen about to +enter, and their guardians, who were conducting them to the university. +A fat old gentleman, in grey stockings, from the City, who sate by Major +Pendennis inside the coach, having his pale-faced son opposite, was +frightened beyond measure when he heard that the coach had been driven +for a couple of stages by young Mr. Foker, of Saint Boniface College, +who was the friend of all men, including coachmen, and could drive +as well as Tom Hicks himself. Pen sate on the roof, examining coach, +passengers, and country with great delight and curiosity. His heart +jumped with pleasure as the famous university came in view, and the +magnificent prospect of venerable towers and pinnacles, tall elms and +shining river, spread before him. + +Pen had passed a few days with his uncle at the Major's lodgings, in +Bury Street, before they set out for Oxbridge. Major Pendennis thought +that the lad's wardrobe wanted renewal; and Arthur was by no means +averse to any plan which was to bring him new coats and waistcoats. +There was no end to the sacrifices which the self-denying uncle made in +the youth's behalf. London was awfully lonely. The Pall Mall pavement +was deserted; the very red jackets had gone out of town. There was +scarce a face to be seen in the bow-windows of the clubs. The Major +conducted his nephew into one or two of those desert mansions, and wrote +down the lad's name on the candidate-list of one of them; and Arthur's +pleasure at this compliment on his guardian's part was excessive. He +read in the parchment volume his name and titles, as 'Arthur Pendennis, +Esquire, of Fairoaks Lodge, ----shire and Saint Boniface College, +Oxbridge; proposed by Major Pendennis, and seconded by Viscount +Colchicum,' with a thrill of intense gratification. "You will come in +for ballot in about three years, by which time you will have taken your +degree," the guardian said. Pen longed for the three years to be over, +and surveyed the stucco-halls, and vast libraries, and drawing-rooms +as already his own property. The Major laughed slyly to see the pompous +airs of the simple young fellow as he strutted out of the building. He +and Foker drove down in the latter's cab one day to the Grey Friars, +and renewed acquaintance with some of their old comrades there. The boys +came crowding up to the cab as it stood by the Grey Friars gates, where +they were entering, and admired the chestnut horse, and the tights and +livery and gravity of Stoopid, the tiger. The bell for afternoon-school +rang as they were swaggering about the play-ground talking to their old +cronies. The awful Doctor passed into school with his grammar in +his hand. Foker slunk away uneasily at his presence, but Pen went up +blushing, and shook the dignitary by the hand. He laughed as he thought +that well-remembered Latin Grammar had boxed his ears many a time. He +was generous, good-natured, and, in a word, perfectly conceited and +satisfied with himself. + +Then they drove to the parental brew-house. Foker's Entire is composed +in an enormous pile of buildings, not far from the Grey Friars, and the +name of that well-known firm is gilded upon innumerable public-house +signs, tenanted by its vassals in the neighbourhood; and the venerable +junior partner and manager did honour to the young lord of the vats +and his friend, and served them with silver flagons of brown-stout, so +strong, that you would have thought, not only the young men, but the +very horse Mr. Harry Foker drove, was affected by the potency of the +drink, for he rushed home to the west-end of the town at a rapid pace, +which endangered the pie-stalls and the women on the crossings, and +brought the cab-steps into collision with the posts at the street +corners, and caused Stoopid to swing fearfully on his board behind. + +The Major was quite pleased when Pen was with his young acquaintance; +listened to Mr. Foker's artless stories with the greatest interest; gave +the two boys a fine dinner at a Covent Garden Coffee-house, whence they +proceeded to the play; but was above all happy when Mr. and Lady Agnes +Foker, who happened to be in London, requested the pleasure of Major +Pendennis and Mr. Arthur Pendennis's company at dinner in Grosvenor +Street. "Having obtained the entree into Lady Agnes Foker's house," he +said to Pen with an affectionate solemnity which befitted the importance +of the occasion, "it behoves you, my dear boy, to keep it. You must mind +and never neglect to call in Grosvenor Street when you come to London. +I recommend you to read up carefully, in Debrett, the alliances and +genealogy of the Earls of Rosherville, and if you can, to make some +trifling allusions to the family, something historical, neat, and +complimentary, and that sort of thing, which you, who have a poetic +fancy, can do pretty well. Mr. Foker himself is a worthy man, though not +of high extraction or indeed much education. He always makes a point of +having some of the family porter served round after dinner, which you +will on no account refuse, and which I shall drink myself, though all +beer disagrees with me confoundedly." And the heroic martyr did actually +sacrifice himself, as he said he would, on the day when the dinner took +place, and old Mr. Foker, at the head of his table, made his usual joke +about Foker's Entire. We should all of us, I am sure, have liked to see +the Major's grin, when the worthy old gentleman made his time-honoured +joke. + +Lady Agnes, who, wrapped up in Harry, was the fondest of mothers, and +one of the most good-natured though not the wisest of women, received +her son's friend with great cordiality: and astonished Pen by accounts +of the severe course of studies which her darling boy was pursuing, and +which she feared might injure his dear health. Foker the elder burst +into a horse-laugh at some of these speeches, and the heir of the house +winked his eye very knowingly at his friend. And Lady Agnes then going +through her son's history from the earliest time, and recounting his +miraculous sufferings in the measles and hooping-cough, his escape +from drowning, the shocking tyrannies practised upon him at that horrid +school, whither Mr. Foker would send him because he had been brought up +there himself, and she never would forgive that disagreeable Doctor, no +never--Lady Agnes, we say, having prattled away for an hour incessantly +about her son, voted the two Messieurs Pendennis most agreeable men; and +when pheasants came with the second course, which the Major praised +as the very finest birds he ever saw, her ladyship said they came from +Logwood (as the Major knew perfectly well), and hoped that they would +both pay her a visit there--at Christmas, or when dear Harry was at home +for the vacations. + +"God bless you, my dear boy," Pendennis said to Arthur, as they were +lighting their candles in Bury Street afterwards to go to bed. "You +made that little allusion to Agincourt, where one of the Roshervilles +distinguished himself, very neatly and well, although Lady Agnes did not +quite understand it: but it was exceedingly well for a beginner--though +you oughtn't to blush so, by the way--and I beseech you, my dear Arthur, +to remember through life, that with an entree--with a good entree, +mind--it is just as easy for you to have good society as bad, and that +it costs a man, when properly introduced, no more trouble or soins to +keep a good footing in the best houses in London than to dine with a +lawyer in Bedford Square. Mind this when you are at Oxbridge pursuing +your studies, and for Heaven's sake be very particular in the +acquaintances which you make. The premier pas in life is the most +important of all--did you write to your mother to-day?--No?--well, +do, before you go, and call and ask Mr. Foker for a frank--They like +it--Good night. God bless you." + +Pen wrote a droll account of his doings in London, and the play, and the +visit to the old Friars, and the brewery, and the party at Mr. Foker's, +to his dearest mother, who was saying her prayers at home in the lonely +house at Fairoaks, her heart full of love and tenderness unutterable for +the boy: and she and Laura read that letter and those which followed, +many, many times, and brooded over them as women do. It was the first +step in life that Pen was making--Ah! what a dangerous journey it +is, and how the bravest may stumble and the strongest fail. Brother +wayfarer! may you have a kind arm to support yours on the path, and a +friendly hand to succour those who fall beside you. May truth guide, +mercy forgive at the end, and love accompany always. Without that +lamp how blind the traveller would be, and how black and cheerless the +journey! + +So the coach drove up to that ancient and comfortable inn the Trencher, +which stands in Main Street, Oxbridge, and Pen with delight and +eagerness remarked, for the first time, gownsmen going about, chapel +bells clinking (bells in Oxbridge are ringing from morning-tide till +even-song)--towers and pinnacles rising calm and stately over the gables +and antique house-roofs of the homely busy city. Previous communications +had taken place between Dr. Portman on Pen's part, and Mr. Buck, +Tutor of Boniface, on whose side Pen was entered; and as soon as Major +Pendennis had arranged his personal appearance, so that it should make +a satisfactory impression upon Pen's tutor, the pair walked down Main +Street, and passed the great gate and belfry-tower of Saint George's +College, and so came, as they were directed, to Saint Boniface: where +again Pen's heart began to beat as they entered at the wicket of the +venerable ivy-mantled gate of the College. It is surmounted with an +ancient dome almost covered with creepers, and adorned with the effigy +of the Saint from whom the House takes its name, and many coats-of-arms +of its royal and noble benefactors. + +The porter pointed out a queer old tower at the corner of the +quadrangle, by which Mr. Buck's rooms were approached, and the two +gentlemen walked across the square, the main features of which were at +once and for ever stamped in Pen's mind--the pretty fountain playing +in the centre of the fair grass plats; the tall chapel windows and +buttresses rising to the right; the hall with its tapering lantern and +oriel window; the lodge, from the doors of which the Master issued with +rustling silks; the lines of the surrounding rooms pleasantly broken by +carved chimneys, grey turrets, and quaint gables--all these Mr. Pen's +eyes drank in with an eagerness which belongs to first impressions; and +Major Pendennis surveyed with that calmness which belongs to a gentleman +who does not care for the picturesque, and whose eyes have been somewhat +dimmed by the constant glare of the pavement of Pall Mall. + +Saint George's is the great College of the University of Oxbridge, with +its four vast quadrangles, and its beautiful hall and gardens, and the +Georgians, as the men are called wear gowns of a peculiar cut, and give +themselves no small airs of superiority over all other young men. +Little Saint Boniface is but a petty hermitage in comparison of the huge +consecrated pile alongside of which it lies. But considering its size +it has always kept an excellent name in the university. Its ton is very +good: the best families of certain counties have time out of mind sent +up their young men to Saint Boniface: the college livings are remarkably +good: the fellowships easy; the Boniface men had had more than their +fair share of university honours; their boat was third upon the river; +their chapel-choir is not inferior to Saint George's itself; and the +Boniface ale the best in Oxbridge. In the comfortable old wainscoted +College-Hall, and round about Roubilliac's statue of Saint Boniface (who +stands in an attitude of seraphic benediction over the uncommonly good +cheer of the fellows' table) there are portraits of many most eminent +Bonifacians. There is the learned Doctor Griddle, who suffered in Henry +VIII.'s time, and Archbishop Bush who roasted him--there is Lord +Chief Justice Hicks--the Duke of St. David's, K.G., Chancellor of the +University and Member of this College--Sprott the Poet, of whose fame +the college is justly proud--Doctor Blogg, the late master, and friend +of Doctor Johnson, who visited him at Saint Boniface--and other lawyers, +scholars, and divines, whose portraitures look from the walls, or whose +coats-of-arms shine in emerald and ruby, gold and azure, in the tall +windows of the refectory. The venerable cook of the college is one of +the best artists in Oxbridge (his son took the highest honours in the +other University of Camford), and the wine in the fellows' room has long +been famed for its excellence and abundance. + +Into this certainly not the least snugly sheltered arbour amongst the +groves of Academe, Pen now found his way, leaning on his uncle's arm, +and they speedily reached Mr. Buck's rooms, and were conducted into the +apartment of that courteous gentleman. + +He had received previous information from Dr. Portman regarding Pen, +with respect to whose family, fortune, and personal merits the honest +Doctor had spoken with no small enthusiasm. Indeed Portman had described +Arthur to the tutor as "a young gentleman of some fortune and landed +estate, of one of the most ancient families in the kingdom, and +possessing such a character and genius as were sure, under the proper +guidance, to make him a credit to the college and the university." Under +such recommendations the tutor was, of course, most cordial to the young +freshman and his guardian, invited the latter to dine in hall, where he +would have the satisfaction of seeing his nephew wear his gown and eat +his dinner for the first time, and requested the pair to take wine at +his rooms after hall, and in consequence of the highly favourable report +he had received of Mr. Arthur Pendennis, said, he should be happy +to give him the best set of rooms to be had in college--a +gentleman-pensioner's set, indeed, which were just luckily vacant. So +they parted until dinner-time, which was very near at hand, and Major +Pendennis pronounced Mr. Buck to be uncommonly civil indeed. Indeed when +a College Magnate takes the trouble to be polite, there is no man more +splendidly courteous. Immersed in their books and excluded from the +world by the gravity of their occupations, these reverend men assume a +solemn magnificence of compliment in which they rustle and swell as in +their grand robes of state. Those silks and brocades are not put on for +all comers or every day. + +When the two gentlemen had taken leave of the tutor in his study, and +had returned to Mr. Buck's ante-room, or lecture-room, a very handsome +apartment, turkey-carpeted, and hung with excellent prints and richly +framed pictures, they found the tutor's servant already in waiting +there, accompanied by a man with a bag full of caps and a number of +gowns, from which Pen might select a cap and gown for himself, and the +servant, no doubt, would get a commission proportionable to the service +done by him. Mr. Pen was all in a tremor of pleasure as the bustling +tailor tried on a gown and pronounced that it was an excellent fit; and +then he put the pretty college cap on, in rather a dandified manner and +somewhat on one side, as he had seen Fiddicombe, the youngest master at +Grey Friars, wear it. And he inspected the entire costume with a great +deal of satisfaction in one of the great gilt mirrors which ornamented +Mr. Buck's lecture-room: for some of these college divines are no more +above looking-glasses than a lady is, and look to the set of their +gowns and caps quite as anxiously as folks do of the lovelier sex. The +Major smiled as he saw the boy dandifying himself in the glass: the old +gentleman was not displeased with the appearance of the comely lad. + +Then Davis, the skip or attendant, led the way, keys in hand, across the +quadrangle, the Major and Pen following him, the latter blushing, and +pleased with his new academical habiliments, across the quadrangle to +the rooms which were destined for the freshman; and which were vacated +by the retreat of the gentleman-pensioner, Mr. Spicer. The rooms were +very comfortable, with large cross beams, high wainscots, and small +windows in deep embrasures. Mr. Spicer's furniture was there, and to be +sold at a valuation, and Major Pendennis agreed on his nephew's behalf +to take the available part of it, laughingly however declining (as, +indeed, Pen did for his own part) six sporting prints, and four groups +of opera-dancers with gauze draperies, which formed the late occupant's +pictorial collection. + +Then they went to hall, where Pen sate down and ate his commons with his +brother freshmen, and the Major took his place at the high-table along +with the college dignitaries and other fathers or guardians of youth, +who had come up with their sons to Oxbridge; and after hall they went to +Mr. Buck's to take wine; and after wine to chapel, where the Major sate +with great gravity in the upper place, having a fine view of the +Master in his carved throne or stall under the organ-loft, where that +gentleman, the learned Doctor Donne, sate magnificent, with his great +prayer-book before him, an image of statuesque piety and rigid devotion. +All the young freshmen behaved with gravity and decorum, but Pen was +shocked to see that atrocious little Foker, who came in very late, +and half a dozen of his comrades in the gentlemen-pensioners' seats, +giggling and talking as if they had been in so many stalls at the Opera. +But these circumstances, it must be remembered, took place some years +back, when William the Fourth was king. Young men are much better +behaved now, and besides, Saint Boniface was rather a fast college. + +Pen could hardly sleep at night in his bedroom at the Trencher: so +anxious was he to begin his college life, and to get into his own +apartments. What did he think about, as he lay tossing and awake? Was it +about his mother at home; the pious soul whose life was bound up in +his? Yes, let us hope he thought of her a little. Was it about Miss +Fotheringay, and his eternal passion, which had kept him awake so many +nights, and created such wretchedness and such longing? He had a trick +of blushing, and if you had been in the room, and the candle had not +been out, you might have seen the youth's countenance redden more than +once, as he broke out into passionate incoherent exclamations regarding +that luckless event of his life. His uncle's lessons had not been thrown +away upon him; the mist of passion had passed from his eyes now, and he +saw her as she was. To think that he, Pendennis, had been enslaved by +such a woman, and then jilted by her! that he should have stooped so +low, to be trampled on the mire! that there was a time in his life, and +that but a few months back, when he was willing to take Costigan for his +father-in-law! + +"Poor old Smirke!" Pen presently laughed out--"well, I'll write and try +and console the poor old boy. He won't die of his passion, ha, ha!" The +Major, had he been awake, might have heard a score of such ejaculations +uttered by Pen as he lay awake and restless through the first night of +his residence at Oxbridge. + +It would, perhaps, have been better for a youth, the battle of whose +life was going to begin on the morrow, to have passed the eve in a +different sort of vigil: but the world had got hold of Pen in the shape of +his selfish old Mentor: and those who have any interest in his character +must have perceived ere now, that this lad was very weak as well as +very impetuous, very vain as well as very frank, and if of a generous +disposition, not a little selfish in the midst of his profuseness, and +also rather fickle, as all eager pursuers of self-gratification are. + +The six months' passion had aged him very considerably. There was an +immense gulf between Pen the victim of love, and Pen the innocent boy +of eighteen, sighing after it: and so Arthur Pendennis had all the +experience and superiority, besides that command which afterwards +conceit and imperiousness of disposition gave him over the young men +with whom he now began to live. + +He and his uncle passed the morning with great satisfaction in making +purchases for the better comfort of the apartments which the lad was +about to occupy. Mr. Spicer's china and glass was in a dreadfully +dismantled condition, his lamps smashed, and his bookcases by no means +so spacious as those shelves which would be requisite to receive the +contents of the boxes which were lying in the hall at Fairoaks, and +which were addressed to Arthur in the hand of poor Helen. + +The boxes arrived in a few days, that his mother had packed with so +much care. Pen was touched as he read the superscriptions in the dear +well-known hand, and he arranged in their proper places all the books, +his old friends, and all the linen and table-cloths which Helen had +selected from the family stock, and all the jam-pots which little +Laura had bound in straw, and the hundred simple gifts of home. Pen +had another Alma Mater now. But it is not all children who take to her +kindly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. Pendennis of Boniface + + +Our friend Pen was not sorry when his Mentor took leave of the young +gentleman on the second day after the arrival of the pair in Oxbridge, +and we may be sure that the Major on his part was very glad to have +discharged his duty, and to have the duty over. More than three months +of precious time had that martyr of a Major given up to his nephew--Was +ever selfish man called upon to make a greater sacrifice? Do you know +many men or Majors who would do as much? A man will lay down his head, +or peril his life for his honour, but let us be shy how we ask him to +give up his ease or his heart's desire. Very few of us can bear that +trial. Say, worthy reader, if thou hast peradventure a beard, wouldst +thou do as much? I will not say that a woman will not. They are used to +it: we take care to accustom them to sacrifices but, my good sir, the +amount of self-denial which you have probably exerted through life, when +put down to your account elsewhere, will not probably swell the balance +on the credit side much. Well, well, there is no use in speaking of such +ugly matters, and you are too polite to use a vulgar to quoque. But +I wish to state once for all that I greatly admire the Major for his +conduct during the past quarter, and think that he has quite a right to +be pleased at getting a holiday. Foker and Pen saw him off in the coach, +and the former young gentleman gave particular orders to the coachman +to take care of that gentleman inside. It pleased the elder Pendennis to +have his nephew in the company of a young fellow who would introduce him +to the best set of the university. The Major rushed off to London and +thence to Cheltenham, from which Watering-place he descended upon some +neighbouring great houses, whereof the families were not gone abroad, +and where good shooting and company was to be had. + +A quarter of the space which custom has awarded to works styled the +Serial Nature, has been assigned to the account of one passage in Pen's +career, and it is manifest that the whole of his adventures cannot be +treated at a similar length, unless some descendant of the chronicler +of Pen's history should take up the pen at his decease, and continue the +narrative for the successors of the present generation of readers. We +are not about to go through the young fellow's academical career with, +by any means, a similar minuteness. Alas, the life of such boys does not +bear telling altogether. I wish it did. I ask you, does yours? As long +as what we call our honour is clear, I suppose your mind is pretty easy. +Women are pure, but not men. Women are unselfish, but not men. And I +would not wish to say of poor Arthur Pendennis that he was worse than +his neighbours, only that his neighbours are bad for the most part. +Let us have the candour to own as much at least. Can you point out ten +spotless men of your acquaintance? Mine is pretty large, but I can't +find ten saints in the list. + +During the first term of Mr. Pen's academical life, he attended +classical and mathematical lectures with tolerable assiduity; but +discovering before very long time that he had little taste or genius +for the pursuing of the exact sciences, and being perhaps rather annoyed +that one or two very vulgar young men, who did not even use straps to +their trousers so as to cover the abominably thick and coarse shoes and +stockings which they wore, beat him completely in the lecture-room, he +gave up his attendance at that course, and announced to his fond parent +that he proposed to devote himself exclusively to the cultivation of +Greek and Roman Literature. + +Mrs. Pendennis was, for her part, quite satisfied that her darling boy +should pursue that branch of learning for which he had the greatest +inclination; and only besought him not to ruin his health by too much +study, for she had heard the most melancholy stories of young students +who, by over-fatigue, had brought on brain-fevers and perished untimely +in the midst of their university career. And Pen's health, which was +always delicate, was to be regarded, as she justly said, beyond all +considerations or vain honours. Pen, although not aware of any lurking +disease which was likely to end his life, yet kindly promised his mamma +not to sit up reading too late of nights, and stuck to his word in this +respect with a great deal more tenacity of resolution than he exhibited +upon some other occasions, when perhaps he was a little remiss. + +Presently he began too to find that he learned little good in the +classical lecture. His fellow-students there were too dull, as in +mathematics they were too learned for him. Mr. Buck, the tutor, was no +better a scholar than many a fifth-form boy at Grey Friars; might have +some stupid humdrum notions about the metre and grammatical construction +of a passage of Aeschylus or Aristophanes, but had no more notion of the +poetry than Mrs. Binge, his bed-maker; and Pen grew weary of hearing the +dull students and tutor blunder through a few lines of a play, which he +could read in a tenth part of the time which they gave to it. After all, +private reading, as he began to perceive, was the only study which was +really profitable to a man; and he announced to his mamma that he should +read by himself a great deal more, and in public a great deal less. That +excellent woman knew no more about Homer than she did about Algebra, but +she was quite contented with Pen's arrangements regarding his course of +studies, and felt perfectly confident that her dear boy would get the +place which he merited. + +Pen did not come home until after Christmas, a little to the fond +mother's disappointment, and Laura's, who was longing for him to make a +fine snow fortification, such as he had made three winters before. But +he was invited to Logwood, Lady Agnes Foker's, where there were private +theatricals, and a gay Christmas party of very fine folks, some of +them whom Major Pendennis would on no account have his nephew neglect. +However, he stayed at home for the last three weeks of the vacation, +and Laura had the opportunity of remarking what a quantity of fine +new clothes he brought with him, and his mother admired his improved +appearance and manly and decided tone. + +He did not come home at Easter; but when he arrived for the long +vacation, he brought more smart clothes; appearing in the morning in +wonderful shooting jackets, with remarkable buttons; and in the evening +in gorgeous velvet waistcoats, with richly-embroidered cravats, and +curious linen. And as she pried about his room, she saw, oh, such a +beautiful dressing-case, with silver mountings, and a quantity of lovely +rings and jewellery. And he had a new French watch and gold chain, in +place of the big old chronometer, with its bunch of jingling seals, +which had hung from the fob of John Pendennis, and by the second-hand of +which the defunct doctor had felt many a patient's pulse in his time. +It was but a few months back Pen had longed for this watch, which he +thought the most splendid and august timepiece in the world; and just +before he went to college, Helen had taken it out of her trinket-box +(where it had remained unwound since the death of her husband) and given +it to Pen with a solemn and appropriate little speech respecting his +father's virtues and the proper use of time. This portly and valuable +chronometer Pen now pronounced to be out of date, and, indeed, made +some comparisons between it and a warming-pan, which Laura thought +disrespectful, and he left the watch in a drawer, in the company of +soiled primrose gloves, cravats which had gone out of favour, and of +that other school watch which has once before been mentioned in this +history. Our old friend, Rebecca, Pen pronounced to be no long up to his +weight, and swapped her away for another and more powerful horse, for +which he had to pay rather a heavy figure. Mr. Pendennis gave the boy +the money for the new horse; and Laura cried when Rebecca was fetched +away. + +Also Pen brought a large box of cigars branded Colorados, Afrancesados, +Telescopios, Fudson Oxford Street, or by some such strange titles, and +began to consume these not only about the stables and green-houses, +where they were very good for Helen's plants, but in his own study, of +which practice his mother did not at first approve. But he was at work +upon a prize-poem, he said, and could not compose without his cigar, and +quoted the late lamented it Lord Byron's lines in favour of the custom +of smoking. As he was smoking to such good purpose, his mother could not +of course refuse permission: in fact, the good soul coming into the room +one day in the midst of Pen's labours (he was consulting a novel which +had recently appeared, for the cultivation of the light literature +of his own country as well as of foreign nations became every +student)--Helen, we say, coming into the room and finding Pen on the +sofa at this work, rather than disturb him went for a light-box and his +cigar-case to his bedroom which was adjacent, and actually put the +cigar into his mouth and lighted the match at which he kindled it. Pen +laughed, and kissed his mother's hand as it hung fondly over the back of +the sofa. "Dear old mother," he said, "if I were to tell you to burn the +house down, I think you would do it." And it is very likely that Mr. Pen +was right, and that the foolish woman would have done almost as much for +him as he said. + +Besides the works of English "light literature" which this diligent +student devoured, he brought down boxes of the light literature of the +neighbouring country of France: into the leaves of which when Helen +dipped, she read such things as caused her to open her eyes with wonder. +But Pen showed her that it was not he who made the books, though it +was absolutely necessary that he should keep up his French by an +acquaintance with the most celebrated writers of the day, and that it +was as clearly his duty to read the eminent Paul de Kock, as to study +Swift or Moliere. And Mrs. Pendennis yielded with a sigh of perplexity. +But Miss Laura was warned off the books, both by his anxious mother, and +that rigid moralist Mr. Arthur Pendennis himself, who, however he might +be called upon to study every branch of literature in order to form his +mind and to perfect his style, would by no means prescribe such a course +of reading to a young lady whose business in life was very different. + +In the course of this long vacation Mr. Pen drank up the bin of claret +which his father had laid in, and of which we have heard the son +remark that there was not a headache in a hogshead; and this wine +being exhausted, he wrote for a further supply to "his wine merchants," +Messrs. Binney and Latham of Mark Lane, London: from whom, indeed, old +Doctor Portman had recommended Pen to get a supply of port and sherry +on going to college. "You will have, no doubt, to entertain your young +friends at Boniface with wine-parties," the honest rector had remarked +to the lad. "They used to be customary at college in my time, and I +would advise you to employ an honest and respectable house in London for +your small stock of wine, rather than to have recourse to the Oxbridge +tradesmen, whose liquor, if I remember rightly, was both deleterious in +quality and exorbitant in price." And the obedient young gentleman took +the Doctor's advice, and patronised Messrs. Binney and Latham at the +rector's suggestion. + +So when he wrote orders for a stock of wine to be sent down to the +cellars at Fairoaks, he hinted that Messrs. B. and L. might send in his +university account for wine at the same time with the Fairoaks bill. +The poor widow was frightened at the amount. But Pen laughed at her +old-fashioned views, said that the bill was moderate, that everybody +drank claret and champagne now, and, finally, the widow paid, feeling +dimly that the expenses of her household were increasing considerably, +and that her narrow income would scarce suffice to meet them. But +they were only occasional. Pen merely came home for a few weeks at the +vacation. Laura and she might pinch when he was gone. In the brief time +he was with them, ought they not to make him happy? + +Arthur's own allowances were liberal all this time; indeed, much more +so than those of the sons of far more wealthy men. Years before, the +thrifty and affectionate John Pendennis, whose darling project it had +ever been to give his son a university education, and those advantages +of which his own father's extravagance had deprived him, had begun +laying by a store of money which he called Arthur's Education Fund. Year +after year in his book his executors found entries of sums vested as A. +E. F., and during the period subsequent to her husband's decease, and +before Pen's entry at college, the widow had added sundry sums to +this fund, so that when Arthur went up to Oxbridge it reached no +inconsiderable amount. Let him be liberally allowanced, was Major +Pendennis's maxim. Let him make his first entree into the world as a +gentleman, and take his place with men of good rank and station: after +giving it to him, it will be his own duty to hold it. There is no such +bad policy as stinting a boy--or putting him on a lower allowance than +his fellows. Arthur will have to face the world and fight for himself +presently. Meanwhile we shall have procured for him good friends, +gentlemanly habits, and have him well backed and well trained against +the time when the real struggle comes. And these liberal opinions the +Major probably advanced both because they were just, and because he was +not dealing with his own money. + +Thus young Pen, the only son of an estated country gentleman, with a +good allowance, and a gentlemanlike bearing and person, looked to be +a lad of much more consequence than he was really; and was held by the +Oxbridge authorities, tradesmen, and undergraduates, as quite a young +buck and member of the aristocracy. His manner was frank, brave, and +perhaps a little impertinent, as becomes a high-spirited youth. He was +perfectly generous and free-handed with his money, which seemed +pretty plentiful. He loved joviality, and had a good voice for a song. +Boat-racing had not risen in Pen's time to the fureur which, as we are +given to understand, it has since attained in the university; and riding +and tandem-driving were the fashions of the ingenuous youth. Pen rode +well to hounds, appeared in pink, as became a young buck, and, not +particularly extravagant in equestrian or any other amusement, yet +managed to run up a fine bill at Nile's, the livery-stable keeper, and +in a number of other quarters. In fact, this lucky young gentleman had +almost every taste to a considerable degree. He was very fond of books +of all sorts: Doctor Portman had taught him to like rare editions, and +his own taste led him to like beautiful bindings. It was marvellous +what tall copies, and gilding, and marbling, and blind-tooling, the +booksellers and binders put upon Pen's bookshelves. He had a very +fair taste in matters of art, and a keen relish for prints of a high +school--none of your French Opera Dancers, or tawdry Racing Prints, such +as had delighted the simple eyes of Mr. Spicer, his predecessor--but +your Stranges, and Rembrandt etchings, and Wilkies before the letter, +with which his apartments were furnished presently in the most perfect +good taste, as was allowed in the university, where this young fellow +got no small reputation. We have mentioned that he exhibited a certain +partiality for rings, jewellery, and fine raiment of all sorts; and +it must be owned that Mr. Pen, during his time at the university, was +rather a dressy man, and loved to array himself in splendour. He and his +polite friends would dress themselves out with as much care in order to +go and dine at each other's rooms, as other folks would who were going +to enslave a mistress. They said he used to wear rings over his +kid gloves, which he always denies; but what follies will not youth +perpetrate with its own admirable gravity and simplicity? That he took +perfumed baths is a truth; and he used to say that he took them after +meeting certain men of a very low set in hall. + +In Pen's second year, when Miss Fotheringay made her chief hit in +London, and scores of prints were published of her, Pen had one of these +hung in his bedroom, and confided to the men of his set how awfully, how +wildly, how madly, how passionately, he had loved that woman. He showed +them in confidence the verses that he had written to her, and his brow +would darken, his eyes roll, his chest heave with emotion as he recalled +that fatal period of his life, and described the woes and agonies which +he had suffered. The verses were copied out, handed about, sneered at, +admired, passed from coterie to coterie. There are few things which +elevate a lad in the estimation of his brother boys, more than to have +a character for a great and romantic passion. Perhaps there is something +noble in it at all times--among very young men it is considered +heroic--Pen was pronounced a tremendous fellow. They said he had almost +committed suicide: that he had fought a duel with a baronet about her. +Freshmen pointed him out to each other. As at the promenade time at two +o'clock he swaggered out of college, surrounded by his cronies, he was +famous to behold. He was elaborately attired. He would ogle the ladies +who came to lionise the university, and passed before him on the arms +of happy gownsmen, and give his opinion upon their personal charms, or +their toilettes, with the gravity of a critic whose experience entitled +him to speak with authority. Men used to say that they had been walking +with Pendennis, and were as pleased to be seen in his company as some of +us would be if we walked with a duke down Pall Mall. He and the Proctor +capped each other as they met, as if they were rival powers, and the men +hardly knew which was the greater. + +In fact, in the course of his second year, Arthur Pendennis had become +one of the men of fashion in the university. It is curious to watch +that facile admiration, and simple fidelity of youth. They hang round +a leader; and wonder at him, and love him, and imitate him. No +generous boy ever lived, I suppose, that has not had some wonderment of +admiration for another boy; and Monsieur Pen at Oxbridge had his school, +his faithful band of friends and his rivals. When the young men heard +at the haberdashers' shops that Mr. Pendennis, of Boniface, had just +ordered a crimson satin-cravat, you would see a couple of dozen crimson +satin cravats in Main Street in the course of the week--and Simon, the +Jeweller, was known to sell no less than two gross of Pendennis pins, +from a pattern which the young gentleman had selected in his shop. + +Now if any person with an arithmetical turn of mind will take the +trouble to calculate what a sum of money it would cost a young man to +indulge freely in all the above propensities which we have said Mr. Pen +possessed, it will be seen that a young fellow, with such liberal tastes +and amusements, must needs in the course of two or three years spend or +owe a very handsome sum of money. We have said our friend Pen had not a +calculating turn. No one propensity of his was outrageously extravagant; +and it is certain that Paddington's tailor's account; Guttlebury's +cook's bill for dinners; Dillon Tandy's bill with Finn, the print +seller, for Raphael-Morgheus and Landseer proofs, and Wormall's dealings +with Parkton, the great bookseller, for Aldine editions, black-letter +folios, and richly illuminated Missals of the XVI. Century; and +Snaffle's or Foker's score with Nile the horsedealer, were, each and all +of them, incomparably greater than any little bills which Mr. Pen might +run up with the above-mentioned tradesmen. But Pendennis of Boniface +had the advantage over all these young gentlemen, his friends and +associates, of a universality of taste: and whereas young Lord +Paddington did not care twopence for the most beautiful print, or to +look into any gilt frame that had not a mirror within it; and Guttlebury +did not mind in the least how he was dressed, and had an aversion for +horse exercise, nay a terror of it; and Snaffle never read any printed +works but the 'Racing Calendar' or 'Bell's Life,' or cared for any +manuscript except his greasy little scrawl of a betting-book:--our +Catholic-minded young friend occupied himself in every one of the +branches of science or pleasure above-mentioned, and distinguished +himself tolerably in each. + +Hence young Pen got a prodigious reputation in the university, and was +hailed as a sort of Crichton; and as for the English verse prize, in +competition for which we have seen him busily engaged at Fairoaks, Jones +of Jesus carried it that year certainly, but the undergraduates thought +Pen's a much finer poem, and he had his verses printed at his +own expense, and distributed in gilt morocco covers amongst his +acquaintance. I found a copy of it lately in a dusty corner of Mr. Pen's +bookcases, and have it before me this minute, bound up in a collection +of old Oxbridge tracts, university statutes, prize-poems by successful +and unsuccessful candidates, declamations recited in the college chapel, +speeches delivered at the Union Debating Society, and inscribed by +Arthur with his name and college, Pendennis--Boniface; or presented +to him by his affectionate friend Thompson or Jackson, the author. How +strange the epigraphs look in those half-boyish hands, and what a thrill +the sight of the documents gives one after the lapse of a few lustres! +How fate, since that time, has removed some, estranged others, dealt +awfully with all! Many a hand is cold that wrote those kindly memorials, +and that we pressed in the confident and generous grasp of youthful +friendship. What passions our friendships were in those old days, how +artless and void of doubt! How the arm you were never tired of having +linked in yours under the fair college avenues or by the river side, +where it washes Magdalen Gardens, or Christ Church Meadows, or winds +by Trinity and King's, was withdrawn of necessity, when you entered +presently the world, and each parted to push and struggle for himself +through the great mob on the way through life! Are we the same men now +that wrote those inscriptions--that read those poems? that delivered or +heard those essays and speeches so simple, so pompous, so ludicrously +solemn; parodied so artlessly from books, and spoken with smug chubby +faces, and such an admirable aping of wisdom and gravity? Here is the +book before me: it is scarcely fifteen years old. Here is Jack moaning +with despair and Byronic misanthropy, whose career at the university +was one of unmixed milk-punch. Here is Tom's daring Essay in defence of +suicide and of republicanism in general, apropos of the death of +Roland and the Girondins--Tom's, who wears the starchest tie in all the +diocese, and would go to Smithfield rather than eat a beefsteak on a +Friday in Lent. Here is Bob of the ---- Circuit, who has made a fortune +in Railroad Committees, and whose dinners are so good--bellowing out +with Tancred and Godfrey, "On to the breach, ye soldiers of the cross, +Scale the red wall and swim the choking foss. Ye dauntless archers, +twang your cross-bows well; On, bill and battle-axe and mangonel! Ply +battering-ram and hurtling catapult, Jerusalem is ours--id Deus vult." +After which comes a mellifluous description of the gardens of Sharon +and the maids of Salem, and a prophecy that roses shall deck the entire +country of Syria, and a speedy reign of peace be established--all in +undeniably decasyllabic lines, and the queerest aping of sense and +sentiment and poetry. And there are Essays and Poems along with these +grave parodies, and boyish exercises (which are at once so frank and +false and mirthful, yet, somehow, so mournful) by youthful hands, that +shall never write more. Fate has interposed darkly, and the young voices +are silent, and the eager brains have ceased to work. This one had +genius and a great descent, and seemed to be destined for honours which +now are of little worth to him: that had virtue, learning, genius--every +faculty and endowment which might secure love, admiration, and worldly +fame: an obscure and solitary churchyard contains the grave of many fond +hopes, and the pathetic stone which bids them farewell--I saw the sun +shining on it in the fall of last year, and heard the sweet village +choir raising anthems round about. What boots whether it be Westminster +or a little country spire which covers your ashes, or if, a few days +sooner or later, the world forgets you? + +Amidst these friends, then, and a host more, Pen passed more than two +brilliant and happy years of his life. He had his fill of pleasure and +popularity. No dinner- or supper-party was complete without him; and +Pen's jovial wit, and Pen's songs, and dashing courage and frank and +manly bearing, charmed all the undergraduates, and even disarmed the +tutors who cried out at his idleness, and murmured about his extravagant +way of life. Though he became the favourite and leader of young men who +were much his superiors in wealth and station, he was much too generous +to endeavour to propitiate them by any meanness or cringing on his own +part, and would not neglect the humblest man of his acquaintance in +order to curry favour with the richest young grandee in the university. +His name is still remembered at the Union Debating Club, as one of the +brilliant orators of his day. By the way, from having been an ardent +Tory in his freshman's year, his principles took a sudden turn +afterwards, and he became a liberal of the most violent order. He avowed +himself a Dantonist, and asserted that Louis the Sixteenth was served +right. And as for Charles the First, he vowed that he would chop off +that monarch's head with his own right hand were he then in the room at +the Union Debating Club, and had Cromwell no other executioner for the +traitor. He and Lord Magnus Charters, the Marquis of Runnymede's son, +before-mentioned, were the most truculent republicans of their day. + +There are reputations of this sort made, quite independent of the +collegiate hierarchy, in the republic of gownsmen. A man may be famous +in the Honour-lists and entirely unknown to the undergraduates: who +elect kings and chieftains of their own, whom they admire and obey, as +negro-gangs have private black sovereigns in their own body, to whom +they pay an occult obedience, besides that which they publicly profess +for their owners and drivers. Among the young ones Pen became famous +and popular: not that he did much, but there was a general determination +that he could do a great deal if he chose. "Ah, if Pendennis of Boniface +would but try," the men said, "he might do anything." He was backed for +the Greek Ode won by Smith of Trinity; everybody was sure he would have +the Latin hexameter prize which Brown of St. John's, however, carried +off, and in this way one university honour after another was lost by +him, until, after two or three failures, Mr. Pen ceased to compete. But +he got a declamation prize in his own college, and brought home to +his mother and Laura at Fairoaks a set of prize-books begilt with the +college arms, and so big, well-bound, and magnificent, that these ladies +thought there had been no such prize ever given in a college before +as this of Pen's, and that he had won the very largest honour which +Oxbridge was capable of awarding. + +As vacation after vacation and term after term passed away without the +desired news that Pen had sate for any scholarship or won any honour, +Doctor Portman grew mightily gloomy in his behaviour towards Arthur, +and adopted a sulky grandeur of deportment towards him, which the lad +returned by a similar haughtiness. One vacation he did not call upon the +Doctor at all, much to his mother's annoyance, who thought that it was +a privilege to enter the Rectory-house at Clavering, and listened to Dr. +Portman's antique jokes and stories, though ever so often repeated, with +unfailing veneration. "I cannot stand the Doctor's patronising air", Pen +said. "He's too kind to me, a great deal fatherly. I have seen in the +world better men than him, and am not going to bore myself by listening +to his dull old stories and drinking his stupid old port wine." The +tacit feud between Pen and the Doctor made the widow nervous, so that +she too avoided Portman, and was afraid to go to the Rectory when Arthur +was at home. + +One Sunday in the last long vacation, the wretched boy pushed his +rebellious spirit so far as not to go to church, and he was seen at +the gate of the Clavering Arms smoking a cigar, in the face of the +congregation as it issued from St. Mary's. There was an awful sensation +in the village society, Portman prophesied Pen's ruin after that, and +groaned in spirit over the rebellious young prodigal. + +So did Helen tremble in her heart, and little Laura--Laura had grown +to be a fine young stripling by this time, graceful and fair, clinging +round Helen and worshipping her, with a passionate affection. Both +of these women felt that their boy was changed. He was no longer the +artless Pen of old days, so brave, so artless, so impetuous, and tender. +His face looked careworn and haggard, his voice had a deeper sound, +and tones more sarcastic. Care seemed to be pursuing him; but he only +laughed when his mother questioned him, and parried her anxious queries +with some scornful jest. Nor did he spend much of his vacations at home; +he went on visits to one great friend or another, and scared the quiet +pair at Fairoaks by stories of great houses whither he had been invited; +and by talking of lords without their titles. + +Honest Harry Foker, who had been the means of introducing Arthur +Pendennis to that set of young men at the university, from whose society +and connexions Arthur's uncle expected that the lad would get so +much benefit; who had called for Arthur's first song at his first +supper-party; and who had presented him at the Barmecide Club, where +none but the very best men of Oxbridge were admitted (it consisted in +Pen's time of six noblemen, eight gentlemen-pensioners, and twelve of +the most select commoners of the university), soon found himself left +far behind by the young freshman in the fashionable world of Oxbridge, +and being a generous and worthy fellow, without a spark of envy in +his composition, was exceedingly pleased at the success of his young +protege, and admired Pen quite as much as any of the other youth did. It +was he who followed Pen now, and quoted his sayings; learned his songs, +and retailed them at minor supper-parties, and was never weary of +hearing them from the gifted young poet's own mouth--for a good deal of +the time which Mr. Pen might have employed much more advantageously +in the pursuit of the regular scholastic studies, was given up to the +composition of secular ballads, which he sang about at parties according +to university wont. + +It had been as well for Arthur if the honest Foker had remained for some +time at college, for, with all his vivacity, he was a prudent young +man, and often curbed Pen's propensity to extravagance: but Foker's +collegiate career did not last very long after Arthur's entrance at +Boniface. Repeated differences with the university authorities caused +Mr. Foker to quit Oxbridge in an untimely manner. He would persist in +attending races on the neighbouring Hungerford Heath, in spite of the +injunctions of his academic superiors. He never could be got to frequent +the chapel of the college with that regularity of piety which Alma Mater +demands from her children; tandems, which are abominations in the eyes +of the heads and tutors, were Foker's greatest delight, and so reckless +was his driving and frequent the accidents and upsets out of his drag, +that Pen called taking a drive with him taking the "Diversions of +Purley;" finally, having a dinner-party at his rooms to entertain some +friends from London, nothing would satisfy Mr. Foker but painting Mr. +Buck's door vermilion, in which freak he was caught by the proctors; and +although young Black Strap, the celebrated negro fighter, who was one of +Mr. Foker's distinguished guests, and was holding the can of paint while +the young artist operated on the door, knocked down two of the proctor's +attendants and performed prodigies of valour, yet these feats rather +injured than served Foker, whom the proctor knew very well and who was +taken with the brush in his hand, and who was summarily convened and +sent down from the university. + +The tutor wrote a very kind and feeling letter to Lady Agnes on the +subject, stating that everybody was fond of the youth; that he never +meant harm to any mortal creature; that he for his own part would have +been delighted to pardon the harmless little boyish frolic, had not its +unhappy publicity rendered it impossible to look the freak over, and +breathing the most fervent wishes for the young fellow's welfare--wishes +no doubt sincere, for Foker, as we know, came of a noble family on his +mother's side, and on the other was heir to a great number of thousand +pounds a year. + +"It don't matter," said Foker, talking over the matter with Pen,--"a +little sooner or a little later, what is the odds? I should have been +plucked for my little-go again, I know I should--that Latin I cannot +screw into my head, and my mamma's anguish would have broke out next +term. The Governor will blow like an old grampus, I know he will,--well, +we must stop till he gets his wind again. I shall probably go abroad and +improve my mind with foreign travel. Yes, parly-voo's the ticket. It'ly, +and that sort of thing. I'll go to Paris and learn to dance and complete +my education. But it's not me I'm anxious about, Pen. As long as people +drink beer I don't care,--it's about you I'm doubtful, my boy. You're +going too fast, and can't keep up the pace, I tell you. It's not the +fifty you owe me,--pay it or not when you like,--but it's the every-day +pace, and I tell you it will kill you. You're livin' as if there was no +end to the money in the stockin' at home. You oughtn't to give dinners, +you ought to eat 'em. Fellows are glad to have you. You oughtn't to owe +horse bills, you ought to ride other chaps' nags. You know no more about +betting than I do about Algebra: the chaps will win your money as sure +as you sport it. Hang me if you are not trying everything. I saw you sit +down to ecarte last week at Trumpington's, and taking your turn with the +bones after Ringwood's supper. They'll beat you at it, Pen, my boy, even +if they play on the square, which I don't say they don't, nor which I +don't say they do, mind. But I won't play with 'em. You're no match for +'em. You ain't up to their weight. It's like little Black Strap standing +up to Tom Spring,--the Black's a pretty fighter but, Law bless you, his +arm ain't long enough to touch Tom,--and I tell you, you're going it +with fellers beyond your weight. Look here--If you'll promise me never +to bet nor touch a box nor a card, I'll let you off the two ponies." + +But Pen, laughingly, said, "that though it wasn't convenient to him to +pay the two ponies at that moment, he by no means wished to be let off +any just debts he owed;" and he and Foker parted, not without many dark +forebodings on the latter's part with regard to his friend, who Harry +thought was travelling speedily on the road to ruin. + +"One must do at Rome as Rome does," Pen said, in a dandified manner, +jingling some sovereigns in his waistcoat-pocket. "A little quiet play +at ecarte can't hurt a man who plays pretty well--I came away fourteen +sovereigns richer from Ringwood's supper, and, gad! I wanted the +money."--And he walked off, after having taken leave of poor Foker, who +went away without any beat of drum, or offer to drive the coach out of +Oxbridge, to superintend a little dinner which he was going to give at +his own rooms in Boniface, about which dinners, the cook of the college, +who had a great respect for Mr. Pendennis, always took especial pains +for his young favourite. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. Rake's Progress + + +Some short time before Mr. Foker's departure from Oxbridge, there had +come up to Boniface a gentleman who had once, as it turned out, belonged +to the other University of Camford, which he had quitted on account of +some differences with the tutors and authorities there. This gentleman, +whose name was Horace Bloundell, was of the ancient Suffolk +family of Bloundell-Bloundell, of Bloundell-Bloundell Hall, +Bloundell-Bloundellshire, as the young wags used to call it; and no +doubt it was on account of his descent, and because Dr. Donne, the +Master of Boniface, was a Suffolk man, and related perhaps to the +family, that Mr. Horace Bloundell was taken in at Boniface, after St. +George's and one or two other Colleges had refused to receive him. There +was a living in the family, which it was important for Mr. Bloundell +to hold; and, being in a dragoon regiment at the time when his third +brother, for whom the living was originally intended, sickened and died, +Mr. Bloundell determined upon quitting crimson pantaloons and sable +shakos, for the black coat and white neckcloth of the English divine. +The misfortunes which occurred at Camford, occasioned some slight +disturbance to Mr. Bloundell's plans; but although defeated upon one +occasion, the resolute ex-dragoon was not dismayed, and set to work to +win a victory elsewhere. + +In Pen's second year Major Pendennis paid a brief visit to his nephew, +and was introduced to several of Pen's university friends--the gentle +and polite Lord Plinlimmon, the gallant and open-hearted Magnus +Charters, the sly and witty Harland; the intrepid Ringwood, who was +called Rupert in the Union Debating Club, from his opinions and the +bravery of his blunders; Broadbent, styled Barebones Broadbent from the +republican nature of his opinions (he was of a dissenting family from +Bristol and a perfect Boanerges of debate); Mr. Bloundell-Bloundell +finally, who had at once taken his place among the select of the +university. + +Major Pendennis, though he did not understand Harland's Greek +quotations, or quite appreciate Broadbent's thick shoes and dingy hands, +was nevertheless delighted with the company assembled round his nephew, +and highly approved of all the young men with the exception of that one +who gave himself the greatest airs in the society, and affected most to +have the manners of a man of the world. + +As he and Pen sate at breakfast on the morning after the party in the +rooms of the latter, the Major gave his opinions regarding the young +men, with whom he was in the greatest good-humour. He had regaled them +with some of his stories, which, though not quite so fresh in London +(where people have a diseased appetite for novelty in the way of +anecdotes), were entirely new at Oxbridge, and the lads heard them with +that honest sympathy, that eager pleasure, that boisterous laughter, or +that profound respect, so rare in the metropolis, and which must be so +delightful to the professed raconteur. Only once or twice during the +telling of the anecdote Mr. Bloundell's face wore a look of scorn, +or betrayed by its expression that he was acquainted with the tales +narrated. Once he had the audacity to question the accuracy of one of +the particulars of a tale as given by Major Pendennis, and gave his own +version of the anecdote, about which he knew he was right, for he +heard it openly talked of at the Club by So-and-so and T'other who were +present at the business. The youngsters present looked up with wonder +at their associate, who dared to interrupt the Major--few of them +could appreciate that melancholy grace and politeness with which Major +Pendennis at once acceded to Mr. Bloundell's version of the story, +and thanked him for correcting his own error. They stared on the next +occasion of meeting, when Bloundell spoke in contemptuous terms of +old Pen; said everybody knew old Pen, regular old trencherman at Gaunt +House, notorious old bore, regular old fogy. + +Major Pendennis on his side liked Mr. Bloundell not a whit. These +sympathies are pretty sure to be mutual amongst men and women, and if, +for my part, some kind friend tells me that such and such a man has been +abusing me, I am almost sure, on my own side, that I have a misliking +to such and such a man. We like or dislike each other, as folks like or +dislike the odour of certain flowers, or the taste of certain dishes or +wines, or certain books. We can't tell why--but as a general rule, all +the reasons in the world will not make us love Dr. Fell, and as sure as +we dislike him, we may be sure that he dislikes us. + +So the Major said, "Pen, my boy, your dinner went off a merveille; you +did the honours very nicely--you carved well--I am glad you learned to +carve--it is done on the sideboard now in most good houses, but is +still an important point, and may aid you in middle-life--young Lord +Plinlimmon is a very amiable young man, quite the image of his dear +mother (whom I knew as Lady Aquila Brownbill); and Lord Magnus's +republicanism will wear off--it sits prettily enough on a young +patrician in early life, though nothing is so loathsome among persons +of our rank--Mr. Broadbent seems to have much eloquence and considerable +reading--your friend Foker is always delightful: but your acquaintance, +Mr. Bloundell, struck me as in all respects a most ineligible young +man." + +"Bless my soul, sir, Bloundell-Bloundell!" cried Pen, laughing; "why, +sir, he's the most popular man of the university. We elected him of +the Barmecides the first week he came up--had a special meeting on +purpose--he's of an excellent family--Suffolk Bloundells, descended from +Richard's Blondel, bear a harp in chief--and motto O Mong Roy." + +"A man may have a very good coat-of-arms, and be a tiger, my boy," the +Major said, chipping his egg; "that man is a tiger, mark my word--a low +man. I will lay a wager that he left his regiment, which was a good one +(for a more respectable man than my friend Lord Martingale never sate in +a saddle), in bad odour. There is the unmistakable look of slang and bad +habits about this Mr. Bloundell. He frequents low gambling-houses and +billiard-hells, sir--he haunts third-rate clubs--I know he does. I know +by his style. I never was mistaken in my man yet. Did you remark the +quantity of rings and jewellery he wore? That person has Scamp written +on his countenance, if any man ever had. Mark my words and avoid him. +Let us turn the conversation. The dinner was a leetle too fine, but I +don't object to your making a few extra frais when you receive friends. +Of course, you don't do it often, and only those whom it is your +interest to feter. The cutlets were excellent, and the souffle +uncommonly light and good. The third bottle of champagne was not +necessary; but you have a good income, and as long as you keep within +it, I shall not quarrel with you, my dear boy." + +Poor Pen! the worthy uncle little knew how often those dinners took +place, while the reckless young Amphitryon delighted to show his +hospitality and skill in gourmandise. There is no art than that (so long +to learn, so difficult to acquire, so impossible and beyond the means of +many unhappy people!) about which boys are more anxious to have an air +of knowingness. A taste and knowledge of wines and cookery appears to +them to be the sign of an accomplished roue and manly gentleman. I +like to see them wink at a glass of claret, as if they had an intimate +acquaintance with it, and discuss a salmi--poor boys--it is only when +they grow old that they know they know nothing of the science, when +perhaps their conscience whispers them that the science is in itself +little worth, and that a leg of mutton and content is as good as the +dinners of pontiffs. But little Pen, in his character of Admirable +Crichton, thought it necessary to be a great judge and practitioner of +dinners; we have just said how the college cook respected him, and shall +soon have to deplore that that worthy man so blindly trusted our Pen. In +the third year of the lad's residence at Oxbridge, his staircase was by +no means encumbered with dish-covers and desserts, and waiters carrying +in dishes, and skips opening iced champagne; crowds of different sorts +of attendants, with faces sulky or piteous, hung about the outer oak, +and assailed the unfortunate lad as he issued out of his den. + +Nor did his guardian's advice take any effect, or induce Mr. Pen to +avoid the society of the disreputable Mr. Bloundell. What young men like +in their companions is, what had got Pen a great part of his own repute +and popularity, a real or supposed knowledge of life. A man who has seen +the world, or can speak of it with a knowing air--a roue, or Lovelace, +who has his adventures to relate, is sure of an admiring audience among +boys. It is hard to confess, but so it is. We respect that sort of +prowess. From our school-days we have been taught to admire it. Are +there five in the hundred, out of the hundreds and hundreds of English +school-boys, brought up at our great schools and colleges, that must not +own at one time of their lives to having read and liked Don Juan? Awful +propagation of evil!--The idea of it should make the man tremble who +holds the pen, lest untruth, or impurity, or unjust anger, or unjust +praise escape it. + +One such diseased creature as this is enough to infect a whole colony, +and the tutors of Boniface began to find the moral tone of their college +lowered and their young men growing unruly, and almost ungentleman-like, +soon after Mr. Bloundell's arrival at Oxbridge. The young magnates of +the neighbouring great College of St. George's, who regarded Pen, and in +whose society he lived, were not taken in by Bloundell's flashy graces, +and rakish airs of fashion. Broadbent called him Captain Macheath, and +said he would live to be hanged. Foker, during his brief stay at the +university with Macheath, with characteristic caution declined to say +anything in the Captain's disfavour, but hinted to Pen that he had +better have him for a partner at whist than play against him, and better +back him at ecarte than bet on the other side. "You see, he plays better +than you do, Pen," was the astute young gentleman's remark: "he plays +uncommon well, the Captain does;--and Pen, I wouldn't take the odds too +freely from him, if I was you. I don't think he's too flush of money, +the Captain ain't." But beyond these dark suggestions and generalities, +the cautious Foker could not be got to speak. + +Not that his advice would have had more weight with a headstrong young +man, than advice commonly has with a lad who is determined on pursuing +his own way. Pen's appetite for pleasure was insatiable, and he rushed +at it wherever it presented itself, with an eagerness which bespoke +his fiery constitution and youthful health. He called taking pleasure +"Seeing life," and quoted well-known maxims from Terence, from Horace, +from Shakspeare, to show that one should do all that might become a man. +He bade fair to be utterly used up and a roue, in a few years, if he +were to continue at the pace at which he was going. + +One night after a supper-party in college, at which Pen and Macheath had +been present, and at which a little quiet vingt-et-un had been played +(an amusement much pleasanter to men in their second and third year than +the boisterous custom of singing songs, which bring the proctors about +the rooms, and which have grown quite stale by this time, every man +having expended his budget)--as the men had taken their caps and were +going away, after no great losses or winnings on any side, Mr. Bloundell +playfully took up a green wine-glass from the supper-table, which had +been destined to contain iced cup, but into which he inserted something +still more pernicious, namely a pair of dice, which the gentleman took +out of his waistcoat-pocket, and put into the glass. Then giving the +glass a graceful wave which showed that his hand was quite experienced +in the throwing of dice, he called sevens the main, and whisking the +ivory cubes gently on the table, swept them up lightly again from the +cloth, and repeated this process two or three times. The other men +looked on, Pen, of course, among the number, who had never used the dice +as yet, except to play a humdrum game of backgammon at home. + +Mr. Bloundell, who had a good voice, began to troll out the chorus from +Robert the Devil, an Opera then in great vogue, in which chorus many of +the men joined, especially Pen, who was in very high spirits, having +won a good number of shillings and half-crowns at the vingt-et-un--and +presently, instead of going home, most of the party were seated round +the table playing at dice, the green glass going round from hand to hand +until Pen finally shivered it, after throwing six mains. + +From that night Pen plunged into the delights of the game of hazard, +as eagerly as it was his custom to pursue any new pleasure. Dice can be +played of mornings as well as after dinner or supper. Bloundell would +come into Pen's rooms after breakfast, and it was astonishing how +quick the time passed as the bones were rattling. They had little quiet +parties with closed doors, and Bloundell devised a box lined with felt, +so that the dice should make no noise, and their tell-tale rattle not +bring the sharp-eared tutors up to the rooms. Bloundell, Ringwood, +and Pen were once very nearly caught by Mr. Buck, who, passing in the +Quadrangle, thought he heard the words "Two to one on the caster," +through Pen's open window; but when the tutor got into Arthur's rooms he +found the lads with three Homers before them, and Pen said he was trying +to coach the two other men, and asked Mr. Buck with great gravity what +was the present condition of the River Scamander, and whether it was +navigable or no? + +Mr. Arthur Pendennis did not win much money in these transactions with +Mr. Bloundell, or indeed gain good of any kind except a knowledge of the +odds at hazard, which he might have learned out of books. + +Captain Macheath had other accomplishments which he exercised for Pen's +benefit. The Captain's stories had a great and unfortunate charm for +Arthur, who was never tired of hearing Bloundell's histories of garrison +conquests, and of his feats in country-quarters.--He had been at Paris, +and had plenty of legends about the Palais Royal, and the Salon, and +Frascati's. He had gone to the Salon one night, after a dinner at the +Cafe de Paris, "when we were all devilishly cut, by Jove; and on waking +in the morning in my own rooms, I found myself with twelve thousand +francs under my pillow, and a hundred and forty-nine Napoleons in one +of my boots. Wasn't that a coup, hay?" the Captain said. Pen's eyes +glistened with excitement as he heard this story. He respected the man +who could win such a sum of money. He sighed, and said it would set +him all right. Macheath laughed, and told him to drink another drop of +Maraschino. "I could tell you stories much more wonderful than that," +he added; and so indeed the Captain could have done, without any further +trouble than that of invention, with which portion of the poetic faculty +Nature had copiously endowed him. + +He laughed to scorn Pen's love for Miss Fotheringay, when he came to +hear of that amour from Arthur, as he pretty soon did, for, we have +said, Pen was not averse to telling the story now to his confidential +friends, and he and they were rather proud of the transaction. But +Macheath took away all Pen's conceit on this head, not by demonstrating +the folly of the lad's passion for an uneducated woman much his senior +in years, but by exposing his absurd desire of gratifying his passion in +a legitimate way. "Marry her," said he, "you might as well marry ----," +and he named one of the most notorious actresses on the stage. + +"She hadn't a shred of a character." He knew twenty men who were openly +admirers of her, and named them, and the sums each had spent upon her. I +know no kind of calumny more frightful or frequent than this which takes +away the character of women, no men more reckless and mischievous than +those who lightly use it, and no kind of cowards more despicable than +the people who invent these slanders. + +Is it, or not, a misfortune that a man, himself of a candid disposition, +and disposed, like our friend Pen, to blurt out the truth on all +occasions, begins life by believing all that is said to him? Would it be +better for a lad to be less trustful, and so less honest? It requires +no small experience of the world to know that a man, who has no especial +reason thereto, is telling you lies. I am not sure whether it is not +best to go on being duped for a certain time. At all events, our honest +Pen had a natural credulity, which enabled him to accept all statements +which were made to him, and he took every one of Captain Macheath's +figments as if they had been the most unquestioned facts of history. + +So Bloundell's account about Miss Fotheringay pained and mortified Pen +exceedingly. If he had been ashamed of his passion before,--what were +his feelings regarding it now, when the object of so much pure flame +and adoration turned out to be only a worthless impostor, an impostor +detected by all but him? It never occurred to Pen to doubt the fact, or +to question whether the stories of a man who, like his new friend, never +spoke well of any woman, were likely to be true. + +One Easter vacation, when Pen had announced to his mother and uncle his +intention not to go down, but stay at Oxbridge and read, Mr. Pen was +nevertheless induced to take a brief visit to London in company with +his friend Mr. Bloundell. They put up at a hotel in Covent Garden, where +Bloundell had a tick, as he called it, and took the pleasures of the +town very freely after the wont of young university men. Bloundell still +belonged to a military club, whither he took Pen to dine once or twice +(the young men would drive thither in a cab, trembling lest they +should meet Major Pendennis on his beat in Pall Mall), and here Pen +was introduced to a number of gallant young fellows with spurs and +mustachios, with whom he drank pale-ale of mornings and beat the town of +a night. Here he saw a deal of life, indeed: nor in his career about the +theatres and singing-houses which these roaring young blades frequented, +was he very likely to meet his guardian. One night, nevertheless, they +were very near to each other: a plank only separating Pen, who was +in the boxes of the Museum Theatre, from the Major, who was in Lord +Steyne's box, along with that venerated nobleman. The Fotheringay was +in the pride of her glory. She had made a hit: that is, she had drawn very +good houses for nearly a year, had starred the provinces with great +eclat, had come back to shine in London with somewhat diminished lustre, +and now was acting with "ever increasing attraction; etc.," "triumph +of the good old British drama," as the play-bills avowed, to houses in +which there was plenty of room for anybody who wanted to see her. + +It was not the first time Pen had seen her, since that memorable day +when the two had parted in Chatteris. In the previous year, when the +town was making much of her, and the press lauded her beauty, Pen had +found a pretext for coming to London in term-time, and had rushed off to +the theatre to see his old flame. He recollected it rather than +renewed it. He remembered how ardently he used to be on the look-out at +Chatteris, when the speech before Ophelia's or Mrs. Haller's entrance on +the stage was made by the proper actor. Now, as the actor spoke, he had +a sort of feeble thrill: as the house began to thunder with applause, +and Ophelia entered with her old bow and sweeping curtsey, Pen felt a +slight shock and blushed very much as he looked at her, and could not +help thinking that all the house was regarding him. He hardly heard her +for the first part of the play: and he thought with such rage of the +humiliation to which she had subjected him, that he began to fancy he +was jealous and in love with her still. But that illusion did not last +very long. He ran round to the stage-door of the theatre to see her if +possible, but he did not succeed. She passed indeed under his nose with +a female companion, but he did not know her,--nor did she recognise +him. The next night he came in late, and stayed very quietly for the +afterpiece, and on the third and last night of his stay in London--why, +Taglioni was going to dance at the Opera,--Taglioni! and there was to +be Don Giovanni, which he admired of all things in the world: so Mr. Pen +went to Don Giovanni and Taglioni. + +This time the illusion about her was quite gone. She was not less +handsome, but she was not the same, somehow. The light was gone out of +her eyes which used to flash there, or Pen's no longer were dazzled +by it. The rich voice spoke as of old, yet it did not make Pen's bosom +thrill as formerly. He thought he could recognise the brogue underneath: +the accents seemed to him coarse and false. It annoyed him to hear the +same emphasis on the same words, only uttered a little louder: worse +than this, it annoyed him to think that he should ever have mistaken +that loud imitation for genius, or melted at those mechanical sobs and +sighs. He felt that it was in another life almost, that it was another +man who had so madly loved her. He was ashamed and bitterly humiliated, +and very lonely. Ah, poor Pen! the delusion is better than the truth +sometimes, and fine dreams than dismal waking. + +They went and had an uproarious supper that night, and Mr. Pen had a +fine headache the next morning, with which he went back to Oxbridge, +having spent all his ready money. + +As all this narrative is taken from Pen's own confessions, so that +the reader may be assured of the truth of every word of it, and as Pen +himself never had any accurate notion of the manner in which he spent +his money, and plunged himself in much deeper pecuniary difficulties, +during his luckless residence at Oxbridge University, it is, of course, +impossible for me to give any accurate account of his involvements, +beyond that general notion of his way of life, which has been sketched +a few pages back. He does not speak too hardly of the roguery of the +university tradesmen, or of those in London whom he honoured with his +patronage at the outset of his career. Even Finch, the money-lender, +to whom Bloundell introduced him, and with whom he had various +transactions, in which the young rascal's signature appeared upon +stamped paper, treated him, according to Pen's own account, with +forbearance, and never mulcted him of more than a hundred per cent. The +old college-cook, his fervent admirer, made him a private bill, offered +to send him in dinners up to the very last, and never would have pressed +his account to his dying day. There was that kindness and frankness +about Arthur Pendennis, which won most people who came in contact with +him, and which, if it rendered him an easy prey to rogues, got him, +perhaps, more goodwill than he merited from many honest men. It was +impossible to resist his good-nature, or, in his worst moments, not to +hope for his rescue from utter ruin. + +At the time of his full career of university pleasure, he would leave +the gayest party to go and sit with a sick friend. He never knew +the difference between small and great in the treatment of his +acquaintances, however much the unlucky lad's tastes, which were of the +sumptuous order, led him to prefer good society; he was only too ready +to share his guinea with a poor friend, and when he got money had an +irresistible propensity for paying, which he never could conquer through +life. + +In his third year at college, the duns began to gather awfully round +about him, and there was a levee at his oak which scandalised the +tutors, and would have scared many a stouter heart. With some of +these he used to battle, some he would bully (under Mr. Bloundell's +directions, who was a master in this art, though he took a degree in no +other), and some deprecate. And it is reported of him that little Mary +Frodsham, the daughter of a certain poor gilder and frame-maker, +whom Mr. Pen had thought fit to employ, and who had made a number of +beautiful frames for his fine prints, coming to Pendennis with a piteous +tale that her father was ill with ague, and that there was an execution +in their house, Pen in an anguish of remorse rushed away, pawned his +grand watch and every single article of jewellery except two old gold +sleeve-buttons, which had belonged to his father, and rushed with the +proceeds to Frodsham's shop, where, with tears in his eyes, and the +deepest repentance and humility, he asked the poor tradesman's pardon. + +This, young gentlemen, is not told as an instance of Pen's virtue, but +rather of his weakness. It would have been much more virtuous to have +had no prints at all. He still stood for the baubles which he sold +in order to pay Frodsham's bill, and his mother had cruelly to pinch +herself in order to discharge the jeweller's account, so that she was +in the end the sufferer by the lad's impertinent fancies and follies. We +are not presenting Pen to you as a hero or a model, only as a lad, who, +in the midst of a thousand vanities and weaknesses, has as yet some +generous impulses, and is not altogether dishonest. + +We have said it was to the scandal of Mr. Buck the tutor that Pen's +extravagances became known: from the manner in which he entered college, +the associates he kept, and the introductions of Doctor Portman and the +Major, Buck for a long time thought that his pupil was a man of large +property, and wondered rather that he only wore a plain gown. Once on +going up to London to the levee with an address from his Majesty's Loyal +University of Oxbridge, Buck had seen Major Pendennis at St. James's in +conversation with two knights of the garter, in the carriage of one of +whom the dazzled tutor saw the Major whisked away after the levee. He +asked Pen to wine the instant he came back, let him off from chapels +and lectures more than ever, and felt perfectly sure that he was a young +gentleman of large estate. + +Thus, he was thunderstruck when he heard the truth, and received a +dismal confession from Pen. His university debts were large, and the +tutor had nothing to do, and of course Pen did not acquaint him, with +his London debts. What man ever does tell all when pressed by his +friends about his liabilities? The tutor learned enough to know that Pen +was poor, that he had spent a handsome, almost a magnificent allowance, +and had raised around him such a fine crop of debts, as it would be very +hard work for any man to mow down; for there is no plant that grows so +rapidly when once it has taken root. + +Perhaps it was because she was so tender and good that Pen was terrified +lest his mother should know of his sins. "I can't bear to break it to +her," he said to the tutor in an agony of grief. "O! sir, I've been a +villain to her"--and he repented, and he wished he had the time to come +over again, and he asked himself, "Why, why did his uncle insist upon +the necessity of living with great people, and in how much did all his +grand acquaintance profit him?" + +They were not shy, but Pen thought they were, and slunk from them +during his last terms at college. He was as gloomy as a death's-head at +parties, which he avoided of his own part, or to which his young friends +soon ceased to invite him. Everybody knew that Pendennis was "hard up." +That man Bloundell, who could pay nobody, and who was obliged to go down +after three terms, was his ruin, the men said. His melancholy figure +might be seen shirking about the lonely quadrangles in his battered old +cap and torn gown, and he who had been the pride of the university but +a year before, the man whom all the young ones loved to look at, was now +the object of conversation at freshmen's wine-parties, and they spoke of +him with wonder and awe. + +At last came the Degree Examinations. Many a young man of his year +whose hob-nailed shoes Pen had derided, and whose face or coat he +had caricatured--many a man whom he had treated with scorn in the +lecture-room or crushed with his eloquence in the debating-club--many +of his own set who had not half his brains, but a little regularity and +constancy of occupation, took high places in the honours or passed with +decent credit. And where in the list was Pen the superb, Pen the wit and +dandy, Pen the poet and orator? Ah, where was Pen the widow's darling +and sole pride? Let us hide our heads, and shut up the page. The lists +came out; and a dreadful rumour rushed through the university, that +Pendennis of Boniface was plucked. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. Flight after Defeat + + +Everybody who has the least knowledge of Heraldry and the Peerage must +be aware that the noble family of which, as we know, Helen Pendennis was +a member, bears for a crest, a nest full of little pelicans pecking at +the ensanguined bosom of a big maternal bird, which plentifully supplies +the little wretches with the nutriment on which, according to the +heraldic legend, they are supposed to be brought up. Very likely female +pelicans like so to bleed under the selfish little beaks of their young +ones: it is certain that women do. There must be some sort of pleasure, +which we men don't understand, which accompanies the pain of being +scarified, and indeed I believe some women would rather actually so +suffer than not. They like sacrificing themselves in behalf of the +object which their instinct teaches them to love. Be it for a reckless +husband, a dissipated son, a darling scapegrace of a brother, how ready +their hearts are to pour out their best treasures for the benefit of the +cherished person; and what a deal of this sort of enjoyment are we, on +one side, ready to give the soft creatures! There is scarce a man +that reads this, but has administered pleasure in this fashion to his +womankind, and has treated them to the luxury of forgiving him. They +don't mind how they live themselves; but when the prodigal comes home +they make a rejoicing, and kill the fatted calf for him: and at the very +first hint that the sinner is returning, the kind angels prepare their +festival, and Mercy and Forgiveness go smiling out to welcome him. I +hope it may be so always for all: if we have only Justice to look to, +Heaven help us! + +During the latter part of Pen's residence at the University of Oxbridge, +his uncle's partiality had greatly increased for the lad. The Major was +proud of Arthur, who had high spirits, frank manners, a good person, and +high gentleman-like bearing. It pleased the old London bachelor to see +Pen walking with the young patricians of his university, and he (who was +never known to entertain his friends, and whose stinginess had passed +into a sort of byword among some wags at the Club, who envied his many +engagements, and did not choose to consider his poverty) was charmed to +give his nephew and the young lords snug little dinners at his lodgings, +and to regale them with good claret, and his very best bons mots and +stories: some of which would be injured by the repetition, for the +Major's manner of telling them was incomparably neat and careful; and +others, whereof the repetition would do good to nobody. He paid his +court to their parents through the young men, and to himself as it were +by their company. He made more than one visit to Oxbridge, where the +young fellows were amused by entertaining the old gentleman, and gave +parties and breakfasts and fetes, partly to joke him and partly to do +him honour. He plied them with his stories. He made himself juvenile and +hilarious in the company of the young lords. He went to hear Pen at a +grand debate at the Union, crowed and cheered, and rapped his stick +in chorus with the cheers of the men, and was astounded at the boy's +eloquence and fire. He thought he had got a young Pitt for a nephew. +He had an almost paternal fondness for Pen. He wrote to the lad letters +with playful advice and the news of the town. He bragged about Arthur +at his Clubs, and introduced him with pleasure into his conversation; +saying, that, Egad, the young fellows were putting the old ones to the +wall; that the lads who were coming up, young Lord Plinlimmon, a friend +of my boy, young Lord Magnus Charters, a chum of my scapegrace, etc., +would make a greater figure in the world than even their fathers had +done before them. He asked permission to bring Arthur to a grand fete +at Gaunt House; saw him with ineffable satisfaction dancing with the +sisters of the young noblemen before mentioned; and gave himself as much +trouble to procure cards of invitation for the lad to some good houses, +as if he had been a mamma with a daughter to marry, and not an old +half-pay officer in a wig. And he boasted everywhere of the boy's great +talents, and remarkable oratorical powers; and of the brilliant degree +he was going to take. Lord Runnymede would take him on his embassy, or +the Duke would bring him in for one of his boroughs, he wrote over +and over again to Helen; who, for her part, was too ready to believe +anything that anybody chose to say in favour of her son. + +And all this pride and affection of uncle and mother had been trampled +down by Pen's wicked extravagance and idleness! I don't envy Pen's +feelings (as the phrase is), as he thought of what he had done. He had +slept, and the tortoise had won the race. He had marred at its outset +what might have been a brilliant career. He had dipped ungenerously into +a generous mother's purse; basely and recklessly spilt her little cruse. +O! it was a coward hand that could strike and rob a creature so tender. +And if Pen felt the wrong which he had done to others, are we to suppose +that a young gentleman of his vanity did not feel still more keenly the +shame he had brought upon himself? Let us be assured that there is no +more cruel remorse than that; and no groans more piteous than those of +wounded self-love. Like Joel Miller's friend, the Senior Wrangler, who +bowed to the audience from his box at the play, because he and the king +happened to enter the theatre at the same time, only with a fatuity by +no means so agreeable to himself, poor Arthur Pendennis felt perfectly +convinced that all England would remark the absence of his name from the +examination-lists, and talk about his misfortune. His wounded tutor, +his many duns, the skip and bed-maker who waited upon him, the +undergraduates of his own time and the years below him, whom he had +patronised or scorned--how could he bear to look any of them in the face +now? He rushed to his rooms, into which he shut himself, and there he +penned a letter to his tutor, full of thanks, regards, remorse, and +despair, requesting that his name might be taken off the college books, +and intimating a wish and expectation that death would speedily end the +woes of the disgraced Arthur Pendennis. + +Then he slunk out, scarcely knowing whither he went, but mechanically +taking the unfrequented little lanes by the backs of the colleges, until +he cleared the university precincts, and got down to the banks of the +Camisis river, now deserted, but so often alive with the boat-races, and +the crowds of cheering gownsmen, he wandered on and on, until he found +himself at some miles' distance from Oxbridge, or rather was found by +some acquaintances leaving that city. + +As Pen went up a hill, a drizzling January rain beating in his face, and +his ragged gown flying behind him--for he had not divested himself of +his academical garments since the morning--a postchaise came rattling +up the road, on the box of which a servant was seated, whilst within, or +rather half out of the carriage window, sate a young gentleman smoking a +cigar, and loudly encouraging the postboy. It was our young acquaintance +of Baymouth Mr. Spavin, who had got his degree, and was driving +homewards in triumph in his yellow postchaise. He caught a sight of the +figure, madly gesticulating as he worked up the hill, and of poor Pen's +pale and ghastly face as the chaise whirled by him. + +"Wo!" roared Mr. Spavin to the postboy, and the horses stopped in their +mad career, and the carriage pulled up some fifty yards before Pen. He +presently heard his own name shouted, and beheld the upper half of the +body of Mr. Spavin thrust out of the side-window of the vehicle, and +beckoning Pen vehemently towards it. + +Pen stopped, hesitated--nodded his head fiercely, and pointed onwards, +as if desirous that the postillion should proceed. He did not speak: +but his countenance must have looked very desperate, for young Spavin, +having stared at him with an expression of blank alarm, jumped out +of the carriage presently, ran towards Pen holding out his hand, and +grasping Pen's, said, "I say--hullo, old boy, where are you going, and +what's the row now?" + +"I'm going where I deserve to go," said Pen, with an imprecation. + +"This ain't the way," said Mr. Spavin, smiling. "This is the Fenbury +road. I say, Pen, don't take on because you are plucked. It's nothing +when you are used to it. I've been plucked three times, old boy--and +after the first time I didn't care. Glad it's over, though. You'll have +better luck next time." + +Pen looked at his early acquaintance,--who had been plucked, who had +been rusticated, who had only, after repeated failures, learned to +read and write correctly, and who, in spite of all these drawbacks, had +attained the honour of a degree. "This man has passed," he thought, "and +I have failed!" It was almost too much for him to bear. + +"Good-bye, Spavin," said he; "I'm very glad you are through. Don't let +me keep you; I'm in a hurry--I'm going to town to-night." + +"Gammon," said Mr. Spavin. "This ain't the way to town; this is the +Fenbury road, I tell you." + +"I was just going to turn back," Pen said. + +"All the coaches are full with the men going down," Spavin said. Pen +winced. "You'd not get a place for a ten-pound note. Get into my yellow; +I'll drop you at Mudford, where you have a chance of the Fenbury mail. +I'll lend you a hat and a coat; I've got lots. Come along; jump in, +old boy--go it, leathers!"--and in this way Pen found himself in Mr. +Spavin's postchaise, and rode with that gentleman as far as the Ram Inn +at Mudford, fifteen miles from Oxbridge; where the Fenbury mail changed +horses, and where Pen got a place on to London. + +The next day there was an immense excitement in Boniface College, +Oxbridge, where, for some time, a rumour prevailed, to the terror +of Pen's tutor and tradesmen, that Pendennis, maddened at losing his +degree, had made away with himself--a battered cap, in which his name +was almost discernible, together with a seal bearing his crest of an +eagle looking at a now extinct sun, had been found three miles on the +Fenbury road, near a mill-stream, and, for four-and-twenty hours, it was +supposed that poor Pen had flung himself into the stream, until letters +arrived from him, bearing the London post-mark. + +The mail reached London at the dreary hour of five; and he hastened to +the inn at Covent Garden, at which he was accustomed to put up, where +the ever-wakeful porter admitted him, and showed him to a bed. Pen +looked hard at the man, and wondered whether Boots knew he was plucked? +When in bed he could not sleep there. He tossed about until the +appearance of the dismal London daylight, when he sprang up desperately, +and walked off to his uncle's lodgings in Bury Street; where the maid, +who was scouring the steps, looked up suspiciously at him, as he came +with an unshaven face, and yesterday's linen. He thought she knew of his +mishap, too. + +"Good 'evens! Mr. Harthur, what as 'appened, sir?" Mr. Morgan, the valet, +asked, who had just arranged the well-brushed clothes and shiny boots +at the door of his master's bedroom, and was carrying in his wig to the +Major. + +"I want to see my uncle," he cried, in a ghastly voice, and flung +himself down on a chair. + +Morgan backed before the pale and desperate-looking young man, with +terrified and wondering glances, and disappeared in his master's +apartment. + +The Major put his head out of the bedroom door, as soon as he had his +wig on. + +"What? examination over? Senior Wrangler, double First Class, hay? said +the old gentleman--I'll come directly;" and the head disappeared. + +"They don't know what has happened," groaned Pen; "what will they say +when they know all?" + +Pen had been standing with his back to the window, and to such a dubious +light as Bury Street enjoys of a foggy January morning, so that his +uncle could not see the expression of the young man's countenance, or +the looks of gloom and despair which even Mr. Morgan had remarked. + +But when the Major came out of his dressing-room neat and radiant, and +preceded by faint odours from Delcroix's shop, from which emporium Major +Pendennis's wig and his pocket-handkerchief got their perfume, he held +out one of his hands to Pen, and was about addressing him in his cheery +high-toned voice, when he caught sight of the boy's face at length, and +dropping his hand, said, "Good God! Pen, what's the matter?" + +"You'll see it in the papers at breakfast, sir," Pen said. + +"See what?" + +"My name isn't there, sir." + +"Hang it, why should it be?" asked the Major, more perplexed. + +"I have lost everything, sir," Pen groaned out; "my honour's gone; I'm +ruined irretrievably; I can't go back to Oxbridge." + +"Lost your honour?" screamed out the Major. "Heaven alive! you don't +mean to say you have shown the white feather?" + +Pen laughed bitterly at the word feather, and repeated it. "No, it isn't +that, sir. I'm not afraid of being shot; I wish to God anybody would. I +have not got my degree. I--I'm plucked, sir." + +The Major had heard of plucking, but in a very vague and cursory way, +and concluded that it was some ceremony performed corporally upon +rebellious university youth. "I wonder you can look me in the face +after such a disgrace, sir," he said; "I wonder you submitted to it as a +gentleman." + +"I couldn't help it, sir. I did my classical papers well enough: it was +those infernal mathematics, which I have always neglected." + +"Was it--was it done in public, sir?" the Major said. + +"What?" + +"The--the plucking?" asked the guardian, looking Pen anxiously in the +face. + +Pen perceived the error under which his guardian was labouring, and +in the midst of his misery the blunder caused the poor wretch a faint +smile, and served to bring down the conversation from the tragedy-key, +in which Pen had been disposed to carry it on. He explained to his uncle +that he had gone in to pass his examination, and failed. On which the +Major said, that though he had expected far better things of his nephew, +there was no great misfortune in this, and no dishonour as far as he +saw, and that Pen must try again. + +"Me again at Oxbridge," Pen thought, "after such a humiliation as that!" +He felt that, except he went down to burn the place, he could not enter +it. + +But it was when he came to tell his uncle of his debts that the other +felt surprise and anger most keenly, and broke out in speeches most +severe upon Pen, which the lad bore, as best might, without flinching. +He had determined to make a clean breast, and had formed a full, true, +and complete list of all his bills and liabilities at the university, +and in London. They consisted of various items, such as: + + London Tailor. Oxbridge do. + Oxbridge do. Bill for horses. + Haberdasher, for shirts and gloves. Printseller. + Jeweller. Books. + College Cook. Binding. + Grump, for desserts. Hairdresser and Perfumery. + Bootmaker. Hotel bill in London. + Wine Merchant in London. Sundries. + +All which items the reader may fill in at his pleasure--such accounts +have been inspected by the parents of many university youth,--and it +appeared that Mr. Pen's bills in all amounted to about seven hundred +pounds; and, furthermore, it was calculated that he had had more than +twice that sum of ready money during his stay at Oxbridge. This sum he +had spent, and for it had to show--what? + +"You need not press a man who is down, sir," Pen said to his uncle, +gloomily. "I know very well, sir, how wicked and idle I have been. My +mother won't like to see me dishonoured, sir," he continued, with his +voice failing; "and I know she will pay these accounts. But I shall ask +her for no more money." + +"As you like, sir," the Major said. "You are of age, and my hands are +washed of your affairs. But you can't live without money, and have no +means of making it that I see, though you have a fine talent in spending +it, and it is my belief that you will proceed as you have begun, and +ruin your mother before you are five years older.--Good morning; it is +time for me to go to breakfast. My engagements won't permit me to see +you much during the time that you stay in London. I presume that you +will acquaint your mother with the news which you have just conveyed to +me." + +And pulling on his hat, and trembling in his limbs somewhat, Major +Pendennis walked out of his lodgings before his nephew, and went +ruefully off to take his accustomed corner at the Club. He saw the +Oxbridge examination-lists in the morning papers, and read over the +names, not understanding the business, with mournful accuracy. He +consulted various old fogies of his acquaintance, in the course of the +day, at his Clubs; Wenham, a Dean, various Civilians; and, as it is +called, "took their opinion," showing to some of them the amount of +his nephew's debts, which he had dotted down on the back of a card, and +asking what was to be done, and whether such debts were not monstrous, +preposterous? What was to be done?--There was nothing for it but to +pay. Wenham and the others told the Major of young men who owed twice +as much--five times as much--as Arthur, and with no means at all to pay. +The consultations, and calculations, and opinions, comforted the Major +somewhat. After all, he was not to pay. + +But he thought bitterly of the many plans he had formed to make a man +of his nephew, of the sacrifices which he had made, and of the manner in +which he was disappointed. And he wrote off a letter to Doctor Portman, +informing him of the direful events which had taken place, and begging +the Doctor to break them to Helen. For the orthodox old gentleman +preserved the regular routine in all things, and was of opinion that it +was more correct to "break" a piece of bad news to a person by means of +a (possibly maladroit and unfeeling) messenger, than to convey it simply +to its destination by a note. So the Major wrote to Doctor Portman, +and then went out to dinner, one of the saddest men in any London +dining-room that day. + +Pen, too, wrote his letter, and skulked about London streets for +the rest of the day, fancying that everybody was looking at him and +whispering to his neighbour, "That is Pendennis of Boniface, who was +plucked yesterday." His letter to his mother was full of tenderness and +remorse: he wept the bitterest tears over it--and the repentance and +passion soothed him to some degree. + +He saw a party of roaring young blades from Oxbridge in the coffee-room +of his hotel, and slunk away from them, and paced the streets. He +remembers, he says, the prints which he saw hanging up at Ackermann's +window in the rain, and a book which he read at a stall near the Temple: +at night he went to the pit of the play, and saw Miss Fotheringay, but +he doesn't in the least recollect in what piece. + +On the second day there came a kind letter from his tutor, containing +many grave and appropriate remarks upon the event which had befallen +him, but strongly urging Pen not to take his name off the university +books, and to retrieve a disaster which, everybody knew, was owing +to his own carelessness alone, and which he might repair by a month's +application. He said he had ordered Pen's skip to pack up some trunks of +the young gentleman's wardrobe, which duly arrived with fresh copies of +all Pen's bills laid on the top. + +On the third day there arrived a letter from home; which Pen read in his +bedroom, and the result of which was that he fell down on his knees with +his head in the bedclothes, and then prayed out his heart and humbled +himself; and having gone downstairs and eaten an immense breakfast he +sallied forth and took his place at the Bull and Mouth, Piccadilly, by +the Chatteris coach for that evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. Prodigal's Return + + +Such a letter as the Major wrote of course, sent Doctor Portman to +Fairoaks, and he went off with that alacrity which a good man shows when +he has disagreeable news to communicate. He wishes the deed were done, and +done quickly. He is sorry, but que voulez-vous? the tooth must be taken +out, and he has you in the chair, and it is surprising with what courage +and vigour of wrist he applies the forceps. Perhaps he would not be +quite so active or eager if it were his tooth; but, in fine, it is your +duty to have it out. So the doctor, having read the epistle out to Myra +and Mrs. Portman, with many damnatory comments upon the young scapegrace +who was going deeper and deeper into perdition, left those ladies to +spread the news through the Clavering society, which they did with their +accustomed accuracy and despatch, and strode over to Fairoaks to break +the intelligence to the widow. + +She had the news already. She had read Pen's letter, and it had relieved +her somehow. A gloomy presentiment of evil had been hanging over her for +many, many months past. She knew the worst now, and her darling boy was +come back to her repentant and tender-hearted. Did she want more? +All that the Rector could say (and his remarks were both dictated by +common-sense, and made respectable by antiquity) could not bring Helen +to feel any indignation or particular unhappiness, except that the boy +should be unhappy. What was this degree that they made such an outcry +about, and what good would it do Pen? Why did Doctor Portman and his +uncle insist upon sending the boy to a place where there was so much +temptation to be risked, and so little good to be won? Why didn't they +leave him at home with his mother? As for his debts, of course they must +be paid;--his debts!--wasn't his father's money all his, and hadn't he +a right to spend it? In this way the widow met the virtuous Doctor, and +all the arrows of his indignation somehow took no effect upon her gentle +bosom. + +For some time past, an agreeable practice, known since times ever +so ancient, by which brothers and sisters are wont to exhibit their +affection towards one another, and in which Pen and his little sister +Laura had been accustomed to indulge pretty frequently in their childish +days, had been given up by the mutual consent of those two individuals. +Coming back from college after an absence from home of some months, in +place of the simple girl whom he had left behind him, Mr. Arthur found +a tall, slim, handsome young lady, to whom he could not somehow proffer +the kiss which he had been in the habit of administering previously, and +who received him with a gracious curtsey and a proffered hand, and with +a great blush which rose up to the cheek, just upon the very spot which +young Pen had been used to salute. + +I am not good at descriptions of female beauty; and, indeed, do not care +for it in the least (thinking that goodness and virtue are, of course, +far more advantageous to a young lady than any mere fleeting charms of +person and face), and so shall not attempt any particular delineation +of Miss Laura Bell at the age of sixteen years. At that age she had +attained her present altitude of five feet four inches, so that she was +called tall and gawky by some, and a Maypole by others, of her own sex, +who prefer littler women. But if she was a Maypole, she had beautiful +roses about her head, and it is a fact that many swains were disposed to +dance round her. She was ordinarily pale, with a faint rose tinge in +her cheeks; but they flushed up in a minute when occasion called, +and continued so blushing ever so long, the roses remaining after the +emotion had passed away which had summoned those pretty flowers into +existence. Her eyes have been described as very large from her earliest +childhood, and retained that characteristic in later life. Good-natured +critics (always females) said that she was in the habit of making play +with those eyes, and ogling the gentlemen and ladies in her company; but +the fact is, that Nature had made them so to shine and to look, and they +could no more help so looking and shining than one star can help being +brighter than another. It was doubtless to mitigate their brightness +that Miss Laura's eyes were provided with two pairs of veils in the +shape of the longest and finest black eyelashes, so that, when she +closed her eyes, the same people who found fault with those orbs, said +that she wanted to show her eyelashes off; and, indeed, I daresay that +to see her asleep would have been a pretty sight. + +As for her complexion, that was nearly as brilliant as Lady Mantrap's, +and without the powder which her ladyship uses. Her nose must be left to +the reader's imaginaton: if her mouth was rather large (as Miss Piminy +avers, who, but for her known appetite, one would think could not +swallow anything larger than a button) everybody allowed that her smile +was charming, and showed off a set of pearly teeth, whilst her voice +was so low and sweet, that to hear it was like listening to sweet music. +Because she is in the habit of wearing very long dresses, people of +course say that her feet are not small: but it may be that they are +of the size becoming her figure, and it does not follow, because Mrs. +Pincher is always putting her foot out, that all other ladies should be +perpetually bringing theirs on the tapis. In fine, Miss Laura Bell at +the age of sixteen, was a sweet young lady. Many thousands of such are +to be found, let us hope, in this country where there is no lack of +goodness, and modesty, and purity, and beauty. + +Now Miss Laura, since she had learned to think for herself (and in the +past two years her mind and her person had both developed themselves +considerably) had only been half pleased with Pen's general conduct and +bearing. His letters to his mother at home had become of late very +rare and short. It was in vain that the fond widow urged how constant +Arthur's occupations and studies were and how many his engagements. +"It is better that he should lose a prize" Laura said "than forget his +mother; and indeed, mamma, I don't see that he gets many prizes. Why +doesn't he come home and stay with you, instead of passing his vacations +at his great friends' fine houses? There is nobody there will love him +half so much as--as you do." "As I do only, Laura?" sighed out Mrs. +Pendennis. Laura declared stoutly that she did not love Pen a bit, when +he did not do his duty to his mother nor would she be convinced by any +of Helen's fond arguments, that the boy must make his way in the +world; that his uncle was most desirous that Pen should cultivate the +acquaintance of persons who were likely to befriend him in life; that +men had a thousand ties and calls which women could not understand, +and so forth. Perhaps Helen no more believed in these excuses than her +adopted daughter did; but she tried to believe that she believed them, +and comforted herself with the maternal infatuation. And that is a point +whereon I suppose many a gentleman has reflected, that, do what we will, +we are pretty sure of the woman's love that once has been ours; and that +that untiring tenderness and forgiveness never fail us. + +Also, there had been that freedom, not to say audacity, in Arthur's +latter talk and ways, which had shocked and displeased Laura. Not that +he ever offended her by rudeness, or addressed to her a word which +she ought not to hear, for Mr. Pen was a gentleman, and by nature and +education polite to every woman high and low; but he spoke lightly and +laxly of women in general; was less courteous in his actions than in his +words--neglectful in sundry ways, and in many of the little offices of +life. It offended Miss Laura that he should smoke his horrid pipes in +the house; that he should refuse to go to church with his mother, or +on walks or visits with her, and be found yawning over his novel in his +dressing-gown, when the gentle widow returned from those duties. The +hero of Laura's early infancy, about whom she had passed so many, many +nights talking with Helen (who recited endless stories of the boy's +virtues, and love, and bravery, when he was away at school), was a +very different person from the young man whom now she knew; bold +and brilliant, sarcastic and defiant, seeming to scorn the simple +occupations or pleasures, or even devotions, of the women with whom he +lived, and whom he quitted on such light pretexts. + +The Fotheringay affair, too, when Laura came to hear of it (which she +did first by some sarcastic allusions of Major Pendennis, when on a +visit to Fairoaks, and then from their neighbours at Clavering, who +had plenty of information to give her on this head), vastly shocked and +outraged Miss Laura. A Pendennis fling himself away on such a woman as +that! Helen's boy galloping away from home, day after day, to fall on +his knees to an actress, and drink with her horrid father! A good son +want to bring such a man and such a woman into his house, and set her +over his mother! "I would have run away, mamma; I would, if I had had to +walk barefoot through the snow," Laura said. + +"And you would have left me too, then?" Helen answered; on which, of +course, Laura withdrew her previous observation, and the two women +rushed into each other's embraces with that warmth which belonged to +both their natures, and which characterises not a few of their sex. +Whence came all the indignation of Miss Laura about +Arthur's passion? Perhaps she did not know, that, if men throw +themselves away upon women, women throw themselves away upon men, +too; and that there is no more accounting for love, than for any other +physical liking or antipathy: perhaps she had been misinformed by the +Clavering people and old Mrs. Portman, who was vastly bitter against +Pen, especially since his impertinent behaviour to the Doctor and since +the wretch had smoked cigars in church-time: perhaps, finally, she was +jealous; but this is a vice in which it is said the ladies very seldom +indulge. + +Albeit she was angry with Pen, against his mother she had no such +feeling; but devoted herself to Helen with the utmost force of her +girlish affection--such affection as women, whose hearts are disengaged, +are apt to bestow upon the near female friend. It was devotion--it was +passion--it was all sorts of fondness and folly; it was a profusion of +caresses, tender epithets and endearments, such as it does not become +sober historians with beards to narrate. Do not let us men despise these +instincts because we cannot feel them. These women were made for our +comfort and delectation, gentlemen,--with all the rest of the minor +animals. + +But as soon as Miss Laura heard that Pen was unfortunate and unhappy, +all her wrath against him straightway vanished, and gave place to the +most tender and unreasonable compassion. He was the Pen of old days +once more restored to her, the frank and affectionate, the generous and +tender-hearted. She at once took side with Helen against Doctor Portman, +when he outcried at the enormity of Pen's transgressions. Debts? what +were his debts? they were a trifle; he had been thrown into expensive +society by his uncle's order, and of course was obliged to live in +the same manner as the young gentlemen whose company he frequented. +Disgraced by not getting his degree? the poor boy was ill when he went +in for the examinations: he couldn't think of his mathematics and stuff +on account of those very debts which oppressed him; very likely some of +the odious tutors and masters were jealous of him, and had favourites of +their own whom they wanted to put over his head. Other people disliked +him, and were cruel to him, and were unfair to him, she was very sure. +And so, with flushing cheeks and eyes bright with anger, this young +creature reasoned; and she went up and seized Helen's hand, and kissed +her in the Doctor's presence, and her looks braved the Doctor, and +seemed to ask how he dared to say a word against her darling mother's +Pen? + +When that divine took his leave, not a little discomfited and amazed at +the pertinacious obstinacy of the women, Laura repeated her embraces and +arguments with tenfold fervour to Helen, who felt that there was a +great deal of cogency in most of the latter. There must be some jealousy +against Pen. She felt quite sure that he had offended some of the +examiners, who had taken a mean revenge of him--nothing more likely. +Altogether, the announcement of the misfortune vexed these two ladies +very little indeed. Pen, who was plunged in his shame and grief in +London, and torn with great remorse for thinking of his mother's sorrow, +would have wondered, had he seen how easily she bore the calamity. +Indeed, calamity is welcome to women if they think it will bring truant +affection home again: and if you have reduced your mistress to a crust, +depend upon it that she won't repine, and only take a very little bit of +it for herself, provided you will eat the remainder in her company. + +And directly the Doctor was gone, Laura ordered fires to be lighted +in Mr. Arthur's rooms, and his bedding to be aired; and had these +preparations completed by the time Helen had finished a most tender +and affectionate letter to Pen: when the girl, smiling fondly, took her +mamma by the hand, and led her into those apartments where the fires +were blazing so cheerfully, and there the two kind creatures sate down +on the bed, and talked about Pen ever so long. Laura added a postscript +to Helen's letter, in which she called him her dearest Pen, and bade him +come home instantly, with two of the handsomest dashes under the word, +and be happy with his mother and his affectionate sister Laura. + +In the middle of the night--as these two ladies, after reading their +bibles a great deal during the evening, and after taking just a look +into Pen's room as they passed to their own--in the middle of the night, +I say, Laura, whose head not unfrequently chose to occupy that pillow +which the nightcap of the late Pendennis had been accustomed to press, +cried out suddenly, "Mamma, are you awake?" + +Helen stirred and said, "Yes, I'm awake." The truth is, though she had +been lying quite still and silent, she had not been asleep one instant, +but had been looking at the night-lamp in the chimney, and had been +thinking of Pen for hours and hours. + +Then Miss Laura (who had been acting with similar hypocrisy, and lying, +occupied with her own thoughts, as motionless as Helen's brooch, with +Pen's and Laura's hair in it, on the frilled white pincushion on the +dressing-table) began to tell Mrs. Pendennis of a notable plan which +she had been forming in her busy little brains; and by which all Pen's +embarrassments would be made to vanish in a moment, and without the +least trouble to anybody. + +"You know, mamma," this young lady said, "that I have been living with +you for ten years, during which time you have never taken any of my +money, and have been treating me just as if I was a charity girl. Now, +this obligation has offended me very much, because I am proud and do not +like to be beholden to people. And as, if I had gone to school--only I +wouldn't--it must have cost me at least fifty pounds a year, it is clear +that I owe you fifty times ten pounds, which I know you have put in the +bank at Chatteris for me, and which doesn't belong to me a bit. Now, +to-morrow we will go to Chatteris, and see that nice old Mr. Rowdy, with +the bald head, and ask him for it,--not for his head, but for the five +hundred pounds: and I dare say he will send you two more, which we will +save and pay back; and we will send the money to Pen, who can pay all +his debts without hurting anybody and then we will live happy ever +after." + +What Helen replied to this speech need not be repeated, as the widow's +answer was made up of a great number of incoherent ejaculations, +embraces, and other irrelative matter. But the two women slept well +after that talk; and when the night-lamp went out with a splutter, and +the sun rose gloriously over the purple hills, and the birds began +to sing and pipe cheerfully amidst the leafless trees and glistening +evergreens on Fairoaks lawn, Helen woke too, and as she looked at the +sweet face of the girl sleeping beside her, her lips parted with a +smile, blushes on her cheeks, her spotless bosom heaving and falling +with gentle undulations, as if happy dreams were sweeping over it--Pen's +mother felt happy and grateful beyond all power of words, save such as +pious women offer up to the Beneficent Dispenser of love and mercy--in +Whose honour a chorus of such praises is constantly rising up all round +the world. + +Although it was January and rather cold weather, so sincere was Mr. +Pen's remorse, and so determined his plans of economy, that he would not +take an inside place in the coach, but sate up behind with his friend +the Guard, who remembered his former liberality, and lent him plenty of +great-coats. Perhaps it was the cold that made his knees tremble as he +got down at the lodge-gate, or it may be that he was agitated at the +notion of seeing the kind creature for whose love he had made so selfish +a return. Old John was in waiting to receive his master's baggage, but +he appeared in a fustian jacket, and no longer wore his livery of drab +and blue. "I'se garner and stable man, and lives in the ladge now," this +worthy man remarked, with a grin of welcome to Pen, and something of a +blush; but instantly as Pen turned the corner of the shrubbery and +was out of eye-shot of the coach, Helen made her appearance, her face +beaming with love and forgiveness--for forgiving is what some women love +best of all. + +We may be sure that the widow, having a certain other object in view, +had lost no time in writing off to Pen an account of the noble, the +magnanimous, the magnificent offer of Laura, filling up her letter with +a profusion of benedictions upon both her children. It was probably the +knowledge of this money-obligation which caused Pen to blush very much +when he saw Laura, who was in waiting in the hall, and who this time, +and for this time only, broke through the little arrangement of which we +have spoken, as having subsisted between her and Arthur for the last few +years; but the truth is, there has been a great deal too much said about +kissing in the present chapter. + +So the Prodigal came home, and the fatted calf was killed for him, and +he was made as happy as two simple women could make him. No allusions +were made to the Oxbridge mishap, or questions asked as to his farther +proceedings, for some time. But Pen debated these anxiously in his own +mind, and up in his own room, where he passed much time in cogitation. + +A few days after he came home, he rode to Chatteris on his horse, and +came back on the top of the coach. He then informed his mother that he +had left the horse to be sold; and when that operation was effected, he +handed her over the cheque, which she, and possibly Pen himself, +thought was an act of uncommon virtue and self-denial, but which Laura +pronounced to be only strict justice. + +He rarely mentioned the loan which she had made, and which, indeed, +had been accepted by the widow with certain modifications; but once or +twice, and with great hesitation and stammering, he alluded to it, and +thanked her; but it evidently pained his vanity to be beholden to the +orphan for succour. He was wild to find some means of repaying her. + +He left off drinking wine, and betook himself, but with great +moderation, to the refreshment of whisky-and-water. He gave up +cigar-smoking; but it must be confessed that of late years he had liked +pipes and tobacco as well or even better, so that this sacrifice was not +a very severe one. + +He fell asleep a great deal after dinner when he joined the ladies +in the drawing-room, and was certainly very moody and melancholy. He +watched the coaches with great interest, walked in to read the papers +at Clavering assiduously, dined with anybody who would ask him (and the +widow was glad that he should have any entertainment in their solitary +place), and played a good deal at cribbage with Captain Glanders. + +He avoided Dr. Portman, who, in his turn, whenever Pen passed, gave him +very severe looks from under his shovel-hat. He went to church with his +mother, however, very regularly, and read prayers for her at home to the +little household. Always humble, it was greatly diminished now: a couple +of maids did the work of the house of Fairoaks: the silver dish-covers +never saw the light at all. + +John put on his livery to go to church, and assert his dignity on +Sundays, but it was only for form's sake. He was gardener and out-door +man, vice Upton, resigned. There was but little fire in Fairoaks +kitchen, and John and the maids drank their evening beer there by the +light, of a single candle. All this was Mr. Pen's doing, and the state +of things did not increase his cheerfulness. + +For some time Pen said no power on earth could induce him to go back to +Oxbridge again, after his failure there; but one day Laura said to him, +with many blushes, that she thought, as some sort of reparation, of +punishment on himself for his--for his idleness, he ought to go back and +get his degree, if he could fetch it by doing so; and so back Mr. Pen +went. + +A plucked man is a dismal being in a university; belonging to no set of +men there, and owned by no one. Pen felt himself plucked indeed of +all the fine feathers which he had won during his brilliant years, and +rarely appeared out of his college; regularly going to morning chapel, +and shutting himself up in his rooms of nights, away from the noise and +suppers of the undergraduates. There were no duns about his door, they +were all paid--scarcely any cards were left there. The men of his +year had taken their degrees, and were gone. He went into a second +examination, and passed with perfect ease. He was somewhat more easy in +his mind when he appeared in his bachelor's gown. + +On his way back from Oxbridge he paid a visit to his uncle in London; +but the old gentleman received him with very cold looks, and would +scarcely give him his forefinger to shake. He called a second time, but +Morgan, the valet, said his master was from home. + +Pen came back to Fairoaks, and to his books and to his idleness, and +loneliness and despair. He commenced several tragedies, and wrote many +copies of verses of a gloomy cast. He formed plans of reading and broke +them. He thought about enlisting--about the Spanish legion--about a +profession. He chafed against his captivity, and cursed the idleness +which had caused it. Helen said he was breaking his heart, and was sad +to see his prostration. As soon as they could afford it, he should go +abroad--he should go to London--he should be freed from the dull society +of two poor women. It was dull--very, certainly. The tender widow's +habitual melancholy seemed to deepen into a sadder gloom; and Laura +saw with alarm that the dear friend became every year more languid and +weary, and that her pale cheek grew more wan. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. New Faces + + +The inmates of Fairoaks were drowsily pursuing this humdrum existence, +while the great house upon the hill, on the other side of the River +Brawl, was shaking off the slumber in which it had lain during the lives +of two generations of masters, and giving extraordinary signs of renewed +liveliness. + +Just about the time of Pen's little mishap, and when he was so absorbed +in the grief occasioned by that calamity as to take no notice of events +which befell persons less interesting to himself than Arthur Pendennis, +an announcement appeared in the provincial journals which caused no +small sensation in the county at least, and in all the towns, villages, +halls and mansions, and parsonages for many miles round Clavering +Park. At Clavering Market; at Cackleby Fair; at Chatteris Sessions; on +Gooseberry Green, as the squire's carriage met the vicar's one-horse +contrivance, and the inmates of both vehicles stopped on the road to +talk; at Tinkleton Church gate, as the bell was tolling in the sunshine, +and the white smocks and scarlet cloaks came trooping over the green +common, to Sunday worship; in a hundred societies round about--the word +was, that Clavering Park was to be inhabited again. + +Some five years before, the county papers had advertised the marriage at +Florence, at the British Legation, of Francis Clavering, Esq., only son +of Sir Francis Clavering, Bart., of Clavering Park, with Jemima Augusta, +daughter of Samuel Snell, of Calcutta, Esq., and widow of the late J. +Amory, Esq. At that time the legend in the county was that Clavering, +who had been ruined for many a year, had married a widow from India with +some money. Some of the county folks caught a sight of the newly-married +pair. The Kickleburys, travelling in Italy, had seen them. Clavering +occupied the Poggi Palace at Florence, gave parties, and lived +comfortably--but could never come to England. Another year--young +Peregrine, of Cackleby, making a Long Vacation tour, had fallen in with +the Claverings occupying Schloss Schinkenstein, on the Mummel See. At +Rome, at Lucca, at Nice, at the baths and gambling places of the Rhine +and Belgium, this worthy couple might occasionally be heard of by the +curious, and rumours of them came, as it were by gusts, to Clavering's +ancestral place. + +Their last place of abode was Paris, where they appear to have lived in +great fashion and splendour after the news of the death of Samuel Snell, +Esq., of Calcutta, reached his orphan daughter in Europe. + +Of Sir Francis Clavering's antecedents little can be said that would be +advantageous to that respected baronet. The son of an outlaw, living +in a dismal old chateau near Bruges, this gentleman had made a feeble +attempt to start in life with a commission in a dragoon regiment, and +had broken down almost at the outset. Transactions at the gambling-table +had speedily effected his ruin; after a couple of years in the army +he had been forced to sell out, had passed some time in Her Majesty's +prison of the Fleet, and had then shipped over to Ostend to join the +gouty exile, his father. And in Belgium, France and Germany, for some +years, this decayed and abortive prodigal might be seen lurking about +billiard-rooms and watering-places, punting at gambling-houses, dancing +at boarding-house balls, and riding steeple-chases on other folks' +horses. + +It was at a boarding-house at Lausanne that Francis Clavering made +what he called the lucky coup of marrying the widow Amory, very lately +returned from Calcutta. His father died soon after, by consequence of +whose demise his wife became Lady Clavering. The title so delighted Mr. +Snell of Calcutta, that he doubled his daughter's allowance; and dying +himself soon after, left a fortune to her and her children the amount of +which was, if not magnified by rumour, something very splendid indeed. + +Before this time there had been, not rumours unfavourable to Lady +Clavering's reputation, but unpleasant impressions regarding her +ladyship. The best English people abroad were shy of making her +acquaintance; her manners were not the most refined; her origin was +lamentably low and doubtful. The retired East Indians, who are to be +found in considerable force in most of the continental towns frequented +by English, spoke with much scorn of the disreputable old lawyer and +indigo-smuggler her father, and of Amory, her first husband, who had +been mate of the Indiaman in which Miss Snell came out to join her +father at Calcutta. Neither father nor daughter were in society at +Calcutta, or had ever been heard of at Government House. Old Sir Jasper +Rogers, who had been Chief Justice of Calcutta, had once said to his +wife, that he could tell a queer story about Lady Clavering's first +husband; but greatly to Lady Rogers's disappointment, and that of the +young ladies his daughters, the old Judge could never be got to reveal +that mystery. + +They were all, however, glad enough to go to Lady Clavering's parties, +when her ladyship took the Hotel Bouilli in the Rue Grenelle at Paris, +and blazed out in the polite world there in the winter of 183--. +The Faubourg St. Germain took her up. Viscount Bagwig, our excellent +ambassador, paid her marked attention. The princes of the family +frequented her salons. The most rigid and noted of the English ladies +resident in the French capital acknowledged and countenanced her; the +virtuous Lady Elderbury, the severe Lady Rockminster, the venerable +Countess of Southdown--people, in a word, renowned for austerity, and of +quite a dazzling moral purity:--so great and beneficent an influence had +the possession of ten (some said twenty) thousand a year exercised +upon Lady Clavering's character and reputation. And her munificence +and good-will were unbounded. Anybody (in society) who had a scheme of +charity was sure to find her purse open. The French ladies of piety got +money from her to support their schools and convents; she subscribed +indifferently for the Armenian patriarch; for Father Barbarossa, who +came to Europe to collect funds for his monastery on Mount Athos; +for the Baptist Mission to Quashyboo, and the Orthodox Settlement in +Feefawfoo, the largest and most savage of the Cannibal Islands. And it +is on record of her, that, on the same day on which Madame de Cricri got +five Napoleons from her in support of the poor persecuted Jesuits, who +were at that time in very bad odour in France, Lady Budelight put her +down in her subscription-list for the Rev. J. Ramshorn, who had had +a vision which ordered him to convert the Pope of Rome. And more than +this, and for the benefit of the worldly, her ladyship gave the best +dinners, and the grandest balls and suppers, which were known at Paris +during that season. + +And it was during this time, that the good-natured lady must have +arranged matters with her husband's creditors in England, for Sir +Francis reappeared in his native country, without fear of arrest; was +announced in the Morning Post, and the county paper, as having taken up +his residence at Mivart's Hotel; and one day the anxious old housekeeper +at Clavering House beheld a carriage and four horses drive up the +long avenue, and stop before the moss-grown steps in front of the vast +melancholy portico. + +Three gentlemen were in the carriage--an open one. On the back seat was +our old acquaintance, Mr. Tatham of Chatteris, whilst in the places of +honour sate a handsome and portly gentleman enveloped in mustachios, +whiskers, fur collars, and braiding, and by him a pale languid man who +descended feebly from the carriage, when the little lawyer, and the +gentleman in fur, nimbly jumped out of it. + +They walked up the great moss-grown steps to the hall-door, and +a foreign attendant, with earrings and a gold-laced cap, pulled +strenuously at the great bell-handle at the cracked and sculptured gate. +The bell was heard clanging loudly through the vast gloomy mansion. +Steps resounded presently upon the marble pavement of the hall within; +and the doors opened, and finally Mrs. Blenkinsop, the housekeeper, +Polly, her aide-de-camp, and Smart, the keeper, appeared bowing humbly. + +Smart, the keeper, pulled the wisp of hay-coloured hair which adorned +his sunburnt forehead, kicked out his left heel as if there were a +dog biting at his calves, and brought down his head to a bow. Old Mrs +Blenkinsop dropped a curtsey. Little Polly, her aide-de-camp, made a +curtsey and several rapid bows likewise; and Mrs. Blenkinsop, with a +great deal of emotion, quavered out, "Welcome to Clavering, Sir Francis. +It du my poor eyes good to see one of the family once more." + +The speech and the greetings were all addressed to the grand gentleman +in fur and braiding, who wore his hat so magnificently on one side, and +twirled his mustachios so royally. But he burst out laughing, and said, +"You've saddled the wrong horse, old lady--I'm not Sir Francis Clavering +what's come to revisit the halls of my ancestors. Friends and vassals! +behold your rightful lord!" + +And he pointed his hand towards the pale, languid gentleman who said, +"Don't be an ass, Ned." + +"Yes, Mrs. Blenkinsop, I'm Sir Francis Clavering; I recollect you quite +well. Forgot me, I suppose?--How dy do?" and he took the old lady's +trembling hand; and nodded in her astonished face, in a not unkind +manner. + +Mrs. Blenkinsop declared upon her conscience that she would have known +Sir Francis anywhere, that he was the very image of Sir Francis, his +father, and of Sir John who had gone before. + +"O yes--thanky--of course--very much obliged--and that sort of thing," +Sir Francis said, looking vacantly about the hall "Dismal old place, +ain't it, Ned? Never saw it but once, when my governor quarrelled with +gwandfather in the year twenty-thwee. + +"Dismal?--beautiful!--the Castle of Otranto!--the Mysteries of Udolpho, +by Jove!" said the individual addressed as Ned. "What a fireplace! You +might roast an elephant in it. Splendid carved gallery! Inigo Jones, by +Jove! I'd lay five to two it's Inigo Jones." + +"The upper part by Inigo Jones; the lower was altered by the eminent +Dutch architect, Vanderputty, in George the First his time, by Sir +Richard, fourth baronet," said the housekeeper. + +"O indeed," said the Baronet "Gad, Ned, you know everything." + +"I know a few things, Frank," Ned answered. "I know that's not a Snyders +over the mantelpiece--bet you three to one it's a copy. We'll restore +it, my boy. A lick of varnish, and it will come out wonderfully, sir. +That old fellow in the red gown, I suppose, is Sir Richard." + +"Sheriff of the county, and sate in parliament in the reign of Queen +Anne," said the housekeeper, wondering at the stranger's knowledge; +"that on the right is Theodosia, wife of Harbottle, second baronet, by +Lely, represented in the character of Venus, the Goddess of Beauty,--her +son Gregory, the third baronet, by her side, as Cupid, God of Love, with +a bow and arrows; that on the next panel is Sir Rupert, made a knight +banneret by Charles the First, and whose property was confuscated by +Oliver Cromwell." + +"Thank you--needn't go on, Mrs. Blenkinsop," said the Baronet, "We'll +walk about the place ourselves. Frosch, give me a cigar. Have a cigar, +Mr. Tatham?" + +Little Mr. Tatham tried a cigar which Sir Francis's courier handed to +him, and over which the lawyer spluttered fearfully. "Needn't come with +us, Mrs. Blenkinsop. What's--his--name--you--Smart--feed the horses and +wash their mouths. Shan't stay long. Come along, Strong,--I know the +way: I was here in twenty-thwee, at the end of my gwandfather's time." +And Sir Francis and Captain Strong, for such was the style and title of +Sir Francis's friend, passed out of the hall into the reception-rooms, +leaving the discomfited Mrs. Blenkinsop to disappear by a side-door +which led to her apartments, now the only habitable rooms in the +long-uninhabited mansion. + +It was a place so big that no tenant could afford to live in it; and Sir +Francis and his friend walked through room after room, admiring their +vastness and dreary and deserted grandeur. On the right of the hall-door +were the saloons and drawing-rooms, and on the other side the oak room, +the parlour, the grand dining-room, the library, where Pen had found +books in old days. Round three sides of the hall ran a gallery, by +which, and corresponding passages, the chief bedrooms were approached, +and of which many were of stately proportions and exhibited marks of +splendour. On the second story was a labyrinth of little discomfortable +garrets, destined for the attendants of the great folks who inhabited +the mansion in the days when it was first built: and I do not know any +more cheering mark of the increased philanthropy of our own times, than +to contrast our domestic architecture with that of our ancestors, and to +see how much better servants and poor are cared for now, than in times +when my lord and my lady slept under gold canopies, and their servants +lay above them in quarters not so airy or so clean as stables are now. + +Up and down the house the two gentlemen wandered, the owner of the +mansion being very silent and resigned about the pleasure of possessing +it; whereas the Captain, his friend, examined the premises with so much +interest and eagerness that you would have thought he was the +master, and the other the indifferent spectator of the place. "I see +capabilities in it--capabilities in it, sir," cried the Captain. "Gad, +sir, leave it to me, and I'll make it the pride of the country, at +a small expense. What a theatre we can have in the library here, the +curtains between the columns which divide the room! What a famous room +for a galop!--it will hold the whole shire. We'll hang the morning +parlour with the tapestry in your second salon in the Rue de Grenelle, +and furnish the oak room with the Moyen-age cabinets and the armour. +Armour looks splendid against black oak, and there's a Venice glass in +the Quai Voltaire, which will suit that high mantelpiece to an inch, +sir. The long saloon, white and crimson of course; the drawing-room +yellow satin; and the little drawing-room light blue, with lace +over--hay?" + +"I recollect my old governor caning me in that little room," Sir Francis +said sententiously; "he always hated me, my old governor." + +"Chintz is the dodge, I suppose, for my lady's rooms--the suite in +the landing, to the south, the bedroom, the sitting-room, and the +dressing-room. We'll throw a conservatory out, over the balcony. Where +will you have your rooms?" + +"Put mine in the north wing," said the Baronet, with a yawn, "and out +of the reach of Miss Amory's confounded piano. I can't bear it. She's +scweeching from morning till night." + +The Captain burst out laughing. He settled the whole further +arrangements of the house in the course of their walk through it; and, +the promenade ended, they went into the steward's room, now inhabited by +Mrs. Blenkinsop, and where Mr. Tatham was sitting poring over a plan of +the estate, and the old housekeeper had prepared a collation in honour +of her lord and master. + +Then they inspected the kitchen and stables, about both of which Sir +Francis was rather interested, and Captain Strong was for examining +the gardens; but the Baronet said, "D---- the gardens, and that sort of +thing!" and finally he drove away from the house as unconcernedly as he +had entered it; and that night the people of Clavering learned that Sir +Francis Clavering had paid a visit to the Park, and was coming to live +in the county. + +When this fact came to be known at Chatteris, all the folks in the place +were set in commotion: High Church and Low Church, half-pay captains and +old maids and dowagers, sporting squireens of the viciniage, farmers, +tradesmen, and factory people--all the population in and round about +the little place. The news was brought to Fairoaks, and received by the +ladies there, and by Mr. Pen, with some excitement. "Mrs. Pybus says +there is a very pretty girl in the family, Arthur," Laura said, who was +as kind and thoughtful upon this point as women generally are: "a Miss +Amory, Lady Clavering's daughter by her first marriage. Of course, you +will fall in love with her as soon as she arrives." + +Helen cried out, "Don't talk nonsense, Laura." Pen laughed, and said, +"Well, there is the young Sir Francis for you." + +"He is but four years old," Miss Laura replied. "But I shall console +myself with that handsome officer, Sir Francis's friend. He was at +church last Sunday, in the Clavering pew, and his mustachios were +beautiful." + +Indeed the number of Sir Francis's family (whereof the members have all +been mentioned in the above paragraphs) was pretty soon known in his +town, and everything else, as nearly as human industry and ingenuity +could calculate, regarding his household. The Park avenue and grounds +were dotted now with town folks of the summer evenings, who made their +way up to the great house, peered about the premises, and criticised +the improvements which were taking place there. Loads upon loads of +furniture arrived in numberless vans from Chatteris and London; and +numerous as the vans are, there was not one but Captain Glanders knew +what it contained, and escorted the baggage up to the Park House. + +He and Captain Edward Strong had formed an intimate acquaintance by this +time. The younger Captain occupied those very lodgings at Clavering, +which the peaceful Smirke had previously tenanted, and was deep in the +good graces of Madame Fribsby, his landlady; and of the whole town, +indeed. The Captain was splendid in person and raiment; fresh-coloured, +blue-eyed, black-whiskered, broad-chested, athletic--a slight tendency +to fulness did not take away from the comeliness of his jolly figure--a +braver soldier never presented a broader chest to the enemy. As he +strode down Clavering High Street, his hat on one side, his cane +clanking on the pavement, or waving round him in the execution of +military cuts and soldatesque manoeuvres--his jolly laughter ringing +through the otherwise silent street--he was as welcome as sunshine to +the place, and a comfort to every inhabitant in it. + +On the first market-day he knew every pretty girl in the market: he +joked with all the women; had a word with the farmers about their stock, +and dined at the Agricultural Ordinary at the Clavering Arms, where he +set them all dying with laughing by his fun and jokes. "Tu be sure he be +a vine veller, tu be sure that he be," was the universal opinion of the +gentlemen in top-boots. He shook hands with a score of them, as they +rode out of the inn-yard on their old nags, waving his hat to them +splendidly as he smoked his cigar in the inn-gate. In the course of the +evening he was free of the landlady's bar, knew what rent the landlord +paid, how many acres he farmed, how much malt he put in his strong +beer; and whether he ever ran in a little brandy unexcised by kings from +Baymouth, or the fishing villages along the coast. + +He had tried to live at the great house first; but it was so dull he +couldn't stand it. "I am a creature born for society," he told Captain +Glanders. "I'm down here to see Clavering's house set in order; for +between ourselves, Frank has no energy, sir, no energy; he's not the +chest for it, sir (and he threw out his own trunk as he spoke); but I +must have social intercourse. Old Mrs. Blenkinsop goes to bed at seven, +and takes Polly with her. There was nobody but me and the Ghost for the +first two nights at the great house, and I own it, sir, I like company. +Most old soldiers do." + +Glanders asked Strong where he had served? Captain Strong curled his +mustache, and said with a laugh, that the other might almost ask where +he had not served. "I began, sir, as cadet of Hungarian Uhlans, and +when the war of Greek independence broke out, quitted that service in +consequence of a quarrel with my governor, and was one of seven +who escaped from Missolonghi, and was blown up in one of Botzaris's +fireships, at the age of seventeen. I'll show you my Cross of the +Redeemer, if you'll come over to my lodgings and take a glass of grog +with me, Captain, this evening. I've a few of those baubles in my desk. +I've the White Eagle of Poland; Skrzynecki gave it me" (he pronounced +Skrzynecki's name with wonderful accuracy and gusto) "upon the field +of Ostrolenka. I was a lieutenant of the fourth regiment, sir, and we +marched through Diebitsch's lines--bang thro' 'em into Prussia, sir, +without firing a shot. Ah, Captain, that was a mismanaged business. I +received this wound by the side of the King before Oporto,--where he +would have pounded the stock-jobbing Pedroites, had Bourmont followed my +advice; and I served in Spain with the King's troops, until the death of +my dear friend, Zumalacarreguy, when I saw the game was over, and hung +up my toasting iron, Captain. Alava offered me a regiment, the Queen's +Muleteros; but I couldn't--damme, I couldn't--and now, sir, you know Ned +Strong--the Chevalier Strong they call me abroad--as well as he knows +himself." + +In this way almost everybody in Clavering came to know Ned Strong. He +told Madame Fribsby, he told the landlord of the George, he told Baker +at the reading-rooms, he told Mrs. Glanders, and the young ones, at +dinner: and, finally, he told Mr. Arthur Pendennis, who, yawning into +Clavering one day, found the Chevalier Strong in company with Captain +Glanders; and who was delighted with his new acquaintance. + +Before many days were over, Captain Strong was as much at home in +Helen's drawing-room as he was in Madame Fribsby's first floor; and made +the lonely house very gay with his good-humour and ceaseless flow of +talk. The two women had never before seen such a man. He had a thousand +stories about battles and dangers to interest them--about Greek +captives, Polish beauties, and Spanish nuns. He could sing scores of +songs, in half a dozen languages, and would sit down to the piano and +troll them off in a rich manly voice. Both the ladies pronounced him +to be delightful--and so he was; though, indeed, they had not had much +choice of man's society as yet, having seen in the course of their lives +but few persons, except old Portman and the Major, and Mr. Pen, who was +a genius, to be sure; but then your geniuses are somewhat flat and moody +at home. + +And Captain Strong acquainted his new friends at Fairoaks, not only with +his own biography, but with the whole history of the family now coming +to Clavering. It was he who had made the marriage between his friend +Frank and the widow Amory. She wanted rank, and he wanted money. What +match could be more suitable? He organised it; he made those two people +happy. There was no particular romantic attachment between them; the +widow was not of an age or a person for romance, and Sir Francis, if he +had his game at billiards, and his dinner, cared for little besides. +But they were as happy as people could be. Clavering would return to his +native place and country, his wife's fortune would pay his encumbrances +off, and his son and heir would be one of the first men in the county. + +"And Miss Amory?" Laura asked. Laura was uncommonly curious about Miss +Amory. + +Strong laughed. "Oh, Miss Amory is a muse--Miss Amory is a mystery--Miss +Amory is a femme incomprise." "What is that?" asked simple Mrs. +Pendennis--but the Chevalier gave her no answer: perhaps could not +give her one. "Miss Amory paints, Miss Amory writes poems, Miss Amory +composes music, Miss Amory rides like Diana Vernon. Miss Amory is a +paragon, in a word." + +"I hate clever women," said Pen. + +"Thank you," said Laura. For her part she was sure she should be charmed +with Miss Amory, and quite longed to have such a friend. And with this +she looked Pen full in the face, as if every word the little hypocrite +said was Gospel truth. + +Thus, an intimacy was arranged and prepared beforehand between the +Fairoaks family and their wealthy neighbours at the Park; and Pen and +Laura were to the full as eager for their arrival, as even the most +curious of the Clavering folks. A Londoner, who sees fresh faces and +yawns at them every day may smile at the eagerness with which country +people expect a visitor. A cockney comes amongst them, and is remembered +by his rural entertainers for years after he has left them, and +forgotten them very likely--floated far away from them on the vast +London sea. But the islanders remember long after the mariner has sailed +away, and can tell you what he said and what he wore, and how he looked +and how he laughed. In fine, a new arrival is an event in the country +not to be understood by us, who don't, and had rather not, know who +lives next door. + +When the painters and upholsterers had done their work in the house, and +so beautified it, under Captain Strong's superintendence, that he might +well be proud of his taste, that gentleman announced that he should go +to London, where the whole family had arrived by this time, and should +speedily return to establish them in their renovated mansion. + +Detachments of domestics preceded them. Carriages came down by sea, and +were brought over from Baymouth by horses which had previously arrived +under the care of grooms and coachmen. One day the 'Alacrity' coach +brought down on its roof two large and melancholy men, who were dropped +at the Park lodge with their trunks, and who were Messieurs Frederic and +James, metropolitan footmen, who had no objection to the country, and +brought with them state and other suits of the Clavering uniform. + +On another day, the mail deposited at the gate a foreign gentleman, +adorned with many ringlets and chains. He made a great riot at the +lodge-gate to the keeper's wife (who, being a West-country woman, did +not understand his English or his Gascon French), because there was no +carriage in waiting to drive him to the house, a mile off, and because +he could not walk entire leagues in his fatigued state and varnished +boots. This was Monsieur Alcide Mirobolant, formerly Chef of his +Highness the Duc de Borodino, of his Eminence Cardinal Beccafico, and +at present Chef of the bouche of Sir Clavering, Baronet:--Monsieur +Mirobolant's library, pictures, and piano had arrived previously in +charge of the intelligent young Englishman, his aide-de-camp. He was, +moreover, aided by a professed female cook, likewise from London, who +had inferior females under her orders. + +He did not dine in the steward's room, but took his nutriment in +solitude in his own apartments, where a female servant was affected to +his private use. It was a grand sight to behold him in his dressing-gown +composing a menu. He always sate down and played the piano for some +time before that. If interrupted, he remonstrated pathetically with +his little maid. Every great artist, he said, had need of solitude to +perfectionate his works. + +But we are advancing matters in the fulness of our love and respect for +Monsieur Mirobolant, and bringing him prematurely on the stage. + +The Chevalier Strong had a hand in the engagement of all the London +domestics, and, indeed, seemed to be the master of the house. There were +those among them who said he was the house-steward, only he dined with +the family. Howbeit, he knew how to make himself respected, and two of +by no means the least comfortable rooms of the house were assigned to +his particular use. + +He was walking upon the terrace finally upon the eventful day when, +amidst an immense jangling of bells from Clavering Church, where the +flag was flying, an open carriage and one of those travelling chariots +or family arks, which only English philoprogenitiveness could invent, +drove rapidly with foaming horses through the Park gates, and up to the +steps of the Hall. The two battans of the sculptured door flew open. The +superior officers in black, the large and melancholy gentlemen, now in +livery with their hair in powder, the country menials engaged to aid +them, were in waiting in the hall, and bowed like elms when autumn winds +wail in the park. Through this avenue passed Sir Francis Clavering with +a most unmoved face: Lady Clavering, with a pair of bright black +eyes, and a good-humoured countenance, which waggled and nodded very +graciously: Master Francis Clavering, who was holding his mamma's skirt +(and who stopped the procession to look at the largest footman, whose +appearance seemed to strike the young gentleman), and Miss Blandy, +governess to Master Francis, and Miss Amory, her ladyship's daughter, +giving her arm to Captain Strong. It was summer, but fires of welcome +were crackling in the great hall chimney, and in the rooms which the +family were to occupy. + +Monsieur Mirobolant had looked at the procession from one of the +lime-trees in the avenue. "Elle est la," he said, laying his jewelled +hand on his richly-embroidered velvet glass buttons, "Je t'ai vue, je +te benis, O ma sylphide, O mon ange!" and he dived into the thicket, and +made his way back to his furnaces and saucepans. + +The next Sunday the same party which had just made its appearance at +Clavering Park, came and publicly took possession of the ancient pew +in the church, where so many of the Baronet's ancestors had prayed, and +were now kneeling in effigy. There was such a run to see the new folks, +that the Low Church was deserted, to the disgust of its pastor; and +as the state barouche, with the greys and coachman in silver wig, and +solemn footmen, drew up at the old churchyard-gate, there was such a +crowd assembled there as had not been seen for many a long day. Captain +Strong knew everybody, and saluted for all the company--the country +people vowed my lady was not handsome, to be sure, but pronounced her to +be uncommon fine dressed, as indeed she was--with the finest of shawls, +the finest of pelisses, the brilliantest of bonnets and wreaths, and a +power of rings, cameos, brooches, chains, bangles, and other nameless +gimcracks; and ribbons of every breadth and colour of the rainbow +flaming on her person. Miss Amory appeared meek in dove-colour, like a +vestal virgin--while Master Francis was in the costume, then prevalent, +of Rob Roy Macgregor, a celebrated Highland outlaw. The Baronet was not +more animated than ordinarily--there was a happy vacuity about him which +enabled him to face a dinner, a death, a church, a marriage, with the +same indifferent ease. + +A pew for the Clavering servants was filled by these domestics, and the +enraptured congregation saw the gentlemen from London with "vlower on +their heeds," and the miraculous coachman with his silver wig, take +their places in that pew so soon as his horses were put up at the +Clavering Arms. + +In the course of the service, Master Francis began to make such a +yelling in the pew, that Frederic, the tallest of the footmen, was +beckoned by his master, and rose and went and carried out Master +Francis, who roared and beat him on the head, so that the powder flew +round about, like clouds of incense. Nor was he pacified until placed on +the box of the carriage, where he played at horses with John's whip. + +"You see the little beggar's never been to church before, Miss Bell," +the Baronet drawled out to a young lady who was visiting him; "no wonder +he should make a row: I don't go in town neither, but I think it's right +in the country to give a good example--and that sort of thing." + +Miss Bell laughed and said, "The little boy had not given a particularly +good example." + +"Gad, I don't know, and that sort of thing," said the Baronet. "It +ain't so bad neither. Whenever he wants a thing, Frank always cwies, and +whenever he cwies he gets it." + +Here the child in question began to howl for a dish of sweetmeats on the +luncheon-table, and making a lunge across the table-cloth, upset a glass +of wine over the best waistcoat of one of the guests present, Mr. Arthur +Pendennis, who was greatly annoyed at being made to look foolish, and at +having his spotless cambric shirt front blotched with wine. + +"We do spoil him so," said Lady Clavering to Mrs. Pendennis, finally +gazing at the cherub, whose hands and face were now frothed over +with the species of lather which is inserted in the confection called +meringues a la creme. + +"It is very wrong," said Mrs. Pendennis, as if she had never done such a +thing herself as spoil a child. + +"Mamma says she spoils my brother,--do you think anything could, Miss +Bell? Look at him,--isn't he like a little angel?" + +"Gad, I was quite wight," said the Baronet. "He has cwied, and he has +got it, you see. Go it, Fwank, old boy." + +"Sir Francis is a very judicious parent," Miss Amory whispered. Don't +you think so, Miss Bell? I shan't call you Miss Bell--I shall call you +Laura. I admired you so at church. Your robe was not well made, nor your +bonnet very fresh. But you have such beautiful grey eyes, and such a +lovely tint." + +"Thank you," said Miss Bell, laughing. + +"Your cousin is handsome, and thinks so. He is uneasy de sa personne. +He has not seen the world yet. Has he genius? Has he suffered? A lady, +a little woman in a rumpled satin and velvet shoes--a Miss Pybus--came +here, and said he has suffered. I, too, have suffered,--and you, Laura, +has your heart ever been touched?" + +Laura said "No!" but perhaps blushed a little at the idea or the +question, so that the other said,-- + +"Ah Laura! I see it all. It is the beau cousin. Tell me everything. I +already love you as a sister." + +"You are very kind," said Miss Bell, smiling, "and--and it must be owned +that it is a very sudden attachment." + +"All attachments are so. It is electricity--spontaneity. It is +instantaneous. I knew I should love you from the moment I saw you. Do +you not feel it yourself?" + +"Not yet," said Laura; "but--I daresay I shall if I try." + +"Call me by my name, then." + +"But I don't know it," Laura cried out. + +"My name is Blanche--isn't it a pretty name? Call me by it." + +"Blanche--it is very pretty, indeed." + +"And while mamma talks with that kind-looking lady--what relation is she +to you? She must have been pretty once, but is rather passee; she is not +well gantee, but she has a pretty hand--and while mamma talks to her, +come with me to my own room,--my own, own room. It's a darling room, +though that horrid creature, Captain Strong, did arrange it. Are you +eprise of him? He says you are, but I know better; it is the +beau cousin. Yes--il a de beaux yeux. Je n'aime pas les blonds, +ordinairement. Car je suis blonde moi--je suis Blanche et blonde,"--and +she looked at her face and made a moue in the glass; and never stopped +for Laura's answer to the questions which she had put. + +Blanche was fair, and like a sylph. She had fair hair, with green +reflections in it. But she had dark eyebrows. She had long black +eyelashes, which veiled beautiful brown eyes. She had such a slim waist, +that it was a wonder to behold; and such a slim little feet, that you +would have thought the grass would hardly bend under them. Her lips were +of the colour of faint rosebuds, and her voice warbled limpidly over a +set of the sweetest little pearly teeth ever seen. She showed them very +often, for they were very pretty. She was very good-natured, and a smile +not only showed her teeth wonderfully, but likewise exhibited two lovely +little pink dimples, that nestled in either cheek. + +She showed Laura her drawings, which the other thought charming. She +played her some of her waltzes, with a rapid and brilliant finger, +and Laura was still more charmed. And she then read her some poems, in +French and English, likewise of her own composition, and which she kept +locked in her own book--her own dear little book; it was bound in blue +velvet, with a gilt lock, and on it was printed in gold the title of +'Mes Larmes.' + +"Mes Larmes!--isn't it a pretty name?" the young lady continued, who +was pleased with everything that she did, and did everything very well. +Laura owned that it was. She had never seen anything like it before; +anything so lovely, so accomplished, so fragile and pretty; warbling so +prettily, and tripping about such a pretty room, with such a number +of pretty books, pictures, flowers, round about her. The honest and +generous country girl forgot even jealousy in her admiration. "Indeed, +Blanche," she said, "everything in the room is pretty; and you are the +prettiest of all." The other smiled, looked in the glass, went up and +took both of Laura's hands, and kissed them, and sat down to the piano, +and shook out a little song, as if she had been a nightingale. + +This was the first visit paid by Fairoaks to Clavering Park, in return +for Clavering Park's visit to Fairoaks, in reply to Fairoaks's cards +left a few days after the arrival of Sir Francis's family. The intimacy +between the young ladies sprang up like Jack's Bean-stalk to the skies +in a single night. The large footmen were perpetually walking with +little rose-coloured pink notes to Fairoaks; where there was a pretty +house-maid in the kitchen, who might possibly tempt those gentlemen +to so humble a place. Miss Amory sent music, or Miss Amory sent a new +novel, or a picture from the 'Journal des Modes,' to Laura; or my lady's +compliments arrived with flowers and fruit; or Miss Amory begged and +prayed Miss Bell to come to dinner; and dear Mrs. Pendennis, if she was +strong enough; and Mr. Arthur, if a humdrum party were not too stupid +for him; and would send a pony-carriage for Mrs. Pendennis; and would +take no denial. + +Neither Arthur nor Laura wished to refuse. And Helen, who was, indeed, +somewhat ailing, was glad that the two should have their pleasure; and +would look at them fondly as they set forth, and ask in her heart that +she might not be called away until those two beings whom she loved best +in the world should be joined together. As they went out and crossed +over the bridge, she remembered summer evenings five-and-twenty +years ago, when she, too, had bloomed in her brief prime of love and +happiness. It was all over now. The moon was looking from the purpling +sky, and the stars glittering there, just as they used in the early, +well-remembered evenings. He was lying dead far away, with the billows +rolling between them. Good God! how well she remembered the last look of +his face as they parted. It looked out at her through the vista of long +years, as sad and as clear as then. + +So Mr. Pen and Miss Laura found the society at Clavering Park an +uncommonly agreeable resort of summer evenings. Blanche vowed that she +raffoled of Laura; and, very likely, Mr. Pen was pleased with Blanche. +His spirits came back: he laughed and rattled till Laura wondered to +hear him. It was not the same Pen, yawning in a shooting jacket, in the +Fairoaks parlour, who appeared alert and brisk, and smiling and well +dressed, in Lady Clavering's drawing-room. Sometimes they had music. +Laura had a sweet contralto voice, and sang with Blanche, who had had +the best continental instruction, and was charmed to be her friend's +mistress. Sometimes Mr. Pen joined in these concerts, or oftener looked +sweet upon Miss Blanche as she sang. Sometimes they had glees, when +Captain Strong's chest was of vast service, and he boomed out in a +prodigious bass, of which he was not a little proud. + +"Good fellow, Strong--ain't he, Miss Bell?" Sir Francis would say +to her. "Plays at ecarte with Lady Clavering--plays anything, +pitch-and-toss, pianoforty, cwibbage if you like. How long do you think +he's been staying with me? He came for a week with a carpet-bag, and +Gad, he's been staying here thwee years. Good fellow, ain't he? Don't +know how he gets a shillin' though, begad I don't, Miss Lauwa." + +And yet the Chevalier, if he lost his money to Lady Clavering, always +paid it; and if he lived with his friend for three years, paid for that +too--in good-humour, in kindness and joviality, in a thousand little +services by which he made himself agreeable. What gentleman could want a +better friend than a man who was always in spirits, never in the way +or out of it, and was ready to execute any commission for his patron, +whether it was to sing a song or meet a lawyer, to fight a duel or to +carve a capon? + +Although Laura and Pen commonly went to Clavering Park together, yet +sometimes Mr. Pen took walks there unattended by her, and about which he +did not tell her. He took to fishing the Brawl, which runs through the +Park, and passes not very far from the garden-wall. And by the oddest +coincidence, Miss Amory would walk out (having been to look at her +flowers), and would be quite surprised to see Mr. Pendennis fishing. + +I wonder what trout Pen caught while the young lady was looking on? or +whether Miss Blanche was the pretty little fish which played round his +fly, and which Mr. Pen was endeavouring to hook? It must be owned, he +became very fond of that healthful and invigorating pursuit of angling, +and was whipping the Brawl continually with his fly. + +As for Miss Blanche she had a kind heart; and having, as she owned, +herself "suffered" a good deal in the course of her brief life and +experience--why, she could compassionate other susceptible beings +like Pen, who had suffered too. Her love for Laura and that dear Mrs. +Pendennis redoubled: if they were not at the Park, she was not easy +unless she herself was at Fairoaks. She played with Laura; she read +French and German with Laura; and Mr. Pen read French and German along +with them. He turned sentimental ballads of Schiller and Goethe into +English verse for the ladies, and Blanche unlocked 'Mes Larmes' for him, +and imparted to him some of the plaintive outpourings of her own tender +Muse. + +It appeared from these poems that this young creature had indeed +suffered prodigiously. She was familiar with the idea of suicide. Death +she repeatedly longed for. A faded rose inspired her with such grief +that you would have thought she must die in pain of it. It was a wonder +how a young creature (who had had a snug home or been at a comfortable +boarding-school, and had no outward grief or hardship to complain of) +should have suffered so much--should have found the means of getting at +such an ocean of despair and passion (as a runaway boy who will get to +sea), and having embarked on it should survive it. What a talent she +must have had for weeping to be able to pour out so many of Mes Larmes! + +They were not particularly briny, Miss Blanche's tears, that is the +truth; but Pen, who read her verses, thought them very well for a +lady--and wrote some verses himself for her. His were very violent and +passionate, very hot, sweet and strong: and he not only wrote verses; +but--O the villain! O, the deceiver! he altered and adapted former +poems in his possession, and which had been composed for a certain +Emily Fotheringay, for the use and to the Christian name of Miss Blanche +Amory. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. A Little Innocent + + +Every house has its skeleton in it somewhere, and it may be a comfort to +some unhappy folks to think that the luckier and most wealthy of their +neighbours have their miseries and causes of disquiet. Our little +innocent Muse of Blanche, who sang so nicely and talked so sweetly, you +would have thought she must have made sunshine where ever she went, was +the skeleton, or the misery, or the bore, or the Nemesis of Clavering +House, and of most of the inhabitants thereof. As one little stone in +your own shoe or your horse's, suffices to put either to torture and to +make your journey miserable, so in life a little obstacle is sufficient +to obstruct your entire progress, and subject you to endless annoyance +and disquiet. Who would have guessed that such a smiling little fairy as +Blanche Amory could be the cause of discord in any family? + +"I say, Strong," one day the Baronet said, as the pair were conversing +after dinner over the billiard-table, and that great unbosomer of +secrets, a cigar; "I say, Strong, I wish to the doose your wife was +dead." + +"So do I. That's a cannon, by Jove. But she won't; she'll live for +ever--you see if she don't. Why do you wish her off the hooks, Frank, my +boy?" asked Captain Strong. + +"Because then you might marry Missy. She ain't bad-looking. She'll have +ten thousand, and that's a good bit of money for such a poor old devil +as you," drawled out the other gentleman. + +"And gad, Strong, I hate her worse and worse every day. I can't stand +her, Strong, by gad, I can't." + +"I wouldn't take her at twice the figure," Captain Strong said, +laughing. "I never saw such a little devil in my life." + +"I should like to poison her," said the sententious Baronet; "by Jove I +should." + +"Why, what has she been at now?" asked his friend. + +"Nothing particular," answered Sir Francis; "only her old tricks. That +girl has such a knack of making everybody miserable that, hang me, it's +quite surprising. Last night she sent the governess crying away from +the dinner-table. Afterwards, as I was passing Frank's room, I heard the +poor little beggar howling in the dark, and found his sister had been +frightening his soul out of his body, by telling him stories about the +ghost that's in the house. At lunch she gave my lady a turn; and though +my wife's a fool, she's a good soul--I'm hanged if she ain't." + +"What did Missy do to her?" Strong asked. + +"Why, hang me, if she didn't begin talking about the late Amory, my +predecessor," the Baronet said, with a grin. "She got some picture out +of the Keepsake, and said she was sure it was like her dear father, She +wanted to know where her father's grave was. Hang her father! Whenever +Miss Amory talks about him, Lady Clavering always bursts out crying: and +the little devil will talk about him in order to spite her mother. +Today when she began, I got in a confounded rage; said I was her father; +and--and that sort of thing, and then, sir, she took a shy at me." + +"And what did she say about you, Frank?" Mr. Strong, still laughing, +inquired of his friend and patron. + +"Gad, she said I wasn't her father; that I wasn't fit to comprehend her; +that her father must have been a man of genius, and fine feelings, and +that sort of thing: whereas I had married her mother for money." + +"Well, didn't you?" asked Strong. + +"It don't make it any the pleasanter to hear because it's true, don't +you know," Sir Francis Clavering answered. "I ain't a literary man and +that; but I ain't such a fool as she makes me out. I don't know how it +is, but she always manages to put me in the hole, don't you understand. +She turns all the house round her in her quiet way, and with her +confounded sentimental airs. I wish she was dead, Ned." + +"It was my wife whom you wanted dead just now," Strong said, always in +perfect good-humour; upon which the Baron with his accustomed candour, +said, "Well; when people bore my life out, I do wish they were dead, and +I wish Missy were down a well, with all my heart." + +Thus it will be seen from the above report of this candid conversation +that our accomplished little friend had some peculiarities or defects of +character which rendered her not very popular. She was a young lady of +some genius, exquisite sympathies and considerable literary attainments, +living, like many another genius, with relatives who could not +comprehend her. Neither her mother nor her stepfather were persons of +a literary turn. Bell's Life and the Racing Calendar were the extent of +the Baronet's reading, and Lady Clavering still wrote like a schoolgirl +of thirteen, and with an extraordinary disregard to grammar and +spelling. And as Miss Amory felt very keenly that she was not +appreciated, and that she lived with persons who were not her equals in +intellect or conversational power, she lost no opportunity to acquaint +her family circle with their inferiority to herself, and not only was +a martyr, but took care to let everybody know that she was so. If she +suffered, as she said and thought she did, severely, are we to wonder +that a young creature of such delicate sensibilities should shriek and +cry out a good deal? Without sympathy life is nothing; and would it not +have been a want of candour on her part to affect a cheerfulness which +she did not feel, or pretend a respect for those towards whom it was +quite impossible she should entertain any reverence? If a poetess may +not bemoan her lot, of what earthly use is her lyre? Blanche struck +hers only to the saddest of tunes; and sang elegies over her dead hopes, +dirges over her early frost-nipt buds of affection, as became such a +melancholy fate and Muse. + +Her actual distresses, as we have said, had not been up to the present +time very considerable: but her griefs lay; like those of most of us, +in her own soul--that being sad and habitually dissatisfied, what wonder +that she should weep? So Mes Larmes dribbled out of her eyes any day at +command: she could furnish an unlimited supply of tears, and her faculty +of shedding them increased by practice. For sentiment is like another +complaint mentioned by Horace, as increasing by self-indulgence (I +am sorry to say, ladies, that the complaint in question is called the +dropsy), and the more you cry, the more you will be able and desirous to +do so. + +Missy had begun to gush at a very early age. Lamartine was her favourite +bard from the period when she first could feel: and she had subsequently +improved her mind by a sedulous study of novels of the great modern +authors of the French language. There was not a romance of Balzac and +George Sand which the indefatigable little creature had not devoured--by +the time she was sixteen: and, however little she sympathised with her +relatives at home, she had friends, as she said, in the spirit-world, +meaning the tender Indiana, the passionate and poetic Lelia, the amiable +Trenmor, that high-souled convict, that angel of the galleys,--the fiery +Stenio,--and the other numberless heroes of the French romances. She had +been in love with Prince Rodolph and Prince Djalma while she was yet at +school, and had settled the divorce question, and the rights of woman, +with Indiana, before she had left off pinafores. The impetuous little +lady played at love with these imaginary worthies as a little while +before she had played at maternity with her doll. Pretty little poetical +spirits! It is curious to watch them with those playthings. To-day the +blue-eyed one is the favourite, and the black-eyed one is pushed behind +the drawers. To-morrow blue-eyes may take its turn of neglect and it may +be an odious little wretch with a burnt nose, or torn bead of hair, and +no eyes at all, that takes the first place in Miss's affection, and is +dandled and caressed in her arms. + +As novelists are supposed to know everything, even the secrets of female +hearts, which the owners themselves do not perhaps know, we may state +that at eleven years of age Mademoiselle Betsi, as Miss Amory was then +called, had felt tender emotions towards a young Savoyard organ-grinder +at Paris, whom she persisted in believing to be a prince carried off +from his parents; that at twelve an old and hideous drawing-master (but, +ah, what age or personal defects are proof against woman's love?) had +agitated her young heart; and that, at thirteen, being at Madame de +Caramel's boarding-school, in the Champs Elysees, which, as everybody +knows, is next door to Monsieur Rogron's (Chevalier of the Legion of +Honour) pension for young gentlemen, a correspondence by letter took +place between the seduisante Miss Betsi and two young gentlemen of the +College of Charlemagne, who were pensioners of the Chevalier Rogron. + +In the above paragraph our young friend has been called by a Christian +name different to that under which we were lately presented to her. The +fact is, that Miss Amory, called Missy at home, had really at the first +been christened Betsy--but assumed the name of Blanche of her own will +and fantasy, and crowned herself with it; and the weapon which the +Baronet, her stepfather, held in terror over her, was the threat to call +her publicly by her name of Betsy, by which menace he sometimes managed +to keep the young rebel in order. + +We have spoken just now of children's dolls, and of the manner in which +those little people take up and neglect their darling toys, and very +likely this history will show that Miss Blanche assumed and put away +her live dolls with a similar girlish inconstancy. She had had hosts of +dear, dear, darling, friends ere now, and had quite a little museum +of locks of hair in her treasure-chest, which she had gathered in the +course of her sentimental progress. Some dear friends had married: some +had gone to other schools: one beloved sister she had lost from the +pension, and found again, O, horror! her darling, her Leocadie keeping +the books in her father's shop, a grocer in the Rue du Bac: in fact, +she had met with a number of disappointments, estrangements, +disillusionments, as she called them in her pretty French jargon, and +had seen and suffered a great deal for so young a woman. But it is +the lot of sensibility to suffer, and of confiding tenderness to be +deceived, and she felt that she was only undergoing the penalties of +genius in these pangs and disappointments of her young career. + +Meanwhile, she managed to make the honest lady, her mother, as +uncomfortable as circumstances would permit; and caused her worthy +stepfather to wish she was dead. With the exception of Captain Strong, +whose invincible good-humour was proof against her sarcasms, the little +lady ruled the whole house with he tongue. If Lady Clavering talked +about Sparrowgrass instead of Asparagus, or called an object a hobject, +as this unfortunate lady would sometimes do, Missy calmly corrected +her, and frightened the good soul, her mother, into errors only the more +frequent as she grew more nervous under her daughter's eye. + +It is not to be supposed, considering the vast interest which the +arrival of the family at Clavering Park inspired in the inhabitants +of the little town, that Madame Fribsby alone, of all the folks in +Clavering, should have remained unmoved and incurious. At the first +appearance of the Park family in church, Madame noted every article of +toilette which the ladies wore, from their bonnets to their brodequins, +and took a survey of the attire of the ladies' maids in the pew allotted +to them. We fear that Doctor Portman's sermon, though it was one of +his oldest and most valued compositions, had little effect upon Madame +Fribsby on that day. + +In a very few days afterwards, she had managed for herself an interview +with Lady Clavering's confidential attendant in the housekeeper's room +at the Park; and her cards in French and English, stating that she +received the newest fashions from Paris from her correspondent Madame +Victorine, and that she was in the custom of making court and ball +dresses for the nobility and gentry of the shire, were in the possession +of Lady Clavering and Miss Amory, and favourably received, as she was +happy to hear, by those ladies. + +Mrs. Bonner, Lady Clavering's lady, became soon a great frequenter of +Madame Fribsby's drawing-room, and partook of many entertainments at the +milliner's expense. A meal of green tea, scandal, hot Sally-Lunn cakes, +and a little novel reading, were always at the service of Mrs. Bonner, +whenever she was free to pass an evening in the town. And she found +much more time for these pleasures than her junior officer, Miss Amory's +maid, who seldom could be spared for a holiday, and was worked as hard +as any factory-girl by that inexorable little Muse, her mistress. + +The Muse loved to be dressed becomingly, and, having a lively fancy and +a poetic desire for change, was for altering her attire every day. +Her maid having a taste in dressmaking--to which art she had been an +apprentice at Paris, before she entered into Miss Blanche's service +there--was kept from morning till night altering and remodelling Miss +Amory's habiliments; and rose very early and went to bed very late, in +obedience to the untiring caprices of her little taskmistress. The +girl was of respectable English parents. There are many of our people, +colonists of Paris, who have seen better days, who are not quite ruined, +who do not quite live upon charity, and yet cannot get on without it; +and as her father was a cripple incapable of work, and her return home +would only increase the burthen and add to the misery of the family, +poor Pincott was fain to stay where she could maintain herself, and +spare a little relief to her parents. + +Our Muse, with the candour which distinguished her, never failed to +remind her attendant of the real state of matters. "I should send you +away, Pincott, for you are a great deal too weak, and your eyes are +failing you, and you are always crying and snivelling and wanting the +doctor; but I wish that your parents at home should be supported, and I +go on enduring you for their sake, mind," the dear Blanche would say to +her timid little attendant. Or, "Pincott, your wretched appearance and +slavish manner, and red eyes, positively give me the migraine; and +I think I shall make you wear rouge, so that you may look a little +cheerful;" or, "Pincott, I can't bear, even for the sake of your +starving parents, that you should tear my hair out of my head in that +manner; and I will thank you to write to them and say that I dispense +with your services." After which sort of speeches, and after keeping her +for an hour trembling over her hair, which the young lady loved to have +combed, as she perused one of her favourite French novels, she would go +to bed at one o'clock, and say, "Pincott, you may kiss me. Good night. +I should like you to have the pink dress ready for the morning." And so +with blessing upon her attendant, she would turn round and go to sleep. + +The Muse might lie in bed as long as she chose of a morning, and availed +herself of that privilege; but Pincott had to rise very early indeed to +get her mistress's task done; and had to appear next day with the same +red eyes and the same wan face, which displeased Miss Amory by their +want of gaiety, and caused the mistress to be so angry, because the +servant persisted in being and looking unwell and unhappy. Not that +Blanche ever thought she was a hard mistress. Indeed, she made quite a +friend of Pincott, at times, and wrote some very pretty verses about the +lonely little tiring-maid, whose heart was far away. Our beloved Blanche +was a superior being, and expected to be waited upon as such. And I +do not know whether there are any other ladies in this world who treat +their servants or dependants so, but it may be that there are such, and +that the tyranny which they exercise over their subordinates, and +the pangs which they can manage to inflict with a soft voice, and a +well-bred simper, are as cruel as those which a slave-driver administers +with an oath and a whip. + +But Blanche was a Muse--a delicate little creature, quite tremulous with +excitability, whose eyes filled with tears at the smallest emotion; +and who knows, but that it was the very fineness of her feelings which +caused them to be froissed so easily? You crush a butterfly by merely +touching it. Vulgar people have no idea of the sensibility of a Muse. + +So little Pincott being occupied all day and night in stitching, +hemming, ripping, combing, ironing, crimping, for her mistress; reading +to her when in bed,--for the girl was mistress of the two languages, and +had a sweet voice and manner--could take no share in Madame Fribsby's +soirees, nor indeed was she much missed, or considered of sufficient +consequence to appear at their entertainments. + +But there was another person connected with the Clavering establishment, +who became a constant guest of our friend, the milliner. This was the +chief of the kitchen, Monsieur Mirobolant, with whom Madame Fribsby soon +formed an intimacy. + +Not having been accustomed to the appearance or society of persons +of the French nation, the rustic inhabitants of Clavering were not so +favourably impressed by Monsieur Alcide's manners and appearance, as +that gentleman might have desired that they should be. He walked among +them quite unsuspiciously upon the afternoon of a summer day, when his +services were not required at the House, in his usual favourite costume, +namely, his light green frock or paletot, his crimson velvet waistcoat, +with blue glass buttons, his pantalon Ecossais, of a very large and +decided check pattern, his orange satin neckcloth, and his jean-boots, +with tips of shiny leather,--these, with a gold-embroidered cap, and a +richly gilt cane, or other varieties of ornament of a similar tendency, +formed his usual holiday costume, in which he flattered himself there +was nothing remarkable (unless, indeed, the beauty of his person should +attract observation), and in which he considered that he exhibited the +appearance of a gentleman of good Parisian ton. + +He walked then down the street, grinning and ogling every woman he met +with glances, which he meant should kill them outright, and peered over +the railings, and in at the windows, where females were, in the tranquil +summer evening. But Betsy, Mrs. Pybus's maid, shrank back with a Lor +bless us, as Alcide ogled her over the laurel-bush; the Miss Bakers, and +their mamma, stared with wonder; and presently a crowd began to follow +the interesting foreigner, of ragged urchins and children, who left +their dirt-pies in the street to pursue him. + +For some time he thought that admiration was the cause which led these +persons in his wake, and walked on, pleased himself that he could +so easily confer on others so much harmless pleasure. But the little +children and dirt-pie manufacturers were presently succeeded by +followers of a larger growth, and a number of lads and girls from +the factory being let loose at this hour, joined the mob, and began +laughing, jeering, hooting, and calling opprobrious names at the +Frenchman. Some cried out "Frenchy! Frenchy!" some exclaimed "Frogs!" +one asked for a lock of his hair, which was long and in richly-flowing +ringlets; and at length the poor artist began to perceive that he was an +object of derision rather than of respect to the rude grinning mob. + +It was at this juncture that Madame Fribsby spied the unlucky gentleman +with the train at his heels, and heard the scornful shouts with which +they assailed him. She ran out of her room, and across the street to the +persecuted foreigner; she held out her hand, and, addressing him in his +own language, invited him into her abode; and when she had housed him +fairly within her door, she stood bravely at the threshold before the +gibing factory girls and boys, and said they were a pack of cowards to +insult a poor man who could not speak their language, and was alone +and without protection. The little crowd, with some ironical cheers +and hootings, nevertheless felt the force of Madame Fribsby's vigorous +allocution, and retreated before her; for the old lady was rather +respected in the place, and her oddity and her kindness had made her +many friends there. + +Poor Mirobolant was grateful indeed to hear the language of his country +ever so ill spoken. Frenchmen pardon our faults in their language +much more readily than we excuse their bad English; and will face our +blunders throughout a long conversation, without the least propensity +to grin. The rescued artist vowed that Madame Fribsby was his guardian +angel, and that he had not as yet met with such suavity and politeness +among les Anglaises. He was as courteous and complimentary to her as +if it was the fairest and noblest of ladies whom he was addressing: for +Alcide Mirobolant paid homage after his fashion to all womankind, and +never dreamed of a distinction of ranks in the realms of beauty, as his +phrase was. + +A cream, flavoured with pineapple--a mayonnaise of lobster, which he +flattered himself was not unworthy of his hand, or of her to whom he had +the honour to offer it as an homage, and a box of preserved fruits of +Provence, were brought by one of the chef's aides-de-camp, in a basket, +the next day to the milliner's, and were accompanied with a gallant note +to the amiable Madame Fribsbi. "Her kindness," Alcide said, "had made +a green place in the desert of his existence,--her suavity would ever +contrast in memory with the grossierete of the rustic population, +who were not worthy to possess such a jewel." An intimacy of the most +confidential nature thus sprang up between the milliner and the chief +of the kitchen; but I do not know whether it was with pleasure or +mortification that Madame received the declarations of friendship which +the young Alcides proffered to her, for he persisted in calling her "La +respectable Fribsbi," "La vertueuse Fribsbi,"--and in stating that he +should consider her as his mother, while he hoped she would regard him +as her son. Ah! it was not very long ago, Fribsby thought, that words +had been addressed to her in that dear French language, indicating a +different sort of attachment. And she sighed as she looked up at the +picture of her Carabineer. For it is surprising how young some people's +hearts remain when their heads have need of a front or a little +hair-dye,--and, at this moment, Madame Fribsby, as she told young +Alcide, felt as romantic as a girl of eighteen. + +When the conversation took this turn--and at their first intimacy +Madame Fribsby was rather inclined so to lead it--Alcide always politely +diverged to another subject: it was as his mother that he persisted +in considering the good milliner. He would recognise her in no other +capacity, and with that relationship the gentle lady was forced to +content herself, when she found how deeply the artist's heart was +engaged elsewhere. + +He was not long before he described to her the subject and origin of his +passion. + +"I declared myself to her," said Alcide, laying his hand on his +heart, "in a manner which was as novel as I am charmed to think it was +agreeable. Where cannot Love penetrate, respectable Madame Fribsbi? +Cupid is the father of invention!--I inquired of the domestics what were +the plats of which Mademoiselle partook with most pleasure; and built +up my little battery accordingly. On a day when her parents had gone to +dine in the world (and I am grieved to say that a grossier dinner at a +restaurateur, in the Boulevard, or in the Palais Royal seemed to form +the delights of these unrefined persons), the charming Miss entertained +some comrades of the pension; and I advised myself to send up a little +repast suitable to so delicate young palates. Her lovely name is +Blanche. The name of the maiden is white; the wreath of roses which she +wears is white. I determined that my dinner should be as spotless as +the snow. At her accustomed hour, and instead of the rude gigot a l'eau, +which was ordinarily served at her too simple table, I sent her up a +little potage a la Reine--a la Reine Blanche I called it,--as white as +her own tint--and confectioned with the most fragrant cream and almonds. +I then offered up at her shrine a filet de merlan à l'Agnes, and a +delicate plat which I designated as Eperlan a la Sainte-Therese, and +of which my charming Miss partook with pleasure. I followed this by two +little entrees of sweetbread and chicken; and the only brown thing which +I permitted myself in the entertainment was a little roast of lamb, +which I lay in a meadow of spinaches, surrounded with croustillons, +representing sheep, and ornamented with daisies and other savage +flowers. After this came my second service: a pudding a la Reine +Elizabeth (who, Madame Fribsbi knows, was a maiden princess); a dish +of opal-coloured plover's eggs which I called Nid de tourtereaux a la +Roucoule; placing in the midst of them two of those tender volatiles, +billing each other, and confectioned with butter; a basket containing +little gateaux of apricots, which, I know, all young ladies adore; and +a jelly of marasquin, bland insinuating, intoxicating as the glance of +beauty. This I designated Ambroisie de Calypso a la Souveraine de +mon Coeur. And when the ice was brought in--an ice of plombiere and +cherries--how do you think I had shaped them, Madame Fribsbi? In the +form of two hearts united with an arrow, on which I had laid, before it +entered, a bridal veil in cut-paper, surmounted by a wreath of virginal +orange-flowers. I stood at the door to watch the effect of this entry. +It was but one cry of admiration. The three young ladies filled their +glasses with the sparkling Ay, and carried me in a toast. I heard it--I +heard Miss speak of me--I heard her say, 'Tell Monsieur Mirobolant that +we thank him--we admire him--we love him!' My feet almost failed me as +she spoke. + +"Since that, can I have any reason to doubt that the young artist has +made some progress in the heart of the English Miss? I am modest, but +my glass informs me that I am not ill-looking. Other victories have +convinced me of the fact." + +"Dangerous man!" cried the milliner. + +"The blond misses of Albion see nothing in the dull inhabitants of their +brumous isle, which can compare with the ardour and vivacity of the +children of the South. We bring our sunshine with us; we are Frenchmen, +and accustomed to conquer. Were it not for this affair of the heart, and +my determination to marry an Anglaise, do you think I would stop in this +island (which is not altogether ungrateful, since I have found here a +tender mother in the respectable Madame Fribsbi), in this island, +in this family? My genius would use itself in the company of these +rustics--the poesy of my art cannot be understood by these carnivorous +insularies. No--the men are odious, but the women--the women! I own, +dear Fribsbi, are seducing! I have vowed to marry one; and as I cannot +go into your markets and purchase, according to the custom of the +country, I am resolved to adopt another custom, and fly with one to +Gretna Grin. The blonde Miss will go. She is fascinated. Her eyes have +told me so. The white dove wants but the signal to fly." + +"Have you any correspondence with her?" asked Fribsby, in amazement, and +not knowing whether the young lady or the lover might be labouring under +a romantic delusion. + +"I correspond with her by means of my art. She partakes of dishes which +I make expressly for her. I insinuate to her thus a thousand hints +which as she is perfectly spiritual, she receives. But I want other +intelligences near her." + +"There is Pincott, her maid," said Madame Fribsby, who, by aptitude or +education, seemed to have some knowledge of affairs of the heart, but +the great artist's brow darkened at this suggestion. + +"Madame," he said, "there are points upon which a gallant man ought to +silence himself; though, if he break the secret, he may do so with the +least impropriety to his best friend--his adopted mother. Know then, +that there is a cause why Miss Pincott should be hostile to me--a cause +not uncommon with your sex--jealousy." + +"Perfidious monster!" said the confidante. + +"Ah, no," said the artist, with a deep bass voice, and a tragic +accent worthy of the Port St Martin and his favourite melodrames, "not +perfidious, but fatal. Yes, I am a fatal man, Madame Fribsbi. To inspire +hopeless passion is my destiny. I cannot help it that women love me. Is +it my fault that that young woman deperishes and languishes to the view +of the eye, consumed by a flame which I cannot return? Listen! There are +others in this family who are similarly unhappy. The governess of the +young Milor has encountered me in my walks, and looked at me in a way +which can bear but one interpretation. And Milady herself, who is of +mature age, but who has oriental blood, has once or twice addressed +compliments to the lonely artist which can admit of no mistake. I avoid +the household, I seek solitude, I undergo my destiny. I can marry but +one, and am resolved it shall be to a lady of your nation. And, if her +fortune is sufficient I think Miss would be the person who would be most +suitable. I wish to ascertain what her means are before I lead her to +Gretna Grin." + +Whether Alcides was as irresistible a conqueror as his namesake, or +whether he was simply crazy, is a point which must be left to the +reader's judgment. But the latter if he had had the benefit of much +French acquaintance, has perhaps met with men amongst them who fancied +themselves almost as invincible; and who, if you credit them, have made +equal havoc in the hearts of les Anglaises. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. Contains both Love and Jealousy + + +Our readers have already heard Sir Francis Clavering's candid opinion +of the lady who had given him her fortune and restored him to his native +country and home, and it must be owned that the Baronet was not far +wrong in his estimate of his wife, and that Lady Clavering was not the +wisest or the best educated of women. She had had a couple of years' +education in Europe, in a suburb of London, which she persisted in +calling Ackney to her dying day, whence she had been summoned to join +her father at Calcutta at the age of fifteen. And it was on her voyage +thither, on board the Ramchunder East Indiaman, Captain Bragg, in which +ship she had two years previously made her journey to Europe, that she +formed the acquaintance of her first husband, Mr. Amory, who was third +mate of the vessel in question. + +We are not going to enter into the early part of Lady Clavering's +history, but Captain Bragg, under whose charge Miss Snell went out to +her father, who was one of the Captain's consignees, and part owner +of the Ramchunder and many other vessels, found reason to put the +rebellious rascal of a mate in irons, until they reached the Cape, where +the Captain left his officer behind; and finally delivered his ward to +her father at Calcutta, after a stormy and perilous voyage in which the +Ramchunder and the cargo and passengers incurred no small danger and +damage. + +Some months afterwards Amory made his appearance at Calcutta, having +worked his way out before the mast from the Cape--married the rich +Attorney's daughter in spite of that old speculator--set up as +indigo-planter and failed--set up as agent and failed again--set up as +editor of the Sunderbund Pilot and failed again--quarrelling ceaselessly +with his father-in-law and his wife during the progress of all these +mercantile transactions and disasters, and ending his career finally +with a crash which compelled him to leave Calcutta and go to New South +Wales. It was in the course of these luckless proceedings, that Mr. +Amory probably made the acquaintance of Sir Jasper Rogers, the respected +Judge of the Supreme Court of Calcutta, who has been mentioned before: +and, as the truth must out, it was by making an improper use of his +father-in-law's name, who could write perfectly well, and had no need of +an amanuensis, that fortune finally forsook Mr. Amory and caused him to +abandon all further struggles with her. + +Not being in the habit of reading the Calcutta law-reports very +assiduously, the European public did not know of these facts as well +as people did in Bengal, and Mrs. Amory and her father finding her +residence in India not a comfortable one, it was agreed that the lady +should return to Europe, whither she came with her little daughter Betsy +or Blanche, then four years old. They were accompanied by Betsy's +nurse, who has been presented to the reader in the last chapter as the +confidential maid of Lady Clavering, Mrs. Bonner: and Captain Bragg +took a house for them in the near neighbourhood of his residence in +Pocklington Street. + +It was a very hard bitter summer, and the rain it rained every day +for some time after Mrs. Amory's arrival. Bragg was very pompous and +disagreeable, perhaps ashamed, perhaps anxious, to get rid of the Indian +lady. She believed that all the world in London was talking about +her husband's disaster, and that the King and Queen and the Court of +Directors were aware of her unlucky history. She had a good allowance +from her father; she had no call to live in England; and she +determined to go abroad. Away she went, then, glad to escape the gloomy +surveillance of the odious bully, Captain Bragg. People had no objection +to receive her at the continental towns where she stopped, and at the +various boarding-houses, where she royally paid her way. She called +Hackney Ackney, to be sure (though otherwise she spoke English with +a little foreign twang, very curious and not unpleasant); she dressed +amazingly; she was conspicuous for her love of eating and drinking, +and prepared curries and pillaws at every boarding-house which she +frequented; but her singularities of language and behaviour only gave a +zest to her society, and Mrs. Amory was deservedly popular. She was +the most good-natured, jovial, and generous of women. She was up to any +party of pleasure by whomsoever proposed. She brought three times more +champagne and fowl and ham to the picnics than anyone else. She took +endless boxes for the play, and tickets for the masked balls, and +gave them away to everybody. She paid the boarding-house people months +beforehand; she helped poor shabby mustachiod bucks and dowagers whose +remittances had not arrived, with constant supplies from her purse; and +in this way she tramped through Europe, and appeared at Brussels, at +Paris, at Milan, at Naples, at Rome, as her fancy led her. News of +Amory's death reached her at the latter place, where Captain Clavering +was then staying, unable to pay his hotel bill, as, indeed, was his +friend, the Chevalier Strong; and the good-natured widow married the +descendant of the ancient house of Clavering--professing, indeed, no +particular grief for the scapegrace of a husband whom she had lost. We +have brought her thus up to the present time when she was mistress +of Clavering Park, in the midst of which Mr. Pinckney, the celebrated +painter, pourtrayed her with her little boy by her side. + +Missy followed her mamma in most of her peregrinations, and so learned a +deal of life. She had a governess for some time; and after her mother's +second marriage, the benefit of Madame de Caramel's select pension in +the Champs Elysees. When the Claverings came to England, she of course +came with them. It was only within a few years, after the death of her +grandfather, and the birth of her little brother, that she began to +understand that her position in life was altered, and that Miss Amory, +nobody's daughter, was a very small personage in a house compared with +Master Francis Clavering, heir to an ancient baronetcy and a noble +estate. But for little Frank, she would have been an heiress, in spite +of her father: and though she knew, and cared not much about money, +of which she never had any stint, and though she was a romantic little +Muse, as we have seen, yet she could not reasonably be grateful to the +persons who had so contributed to change her condition: nor, indeed, +did she understand what the latter really was, until she had made some +further progress, and acquired more accurate knowledge in the world. + +But this was clear, that her stepfather was dull and weak: that mamma +dropped her H's, and was not refined in manners or appearance; and that +little Frank was a spoiled quarrelsome urchin, always having his way, +always treading upon her feet, always upsetting his dinner on her +dresses, and keeping her out of her inheritance. None of these, as she +felt, could comprehend her: and her solitary heart naturally pined +for other attachments, and she sought around her where to bestow the +precious boon of her unoccupied affection. + +This dear girl, then, from want of sympathy, or other cause, made +herself so disagreeable at home, and frightened her mother and bored her +stepfather so much, that they were quite as anxious as she could be that +she should settle for herself in life; and hence Sir Francis Clavering's +desire expressed to his friend, in the last chapter, that Mrs. Strong +should die, and that he would take Blanche to himself as a second Mrs. +Strong. + +But as this could not be, any other person was welcome to win her: and +a smart young fellow, well-looking and well educated like our friend +Arthur Pendennis, was quite free to propose for her if he had a mind, +and would have been received with open arms by Lady Clavering as a +son-in-law, had he had the courage to come forward as a competitor for +Miss Amory's hand. + +Mr. Pen, however, besides other drawbacks, chose to entertain an extreme +diffidence about himself. He was ashamed of his late failures, of his +idle and nameless condition, of the poverty which he had brought on his +mother by his folly, and there was as much of vanity as remorse in his +present state of doubt and distrust. How could he ever hope for such +a prize as this brilliant Blanche Amory, who lived in a fine park and +mansion, and was waited on by a score of grand domestics, whilst a +maid-servant brought in their meagre meal at Fairoaks, and his mother +was obliged to pinch and manage to make both ends meet? Obstacles +seemed for him insurmountable, which would have vanished had he marched +manfully upon them: and he preferred despairing, or dallying with +his wishes,--or perhaps he had not positively shaped them as yet,--to +attempting to win gallantly the object of his desire. Many a young +man fails by that species of vanity called shyness, who might, for the +asking have his will. + +But we do not pretend to say that Pen had, as yet, ascertained his: or +that he was doing much more than thinking about falling in love. Miss +Amory was charming and lively. She fascinated and cajoled him by a +thousand arts or natural graces or flatteries. But there were lurking +reasons and doubts, besides shyness and vanity, withholding him. In +spite of her cleverness, and her protestations, and her fascinations, +Pen's mother had divined the girl, and did not trust her. Mrs. Pendennis +saw Blanche light-minded and frivolous, detected many wants in her which +offended the pure and pious-minded lady; a want of reverence for her +parents, and for things more sacred, Helen thought: worldliness and +selfishness couched under pretty words and tender expressions. Laura and +Pen battled these points strongly at first with the widow--Laura being +as yet enthusiastic about her new friend, and Pen not far-gone enough in +love to attempt any concealment of his feelings. He would laugh at these +objections of Helen's, and say, "Psha, mother! you are jealous about +Laura--all women are jealous." + +But when, in the course of a month or two, and by watching the pair +with that anxiety with which brooding women watch over their sons' +affections--and in acknowledging which, I have no doubt there is a +sexual jealousy on the mother's part, and a secret pang--when Helen saw +that the intimacy appeared to make progress, that the two young people +were perpetually finding pretexts to meet, and that Miss Blanche was at +Fairoaks or Mr. Pen at the Park every day, the poor widow's heart began +to fail her--her darling project seemed to vanish before her; and, +giving way to her weakness, she fairly told Pen one day what her views +and longings were; that she felt herself breaking, and not long for this +world, and that she hoped and prayed before she went, that she might see +her two children one. The late events, Pen's life and career and former +passion for the actress, had broken the spirit of this tender lady. She +felt that he had escaped her, and was in the maternal nest no more; and +she clung with a sickening fondness to Laura, Laura who had been left to +her by Francis in Heaven. + +Pen kissed and soothed her in his grand patronising way. He had seen +something of this, he had long thought his mother wanted to make this +marriage--did Laura know anything of it? (Not she,--Mrs. Pendennis +said--not for worlds would she have breathed a word of it to +Laura)--"Well, well, there was time enough, his mother wouldn't die," +Pen said, laughingly: "he wouldn't hear of any such thing, and as for +the Muse, she is too grand a lady to think about poor little me--and as +for Laura, who knows that she would have me? She would do anything you +told her, to be sure. But am I worthy of her?" + +"O, Pen, you might be," was the widow's reply; not that Mr. Pen +ever doubted that he was; and a feeling of indefinable pleasure and +self-complacency came over him as he thought over this proposal, and +imaged Laura to himself, as his memory remembered her for years past, +always fair and open, kindly and pious, cheerful, tender and true. He +looked at her with brightening eyes as she came in from the garden at +the end of this talk, her cheeks rather flushed, her looks frank and +smiling--a basket of roses in her hand. + +She took the finest of them and brought it to Mrs. Pendennis, who was +refreshed by the odour and colour of these flowers; and hung over her +fondly and gave it to her. + +"And I might have this prize for the asking!" Pen thought with a thrill +of triumph, as he looked at the kindly girl. "Why, she is as beautiful +and as generous as her roses." The image of the two women remained for +ever after in his mind, and he never recalled it but the tears came into +his eyes. + +Before very many weeks' intimacy with her new acquaintance, however, +Miss Laura was obliged to give in to Helen's opinion, and own that the +Muse was selfish, unkind, and inconstant. Of course Blanche confided to +her bosom friend all the little griefs and domestic annoyances; how the +family could not comprehend her and she moved among them an isolated +being; how her poor mamma's education had been neglected, and she was +forced to blush for her blunders; how Sir Francis was a weak person +deplorably unintellectual, and only happy when smoking his odious +cigars; how, since the birth of her little brother, she had seen her +mother's precious affection, which she valued more than anything in +life, estranged from her once darling daughter; how she was alone, +alone, alone in the world. + +But these griefs, real and heart-rending though they might be to a young +lady of exquisite sensibility, did not convince Laura of the propriety +of Blanche's conduct in many small incidents of life. Little Frank, for +instance, might have deprived Blanche of her mamma's affection, but +this was no reason why Blanche should box the child's ears because he +upset a glass of water over her drawing, and why she should call him +many opprobrious names in the English and French language; and the +preference accorded to little Frank was certainly no reason why Blanche +should give herself imperial airs of command towards the boy's +governess, and send that young lady upon messages through the house to +bring her book or to fetch her pocket-handkerchief. When a domestic +performed an errand for honest Laura, she was always thankful and +pleased; whereas she could not but perceive that the little Muse had not +the slightest scruple in giving her commands to all the world round +about her, and in disturbing anybody's ease or comfort, in order to +administer to her own. It was Laura's first experience in friendship; +and it pained the kind creature's heart to be obliged to give up as +delusions, one by one, those charms and brilliant qualities in which her +fancy had dressed her new friend, and to find that the fascinating +little fairy was but a mortal, and not a very amiable mortal after all. +What generous person is there that has not been so deceived in his +time?--what person, perhaps, that has not so disappointed others in his +turn? + +After the scene with little Frank, in which that refractory son and heir +of the house of Clavering had received the compliments in French and +English, and the accompanying box on the ear from his sister, Miss +Laura who had plenty of humour, could not help calling to mind some very +touching and tender verses which the Muse had read to her out of Mes +Larmes, and which began, "My pretty baby brother, may angels guard thy +rest," in which the Muse, after complimenting the baby upon the station +in life which it was about to occupy, and contrasting it with her own +lonely condition, vowed nevertheless that the angel boy would never +enjoy such affection as hers was, or find in the false world before him +anything so constant and tender as a sister's heart. "It may be," the +forlorn one said, "it may be, you will slight it, my pretty baby sweet, +You will spurn me from your bosom, I'll cling around your feet! O let +me, let me, love you! the world will prove to you As false as 'tis to +others, but I am ever true." And behold the Muse was boxing the darling +brother's ears instead of kneeling at his feet, and giving Miss Laura +her first lesson in the Cynical philosophy--not quite her first, +however,--something like this selfishness and waywardness, something +like this contrast between practice and poetry, between grand versified +aspirations and everyday life, she had witnessed at home in the person +of our young friend Mr. Pen. + +But then Pen was different. Pen was a man. It seemed natural somehow +that he should be self-willed and should have his own way. And under his +waywardness and selfishness, indeed there was a kind and generous heart. +O it was hard that such a diamond should be changed away against such a +false stone as this. In a word, Laura began to be tired of her admired +Blanche. She had assayed her and found her not true; and her former +admiration and delight, which she had expressed with her accustomed +generous artlessness, gave way to a feeling, which we shall not call +contempt, but which was very near it; and which caused Laura to adopt +towards Miss Amory a grave and tranquil tone of superiority, which was +at first by no means to the Muse's liking. Nobody likes to be found out, +or, having held a high place, to submit to step down. + +The consciousness that this event was impending did not serve to +increase Miss Blanche's good-humour, and as it made her peevish and +dissatisfied with herself, it probably rendered her even less agreeable +to the persons round about her. So there arose, one fatal day, a +battle-royal between dearest Blanche and dearest Laura, in which the +friendship between them was all but slain outright. Dearest Blanche had +been unusually capricious and wicked on this day. She had been insolent +to her mother; savage with little Frank; odiously impertinent in her +behaviour to the boy's governess; and intolerably cruel to Pincott, her +attendant. Not venturing to attack her friend (for the little tyrant was +of a timid feline nature, and only used her claws upon those who were +weaker than herself), she maltreated all these, and especially poor +Pincott, who was menial, confidante, companion (slave always), according +to the caprice of her young mistress. + +This girl, who had been sitting in the room with the young ladies, being +driven thence in tears, occasioned by the cruelty of her mistress, and +raked with a parting sarcasm as she went sobbing from the door, Laura +fairly broke out into a loud and indignant invective--wondered how one +so young could forget the deference owing to her elders as well as to +her inferiors in station; and professing so much sensibility of her own, +could torture the feelings of others so wantonly. Laura told her friend +that her conduct was absolutely wicked, and that she ought to ask pardon +of Heaven on her knees for it. And having delivered herself of a hot +and voluble speech whereof the delivery astonished the speaker as much +almost as her auditor, she ran to her bonnet and shawl, and went home +across the park in a great flurry and perturbation, and to the surprise +of Mrs. Pendennis, who had not expected her until night. + +Alone with Helen, Laura gave an account of the scene, and gave up her +friend henceforth. "O Mamma," she said, "you were right; Blanche, who +seems so soft and so kind, is, as you have said, selfish and cruel. She +who is always speaking of her affections can have no heart. No honest +girl would afflict a mother so, or torture a dependant; and--and, I give +her up from this day, and I will have no other friend but you." + +On this the two ladies went through the osculatory ceremony which they +were in the habit of performing, and Mrs. Pendennis got a great secret +comfort from the little quarrel--for Laura's confession seemed to say, +"That girl can never be a wife for Pen, for she is light-minded and +heartless, and quite unworthy of our noble hero. He will be sure to find +out her unworthiness for his own part, and then he will be saved from +this flighty creature, and awake out of his delusion." + +But Miss Laura did not tell Mrs. Pendennis, perhaps did not acknowledge +to herself, what had been the real cause of the day's quarrel. Being in +a very wicked mood, and bent upon mischief everywhere, the little wicked +Muse of a Blanche had very soon begun her tricks. Her darling Laura +had come to pass a long day; and as they were sitting in her own room +together, had chosen to bring the conversation round to the subject of +Mr. Pen. + +"I am afraid he is sadly fickle," Miss Blanche observed; "Mrs. Pybus, +and many more Clavering people, have told us all about the actress." + +"I was quite a child when it happened, and I don't know anything about +it," Laura answered, blushing very much. + +"He used her very ill," Blanche said, wagging her little head. "He was +false to her." + +"I am sure he was not," Laura cried out; "he acted most generously by +her; he wanted to give up everything to marry her. It was she that was +false to him. He nearly broke his heart about it: he----" + +"I thought you didn't know anything about the story, dearest," +interposed Miss Blanche. + +"Mamma has said so," said Laura. + +"Well, he is very clever," continued the other little dear, "What a +sweet poet he is! Have you ever read his poems?" + +"Only the 'Fisherman and the Diver,' which he translated for us, and his +Prize Poem, which didn't get the prize; and, indeed, I thought it very +pompous and prosy," Laura said, laughing. + +"Has he never written you any poems, then, love?" asked Miss Amory. + +"No, my dear," said Miss Bell. + +Blanche ran up to her friend, kissed her fondly, called her my dearest +Laura at least three times, looked her archly in the face, nodded +her head, and said, "Promise to tell no-o-body, and I will show you +something." + +And tripping across the room daintily to a little mother-of-pearl inlaid +desk, she opened it with a silver key, and took out two or three papers +crumpled and rather stained with green, which she submitted to her +friend. Laura took them and read them. They were love-verses sure +enough--something about Undine--about a Naiad--about a river. She looked +at them for a long time; but in truth the lines were not very distinct +before her eyes. + +"And you have answered them, Blanche?" she asked, putting them back. + +"O no! not for worlds, dearest," the other said: and when her dearest +Laura had quite done with the verses, she tripped back and popped them +again into the pretty desk. + +Then she went to her piano, and sang two or three songs of Rossini, +whose flourishes of music her flexible little voice could execute to +perfection, and Laura sate by, vaguely listening as she performed these +pieces. What was Miss Bell thinking about the while? She hardly knew; +but sate there silent as the songs rolled by. After this concert the +young ladies were summoned to the room where luncheon was served; and +whither they of course went with their arms round each other's waists. + +And it could not have been jealousy or anger on Laura's part which had +made her silent; for, after they had tripped along the corridor and +descended the steps, and were about to open the door which leads into +the hall, Laura paused, and looking her friend kindly and frankly in the +face, kissed her with a sisterly warmth. + +Something occurred after this--Master Frank's manner of eating, +probably, or mamma's blunders, or Sir Francis smelling of cigars--which +vexed Miss Blanche, and she gave way to that series of naughtinesses +whereof we have spoken, and which ended in the above little quarrel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. A House full of Visitors + + +The difference between the girls did not last long. Laura was always +too eager to forgive and be forgiven, and as for Miss Blanche, her +hostilities, never very long or durable, had not been provoked by the +above scene. Nobody cares about being accused of wickedness. No vanity +is hurt by that sort of charge: Blanche was rather pleased than provoked +by her friend's indignation, which never would have been raised but for +a cause which both knew, though neither spoke of. + +And so Laura, with a sigh, was obliged to confess that the romantic part +of her first friendship was at an end, and that the object of it was +only worthy of a very ordinary sort of regard. + +As for Blanche, she instantly composed a copy of touching verses, +setting forth her desertion and disenchantment. It was only the old +story, she wrote, of love meeting with coldness, and fidelity returned +by neglect; and some new neighbours arriving from London about this +time, in whose family there were daughters, Miss Amory had the advantage +of selecting an eternal friend from one of these young ladies, and +imparting her sorrows and disappointments to this new sister. The +tall footmen came but seldom now with notes to the sweet Laura; the +pony-carriage was but rarely despatched to Fairoaks to be at the orders +of the ladies there. Blanche adopted a sweet look of suffering +martyrdom when Laura came to see her. The other laughed at her friend's +sentimental mood, and treated it with a good-humour that was by no means +respectful. + +But if Miss Blanche found new female friends to console her, the +faithful historian is also bound to say, that she discovered some +acquaintances of the other sex who seemed to give her consolation +too. If ever this artless young creature met a young man, and had ten +minutes' conversation with him in a garden walk, in a drawing-room +window, or in the intervals of a waltz, she confided in him, so to +speak--made play with her beautiful eyes--spoke in a tone of tender +interest, and simple and touching appeal, and left him, to perform the +same pretty little drama in behalf of his successor. + +When the Claverings first came down to the Park, there were very few +audiences before whom Miss Blanche could perform: hence Pen had all the +benefits of her glances and confidences, and the drawing-room window or +the garden walk all to himself. In the town of Clavering, it has been +said, there were actually no young men: in the near surrounding country, +only a curate or two or a rustic young squire, with large feet and +ill-made clothes. To the dragoons quartered at Chatteris the Baronet +made no overtures: it was unluckily his own regiment: he had left it +on bad terms with some officers of the corps--an ugly business about +a horse bargain--a disputed play account--blind-Hookey--a white +feather--who need ask?--it is not our business to inquire too closely +into the bygones of our characters, except in so far as their previous +history appertains to the development of this present story. + +But the autumn, and the end of the Parliamentary Session and the London +season, brought one or two county families down to their houses, and +filled tolerably the neighbouring little watering-place of Baymouth, +and opened our friend Mr. Bingley's Theatre Royal at Chatteris, and +collected the usual company at the Assizes and Race-balls there. Up to +this time, the old county families had been rather shy of our friends of +Clavering Park. The Fogeys of Drummington; the Squares of Tozely Park; +the Welbores of The Barrow, etc.: all sorts of stories were current +among these folks regarding the family at Clavering;--indeed, nobody +ought to say that people in the country have no imagination who heard +them talk about new neighbours. About Sir Francis and his Lady, and her +birth and parentage, about Miss Amory, about Captain Strong, there had +been endless histories which need not be recapitulated; and the family +of the Park had been three months in the county before the great people +around began to call. + +But at the end of the season, the Earl of Trehawk, Lord Lieutenant +of the County, coming to Eyrie Castle, and the Countess Dowager of +Rockminster, whose son was also a magnate of the land, to occupy +a mansion on the Marine Parade at Baymouth--these great folks came +publicly, immediately, and in state, to call upon the family of +Clavering Park; and the carriages of the county families speedily +followed in the track which had been left in the avenue by their lordly +wheels. + +It was then that Mirobolant began to have an opportunity of exercising +that skill which he possessed, and of forgetting, in the occupations of +his art, the pangs of love. It was then that the large footmen were too +much employed at Clavering Park to be able to bring messages, or dally +over the cup of small beer with the poor little maids at Fairoaks. It +was then that Blanche found other dear friends than Laura, and other +places to walk in besides the river-side, where Pen was fishing. He came +day after day, and whipped the stream, but the "fish, fish!" wouldn't do +their duty, nor the Peri appear. And here, though in strict confidence, +and with a request that the matter go no further, we may as well allude +to a delicate business, of which previous hint has been given. Mention +has been made, in a former page, of a certain hollow tree, at which +Pen used to take his station when engaged in his passion for Miss +Fotheringay, and the cavity of which he afterwards used for other +purposes than to insert his baits and fishing-cans in. The truth is, +he converted this tree into a post-office. Under a piece of moss and a +stone, he used to put little poems, or letters equally poetical, which +were addressed to a certain Undine, or Naiad who frequented the stream, +and which, once or twice, were replaced by a receipt in the shape of a +flower, or by a modest little word or two of acknowledgment, written +in a delicate hand, in French or English, and on pink scented paper. +Certainly, Miss Amory used to walk by this stream, as we have seen; and +it is a fact that she used pink scented paper for her correspondence. +But after the great folks had invaded Clavering Park, and the family +coach passed out of the lodge-gates, evening after evening, on their way +to the other great country houses, nobody came to fetch Pen's letters at +the post-office; the white paper was not exchanged for the pink, but lay +undisturbed under its stone and its moss, whilst the tree was reflected +into the stream, and the Brawl went rolling by. There was not much in +the letters certainly; in the pink notes scarcely anything--merely a +little word or two, half jocular, half sympathetic, such as might be +written by any young lady. But oh, you silly Pendennis, if you wanted +this one, why did you not speak? Perhaps neither party was in earnest. +You were only playing at being in love, and the sportive little Undine +was humouring you at the same play. + +But if a man is baulked at this game, he not unfrequently loses his +temper; and when nobody came any more for Pen's poems, he began to look +upon those compositions in a very serious light. He felt almost tragical +and romantic again, as in his first affair of the heart:--at any rate +he was bent upon having an explanation. One day he went to the Hall and +there was a roomful of visitors: on another, Miss Amory was not to be +seen; she was going to a ball that night, and was lying down to take a +little sleep. Pen cursed balls, and the narrowness of his means, and +the humility of his position in the country that caused him to be passed +over by the givers of these entertainments. On a third occasion, Miss +Amory was in the garden, and he ran thither; she was walking there in +state with no less personages than the Bishop and Bishopess of Chatteris +and the episcopal family, who scowled at him, and drew up in great +dignity when he was presented to them, and they heard his name. The +Right Reverend Prelate had heard it before, and also of the little +transaction in the Dean's garden. + +"The Bishop says you're a sad young man," good-natured Lady Clavering +whispered to him. "What have you been a doing of? Nothink, I hope, to +vex such a dear Mar as yours? How is your dear Mar? Why don't she come +and me? We an't seen her this ever such a time. We're a goin about a +gaddin, so that we don't see no neighbours now. Give my love to her and +Laurar, and come all to dinner to-morrow." + +Mrs. Pendennis was too unwell to come out but Laura and Pen came, and +there was a great party, and Pen only got an opportunity of a hurried +word with Miss Amory. "You never come to the river now," he said. + +"I can't," said Blanche, "the house is full of people." + +"Undine has left the stream," Mr. Pen went on, choosing to be poetical. + +"She never ought to have gone there," Miss Amory answered. "She won't go +again. It was very foolish: very wrong: it was only play. Besides, you +have other consolations at home," she added, looking him full in the +face an instant, and dropping her eyes. + +If he wanted her, why did he not speak then? She might have said "Yes" +even then. But as she spoke of other consolations at home, he thought of +Laura, so affectionate and so pure, and of his mother at home, who +had bent her fond heart upon uniting him with her adopted daughter. +"Blanche!" he began, in a vexed tone,--"Miss Amory!" + +"Laura is looking at us, Mr. Pendennis," the young lady said. "I must go +back to the company," and she ran off, leaving Mr. Pendennis to bite his +nails in perplexity, and to look out into the moonlight in the garden. + +Laura indeed was looking at Pen. She was talking with, or appearing to +listen to the talk of, Mr. Pynsent, Lord Rockminster's son, and grandson +of the Dowager Lady, who was seated in state in the place of honour, +gravely receiving Lady Clavering's bad grammar, and patronising the +vacuous Sir Francis, whose interest in the county she was desirous to +secure. Pynsent and Pen had been at Oxbridge together, where the latter, +during his heyday of good fortune and fashion, had been the superior of +the young patrician, and perhaps rather supercilious towards him. They +had met for the first time, since they parted at the University, at +the table to-day, and given each other that exceedingly impertinent and +amusing demi-nod of recognition which is practised in England only, and +only to perfection by University men,--and which seems to say, "Confound +you--what do you do here?" + +"I knew that man at Oxbridge," Mr. Pynsent said to Miss Bell--"a Mr. +Pendennis, I think." + +"Yes," said Miss Bell. + +"He seems rather sweet upon Miss Amory," the gentleman went on. Laura +looked at them, and perhaps thought so too, but said nothing. + +"A man of large property in the county, ain't he? He used to talk about +representing it. He used to speak at the Union. Whereabouts do his +estates lie?" + +Laura smiled. "His estates lie on the other side of the river, near the +lodge-gate. He is my cousin, and I live there." + +"Where?" asked Mr. Pynsent, with a laugh. + +"Why, on the other side of the river, at Fairoaks," answered Miss Bell. + +"Many pheasants there? Cover looks rather good," said the simple +gentleman. + +Laura smiled again. "We have nine hens and a cock, a pig, and an old +pointer." + +"Pendennis don't preserve, then?" continued Mr. Pynsent. + +"You should come and see him," the girl said, laughing, and greatly +amused at the notion that her Pen was a great county gentleman, and +perhaps had given himself out to be such. + +"Indeed, I quite long to renew our acquaintance," Mr. Pynsent said, +gallantly, and with a look which fairly said, "It is you that I would +like to come and see"--to which look and speech Miss Laura vouchsafed a +smile, and made a little bow. + +Here Blanche came stepping up with her most fascinating smile and ogle, +and begged dear Laura to come and take the second in a song. Laura was +ready to do anything good-natured, and went to the piano; by which Mr. +Pynsent listened as long as the duet lasted, and until Miss Amory began +for herself, when he strode away. + +"What a nice, frank, amiable, well-bred girl that is, Wagg," said Mr. +Pynsent to a gentleman who had come over with him from Baymouth--"the +tall one, I mean, with the ringlets and red lips--monstrous red, ain't +they?" + +"What do you think of the girl of the house?" asked Wagg. + +"I think she's a lean, scraggy humbug," said Mr. Pynsent, with great +candour. "She drags her shoulders out of her dress, she never lets +her eyes alone: and she goes simpering and ogling about like a French +waiting-maid. + +"Pynsent, be civil," cried the other, "somebody can hear." + +"Oh, it's Pendennis of Boniface," Mr. Pynsent said. "Fine evening, Mr. +Pendennis; we were just talking of your charming cousin." + +"Any relation to my old friend, Major Pendennis?" asked Mr. Wagg. + +"His nephew. Had the pleasure of meeting you at Gaunt House," Mr. Pen +said with his very best air--the acquaintance between the gentlemen was +made in an instant. + +In the afternoon of the next day, the two gentlemen who were staying +at Clavering Park were found by Mr. Pen on his return from a fishing +excursion, in which he had no sport, seated in his mother's drawing-room +in comfortable conversation with the widow and her ward. Mr. Pynsent, +tall and gaunt, with large red whiskers and an imposing tuft to his +chin, was striding over a chair in the intimate neighbourhood of Miss +Laura. She was amused by his talk, which was simple, straightforward, +rather humorous and keen, and interspersed with homely expressions of +a style which is sometimes called slang. It was the first specimen of a +young London dandy that Laura had seen or heard: for she had been but a +chit at the time of Mr. Foker's introduction at Fairoaks, nor indeed was +that ingenuous gentleman much more than a boy, and his refinement was +only that of a school and college. + +Mr. Wagg, as he entered the Fairoaks premises with his companion, eyed +and noted everything. "Old gardener," he said, seeing Mr. John at the +lodge--"old red livery waistcoat--clothes hanging out to dry on the +gooseberry-bushes--blue aprons, white ducks--gad, they must be young +Pendennis's white ducks--nobody else wears 'em in the family. Rather a +shy place for a sucking county member, ay, Pynsent?" + +"Snug little crib," said Mr. Pynsent, "pretty cosy little lawn." + +"Mr. Pendennis at home, old gentleman?" Mr. Wagg said to the old +domestic. John answered, "No, Master Pendennis was agone out." + +"Are the ladies at home?" asked the younger visitor. Mr. John answered, +"Yes, they be;" and as the pair walked over the trim gravel, and by the +neat shrubberies, up the steps to the hall-door, which old John opened, +Mr. Wagg noted everything that he saw; the barometer and the letter-bag, +the umbrellas and the ladies' clogs, Pen's hats and tartan wrapper, and +old John opening the drawing-room door, to introduce the new-comers. +Such minutiae attracted Wagg instinctively; he seized them in spite of +himself. + +"Old fellow does all the work," he whispered to Pynsent. "Caleb +Balderstone. Shouldn't wonder if he's the housemaid." The next minute +the pair were in the presence of the Fairoaks ladies; in whom Pynsent +could not help recognising two perfectly well-bred ladies, and to whom +Mr. Wagg made his obeisance, with florid bows, and extra courtesy, +accompanied with an occasional knowing leer at his companion. Mr. +Pynsent did not choose to acknowledge these signals, except by extreme +haughtiness towards Mr. Wagg, and particular deference to the ladies. If +there was one thing laughable in Mr. Wagg's eyes, it was poverty. He had +the soul of a butler who had been brought from his pantry to make fun in +the drawing-room. His jokes were plenty, and his good-nature thoroughly +genuine, but he did not seem to understand that a gentleman could wear +an old coat, or that a lady could be respectable unless she had her +carriage, or employed a French milliner. + +"Charming place, ma'am," said he, bowing to the widow; "noble +prospect--delightful to us Cocknies, who seldom see anything but Pall +Mall." The widow said simply, she had never been in London but once in +her life--before her son was born. + +"Fine village, ma'am, fine village," said Mr. Wagg, "and increasing +every day. It'll be quite a large town soon. It's not a bad place to +live in for those who can't get the country, and will repay a visit when +you honour it." + +"My brother, Major Pendennis, has often mentioned your name to us," the +widow said, "and we have been very much amused by some of your droll +books, sir," Helen continued, who never could be brought to like Mr. +Wagg's books, and detested their tone most thoroughly. + +"He is my very good friend," Mr. Wagg said, with a low bow, "and one of +the best known men about town, and where known, ma'am, appreciated--I +assure you appreciated. He is with our friend Steyne, at +Aix-la-Chapelle. Steyne has a touch of the gout and so, between +ourselves, has your brother. I am going to Stillbrook for the +pheasant-shooting, and afterwards to Bareacres, where Pendennis and I +shall probably meet;" and he poured out a flood of fashionable talk, +introducing the names of a score of peers, and rattling on with +breathless spirits, whilst the simple widow listened in silent wonder. +What a man, she thought; are all the men of fashion in London like this? +I am sure Pen will never like him. + +Mr. Pynsent was in the meanwhile engaged with Miss Laura. He named some +of the houses in the neighbourhood whither he was going, and hoped very +much that he should see Miss Bell at some of them. He hoped that her +aunt would give her a season in London. He said, that in the next +parliament it was probable that he should canvass the county, and he +hoped to get Pendennis's interest here. He spoke of Pen's triumph as +an orator at Oxbridge, and asked was he coming into parliament too? He +talked on very pleasantly, and greatly to Laura's satisfaction, until +Pen himself appeared, and, as has been said, found these gentlemen. + +Pen behaved very courteously to the pair, now that they have found their +way into his quarters; and though he recollected with some twinges a +conversation at Oxbridge, when Pynsent was present, and in which after +a great debate at the Union, and in the midst of considerable excitement +produced by a supper and champagne-cup,--he had announced his intention +of coming in for his native county, and had absolutely returned thanks +in a fine speech as the future member; yet Mr. Pynsent's manner was +so frank and cordial, that Pen hoped Pynsent might have forgotten his +little fanfaronnade, and any other braggadocio speeches or actions which +he might have made. He suited himself to the tone of the visitors, then, +and talked about Plinlimmon and Magnus Charters, and the old set at +Oxbridge, with careless familiarity and high-bred ease, as if he lived +with marquises every day, and a duke was no more to him than a village +curate. + +But at this juncture, and it being then six o'clock in the evening, +Betsy, the maid, who did not know of the advent of strangers, walked +into the room without any preliminary but that of flinging the door +wide open before her, and bearing in her arms a tray, containing three +tea-cups, a tea-pot, and a plate of thick bread-and-butter. All Pen's +splendour and magnificence vanished away at this--and he faltered and +became quite abashed. "What will they think of us?" he thought: and, +indeed, Wagg thrust his tongue in his cheek, thought the tea infinitely +contemptible, and leered and winked at Pynsent to that effect. + +But to Mr. Pynsent the transaction appeared perfectly simple--there was +no reason present to his mind why people should not drink tea at six +if they were minded, as well as at any other hour; and he asked of Mr. +Wagg, when they went away, "What the devil he was grinning and winking +at, and what amused him?" + +"Didn't you see how the cub was ashamed of the thick bread-and-butter? +I dare say they're going to have treacle if they are good. I'll take an +opportunity of telling old Pendennis when we get back to town," Mr. Wagg +chuckled out. + +"Don't see the fun," said Mr. Pynsent. + +"Never thought you did," growled Wagg between his teeth; they walked +home rather sulkily. + +Wagg told the story at dinner very smartly, with wonderful accuracy of +observation. He described old John, the clothes that were drying, +the clogs in the hall, the drawing-room, and its furniture and +pictures;--"Old man with a beak and bald head--feu Pendennis I bet two +to one; sticking-plaster full-length of a youth in a cap and gown--the +present Marquis of Fairoaks, of course; the widow when young in a +miniature, Mrs. Mee; she had the gown on when we came, or a dress made +the year after, and the tips cut off the fingers of her gloves which she +stitches her son's collars with; and then the sarving maid came in +with their teas so we left the Earl and the Countess to their +bread-and-butter." + +Blanche, near whom he sate as he told this story, and who adored les +hommes desprit, burst out laughing, and called him such an odd, droll +creature. But Pynsent, who began to be utterly disgusted with him, broke +out in a loud voice, and said, "I don't know, Mr. Wagg, what sort of +ladies you are accustomed to meet in your own family, but by gad, as far +as a first acquaintance can show, I never met two better-bred women in +my life, and I hope, ma'am, you'll call upon 'em," he added, addressing +Lady Rockminster, who was seated at Sir Francis Clavering's right hand. + +Sir Francis turned to the guest on his left, and whispered. "That's +what I call a sticker for Wagg." And Lady Clavering, giving the young +gentleman a delighted tap with her fan, winked her black eyes at him, +and said, "Mr. Pynsent, you're a good feller." + +After the affair with Blanche, a difference ever so slight, a tone +of melancholy, perhaps a little bitter, might be perceived in Laura's +converse with her cousin. She seemed to weigh him and find him wanting +too; the widow saw the girl's clear and honest eyes watching the young +man at times, and a look of almost scorn pass over her face, as he +lounged in the room with the women, or lazily sauntered smoking upon the +lawn, or lolled under a tree there over a book which he was too listless +to read. + +"What has happened between you?" eager-sighted Helen asked of the girl. +"Something has happened. Has that wicked little Blanche been making +mischief? Tell me, Laura." + +"Nothing has happened at all," Laura said. + +"Then why do you look at Pen so?" asked his mother quickly. + +"Look at him, dear mother!" said the girl. "We two women are no society +for him: we don't interest him; we are not clever enough for such a +genius as Pen. He wastes his life and energies away among us, tied to +our apron-strings. He interests himself in nothing: he scarcely cares to +go beyond the garden-gate. Even Captain Glanders and Captain Strong pall +upon him," she added with a bitter laugh; "and they are men, you know, +and our superiors. He will never be happy while he is here. Why, is he +not facing the world, and without a profession?" + +"We have got enough, with great economy," said the widow, her heart +beginning to beat violently. "Pen has spent nothing for months. I'm sure +he is very good. I am sure he might be very happy with us." + +"Don't agitate yourself so, dear mother," the girl answered. "I don't +like to see you so. You should not be sad because Pen is unhappy here. +All men are so. They must work. They must make themselves names and a +place in the world. Look, the two captains have fought and seen battles; +that Mr. Pynsent, who came here, and who will be very rich, is in +a public office; he works very hard, he aspires to a name and a +reputation. He says Pen was one of the best speakers at Oxbridge, and +had as great a character for talent as any of the young gentlemen there. +Pen himself laughs at Mr. Wagg's celebrity (and indeed he is a horrid +person), and says he is a dunce, and that anybody could write his +books." + +"I am sure they are odious and vulgar," interposed the widow. + +"Yet he has a reputation.--You see the County Chronicle says, +'The celebrated Mr. Wagg has been sojourning at Baymouth--let our +fashionables and eccentrics look out for something from his caustic +pen.' If Pen can write better than this gentleman, and speak better than +Mr. Pynsent, why doesn't he? Mamma, he can't make speeches to us; or +distinguish himself here. He ought to go away, indeed he ought." + +"Dear Laura," said Helen, taking the girl's hand. "Is it kind of you +to hurry him so? I have been waiting. I have been saving up money these +many months--to--to pay back your advance to us." + +"Hush, mother!" Laura cried, embracing her friend hastily. "It was your +money, not mine. Never speak about that again. How much money have you +saved?" + +Helen said there were more than two hundred pounds at the bank, and that +she would be enabled to pay off all Laura's money by the end of the next +year. + +"Give it him--let him have the two hundred pounds. Let him go to London +and be a lawyer: be something, be worthy of his mother--and of mine, +dearest mamma," said the good girl; upon which, and with her usual +tenderness and emotion, the fond widow declared that Laura was a +blessing to her and the best of girls--and I hope no one in this +instance will be disposed to contradict her. + +The widow and her daughter had more than one conversation on this +subject; and the elder gave way to the superior reason of the honest and +stronger-minded girl; and indeed, whenever there was a sacrifice to be +made on her part, this kind lady was only too eager to make it. But she +took her own way, and did not loose sight of the end she had in view, +in imparting these new plans to Pen. One day she told him of these +projects, and it who it was that had formed them; how it was Laura who insisted +upon his going to London and studying; how it was Laura who would +not hear of the--the money arrangements when he came back from +Oxbridge--being settled just then: how it was Laura whom he had to +thank, if indeed he thought that he had to go. + +At that news Pen's countenance blazed up with pleasure, and he hugged +his mother to his heart with an ardour that I fear disappointed the fond +lady; but she rallied when he said, "By Heaven! she is a noble girl, and +may God Almighty bless her mother! I have been wearing myself away for +months here, longing to work, and not knowing how. I've been fretting +over the thoughts of my shame, and my debts, and my past cursed +extravagance and follies. I've suffered infernally. My heart has been +half broken--never mind about that. If I can get a chance to redeem +the past, and to do my duty to myself and the best mother in the world, +indeed, indeed, I will. I'll be worthy of you yet. Heaven bless you! God +bless Laura! Why isn't she here, that I may go and thank her?" Pen +went on with more incoherent phrases; paced up and down the room, +drank glasses of water, jumped about his mother with a thousand +embraces--began to laugh--began to sing--was happier than she had seen +him since he was a boy--since he had tasted of the fruit of that awful +Tree of Life, which, from the beginning, has tempted all mankind. + +Laura was not at home. Laura was on a visit to the stately Lady +Rockminster, daughter to my Lord Bareacres, sister to the late Lady +Pontypool, and by consequence a distant kinswoman of Helen's, as her +ladyship, who was deeply versed in genealogy, was graciously to point +out to the modest country lady. Mr. Pen was greatly delighted at the +relationship being acknowledged; though perhaps not over well pleased +that Lady Rockminster took Miss Bell home with her for a couple of days +to Baymouth, and did not make the slightest invitation to Mr. Arthur +Pendennis. There was to be a ball at Baymouth, and it was to be Miss +Laura's first appearance. The dowager came to fetch her in her carriage, +and she went off with a white dress in her box, happy and blushing, like +the rose to which Pen compared her. + +This was the night of the ball--a public entertainment at the Baymouth +Hotel. "By Jove!" said Pen, "I'll ride over--No, I won't ride, but I'll +go too." His mother was charmed that he should do so; and, as he was +debating about the conveyance in which he should start for Baymouth, +Captain Strong called opportunely, said he was going himself, and that +he would put his horse, The Butcher Boy, into the gig, and drive Pen +over. + +When the grand company began to fill the house at Clavering Park, the +Chevalier Strong, who, as his patron said, was never in the way or out +of it, seldom intruded himself upon its society, but went elsewhere to +seek his relaxation. "I've seen plenty of grand dinners in my time," he +said, "and dined, by Jove, in a company where there was a king and royal +duke at top and bottom, and every man along the table had six stars +on his coat; but dammy, Glanders, this finery don't suit me; and the +English ladies with their confounded buckram airs, and the squires with +their politics after dinner, send me to sleep--sink me dead if they +don't. I like a place where I can blow my cigar when the cloth is +removed, and when I'm thirsty, have my beer in its native pewter." So on +a gala-day at Clavering Park, the Chevalier would content himself +with superintending the arrangements of the table, and drilling the +major-domo and servants; and having looked over the bill-of-fare with +Monsieur Mirobolant, would not care to take the least part in the +banquet. "Send me up a cutlet and a bottle of claret to my room," this +philosopher would say, and from the windows of that apartment, which +commanded the terrace and avenue, he would survey the company as they +arrived in their carriages, or take a peep at the ladies in the hall +through an oeil-de-boeuf which commanded it from his corridor. And the +guests being seated, Strong would cross the park to Captain Glanders's +cottage at Clavering, or to pay the landlady a visit at the Clavering +Arms, or to drop in upon Madame Fribsby over her novel and tea. Wherever +the Chevalier went he was welcome, and whenever he came away a smell of +hot brandy-and-water lingered behind him. + +The Butcher Boy--not the worst horse in Sir Francis's stable--was +appropriated to Captain Strong's express use; and the old Campaigner +saddled him or brought him home at all hours of the day or night, +and drove or rode him up and down the country. Where there was a +public-house with a good tap of beer--where there was a tenant with a +pretty daughter who played on the piano--to Chatteris, to the play, or +the barracks--to Baymouth, if any fun was on foot there; to the rural +fairs or races, the Chevalier and his brown horse made their way +continually; and this worthy gentleman lived at free quarters in a +friendly country. The Butcher Boy soon took Pen and the Chevalier to +Baymouth. The latter was as familiar with the hotel and landlord there +as with every other inn round about; and having been accommodated with a +bedroom to dress, they entered the ballroom. The Chevalier was splendid. +He wore three little gold crosses in a brochette on the portly breast of +his blue coat, and looked like a foreign field-marshal. + +The ball was public and all sorts of persons were admitted and +encouraged to come, young Pynsent having views upon the county and Lady +Rockminster being patroness of the ball. There was a quadrille for the +aristocracy at one end, and select benches for the people of fashion. +Towards this end the Chevalier did not care to penetrate far (as he said +he did not care for the nobs); but in the other part of the room he knew +everybody--the wine-merchants', innkeepers', tradesmen's, solicitors', +squire-farmers' daughters, their sires and brothers, and plunged about +shaking hands. + +"Who is that man with the blue ribbon and the three-pointed star?" asked +Pen. A gentleman in black with ringlets and a tuft stood gazing fiercely +about him, with one hand in the arm-hole of his waistcoat and the other +holding his claque. + +"By Jupiter, it's Mirobolant!" cried Strong, bursting out laughing. "Bon +jour, Chef!--Bon jour, Chevalier!" + +"De la croix de Juillet, Chevalier!" said the Chef, laying his hand on +his decoration. + +"By Jove, here's some more ribbon!" said Pen, amused. + +A man with very black hair and whiskers, dyed evidently with the +purple of Tyre, with twinkling eyes and white eyelashes, and a thousand +wrinkles in his face, which was of a strange red colour, with two +under-vests, and large gloves and hands, and a profusion of diamonds +and jewels in his waistcoat and stock, with coarse feet crumpled +into immense shiny boots, and a piece of parti-coloured ribbon in his +button-hole, here came up and nodded familiarly to the Chevalier. + +The Chevalier shook hands. "My friend Mr. Pendennis," Strong said. +"Colonel Altamont, of the bodyguard of his Highness the Nawaub of +Lucknow." That officer bowed to the salute of Pen; who was now looking +out eagerly to see if the person wanted had entered the room. + +Not yet. But the band began presently performing 'See the Conquering +Hero comes,' and a host of fashionables--Dowager Countess of +Rockminster, Mr. Pynsent and Miss Bell, Sir Francis Clavering, Bart., of +Clavering Park, Lady Clavering and Miss Amory, Sir Horace Fogey, Bart., +Lady Fogey, Colonel and Mrs. Higgs--Wagg, Esq. (as the county paper +afterwards described them), entered the room. + +Pen rushed by Blanche, ran up to Laura, and seized her hand. "God bless +you!" he said, "I want to speak to you--I must speak to you--Let me +dance with you." "Not for three dances, dear Pen," she said, smiling: +and he fell back, biting his nails with vexation, and forgetting to +salute Pynsent. + +After Lady Rockminster's party, Lady Clavering's followed in the +procession. + +Colonel Altamont eyed it hard, holding a most musky pocket-handkerchief +up to his face, and bursting with laughter behind it. + +"Who's the gal in green along with 'em, Cap'n?" he asked of Strong. + +"That's Miss Amory, Lady Clavering's daughter," replied the Chevalier. + +The Colonel could hardly contain himself for laughing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. Contains some Ball-practising + + +Under some calico draperies in the shady embrasure of a window, Arthur +Pendennis chose to assume a very gloomy and frowning countenance, and +to watch Miss Bell dance her first quadrille with Mr. Pynsent for a +partner. That gentleman was as solemn and severe as Englishmen are upon +such occasions, and walked through the dance as he would have walked +up to his pew in church, without a smile upon his face, or allowing any +outward circumstance to interfere with his attention to the grave duty +in which he was engaged. But Miss Laura's face was beaming with pleasure +and good-nature. The lights and the crowd and music excited her. As she +spread out her white robes, and performed her part of the dance, smiling +and happy, her brown ringlets flowing back over her fair shoulders from +her honest rosy face, more than one gentleman in the room admired and +looked after her; and Lady Fogey, who had a house in London and gave +herself no small airs of fashion when in the country, asked of Lady +Rockminster who the young person was, mentioned a reigning beauty in +London whom, in her ladyship's opinion, Laura was rather like, and +pronounced that she would "do." + +Lady Rockminster would have been very much surprised if any protegee of +hers would not "do," and wondered at Lady Fogey's impudence in judging +upon the point at all. She surveyed Laura with majestic glances through +her eyeglass. She was pleased with the girl's artless looks, and gay +innocent manner. Her manner is very good, her ladyship thought. Her +arms are rather red, but that is a defect of her youth. Her tone is far +better than that of the little pert Miss Amory, who is dancing opposite +to her. + +Miss Blanche was, indeed, the vis-a-vis of Miss Laura, and smiled most +killingly upon her dearest friend, and nodded to her and talked to her, +when they met during the quadrille evolutions, and patronised her a +great deal. Her shoulders were the whitest in the whole room: and they +were never easy in her frock for one single instant: nor were her eyes, +which rolled about incessantly: nor was her little figure:--it seemed to +say to all the people, "Come and look at me--not at that pink, healthy, +bouncing country lass, Miss Bell, who scarcely knew how to dance till +I taught her. This is the true Parisian manner--this is the prettiest +little foot in the room, and the prettiest little chaussure too. Look at +it, Mr. Pynsent. Look at it, Mr. Pendennis, you who are scowling behind +the curtain--I know you are longing to dance with me." + +Laura went on dancing, and keeping an attentive eye upon Mr. Pen in +the embrasure of the window. He did not quit that retirement during +the first quadrille, nor until the second, when the good-natured Lady +Clavering beckoned to him to come up to her to the dais or place of +honour where the dowagers were,--and whither Pen went blushing and +exceedingly awkward, as most conceited young fellows are. He performed a +haughty salutation to Lady Rockminster, who hardly acknowledged his bow, +and then went and paid his respects to the widow of the late Amory, +who was splendid in diamonds, velvet, lace, feathers, and all sorts of +millinery and goldsmith's ware. + +Young Mr. Fogey, then in the fifth form at Eton, and ardently expecting +his beard and his commission in a dragoon regiment, was the second +partner who was honoured with Miss Bell's hand. He was rapt in +admiration of that young lady. He thought he had never seen so charming +a creature. "I like you much better than the French girl" (for this +young gentleman had been dancing with Miss Amory before), he candidly +said to her. Laura laughed, and looked more good-humoured than ever; +and in the midst of her laughter caught a sight of Pen, and continued to +laugh as he, on his side, continued to look absurdly pompous and sulky. +The next dance was a waltz, and young Fogey thought, with a sigh, that +he did not know how to waltz, and vowed he would have a master the next +holidays. + +Mr. Pynsent again claimed Miss Bell's hand for this dance; and Pen +beheld her, in a fury, twirling round the room, her waist encircled by +the arm of that gentleman. He never used to be angry before when, on +summer evenings, the chairs and tables being removed, and the governess +called downstairs to play the piano, he and the Chevalier Strong (who +was a splendid performer, and could dance a British hornpipe, a German +waltz, or a Spanish fandango, if need were), and the two young ladies, +Blanche and Laura, improvised little balls at Clavering Park. Laura +enjoyed this dancing so much, and was so animated, that she even +animated Mr. Pynsent. Blanche, who could dance beautifully, had an +unlucky partner, Captain Broadfoot, of the Dragoons, then stationed at +Chatteris. For Captain Broadfoot, though devoting himself with great +energy to the object in view, could not get round in time: and, not +having the least ear for music, was unaware that his movements were too +slow. + +So, in the waltz as in the quadrille, Miss Blanche saw that her dear +friend Laura had the honours of the dance, and was by no means pleased +with the latter's success. After a couple of turns with the heavy +dragoon, she pleaded fatigue, and requested to be led back to her place, +near her mamma, to whom Pen was talking; and she asked him why he had +not asked her to waltz, and had left her for the mercies of that great +odious man in spurs and a red coat? + +"I thought spurs and scarlet were the most fascinating objects in the +world to young ladies," Pen answered. "I never should have dared to put +my black coat in competition with that splendid red jacket." + +"You are very unkind and cruel and sulky and naughty," said Miss Amory, +with another shrug of the shoulders. "You had better go away. Your +cousin is looking at us over Mr. Pynsent's shoulder." + +"Will you waltz with me?" said Pen. + +"Not this waltz. I can't, having just sent away that good Captain +Broadfoot. Look at Mr. Pynsent, did you ever see such a creature? But +I will dance the next waltz with you, and the quadrille too. I am +promised, but I will tell Mr. Poole that I had forgotten my engagement +to you." + +"Women forget very readily," Pendennis said. + +"But they always come back, and are very repentant and sorry for what +they've done," Blanche said. "See, here comes the Poker, and dear Laura +leaning on him. How pretty she looks!" + +Laura came up, and put out her hand to Pen, to whom Pynsent made a +sort of bow, appearing to be not much more graceful than that domestic +instrument to which Miss Amory compared him. + +But Laura's face was full of kindness. "I am so glad to have come, dear +Pen," she said. "I can speak to you now. How is mamma? The three dances +are over, and I am engaged to you for the next, Pen." + +"I have just engaged myself to Miss Amory," said Pen; and Miss Amory +nodded her head, and made her usual little curtsey. "I don't intend to +give him up, dearest Laura," she said. + +"Well, then, he'll waltz with me, dear Blanche," said the other. "Won't +you, Pen?" + +"I promised to waltz with Miss Amory." + +"Provoking!" said Laura, and making a curtsey in her turn she went and +placed herself under the ample wing of Lady Rockminster. + +Pen was delighted with his mischief. The two prettiest girls in the room +were quarrelling about him. He flattered himself he had punished Miss +Laura. He leaned in a dandified air, with his elbow over the wall, and +talked to Blanche: he quizzed unmercifully all the men in the room--the +heavy dragoons in their tight jackets--the country dandies in their +queer attire--the strange toilettes of the ladies. One seemed to have a +bird's nest in her head; another had six pounds of grapes in her hair, +besides her false pearls. "It's a coiffure of almonds and raisins," said +Pen "and might be served up for dessert." In a word, he was exceedingly +satirical and amusing. + +During the quadrille he carried on this kind of conversation with +unflinching bitterness and vivacity, and kept Blanche continually +laughing, both at his wickedness and jokes, which were good, and also +because Laura was again their vis-a-vis, and could see and hear how +merry and confidential they were. + +"Arthur is charming to-night," she whispered to Laura, across Cornet +Perch's shell-jacket, as Pen was performing cavalier seul before +them, drawling through that figure with a thumb in the pocket of each +waistcoat. + +"Who?" said Laura. + +"Arthur," answered Blanche, in French. "Oh, it's such a pretty name!" +And now the young ladies went over to Pen's side, and Cornet Perch +performed a pas seul in his turn. He had no waistcoat pocket to put his +hands into, and they looked large and swollen as they hung before him +depending from the tight arms in the jacket. + +During the interval between the quadrille and the succeeding waltz, Pen +did not take any notice of Laura, except to ask her whether her partner, +Cornet Perch, was an amusing youth, and whether she liked him so well +as her other partner, Mr. Pynsent. Having planted which two daggers in +Laura's gentle bosom, Mr. Pendennis proceeded to rattle on with Blanche +Amory, and to make jokes good or bad, but which were always loud. Laura +was at a loss to account for her cousin's sulky behaviour, and ignorant +in what she had offended him; however, she was not angry in her turn at +Pen's splenetic mood, for she was the most good-natured and forgiving +of women, and besides, an exhibition of jealousy on a man's part is not +always disagreeable to a lady. + +As Pen would not dance with her, she was glad to take up with the active +Chevalier Strong, who was a still better performer than Pen; and being +very fond of dancing, as every brisk and innocent young girl should be, +when the waltz music began she set off, and chose to enjoy herself with +all her heart. Captain Broadfoot on this occasion occupied the floor +in conjunction with a lady of proportions scarcely inferior to his own; +Miss Roundle, a large young woman in a strawberry-ice coloured crape +dress, the daughter of the lady with the grapes in her head, whose +bunches Pen had admired. + +And now taking his time, and with his fair partner Blanche hanging +lovingly on the arm which encircled her, Mr. Arthur Pendennis set out +upon his waltzing career, and felt, as he whirled round to the music, +that he and Blanche were performing very brilliantly indeed. Very likely +he looked to see if Miss Bell thought so too; but she did not or would +not see him, and was always engaged with her partner Captain Strong. But +Pen's triumph was not destined to last long; and it was doomed that poor +Blanche was to have yet another discomfiture on that unfortunate night. +While she and Pen were whirling round as light and brisk as a couple of +opera-dancers, honest Captain Broadfoot and the lady round whose large +waist he was clinging, were twisting round very leisurely according to +their natures, and indeed were in everybody's way. But they were more +in Pendennis's way than in anybody's else, for he and Blanche, whilst +executing their rapid gyrations, came bolt up against the heavy dragoon +and his lady, and with such force that the centre of gravity was lost by +all four of the circumvolving bodies; Captain Broadfoot and Miss Roundle +were fairly upset, as was Pen himself, who was less lucky than his +partner Miss Amory, who was only thrown upon a bench against a wall. + +But Pendennis came fairly down upon the floor, sprawling in the general +ruin with Broadfoot and Miss Roundle. The Captain, though heavy, was +good-natured, and was the first to burst out into a loud laugh at his +own misfortune, which nobody therefore heeded. But Miss Amory was savage +at her mishap; Miss Roundle placed on her seant, and looking pitifully +round, presented an object which very few people could see without +laughing; and Pen was furious when he heard the people giggling about +him. He was one of those sarcastic young fellows that did not bear a +laugh at his own expense, and of all things in the world feared ridicule +most. + +As he got up Laura and Strong were laughing at him; everybody was +laughing; Pynsent and his partner were laughing; and Pen boiled with +wrath against the pair, and could have stabbed them both on the spot. He +turned away in a fury from them, and began blundering out apologies to +Miss Amory. It was the other couple's fault--the woman in pink had done +it--Pen hoped Miss Amory was not hurt--would she not have the courage to +take another turn? + +Miss Amory in a pet said she was very much hurt indeed, and she would +not take another turn; and she accepted with great thanks a glass of +water which a cavalier, who wore a blue ribbon and a three-pointed star, +rushed to fetch for her when he had seen the deplorable accident. She +drank the water, smiled upon the bringer gracefully, and turning +her white shoulder at Mr. Pen in the most marked and haughty manner, +besought the gentleman with the star to conduct her to her mamma; and +she held out her hand in order to take his arm. + +The man with the star trembled with delight at this mark of her favour; +he bowed over her hand, pressed it to his coat fervidly, and looked +round him with triumph. + +It was no other than the happy Mirobolant whom Blanche had selected as +an escort. But the truth is, that the young lady had never fairly looked +in the artist's face since he had been employed in her mother's family, +and had no idea but it was a foreign nobleman on whose arm she was +leaning. As she went off, Pen forgot his humiliation in his surprise, +and cried out, "By Jove, it's the cook!" + +The instant he had uttered the words, he was sorry for having spoken +them--for it was Blanche who had herself invited Mirobolant to escort +her, nor could the artist do otherwise than comply with a lady's +command. Blanche in her flutter did not hear what Arthur said; but +Mirobolant heard him, and cast a furious glance at him over his +shoulder, which rather amused Mr. Pen. He was in a mischievous and sulky +humour; wanting perhaps to pick a quarrel with somebody; but the idea +of having insulted a cook, or that such an individual should have any +feeling of honour at all, did not much enter into the mind of this lofty +young aristocrat, the apothecary's son. + +It had never entered that poor artist's head, that he as a man was not +equal to any other mortal, or that there was anything in his position so +degrading as to prevent him from giving his arm to a lady who asked +for it. He had seen in the fetes in his own country fine ladies, not +certainly demoiselles (but the demoiselle Anglaise he knew was a great +deal more free than the spinster in France), join in the dance with +Blaise or Pierre; and he would have taken Blanche up to Lady +Clavering, and possibly have asked her to dance too, but he heard +Pen's exclamation, which struck him as if it had shot him, and cruelly +humiliated and angered him. She did not know what caused him to start, +and to grind a Gascon oath between his teeth. + +But Strong, who was acquainted with the poor fellow's state of mind, +having had the interesting information from our friend Madame Fribsby, +was luckily in the way when wanted, and saying something rapidly in +Spanish, which the other understood, the Chevalier begged Miss Amory to +come and take an ice before she went back to Lady Clavering. Upon which +the unhappy Mirobolant relinquished the arm which he had held for a +minute, and with a most profound and piteous bow, fell back. "Don't you +know who it is?" Strong asked of Miss Amory, as he led her away. "It is +the chef Mirobolant." + +"How should I know?" asked Blanche. "He has a croix; he is very +distingue; he has beautiful eyes." + +"The poor fellow is mad for your beaux yeux, I believe," Strong said. +"He is a very good cook, but he is not quite right in the head." + +"What did you say to him in the unknown tongue?" asked Miss Blanche. + +"He is a Gascon, and comes from the borders of Spain," Strong answered. +"I told him he would lose his place if he walked with you." + +"Poor Monsieur Mirobolant!" said Blanche. + +"Did you see the look he gave Pendennis?"--Strong asked, enjoying the +idea of the mischief--"I think he would like to run little Pen through +with one of his spits." + +"He is an odious, conceited, clumsy creature, that Mr. Pen," said +Blanche. + +"Broadfoot looked as if he would like to kill him too, so did Pynsent," +Strong said. "What ice will you have--water ice or cream ice?" + +"Water ice. Who is that odd man staring at me--he is decore too." + +"That is my friend Colonel Altamont, a very queer character, in the +service of the Nawaub of Lucknow. Hallo! what's that noise? I'll be back +in an instant," said the Chevalier, and sprang out of the room to the +ballroom, where a scuffle and a noise of high voices was heard. + +The refreshment-room, in which Miss Amory now found herself, was a room +set apart for the purposes of supper, which Mr. Rincer the landlord had +provided for those who chose to partake, at the rate of five shillings +per head. Also, refreshments of a superior class were here ready for the +ladies and gentlemen of the county families who came to the ball; but +the commoner sort of persons were kept out of the room by a waiter +who stood at the portal, and who said that was a select room for Lady +Clavering and Lady Rockminster's parties, and not to be opened to +the public till supper-time, which was not to be until past midnight. +Pynsent, who danced with his constituents' daughters, took them and +their mammas in for their refreshment there. Strong, who was manager and +master of the revels wherever he went, had of course the entree--and the +only person who was now occupying the room was the gentleman with the +black wig and the orders in his button--hole; the officer in the service +of his Highness the Nawaub of Lucknow. + +This gentleman had established himself very early in the evening in this +apartment, where, saying he was confoundedly thirsty, he called for a +bottle of champagne. At this order the waiter instantly supposed that he +had to do with a grandee, and the Colonel sate down and began to eat his +supper and absorb his drink, and enter affably into conversation with +anybody who entered the room. + +Sir Francis Clavering and Mr. Wagg found him there, when they left the +ballroom, which they did pretty early--Sir Francis to go and smoke +a cigar, and look at the people gathered outside the ballroom on the +shore, which he declared was much better fun than to remain within; Mr. +Wagg to hang on to a Baronet's arm, as he was always pleased to do on +the arm of the greatest man in the company. Colonel Altamont had stared +at these gentlemen in so odd a manner, as they passed through the +'Select' room, that Clavering made inquiries of the landlord who he was, +and hinted a strong opinion that the officer of the Nawaub's service was +drunk. + +Mr. Pynsent, too, had had the honour of a conversation with the servant +of the Indian potentate. It was Pynsent's cue to speak to everybody +(which he did, to do him justice, in the most ungracious manner); and he +took the gentleman in the black wig for some constituent, some merchant +captain, or other outlandish man of the place. Mr. Pynsent, then, coming +into the refreshment-room with a lady, the wife of a constituent, on his +arm, the Colonel asked him if he would try a glass of Sham? Pynsent +took it with great gravity, bowed, tasted the wine, and pronounced +it excellent, and with the utmost politeness retreated before Colonel +Altamont. This gravity and decorum routed and surprised the Colonel more +than any other kind of behaviour probably would: he stared after Pynsent +stupidly, and pronounced to the landlord over the counter that he was +a rum one. Mr. Rincer blushed, and hardly knew what to say. Mr. Pynsent +was a county Earl's grandson, going to set up as a Parliament man. +Colonel Altamont on the other hand, wore orders and diamonds, jingled +sovereigns constantly in his pocket, and paid his way like a man; so not +knowing what to say, Mr. Rincer said, "Yes, Colonel--yes, ma'am, did +you say tea? Cup a tea for Mr. Jones, Mrs. R.," and so got off that +discussion regarding Mr. Pynsent's qualities, into which the Nizam's +officer appeared inclined to enter. + +In fact, if the truth must be told, Mr. Altamont, having remained at +the buffet almost all night, and employed himself very actively whilst +there, had considerably flushed his brain by drinking, and he was still +going on drinking, when Mr. Strong and Miss Amory entered the room. + +When the Chevalier ran out of the apartment, attracted by the noise in +the dancing-room, the Colonel rose from his chair with his little red +eyes glowing like coals, and, with rather an unsteady gait advanced +towards Blanche, who was sipping her ice. She was absorbed in absorbing +it, for it was very fresh and good; or she was not curious to know what +was going on in the adjoining room, although the waiters were, who ran +after Chevalier Strong. So that when she looked up from her glass, she +beheld this strange man staring at her out of his little red eyes. "Who +was he? It was quite exciting." + +"And so you're Betsy Amory," said he, after gazing at her. "Betsy Amory, +by Jove!" + +"Who--who speaks to me?" said Betsy, alias Blanche. + +But the noise in the ballroom is really becoming so loud, that we must +rush back thither, and see what is the cause of the disturbance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. Which is both Quarrelsome and Sentimental + + +Civil war was raging, high words passing, people pushing and squeezing +together in an unseemly manner, round a window in the corner of +the ballroom, close by the door through which the Chevalier Strong +shouldered his way. Through the opened window, the crowd in the street +below was sending up sarcastic remarks, such as "Pitch into him!" +"Where's the police?" and the like; and a ring of individuals, amongst +whom Madame Fribsby was conspicuous, was gathered round Monsieur +Alcide Mirobolant on the one side; whilst several gentlemen and ladies +surrounded our friend Arthur Pendennis on the other. Strong penetrated +into this assembly, elbowing by Madame Fribsby, who was charmed at the +Chevalier's appearance, and cried, "Save him, save him!" in frantic and +pathetic accents. + +The cause of the disturbance, it appeared, was the angry little chef of +Sir Francis Clavering's culinary establishment. Shortly after Strong had +quitted the room, and whilst Mr. Pen, greatly irate at his downfall in +the waltz, which had made him look ridiculous in the eyes of the nation, +and by Miss Amory's behaviour to him, which had still further insulted +his dignity, was endeavouring to get some coolness of body and temper, +by looking out of window towards the sea, which was sparkling in the +distance, and murmuring in a wonderful calm--whilst he was really trying +to compose himself, and owning to himself, perhaps, that he had acted in +a very absurd and peevish manner during the night--he felt a hand upon +his shoulder; and, on looking round, beheld, to his utter surprise and +horror, that the hand in question belonged to Monsieur Mirobolant, whose +eyes were glaring out of his pale face and ringlets at Mr. Pen. To be +tapped on the shoulder by a French cook was a piece of familiarity +which made the blood of the Pendennises to boil up in the veins of their +descendant, and he was astounded, almost more than enraged, at such an +indignity. + +"You speak French?" Mirobolant said in his own language to Pen. + +"What is that to you, pray?" said Pen, in English. + +"At any rate, you understand it?" continued the other, with a bow. + +"Yes, sir," said Pen, with a stamp of his foot; "I understand it pretty +well." + +"Vous me comprendrez alors, Monsieur Pendennis," replied the other, +rolling out his r with Gascon force, "quand je vous dis que vous etes un +lache. Monsieur Pendennis--un lache, entendez-vous?" + +"What?" said Pen, starting round on him. + +"You understand the meaning of the word and its consequences among men +of honour?" the artist said, putting his hand on his hip, and staring at +Pen. + +"The consequences are, that I will fling you out of window, you impudent +scoundrel," bawled out Mr. Pen; and darting upon the Frenchman, he would +very likely have put his threat into execution, for the window was at +hand, and the artist by no means a match for the young gentleman--had +not Captain Broadfoot and another heavy officer flung themselves between +the combatants,--had not the ladies begun to scream,--had not the +fiddles stopped, had not the crowd of people come running in that +direction,--had not Laura, with a face of great alarm, looked over their +heads and asked for Heaven's sake what was wrong,--had not the opportune +Strong made his appearance from the refreshment-room, and found Alcides +grinding his teeth and jabbering oaths in his Galleon French, and +Pen looking uncommonly wicked, although trying to appear as calm as +possible, when the ladies and the crowd came up. + +"What has happened?" Strong asked of the chef, in Spanish. + +"I am Chevalier de Juillet," said the other, slapping his breast, "and +he has insulted me." + +"What has he said to you?" asked Strong. + +"Il m'a appele--Cuisinier," hissed out the little Frenchman. + +Strong could hardly help laughing. "Come away with me, poor Chevalier," +he said. "We must not quarrel before ladies. Come away; I will carry +your message to Mr. Pendennis.--The poor fellow is not right in his +head," he whispered to one or two people about him;--and others, and +anxious Laura's face visible amongst these, gathered round Pen and asked +the cause of the disturbance. + +Pen did not know. "The man was going to give his arm to a young lady, +on which I said that he was a cook, and the man called me a coward and +challenged me to fight. I own I was so surprised and indignant, that +if you gentlemen had not stopped me, I should have thrown him out of +window," Pen said. + +"D---- him, serve him right, too,--the impudent foreign scoundrel," the +gentlemen said. + +"I--I'm very sorry if I hurt his feelings, though," Pen added and Laura +was glad to hear him say that; although some of the young bucks said, +"No, hang the fellow,--hang those impudent foreigners--little thrashing +would do them good." + +"You will go and shake hands with him before you go to sleep--won't you, +Pen?" said Laura, coming up to him. "Foreigners may be more susceptible +than we are, and have different manners. If you hurt a poor man's +feelings, I am sure you would be the first to ask his pardon. Wouldn't +you, dear Pen?" + +She looked all forgiveness and gentleness, like an angel, as she spoke; +and Pen took both her hands, and looked into her kind face, and said +indeed he would. + +"How fond that girl is of me!" he thought, as she stood gazing at him. +"Shall I speak to her now? No--not now. I must have this absurd business +with the Frenchman over." + +Laura asked--Wouldn't he stop and dance with her? She was as anxious to +keep him in the room, as he to quit it. "Won't you stop and waltz with +me, Pen? I'm not afraid to waltz with you." + +This was an affectionate, but an unlucky speech. Pen saw himself +prostrate on the ground, having tumbled over Miss Roundle and the +dragoon, and flung Blanche up against the wall--saw himself on the +ground, and all the people laughing at him, Laura and Pynsent amongst +them. + +"I shall never dance again," he replied, with a dark and determined +face. "Never. I'm surprised you should ask me." + +"Is it because you can't get Blanche for a partner?" asked Laura, with a +wicked, unlucky captiousness. + +"Because I don't wish to make a fool of myself, for other people to +laugh at me," Pen answered--"for you to laugh at me, Laura. I saw you +and Pynsent. By Jove! no man shall laugh at me." + +"Pen, Pen, don't be so wicked!" cried out the poor girl, hurt at the +morbid perverseness and savage vanity of Pen. He was glaring round in +the direction of Mr. Pynsent as if he would have liked to engage that +gentleman as he had done the cook. "Who thinks the worse of you +for stumbling in a waltz?" If Laura does, we don't. "Why are you so +sensitive, and ready to think evil?" + +Here again, by ill luck, Mr. Pynsent came up to Laura, and said "I have +it in command from Lady Rockminster to ask whether I may take you in to +supper?" + +"I--I was going in with my cousin," Laura said. + +"O--pray, no!" said Pen. "You are in such good hands, that I can't do +better than leave you: and I'm going home." + +"Good-night, Mr. Pendennis," Pynsent said, drily--to which speech +(which, in fact, meant, "Go to the deuce for an insolent, jealous, +impertinent jackanapes, whose ears I should like to box") Mr. Pendennis +did not vouchsafe any reply, except a bow: and in spite of Laura's +imploring looks, he left the room. + +"How beautifully calm and bright the night outside is!" said Mr. +Pynsent; "and what a murmur the sea is making! It would be pleasanter to +be walking on the beach, than in this hot room." + +"Very," said Laura. + +"What a strange congregation of people," continued Pynsent. "I have +had to go up and perform the agreeable to most of them--the attorney's +daughters--the apothecary's wife--I scarcely know whom. There was a man +in the refreshment-room, who insisted upon treating me to champagne--a +seafaring-looking man--extraordinarily dressed, and seeming half tipsy. +As a public man one is bound to conciliate all these people, but it is +a hard task--especially when one would so very much like to be +elsewhere"--and he blushed rather as he spoke. + +"I beg your pardon," said Laura--"I--I was not listening. Indeed--I was +frightened about that quarrel between my cousin and that--that--French +person." + +"Your cousin has been rather unlucky to-night," Pynsent said. "There +are three or four persons whom he has not succeeded in pleasing--captain +Broadwood; what is his name--the officer--and the young lady in red with +whom he danced--and Miss Blanche--and the poor chef--and I don't think +he seemed to be particularly pleased with me." + +"Didn't he leave me in charge to you?" Laura said, looking up into Mr. +Pynsent's face, and dropping her eyes instantly, like a guilty little +story-telling coquette. + +"Indeed, I can forgive him a good deal for that," Pynsent eagerly +cried out, and she took his arm, and he led off his little prize in the +direction of the supper-room. + +She had no great desire for that repast, though it was served in +Rincer's well-known style, as the county paper said, giving an account +of the entertainment afterwards; indeed, she was very distraite; and +exceedingly pained and unhappy about Pen. Captious and quarrelsome; +jealous and selfish; fickle and violent and unjust when his anger led +him astray; how could her mother (as indeed Helen had by a thousand +words and hints) ask her to give her heart to such a man? and suppose +she were to do so, would it make him happy? + +But she got some relief at length, when, at the end of half an hour--a +long half-hour it had seemed to her--a waiter brought her a little note +in pencil from Pen, who said, "I met Cooky below ready to fight me; +and I asked his pardon. I'm glad I did it. I wanted to speak to you +to-night, but will keep what I had to say till you come home. God bless +you. Dance away all night with Pynsent, and be very happy.--PEN." Laura +was very thankful for this letter, and to think that there was goodness +and forgiveness still in her mother's boy. + +Pen went downstairs, his heart reproaching him for his absurd behaviour +to Laura, whose gentle and imploring looks followed and rebuked him; and +he was scarcely out of the ballroom door but he longed to turn back +and ask her pardon. But he remembered that he had left her with +that confounded Pynsent. He could not apologise before him. He would +compromise and forget his wrath, and make his peace with the Frenchman. + +The Chevalier was pacing down below in the hall of the inn when Pen +descended from the ballroom; and he came up to Pen, with all sorts of +fun and mischief lighting up his jolly face. + +"I have got him in the coffee-room," he said, "with a brace of pistols +and a candle. Or would you like swords on the beach? Mirobolant is a +dead hand with the foils, and killed four gardes-du-corps with his own +point in the barricades of July." + +"Confound it," said Pen, in a fury, "I can't fight a cook!" + +"He is a Chevalier of July," replied the other. "They present arms to +him in his own country." + +"And do you ask me, Captain Strong, to go out with a servant?" Pen asked +fiercely; "I'll call a policeman him but--but----" + +"You'll invite me to hair triggers?" cried Strong, with a laugh. "Thank +you for nothing; I was but joking. I came to settle quarrels, not to +fight them. I have been soothing down Mirobolant; I have told him that +you did not apply the word 'Cook' to him in an offensive sense: that it +was contrary to all the customs of the country that a hired officer of +a household, as I called it, should give his arm to the daughter of +the house." And then he told Pen the grand secret which he had had from +Madame Fribsby of the violent passion under which the poor artist was +labouring. + +When Arthur heard this tale, he broke out into a hearty laugh, in which +Strong joined, and his rage against the poor cook vanished at once. He +had been absurdly jealous himself all the evening, and had longed for a +pretext to insult Pynsent. He remembered how jealous he had been of Oaks +in his first affair; he was ready to pardon anything to a man under a +passion like that: and he went into the coffee-room where Mirobolant was +waiting, with an outstretched hand, and made him a speech in French, +in which he declared that he was "sincerement fache d'avoir use une +expression qui avoit pu blesser Monsieur Mirobolant, et qu'il donnoit sa +parole comme un gentilhomme qu'il ne l'avoit jamais, jamais--intende," +said Pen, who made a shot at a French word for "intended," and was +secretly much pleased with his own fluency and correctness in speaking +that language. + +"Bravo, bravo!" cried Strong, as much amused with Pen's speech as +pleased by his kind manner. And the Chevalier Mirobolant of course +withdraws, and sincerely regrets the expression of which he made use. + +"Monsieur Pendennis has disproved my words himself," said Alcide with +great politeness; "he has shown that he is a galant homme." + +And so they shook hands and parted, Arthur in the first place +despatching his note to Laura before he and Strong committed themselves +to the Butcher Boy. + +As they drove along, Strong complimented Pen upon his behaviour, as well +as upon his skill in French. "You're a good fellow, Pendennis, and you +speak French like Chateaubriand, by Jove." + +"I've been accustomed to it from my youth upwards," said Pen; and Strong +had the grace not to laugh for five minutes, when he exploded into fits +of hilarity which Pendennis has never perhaps understood up to this day. + +It was daybreak when they got to the Brawl, where they separated. +By that time the ball at Baymouth was over too. Madame Fribsby and +Mirobolant were on their way home in the Clavering fly; Laura was in bed +with an easy heart and asleep at Lady Rockminster's; and the Claverings +at rest at the inn at Baymouth, where they had quarters for the night. +A short time after the disturbance between Pen and the chef, Blanche had +come out of the refreshment-room, looking as pale as a lemon-ice. She +told her maid, having no other confidante at hand, that she had met with +the most romantic adventure--the most singular man--one who had known +the author of her being--her persecuted--her unhappy--her heroic--her +murdered father; and she began a sonnet to his manes before she went to +sleep. + +So Pen returned to Fairoaks, in company with his friend the Chevalier, +without having uttered a word of the message which he had been so +anxious to deliver to Laura at Baymouth. He could wait, however, until +her return home, which was to take place on the succeeding day. He was +not seriously jealous of the progress made by Mr. Pynsent in her +favour; and he felt pretty certain that in this, as in any other family +arrangement, he had but to ask and have, and Laura, like his mother, +could refuse him nothing. + +When Helen's anxious looks inquired of him what had happened at +Baymouth, and whether her darling project was fulfilled, Pen, in a gay +tone, told of the calamity which had befallen; laughingly said, that no +man could think about declarations under such a mishap, and made light +of the matter. "There will be plenty of time for sentiment, dear mother, +when Laura comes back," he said, and he looked in the glass with a +killing air, and his mother put his hair off his forehead and kissed +him, and of course thought, for her part, that no woman could resist +him: and was exceedingly happy that day. + +When he was not with her, Mr. Pen occupied himself in packing books and +portmanteaus, burning and arranging papers, cleaning his gun and putting +it into its case: in fact, in making dispositions for departure. For +though he was ready to marry, this gentleman was eager to go to London +too, rightly considering that at three-and-twenty it was quite time for +him to begin upon the serious business of life, and to set about making +a fortune as quickly as possible. + +The means to this end he had already shaped out for himself. "I shall +take chambers," he said, "and enter myself at an Inn of Court. With a +couple of hundred pounds I shall be able to carry through the first year +very well; after that I have little doubt my pen will support me, as +it is doing with several Oxbridge men now in town. I have a tragedy, a +comedy, and a novel, all nearly finished, and for which I can't fail to +get a price. And so I shall be able to live pretty well, without drawing +upon my poor mother, until I have made my way at the bar. Then, some day +I will come back and make her dear soul happy by marrying Laura. She is +as good and as sweet-tempered a girl as ever lived, besides being really +very good-looking, and the engagement will serve to steady me,--won't +it, Ponto?" Thus, smoking his pipe, and talking to his dog as he +sauntered through the gardens and orchards of the little domain of +Fairoaks, this young day-dreamer built castles in the air for himself: +"Yes, she'll steady me, won't she? And you'll miss me when I've gone, +won't you, old boy?" he asked of Ponto, who quivered his tail and thrust +his brown nose into his master's fist. Ponto licked his hand and shoe, +as they all did in that house, and Mr. Pen received their homage as +other folks do the flattery which they get. + +Laura came home rather late in the evening of the second day; and Mr. +Pynsent, as ill luck would have it, drove her from Clavering. The poor +girl could not refuse his offer, but his appearance brought a dark cloud +upon the brow of Arthur Pendennis. Laura saw this, and was pained by +it: the eager widow, however, was aware of nothing, and being anxious, +doubtless, that the delicate question should be asked at once, was for +going to bed very soon after Laura's arrival, and rose for that purpose +to leave the sofa where she now generally lay, and where Laura would +come and sit and work or read by her. But when Helen rose, Laura said, +with a blush and rather an alarmed voice, that she was also very tired +and wanted to go to bed: so that the widow was disappointed in her +scheme for that night at least, and Mr. Pen was left another day in +suspense regarding his fate. + +His dignity was offended at being thus obliged to remain in the +ante-chamber when he wanted an audience. Such a sultan as he, could not +afford to be kept waiting. However, he went to bed and slept upon his +disappointment pretty comfortably, and did not wake until the early +morning, when he looked up and saw his mother standing in his room. + +"Dear Pen, rouse up," said this lady. "Do not be lazy. It is the most +beautiful morning in the world. I have not been able to sleep since +daybreak; and Laura has been out for an hour. She is in the garden. +Everybody ought to be in the garden and out on such a morning as this." + +Pen laughed. He saw what thoughts were uppermost in the simple woman's +heart. His good-natured laughter cheered the widow. "Oh you profound +dissembler," he said, kissing his mother. "Oh you artful creature! Can +nobody escape from your wicked tricks? and will you make your only son +your victim?" Helen too laughed, she blushed, she fluttered, and was +agitated. She was as happy as she could be--a good tender, matchmaking +woman, the dearest project of whose heart was about to be accomplished. + +So, after exchanging some knowing looks and hasty words, Helen left +Arthur; and this young hero, rising from his bed, proceeded to decorate +his beautiful person, and shave his ambrosial chin; and in half an hour +he issued out from his apartment into the garden in quest of Laura. His +reflections as he made his toilette were rather dismal. "I am going to +tie myself for life," he thought, "to please my mother. Laura is the +best of women, and--and she has given me her money. I wish to Heaven I +had not received it; I wish I had not this duty to perform just yet. But +as both the women have set their hearts on the match, why I suppose I +must satisfy them--and now for it. A man may do worse than make happy +two of the best creatures in the world." So Pen, now he was actually +come to the point, felt very grave, and by no means elated, and, indeed, +thought it was a great sacrifice he was going to perform. + +It was Miss Laura's custom, upon her garden excursions, to wear a sort +of uniform, which, though homely, was thought by many people to be not +unbecoming. She had a large straw hat, with a streamer of broad ribbon, +which was useless probably, but the hat sufficiently protected the +owner's pretty face from the sun. Over her accustomed gown she wore a +blouse or pinafore, which, being fastened round her little waist by a +smart belt, looked extremely well, and her hands were guaranteed from +the thorns of her favourite rose-bushes by a pair of gauntlets, which +gave this young lady a military and resolute air. + +Somehow she had the very same smile with which she had laughed at him on +the night previous, and the recollection of his disaster again offended +Pen. But Laura, though she saw him coming down the walk looking so +gloomy and full of care, accorded to him a smile of the most perfect +and provoking good-humour, and went to meet him, holding one of the +gauntlets to him, so that he might shake it if he liked--and Mr. Pen +condescended to do so. His face, however, did not lose its tragic +expression in consequence of this favour, and he continued to regard her +with a dismal and solemn air. + +"Excuse my glove," said Laura, with a laugh, pressing Pen's hand kindly +with it. "We are not angry again, are we, Pen?" + +"Why do you laugh at me?" said Pen. "You did the other night, and made a +fool of me to the people at Baymouth." + +"My dear Arthur, I meant you no wrong," the girl answered. "You and Miss +Roundle looked so droll as you--as you met with your little accident, +that I could not make a tragedy of it. Dear Pen, it wasn't a serious +fall. And, besides, it was Miss Roundle who was the most unfortunate." + +"Confound Miss Roundle," bellowed out Pen. + +"I'm sure she looked so," said Laura, archly. "You were up in an +instant; but that poor lady sitting on the ground in her red crape +dress, and looking about her with that piteous face--can I ever forget +her?"--and Laura began to make a face in imitation of Miss Roundle's +under the disaster, but she checked herself repentantly, saying, "Well, +we must not laugh at her, but I am sure we ought to laugh at you, Pen, +if you were angry about such a trifle." + +"You should not laugh at me, Laura," said Pen, with some bitterness; +"not you, of all people." + +"And why not? Are you such a great man?" asked Laura. + +"Ah no, Laura, I'm such a poor one," Pen answered. "Haven't you baited +me enough already?" + +"My dear Pen, and how?" cried Laura. "Indeed, indeed, I didn't think to +vex you by such a trifle. I thought such a clever man as you could bear +a harmless little joke from his sister," she said, holding her hand out +again. "Dear Arthur, if I have hurt you, I beg your pardon." + +"It is your kindness that humiliates me more even than your laughter, +Laura," Pen said. "You are always my superior." + +"What! superior to the great Arthur Pendennis? How can it be possible?" +said Miss Laura, who may have had a little wickedness as well as a great +deal of kindness in her composition. "You can't mean that any woman is +your equal?" + +"Those who confer benefits should not sneer," said Pen. "I don't like my +benefactor to laugh at me, Laura; it makes the obligation very hard to +bear. You scorn me because I have taken your money, and I am worthy to +be scorned; but the blow is hard coming from you." + +"Money! Obligation! For shame, Pen; this is ungenerous," Laura said, +flushing red. "May not our mother claim everything that belongs to us? +Don't I owe her all my happiness in this world, Arthur? What matters +about a few paltry guineas, if we can set her tender heart at rest, and +ease her mind regarding you? I would dig in the fields, I would go out +and be a servant--I would die for her. You know I would," said Miss +Laura, kindling up; "and you call this paltry money an obligation? Oh, +Pen, it's cruel--it's unworthy of you to take it so! If my brother may +not share with me my superfluity, who may?--Mine?--I tell you it was not +mine; it was all mamma's to do with as she chose, and so is everything +I have," said Laura; "my life is hers." And the enthusiastic girl looked +towards the windows of the widow's room, and blessed in her heart the +kind creature within. + +Helen was looking, unseen, out of that window towards which Laura's eyes +and heart were turned as she spoke, and was watching her two children +with the deepest interest and emotion, longing and hoping that the +prayer of her life might be fulfilled; and if Laura had spoken as Helen +hoped, who knows what temptations Arthur Pendennis might have been +spared, or what different trials he would have had to undergo? He might +have remained at Fairoaks all his days, and died a country gentleman. +But would he have escaped then? Temptation is an obsequious servant +that has no objection to the country, and we know that it takes up its +lodging in hermitages as well as in cities; and that in the most remote +and inaccessible desert it keeps company with the fugitive solitary. + +"Is your life my mother's?" said Pen, beginning to tremble, and speak in +a very agitated manner. "You know, Laura, what the great object of hers +is?" And he took her hand once more. + +"What, Arthur?" she said, dropping it, and looking at him, at the window +again, and then dropping her eyes to the ground, so that they avoided +Pen's gaze. She, too, trembled, for she felt that the crisis for which +she had been secretly preparing was come. + +"Our mother has one wish above all others in the world, Laura," Pen +said; "and I think you know it. I own to you that she has spoken to me +of it; and if you will fulfil it, dear sister, I am ready. I am but very +young as yet; but I have had so many pains and disappointments, that I +am old and weary. I think I have hardly got a heart to offer. Before I +have almost begun the race in life, I am a tired man. My career has been +a failure; I have been protected by those whom I by right should have +protected. I own that your nobleness and generosity, dear Laura, shame +me, whilst they render me grateful. When I heard from our mother what +you had done for me; that it was you who armed me and bade me go out +for one struggle more; I longed to go and throw myself at your feet, and +say, 'Laura, will you come and share the contest with me?' Your sympathy +will cheer me while it lasts. I shall have one of the tenderest and most +generous creatures under heaven to aid and bear me company. Will you +take me, dear Laura, and make our mother happy?" + +"Do you think mamma would be happy if you were otherwise, Arthur?" Laura +said in a low sad voice. + +"And why should I not be," asked Pen eagerly, "with so dear a creature +as you by my side? I have not my first love to give you. I am a broken +man. But indeed I would love you fondly and truly. I have lost many an +illusion and ambition, but I am not without hope still. Talents I know I +have, wretchedly as I have misapplied them: they may serve me yet: they +would, had I a motive for action. Let me go away and think that I am +pledged to return to you. Let me go and work, and hope, that you will +share my success if I gain it. You have given me so much, Laura dear, +will you take from me nothing?" + +"What have you got to give, Arthur?" Laura said, with a grave sadness +of tone, which made Pen start, and see that his words had committed him. +Indeed, his declaration had not been such as he would have made it +two days earlier, when, full of hope and gratitude, he had run over to +Laura, his liberatress, to thank her for his recovered freedom. Had +he been permitted to speak then, he had spoken, and she, perhaps, had +listened differently. It would have been a grateful heart asking for +hers; not a weary one offered to her, to take or to leave. Laura was +offended with the terms in which Pen offered himself to her. He had, in +fact, said that he had no love, and yet would take no denial. "I give +myself to you to please my mother," he had said: "take me, as she wishes +that I should make this sacrifice." The girl's spirit would brook a +husband under no such conditions: she was not minded to run forward +because Pen chose to hold out the handkerchief, and her tone, in reply +to Arthur, showed her determination to be independent. + +"No, Arthur," she said, "our marriage would not make mamma happy, as she +fancies; for it would not content you very long. I, too, have known +what her wishes were; for she is too open to conceal anything she has at +heart: and once, perhaps, I thought--but that is over now--that I could +have made you--that it might have been as she wished." + +"You have seen somebody else," said Pen, angry at her tone, and +recalling the incidents of the past days. + +"That allusion might have been spared," Laura replied, flinging up her +head. "A heart which has worn out love at three-and-twenty, as yours +has, you say, should have survived jealousy too. I do not condescend to +say whether I have seen or encouraged any other person. I shall neither +admit the charge, nor deny it: and beg you also to allude to it no +more." + +"I ask your pardon, Laura, if I have offended you: but if I am jealous, +does it not prove that I have a heart?" + +"Not for me, Arthur. Perhaps you think you love me now but it is only +for an instant, and because you are foiled. Were there no obstacle, you +would feel no ardour to overcome it. No, Arthur, you don't love me. You +would weary of me in three months, as--as you do of most things; and +mamma, seeing you tired of me, would be more unhappy than at my refusal +to be yours. Let us be brother and sister, Arthur, as heretofore--but no +more. You will get over this little disappointment." + +"I will try," said Arthur, in a great indignation. + +"Have you not tried before?" Laura said, with some anger, for she had +been angry with Arthur for a very long time, and was now determined, I +suppose, to speak her mind. "And the next time, Arthur, when you offer +yourself to a woman, do not say as you have done to me, 'I have no +heart--I do not love you; but I am ready to marry you because my mother +wishes for the match.' We require more than this in return for our +love--that is, I think so. I have had no experience hitherto, and have +not had the--the practice which you supposed me to have, when you spoke +but now of my having seen somebody else. Did you tell your first love +that you had no heart, Arthur? or your second that you did not love her, +but that she might have you if she liked?" + +"What--what do you mean?" asked Arthur, blushing, and still in great +wrath. + +"I mean Blanche Amory, Arthur Pendennis," Laura said, proudly. "It +is but two months since you were sighing at her feet--making poems +to her--placing them in hollow trees by the river-side. I knew all. I +watched you--that is, she showed them to me. Neither one nor the other +were in earnest perhaps; but it is too soon now, Arthur, to begin a new +attachment. Go through the time of your--your widowhood at least, and do +not think of marrying until you are out of mourning"--(Here the girl's +eyes filled with tears, and she passed her hand across them.) "I am +angry and hurt, and I have no right to be so, and I ask your pardon in +my turn now, dear Arthur. You had a right to love Blanche. She was a +thousand times prettier and more accomplished than--than any girl near +us here; and you not could know that she had no heart; and so you were +right to leave her too. I ought not to rebuke you about Blanche Amory, +and because she deceived you. Pardon me, Pen,"--and she held the kind +hand out to Pen once more. + +"We were both jealous," said Pen. "Dear Laura, let us both forgive"--and +he seized her hand and would have drawn her towards him. He thought that +she was relenting, and already assumed the airs of a victor. + +But she shrank back, and her tears passed away; and she fixed on him +a look so melancholy and severe, that the young man in his turn shrank +before it. "Do not mistake me, Arthur," she said, "it cannot be. You do +not know what you ask, and do not be too angry with me for saying that +I think you do not deserve it. What do you offer in exchange to a woman +for her love, honour, and obedience? If ever I say these words, dear +Pen, I hope to say them in earnest, and by the blessing of God to keep +my vow. But you--what tie binds you? You do not care about many things +which we poor women hold sacred, I do not like to think or ask how far +your incredulity leads you. You offer to marry to please our mother, +and own that you have no heart to give away. Oh, Arthur, what is it you +offer me? What a rash compact would you enter into so lightly? A month +ago, and you would have given yourself to another. I pray you do not +trifle with your own or others' hearts so recklessly. Go and work; go +and mend, dear Arthur, for I see your faults, and dare speak of them +now: go and get fame, as you say that you can, and I will pray for my +brother, and watch our dearest mother at home." + +"Is that your final decision, Laura?" Arthur cried. + +"Yes," said Laura, bowing her head; and once more giving him her hand, +she went away. He saw her pass under the creepers of the little porch, +and disappear into the house. The curtains of his mother's window fell +at the same minute, but he did not mark that, or suspect that Helen had +been witnessing the scene. + +Was he pleased, or was he angry at its termination? He had asked her, +and a secret triumph filled his heart to think that he was still free. +She had refused him, but did she not love him? That avowal of jealousy +made him still think that her heart was his own, whatever her lips might +utter. + +And now we ought, perhaps, to describe another scene which took place at +Fairoaks, between the widow and Laura, when the latter had to tell Helen +that she had refused Arthur Pendennis. Perhaps it was the hardest task +of all which Laura had to go through in this matter: and the one which +gave her the most pain. But as we do not like to see a good woman +unjust, we shall not say a word more of the quarrel which now befell +between Helen and her adopted daughter, or of the bitter tears which the +poor girl was made to shed. It was the only difference which she and the +widow had ever had as yet, and the more cruel from this cause. Pen left +home whilst it was as yet pending--and Helen, who could pardon almost +everything, could not pardon an act of justice in Laura. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. Babylon + + +Our reader must now please to quit the woods and sea-shore of the +west, and the gossip of Clavering, and the humdrum life of poor little +Fairoaks, and transport himself with Arthur Pendennis, on the 'Alacrity' +coach, to London, whither he goes once for all to face the world and to +make his fortune. As the coach whirls through the night away from the +friendly gates of home, many a plan does the young man cast in his mind +of future life and conduct, prudence, and peradventure success and fame. +He knows he is a better man than many who have hitherto been ahead of +him in the race: his first failure has caused him remorse, and brought +with it reflection; it has not taken away his courage, or, let us add, +his good opinion of himself. A hundred eager fancies and busy hopes +keep him awake. How much older his mishaps and a year's thought and +self-communion have made him, than when, twelve months since, he passed +on this road on his way to and from Oxbridge! His thoughts turn in the +night with inexpressible fondness and tenderness towards the fond mother +who blessed him when parting, and who, in spite of all his past faults +and follies, trusts him and loves him still. Blessings be on her! he +prays, as he looks up to the stars overhead. O Heaven! give him strength +to work, to endure, to be honest, to avoid temptation, to be worthy of +the loving soul who loves him so entirely! Very likely she is awake, +too, at that moment, and sending up to the same Father purer prayers +than his for the welfare of her boy. That woman's love is a talisman by +which he holds and hopes to get his safety. And Laura's--he would have +fain carried her affection with him too, but she has denied it, as he is +not worthy of it. He owns as much with shame and remorse; confesses how +much better and loftier her nature is than his own--confesses it, and +yet is glad to be free. "I am not good enough for such a creature," he +owns to himself. He draws back before her spotless beauty and innocence, +as from something that scares him. He feels he is not fit for such a +mate as that; as many a wild prodigal who has been pious and guiltless +in early days, keeps away from a church which he used to frequent +once--shunning it, but not hostile to it--only feeling that he has no +right in that pure place. + +With these thoughts to occupy him, Pen did not fall asleep until the +nipping dawn of an October morning, and woke considerably refreshed when +the coach stopped at the old breakfasting place at B----, where he had +had a score of merry meals on his way to and from school and college +many times since he was a boy. As they left that place, the sun broke +out brightly, the pace was rapid, the horn blew, the milestones flew by, +Pen smoked and joked with guard and fellow-passengers and people along +the familiar road; it grew more busy and animated at every instant; the +last team of greys came out at H----, and the coach drove into London. +What young fellow has not felt a thrill as he entered the vast place? +Hundreds of other carriages, crowded with their thousands of men, were +hastening to the great city. "Here is my place," thought Pen; "here is +my battle beginning, in which I must fight and conquer, or fall. I have +been a boy and a dawdler as yet. Oh, I long, I long to show that I can +be a man." And from his place on the coach-roof the eager young fellow +looked down upon the city, with the sort of longing desire which young +soldiers feel on the eve of a campaign. + +As they came along the road, Pen had formed acquaintance with a cheery +fellow-passenger in a shabby cloak, who talked a great deal about men +of letters with whom he was very familiar, and who was, in fact, the +reporter of a London newspaper, as whose representative he had been +to attend a great wrestling-match in the west. This gentleman knew +intimately, as it appeared, all the leading men of letters of his day, +and talked about Tom Campbell, and Tom Hood, and Sydney Smith, and this +and the other, as if he had been their most intimate friend. As they +passed by Brompton, this gentleman pointed out to Pen Mr. Hurtle, the +reviewer, walking with his umbrella. Pen craned over the coach to have a +long look at the great Hurtle. He was a Boniface man, said Pen. And Mr. +Doolan, of the Star newspaper (for such was the gentleman's name and +address upon the card which he handed to Pen), said "Faith he was, and +he knew him very well." Pen thought it was quite an honour to have seen +the great Mr. Hurtle, whose works he admired. He believed fondly, as +yet, in authors, reviewers, and editors of newspapers. Even Wagg, whose +books did not appear to him to be masterpieces of human intellect, he +yet secretly revered as a successful writer. He mentioned that he had +met Wagg in the country, and Doolan told him how that famous novelist +received three hundther pounds a volume for every one of his novels. Pen +began to calculate instantly whether he might not make five thousand a +year. + +The very first acquaintance of his own whom Arthur met, as the coach +pulled up at the Gloster Coffee-house, was his old friend Harry Foker, +who came prancing down Arlington Street behind an enormous cab-horse. +He had white kid gloves and white reins, and nature had by this time +decorated him with a considerable tuft on the chin. A very small +cab-boy, vice Stoopid retired, swung on behind Foker's vehicle; +knock-kneed and in the tightest leather breeches. Foker looked at the +dusty coach, and the smoking horses of the 'Alacrity' by which he +had made journeys in former times. "What, Foker!" cried out +Pendennis--"Hullo! Pen, my boy!" said the other, and he waved his whip +by way of amity and salute to Arthur, who was very glad to see his queer +friend's kind old face. Mr. Doolan had a great respect for Pen who had +an acquaintance in such a grand cab; and Pen was greatly excited and +pleased to be at liberty and in London. He asked Doolan to come and dine +with him at the Covent Garden Coffee-house, where he put up: he called a +cab and rattled away thither in the highest spirits. He was glad to see +the bustling waiter and polite bowing landlord again; and asked for the +landlady, and missed the old Boots and would have liked to shake hands +with everybody. He had a hundred pounds in his pocket. He dressed +himself in his very best; dined in the coffee-room with a modest pint +of sherry (for he was determined to be very economical), and went to the +theatre adjoining. + +The lights and the music, the crowd and the gaiety, charmed and +exhilarated Pen, as those sights will do young fellows from college and +the country, to whom they are tolerably new. He laughed at the jokes; he +applauded the songs, to the delight of some of the dreary old habitues +of the boxes, who had ceased long ago to find the least excitement in +their place of nightly resort, and were pleased to see any one so fresh, +and so much amused. At the end of the first piece, he went and strutted +about the lobbies of the theatre, as if he was in a resort of the +highest fashion. What tired frequenter of the London pave is there that +cannot remember having had similar early delusions, and would not call +them back again? Here was young Foker again, like an ardent votary of +pleasure as he was. He was walking with Grandy Tiptoff, of the Household +Brigade, Lord Tiptoff's brother, and Lord Colchicum, Captain Tiptoff's +uncle, a venerable peer, who had been a man of pleasure since the first +French Revolution. Foker rushed upon Pen with eagerness, and insisted +that the latter should come into his private box, where a lady with the +longest ringlets and the fairest shoulders, was seated. This was Miss +Blenkinsop, the eminent actress of high comedy; and in the back of the +box snoozing in a wig, sate old Blenkinsop, her papa. He was described +in the theatrical prints as the "veteran Blenkinsop"--"the useful +Blenkinsop"--"that old favourite of the public, Blenkinsop"--those parts +in the drama, which are called the heavy fathers, were usually assigned +to this veteran, who, indeed, acted the heavy father in public, as in +private life. + +At this time, it being about eleven o'clock, Mrs. Pendennis was gone to +bed at Fairoaks, and wondering whether her dearest Arthur was at rest +after his journey. At this time Laura, too, was awake. And at this time +yesterday night, as the coach rolled over silent commons, where cottage +windows twinkled, and by darkling woods under calm starlit skies, Pen +was vowing to reform and to resist temptation, and his heart was at +home. Meanwhile the farce was going on very successfully, and Mrs. +Leary, in a hussar jacket and braided pantaloons, was enchanting the +audience with her archness, her lovely figure, and her delightful +ballads. + +Pen, being new to the town, would have liked to listen to Mrs. Leary; +but the other people in the box did not care about her song or her +pantaloons, and kept up an incessant chattering. Tiptoff knew where her +maillots came from. Colchicum saw her when she came out in '14. Miss +Blenkinsop said she sang out of all tune, to the pain and astonishment +of Pen, who thought that she was as beautiful as an angel, and that +she sang like a nightingale; and when Hoppus came on as Sir Harcourt +Featherby, the young man of the piece, the gentlemen in the box declared +that Hoppus was getting too stale, and Tiptoff was for flinging Miss +Blenkinsop's bouquet to him. + +"Not for the world," cried the daughter of the veteran Blenkinsop; "Lord +Colchicum gave it to me." + +Pen remembered that nobleman's name, and with a bow and a blush said he +believed he had to thank Lord Colchicum for having proposed him at the +Megatherium Club, at the request of his uncle, Major Pendennis. + +"What, you're Wigsby's nephew, are you?" said the peer. "I beg your +pardon, we always call him Wigsby." Pen blushed to hear his venerable +uncle called by such a familiar name. "We balloted you in last week, +didn't we? Yes, last Wednesday night. Your uncle wasn't there." + +Here was delightful news for Pen! He professed himself very much obliged +indeed to Lord Colchicum, and made him a handsome speech of thanks, to +which the other listened with his double opera-glass up to his eyes. +Pen was full of excitement at the idea of being a member of this polite +Club. + +"Don't be always looking at that box, you naughty creature," cried Miss +Blenkinsop. + +"She's a dev'lish fine woman, that Mirabel," said Tiptoff; "though +Mirabel was a d----d fool to marry her." + +"A stupid old spooney," said the peer. + +"Mirabel!" cried out Pendennis. + +"Ha! ha!" laughed out Harry Foker. "We've heard of her before, haven't +we, Pen?" + +It was Pen's first love. It was Miss Fotheringay. The year before she +had been led to the altar by Sir Charles Mirabel, G.C.B., and formerly +envoy to the Court of Pumpernickel, who had taken so active a part +in the negotiations before the Congress of Swammerdam, and signed, on +behalf of H.B.M., the Peace of Pultusk. + +"Emily was always as stupid as an owl," said Miss Blenkinsop. + +"Eh! Eh! pas si bete," the old Peer said. + +"Oh, for shame!" cried the actress, who did not in the least know what +he meant. + +And Pen looked out and beheld his first love once again--and wondered +how he ever could have loved her. + +Thus on the very first night of his arrival in London, Mr. Arthur +Pendennis found himself introduced to a Club, to an actress of genteel +comedy and a heavy father of the Stage, and to a dashing society of +jovial blades, old and young; for my Lord Colchicum, though stricken in +years, bald of head and enfeebled in person, was still indefatigable in +the pursuit of enjoyment, and it was the venerable Viscount's boast +that he could drink as much claret as the youngest member of the society +which he frequented. He lived with the youth about town: he gave them +countless dinners at Richmond and Greenwich: an enlightened patron of +the drama in all languages and of the Terpsichorean art, he received +dramatic professors of all nations at his banquets--English from the +Covent Garden and Strand houses, Italians from the Haymarket, French +from their own pretty little theatre, or the boards of the Opera where +they danced. And at his villa on the Thames, this pillar of the State +gave sumptuous entertainments to scores of young men of fashion, +who very affably consorted with the ladies and gentlemen of the +greenroom--with the former chiefly, for Viscount Colchicum preferred +their society as more polished and gay than that of their male brethren. + +Pen went the next day and paid his entrance-money at the Club, which +operation carried off exactly one-third of his hundred pounds; and +took possession of the edifice, and ate his luncheon there with immense +satisfaction. He plunged into an easy-chair in the library, and tried to +read all the magazines. He wondered whether the members were looking at +him, and that they could dare to keep on their hats in such fine rooms. +He sate down and wrote a letter to Fairoaks on the Club paper, and said, +what a comfort this place would be to him after his day's work was +over. He went over to his uncle's lodgings in Bury Street with some +considerable tremor, and in compliance with his mother's earnest desire, +that he should instantly call on Major Pendennis; and was not a little +relieved to find that the Major had not yet returned to town. His +apartments were blank. Brown hollands covered his library-table, and +bills and letters lay on the mantelpiece, grimly awaiting the return of +their owner. The Major was on the Continent, the landlady of the house +said, at Badnbadn, with the Marcus of Steyne. Pen left his card upon the +shelf with the rest. Fairoaks was written on it still. + +When the Major returned to London, which he did in time for the fogs of +November, after enjoying which he proposed to spend Christmas with some +friends in the country, he found another card of Arthur's, on which Lamb +Court, Temple, was engraved, and a note from that young gentleman and +from his mother, stating that he was come to town, was entered a member +of the Upper Temple, and was reading hard for the bar. + +Lamb Court, Temple:--where was it? Major Pendennis remembered that +some ladies of fashion used to talk of dining with Mr. Ayliffe, the +barrister, who was "in society," and who lived there in the King's +Bench, of which prison there was probably a branch in the Temple, and +Ayliffe was very likely an officer. Mr. Deuceace, Lord Crabs's son, had +also lived there, he recollected. He despatched Morgan to find out where +Lamb Court was, and to report upon the lodging selected by Mr. Arthur. +That alert messenger had little difficulty in discovering Mr. Pen's +abode. Discreet Morgan had in his time traced people far more difficult +to find than Arthur. + +"What sort of a place is it, Morgan?" asked the Major, out of the +bed-curtains in Bury Street the next morning, as the valet was arranging +his toilette in the deep yellow London fog. + +"I should say rayther a shy place," said Mr. Morgan. "The lawyers lives +there, and has their names on the doors. Mr. Harthur lives three pair +high, sir. Mr. Warrington lives there too, sir." + +"Suffolk Warringtons! I shouldn't wonder: a good family," thought the +Major. "The cadets of many of our good families follow the robe as a +profession. Comfortable rooms, eh?" + +"Honly saw the outside of the door, sir, with Mr. Warrington's name and +Mr. Arthur's painted up, and a piece of paper with 'Back at 6;' but I +couldn't see no servant, sir." + +"Economical at any rate," said the Major. + +"Very, sir. Three pair, sir. Nasty black staircase as ever I see. Wonder +how a gentleman can live in such a place." + +"Pray, who taught you where gentlemen should or should not live, Morgan? +Mr. Arthur, sir, is going to study for the bar, sir," the Major said +with much dignity; and closed the conversation and began to array +himself in the yellow fog. + +"Boys will be boys," the mollified uncle thought to himself. "He has +written to me a devilish good letter. Colchicum says he has had him to +dine, and thinks him a gentlemanlike lad. His mother is one of the best +creatures in the world. If he has sown his wild oats, and will stick +to his business, he may do well yet. Think of Charley Mirabel, the old +fool, marrying that flame of his! that Fotheringay! He doesn't like to +come here until I give him leave, and puts it in a very manly nice way. +I was deuced angry with him, after his Oxbridge escapades--and showed +it too when he was here before--Gad, I'll go and see him, hang me if I +don't." + +And having ascertained from Morgan that he could reach the Temple +without much difficulty, and that a city omnibus would put him down +at the gate, the Major one day after breakfast at his Club--not the +Polyanthus, whereof Mr. Pen was just elected a member, but another Club: +for the Major was too wise to have a nephew as a constant inmate of any +house where he was in the habit of passing his time--the Major one day +entered one of those public vehicles, and bade the conductor to put him +down at the gate of the Upper Temple. + +When Major Pendennis reached that dingy portal it was about twelve +o'clock in the day; and he was directed by a civil personage with a +badge and a white apron, through some dark alleys, and under various +melancholy archways into courts each more dismal than the other, until +finally he reached Lamb Court. If it was dark in Pall Mail, what was it +in Lamb Court? Candles were burning in many of the rooms there--in the +pupil-room of Mr. Hodgeman, the special pleader, where six pupils were +scribbling declarations under the tallow; in Sir Hokey Walker's clerk's +room, where the clerk, a person far more gentlemanlike and cheerful in +appearance than the celebrated counsel, his master, was conversing in a +patronising manner with the managing clerk of an attorney at the door; +and in Curling the wigmaker's melancholy shop, where, from behind the +feeble glimmer of a couple of lights, large serpents' and judges' wigs +were looming drearily, with the blank blocks looking at the lamp-post in +the court. Two little clerks were playing at toss-halfpenny under that +lamp. A laundress in pattens passed in at one door, a newspaper boy +issued from another. A porter, whose white apron was faintly visible, +paced up and down. It would be impossible to conceive a place more +dismal, and the Major shuddered to think that any one should select such +a residence. "Good Ged!" he said, "the poor boy mustn't live on here." + +The feeble and filthy oil-lamps, with which the staircases of the Upper +Temple are lighted of nights, were of course not illuminating the stairs +by day, and Major Pendennis, having read with difficulty his nephew's +name under Mr. Warrington's on the wall of No. 6, found still greater +difficulty in climbing the abominable black stairs, up the banisters of +which, which contributed their damp exudations to his gloves, he groped +painfully until he came to the third story. A candle was in the passage +of one of the two sets of rooms; the doors were open, and the names of +Mr. Warrington and Mr. A. Pendennis were very clearly visible to the +Major as he went in. An Irish charwoman, with a pail and broom, opened +the door for the Major. + +"Is that the beer?" cried out a great voice: "give us hold of it." + +The gentleman who was speaking was seated on a table, unshorn and +smoking a short pipe; in a farther chair sate Pen, with a cigar, and +his legs near the fire. A little boy, who acted as the clerk of these +gentlemen, was grinning in the Major's face, at the idea of his being +mistaken for beer. Here, upon the third floor, the rooms were somewhat +lighter, and the Major could see place. + +"Pen, my boy, it's I--it's your uncle," he said, choking with the smoke. +But as most young men of fashion used the weed, he pardoned the practice +easily enough. + +Mr. Warrington got up from the table, and Pen, in a very perturbed +manner, from his chair. "Beg your pardon for mistaking you," said +Warrington, in a frank, loud voice. "Will you take a cigar, sir? Clear +those things off the chair, Pidgeon, and pull it round to the fire." + +Pen flung his cigar into the grate; and was pleased with the cordiality +with which his uncle shook him by the hand. As soon as he could speak +for the stairs and the smoke, the Major began to ask Pen very kindly +about himself and about his mother; for blood is blood, and he was +pleased once more to see the boy. + +Pen gave his news, and then introduced Mr. Warrington--an old Boniface +man--whose chambers he shared. + +The Major was quite satisfied when he heard that Mr. Warrington was a +younger son of Sir Miles Warrington of Suffolk. He had served with an +uncle of his in India and in New South Wales, years ago. + +"Took a sheep-farm there, sir, made a fortune--better thing than law or +soldiering," Warrington said. "Think I shall go there too." And here +the expected beer coming in, in a tankard with a glass bottom, Mr. +Warrington, with a laugh, said he supposed the Major would not have any, +and took a long, deep draught himself, after which he wiped his wrist +across his beard with great satisfaction. The young man was perfectly +easy and unembarrassed. He was dressed in a ragged old shooting jacket, +and had a bristly blue beard. He was drinking beer like a coalheaver, +and yet you couldn't but perceive that he was a gentleman. + +When he had sate for a minute or two after his draught he went out of +the room, leaving it to Pen and his uncle, that they might talk over +family affairs were they so inclined. + +"Rough and ready, your chum seems," the Major said. "Somewhat different +from your dandy friends at Oxbridge." + +"Times are altered," Arthur replied, with a blush. "Warrington is only +just called, and has no business, but he knows law pretty well; and +until I can afford to read with a pleader, I use his books, and get his +help." + +"Is that one of the books?" the Major asked, with a smile. A French +novel was lying at the foot of Pen's chair. + +"This is not a working day, sir," the lad said. "We were out very +late at a party last night--at Lady Whiston's," Pen added, knowing his +uncle's weakness. "Everybody in town was there except you, sir; Counts, +Ambassadors, Turks, Stars and Garters--I don't know who--it's all in the +paper--and my name, too," said Pen, with great glee. "I met an old flame +of mine there, sir," he added, with a laugh. "You know whom I mean, +sir,--Lady Mirabel--to whom I was introduced over again. She shook +hands, and was gracious enough. I may thank you for being out of that +scrape, sir. She presented me to the husband, too--an old beau in a star +and a blonde wig. He does not seem very wise. She has asked me to call +on her, sir: and I may go now without any fear of losing my heart." + +"What, we have had some new loves, have we?" the Major asked in high +good-humour. + +"Some two or three," Mr. Pen said, laughing. "But I don't put on my +grand serieux any more, sir. That goes off after the first flame." + +"Very right, my dear boy. Flames and darts and passion, and that sort of +thing, do very well for a lad: and you were but a lad when that affair +with the Fotheringill--Fotheringay--(what's her name?) came off. But a +man of the world gives up those follies. You still may do very well. +You have been bit, but you may recover. You are heir to a little +independence; which everybody fancies is a doosid deal more. You have +a good name, good wits, good manners, and a good person--and, begad! +I don't see why you shouldn't marry a woman with money--get into +Parliament--distinguish yourself, and--and, in fact, that sort of thing. +Remember, it's as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman: and a +devilish deal pleasanter to sit down to a good dinner, than to a scrag +of mutton in lodgings. Make up your mind to that. A woman with a good +jointure is a doosid deal easier a profession than the law, let me tell +you that. Look out; I shall be on the watch for you: and I shall die +content, my boy, if I can see you with a good ladylike wife, and a good +carriage, and a good pair of horses, living in society, and seeing your +friends, like a gentleman. Would you like to vegetate like your dear +good mother at Fairoaks? Dammy, sir! life, without money and the best +society isn't worth having." It was thus this affectionate uncle spoke, +and expounded to Pen his simple philosophy. + +"What would my mother and Laura say to this, I wonder?" thought the lad. +Indeed old Pendennis's morals were not their morals, nor was his wisdom +theirs. + +This affecting conversation between uncle and nephew had scarcely +concluded, when Warrington came out of his bedroom, no longer in rags, +but dressed like a gentleman, straight and tall and perfectly frank and +good-humoured. He did the honours of his ragged sitting-room with as +much ease as if it had been the finest apartment in London. And queer +rooms they were in which the Major found his nephew. The carpet was full +of holes--the table stained with many circles of Warrington's previous +ale-pots. There was a small library of law-books, books of poetry, +and of mathematics, of which he was very fond. (He had been one of the +hardest livers and hardest readers of his time at Oxbridge, where the +name of Stunning Warrington was yet famous for beating bargemen, pulling +matches, winning prizes, and drinking milk-punch.) A print of the old +college hung up over the mantelpiece, and some battered volumes of +Plato, bearing its well-known arms, were on the book-shelves. There were +two easy-chairs; a standing reading-desk piled with bills; a couple of +very meagre briefs on a broken-legged study-table. Indeed, there was +scarcely any article of furniture that had not been in the wars, and was +not wounded. "Look here, sir, here is Pen's room. He is a dandy, and +has got curtains to his bed, and wears shiny boots, and a silver +dressing-case." Indeed, Pen's room was rather coquettishly arranged, and +a couple of neat prints of opera-dancers, besides a drawing of Fairoaks, +hung on the walls. In Warrington's room there was scarcely any article +of furniture, save a great shower-bath, and a heap of books by the +bedside: where he lay upon straw like Margery Daw, and smoked his pipe, +and read half through the night his favourite poetry or mathematics. + +When he had completed his simple toilette, Mr. Warrington came out of +this room, and proceeded to the cupboard to search for his breakfast. + +"Might I offer you a mutton-chop, sir? We cook 'em ourselves hot and +hot: and I am teaching Pen the first principles of law, cooking, and +morality at the same time. He's a lazy beggar, sir, and too much of a +dandy." + +And so saying, Mr. Warrington wiped a gridiron with a piece of paper, +put it on the fire, and on it two mutton-chops, and took from the +cupboard a couple of plates and some knives and silver forks, and +castors. + +"Say but a word, Major Pendennis," he said; "there's another chop in the +cupboard, or Pidgeon shall go out and get you anything you like." + +Major Pendennis sate in wonder and amusement, but he said he had just +breakfasted, and wouldn't have any lunch. So Warrington cooked the +chops, and popped them hissing hot upon the plates. + +Pen fell to at his chop with a good appetite, after looking up at his +uncle, and seeing that gentleman was still in good-humour. + +"You see, sir," Warrington said, "Mrs. Flanagan isn't here to do 'em, +and we can't employ the boy, for the little beggar is all day occupied +cleaning Pen's boots. And now for another swig at the beer. Pen drinks +tea; it's only fit for old women." + +"And so you were at Lady Whiston's last night," the Major said, not in +truth knowing what observation to make to this rough diamond. + +"I at Lady Whiston's! not such a flat, sir. I don't care for female +society. In fact it bores me. I spent my evening philosophically at the +Back Kitchen." + +"The Back Kitchen? indeed!" said the Major. + +"I see you don't know what it means," Warrington said. "Ask Pen. He was +there after Lady Whiston's. Tell Major Pendennis about the Back Kitchen, +Pen--don't be ashamed of yourself." + +So Pen said it was a little eccentric society of men of letters and men +about town, to which he had been presented; and the Major began to +think that the young fellow had seen a good deal of the world since his +arrival in London. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. The Knights of the Temple + + +Colleges, schools, and inns of courts still have some respect for +antiquity, and maintain a great number of the customs and institutions +of our ancestors, with which those persons who do not particularly +regard their forefathers, or perhaps are not very well acquainted with +them; have long since done away. A well-ordained workhouse or prison +is much better provided with the appliances of health, comfort, and +cleanliness, than a respectable Foundation School a venerable College, +or a learned Inn. In the latter place of residence men are contented to +sleep in dingy closets, and to pay for the sitting-room and the cupboard +which is their dormitory, the price of a good villa and garden in the +suburbs, or of a roomy house in the neglected squares of the town. The +poorest mechanic in Spitalfields has a cistern and an unbounded suppy +of water at his command; but the gentlemen of the inns of court, and +the gentlemen of the universities, have their supply of this cosmetic +fetched in jugs by laundresses and bedmakers, and live in abodes which +were erected long before the custom of cleanliness and decency obtained +among us. There are individuals still alive who sneer at the people and +speak of them with epithets of scorn. Gentlemen, there can be but little +doubt that your ancestors were the Great Unwashed: and in the Temple +especially, it is pretty certain, that only under the greatest +difficulties and restrictions the virtue which has been pronounced to be +next to godliness could have been practised at all. + +Old Grump, of the Norfolk Circuit, who had lived for more than thirty +years in the chambers under those occupied by Warrington and Pendennis, +and who used to be awakened by the roaring of the shower-baths which +those gentlemen had erected in their apartments--a part of the contents +of which occasionally trickled through the roof into Mr. Grump's +room,--declared that the practice was an absurd, newfangled, dandified +folly, and daily cursed the laundress who slopped the staircase by which +he had to pass. Grump, now much more than half a century old, had indeed +never used the luxury in question. He had done without water very well, +and so had our fathers before him. Of all those knights and baronets, +lords and gentlemen, bearing arms, whose escutcheons are painted +upon the walls of the famous hall of the Upper Temple, was there no +philanthropist good-natured enough to devise a set of Hummums for the +benefit of the lawyers, his fellows and successors? The Temple historian +makes no mention of such a scheme. There is Pump Court and Fountain +Court, with their hydraulic apparatus, but one never heard of a bencher +disporting in the fountain; and can't but think how many a counsel +learned in the law of old days might have benefited by the pump. + +Nevertheless, those venerable Inns which have the Lamb and Flag and the +Winged Horse for their ensigns, have attractions for persons who +inhabit them, and a share of rough comforts and freedom which men always +remember with pleasure. I don't know whether the student of law +permits himself the refreshment of enthusiasm, or indulges in poetical +reminiscences as he passes by historical chambers, and says, "Yonder +Eldon lived--upon this site Coke mused upon Littleton--here Chitty +toiled--here Barnewall and Alderson joined in their famous labours--here +Byles composed his great work upon bills, and Smith compiled his +immortal leading cases--here Gustavus still toils, with Solomon to aid +him:" but the man of letters can't but love the place which has been +inhabited by so many of his brethren, or peopled by their creations as +real to us at this day as the authors whose children they were--and Sir +Roger de Coverley walking in the Temple Garden, and discoursing with +Mr. Spectator about the beauties in hoops and patches who are sauntering +over the grass, is just as lively a figure to me as old Samuel Johnson +rolling through the fog with the Scotch gentleman at his heels on their +way to Dr. Goldsmith's chambers in Brick Court; or Harry Fielding, with +inked ruffles and a wet towel round his head, dashing off articles +at midnight for the Covent Garden Journal, while the printer's boy is +asleep in the passage. + +If we could but get the history of a single day as it passed in any one +of those four-storied houses in the dingy court where our friends Pen +and Warrington dwelt, some Temple Asmodeus might furnish us with a queer +volume. There may be a great parliamentary counsel on the ground floor, +who drives off to Belgravia at dinner-time, when his clerk, too, becomes +a gentleman, and goes away to entertain his friends, and to take his +pleasure. But a short time since he was hungry and briefless in some +garret of the Inn; lived by stealthy literature; hoped, and waited, and +sickened, and no clients came; exhausted his own means and his friends' +kindness; had to remonstrate humbly with duns, and to implore the +patience of poor creditors. Ruin seemed to be staring him in the face, +when, behold, a turn of the wheel of fortune, and the lucky wretch in +possession of one of those prodigious prizes which are sometimes drawn +in the great lottery of the Bar. Many a better lawyer than himself does +not make a fifth part of the income of his clerk, who, a few months +since, could scarcely get credit for blacking for his master's unpaid +boots. On the first floor, perhaps, you will have a venerable man whose +name is famous, who has lived for half a century in the Inn, whose +brains are full of books, and whose shelves are stored with classical +and legal lore. He has lived alone all these fifty years, alone and for +himself, amassing learning, and compiling a fortune. He comes home now +at night alone from the club, where he has been dining freely, to the +lonely chambers where he lives a godless old recluse. When he dies, his +Inn will erect a tablet to his honour, and his heirs burn a part of his +library. Would you like to have such a prospect for your old age, to +store up learning and money, and end so? But we must not linger too long +by Mr. Doomsday's door. Worthy Mr. Grump lives over him, who is also an +ancient inhabitant of the Inn, and who, when Doomsday comes home to read +Catullus, is sitting down with three steady seniors of his standing, +to a steady rubber at whist, after a dinner at which they have consumed +their three steady bottles of Port. You may see the old boys asleep at +the Temple Church of a Sunday. Attorneys seldom trouble them, and +they have small fortunes of their own. On the other side of the third +landing, where Pen and Warrington live, till long after midnight, sits +Mr. Paley, who took the highest honours, and who is a fellow of his +college, who will sit and read and note cases until two o'clock in the +morning; who will rise at seven and be at the pleader's chambers as soon +as they are open, where he will work until an hour before dinner-time; +who will come home from Hall and read and note cases again until +dawn next day, when perhaps Mr. Arthur Pendennis and his friend Mr. +Warrington are returning from some of their wild expeditions. How +differently employed Mr. Paley has been! He has not been throwing +himself away: he has only been bringing a great intellect laboriously +down to the comprehension of a mean subject, and in his fierce grasp of +that, resolutely excluding from his mind all higher thoughts, all better +things, all the wisdom of philosophers and historians, all the thoughts +of poets; all wit, fancy, reflection, art, love, truth altogether--so +that he may master that enormous legend of the law, which he proposes +to gain his livelihood by expounding. Warrington and Paley had been +competitors for university honours in former days, and had run each +other hard; and everybody said now that the former was wasting his time +and energies, whilst all people praised Paley for his industry. There +may be doubts, however, as to which was using his time best. The one +could afford time to think, and the other never could. The one could +have sympathies and do kindnesses; and the other must needs be always +selfish. He could not cultivate a friendship or do a charity, or admire +a work of genius, or kindle at the sight of beauty or the sound of a +sweet song--he had no time, and no eyes for anything but his law-books. +All was dark outside his reading-lamp. Love, and Nature, and Art (which +is the expression of our praise and sense of the beautiful world of God) +were shut out from him. And as he turned off his lonely lamp at night, +he never thought but that he had spent the day profitably, and went to +sleep alike thankless and remorseless. But he shuddered when he met his +old companion Warrington on the stairs, and shunned him as one that was +doomed to perdition. + +It may have been the sight of that cadaverous ambition and +self-complacent meanness, which showed itself in Paley's yellow face, +and twinkled in his narrow eyes, or it may have been a natural appetite +for pleasure and joviality, of which it must be confessed Mr. Pen was +exceedingly fond, which deterred that luckless youth from pursuing +his designs upon the Bench or the Woolsack with the ardour, or rather +steadiness, which is requisite in gentlemen who would climb to those +seats of honour. He enjoyed the Temple life with a great deal of relish: +his worthy relatives thought he was reading as became a regular student; +and his uncle wrote home congratulatory letters to the kind widow +at Fairoaks, announcing that the lad had sown his wild oats, and +was becoming quite steady. The truth is, that it was a new sort of +excitement to Pen, the life in which he was now engaged, and having +given up some of the dandified pretensions, and fine-gentleman airs +which he had contracted among his aristocratic college acquaintances, +of whom he now saw but little, the rough pleasures and amusements of +a London bachelor were very novel and agreeable to him, and he enjoyed +them all. Time was he would have envied the dandies their fine horses +in Rotten Row, but he was contented now to walk in the Park and look +at them. He was too young to succeed in London society without a better +name and a larger fortune than he had, and too lazy to get on without +these adjuncts. Old Pendennis fondly thought he was busied with law +because he neglected the social advantages presented to him, and, having +been at half a dozen balls and evening parties, retreated before their +dulness and sameness; and whenever anybody made inquiries of the worthy +Major about his nephew the old gentleman said the young rascal was +reformed, and could not be got away from his books. But the Major would +have been almost as much horrified as Mr. Paley was, had he known what +was Mr. Pen's real course of life, and how much pleasure entered into +his law studies. + +A long morning's reading, a walk in the park, a pull on the river, a +stretch up the hill to Hampstead, and a modest tavern dinner; a bachelor +night passed here or there, in joviality, not vice (for Arthur Pendennis +admired women so heartily that he never could bear the society of any +of them that were not, in his fancy at least, good and pure); a quiet +evening at home, alone with a friend and a pipe or two, and a humble +potation of British spirits, whereof Mrs. Flanagan, the laundress, +invariably tested the quality;--these were our young gentleman's +pursuits, and it must be owned that his life was not unpleasant. In +term-time, Mr. Pen showed a most praiseworthy regularity in performing +one part of the law-student's course of duty, and eating his dinners +in Hall. Indeed, that Hall of the Upper Temple is a sight not +uninteresting, and with the exception of some trifling improvements and +anachronisms which have been introduced into the practice there, a +man may sit down and fancy that he joins in a meal of the seventeenth +century. The bar have their messes, the students their tables apart; +the benchers sit at the high table on the raised platform surrounded by +pictures of judges of the law and portraits of royal personages who have +honoured its festivities with their presence and patronage. Pen looked +about, on his first introduction, not a little amused with the scene +which he witnessed. Among his comrades of the student class there +were gentlemen of all ages, from sixty to seventeen; stout grey-headed +attorneys who were proceeding to take the superior dignity,--dandies +and men about town who wished for some reason to be barristers of seven +years' standing,--swarthy, black-eyed natives of the Colonies, who came +to be called here before they practised in their own islands,--and many +gentlemen of the Irish nation, who make a sojourn in Middle Temple +Lane before they return to the green country of their birth. There were +little squads of reading students who talked law all dinner-time; there +were rowing men, whose discourse was of sculling matches, the Red House, +Vauxhall and the Opera; there were others great in politics, and orators +of the students' debating clubs; with all of which sets, except the +first, whose talk was an almost unknown and a quite uninteresting +language to him, Mr. Pen made a gradual acquaintance, and had many +points of sympathy. + +The ancient and liberal Inn of the Upper Temple provides in its Hall, +and for a most moderate price, an excellent wholesome dinner of soup, +meat, tarts, and port wine or sherry, for the barristers and students +who attend that place of refection. The parties are arranged in messes +of four, each of which quartets has its piece of beef or leg of mutton, +its sufficient apple-pie and its bottle of wine. But the honest habitues +of the hall, amongst the lower rank of students, who have a taste +for good living, have many harmless arts by which they improve their +banquet, and innocent 'dodges' (if we may be permitted to use an +excellent phrase that has become vernacular since the appearance of the +last dictionaries) by which they strive to attain for themselves more +delicate food than the common every-day roast meat of the students' +tables. + +"Wait a bit," said Mr. Lowton, one of these Temple gourmands. "Wait a +bit," said Mr. Lowton, tugging at Pen's gown--"the side-tables are very +full, and there's only three benchers to eat ten dishes--if we wait, +perhaps we shall get something from their table." And Pen looked with +some amusement, as did Mr. Lowton with eyes of fond desire, towards the +benchers' high table, where three old gentlemen were standing up before +a dozen silver dish-covers, while the clerk was quavering out a grace. + +Lowton was great in the conduct of the dinner. His aim was to manage so +as to be the first, a captain of the mess, and to secure for himself +the thirteenth glass of the bottle of port wine. Thus he would have the +command of the joint on which he operated his favourite cuts, and made +rapid dexterous appropriations of gravy, which amused Pen infinitely. +Poor Jack Lowton! thy pleasures in life were very harmless; an eager +epicure, thy desires did not go beyond eighteen pence. + +Pen was somewhat older than many of his fellow-students, and there was +that about his style and appearance, which, as we have said, was rather +haughty and impertinent, that stamped him as a man of ton--very unlike +those pale students who were talking law to one another, and those +ferocious dandies, in rowing shirts and astonishing pins and waistcoats, +who represented the idle part of the little community. The humble and +good-natured Lowton had felt attracted by Pen's superior looks and +presence--and had made acquaintance with him at the mess by opening the +conversation. + +"This is boiled-beef day, I believe, sir," said Lowton to Pen. + +"Upon my word, sir, I'm not aware," said Pen, hardly able to contain his +laughter, but added, "I'm a stranger; this is my first term;" on which +Lowton began to point out to him the notabilities in the Hall. + +"That's Boosey the bencher, the bald one sitting under the picture and +aving soup; I wonder whether it's turtle? They often ave turtle. Next +is Balls, the King's Counsel, and Swettenham--Hodge and Swettenham, you +know. That's old Grump, the senior of the bar; they say he's dined here +forty years. They often send 'em down their fish from the benchers to +the senior table. Do you see those four fellows seated opposite us? +Those are regular swells--tip-top fellows, I can tell you--Mr. Trail, +the Bishop of Ealing's son, Honourable Fred Ringwood, Lord Cinqbar's +brother, you know. He'll have a good place, I bet any money; and Bob +Suckling, who's always with him--a high fellow too. Ha! ha!" Here Lowton +burst into a laugh. + +"What is it?" said Pen, still amused. + +"I say, I like to mess with those chaps," Lowton said, winking his eye +knowingly, and pouring out his glass of wine. + +"And why?" asked Pen. + +"Why! they don't come down here to dine, you know, they only make +believe to dine. They dine here, Law bless you! They go to some of the +swell clubs, or else to some grand dinner-party. You see their names in +the Morning Post at all the fine parties in London. Why, I bet anything +that Ringwood has his cab, or Trail his Brougham (he's a devil of a +fellow, and makes the bishop's money spin, I can tell you) at the corner +of Essex Street at this minute. They dine! They won't dine these two +hours, I dare say." + +"But why should you like to mess with them, if they don't eat any +dinner?" Pen asked, still puzzled. "There's plenty, isn't there?" + +"How green you are," said Lowton. "Excuse me, but you are green. They +don't drink any wine, don't you see, and a fellow gets the bottle to +himself if he likes it when he messes with those three chaps. That's why +Corkoran got in with 'em." + +"Ah, Mr. Lowton, I see you are a sly fellow," Pen said, delighted with +his acquaintance: on which the other modestly replied, that he had lived +in London the better part of his life, and of course had his eyes about +him; and went on with his catalogue to Pen. + +"There's a lot of Irish here," he said; "that Corkoran's one, and +I can't say I like him. You see that handsome chap with the blue +neck-cloth, and pink shirt, and yellow waistcoat, that's another; that's +Molloy Maloney of Ballymaloney, and nephew to Major-General Sir Hector +O'Dowd, he, he," Lowton said, trying to imitate the Hibernian +accent. "He's always bragging about his uncle; and came into Hall in +silver-striped trousers the day he had been presented. That other near +him, with the long black hair, is a tremendous rebel. By Jove, sir, to +hear him at the Forum it makes your blood freeze; and the next is an +Irishman, too, Jack Finucane, reporter of a newspaper. They all stick +together, those Irish. It's your turn to fill your glass. What? you +won't have any port? Don't like port with your dinner? Here's your +health." And this worthy man found himself not the less attached to +Pendennis because the latter disliked port wine at dinner. + +It was while Pen was taking his share of one of these dinners with his +acquaintance Lowton as the captain of his mess, that there came to join +them a gentleman in a barrister's gown, who could not find a seat, as it +appeared, amongst the persons of his own degree, and who strode over the +table and took his place on the bench where Pen sate. He was dressed in +old clothes and a faded gown, which hung behind him, and he wore a shirt +which, though clean, was extremely ragged, and very different to +the magnificent pink raiment of Mr. Molloy Maloney, who occupied +a commanding position in the next mess. In order to notify their +appearance at dinner, it is the custom of the gentlemen who eat in the +Upper Temple Hall to write down their names upon slips of paper, which +are provided for that purpose, with a pencil for each mess. Lowton wrote +his name first, then came Arthur Pendennis, and the next was that of +the gentleman in the old clothes. He smiled when he saw Pen's name, +and looked at him. "We ought to know each other," he said. "We're both +Boniface men; my name's Warrington." + +"Are you St---- Warrington?" Pen said, delighted to see this hero. + +Warrington laughed--"Stunning Warrington--yes," he said, "I recollect +you in your freshman's term. But you appear to have quite cut me out." + +"The college talks about you still," said Pen, who had a generous +admiration for talent and pluck. "The bargeman you thrashed, Bill Simes, +don't you remember, wants you up again at Oxbridge. The Miss Notleys, +the haberdashers----" + +"Hush!" said Warrington--"glad to make your acquaintance, Pendennis. +Heard a good deal about you." + +The young men were friends immediately, and at once deep in +college-talk. And Pen, who had been acting rather the fine gentleman on +a previous day, when he pretended to Lowton that he could not drink port +wine at dinner, seeing Warrington take his share with a great deal of +gusto, did not scruple about helping himself any more, rather to the +disappointment of honest Lowton. When the dinner was over, Warrington +asked Arthur where he was going. + +"I thought of going home to dress, and hear Grisi in Norma," Pen said. + +"Are you going to meet anybody there?" he asked. + +Pen said, "No--only to hear the music," of which he was fond. + +"You had much better come home and smoke a pipe with me," said +Warrington,--"a very short one. Come, I live close by in Lamb Court, and +we'll talk over Boniface and old times." + +They went away; Lowton sighed after them. He knew Warrington was +a baronet's son, and he looked up with simple reverence to all the +aristocracy. Pen and Warrington became sworn friends from that night. +Warrington's cheerfulness and jovial temper, his good sense, his rough +welcome, and his never-failing pipe of tobacco, charmed Pen, who found +it more pleasant to dive into shilling taverns with him, than to dine +in solitary state amongst the silent and polite frequenters of the +Polyanthus. + +Ere long Pen gave up the lodgings in St. James's, to which he had +migrated on quitting his hotel, and found it was much more economical to +take up his abode with Warrington in Lamb Court, and furnish and occupy +his friend's vacant room there. For it must be said of Pen, that no man +was more easily led than he to do a thing, when it was a novelty, or +when he had a mind to it. And Pidgeon, the youth, and Flanagan, the +laundress, divided their allegiance now between Warrington and Pen. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. Old and new Acquaintances + + +Elated with the idea of seeing life, Pen went into a hundred queer +London haunts. He liked to think he was consorting with all sorts +of men--so he beheld coalheavers in their tap-rooms; boxers in their +inn-parlours; honest citizens disporting in the suburbs or on the river; +and he would have liked to hob and nob with celebrated pickpockets, or +drink a pot of ale with a company of burglars and cracksmen, had chance +afforded him an opportunity of making the acquaintance of this class of +society. It was good to see the gravity with which Warrington listened +to the Tutbury Pet or the Brighton Stunner at the Champion's Arms, and +behold the interest which he took in the coalheaving company assembled +at the Fox-under-the-Hill. His acquaintance with the public-houses of +the metropolis and its neighbourhood, and with the frequenters of their +various parlours, was prodigious. He was the personal friend of the +landlord and landlady, and welcome to the bar as to the clubroom. He +liked their society, he said, better than that of his own class, whose +manners annoyed him, and whose conversation bored him. "In society," +he used to say, "everybody is the same, wears the same dress, eats and +drinks, and says the same things; one young dandy at the club talks and +looks just like another, one Miss at a ball exactly resembles another, +whereas there's character here. I like to talk with the strongest man in +England, or the man who can drink the most beer in England, or with +that tremendous republican of a hatter, who thinks Thistlewood was the +greatest character in history. I like better gin-and-water than claret. +I like a sanded floor in Carnaby Market better than a chalked one in +Mayfair. I prefer Snobs, I own it." Indeed, this gentleman was a social +republican; and it never entered his head while conversing with Jack +and Tom that he was in any respect their better; although, perhaps, the +deference which they paid him might secretly please him. + +Pen followed him then to these various resorts of men with great glee +and assiduity. But he was considerably younger, and therefore much more +pompous and stately than Warrington, in fact a young prince in disguise, +visiting the poor of his father's kingdom. They respected him as a high +chap, a fine fellow, a regular young swell. He had somehow about him +an air of imperious good-humour, and a royal frankness and majesty, +although he was only heir-apparent to twopence-halfpenny, and but one +in descent from a gallypot. If these positions are made for us, we +acquiesce in them very easily; and are always pretty ready to assume a +superiority over those who are as good as ourselves. Pen's condescension +at this time of his life was a fine thing to witness. Amongst men of +ability this assumption and impertinence passes off with extreme +youth: but it is curious to watch the conceit of a generous and clever +lad--there is something almost touching in that early exhibition of +simplicity and folly. + +So, after reading pretty hard of a morning, and, I fear, not law merely, +but politics and general history and literature, which were as necessary +for the advancement and instruction of a young man as mere dry law, +after applying with tolerable assiduity to letters, to reviews, to +elemental books of law, and, above all, to the newspaper, until the hour +of dinner was drawing nigh, these young gentlemen would sally out upon +the town with great spirits and appetite, and bent upon enjoying a merry +night as they had passed a pleasant forenoon. It was a jovial time, that +of four-and-twenty, when every muscle of mind and body was in healthy +action, when the world was new as yet, and one moved over it spurred +onwards by good spirits and the delightful capability to enjoy. If ever +we feel young afterwards, it is with the comrades of that time: the +tunes we hum in our old age, are those we learned then. Sometimes, +perhaps, the festivity of that period revives in our memory; but how +dingy the pleasure-garden has grown, how tattered the garlands look, how +scant and old the company, and what a number of the lights have gone +out since that day! Grey hairs have come on like daylight streaming +in--daylight and a headache with it. Pleasure has gone to bed with the +rouge on her cheeks. Well, friend, let us walk through the day, sober +and sad, but friendly. + +I wonder what Laura and Helen would have said, could they have seen, as +they might not unfrequently have done had they been up and in London, in +the very early morning when the bridges began to blush in the sunrise, +and the tranquil streets of the city to shine in the dawn, Mr. Pen and +Mr. Warrington rattling over the echoing flags towards the Temple, after +one of their wild nights of carouse--nights wild, but not so wicked as +such nights sometimes are, for Warrington was a woman-hater; and Pen, as +we have said, too lofty to stoop to a vulgar intrigue. Our young Prince +of Fairoaks never could speak to one of the sex but with respectful +courtesy, and shrank from a coarse word or gesture with instinctive +delicacy--for though we have seen him fall in love with a fool, as his +betters and inferiors have done, and as it is probable that he did more +than once in his life, yet for the time of the delusion it was always as +a Goddess that he considered her, and chose to wait upon her. Men serve +women kneeling--when they get on their feet, they go away. + +That was what an acquaintance of Pen's said to him in his hard homely +way;--an old friend with whom he had fallen in again in London--no other +than honest Mr. Bows of the Chatteris Theatre, who was now employed as +pianoforte player, to accompany the eminent lyrical talent which nightly +delighted the public at the Fielding's Head in Covent Garden: and where +was held the little club called the Back Kitchen. + +Numbers of Pen's friends frequented this very merry meeting. The +Fielding's Head had been a house of entertainment, almost since the +time when the famous author of 'Tom Jones' presided as magistrate in the +neighbouring Bow Street; his place was pointed out, and the chair +said to have been his, still occupied by the president of the night's +entertainment. The worthy Cutts, the landlord of the Fielding's Head, +generally occupied this post when not disabled by gout or other illness. +His jolly appearance and fine voice may be remembered by some of my +male readers: he used to sing profusely in the course of the harmonic +meeting, and his songs were of what may be called the British +Brandy-and-Water School of Song--such as 'The Good Old English +Gentleman,' 'Dear Tom, this Brown Jug,' and so forth--songs in which +pathos and hospitality are blended, and the praises of good liquor and +the social affections are chanted in a baritone voice. The charms of our +women, the heroic deeds of our naval and military commanders, are often +sung in the ballads of this school; and many a time in my youth have I +admired how Cutts the singer, after he had worked us all up to patriotic +enthusiasm, by describing the way in which the brave Abercrombie +received his death-wound, or made us join him in tears, which he shed +liberally himself, as in faltering accents he told how autumn's falling +leaf "proclaimed the old man he must die"--how Cutts the singer became +at once Cutts the landlord, and, before the applause which we were +making with our fists on his table, in compliment to his heart-stirring +melody, had died away,--was calling, "Now, gentlemen, give your orders, +the waiter's in the room--John, a champagne cup for Mr. Green. I +think, sir, you said sausages and mashed potatoes? John, attend on the +gentleman." + +"And I'll thank ye give me a glass of punch too, John, and take care the +wather boils," a voice would cry not unfrequently, a well-known voice to +Pen, which made the lad blush and start when he heard it first--that of +the venerable Captain Costigan; who was now established in London, and +one of the great pillars of the harmonic meetings at the Fielding's +Head. + +The Captain's manners and conversation brought very many young men to +the place. He was a character, and his fame had begun to spread soon +after his arrival in the metropolis, and especially after his daughter's +marriage. He was great in his conversation to the friend for the +time being (who was the neighbour drinking by his side), about "me +daughther." He told of her marriage, and of the events previous and +subsequent to that ceremony; of the carriages she kept; of Mirabel's +adoration for her and for him; of the hundther pounds which he was at +perfect liberty to draw from his son-in-law, whenever necessity urged +him. And having stated that it was his firm intention to "dthraw next +Sathurday, I give ye me secred word and honour next Sathurday, the +fourteenth, when ye'll see the money will be handed over to me at +Coutts's, the very instant I present the cheque," the Captain would +not unfrequently propose to borrow a half-crown of his friend until the +arrival of that day of Greek Calends, when, on the honour of an officer +and gentleman, he would repee the thrifling obligetion. + +Sir Charles Mirabel had not that enthusiastic attachment to his +father-in-law, of which the latter sometimes boasted (although in other +stages of emotion Cos would inveigh, with tears in his eyes, against the +ingratitude of the child of his bosom, and the stinginess of the wealthy +old man who had married her); but the pair had acted not unkindly +towards Costigan; had settled a small pension on him, which was paid +regularly, and forestalled with even more regularity by poor Cos; and +the period of the payments was always well known by his friend at +the Fielding's Head, whither the honest Captain took care to repair, +bank-notes in hand, calling loudly for change in the midst of the full +harmonic meeting. "I think ye'll find that note won't be refused at the +Bank of England, Cutts, my boy," Captain Costigan would say. "Bows, +have a glass? Ye needn't stint yourself to-night, anyhow; and a glass of +punch will make ye play con spirito." For he was lavishly free with his +money when it came to him, and was scarcely known to button his breeches +pocket, except when the coin was gone, or sometimes, indeed, when a +creditor came by. + +It was in one of these moments of exultation that Pen found his old +friend swaggering at the singers' table at the Back Kitchen of the +Fielding's Head, and ordering glasses of brandy-and-water for any of his +acquaintances who made their appearance in the apartment. Warrington, +who was on confidential terms with the bass singer, made his way up to +this quarter of the room, and Pen walked at his friend's heels. + +Pen started and blushed to see Costigan. He had just come from Lady +Whiston's party, where he had met and spoken with the Captain's daughter +again for the first time after very old old days. He came up with +outstretched hand, very kindly and warmly to greet the old man; still +retaining a strong remembrance of the time when Costigan's daughter had +been everything in the world to him. For though this young gentleman may +have been somewhat capricious in his attachments, and occasionally have +transferred his affections from one woman to another, yet he always +respected the place where Love had dwelt, and, like the Sultan of +Turkey, desired that honours should be paid to the lady towards whom +he had once thrown the royal pocket-handkerchief. The tipsy Captain +returning the clasp of Pen's hand with all the strength of a palm +which had become very shaky by the constant lifting up of weights +of brandy-and-water, looked hard in Pen's face, and said, "Grecious +Heavens, is it possible? Me dear boy, me dear fellow, me dear friend;" +and then with a look of muddled curiosity, fairly broke down with, "I +know your face, me dear dear friend, but, bedad, I've forgot your name." +Five years of constant punch had passed since Pen and Costigan met. +Arthur was a good deal changed, and the Captain may surly be excused for +forgetting him; when a man at the actual moment sees things double, we +may expect that his view of the past will be rather muzzy. + +Pen saw his condition and laughed, although, perhaps, he was +somewhat mortified. "Don't you remember me, Captain?" he said. "I am +Pendennis--Arthur Pendennis, of Chatteris." + +The sound of the young man's friendly voice recalled and steadied Cos's +tipsy remembrance, and he saluted Arthur, as soon as he knew him, with a +loud volley of friendly greetings. Pen was his dearest boy, his gallant +young friend, his noble collagian, whom he had held in his inmost heart +ever since they had parted--how was his fawther, no, his mother, and +his guardian, the General, the Major? "I preshoom, from your apparance, +you've come into your prawpertee; and, bedad, yee'll spend it like a man +of spirit--I'll go bail for that. No? not yet come into your estete? If +ye want any thrifle, heark ye, there's poor old Jack Costigan has got +a guinea or two in his pocket--and, be heavens! you shall never want, +Awthur, me dear boy. What'll ye have? John, come hither, and look +aloive; give this gentleman a glass of punch, and I'll pay for't.--Your +friend? I've seen him before. Permit me to have the honour of making +meself known to ye, sir, and requesting ye'll take a glass of punch." + +"I don't envy Sir Charles Mirabel his father-in-law," thought Pendennis. +"And how is my old friend, Mr. Bows, Captain? Have you any news of him, +and do you see him still?" + +"No doubt he's very well," said the Captain, jingling his money, and +whistling the air of a song--'The Little Doodeen'--for the singing +of which he was celebrated at the Fielding's Head. "Me dear boy--I've +forgot your name again--but my name's Costigan, Jack Costigan, and I'd +loike ye to take as many tumblers of punch in my name as ever ye +loike. Ye know my name; I'm not ashamed of it." And so the captain went +maundering on. + +"It's pay-day with the General," said Mr. Hodgen, the bass singer, with +whom Warrington was in deep conversation: "and he's a precious deal more +than half seas over. He has already tried that 'Little Doodeen' of his, +and broke it, too, just before I sang 'King Death.' Have you heard +my new song, 'The Body Snatcher,' Mr. Warrington?--angcored at Saint +Bartholomew's the other night--composed expressly for me. Per'aps you +or your friend would like a copy of the song, sir? John, just 'ave +the kyndness to 'and over a 'Body Snatcher' 'ere, will yer?--There's a +portrait of me, sir, as I sing it--as the Snatcher--considered rather +like." + +"Thank you," said Warrington; "heard it nine times--know it by heart, +Hodgen." + +Here the gentleman who presided at the pianoforte began to play upon his +instrument, and Pen, looking in the direction of the music, beheld that +very Mr. Bows, for whom he had been asking but now, and whose existence +Costigan had momentarily forgotten. The little old man sate before the +battered piano (which had injured its constitution wofully by sitting up +so many nights, and spoke with a voice, as it were, at once hoarse and +faint), and accompanied the singers, or played with taste and grace in +the intervals of the songs. + +Bows had seen and recollected Pen at once when the latter came into the +room, and had remarked the eager warmth of the young man's recognition +of Costigan. He now began to play an air, which Pen instantly remembered +as one which used to be sung by the chorus of villagers in 'The +Stranger,' just before Mrs. Haller came in. It shook Pen as he heard +it. He remembered how his heart used to beat as that air was played, +and before the divine Emily made her entry. Nobody, save Arthur, took any +notice of old Bows's playing: it was scarcely heard amidst the clatter +of knives and forks, the calls for poached eggs and kidneys, and the +tramp of guests and waiters. + +Pen went up and kindly shook the player by the hand at the end of his +performance; and Bows greeted Arthur with great respect and cordiality. +"What, you haven't forgot the old tune, Mr. Pendennis?" he said; "I +thought you'd remember it. I take it, it was the first tune of that sort +you ever heard played--wasn't it, sir? You were quite a young chap then. +I fear the Captain's very bad to-night. He breaks out on a pay-day; and +I shall have the deuce's own trouble in getting home. We live together. +We still hang on, sir, in partnership, though Miss Em--though my lady +Mirabel has left the firm.--And so you remember old times, do you? +Wasn't she a beauty, sir?--Your health and my service to you,"--and he +took a sip at the pewter measure of porter which stood by his side as he +played. + +Pen had many opportunities of seeing his early acquaintance afterwards, +and of renewing his relations with Costigan and the old musician. + +As they sate thus in friendly colloquy, men of all sorts and conditions +entered and quitted the house of entertainment; and Pen had the pleasure +of seeing as many different persons of his race, as the most eager +observer need desire to inspect. Healthy country tradesmen and farmers, +in London for their business, came and recreated themselves with +the jolly singing and suppers of the Back Kitchen,--squads of young +apprentices and assistants, the shutters being closed over the scene +of their labours, came hither for fresh air doubtless,--rakish young +medical students, gallant, dashing, what is called "loudly" dressed, and +(must it be owned?) somewhat dirty,--were here smoking and drinking, +and vociferously applauding the songs; young university bucks were to +be found here, too, with that indescribable genteel simper which is only +learned at the knees of Alma Mater;--and handsome young guardsmen, and +florid bucks from the St. James's Street Clubs--nay, senators English +and Irish; and even members of the House of Peers. + +The bass singer had made an immense hit with his song of 'The Body +Snatcher,' and the town rushed to listen to it. The curtain drew aside, +and Mr. Hodgen appeared in the character of the Snatcher, sitting on a +coffin, with a flask of gin before him, with a spade, and a candle stuck +in a skull. The song was sung with a really admirable terrific humour. +The singer's voice went down so low, that its grumbles rumbled into the +hearer's awe-stricken soul; and in the chorus he clamped with his spade, +and gave a demoniac "Ha! ha!" which caused the very glasses to quiver +on the table, as with terror. None of the other singers, not even +Cutts himself, as that high-minded man owned, could stand up before +the Snatcher, and he commonly used to retire to Mrs. Cutts's private +apartments, or into the bar, before that fatal song extinguished +him. Poor Cos's ditty, 'The Little Doodeen,' which Bows accompanied +charmingly on the piano, was sung but to a few admirers, who might +choose to remain after the tremendous resurrectionist chant. The room +was commonly emptied after that, or only left in possession of a very +few and persevering votaries of pleasure. + +Whilst Pen and his friend were sitting here together one night, or +rather morning, two habitues of the house entered almost together. "Mr. +Hoolan and Mr. Doolan," whispered Warrington to Pen, saluting these +gentlemen, and in the latter Pen recognised his friend of the Alacrity +coach, who could not dine with Pen on the day on which the latter had +invited him, being compelled by his professional duties to decline +dinner-engagements on Fridays, he had stated, with his compliments to +Mr. Pendennis. + +Doolan's paper, the Dawn, was lying on the table much bestained by +porter, and cheek-by-jowl with Hoolan's paper, which we shall call the +Day; the Dawn was Liberal--the Day was ultra-Conservative. Many of our +journals are officered by Irish gentlemen, and their gallant brigade +does the penning among us, as their ancestors used to transact the +fighting in Europe; and engage under many a flag, to be good friends +when the battle is over. + +"Kidneys, John, and a glass of stout," says Hoolan. "How are you, +Morgan? how's Mrs. Doolan?" + +"Doing pretty well, thank ye, Mick, my boy--faith she's accustomed to +it," said Doolan. "How's the lady that owns ye? Maybe I'll step down +Sunday, and have a glass of punch, Kilburn way." + +"Don't bring Patsey with you, Mick, for our Georgy's got the measles," +said the friendly Morgan, and they straightway fell to talk about +matters connected with their trade--about the foreign mails--about who +was correspondent at Paris, and who wrote from Madrid--about the expense +the Morning Journal was at in sending couriers, about the circulation of +the Evening Star, and so forth. + +Warrington, laughing, took the Dawn which was lying before him, and +pointed to one of the leading articles in that journal, which commenced +thus-- + +"As rogues of note in former days who had some wicked work to +perform,--an enemy to be put out of the way, a quantity of false coin +to be passed, a lie to be told or a murder to be done--employed a +professional perjurer or assassin to do the work, which they were +themselves too notorious or too cowardly to execute: our notorious +contemporary, the Day, engages smashers out of doors to utter forgeries +against individuals, and calls in auxiliary cut-throats to murder the +reputation of those who offend him. A black-vizarded ruffian (whom we +will unmask), who signs the forged name of Trefoil, is at present one of +the chief bravoes and bullies in our contemporary's establishment. He is +the eunuch who brings the bowstring, and strangles at the order of +the Day. We can convict this cowardly slave, and propose to do so. The +charge which he has brought against Lord Bangbanagher, because he is a +Liberal Irish peer, and against the Board of Poor Law Guardians of the +Bangbanagher Union, is," etc. + +"How did they like the article at your place, Mick?" asked Morgan; "when +the Captain puts his hand to it he's a tremendous hand at a smasher. He +wrote the article in two hours--in--whew--you know where, while the boy +was waiting." + +"Our governor thinks the public don't mind a straw about these newspaper +rows, and has told the Docthor to stop answering," said the other. "Them +two talked it out together in my room. The Docthor would have liked a +turn, for he says it's such easy writing, and requires no reading up of +a subject: but the governor put a stopper on him." + +"The taste for eloquence is going out, Mick," said Morgan. + +"'Deed then it is, Morgan," said Mick. "That was fine writing when the +Docthor wrote in the Phaynix, and he and Condy Roony blazed away at each +other day after day." + +"And with powder and shot, too, as well as paper," says Morgan, "Faith, +the Docthor was out twice, and Condy Roony winged his man." + +"They are talking about Doctor Boyne and Captain Shandon," Warrington +said, "who are the two Irish controversialists of the Dawn and the Day, +Dr. Boyne being the Protestant champion and Captain Shandon the Liberal +orator. They are the best friends in the world, I believe, in spite +of their newspaper controversies; and though they cry out against the +English for abusing their country, by Jove they abuse it themselves +more in a single article than we should take the pains to do in a dozen +volumes. How are you, Doolan?" + +"Your servant, Mr. Warrington--Mr. Pendennis, I am delighted to have +the honour of seeing ye again. The night's journey on the top of the +Alacrity was one of the most agreeable I ever enjoyed in my life, and it +was your liveliness and urbanity that made the trip so charming. I have +often thought over that happy night, sir, and talked over it to Mrs. +Doolan. I have seen your elegant young friend, Mr. Foker, too, here, +sir, not unfrequently. He is an occasional frequenter of this hostelry, +and a right good one it is. Mr. Pendennis, when I saw you I was on the +Tom and Jerry Weekly Paper; I have now the honour to be sub-editor of +the Dawn, one of the best-written papers of the empire"--and he bowed +very slightly to Mr. Warrington. His speech was unctuous and measured, +his courtesy oriental, his tone, when talking with the two Englishmen, +quite different to that with which he spoke to his comrade. + +"Why the devil will the fellow compliment so?" growled Warrington, with +a sneer which he hardly took the pains to suppress. "Psha--who comes +here?--all Parnassus is abroad to-night: here's Archer. We shall have +some fun. Well, Archer, House up?" + +"Haven't been there. I have been," said Archer, with an air of mystery, +"where I was wanted. Get me some supper, John--something substantial. I +hate your grandees who give you nothing to eat. If it had been at Apsley +House, it would have been quite different. The Duke knows what I like, +and says to the Groom of the Chambers, 'Martin, you will have some cold +beef, not too much done, and a pint bottle of pale ale, and some +brown sherry, ready in my study as usual;--Archer is coming here this +evening.' The Duke doesn't eat supper himself, but he likes to see a man +enjoy a hearty meal, and he knows that I dine early. A man can't live +upon air, be hanged to him." + +"Let me introduce you to my friend, Mr. Pendennis," Warrington said, +with great gravity. "Pen, this is Mr Archer, whom you have heard me +talk about. You must know Pen's uncle, the Major, Archer, you who know +everybody?" + +"Dined with him the day before yesterday at Gaunt House," Archer said. +"We were four--the French Ambassador, Steyne, and we two commoners." + +"Why, my uncle is in Scot----" Pen was going to break out, but +Warrington pressed his foot under the table as a signal for him to be +quiet. + +"It was about the same business that I have been to the palace +to-night," Archer went on simply, "and where I've been kept four hours, +in an anteroom, with nothing but yesterday's Times, which I knew by +heart, as I wrote three of the leading articles myself; and though the +Lord Chamberlain came in four times, and once holding the royal teacup +and saucer in his hand, he did not so much as say to me, 'Archer, will +you have a cup of tea?'" + +"Indeed! what is in the wind now?" asked Warrington--and turning to Pen, +added, "You know, I suppose, that when there is anything wrong at Court +they always send for Archer." + +"There is something wrong," said Mr. Archer, "and as the story will be +all over the town in a day or two I don't mind telling it. At the last +Chantilly races, where I rode Brian Boru for my old friend the Duke de +Saint Cloud--the old King said to me, Archer, I'm uneasy about Saint +Cloud. I have arranged his marriage with the Princess Marie Cunegonde; +the peace of Europe depends upon it--for Russia will declare war if the +marriage does not take place, and the young fool is so mad about Madame +Massena, Marshal Massena's wife, that he actually refuses to be a party +to the marriage. Well, Sir, I spoke to Saint Cloud, and having got him +into pretty good humour by winning the race, and a good bit of money +into the bargain, he said to me, 'Archer, tell the Governor I'll think +of it.'" + +"How do you say Governor in French?" asked Pen, who piqued himself on +knowing that language. + +"Oh, we speak in English--I taught him when we were boys, and I saved +his life at Twickenham, when he fell out of a punt," Archer said. "I +shall never forget the Queen's looks as I brought him out of the water. +She gave me this diamond ring, and always calls me Charles to this day." + +"Madame Massena must be rather an old woman, Archer," Warrington said. + +"Dev'lish old--old enough to be his grandmother; I told him so," Archer +answered at once. "But those attachments for old women are the deuce and +all. That's what the King feels: that's what shocks the poor Queen so +much. They went away from Paris last Tuesday night, and are living at +this present moment at Jaunay's Hotel." + +"Has there been a private marriage, Archer?" asked Warrington. + +"Whether there has or not I don't know," Mr. Archer replied, "all I know +is that I was kept waiting for four hours at the palace; that I never +saw a man in such a state of agitation as the King of Belgium when he +came out to speak to me, and that I'm devilish hungry--and here comes +some supper." + +"He has been pretty well to-night," said Warrington, as the pair went +home together: "but I have known him in much greater force, and keeping +a whole room in a state of wonder. Put aside his archery practice, +that man is both able and honest--a good man of business, an excellent +friend, admirable to his family as husband, father, and son." + +"What is it makes him pull the long bow in that wonderful manner?" + +"An amiable insanity," answered Warrington. "He never did anybody harm +by his talk, or said evil of anybody. He is a stout politician too, and +would never write a word or do an act against his party, as many of us +do." + +"Of us! Who are we?" asked Pen. "Of what profession is Mr. Archer?" + +"Of the Corporation of the Goosequill--of the Press, my boy," said +Warrington; "of the fourth estate." + +"Are you, too, of the craft, then?" Pendennis said. + +"We will talk about that another time," answered the other. They were +passing through the Strand as they talked, and by a newspaper office, +which was all lighted up and bright. Reporters were coming out of the +place, or rushing up to it in cabs; there were lamps burning in the +editors' rooms, and above where the compositors were at work: the +windows of the building were in a blaze of gas. + +"Look at that, Pen," Warrington said. "There she is--the great +engine--she never sleeps. She has her ambassadors in every quarter of +the world--her couriers upon every road. Her officers march along +with armies, and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets. They are +ubiquitous. Yonder journal has an agent, at this minute, giving bribes +at Madrid; and another inspecting the price of potatoes in Covent +Garden. Look! here comes the Foreign Express galloping in. They will be +able to give news to Downing Street to-morrow: funds will rise or fall, +fortunes be made or lost; Lord B. will get up, and, holding the paper in +his hand, and seeing the noble marquis in his place, will make a great +speech; and--and Mr. Doolan will be called away from his supper at the +Back Kitchen; for he is foreign sub-editor, and sees the mail on the +newspaper sheet before he goes to his own." + +And so talking, the friends turned into their chambers, as the dawn was +beginning to peep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. In which the Printer's Devil comes to the Door + + +Pen, in the midst of his revels and enjoyments, humble as they were, +and moderate in cost if not in kind, saw an awful sword hanging over +him which must drop down before long and put an end to his frolics and +feasting. His money was very nearly spent. His club subscription had +carried away a third part of it. He had paid for the chief articles of +furniture with which he had supplied his little bedroom: in fine, he was +come to the last five-pound note in his pocket-book, and could think of +no method of providing a successor: for our friend had been bred up like +a young prince as yet, or as a child in arms whom his mother feeds when +it cries out. + +Warrington did not know what his comrade's means were. An only child, +with a mother at her country house, and an old dandy of an uncle who +dined with a great man every day, Pen might have a large bank at his +command for anything that the other knew. He had gold chains and +a dressing-case fit for a lord. His habits were those of an +aristocrat,--not that he was expensive upon any particular point, for he +dined and laughed over the pint of porter and the plate of beef from the +cook's shop with perfect content and good appetite,--but he could not +adopt the penny-wise precautions of life. He could not give twopence to +a waiter; he could not refrain from taking a cab if he had a mind to do +so, or if it rained, and as surely as he took the cab he overpaid the +driver. He had a scorn for cleaned gloves and minor economies. Had +he been bred to ten thousand a year he could scarcely have been more +free-handed; and for a beggar, with a sad story, or a couple of pretty +piteous-faced children, he never could resist putting his hand into his +pocket. It was a sumptuous nature, perhaps, that could not be brought +to regard money; a natural generosity and kindness; and possibly a petty +vanity that was pleased with praise, even with the praise of waiters and +cabmen. I doubt whether the wisest of us know what our own motives are, +and whether some of the actions of which we are the very proudest +will not surprise us when we trace them, as we shall one day, to their +source. + +Warrington then did not know, and Pen had not thought proper to confide +to his friend, his pecuniary history. That Pen had been wild and +wickedly extravagant at college, the other was aware; everybody at +college was extravagant and wild; but how great the son's expenses had +been, and how small the mother's means, were points which had not been +as yet submitted to Mr. Warrington's examination. + +At last the story came out, while Pen was grimly surveying the +change for the last five-pound note, as it lay upon the tray from the +public-house by Mr. Warrington's pot of ale. + +"It is the last rose of summer," said Pen; "its blooming companions +have gone long ago; and behold the last one of the garland has shed its +leaves;" and he told Warrington the whole story which we know of his +mother's means, of his own follies, of Laura's generosity; during which +time Warrington smoked his pipe and listened intent. + +"Impecuniosity will do you good," Pen's friend said, knocking out the +ashes at the end of the narration; "I don't know anything more wholesome +for a man--for an honest man, mind you--for another, the medicine loses +its effect--than a state of tick. It is an alterative and a tonic; it +keeps your moral man in a perpetual state of excitement: as a man who +is riding at a fence, or has his opponent's single-stick before him, is +forced to look his obstacle steadily in the face, and braces himself to +repulse or overcome it; a little necessity brings out your pluck if you +have any, and nerves you to grapple with fortune. You will discover +what a number of things you can do without when you have no money to buy +them. You won't want new gloves and varnished boots, eau de Cologne +and cabs to ride in. You have been bred up as a molly-coddle, Pen, and +spoilt by the women. A single man who has health and brains, and can't +find a livelihood in the world, doesn't deserve to stay there. Let him +pay his last halfpenny and jump over Waterloo Bridge. Let him steal a +leg of mutton and be transported and get out of the country--he is not +fit to live in it. Dixi; I have spoken. Give us another pull at the pale +ale. + +"You have certainly spoken; but how is one to live?" said Pen. "There is +beef and bread in plenty in England, but you must pay for it with work +or money. And who will take my work? and what work can I do?" + +Warrington burst out laughing. "Suppose we advertise in the Times," he +said, "for an usher's place at a classical and commercial academy--A +gentleman, B.A. of St. Boniface College, and who was plucked for his +degree--" + +"Confound you," cried Pen. + +"--Wishes to give lessons in classics and mathematics, and the rudiments +of the French language; he can cut hair, attend to the younger pupils, +and play a second on the piano with the daughters of the principal. +Address A. P., Lamb Court, Temple." + +"Go on," said Pen, growling. + +"Men take to all sorts of professions. Why, there is your friend +Bloundell-Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the +Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion and fleeces +them. There is Bob O'Toole, with whom I was at school, who drives +the Ballynafad mail now, and carries honest Jack Finucane's own +correspondence to that city. I know a man, sir, a doctor's son, +like--well, don't be angry, I meant nothing offensive--a doctor's son, +I say, who was walking the hospitals here, and quarrelled with his +governor on questions of finance, and what did he do when he came to his +last five-pound note? he let his mustachios grow, went into a provincial +town, where he announced himself as Professor Spineto, chiropodist to +the Emperor of All the Russians, and by a happy operation on the editor +of the country newspaper, established himself in practice, and lived +reputably for three years. He has been reconciled to his family, and has +succeeded to his father's gallypots." + +"Hang gallypots," cried Pen. "I can't drive a coach, cut corns, or cheat +at cards. There's nothing else you propose." + +"Yes; there's our own correspondent," Warrington said. "Every man +has his secrets, look you. Before you told me the story of your +money-matters, I had no idea but that you were a gentleman of fortune, +for, with your confounded airs and appearance, anybody would suppose you +to be so. From what you tell me about your mother's income, it is clear +that you must not lay any more hands on it. You can't go on spunging +upon the women. You must pay off that trump of a girl. Laura is her +name?--here is your health, Laura!--and carry a hod rather than ask for +a shilling from home." + +"But how earn one?" asked Pen. + +"How do I live, think you?" said the other. "On my younger brother's +allowance, Pendennis? I have secrets of my own, my boy;" and here +Warrington's countenance fell. "I made away with that allowance five +years ago: if I had made away with myself a little time before, it would +have been better. I have played off my own bat, ever since. I don't want +much money. When my purse is out, I go to work and fill it, and then lie +idle like a serpent or an Indian, until I have digested the mass. Look, +I begin to feel empty," Warrington said, and showed Pen a long lean +purse, with but a few sovereigns at one end of it. + +"But how do you fill it?" said Pen. + +"I write," said Warrington. "I don't tell the world that I do so," he +added, with a blush. "I do not choose that questions should be asked: +or, perhaps, I am an ass, and don't wish it to be said that George +Warrington writes for bread. But I write in the Law Reviews: look here, +these articles are mine." And he turned over some sheets. "I write in +a newspaper now and then, of which a friend of mine is editor." And +Warrington, going with Pendennis to the club one day, called for a +file of the Dawn, and pointed with his finger silently to one or +two articles, which Pen read with delight. He had no difficulty in +recognising the style afterwards--the strong thoughts and curt periods, +the sense, the satire, and the scholarship. + +"I am not up to this," said Pen, with a genuine admiration of his +friend's powers. "I know very little about politics or history, +Warrington; and have but a smattering of letters. I can't fly upon such +a wing as yours." + +"But you can on your own, my boy, which is lighter, and soars higher, +perhaps," the other said, good-naturedly. "Those little scraps and +verses which I have seen of yours show me, what is rare in these days, +a natural gift, sir. You needn't blush, you conceited young jackanapes. +You have thought so yourself any time these ten years. You have got the +sacred flame--a little of the real poetical fire, sir, I think; and all +our oil-lamps are nothing compared to that, though ever so well trimmed. +You are a poet, Pen, my boy," and so speaking, Warrington stretched out +his broad hand, and clapped Pen on the shoulder. + +Arthur was so delighted that the tears came into his eyes. "How kind you +are to me, Warrington!" he said. + +"I like you, old boy," said the other. "I was dev'lish lonely in +chambers, and wanted somebody, and the sight of your honest face somehow +pleased me. I liked the way you laughed at Lowton--that poor good little +snob. And, in fine, the reason why I cannot tell--but so it is, young +'un. I'm alone in the world, sir; and I wanted some one to keep me +company;" and a glance of extreme kindness and melancholy passed out of +Warrington's dark eyes. + +Pen was too much pleased with his own thoughts to perceive the sadness +of the friend who was complimenting him. "Thank you, Warrington," he +said, "thank you for your friendship to me, and--and what you say about +me. I have often thought I was a poet. I will be one--I think I am one, +as you say so, though the world mayn't. Is it--is it the Ariadne in +Naxos which you liked (I was only eighteen when I wrote it), or the +Prize Poem?" + +Warrington burst into a roar of laughter. "Why, young goose," he yelled +out--"of all the miserable weak rubbish I ever tried, Ariadne in Naxos +is the most mawkish and disgusting. The Prize Poem is so pompous and +feeble, that I'm positively surprised, sir, it didn't get the medal. You +don't suppose that you are a serious poet, do you, and are going to cut +out Milton and Aeschylus? Are you setting up to be a Pindar, you absurd +little tom-tit, and fancy you have the strength and pinion which the +Theban eagle bear, sailing with supreme dominion through the azure +fields of air? No, my boy, I think you can write a magazine article, and +turn a pretty copy of verses; that's what I think of you." + +"By Jove!" said Pen, bouncing up and stamping his foot, "I'll show you +that I am a better man than you think for." + +Warrington only laughed the more, and blew twenty-four puffs rapidly out +of his pipe by way of reply to Pen. + +An opportunity for showing his skill presented itself before very +long. That eminent publisher, Mr. Bacon (formerly Bacon and Bungay) of +Paternoster Row, besides being the proprietor of the legal Review, +in which Mr. Warrington wrote, and of other periodicals of note and +gravity, used to present to the world every year a beautiful gilt volume +called the Spring Annual, edited by the Lady Violet Lebas, and numbering +amongst its contributors not only the most eminent, but the most +fashionable, poets of our time. Young Lord Dodo's poems first appeared +in this miscellany--the Honourable Percy Popjoy, whose chivalrous +ballads have obtained him such a reputation--Bedwin Sands's Eastern +Ghazuls, and many more of the works of our young nobles, were fast given +to the world in the Spring Annual, which has since shared the fate +of other vernal blossoms, and perished out of the world. The book was +daintily illustrated with pictures of reigning beauties, or other prints +of a tender and voluptuous character; and, as these plates were prepared +long beforehand, requiring much time in engraving, it was the eminent +poets who had to write to the plates, and not the painters who +illustrated the poems. + +One day, just when this volume was on the eve of publication, it chanced +that Mr. Warrington called in Paternoster Row to talk with Mr. Hack, Mr. +Bacon's reader and general manager of publications--for Mr. Bacon, not +having the least taste in poetry or in literature of any kind, wisely +employed the services of a professional gentleman. Warrington, then, +going into Mr. Hack's room on business of his own, found that gentleman +with a bundle of proof plates and sheets of the Spring Annual before +him, and glanced at some of them. + +Percy Popjoy had written some verses to illustrate one of the pictures, +which was called The Church Porch. A Spanish damsel was hastening to +church with a large prayer-book; a youth in a cloak was hidden in a +niche watching this young woman. The picture was pretty: but the great +genius of Percy Popjoy had deserted him, for he had made the most +execrable verses which ever were perpetrated by a young nobleman. + +Warrington burst out laughing as he read the poem: and Mr. Hack laughed +too but with rather a rueful face.--"It won't do," he said, "the public +won't stand it. Bungay's people are going to bring out a very good book, +and have set up Miss Bunyan against Lady Violet. We have most titles to +be sure--but the verses are too bad. Lady Violet herself owns it; she's +busy with her own poem; what's to be done? We can't lose the plate. The +governor gave sixty pounds for it." + +"I know a fellow who would do some verses, I think," said Warrington. +"Let me take the plate home in my pocket: and send to my chambers in the +morning for the verses. You'll pay well, of course." + +"Of course," said Mr. Hack; and Warrington, having despatched his own +business, went home to Mr. Pen, plate in hand. + +"Now, boy, here's a chance for you. Turn me off a copy of verses to +this." + +"What's this? A Church Porch--A lady entering it, and a youth out of a +wine-shop window ogling her.--What the deuce am I to do with it?" + +"Try," said Warrington. "Earn your livelihood for once, you who long so +to do it." + +"Well, I will try," said Pen. + +"And I'll go out to dinner," said Warrington, and left Mr. Pen in a +brown study. + +When Warrington came home that night, at a very late hour, the verses +were done. "There they are," said Pen. "I've screwed 'em out at last. I +think they'll do." + +"I think, they will," said Warrington, after reading them; they ran as +follows:-- + + + The Church Porch + + Although I enter not, + Yet round about the spot + Sometimes I hover, + And at the sacred gate, + With longing eyes I wait, + Expectant of her. + + The Minster bell tolls out + Above the city's rout + And noise and humming + They've stopp'd the chiming bell, + I hear the organ's swell + She's coming, she's coming! + + My lady comes at last, + Timid and stepping fast, + And hastening hither, + With modest eyes downcast. + She comes--she's here--she's past. + May Heaven go with her! + + Kneel undisturb'd, fair saint, + Pour out your praise or plaint + Meekly and duly. + I will not enter there, + To sully your pure prayer + With thoughts unruly. + + But suffer me to pace + Round the forbidden place, + Lingering a minute, + Like outcast spirits, who wait + And see through Heaven's gate + Angels within it. + +"Have you got any more, young fellow?" asked Warrington. "We must make +them give you a couple of guineas a page; and if the verses are liked, +why, you'll get an entree into Bacon's magazines, and may turn a decent +penny." + +Pen examined his portfolio and found another ballad which he thought +might figure with advantage in the Spring Annual, and consigning these +two precious documents to Warrington, the pair walked from the Temple +to the famous haunt of the Muses and their masters, Paternoster Row. +Bacon's shop was an ancient low-browed building, with a few of the books +published by the firm displayed in the windows, under a bust of my Lord +of Verulam, and the name of Mr. Bacon in brass on the private door. +Exactly opposite to Bacon's house was that of Mr. Bungay, which was +newly painted and elaborately decorated in the style of the seventeenth +century, so that you might have fancied stately Mr. Evelyn passing over +the threshold, or curious Mr. Pepys examining the books in the window. +Warrington went into the shop of Mr. Bacon, but Pen stayed without. +It was agreed that his ambassador should act for him entirely; and the +young fellow paced up and down the street in a very nervous condition, +until he should learn the result of the negotiation. Many a poor devil +before him has trodden those flags, with similar cares and anxieties +at his heels, his bread and his fame dependent upon the sentence of his +magnanimous patrons of the Row. Pen looked at all the wonders of all the +shops, and the strange variety of literature which they exhibit. In this +were displayed black-letter volumes and books in the clear pale types +of Aldus and Elzevir: in the next, you might see the Penny Horrific +Register; the Halfpenny Annals of Crime and History of the most +celebrated murderers of all countries, The Raff's Magazine, The Larky +Swell, and other publications of the penny press; whilst at the next +window, portraits of ill-favoured individuals, with fac-similes of the +venerated signatures of the Reverend Grimes Wapshot, the Reverend Elias +Howle, and the works written and the sermons preached by them, showed +the British Dissenter where he could find mental pabulum. Hard by would +be a little casement hung with emblems, with medals and rosaries +with little paltry prints of saints gilt and painted, and books of +controversial theology, by which the faithful of the Roman opinion +might learn a short way to deal with Protestants, at a penny apiece, or +ninepence the dozen for distribution; whilst in the very next window you +might see 'Come out of Rome,' a sermon preached at the opening of the +Shepherd's Bush College, by John Thomas Lord Bishop of Ealing. Scarce +an opinion but has its expositor and its place of exhibition in this +peaceful old Paternoster Row, under the toll of the bells of Saint Paul. + +Pen looked in at all the windows and shops, as a gentleman who is +going to have an interview with the dentist examines the books on the +waiting-room table. He remembered them afterwards. It seemed to him that +Warrington would never come out; and indeed the latter was engaged for +some time in pleading his friend's cause. + +Pen's natural conceit would have swollen immensely if he could but have +heard the report which Warrington gave of him. It happened that +Mr. Bacon himself had occasion to descend to Mr. Hack's room whilst +Warrington was talking there, and Warrington, knowing Bacon's +weaknesses, acted upon them with great adroitness in his friend's +behalf. In the first place, he put on his hat to speak to Bacon, and +addressed him from the table on which he seated himself. Bacon liked to +be treated with rudeness by a gentleman, and used to pass it on to his +inferiors as boys pass the mark. "What! not know Mr. Pendennis, Mr. +Bacon?" Warrington said. "You can't live much in the world, or you would +know him. A man of property in the West, of one of the most ancient +families in England, related to half the nobility in the empire--he's +cousin to Lord Pontypool--he was one of the most distinguished men at +Oxbridge; he dines at Gaunt House every week." + +"Law bless me, you don't say so, sir. Well--really--Law bless me now," +said Mr. Bacon. + +"I have just been showing Mr. Hack some of his verses, which he sat up +last night, at my request, to write; and Hack talks about giving him a +copy of the book--the what-d'-you-call-'em." + +"Law bless me now, does he? The what-d'-you-call-'em. Indeed!" + +"'The Spring Annual' is its name,--as payment for those verses. You +don't suppose that such a man as Mr. Arthur Pendennis gives up a dinner +at Gaunt House for nothing? You know as well as anybody, that the men of +fashion want to be paid." + +"That they do, Mr. Warrington, sir," said the publisher. + +"I tell you he's a star; he'll make a name, sir. He's a new man, sir." + +"They've said that of so many of those young swells, Mr. Warrington," +the publisher interposed, with a sigh. "There was Lord Viscount Dodo, +now; I gave his Lordship a good bit of money for his poems, and only +sold eighty copies. Mr. Popjoy's Hadgincourt, sir, fell dead." + +"Well, then, I'll take my man over to Bungay," Warrington said, and +rose from the table. This threat was too much for Mr. Bacon, who +was instantly ready to accede to any reasonable proposal of Mr. +Warrington's, and finally asked his manager what those proposals were? +When he heard that the negotiation only related as yet to a couple of +ballads, which Mr. Warrington offered for the Spring Annual, Mr. Bacon +said, "Law bless you, give him a check directly;" and with this paper +Warrington went out to his friend, and placed it, grinning, in Pen's +hands. Pen was as elated as if somebody had left him a fortune. He +offered Warrington a dinner at Richmond instantly. "What should he go +and buy for Laura and his mother? He must buy something for them." + +"They'll like the book better than anything else," said Warrington, +"with the young one's name to the verses, printed among the swells." + +"Thank God! thank God!" cried Arthur, "I needn't be a charge upon the +old mother. I can pay off Laura now. I can get my own living. I can make +my own way." + +"I can marry the grand vizier's daughter: I can purchase a house in +Belgrave Square; I can build a fine castle in the air!" said Warrington, +pleased with the other's exultation. "Well, you may get bread and +cheese, Pen: and I own it tastes well, the bread which you earn +yourself." + +They had a magnum of claret at dinner at the club that day, at Pen's +charges. It was long since he had indulged in such a luxury, but +Warrington would not baulk him: and they drank together to the health of +the Spring Annual. + +It never rains but it pours, according to the proverb; so very speedily +another chance occurred, by which Mr. Pen was to be helped in his scheme +of making a livelihood. Warrington one day threw him a letter across +the table, which was brought by a printer's boy, "from Captain Shandon, +sir"--the little emissary said: and then went and fell asleep on his +accustomed bench in the passage. He paid many a subsequent visit there, +and brought many a message to Pen. + +F. P. Tuesday Morning. + +"MY DEAR SIR,--Bungay will be here to-day, about the Pall Mall +Gazette. You would be the very man to help us with a genuine West-end +article,--you understand--dashing, trenchant, and d---- aristocratic. +Lady Hipshaw will write; but she's not much you know, and we've two +lords; but the less they do the better. We must have you. We'll give you +your own terms, and we'll make a hit with the Gazette. + +"Shall B. come and see you, or can you look in upon me here?--Ever +yours, + +"C. S." + + +"Some more opposition," Warrington said, when Pen had read the note. +"Bungay and Bacon are at daggers drawn; each married the sister of the +other, and they were for some time the closest friends and partners. +Hack says it was Mrs. Bungay who caused all the mischief between the +two; whereas Shandon, who reads for Bungay a good deal, says Mrs. Bacon +did the business; but I don't know which is right, Peachum or Lockit. +But since they have separated, it is a furious war between the two +publishers; and no sooner does one bring out a book of travels, or +poems, a magazine or periodical, quarterly, or monthly, or weekly, or +annual, but the rival is in the field with something similar. I have +heard poor Shandon tell with great glee how he made Bungay give a grand +dinner at Blackwall to all his writers, by saying that Bacon had invited +his corps to an entertainment at Greenwich. When Bungay engaged your +celebrated friend Mr. Wagg to edit the 'Londoner,' Bacon straightway +rushed off and secured Mr. Grindle to give his name to the 'Westminster +Magazine.' When Bacon brought out his comic Irish novel of 'Barney +Brallaghan,' off went Bungay to Dublin, and produced his rollicking +Hibernian story of 'Looney MacTwolter.' When Doctor Hicks brought out +his 'Wanderings in Mesopotamia' under Bacon's auspices, Bungay produced +Professor Sandiman's 'Researches in Zahara;' and Bungay is publishing +his 'Pall Mall Gazette' as a counterpoise to Bacon's 'Whitehall Review.' +Let us go and hear about the 'Gazette.' There may be a place for you in +it, Pen, my boy. We will go and see Shandon. We are sure to find him at +home." + +"Where does he live?" asked Pen. + +"In the Fleet Prison," Warrington said. "And very much at home he is +there, too. He is the king of the place." + +Pen had never seen this scene of London life, and walked with no small +interest in at the grim gate of that dismal edifice. They went through +the anteroom, where the officers and janitors of the place were seated, +and passing in at the wicket, entered the prison. The noise and the +crowd, the life and the shouting, the shabby bustle of the place, struck +and excited Pen. People moved about ceaselessly and restless, like caged +animals in a menagerie. Men were playing at fives. Others pacing and +tramping: this one in colloquy with his lawyer in dingy black--that one +walking sadly, with his wife by his side, and a child on his arm. +Some were arrayed in tattered dressing-gowns, and had a look of rakish +fashion. Everybody seemed to be busy, humming, and on the move. Pen felt +as if he choked in the place, and as if the door being locked upon him +they never would let him out. + +They went through a court up a stone staircase, and through passages +full of people, and noise, and cross lights, and black doors clapping +and banging;--Pen feeling as one does in a feverish morning dream. At +last the same little runner who had brought Shandon's note, and had +followed them down Fleet Street munching apples, and who showed the way +to the two gentlemen through the prison, said, "This is the Captain's +door," and Mr. Shandon's voice from within bade them enter. + +The room, though bare, was not uncheerful. The sun was shining in at the +window--near which sate a lady at work, who had been gay and beautiful +once, but in whose faded face kindness and tenderness still beamed. +Through all his errors and reckless mishaps and misfortunes, this +faithful creature adored her husband, and thought him the best and +cleverest, as indeed he was one of the kindest of men. Nothing ever +seemed to disturb the sweetness of his temper; not debts: not duns: +not misery: not the bottle, not his wife's unhappy position, or his +children's ruined chances. He was perfectly fond of wife and children +after his fashion: he always had the kindest words and smiles for them, +and ruined them with the utmost sweetness of temper. He never could +refuse himself or any man any enjoyment which his money could purchase; +he would share his last guinea with Jack and Tom, and we may be sure he +had a score of such retainers. He would sign his name at the back of +any man's bill, and never pay any debt of his own. He would write on any +side, and attack himself or another man with equal indifference. He +was one of the wittiest, the most amiable, and the most incorrigible of +Irishmen. Nobody could help liking Charley Shandon who saw him once, and +those whom he ruined could scarcely be angry with him. + +When Pen and Warrington arrived, the Captain (he had been in an Irish +militia regiment once, and the title remained with him) was sitting on +his bed in a torn dressing-gown, with a desk on his knees, at which he +was scribbling as fast as his rapid pen could write. Slip after slip of +paper fell off the desk wet on to the ground. A picture of his children +was hung up over his bed, and the youngest of them was pattering about +the room. + +Opposite the Captain sate Mr. Bungay, a portly man of stolid +countenance, with whom the little child had been trying a conversation. + +"Papa's a very clever man," said she; "mamma says so." + +"Oh, very," said Mr. Bungay. + +"And you're a very rich man, Mr. Bundy," cried the child, who could +hardly speak plain. + +"Mary!" said Mamma, from her work. + +"Oh, never mind," Bungay roared out with a great laugh; "no harm in +saying I'm rich--he, he--I am pretty well off, my little dear." + +"If you're rich, why don't you take papa out of piz'n?" asked the child. + +Mamma at this began to wipe her eyes with the work on which she was +employed. (The poor lady had hung curtains up in the room, had brought +the children's picture and placed it there, and had made one or two +attempts to ornament it.) Mamma began to cry; Mr. Bungay turned red, and +looked fiercely out of his bloodshot little eyes; Shandon's pen went on, +and Pen and Warrington arrived with their knock. + +Captain Shandon looked up from his work. "How do you do, Mr. +Warrington," he said. "I'll speak to you in a minute. Please sit down, +gentlemen, if you can find places," and away went the pen again. + +Warrington pulled forward an old portmanteau--the only available +seat--and sate down on it, with a bow to Mrs. Shandon and a nod to +Bungay: the child came and looked at Pen solemnly and in a couple of +minutes the swift scribbling ceased; and Shandon, turning the desk over +on the bed, stooped and picked up the papers. + +"I think this will do," said he. "It's the prospectus for the Pall Mall +Gazette." + +"And here's the money for it," Mr. Bungay said, laying down a five-pound +note. "I'm as good as my word, I am. When I say I'll pay, I pay." + +"Faith that's more than some of us can say," said Shandon, and he +eagerly clapped the note into his pocket. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. Which is passed in the Neighbourhood of Ludgate Hill + + +Our imprisoned Captain announced, in smart and emphatic language in his +prospectus, that the time had come at last when it was necessary for the +gentlemen of England to band together in defence of their common rights +and their glorious order, menaced on all sides by foreign revolutions, +by intestine radicalism, by the artful calumnies of mill-owners and +cotton-lords, and the stupid hostility of the masses whom they gulled +and led. "The ancient monarchy was insulted," the Captain said, "by a +ferocious republican rabble. The Church was deserted by envious dissent, +and undermined by stealthy infidelity. The good institutions, which +had made our country glorious, and the name of English Gentleman the +proudest in the world, were left without defence, and exposed to +assault and contumely from men to whom no sanctuary was sacred, for +they believed in nothing holy; no history venerable, for they were too +ignorant to have heard of the past; and no law was binding which they +were strong enough to break, when their leaders gave the signal for +plunder. It was because the kings of France mistrusted their gentlemen," +Mr. Shandon remarked, "that the monarchy of Saint Louis went down: it +was because the people of England still believed in their gentlemen, +that this country encountered and overcame the greatest enemy a nation +ever met: it was because we were headed by gentlemen, that the Eagles +retreated before us from the Donro to the Garonne: it was a gentleman +who broke the line at Trafalgar, and swept the plain of Waterloo." + +Bungay nodded his head in a knowing manner, and winked his eyes when the +Captain came to the Waterloo passage: and Warrington burst out laughing. + +"You see how our venerable friend Bungay is affected," Shandon said, +slily looking up from his papers--"that's your true sort of test. I have +used the Duke of Wellington and the battle of Waterloo a hundred times, +and I never knew the Duke to fail." + +The Captain then went on to confess, with much candour, that up to the +present time the gentlemen of England, confident of their right, and +careless of those who questioned it, had left the political interest +of their order as they did the management of their estates, or the +settlement of their legal affairs, to persons affected to each peculiar +service, and had permitted their interests to be represented in +the press by professional proctors and advocates. That time Shandon +professed to consider was now gone by: the gentlemen of England must +be their own champions: the declared enemies of their order were brave, +strong, numerous, and uncompromising. They must meet their foes in the +field: they must not be belied and misrepresented by hireling advocates: +they must not have Grub Street publishing Gazettes from Whitehall; +"that's a dig at Bacon's people, Mr. Bungay," said Shandon, turning +round to the publisher. Bungay clapped his stick on the floor. "Hang +him, pitch into him, Capting," he said with exultation: and turning to +Warrington, wagged his dull head more vehemently than ever, and said, +"For a slashing article, sir, there's nobody like the Capting--no-obody +like him." + +The prospectus-writer went on to say that some gentlemen, whose names +were, for obvious reasons, not brought before the public (at which Mr. +Warrington began to laugh again), had determined to bring forward a +journal, of which the principles were so-and-so. "These men are proud +of their order, and anxious to uphold it," cried out Captain Shandon, +flourishing his paper with a grin. "They are loyal to their Sovereign, +by faithful conviction and ancestral allegiance; they love their Church, +where they would have their children worship, and for which their +forefathers bled; they love their country, and would keep it what the +gentlemen of England--yes, the gentlemen of England (we'll have that in +large caps, Bungay, my boy) have made it--the greatest and freest in the +world: and as the names of some of them are appended to the deed which +secured our liberties at Runnymede--" + +"What's that?" asked Mr. Bungay. + +"An ancestor of mine sealed it with his sword-hilt," Pen said, with +great gravity. + +"It's the Habeas Corpus, Mr. Bungay," Warrington said, on which the +publisher answered, "All right, I dare say," and yawned, though he said, +"Go on, Capting." + +"--at Runnymede; they are ready to defend that freedom to-day with sword +and pen, and now, as then, to rally round the old laws and liberties of +England." + +"Bravo!" cried Warrington. The little child stood wondering; the lady +was working silently, and looking with fond admiration. "Come here, +little Mary," said Warrington, and patted the child's fair curls with +his large hand. But she shrank back from his rough caress, and preferred +to go and take refuge at Pen's knee, and play with his fine watch-chain: +and Pen was very much pleased that she came to him; for he was very +soft-hearted and simple, though he concealed his gentleness under a shy +and pompous demeanour. So she clambered up on his lap, whilst her father +continued to read his programme. + +"You were laughing," the Captain said to Warrington, "about 'the +obvious reasons' which I mentioned. Now, I'll show ye what they are, ye +unbelieving heathen. 'We have said,'" he went on, "'that we cannot give +the names of the parties engaged in this undertaking, and that there +were obvious reasons for that concealment. We number influential +friends in both Houses of the Senate, and have secured allies in every +diplomatic circle in Europe. Our sources of intelligence are such as +cannot, by any possibility, be made public--and, indeed, such as no +other London or European journal could, by any chance, acquire. But this +we are free to say, that the very earliest information connected with +the movement of English and Continental politics will be found only in +the columns of the Pall Mall Gazette, The Statesman and the Capitalist, +the Country Gentleman and the Divine, will be amongst our readers, +because our writers are amongst them. We address ourselves to the higher +circles of society: we care not to disown it--the Pall Mall Gazette is +written by gentlemen for gentlemen; its conductors speak to the classes +in which they live and were born. The field-preacher has his journal, +the radical free-thinker has his journal: why should the Gentlemen of +England be unrepresented in the Press?'" + +Mr. Shandon then went on with much modesty to descant upon the literary +and fashionable departments of the Pall Mall Gazette, which were to be +conducted by gentlemen of acknowledged reputation; men famous at the +Universities (at which Mr Pendennis could scarcely help laughing and +blushing), known at the Clubs, and of the Society which they described. +He pointed out delicately to advertisers that there would be no such +medium as the Pall Mall Gazette for giving publicity to their sales; +and he eloquently called upon the nobility of England, the baronetage of +England, the revered clergy of England, the bar of England, the matrons, +the daughters, the homes and hearths of England, to rally round the good +old cause; and Bungay at the conclusion of the reading woke up from a +second snooze in which he had indulged himself, and again said it was +all right. + +The reading of the prospectus concluded, the gentlemen present entered +into some details regarding the political and literary management of the +paper, and Mr. Bungay sate by listening and nodding his head, as if he +understood what was the subject of their conversation, and approved +of their opinions. Bungay's opinions, in truth, were pretty simple. He +thought the Captain could write the best smashing article in England. +He wanted the opposition house of Bacon smashed, and it was his opinion +that the Captain could do that business. If the Captain had written a +letter of Junius on a sheet of paper, or copied a part of the Church +Catechism, Mr. Bungay would have been perfectly contented, and have +considered that the article was a smashing article. And he pocketed the +papers with the greatest satisfaction: and he not only paid for the MS., +as we have seen, but he called little Mary to him, and gave her a penny +as he went away. + +The reading of the manuscript over, the party engaged in general +conversation, Shandon leading with a jaunty fashionable air in +compliment to the two guests who sate with him and, and who, by their +appearance and manner, he presumed to be persons of the beau monde. He +knew very little indeed of the great world, but he had seen it, and made +the most of what he had seen. He spoke of the characters of the day, +and great personages of the fashion, with easy familiarity and jocular +allusions, as if it had been his habit to live amongst them. He told +anecdotes of their private life, and of conversations he had had, and +entertainments at which he had been present, and at which such and +such a thing occurred. Pen was amused to hear the shabby prisoner in a +tattered dressing-gown talking glibly about the great of the land. Mrs. +Shandon was always delighted when her husband told these tales, and +believed in them fondly every one. She did not want to mingle in the +fashionable world herself, she was not clever enough; but the great +Society was the very place for her Charles: he shone in it: he was +respected in it. Indeed, Shandon had once been asked to dinner by the +Earl of X; his wife treasured the invitation-card in her workbox at that +very day. + +Mr. Bungay presently had enough of this talk and got up to take leave, +whereupon Warrington and Pen rose to depart with the publisher, though +the latter would have liked to stay to make a further acquaintance with +this family, who interested him and touched him. He said something about +hoping for permission to repeat his visit, upon which Shandon, with +a rueful grin, said he was always to be found at home, and should be +delighted to see Mr. Pennington. + +"I'll see you to my park-gate, gentlemen," said Captain Shandon, seizing +his hat, in spite of a deprecatory look and a faint cry of "Charles" +from Mrs. Shandon. And the Captain, in shabby slippers, shuffled out +before his guests, leading the way through the dismal passages of the +prison. His hand was already fiddling with his waistcoat pocket, where +Bungay's five-pound note was, as he took leave of the three gentlemen +at the wicket; one of them, Mr. Arthur Pendennis, being greatly relieved +when he was out of the horrid place, and again freely treading the flags +of Farringdon Street. + +Mrs. Shandon sadly went on with her work at the window looking into the +court. She saw Shandon with a couple of men at his heels run rapidly +in the direction of the prison tavern. She had hoped to have had him to +dinner herself that day: there was a piece of meat, and some salad in +a basin, on the ledge outside of the window of their room which she had +expected that she and little Mary were to share with the child's father. +But there was no chance of that now. He would be in that tavern until +the hours for closing it; then he would go and play at cards or drink in +some other man's room and come back silent, with glazed eyes, reeling a +little on his walk, that his wife might nurse him. Oh, what varieties of +pain do we not make our women suffer! + +So Mrs. Shandon went to the cupboard, and, in lieu of a dinner, made +herself some tea. And in those varieties of pain of which we spoke anon, +what a part of confidante has that poor tea-pot played ever since the +kindly plant was introduced among us! What myriads of women have cried +over it, to be sure! What sick-beds it has smoked by! What fevered lips +have received refreshment from out of it! Nature meant very gently by +women when she made that tea-plant; and with a little thought what a +series of pictures and groups the fancy may conjure up and assemble +round the tea-pot and cup! Melissa and Sacharissa are talking +love-secrets over it. Poor Polly has it and her lover's letters upon +the table; his letters who was her lover yesterday, and when it was with +pleasure, not despair, she wept over them. Mary tripping noiselessly +comes into her mother's bedroom, bearing a cup of the consoler to the +widow who will take no other food, Ruth is busy concocting it for her +husband, who is coming home from the harvest-field--one could fill a +page with hints for such pictures;--finally, Mrs. Shandon and little +Mary sit down and drink their tea together, while the Captain goes out +and takes his pleasure. She cares for nothing else but that, when her +husband is away. + +A gentleman with whom we are already slightly acquainted, Mr. Jack +Finucane, a townsman of Captain Shandon's, found the Captain's wife and +little Mary (for whom Jack always brought a sweetmeat in his pocket) +over this meal. Jack thought Shandon the greatest of created geniuses, +had had one or two helps from the good-natured prodigal, who had always +a kind word, and sometimes a guinea for any friend in need; and never +missed a day in seeing his patron. He was ready to run Shandon's errands +and transact his money-business with publishers and newspaper editors, +duns, creditors, holders of Shandon's acceptances, gentlemen disposed +to speculate in those securities, and to transact the thousand little +affairs of an embarrassed Irish gentleman. I never knew an embarrassed +Irish gentleman yet, but he had an aide-de-camp of his own nation, +likewise in circumstances of pecuniary discomfort. That aide-de-camp +has subordinates of his own, who again may have other insolvent +dependents--all through his life our Captain marched at the head of a +ragged staff, who shared in the rough fortunes of their chieftain. + +"He won't have that five-pound note very long, I bet a guinea," Mr. +Bungay said of the Captain, as he and his two companions walked away +from the prison; and the publisher judged rightly, for when Mrs. +Shandon came to empty her husband's pockets, she found but a couple of +shillings, and a few halfpence out of the morning's remittance. Shandon +had given a pound to one follower; had sent a leg of mutton and potatoes +and beer to an acquaintance in the poor side of the prison; had paid an +outstanding bill at the tavern where he had changed his five-pound +note; had had a dinner with two friends there, to whom he lost sundry +half-crowns at cards afterwards; so that the night left him as poor as +the morning had found him. + +The publisher and the two gentlemen had had some talk together after +quitting Shandon, and Warrington reiterated to Bungay what he had said +to his rival, Bacon, viz., that Pen was a high fellow, of great genius, +and what was more, well with the great world, and related to "no end" +of the peerage. Bungay replied that he should be happy to have dealings +with Mr. Pendennis, and hoped to have the pleasure of seeing both gents +to cut mutton with him before long, and so, with mutual politeness and +protestations, they parted. + +"It is hard to see such a man as Shandon," Pen said, musing, and talking +that night over the sight which he had witnessed, "of accomplishments so +multifarious, and of such an undoubted talent and humour, an inmate of +a gaol for half his time, and a bookseller's hanger-on when out of +prison." + +"I am a bookseller's hanger-on--you are going to try your paces as a +hack," Warrington said with a laugh. "We are all hacks upon some road or +other. I would rather be myself, than Paley our neighbour in chambers: +who has as much enjoyment of his life as a mole. A deuced deal of +undeserved compassion has been thrown away upon what you call your +bookseller's drudge." + +"Much solitary pipes and ale make a cynic of you," said Pen "You are a +Diogenes by a beer-barrel, Warrington. No man shall tell me that a +man of genius, as Shandon is, ought to be driven by such a vulgar +slave-driver, as yonder Mr. Bungay, whom we have just left, who fattens +on the profits of the other's brains, and enriches himself out of his +journeyman's labour. It makes me indignant to see a gentleman the serf +of such a creature as that, of a man who can't speak the language that +he lives by, who is not fit to black Shandon's boots." + +"So you have begun already to gird at the publishers, and to take your +side amongst our order. Bravo, Pen, my be boy!" Warrington answered, +laughing still. "What have you got to say against Bungay's relations +with Shandon? Was it the publisher, think you, who sent the author to +prison? Is it Bungay who is tippling away the five-pound note which we +saw just now, or Shandon?" + +"Misfortune drives a man into bad company," Pen said. "It is easy to cry +'Fie!' against a poor fellow who has no society but such as he finds in +a prison; and no resource except forgetfulness and the bottle. We must +deal kindly with the eccentricities of genius, and remember that +the very ardour and enthusiasm of temperament which makes the author +delightful often leads the man astray." + +"A fiddlestick about men of genius!" Warrington cried out, who was +a very severe moralist upon some points, though possibly a very bad +practitioner. "I deny that there are so many geniuses as people who +whimper about the fate of men of letters assert there are. There are +thousands of clever fellows in the world who could, if they would, turn +verses, write articles, read books, and deliver a judgment upon +them; the talk of professional critics and writers is not a whit more +brilliant, or profound, or amusing, than that of any other society of +educated people. If a lawyer, or a soldier, or a parson, outruns his +income, and does not pay his bills, he must go to gaol; and an author +must go, too. If an author fuddles himself, I don't know why he should +be let off a headache the next morning,--if he orders a coat from the +tailor's, why he shouldn't pay for it." + +"I would give him more money to buy coats," said Pen, smiling. "I suppose +I should like to belong to a well-dressed profession. I protest against +that wretch of a middle-man whom I see between Genius and his great +landlord, the Public, and who stops more than half of the labourer's +earnings and fame." + +"I am a prose labourer," Warrington said; "you, my boy, are a poet in a +small way, and so, I suppose, consider you are authorised to be flighty. +What is it you want? Do you want a body of capitalists that shall be +forced to purchase the works of all authors, who may present themselves, +manuscript in hand? Everybody who writes his epic, every driveller who +can or can't spell, and produces his novel or his tragedy,--are they +all to come and find a bag of sovereigns in exchange for their worthless +reams of paper? Who is to settle what is good or bad, saleable or +otherwise? Will you give the buyer leave, in fine, to purchase or not? +Why, sir, when Johnson sate behind the screen at Saint John's Gate, and +took his dinner apart, because he was too shabby and poor to join the +literary bigwigs who were regaling themselves, round Mr. Cave's best +table-cloth, the tradesman was doing him no wrong. You couldn't force +the publisher to recognise the man of genius in the young man who +presented himself before him, ragged, gaunt, and hungry. Rags are not +a proof of genius; whereas capital is absolute, as times go, and is +perforce the bargain-master. It has a right to deal with the literary +inventor as with any other;--if I produce a novelty in the book trade, +I must do the best I can with it; but I can no more force Mr. Murray to +purchase my book of travels or sermons, than I can compel Mr. Tattersall +to give me a hundred guineas for my horse. I may have my own ideas of +the value of my Pegasus, and think him the most wonderful of animals; +but the dealer has a right to his opinion, too, and may want a lady's +horse, or a cob for a heavy timid rider, or a sound hack for the road, +and my beast won't suit him." + +"You deal in metaphors, Warrington," Pen said; "but you rightly say +that you are very prosaic. Poor Shandon! There is something about the +kindness of that man, and the gentleness of that sweet creature of a +wife, which touches me profoundly. I like him, I am afraid, better than +a better man." + +"And so do I," Warrington said. "Let us give him the benefit of our +sympathy, and the pity that is due to his weakness: though I fear that +sort of kindness would be resented as contempt by a more high-minded +man. You see he takes his consolation along with his misfortune, and +one generates the other or balances it, as the way of the world. He is a +prisoner, but he is not unhappy." + +"His genius sings within his prison bars," Pen said. + +"Yes," Warrington said, bitterly; "Shandon accommodates himself to a +cage pretty well. He ought to be wretched, but he has Jack and Tom to +drink with, and that consoles him: he might have a high place, but, as +he can't, why, he can drink with Tom and Jack;--he might be providing +for his wife and children, but Thomas and John have got a bottle of +brandy which they want him to taste;--he might pay poor Snip, the +tailor, the twenty pounds which the poor devil wants for his landlord, +but John and Thomas lay their hands upon his purse;--and so he drinks +whilst his tradesman goes to gaol and his family to ruin. Let us pity +the misfortunes of genius, and conspire against the publishing tyrants +who oppress men of letters." + +"What! are you going to have another glass of brandy-and-water?" Pen +said, with a humorous look. It was at the Black Kitchen that the above +philosophical conversation took place between the two young men. + +Warrington began to laugh as usual. "Video meliora proboque--I mean, +bring it me hot, with sugar, John," he said to waiter. + +"I would have some more, too, only I don't want it," said Pen. "It +does not seem to me, Warrington, that we are much better than our +neighbours." And Warrington's last glass having been despatched, the +pair returned to their chambers. + +They found a couple of notes in the letter-box, on their return, which +had been sent by their acquaintance of the morning, Mr. Bungay. That +hospitable gentleman presented his compliments to each of the gentlemen, +and requested their pleasure of company at dinner on an early day, to +meet a few literary friends. + +"We shall have a grand spread, Warrington. We shall meet all Bungay's +corps." + +"All except poor Shandon," said Pen, nodding a good-night to his friend, +and he went into his own little room. The events and acquaintances of +the day had excited him a good deal, and he lay for some time awake +thinking over them, as Warrington's vigorous and regular snore from the +neighbouring apartment pronounced that that gentleman was engaged in +deep slumber. + +Is it true, thought Pendennis, lying on his bed and gazing at a bright +moon without, that lighted up a corner of his dressing-table, and the +frame of a little sketch of Fairoaks drawn by Laura, and hung over his +drawers--is it true that I am going to earn my bread at last, and with +my pen? that I shall impoverish the dear mother no longer; and that I +may gain a name and reputation in the world, perhaps? These are welcome +if they come, thought the young visionary, laughing and blushing to +himself, though alone and in the night, as he thought how dearly he +would relish honour and fame if they could be his. If fortune favours +me, I laud her; if she frowns, I resign her. I pray Heaven I may be +honest if I fail, or if I succeed. I pray Heaven I may tell the truth +as far as I know it: that I mayn't swerve from it through flattery, or +interest, or personal enmity, or party prejudice. Dearest old mother, +what a pride will you have, if I can do anything worthy of our name +I and you, Laura, you won't scorn me as the worthless idler and +spendthrift, when you see that I--when I have achieved a--psha! what +an Alnaschar I am because I have made five pounds by my poems, and am +engaged to write half a dozen articles for a newspaper. He went on with +these musings, more happy and hopeful, and in a humbler frame of mind, +than he had felt to be for many a day. He thought over the errors and +idleness, the passions, extravagances, disappointments, of his wayward +youth: he got up from the bed: threw open the window, and looked out +into the night: and then, by some impulse, which we hope was a good one, +he went up and kissed the picture of Fairoaks, and flinging himself down +on his knees by the bed, remained for some time in that posture of hope +and submission. When he rose, it was with streaming eyes. He had found +himself repeating, mechanically, some little words which he had been +accustomed to repeat as a child at his mother's side, after the saying +of which she would softly take him to his bed and close the curtains +round him, hushing him with a benediction. + +The next day, Mr. Pidgeon, their attendant, brought in a large +brown-paper parcel, directed to G. Warrington, Esq., with Mr. Trotter's +compliments, and a note which Warrington read. + +"Pen, you beggar!" roared Warrington to Pen, who was in his own room. + +"Hullo!" sung out Pen. + +"Come here, you're wanted," cried the other, and Pen came out. + +"What is it?" said he. + +"Catch!" cried Warrington, and flung the parcel at Pen's head, who would +have been knocked down had he not caught it. + +"It's books for review for the Pall Mall Gazette: pitch into 'em," +Warrington said. As for Pen, he never had been so delighted in his life: +his hand trembled as he cut the string of the packet, and beheld within +a smart set of new neat calico-bound books--travels, and novels, and +poems. + +"Sport the oak, Pidgeon," said he. "I'm not at home to anybody to-day." +And he flung into his easy-chair, and hardly gave himself time to drink +his tea, so eager was he to begin to read and to review. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. In which the History still hovers about Fleet Street + + +Captain Shandon, urged on by his wife, who seldom meddled in business +matters, had stipulated that John Finucane, Esquire, of the Upper +Temple, should be appointed sub-editor of forthcoming Pall Mall Gazette, +and this post was accordingly conferred upon Mr. Finucane by the +spirited proprietor of the Journal. Indeed he deserved any kindness at +the hands of Shandon, so fondly attached was he, as we have said, to +the Captain and his family, and so eager to do him a service. It was in +Finucane's chambers that Shandon in former days used to hide when danger +was near and bailiffs abroad: until at length his hiding-place was +known, and the sheriff's officers came as regularly to wait for the +Captain on Finucane's staircase as at his own door. It was to Finucane's +chambers that poor Mrs. Shandon came often and often to explain her +troubles and griefs, and devise means of rescue for her adored Captain. +Many a meal did Finucane furnish for her and the child there. It was an +honour to his little rooms to be visited by such a lady; and as she went +down the staircase with her veil over her face, Fin would lean over the +balustrade looking after her, to see that no Temple Lovelace assailed +her upon the road, perhaps hoping that some rogue might be induced to +waylay her, so that he, Fin, might have the pleasure of rushing to her +rescue, and breaking the rascal's bones. It was a sincere pleasure to +Mrs. Shandon when the arrangements were made by which her kind honest +champion was appointed her husband's aide-de-camp in the newspaper. + +He would have sate with Mrs. Shandon as late as the prison hours +permitted, and had indeed many a time witnessed the putting to bed +of little Mary, who occupied a crib in the room; and to whose evening +prayers that God might bless papa, Finucane, although of the Romish +faith himself, had said Amen with a great deal of sympathy--but he had +an appointment with Mr. Bungay regarding the affairs of the paper which +they were to discuss over a quiet dinner. So he went away at six o'clock +from Mrs. Shandon, but made his accustomed appearance at the Fleet +Prison next morning, having arrayed himself in his best clothes and +ornaments, which, though cheap as to cost, were very brilliant as +to colour and appearance, and having in his pocket four pounds two +shillings, being the amount of his week's salary at the Daily Journal, +minus two shillings expended by him in the purchase of a pair of gloves +on his way to the prison. + +He had cut his mutton with Mr. Bungay, as the latter gentleman phrased +it, and Mr. Trotter, Bungay's reader and literary man of business, at +Dick's Coffee-house on the previous day, and entered at large into his +views respecting the conduct of the Pall Mall Gazette. In a masterly +manner he had pointed out what should be the sub-editorial arrangements +of the paper: what should be the type for the various articles: who +should report the markets; who the turf and ring; who the Church +intelligence; and who the fashionable chit-chat. He was acquainted with +gentlemen engaged in cultivating these various departments of knowledge, +and in communicating them afterwards to the public--in fine, Jack +Finucane was, as Shandon had said of him, and as he proudly owned +himself to be, one of the best sub-editors of a paper in London. He knew +the weekly earnings of every man connected with the Press, and was up +to a thousand dodges, or ingenious economic contrivances, by which +money could be saved to spirited capitalists, who were going to set up +a paper. He at once dazzled and mystified Mr. Bungay, who was slow of +comprehension, by the rapidity of the calculations which he exhibited +on paper, as they sate in the box. And Bungay afterwards owned to his +subordinate Mr. Trotter, that that Irishman seemed a clever fellow. + +And now having succeeded in making this impression upon Mr. Bungay, +the faithful fellow worked round to the point which he had very near at +heart, viz., the liberation from prison of his admired friend and chief, +Captain Shandon. He knew to a shilling the amount of the detainers +which were against the Captain at the porter's lodge of the Fleet; and, +indeed, professed to know all his debts, though this was impossible, +for no man in England, certainly not the Captain himself, was acquainted +with them. He pointed out what Shandon's engagements already were; and +how much better he would work if removed from confinement (though this +Mr. Bungay denied, for, "when the Captain's locked up," he said, "we are +sure to find him at home; whereas, when he's free, you can never catch +hold of him"); finally, he so worked on Mr. Bungay's feelings, by +describing Mrs. Shandon pining away in the prison, and the child +sickening there, that the publisher was induced to promise that, if Mrs. +Shandon would come to him in the morning, he would see what could be +done. And the colloquy ending at this time with the second round of +brandy-and-water, although Finucane, who had four guineas in his pocket, +would have discharged the tavern reckoning with delight, Bungay said, +"No, sir,--this is my affair, sir, if you please. James, take the bill, +and eighteenpence for yourself," and he handed over the necessary funds +to the waiter. Thus it was that Finucane, who went to bed at the Temple +after the dinner at Dick's, found himself actually with his week's +salary intact upon Saturday morning. + +He gave Mrs. Shandon a wink so knowing and joyful, that that kind +creature knew some good news was in store for her, and hastened to get +her bonnet and shawl, when Fin asked if he might have the honour of +taking her a walk, and giving her a little fresh air. And little Mary +jumped for joy at the idea of this holiday, for Finucane never neglected +to give her a toy, or to take her to a show, and brought newspaper +orders in his pocket for all sorts of London diversions to amuse the +child. Indeed, he loved them with all his heart, and would cheerfully +have dashed out his rambling brains to do them, or his adored Captain, a +service. + +"May I go, Charley? or shall I stay with you, for you're poorly, +dear, this morning? He's got a headache, Mr. Finucane. He suffers from +headaches, and I persuaded him to stay in bed," Mrs. Shandon said. + +"Go along with you, and Polly. Jack, take care of 'em. Hand me over the +Burton's Anatomy, and leave me to my abominable devices," Shandon said, +with perfect good-humour. He was writing, and not uncommonly took his +Greek and Latin quotations (of which he knew the use as a public writer) +from that wonderful repertory of learning. + +So Fin gave his arm to Mrs. Shandon, and Mary went skipping down the +passages of the prison, and through the gate into the free air. From +Fleet Street to Paternoster Row is not very far. As the three reached +Mr. Bungay's shop, Mrs. Bungay was also entering at the private door, +holding in her hand a paper parcel and a manuscript volume bound in red, +and, indeed, containing an account of her transactions with the butcher +in the neighbouring market. Mrs. Bungay was in a gorgeous shot-silk +dress, which flamed with red and purple; she wore a yellow shawl, and +had red flowers inside her bonnet, and a brilliant light blue parasol. + +Mrs. Shandon was in an old black watered silk; her bonnet had never seen +very brilliant days of prosperity any more than its owner, but she could +not help looking like a lady whatever her attire was. The two women +curtsied to each other, each according to her fashion. + +"I hope you're pretty well, mum?" said Mrs. Bungay. + +"It's a very fine day," said Mrs. Shandon. + +"Won't you step in, mum?" said Mrs. Bungay, looking so hard at the child +as almost to frighten her. + +"I--I came about business with Mr. Bungay--I--I hope he's pretty well?" +said timid Mrs. Shandon. + +"If you go to see him in the counting-house, couldn't you, couldn't you +leave your little gurl with me?" said Mrs. Bungay, in a deep voice, and +with a tragic look, as she held out one finger towards the child. + +"I want to stay with mamma," cried little Mary, burying her face in her +mother's dress. + +"Go with this lady, Mary, my dear," said the mother. + +"I'll show you some pretty pictures," said Mrs. Bungay, with the voice +of an ogress, "and some nice things besides; look here,"--and opening +her brown-paper parcel, Mrs. Bungay displayed some choice sweet +buscuits, such as her Bungay loved after his wine. Little Mary followed +after this attraction, the whole party entering at the private entrance, +from which a side door led into Mr. Bungay's commercial apartments. +Here, however, as the child was about to part from her mother, her +courage again failed her, and again she ran to the maternal petticoat; +upon which the kind and gentle Mrs. Shandon, seeing the look of +disappointment in Mrs. Bungay's face, good-naturedly said, "If you will +let me, I will come up too, and sit for a few minutes," and so the three +females ascended the stairs together. A second biscuit charmed little +Mary into perfect confidence, and in a minute or two she prattled away +without the least restraint. + +Faithful Finucane meanwhile found Mr. Bungay in a severer mood than he +had been on the night previous, when two-thirds of a bottle of port, +and two large glasses of brandy-and-water, had warmed his soul into +enthusiasm, and made him generous in his promises towards Captain +Shandon. His impetuous wife had rebuked him on his return home. She +had ordered that he should give no relief to the Captain; he was a +good-for-nothing fellow, whom no money would help; she disapproved of +the plan of the Pall Mall Gazette, and expected that Bungay would only +lose his money in it as they were losing over the way (she always called +her brother's establishment "over the way") by the Whitehall Journal. +Let Shandon stop in prison and do his work; it was the best place for +him. In vain Finucane pleaded and promised and implored, for his friend +Bungay had had an hour's lecture in the morning and was inexorable. + +But what honest Jack failed to do below-stairs in the counting-house, +the pretty faces and manners of the mother and child were effecting in +the drawing-room, where they were melting the fierce but really soft +Mrs. Bungay. There was an artless sweetness in Mrs. Shandon's voice, and +a winning frankness of manner, which made most people fond of her, +and pity her: and taking courage by the rugged kindness with which her +hostess received her, the Captain's lady told her story, and described +her husband's goodness and virtues, and her child's failing health (she +was obliged to part with two of them, she said, and send them to school, +for she could not have them in that horrid place)--that Mrs. Bungay, +though as grim as Lady Macbeth, melted under the influence of the +simple tale, and said she would go down and speak to Bungay. Now in this +household to speak was to command, with Mrs. Bungay; and with Bungay, to +hear was to obey. + +It was just when poor Finucane was in despair about his negotiation, +that the majestic Mrs. Bungay descended upon her spouse, politely +requested Mr. Finucane to step up to his friends in her drawing-room, +while she held a few minutes' conversation with Mr. B., and when +the pair were alone the publisher's better half informed him of her +intentions towards the Captain's lady. + +"What's in the wind now, my dear?" Maecenas asked, surprised at his +wife's altered tone. "You wouldn't hear of my doing anything for the +Captain this morning: I wonder what has been a changing of you. + +"The Capting is an Irishman," Mrs. Bungay replied; "and those Irish I +have always said I couldn't abide. But his wife is a lady, as any one +can see; and a good woman, and a clergyman's daughter, and a West +of England woman, B., which I am myself, by my mother's side--and, O +Marmaduke! didn't you remark the little gurl?" + +"Yes, Mrs. B., I saw the little girl." + +"And didn't you see how like she was to our angel, Bessy, Mr. B.?"--and +Mrs. Bungay's thoughts flew back to a period eighteen years back, when +Bacon and Bungay had just set up in business as small booksellers in a +country town, and when she had had a child, named Bessy, something like +the little Mary who had moved her compassion. + +"Well, well, my dear," Mr. Bungay said, seeing the little eyes of his +wife begin to twinkle and grow red; "the Captain ain't in for much. +There's only a hundred and thirty pound against him. Half the money +will take him out of the Fleet, Finucane says, and we'll pay him half +salaries till he has made the account square. When the little 'un said, +'Why don't you take Par out of prizn?' I did feel it, Flora, upon my +honour I did, now." And the upshot of this conversation was, that Mr. +and Mrs. Bungay both ascended to the drawing-room, and Mr. Bungay made +a heavy and clumsy speech, in which he announced to Mrs. Shandon, that, +hearing sixty-five pounds would set her husband free, he was ready to +advance that sum of money, deducting it from the Captain's salary, and +that he would give it to her on condition that she would personally +settle with the creditors regarding her husband's liberation. + +I think this was the happiest day that Mrs. Shandon and Mr. Finucane had +had for a long time. "Bedad, Bungay, you're a trump!" roared out Fin, +in an overpowering brogue and emotion. "Give us your fist, old boy: and +won't we send the Pall Mall Gazette up to ten thousand a week, that's +all!" and he jumped about the room, and tossed up little Mary, with a +hundred frantic antics. + +"If I could drive you anywhere in my carriage, Mrs. Shandon--I'm +sure it's quite at your service," Mrs. Bungay said, looking out at a +one-horsed vehicle which had just driven up, and in which this lady took +the air considerably--and the two ladies, with little Mary between them +(whose tiny hand Maecenas's wife kept fixed in her great grasp), with +the delighted Mr. Finucane on the back seat, drove away from Paternoster +Row, as the owner of the vehicle threw triumphant glances at the +opposite windows at Bacon's. + +"It won't do the Captain any good," thought Bungay, going back to his +desk and accounts, "but Mrs. B. becomes reglar upset when she thinks +about her misfortune. The child would have been of age yesterday, if +she'd lived. Flora told me so:" and he wondered how women did remember +things. + +We are happy to say that Mrs. Shandon sped with very good success upon +her errand. She who had had to mollify creditors when she had no money +at all, and only tears and entreaties wherewith to soothe them, found no +difficulty in making them relent by means of a bribe of ten shillings +in the pound; and the next Sunday was the last, for some time at least, +which the Captain spent in prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. Dinner in the Row + + +Upon the appointed day our two friends made their appearance at Mr. +Bungay's door in Paternoster Row; not the public entrance through which +booksellers' boys issued with their sacks full of Bungay's volumes, +and around which timid aspirants lingered with their virgin manuscripts +ready for sale to Sultan Bungay, but at the private door of the house, +whence the splendid Mrs. Bungay would come forth to step into her chaise +and take her drive, settling herself on the cushions, and casting looks +of defiance at Mrs. Bacon's opposite windows--at Mrs. Bacon, who was as +yet a chaiseless woman. + +On such occasions, when very much wroth at her sister-in-law's splendour +Mrs. Bacon would fling up the sash of her drawing-room window, and look +out with her four children at the chaise, as much as to say, "Look +at these four darlings. Flora Bungay! this is why I can't drive in my +carriage; you would give a coach-and-four to have the same reason." And +it was with these arrows out of her quiver that Emma Bacon shot Flora +Bungay as she sate in her chariot envious and childless. + +As Pen and Warrington came to Bungay's door, a carriage and a cab drove +up to Bacon's. Old Dr. Slocum descended heavily from the first; the +Doctor's equipage was as ponderous as his style, but both had a fine +sonorous effect upon the publishers in the Row. A couple of dazzling +white waistcoats stepped out of the cab. + +Warrington laughed. "You see Bacon has his dinner-party too. That is +Dr. Slocum, author of 'Memoirs of the Poisoners.' You would hardly have +recognised our friend Hoolan in that gallant white waistcoat. Doolan is +one of Bungay's men, and faith, here he comes." Indeed, Messrs. Hoolan +and Doolan had come from the Strand in the same cab, tossing up by the +way which should pay the shilling; and Mr. D. stepped from the other +side of the way, arrayed in black, with a large pair of white gloves +which were spread out on his hands, and which the owner could not help +regarding with pleasure. + +The house porter in an evening coat, and gentlemen with gloves as large +as Doolan's, but of the famous Berlin web, were on the passage of Mr. +Bungay's house to receive the guests' hats and coats, and bawl their +names up the stair. Some of the latter had arrived when the three new +visitors made their appearance; but there was only Mrs. Bungay in red +satin and a turban to represent her own charming sex. She made curtsies +to each new-comer as he entered the drawing-room, but her mind was +evidently pre-occupied by extraneous thoughts. The fact is, Mrs. Bacon's +dinner-party was disturbing her, and as soon as she had received each +individual of her own company, Flora Bungay flew back to the embrasure +of the window, whence she could rake the carriages of Emma Bacon's +friends as they came rattling up the Row. The sight of Dr. Slocum's +large carriage, with the gaunt job-horses, crushed Flora: none but hack +cabs had driven up to her own door on that day. + +They were all literary gentlemen, though unknown as yet to Pen. There +was Mr. Bole, the real editor of the magazine, of which Mr. Wagg was the +nominal chief; Mr. Trotter, who, from having broken out on the world as +a poet of a tragic and suicidial cast, had now subsided into one of Mr. +Bungay's back shops as reader for that gentleman; and Captain Sumph, +an ex-beau reader about town, and related in some indistinct manner to +Literature and the Peerage. He was said to have written a book once, to +have been a friend of Lord Byron, to be related to Lord Sumphington; in +fact, anecdotes of Byron formed his staple, and he seldom spoke but with +the name of that poet or some of his contemporaries in his mouth, as +thus: "I remember poor Shelley, at school being sent up for good for a +copy of verses, every line of which I wrote, by Jove;" or, "I recollect, +when I was at Missolonghi with Byron, offering to bet gamba," and +so forth. This gentleman, Pen remarked, was listened to with great +attention by Mrs. Bungay; his anecdotes of the aristocracy, of which +he was a middle-aged member, delighted the publisher's lady; and he was +almost a greater man than the great Mr. Wagg himself in her eyes. Had +he but come in his own carriage, Mrs. Bungay would have made her Bungay +purchase any given volume from his pen. + +Mr. Bungay went about to his guests as they arrived, and did the honours +of his house with much cordiality. "How are you, sir? Fine day, sir. +Glad to see you year, sir. Flora, my love, let me ave the honour of +introducing Mr. Warrington to you. Mr. Warrington, Mrs. Bungay; Mr. +Pendennis, Mrs. Bungay. Hope you've brought good appetites with you, +gentlemen. You, Doolan, I know ave, for you've always ad a deuce of a +twist." + +"Lor, Bungay!" said Mrs. Bungay. + +"Faith, a man must be hard to please, Bungay, who can't eat a good +dinner in this house," Doolan said, and he winked and stroked his lean +chops with his large gloves; and made appeals of friendship to Mrs. +Bungay, which that honest woman refused with scorn from the timid man. +"She couldn't abide that Doolan," she said in confidence to her friends. +Indeed, all his flatteries failed to win her. + +As they talked, Mrs. Bungay surveying mankind from her window, a +magnificent vision of an enormous grey cab-horse appeared, and neared +rapidly. A pair of white reins, held by small white gloves, were visible +behind it; a face pale, but richly decorated with a chin-tuft, the head +of an exiguous groom bobbing over the cab-head--these bright things were +revealed to the delighted Mrs. Bungay. "The Honourable Percy Popjoy's +quite punctual, I declare," she said, and sailed to the door to be in +waiting at the nobleman's arrival. + +"It's Percy Popjoy," said Pen, looking out of window, and seeing an +individual, in extremely lacquered boots, descend from the swinging cab: +and, in fact, it was that young nobleman Lord Falconet's eldest son, +as we all very well know, who was come to dine with the publisher--his +publisher of the Row. + +"He was my fag at Eton," Warrington said. "I ought to have licked him +a little more." He and Pen had had some bouts at the Oxbridge Union +debates, in which Pen had had very much the better of Percy: who +presently appeared, with his hat under his arm, and a look of +indescribable good-humour and fatuity in his round dimpled face, upon +which Nature had burst out with a chin-tuft, but, exhausted with the +effort, had left the rest of the countenance bare of hair. + +The temporary groom of the chambers bawled out, "The Honourable Percy +Popjoy," much to that gentleman's discomposure at hearing his titles +announced. + +"What did the man want to take away my hat for, Bungay?" he asked of +the publisher. "Can't do without my hat--want it to make my bow to +Mrs. Bungay. How well you look. Mrs. Bungay, to-day. Haven't seen your +carriage in the Park: why haven't you been there? I missed you; indeed, +I did." + +"I'm afraid you're a sad quiz," said Mrs. Bungay. + +"Quiz! Never made a joke in my--hullo! who's here? How d'ye do, +Pendennis? How d'ye do, Warrington? These are old friends of mine, Mrs. +Bungay. I say, how the doose did you come here?" he asked of the two +young men, turnip his lacquered heels upon Mrs. Bungay, who respected +her husband's two young guests, now that she found they were intimate +with a lord's son. + +"What! do they know him?" she asked rapidly of Mr. B. + +"High fellers, I tell you--the young one related to all the nobility," +said the publisher; and both ran forward, smiling and bowing, to greet +almost as great personages as the young lord--no less characters, +indeed, than the great Mr. Wenham and the great Mr. Wagg, who were now +announced. + +Mr. Wenham entered, wearing the usual demure look and stealthy smile +with which he commonly surveyed the tips of his neat little shining +boots, and which he but seldom brought to bear upon the person who +addressed him. Wagg's white waistcoat spread out, on the contrary, +with profuse brilliancy; his burly, red face shone resplendent over it, +lighted up with the thoughts of good jokes and a good dinner. He liked +to make his entree into a drawing-room with a laugh, and, when he +went away at night, to leave a joke exploding behind him. No personal +calamities or distresses (of which that humourist had his share in +common with the unjocular part of mankind) could altogether keep his +humour down. Whatever his griefs might be, the thought of a dinner +rallied his great soul; and when he saw a lord, he saluted him with a +pun. + +Wenham went up, then, with a smug smile and whisper, to Mrs. Bungay, and +looked at her from under his eyes, and showed her the tips of his shoes. +Wagg said she looked charming, and pushed on straight at the young +nobleman, whom he called Pop, and to whom he instantly related a funny +story, seasoned with what the French call gros sel. He was delighted +to see Pen, too, and shook hands with him, and slapped him on the back +cordially; for he was full of spirits and good-humour. And he talked in +a loud voice about their last place and occasion of meeting at Baymouth; +and asked how their friends of Clavering Park were, and whether Sir +Francis was not coming to London for the season; and whether Pen had +been to see Lady Rockminster, who had arrived--fine old lady, Lady +Rockminster! These remarks Wagg made not for Pen's ear so much as for +the edification of the company, whom he was glad to inform that he paid +visits to gentlemen's country seats, and was on intimate terms with the +nobility. + +Wenham also shook hands with our young friend--all of which scenes Mrs. +Bungay remarked with respectful pleasure, and communicated her ideas to +Bungay, afterwards, regarding the importance of Mr. Pendennis--ideas by +which Pen profited much more than he was aware. + +Pen, who had read, and rather admired some of her works (and expected to +find in Miss Bunion a person somewhat resembling her own description +of herself in the 'Passion-Flower,' in which she stated that her youth +resembled-- + + "A violet, shrinking meanly + When blows the March wind keenly; + A timid fawn, on wild-wood lawn, + Where oak-boughs rustle greenly,--" + +and that her maturer beauty was something very different, certainly, to +the artless loveliness of her prime, but still exceedingly captivating +and striking), beheld, rather to his surprise and amusement, a large and +bony woman in a crumpled satin dress, who came creaking into the room +with a step as heavy as a grenadier's. Wagg instantly noted the straw +which she brought in at the rumpled skirt of her dress, and would +have stooped to pick it up: but Miss Bunion disarmed all criticism by +observing this ornament herself, and, putting her own large foot upon +it, so as to separate it from her robe, she stooped and picked up the +straw, saying to Mrs. Bungay, that she was very sorry to be a little +late, but that the omnibus was very slow, and what a comfort it was to +get a ride all the way from Brompton for sixpence. Nobody laughed at the +poetess's speech, it was uttered so simply. Indeed, the worthy woman had +not the least notion of being ashamed of an action incidental upon her +poverty. + +"Is that 'Passion-Flowers?'" Pen said to Wenham, by whom he was +standing. "Why, her picture in the volume represents her as a very +well-looking young woman." + +"You know passion-flowers, like all others, will run to seed," Wenham +said; "Miss Bunion's portrait was probably painted some years ago." + +"Well, I like her for not being ashamed of her poverty." + +"So do I," said Mr. Wenham, who would have starved rather than have come +to dinner in an omnibus, "but I don't think that she need flourish the +straw about, do you, Mr. Pendennis? My dear Miss Bunion, how do you do? +I was in a great lady's drawing-room this morning, and everybody was +charmed with your new volume. Those lines on the christening of Lady +Fanny Fantail brought tears into the Duchess's eyes. I said that I +thought I should have the pleasure of meeting you to-day, and she begged +me to thank you, and say how greatly she was pleased." + +This history, told in a bland smiling manner, of a Duchess whom Wenham +had met that very morning, too, quite put poor Wagg's dowager and +baronet out of court, and placed Wenham beyond Wagg as a man of fashion. +Wenham kept this inestimable advantage, and having the conversation to +himself, ran on with a number of anecdotes regarding the aristocracy. +He tried to bring Mr. Popjoy into the conversation by making appeals to +him, and saying, "I was telling your father this morning," or, "I +think you were present at W. house the other night when the Duke said +so-and-so," but Mr. Popjoy would not gratify him by joining in the talk, +preferring to fall back into the window recess with Mrs. Bungay, and +watch the cabs that drove up to the opposite door. At least, if he would +not talk, the hostess hoped that those odious Bacons would see how she +had secured the noble Percy Popjoy for her party. + +And now the bell of Saint Paul's tolled half an hour later than that +for which Mr. Bungay had invited his party, and it was complete with the +exception of two guests, who at last made their appearance, and in whom +Pen was pleased to recognise Captain and Mrs. Shandon. + +When these two had made their greetings to the master and mistress of +the house, and exchanged nods of more or less recognition with most of +the people present, Pen and Warrington went up, and shook hands very +warmly with Mrs. Shandon, who, perhaps, was affected to meet them, and +think where it was she had seen them but a few days before. Shandon was +brushed up, and looked pretty smart, in a red velvet waistcoat, and a +frill, into which his wife had stuck her best brooch. In spite of Mrs. +Bungay's kindness, perhaps in consequence of it, Mrs. Shandon felt great +terror and timidity in approaching her: indeed, she was more awful than +ever in her red satin and bird of paradise, and it was not until she had +asked in her great voice about the dear little gurl, that the latter was +somewhat encouraged, and ventured to speak. + +"Nice-looking woman," Popjoy whispered to Warrington. "Do introduce +me to Captain Shandon, Warrington. I'm told he's a tremendous clever +fellow; and, dammy, I adore intellect, by Jove I do!" This was the +truth: Heaven had not endowed young Mr. Popjoy with much intellect of +his own, but had given him a generous faculty for admiring, if not for +appreciating, the intellect of others. "And introduce me to Miss Bunion. +I'm told she's very clever too. She's rum to look at, certainly, but +that don't matter. Dammy, I consider myself a literary man, and I wish +to know all the clever fellows." So Mr. Popjoy and Mr. Shandon had the +pleasure of becoming acquainted with one another; and now the doors of +the adjoining dining-room being flung open, the party entered and took +their seats at table. Pen found himself next to Bunion on one side, and +to Mr. Wagg--the truth is, Wagg fled alarmed from the vacant place by +the poetess, and Pen was compelled to take it. + +The gifted being did not talk much during dinner, but Pen remarked that +she ate with a vast appetite, and never refused any of the supplies of +wine which were offered to her by the butler. Indeed, Miss Bunion having +considered Mr. Pendennis for a minute, who gave himself rather grand +airs, and who was attired in an extremely fashionable style, with his +very best chains, shirt studs, and cambric fronts, he was set down, and +not without reason, as a prig by the poetess; who thought it was much +better to attend to her dinner than to take any notice of him. She told +him as much in after days with her usual candour. "I took you for one of +the little Mayfair dandies," she said to Pen. "You looked as solemn as +a little undertaker; and as I disliked, beyond measure, the odious +creature who was on the other side of me, I thought it was best to eat +my dinner and hold my tongue." + +"And you did both very well, my dear Miss Bunion," Pen said with a +laugh. + +"Well, so I do, but I intend to talk to you the next time a great deal: +for you are neither so solemn, nor so stupid, nor so pert as you look." + +"Ah, Miss Bunion, how I pine for that 'next time' to come," Pen said +with an air of comical gallantry:--But we must return to the day, and +the dinner at Paternoster Row. + +The repast was of the richest description--"What I call of the florid +Gothic style," Wagg whispered to Penn, who sate beside the humourist, +in his side-wing voice. The men in creaking shoes and Berlin gloves were +numerous and solemn, carrying on rapid conversations behind the guests, +as they moved to and fro with the dishes. Doolan called out, "Waither," +to one of them, and blushed when he thought of his blunder. Mrs. +Bungay's footboy was lost amidst those large and black-coated +attendants. + +"Look at that very bow-windowed man," Wagg said. "He's an undertaker in +Amen Corner, and attends funerals and dinners. Cold meat and hot, don't +you perceive? He's the sham butler here, and I observe, my dear Mr. +Pendennis, as you will through life, that wherever there is a sham +butler at a London dinner there is sham wine--this sherry is filthy. +Bungay, my boy, where did you get this delicious brown sherry?" + +"I'm glad you like it, Mr. Wagg; glass with you," said the publisher. +"It's some I got from Alderman Benning's store, and gave a good figure +for it, I can tell you. Mr. Pendennis, will you join us? Your 'ealth, +gentlemen." + +"The old rogue, where does he expect to go to? It came from the +public-house," Wagg said. "It requires two men to carry off that sherry, +'tis so uncommonly strong. I wish I had a bottle of old Steyne's wine +here, Pendennis: your uncle and I have had many a one. He sends it about +to people where he is in the habit of dining. I remember at poor Rawdon +Crawley's, Sir Pitt Crawley's brother--he was Governor of Coventry +Island--Steyne's chef always came in the morning, and the butler arrived +with the champagne from Gaunt House, in the ice-pails ready." + +"How good this is!" said Popjoy, good-naturedly. "You must have a cordon +bleu in your kitchen." + +"O yes," Mrs. Bungay said, thinking he spoke of a jack-chain very +likely. + +"I mean a French chef," said the polite guest. + +"O yes, your lordship," again said the lady. + +"Does your artist say he's a Frenchman, Mrs. B.?" called out Wagg. + +"Well, I'm sure I don't know," answered the publisher's lady. + +"Because, if he does, he's a quizzin yer," cried Mr. Wagg; but nobody +saw the pun, which disconcerted somewhat the bashful punster. "The +dinner is from Griggs, in St. Paul's Churchyard; so is Bacon's," he +whispered Pen. "Bungay writes to give half-a-crown a head more than +Bacon, so does Bacon. They would poison each other's ices if they +could get near them; and as for the made-dishes--they are poison. +This--hum--ha--this Brimborion a la Sevigne is delicious, Mrs. B.," he +said, helping himself to a dish which the undertaker handed to him. + +"Well, I'm glad you like it," Mrs. Bungay answered, blushing and not +knowing whether the name of the dish was actually that which Wagg +gave to it, but dimly conscious that that individual was quizzing +her. Accordingly she hated Mr. Wagg with female ardour; and would have +deposed him from his command over Mr. Bungay's periodical, but that +his name was great in the trade, and his reputation in the land +considerable. + +By the displacement of persons, Warrington had found himself on the +right hand of Mrs. Shandon, who sate in plain black silk and faded +ornaments by the side of the florid publisher. The sad smile of the lady +moved his rough heart to pity. Nobody seemed to interest himself about +her: she sate looking at her husband, who himself seemed rather abashed +in the presence of some of the company. Wenham and Wagg both knew +him and his circumstances. He had worked with the latter, and was +immeasurably his superior in wit, genius, and acquirement; but Wagg's +star was brilliant in the world, and poor Shandon was unknown there. He +could not speak before the noisy talk of the coarser and more successful +man; but drank his wine in silence, and as much of it as the people +would give him. He was under surveillance. Bungay had warned the +undertaker not to fill the Captain's glass too often or too full. It +was a melancholy precaution that, and the more melancholy that it was +necessary. Mrs. Shandon, too, cast alarmed glances across the table to +see that her husband did not exceed. + +Abashed by the failure of his first pun, for he was impudent and easily +disconcerted, Wagg kept his conversation pretty much to Pen during the +rest of dinner, and of course chiefly spoke about their neighbours. +"This is one of Bungay's grand field-days," he said. "We are all +Bungavians here.--Did you read Popjoy's novel? It was an old magazine +story written by poor Buzzard years ago, and forgotten here until Mr. +Trotter (that is Trotter with the large shirt collar) fished it out and +bethought him that it was applicable to the late elopement; so Bob wrote +a few chapters a propos--Popjoy permitted the use of his name, and +I dare say supplied a page here and there--and 'Desperation, or the +Fugitive Duchess' made its appearance. The great fun is to examine +Popjoy about his own work, of which he doesn't know a word.--I say, +Popjoy, what a capital passage that is in Volume Three,--where the +Cardinal in disguise, after being converted by the Bishop of London, +proposes marriage to the Duchess's daughter." + +"Glad you like it," Popjoy answered; "it's a favourite bit of my own." + +"There's no such thing in the whole book," whispered Wagg to Pen. +"Invented it myself. Gad! it wouldn't be a bad plot for a high-church +novel." + +"I remember poor Byron, Hobhouse, Trelawney, and myself, dining with +Cardinal Mezzocaldo at Rome," Captain Sumph began, "and we had some +Orvieto wine for dinner, which Byron liked very much. And I remember +how the Cardinal regretted that he was a single man. We went to Civita +Vecchia two days afterwards, where Byron's yacht was--and, by Jove, +the Cardinal died within three weeks; and Byron was very sorry, for he +rather liked him." + +"A devilish interesting story, Sumph, indeed," Wagg said. + +"You should publish some of those stories, Captain Sumph, you really +should. Such a volume would make our friend Bungay's fortune," Shandon +said. + +"Why don't you ask Sumph to publish 'em in your new paper--the +what-d'ye-call-'em--hay, Shandon?" bawled out Wagg. + +"Why don't you ask him to publish 'em in your old magazine, the +Thingumbob?" Shandon replied. + +"Is there going to be a new paper?" asked Wenham, who knew perfectly +well, but was ashamed of his connection with the press. + +"Bungay going to bring out a paper?" cried Popjoy, who, on the contrary, +was proud of his literary reputation and acquaintances. "You must employ +me. Mrs. Bungay, use your influence with him, and make him employ me. +Prose or verse--what shall it be? Novels, poems, travels, or leading +articles, begad. Anything or everything--only let Bungay pay me, and I'm +ready--I am now my dear Mrs. Bungay, begad now." + +"It's to be called the Small Beer Chronicle," growled Wagg, "and little +Popjoy is to be engaged for the infantine department." + +"It is to be called the Pall Mall Gazette, sir, and we shall be very +happy to have you with us," Shandon said. + +"Pall Mall Gazette--why Pall Mall Gazette?" asked Wagg. + +"Because the editor was born at Dublin, the sub-editor at Cork, because +the proprietor lives in Paternoster Row;--and the paper is published in +Catherine Street, Strand. Won't that reason suffice you, Wagg?" Shandon +said; he was getting rather angry. "Everything must have a name. My dog +Ponto has got a namee. You've got a name, and a name which you deserve, +more or less, indeed. Why d'ye grudge the name to our paper?" + +"By any other name it would smell as sweet," said Wagg. + +"I'll have ye remember its name's not what-d'ye-call-'em, Mr. Wagg," +said Shandon. "You know its name well enough, and--and you know mine." + +"And I know your address too," said Wagg; but this was spoken in an +undertone, and the good-natured Irishman was appeased almost in an +instant after his ebullition of spleen, and asked Wagg to drink wine +with him in a friendly voice. + +When the ladies retired from the table, the talk grew louder still; and +presently Wenham, in a courtly speech, proposed that everybody should +drink to the health of the new Journal, eulogising highly the talents, +wit, and learning of its editor, Captain Shandon. It was his maxim +never to lose the support of a newspaper man, and in the course of that +evening he went round and saluted every literary gentleman present with +a privy compliment specially addressed to him; informing this one how +great an impression had been made in Downing Street by his last article, +and telling that one how profoundly his good friend, the Duke of +So-and-So, had been struck by the ability of the late numbers. + +The evening came to a close, and in spite of all the precautions to +the contrary, poor Shandon reeled in his walk, and went home to his new +lodgings, with his faithful wife by his side, and the cabman on his +box jeering at him. Wenham had a chariot of his own, which he put at +Popjoy's seat; and the timid Miss Bunion seeing Mr. Wagg, who was her +neighbour, about to depart, insisted upon a seat in his carriage, much +to that gentleman's discomfiture. + +Pen and Warrington walked home together in the moonlight. "And now," +Warrington said, "that you have seen the men of letters, tell me, was I +far wrong in saying that there are thousands of people in this town, who +don't write books, who are, to the full, as clever and intellectual as +people who do?" + +Pen was forced to confess that the literary personages with whom he +had become acquainted had not said much, in the course of the night's +conversation, that was worthy to be remembered or quoted. In fact not +one word about literature had been said during the whole course of the +night:--and it may be whispered to those uninitiated people who are +anxious to know the habits and make the acquaintance of men of letters, +that there are no race of people who talk about books, or, perhaps, who +read books, so little as literary men. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. The Pall Mall Gazette + + +Considerable success at first attended the new journal. It was generally +stated, that an influential political party supported the paper; and +great names were cited amongst the contributors to its columns. Was +there any foundation for these rumours? We are not at liberty to say +whether they were ill-founded; but this much we may divulge, that an +article upon foreign policy, which was generally attributed to a noble +Lord, whose connexion with the Foreign Office is very well known, was +in reality composed by Captain Shandon, in the parlour of the Bear and +Staff public-house near Whitehall Stairs, whither the printer's boy +had tracked him, and where a literary ally of his, Mr. Bludyer, had a +temporary residence; and that a series of papers on finance questions, +which were universally supposed to be written by a great Statesman of +the House of Commons, were in reality composed by Mr. George Warrington +of the Upper Temple. + +That there may have been some dealings between the Pall Mall Gazette and +this influential party, is very possible, Percy Popjoy (whose father, +Lord Falconet, was a member of the party) might be seen not unfrequently +ascending the stairs to Warrington's chambers; and some information +appeared in the paper which it gave a character, and could only be got +from very peculiar sources. Several poems, feeble in thought, but loud +and vigorous in expression, appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette, with the +signature of "P. P."; and it must be owned that his novel was praised in +the new journal in a very outrageous manner. + +In the political department of the paper Mr. Pen did not take any share; +but he was a most active literary contributor. The Pall Mall Gazette had +its offices, as we have heard, in Catherine Street, in the Strand, and +hither Pen often came with his manuscripts in his pocket, and with a +great deal of bustle and pleasure; such as a man feels at the outset +of his literary career, when to see himself in print is still a novel +sensation, and he yet pleases himself to think that his writings are +creating some noise in the world. + +Here it was that Mr. Jack Finucane, the sub-editor, compiled with paste +and scissors the Journal of which he was supervisor. With an eagle eye +he scanned all the paragraphs of all the newspapers which had anything +to do with the world of fashion over which he presided. He didn't let a +death or a dinner-party of the aristocracy pass without having the event +recorded in the columns of his Journal; and from the most recondite +provincial prints, and distant Scotch and Irish newspapers, he fished +out astonishing paragraphs and intelligence regarding the upper classes +of society. It was a grand, nay, a touching sight, for a philosopher, to +see Jack Finucane, Esquire, with a plate of meat from the cookshop and +glass of porter from the public-house, for his meal, recounting the +feasts of the great as if he had been present at them; and in tattered +trousers and dingy shirt-sleeves, cheerfully describing and arranging +the most brilliant fetes of the world of fashion. The incongruity of +Finucane's avocation, and his manners and appearance amused his new +friend Pen. Since he left his own native village, where his rank +probably was not very, lofty Jack had seldom seen any society but such +as used the parlour of the taverns which he frequented, whereas from his +writing you would have supposed that he dined with ambassadors, and that +his common lounge was the bow-window of White's. Errors of description, +it is true, occasionally slipped from his pen; but the Ballinafad +Sentinel, of which he was own correspondent, suffered by these, not the +Pall Mall Gazette, in which Jack was not permitted to write much, his +London chiefs thinking that the scissors and the paste were better +wielded by him than the pen. + +Pen took a great deal of pains with the writing of his reviews, and +having a pretty fair share of desultory reading, acquired in the early +years of his life an eager fancy and a keen sense of fun, his articles +pleased his chief and the public, and he was proud to think that he +deserved the money which he earned. We may be sure that the Pall Mall +Gazette was taken in regularly at Fairoaks, and read with delight by the +two ladies there. It was received at Clavering Park, too, where we know +there was a young lady of great literary tastes; and old Doctor Portman +himself, to whom the widow sent her paper after she had got her son's +articles by heart, signified his approval of Pen's productions, saying +that the lad had spirit, taste, and fancy, and wrote, if not like a +scholar, at any rate like a gentleman. + +And what was the astonishment and delight of our friend Major Pendennis, +on walking into one of his clubs, the Regent, where Wenham, Lord +Falconet, and some other gentlemen of good reputation and fashion were +assembled, to hear them one day talking over a number of the Pall Mall +Gazette, and of an article which appeared in its columns, making some +bitter fun of the book recently published by the wife of a celebrated +member of the opposition party. The book in question was a Book of +Travels in Spain and Italy, by the Countess of Muffborough, in which +it was difficult to say which was the most wonderful, the French or the +English, in which languages her ladyship wrote indifferently, and upon +the blunders of which the critic pounced with delightful mischief. +The critic was no other than Pen: he jumped and danced round about his +subject with the greatest jocularity and high spirits: he showed up the +noble lady's faults with admirable mock gravity and decorum. There was +not a word in the article which was not polite and gentlemanlike; and +the unfortunate subject of the criticism was scarified and laughed at +during the operation. Wenham's bilious countenance was puckered up with +malign pleasure as he read the critique. Lady Muffborough had not asked +him to her parties during the last year. Lord Falconet giggled and +laughed with all his heart; Lord Muffborough and he had been rivals ever +since they began life; and these complimented Major Pendennis, who until +now had scarcely paid any attention to some hints which his Fairoaks +correspondence threw out of "dear Arthur's constant and severe literary +occupations, which I fear may undermine the poor boy's health," and had +thought any notice of Mr. Pen and his newspaper connexions quite below +his dignity as a Major and a gentleman. + +But when the oracular Wenham praised the boy's production; when Lord +Falconet, who had had the news from Percy Popjoy, approved of the genius +of young Pen; when the great Lord Steyne himself, to whom the Major +referred the article, laughed and sniggered over it, swore it was +capital, and that the Muffborough would writhe under it, like a whale +under a harpoon, the Major, as in duty bound, began to admire his nephew +very much, said, "By gad, the young rascal had some stuff in him, and +would do something; he had always said he would do something;" and with +a hand quite tremulous with pleasure, the old gentleman sate down to +write to the widow at Fairoaks all that the great folks had said in +praise of Pen; and he wrote to the young rascal, too, asking when he +would come and eat a chop with his old uncle, and saying that he was +commissioned to take him to dinner at Gaunt House, for Lord Steyne liked +anybody who could entertain him, whether by his folly, wit, or by his +dulness, by his oddity, affectation, good spirits, or any other quality. +Pen flung his letter across the table to Warrington: perhaps he was +disappointed that the other did not seem to be much affected by it. + +The courage of young critics is prodigious: they clamber up to the +judgment-seat, and, with scarce a hesitation, give their opinion +upon works the most intricate or profound. Had Macaulay's History or +Herschel's Astronomy been put before Pen at this period, he would have +looked through the volumes, meditated his opinion over a cigar, and +signified his august approval of either author, as if the critic had +been their born superior and indulgent master and patron. By the help +of the Biographie Universelle or the British Museum, he would be able to +take a rapid resume of a historical period, and allude to names, dates, +and facts, in such a masterly, easy way, as to astonish his mamma at +home, who wondered where her boy could have acquired such a prodigious +store of reading and himself, too, when he came to read over his +articles two or three months after they had been composed, and when he +had forgotten the subject and the books which he had consulted. At that +period of his life, Mr. Pen owns that he would not have hesitated, +at twenty-four hours' notice, to pass his opinion upon the greatest +scholars, or to give a judgment upon the Encyclopaedia. Luckily he +had Warrington to laugh at him and to keep down his impertinence by +a constant and wholesome ridicule, or he might have become conceited +beyond all sufferance; for Shandon liked the dash and flippancy of his +young aide-de-camp, and was, indeed, better pleased with Pen's light and +brilliant flashes, than with the heavier metal which his elder coadjutor +brought to bear. + +But though he might justly be blamed on the score of impertinence and a +certain prematurity of judgment, Mr. Pen was a perfectly honest critic; +a great deal too candid for Mr. Bungay's purposes, indeed, who grumbled +sadly at his impartiality. Pen and his chief, the Captain, had a dispute +upon this subject one day. "In the name of common-sense, Mr. Pendennis," +Shandon asked, "what have you been doing--praising one of Mr. Bacon's +books? Bungay has been with me in a fury this morning at seeing a +laudatory article upon one of the works of the odious firm over the +way." + +Pen's eyes opened with wide astonishment. "Do you mean to say," he +asked, "that we are to praise no books that Bacon publishes: or that, if +the books are good, we are to say they are bad?" + +"My good young friend--for what do you suppose a benevolent publisher +undertakes a critical journal, to benefit his rival?" Shandon inquired. + +"To benefit himself certainly, but to tell the truth too," Pen said, +"ruat coelum, to tell the truth." + +"And my prospectus," said Shandon, with a laugh and a sneer; "do you +consider that was a work of mathematical accuracy of statement?" + +"Pardon me, that is not the question," Pen said "and I don't think you +very much care to argue it. I had some qualms of conscience about that +same prospectus, and debated the matter with my friend Warrington. We +agreed, however," Pen said, laughing "that because the prospectus was +rather declamatory and poetical, and the giant was painted upon the +show-board rather larger than the original, who was inside the caravan; +we need not be too scrupulous about this trifling inaccuracy, but +might do our part of the show, without loss of character or remorse of +conscience. We are the fiddlers, and play our tunes only; you are the +showman." + +"And leader of the van," said Shandon. "Well, I am glad that your +conscience gave you leave to play for us." + +"Yes, but," said Pen, with a fine sense of the dignity of his position, +"we are all party men in England, and I will stick to my party like a +Briton. I will be as good-natured as you like to our own side, he is a +fool who quarrels with his own nest; and I will hit the enemy as hard as +you like--but with fair play, Captain, if you please. One can't tell +all the truth, I suppose; but one can tell nothing but the truth; and +I would rather starve, by Jove, and never earn another penny by my pen" +(this redoubted instrument had now been in use for some six weeks, +and Pen spoke of it with vast enthusiasm and respect) "than strike an +opponent an unfair blow, or, if called upon to place him, rank him below +his honest desert." + +"Well, Mr. Pendennis, when we want Bacon smashed, we must get some other +hammer to do it," Shandon said, with fatal good-nature; and very likely +thought within himself, "A few years hence perhaps the young gentleman +won't be so squeamish." The veteran Condottiere himself was no longer so +scrupulous. He had fought and killed on so many a side for many a year +past, that remorse had long left him. "Gad," said he, "you've a tender +conscience, Mr. Pendennis. It's the luxury of all novices, and I may +have had one once myself; but that sort of bloom wears off with the +rubbing of the world, and I'm not going to the trouble myself of putting +on an artificial complexion, like our pious friend Wenham, or our model +of virtue, Wagg." + +"I don't know whether some people's hypocrisy is not better, Captain, +than other's cynicism." + +"It's more profitable, at any rate," said the Captain, biting his +nails. "That Wenham is as dull a quack as ever quacked: and you see the +carriage in which he drove to dinner. Faith, it'll be a long time before +Mrs. Shandon will take a drive in her own chariot. God help her, poor +thing!" And Pen went away from his chief, after their little dispute and +colloquy, pointing his own moral to the Captain's tale, and thinking +to himself, "Behold this man, stored with genius, wit, learning, and a +hundred good natural gifts: see how he has wrecked them, by paltering +with his honesty, and forgetting to respect himself. Wilt thou remember +thyself, O Pen? thou art conceited enough! Wilt thou sell thy honour for +a bottle? No, by heaven's grace, we will be honest, whatever befalls, +and our mouths shall only speak the truth when they open." + +A punishment, or, at least, a trial, was in store for Mr. Pen. In the +very next number of the Pall Mall Gazette, Warrington read out, with +roars of laughter, an article which by no means amused Arthur Pendennis, +who was himself at work with a criticism for the next week's number +of the same journal; and in which the Spring Annual was ferociously +maltreated by some unknown writer. The person of all most cruelly mauled +was Pen himself. His verses had not appeared with his own name in the +Spring Annual, but under an assumed signature. As he had refused +to review the book, Shandon had handed it over to Mr. Bludyer, +with directions to that author to dispose of it. And he had done so +effectually. Mr. Bludyer, who was a man of very considerable talent, and +of a race which, I believe, is quite extinct in the press of our time, +had a certain notoriety in his profession, and reputation for savage +humour. He smashed and trampled down the poor spring flowers with no +more mercy than a bull would have on a parterre; and having cut up the +volume to his heart's content, went and sold it at a bookstall, and +purchased a pint of brandy with the proceeds of the volume. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. Where Pen appears in Town and Country + + +Let us be allowed to pass over a few months of the history of Mr. Arthur +Pendennis's lifetime, during the which, many events may have occurred +which were more interesting and exciting to himself, than they would be +likely to prove to the reader of his present memoirs. We left him, in +his last chapter, regularly entered upon his business as a professional +writer, or literary hack, as Mr. Warrington chooses to style himself and +his friend; and we know how the life of any hack, legal or literary, in +a curacy, or in a marching regiment, or at a merchant's desk, is dull of +routine, and tedious of description. One day's labour resembles another +much too closely. A literary man has often to work for his bread +against time, or against his will, or in spite of his health, or of his +indolence, or of his repugnance to the subject on which he is called to +exert himself, just like any other daily toiler. When you want to +make money by Pegasus (as he must, perhaps, who has no other saleable +property), farewell poetry and aerial flights: Pegasus only rises now +like Mr. Green's balloon, at periods advertised beforehand, and when +the spectator's money has been paid. Pegasus trots in harness, over the +stony pavement, and pulls a cart or a cab behind him. Often Pegasus does +his work with panting sides and trembling knees, and not seldom gets a +cut of the whip from his driver. + +Do not let us, however, be too prodigal of our pity upon Pegasus. There +is no reason why this animal should be exempt from labour, or illness, +or decay, any more than any of the other creatures of God's world. If he +gets the whip, Pegasus often deserves it, and I for one am quite ready +to protest my friend, George Warrington, against the doctrine which +poetical sympathisers are inclined to put forward, viz., that of +letters, and what is called genius, are to be exempt from prose duties +of this daily, bread-wanting, tax-paying life, and not to be made to +work and pay like their neighbours. + +Well, then, the Pall Mall Gazette being duly established and Arthur +Pendennis's merits recognised as a flippant, witty, and amusing critic, +he worked away hard every week, preparing reviews of such works as came +into his department, and writing his reviews with flippancy certainly, +but with honesty, and to the best of his power. It might be that +a historian of threescore, who had spent a quarter of a century in +composing a work of which our young gentleman disposed in the course +of a couple of days' reading at the British Museum, was not altogether +fairly treated by such a facile critic; or that a poet who had been +elaborating sublime sonnets and odes until he thought them fit for the +public and for fame, was annoyed by two or three dozen pert lines in Mr. +Pen's review, in which the poet's claims were settled by the critic, +as if the latter were my lord on the bench and the author a miserable +little suitor trembling before him. The actors at the theatres +complained of him wofully, too, and very likely he was too hard upon +them. But there was not much harm done after all. It is different now, +as we know; but there were so few great historians, or great poets, or +great actors, in Pen's time, that scarce any at all came up for judgment before +his critical desk. Those who got a little whipping, got what in the main +was good for them; not that the judge was any better or wiser than the +persons whom he sentenced, or indeed ever fancied himself so. Pen had a +strong sense of humour and justice, and had not therefore an overweening +respect for his own works; besides, he had his friend Warrington at his +elbow--a terrible critic if the young man was disposed to be conceited, +and more savage over Pen than ever he was to those whom he tried at his +literary assize. + +By these critical labours, and by occasional contributions to leading +articles of the journal, when, without wounding his paper, this eminent +publicist could conscientiously speak his mind, Mr. Arthur Pendennis +gained the sum of four pounds four shillings weekly, and with no small +pains and labour. Likewise be furnished Magazines and Reviews with +articles of his composition, and is believed to have been (though +on this score he never chooses to speak) London correspondent of the +Chatteris Champion, which at that time contained some very brilliant +and eloquent letters from the metropolis. By these labours the fortunate +youth was enabled to earn a sum very nearly equal to four hundred pounds +a year; and on the second Christmas after his arrival in London, he +actually brought a hundred pounds to his mother, as a dividend upon the +debt which he owed to Laura. That Mrs. Pendennis read every word of her +son's works, and considered him to be the profoundest thinker and most +elegant writer of the day; that she thought his retribution of the +hundred pounds an act of angelic virtue; that she feared he was ruining +his health by his labours, and was delighted when he told her of the +society which he met, and of the great men of letters and fashion +whom he saw, will be imagined by all readers who have seen son-worship +amongst mothers, and that charming simplicity of love with which women +in the country watch the career of their darlings in London. If John has +held such and such a brief; if Tom has been invited to such and such +a ball; or George has met this or that great and famous man at dinner; +what a delight there is in the hearts of mothers and sisters at home in +Somersetshire! How young Hopeful's letters are read and remembered! What +a theme for village talk they give, and friendly congratulation! In the +second winter, Pen came for a very brief space, and cheered the widow's +heart, and lightened up the lonely house at Fairoaks. Helen had her son +all to herself; Laura was away on a visit to old Lady Rockminster; the +folks of Clavering Park were absent; the very few old friends of the +house, Doctor Portman at their head, called upon Mr. Pen, and treated +him with marked respect; between mother and son, it was all fondness, +confidence, and affection. It was the happiest fortnight of the widow's +whole life; perhaps in the lives of both of them. The holiday was gone +only too quickly; and Pen was back in the busy world, and the gentle +widow alone again. She sent Arthur's money to Laura: I don't know why +this young lady took the opportunity of leaving home when Pen was coming +thither, or whether he was the more piqued or relieved by her absence. + +He was by this time, by his own merits and his uncle's introductions, +pretty well introduced into London, and known both in literary and +polite circles. Amongst the former his fashionable reputation stood him +in no little stead; he was considered to be a gentleman of good present +means and better expectations, who wrote for his pleasure, than which +there cannot be a greater recommendation to a young literary aspirant. +Bacon, Bungay and Co. were proud to accept his articles; Mr. Wenham +asked him to dinner; Mr. Wagg looked upon him with a favourable eye; +and they reported how they met him at the houses of persons of fashion, +amongst whom he was pretty welcome, as they did not trouble themselves +about his means, present or future; as his appearance and address were +good; and as he had got a character for being a clever fellow. Finally, +he was asked to one house, because he was seen at another house: and +thus no small varieties of London life were presented to the young man: +he was made familiar with all sorts of people from Paternoster Row to +Pimlico, and was as much at home at Mayfair dining-tables as at those +tavern boards where some of his companions of the pen were accustomed to +assemble. + +Full of high spirits and curiosity, easily adapting himself to all whom +he met, the young fellow pleased himself in this strange variety and +jumble of men, and made himself welcome, or at ease at least, wherever +he went. He would breakfast, for instance, at Mr. Plover's of a morning, +in company with a Peer, a Bishop, a parliamentary orator, two blue +ladies of fashion, a popular preacher, the author of the last new novel, +and the very latest lion imported from Egypt or from America: and would +quit this distinguished society for the back room at the newspaper +office, where pens and ink and the wet proof-sheets were awaiting him. +Here would be Finucane, the sub-editor, with the last news from the +Row: and Shandon would come in presently, and giving a nod to Pen, would +begin scribbling his leading article at the other end of the table, +flanked by the pint of sherry, which, when the attendant boy beheld him, +was always silently brought for the Captain: or Mr. Bludyer's roaring +voice would be heard in the front room, where that truculent +critic would impound the books on the counter in spite of the timid +remonstrances of Mr. Midge, the publisher, and after looking through the +volumes would sell them at his accustomed bookstall, and having drunken +and dined upon the produce of the sale in a tavern box, would call for +ink and paper, and proceed to "smash" the author of his dinner and the +novel. Towards evening Mr. Pen would stroll in the direction of his +club, and take up Warrington there for a constitutional walk. This +exercise freed the lungs, and gave an appetite for dinner, after which +Pen had the privilege to make his bow at some very pleasant houses which +were opened to him; or the town before him for amusement. There was the +Opera; or the Eagle Tavern; or a ball to go to in Mayfair; or a quiet +night with a cigar and a book and a long talk with Warrington; or a +wonderful new song at the Back Kitchen;--at this time of his life Mr. +Pen beheld all sorts of places and men; and very likely did not know +how much he enjoyed himself until long after, when balls gave him no +pleasure, neither did farces make him laugh; nor did the tavern joke +produce the least excitement in him; nor did the loveliest dancer that +ever showed her ankles cause him to stir from his chair after dinner. At +his present mature age all these pleasures are over: and the times have +passed away too. It is but a very very few years since--but the time is +gone, and most of the men. Bludyer will no more bully authors or cheat +landlords of their score. Shandon, the learned and thriftless, the witty +and unwise, sleeps his last sleep. They buried honest Doolan the other +day: never will he cringe or flatter, never pull long-bow or empty +whisky-noggin any more. + +The London season was now blooming in its full vigour, and the +fashionable newspapers abounded with information regarding the grand +banquets, routs, and balls which were enlivening the polite world. Our +gracious Sovereign was holding levees and drawing-rooms at St. James's: +the bow-windows of the clubs were crowded with the heads of respectable +red-faced newspaper-reading gentlemen: along the Serpentine trailed +thousands of carriages: squadrons of dandy horsemen trampled over +Rotten Row, everybody was in town, in a word; and of course Major Arthur +Pendennis, who was somebody, was not absent. + +With his head tied up in a smart bandana handkerchief and his meagre +carcass enveloped in a brilliant Turkish dressing-gown, the worthy +gentleman sate on a certain morning by his fireside letting his feet +gently simmer in a bath, whilst he took his early cup of tea, and +perused his Morning Post. He could not have faced the day without his +two hours' toilet, without his early cup of tea, without his Morning +Post. I suppose nobody in the world except Morgan, not even Morgan's +master himself, knew how feeble and ancient the Major was growing, and +what numberless little comforts he required. + +If men sneer, as our habit is, at the artifices of an old beauty, at +her paint, perfumes, ringlets; at those innumerable, and to us unknown, +stratagems with which she is said to remedy the ravages of time and +reconstruct the charms whereof years have bereft her; the ladies, it is +to be presumed, are not on their side altogether ignorant that men are +vain as well as they, and that the toilets of old bucks are to the full +as elaborate as their own. How is it that old Blushington keeps that +constant little rose-tint on his cheeks; and where does old Blondel get +the preparation which makes his silver hair pass for golden? Have +you ever seen Lord Hotspur get off his horse when he thinks nobody is +looking? Taken out of his stirrups, his shiny boots can hardly totter up +the steps of Hotspur House. He is a dashing young nobleman still as you +see the back of him in Rotten Row; when you behold him on foot, what +an old, old fellow! Did you ever form to yourself any idea of Dick Lacy +(Dick has been Dick these sixty years) in a natural state, and without +his stays? All these men are objects whom the observer of human life +and manners may contemplate with as much profit as the most elderly +Belgravian Venus, or inveterate Mayfair Jezebel. An old reprobate +daddy-longlegs, who has never said his prayers (except perhaps in +public) these fifty years: an old buck who still clings to as many of +the habits of youth as his feeble grasp of health can hold by: who has +given up the bottle, but sits with young fellows over it, and tells +naughty stories upon toast-and-water--who has given up beauty, but still +talks about it as wickedly as the youngest roue in company--such an old +fellow, I say, if any parson in Pimlico or St. James's were to order +the beadles to bring him into the middle aisle, and there set him in +an armchair, and make a text of him, and preach about him to the +congregation, could be turned to a wholesome use for once in his life, +and might be surprised to find that some good thoughts came out of him. +But we are wandering from our text, the honest Major, who sits all this +while with his feet cooling in the bath: Morgan takes them out of that +place of purification, and dries them daintily, and proceeds to set the +old gentleman on his legs, with waistband and wig, starched cravat, and +spotless boots and gloves. + +It was during these hours of the toilet that Morgan and his employer had +their confidential conversations, for they did not meet much at other +times of the day--the Major abhorring the society of his own chairs and +tables in his lodgings; and Morgan, his master's toilet over and letters +delivered, had his time very much on his own hands. + +This spare time the active and well-mannered gentleman bestowed among +the valets and butlers of the nobility, his acquaintance; and Morgan +Pendennis, as he was styled, for, by such compound names, gentlemen's +gentlemen are called in their private circles, was a frequent and +welcome guest at some of the very highest tables in this town. He was a +member of two influential clubs in Mayfair and Pimlico; and he was thus +enabled to know the whole gossip of the town, and entertain his master +very agreeably during the two hours' toilet conversation. He knew a +hundred tales and legends regarding persons of the very highest ton, +whose valets canvass their august secrets, just, my dear Madam, as our +own parlour-maids and dependants in the kitchen discuss our characters, +our stinginess and generosity, our pecuniary means or embarrassments, +and our little domestic or connubial tiffs and quarrels. If I leave this +manuscript open on my table, I have not the slightest doubt Betty will +read it, and they will talk it over in the lower regions to-night; and +to-morrow she will bring in my breakfast with a face of such entire +imperturbable innocence, that no mortal could suppose her guilty +of playing the spy. If you and the Captain have high words upon any +subject, which is just possible, the circumstances of the quarrel, +and the characters of both of you, will be discussed with impartial +eloquence over the kitchen tea-table; and if Mrs. Smith's maid should +by chance be taking a dish of tea with yours, her presence will not +undoubtedly act as a restraint upon the discussion in question; her +opinion will be given with candour; and the next day her mistress will +probably know that Captain and Mrs. Jones have been a quarrelling as +usual. Nothing is secret. Take it as a rule that John knows everything: +and as in our humble world so in the greatest: a duke is no more a hero +to his valet-de-chambre than you or I; and his Grace's Man at his club, +in company doubtless with other Men of equal social rank, talks over +his master's character and affairs with the ingenuous truthfulness which +befits gentlemen who are met together in confidence. Who is a niggard +and screws up his money-boxes: who is in the hands of the money-lenders, +and is putting his noble name on the back of bills of exchange: who +is intimate with whose wife: who wants whom to marry her daughter, +and which he won't, no not at any price:--all these facts gentlemen's +confidential gentlemen discuss confidentially, and are known and +examined by every person who has any claim to rank in genteel society. +In a word, if old Pendennis himself was said to know everything, and +was at once admirably scandalous and delightfully discreet; it is but +justice to Morgan to say, that a great deal of his master's information +was supplied to that worthy man by his valet, who went out and foraged +knowledge for him. Indeed, what more effectual plan is there to get a +knowledge of London society, than to begin at the foundation--that is, +at the kitchen floor? + +So Mr. Morgan and his employer conversed as the latter's toilet +proceeded. There had been a drawing-room on the previous day, and +the Major read among the presentations that of Lady Clavering by Lady +Rockminster, and of Miss Amory by her mother Lady Clavering,--and in a +further part of the paper their dresses were described, with a precision +and in a jargon which will puzzle and amuse the antiquary of future +generations. The sight of these names carried Pendennis back to the +country. "How long have the Claverings been in London?" he asked; "pray, +Morgan, have you seen any of their people?" + +"Sir Francis have sent away his foring man, sir," Mr. Morgan replied; +"and have took a friend of mine as own man, sir. Indeed he applied on +my reckmendation. You may recklect Towler, sir,--tall red-aired man--but +dyes his air. Was groom of the chambers in Lord Levant's family till his +Lordship broke hup. It's a fall for Towler, sir; but pore men can't be +particklar," said the valet, with a pathetic voice. + +"Devilish hard on Towler, by gad!" said the Major, amused, "and not +pleasant for Lord Levant--he, he!" + +"Always knew it was coming, sir. I spoke to you of it Michaelmas was +four years: when her Ladyship put the diamonds in pawn. It was Towler, +sir, took 'em in two cabs to Dobree's--and a good deal of the plate went +the same way. Don't you remember seeing of it at Blackwall, with the +Levant arms and coronick, and Lord Levant settn oppsit to it at the +Marquis of Steyne's dinner? Beg your pardon; did I cut you, sir?" + +Morgan was now operating upon the Major's chin--he continued the theme +while strapping the skilful razor. "They've took a house in Grosvenor +Place, and are coming out strong, sir. Her Ladyship's going to give +three parties, besides a dinner a week, sir. Her fortune won't stand +it--can't stand it." + +"Gad, she had a devilish good cook when I was at Fairoaks," the Major +said, with very little compassion for the widow Amory's fortune. + +"Marobblan was his name, sir; Marobblan's gone away, sir," Morgan +said,--and the Major, this time, with hearty sympathy, said, "he was +devilish sorry to lose him." + +"There's been a tremenjuous row about that Mosseer Marobblan," +Morgan continued "At a ball at Baymouth, sir, bless his impadence, he +challenged Mr. Harthur to fight a jewel, sir, which Mr. Arthur was +very near knocking him down, and pitchin' him outawinder, and serve him +right; but Chevalier Strong, sir, came up and stopped the shindy--I beg +pardon, the holtercation, sir--them French cooks has as much pride and +hinsolence as if they was real gentlemen." + +"I heard something of that quarrel," said the Major; "but Mirobolant was +not turned off for that?" + +"No, sir--that affair, sir, which Mr. Harthur forgave it him and beayved +most handsome, was hushed hup: it was about Miss Hamory, sir, that he +ad is dismissial. Those French fellers, they fancy everybody is in love +with 'em; and he climbed up the large grape vine to her winder, sir, +and was a trying to get in, when he was caught, sir; and Mr. Strong came +out, and they got the garden-engine and played on him, and there was no +end of a row, sir." + +"Confound his impudence! You don't mean to say Miss Amory encouraged +him," cried the Major, amazed at a peculiar expression in Mr. Morgan's +countenance. + +Morgan resumed his imperturbable demeanour. "Know nothing about it, sir. +Servants don't know them kind of things the least. Most probbly there +was nothing in it--so many lies is told about families--Marobblan went +away, bag and baggage, saucepans, and pianna, and all--the feller ad a +pianna, and wrote potry in French, and he took a lodging at Clavering, +and he hankered about the primises, and it was said that Madam Fribsy, +the milliner, brought letters to Miss Hamory, though I don't believe a +word about it; nor that he tried to pison hisself with charcoal, which +it was all a humbug betwigst him and Madam Fribsy; and he was nearly +shot by the keeper in the park." + +In the course of that very day, it chanced that the Major had stationed +himself in the great window of Bays's Club in Saint James's Street, at +the hour in the afternoon when you see a half-score of respectable old +bucks similarly recreating themselves (Bays's is rather an old-fashioned +place of resort now, and many of its members more than middle-aged; but +in the time of the Prince Regent, these old fellows occupied the +same window, and were some of the very greatest dandies in this +empire)--Major Pendennis was looking from the great window, and spied +his nephew Arthur walking down the street in company with his friend Mr. +Popjoy. + +"Look!" said Popjoy to Pen, as they passed, "did you ever pass Bays's +at four o'clock, without seeing that collection of old fogies? It's +a regular museum. They ought to be cast in wax, and set up at Madame +Tussaud's--" + +"--In a chamber of old horrors by themselves," Pen said, laughing. + +"--In the chamber of horrors! Gad, doosid good!" Pop cried. "They are +old rogues, most of 'em, and no mistake. There's old Blondel; there's +my Uncle Colchicum, the most confounded old sinner in Europe; +there's--hullo! there's somebody rapping the window and nodding at us." + +"It's my uncle, the Major," said Pen. "Is he an old sinner too?" + +"Notorious old rogue," Pop said, wagging his head. ("Notowious old +wogue," he pronounced the words, thereby rendering them much more +emphatic.)--"He's beckoning you in; he wants to speak to you." + +"Come in too," Pen said. + +"--Can't," replied the other. "Cut uncle Col. two years ago, about +Mademoiselle Frangipane--Ta, ta," and the young sinner took leave +of Pen, and the club of the elder criminals, and sauntered into +Blacquiere's, an adjacent establishment, frequented by reprobates of his +own age. + +Colchicum, Blondel, and the senior bucks had just been conversing about +the Clavering family, whose appearance in London had formed the subject +of Major Pendennis's morning conversation with his valet. Mr. Blondel's +house was next to that of Sir Francis Clavering, in Grosvenor Place: +giving very good dinners himself, he had remarked some activity in his +neighbour's kitchen. Sir Francis, indeed, had a new chef, who had +come in more than once and dressed Mr. Blondel's dinner for him; that +gentleman having only a remarkably expert female artist permanently +engaged in his establishment, and employing such chiefs of note as +happened to be free on the occasion of his grand banquets. "They go to +a devilish expense and see devilish bad company as yet, I hear," Mr. +Blondel said, "they scour the streets, by gad, to get people to dine +with 'em. Champignon says it breaks his heart to serve up a dinner to +their society. What a shame it is that those low people should have +money at all," cried Mr. Blondel, whose grandfather had been a reputable +leather-breeches maker, and whose father had lent money to the Princes. + +"I wish I had fallen in with the widow myself" sighed Lord Colchicum, +"and not been laid up with that confounded gout at Leghorn--I would have +married the woman myself.--I'm told she has six hundred thousand pounds +in the Threes." + +"Not quite so much as that,--I knew her family in India,"--Major +Pendennis said, "I knew her family in India; her father was an +enormously rich old indigo-planter,--know all about her;--Clavering has +the next estate to ours in the country.--Ha! there's my nephew walking +with"--"With mine,--the infernal young scamp," said Lord Colchicum +glowering at Popjoy out of his heavy eyebrows; and he turned away from +the window as Major Pendennis tapped upon it. + +The Major was in high good-humour. The sun was bright, the air brisk and +invigorating. He had determined upon a visit to Lady Clavering on that +day, and bethought him that Arthur would be a good companion for the +walk across the Green Park to her ladyship's door. Master Pen was not +displeased to accompany his illustrious relative, who pointed out a +dozen great men in that brief transit through St. James's Street, and +got bows from a Duke at a crossing, a Bishop (on a cob), and a Cabinet +Minister with an umbrella. The Duke gave the elder Pendennis a finger +of a pipe-clayed glove to shake, which the Major embraced with great +veneration; and all Pen's blood tingled as he found himself in actual +communication, as it were, with this famous man (for Pen had possession +of the Major's left arm, whilst the gentleman's other wing was engaged +with his Grace's right) and he wished all Grey Friars' School, all +Oxbridge University, all Paternoster Row and the Temple and Laura and +his mother at Fairoaks, could be standing on each side of the street, to +see the meeting between him and his uncle, and the most famous duke in +Christendom. + +"How do, Pendennis?--fine day," were his Grace's remarkable words, and +with a nod of his august head he passed on--in a blue frock-coat and +spotless white duck trousers, in a white stock, with a shining buckle +behind. + +Old Pendennis, whose likeness to his Grace has been remarked, began to +imitate him unconsciously, after they had parted, speaking with curt +sentences, after the manner of the great man. We have all of us, no +doubt, met with more than one military officer who has so imitated the +manner of a certain great Captain of the Age; and has, perhaps, changed +his own natural character and disposition, because Fate had endowed him +with an aquiline nose. In like manner have we not seen many another man +pride himself on having a tall forehead and a supposed likeness to Mr. +Canning? many another go through life swelling with self-gratification +on account of an imagined resemblance (we say "imagined," because that +anybody should be really like that most beautiful and perfect of men is +impossible) to the great and revered George IV.: many third parties, who +wore low necks to their dresses because they fancied that Lord Byron and +themselves were similar in appearance: and has not the grave closed but +lately upon poor Tom Bickerstaff, who having no more imagination +than Mr. Joseph Hume, looked in the glass and fancied himself like +Shakspeare? shaved his forehead so as farther to resemble the immortal +bard, wrote tragedies incessantly, and died perfectly crazy--actually +perished of his forehead? These or similar freaks of vanity most people +who have frequented the world must have seen in their experience. Pen +laughed in his roguish sleeve at the manner in which his uncle began to +imitate the great man from whom they had just parted but Mr. Pen was as +vain in his own way, perhaps, as the elder gentleman, and strutted, with +a very consequential air of his own, by the Major's side. + +"Yes, my dear boy," said the old bachelor, as they sauntered through +the Green Park, where many poor children were disporting happily, and +errand-boys were playing at toss-halfpenny, and black sheep were grazing +in the sunshine, and an actor was learning his part on a bench, and +nursery-maids and their charges sauntered here and there, and several +couples were walking in a leisurely manner; "yes, depend on it, my boy; +for a poor man, there is nothing like having good acquaintances. Who +were those men, with whom you saw me in the bow-window at Bays's? +Two were Peers of the realm. Hobananob will be a Peer, as soon as his +grand-uncle dies, and he has had his third seizure; and of the other +four, not one has less than his seven thousand a year. Did you see that +dark blue brougham, with that tremendous stepping horse, waiting at the +door of the club? You'll know it again. It is Sir Hugh Trumpington's; +he was never known to walk in his life; never appears in the streets on +foot--never: and if he is going two doors off, to see his mother, the +old dowager (to whom I shall certainly introduce you, for she receives +some of the best company in London), gad, sir--he mounts his horse at +No. 23, and dismounts again at No. 25 A. He is now upstairs, at Bays's, +playing picquet with Count Punter: he is the second-best player in +England--as well he may be; for he plays every day of his life, except +Sundays (for Sir Hugh is an uncommonly religious man) from half-past +three till half-past seven, when he dresses for dinner. + +"A very pious manner of spending his time," Pen said, laughing and +thinking that his uncle was falling into the twaddling state. + +"Gad, sir, that is not the question. A man of his estate may employ his +time as he chooses. When you are a baronet, a county member, with +ten thousand acres of the best land in Cheshire, and such a place as +Trumpington (though he never goes there), you may do as you like." + +"And so that was his brougham, sir, was it?" the nephew said with almost +a sneer. + +"His brougham--O ay, yes!--and that brings me back to my point--revenons +a nos moutons. Yes, begad! revenons a nous moutons. Well, that brougham +is mine if I choose, between four and seven. Just as much mine as if I +jobbed it from Tilbury's, begad, for thirty pound a month. Sir Hugh is +the best natured fellow in the world; and if it hadn't been so fine an +afternoon as it is, you and I would have been in that brougham at +this very minute on our way to Grosvenor Place. That is the benefit of +knowing rich men;--I dine for nothing, sir;--I go into the country, and +I'm mounted for nothing. Other fellows keep hounds and gamekeepers for +me. Sic vos, non vobis, as we used to say at Grey Friars, hey? I'm of +the opinion of my old friend Leech, of the Forty-fourth; and a devilish +good shrewd fellow he was, as most Scotchmen are. Gad, sir, Leech used +to say, 'He was so poor that he couldn't afford to know a poor man.'" + +"You don't act up to your principles, uncle," Pen said good-naturedly. + +"Up to my principles; how, sir?" the Major asked, rather testily. + +"You would have cut me in Saint James's Street, sir," Pen said, "were +your practice not more benevolent than your theory; you who live with +dukes and magnates of the land, and would take no notice of a poor devil +like me." By which speech we may see that Mr. Pen was getting on in the +world, and could flatter as well as laugh in his sleeve. + +Major Pendennis was appeased instantly, and very much pleased. He +tapped affectionately his nephew's arm on which he was leaning, and +said,--"you, sir, you are my flesh and blood! Hang it, sir, I've been +very proud of you and very fond of you, but for your confounded follies +and extravagances--and wild oats, sir, which I hope you've sown 'em. +I hope you've sown 'em; begad! My object, Arthur, is to make a man of +you--to see you well placed in the world, as becomes one of your name +and my own, sir. You have got yourself a little reputation by your +literary talents, which I am very far from undervaluing, though in my +time, begad, poetry and genius and that sort of thing were devilish +disreputable. There was poor Byron, for instance, who ruined +himself, and contracted the worst habits by living with poets and +newspaper-writers, and people of that kind: But the times are changed +now--there's a run upon literature--clever fellows get into the best +houses in town, begad! Tempora mutantur, sir; and by Jove, I suppose +whatever is is right, as Shakspeare says." + +Pen did not think fit to tell his uncle who was the author who had made +use of that remarkable phrase, and here descending from the Green Park, +the pair made their way into Grosvenor Place, and to the door of the +mansion occupied there by Sir Francis and Lady Clavering. + +The dining-room shutters of this handsome mansion were freshly gilded; +the knockers shone gorgeous upon the newly painted door; the balcony +before the drawing-room bloomed with a portable garden of the most +beautiful plants, and with flowers, white, and pink, and scarlet; the +windows of the upper room (the sacred chamber and dressing-room of my +lady, doubtless), and even a pretty little casement of the third story, +which keen-sighted Mr. Pen presumed to belong to the virgin bedroom of +Miss Blanche Amory, were similarly adorned with floral ornaments, and +the whole exterior face of the house presented the most brilliant aspect +which fresh new paint, shining plate-glass, newly cleaned bricks, and +spotless mortar, could offer to the beholder. + +"How Strong must have rejoiced in organising all this splendour," +thought Pen. He recognised the Chevalier's genius in the magnificence +before him. + +"Lady Clavering is going out for her drive," the Major said. "We +shall only have to leave our pasteboards, Arthur." He used the word +'pasteboards,' having heard it from some of the ingenuous youth of +the nobility about town, and as a modern phrase suited to Pen's tender +years. Indeed, as the two gentlemen reached the door, a landau drove up, +a magnificent yellow carriage, lined with brocade or satin of a faint +cream colour, drawn by wonderful grey horses, with flaming ribbons, +and harness blazing all over with crests: no less than three of these +heraldic emblems surmounted the coats-of-arms on the panels, and these +shields contained a prodigious number of quarterings, betokening the +antiquity and splendour of the house of Clavering and Snell. A coachman +in a tight silver wig surmounted the magnificent hammer-cloth (whereon +the same arms were worked in bullion), and controlled the prancing +greys--a young man still, but of a solemn countenance, with a laced +waistcoat and buckles in his shoes--little buckles, unlike those which +John and Jeames, the footmen, wear, and which we know are large, and +spread elegantly over the foot. + +One of the leaves of the hall door was opened, and John--one of the +largest of his race--was leaning against the door-pillar with his +ambrosial hair powdered, his legs crossed; beautiful, silk-stockinged; +in his hand his cane, gold-headed, dolichoskion. Jeames was invisible, +but near at hand, waiting in the hall, with the gentleman who does not +wear livery, and ready to fling down the roll of hair-cloth over which +her ladyship was to step to her carriage. These things and men, the +which to tell of demands time, are seen in the glance of a practised +eye: and, in fact, the Major and Pen had scarcely crossed the street, +when the second battant of the door flew open; the horse-hair carpet +tumbled down the door-steps to those of the carriage; John was opening +it on one side of the emblazoned door, and Jeames on the other, the two +ladies, attired in the highest style of fashion, and accompanied by a +third, who carried a Blenheim spaniel, yelping in a light blue ribbon, +came forth to ascend the carriage. + +Miss Amory was the first to enter, which she did with aerial lightness, +and took the place which she liked best. Lady Clavering next followed, +but her ladyship was more mature of age and heavy of foot, and one of +those feet, attired in a green satin boot, with some part of a stocking, +which was very fine, whatever the ankle might be which it encircled, +might be seen swaying on the carriage-step, as her ladyship leaned for +support on the arm of the unbending Jeames, by the enraptured observer +of female beauty who happened to be passing at the time of this imposing +ceremonial. + +The Pendennises senior and junior beheld those charms as they came up to +the door--the Major looking grave and courtly, and Pen somewhat abashed +at the carriage and its owners; for he thought of sundry little passages +at Clavering, which made his heart beat rather quick. + +At that moment Lady Clavering, looking round the pair,--she was on +the first carriage-step, and would have been in the vehicle in another +second, but she gave a start backwards (which caused some of the powder +to fly from the hair of ambrosial Jeames), and crying out, "Lor, if it +isn't Arthur Pendennis and the old Major!" jumped back to terra +firma directly, and holding out two fat hands, encased in tight +orange-coloured gloves, the good-natured woman warmly greeted the Major +and his nephew. + +"Come in both of you.--Why haven't you been before?--Get out, Blanche, +and come and see your old friends.--O, I'm so glad to see you. We've +been waitin and waitin for you ever so long. Come in, luncheon ain't +gone down," cried out this hospitable lady, squeezing Pen's hand in both +hers (she had dropped the Major's after a brief wrench of recognition), +and Blanche, casting up her eyes towards the chimneys, descended from +the carriage presently, with a timid, blushing, appealing look, and gave +a little hand to Major Pendennis. + +The companion with the spaniel looked about irresolute, and doubting +whether she should not take Fido his airing; but she too turned right +about face and entered the house, after Lady Clavering, her daughter, +and the two gentlemen. And the carriage, with the prancing greys, was +left unoccupied, save by the coachman in the silver wig. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. In which the Sylph reappears + + +Better folks than Morgan, the valet, were not so well instructed as +that gentleman, regarding the amount of Lady Clavering's riches; and the +legend in London, upon her Ladyship's arrival in the polite metropolis, +was, that her fortune was enormous. Indigo factories, opium clippers, +banks overflowing with rupees, diamonds and jewels of native princes, +and vast sums of interest paid by them for loans contracted by +themselves or their predecessors to Lady Clavering's father, were +mentioned as sources of her wealth. Her account at her London banker's +was positively known, and the sum embraced so many cyphers as to create +as many O's of admiration in the wondering hearer. It was a known fact +that an envoy from an Indian Prince, a Colonel Altamont, the Nawaub of +Lucknow's prime favourite, an extraordinary man, who had, it was said, +embraced Mahometanism, and undergone a thousand wild and perilous +adventures was at present in this country, trying to negotiate with the +Begum Clavering, the sale of the Nawaub's celebrated nose-ring diamond, +'the light of the Dewan.' + +Under the title of the Begum, Lady Clavering's fame began to spread in +London before she herself descended upon the Capital, and as it has been +the boast of Delolme, and Blackstone, and all panegyrists of the British +Constitution, that we admit into our aristocracy merit of every kind, +and that the lowliest-born man, if he but deserve it, may wear the robes +of a peer, and sit alongside of a Cavendish or a Stanley: so it ought to +be the boast of our good society, that haughty though it be, naturally +jealous of its privileges, and careful who shall be admitted into its +circle, yet, if an individual be but rich enough, all barriers are +instantly removed, and he or she is welcomed, as from his wealth he +merits to be. This fact shows our British independence and honest +feeling--our higher orders are not such mere haughty aristocrats as the +ignorant represent them: on the contrary, if a man have money they will +hold out their hands to him, eat his dinners, dance at his balls, marry +his daughters, or give their own lovely girls to his sons, as affably as +your commonest roturier would do. + +As he had superintended the arrangements of the country mansion, our +friend, the Chevalier Strong, gave the benefit of his taste and advice +to the fashionable London upholsterers, who prepared the town house for +the reception of the Clavering family. In the decoration of this elegant +abode, honest Strong's soul rejoiced as much as if he had been himself +its proprietor. He hung and re-hung the pictures, he studied the +positions of sofas, he had interviews with wine merchants and purveyors +who were to supply the new establishment; and at the same time the +Baronet's factotum and confidential friend took the opportunity of +furnishing his own chambers, and stocking his snug little cellar: his +friends complimented him upon the neatness of the former; and the +select guests who came in to share Strong's cutlet now found a bottle +of excellent claret to accompany the meal. The Chevalier was now, as he +said, "in clover:" he had a very comfortable set of rooms in Shepherd's +Inn. He was waited on by a former Spanish Legionary and comrade of his +whom he had left at a breach of a Spanish fort, and found at a crossing +in Tottenham-court Road, and whom he had elevated to the rank of +body-servant to himself and to the chum who, at present, shared his +lodgings. This was no other than the favourite of the Nawaub of Lucknow, +the valiant Colonel Altamont. + +No man was less curious, or at any rate, more discreet, than Ned Strong, +and he did not care to inquire into the mysterious connexion which, very +soon after their first meeting at Baymouth was established between Sir +Francis Clavering and the envoy of the Nawaub. The latter knew some +secret regarding the former, which put Clavering into his power, +somehow; and Strong, who knew that his patron's early life had been +rather irregular, and that his career with his regiment in India had not +been brilliant, supposed that the Colonel, who swore he knew Clavering +well at Calcutta, had some hold upon Sir Francis, to which the latter +was forced to yield. In truth, Strong had long understood Sir Francis +Clavering's character, as that of a man utterly weak in purpose, in +principle, and intellect, a moral and physical trifler and poltroon. + +With poor Clavering, his Excellency had had one or two interviews after +their Baymouth meeting, the nature of which conversations the Baronet +did not confide to Strong: although he sent letters to Altamont by that +gentleman, who was his ambassador in all sorts of affairs. On one of +these occasions the Nawaub's envoy must have been in an exceeding ill +humour; for he crushed Clavering's letter in his hand, and said with his +own particular manner and emphasis:-- + +"A hundred, be hanged. I'll have no more letters nor no more +shilly-shally. Tell Clavering I'll have a thousand, or by Jove I'll +split, and burst him all to atoms. Let him give me a thousand and I'll +go abroad, and I give you my honour as a gentleman, I'll not ask him for +no more for a year. Give him that message from me, Strong, my boy; and +tell him if the money ain't here next Friday at twelve o'clock, as +sure as my name's what it is, I'll have a paragraph in the newspaper on +Saturday, and next week I'll blow up the whole concern." + +Strong carried back these words to his principal, on whom their effect +was such that actually on the day and hour appointed, the Chevalier made +his appearance once more at Altamont's hotel at Baymouth, with the sum +of money required. Altamont was a gentleman, he said, and behaved as +such; he paid his bill at the Inn, and the Baymouth paper announced his +departure on a foreign tour. Strong saw him embark at Dover. "It must +be forgery at the very least," he thought, "that has put Clavering into +this fellow's power, and the Colonel has got the bill." + +Before the year was out, however, this happy country saw the Colonel +once more upon its shores. A confounded run on the red had finished +him, he said, at Baden Baden: no gentleman could stand against a colour +coming up fourteen times. He had been obliged to draw upon Sir Francis +Clavering for means of returning home: and Clavering, though pressed for +money (for he had election expenses, had set up his establishment in the +country and was engaged in furnishing his London house), yet found means +to accept Colonel Altamont's bill, though evidently very much against +his will; for in Strong's hearing, Sir Francis wished to heaven, with +many curses, that the Colonel could have been locked up in a debtor's +goal in Germany for life, so that he might never be troubled again. + +These sums for the Colonel Sir Francis was obliged to raise without the +knowledge of his wife; for though perfectly liberal, nay, sumptuous in +her expenditure, the good lady had inherited a tolerable aptitude for +business along with the large fortune of her father, Snell, and gave +to her husband only such a handsome allowance as she thought befitted +a gentleman of his rank. Now and again she would give him a present, +or pay an outstanding gambling debt; but she always exacted a pretty +accurate account of the moneys so required; and respecting the subsidies +to the Colonel, Clavering fairly told Strong that he couldn't speak to +his wife. + +Part of Mr. Strong's business in life was to procure this money and +other sums, for his patron. And in the Chevalier's apartments, in +Shepherd's Inn, many negotiations took place between gentlemen of the +moneyed world and Sir Francis Clavering, and many valuable bank-notes +and pieces of stamped paper were passed between them. When a man has +been in the habit of getting in debt from his early youth, and of +exchanging his promises to pay at twelve months against present sums +of money, it would seem as if no piece of good fortune ever permanently +benefited him: a little while after the advent of prosperity, the +money-lender is pretty certain to be in the house again, and the bills +with the old signature in the market. Clavering found it more convenient +to see these gentry at Strong's lodgings than at his own; and such was +the Chevalier's friendship for the Baronet that although he did not +possess a shilling of his own, his name might be seen as the drawer of +almost all the bills of exchange which Sir Francis Clavering accepted. +Having drawn Clavering's bills, he got them discounted "in the City." +When they became due he parleyed with the bill-holders, and gave +them instalments of their debt, or got time in exchange for fresh +acceptances. Regularly or irregularly, gentlemen must live somehow: +and as we read how, the other day, at Comorn, the troops forming that +garrison were gay and lively, acted plays, danced at balls, and consumed +their rations; though menaced with an assault from the enemy without the +walls, and with a gallows if the Austrians were successful,--so there +are hundreds of gallant spirits in this town, walking about in good +spirits, dining every day in tolerable gaiety and plenty, and going to +sleep comfortably; with a bailiff always more or less near, and a +rope of debt round their necks--the which trifling inconveniences, Ned +Strong, the old soldier, bore very easily. + +But we shall have another opportunity of making acquaintance with these +and some other interesting inhabitants of Shepherd's Inn, and in the +meanwhile are keeping Lady Clavering and her friends too long waiting on +the door-steps of Grosvenor Place. + +First they went into the gorgeous dining-room, fitted up, Lady Clavering +couldn't for goodness gracious tell why, in the middle-aged style, +"unless," said her good-natured ladyship, laughing, "because me and +Clavering are middle-aged people;"--and here they were offered the +copious remains of the luncheon of which Lady Clavering and Blanche had +just partaken. When nobody was near, our little Sylphide, who scarcely +ate at dinner more than the six grains of rice of Amina, the friend of +the Ghouls in the Arabian Nights, was most active with her knife and +fork, and consumed a very substantial portion of mutton cutlets: in +which piece of hypocrisy it is believed she resembled other young ladies +of fashion. Pen and his uncle declined the refection, but they admired +the dining-room with fitting compliments, and pronounced it "very +chaste," that being the proper phrase. There were, indeed, high-backed +Dutch chairs of the seventeenth century; there was a sculptured carved +buffet of the sixteenth; there was a sideboard robbed out of the carved +work of a church in the Low Countries, and a large brass cathedral lamp +over the round oak table; there were old family portraits from Wardour +Street and tapestry from France, bits of armour, double-handed swords +and battle-axes made of carton-pierre, looking-glasses, statuettes of +saints, and Dresden china--nothing, in a word, could be chaster. Behind +the dining-room was the library, fitted with busts and books all of +a size, and wonderful easy-chairs, and solemn bronzes in the severe +classic style. Here it was that, guarded by double doors, Sir Francis +smoked cigars, and read Bell's Life in London, and went to sleep after +dinner, when he was not smoking over the billiard-table at his clubs, or +punting at the gambling-houses in Saint James's. + +But what could equal the chaste splendour of the drawing-rooms?--the +carpets were so magnificently fluffy that your foot made no more noise +on them than your shadow: on their white ground bloomed roses and tulips +as big as warming-pans: about the room were high chairs and low chairs, +bandy-legged chairs, chairs so attenuated that it was a wonder any but +a sylph could sit upon them, marquetterie-tables covered with marvellous +gimcracks, china ornaments of all ages and countries, bronzes, gilt +daggers, Books of Beauty, yataghans, Turkish papooshes and boxes of +Parisian bonbons. Wherever you sate down there were Dresden shepherds +and shepherdesses convenient at your elbow; there were, moreover, light +blue poodles and ducks and cocks and hens in porcelain; there were +nymphs by Boucher, and shepherdesses by Greuze, very chaste indeed; +there were muslin curtains and brocade curtains, gilt cages with +parroquets and love-birds, two squealing cockatoos, each out-squealing +and out-chattering the other; a clock singing tunes on a console-table, +and another booming the hours like Great Tom, on the mantelpiece--there +was, in a word, everything that comfort could desire, and the most +elegant taste devise. A London drawing-room, fitted up without regard +to expense, is surely one of the noblest and most curious sights of the +present day. The Romans of the Lower Empire, the dear Marchionesses and +Countesses of Louis XV., could scarcely have had a finer taste than our +modern folks exhibit; and everybody who saw Lady Clavering's reception +rooms, was forced to confess that they were most elegant; and that the +prettiest rooms in London--Lady Harley Quin's, Lady Hanway Wardour's, +or Mrs. Hodge-Podgson's own; the great Railroad Croesus' wife, were not +fitted up with a more consummate "chastity." + +Poor Lady Clavering, meanwhile, knew little regarding these things, and +had a sad want of respect for the splendours around her. "I only know +they cost a precious deal of money, Major," she said to her guest, "and +that I don't advise you to try one of them gossamer gilt chairs: I came +down on one the night we gave our second dinner-party. Why didn't you +come and see us before? We'd have asked you to it." + +"You would have liked to see Mamma break a chair, wouldn't you, Mr. +Pendennis?" dear Blanche said with a sneer. She was angry because Pen +was talking and laughing with Mamma, because Mamma had made a number of +blunders in describing the house--for a hundred other good reasons. + +"I should like to have been by to give Lady Clavering my arm if she had +need of it," Pen answered, with a bow and a blush. + +"Quel preux Chevalier!" cried the Sylphide, tossing up her little head. + +"I have a fellow-feeling with those who fall, remember," Pen said. "I +suffered myself very much from doing so once." + +"And you went home to Laura to console you," said Miss Amory. Pen +winced. He did not like the remembrance of the consolation which Laura +had given to him, nor was he very well pleased to find that his rebuff +in that quarter was known to the world; so as he had nothing to say in +reply, he began to be immensely interested in the furniture round about +him, and to praise Lady Clavering's taste with all his might. + +"No, don't praise me," said honest Lady Clavering, "it's all the +upholsterer's doings and Captain Strong's, they did it all while we +was at the Park--and--and--Lady Rockminster has been here and says the +salongs are very well," said Lady Clavering, with an air and tone of +great deference. + +"My cousin Laura has been staying with her," Pen said. + +"It's not the dowager: it is the Lady Rockminster." + +"Indeed!" cried Major Pendennis, when he heard this great name of +fashion. "If you have her ladyship's approval, Lady Clavering, you +cannot be far wrong. No, no, you cannot be far wrong. Lady Rockminster, +I should say, Arthur, is the very centre of the circle of fashion and +taste. The rooms are beautiful indeed!" and the Major's voice hushed +as he spoke of this great lady, and he looked round and surveyed the +apartments awfully and respectfully, as if he had been at church. + +"Yes, Lady Rockminster has took us up," said Lady Clavering. + +"Taken us up, Mamma," cried Blanche, in a shrill voice. + +"Well, taken us up, then," said my lady; "it's very kind of her, and +I dare say we shall like it when we git used to it, only at first one +don't fancy being took--well, taken up, at all. She is going to give +our balls for us; and wants to invite all our dinners. But I won't stand +that. I will have my old friends and I won't let her send all the cards +out, and sit mum at the head of my own table. You must come to me, +Arthur and Major--come, let me see, on the 14th.--It ain't one of our +grand dinners, Blanche," she said, looking round at her daughter, who +bit her lips and frowned very savagely for a sylphide. + +The Major, with a smile and a bow, said he would much rather come to a +quiet meeting than to a grand dinner. He had had enough of those large +entertainments, and preferred the simplicity of the home circle. + +"I always think a dinner's the best the second day," said Lady +Clavering, thinking to mend her first speech. "On the 14th we'll be +quite a snug little party;" at which second blunder, Miss Blanche +clasped her hands in despair, and said "O, mamma, vous etes +incorrigible." Major Pendennis vowed that he liked snug dinners of all +things in the world, and confounded her ladyship's impudence for daring +to ask such a man as him to a second day's dinner. But he was a man of +an economical turn of mind, and bethinking himself that he could throw +over these people if anything better should offer, he accepted with +the blandest air. As for Pen, he was not a diner-out of thirty years' +standing as yet, and the idea of a fine feast in a fine house was still +perfectly welcome to him. + +"What was that pretty little quarrel which engaged itself between your +worship and Miss Amory?" the Major asked of Pen, as they walked away +together. "I thought you used to au mieux in that quarter." + +"Used to be," answered Pen, with a dandified air "is a vague phrase +regarding a woman. Was and is are two very different terms, sir, as +regards women's hearts especially. + +"Egad, they change as we do," cried the elder. "When we took the Cape of +Good Hope, I recollect there was a lady who talked poisoning herself for +your humble servant; and, begad, in three months she ran away from her +husband with somebody else. Don't get yourself entangled with that Miss +Amory, She is forward, affected, and under-bred; and her character is +somewhat--never mind what. But don't think of her; ten thousand pound +won't do for you. What, my good fellow, is ten thousand pound? I would +scarcely pay that girl's milliner's bill with the interest of the +money." + +"You seem to be a connoisseur in millinery, Uncle" Pen said. + +"I was, sir, I was," replied the senior; "and the old war-horse, you +know, never hears the sound of a trumpet, but he begins to he, he!--you +understand,"--and he gave a killing and somewhat superannuated leer and +bow to a carriage that passed them and entered the Park. + +"Lady Catherine Martingale's carriage" he said "mons'ous fine girls +the daughters, though, gad, I remember their mother a thousand +times handsomer. No, Arthur, my dear fellow, with your person and +expectations, you ought to make a good coup in marriage some day or +other; and though I wouldn't have this repeated at Fairoaks, you rogue, +ha! ha! a reputation for a little wickedness, and for being an homme +dangereux, don't hurt a young fellow with the women. They like it, sir, +they hate a milksop--young men must be young men, you know. But for +marriage," continued the veteran moralist, "that is a very different +matter. Marry a woman with money. I've told you before it is as easy to +get a rich wife as a poor one; and a doosed deal more comfortable to sit +down to a well-cooked dinner, with your little entrees nicely served, +than to have nothing but a damned cold leg of mutton between you and +your wife. We shall have a good dinner on the 14th, when we dine with +Sir Francis Clavering: stick to that, my boy, in your relations with the +family. Cultivate 'em, but keep 'em for dining. No more of your youthful +follies and nonsense about love in a cottage." + +"It must be a cottage with a double coach-house, a cottage of gentility, +sir," said Pen, quoting the hackneyed ballad of the Devil's Walk: but +his Uncle did not know that poem (though, perhaps, he might be +leading Pen upon the very promenade in question), and went on with his +philosophical remarks, very much pleased with the aptness of the pupil +to whom he addressed them. Indeed Arthur Pendennis was a clever fellow, +who took his colour very readily from his neighbour, and found the +adaptation only too easy. + +Warrington, the grumbler, growled out that Pen was becoming such a puppy +that soon there would be no bearing him. But the truth is, the young +man's success and dashing manners pleased his elder companion. He liked +to see Pen gay and spirited, and brimful of health, and life, and +hope; as a man who has long since left off being amused with clown and +harlequin, still gets a pleasure in watching a child at a pantomime. +Mr. Pen's former sulkiness disappeared with his better fortune: and he +bloomed as the sun began to shine upon him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. Colonel Altamont appears and disappears + + +On the day appointed, Major Pendennis, who had formed no better +engagement, and Arthur who desired none, arrived together to dine with +Sir Francis Clavering. The only tenants of the drawing-room when Pen +and his uncle reached it, were Sir Francis and his wife, and our friend +Captain Strong, whom Arthur was very glad to see, though the Major +looked very sulkily at Strong, being by no means well pleased to sit +down to dinner with Clavering's d---- house-steward, as he irreverently +called Strong. But Mr. Welbore Welbore, Clavering's country neighbour +and brother member of Parliament, speedily arriving, Pendennis the elder +was somewhat appeased, for Welbore, though perfectly dull, and taking +no more part in the conversation at dinner than the footman behind his +chair, was a respectable country gentleman of ancient family and seven +thousand a year: and the Major felt always at ease in such society. To +these were added other persons of note: the Dowager Lady Rockminster, +who had her reasons for being well with the Clavering family, and the +Lady Agnes Foker, with her son Mr. Harry, our old acquaintance. Mr. +Pynsent could not come, his parliamentary duties keeping him at the +House, duties which sate upon the two other senators very lightly. Miss +Blanche Amory was the last of the company who made her appearance. She +was dressed in a killing white silk dress which displayed her pearly +shoulders to the utmost advantage. Foker whisped to Pen, who regarded +her with eyes of evident admiration, that he considered her "a stunner." +She chose to be very gracious to Arthur upon this day, and held out her +hand most cordially, and talked about dear Fairoaks, and asked for +dear Laura and his mother, and said she was longing to go back to the +country, and in fact was entirely simple, affectionate, and artless. + +Harry Foker thought he had never seen anybody so amiable and delightful. +Not accustomed much to the society of ladies, and ordinarily being dumb +to their presence, he found that he could speak before Miss Amory, +and became uncommonly lively and talkative, even before the dinner was +announced and the party descended to the lower rooms. He would have +longed to give his arm to the fair Blanche, and conduct her down the +broad carpeted stair; but she fell to the lot of Pen upon this occasion, +Mr. Foker being appointed to escort Mrs. Welbore Welbore, in consequence +of his superior rank as an earl's grandson. + +But though he was separated from the object of his desire during the +passage downstairs, the delighted Foker found himself by Miss Amory's +side at the dinner-table, and flattered himself that he had manoeuvred +very well in securing that happy place. It may be that the move was not +his, but that it was made by another person. Blanche had thus the two +young men, one on each side of her, and each tried to render himself +gallant and agreeable. + +Foker's mamma, from her place, surveying her darling boy, was surprised +at his vivacity. Harry talked constantly to his fair neighbour about the +topics of the day. + +"Seen Taglioni in the Sylphide, Miss Amory? Bring me that souprame of +Volile again if you please (this was addressed to the attendant near +him), very good: can't think where the souprames come from; what becomes +of the legs of the fowls, I wonder? She's clipping in the Sylphide, +ain't she?" and he began very kindly to hum the pretty air which +pervades that prettiest of all ballets, now faded into the past with +that most beautiful and gracious of all dancers. Will the young folks +ever see anything so charming, anything so classic, anything like +Taglioni? + +"Miss Amory is a sylph herself," said Mr. Pen. + +"What a delightful tenor voice you have, Mr. Foker," said the young +lady. "I am sure you have been well taught. I sing a little myself. I +should like to sing with you." + +Pen remembered that words very similar had been addressed to himself by +the young lady, and that she had liked to sing with him in former days. +And sneering within himself, he wondered with how many other gentlemen +she had sung duets since his time? But he did not think fit to put this +awkward question aloud: and only said, with the very tenderest air which +he could assume, "I should like to hear you sing again, Miss Blanche. I +never heard a voice I liked so well as yours, I think." + +"I thought you liked Laura's," said Miss Blanche. + +"Laura's is a contralto: and that voice is very often out, you know," +Pen said, bitterly. "I have heard a great deal of music, in London," +he continued. "I'm tired of those professional people--they sing too +loud--or I have grown too old or too blase. One grows old very soon, in +London, Miss Amory. And like all old fellows, I only care for the songs +I heard in my youth." + +"I like English music best. I don't care for foreign songs much. Get me +some saddle of mutton," said Mr. Foker. + +"I adore English ballads, of all things," said Miss Amory. + +"Sing me one of the old songs after dinner, will you?" said Pen, with an +imploring voice. + +"Shall I sing you an English song, after dinner?" asked the Sylphide, +turning to Mr. Foker. "I will, if you will promise to come up soon:" and +she gave him a perfect broadside of her eyes. + +"I'll come up after dinner, fast enough," he said, simply. "I don't care +about much wine afterwards--I take my whack at dinner--I mean my share, +you know; and when I have had as much as I want I toddle up to tea. I'm +a domestic character, Miss Amory--my habits are simple--and when I'm +pleased I'm generally in a good-humour, ain't I, Pen?--that jelly, if +you please--not that one, the other with the cherries inside. How the +doose do they get those cherries inside the jellies?" In this way +the artless youth prattled on: and Miss Amory listened to him with +inexhaustible good-humour. When the ladies took their departure for the +upper regions, Blanche made the two young men promise faithfully to quit +the table soon, and departed with kind glances to each. She dropped her +gloves on Foker's side of the table and her handkerchief on Pen's. Each +had had some little attention paid to him: her politeness to Mr. Foker +was perhaps a little more encouraging than her kindness to Arthur: but +the benevolent little creature did her best to make both the gentlemen +happy. Foker caught her last glance as she rushed out of the door; that +bright look passed over Mr. Strong's broad white waistcoat and shot +straight at Harry Foker's. The door closed on the charmer: he sate down +with a sigh, and swallowed a bumper of claret. + +As the dinner at which Pen and his uncle took their places was not one +of our grand parties, it had been served at a considerably earlier hour +than those ceremonial banquets of the London season, which custom has +ordained shall scarcely take place before nine o'clock; and, the company +being small, and Miss Blanche anxious to betake herself to her piano in +the drawing-room, giving constant hints to her mother to retreat,--Lady +Clavering made that signal very speedily, so that it was quite +daylight yet when the ladies reached the upper apartments, from the +flower-embroidered balconies of which they could command a view of the +two Parks, of the poor couples and children still sauntering in the one, +and of the equipages of ladies and the horses of dandies passing through +the arch of the other. The sun, in a word had not set behind the elms +of Kensington Gardens, and was still gilding the statue erected by the +ladies of England in honour of his Grace the Duke of Wellington, when +Lady Clavering and her female friends left the gentlemen drinking wine. + +The windows of the dining-room were opened to let in the fresh air, +and afforded to the passers-by in the street a pleasant, or perhaps, +tantalising view of six gentlemen in white waistcoats with a quantity +of decanters and a variety of fruits before them--little boys, as they +passed and jumped up at the area-railings and took a peep, said to one +another, "Hi hi, Jim, shouldn't you like to be there and have a cut of +that there pineapple?"--the horses and carriages of the nobility and +gentry passed by conveying them to Belgravian toilets: the policeman, +with clamping feet patrolled up and down before the mansion: the shades +of evening began to fall: the gasman came and lighted the lamps before +Sir Francis's door: the butler entered the dining-room, and illuminated +the antique gothic chandelier over the antique carved oak dining-table: +so that from outside the house you looked inwards upon a night-scene of +feasting and wax-candles; and from within you beheld a vision of a calm +summer evening, and the wall of Saint James's Park, and the sky above, +in which a star or two was just beginning to twinkle. + +Jeames, with folded legs, leaning against the door-pillar of his +master's abode, looked forth musingly upon the latter tranquil sight: +whilst a spectator clinging to the railings examined the former scene. +Policeman X passing, gave his attention to neither, but fixed it upon +the individual holding by the railings, and gazing into Sir Francis +Clavering's dining-room, where Strong was laughing and talking away, +making the conversation for the party. + +The man at the railing was very gorgeously attired with chains, +jewellery, and waistcoats, which the illumination from the house lighted +up to great advantage; his boots were shiny; he had brass buttons to his +coat, and large white wristbands over his knuckles; and indeed looked so +grand, that X imagined he beheld a member of parliament, or a person +of consideration before him. Whatever his rank, however, the M.P., +or person of consideration, was considerably excited by wine; for he +lurched and reeled somewhat in his gait, and his hat was cocked over +his wild and bloodshot eyes in a manner which no sober hat ever could +assume. His copious black hair was evidently surreptitious, and his +whiskers of the Tyrian purple. + +As Strong's laughter, following after one of his own gros mots, came +ringing out of window, this gentleman without laughed and sniggered in +the queerest way likewise, and he slapped his thigh and winked at Jeames +pensive in the portico, as much as to say, "Plush, my boy, isn't that a +good story?" + +Jeames's attention had been gradually drawn from the moon in the +heavens to this sublunary scene; and he was puzzled and alarmed by the +appearance of the man in shiny boots. "A holtercation," he remarked +afterwards, in the servants'-hall--a "holtercation with a feller in +the streets is never no good; and indeed he was not hired for any +such purpose." So, having surveyed the man for some time, who went +on laughing, reeling, nodding his head with tipsy knowingness, Jeames +looked out of the portico, and softly called "Pleaceman," and beckoned +to that officer. + +X marched up resolute, with one Berlin glove stuck in his belt-side, and +Jeames simply pointed with his index finger to the individual who was +laughing against the railings. Not one single word more than "Pleaceman" +did he say, but stood there in the calm summer evening, pointing calmly: +a grand sight. + +X advanced to the individual and said, "Now, sir, will you have the +kindness to move hon?" + +The individual, who was in perfect good-humour, did not appear to hear +one word which Policeman X uttered, but nodded and waggled his grinning +head at Strong, until his hat almost fell from his head over the area +railings. + +"Now, sir, move on, do you hear?" cries X, in a much more peremptory +tone, and he touched the stranger gently with one of the fingers +enclosed in the gauntlets of the Berlin woof. + +He of the many rings instantly started, or rather staggered back, into +what is called an attitude of self-defence, and in that position began +the operation which is entitled 'squaring' at Policeman X, and showed +himself brave and warlike, if unsteady. "Hullo! keep your hands off a +gentleman," he said, with an oath which need not be repeated. + +"Move on out of this," said X, "and don't be a blocking up the pavement, +staring into gentlemen's dining-rooms." + +"Not stare--ho, ho,--not stare--that is a good one," replied the other +with a satiric laugh and sneer--"Who's to prevent me from staring, +looking at my friends, if I like? not you, old highlows." + +"Friends! I dessay. Move on," answered X. + +"If you touch me, I'll pitch into you, I will," roared the other. "I +tell you I know 'em all--That's Sir Francis Clavering, Baronet, M.P.--I +know him, and he knows me--and that's Strong, and that's the young chap +that made the row at the ball. I say, Strong, Strong!" + +"It's that d---- Altamont," cried Sir Francis within, with a start and a +guilty look; and Strong also, with a look of annoyance, got up from the +table, and ran out to the intruder. + +A gentleman in a white waistcoat, running out from a dining-room +bareheaded, a policeman, and an individual decently attired, engaged in +almost fisticuffs on the pavement, were enough to make a crowd, even in +that quiet neighbourhood, at half-past eight o'clock in the evening, and +a small mob began to assemble before Sir Francis Clavering's door. "For +God's sake, come in," Strong said, seizing his acquaintance's arm. "Send +for a cab, James, if you please," he added in an under voice to that +domestic; and carrying the excited gentleman out of the street, the +outer door was closed upon him, and the small crowd began to move away. + +Mr. Strong had intended to convey the stranger into Sir Francis's +private sitting-room, where the hats of the male guests were awaiting +them, and having there soothed his friend by bland conversation, to have +carried him off as soon as the cab arrived--but the new-comer was in a +great state of wrath at the indignity which had been put upon him; and +when Strong would have led him into the second door, said in a tipsy +voice, "That ain't the door--that's the dining-room door--where the +drink's going on--and I'll go and have some, by Jove; I'll go and have +some." At this audacity the butler stood aghast in the hall, and placed +himself before the door: but it opened behind him, and the master of the +house made his appearance, with anxious looks. + +"I will have some,--by ---- I will," the intruder was roaring out, as +Sir Francis came forward. "Hullo! Clavering, I say I'm come to have some +wine with you; hay! old boy--hay, old corkscrew? Get us a bottle of the +yellow seal, you old thief--the very best--a hundred rupees a dozen, and +no mistake." + +The host reflected a moment over his company. There is only Welbore, +Pendennis, and those two lads, he thought--and with a forced laugh and a +piteous look, he said,--"Well, Altamont, come in. I am very glad to see +you, I'm sure." + +Colonel Altamont, for the intelligent reader has doubtless long ere this +discovered in the stranger His Excellency the Ambassador of the Nawaub +of Lucknow, reeled into the dining-room, with a triumphant look towards +Jeames, the footman, which seemed to say, "There, sir, what do you think +of that? Now, am I a gentleman or no?" and sank down into the first +vacant chair. Sir Francis Clavering timidly stammered out the Colonel's +name to his guest Mr. Welbore Welbore, and his Excellency began drinking +wine forthwith and gazing round upon the company, now with the most +wonderful frowns, and anon with the blandest smiles, and hiccupped +remarks encomiastic of the drink which he was imbibing. + +"Very singular man. Has resided long in a native court in India," +Strong said, with great gravity, the Chevalier's presence of mind never +deserting him--"in those Indian courts they get very singular habits." + +"Very," said Major Pendennis, drily, and wondering what in goodness' +name was the company into which he had got. + +Mr. Foker was pleased with the new-comer. "It's the man who would sing +the Malay song at the Back Kitchen," he whispered to Pen. "Try this +pine, sir," he then said to Colonel Altamont, "it's uncommonly fine." + +"Pines--I've seen 'em feed pigs on pines," said the Colonel. + +"All the Nawaub of Lucknow's pigs are fed on pines," Strong whispered to +Major Pendennis. + +"Oh, of course," the Major answered. Sir Francis Clavering was, in the +meanwhile, endeavouring to make an excuse to his brother-guest for the +new-comer's condition, and muttered something regarding Altamont, that +he was an extraordinary character, very eccentric, very--had Indian +habits--didn't understand the rules of English society--to which +old Welbore, a shrewd old gentleman, who drank his wine with great +regularity, said, "that seemed pretty clear." + +Then the Colonel, seeing Pen's honest face, regarded it for a while with +as much steadiness as became his condition; and said, "I know you, too, +young fellow. I remember you. Baymouth ball, by Jingo. Wanted to fight +the Frenchman. I remember you;" and he laughed, and he squared with his +fists, and seemed hugely amused in the drunken depths of his mind, as +these recollections passed, or, rather, reeled across it. + +"Mr. Pendennis, you remember Colonel Altamont, at Baymouth?" Strong +said: upon which Pen, bowing rather stiffly, said, "he had the pleasure +of remembering that circumstance perfectly." + +"What's his name?" cried the Colonel. Strong named Mr. Pendennis again. + +"Pendennis!--Pendennis be hanged!" Altamont roared out to the surprise +of every one, and thumping with his fist on the table. + +"My name is also Pendennis, sir," said the Major, whose dignity was +exceedingly mortified by the evening's events--that he, Major Pendennis, +should have been asked to such a party, and that a drunken man should +have been introduced to it. "My name is Pendennis, and I will be obliged +to you not to curse it too loudly." + +The tipsy man turned round to look at him, and as he looked, it appeared +as if Colonel Altamont suddenly grew sober. He put his hand across his +forehead, and in doing so, displaced somewhat the black wig which he +wore; and his eyes stared fiercely at the Major, who, in his turn, like +a resolute old warrior as he was, looked at his opponent very keenly and +steadily. At the end of the mutual inspection, Altamont began to button +up his brass-buttoned coat, and rising up from his chair, suddenly, and +to the company's astonishment, reeled towards the door, and issued +from it, followed by Strong: all that the latter heard him utter +was--"Captain Beak! Captain Beak, by jingo!" + +There had not passed above a quarter of an hour from his strange +appearance to his equally sudden departure. The two young men and +the baronet's other guest wondered at the scene, and could find no +explanation for it. Clavering seemed exceedingly pale and agitated, and +turned with looks of almost terror towards Major Pendennis. The latter +had been eyeing his host keenly for a moment or two. "Do you know him?" +asked Sir Francis of the Major. + +"I am sure I have seen the fellow," the Major replied, looking as if +he, too, was puzzled. "Yes, I have it. He was a deserter from the Horse +Artillery who got into the Nawaub's service. I remember his face quite +well." + +"Oh!" said Clavering, with a sigh which indicated immense relief of +mind, and the Major looked at him with a twinkle of his sharp old eyes. +The cab which Strong had desired to be called, drove away with the +Chevalier and Colonel Altamont; coffee was brought to the remaining +gentlemen, and they went upstairs to the ladies in the drawing-room, +Foker declaring confidentially to Pen that "this was the rummest go +he ever saw," which decision Pen said, laughing, "Showed great +discrimination on Mr. Foker's part." + +Then, according to her promise, Miss Amory made music for the young men. +Foker was enraptured with her performance, and kindly joined in the +airs which she sang, when he happened to be acquainted with them. Pen +affected to talk aside with others of the party, but Blanche brought him +quickly to the piano, by singing some of his own words, those which +we have given in a previous number, indeed, and which the Sylphide had +herself, she said, set to music. I don't know whether the air was hers, +or how much of it was arranged for her by Signor Twankidillo, from whom +she took lessons: but good or bad, original or otherwise, it delighted +Mr. Pen, who remained by her side, and turned the leaves now for her +most assiduously--"Gad! how I wish I could write verses like you, Pen," +Foker sighed afterwards to his companion. "If I could do 'em, wouldn't +I, that's all? But I never was a dab at writing, you see, and I'm sorry +I was so idle when I was at school." + +No mention was made before the ladies of the curious little scene which +had been transacted below-stairs; although Pen was just on the point of +describing it to Miss Amory, when that young lady inquired for Captain +Strong, who she wished should join her in a duet. But chancing to look +up towards Sir Francis Clavering, Arthur saw a peculiar expression of +alarm in the baronet's ordinarily vacuous face, and discreetly held his +tongue. It was rather a dull evening. Welbore went to sleep as he always +did at music and after dinner: nor did Major Pendennis entertain the +ladies with copious anecdotes and endless little scandalous stories, +as his wont was, but sate silent for the most part, and appeared to be +listening to the music, and watching the fair young performer. + +The hour of departure having arrived the Major rose, regretting that so +delightful an evening should have passed away so quickly, and addressed +a particularly fine compliment to Miss Amory upon her splendid talents +as a singer. "Your daughter, Lady Clavering," he said to that lady, "is +a perfect nightingale--a perfect nightingale, begad! I have scarcely +ever heard anything equal to her, and her pronunciation of every +language--begad, of every language--seems to me to be perfect; and +the best houses in London must open before a young lady who has such +talents, and, allow an old fellow to say, Miss Amory, such a face." + +Blanche was as much astonished by these compliments as Pen was, to whom +his uncle, a little time since, had been speaking in very disparaging +terms of the Sylph. The Major and the two young men walked home +together, after Mr. Foker had placed his mother in her carriage, and +procured a light for an enormous cigar. + +The young gentleman's company or his tobacco did not appear to be +agreeable to Major Pendennis, who eyed him askance several times, and +with a look which plainly indicated that he wished Mr. Foker would take +his leave; but Foker hung on resolutely to the uncle and nephew, even +until they came to the former's door in Bury Street, where the Major +wished the lads good night. + +"And I say, Pen," he said in a confidential whisper, calling his nephew +back, "mind you make a point of calling in Grosvenor Place to-morrow. +They've been uncommonly civil; mons'ously civil and kind." + +Pen promised and wondered, and the Major's door having been closed upon +him by Morgan, Foker took Pen's arm, and walked with him for some time +silently puffing his cigar. At last, when they had reached Charing Cross +on Arthur's way home to the Temple, Harry Foker relieved himself, and +broke out with that eulogium upon poetry, and those regrets regarding a +misspent youth which have just been mentioned. And all the way along +the Strand, and up to the door of Pen's very staircase, in Lamb Court, +Temple, young Harry Foker did not cease to speak about singing and +Blanche Amory. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. Relates to Mr. Harry Foker's Affairs + + +Since that fatal but delightful night in Grosvenor Place, Mr. Harry +Foker's heart had been in such a state of agitation as you would hardly +have thought so great a philosopher could endure. When we remember what +good advice he had given to Pen in former days, how an early wisdom and +knowledge of the world had manifested itself in this gifted youth; how +a constant course of self-indulgence, such as becomes a gentleman of his +means and expectations, ought by right to have increased his cynicism, +and made him, with every succeeding day of his life, care less and less +for every individual in the world, with the single exception of Mr. +Harry Foker, one may wonder that he should fall into the mishap to which +most of us are subject once or twice in our lives, and disquiet his +great mind about a woman. But Foker, though early wise, was still a man. +He could no more escape the common lot than Achilles, or Ajax, or Lord +Nelson, or Adam our first father, and now, his time being come, young +Harry became a victim to Love, the All-conqueror. + +When he went to the Back Kitchen that night after quitting Arthur +Pendennis at his staircase-door in Lamb Court, the gin-twist and +devilled turkey had no charms for him, the jokes of his companions +fell flatly on his ear; and when Mr. Hodgen, the singer of 'The Body +Snatcher,' had a new chant even more dreadful and humorous than that +famous composition, Foker, although he appeared his friend, and said +"Bravo, Hodgen," as common politeness and his position as one of the +chiefs of the Back Kitchen bound him to do, yet never distinctly +heard one word of the song, which under its title of 'The Cat in the +Cupboard,' Hodgen has since rendered so famous. Late and very tired, he +slipped into his private apartments at home and sought the downy pillow, +but his slumbers were disturbed by the fever of his soul, and the very +instant that he woke from his agitated sleep, the image of Miss Amory +presented itself to him, and said, "Here I am, I am your princess +and beauty, you have discovered me, and shall care for nothing else +hereafter." + +Heavens, how stale and distasteful his former pursuits and friendships +appeared to him! He had not been, up to the present time, much +accustomed to the society of females of his own rank in life. When he +spoke of such, he called them "modest women." That virtue which, let us +hope, they possessed, had not hitherto compensated to Mr. Foker for the +absence of more lively qualities which most of his own relatives did not +enjoy, and which he found in Mesdemoiselles, the ladies of the theatre. +His mother, though good and tender, did not amuse her boy; his +cousins, the daughters of his maternal uncle, the respectable Earl of +Rosherville, wearied him beyond measure. One was blue, and a geologist; +one was a horsewoman, and smoked cigars; one was exceedingly Low Church, +and had the most heterodox views on religious matters; at least, so the +other said, who was herself of the very Highest Church faction, and made +the cupboard in her room into an oratory, and fasted on every Friday in +the year. Their paternal house of Drummington, Foker could very seldom +be got to visit. He swore he had rather go on the treadmill than stay +there. He was not much beloved by the inhabitants. Lord Erith, Lord +Rosherville's heir, considered his cousin a low person, of deplorably +vulgar habits and manners; while Foker, and with equal reason, voted +Erith a prig and a dullard, the nightcap of the House of Commons, the +Speaker's opprobrium, the dreariest of philanthropic spouters. Nor could +George Robert, Earl of Gravesend and Rosherville, ever forget that on +one evening when he condescended to play at billiards with his nephew, +that young gentleman poked his lordship in the side with his cue, and +said, "Well, old cock, I've seen many a bad stroke in my life, but I +never saw such a bad one as that there." He played the game out with +angelic sweetness of temper, for Harry was his guest as well as his +nephew; but he was nearly having a fit in the night; and he kept to +his own rooms until young Harry quitted Drummington on his return to +Oxbridge, where the interesting youth was finishing his education at +the time when the occurrence took place. It was an awful blow to the +venerable earl; the circumstance was never alluded to in the family; he +shunned Foker whenever he came to see them in London or in the country, +and could hardly be brought to gasp out a "How d'ye do?" to the +young blasphemer. But he would not break his sister Agnes's heart, by +banishing Harry from the family altogether; nor, indeed, could he afford +to break with Mr. Foker, senior, between whom and his lordship there had +been many private transactions, producing an exchange of bank-cheques +from Mr. Foker, and autographs from the earl himself, with the letters I +O U written over his illustrious signature. + +Besides the four daughters of Lord Gravesend whose various qualities +have been enumerated in the former paragraph, his lordship was blessed +with a fifth girl, the Lady Ana Milton, who, from her earliest years +and nursery, had been destined to a peculiar position in life. It was +ordained between her parents and her aunt, that when Mr Harry Foker +attained a proper age, Lady Ann should become his wife. The idea had +been familiar to her mind when she yet wore pinafores, and when Harry +the dirtiest of little boys, used to come back with black eyes from +school to Drummington, or to his father's house of Logwood, where Lady +Ann lived, much with her aunt. Both of the young people coincided +with the arrangement proposed by the elders, without any protests or +difficulty. It no more entered Lady Ann's mind to question the order of +her father, than it would have entered Esther's to dispute the commands +of Ahasuerus. The heir-apparent of the house of Foker was also obedient, +for when the old gentleman said, "Harry, your uncle and I have agreed +that when you're of a proper age, you'll marry Lady Ann. She won't have +any money, but she's good blood, and a good one to look at, and I shall +make you comfortable. If you refuse, you'll have your mother's jointure, +and two hundred a year during my life"--Harry, who knew that his sire, +though a man of few words, was yet implicitly to be trusted, acquiesced +at once in the parental decree, and said, "Well, sir, if Ann's +agreeable, I say ditto. She's not a bad-looking girl." + +"And she has the best blood in England, sir. Your mother's blood, your +own blood, sir," said the Brewer. "There's nothing like it, sir." + +"Well, sir, as you like it," Harry replied. "When you want me, please +ring the bell. Only there's no hurry, and I hope you'll give us a long +day. I should like to have my fling out before I marry." + +"Fling away, Harry," answered the benevolent father. "Nobody prevents +you, do they?" And so very little more was said upon this subject, and +Mr. Harry pursued those amusements in life which suited him best; and +hung up a little picture of his cousin in his sitting-room, amidst +the French prints, the favourite actresses and dancers, the racing and +coaching works of art, which suited his taste and formed his gallery. +It was an insignificant little picture, representing a simple round face +with ringlets; and it made, as it must be confessed, a very poor +figure by the side of Mademoiselle Petitot, dancing over a rainbow, or +Mademoiselle Redowa, grinning in red boots and a lancer's cap. + +Being engaged and disposed of, Lady Ann Milton did not go out so much +in the world as her sisters: and often stayed at home in London at the +parental house in Gaunt Square, when her mamma with the other ladies +went abroad. They talked and they danced with one man after another, +and the men came and went, and the stories about them were various. But +there was only this one story about Ann: she was engaged to Harry Foker: +she never was to think about anybody else. It was not a very amusing +story. + +Well, the instant Foker awoke on the day after Lady Clavering's dinner, +there was Blanche's image glaring upon him with its clear grey eyes, and +winning smile. There was her tune ringing in his ears, "Yet round about +the spot, ofttimes I hover, ofttimes I hover," which poor Foker began +piteously to hum, as he sat up in his bed under the crimson silken +coverlet. Opposite him was a French Print, of a Turkish lady and her +Greek lover, surprised by a venerable Ottoman, the lady's husband; on +the other wall was a French print of a gentleman and lady, riding and +kissing each other at full gallop; all round the chaste bedroom were +more French prints, either portraits of gauzy nymphs of the Opera, or +lovely illustrations of the novels; or mayhap, an English chef-d'oeuvre +or two, in which Miss Calverley of T. R. E. O. would be represented in +tight pantaloons in her favourite page part; or Miss Rougemont as Venus; +their value enhanced by the signatures of these ladies, Maria Calverley, +or Frederica Rougemont, inscribed underneath the prints in an exquisite +facsimile. Such were the pictures in which honest Harry delighted. He +was no worse than many of his neighbours; he was an idle jovial kindly +fast man about town; and if his rooms were rather profusely decorated +with works of French art, so that simple Lady Agnes, his mamma on +entering the apartments where her darling sate enveloped in fragrant +clouds of Latakia, was often bewildered by the novelties which she +beheld there, why, it must be remembered, that he was richer than most +young men, and could better afford to gratify his taste. + +A letter from Miss Calverley written in a very degage style of +spelling and handwriting, scrawling freely over the filagree paper, and +commencing by calling Mr. Harry, her dear Hokey-pokey-fokey, lay on his +bed table by his side, amidst keys, sovereigns, cigar-cases, and a bit +of verbena, which Miss Amory had given him, and reminding him of the +arrival of the day when he was 'to stand that dinner at the Elefant and +Castle, at Richmond, which he had promised;' a card for a private box +at Miss Rougemont's approaching benefit, a bundle of tickets for 'Ben +Budgeon's night, the North Lancashire Pippin, at Martin Faunce's, the +Three-cornered Hat, in St. Martin's Lane; where Conkey Sam, Dick the +Nailor, and Deadman (the Worcestershire Nobber), would put on the +gloves, and the lovers of the good old British sport were invited to +attend'--these and sundry other memoirs of Mr. Foker's pursuits and +pleasure lay on the table by his side when he woke. + +Ah! how faint all these pleasures seemed now. What did he care for +Conkey Sam or the Worcestershire Nobber? What for the French prints +ogling him from all sides of the room; those regular stunning slap-up +out-and-outers? And Calverley spelling bad, and calling him Hokey-fokey, +confound her impudence! The idea of being engaged to a dinner at +the Elephant and Castle at Richmond with that old woman (who was +seven-and-thirty years old, if she was a day) filled his mind with +dreary disgust now, instead of that pleasure which he had only yesterday +expected to find from the entertainment. + +When his fond mamma beheld her boy that morning, she remarked on the +pallor of his cheek, and the general gloom of his aspect. "Why do you +go on playing billiards at that wicked Spratt's?" Lady Agnes asked. "My +dearest child, those billiards will kill you, I'm sure they will." + +"It isn't the billiards," Harry said, gloomily. + +"Then it's the dreadful Back Kitchen," said the Lady Agnes. "I've often +thought, d'you know, Harry, of writing to the landlady, and begging that +she would have the kindness to put only very little wine in the negus +which you take, and see that you have your shawl on before you get into +your brougham." + +"Do, ma'am. Mrs Cutts is a most kind motley woman," Harry said. "But it +isn't the Back Kitchen, neither," he added, with a ghastly sigh. + +As Lady Agnes never denied her son anything, and fell into all his ways +with the fondest acquiescence, she was rewarded by a perfect confidence +on young Harry's part, who never thought to disguise from her a +knowledge of the haunts which he frequented; and, on the contrary, +brought her home choice anecdotes from the clubs and billiard-rooms, +which the simple lady relished, if she did not understand. "My son goes +to Spratt's," she would say to her confidential friends. "All the young +men go to Spratt's after their balls. It is de rigueur, my dear; and +they play billiards as they used to play macao and hazard in Mr. Fox's +time. Yes, my dear father often told me that they sate up always until +nine o'clock the next morning with Mr. Fox at Brookes's, whom I remember +at Drnmmington, when I was a little girl, in a buff waistcoat and black +satin small-clothes. My brother Erith never played as a young man, nor +sate up late--he had no health for it; but my boy must do as everybody +does, you know. Yes, and then he often goes to a place called the Back +Kitchen, frequented by all the wits and authors, you know, whom one does +not see in society, but whom it is a great privilege and pleasure for +Harry to meet, and there he hears the questions of the day discussed; +and my dear father often said that it was our duty to encourage +literature, and he had hoped to see the late Dr. Johnson at Drummington, +only Dr. Johnson died. Yes, and Mr. Sheridan came over, and drank a +great deal of wine,--everybody drank a great deal of wine in those +days,--and papa's wine-merchant's bill was ten times as much as Erith's +is, who gets it as he wants it from Fortnum and Mason's and doesn't keep +any stock at all." + +"That was an uncommon good dinner we had yesterday, ma'am," the artful +Harry broke out. "Their clear soup's better than ours. Moufflet will +put too much taragon into everything. The supreme de volaille was very +good--uncommon, and the sweets were better than Moufflet's sweets. Did +you taste the plombiere, ma'am, and the maraschino jelly? Stunningly +good that maraschino jelly!" + +Lady Agnes expressed her agreement in these, as in almost all other +sentiments of her son, who continued the artful conversation, saying-- + +"Very handsome house that of the Claverings. Furniture, I should say, +got up regardless of expense. Magnificent display of plate, ma'am." The +lady assented to all these propositions. + +"Very nice people the Claverings." + +"H'm!" said Lady Agnes. + +"I know what you mean. Lady C. ain't distangy exactly, but she is very +good-natured." + +"Oh, very," mamma said, who was herself one of the most good-natured of +women. + +"And Sir Francis, he don't talk much before ladies; but after dinner he +comes out uncommon strong, ma'am--a highly agreeable, well-informed man. +When will you ask them to dinner? Look out for an early day, ma'am;" and +looking into Lady Agnes's pocket-book, he chose a day only a fortnight +hence (an age that fortnight seemed to the young gentleman), when the +Claverings were to be invited to Grosvenor-street. + +The obedient Lady Agnes wrote the required invitation. She was +accustomed to do so without consulting her husband, who had his own +society and habits, and who left his wife to see her own friends alone. +Harry looked at the card; but there was an omission in the invitation +which did not please him. + +"You have not asked Miss Whatdyecallem--Miss Emery, Lady Clavering's +daughter." + +"Oh, that little creature!" Lady Agnes cried. "No! I think not, Harry." + +"We must ask Miss Amory," Foker said. "I--I want to ask Pendennis; +and--and he's very sweet upon her. Don't you think she sings very well, +ma'am?" + +"I thought her rather forward, and didn't listen to her singing. She +only sang at you and Mr. Pendennis, it seemed to me. But I will ask her +if you wish, Harry," and so Miss Amory's name was written on the card +with her mother's. + +This piece of diplomacy being triumphantly executed Harry embraced his +fond parent with the utmost affection, and retired to his own apartments +where he stretched himself on his ottoman, and lay brooding silently, +sighing for the day which was to bring the fair Miss Amory under his +paternal roof, and devising a hundred wild schemes for meeting her. + +On his return from making the grand tour, Mr. Foker, Junior, had +brought with him a polyglot valet, who took the place of Stoopid, +and condescended to wait at dinner, attired in shirt fronts of worked +muslin, with many gold studs and chains, upon his master and the elders +of the family. This man, who was of no particular country, and spoke +all languages indifferently ill, made himself useful to Mr. Harry in a +variety of ways,--read all the artless youth's correspondence, knew his +favourite haunts and the addresses of his acquaintance, and officiated +at the private dinners which the young gentleman gave. As Harry lay +upon his sofa after his interview with his mamma, robed in a wonderful +dressing-gown, and puffing his pipe in gloomy silence, Anatole, too, +must have remarked that something affected his master's spirits; though +he did not betray any ill-bred sympathy with Harry's agitation of mind. +When Harry began to dress himself in his out-of-door morning costume, +he was very hard indeed to please, and particularly severe and snappish +about his toilet: he tried, and cursed, pantaloons of many different +stripes, checks, and colours: all the boots were villainously varnished; +the shirts too "loud" in pattern. He scented his linen and person +with peculiar richness this day; and what must have been the valet's +astonishment, when, after some blushing and hesitation on Harry's part, +the young gentleman asked, "I say, Anatole, when I engaged you, didn't +you--hem--didn't you say that you could dress--hem--dress hair?" + +The valet said, "Yes, he could." + +"Cherchy alors une paire de tongs,--et--curly moi un peu," Mr. Foker +said, in an easy manner; and the valet, wondering whether his master +was in love or was going masquerading, went in search of the +articles,--first from the old butler who waited upon Mr. Foker, senior, +on whose bald pate the tongs would have scarcely found a hundred hairs +to seize, and finally of the lady who had the charge of the meek auburn +fronts of the Lady Agnes. And the tongs being got, Monsieur Anatole +twisted his young master's locks until he had made Harry's head as curly +as a negro's; after which the youth dressed himself with the utmost care +and splendour, and proceeded to sally out. + +"At what dime sall I order de drag, sir, to be to Miss Calverley's door, +sir?" the attendant whispered as his master was going forth. + +"Confound her!--Put the dinner off--I can't go!" said Foker. "No, hang +it--I must go. Poyntz and Rougemont, and ever so many more are coming. +The drag at Pelham Corner at six o'clock, Anatole." + +The drag was not one of Mr. Foker's own equipages, but was hired from a +livery-stable for festive purposes; Foker, however, put his own carriage +into requisition that morning, and for what purpose does the kind reader +suppose? Why, to drive down to Lamb Court, Temple, taking Grosvenor +Place by the way (which lies in the exact direction of the Temple from +Grosvenor Street, as everybody knows), where he just had the pleasure +of peeping upwards at Miss Amory's pink window-curtains, having achieved +which satisfactory feat, he drove off to Pen's chambers. Why did he want +to see his dear friend Pen so much? Why did he yearn and long after him; +and did it seem necessary to Foker's very existence that he should see +Pen that morning, having parted with him in perfect health on the night +previous? Pen had lived two years in London, and Foker had not paid +half a dozen visits to his chambers. What sent him thither now in such a +hurry? + +What?--If any young ladies read this page, I have only to inform them +that, when the same mishap befalls them, which now had for more than +twelve hours befallen Harry Foker, people will grow interesting to them +for whom they did not care sixpence on the day before; as on the other +hand persons of whom they fancied themselves fond will be found to have +become insipid and disagreeable. Then you dearest Eliza, or Maria of the +other day, to whom you wrote letters and sent locks of hair yards long, +will on a sudden be as indifferent to you as your stupidest relation +whilst, on the contrary, about his relations you will begin to feel such +a warm interest! such a loving desire to ingratiate yourself with his +mamma; such a liking for that dear kind old man his father! If He is in +the habit of visiting at any house, what advances you will make in order +to visit there too. If He has a married sister you will like to spend +long mornings with her. You will fatigue your servant by sending notes +to her, for which there will be the most pressing occasion, twice or +thrice in a day. You will cry if your mamma objects to your going too +often to see His family. The only one of them you will dislike, is +perhaps his younger brother, who is at home for the holidays, and who +will persist in staying in the room when you come to see your dear +new-found friend, his darling second sister. Something like this will +happen to you, young ladies, or, at any rate, let us hope it may. Yes, +you must go through the hot fits and the cold fits of that pretty fever. +Your mothers, if they would acknowledge it, have passed through it +before you were born, your dear papa being the object of the passion, +of course,--who could it be but he? And as you suffer it, so will your +brothers, in their way,--and after their kind. More selfish than you: +more eager and headstrong than you: they will rush on their destiny +when the doomed charmer makes her appearance. Or if they don't, and you +don't, Heaven help you! As the gambler said of his dice, to love and win +is the best thing, to love and lose is the next best. You don't die of +the complaint: or very few do. The generous wounded heart suffers and +survives it. And he is not a man, or she a woman, who is not conquered +by it, or who does not conquer it in his time.----Now, then, if you ask +why Henry Foker, Esquire, was in such a hurry to see Arthur Pendennis, +and felt such a sudden value and esteem for him, there is no difficulty +in saying it was because Pen had become really valuable in Mr. Foker's +eyes: because if Pen was not the rose, he yet had been near that +fragrant flower of love. Was not he in the habit of going to her house +in London? Did he not live near her in the country?--know all about the +enchantress? What, I wonder, would Lady Ann Milton, Mr. Foker's cousin +and pretendue, have said, if her ladyship had known all that was going +on in the bosom of that funny little gentleman? + +Alas! when Foker reached Lamb Court, leaving his carriage for the +admiration of the little clerks who were lounging in the archway +that leads thence into Flag Court which leads into Upper Temple Lane, +Warrington was in the chambers but Pen was absent. Pen was gone to the +printing-office to see his proofs. "Would Foker have a pipe and should +the laundress go to the Cock and get him some beer?"--Warrington asked, +remarking with a pleased surprise the splendid toilet of this scented +and shiny-booted young aristocrat; but Foker had not the slightest wish +for beer or tobacco: he had very important business: he rushed away +to the Pall Mall Gazette office, still bent upon finding Pen. Pen had +quitted that pace. Foker wanted him that they might go together to call +upon Lady Clavering. Foker went away disconsolate, and whiled away an +hour or two vaguely at clubs: and when it was time to pay a visit, he +thought it would be but decent and polite to drive to Grosvenor Place +and leave a card upon Lady Clavering. He had not the courage to ask to +see her when the door was opened, he only delivered two cards, with Mr. +Henry Foker engraved upon them, to Jeames, in a speechless agony. Jeames +received the tickets bowing his powdered head. The varnished doors +closed upon him. The beloved object was as far as ever from him, +though so near. He thought he heard the tones of a piano and of a +syren singing, coming from the drawing-room and sweeping over the +balcony-shrubbery of geraniums. He would have liked to stop and listen, +but it might not be. "Drive to Tattersall's," he said to the groom, in +a voice smothered with emotion,--"And bring my pony round," he added, as +the man drove rapidly away. + +As good luck would have it, that splendid barouche of Lady Clavering's, +which has been inadequately described in a former chapter, drove up to +her ladyship's door just as Foker mounted the pony which was in waiting +for him. He bestrode the fiery animal, and dodged about the arch of +the Green Park, keeping the carriage well in view, until he saw Lady +Clavering enter, and with her--whose could be that angel form, but the +enchantress's, clad in a sort of gossamer, with a pink bonnet and a +light-blue parasol,--but Miss Amory? + +The carriage took its fair owners to Madame Rigodon's cap and lace shop, +to Mrs Wolsey's Berlin worsted shop,--who knows to what other resorts +of female commerce? Then it went and took ices at Hunter's, for Lady +Clavering was somewhat florid in her tastes and amusements, and not only +liked to go abroad in the most showy carriage in London, but that the +public should see her in it too. And so, in a white bonnet with a yellow +feather, she ate a large pink ice in the sunshine before Hunter's door, +till Foker on his pony, and the red jacket who accompanied him, were +almost tired of dodging. + +Then at last she made her way into the Park, and the rapid Foker made +his dash forward. What to do? Just to get a nod of recognition from Miss +Amory and her mother; to cross them a half-dozen times in the drive; to +watch and ogle them from the other side of the ditch, where the horsemen +assemble when the band plays in Kensington Gardens. What is the use of +looking at a woman in a pink bonnet across a ditch? What is the earthly +good to be got out of a nod of the head? Strange that men will be +contented with such pleasures, or if not contented, at least that they +will be so eager in seeking them. Not one word did Harry, he so fluent +of conversation ordinarily, change with his charmer on that day. Mutely +he beheld her return to her carriage, and drive away among rather +ironical salutes from the young men in the Park. One said that the +Indian widow was making the paternal rupees spin rapidly; another said +that she ought to have burned herself alive, and left the money to her +daughter. This one asked who Clavering was?--and old Tom Eales, who knew +everybody, and never missed a day in the Park on his grey cob, kindly +said that Clavering had come into an estate over head and heels in +mortgage: that there were dev'lish ugly stories about him when he was +a young man, and that it was reported of him that he had a share in +a gambling-house, and had certainly shown the white feather in his +regiment. "He plays still; he is in a hell every night almost," Mr. +Eales added. + +"I should think so, since his marriage," said a wag. + +"He gives devilish good dinners," said Foker, striking up for the honour +of his host of yesterday. + +"I daresay, and I daresay he doesn't ask Eales," the wag said. "I say, +Eales, do you dine at Clavering's,--at the Begum's?" + +"I dine there?" said Mr. Eales, who would have dined with Beelzebub if +sure of a good cook, and when he came away, would have painted his host +blacker than fate had made him. + +"You might, you know, although you do abuse him so," continued the wag. +"They say it's very pleasant. Clavering goes to sleep after dinner; the +Begum gets tipsy with cherry-brandy, and the young lady sings songs to +the young gentlemen. She sings well, don't she, Fo?" + +"Slap up," said Fo. "I tell you what, Poyntz, she sings like a +whatdyecallum--you know what I mean--like a mermaid, you know, but +that's not their name." + +"I never heard a mermaid sing," Mr. Poyntz, the wag, replied. "Whoever +heard a mermaid? Eales, you are an old fellow, did you?" + +"Don't make a lark of me, hang it, Poyntz," said Foker, turning red, +and with tears almost in his eyes, "you know what I mean: it's those +what's-his-names--in Homer, you know. I never said I was a good +scholar." + +"And nobody ever said it of you, my boy," Mr. Poyntz remarked, and Foker +striking spurs into his pony, cantered away down Rotten Row, his mind +agitated with various emotions, ambitions, mortifications. He was sorry +that he had not been good at his books in early life--that he might +have cut out all those chaps who were about her, and who talked the +languages, and wrote poetry, and painted pictures in her album, and--and +that--"What am I," thought little Foker, "compared to her? She's all +soul, she is, and can write poetry or compose music, as easy as I could +drink a glass of beer. Beer?--damme, that's all I'm fit for, is beer. I +am a poor, ignorant little beggar, good for nothing but Foker's Entire. +I misspent my youth, and used to get the chaps to do my exercises. And +what's the consequences now? Oh, Harry Foker, what a confounded little +fool you have been!" + +As he made this dreary soliloquy, he had cantered out of Rotten Row into +the Park, and there was on the point of riding down a large old roomy +family carriage, of which he took no heed, when a cheery voice cried +out, "Harry, Harry!" and looking up, he beheld his aunt, the Lady +Rosherville, and two of her daughters, of whom the one who spoke was +Harry's betrothed, the Lady Ann. + +He started back with a pale, scared look, as a truth about which he had +not thought during the whole day, came across him. There was his fate, +there, in the back seat of that carriage. + +"What is the matter, Harry? why are you so pale? You have been raking +and smoking too much, you wicked boy," said Lady Ann. + +Foker said, "How do, aunt," "How do, Ann," in a perturbed +manner--muttered something about a pressing engagement,--indeed he saw +by the Park clock that he must have been keeping his party in the drag +waiting for nearly an hour--and waved a good-bye. The little man and the +little pony were out of sight in an instant--the great carriage rolled +away. Nobody inside was very much interested about his coming or going; +the Countess being occupied with her spaniel, the Lady Lucy's thoughts +and eyes being turned upon a volume of sermons, and those of the Lady +Ann upon a new novel, which the sisters had just procured from the +library. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. Carries the Reader both to Richmond and Greenwich + +Poor Foker found the dinner at Richmond to be the most dreary +entertainment upon which ever mortal man wasted his guineas. "I wonder +how the deuce I could ever have liked these people," he thought in his +own mind. "Why, I can see the crow's-feet under Rougemont's eyes, and +the paint on her cheeks is laid on as thick as Clown's in a pantomime! +The way in which that Calverley talks slang, is quite disgusting. I hate +chaff in a woman. And old Colchicum! that old Col, coming down here +in his brougham, with his coronet on it, and sitting bodkin between +Mademoiselle Coralie and her mother! It's too bad. An English peer, and +a horse-rider of Franconi's!--It won't do; by Jove, it won't do. I ain't +proud; but it will not do!" + +"Twopence-halfpenny for your thoughts, Fokey!" cried out Miss Rougemont, +taking her cigar from her truly vermilion lips, as she beheld the young +fellow lost in thought, seated at the head of his table, amidst melting +ices, and cut pineapples, and bottles full and empty, and cigar-ashes +scattered on fruit, and the ruins of a dessert which had no pleasure for +him. + +"Does Foker ever think?" drawled out Mr. Poyntz. "Foker, here is a +considerable sum of money offered by a fair capitalist at this end +of the table for the present emanations of your valuable and acute +intellect, old boy!" + +"What the deuce is that Poyntz a talking about?" Miss Calverley asked of +her neighbour. "I hate him. He's a drawlin', sneerin' beast." + +"What a droll of a little man is that little Fokare, my lor'," +Mademoiselle Coralie said, in her own language, and with the rich twang +of that sunny Gascony in which her swarthy cheeks and bright black eyes +had got their fire. "What a droll of a man! He does not look to have +twenty years." + +"I wish I were of his age," said the venerable Colchicum, with a sigh, +as he inclined his purple face towards a large goblet of claret. + +"C'te Jeunesse. Peuh! je m'en fiche" said Madame Brack, Coralie's mamma, +taking a great pinch out of Lord Colchicum's delicate gold snuff-box. +"Je m'aime que les hommes faits, moi. Comme milor. Coralie! n'est-ce pas +que tu n'aimes que les hommes faits, ma bichette?" + +My lord said, with a grin, "You flatter me, Madame Brack." + +"Taisez-vous, Maman, vous n'etes qu'une bete," Coralie cried, with a +shrug of her robust shoulders; upon which, my lord said that she did +not flatter at any rate; and pocketed his snuff-box, not desirous that +Madame Brack's dubious fingers should plunge too frequently into his +Mackabaw. + +There is no need to give a prolonged detail of the animated conversation +which ensued during the rest of the banquet; a conversation which would +not much edify the reader. And it is scarcely necessary to say, that all +ladies of the corps de dance are not like Miss Calverley, any more than +that all peers resemble that illustrious member of their order, the late +lamented Viscount Colchicum. But there have been such in our memories +who have loved the society of riotous youth better than the company +of men of their own age and rank, and have given the young ones the +precious benefit of their experience and example; and there have been +very respectable men too who have not objected so much to the kind of +entertainment as to the publicity of it. I am sure, for instance, that +our friend Major Pendennis would have made no sort of objection to join +a party of pleasure, provided that it were en petit comite, and that +such men as my Lord Steyne and my Lord Colchicum were of the society. +"Give the young men their pleasures," this worthy guardian said to Pen +more than once. "I'm not one of your strait-laced moralists, but an old +man of the world, begad; and I know that as long as it lasts young men +will be young men." And there were some young men to whom this estimable +philosopher accorded about seventy years as the proper period for sowing +their wild oats: but they were men of fashion. + +Mr. Foker drove his lovely guests home to Brompton in the drag that +night; but he was quite thoughtful and gloomy during the whole of the +little journey from Richmond; neither listening to the jokes of the +friends behind him and on the box by his side nor enlivening them as was +his wont, by his own facetious sallies. And when the ladies whom he +had conveyed alighted at the door of their house, and asked their +accomplished coachman whether he would not step in and take something +to drink, he declined with so melancholy an air, that they supposed +that the Governor and he had had a difference or that some calamity had +befallen him; and he did not tell these people what the cause of his +grief was, but left Mesdames Rougemont and Calverley, unheeding the +cries of the latter, who hung over her balcony like Jezebel, and called +out to him to ask him to give another party soon. + +He sent the drag home under the guidance of one of the grooms, and went +on foot himself; his hands in his pockets, plunged in thought. The stars +and moon shining tranquilly overhead, looked down upon Mr. Foker that +night, as he in his turn sentimentally regarded them. And he went and +gazed upwards at the house in Grosvenor Place, and at the windows which +he supposed to be those of the beloved object; and he moaned and he +sighed in a way piteous and surprising to witness, which Policeman +X did, who informed Sir Francis Clavering's people, as they took the +refreshment of beer on the coach-box at the neighbouring public-house, +after bringing home their lady from the French play, that there had been +another chap hanging about the premises that evening--a little chap, +dressed like a swell. + +And now with that perspicuity and ingenuity and enterprise which only +belongs to a certain passion, Mr. Foker began to dodge Miss Amory +through London, and to appear wherever he could meet her. If Lady +Clavering went to the French play, where her ladyship had a box, Mr. +Foker, whose knowledge of the language, as we have heard, was not +conspicuous, appeared in a stall. He found out where her engagements +were (it is possible that Anatole, his man, was acquainted with Sir +Francis Clavering's gentleman, and so got a sight of her ladyship's +engagement-book), and at many of these evening parties Mr. Foker +made his appearance--to the surprise of the world, and of his mother +especially, whom he ordered to apply for cards to these parties, for +which until now he had shown a supreme contempt. He told the pleased and +unsuspicious lady that he went to parties because it was right for him +to see the world: he told her that he went to the French play because +he wanted to perfect himself in the language, and there was no such good +lesson as a comedy or vaudeville,--and when one night the astonished +Lady Agnes saw him stand up and dance, and complimented him upon his +elegance and activity, the mendacious little rogue asserted that he had +learned to dance in Paris, whereas Anatole knew that his young master +used to go off privily to an academy in Brewer Street, and study there +for some hours in the morning. The casino of our modern days was not +invented, or was in its infancy as yet; and gentlemen of Mr. Foker's +time had not the facilities of acquiring the science of dancing which +are enjoyed by our present youth. + +Old Pendennis seldom missed going to church. He considered it to be his +duty as a gentleman to patronise the institution of public worship and +that it was quite a correct thing to be seen at church of a Sunday. One +day it chanced that he and Arthur went thither together: the latter, who +was now in high favour, had been to breakfast with his uncle, from whose +lodging they walked across the park to a church not far from Belgrave +Square. There was a charity sermon at Saint James's, as the Major knew +by the bills posted on the pillars of his parish church, which probably +caused him, for he was a thrifty man, to forsake it for that day: +besides he had other views for himself and Pen. "We will go to church, +sir, across the Park; and then, begad, we will go to the Claverings' +house and ask them for lunch in a friendly way. Lady Clavering likes to +be asked for lunch, and is uncommonly kind, and monstrous hospitable." + +"I met them at dinner last week, at Lady Agnes Foker's, sir," Pen said, +"and the Begum was very kind indeed. So she was in the country: so she +is everywhere. But I share your opinion about Miss Amory; one of your +opinions, that is, uncle, for you were changing the last time we spoke +about her." + +"And what do you think of her now?" the elder said. + +"I think her the most confounded little flirt in London," Pen answered, +laughing "She made a tremendous assault upon Harry Foker, who sat next +to her; and to whom she gave all the talk, though I took her down." + +"Bah! Henry Foker is engaged to his cousin all the world knows it: not +a bad coup of Lady Rosherville's, that. I should say, that the young man +at his father's death, and old Foker's life's devilish bad: you know he +had a fit at Arthur's, last year: I should say, that young Foker won't +have less than fourteen thousand a year from the brewery, besides +Logwood and Norfolk property. I've no pride about me, Pen. I like a man +of birth certainly, but dammy, I like a brewery which brings in a man +fourteen thousand a year; hey, Pen? Ha, ha, that's the sort of man for +me. And I recommend you now that you are lanced in the world, to stick +to fellows of that sort, to fellows who have a stake in the country, +begad." + +"Foker sticks to me, sir," Arthur answered. "He has been at our chambers +several times lately. He has asked me to dinner. We are almost as great +friends, as we used to be in our youth: and his talk is about Blanche +Amory from morning till night. I'm sure he's sweet upon her." + +"I'm sure he is engaged to his cousin, and that they will keep the young +man to his bargain," said the Major. "The marriages in these families +are affairs of state. Lady Agnes was made to marry old Foker by the late +Lord, although she was notoriously partial to her cousin who was +killed at Albuera afterwards, and who saved her life out of the lake at +Drummington. I remember Lady Agnes, sir, an exceedingly fine woman. But +what did she do?--of course she married her father's man. Why, Mr. Foker +sate for Drummington till the Reform Bill, and paid dev'lish well for +his seat, too. And you may depend upon this, sir, that Foker senior, who +is a parvenu, and loves a great man, as all parvenus do, has ambitious +views for his son as well as himself, and that your friend Harry must +do as his father bids him. Lord bless you! I've known a hundred cases +of love in young men and women: hey, Master Arthur, do you take me? They +kick, sir, they resist, they make a deuce of a riot and that sort of +thing, but they end by listening to reason, begad." + +"Blanche is a dangerous girl, sir," Pen said. "I was smitten with her +myself once, and very far gone, too," he added; "but that is years ago." + +"Were you? How far did it go? Did she return it?" asked the Major, +looking hard at Pen. + +Pen, with a laugh, said "that at one time he did think he was pretty +well in Miss Amory's good graces. But my mother did not like her, and +the affair went off." Pen did not think it fit to tell his uncle all the +particulars of that courtship which had passed between himself and the +young lady. + +"A man might go farther and fare worse, Arthur," the Major said, still +looking queerly at his nephew. + +"Her birth, sir; her father was the mate of a ship, they say: and she +has not money enough," objected Pen, in a dandified manner. "What's ten +thousand pound and a girl bred up like her?" + +"You use my own words, and it is all very well. But, I tell you in +confidence, Pen,--in strict honour, mind,--that it's my belief she has +a devilish deal more than ten thousand pound: and from what I saw of +her the other day, and--and have heard of her--I should say she was a +devilish accomplished, clever girl: and would make a good wife with a +sensible husband." + +"How do you know about her money?" Pen asked, smiling. "You seem to have +information about everybody, and to know about all the town." + +"I do know a few things, sir, and I don't tell all I know. Mark that," +the uncle replied. "And as for that charming Miss Amory,--for charming, +begad! she is,--if I saw her Mrs. Arthur Pendennis, I should neither +be sorry nor surprised, begad! and if you object to ten thousand pound, +what would you say, sir, to thirty, or forty, or fifty?" and the Major +looked still more knowingly, and still harder at Pen. + +"Well, sir," he said to his godfather and namesake, "make her Mrs. +Arthur Pendennis. You can do it as well as I." + +"Psha! you are laughing at me, sir," the other replied rather peevishly, +"and you ought not to laugh so near a church gate. Here we are at St. +Benedict's. They say Mr. Oriel is a beautiful preacher." + +Indeed, the bells were tolling, the people were trooping into the +handsome church, the carriages of the inhabitants of the lordly quarter +poured forth their pretty loads of devotees, in whose company Pen and +his uncle, ending their edifying conversation, entered the fane. I do +not know whether other people carry their worldly affairs to the church +door. Arthur, who, from habitual reverence and feeling, was always more +than respectful in a place of worship, thought of the incongruity of +their talk, perhaps; whilst the old gentleman at his side was utterly +unconscious of any such contrast. His hat was brushed: his wig was +trim: his neckcloth was perfectly tied. He looked at every soul in the +congregation, it is true: the bald heads and the bonnets, the flowers +and the feathers: but so demurely that he hardly lifted up his eyes from +his book--from his book which he could not read without glasses. As +for Pen's gravity, it was sorely put to the test when, upon looking by +chance towards the seats where the servants were collected, he spied +out, by the side of a demure gentleman in plush, Henry Foker, Esquire, +who had discovered this place of devotion. Following the direction of +Harry's eye, which strayed a good deal from his book, Pen found that +it alighted upon a yellow bonnet and a pink one: and that these bonnets +were on the heads of Lady Clavering and Blanche Amory. If Pen's uncle +is not the only man who has talked about his worldly affairs up to +the church door, is poor Harry Foker the only one who has brought his +worldly love into the aisle? + +When the congregation issued forth at the conclusion of the service, +Foker was out amongst the first, but Pen came up with him presently, as +he was hankering about the entrance, which he was unwilling to leave, +until my lady's barouche, with the bewigged coachman, had borne away its +mistress and her daughter from their devotions. + +When the two ladies came out, they found together the Pendennises, uncle +and nephew, and Harry Foker, Esquire, sucking the crook of his +stick, standing there in the sunshine. To see and to ask to eat were +simultaneous with the good-natured Begum, and she invited the three +gentlemen to luncheon straightway. + +Blanche was, too, particularly gracious. "O! do come," she said to +Arthur, "if you are not too great a man. I want so to talk to you +about--but we mustn't say what, here, you know. What would Mr. +Oriel say?" And the young devotee jumped into the carriage after her +mamma.--"I've read every word of it. It's adorable," she added, still +addressing herself to Pen. + +"I know who is," said Mr. Arthur, making rather a pert bow. + +"What's the row about?" asked Mr. Foker, rather puzzled. + +"I suppose Miss Clavering means 'Walter Lorraine,'" said the Major, +looking knowing, and nodding at Pen. + +"I suppose so, sir. There was a famous review in the Pall Mall this +morning. It was Warrington's doing though, and I must not be too proud." + +"A review in Pall Mall?--Walter Lorraine? What the doose do you mean?" +Foker asked. "Walter Lorraine died of the measles, poor little beggar, +when we were at Grey Friars. I remember his mother coming up." + +"You are not a literary man, Foker," Pen said, laughing, and hooking his +arm into his friend's. "You must know I have been writing a novel, and +some of the papers have spoken very well of it. Perhaps you don't read +the Sunday Papers?" + +"I read Bell's Life regular, old boy," Mr Foker answered: at which Pen +laughed again, and the three gentlemen proceeded in great good-humour to +Lady Clavering's house. + +The subject of the novel was resumed after luncheon by Miss Amory, who +indeed loved poets and men of letters if she loved anything, and was +sincerely an artist in feeling. "Some of the passages in the book made +me cry, positively they did," she said. + +Pen said, with some fatuity, "I am happy to think I have a part of vos +larmes, Miss Blanche,"--and the Major (who had not read more than six +pages of Pen's book) put on his sanctified look, saying, "Yes, there +are some passages quite affecting, mons'ous affecting:" and,--"Oh, if +it makes you cry,"--Lady Amory declared she would not read it, "that she +wouldn't." + +"Don't, mamma," Blanche said, with a French shrug of her shoulders; +and then she fell into a rhapsody about the book, about the snatches of +poetry interspersed in it about the two heroines, Leonora and Neaera; +about the two heroes, Walter Lorraine and his rival the young Duke--"and +what good company you introduce us to," said the young lady archly "quel +ton! How much of your life have you passed at court, and are you a prime +minister's son, Mr. Arthur?" + +Pen began to laugh--"It is as cheap for a novelist to create a Duke as +to make a Baronet," he said. "Shall I tell you a secret, Miss Amory? I +promoted all my characters at the request of the publisher. The young +Duke was only a young Baron when the novel was first written; his false +friend, the Viscount, was a simple commoner and so on with all the +characters of the story." + +"What a wicked, satirical, pert young man you have become! Comme vous +voila forme!" said the young lady. "How different from Arthur Pendennis +of the country! Ah! I think I like Arthur Pendennis of the country best, +though!" and she gave him the full benefit of her eyes,--both of the +fond appealing glance into his own, and of the modest look downwards +towards the carpet, which showed off her dark eyelids and long fringed +lashes. + +Pen of course protested that he had not changed in the least, to which +the young lady replied by a tender sigh; and thinking that she had done +quite enough to make Arthur happy or miserable (as the case might be), +she proceeded to cajole his companion, Mr. Harry Foker, who during the +literary conversation had sate silently imbibing the head of his cane, +and wishing that he was a clever chap like that Pen. + +If the Major thought that by telling Miss Amory of Mr. Foker's +engagement to his cousin, Lady Ann Milton (which information the old +gentleman neatly conveyed to the girl as he sate by her side at luncheon +below-stairs),--if, we say, the Major thought that the knowledge of +this fact would prevent Blanche from paying any further attention to the +young heir of Foker's Entire, he was entirely mistaken. She became only +the more gracious to Foker: she praised him, and everything belonging +to him; she praised his mamma; she praised the pony which he rode in +the Park; she praised the lovely breloques or gimcracks which the young +gentleman wore at his watch-chain, and that dear little darling of a +cane, and those dear little delicious monkeys' heads with ruby eyes, +which ornamented Harry's shirt, and formed the buttons of his waistcoat. +And then, having praised and coaxed the weak youth until he blushed and +tingled with pleasure, and until Pen thought she really had gone quite +far enough, she took another theme. + +"I am afraid Mr. Foker is a very sad young man," she said, turning round +to Pen. + +"He does not look so," Pen answered with a sneer. + +"I mean we have heard sad stories about him. Haven't we, mamma? What was +Mr. Poyntz saying here, the other day, about that party at Richmond? O +you naughty creature!" But here, seeing that Harry's countenance assumed +a great expression of alarm, while Pen's wore a look of amusement, she +turned to the latter and said, "I believe you are just as bad: I believe +you would have liked to have been there,--wouldn't you? I know you +would: yes--and so should I." + +"Lor, Blanche!" mamma cried. + +"Well, I would. I never saw an actress in my life. I would give anything +to know one; for I adore talent. And I adore Richmond, that I do; and I +adore Greenwich, and I say, I should like to go there." + +"Why should not we three bachelors," the Major here broke out, +gallantly, and to his nephew's special surprise, "beg these ladies to +honour us with their company at Greenwich? Is Lady Clavering to go on +for ever being hospitable to us, and may we make no return? Speak for +yourselves, young men,--eh, begad! Here is my nephew, with his pockets +full of money--his pockets full, begad! and Mr. Henry Foker, who, as I +have heard say, is pretty well to do in the world,--how is your lovely +cousin, Lady Ann, Mr. Foker?--here are these two young ones,--and they +allow an old fellow like me to speak. Lady Clavering, will you do me the +favour to be my guest? and Miss Blanche shall be Arthur's, if she will +be so good." + +"Oh, delightful!" cried Blanche. + +"I like a bit of fun too," said Lady Clavering; and we will take some +day when Sir Francis----" + +"When Sir Francis dines out,--yes, mamma," the daughter said, "it will +be charming." + +And a charming day it was. The dinner was ordered at Greenwich, +and Foker, though he did not invite Miss Amory, had some delicious +opportunities of conversation with her during the repast, and afterwards +on the balcony of their room at the hotel, and again during the drive +home in her ladyship's barouche. Pen came down with his uncle, in Sir +Hugh Trumpington's brougham, which the Major borrowed for the occasion. +"I am an old soldier, begad," he said, "and I learned in early life to +make myself comfortable." + +And, being an old soldier, he allowed the two young men to pay for the +dinner between them, and all the way home in the brougham he rallied +Pen, about Miss Amory's evident partiality for him: praised her good +looks, spirits, and wit: and again told Pen in the strictest confidence, +that she would be a devilish deal richer than people thought. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. Contains a novel Incident + + +Some account has been given, in a former part of this story, how Mr. +Pen, during his residence at home, after his defeat at Oxbridge, had +occupied himself with various literary compositions, and amongst other +works, had written the greater part of a novel. This book, written under +the influence of his youthful embarrassments, amatory and pecuniary, was +of a very fierce, gloomy, and passionate sort,--the Byronic despair, +the Wertherian despondency, the mocking bitterness of Mephistopheles of +Faust, were all reproduced and developed in the character of the hero; +for our youth had just been learning the German language, and imitated, +as almost all clever lads do, his favourite poets and writers. Passages +in the volumes once so loved, and now read so seldom, still bear the +mark of the pencil with which he noted them in those days. Tears fell +upon the leaf of the book, perhaps, or blistered the pages of his +manuscript as the passionate young man dashed his thoughts down. If he +took up the books afterwards he had no ability or wish to sprinkle the +leaves with that early dew of former times: his pencil was no longer +eager to score its marks of approval: but as he looked over the pages of +his manuscript, he remembered what had been overflowing feelings which +had caused him to blot it, and the pain which had inspired the line. If +the secret history of books could be written, and the author's private +thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many +insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the +reader! Many a bitter smile passed over Pen's face as he read his novel, +and recalled the time and feelings which gave it birth. How pompous some +of the grand passages appeared; and how weak were others in which he +thought he had expressed his full heart! This page was imitated from a +then favourite author, as he could now clearly see and confess, though +he had believed himself to be writing originally then. As he mused over +certain lines he recollected the place and hour where he wrote them: +the ghost of the dead feeling came back as he mused, and he blushed to +review the faint image. And what meant those blots on the page? As you +come in the desert to a ground where camels' hoofs are marked in the +clay, and traces of withered herbage are yet visible, you know that +water was there once; so the place in Pen's mind was no longer green, +and the fons lacrymarum was dried up. + +He used this simile one morning to Warrington, as the latter sate over +his pipe and book, and Pen, with much gesticulation according to his +wont when excited, and with a bitter laugh, thumped his manuscript down +on the table, making the tea-things rattle, and, the blue milk dance +in the jug. On the previous night he had taken the manuscript out of +a long-neglected chest, containing old shooting jackets, old Oxbridge +scribbling-books, his old surplice, and battered cap and gown, and other +memorials of youth, school, and home. He read in the volume in bed until +he fell asleep, for the commencement of the tale was somewhat dull, and +he had come home tired from a London evening party. + +"By Jove!" said Pen, thumping down his papers, "when I think that these +were written but very few years ago, I am ashamed of my memory. I +wrote this when I believed myself be eternally in love with that little +coquette, Miss Amory. I used to carry down verses to her, and put them +into the hollow of a tree, and dedicate them 'Amori.'" + +"That was a sweet little play upon words," Warrington remarked, with a +puff "Amory--Amori. It showed proof of scholarship. Let us hear a bit of +the rubbish." And he stretched over from his easy-chair, and caught +hold of Pen's manuscript with the fire-tongs, which he was just using in +order to put a coal into his pipe. Thus, in possession of the volume, +he began to read out from the 'Leaves from the Life-book of Walter +Lorraine.' + +"'False as thou art beautiful! heartless as thou art fair! mockery of +Passion!' Walter cried, addressing Leonora; 'what evil spirit hath sent +thee to torture me so? O Leonora.----'" + +"Cut that part," cried out Pen, making a dash at the book, which, +however, his comrade would not release. "Well! don't read it out at any +rate. That's about my other flame, my first--Lady Mirabel that is now. +I saw her last night at Lady Whiston's. She asked me to a party at her +house, and said that, as old friends, we ought to meet oftener. She has +been seeing me any time these two years in town, and never thought +of inviting me before; but seeing Wenham talking to me, and Monsieur +Dubois, the French literary man, who had a dozen orders on, and might +have passed for a Marshal of France, she condescended to invite me. The +Claverings are to be there on the same evening. Won't it be exciting to +meet one's two flames at the same table?" + +"Two flames!--two heaps of burnt-out cinders," Warrington said. "Are +both the beauties in this book?" + +"Both, or something like them," Pen said. "Leonora, who marries the +Duke, is the Fotheringay. I drew the Duke from Magnus Charters, with +whom I was at Oxford; it's a little like him; and Miss Amory is Neaera. +By gad, that first woman! I thought of her as I walked home from Lady +Whiston's in the moonlight; and the whole early scenes came back to me +as if they had been yesterday. And when I got home, I pulled out the +story which I wrote about her and the other three years ago: do you +know, outrageous as it is, it has some good stuff in it, and if Bungay +won't publish it, I think Bacon will." + +"That's the way of poets," said Warrington. "They fall in love, jilt, or +are jilted; they suffer and they cry out that they suffer more than any +other mortals: and when they have experienced feelings enough they note +them down in a book, and take the book to market. All poets are humbugs, +all literary men are humbugs; directly a man begins to sell his feelings +for money he's a humbug. If a poet gets a pain in his side from too good +a dinner, he bellows Ai Ai louder than Prometheus." + +"I suppose a poet has a greater sensibility than another man," said Pen, +with some spirit. "That is what makes him a poet. I suppose that he +sees and feels more keenly: it is that which makes him speak, of what he +feels and sees. You speak eagerly enough in your leading articles when +you espy a false argument in an opponent, or detect a quack in the +House. Paley, who does not care for anything else in the world, will +talk for an hour about a question of law. Give another the privilege +which you take yourself, and the free use of his faculty, and let him +be what nature has made him. Why should not a man sell his sentimental +thoughts as well as you your political ideas, or Paley his legal +knowledge? Each alike is a matter of experience and practice. It is not +money which causes you to perceive a fallacy, or Paley to argue a point; +but a natural or acquired aptitude for that kind of truth: and a poet +sets down his thoughts and experiences upon paper as a painter does +a landscape or a face upon canvas, to the best of his ability, and +according to his particular gift. If ever I think I have the stuff in +me to write an epic, by Jove I will try If I only feel that I am good +enough to crack a joke or tell a story, I will do that." + +"Not a bad speech, young one," Warrington said, "but that does not +prevent all poets from being humbugs." + +"What--Homer, Aeschylus, Shakspeare and all?" + +"Their names are not to be breathed in the same sense with you pigmies," +Mr. Warrington said: "there are men and men, sir." + +"Well, Shakspeare was a man who wrote for money, just as you and I do," +Pen answered, at which Warrington confounded his impudence, and resumed +his pipe and his manuscript. + +There was not the slightest doubt then that this document contained +a great deal of Pen's personal experiences, and that 'Leaves from the +Life-book of Walter Lorraine' would never have been written but for +Arthur Pendennis's own private griefs, passions, and follies. As we have +become acquainted with these in the first volume of his biography, it +will not be necessary to make large extracts from the novel of 'Walter +Lorraine,' in which the young gentleman had depicted such of them as +he thought were likely to interest the reader, or were suitable for the +purpose of his story. + +Now, though he had kept it in his box for nearly half of the period +during which, according to the Horatian maxim, a work of art ought to +lie ripening (a maxim, the truth of which may, by the way, be questioned +altogether), Mr. Pen had not buried his novel for this time, in order +that the work might improve, but because he did not know where else to +bestow it, or had no particular desire to see it. A man who thinks of +putting away a composition for ten years before he shall give it to the +world, or exercise his own maturer judgment upon it, had best be very +sure of the original strength and durability of the work; otherwise on +withdrawing it from its crypt he may find, that like small wine it has +lost what flavour it once had, and is only tasteless when opened. There +are works of all tastes and smacks, the small and the strong, those +that improve by age, and those that won't bear keeping at all, but are +pleasant at the first draught, when they refresh and sparkle. + +Now Pen had never any notion, even in the time of his youthful +inexperience and fervour of imagination, that the story he was writing +was a masterpiece of composition, or that he was the equal of the +great authors whom he admired; and when he now reviewed his little +performance, he was keenly enough alive to its faults, and pretty modest +regarding its merits. It was not very good, he thought; but it was as +good as most books of the kind that had the run of circulating libraries +and the career of the season. He had critically examined more than one +fashionable novel by the authors of the day then popular, and he thought +that his intellect was as good as theirs and that he could write the +English language as well as those ladies or gentlemen; and as he now +ran over his early performance, he was pleased to find here and there +passages exhibiting both fancy and vigour, and traits, if not of genius, +of genuine passion and feeling. This, too, was Warrington's verdict, +when that severe critic, after half an hour's perusal of the manuscript, +and the consumption of a couple of pipes of tobacco, laid Pen's book +down, yawning portentously. "I can't read any more of that balderdash +now," he said; "but it seems to me there is some good stuff in it, Pen, +my boy. There's a certain greenness and freshness in it which I like +somehow. The bloom disappears off the face of poetry after you begin to +shave. You can't get up that naturalness and artless rosy tint in after +days. Your cheeks are pale, and have got faded by exposure to evening +parties, and you are obliged to take curling-irons, and macassar, and +the deuce-knows-what to your whiskers; they curl ambrosially, and you +are very grand and genteel, and so forth; but, ah! Pen, the spring-time +was the best." + +"What the deuce have my whiskers to do with the subject in hand?" Pen +said (who, perhaps, may have been nettled by Warrington's allusion to +those ornaments, which, to say the truth, the young man coaxed, and +curled, and oiled, and perfumed, and petted, in rather an absurd +manner). "Do you think we can do anything with 'Walter Lorraine'? Shall +we take him to the publishers, or make an auto-da-fe of him?" + +"I don't see what is the good of incremation," Warrington said, "though +I have a great mind to put him into the fire, to punish your atrocious +humbug and hypocrisy. Shall I burn him indeed? You have much too great a +value for him to hurt a hair of his head." + +"Have I? Here goes," said Pen, and 'Walter Lorraine' went off the table, +and was flung on to the coals. But the fire having done its duty of +boiling the young man's breakfast-kettle, had given up work for the +day, and had gone out, as Pen knew very well; Warrington with a scornful +smile, once more took up the manuscript with the tongs from out of the +harmless cinders. + +"Oh, Pen, what a humbug you are!" Warrington said; "and what is worst of +all, sir, a clumsy humbug. I saw you look to see that the fire was out +before you sent 'Walter Lorraine' behind the bars. No, we won't burn +him: we will carry him to the Egyptians, and sell him. We will exchange +him away for money, yea, for silver and gold, and for beef and for +liquors, and for tobacco and for raiment. This youth will fetch some +price in the market; for he is a comely lad, though not over strong; but +we will fatten him up and give him the bath, and curl his hair, and we +will sell him for a hundred piasters to Bacon or to Bungay. The rubbish +is saleable enough, sir; and my advice to you is this: the next time you +go home for a holiday, take 'Walter Lorraine' in your carpet-bag--give +him a more modern air, prune away, though sparingly, some of the green +passages, and add a little comedy, and cheerfulness, and satire, and +that sort of thing, and then we'll take him to market, and sell him. The +book is not a wonder of wonders, but it will do very well." + +"Do you think so, Warrington?" said Pen, delighted, for this was great +praise from his cynical friend. + +"You silly young fool! I think it's uncommonly clever," Warrington said +in a kind voice. "So do you, sir." And with the manuscript which he held +in his hand he playfully struck Pen on the cheek. That part of Pen's +countenance turned as red as it had ever done in the earliest days +of his blushes: he grasped the other's hand and said, "Thank you, +Warrington," with all his might: and then he retired to his own room +with his book, and passed the greater part of the day upon his bed +re-reading it; and he did as Warrington had advised, and altered not a +little, and added a great deal, until at length he had fashioned +'Walter Lorraine' pretty much into the shape in which, as the respected +novel-reader knows, it subsequently appeared. + +Whilst he was at work upon this performance, the good-natured Warrington +artfully inspired the two gentlemen who "read" for Messrs. Bacon and +Bungay with the greatest curiosity regarding 'Walter Lorraine,' and +pointed out the peculiar merits of its distinguished author. It was at +the period when the novel, called 'The Fashionable,' was in vogue among +us; and Warrington did not fail to point out, as before, how Pen was +a man of the very first fashion himself, and received at the houses of +some of the greatest personages in the land. The simple and kind-hearted +Percy Popjoy was brought to bear upon Mrs. Bungay, whom he informed +that his friend Pendennis was occupied upon a work of the most exciting +nature; a work that the whole town would run after, full of wit, genius, +satire, pathos, and every conceivable good quality. We have said before, +that Bungay knew no more about novels than he did about Hebrew or +Algebra, and neither read nor understood any of the books which he +published and paid for; but he took his opinions from his professional +advisers and from Mrs. B., and, evidently with a view to a commercial +transaction, asked Pendennis and Warrington to dinner again. + +Bacon, when he found that Bungay was about to treat, of course, began +to be anxious and curious, and desired to outbid his rival. Was anything +settled between Mr. Pendennis and the odious house "over the way" +about the new book? Mr. Hack, the confidential reader, was told to make +inquiries, and see if any thing was to be done, and the result of the +inquiries of that diplomatist was, that one morning, Bacon himself +toiled up the staircase of Lamb Court and to the door on which the names +of Mr. Warrington, and Mr. Pendennis, were painted. + +For a gentleman of fashion as poor Pen was represented to be, it must be +confessed, that the apartments he and his friend occupied were not very +suitable. The ragged carpet had grown only more ragged during the two +years of joint occupancy: a constant odour of tobacco perfumed the +sitting-room: Bacon tumbled over the laundress's buckets in the passage +through which he had to pass; Warrington's shooting-jacket was as +tattered at the elbows as usual; and the chair which Bacon was requested +to take on entering, broke down with the publisher. Warrington burst out +laughing, said that Bacon had got the game chair, and bawled out to Pen +to fetch a sound one from his bedroom. And seeing the publisher looking +round the dingy room with an air of profound pity and wonder, asked him +whether he didn't think the apartments were elegant, and if he would +like, for Mrs. Bacon's drawing-room, any of the articles of furniture? +Mr. Warrington's character as a humourist was known to Mr. Bacon: "I +never can make that chap out," the publisher was heard to say, "or tell +whether he is in earnest or only chaffing." + +It is very possible that Mr. Bacon would have set the two gentlemen +down as impostors altogether, but that there chanced to be on the +breakfast-table certain cards of invitation which the post of the +morning had brought in for Pen, and which happened to come from some +very exalted personage of the beau-monde, into which our young man +had his introduction. Looking down upon these, Bacon saw that the +Marchioness of Steyne would be at home to Mr. Arthur Pendennis upon a +given day, and that another lady of distinction proposed to have dancing +at her house upon a certain future evening. Warrington saw the admiring +publisher eyeing these documents. "Ah," said he, with an air of +simplicity, "Pendennis is one of the most affable young men I ever knew, +Mr. Bacon. Here is a young fellow that dines with all the men in London, +and yet he'll take his mutton-chop with you and me quite contentedly. +There's nothing like the affability of the old English gentleman." + +"Oh no, nothing," said Mr. Bacon. + +"And you wonder why he should go on living up three pair of stairs with +me, don't you now? Well, it is a queer taste. But we are fond of each +other; and as I can't afford to live in a great house, he comes and +stays in these rickety old chambers with me. He's a man that can afford +to live anywhere." + +"I fancy it don't cost him much here," thought Mr. Bacon, and the object +of these praises presently entered the room from his adjacent sleeping +apartment. + +Then Mr. Bacon began to speak upon the subject of his visit; said he +heard that Mr. Pendennis had a manuscript novel; professed himself +anxious to have a sight of that work, and had no doubt that they could +come to terms respecting it. What would be his price for it? would he +give Bacon the refusal of it? he would find our house a liberal house, +and so forth. The delighted Pen assumed an air of indifference, and said +that he was already in treaty with Bungay, and could give no definite +answer. This piqued the other into such liberal, though vague offers, +that Pen began to fancy Eldorado was opening to him, and that his +fortune was made from that day. + +I shall not mention what was the sum of money which Mr. Arthur +Pendennis finally received for the first edition of his novel of 'Walter +Lorraine,' lest other young literary aspirants should expect to be as +lucky as he was, and unprofessional persons forsake their own callings, +whatever they may be, for the sake of supplying the world with novels, +whereof there is already a sufficiency. Let no young people be misled +and rush fatally into romance-writing: for one book which succeeds let +them remember the many that fail, I do not say deservedly or otherwise, +and wholesomely abstain or if they venture, at least let them do so +at their own peril. As for those who have already written novels, this +warning is not addressed, of course, to them. Let them take their wares +to market; let them apply to Bacon and Bungay, and all the publishers +in the Row, or the metropolis, and may they be happy in their ventures. +This world is so wide, and the tastes of mankind happily so various, +that there is always a chance for every man, and he may win the prize by +his genius or by his good fortune. But what is the chance of success or +failure; of obtaining popularity, or of holding it when achieved? One +man goes over the ice, which bears him, and a score who follow flounder +in. In fine, Mr. Pendennis's was an exceptional case, and applies to +himself only and I assert solemnly, and will to the last maintain, that +it is one thing to write a novel, and another to get money for it. + +By merit, then, or good fortune, or the skilful playing off of Bungay +against Bacon which Warrington performed (and which an amateur novelist +is quite welcome to try upon any two publishers in the trade), Pen's +novel was actually sold for a certain sum of money to one of the two +eminent patrons of letters whom we have introduced to our readers. The +sum was so considerable that Pen thought of opening an account at a +banker's, or of keeping a cab and horse, or of descending into the first +floor of Lamb Court into newly furnished apartments, or of migrating to +the fashionable end of the town. + +Major Pendennis advised the latter move strongly; he opened his eyes +with wonder when he heard of the good luck that had befallen Pen; +and which the latter, as soon as it occurred, hastened eagerly to +communicate to his uncle. The Major was almost angry that Pen should +have earned so much money. "Who the doose reads this kind of thing?" he +thought to himself when he heard of the bargain which Pen had made. "I +never read your novels and rubbish. Except Paul de Kock, who certainly +makes me laugh, I don't think I've looked into a book of the sort these +thirty years. Gad! Pen's a lucky fellow. I should think he might write +one of these in a month now,--say a month,--that's twelve in a year. +Dammy, he may go on spinning this nonsense for the next four to five +years, and make a fortune. In the meantime I should wish him to live +properly, take respectable apartments, and keep a brougham." And on this +simple calculation it was that the Major counselled Pen. + +Arthur, laughing, told Warrington what his uncle's advice had been but +he luckily had a much more reasonable counsellor than the old gentleman +in the person of his friend, and in his own conscience, which said to +him, "Be grateful for this piece of good fortune; don't plunge into any +extravagancies. Pay back Laura!" And he wrote a letter to her, in which +he told her his thanks and his regard; and enclosed to her such an +instalment of his debt as nearly wiped it off. The widow and Laura +herself might well be affected by the letter. It was written with +genuine tenderness and modesty; and old Dr. Portman when he read a +passage in the letter, in which Pen, with an honest heart full of +gratitude, humbly thanked Heaven for his present prosperity, and +for sending him such dear and kind friends to support him in his ill +fortune,--when Doctor Portman read this portion of the letter, his voice +faltered, and his eyes twinkled behind his spectacles, and when he had +quite finished reading the same, and had taken his glasses off his +nose, and had folded up the paper and given it back to the widow, I +am constrained to say, that after holding Mrs. Pendennis's hand for a +minute, the Doctor drew that lady towards him and fairly kissed her: +at which salute, of course, Helen burst out crying on the Doctor's +shoulder, for her heart was too full to give any other reply: and the +Doctor blushing at great deal after his feat, led the lady, with a bow, +to the sofa, on which he seated himself by her; and he mumbled out, in +a low voice, some words of a Great Poet whom he loved very much, and +who describes how in the days of his prosperity he had made "the widow's +heart to sing for joy." + +"The letter does the boy very great honour, very great honour, my dear," +he said, patting it as it lay on Helen's knee--"and I think we have all +reason to be thankful for it--very thankful. I need not tell you in what +quarter, my dear, for you are a sainted woman: yes, Laura, my love, your +mother is a sainted woman. And Mrs. Pendennis, ma'am, I shall order a +copy of the book for myself, and another at the Book Club." + +We may be sure that the widow and Laura walked out to meet the mail +which brought them their copy of Pen's precious novel, as soon as that +work was printed and ready for delivery to the public and that they read +it to each other: and that they also read it privately and separately, +for when the widow came out of her room in her dressing-gown at one +o'clock in the morning with volume two, which she had finished, she +found Laura devouring volume three in bed. Laura did not say much +about the book, but Helen pronounced that it was a happy mixture of +Shakspeare, and Byron, and Walter Scott, and was quite certain that her +son was the greatest genius, as he was the best son, in the world. + +Did Laura not think about the book and the author, although she said so +little? At least she thought about Arthur Pendennis. Kind as his tone +was, it vexed her. She did not like his eagerness to repay that money. +She would rather that her brother had taken her gift as she intended it: +and was pained that there should be money calculations between them. +His letters from London, written with the good-natured wish to amuse +his mother, were full of descriptions of the famous people and the +entertainments and magnificence of the great city. Everybody was +flattering him and spoiling him, she was sure. Was he not looking to +some great marriage, with that cunning uncle for a Mentor (between whom +and Laura there was always an antipathy), that inveterate worldling, +whose whole thoughts were bent upon pleasure and rank and fortune? He +never alluded to--to old times, when he spoke of her. He had forgotten +them and her, perhaps had he not forgotten other things and people? + +These thoughts may have passed in Miss Laura's mind, though she did not, +she could not, confide them to Helen. She had one more secret, too, from +that lady, which she could not divulge, perhaps because she knew how the +widow would have rejoiced to know it. This regarded an event which had +occurred during that visit to Lady Rockminster, which Laura had paid in +the last Christmas holidays: when Pen was at home with his mother, and +when Mr. Pynsent, supposed to be so cold and so ambitious, had formally +offered his hand to Miss Bell. No one except herself and her admirer +knew of this proposal: or that Pynsent had been rejected by her, and +probably the reasons she gave to the mortified young man himself were +not those which actuated her refusal, or those which she chose to +acknowledge to herself. "I never," she told Pynsent, "can accept such an +offer as that which you make me, which you own is unknown to your family +as I am sure it would be unwelcome to them. The difference of rank +between us is too great. You are very kind to me here--too good and +kind, dear Mr. Pynsent--but I am little better than a dependant." + +"A dependant! who ever so thought of you? You are the equal of all the +world," Pynsent broke out. + +"I am a dependant at home, too," Laura said, sweetly, "and indeed I would +not be otherwise. Left early a poor orphan, I have found the kindest and +tenderest of mothers, and I have vowed never to leave her--never. +Pray do not speak of this again--here, under your relative's roof, or +elsewhere. It is impossible." + +"If Lady Rockminster asks you herself, will you listen to her?" Pynsent +cried eagerly. + +"No," Laura said. "I beg you never to speak of this any more. I must go +away if you do"--and with this she left him. + +Pynsent never asked for Lady Rockminster's intercession; he knew how +vain it was to look for that: and he never spoke again on that subject +to Laura or to any person. + +When at length the famous novel appeared it not only met with applause +from more impartial critics than Mrs. Pendennis, but, luckily for Pen +it suited the taste of the public, and obtained a quick and considerable +popularity before two months were over, Pen had the satisfaction and +surprise of seeing the second edition of 'Walter Lorraine' advertised in +the newspapers; and enjoyed the pleasure of reading and sending home +the critiques of various literary journals and reviewers upon his book. +Their censure did not much affect him; for the good-natured young man +was disposed to accept with considerable humility the dispraises of +others. Nor did their praise elate him over much; for, like most honest +persons he had his own opinion about his own performance, and when a +critic praised him in the wrong place he was rather hurt than pleased by +the compliment. But if a review of his work was very laudatory, it was a +great pleasure to him to send it home to his mother at Fairoaks, and to +think of the joy which it would give there. There are some natures, and +perhaps, as we have said, Pendennis's was one, which are improved +and softened by prosperity and kindness, as there are men of other +dispositions, who become arrogant and graceless under good fortune. +Happy he, who can endure one or the other with modesty and good-humour! +Lucky he who has been educated to bear his fate, whatsoever it may be, +by an early example of uprightness, and a childish training in honour! + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. Alsatia + + +Bred up, like a bailiff or a shabby attorney, about the purlieus of +the Inns of Court, Shepherd's Inn is always to be found in the close +neighbourhood of Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and the Temple. Some where behind +the black gables and smutty chimney-stacks of Wych Street, Holywell +Street, Chancery Lane, the quadrangle lies, hidden from the outer world; +and it is approached by curious passages and ambiguous smoky alleys, +on which the sun has forgotten to shine. Slop-sellers, brandy-ball and +hard-bake vendors, purveyors of theatrical prints for youth, dealers in +dingy furniture and bedding suggestive of anything but sleep, line +the narrow walls and dark casements with their wares. The doors are +many-belled: and crowds of dirty children form endless groups about the +steps: or around the shell-fish dealers' trays in these courts; whereof +the damp pavements resound with pattens, and are drabbled with a +never-failing mud. Ballad-singers come and chant here, in deadly +guttural tones, satirical songs against the Whig administration, against +the bishops and dignified clergy, against the German relatives of an +august royal family: Punch sets up his theatre, sure of an audience, and +occasionally of a halfpenny from the swarming occupants of the houses: +women scream after their children for loitering in the gutter, or, worse +still, against the husband who comes reeling from the gin-shop;--there +is a ceaseless din and life in these courts out of which you pass into +the tranquil, old-fashioned quadrangle of Shepherd's Inn. In a mangy +little grass-plat in the centre rises up the statue of Shepherd, +defended by iron railings from the assaults of boys. The hall of the +Inn, on which the founder's arms are painted, occupies one side of the +square, the tall and ancient chambers are carried round other two sides, +and over the central archway, which leads into Oldcastle Street, and so +into the great London thoroughfare. + +The Inn may have been occupied by lawyers once: but the laity have long +since been admitted into its precincts, and I do not know that any of +the principal legal firms have their chambers here. The offices of +the Polwheedle and Tredyddlum Copper Mines occupy one set of the +ground-floor chambers; the Registry of Patent Inventions and Union of +Genius and Capital Company, another;--the only gentleman whose +name figures here, and in the "Law List," is Mr. Campion, who wears +mustachios, and who comes in his cab twice or thrice in a week; and +whose West End offices are in Curzon Street, Mayfair, where Mrs. Campion +entertains the nobility and gentry to whom her husband lends money. +There, and on his glazed cards, he is Mr. Somerset Campion; here he is +Campion and Co.; and the same tuft which ornaments his chin, sprouts +from the under lip of the rest of the firm. It is splendid to see his +cab-horse harness blazing with heraldic bearings, as the vehicle stops +at the door leading to his chambers: The horse flings froth off his +nostrils as he chafes and tosses under the shining bit. The reins and +the breeches of the groom are glittering white,--the lustre of that +equipage makes a sunshine in that shady place. + +Our old friend, Captain Costigan, has examined Campion's cab and horse +many an afternoon, as he trailed about the court in his carpet slippers +and dressing-gown, with his old hat cocked over his eye. He suns himself +there after his breakfast when the day is suitable; and goes and pays +a visit to the porter's lodge, where he pats the heads of the children, +and talks to Mrs. Bolton about the thayatres and me daughther Leedy +Mirabel. Mrs. Bolton was herself in the profession once, and danced at +the Wells in early days as the thirteenth of Mr. Serle's forty pupils. + +Costigan lives in the third floor at No. 4, in the rooms which were Mr. +Podmore's, and whose name is still on the door--(somebody else's name, +by the way, is on almost all the doors in Shepherd's Inn). When Charley +Podmore (the pleasing tenor singer, T.R.D.L., and at the Back Kitchen +Concert Rooms) married, and went to live at Lambeth, he ceded his +chambers to Mr. Bows and Captain Costigan, who occupy them in common +now, and you may often hear the tones of Mr. Bows's piano of fine days +when the windows are open, and when he is practising for amusement, or +for the instruction of a theatrical pupil, of whom he has one or two. +Fanny Bolton is one, the porteress's daughter, who has heard tell of her +mother's theatrical glories, which she longs to emulate. She has a good +voice and a pretty face and figure for the stage; and she prepares the +rooms and makes the beds and breakfasts for Messrs. Costigan and Bows, +in return for which the latter instructs her in music and singing. +But for his unfortunate propensity to liquor (and in that excess she +supposes that all men of fashion indulge), she thinks the Captain the +finest gentleman in the world, and believes in all the versions of all +his stories, and she is very fond of Mr. Bows too, and very grateful to +him, and this shy queer old gentleman has a fatherly fondness for her +too, for in truth his heart is full of kindness, and he is never easy +unless he loves somebody. + +Costigan has had the carriages of visitors of distinction before his +humble door in Shepherd's Inn: and to hear him talk of a morning (for +his evening song is of a much more melancholy nature) you would fancy +that Sir Charles and Lady Mirabel were in the constant habit of calling +at his chambers, and bringing with them the select nobility to visit the +"old man, the honest old half-pay Captain, poor old Jack Costigan," as +Cos calls himself. + +The truth is, that Lady Mirabel has left her husband's card (which +has been stuck in the little looking-glass over the mantelpiece of the +sitting-room at No. 4, for these many months past), and has come in +person to see her father, but not of late days. A kind person, disposed +to discharge her duties gravely, upon her marriage with Sir Charles she +settled a little pension upon her father, who occasionally was admitted +to the table of his daughter and son-in-law. At first poor Cos's +behaviour "in the hoight of poloit societee," as he denominated Lady +Mirabel's drawing-room table, was harmless, if it was absurd. As he +clothed his person in his best attire, so he selected the longest and +richest words in his vocabulary to deck his conversation, and adopted a +solemnity of demeanour which struck with astonishment all those persons +in whose company he happened to be.--"Was your Leedyship in the Pork to +dee?" he would demand of his daughter. "I looked for your equipage +in veen:--the poor old man was not gratified by the soight of his +daughther's choriot. Sir Chorlus, I saw your neem at the Levee; many's +the Levee at the Castle at Dublin that poor old Jack Costigan has +attended in his time. Did the Juke look pretty well? Bedad, I'll call +at Apsley House and lave me cyard upon 'um. I thank ye, James, a little +dthrop more champeane." Indeed, he was magnificent in his courtesy +to all, and addressed his observations not only to the master and the +guests, but to the domestics who waited at the table, and who had some +difficulty in maintaining their professional gravity while they waited +on Captain Costigan. + +On the first two or three visits to his son-in-law, Costigan maintained +a strict sobriety, content to make up for his lost time when he got +to the Back Kitchen, where he bragged about his son-in-law's dart and +burgundee, until his own utterance began to fail him, over his sixth +tumbler of whisky-punch. But with familiarity his caution vanished, and +poor Cos lamentably disgraced himself at Sir Charles Mirabel's table, +by premature inebriation. A carriage was called for him: the hospitable +door was shut upon him. Often and sadly did he speak to his friends at +the Kitchen of his resemblance to King Lear in the plee--of his having +a thankless choild, bedad--of his being a pore worn-out lonely old +man, dthriven to dthrinking by ingratitude, and seeking to dthrown his +sorrows in punch. + +It is painful to be obliged to record the weaknesses of fathers, but it +must be furthermore told of Costigan, that when his credit was exhausted +and his money gone, he would not unfrequently beg money from his +daughter, and made statements to her not altogether consistent with +strict truth. On one day a bailiff was about to lead him to prison, he +wrote, "unless the--to you insignificant--sum of three pound five can +be forthcoming to liberate a poor man's grey hairs from gaol." And +the good-natured Lady Mirabel despatched the money necessary for her +father's liberation, with a caution to him to be more economical for the +future. On a second occasion the Captain met with a frightful accident, +and broke a plate-glass window in the Strand, for which the proprietor +of the shop held him liable. The money was forthcoming on this time too, +to repair her papa's disaster, and was carried down by Lady Mirabel's +servant to the slipshod messenger and aide-de-camp of the Captain, who +brought the letter announcing his mishap. If the servant had followed +the Captain's aide-de-camp who carried the remittance, he would have +seen that gentleman, a person of Costigan's country too (for have we not +said, that however poor an Irish gentleman is, he always has a poorer +Irish gentleman to run on his errands and transact his pecuniary +affairs?), call a cab from the nearest stand, and rattle down to the +Roscius Head, Harlequin Yard, Drury Lane, where the Captain was indeed +in pawn, and for several glasses containing rum-and-water, or other +spirituous refreshment, of which he and his staff had partaken. On a +third melancholy occasion he wrote that he was attacked by illness, and +wanted money to pay the physician whom he was compelled to call in; and +this time Lady Mirabel, alarmed about her father's safety, and perhaps +reproaching herself that she had of late lost sight of her father, +called for her carriage and drove to Shepherd's Inn, at the gate of +which she alighted, whence she found the way to her father's chambers, +"No. 4, third floor, name of Podmore over the door," the porteress said, +with many curtsies, pointing towards the door of the house, into which +the affectionate daughter entered and mounted the dingy stair. Alas! the +door, surmounted by the name of Podmore, was opened to her by poor Cos +in his shirt-sleeves, and prepared with the gridiron to receive the +mutton-chops which Mrs. Bolton had gone to purchase. + +Also, it was not pleasant for Sir Charles Mirabel to have letters +constantly addressed to him at Brookes's, with the information that +Captain Costigan was in the hall, waiting for an answer; or when he went +to play his rubber at the Travellers', to be obliged to shoot out of +his brougham and run up the steps rapidly, lest his father-in-law should +seize upon him; and to think that while he read his paper or played his +whist, the Captain was walking on the opposite side of Pall Mall, with +that dreadful cocked hat, and the eye beneath it fixed steadily upon +the windows of the club. Sir Charles was a weak man; he was old, and had +many infirmities: he cried about his father-in-law to his wife, whom he +adored with senile infatuation: he said he must go abroad,--he must go +and live in the country--he should die or have another fit if he saw +that man again--he knew he should. And it was only by paying a second +visit to Captain Costigan, and representing to him, that if he plagued +Sir Charles by letters or addressed him in the street, or made any +further applications for loans, his allowance would be withdrawn +altogether, that Lady Mirabel was enabled to keep her papa in order, and +to restore tranquillity to her husband. And on occasion of this visit, +she sternly rebuked Bows for not keeping a better watch over the +Captain; desired that he should not be allowed to drink in that shameful +way; and that the people at the horrid taverns which he frequented +should be told, upon no account to give him credit. "Papa's conduct +is bringing me to the grave," she said (though she looked perfectly +healthy), "and you, as an old man, Mr. Bows, and one that pretended to +have a regard for us, ought to be ashamed of abetting him in it." Those +were the thanks which honest Bows got for his friendship and his life's +devotion. And I do not suppose that the old philosopher was much worse +off than many other men, or had greater reason to grumble. + +On the second floor of the next house to Bows's, in Shepherd's Inn, at +No. 3, live two other acquaintances of ours: Colonel Altamont, agent to +the Nawaub of Lucknow, and Captain Chevalier Edward Strong. No name at +all is over their door. The Captain does not choose to let all the world +know where he lives and his cards bear the address of a Jermyn +Street hotel; and as for the Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the Indian +potentate, he is not an envoy accredited to the Courts of St. James's +or Leadenhall Street but is here on a confidential mission quite +independent of the East India Company or the Board of Control. "In +fact," Strong says, "Colonel Altamont's object being financial, and to +effectuate a sale of some of the principal diamonds and rubies of the +Lucknow crown, his wish is not to report himself at the India House or +in Cannon Row, but rather to negotiate with private capitalists--with +whom he has had important transactions both in this country and on the +Continent." + +We have said that these anonymous chambers of Strong's had been very +comfortably furnished since the arrival of Sir Francis Clavering in +London, and the Chevalier might boast with reason to the friends who +visited him, that few retired Captains were more snugly quartered than +he, in his crib in Shepherd's Inn. There were three rooms below: the +office where Strong transacted his business--whatever that might be--and +where still remained the desk and railings of the departed officials who +had preceded him, and the Chevalier's own bedroom and sitting-room; and +a private stair led out of the office to two upper apartments, the one +occupied by Colonel Altamont, and the other serving as the kitchen of +the establishment, and the bedroom of Mr. Grady, the attendant. These +rooms were on a level with the apartments of our friends Bows and +Costigan next door at No. 4; and by reaching over the communicating +leads, Grady could command the mignonette-box which bloomed in Bows's +window. + +From Grady's kitchen casement often came odours still more fragrant. The +three old soldiers who formed the garrison of No. 3 were all skilled +in the culinary art. Grady was great at an Irish stew; the Colonel +was famous for pillaus and curries; and as for Strong he could cook +anything. He made French dishes and Spanish dishes, stews, fricassees, +and omelettes, to perfection; nor was there any man in England more +hospitable than he when his purse was full or his credit was good. At +those happy periods, he could give a friend, as he said, a good dinner, +a good glass of wine, and a good song afterwards; and poor Cos often +heard with envy the roar of Strong's choruses, and the musical clinking +of the glasses, as he sate in his own room, so far removed and yet so +near to those festivities. It was not expedient to invite Mr. Costigan +always: his practice of inebriation was lamentable; and he bored +Strong's guests with his stories when sober, and with his maudlin tears +when drunk. + +A strange and motley set they were, these friends of the Chevalier; +and though Major Pendennis would not much have relished their company, +Arthur and Warrington liked it not a little, and Pen thought it as +amusing as the society of the finest gentlemen in the finest houses +which he had the honour to frequent. There was a history about every +man of the set: they seemed all to have had their tides of luck and bad +fortune. Most of them had wonderful schemes and speculations in their +pockets, and plenty for making rapid and extraordinary fortunes. Jack +Holt had been in Don Carlos's army, when Ned Strong had fought on the +other side; and was now organising a little scheme for smuggling tobacco +into London, which must bring thirty thousand a year to any man who +would advance fifteen hundred, just to bribe the last officer of the +Excise who held out, and had wind of the scheme. Tom Diver, who had been +in the Mexican navy, knew of a specie-ship which had been sunk in the +first year of the war, with three hundred and eighty thousand dollars on +board, and a hundred and eighty thousand pounds in bars and doubloons. +"Give me eighteen hundred pounds," Tom said, "and I'm off tomorrow. I +take out four men, and a diving-bell with me; and I return in ten +months to take my seat in Parliament, by Jove! and to buy back my family +estate." Keightley, the manager of the Tredyddlum and Polwheedle Copper +Mines (which were as yet under water), besides singing as good a second +as any professional man, and besides the Tredyddlum Office, had a Smyrna +Sponge Company, and a little quicksilver operation in view, which +would set him straight with the world yet. Filby had been everything +a corporal of dragoons, a field-preacher, and missionary-agent for +converting the Irish; an actor at a Greenwich fair-booth, in front of +which his father's attorney found him when the old gentleman died and +left him that famous property, from which he got no rents now, and of +which nobody exactly knew the situation. Added to these was Sir Francis +Clavering, Bart., who liked their society, though he did not much add to +its amusements by his convivial powers. But he was made much of by the +company now, on account of his wealth and position in the world. He told +his little story and sang his little song or two with great affability; +and he had had his own history, too, before his accession to good +fortune; and had seen the inside of more prisons than one, and written +his name on many a stamped paper. + +When Altamont first returned from Paris, and after he had communicated +with Sir Francis Clavering from the hotel at which he had taken up his +quarters (and which he had reached in a very denuded state, considering +the wealth of diamonds and rubies with which this honest man was +entrusted), Strong was sent to his patron by the Baronet; paid his +little bill at the inn, and invited him to come and sleep for a night +or two at the chambers, where he subsequently took up his residence. To +negotiate with this man was very well, but to have such a person settled +in his rooms, and to be constantly burthened with such society, did not +suit the Chevalier's taste much; and he grumbled not a little to his +principal. + +"I wish you would put this bear into somebody else's cage," he said to +Clavering. "The fellow's no gentleman. I don't like walking with him. He +dresses himself like a nigger on a holiday. I took him to the play the +other night; and, by Jove, sir, he abused the actor who was doing the +part of villain in the play, and swore at him so, that the people in the +boxes wanted to turn him out. The after-piece was the 'Brigand,' where +Wallack comes in wounded, you know, and dies. When he died, Altamont +began to cry like a child, and said it was a d----d shame, and cried and +swore so, that there was another row, and everybody laughing. Then I had +to take him away, because he wanted to take his coat off to one fellow +who laughed at him; and bellowed to him to stand up like a man.--Who is +he? Where the deuce does he come from? You had best tell me the +whole story. Frank; you must one day. You and he have robbed a church +together, that's my belief. You had better get it off your mind at once, +Clavering, and tell me what this Altamont is, and what hold he has over +you." + +"Hang him! I wish he was dead!" was the Baronet's only reply; and his +countenance became so gloomy, that Strong did not think fit to question +his patron any further at that time; but resolved, if need were, to try +and discover for himself what was the secret tie between Altamont and +Clavering. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. In which the Colonel narrates some of his Adventures + + +Early in the forenoon of the day after the dinner in Grosvenor Place, +at which Colonel Altamont had chosen to appear, the Colonel emerged +from his chamber in the upper story at Shepherd's Inn, and entered into +Strong's sitting-room, where the Chevalier sate in his easy-chair with +the newspaper and his cigar. He was a man who made his tent comfortable +wherever he pitched it, and long before Altamont's arrival, had done +justice to a copious breakfast of fried eggs and broiled rashers, which +Mr. Grady had prepared secundum artem. Good-humoured and talkative, he +preferred any company rather than none; and though he had not the least +liking for his fellow-lodger, and would not have grieved to hear that +the accident had befallen him which Sir Francis Clavering desired so +fervently, yet kept on fair terms with him. He had seen Altamont to bed +with great friendliness on the night previous, and taken away his candle +for fear of accidents; and finding a spirit-bottle empty, upon which he +had counted for his nocturnal refreshment, had drunk a glass of water +with perfect contentment over his pipe, before he turned into his own +crib and to sleep. That enjoyment never failed him: he had always an +easy temper, a faultless digestion, and a rosy cheek; and whether he was +going into action the next morning or to prison (and both had been his +lot), in the camp or the Fleet, the worthy Captain snored healthfully +through the night, and woke with a good heart and appetite, for the +struggles or difficulties or pleasures of the day. + +The first act of Colonel Altamont was to bellow to Grady for a pint +of pale ale, the which he first poured into a pewter flagon, whence he +transferred it to his own lips. He put down the tankard empty, drew a +great breath, wiped his mouth in his dressing-gown (the difference of +the colour of his beard from his dyed whiskers had long struck Captain +Strong, who had seen too that his hair was fair under his black wig, +but made no remarks upon these circumstances)--the Colonel drew a +great breath, and professed himself immensely refreshed by his draught. +"Nothing like that beer," he remarked, "when the coppers are hot. Many a +day I've drunk a dozen of Bass at Calcutta, and--and----" + +"And at Lucknow, I suppose," Strong said with a laugh. "I got the +beer for you on purpose: knew you'd want it after last night." And the +Colonel began to talk about his adventures of the preceding evening. + +"I cannot help myself," the Colonel said, beating his head with his big +hand. "I'm a madman when I get the liquor on board me; and ain't fit +to be trusted with a spirit-bottle. When I once begin I can't stop till +I've emptied it; and when I've swallowed it, Lord knows what I say or +what I don't say. I dined at home here quite quiet. Grady gave me just +my two tumblers, and I intended to pass the evening at the Black and Red +as sober as a parson. Why did you leave that confounded sample-bottle of +Hollands out of the cupboard, Strong? Grady must go out too, and leave +me the kettle a-boiling for tea. It was of no use, I couldn't keep away +from it. Washed it all down, sir, by Jove. And it's my belief I had some +more, too, afterwards at that infernal little thieves' den." + +"What, were you there too?" Strong asked, "and before you came to +Grosvenor Place? That was beginning betimes." + +"Early hours to be drunk and cleared out before nine o'clock, eh? But +so it was. Yes, like a great big fool, I must go there; and found the +fellows dining, Blackland and young Moss, and two or three more of the +thieves. If we'd gone to Rouge et Noir, I must have won. But we didn't +try the black and red. No, hang 'em, they know'd I'd have beat 'em at +that--I must have beat 'em--I can't help beating 'em, I tell you. But +they was too cunnin for me. That rascal Blackland got the bones out, and +we played hazard on the dining-table. And I dropped all the money I had +from you in the morning, be hanged to my luck. It was that that set me +wild, and I suppose I must have been very hot about the head, for I went +off thinking to get some more money from Clavering, I recollect; and +then--and then I don't much remember what happened till I woke this +morning, and heard old Bows at No. 4 playing on his pianner." + +Strong mused for a while as he lighted his cigar with a coal, "I should +like to know how you always draw money from Clavering, Colonel," he +said. + +The Colonel burst out with a laugh--"Ha, ha! he owes it me," he said. + +"I don't know that that's a reason with Frank for paying," Strong +answered. "He owes plenty besides you." + +"Well, he gives it me because he is so fond of me," the other said with +the same grinning sneer. "He loves me like a brother; you know he does, +Captain.--No?--He don't?--Well, perhaps he don't; and if you ask me no +questions, perhaps I'll tell you no lies, Captain Strong--put that in +your pipe and smoke it, my boy." + +"But I'll give up that confounded brandy-bottle," the Colonel continued, +after a pause. "I must give it up, or it'll be the ruin of me." + +"It makes you say queer things," said the Captain, looking Altamont hard +in the face. "Remember what you said last night, at Clavering's table." + +"Say? What did I say?" asked the other hastily. "Did I split anything? +Dammy, Strong, did I split anything?" + +"Ask me no questions, and I will tell you no lies," the Chevalier +replied on his part. Strong thought of the words Mr. Altamont had used, +and his abrupt departure from the Baronet's dining-table and house as +soon as he recognised Major Pendennis, or Captain Beak, as he called +the Major. But Strong resolved to seek an explanation of these words +otherwise than from Colonel Altamont, and did not choose to recall them +to the other's memory. "No," he said then, "you didn't split as you +call it, Colonel; it was only a trap of mine to see if I could make you +speak; but you didn't say a word that anybody could comprehend--you were +too far gone for that." + +So much the better, Altamont thought; and heaved a great sigh, as if +relieved. Strong remarked the emotion, but took no notice, and the other +being in a communicative mood, went on speaking. + +"Yes, I own to my faults," continued the Colonel. "There is some things +I can't, do what I will, resist: a bottle of brandy, a box of dice, and +a beautiful woman. No man of pluck and spirit, no man as was worth his +salt ever could, as I know of. There's hardly p'raps a country in the +world in which them three ain't got me into trouble." + +"Indeed?" said Strong. + +"Yes, from the age of fifteen, when I ran away from home, and went +cabin-boy on board an Indiaman, till now, when I'm fifty year old, +pretty nigh, them women have always been my ruin. Why, it was one of +'em, and with such black eyes and jewels on her neck, and Battens and +ermine like a duchess, I tell you--it was one of 'em at Paris that swept +off the best part of the thousand pound as I went off with. Didn't I +ever tell you of it? Well, I don't mind. At first I was very cautious +and having such a lot of money kept it close and lived like a +gentleman--Colonel Altamont, Meurice's hotel, and that sort of +thing--never played, except at the public tables, and won more than I +lost. Well, sir, there was a chap that I saw at the hotel and the Palace +Royal too, a regular swell fellow, with white kid gloves and a tuft to +his chin, Bloundell-Bloundell his name was, as I made acquaintance with +somehow, and he asked me to dinner, and took me to Madame the Countess +de Foljambe's soirees--such a woman, Strong!--such an eye! such a hand +at the pianner. Lor bless you, she'd sit down and sing to you, and gaze +at you, until she warbled your soul out of your body a'most. She +asked me to go to her evening parties every Toosday; and didn't I take +opera-boxes and give her dinners at the restauranteur's, that's all? +But I had a run of luck at the tables, and it was not in the dinners and +opera-boxes that poor Clavering's money went. No, be hanged to it, it +was swept off in another way. One night, at the Countess's, there +was several of us at supper--Mr. Bloundell-Bloundell, the Honourable +Deuceace, the Marky de la Tour de Force--all tip-top nobs, sir, and the +height of fashion, when we had supper, and champagne you may be sure +in plenty, and then some of that confounded brandy. I would have it--I +would it go on at it--the Countess mixed the tumblers of punch for me, +and we had cards as well as grog after supper, and I played and drank +until I don't know what I did. I was like I was last night. I was taken +away and put to bed somehow, and never woke until the next day, to +a roaring headache, and to see my servant, who said the Honourable +Deuceace wanted to see me, and was waiting in the sitting-room. 'How are +you, Colonel?' says he, a coming into my bedroom. 'How long did you stay +last night after I went away? The play was getting too high for me, and +I'd lost enough to you for one night.'" + +"'To me,' says I, 'how's that, my dear feller? (for though he was an +Earl's son, we was as familiar as you and me). How's that, my dear +feller?' says I, and he tells me, that he had borrowed thirty louis of +me at vingt-et-un, that he gave me an I.O.U. for it the night before, +which I put into my pocket-book before he left the room. I takes out my +card-case--it was the Countess as worked it for me--and there was the +I.O.U. sure enough, and he paid me thirty louis in gold down upon the +table at my bedside. So I said he was a gentleman, and asked him if he +would like to take anything, when my servant should get it for him; but +the Honourable Deuceace don't drink of a morning, and he went away to +some business which he said he had. + +"Presently there's another ring at my outer door; and this time it's +Bloundell-Bloundell and the Marky that comes in. 'Bong jour, Marky,' +says I. 'Good morning--no headache?' says he. So I said I had one; +and how I must have been uncommon queer the night afore; but they both +declared I didn't show no signs of having had too much, but took my +liquor as grave as a judge. + +"'So,' says the Marky, 'Deuceace has been with you; we met him in the +Palais Royal as we were coming from breakfast. Has he settled with you? +Get it while you can: he's a slippery card; and as he won three ponies +of Bloundell, I recommend you to get your money while he has some.' + +"'He has paid me,' says I; 'but I knew no more than the dead that he +owed me anything, and don't remember a bit about lending him thirty +louis.' + +"The Marky and Bloundell looks and smiles at each other at this; and +Bloundell says, 'Colonel, you are a queer feller. No man could have +supposed, from your manners, that you had tasted anything stronger +than tea all night, and yet you forget things in the morning. Come, +come,--tell that to the marines, my friend,--we won't have it at any +price.' + +"'En efet,' says the Marky, twiddling his little black mustachios in +the chimney-glass, and making a lunge or two as he used to do at the +fencing-school. (He was a wonder at the fencing-school, and I've seen +him knock down the image fourteen times running, at Lepage's.) 'Let us +speak of affairs. Colonel, you understand that affairs of honour are +best settled at once: perhaps it won't be inconvenient to you to arrange +our little matters of last night.' + +"'What little matters?' says I. 'Do you owe me any money, Marky?' + +"'Bah!' says he; 'do not let us have any more jesting. I have your note +of hand for three hundred and forty louis. La voia!' says he, taking out +a paper from his pocket-book. + +"'And mine for two hundred and ten,' says Bloundell-Bloundell, and he +pulls out his bit of paper. + +"I was in such a rage of wonder at this, that I sprang out of bed, and +wrapped my dressing-gown round me. 'Are you come here to make a fool +of me?' says I. 'I don't owe you two hundred, or two thousand, or two +louis; and I won't pay you a farthing. Do you suppose you can catch me +with your notes of hand? I laugh at 'em and at you; and I believe you to +be a couple----.' + +"'A couple of what?' says Mr. Bloundell. 'You, of course, are aware that +we are a couple of men of honour, Colonel Altamont, and not come here to +trifle or to listen to abuse from you. You will either pay us or we +will expose you as a cheat, and chastise you as a cheat, too,' says +Bloundell. + +"'Oui, parbleu,' says the Marky,--but I didn't mind him, for I could +have thrown the little fellow out of the window; but it was different +with Bloundell,--he was a large man, that weighs three stone more than +me, and stands six inches higher, and I think he could have done for me. + +"'Monsieur will pay, or Monsieur will give me the reason why. I believe +you're little better than a polisson, Colonel Altamont,'--that was the +phrase he used--Altamont said with a grin--and I got plenty more of +this language from the two fellows, and was in the thick of the row with +them, when another of our party came in. This was a friend of mine--a +gent I had met at Boulogne, and had taken to the Countess's myself. +And as he hadn't played at all on the previous night, and had actually +warned me against Bloundell and the others, I told the story to him, and +so did the other two. + +"'I am very sorry,' says he. 'You would go on playing: the Countess +entreated you to discontinue. These gentlemen offered repeatedly to +stop. It was you that insisted on the large stakes, not they.' In fact +he charged dead against me: and when the two others went away, he told +me how the Marky would shoot me as sure as my name was--was what it is. +'I left the Countess crying, too,' said he. 'She hates these two men; +she has warned you repeatedly against them'( which she actually had +done, and often told me never to play with them), 'and now, Colonel, +I have left her in hysterics almost, lest there should be any quarrel +between you, and that confounded Marky should put a bullet through your +head. It's my belief,' says my friend, 'that that woman is distractedly +in love with you.' + +"'Do you think so?' says I; upon which my friend told me how she had +actually gone down on her knees to him and 'Save Colonel Altamont!' + +"As soon as I was dressed, I went and called upon that lovely woman. +She gave a shriek and pretty near fainted when she saw me. She called me +Ferdinand,--I'm blest if she didn't." + +"I thought your name was Jack," said Strong, with a laugh; at which the +Colonel blushed very much behind his dyed whiskers. + +"A man may have more names than one, mayn't he, Strong?" Altamont asked. +"When I'm with a lady, I like to take a good one. She called me by my +Christian name. She cried fit to break your heart. I can't stand seeing +a woman cry--never could--not whilst I'm fond of her. She said she could +bear not to think of my losing so much money in her house. Wouldn't I +take her diamonds and necklaces, and pay part? + +"I swore I wouldn't touch a farthing's worth of her jewellery, which +perhaps I did not think was worth a great deal,--but what can a woman do +more than give you her all? That's the sort I like, and I know there's +plenty of 'em. And I told her to be easy about the money, for I would +not pay one single farthing. + +"'Then they'll shoot you,' says she; 'they'll kill my Ferdinand.'" + +"They'll kill my Jack wouldn't have sounded well in French," Strong +said, laughing. + +"Never mind about names," said the other, sulkily; "a man of honour may +take any name he chooses, I suppose." + +"Well, go on with your story," said Strong. "She said they would kill +you." + +"'No,' says I, 'they won't: for I will not let that scamp of a Marquis +send me out of the world; and if he lays a hand on me, I'll brain him, +Marquis as he is.' + +"At this the Countess shrank back from me as if I had said something +very shocking. 'Do I understand Colonel Altamont aright?' says she: 'and +that a British officer refuses to meet any person who provokes him to +the field of honour?' + +"'Field of honour be hanged, Countess,' says I. 'You would not have me +be a target for that little scoundrel's pistol practice.' + +"'Colonel Altamont,' says the Countess, 'I thought you were a man +of honour--I thought, I--but no matter. Good-bye, sir.'--And she +was sweeping out of the room, her voice regular choking in her +pocket-handkerchief. + +"'Countess!' says I, rushing after her and seizing her hand. + +"'Leave me, Monsieur le Colonel,' says she, shaking me off, 'my father +was a General of the Grand Army. A soldier should know how to pay all +his debts of honour.' + +"What could I do? Everybody was against me. Caroline said I had lost +the money: though I didn't remember a syllable about the business. I had +taken Deuceace's money too; but then it was because he offered it to me +you know, and that's a different thing. Every one of these chaps was a +man of fashion and honour; and the Marky and the Countess of the first +families in France. And, by Jove, sir, rather than offend her, I paid +the money up five hundred and sixty gold Napoleons, by Jove: besides +three hundred which I lost when I had my revenge. + +"And I can't tell you at this minute whether I was done or not," +concluded the Colonel, musing. "Sometimes I think I was: but then +Caroline was so fond of me. That woman would never have seen me done: +never, I'm sure she wouldn't: at least, if she would, I'm deceived in +woman." + +Any further revelations of his past life which Altamont might have +been disposed to confide to his honest comrade the Chevalier, were +interrupted by a knocking at the outer door of their chambers; which, +when opened by Grady the servant, admitted no less a person than Sir +Francis Clavering into the presence of the two worthies. + +"The Governor, by Jove," cried Strong, regarding the arrival of his +patron with surprise. "What's brought you here?" growled Altamont, +looking sternly from under his heavy eyebrows at the Baronet. "It's +no good, I warrant." And indeed, good very seldom brought Sir Francis +Clavering into that or any other place. + +Whenever he came into Shepherd's Inn it was money that brought the +unlucky baronet into those precincts; and there was commonly a gentleman +of the money-dealing world in waiting for him at Strong's chambers, or +at Campion's below; and a question of bills to negotiate or to renew. +Claverng was a man who had never looked his debts fairly in the face, +familiar as he had been with them all his life; as long as he could +renew a bill, his mind was easy regarding it; and he would sign almost +anything for to-morrow, provided to-day could be left unmolested. He +was a man whom scarcely any amount of fortune could have benefited +permanently, and who was made to be ruined to cheat small tradesmen, to +be the victim of astuter sharpers: to be niggardly and reckless, and as +destitute of honesty as the people who cheated him, and a dupe, chiefly +because he was too mean to be a successful knave. He had told more lies +in his time, and undergone more baseness of stratagem in order to +stave off a small debt, or to swindle a poor creditor, than would have +sufficed to make a fortune for a braver rogue. He was abject and a +shuffler in the very height of his prosperity. Had he been a Crown +Prince--he could not have been more weak, useless, dissolute or +ungrateful. He could not move through life except leaning on the arm +of somebody: and yet he never had an agent but he mistrusted him; and +marred any plans which might be arranged for his benefit, and secretly +acting against the people whom he employed. Strong knew Clavering and +judged him quite correctly. It was not as friends that this pair met: +but the Chevalier worked for his principal, as he would when in the army +have pursued a harassing march, or undergone his part in the danger +and privations of a siege; because it was his duty, and because he +had agreed to it. "What is it he wants?" thought the officers of the +Shepherd's Inn garrison when the Baronet came among them. + +His pale face expressed extreme anger and irritation. "So sir," he said, +addressing Altamont, "you've been at your old tricks." + +"Which of 'um?" asked Altamont, with a sneer. + +"You have been at the Rouge et Noir: you were there last night," cried +the Baronet. + +"How do you know,--were you there?" the other said. "I was at the Club +but it wasn't on the colours I played,--ask the Captain,--I've been +telling him of it. It was with the bones. It was at hazard, Sir Francis, +upon my word and honour it was;" and he looked at the Baronet with a +knowing humorous mock humility, which only seemed to make the other more +angry. + +"What the deuce do I care, sir, how a man like you loses his money, +and whether it is at hazard or roulette?" screamed the Baronet, with +a multiplicity of oaths, and at the top of his voice. "What I will +not have, sir, is that you should use my name, or couple it with +yours.--Damn him, Strong, why don't you keep him in better order? I tell +you he has gone and used my name again, sir,--drawn a bill upon me, and +lost the money on the table--I can't stand it--I won't stand it. Flesh +and blood won't bear it--Do you know how much I have paid for you, sir?" + +"This was only a very little 'un, Sir Francis--only fifteen pound, +Captain Strong, they wouldn't stand another: and it oughtn't to anger +you, Governor. Why, it's so trifling I did not even mention it to +Strong,--did I now, Captain? I protest it had quite slipped my memory, +and all on account of that confounded liquor I took." + +"Liquor or no liquor, sir, it is no business of mine. I don't care what +you drink, or where you drink it--only it shan't be in my house. And I +will not have you breaking into my house of a night, and a fellow like +you intruding himself on my company: how dared you show yourself in +Grosvenor Place last night, sir,--and--and what do you suppose my +friends must think of me when they see a man of your sort walking into +my dining-room uninvited, and drunk, and calling for liquor as if you +were the master of the house?" + +"They'll think you know some very queer sort of people, I dare say," +Altamont said with impenetrable good-humour. "Look here, Baronet, I +apologise; on my honour I do, and ain't an apology enough between two +gentlemen? It was a strong measure I own, walking into your cuddy, +and calling for drink as if I was the Captain: but I had had too much +before, you see, that's why I wanted some more; nothing can be more +simple--and it was because they wouldn't give me no more money upon your +name at the Black and Red, that I thought I would come down and speak +to you about it. To refuse me was nothing: but to refuse a bill drawn +on you that have been such a friend to the shop, and are a baronet and +a member of parliament, and a gentleman and no mistake--Damme, its +ungrateful." + +"By heavens, if ever you do it again--if ever you dare show to yourself +in my house; or give my name at a gambling-house or at any other house, +by Jove--at any other house--or give any reference at all to me, or +speak to me in the street, by God, or anywhere else until I speak to +you--I disclaim you altogether--I won't give you another shilling." + +"Governor, don't be provoking," Altamont said surlily. "Don't talk to me +about daring to do this thing or t'other, or when my dander is up it's +the very thing to urge me on. I oughtn't to have come last night, I know +I oughtn't: but I told you I was drunk, and that ought to be sufficient +between gentleman and gentleman." + +"You a gentleman! dammy, sir," said the Baronet, "how dares a fellow +like you to call himself a gentleman?" + +"I ain't a baronet, I know," growled the other; "and I've forgotten how +to be a gentleman almost now, but--but I was one, once, and my father +was one, and I'll not have this sort of talk from you, Sir F. Clavering, +that's flat. I want to go abroad again. Why don't you come down with the +money, and let me go? Why the devil are you to be rolling in riches, and +me to have none? Why should you have a house and a table covered with +plate, and me be in a garret here in this beggarly Shepherd's Inn? We're +partners, ain't we? I'd as good a right to be rich as you have, haven't +I? Tell the story to Strong here, if you like; and ask him to be umpire +between us. I don't mind letting my secret out to a man that won't +split. Look here, Strong--perhaps you guess the story already--the fact +is, me and the Governor----" + +"D----, hold your tongue," shrieked out the Baronet in a fury. "You +shall have the money as soon as I can get it. I ain't made of money. I'm +so pressed and badgered, I don't know where to turn. I shall go mad; +by Jove, I shall. I wish I was dead, for I'm the most miserable brute +alive. I say, Mr. Altamont, don't mind me. When I'm out of health--and +I'm devilish bilious this morning--hang me, I abuse everybody, and don't +know what I say. Excuse me if I've offended you. I--I'll try and get +that little business done. Strong shall try. Upon my word he shall. And +I say, Strong, my boy, I want to speak to you. Come into the office for +a minute." + +Almost all Clavering's assaults ended in this ignominious way, and in +a shameful retreat. Altamont sneered after the Baronet as he left the +room, and entered into the office, to talk privately with his factotum. + +"What is the matter now?" the latter asked of him. "It's the old story, +I suppose." + +"D---- it, yes," the Baronet said. "I dropped two hundred in ready money +at the Little Coventry last night, and gave a cheque for three hundred +more. On her ladyship's bankers, too, for to-morrow; and I must meet +it, for there'll be the deuce to pay else. The last time she paid my +play-debts, I swore I would not touch a dice-box again, and she'll keep +her word, Strong, and dissolve partnership, if I go on. I wish I had +three hundred a year, and was away. At a German watering-place you +can do devilish well with three hundred a year. But my habits are so +d-----reckless: I wish I was in the Serpentine. I wish I was dead, by +Gad I wish I was. I wish I had never touched those confounded bones. I +had such a run of luck last night, with five for the main, and seven to +five all night, until those ruffians wanted to pay me with Altamont's +bill upon me. The luck turned from that minute. Never held the box again +for three mains, and came away cleared out, leaving that infernal cheque +behind me. How shall I pay it? Blackland won't hold it over. Hulker and +Bullock will write about it directly to her ladyship. By Jove, Ned, I'm +the most miserable brute in all England." + +It was necessary for Ned to devise some plan to console the Baronet +under this pressure of grief; and no doubt he found the means of +procuring a loan for his patron, for he was closeted at Mr. Campion's +offices that day for some time. Altamont had once more a guinea or two +in his pocket, with a promise of a further settlement; and the Baronet +had no need to wish himself dead for the next two or three months at +least. And Strong, putting together what he had learned from the Colonel +and Sir Francis, began to form in his own mind a pretty accurate opinion +as to the nature of the tie which bound the two men together. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. A Chapter of Conversations + + +Every day, after the entertainment at Grosvenor Place and Greenwich, +of which we have seen Major Pendennis partake, the worthy gentleman's +friendship and cordiality for the Clavering family seemed to increase. +His calls were frequent; his attentions to the lady of the house +unremitting. An old man about town, he had the good fortune to be +received in many houses, at which a lady of Lady Clavering's distinction +ought to be seen. Would her ladyship not like to be present at the grand +entertainment at Gaunt House? There was to be a very pretty breakfast +ball at Viscount Marrowfat's, at Fulham. Everybody was to be there +(including august personages of the highest rank), and there was to be +a Watteau quadrille, in which Miss Amory would surely look charming. To +these and other amusements the obsequious old gentleman kindly offered +to conduct Lady Clavering, and was also ready to make himself useful to +the Baronet in any way agreeable to the latter. + +In spite of his present station and fortune, the world persisted in +looking rather coldly upon Clavering, and strange suspicious rumours +followed him about. He was blackballed at two clubs in succession. +In the House of Commons, he only conversed with a few of the most +disreputable members of that famous body, having a happy knack of +choosing bad society, and adapting himself naturally to it, as other +people do to the company of their betters. The name all the senators +with whom Clavering consorted, would be invidious. We may mention only +a few. There was Captain Raff, the honourable member for Epsom, who +retired after the last Goodwood races, having accepted, as Mr. Hotspur, +the whip of the party, said, a mission to the Levant; there was +Hustingson, the patriotic member for Islington, whose voice is never +heard now denunciating corruption, since his appointment to the +Governorship of Coventry Island; there was Bob Freeny, of the +Booterstown Freenys, who is a dead shot, and of whom we therefore wish +to speak with every respect; and of all these gentlemen, with whom in +the course of his professional duty Mr. Hotspur had to confer, there was +none for whom he had a more thorough contempt and dislike than for Sir +Francis Clavering, the representative of an ancient race, who had sat +for their own borough of Clavering time out of mind in the House. "If +that man is wanted for a division," Hotspur said, "ten to one he is to +be found in a hell. He was educated in the Fleet, and he has not heard +the end of Newgate yet, take my word for it. He'll muddle away the +Begum's fortune at thimble-rig, be caught picking pockets, and finish on +board the hulks." And if the high-born Hotspur, with such an opinion +of Clavering, could yet from professional reasons be civil to him, +why should not Major Pendennis also have reasons of his own for being +attentive to this unlucky gentleman? + +"He has a very good cellar and a very good cook," the Major said; "as +long as he is silent he is not offensive, and he very seldom speaks. If +he chooses to frequent gambling-tables, and lose his money to blacklegs, +what matters to me? Don't look too curiously into any man's affairs, +Pen, my boy; every fellow has some cupboard in his house, begad, which +he would not like you and me to peep into. Why should we try, when the +rest of the house is open to us? And a devilish good house, too, as you +and I know. And if the man of the family is not all one could wish, the +women are excellent. The Begum is not over-refined, but as kind a woman +as ever lived, and devilish clever too; and as for the little Blanche, +you know my opinion about her, you rogue; you know my belief is that she +is sweet on you, and would have you for the asking. But you are growing +such a great man, that I suppose you won't be content under a Duke's +daughter--Hey, sir? I recommend you to ask one of them, and try." + +Perhaps Pen was somewhat intoxicated by his success in the world; and it +may also have entered into the young man's mind (his uncle's perpetual +hints serving not a little to encourage the notion) that Miss Amory was +tolerably well disposed to renew the little flirtation which had been +carried on in the early days of both of them, by the banks of the rural +Brawl. But he was little disposed to marriage, he said, at that +moment, and, adopting some of his uncle's worldly tone, spoke rather +contemptuously of the institution, and in favour of a bachelor life. + +"You are very happy, sir," said he, "and you get on very well alone, and +so do I. With a wife at my side, I should lose my place in society; and +I don't, for my part, much fancy retiring into the country with a Mrs. +Pendennis; or taking my wife into lodgings to be waited upon by the +servant-of-all-work. The period of my little illusions is over. You +cured me of my first love who, certainly was a fool, and would have had +a fool for her husband, and a very sulky discontented husband too if +she had taken me. We young fellows live fast, sir; and I feel as old at +five-and-twenty as many of the old fo--the old bachelors--whom I see +in the bow-window at Bays's. Don't look offended, I only mean that I +am blase about love matters, and that I could no more fan myself into a +flame for Miss Amory now, than I could adore Lady Mirabel over again. I +wish I could; I rather like old Mirabel for his infatuation about her, +and think his passion is the most respectable part of his life." + +"Sir Charles Mirabel was always a theatrical man, sir," the Major said, +annoyed that his nephew should speak flippantly of any person of Sir +Charles's rank and station. "He has been occupied with theatricals +since his early days. He acted at Carlton House when he was Page to the +Prince; he has been mixed up with that sort of thing: he could afford +to marry whom he chooses; and Lady Mirabel is a most respectable woman, +received everywhere--everywhere, mind. The Duchess of Connaught receives +her, Lady Rockminster receives her--it doesn't become young fellows to +speak lightly of people in that station. There's not a more respectable +woman in England than Lady Mirabel:--and the old fogies, as you call +them, at Bays's, are some of the first gentlemen in England, of whom you +youngsters had best learn a little manners, and a little breeding, and +a little modesty." And the Major began to think that Pen was growing +exceedingly pert and conceited, and that the world made a great deal too +much of him. + +The Major's anger amused Pen. He studied his uncle's peculiarities with +a constant relish, and was always in a good humour with his worldly old +Mentor. "I am a youngster of fifteen years' standing, sir," he said, +adroitly, "and if you think that we are disrespectful, you should see +those of the present generation. A protege of yours came to breakfast +with me the other day. You told me to ask him, and I did it to please +you. We had a day's sights together, and dined at the club, and went to +the play. He said the wine at the Polyanthus was not so good as Ellis's +wine at Richmond, smoked Warrington's cavendish after breakfast, and +when I gave him a sovereign as a farewell token, said he had plenty of +them, but would take it to show he wasn't proud." + +"Did he?--did you ask young Clavering?" cried the Major, appeased at +once--"fine boy, rather wild, but a fine boy--parents like that sort of +attention, and you can't do better than pay it to our worthy friends of +Grosvenor Place. And so you took him to the play and tipped him? That +was right, sir, that was right:" with which Mentor quitted Telemachus, +thinking that the young men were not so very bad, and that he should +make something of that fellow yet. + +As Master Clavering grew into years and stature, he became too strong +for the authority of his fond parents and governess; and rather governed +them than permitted himself to be led by their orders. With his papa +he was silent and sulky, seldom making his appearance, however, in the +neighbourhood of that gentleman; with his mamma he roared and fought +when any contest between them arose as to the gratification of his +appetite, or other wish of his heart; and in his disputes with his +governess over his book, he kicked that quiet creature's shins so +fiercely, that she was entirely overmastered and subdued by him. And +he would have so treated his sister Blanche, too, and did on one or +two occasions attempt to prevail over her; but she showed an immense +resolution and spirit on her part, and boxed his ears so soundly, that +he forbore from molesting Miss Amory, as he did the governess and his +mamma, and his mamma's maid. + +At length, when the family came to London, Sir Francis gave forth +his opinion, that "the little beggar had best be sent to school." +Accordingly the young son and heir of the house of Clavering was +despatched to the Rev. Otto Rose's establishment at Twickenham, +where young noblemen and gentlemen were received preparatory to their +introduction to the great English public schools. + +It is not our intention to follow Master Clavering in his scholastic +career; the paths to the Temple of Learning were made more easy to him +than they were to some of us of earlier generations. He advanced towards +that fane in a carriage-and-four, so to speak, and might halt and take +refreshment almost whenever he pleased. He wore varnished boots from +the earliest period of youth, and had cambric handkerchiefs and +lemon-coloured kid gloves, of the smallest size ever manufactured by +Privat. They dressed regularly at Mr. Rose's to come down to dinner; the +young gentlemen had shawl dressing-gowns, fires in their bedrooms, horse +and carriage exercise occasionally, and oil for their hair. Corporal +punishment was altogether dispensed with by the Principal, who thought +that moral discipline was entirely sufficient to lead youth; and the +boys were so rapidly advanced in many branches of learning, that they +acquired the art of drinking spirits and smoking cigars, even before +they were old enough to enter a public school. Young Frank Clavering +stole his father's Havannahs, and conveyed them to school, or smoked +them in the stables, at a surprisingly early period of life, and at ten +years old drank his champagne almost as stoutly as any whiskered cornet +of dragoons could do. + +When this interesting youth came home for his vacations Major Pendennis +was as laboriously civil and gracious to him as he was to the rest of +the family; although the boy had rather a contempt for old Wigsby, as +the Major was denominated, mimicked him behind his back, as the polite +Major bowed and smirked with Lady Clavering or Miss Amory; and drew +rude caricatures, such as are designed by ingenious youths, in which +the Major's wig, his nose, his tie, etc., were represented with artless +exaggeration. Untiring in his efforts to be agreeable, the Major wished +that Pen, too, should take particular notice of this child; incited +Arthur to invite him to his chambers, to give him a dinner at the club, +to take him to Madame Tussaud's, the Tower, the play, and so forth, and +to tip him, as the phrase is, at the end of the day's pleastres. Arthur, +who was good-natured and fond of children, went through all these +ceremonies one day; had the boy to breakfast at the Temple, where +he made the most contemptuous remarks regarding the furniture, the +crockery, and the tattered state of Warrington's dressing-gown; and +smoked a short pipe, and recounted the history of a fight between Tuffy +and Long Biggings, at Rose's, greatly to the edification of the two +gentlemen his hosts. + +As the Major rightly predicted, Lady Clavering was very grateful for +Arthur's attention to the boy; more grateful than the lad himself, +who took attentions as a matter of course, and very likely had more +sovereigns in his pocket than poor Pen, who generously gave him one of +his own slender stock of those coins. + +The Major, with the sharp eyes with which Nature endowed him, and with +the glasses of age and experience, watched this boy, and surveyed his +position in the family without seeming to be rudely curious about +their affairs. But, as a country neighbour, one who had many family +obligations to the Claverings, an old man of the world, he took occasion +to find out what Lady Clavering's means were, how her capital was +disposed, and what the boy was to inherit. And setting himself to +work,--for what purposes will appear, no doubt, ulteriorly,--he soon had +got a pretty accurate knowledge of Lady Clavering's affairs and fortune, +and of the prospects of her daughter and son. The daughter was to have +but a slender provision; the bulk of the property was, as before has +been said, to go to the son,--his father did not care for him or anybody +else,--his mother was dotingly fond of him as the child of her latter +days,--his sister disliked him. Such may be stated in round numbers, to +be the result of the information which Major Pendennis got. "Ah! my dear +madam," he would say, patting the head of the boy, "this boy may wear +a baron's coronet on his head on some future coronation, if matters are +but managed rightly, and if Sir Francis Clavering would but play his +cards well." + +At this the widow Amory heaved a deep sigh. "He plays only much of his +cards, Major, I'm afraid," she said. The Major owned that he knew as +much; did not disguise that he had heard of Sir Francis Clavering's +unfortunate propensity to play; pitied Lady Clavering sincerely; but +spoke with such genuine sentiment and sense, that her ladyship, glad to +find a person of experience to whom she could confide her grief and her +condition, talked about them pretty unreservedly to Major Pendennis, and +was eager to have his advice and consolation. Major Pendennis became +the Begum's confidante and house-friend, and as a mother, a wife, and a +capitalist, she consulted him. + +He gave her to understand (showing at the same time a great deal +of respectful sympathy) that he was acquainted with some of the +circumstances of her first unfortunate marriage, and with even the +person of her late husband, whom he remembered in Calcutta--when she was +living in seclusion with her father. The poor lady, with tears of shame +more than of grief in her eyes, told her version of her story. Going +back a child to India after two years at a European school, she had met +Amory, and foolishly married him. "Oh, you don't know how miserable that +man, made me," she said, "or what a life I passed betwixt him and my +father. Before I saw him I had never seen a man except my father's +clerks and native servants. You know we didn't go into society in India +on account of----" ("I know," said Major Pendennis, with a bow) "I was +a wild romantic child, my head was full of novels which I'd read at +school--I listened to his wild stories and adventures, for he was a +daring fellow, and I thought he talked beautifully of those calm nights +on the passage out, when he used to----. Well, I married him, and I was +wretched from that day--wretched with my father, whose character you +know, Major Pendennis, and I won't speak of: but he wasn't a good man, +sir,--neither to my poor mother, nor to me, except that he left me his +money,--nor to no one else that I ever heard of: and he didn't do many +kind actions in his lifetime, I'm afraid. And as for Amory, he was +almost worse; he was a spendthrift when my father was close: he drank +dreadfully, and was furious when in that way. He wasn't in any way a +good or a faithful husband to me, Major Pendennis, and if he'd died in +the gaol before this trial, instead of afterwards he would have saved +me a deal of shame and of unhappiness since, sir." Lady Clavering added: +"For perhaps I should not have married at all if I had not been so +anxious to change his horrid name, and I have not been happy in my +second husband, as I suppose you know, sir. Ah, Major Pendennis, I've +got money to be sure, and I'm a lady, and people fancy I'm very happy, +but I ain't. We all have our cares, and griefs, and troubles: and many's +the day that I sit down to one of my grand dinners with an aching heart, +and many a night do I lay awake on my fine bed a great deal more unhappy +than the maid that makes for it. I'm not a happy woman, Major, for all +the world says; and envies the Begum her diamonds, and carriages, and +the great company that comes to my house. I'm not happy in my husband; +I'm not in my daughter. She ain't a good girl like that dear Laura Bell +at Fairoaks. She's cost me many a tear though you don't see 'em; and she +sneers at her mother because I haven't had learning and that. How should +I? I was brought up amongst natives till I was twelve, and went back to +India when I was fourteen. Ah, Major, I should have been a good woman if +I had had a good husband. And now I must go upstairs and wipe my eyes, +for they're red with cryin. And Lady Rockminster's a comin, and we're +goin to ave a drive in the Park. And when Lady Rockminster made +her appearance, there was not a trace of tears or vexation on Lady +Clavering's face, but she was full of spirits, and bounced out with +her blunders and talk, and murdered the king's English with the utmost +liveliness and good-humour. + +"Begad, she is not such a bad woman!" the Major thought within himself. +"She is not refined, certainly, and calls 'Apollo' 'Apoller;' but she +has some heart, and I like that sort of thing, and a devilish deal of +money, too. Three stars in India Stock to her name, begad! which that +young cub is to have--is he?" And he thought how he should like to see a +little of the money transferred to Miss Blanche, and, better still, one +of those stars shining in the name of Mr. Arthur Pendennis. + +Still bent upon pursuing his schemes, whatsoever they might be, the +old negotiator took the privilege of his intimacy and age, to talk in +a kindly and fatherly manner to Miss Blanche, when he found occasion to +see her alone. He came in so frequently at luncheon-time, and became +so familiar with the ladies, that they did not even hesitate to quarrel +before him; and Lady Clavering, whose tongue was loud, and temper +brusque, had many a battle with the Sylphide in the family friend's +presence. Blanche's wit seldom failed to have the mastery in these +encounters, and the keen barbs of her arrows drove her adversary +discomfited away. "I am an old fellow," the Major said; "I have nothing +to do in life. I have my eyes open. I keep good counsel. I am the friend +of both of you; and if you choose to quarrel before me, why, I shan't +tell any one. But you are two good people, and I intend to make it up +between you. I have between lots of people--husbands and wives, fathers +and sons, daughters and mammas, before this. I like it; I've nothing +else to do." + +One day, then, the old diplomatist entered Lady Clavering's +drawing-room, just as the latter quitted it, evidently in a high state +of indignation, and ran past him up the stairs to her own apartments. +"She couldn't speak to him now," she said; "she was a great deal too +angry with that--that--that little, wicked"--anger choked the rest of +the words, or prevented their utterance until Lady Clavering had passed +out of hearing. + +"My dear, good Miss Amory," the Major said, entering the drawing-room, +"I see what is happening. You and mamma have been disagreeing. Mothers +and daughters disagree in the best families. It was but last week that +I healed up a quarrel between Lady Clapperton and her daughter Lady +Claudia. Lady Lear and her eldest daughter have not spoken for fourteen +years. Kinder and more worthy people than these I never knew in the +whole course of my life; for everybody but each other admirable. But +they can't live together: they oughtn't to live together: and I wish, +my dear creature, with all my soul, that I could see you with an +establishment of your own--for there is no woman in London who could +conduct one better--with your own establishment, making your own home +happy." + +"I am not very happy in this one," said the Sylphide; "and the stupidity +of mamma is enough to provoke a saint." + +"Precisely so; you are not suited to one another. Your mother committed +one fault in early life--or was it Nature, my dear, in your case?--she +ought not to have educated you. You ought not to have been bred up to +become the refined and intellectual being you are, surrounded, as I +own you are, by those who have not your genius or your refinement. Your +place would be to lead in the most brilliant circles, not to follow, and +take a second place in any society. I have watched you, Miss Amory: you +are ambitious; and your proper sphere is command. You ought to shine; +and you never can in this house, I know it. I hope I shall see you in +another and a happier one, some day, and the mistress of it." + +The Sylphide shrugged her lily shoulders with a look of scorn. "Where is +the Prince, and where is the palace, Major Pendennis?" she said. "I am +ready. But there is no romance in the world now, no real affection." + +"No, indeed," said the Major, with the most sentimental and simple air +which he could muster. + +"Not that I know anything about it," said Blanche, casting her eyes down +"except what I have read in novels." + +"Of course not," Major Pendennis cried; "how should you, my dear young +lady? and novels ain't true, as you remark admirably, and there is no +romance left in the world. Begad, I wish I was a young fellow like my +nephew." + +"And what," continued Miss Amory, musing, "what are the men whom we see +about at the balls every night--dancing guardsmen, penniless treasury +clerks--boobies! If I had my brother's fortune, I might have such an +establishment as you promise me--but with my name, and with my little +means, what am I to look to! A country parson, or a barrister in a +street near Russell Square, or a captain in a dragoon regiment, who will +take lodgings for me, and come home from the mess tipsy and smelling of +smoke like Sir Francis Clavering. That is how we girls are destined to +end life. O Major Pendennis, I am sick of London, and of balls, and of +young dandies with their chin-tips, and of the insolent great ladies +who know us one day and cut us the next--and of the world altogether. I +should like to leave it and to go into a convent, that I should. I shall +never find anybody to understand me. And I live here as much alone in +my family and in the world, as if I were in a cell locked up for ever. +I wish there were Sisters of Charity here, and that I could be one and +catch the plague, and die of it--I wish to quit the world. I am not +very old: but I am tired, I have suffered so much--I've been so +disillusionated--I'm weary, I'm weary--O that the Angel of Death would +come and beckon me away!" + +This speech may be interpreted as follows. A few nights since a great +lady, Lady Flamingo, had cut Miss Amory and Lady Clavering. She was +quite mad because she could not get an invitation to Lady Drum's ball: +it was the end of the season and nobody had proposed to her: she had +made no sensation at all, she who was so much cleverer than any girl of +the year, and of the young ladies forming her special circle. Dora who +had but five thousand pounds, Flora who had nothing, and Leonora who +had red hair, were going to be married, and nobody had come for Blanche +Amory! + +"You judge wisely about the world, and about your position, my dear Miss +Blanche," the Major said. "The Prince don't marry nowadays, as you say: +unless the Princess has a doosid deal of money in the funds, or is a +lady of his own rank.--The young folks of the great families marry +into the great families: if they haven't fortune they have each other's +shoulders, to push on in the world, which is pretty nearly as good.--A +girl with your fortune can scarcely hope for a great match: but a girl +with your genius and your admirable tact and fine manners, with a clever +husband by her side, may make any place for herself in the world.--We +are grown doosid republican. Talent ranks with birth and wealth now, +begad: and a clever man with a clever wife, may take any place they +please." + +Miss Amory did not of course in the least understand what Major +Pendennis meant.--Perhaps she thought over circumstances in her mind and +asked herself, could he be a negotiator for a former suitor of hers, and +could he mean Pen? No, it was impossible--He had been civil, but nothing +more.--So she said laughing, "Who is the clever man, and when will you +bring him to me, Major Pendennis? I am dying to see him." + +At this moment a servant threw open the door, and announced Mr. Henry +Foker: at which name, and at the appearance of our friend, both the lady +and the gentleman burst out laughing. + +"That is not the man," Major Pendennis said. "He is engaged to his +cousin, Lord Gravesend's daughter.--Good-bye, my dear Miss Amory." + + * * * * * + +Was Pen growing worldly, and should a man not get the experience of the +world and lay it to his account? "He felt, for his part," as he said, +"that he was growing very old very soon." "How this town forms and +changes us," he said once to Warrington. Each had come in from his +night's amusement; and Pen was smoking his pipe, and recounting, as his +habit was, to his friend the observations and adventures of the evening +just past. "How I am changed," he said, "from the simpleton boy at +Fairoaks, who was fit to break his heart about his first love! Lady +Mirabel had a reception to-night, and was as grave and collected as if +she had been born a Duchess, and had never seen a trap-door in her +life. She gave me the honour of a conversation, and patronised me about +'Walter Lorraine,' quite kindly." + +"What condescension!" broke in Warrington. + +"Wasn't it?" Pen said, simply--at which the other burst out laughing +according to his wont. "Is it possible," he said, "that anybody should +think of patronising the eminent author of 'Walter Lorraine?'" + +"You laugh at both of us," Pen said, blushing a little--"I was coming +to that myself. She told me that she had not read the book (as indeed +I believe she never read a book in her life), but that Lady Rockminster +had, and that the Duchess of Connaught pronounced it to be very clever. +In that case, I said, I should die happy, for that to please those +two ladies was in fact the great aim of my existence, and having their +approbation, of course I need look for no other. Lady Mirabel looked +at me solemnly out of her fine eyes, and said, 'Oh, indeed,' as if she +understood me, and then she asked me whether I went to the Duchess's +Thursdays, and when I said No, hoped she should see me there, and that +I must try and get there, everybody went there--everybody who was in +society: and then we talked of the new ambassador from Timbuctoo, and +how he was better than the old one; and how Lady Mary Billington was +going to marry a clergyman quite below her in rank; and how Lord and +Lady Ringdove had fallen out three months after their marriage about +Tom Pouter of the Blues, Lady Ringdove's cousin--and so forth. From +the gravity of that woman you would have fancied she had been born in a +palace, and lived all the seasons of her life in Belgrave Square." + +"And you, I suppose you took your part in the conversation pretty well, +as the descendant of the Earl your father, and the heir of Fairoaks +Castle?" Warrington said. "Yes, I remember reading of the festivities +which occurred when you came of age. The Countess gave a brilliant tea +soiree to the neighbouring nobility; and the tenantry were regaled in +the kitchen with a leg of mutton and a quart of ale. The remains of +the banquet were distributed amongst the poor of the village, and the +entrance to the park was illuminated until old John put the candle out +on retiring to rest at his usual hour." + +"My mother is not a countess," said Pen, "though she has very good blood +in her veins too--but commoner as she is, I have never met a peeress +who was more than her peer, Mr. George; and if you will come to Fairoaks +Castle you shall judge for yourself of her and of my cousin too. They +are not so witty as the London women, but they certainly are as well +bred. The thoughts of women in the country are turned to other objects +than those which occupy your London ladies. In the country a woman has +her household and her poor, her long calm days and long calm evenings." + +"Devilish long," Warrington said, "and a great deal too calm; I've tried +'em." + +"The monotony of that existence must be to a certain degree +melancholy--like the tune of a long ballad; and its harmony grave and +gentle, sad and tender: it would be unendurable else. The loneliness +of women in the country makes them of necessity soft and sentimental. +Leading a life of calm duty, constant routine, mystic reverie,--a sort +of nuns at large--too much gaiety or laughter would jar upon their +almost sacred quiet, and would be as out of place there as in a church." + +"Where you go to sleep over the sermon," Warrington said. + +"You are a professed misogynist, and hate the sex because, I suspect, +you know very little about them," Mr. Pen continued, with an air of +considerable self-complacency. "If you dislike the women in the country +for being too slow, surely the London woman ought to be fast enough for +you. The pace of London life is enormous: how do people last at it, I +wonder,--male and female? Take a woman of the world: follow her course +through the season; one asks how she can survive it? or if she tumbles +into a sleep at the end of August, and lies torpid until the spring? +She goes into the world every night, and sits watching her marriageable +daughters dancing till long after dawn. She has a nursery of little +ones, very likely, at home, to whom she administers example and +affection; having an eye likewise to bread-and-milk, catechism, music +and French, and roast leg of mutton at one o'clock; she has to call +upon ladies of her own station, either domestically or in her +public character, in which she sits upon Charity Committees, or Ball +Committees, or Emigration Committees, or Queen's College Committees, and +discharges I don't know what more duties of British stateswomanship. +She very likely keeps a poor-visiting list; has conversations with the +clergyman about soup or flannel, or proper religious teaching for the +parish; and (if she lives in certain districts) probably attends early +church. She has the newspapers to read, and, at least, must know what +her husband's party is about, so as to be able to talk to her neighbour +at dinner; and it is a fact that she reads every new book that comes +out; for she can talk, and very smartly and well, about them all, and +you see them all upon her drawing-room table. She has the cares of her +household besides--to make both ends meet; to make the girls' milliner's +bills appear not too dreadful to the father and paymaster of the family; +to snip off, in secret, a little extra article of expenditure here +and there, and convey it, in the shape of a bank-note, to the boys +at college or at sea; to check the encroachments of tradesmen and +housekeepers' financial fallacies; to keep upper and lower servants from +jangling with one another, and the household in order. Add to this, that +she has a secret taste for some art or science, models in clay, makes +experiments in chemistry, or plays in private on the violoncello,--and +I say, without exaggeration, many London ladies are doing this,--and you +have a character before you such as our ancestors never heard of, and +such as belongs entirely to our era and period of civilisation. Ye gods! +how rapidly we live and grow! In nine months, Mr. Paxton grows you a +pineapple as large as a portmanteau, whereas a little one, no bigger +than a Dutch cheese, took three years to attain his majority in +old times; and as the race of pineapples so is the race of man. +Hoiaper--what's the Greek for a pineapple, Warrington?" + +"Stop, for mercy's sake, stop with the English and before you come to +the Greek," Warrington cried out, laughing. "I never heard you make such +a long speech, or was aware that you had penetrated so deeply into the +female mysteries. Who taught you all this, and into whose boudoirs +and nurseries have you been peeping, whilst I was smoking my pipe, and +reading my book, lying on my straw bed?" + +"You are on the bank; old boy, content to watch the waves tossing in +the winds, and the struggles of others at sea," Pen said. "I am in +the stream now, and by Jove I like it. How rapidly we go down it, hey? +Strong and feeble, old and young--the metal pitchers and the earthen +pitchers--the pretty little china boat swims gaily till the big bruised +brazen one bumps him and sends him down--eh, vogue la galere!--you see +a man sink in the race, and say good-bye to him--look, he has only +dived under the other fellow's legs, and comes up shaking his pole, and +striking out ever so far ahead. Eh, vogue la galere, I say. It's good +sport, Warrington--not winning merely, but playing." + +"Well, go in and win, young 'un. I'll sit and mark the game," Warrington +said, surveying the ardent young fellow with an almost fatherly +pleasure. "A generous fellow plays for the play, a sordid one for the +stake; an old fogy sits by and smokes the pipe of tranquillity, while +Jack and Tom are pummelling each other in the ring." + +"Why don't you come in, George, and have a turn with the gloves? You are +big enough and strong enough," Pen said. "Dear old boy, you are worth +ten of me." + +"You are not quite as tall as Goliath, certainly," the other answered, +with a laugh that was rough and yet tender. "As for me, I am disabled. +I had a fatal hit in early life. I will tell you about it some day. You +may, too, meet with your master. Don't be too eager, or too confident, +or too worldly, my boy." + +Was Pendennis becoming worldly, or only seeing the worldly, or both? and +is a man very wrong for being after all only a man? Which is the +most reasonable, and does his duty best: he who stands aloof from +the struggle of life, calmly contemplating, or he who descends to the +ground, and takes his part in the contest? "That philosopher," Pen said, +"had held a great place amongst the leaders of the world, and enjoyed +to the full what it had to give of rank and riches, renown and pleasure, +who came, weary-hearted, out of it, and said that all was vanity and +vexation of spirit. Many a teacher of those whom we reverence, and who +steps out of his carriage up to his carved cathedral place, shakes his +lawn ruffles over the velvet cushions, and cries out, that the whole +struggle is an accursed one, and the works of the world are evil. Many +a conscience-stricken mystic flies from it altogether, and shuts himself +out from it within convent walls (real or spiritual), whence he can only +look up to the sky, and contemplate the heaven out of which there is no +rest, and no good. + +"But the earth, where our feet are, is the work of the same Power as the +immeasurable blue yonder, in which the future lies into which we would +peer. Who ordered toil as the condition of life, ordered weariness, +ordered sickness, ordered poverty, failure, success--to this man a +foremost place, to the other a nameless struggle with the crowd--to that +a shameful fall, or paralysed limb, or sudden accident--to each some +work upon the ground he stands on, until he is laid beneath it." While +they were talking, the dawn came shining through the windows of the +room, and Pen threw them open to receive the fresh morning air. "Look, +George," said he; "look and see the sun rise: he sees the labourer on +his way a-field; the work-girl plying her poor needle; the lawyer at his +desk, perhaps; the beauty smiling asleep upon her pillow of down; or the +jaded reveller reeling to bed; or the fevered patient tossing on it; or +the doctor watching by it, over the throes of the mother for the child +that is to be born into the world;--to be born and to take his part +in the suffering and struggling, the tears and laughter, the crime, +remorse, love, folly, sorrow, rest." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. Miss Amory's Partners + + +The noble Henry Foker, of whom we have lost sight for a few pages, +has been in the meanwhile occupied, as we might suppose a man of his +constancy would be, in the pursuit and indulgence of his all-absorbing +passion of love. + +I wish that a few of my youthful readers who are inclined to that +amusement would take the trouble to calculate the time which is spent +in the pursuit, when they would find it to be one of the most costly +occupations in which a man can possibly indulge. What don't you +sacrifice to it, indeed, young gentlemen and young ladies of +ill-regulated minds? Many hours of your precious sleep in the first +place, in which you lie tossing and thinking about the adored object, +whence you come down late to breakfast, when noon is advancing and all +the family is long since away to its daily occupations. Then when you at +length get to these occupations you pay no attention to them, and engage +in them with no ardour--all your thoughts and powers of mind being fixed +elsewhere. Then the day's work being slurred over, you neglect your +friends and relatives, your natural companions and usual associates in +life, that you may go and have a glance at the dear personage, or a look +up at her windows, or a peep at her carriage in the Park. Then at night +the artless blandishments of home bore you; mamma's conversation palls +upon you; the dishes which that good soul prepares for the dinner of +her favourite are sent away untasted,--the whole meal of life, indeed, +except one particular plat, has no relish. Life, business, family ties, +home, all things useful and dear once, become intolerable, and you are +never easy except when you are in pursuit of your flame. + +Such I believe to be not unfrequently the state of mind amongst +ill-regulated young gentlemen, and such indeed was Mr. H. Foker's +condition, who, having been bred up to indulge in every propensity +towards which he was inclined, abandoned himself to this one with his +usual selfish enthusiasm. Nor because he had given his friend Arthur +Pendennis a great deal of good advice on a former occasion, need men of +the world wonder that Mr. Foker became passion's slave in his turn. Who +among us has not given a plenty of the very best advice to his friends? +Who has not preached, and who has practised? To be sure, you, madam, +are perhaps a perfect being, and never had a wrong thought in the whole +course of your frigid and irreproachable existence: or sir, you are a +great deal too strong-minded to allow any foolish passion to interfere +with your equanimity in chambers or your attendance on 'Change; you are +so strong that you don't want any sympathy. We don't give you any, then; +we keep ours for the humble and weak, that struggle and stumble and get +up again, and so march with the rest of mortals. What need have you of +a hand who never fall? Your serene virtue is never shaded by passion, +or ruffled by temptation, or darkened by remorse; compassion would be +impertinence for such an angel: but then with such a one companionship +becomes intolerable; you are, from the elevation of your very virtue +and high attributes, of necessity lonely; we can't reach up and talk +familiarly with such potentatess good-bye, then; our way lies with +humble folks, and not with serene highnesses like you; and we give +notice that there are no perfect characters in this history, except, +perhaps, one little one, and that one is not perfect either, for she +never knows to this day that she is perfect, and with a deplorable +misapprehension and perverseness of humility, believes herself to be as +great a sinner as need be. + +This young person does not happen to be in London at the present period +of our story, and it is by no means for the like of her that Mr. Henry +Foker's mind is agitated. But what matters a few failings? Need we be +angels, male or female, in order to be worshipped as such? Let us admire +the diversity of the tastes of mankind; and the oldest, the ugliest, the +stupidest and most pompous, the silliest and most vapid, the greatest +criminal, tyrant booby, Bluebeard, Catherine Hayes, George Barnwell, +amongst us, we need never despair. I have read of the passion of a +transported pickpocket for a female convict (each of them advanced in +age, being repulsive in person, ignorant, quarrelsome, and given to +drink), that was as magnificent as the loves of Cleopatra and Antony, +or Lancelot and Guinever. The passion which Count Borulawski, the Polish +dwarf, inspired in the bosom of the most beautiful Baroness at the Court +of Dresden, is a matter with which we are all of us acquainted: the +flame which burned in the heart of young Cornet Tozer but the other day, +and caused him to run off and espouse Mrs. Battersby, who was old enough +to be his mamma,--all these instances are told in the page of history or +the newspaper column. Are we to be ashamed or pleased to think that our +hearts are formed so that the biggest and highest-placed Ajax among +us may some day find himself prostrate before the pattens of his +kitchen-maid; as that there is no poverty or shame or crime, which will +not be supported, hugged even with delight, and cherished more closely +than virtue would be, by the perverse fidelity and admirable constant +folly of a woman? + +So then Henry Foker, Esquire, longed after his love, and cursed the fate +which separated him from her. When Lord Gravesend's family retired to +the country (his lordship leaving his proxy with the venerable Lord +Bagwig), Harry still remained lingering on in London, certainly not much +to the sorrow of Lady Ann, to whom he was affianced, and who did not in +the least miss him. Wherever Miss Clavering went, this infatuated young +fellow continued to follow her; and being aware that his engagement to +his cousin was known in the world, he was forced to make a mystery of +his passion, and confine it to his own breast, so that it was so pent in +there and pressed down, that it is a wonder he did not explode some day +with the stormy secret, and perish collapsed after the outburst. + +There had been a grand entertainment at Gaunt House on one beautiful +evening in June, and the next day's journals contained almost two +columns of the names of the most closely printed nobility and gentry who +had been honoured with invitations to the ball. Among the guests +were Sir Francis and Lady Clavering and Miss Amory, for whom the +indefatigable Major Pendennis had procured an invitation, and our two +young friends Arthur and Harry. Each exerted himself, and danced a great +deal with Miss Blanche. As for the worthy Major, he assumed the charge +of Lady Clavering, and took care to introduce her to that department of +the mansion where her ladyship specially distinguished herself, namely, +the refreshment-room, where, amongst pictures of Titian and Giorgione, +and regal portraits of Vandyke and Reynolds, and enormous salvers of +gold and silver, and pyramids of large flowers, and constellations of +wax candles--in a manner perfectly regardless of expense, in a word--a +supper was going on all night. Of how many creams, jellies, salads, +peaches, white soups, grapes, pates, galantines, cups of tea, champagne, +and so forth, Lady Clavering partook, it does not become us to say. How +much the Major suffered as he followed the honest woman about, +calling to the solemn male attendants and lovely servant-maids, and +administering to Lady Clavering's various wants with admirable patience, +nobody knows;--he never confessed. He never allowed his agony to appear +on his countenance in the least; but with a constant kindness brought +plate after plate to the Begum. + +Mr. Wagg counted up all the dishes of which Lady Clavering partook +as long as he could count (but as he partook very freely himself of +champagne during the evening, his powers of calculation were not to +be trusted at the close of the entertainment), and he recommended Mr. +Honeyman, Lady Steyne's medical man, to look carefully after the Begum, +and to call and get news of her ladyship the next day. + +Sir Francis Clavering made his appearance, and skulked for a while about +the magnificent rooms; but the company and the splendour which he met +there were not to the Baronet's taste, and after tossing off a +tumbler of wine or two at the buffet, he quitted Gaunt House for the +neighbourhood of Jermyn Street, where his friends Loder, Punter, little +Moss Abramns, and Captain Skewball were assembled at the familiar green +table. In the rattle of the box, and of their agreeable conversation, +Sir Francis's spirits rose to their accustomed point of feeble hilarity. + +Mr. Pynsent, who had asked Miss Amory to dance, came up on one occasion +to claim her hand, but scowls of recognition having already passed +between him and Mr. Arthur Pendennis in the dancing-room, Arthur +suddenly rose up and claimed Miss Amory as his partner for the present +dance, on which Mr. Pynsent, biting his lips and scowling yet more +savagely, withdrew with a profound bow, saying that he gave up his +claim. There are some men who are always falling in one's way in life. +Pynsent and Pen had this view of each other; and each regarded other +accordingly. + +"What a confounded conceited provincial fool that is!" thought the one. +"Because he has written a twopenny novel, his absurd head is turned, and +a kicking would take his conceit out of him." + +"What an impertinent idiot that man is!" remarked the other to his +partner. "His soul is in Downing Street; his neckcloth is foolscap; his +hair is sand; his legs are rulers; his vitals are tape and sealing-wax; +he was a prig in his cradle; and never laughed since he was born, except +three times at the same joke of his chief. I have the same liking for +that man, Miss Amory, I have for that cold boiled veal." Upon which +Blanche of course remarked, that Mr. Pendennis was wicked, mechant, +perfectly abominable, and wondered what he would say when her back was +turned. + +"Say!--Say that you have the most beautiful figure, and the slimmest +waist in the world, Blanche--Miss Amory, I mean. I beg your pardon. +Another turn; this music would make an alderman dance." + +"And you have left off tumbling when you waltz now?" Blanche asked, +archly looking up at her partner's face. + +"One falls and one gets up again in life, Blanche; you know I used to +call you so in old times, and it is the prettiest name in the world. +Besides, I have practised since then." + +"And with a great number of partners, I'm afraid," Blanche said, with a +little sham sigh, and a shrug of the shoulders. And so in truth Mr. Pen +had practised a good deal in this life; and had undoubtedly arrived at +being able to dance better. + +If Pendennis was impertinent in his talk, Foker, on the other hand, +so bland and communicative on most occasions, was entirely mum and +melancholy when he danced with Miss Amory. To clasp her slender waist +was a rapture, to whirl round the room with her was a delirium; but to +speak to her, what could he say that was worthy of her? What pearl of +conversation could he bring that was fit for the acceptance of such a +Queen of love and wit as Blanche? It was she who made the talk when she +was in the company of this love-stricken partner. It was she who asked +him how that dear little pony was, and looked at him and thanked him +with such a tender kindness and regret, and refused the dear little pony +with such a delicate sigh when he offered it. "I have nobody to ride +with in London," she said. "Mamma is timid, and her figure is not pretty +on horseback. Sir Francis never goes out with me. He loves me like--like +a stepdaughter. Oh, how delightful it must be to have a father--a +father, Mr. Foker!" + +"Oh, uncommon," said Mr. Harry, who enjoyed that blessing very calmly, +upon which, and forgetting the sentimental air which she had just before +assumed, Blanche's grey eyes gazed at Foker with such an arch twinkle +that both of them burst out laughing, and Harry enraptured and at his +ease began to entertain her with a variety of innocent prattle--good +kind simple Foker talk, flavoured with many expressions by no means to +be discovered in dictionaries, and relating to the personal history +of himself or horses, or other things dear and important to him, or +to persons in the ballroom then passing before them, and about whose +appearance or character Mr. Harry spoke with artless freedom, and a +considerable dash of humour. + +And it was Blanche who, when the conversation flagged, and the youth's +modesty came rushing back and overpowering him, knew how to reanimate +her companion: asked him questions about Logwood, and whether it was a +pretty place? Whether he was a hunting man, and whether he liked +women to hunt? (in which case she was prepared to say that she adored +hunting)--but Mr. Foker expressing his opinion against sporting +females, and pointing out Lady Bullfinch, who happened to pass by, as +a horse-godmother, whom he had seen at cover with a cigar in her face, +Blanche too expressed her detestation of the sports of the field, and +said it would make her shudder to think of a dear sweet little fox +being killed, on which Foker laughed and waltzed with renewed vigour and +grace. + +And at the end of the waltz,--the last waltz they had on that +night,--Blanche asked him about Drummington, and whether it was a fine +house. His cousins, she had heard, were very accomplished: Lord Erith +she had met, and which of his cousins was his favourite? Was it not Lady +Ann? Yes, she was sure it was she; sure by his looks and his blushes. +She was tired of dancing; it was getting very late; she must go to +mamma;--and, without another word, she sprang away from Harry Foker's +arm, and seized upon Pen's, who was swaggering about the dancing-room, +and again said, "Mamma, mamma!--take me to mamma, dear, Mr. Pendennis!" +transfixing Harry with a Parthian shot, as she fled from him. + +My Lord Steyne, with garter and ribbon, with a bald head and shining +eyes, and a collar of red whiskers round his face, always looked grand +upon an occasion of state; and made a great effect upon Lady Clavering, +when he introduced himself to her at the request of the obsequious Major +Pendennis. With his own white and royal hand, he handed to her ladyship +a glass of wine, said he had heard of her charming daughter, and begged +to be presented to her; and, at this very juncture, Mr. Arthur Pendennis +came up with the young lady on his arm. + +The peer made a profound bow, and Blanche the deepest curtesy that ever +was seen. His lordship gave Mr. Arthur Pendennis his hand to shake; +said he had read his book, which was very wicked and clever; asked +Miss Blanche if she had read it,--at which Pen blushed and winced. Why, +Blanche was one of the heroines of the novel. Blanche, in black ringlets +and a little altered, was the Neaera of 'Walter Lorraine.' + +Blanche had read it: the language of the eyes expressed her admiration +and rapture at the performance. This little play being achieved, the +Marquis of Steyne made other two profound bows to Lady Clavering and +her daughter, and passed on to some other of his guests at the splendid +entertainment. + +Mamma and daughter were loud in their expressions of admiration of the +noble Marquis so soon as his broad back was turned upon them. "He +said they make a very nice couple," whispered major Pendennis to Lady +Clavering. Did he now, really? Mamma thought they would; Mamma was so +flustered with the honour which had just been shown to her, and with +other intoxicating events of the evening, that her good-humour knew no +bounds. She laughed, she winked, and nodded knowingly at Pen; she +tapped him on the arm with her fan; she tapped Blanche; she tapped the +Major;--her contentment was boundless, and her method of showing her joy +equally expansive. + +As the party went down the great staircase of Gaunt House, the morning +had risen stark and clear over the black trees of the square; the skies +were tinged with pink; and the cheeks of some of the people at the +ball,--ah, how ghastly they looked! That admirable and devoted Major +above all,--who had been for hours by Lady Clavering's side, ministering +to her and feeding her body with everything that was nice, and her ear +with everything that was sweet and flattering,--oh! what an object he +was! The rings round his eyes were of the colour of bistre; those +orbs themselves were like the plovers' eggs whereof Lady Clavering and +Blanche had each tasted; the wrinkles in his old face were furrowed +in deep gashes; and a silver stubble, like an elderly morning dew was +glittering on his chin, and alongside the dyed whiskers now limp and out +of curl. + +There he stood, with admirable patience, enduring, uncomplainingly, a +silent agony; knowing that people could see the state of his face +(for could he not himself perceive the condition of others, males and +females, of his own age?)--longing to go to rest for hours past; aware +that suppers disagreed with him, and yet having eaten a little so as +to keep his friend, Lady Clavering, in good-humour; with twinges +of rheumatism in the back and knees; with weary feet burning in his +varnished boots,--so tired, oh, so tired and longing for bed! If a man, +struggling with hardship and bravely overcoming it, is an object of +admiration for the gods, that Power in whose chapels the old Major was +a faithful worshipper must have looked upwards approvingly upon the +constancy of Pendennis's martyrdom. There are sufferers in that cause as +in the other: the negroes in the service of Mumbo Jumbo tattoo and drill +themselves with burning skewers with great fortitude; and we read that +the priests in the service of Baal gashed themselves and bled freely. +You who can smash the idols, do so with a good courage; but do not be +too fierce with the idolaters,--they worship the best thing they know. + +The Pendennises, the elder and the younger, waited with Lady Clavering +and her daughter until her ladyship's carriage was announced, when +the elder's martyrdom may be said to have come to an end, for the +good-natured Begum insisted upon leaving him at his door in Bury Street; +so he took the back seat of the carriage after a feeble bow or two, and +speech of thanks, polite to the last, and resolute in doing his duty. +The Begum waved her dumpy little hand by way of farewell to Arthur and +Foker, and Blanche smiled languidly out upon the young men, thinking +whether she looked very wan and green under her rose-coloured hood, and +whether it was the mirrors at Gaunt House, or the fatigue and fever of +her own eyes, which made her fancy herself so pale. + +Arthur, perhaps, saw quite well how yellow Blanche looked, but did +not attribute that peculiarity of her complexion to the effect of the +looking-glasses, or to any error in his sight or her own. Our young man +of the world could use his eyes very keenly, and could see Blanche's +face pretty much as nature had made it. But for poor Foker it had a +radiance which dazzled and blinded him: he could see no more faults in +it than in the sun, which was now flaring over the house-tops. + +Amongst other wicked London habits which Pen had acquired, the moralist +will remark that he had got to keep very bad hours; and often was going +to bed at the time when sober country-people were thinking of leaving +it. Men get used to one hour as to another. Editors of newspapers, +Covent Garden market-people, night cabmen and coffee-sellers, +chimney-sweeps, and gentlemen and ladies of fashion who frequent balls, +are often quite lively at three or four o'clock of a morning, when +ordinary mortals are snoring. We have shown in the last chapter how Pen +was in a brisk condition of mind at this period, inclined to smoke his +cigar at ease, and to speak freely. + +Foker and Pen walked away from Gaunt House, then, indulging in both the +above amusements: or rather Pen talked, and Foker looked as if he wanted +to say something. Pen was sarcastic and dandified when he had been in +the company of great folks; he could not help imitating some of their +airs and tones, and having a most lively imagination, mistook himself +for a person of importance very easily. He rattled away, and attacked +this person and that; sneered at Lady John Turnbull's bad French, which +her ladyship will introduce into all conversations in spite of the +sneers of everybody; at Mrs. Slack Roper's extraordinary costume and +sham jewels; at the old dandies and the young ones;--at whom didn't he +sneer and laugh? + +"You fire at everybody, Pen--you're grown awful, that you are," Foker +said. "Now you've pulled about Blondel's yellow wig, and Colchicum's +black one, why don't you have a shy at a brown one, hay? you know whose +I mean. It got into Lady Clavering's carriage." + +"Under my uncle's hat? My uncle is a martyr, Foker, my boy. My uncle has +been doing excruciating duties all night. He likes to go to bed rather +early. He has a dreadful headache if he sits up and touches supper. He +always has the gout if he walks or stands much at a ball. He has been +sitting up, and standing up, and supping. He has gone home to the gout +and the headache, and for my sake. Shall I make fun of the old boy? no, +not for Venice!" + +"How do you mean that he has been doing it for your sake?" Foker asked, +looking rather alarmed. + +"Boy! canst thou keep a secret if I impart it to thee?" Pen cried out, +in high spirits. "Art thou of good counsel? Wilt thou swear? Wilt thou +be mum, or wilt thou preach? Wilt thou be silent and hear, or wilt +thou speak and die?" And as he spoke, flinging himself into an absurd +theatrical attitude, the men in the cabstand in Piccadilly wondered and +grinned at the antics of the two young swells. + +"What the doose are you driving at?" Foker asked, looking very much +agitated. + +Pen, however, did not remark this agitation much, but continued in the +same bantering and excited vein. "Henry, friend of my youth," he said, +"and witness of my early follies, though dull at thy books, yet thou art +not altogether deprived of sense,--nay, blush not, Henrico, thou hast a +good portion of that, and of courage and kindness too, at the service of +thy friends. Were I in a strait of poverty, I would come to my Foker's +purse. Were I in grief, I would discharge my grief upon his sympathising +bosom----" + +"Gammon, Pen--go on," Foker said. + +"I would, Henrico, upon thy studs, and upon thy cambric worked by the +hands of beauty, to adorn the breast of valour! Know then, friend of +my boyhood's days, that Arthur Pendennis of the Upper Temple, +student-at-law, feels that he is growing lonely and old Care is +furrowing his temples, and Baldness is busy with his crown. Shall we +stop and have a drop of coffee at this stall, it looks very hot and +nice? Look how that cabman is blowing at his saucer. No, you won't? +Aristocrat! I resume my tale. I am getting on in life. I have got +devilish little money. I want some. I am thinking of getting some, and +settling in life. I'm thinking of settling. I'm thinking of marrying, +old boy. I'm thinking of becoming a moral man; a steady port and +sherry character: with a good reputation in my quartier, and a moderate +establishment of two maids and a man--with an occasional brougham +to drive out Mrs. Pendennis, and a house near the Parks for the +accommodation of the children. Ha! what sayest thou? Answer thy friend, +thou worthy child of beer. Speak, I adjure thee by all thy vats. + +"But you ain't got any money, Pen," said the other, still looking +alarmed. + +"I ain't? No, but she ave. I tell thee there is gold in store for +me--not what you call money, nursed in the lap of luxury, and cradled +on grains, and drinking in wealth from a thousand mash-tubs. What do you +know about money? What is poverty to you, is splendour to the hardy son +of the humble apothecary. You can't live without an establishment, +and your houses in town and country. A snug little house somewhere off +Belgravia, a brougham for my wife, a decent cook, and a fair bottle of +wine for my friends at home sometimes; these simple necessaries suffice +for me, my Foker." And here Pendennis began to look more serious. +Without bantering further, Pen continued, "I've rather serious thoughts +of settling and marrying. No man can get on in the world without some +money at his back. You must have a certain stake to begin with, before +you can go in and play the great game. Who knows that I'm not going to +try, old fellow? Worse men than I have won at it. And as I have not got +enough capital from my fathers, I must get some by my wife--that's all." + +They were walking down Grosvenor Street, as they talked, or rather as +Pen talked, in the selfish fulness of his heart; and Mr. Pen must have +been too much occupied with his own affairs to remark the concern +and agitation of his neighbour, for he continued: "We are no longer +children, you know, you and I, Harry. Bah! the time of our romance +has passed away. We don't marry for passion, but for prudence and for +establishment. What do you take your cousin for? Because she is a nice +girl, and an Earl's daughter, and the old folks wish it, and that sort +of thing." + +"And you, Pendennis," asked Foker, "you ain't very fond of the +girl--you're going to marry?" + +Pen shrugged his shoulders. "Comme ca," said he; "I like her well +enough. She's pretty enough; she's clever enough. I think she'll do very +well. And she has got money enough--that's the great point. Psha! you +know who she is, don't you? I thought you were sweet on her yourself one +night when we dined with her mamma. It's little Amory." + +"I--I thought so," Foker said; "and has she accepted you!" + +"Not quite," Arthur replied, with a confident smile, which seemed to +say, I have but to ask, and she comes to me that instant. + +"Oh, not quite," said Foker; and he broke out with such a dreadful +laugh, that Pen, for the first time, turned his thoughts from himself +towards his companion, and was struck by the other's ghastly pale face. + +"My dear fellow, Fo! what's the matter? You're ill," Pen said, in a tone +of real concern. + +"You think it was the champagne at Gaunt House, don't you? It ain't +that. Come in; let me talk to you for a minute. I'll tell you what it +is. D----it, let me tell somebody," Foker said. + +They were at Mr. Foker's door by this time, and, opening it, Harry +walked with his friend into his apartments, which were situated in the +back part of the house, and behind the family dining-room where the +elder Foker received his guests, surrounded by pictures of himself, his +wife, his infant son on a donkey, and the late Earl of Gravesend in his +robes as a Peer. Foker and Pen passed by this chamber, now closed with +death-like shutters, and entered into the young man's own quarters. +Dusky streams of sunbeams were playing into that room, and lighting up +poor Harry's gallery of dancing-girls and opera nymphs with flickering +illuminations. + +"Look here! I can't help telling you, Pen," he said. "Ever since the +night we dined there, I'm so fond of that girl, that I think I shall +die if I don't get her. I feel as if I should go mad sometimes. I can't +stand it, Pen. I couldn't bear to hear you talking about her, just now, +about marrying her only because she's money. Ah, Pen! that ain't the +question in marrying. I'd bet anything it ain't. Talking about money +and such a girl as that, it's--it's--what-d'ye-call-'em--you know what +I mean--I ain't good at talking--sacrilege, then. If she'd have me, I'd +take and sweep a crossing, that I would!" + +"Poor Fo! I don't think that would tempt her," Pen said, eyeing his +friend with a great deal of real good-nature and pity. "She is not a +girl for love and a cottage." + +"She ought to be a duchess, I know that very well, and I know she +wouldn't take me unless I could make her a great place in the world--for +I ain't good for anything myself much--I ain't clever and that sort +of thing," Foker said sadly. "If I had all the diamonds that all the +duchesses and marchionesses had on to-night, wouldn't I put 'em in her +lap? But what's the use of talking? I'm booked for another race. It's +that kills me, Pen. I can't get out of it; though I die, I can't get out +of it. And though my cousin's a nice girl, and I like her very well, and +that, yet I hadn't seen this one when our Governors settled that matter +between us. And when you talked, just now, about her doing very well, +and about her having money enough for both of you, I thought to myself +it isn't money or mere liking a girl, that ought to be enough to make a +fellow marry. He may marry, and find he likes somebody else better. +All the money in the world won't make you happy then. Look at me; I've +plenty of money, or shall have out of the mash-tubs, as you call 'em. My +Governor thought he'd made it all right for me in settling my marriage +with my cousin. I tell you it won't do; and when Lady Ann has got her +husband, it won't be happy for either of us, and she'll have the most +miserable beggar in town." + +"Poor old fellow!" Pen said, with rather a cheap magnanimity, "I wish I +could help you. I had no idea of this, and that you were so wild about +the girl. Do you think she would have you without your money? No. Do +you think your father would agree to break off your engagement with your +cousin? You know him very well, and that he would cast you off rather +than do so." + +The unhappy Foker only groaned a reply, flinging himself prostrate on a +sofa, face forwards, his head in his hands. + +"As for my affair," Pen went on, "my dear fellow, if I had thought +matters were so critical with you, at least I would not have pained +you by choosing you as my confidant. And my business is not serious, at +least not as yet. I have not spoken a word about it to Miss Amory. Very +likely she would not have me if I asked her. Only I have had a great +deal of talk about it with my uncle, who says that the match might be +an eligible one for me. I'm ambitious and I'm poor. And it appears Lady +Clavering will give her a good deal of money, and Sir Francis might be +got to never mind the rest. Nothing is settled, Harry. They are going +out of town directly. I promise you I won't ask her before she goes. +There's no hurry: there's time for everybody. But, suppose you got her, +Foker. Remember what you said about marriages just now, and the misery +of a man who doesn't care for his wife; and what sort of a wife would +you have who didn't care for her husband?" + +"But she would care for me," said Foker, from his sofa--"that is, I +think she would. Last night only, as we were dancing, she said----" + +"What did she say?" Pen cried, starting up in great wrath. But he +saw his own meaning more clearly than Foker, and broke off with a +laugh--"Well, never mind what she said, Harry. Miss Amory is a clever +girl, and says numbers of civil things--to you--to me, perhaps--and who +the deuce knows to whom besides? Nothing's settled, old boy. At least, +my heart won't break if I don't get her. Win her if you can, and I wish +you joy of her. Good-bye! Don't think about what I said to you. I was +excited, and confoundedly thirsty in those hot rooms, and didn't, I +suppose, put enough Seltzer-water into the champagne. Good night! I'll +keep your counsel too. 'Mum' is the word between us; and 'let there be a +fair fight, and let the best man win,' as Peter Crawley says." + +So saying, Mr. Arthur Pendennis, giving a very queer and rather +dangerous look at his companion, shook him by the hand, with something +of that sort of cordiality which befitted his just repeated simile of +the boxing-match, and which Mr. Bendigo displays when he shakes hands +with Mr. Gaunt before they fight each other for the champion's belt and +two hundred pounds a side. Foker returned his friend's salute with an +imploring look, and a piteous squeeze of the hand, sank back on his +cushions again, and Pen, putting on his hat, strode forth into the air, +and almost over the body of the matutinal housemaid, who was rubbing the +steps at the door. + +"And so he wants her too, does be?" thought Pen as he marched along--and +noted within himself with a fatal keenness of perception and almost an +infernal mischief, that the very pains and tortures which that honest +heart of Foker's was suffering gave a zest and an impetus to his own +pursuit of Blanche: if pursuit might be called which had been no pursuit +as yet, but mere sport and idle dallying. "She said something to him, +did she? perhaps she gave him the fellow flower to this;" and he took +out of his coat and twiddled in his thumb and finger a poor little +shrivelled crumpled bud that had faded and blackened with the heat and +flare of the night--"I wonder to how many more she has given her artless +tokens of affection--the little flirt"--and he flung his into the +gutter, where the water may have refreshed it, and where any amateur of +rosebuds may have picked it up. And then bethinking him that the day was +quite bright, and that the passers-by by might be staring at his beard +and white neckcloth, our modest young gentleman took a cab and drove to +the Temple. + +Ah! is this the boy that prayed at his mother's knee but a few years +since, and for whom very likely at this hour of morning she is praying? +Is this jaded and selfish worldling the lad who, a short while back, was +ready to fling away his worldly all, his hope, his ambition, his chance +of life, for his love? This is the man you are proud of, old Pendennis. +You boast of having formed him: and of having reasoned him out of his +absurd romance and folly--and groaning in your bed over your pains and +rheumatisms, satisfy yourself still by thinking, that, at last, that lad +will do something to better himself in life, and that the Pendennises +will take a good place in the world. And is he the only one, who in his +progress through this dark life goes wilfully or fatally astray, whilst +the natural truth and love which should illumine him grow dim in the +poisoned air, and suffice to light him no more? + +When Pen was gone away, poor Harry Foker got up from the sofa, and +taking out from his waistcoat--the splendidly buttoned, but the +gorgeously embroidered, the work of his mamma--a little white rosebud, +he drew from his dressing-case, also the maternal present, a pair of +scissors, with which he nipped carefully the stalk of the flower, and +placing it in a glass of water opposite his bed, he sought refuge there +from care and bitter remembrances. + +It is to be presumed that Miss Blanche Amory had more than one rose in +her bouquet, and why should not the kind young creature give out of her +superfluity, and make as many partners as possible happy? + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. Monseigneur s'amuse + + +The exertions of that last night at Gaunt House had proved almost too +much for Major Pendennis; and as soon as he could move his weary old +body with safety, he transported himself groaning to Buxton, and sought +relief in the healing waters of that place. Parliament broke up. Sir +Francis Clavering and family left town, and the affairs which we have +just mentioned to the reader were not advanced, in the brief interval +of a few days or weeks which have occurred between this and the last +chapter. The town was, however, emptied since then. + +The season was now come to a conclusion: Pen's neighbours, the lawyers, +were gone upon circuit: and his more fashionable friends had taken their +passports for the Continent, or had fled for health or excitement to +the Scotch moors. Scarce a man was to be seen in the bow-windows of +the Clubs, or on the solitary Pall Mall pavement. The red jackets had +disappeared from before the Palace-gate: the tradesmen of St. James's +were abroad taking their pleasure: the tailors had grown mustachios and +were gone up the Rhine: the bootmakers were at Ems or Baden, blushing +when they met their customers at those places of recreation, or punting +beside their creditors at the gambling-tables: the clergymen of St. +James's only preached to half a congregation, in which there was not a +single sinner of distinction: the band in Kensington Gardens had shut up +their instruments of brass and trumpets of silver: only two or three old +flies and chaises crawled by the banks of the Serpentine; and Clarence +Bulbul, who was retained in town by his arduous duties as a Treasury +clerk, when he took his afternoon ride in Rotten Row, compared its +loneliness to the vastness of the Arabian desert and himself to a +Bedouin wending his way through that dusty solitude. Warrington stowed +away a quantity of Cavendish tobacco in his carpet-bag, and betook +himself, as his custom was in the vacation, to his brother's house in +Norfolk. Pen was left alone in chambers for a while, for this man of +fashion could not quit the metropolis when he chose always: and was at +present detained by the affairs of his newspaper, the Pall Mall Gazette, +of, which he acted as the editor and charge d'affaires during the +temporary absence of the chief, Captain Shandon, who was with his family +at the salutary watering-place of Boulogne-sur-Mer. + +Although, as we have seen, Mr. Pen had pronounced himself for years past +to be a man perfectly blase and wearied of life, yet the truth is that +he was an exceedingly healthy young fellow still: with a fine appetite, +which he satisfied with the greatest relish and satisfaction at least +once a day; and a constant desire for society, which showed him to be +anything but misanthropical. If he could not get a good dinner he sate +down to a bad one with perfect contentment; if he could not procure +the company of witty or great or beautiful persons, he put up with +any society that came to hand; and was perfectly satisfied in a +tavern-parlour or on board a Greenwich steamboat, or in a jaunt to +Hampstead with Mr. Finucane, his colleague at the Pall Mall Gazette; +or in a visit to the summer theatres across the river; or to the Royal +Gardens of Vauxhall, where he was on terms of friendship with the great +Simpson, and where he shook the principal comic singer of the lovely +equestrian of the arena by the hand. And while he could watch the +grimaces or the graces of these with a satiric humour that was not +deprived of sympathy, he could look on with an eye of kindness at the +lookers-on too; at the roystering youth bent upon enjoyment, and here +taking it: at the honest parents, with their delighted children laughing +and clapping their hands at the show: at the poor outcasts, whose +laughter was less innocent though perhaps louder, and who brought their +shame and their youth here, to dance and be merry till the dawn at +least; and to get bread and drown care. Of this sympathy with all +conditions of men Arthur often boasted: said he was pleased to possess +it: and that he hoped thus to the last he should retain it. As another +man has an ardour for art or music, or natural science, Mr. Pen said +that anthropology was his favourite pursuit; and had his eyes always +eagerly open to its infinite varieties and beauties: contemplating +with an unfailing delight all specimens of it in all places to which +he resorted, whether it was the coquetting of a wrinkled dowager in +a ballroom, or a high-bred young beauty blushing in her prime there; +whether it was a hulking guardsman coaxing a servant-girl in the +Park--or innocent little Tommy that was feeding the ducks whilst the +nurse listened. And indeed a man whose heart is pretty clean, can +indulge in this pursuit with an enjoyment that never ceases, and is only +perhaps the more keen because it is secret and has a touch of sadness in +it: because he is of his mood and humour lonely, and apart although not +alone. + +Yes, Pen used to brag and talk in his impetuous way to Warrington. "I +was in love so fiercely in my youth, that I have burned out that flame +for ever, I think, and if ever I marry, it will be a marriage of reason +that I will make, with a well-bred, good-tempered, good-looking person +who has a little money, and so forth, that will cushion our carriage in +its course through life. As for romance, it is all done; I have spent +that out, and am old before my time--I'm proud of it." + +"Stuff!" growled the other, "you fancied you were getting bald the other +day, and bragged about it as you do about everything. But you began to +use the bear's-grease pot directly the hairdresser told you; and are +scented like a barber ever since." + +"You are Diogenes," the other answered, "and you want every man to live +in a tub like yourself. Violets smell better than stale tobacco, you +grizzly old cynic." But Mr. Pen was blushing whilst he made this reply +to his unromantical friend, and indeed cared a great deal more about +himself still than such a philosopher perhaps should have done. Indeed, +considering that he was careless about the world, Mr. Pen ornamented his +person with no small pains in order to make himself agreeable to it, and +for a weary pilgrim as he was, wore very tight boots and bright varnish. + +It was in this dull season of the year, then, of a shining Friday night +in autumn, that Mr. Pendennis, having completed at his newspaper office +a brilliant leading article--such as Captain Shandon himself might have +written, had the Captain been in good-humour, and inclined to work, +which he never would do except under compulsion--that Mr. Arthur +Pendennis having written his article, and reviewed it approvingly as +it lay before him in its wet proof-sheet at the office of the paper, +bethought him that he would cross the water, and regale himself with +the fireworks and other amusements of Vauxhall. So he affably put in his +pocket the order which admitted "Editor of Pall Mall Gazette and friend" +to that place of recreation, and paid with the coin of the realm a +sufficient sum to enable him to cross Waterloo Bridge. The walk thence +to the Gardens was pleasant, the stars were shining in the skies above, +looking down upon the royal property, whence the rockets and Roman +candles had not yet ascended to outshine the stars. + +Before you enter the enchanted ground, where twenty thousand additional +lamps are burned every night as usual, most of us have passed through +the black and dreary passage and wickets which hide the splendours of +Vauxhall from uninitiated men. In the walls of this passage are two +holes strongly illuminated, in the midst of which you see two +gentlemen at desks, where they will take either your money as a private +individual, or your order of admission if you are provided with +that passport to the Gardens. Pen went to exhibit his ticket at the +last-named orifice, where, however, a gentleman and two ladies were +already in parley before him. + +The gentleman, whose hat was very much on one side, and who wore a short +and shabby cloak in an excessively smart manner, was crying out in a +voice which Pen at once recognised. + +"Bedad, sir, if ye doubt me honour, will ye obleege me by stipping out +of that box, and----" + +"Lor, Capting!" cried the elder lady. + +"Don't bother me," said the man in the box. + +"And ask Mr. Hodgen himself, who's in the gyardens, to let these leedies +pass. Don't be froightened, me dear madam, I'm not going to quarl with +this gintleman, at anyreet before leedies. Will ye go, sir, and desoire +Mr. Hodgen (whose orther I keem in with, and he's me most intemate +friend, and I know he's goan to sing the 'Body Snatcher' here +to-noight), with Captain Costigan's compliments, to stip out and let +in the leedies--for meself, sir, I've seen Vauxhall, and I scawrun any +interfayrance on moi account: but for these leedies, one of them has +never been there, and of should think ye'd harly take advantage of me +misfartune in losing the ticket, to deproive her of her pleasure." + +"It ain't no use, Captain. I can't go about your business," the +check-taker said; on which the Captain swore an oath, and the elder lady +said, "Lor, ow provokin!" + +As for the young one, she looked up at the Captain and said, "Never +mind, Captain Costigan, I'm sure I don't want to go at all. Come away, +mamma." And with this, although she did not want to go at all, her +feelings overcame her, and she began to cry. + +"Me poor child!" the Captain said. "Can ye see that, sir, and will ye +not let this innocent creature in?" + +"It ain't my business," cried the doorkeeper, peevishly, out of the +illuminated box. And at this minute Arthur came up, and recognising +Costigan, said, "Don't you know me, Captain? Pendennis!" And he took off +his hat and made a bow to the two ladies. "Me dear boy! Me dear friend!" +cried the Captain, extending towards Pendennis the grasp of friendship; +and he rapidly explained to the other what he called "a most unluckee +conthratong." He had an order for Vauxhall, admitting two, from Mr. +Hodgen, then within the Gardens, and singing (as he did at the Back +Kitchen and the nobility's concerts, the 'Body Snatcher,' the 'Death of +General Wolfe,' the 'Banner of Blood,' and other favourite melodies); +and, having this order for the admission of two persons, he thought that +it would admit three, and had come accordingly to the Gardens with +his friends. But, on his way, Captain Costigan had lost the paper of +admission--it was not forthcoming at all; and the leedies must go back +again, to the great disappointment of one of them, as Pendennis saw. + +Arthur had a great deal of good-nature for everybody, and sympathised +with the misfortunes of all sorts of people: how could he refuse his +sympathy in such a case as this? He had seen the innocent face as it +looked up to the Captain, the appealing look of the girl, the piteous +quiver of the mouth, and the final outburst of tears. If it had been his +last guinea in the world, he must have paid it to have given the poor +little thing pleasure. She turned the sad imploring eyes away +directly they lighted upon a stranger, and began to wipe them with her +handkerchief. Arthur looked very handsome and kind as he stood before +the women, with his hat off, blushing, bowing, generous, a gentleman. +"Who are they?" he asked of himself. He thought he had seen the elder +lady before. + +"If I can be of any service to you, Captain Costigan," the young man +said, "I hope you will command me; is there any difficulty about taking +these ladies into the garden? Will you kindly make use of my purse? +And--and I have a ticket myself which will admit two--I hope, ma'am, you +will permit me?" + +The first impulse of the Prince of Fairoaks was to pay for the whole +party, and to make away with his newspaper order as poor Costigan had +done with his own ticket. But his instinct, and the appearance of the +two women, told him that they would be better pleased if he did not +give himself the airs of a grand seigneur, and he handed his purse to +Costigan, and laughingly pulled out his ticket with one hand, as +he offered the other to the elder of the ladies--ladies was not the +word--they had bonnets and shawls, and collars and ribbons, and the +youngest showed a pretty little foot and boot under her modest grey +gown, but his Highness of Fairoaks was courteous to every person who +wore a petticoat whatever its texture was, and the humbler the wearer, +only the more stately and polite in his demeanour. + +"Fanny, take the gentleman's arm," the elder said; "Since you will be +so very kind--I've seen you often come in at our gate, sir, and go in to +Captain Strong's at No. 3." + +Fanny made a little curtsey, and put her hand under Arthur's arm. It +had on a shabby little glove, but it was pretty and small. She was not a +child, but she was scarcely a woman as yet; her tears had dried up, and +her cheek mantled with youthful blushes, and her eyes glistened with +pleasure and gratitude, as she looked up into Arthur's kind face. + +Arthur, in a protecting way, put his other hand upon the little one +resting on his arm. "Fanny's a very pretty little name," he said, "and +so you know me, do you?" + +"We keep the lodge, sir, at Shepherd's Inn," Fanny said with a curtsey; +"and I've never been at Vauxhall, sir, and Papa didn't like me to +go--and--and--O--O--law, how beautiful!" She shrank back as she spoke, +starting with wonder and delight as she saw the Royal Gardens blaze +before her with a hundred million of lamps, with a splendour such as the +finest fairy tale, the finest pantomime she had ever witnessed at the +theatre, had never realised. Pen was pleased with her pleasure, and +pressed to his side the little hand which clung so kindly to him. "What +would I not give for a little of this pleasure?" said the blase young +man. + +"Your purse, Pendennis, me dear boy," said the Captain's voice behind +him. "Will ye count it? it's all roight--no--ye thrust in old Jack +Costigan (he thrusts me, ye see, madam). Ye've been me preserver, Pen +(I've known um since choildhood, Mrs. Bolton; he's the proproietor of +Fairoaks Castle, and many's the cooper of clart I've dthrunk there with +the first nobilitee of his neetive countee),--Mr. Pendennis, ye've +been me preserver, and of thank ye; me daughtther will thank ye;--Mr. +Simpson, your humble servant sir." + +If Pen was magnificent in his courtesy to the ladies, what was his +splendour in comparison to Captain Costigan's bowing here and there, and +crying bravo to the singers? + +A man, descended like Costigan, from a long line of Hibernian kings, +chieftains, and other magnates and sheriffs of the county, had of course +too much dignity and self-respect to walk arrum-in-arrum (as the Captain +phrased it) with a lady who occasionally swept his room out, and cooked +his mutton-chops. In the course of their journey from Shepherd's Inn +to Vauxhall Gardens, Captain Costigan had walked by the side of the two +ladies, in a patronising and affable manner pointing out to them the +edifices worthy of note, and discoorsing, according to his wont, about +other cities and countries which he had visited, and the people of rank +and fashion with whom he had the honour of an acquaintance. Nor could it +be expected, nor, indeed, did Mrs. Bolton expect, that, arrived in the +Royal property, and strongly illuminated by the flare of the twenty +thousand additional lamps, the Captain could relax from his dignity, and +give an arm to a lady who was, in fact, little better than a housekeeper +or charwoman. + +But Pen, on his part, had no such scruples. Miss Fanny Bolton did not +make his bed nor sweep his chambers; and he did not choose to let go +his pretty little partner. As for Fanny, her colour heightened, and +her bright eyes shone the brighter with pleasure, as she leaned for +protection on the arm of such a fine gentleman as Mr. Pen. And she +looked at numbers of other ladies in the place, and at scores of other +gentlemen under whose protection they were walking here and there; and +she thought that her gentleman was handsomer and grander-looking than +any other gent in the place. Of course there were votaries of pleasure +of all ranks there--rakish young surgeons, fast young clerks and +commercialists, occasional dandies of the Guard regiments, and the rest. +Old Lord Colchicum was there in attendance upon Mademoiselle Caracoline, +who had been riding in the ring; and who talked her native French very +loud, and used idiomatic expressions of exceeding strength as she walked +about, leaning on the arm of his lordship. + +Colchicum was in attendance upon Mademoiselle Carandine, little Tom +Tufthunt was in attendance upon Lord Colchicum; and rather pleased, too, +with his position. When Don Juan scalles the wall, there's never a want +of a Leporello to hold the ladder. Tom Tufthunt was quite happy to act +as friend to the elderly viscount, and to carve the fowl, and to make +the salad at supper. When Pen and his young lady met the Viscount's +party, that noble poor only gave Arthur a passing leer of recognition +as his lordship's eyes passed from Pen's face under the bonnet of Pen's +companion. But Tom Tufthunt wagged his head very good-naturedly at Mr. +Arthur, and said, "How are you, old boy?" and looked extremely knowing +at the godfather of this history. + +"That is the great rider at Astley's; I have seen her there," Miss +Bolton said, looking after Mademoiselle Caracoline; "and who is that old +man? is it not the gentleman in the ring!" + +"That is Lord Viscount Colchicum, Miss Fanny," said Pen with an air +of protection. He meant no harm; he was pleased to patronise the young +girl, and he was not displeased that she should be so pretty, and that +she should be hanging upon his arm, and that yonder elderly Don Juan +should have seen her there. + +Fanny was very pretty; her eyes were dark and brilliant, her teeth +were like little pearls; her mouth was almost as red as Mademoiselle +Caracoline's when the latter had put on her vermilion. And what a +difference there was between the one's voice and the other's, between +the girl's laugh and the woman's! It was only very lately, indeed, +that Fanny, when looking in the little glass over the Bows-Costigan +mantelpiece as she was dusting it had begun to suspect that she was a +beauty. But a year ago, she was a clumsy, gawky girl, at whom her +father sneered, and of whom the girls at the day-school (Miss Minifer's, +Newcastle Street, Strand; Miss M., the younger sister, took the leading +business at the Norwich circuit in 182--; and she herself had played for +two seasons with some credit T. R. E. O., T. R. S. W., until she fell +down a trap-door and broke her leg); the girls at Fanny's school, we +say, took no account of her, and thought her a dowdy little creature +as long as she remained under Miss Minifer's instruction. And it was +unremarked and almost unseen in the porter's dark lodge of Shepherd's +Inn, that this little flower bloomed into beauty. + +So this young person hung upon Mr. Pen's arm, and they paced the gardens +together, Empty as London was, there were still some two millions of +people left lingering about it, and amongst them, one or two of the +acquaintances of Mr. Arthur Pendennis. + +Amongst them, silent and alone, pale, with his hands in his pockets, and +a rueful nod of the head to Arthur as they met, passed Henry Foker, Esq. +Young Henry was trying to ease his mind by moving from place to place, +and from excitement to excitement. But he thought about Blanche as he +sauntered in the dark walks; he thought about Blanche as he looked at +the devices of the lamps. He consulted the fortune-teller about her, +and was disappointed when that gipsy told him that he was in love with a +dark lady who would make him happy; and at the concert, though Mr. +Momus sang his most stunning comic songs, and asked his most astonishing +riddles, never did a kind smile come to visit Foker's lips. In fact, he +never heard Mr. Momus at all. + +Pen and Miss Bolton were hard by listening to the same concert, and the +latter remarked, and Pen laughed at Mr. Foker's woebegone face. + +Fanny asked what it was that made that odd-looking little man so dismal? +"I think he is crossed in love!" Pen, said. "Isn't that enough to make +any man dismal, Fanny?" And he looked down at her, splendidly protecting +her, like Egmont at Clara in Goethe's play, or Leicester at Amy in +Scott's novel. + +"Crossed in love is he? poor gentleman," said Fanny with a sigh, and +her eyes turned round towards him with no little kindness and pity--but +Harry did not see the beautiful dark eyes. + +"How dy do, Mr. Pendennis!"--a voice broke in here--it was that of a +young man in a large white coat with a red neckcloth, over which a dingy +shirt-collar was turned so as to exhibit a dubious neck--with a large +pin of bullion or other metal, and an imaginative waistcoat with +exceedingly fanciful glass buttons, and trousers that cried with a loud +voice, "Come look at me and see how cheap and tawdry I am; my master, +what a dirty buck!" and a little stick in one pocket of his coat, and a +lady in pink satin on the other arm--"How dy do--Forget me, I dare say? +Huxter,--Clavering." + +"How do you do, Mr. Huxter," the Prince of Fairoaks said in his most +princely manner--"I hope you are very well." + +"Pretty bobbish, thanky."--And Mr. Huxter wagged his head. "I say, +Pendennis, you've been coming it uncommon strong since we had the row +at Wapshot's, don't you remember. Great author, hay? Go about with the +swells. Saw your name in the Morning Post. I suppose you're too much +of a swell to come and have a bit of supper with an old +friend?--Charterhouse Lane to-morrow night,--some devilish good fellows +from Bartholomew's, and some stunning gin-punch. Here's my card." And +with this Mr. Huxter released his hand from the pocket where his cane +was, and pulling off the top of his card-case with his teeth produced +thence a visiting ticket, which he handed to Pen. + +"You are exceedingly kind, I am sure," said Pen: "but I regret that I +have an engagement which will take me out of town to-morrow night." And +the Marquis of Fairoaks, wondering that such a creature as this could +have the audacity to give him a card, put Mr. Huxter's card into his +waistcoat pocket with a lofty courtesy. Possibly Mr. Samuel Huxter was +not aware that there was any great social difference between Mr. Arthur +Pendennis and himself. Mr. Huxter's father was a surgeon and apothecary +at Clavering just as Mr. Pendennis's papa had been a surgeon and +apothecary at Bath. But the impudence of some men is beyond all +calculation. + +"Well, old fellow, never mind," said Mr. Huxter, who, always frank and +familiar, was from vinous excitement even more affable than usual. "If +ever you are passing, look up our place, I'm mostly at home Saturdays; +and there's generally a cheese cupboard. Ta, ta.--There's the bell for +the fireworks ringing. Come along, Mary." And he set off running with +the rest of the crowd in the direction of the fireworks. + +So did Pen presently, when this agreeable youth was out of sight, begin +to run with his little companion; Mrs. Bolton following after them, +with Captain Costigan at her side. But the Captain was too majestic and +dignified in his movements to run for friend or enemy, and he pursued +his course with the usual jaunty swagger which distinguished his steps, +so that he and his companion were speedily distanced by Pen and Miss +Fanny. + +Perhaps Arthur forgot, or perhaps he did not choose to remember, that +the elder couple had no money in their pockets, as had been proved by +their adventure at the entrance of the Gardens; howbeit, Pen paid a +couple of shillings for himself and his partner, and with her hanging +close on his arm, scaled the staircase which leads to the firework +gallery. The Captain and mamma might have followed them if they liked, +but Arthur and Fanny were too busy to look back. People were pushing and +squeezing there beside and behind them. One eager individual rushed by +Fanny, and elbowed her so, that she fell back with a little cry, upon +which, of course, Arthur caught her adroitly in his arms, and, just for +protection, kept her so defended, until they mounted the stair, and took +their places. + +Poor Foker sate alone on one of the highest benches, his face +illuminated by the fireworks, or in their absence by the moon. Arthur +saw him, and laughed, but did not occupy himself about his friend much. +He was engaged with Fanny. How she wondered! how happy she was! how she +cried O, O, O, as the rockets soared into the air, and showered down +in azure, and emerald, and vermilion! As these wonders blazed and +disappeared before her, the little girl thrilled and trembled with +delight at Arthur's side--her hand was under his arm still, he felt it +pressing him as she looked up delighted. + +"How beautiful they are, sir!" she cried. + +"Don't call me sir, Fanny," Arthur said. + +A quick blush rushed up into the girl's face. "What shall I call you?" +she said, in a low voice, sweet and tremulous. "What would you wish me +to say, sir?" + +"Again, Fanny! Well, I forgot; it is best so, my dear," Pendennis said, +very kindly and gently. "I may call you Fanny?" + +"Oh yes!" she said, and the little hand pressed his arm once more very +eagerly, and the girl clung to him so that he could feel her heart +beating on his shoulder. + +"I may call you Fanny, because you are a young girl, and a good girl, +Fanny, and I am an old gentleman. But you mustn't call me anything +but sir, or Mr. Pendennis, if you like; for we live in very different +stations, Fanny; and don't think I speak unkindly; and--and why do you +take your hand away, Fanny? Are you afraid of me? Do you think I would +hurt you? Not for all the world, my dear little girl. And--and look how +beautiful the moon and stars are, and how calmly they shine when the +rockets have gone out, and the noisy wheels have done hissing and +blazing. When I came here to-night I did not think I should have had +such a pretty little companion to sit by my side, and see these fine +fireworks. You must know I live by myself, and work very hard. I write +in books and newspapers, Fanny; and I quite tired out, and was expected +to sit alone all night; and--don't cry, my dear, dear, little girl." +Here Pen broke out, rapidly putting an end to the calm oration which he +had begun to deliver; for the sight of a woman's tears always put his +nerves in a quiver, and he began forthwith to coax her and soothe +her, and to utter a hundred and twenty little ejaculations of pity and +sympathy, which need not be repeated here, because they would be absurd +in print. So would a mother's talk to a child be absurd in print; +so would a lover's to his bride. That sweet artless poetry bears no +translation; and is too subtle for grammarians' clumsy definitions. You +have but the same four letters to describe the salute which you perform +on your grandmother's forehead, and that which you bestow on the sacred +cheek of your mistress; but the same four letters, and not one of them a +labial. Do we mean to hint that r. Arthur Pendennis made any use of the +monosyllable in question? Not so. In the first place, it was dark: the +fireworks were over, and nobody could see him; secondly, he was not a +man to have this kind of secret, and tell it; thirdly and lastly, let +the honest fellow who has kissed a pretty girl, say what would have been +his own conduct in such a delicate juncture? + +Well, the truth is, that however you may suspect him, and whatever you +would have done under the circumstances, or Mr. Pen would have liked +to do, he behaved honestly, and like a man. "I will not play with this +little girl's heart," he said within himself, "and forget my own or +her honour. She seems to have a great deal of dangerous and rather +contagious sensibility, and I am very glad the fireworks are over, and +that I can take her back to her mother. Come along, Fanny; mind the +steps, and lean on me. Don't stumble, you heedless little thing; this is +the way, and there is your mamma at the door." + +And there, indeed, Mrs. Bolton was, unquiet in spirit, and grasping her +umbrella. She seized Fanny with maternal fierceness and eagerness, and +uttered some rapid abuse to the girl in an undertone. The expression +in Captain Costigan's eye--standing behind the matron and winking +at Pendennis from under his hat--was, I am bound to say, indefinably +humorous. + +It was so much so, that Pen could not refrain from bursting into a +laugh. "You should have taken my arm, Mrs. Bolton," he said, offering +it. "I am very glad to bring Miss Fanny back quite safe to you. We +thought you would have followed us up into the gallery. We enjoyed the +fireworks, didn't we?" + +"Oh yes!" said Miss Fanny, with rather a demure look. + +"And the bouquet was magnificent," said Pen. "And it is ten hours since +I had anything to eat, ladies; and I wish you would permit me to invite +you to supper." + +"Dad," said Costigan, "I'd loike a snack to; only I forgawt me purse, or +I should have invoited these leedies to a collection." + +Mrs. Bolton with considerable asperity said, She ad an eadache, and +would much rather go ome. + +"A lobster salad is the best thing in the world for a headache," Pen +said gallantly, "and a glass of wine I'm sure will do you good. Come, +Mrs. Bolton, be kind to me and oblige me. I shan't have the heart to sup +without you, and upon my word I have had no dinner. Give me your arm: +give me the umbrella. Costigan, I'm sure you'll take care of Miss Fanny; +and I shall think Mrs. Bolton angry with me, unless she will favour +me with her society. And we will all sup quietly, and go back in a cab +together." + +The cab, the lobster salad, the frank and good-humoured look of +Pendennis, as he smilingly invited the worthy matron, subdued her +suspicions and her anger. Since he would be so obliging, she thought she +could take a little bit of lobster, and so they all marched away to a +box; and Costigan called for a waither with such a loud and belligerent +voice, as caused one of those officials instantly to run to him. + +The carte was examined on the wall, and Fanny was asked to choose her +favourite dish; upon which the young creature said she was fond of +lobster, too, but also owned to a partiality for raspberry tart. This +delicacy was provided by Pen, and a bottle of the most frisky champagne +was moreover ordered for the delight of the ladies. Little Fanny drank +this;--what other sweet intoxication had she not drunk in the course of +the night? + +When the supper, which was very brisk and gay, was over, and Captain +Costigan and Mrs. Bolton had partaken of some of the rack-punch that is +so fragrant at Vauxhall, the bill was called and discharged by Pen with +great generosity,--"loike a foin young English gentleman of th' olden +toime, be Jove," Costigan enthusiastically remarked. And as, when they +went out of the box, he stepped forward and gave Mrs. Bolton his arm, +Fanny fell to Pen's lot, and the young people walked away in high +good-humour together, in the wake of their seniors. + +The champagne and the rack-punch, though taken in moderation by all +persons, except perhaps poor Cos, who lurched ever so little in his +gait, had set them in high spirits and good-humour, so that Fanny began +to skip and move her brisk little feet in time to the band, which was +playing waltzes and galops for the dancers. As they came up to the +dancing, the music and Fanny's feet seemed to go quicker together--she +seemed to spring, as if naturally, from the ground, and as if she +required repression to keep her there. + +"Shouldn't you like a turn?" said the Prince of Fairoaks. "What fun it +would be! Mrs. Bolton, ma'am, do let me take her once round." Upon which +Mr. Costigan said, "Off wid you!" and Mrs. Bolton not refusing (indeed, +she was an old war-horse, and would have liked, at the trumpet's sound, +to have entered the arena herself), Fanny's shawl was off her back in a +minute, and she and Arthur were whirling round in a waltz in the midst +of a great deal of queer, but exceedingly joyful company. + +Pen had no mishap this time with little Fanny, as he had with Miss +Blanche in old days,--at least, there was no mishap of his making. The +pair danced away with great agility and contentment,--first a waltz, +then a galop, then a waltz again, until, in the second waltz, they were +bumped by another couple who had joined the Terpsichorean choir. This +was Mr. Huxter and his pink satin young friend, of whom we have already +had a glimpse. + +Mr. Huxter very probably had been also partaking of supper, for he was +even more excited now than at the time when he had previously claimed +Pen's acquaintance; and, having run against Arthur and his partner, +and nearly knocked them down, this amiable gentleman of course began +to abuse the people whom he had injured, and broke out into a volley of +slang against the unoffending couple. "Now then, stoopid! Don't keep the +ground if you can't dance, old Slow Coach!" the young surgeon roared out +(using, at the same time, other expressions far more emphatic), and was +joined in his abuse by the shrill language and laughter of his partner; +to the interruption of the ball, the terror of poor little Fanny, and +the immense indignation of Pen. + +Arthur was furious; and not so angry at the quarrel as at the shame +attending it. A battle with a fellow like that! A row in a public +garden, and with a porter's daughter on his arm! What a position for +Arthur Pendennis! He drew poor little Fanny hastily away from the +dancers to her mother, and wished that lady, and Costigan, and poor +Fanny underground, rather than there, in his companionship, and under +his protection. + +When Huxter commenced his attack, that free-spoken young gentleman had +not seen who was his opponent; and directly he was aware that it was +Arthur whom he had insulted, he began to make apologies. "Hold your +stoopid tongue, Mary," he said to his partner. "It's an old friend and +crony at home. I beg pardon, Pendennis; wasn't aware it was you, old +boy." Mr. Huxter had been one of the boys of the Clavering School, who +had been present at a combat which has been mentioned in the early part +of this story, when young Pen knocked down the biggest champion of the +academy, and Huxter knew that it was dangerous to quarrel with Arthur. + +His apologies were as odious to the other as his abuse had been. Pen +stopped his tipsy remonstrance, by telling him to hold his tongue, and +desiring him not to use his (Pendennis's) name in that place or any +other; and he walked out of the gardens with a titter behind him from +the crowd, every one of whom he would have liked to massacre for having +been witness to the degrading broil. He walked out of the gardens, quite +forgetting poor little Fanny, who came trembling behind him with her +mother and the stately Costigan. + +He was brought back to himself by a word from the Captain, who touched +him on the shoulder just as they were passing the inner gate. + +"There's no ray-admittance except ye pay again," the Captain said. +"Hadn't I better go back and take the fellow your message?" + +Pen burst out laughing. "Take him a message! Do you think I would fight +with such a fellow as that?" he asked. + +"No, no! Don't, don't?" cried out little Fanny. "How can you be so +wicked, Captain Costigan?" The Captain muttered something about honour, +and winked knowingly at Pen, but Arthur said gallantly, "No, Fanny, +don't be frightened. It was my fault to have danced in such a place,--I +beg your padon to have asked you to dance there." And he gave her his +arm once more, and called a cab, and put his three friends into it. + +He was about to pay the driver, and to take another carriage for +himself, when little Fanny, still alarmed, put her little hand out, and +caught him by the coat, and implored him and besought him to come in. + +"Will nothing satisfy you," said Pen, in great good-humour, "that I am +not going back to fight him? Well, I will come home with you. Drive +to Shepherd's Inn, cab." The cab drove to its destination. Arthur was +immensely pleased by the girl's solicitude about him: her tender terrors +quite made him forget his previous annoyance. + +Pen put the ladies into their lodge, having shaken hands kindly with +both of them; and the Captain again whispered to him that he would +see um in the morning if he was inclined, and take his message to that +"scounthrel." But the Captain was in his usual condition when he made +the proposal; and Pen was perfectly sure that neither he nor Mr. Huxter, +when they awoke, would remember anything about the dispute. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. A Visit of Politeness + + +Costigan never roused Pen from his slumbers; there was no hostile +message from Mr. Huxter to disturb him; and when Pen woke, it was with +a brisker and more lively feeling than ordinarily attends that moment in +the day of the tired and blase London man. A City man wakes up to care +and consols, and the thoughts of 'Change and the counting-house take +possession of him as soon as sleep flies from under his night-cap; a +lawyer rouses himself with the early morning to think of the case that +will take him all his day to work upon, and the inevitable attorney +to whom he has promised his papers ere night. Which of us has not his +anxiety instantly present when his eyes are opened, to it and to the +world, after his night's sleep? Kind strengthener that enables us +to face the day's task with renewed heart! Beautiful ordinance of +Providence that creates rest as it awards labour! + +Mr. Pendennis's labour, or rather his disposition, was of that sort that +his daily occupations did not much interest him, for the excitement of +literary composition pretty soon subsides with the hired labourer, and +the delight of seeing one's-self in print only extends to the first two +or three appearances in the magazine or newspaper page. Pegasus put +into harness, and obliged to run a stage every day, is as prosaic as +any other hack, and won't work without his whip or his feed of corn. +So, indeed, Mr. Arthur performed his work at the Pall Mall Gazette (and +since his success as a novelist with an increased salary), but without +the least enthusiasm, doing his best or pretty nearly, and sometimes +writing ill and sometimes well. He was a literary hack, naturally fast +in pace, and brilliant in action. + +Neither did society, or that portion which he saw, excite or amuse him +over much. In spite of his brag and boast to the contrary, he was too +young as yet for women's society, which probably can only be had in +perfection when a man has ceased to think about his own person, and has +given up all designs of being a conqueror of ladies; he was too young +to be admitted as an equal amongst men who had made their mark in the +world, and of whose conversation he could scarcely as yet expect to be +more than a listener. And he was too old for the men of pleasure of his +own age; too much a man of pleasure for the men of business; destinied +in a word to be a good deal alone. Fate awards this lot of solitude to +many a man; and many like it from taste, as many without difficulty bear +it. Pendennis, in reality, suffered it very equanimously; but in words, +and according to his wont, grumbled over it not a little. + +"What a nice little artless creature that was," Mr. Pen thought at the +very instant of waking after the Vauxhall affair; "what a pretty natural +manner she has; how much pleasanter than the minauderies of the young +ladies in the ballrooms" (and here he recalled to himself some instances +of what he could not help seeing was the artful simplicity of Miss +Blanche, and some of the stupid graces of other young ladies in the +polite world); "who could have thought that such a pretty rose could +grow in a porter's lodge, or bloom in that dismal old flower-pot of +a Shepherd's Inn? So she learns to sing from old Bows? If her singing +voice is as sweet as her speaking voice, it must be pretty. I like those +low voilees voices. 'What would you like me to call you?' indeed, poor +little Fanny! It went to my heart to adopt the grand air with her and +tell her to call me, 'Sir.' But we'll have no nonsense of that sort--no +Faust and Margaret business for me. That old Bows! So he teaches her to +sing, does he? He's a dear old fellow, old Bows: a gentleman in those +old clothes: a philosopher, and with a kind heart, too. How good he was +to me in the Fotheringay business. He, too, has had his griefs and his +sorrows. I must cultivate old Bows. A man ought to see people of all +sorts. I am getting tired of genteel society. Besides, there's nobody +in town. Yes, I'll go and see Bows, and Costigan too; what a rich +character! begad, I'll study him, and put him into a book." In this way +our young anthropologist talked with himself, and as Saturday was the +holiday of the week, the Pall Mall Gazette making its appearance upon +that day, and the contributors to that journal having no further calls +upon their brains or ink-bottles, Mr. Pendennis determined he would take +advantage of his leisure, and pay a visit to Shepherd's Inn--of course +to see old Bows. + +The truth is, that if Arthur had been the most determined roue and +artful Lovelace who ever set about deceiving a young girl, he could +hardly have adopted better means for fascinating and overcoming poor +little Fanny Bolton than those which he had employed on the previous +night. His dandified protecting air, his conceit, generosity, and +good-humour, the very sense of good and honesty which had enabled him +to check the tremulous advances of the young creature, and not to take +advantage of that little fluttering sensibility,--his faults and his +virtues at once contributed to make her admire him; and if we could peep +into Fanny's bed (which she shared in a cupboard, along with those +two little sisters to whom we have seen Mr. Costigan administering +gingerbread and apples), we should find the poor little maid tossing +upon her mattress, to the great disturbance of its other two occupants, +and thinking over all the delights and events of that delightful, +eventful night, and all the words, looks, and actions of Arthur, its +splendid hero. Many novels had Fanny read, in secret and at home, in +three volumes and in numbers. Periodical literature had not reached +the height which it has attained subsequently, and the girls of Fanny's +generation were not enabled to purchase sixteen pages of excitement for +a penny, rich with histories of crime, murder, oppressed virtue, and the +heartless seductions of the aristocracy; but she had had the benefit +of the circulating library which, in conjunction with her school and a +small brandy-ball and millinery business, Miss Minifer kept,--and Arthur +appeared to her at once as the type and realisation of all the heroes of +all those darling greasy volumes which the young girl had devoured. Mr. +Pen, we have seen, was rather a dandy about shirts and haberdashery in +general. Fanny had looked with delight at the fineness of his linen, +at the brilliancy of his shirt-studs, at his elegant cambric +pocket-handkerchief and white gloves, and at the jetty brightness of his +charming boots. The Prince had appeared and subjugated the poor little +handmaid. His image traversed constantly her restless slumbers; the tone +of his voice, the blue light of his eyes, the generous look, half +love, half pity,--the manly protecting smile, the frank, winning +laughter,--all these were repeated in the girl's fond memory. She felt +still his arm encircling her, and saw him smiling so grand as he filled +up that delicious glass of champagne. And then she thought of the girls, +her friends, who used to sneer at her--of Emma Baker, who was so proud, +forsooth, because she was engaged to a cheesemonger, in a white apron, +near Clare Market; and of Betsy Rodgers, who make such a to-do about her +young man--an attorney's clerk, indeed, that went about with a bag! + +So that, at about two o'clock in the afternoon--the Bolton family having +concluded their dinner (and Mr. B., who besides his place of porter of +the Inn, was in the employ of Messrs. Tressler, the eminent undertakers +of the Strand, being absent in the country with the Countess of +Estrich's hearse), when a gentleman in a white hat and white trousers +made his appearance under the Inn archway, and stopped at the porter's +wicket, Fanny was not in the least surprised, only delightful, only +happy, and blushing beyond all measure. She knew it could be no other +than He. She knew He'd come. There he was; there was His Royal Highness +beaming upon her from the gate. She called to her mother, who was busy +in the upper apartment, "Mamma, mamma," and ran to the wicket at once, +and opened it, pushing aside the other children. How she blushed as she +gave her hand to him! How affably he took off his white hat as he came +in; the children staring up at him! He asked Mrs. Bolton if she had +slept well, after the fatigues of the night, and hoped she had no +headache; and he said that as he was going that way, he could not pass +the door without asking news of his little partner. + +Mrs. Bolton was perhaps rather shy and suspicious about these advances; +but Mr. Pen's good-humour was inexhaustible, he could not see that he +was unwelcome. He looked about the premises for a seat, and none being +disengaged, for a dish-cover was on one, a workbox on the other, and so +forth, he took one of the children's chairs, and perched himself upon +that uncomfortable eminence. At this, the children began laughing, the +child Fanny louder than all--at least, she was more amused than any of +them, and amazed at His Royal Highness's condescension. He to sit down +in that chair--that little child's chair!--Many and many a time after, +she regarded it: haven't we almost all, such furniture in our rooms, +that our fancy peoples with dear figures, that our memory fills with +sweet smiling faces, which may never look on us more? + +So Pen sate down and talked away with great volubility to Mrs. Bolton. +He asked about the undertaking business, and how many mutes went down +with Lady Estrich's remains; and about the Inn, and who lived there. He +seemed very much interested about Mr. Campion's cab and horse, and had +met that gentleman in society. He thought he should like shares in the +Polwheedle and Tredyddlum; did Mrs. Bolton do for those chambers? Were +there any chambers to let in the Inn? It was better than the Temple: he +should like to come to live in Shepherd's Inn. As for Captain Strong, +and--Colonel Altamont--was his name? he was deeply interested in them +too. The Captain was an old friend at home. He had dined with him at +chambers here, before the Colonel came to live with him. What sort of +man was the Colonel? Wasn't he a stout man, with a large quantity of +jewellery, and a wig and large black whiskers--very black (here Pen +was immensely waggish, and caused hysteric giggles of delight from the +ladies)--very black indeed; in fact, blue black; that is to say, a rich +greenish purple? That was the man; he had met him, too, at Sir Fr---- in +Society. + +"Oh, we know," said the ladies, "Sir F---- is Sir F. Clavering he's +often here: two or three times a week with the Captain. My little boy +has been out for bill-stamps for him. O Lor! I beg pardon, I shouldn't +have mentioned no secrets," Mrs. Bolton blurted out, being talked +perfectly into good-nature by this time. "But we know you to be a +gentleman, Mr. Pendennis, for I'm sure you have shown that you can +beayve as such. Hasn't Mr. Pendennis, Fanny?" + +Fanny loved her mother for that speech. She cast up her dark eyes to the +low ceiling and said, "Oh, that he has, I'm sure, Ma," with a voice full +of feeling. + +Pen was rather curious about the bill-stamps, and concerning the +transactions in Strong's chambers. And he asked, when Altamont came and +joined the Chevalier, whether he too was out for bill-stamps, who he +was, whether he saw many people, and so forth. These questions, put +with considerable adroitness by Pen who was interested about Sir Francis +Clavering's doings from private motives of his own, were artlessly +answered by Mrs. Bolton, and to the utmost of her knowledge and ability, +which, in truth, were not very great. + +These questions answered, and Pen being at a loss for more, luckily +recollected his privilege as a member of the Press, and asked the ladies +whether they would like any orders for the play? The play was their +delight, as it is almost always the delight of every theatrical person. +When Bolton was away professionally (it appeared that of late the porter +of Shepherd's Inn had taken a serious turn, drank a good deal, and +otherwise made himself unpleasant to the ladies of his family), they +would like of all things to slip out and go to the theatre--little +Barney, their son, keeping the lodge; and Mr. Pendennis's most generous +and most genteel compliment of orders was received with boundless +gratitude by both mother and daughter. + +Fanny clapped her hands with pleasure: her faced beamed with it. She +looked and nodded, and laughed at her mamma, who nodded and laughed in +her turn. Mrs. Bolton was not superannuated for pleasure yet, or by +any means too old for admiration, she thought. And very likely +Mr. Pendennis, in his conversation with her, had insinuated some +compliments, or shaped his talk so as to please her. At first against +Pen, and suspicious of him, she was his partisan now, and almost as +enthusiastic about him as her daughter. When two women get together to +like a man, they help each other on--each pushes the other +forward--and the second, out of sheer sympathy, becomes as eager as the +principal:--at least, so it is said by philosophers who have examined +this science. + +So the offer of the play-tickets, and other pleasantries; put all +parties into perfect good-humour, except for one brief moment, when one +of the younger children, hearing the name of 'Astley's' pronounced, came +forward and stated that she should like very much to go, too; on which, +Fanny said, "Don't bother!" rather sharply; and Mamma said, "Git-long, +Betsy-Jane, do now, and play in the court:" so that the two little ones, +namely, Betsy-Jane and Ameliar--Ann, went away in their little innocent +pinafores, and disported in the courtyard on the smooth gravel, round +about the statue of Shepherd the Great. + +And here, as they were playing, they very possibly communicated with an +old friend of theirs and dweller in the Inn; for while Pen was making +himself agreeable to the ladies at the lodge, who were laughing +delighted at his sallies, an old gentleman passed under the archway from +the Inn-square, and came and looked in at the door of the lodge. + +He made a very blank and rueful face when he saw Mr. Arthur seated upon +a table, like Macheath in the play, in easy discourse with Mrs. Bolton +and her daughter. + +"What! Mr. Bows? How d'you do, Bows?" cried out Pen, in a cheery, loud +voice. "I was coming to see you, and was asking your address of these +ladies." + +"You were coming to see me, were you, sir?" Bows said, and came in +with a sad face, and shook hands with Arthur. "Plague on that old man!" +somebody thought in the room: and so, perhaps, some one else besides +her. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. In Shepherd's Inn + + +Our friend Pen said "How d'ye do, Mr. Bows," in a loud cheery voice on +perceiving that gentleman, and saluted him in a dashing off-hand manner, +yet you could have seen a blush upon Arthur's face (answered by Fanny, +whose cheek straightway threw out a similar fluttering red signal); and +after Bows and Arthur had shaken hands, and the former had ironically +accepted the other's assertion that he was about to pay Mr. Costigan's +chambers a visit, there was a gloomy and rather guilty silence in the +company, which Pen presently tried to dispel by making a great rattling +noise. The silence of course departed at Mr. Arthur's noise, but the +gloom remained and deepened, as the darkness does in a vault if you +light up a single taper in it. Pendennis tried to describe, in a jocular +manner, the transactions of the previous night, and attempted to give +an imitation of Costigan vainly expostulating with the check-taker at +Vauxhall. It was not a good imitation. What stranger can imitate that +perfection? Nobody laughed. Mrs. Bolton did not in the least understand +what part Mr. Pendennis was performing, and whether it was the +check-taker or the Captain he was taking off. Fanny wore an alarmed +face, and tried a timid giggle; old Mr. Bows looked as glum as when he +fiddled in the orchestra, or played a difficult piece upon the old piano +at the Back Kitchen. Pen felt that his story was a failure; his voice +sank and dwindled away dismally at the end of it--flickered, and went +out; and it was all dark again. You could hear the ticket-porter, who +lolls about Shepherd's Inn, as he passed on the flags under the archway: +the clink of his boot-heels was noted by everybody. + +"You were coming to see me, sir," Mr. Bows said. "Won't you have the +kindness to walk up to my chambers with me? You do them a great honour, +I am sure. They are rather high up; but----" + +"Oh! I live in a garret myself, and Shepherd's Inn is twice as cheerful +as Lamb Court," Mr. Pendennis broke in. + +"I knew that you had third-floor apartments," Mr. Bows said; "and was +going to say--you will please not take my remark as discourteous--that +the air up three pair of stairs is wholesomer for gentlemen, than the +air of a porter's lodge." + +"Sir!" said Pen, whose candle flamed up again in his wrath, and who was +disposed to be as quarrelsome as men are when they are in the wrong. +"Will you permit me to choose my society without----? + +"You were so polite as to say that you were about to honour my umble +domicile with a visit," Mr. Bows said, with his sad voice. "Shall I show +you the way? Mr. Pendennis and I are old friends, Mrs. Bolton--very +old acquaintances; and at the earliest dawn of his life we crossed each +other." + +The old man pointed towards the door with a trembling finger, and a hat +in the other hand, and in an attitude slightly theatrical; so were his +words when he spoke somewhat artificial, and chosen from the vocabulary +which he had heard all his life from the painted lips of the orators +before the stage-lamps. But he was not acting or masquerading, as Pen +knew very well, though he was disposed to pooh-pooh the old fellow's +melodramatic airs. "Come along, sir," he said, "as you are so very +pressing. Mrs. Bolton, I wish you a good day. Good-bye, Miss Fanny; I +shall always think of our night at Vauxhall with pleasure; and be sure +I will remember the theatre tickets." And he took her hand, pressed it, +was pressed by it, and was gone. + +"What a nice young man, to be sure!" cried Mrs. Bolton. + +"D'you think so, ma?" said Fanny. + +"I was a-thinkin who he was like. When I was at the Wells with Mrs. +Serle," Mrs. Bolton continued, looking through the window-curtain after +Pen, as he went up the court with Bows, "there was a young gentleman +from the city, that used to come in a tilbry, in a white at, the very +image of him, only his whiskers was black, and Mr. P.'s is red." + +"Law, ma! they are a most beautiful hawburn," Fanny said. + +"He used to come for Emly Budd, who danced Columbine in 'Arleykin +Ornpipe, or the Battle of Navarino,' when Miss De la Bosky was took +ill--a pretty dancer, and a fine stage figure of a woman--and he was a +great sugar-baker in the city, with a country ouse at Omerton; and he +used to drive her in the tilbry down Goswell Street Road; and one day +they drove and was married at St. Bartholomew's Church, Smithfield, +where they had their bands read quite private; and she now keeps +her carriage, and I sor her name in the paper as patroness of the +Manshing-House Ball for the Washywomen's Asylum. And look at Lady +Mirabel--capting Costigan's daughter--she was profeshnl, as all very +well know." Thus, and more to this purpose, Mrs. Bolton spoke, now +peeping through the window-curtain, now cleaning the mugs and plates, +and consigning them to their place in the corner cupboard; and finishing +her speech as she and Fanny shook out and folded up the dinner-cloth +between them, and restored it to its drawer in the table. + +Although Costigan had once before been made pretty accurately to +understand what Pen's pecuniary means and expectations were, I suppose +Cos had forgotten the information acquired at Chatteris years ago, or +had been induced by his natural enthusiasm to exaggerate his friend's +income. He had described Fairoaks Park in the most glowing terms to +Mrs. Bolton, on the preceding evening, as he was walking about with her +during Pen's little escapade with Fanny, had dilated upon the enormous +wealth of Pen's famous uncle, the Major, and shown an intimate +acquaintance with Arthur's funded and landed property. Very likely Mrs. +Bolton, in her wisdom, had speculated upon these matters during the +night; and had had visions of Fanny driving in her carriage, like Mrs. +Bolton's old comrade, the dancer of Sadler's Wells. + +In the last operation of table-cloth folding, these two foolish women, +of necessity, came close together; and as Fanny took the cloth and gave +it the last fold, her mother put her finger under the young girl's chin, +and kissed her. Again the red signal flew out, and fluttered on Fanny's +cheek. What did it mean? It was not alarm this time. It was pleasure +which caused the poor little Fanny to blush so. Poor little Fanny! What? +is love sin? that it is so pleasant at the beginning, and so bitter at +the end? + +After the embrace, Mrs. Bolton thought proper to say that she was a-goin +out upon business, and that Fanny must keep the lodge; which Fanny, +after a very faint objection indeed, consented to do. So Mrs. Bolton +took her bonnet and market-basket, and departed; and the instant she was +gone, Fanny went and sae by the window which commanded Bows's door, and +never once took her eyes away from that quarter of Shepherd's Inn. + +Betsy-Jane and Ameliar-Ann were buzzing in one corner of the place, and +making believe to read out of a picture-book, which one of them +held topsy-turvy. It was a grave and dreadful tract, of Mr. Bolton's +collection. Fanny did not hear her sisters prattling over it. She +noticed nothing but Bows's door. + +At last she gave a little shake, and her eyes lighted up. He had come +out. He would pass the door again. But her poor little countenance fell +in an instant more. Pendennis, indeed, came out; but Bows followed after +him. They passed under the archway together. He only took off his hat, +and bowed as he looked in. He did not stop to speak. + +In three or four minutes--Fanny did not know how long, but she looked +furiously at him when he came into the lodge--Bows returned alone, and +entered into the porter's room. + +"Where's your Ma, dear?" he said to Fanny. + +"I don't know," Fanny said, with an angry toss. "I don't follow Ma's +steps wherever she goes, I suppose, Mr. Bows." + +"Am I my mother's keeper?" Bows said, with his usual melancholy +bitterness. "Come here, Betsy-Jane and Amelia-Ann; I've brought a cake +for the one who can read her letters best, and a cake for the other who +can read them the next best." + +When the young ladies had undergone the examination through which Bows +put them, they were rewarded with their gingerbread medals, and went off +to discuss them in the court. Meanwhile Fanny took out some work, and +pretended to busy herself with it, her mind being in great excitement +and anger, as she plied her needle. Bows sate so that he could command +the entrance from the lodge to the street. But the person whom, perhaps, +he expected to see, never made his appearance again. And Mrs. Bolton +came in from market, and found Mr. Bows in place of the person whom she +had expected to see. The reader perhaps can guess what was his name? + +The interview between Bows and his guest, when those two mounted to the +apartment occupied by the former in common with the descendant of the +Milesian kings, was not particularly satisfactory to either party. Pen +was sulky. If Bows had anything on his mind, he did not care to deliver +himself of his thoughts in the presence of Captain Costigan, who +remained in the apartment during the whole of Pen's visit; having +quitted his bedchamber, indeed, but a very few minutes before the +arrival of that gentleman. We have witnessed the deshabille of Major +Pendennis: will any man wish to be valet-de-chambre to our other hero, +Costigan? It would seem that the Captain, before issuing from his +bedroom, scented himself with otto-of-whisky. A rich odour of that +delicious perfume breathed from out him, as he held out the grasp of +cordiality to his visitor. The hand which performed that grasp shook +wofully: it was a wonder how it could hold the razor with which the poor +gentleman daily operated on his chin. + +Bows's room was as neat, on the other hand, as his comrade's was +disorderly. His humble wardrobe hung behind a curtain. His books and +manuscript music were trimly arranged upon shelves. A lithographed +portrait of Miss Fotheringay, as Mrs. Haller, with the actress's +sprawling signature at the corner, hung faithfully over the old +gentleman's bed. Lady Mirabel wrote much better than Miss Fotheringay +had been able to do. Her Ladyship had laboured assiduously to acquire +the art of penmanship since her marriage; and, in a common note of +invitation or acceptance, acquitted herself very genteelly. Bows loved +the old handwriting best, though; the fair artist's earlier manner. +He had but one specimen of the new style, a note in reply to a song +composed and dedicated to Lady Mirabel, by her most humble servant +Robert Bows; and which document was treasured in his desk amongst his +other state papers. He was teaching Fanny Bolton now to sing and to +write, as he had taught Emily in former days. It was the nature of the +man to attach himself to something. When Emily was torn from him he took +a substitute: as a man looks out for a crutch when he loses a leg; or +lashes himself to a raft when he has suffered shipwreck. Latude had +given his heart to a woman, no doubt, before he grew to be so fond of a +mouse in the Bastille. There are people who in their youth have felt and +inspired an heroic passion, and end by being happy in the caresses, +or agitated by the illness of a poodle. But it was hard upon Bows, and +grating to his feelings as a man and a sentimentalist, that he should +find Pen again upon his track, and in pursuit of this little Fanny. + +Meanwhile, Costigan had not the least idea but that his company was +perfectly welcome to Messrs. Pendennis and Bows, and that the visit +of the former was intended for himself. He expressed himself greatly +pleased with that mark of poloightness and promised, in his own mind, +that he would repay that obligation at least--which was not the only +debt which the Captain owed in life--by several visits to his young +friend. He entertained him affably with news of the day, or rather of +ten days previous; for Pen, in his quality of Journalist, remembered to +have seen some of the Captain's opinions in the Sporting and Theatrical +Newspaper, which was Costigan's oracle. He stated that Sir Charles and +Lady Mirabel were gone to Baden-Baden, and were most pressing in their +invitations that he should join them there. Pen replied with great +gravity, that he had heard that Baden was very pleasant, and the Grand +Duke exceedingly hospitable to English. Costigan answered, that the laws +of hospitalitee bekeam a Grand Juke; that he sariously would think about +visiting him; and made some remarks upon the splendid festivities at +Dublin Castle, when his Excellency the Earl of Portansherry held the +Viceraygal Coort there, and of which he, Costigan, had been a humble but +pleased spectator. And Pen--as he heard these oft-told well-remembered +legends--recollected the time when he had given a sort of credence to +them, and had a certain respect for the Captain. Emily and first love, +and the little room at Chatteris, and the kind talk with Bows on the +bridge, came back to him. He felt quite kindly disposed towards his two +old friends; and cordially shook the hands of both of them when he rose +to go away. + +He had quite forgotten about little Fanny Bolton whilst the Captain was +talking, and Pen himself was absorbed in other selfish meditations. He +only remembered her again as Bows came hobbling down the stairs after +him, bent evidently upon following him out of Shepherd's Inn. + +Mr. Bows's precaution was not a lucky one. The wrath of Mr. Arthur +Pendennis rose at the poor old fellow's feeble persecution. Confound +him, what does he mean by dogging me? thought Pen. And he burst out +laughing when he was in the Strand and by himself, as he thought of the +elder's stratagem. It was not an honest laugh, Arthur Pendennis. Perhaps +the thought struck Arthur himself, and he blushed at his own sense of +humour. + +He went off to endeavour to banish the thoughts which occupied him, +whatever those thoughts might be, and tried various places of amusement +with but indifferent success. He struggled up the highest stairs of +the Panorama; but when he had arrived, panting at the height of the +eminence, Care had come up with him, and was bearing him company. He +went to the Club, and wrote a long letter home, exceedingly witty and +sarcastic, and in which, if he did not say a single word about Vauxhall +and Fanny Bolton, it was because he thought that subject, however +interesting to himself, would not be very interesting to his mother and +Laura. Nor could the novels or the library table fix his attention, nor +the grave and respectable Jawkins (the only man in town), who wished to +engage him in conversation; nor any of the amusements which he tried, +after flying from Jawkins. He passed a Comic Theatre on his way home, +and saw 'Stunning Farce,' 'Roars of Laughter,' 'Good Old English Fun and +Frolic,' placarded in vermilion letters on the gate. He went into the +pit, and saw the lovely Mrs. Leary, as usual, in a man's attire; and +that eminent buffo actor, Tom Horseman, dressed as a woman. Horseman's +travesty seemed to him a horrid and hideous degradation; Mrs. Leary's +glances and ankles had not the least effect. He laughed again, and +bitterly, to himself, as he thought of the effect which she had +produced upon him, on the first night of his arrival in London, a short +time--what a long long time ago! + + + + +CHAPTER L. Or near the Temple Garden + + +Fashion has long deserted the green and pretty Temple Garden, which in +Shakespeare makes York and Lancaster to pluck the innocent white and red +roses which became the badges of their bloody wars; and the learned and +pleasant writer of the Handbook of London tells us that "the commonest +and hardiest kind of rose has long ceased to put forth a bud" in that +smoky air. Not many of the present occupiers of the buildings round +about the quarter know or care, very likely, whether or not roses +grow there, or pass the old gate, except on their way to chambers. The +attorneys' clerks don't carry flowers in their bags, or posies under +their arms, as they run to the counsel's chambers--the few lawyers who +take constitutional walks think very little about York and Lancaster, +especially since the railroad business is over. Only antiquarians and +literary amateurs care to look at the gardens with much interest, and +fancy good Sir Roger de Coverley and Mr. Spectator with his short +face pacing up and down the road; or dear Oliver Goldsmith in the +summer-house, perhaps meditating about the next 'Citizen of the World,' +or the new suit that Mr. Filby, the tailor, is fashioning for him, or +the dunning letter that Mr. Newbery has sent. Treading heavily on the +gravel, and rolling majestically along in a snuff-coloured suit, and a +wig that sadly wants the barber's powder and irons, one sees the +Great Doctor step up to him (his Scotch lackey following at the +lexicographer's heels, a little the worse for port wine that they have +been taking at the Mitre), and Mr. Johnson asks Mr. Goldsmith to come +home and take a dish of tea with Miss Williams. Kind faith of Fancy! Sir +Roger and Mr. Spectator are as real to us now as the two doctors and the +boozy and faithful Scotchman. The poetical figures live in our memory +just as much as the real personages,--and as Mr. Arthur Pendennis was of +a romantic and literary turn, by no means addicted to the legal pursuits +common in the neighbourhood of the place, we may presume that he was +cherishing some such poetical reflections as these, when, upon the +evening after the events recorded in the last chapter, the young +gentleman chose the Temple Gardens as a place for exercise and +meditation. + +On the Sunday evening the Temple is commonly calm. The chambers are for +the most part vacant: the great lawyers are giving grand dinner-parties +at their houses in the Belgravian or Tyburnian districts; the agreeable +young barristers are absent, attending those parties, and paying their +respects to Mr. Kewsy's excellent claret, or Mr. Justice Ermine's +accomplished daughters the uninvited are partaking of the economic joint +and the modest half-pint of wine at the Club, entertaining themselves, +and the rest of the company in the Club-room, with Circuit jokes and +points of wit and law. Nobody is in chambers at all, except poor Mr. +Cockle, who is ill, and whose laundress is making him gruel; or Mr. +Toodle, who is an amateur of the flute, and whom you may hear piping +solitary from his chambers in the second floor; or young Tiger, the +student, from whose open windows comes a great gush of cigar smoke, and +at whose door are a quantity of dishes and covers, bearing the insignia +of Dicks' or the Cock. But stop! Whither does Fancy lead us? It is +vacation time; and with the exception of Pendennis, nobody is in +Chambers at all. + +Perhaps it was solitude, then, which drove Pen into the garden; for +although he had never before passed the gate, and had looked rather +carelessly at the pretty flower-beds, and the groups of pleased citizens +sauntering over the trim lawn and the broad gravel-walks by the river, +on this evening it happened, as we have said, that the young gentleman, +who had dined alone at a tavern in the neighbourhood of the Temple, took +a fancy, as he was returning home to his chambers, to take a little walk +in the gardens, and enjoy the fresh evening air, and the sight of the +shining Thames. After walking for a brief space, and looking at the +many peaceful and happy groups round about him, he grew tired of the +exercise, and betook himself to one of the summer-houses which flank +either end of the main walk, and there modestly seated himself. What +were his cogitations? The evening was delightfully bright and calm; the +sky was cloudless; the chimneys on the opposite bank were not smoking; +the wharfs warehouses looked rosy in the sunshine, and as clear as if +they, too, had washed for the holiday. The steamers rushed rapidly up +and down the stream, laden with holiday passengers. The bells of the +multitudinous city churches were ringing to evening prayers--such +peaceful Sabbath evenings as this Pen may have remembered in his early +days, as he paced, with his arm round his mother's waist, on the terrace +before the lawn at home. The sun was lighting up the little Brawl, too, +as well as the broad Thames, and sinking downwards majestically behind +the Clavering elms, and the tower of the familiar village church. Was +it thoughts of these, or the sunset merely, that caused the blush in the +young man's face? He beat time on the bench, to the chorus of the +bells without; flicked the dust off his shining boots with his +pocket-handkerchief, and starting up, stamped with his foot and said, +"No, by Jove, I'll go home." And with this resolution, which indicated +that some struggle as to the propriety of remaining where he was, or of +quitting the garden, had been going on in his mind, he stepped out of +the summer-house. + +He nearly knocked down two little children, who did not indeed reach +much higher than his knee, and were trotting along the gravel-walk, with +their long blue shadows slanting towards the east. + +One cried out "Oh!" the other began to laugh; and with a knowing little +infantile chuckle, said, "Missa Pendennis!" And Arthur, looking down, +saw his two little friends of the day before, Mesdemoiselles Ameliar-Ann +and Betsy-Jane. He blushed more than ever at seeing them, and seizing +the one whom he had nearly upset, jumped her up into the air, and kissed +her: at which sudden assault Ameliar-Ann began to cry in great alarm. + +This cry brought up instantly two ladies in clean collars and new +ribbons, and grand shawls, namely: Mrs. Bolton in a rich scarlet +Caledonian Cashmere, and a black silk dress, and Miss F. Bolton with a +yellow scarf and a sweet sprigged muslin, and a parasol--quite the lady. +Fanny did not say one single word: though; her eyes flashed a welcome, +and shone as bright--as bright as the most blazing windows in Paper +Buildings. But Mrs. Bolton, after admonishing Betsy-Jane, said, "Lor +sir--how very odd that we should meet you year! I ope you ave your ealth +well, sir.--Ain't it odd, Fanny, that we should meet Mr. Pendennis?" +What do you mean by sniggering, Mesdames? When young Croesus has been +staying at a country-house, have you never, by any singular coincidence, +been walking with your Fanny in the shrubberies? Have you and your Fanny +never happened to be listening to the band of the Heavies at Brighton, +when young De Boots and Captain Padmore came clinking down the Pier? +Have you and your darling Frances never chanced to be visiting old widow +Wheezy at the cottage on the common, when the young curate has stepped +in with a tract adapted to the rheumatism? Do you suppose that, if +singular coincidences occur at the Hall, they don't also happen at the +Lodge? + +It was a coincidence, no doubt: that was all. In the course of the +conversation on the day previous, Mr. Pendennis had merely said, in the +simplest way imaginable, and in reply to a question of Miss Bolton, that +although some of the courts were gloomy, parts of the Temple were very +cheerful and agreeable, especially the chambers looking on the river and +around the gardens, and that the gardens were a very pleasant walk on +Sunday evenings and frequented by a great number of people--and here, by +the merest chance, all our acquaintances met together, just like so many +people in genteel life. What could be more artless, good-natured, or +natural? + +Pen looked very grave, pompous, and dandified. He was unusually smart +and brilliant in his costume. His white duck trousers and white hat, +his neckcloth of many colours, his light waistcoat, gold chains, and +shirt-studs, gave him the air of a prince of the blood at least. How +his splendour became his figure! Was anybody ever like him? some one +thought. He blushed--how his blushes became him! the same individual +said to herself. The children, on seeing him the day before, had been +so struck with him, that after he had gone away they had been playing +at him. And Ameliar-Ann, sticking her little chubby fingers into the +arm-holes of her pinafore, as Pen was wont to do with his waistcoat, had +said, "Now, Bessy-Jane, I'll be Missa Pendennis." Fanny had laughed +till she cried, and smothered her sister with kisses for that feat. How +happy, too, she was to see Arthur embracing the child! + +If Arthur was red, Fanny, on the contrary, was very worn and pale. +Arthur remarked it, and asked kindly why she looked so fatigued. + +"I was awake all night," said Fanny, and began to blush a little. + +"I put out her candle, and hordered her to go to sleep and leave off +readin," interposed the fond mother. + +"You were reading! And what was it that interested you so?" asked Pen, +amused. + +"Oh, it's so beautiful!" said Fanny. + +"What?" + +"'Walter Lorraine,'" Fanny sighed out. "How I do hate that +Neaera--Neaera--I don't know the pronunciation. And I love Leonora, and +Walter, oh, how dear he is!" + +How had Fanny discovered the novel of 'Walter Lorraine,' and that Pen +was the author? This little person remembered every single word which +Mr. Pendennis had spoken on the night previous, and how he wrote in +books and newspapers. What books? She was so eager to know, that she +had almost a mind to be civil to old Bows, who was suffering under +her displeasure since yesterday, but she determined first to make +application to Costigan. She began by coaxing the Captain and smiling +upon him in her most winning way, as she helped to arrange his dinner +and set his humble apartment in order. She was sure his linen wanted +mending (and indeed the Captain's linen-closet contained some curious +specimens of manufactured flax and cotton). She would mend his +shirts--all his shirts. What horrid holes--what funny holes! She put her +little face through one of them, and laughed at the old warrior in the +most winning manner. She would have made a funny little picture looking +through the holes. Then she daintily removed Costigan's dinner things, +tripping about the room as she had seen the dancers do at the play; and +she danced to the Captain's cupboard, and produced his whisky-bottle, +and mixed him a tumbler, and must taste a drop of it--a little drop; and +the Captain must sing her one of his songs, his dear songs, and teach +it to her. And when he had sung an Irish melody in his rich quavering +voice, fancying it was he who was fascinating the little siren, she put +her little question about Arthur Pendennis and his novel, and having +got an answer, cared for nothing more, but left the Captain at the piano +about to sing her another song, and the dinner-tray on the passage, and +the shirts on the chair, and ran downstairs quickening her pace as she +sped. + +Captain Costigan, as he said, was not a litherary cyarkter, nor had he +as yet found time to peruse his young friend's ellygant perfaurumance, +though he intended to teak an early opporchunitee of purchasing a cawpee +of his work. But he knew the name of Pen's novel from the fact that +Messrs. Finucane, Bludyer, and other frequenters of the Back Kitchen, +spoke of Mr. Pendennis (and not all of them with great friendship; for +Bludyer called him a confounded coxcomb, and Hoolan wondered that Doolan +did not kick him etc.) by the sobriquet of Walter Lorraine,--and was +hence enabled to give Fanny the information which she required. + +"And she went and ast for it at the libery," Mrs. Bolton said, "--several +liberies--and some ad it and it was bout, and some adn't it. And one of +the liberies as ad it wouldn't let er ave it without a sovering: and she +adn't one, and she came back a-cryin to me--didn't you, Fanny?--and I +gave her a sovering." + +"And, oh, I was in such a fright lest any one should have come to the +libery and took it while I was away," Fanny said, her cheeks and eyes +glowing. "And, oh, I do like it so!" + +Arthur was touched by this artless sympathy, immensely flattered and +moved by it. "Do you like it?" he said. "If you will come up to my +chambers I will--No, I will bring you one--no, I will send you one. +Good night. Thank you, Fanny. God bless you. I mustn't stay with you. +Good-bye, good-bye." And, pressing her hand once, and nodding to her +mother and the other children, he strode out of the gardens. + +He quickened his pace as he went from them, and ran out of the gate +talking to himself. "Dear, dear little thing," he said,--"darling little +Fanny! You are worth them all. I wish to heaven Shandon was back. I'd go +home to my mother. I mustn't see her. I won't. I won't, so help me----" + +As he was talking thus, and running, the passers-by turning to look at +him, he ran against a little old man, and perceived it was Mr. Bows. + +"Your very umble servant, sir," said Mr. Bows, making a sarcastic bow, +and lifting his old hat from his forehead. + +"I wish you a good day," Arthur answered sulkily. "Don't let me detain +you, or give you the trouble to follow me again. I am in a hurry, sir. +Good evening." + +Bows thought Pen had some reason for hurrying to his rooms. "Where are +they?" exclaimed the old gentleman. "You know whom I mean. They're not +in your rooms, sir, are they? They told Bolton they were going to church +at the Temple, they weren't there. They are in your chambers: they +mustn't stay in your chambers, Mr. Pendennis." + +"Damn it, sir!" cried out Pendennis, fiercely. "Come and see if they +are in my chambers: here's the court and the door--come in and see." And +Bows, taking off his hat and bowing first, followed the young man. + +They were not in Pen's chambers, as we know. But when the gardens +were closed, the two women, who had had but a melancholy evening's +amusement, walked away sadly with the children, and they entered into +Lamb Court, and stood under the lamp-post which cheerfully ornaments the +centre of that quadrangle, and looked up to the third floor of the house +where Pendennis's chambers were, and where they saw a light presently +kindled. Then this couple of fools went away, the children dragging +wearily after them, and returned to Mr. Bolton, who was immersed in +rum-and-water at his lodge in Shepherd's Inn. + +Mr. Bows looked round the blank room which the young man occupied, and +which had received but very few ornaments or additions since the last +time we saw them. Warrington's old bookcase and battered library, Pen's +writing-table with its litter of papers, presented an aspect cheerless +enough. "Will you like to look in the bedrooms, Mr. Bows, and see if my +victims are there?" he said bitterly; "or whether I have made away with +the little girls, and hid them in the coal-hole?" + +"Your word is sufficient, Mr. Pendennis," the other said in his sad +tone. "You say they are not here, and I know they are not. And I hope +they never have been here, and never will come." + +"Upon my word, sir, you are very good, to choose my acquaintances for +me," Arthur said, in a haughty tone; "and to suppose that anybody would +be the worse for my society. I remember you, and owe you kindness from +old times, Mr. Bows; or I should speak more angrily than I do, about +a very intolerable sort of persecution to which you seem inclined to +subject me. You followed me out of your Inn yesterday, as if you wanted +to watch that I shouldn't steal something." Here Pen stammered and +turned red, directly he had said the words; he felt he had given the +other an opening, which Bows instantly took. + +"I do think you came to steal something, as you say the words, sir," +Bows said. "Do you mean to say that you came to pay a visit to poor old +Bows, the fiddler; or to Mrs. Bolton, at the porter's lodge? O fie! Such +a fine gentleman as Arthur Pendennis, Esquire, doesn't condescend +to walk up to my garret, or to sit in a laundress's kitchen, but for +reasons of his own. And my belief is that you came to steal a pretty +girl's heart away, and to ruin it, and to spurn it afterwards, Mr. +Arthur Pendennis. That's what the world makes of you young dandies, you +gentlemen of fashion, you high and mighty aristocrats that trample upon +the people. It's sport to you, but what is it to the poor, think you; +the toys of your pleasures, whom you play with and whom you fling into +the streets when you are tired? I know your order, sir. I know your +selfishness, and your arrogance, and your pride. What does it matter to +my lord, that the poor man's daughter is made miserable, and her family +brought to shame? You must have your pleasures, and the people of course +must pay for them. What are we made for, but for that? It's the way with +you all--the way with you all, sir." + +Bows was speaking beside the question, and Pen had his advantage here, +which he was not sorry to take--not sorry to put off the debate from the +point upon which his adversary had first engaged it. Arthur broke out +with a sort of laugh, for which he asked Bows's pardon. "Yes, I am +an aristocrat," he said, "in a palace up three pair of stairs, with +a carpet nearly as handsome as yours, Mr. Bows. My life is passed in +grinding the people, is it?--in ruining virgins and robbing the poor? My +good sir, this is very well in a comedy, where Job Thornberry slaps his +breast, and asks my Lord how dare he trample on an honest man and poke +out an Englishman's fireside; but in real life, Mr. Bows, to a man who +has to work for his bread as much as you do--how can you talk about +aristocrats tyrannising over the people? Have I ever done you a wrong? +or assumed airs of superiority over you? Did you not have an early +regard for me--in days when we were both of us romantic young fellows, +Mr. Bows? Come, don't be angry with me now, and let us be as good +friends as we were before." + +"Those days were very different," Mr. Bows answered; "and Mr. Arthur +Pendennis was an honest, impetuous young fellow then; rather selfish +and conceited, perhaps, but honest. He liked you then, because you were +ready to ruin yourself for a woman." + +"And now, sir?" Arthur asked. + +"And now times are changed, and you want a woman to ruin herself for +you," Bows answered. "I know this child, sir. I've always said this lot +was hanging over her. She has heated her little brain with novels, until +her whole thoughts are about love and lovers, and she scarcely sees that +she treads on a kitchen floor. I have taught the little thing. She is +full of many talents and winning ways, I grant you. I am fond of the +girl, sir. I'm a lonely old man; I lead a life that I don't like, among +boon companions, who make me melancholy. I have but this child that +I care for. Have pity upon me, and don't take her away from me, Mr. +Pendennis--don't take her away." + +The old man's voice broke as he spoke. Its accents touched Pen, much +more than the menacing or sarcastic tone which Bows had commenced by +adopting. + +"Indeed," said he, kindly, "you do me a wrong if you fancy I intend +one to poor little Fanny. I never saw her till Friday night. It was the +merest chance that our friend Costigan threw her into my way. I have no +intentions regarding her--that is----" + +"That is, you know very well that she is a foolish girl, and her mother +a foolish woman,--that is, you meet her in the Temple Gardens, and +of course without previous concert,--that is, that when I found her +yesterday reading the book you've wrote, she scorned me," Bows said. +"What am I good for but to be laughed at? a deformed old fellow like +me; an old fiddler, that wears a threadbare coat, and gets his bread by +playing tunes at an ale-house? You are a fine gentleman, you are. You +wear scent in your handkerchief, and a ring on your finger. You go to +dine with great people. Who ever gives a crust to old Bows? And yet I +might have been as good a man as the best of you. I might have been +a man of genius, if I had had the chance; ay, and have lived with the +master-spirits of the land. But everything had failed with me. I'd +ambition once, and wrote plays, poems, music--nobody would give me a +hearing. I never loved a woman, but she laughed at me; and here I am in +my old age alone--alone! Don't take this girl from me, Mr. Pendennis, I +say again. Leave her with me a little longer. She was like a child to me +till yesterday. Why did you step in, and made her to mock my deformity +and old age?" + +"I am guiltless of that, at least," Arthur said, with something of a +sigh. "Upon my word of honour, I wish I had never seen the girl. My +calling is not seduction, Mr. Bows. I did not imagine that I had made +an impression on poor Fanny, until--until to-night. And then, sir, I was +sorry, and was flying from my temptation, as you came upon me. And," he +added, with a glow upon his cheek, which, in the gathering darkness, his +companion could not see, and with an audible tremor in his voice, "I do +not mind telling you, sir, that on this Sabbath evening, as the church +bells were ringing, I thought of my own home, and of women angelically +pure and good, who dwell there; and I was running hither as I met you, +that I might avoid the danger which beset me, and ask strength of God +Almighty to do my duty." + +After these words from Arthur a silence ensued, and when the +conversation was resumed by his guest, the latter spoke in a tone which +was much more gentle and friendly. And on taking farewell of Pen, +Bows asked leave to shake hands with him, and with a very warm and +affectionate greeting on both sides, apologised to Arthur for having +mistaken him, and paid him some compliments which caused the young man +to squeeze his old friend's hand heartily again. And as they parted at +Pen's door, Arthur said he had given a promise, and he hoped and trusted +that Mr. Bows might rely on it? + +"Amen to that prayer," said Mr. Bows, and went slowly down the stair. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. The happy Village again + + +Early in this history, we have had occasion to speak of the little town +of Clavering, near which Pen's paternal home of Fairoaks stood, and of +some of the people who inhabite the place; and as the society there +was by no means amusing or pleasant, our reports concerning it were not +carried to any very great length. Mr. Samuel Huxter, the gentleman whose +acquaintance we lately made at Vauxhall, was one of the choice spirits +of the little town, when he visited it during his vacation, and +enlivened the tables of his friends there, by the wit of Bartholomew's +and the gossip of the fashionable London circles which he frequented. + +Mr. Hobnell, the young gentleman whom Pen had thrashed in consequence +of the quarrel in the Fotheringay affair, was, whilst a pupil at the +Grammar School at Clavering, made very welcome at the tea-table of Mrs. +Huxter, Samuel's mother, and was free of the surgery, where he knew the +way to the tamarind-pots, and could scent his pocket-handkerchief with +rose-water. And it was at this period of his life that he formed an +attachment for Miss Sophy Huxter, whom, on his father's demise, he +married, and took home to his house of the Warren, at a few miles from +Clavering. + +The family had possessed and cultivated an estate there for many +years, as yeomen and farmers. Mr. Hobnell's father pulled down the +old farmhouse; built a flaring new whitewashed mansion, with capacious +stables; and a piano in the drawing-room; kept a pack of harriers; and +assumed the title of Squire Hobnell. When he died, and his son reigned +in his stead, the family might be fairly considered to be established as +county gentry. And Sam Huxter, at London, did no great wrong in boasting +about his brother-in-law's place, his hounds, horses, and hospitality, +to his admiring comrades at Bartholomew's. Every year, at a time +commonly when Mrs. Hobnell could not leave the increasing duties of +her nursery, Hobnell came up to London for a lark, had rooms at +the Tavistock, and he and Sam indulged in the pleasures of the town +together. Ascot, the theatres, Vauxhall, and the convivial taverns in +the joyous neighbourhood of Covent Garden, were visited by the vivacious +squire, in company with his learned brother. When he was in London, as +he said, he liked to do as London does, and to "go it a bit," and when +he returned to the west, he took a new bonnet and shawl to Mrs. Hobnell, +and relinquished, for country sports and occupations during the next +eleven months, the elegant amusements of London life. + +Sam Huxter kept up a correspondence with his relative, and supplied him +with choice news of the metropolis, in return for the baskets of hares, +partridges, and clouted cream which the squire and his good-natured wife +forwarded to Sam. A youth more brilliant and distinguished they did +not know. He was the life and soul of their house, when he made his +appearance in his native place. His songs, jokes, and fun kept the +Warren in a roar. He had saved their eldest darling's life, by taking +a fish-bone out of her throat: in fine, he was the delight of their +circle. + +As ill-luck would have it, Pen again fell in with Mr. Huxter, only three +days after the rencontre at Vauxhall. Faithful to his vow, he had not +been to see little Fanny. He was trying to drive her from his mind by +occupation, or other mental excitement. He laboured, though not to much +profit, incessantly in his rooms; and, in his capacity of critic for +the Pall Mall Gazette, made woeful and savage onslaught on a poem and a +romance which came before him for judgment. These authors slain, he +went to dine alone at the lonely club of the Polyanthus, where the vast +solitudes frightened him, and made him only the more moody. He had +been to more theatres for relaxation. The whole house was roaring with +laughter and applause, and he saw only an ignoble farce that made him +sad. It would have damped the spirits of the buffoon on the stage to +have seen Pen's dismal face. He hardly knew what was happening; the +scene and the drama passed before him like a dream or a fever. Then +he thought he would go to the Back Kitchen, his old haunt with +Warrington--he was not a bit sleepy yet. The day before he had walked +twenty miles in search after rest, over Hampstead Common and Hendon +lanes, and had got no sleep at night. He would go to the Back Kitchen. +It was a sort of comfort to him to think he should see Bows. Bows was +there, very calm, presiding at the old piano. Some tremendous comic +songs were sung, which made the room crack with laughter. How strange +they seemed to Pen! He could only see Bows. In an extinct volcano, such +as he boasted that his breast was, it was wonderful how he should feel +such a flame! Two days' indulgence had kindled it; two days' abstinence +had set it burning in fury. So, musing upon this, and drinking down one +glass after another, as ill luck would have it, Arthur's eyes lighted +upon Mr. Huxter, who had been to the theatre, like himself, and, with +two or three comrades, now entered the room. Huxter whispered to his +companions, greatly to Pen's annoyance. Arthur felt that the other was +talking about him. Huxter then worked through the room, followed by his +friends, and came and took a place opposite Pen, nodding familiarly to +him, and holding him out a dirty hand to shake. + +Pen shook hands with his fellow-townsman. He thought he had been +needlessly savage to him on the last night when they had met. As for +Huxter, perfectly at good-humour with himself, and the world, it never +entered his mind that he could be disagreeable to anybody; and the +little dispute, or "chaff," as he styled it, of Vauxhall, was a trifle +which he did not in the least regard. + +The disciple of Galen having called for "four stouts," with which he and +his party refreshed themselves, began to think what would be the most +amusing topic of conversation with Pen, and hit upon that precise one +which was most painful to our young gentleman. + +"Jolly night at Vauxhall--wasn't it?" he said, and winked in a very +knowing way. + +"I'm glad you liked it," poor Pen said, groaning in spirit. + +"I was dev'lish cut--uncommon--been dining with some chaps at Greenwich. +That was a pretty bit of muslin hanging on your arm--who was she?" asked +the fascinating student. + +The question was too much for Arthur. "Have I asked you any questions +about yourself, Mr. Huxter?" he said. + +"I didn't mean any offence--beg pardon--hang it, you cut up quite +savage," said Pen's astonished interlocutor. + +"Do you remember what took place between us the other night?" Pen asked, +with gathering wrath. "You forget? Very probably. You were tipsy, as you +observed just now, and very rude." + +"Hang it, sir, I asked your pardon," Huxter said, looking red. + +"You did certainly, and it was granted with all my heart. I am sure. But +if you recollect, I begged that you would have the goodness to omit me +from the list of your acquaintance for the future; and when we met in +public, that you would not take the trouble to recognise me. Will you +please to remember this, hereafter? and as the song is beginning, permit +me to leave you to the unrestrained enjoyment of the music." + +He took his hat, and making a bow to the amazed Mr. Huxter left the +table, as Huxter's comrades, after a pause of wonder, set up such a roar +of laughter at Huxter, as called for the intervention of the president +of the room; who bawled out, "Silence, gentlemen; do have silence +for the Body Snatcher!" which popular song began as Pen left the +Back Kitchen. He flattered himself that he had commanded his temper +perfectly. He rather wished that Huxter had been pugnacious. He would +have liked to fight him or somebody. He went home. The day's work, the +dinner, the play, the whisky-and-water, the quarrel,--nothing soothed +him. He slept no better than on the previous night. + +A few days afterwards, Mr. Sam Huxter wrote home a letter to Mr. Hobnell +in the country, of which Mr. Arthur Pendennis formed the principal +subject. Sam described Arthur's pursuits in London, and his confounded +insolence of behaviour to his old friends from home. He said he was an +abandoned criminal, a regular Don Juan, a fellow who, when he did come +into the country, ought to be kept out of honest people's houses. He had +seen him at Vauxhall, dancing with an innocent girl in the lower ranks +of life, of whom he was making a victim. He had found out from an Irish +gentleman (formerly in the army), who frequented a club of which he, +Huxter, was member, who the girl was, on whom this conceited humbug was +practising his infernal arts; and he thought he should warn her father, +etc. etc.,--the letter then touched on general news, conveyed the +writer's thanks for the last parcel and the rabbits, and hinted his +extreme readiness for further favours. + +About once a year, as we have stated, there was occasion for a +christening at the Warren, and it happened that this ceremony took place +a day after Hobnell had received the letter of his brother-in-law in +town. The infant (a darling little girl) was christened Myra Lucretia, +after its two godmothers, Miss Portman and Mrs. Pybus of Clavering, and +as of course Hobnell had communicated Sam's letter to his wife, Mrs. +Hobnell imparted its horrid contents to her two gossips. A pretty story +it was, and prettily it was told throughout Clavering in the course of +that day. + +Myra did not--she was too much shocked to do so--speak on the matter to +her mamma, but Mrs. Pybus had no such feelings of reserve. She talked +over the matter not only with Mrs. Portman, but with Mr. and the +Honourable Mrs. Simcoe, with Mrs. Glanders, her daughters being to that +end ordered out of the room, with Madame Fribsby, and, in a word, with +the whole of the Clavering society. Madame Fribsby looking furtively up +at her picture of the dragoon, and inwards into her own wounded memory, +said that men would be men, and as long as they were men would be +deceivers; and she pensively quoted some lines from Marmion, requesting +to know where deceiving lovers should rest? Mrs. Pybus had no words +of hatred, horror, contempt, strong enough for a villain who could be +capable of conduct so base. This was what came of early indulgence, and +insolence, and extravagance, and aristocratic airs (it is certain that +Pen had refused to drink tea with Mrs. Pybus), and attending the corrupt +and horrid parties in the dreadful modern Babylon! Mrs. Portman was +afraid that she must acknowledge that the mother's fatal partiality had +spoiled this boy, that his literary successes had turned his head, and +his horrid passions had made him forget the principles which Doctor +Portman had instilled into him in early life. Glanders, the atrocious +Captain of Dragoons, when informed of the occurrence by Mrs. Glanders, +whistled and made jocular allusions to it at dinner-time; on which Mrs. +Glanders called him a brute, and ordered the girls again out of the +room, as the horrid Captain burst out laughing. Mr. Simcoe was calm +under the intelligence; but rather pleased than otherwise; it only +served to confirm the opinion which he had always had of that wretched +young man: not that he knew anything about him--not that he had read one +line of his dangerous and poisonous works; Heaven forbid that he should: +but what could be expected from such a youth, and such frightful, such +lamentable, such deplorable want of seriousness? Pen formed the subject +for a second sermon at the Clavering chapel-of-ease: where the dangers +of London, and the crime of reading or writing novels, were pointed out +on a Sunday evening to a large and warm congregation. They did not +wait to hear whether he was guilty or not. They took his wickedness for +granted: and with these admirable moralists, it was who should fling the +stone at poor Pen. + +The next day Mrs. Pendennis, alone and almost fainting with emotion and +fatigue, walked or rather ran to Dr. Portman's house to consult the good +Doctor. She had had an anonymous letter;--some Christian had thought +it his or her duty to stab the good soul who had never done mortal a +wrong--an anonymous letter with references to Scripture, pointing out +the doom of such sinners and a detailed account of Pen's crime. She was +in a state of terror and excitement pitiable to witness. Two or +three hours of this pain had aged her already. In her first moment +of agitation she had dropped the letter, and Laura had read it. Laura +blushed when she read it; her whole frame trembled, but it was with +anger. "The cowards," she said.--It isn't true.--No, mother, it isn't +true." + +"It is true, and you've done it, Laura," cried out Helen fiercely. "Why +did you refuse him when he asked you? Why did you break my heart and +refuse him? It is you who led him into crime. It is you who flung him +into the arms of this--this woman.--Don't speak to me.--Don't answer me. +I will never forgive you, never. Martha, bring me my bonnet and shawl. +I'll go out. I won't have you come with me. Go away. Leave me, cruel +girl; why have you brought this shame on me?" And bidding her daughter +and her servants keep away from her, she ran down the road to Clavering. + +Doctor Portman, glancing over the letter, thought he knew the +handwriting, and, of course, was already acquainted with the charge made +against poor Pen. Against his own conscience, perhaps (for the worthy +Doctor, like most of us, had a considerable natural aptitude for +receiving any report unfavourable to his neighbours), he strove to +console Helen; he pointed out that the slander came from an anonymous +quarter, and therefore must be the work of a rascal; that the charge +might not be true--was not true, most likely--at least, that Pen must +be heard before he was condemned; that the son of such a mother was not +likely to commit such a crime, etc. etc. + +Helen at once saw through his feint of objection and denial. "You think +he has done it," she said,--"you know you think he has done it. Oh, why +did I ever leave him, Doctor Portman, or suffer him away from me? But +he can't be dishonest--pray God, not dishonest--you don't think that, +do you? Remember his conduct about that other--person--how madly he +was attached to her. He was an honest boy then--he is now. And I thank +God--yes, I fall down on my knees and thank God he paid Laura. You said +he was good--you did yourself. And now--if this woman loves him--and you +know they must--if he has taken her from her home, or she tempted him, +which is most likely--why still, she must be his wife and my daughter. +And he must leave the dreadful world and come back to me--to his mother, +Doctor Portman. Let us go away and bring him back--yes--bring him +back--and there shall be joy for the--the sinner that repenteth. Let us +go now, directly, dear friend--this very----" + +Helen could say no more. She fell back and fainted. She was carried to +a bed in the house of the pitying Doctor, and the surgeon was called to +attend her. She lay all night in an alarming state. Laura came to +her, or to the rectory rather; for she would not see Laura. And Doctor +Portman, still beseeching her to be tranquil, and growing bolder and +more confident of Arthur's innocence as he witnessed the terrible grief +of the poor mother, wrote a letter to Pen warning him of the rumours +that were against him and earnestly praying that he would break off +and repent of a connexion so fatal to his best interests and his soul's +welfare. + +And Laura?--was her heart not wrung by the thought of Arthur's crime and +Helen's estrangement? Was it not a bitter blow for the innocent girl to +think that at one stroke she should lose all the love which she cared +for in the world? + + + + +CHAPTER LII. Which had very nearly been the last of the Story + + +Doctor Portman's letter was sent off to its destination in London, and +the worthy clergyman endeavoured to soothe down Mrs. Pendennis into some +state of composure until an answer should arrive, which the Doctor tried +to think, or at any rate persisted in saying, would be satisfactory as +regarded the morality of Mr. Pen. At least Helen's wisdom of moving upon +London and appearing in person to warn her son of his wickedness, was +impracticable for a day or two. The apothecary forbade her moving +even so far as Fairoaks for the first day, and it was not until the +subsequent morning that she found herself again back on her sofa at +home, with the faithful, though silent, Laura nursing at her side. + +Unluckily for himself and all parties, Pen never read that homily which +Doctor Portman addressed to him, until many weeks after the epistle had +been composed; and day after day the widow waited for her son's reply +to the charges against him; her own illness increasing with every day's +delay. It was a hard task for Laura to bear the anxiety; to witness +her dearest friend's suffering; worst of all, to support Helen's +estrangement, and the pain caused to her by that averted affection. But +it was the custom of this young lady to the utmost of her power, and by +means of that gracious assistance which Heaven awarded to her pure and +constant prayers, to do her duty. And; as that duty was performed +quite noiselessly,--while the supplications, which endowed her with +the requisite strength for fulfilling it, also took place in her own +chamber, away from all mortal sight,--we, too, must be perforce silent +about these virtues of hers, which no more bear public talking about, +than a flower will bear to bloom in a ballroom. This only we will +say--that a good woman is the loveliest flower that blooms under heaven; +and that we look with love and wonder upon its silent grace, its pure +fragrance, its delicate bloom of beauty. Sweet and beautiful!--the +fairest and the most spotless!--is it not pity to see them bowed down or +devoured by Grief or Death inexorable--wasting in disease--pining with +long pain--or cut off by sudden fate in their prime? We may deserve +grief--but why should these be unhappy?--except that we know that Heaven +chastens those whom it loves best; being pleased, by repeated trials, to +make these pure spirits more pure. + +So Pen never got the letter, although it was duly posted and faithfully +discharged by the postman into his letter-box in Lamb Court, and thence +carried by the laundress to his writing-table with the rest of his +lordship's correspondence; into which room, have we not seen a picture +of him, entering from his little bedroom adjoining, as Mrs. Flanagan, +his laundress, was in the act of drinking his gin? + +Those kind readers who have watched Mr. Arthur's career hitherto, and +have made, as they naturally would do, observations upon the moral +character and peculiarities of their acquaintance, have probably +discovered by this time what was the prevailing fault in Mr. Pen's +disposition, and who was that greatest enemy, artfully indicated in the +title-page, with whom he had to contend. Not a few of us, my beloved +public, have the very same rascal to contend with: a scoundrel who takes +every opportunity of bringing us into mischief, of plunging us into +quarrels, of leading us into idleness and unprofitable company, and what +not. In a word, Pen's greatest enemy was himself: and as he had been +pampering, and coaxing, and indulging that individual all his life, +the rogue grew insolent, as all spoiled servants will be; and at +the slightest attempt to coerce him, or make him do that which was +unpleasant to him, became frantically rude and unruly. A person who is +used to making sacrifices--Laura, for instance, who had got such a habit +of giving up her own pleasure for others--can do the business quite +easily; but Pen, unaccustomed as he was to any sort of self-denial, +suffered woundily when called on to pay his share, and savagely grumbled +at being obliged to forgo anything he liked. + +He had resolved in his mighty mind then that he would not see Fanny; and +he wouldn't. He tried to drive the thoughts of that fascinating +little person out of his head, by constant occupation, by exercise, by +dissipation and society. He worked then too much; he walked and rode too +much; he ate, drank, and smoked too much: nor could all the cigars and +the punch of which he partook drive little Fanny's image out of +his inflamed brain, and at the end of a week of this discipline and +self-denial our young gentleman was in bed with a fever. Let the reader +who has never had a fever in chambers pity the wretch who is bound to +undergo that calamity. + +A committee of marriageable ladies, or of any Christian persons +interested in the propagation of the domestic virtues, should employ a +Cruikshank or a Leech, or some other kindly expositor of the follies +of the day, to make a series of designs representing the horrors of a +bachelor's life in chambers, and leading the beholder to think of better +things, and a more wholesome condition. What can be more uncomfortable +than the bachelor's lonely breakfast?--with the black kettle in the +dreary fire in midsummer; or, worse still, with the fire gone out +at Christmas, half an hour after the laundress has quitted the +sitting-room? Into this solitude the owner enters shivering, and has to +commence his day by hunting for coals and wood; and before he begins the +work of a student, has to discharge the duties of a housemaid, vice Mrs. +Flanagan, who is absent without leave. Or, again, what can form a finer +subject for the classical designer than the bachelor's shirt--that +garment which he wants to assume just at dinner-time, and which he finds +without any buttons to fasten it? Then there is the bachelor's return +to chambers, after a merry Christmas holiday, spent in a cosy +country-house, full of pretty faces, and kind welcomes and regrets. +He leaves his portmanteau at the barber's in the Court: he lights his +dismal old candle at the sputtering little lamp on the stair: he enters +the blank familiar room, where the only tokens to greet him, that show +any interest in his personal welfare, are the Christmas bills, which are +lying in wait for him, amiably spread out on his reading-table. Add to +these scenes an appalling picture of bachelor's illness, and the rents +in the Temple will begin to fall from the day of the publication of the +dismal diorama. To be well in chambers is melancholy, and lonely and +selfish enough; but to be ill in chambers--to pass long nights of pain +and watchfulness--to long for the morning and the laundress--to serve +yourself your own medicine by your own watch--to have no other companion +for long hours but your own sickening fancies and fevered thoughts: no +kind hand to give you drink if you are thirsty, or to smooth the hot +pillow that crumples under you,--this, indeed, is a fate so dismal +and tragic, that we shall not enlarge upon its horrors, and shall only +heartily pity those bachelors in the Temple, who brave it every day. + +This lot befell Arthur Pendennis after the various excesses which we +have mentioned, and to which he had subjected his unfortunate brains. +One night he went to bed ill, and the next day awoke worse. His only +visitor that day, besides the laundress, was the Printer's Devil, from +the Pall Mall Gazette office, whom the writer endeavoured, as best he +could, to satisfy. His exertions to complete his work rendered his fever +the greater: he could only furnish a part of the quantity of "copy" +usually supplied by him; and Shandon being absent, and Warrington not +in London to give a help, the political and editorial columns of the +Gazette looked very blank indeed; nor did the sub-editor know how to +fill them. + +Mr. Finucane rushed up to Pen's chambers, and found that gentleman so +exceedingly unwell, that the good-natured Irishman set to work to supply +his place, if possible, and produced a series of political and critical +compositions, such as no doubt greatly edified the readers of the +periodical in which he and Pen were concerned. Allusions to the +greatness of Ireland, and the genius and virtue of the inhabitants of +that injured country, flowed magnificently from Finucane's pen; and +Shandon, the Chief of the paper, who was enjoying himself placidly at +Boulogne-sur-Mer, looking over the columns of the journal, which was +forwarded to him, instantly recognised the hand of the great Sub-editor, +and said, laughing, as he flung over the paper to his wife, "Look here, +Mary, my dear, here is Jack at work again." Indeed, Jack was a warm +friend, and a gallant partisan, and when he had the pen in hand, seldom +let slip an opportunity of letting the world know that Rafferty was the +greatest painter in Europe, and wondering at the petty jealousy of +the Academy, which refused to make him an R.A.: of stating that it was +generally reported at the West End, that Mr. Rooney, M.P., was appointed +Governor of Barataria; or of introducing into the subject in hand, +whatever it might be, a compliment to the Round Towers, or the Giant's +Causeway. And besides doing Pen's work for him, to the best of his +ability, his kind-hearted comrade offered to forgo his Saturday's +and Sunday's holiday, and pass those days of holiday and rest as +nurse-tender to Arthur, who, however, insisted, that the other should +not forgo his pleasure, and thankfully assured him that he could bear +best his malady alone. + +Taking his supper at the Back Kitchen on the Friday night, after having +achieved the work of the paper, Finucane informed Captain Costigan of +the illness of their young friend in the Temple; and remembering the +fact two days afterwards, the Captain went to Lamb Court and paid a +visit to the invalid on Sunday afternoon. + +He found Mrs. Flanagan, the laundress, in tears in the sitting-room, +and got a bad report of the poor dear young gentleman within. Pen's +condition had so much alarmed her, that she was obliged to have recourse +to the stimulus of brandy to enable her to support the grief which +his illness occasioned. As she hung about his bed, and endeavoured to +minister to him, her attentions became intolerable to the invalid, and +he begged her peevishly not to come near him. Hence the laundress's +tears and redoubled grief, and renewed application to the bottle, which +she was accustomed to use as an anodyne. The Captain rated the +woman soundly for her intemperance, and pointed out to her the fatal +consequences which must ensue if she persisted in her imprudent courses. + +Pen, who was by this time in a very fevered state, yet was greatly +pleased to receive Costigan's visit. He heard the well-known voice in his +sitting-room, as he lay in the bedroom within, and called the Captain +eagerly to him, and thanked him for coming, and begged him to take a +chair and talk to him. The Captain felt the young man's pulse with +great gravity--(his own tremulous and clammy hand growing steady for the +instant while his finger pressed Arthur's throbbing vein)--the pulse +was beating very fiercely--Pen's face was haggard and hot--his eyes were +bloodshot and gloomy; his "bird," as the Captain pronounced the word, +afterwards giving a description of his condition, had not been shaved +for nearly a week. Pen made his visitor sit down, and, tossing and +turning in his comfortless bed, began to try and talk to the Captain in +a lively manner, about the Back Kitchen, about Vauxhall and when they +should go again, and about Fanny--how was little Fanny? + +Indeed how was she? We know how she went home very sadly on the +previous Sunday evening, after she had seen Arthur light his lamp in his +chambers, whilst he was having his interview with Bows. Bows came back +to his own rooms presently, passing by the lodge door, and looking into +Mrs. Bolton's, according to his wont, as he passed, but with a +very melancholy face. She had another weary night that night. Her +restlessness wakened her little bedfellows more than once. She daren't +read more of 'Walter Lorraine:' Father was at home, and would suffer no +light. She kept the book under her pillow, and felt for it in the night. +She had only just got to sleep, when the children began to stir with the +morning, almost as early as the birds. Though she was very angry with +Bows, she went to his room at her accustomed hour in the day, and there +the good-hearted musician began to talk to her. + +"I saw Mr. Pendennis last night, Fanny," he said. + +"Did you? I thought you did," Fanny answered, looking fiercely at the +melancholy old gentleman. + +"I've been fond of you ever since we came to live in this place," he +continued. "You were a child when I came; and you used to like me, +Fanny, until three or four days ago: until you saw this gentleman." + +"And now, I suppose, you are going to say ill of him," said Fanny. "Do, +Mr. Bows--that will make me like you better." + +"Indeed I shall do no such thing," Bows answered; "I think he is a very +good and honest young man." + +"Indeed! you know that if you said a word against him, I would never +speak a word to you again--never!" cried Miss Fanny; and clenched her +little hand, and paced up and down the room. Bows noted, watched, and +followed the ardent little creature with admiration and gloomy sympathy. +Her cheeks flushed, her frame trembled; her eyes beamed love, anger, +defiance. "You would like to speak ill of him," she said; "but you +daren't--you know you daren't!" + +"I knew him many years since," Bows continued, "when he was almost as +young as you are, and he had a romantic attachment for our friend the +Captain's daughter--Lady Mirabel that is now." + +Fanny laughed. "I suppose there was other people, too, that had romantic +attachments for Miss Costigan," she said: "I don't want to hear about +'em." + +"He wanted to marry her; but their ages were quite disproportionate: and +their rank in life. She would not have him because he had no money. +She acted very wisely in refusing him; for the two would have been very +unhappy, and she wasn't a fit person to go and live with his family, or +to make his home comfortable. Mr. Pendennis has his way to make in the +world, and must marry a lady of his own rank. A woman who loves a man +will not ruin his prospects, cause him to quarrel with his family, and +lead him into poverty and misery for her gratification. An honest girl +won't do that, for her own sake, or for the man's." + +Fanny's emotion, which but now had been that of defiance and anger, +here turned to dismay and supplication. "What do I know about marrying, +Bows?" she said. "When was there any talk of it? What has there been +between this young gentleman and me that's to make people speak so +cruel? It was not my doing; nor Arthur's--Mr. Pendennis's--that I met +him at Vauxhall. It was the Captain took me and Ma there. We never +thought of nothing wrong, I'm sure. He came and rescued us, and he was +so very kind. Then he came to call and ask after us: and very, very good +it was of a such grand gentleman to be so polite to humble folks like +us! And yesterday Ma and me just went to walk in the Temple Gardens, +and--and"--here she broke out with that usual, unanswerable female +argument of tears--and cried, "Oh! I wish I was dead! I wish I was laid +in my grave; and had never, never seen him!" + +"He said as much himself, Fanny," Bows said; and Fanny asked through her +sobs, Why, why should he wish he had never seen her? Had she ever +done him any harm? Oh, she would perish rather than do him any harm. +Whereupon the musician informed her of the conversation of the day +previous, showed her that Pen could not and must not think of her as a +wife fitting for him, and that she, as she valued her honest reputation, +must strive too to forget him. And Fanny, leaving the musician, +convinced, but still of the same mind, and promising that she would +avoid the danger which menaced her, went back to the porter's lodge, and +told her mother all. She talked of her love for Arthur, and bewailed, in +her artless manner, the inequality of their condition, that set barriers +between them. "There's the 'Lady of Lyons,'" Fanny said; "Oh, Ma! how +I did love Mr. Macready when I saw him do it; and Pauline, for being +faithful to poor Claude, and always thinking of him; and he coming back +to her, an officer, through all his dangers! And if everybody admires +Pauline--and I'm sure everybody does, for being so true to a poor +man--why should a gentleman be ashamed of loving a poor girl? Not that +Mr. Arthur loves me--Oh no, no! I ain't worthy of him; only a princess +is worthy of such a gentleman as him. Such a poet!--writing so +beautifully, and looking so grand! I am sure he's a nobleman, and of +ancient family, and kep' out of his estate. Perhaps his uncle has it. +Ah, if I might, oh, how I'd serve him, and work for him, and slave for +him, that I would. I wouldn't ask for more than that, Ma, just to be +allowed to see him of a morning; and sometimes he'd say 'How d'you, +Fanny?' or 'God bless you, Fanny!' as he said on Sunday. And I'd work, +and work; and I'd sit up all night, and read, and learn, and make myself +worthy of him. The Captain says his mother lives in the country, and is +a grand lady there. Oh, how I wish I might go and be her servant, Ma! +I can do plenty of things, and work very neat; and--and sometimes he'd +come home, and I should see him!" + +The girl's head fell on her mother's shoulder, as she spoke, and she +gave way to a plentiful outpouring of girlish tears, to which the +matron, of course, joined her own. "You mustn't think no more of him, +Fanny," she said. "If he don't come to you, he's a horrid, wicked man." + +"Don't call him so, Mother," Fanny replied. "He's the best of men, the +best and the kindest. Bows says he thinks he is unhappy at leaving poor +little Fanny. It wasn't his fault, was it, that we met?--and it ain't +his that I mustn't see him again. He says I mustn't--and I mustn't, +Mother. He'll forget me, but I shall never forget him. No! I'll pray +for him, and love him always--until I die--and I shall die, I know I +shall--and then my spirit will always go and be with him." + +"You forget your poor mother, Fanny, and you'll break my heart by goin +on so," Mrs. Bolton said. "Perhaps you will see him. I'm sure you'll see +him. I'm sure he'll come to-day. If ever I saw a man in love, that man +is him. When Emily Budd's young man first came about her, he was +sent away by old Budd, a most respectable man, and violoncello in the +orchestra at the Wells; and his own family wouldn't hear of it neither. +But he came back. We all knew he would. Emily always said so; and he +married her; and this one will come back too; and you mark a mother's +words, and see if he don't, dear." + +At this point of the conversation Mr. Bolton entered the lodge for his +evening meal. At the father's appearance, the talk between mother and +daughter ceased instantly. Mrs. Bolton caressed and cajoled the surly +undertaker's aide-de-camp, and said, "Lor, Mr. B. who'd have thought to +see you away from the Club of a Saturday night. Fanny, dear, get your pa +some supper. What will you have, B.? The poor gurl's got a gathering +in her eye, or somethink in it--I was lookin at it just now as you came +in." And she squeezed her daughter's hand as a signal of prudence and +secrecy; and Fanny's tears were dried up likewise; and by that wondrous +hypocrisy and power of disguise which women practise, and with which +weapons of defence nature endows them, the traces of her emotion +disappeared; and she went and took her work, and sate in the corner so +demure and quiet, that the careless male parent never suspected that +anything ailed her. + +Thus, as if fate seemed determined to inflame and increase the poor +child's malady and passion, all circumstances and all parties round +about her urged it on. Her mother encouraged and applauded it; and the +very words which Bows used in endeavouring to repress her flame only +augmented this unlucky fever. Pen was not wicked and a seducer: Pen was +high-minded in wishing to avoid her. Pen loved her: the good and the +great, the magnificent youth, with the chains of gold and the scented +auburn hair! And so he did: or so he would have loved her five years +back perhaps, before the world had hardened the ardent and reckless +boy--before he was ashamed of a foolish and imprudent passion, and +strangled it as poor women do their illicit children, not on account of +the crime, but of the shame, and from dread that the finger of the world +should point to them. + +What respectable person in the world will not say he was quite right +to avoid a marriage with an ill-educated person of low degree, whose +relations a gentleman could not well acknowledge, and whose manners +would not become her new station?--and what philosopher would not tell +him that the best thing to do with these little passions if they spring +up, is to get rid of them, and let them pass over and cure them: that no +man dies about a woman or vice versa: and that one or the other +having found the impossibility of gratifying his or her desire in the +particular instance, must make the best of matters, forget each other, +look out elsewhere, and choose again? And yet, perhaps, there may be +something said on the other side. Perhaps Bows was right in admiring +that passion of Pen's, blind and unreasoning as it was, that made him +ready to stake his all for his love; perhaps if self-sacrifice is a +laudable virtue, mere worldly self-sacrifice is not very much to be +praised;--in fine, let this be a reserved point to be settled by the +individual moralist who chooses to debate it. + +So much is certain, that with the experience of the world which Mr. Pen +now had, he would have laughed at and scouted the idea of marrying a +penniless girl out of a kitchen. And this point being fixed in his mind, +he was but doing his duty as an honest man, in crushing any unlucky +fondness which he might feel towards poor little Fanny. + +So she waited and waited in hopes that Arthur would come. She waited for +a whole week, and it was at the end of that time that the poor little +creature heard from Costigan of the illness under which Arthur was +suffering. + +It chanced on that very evening after Costigan had visited Pen, that +Arthur's uncle the excellent Major arrived in town from Buxton, where +his health had been mended, and sent his valet Morgan to make inquiries +for Arthur, and to request that gentleman to breakfast with the Major +the next morning. The Major was merely passing through London on his way +to the Marquis of Steyne's house of Stillbrook, where he was engaged to +shoot partridges. + +Morgan came back to his master with a very long face. He had seen Mr. +Arthur; Mr. Arthur was very bad indeed; Mr. Arthur was in bed with a +fever. A doctor ought to be sent to him; and Morgan thought his case +most alarming. + +Gracious goodness! this was sad news indeed. He had hoped that Arthur +could come down to Stillbrook: he had arranged that he should go, and +procured an invitation for his nephew from Lord Steyne. He must +go himself; he couldn't throw Lord Steyne over: the fever might be +catching: it might be measles: he had never himself had the measles; +they were dangerous when contracted at his age. Was anybody with Mr. +Arthur? + +Morgan said there was somebody a-nussing of Mr. Arthur. + +The Major then asked, had his nephew taken any advice? Morgan said he +had asked that question, and had been told that Mr. Pendennis had had no +doctor. + +Morgan's master was sincerely vexed at hearing of Arthur's calamity. He +would have gone to him, but what good could it do Arthur that he, the +Major, should catch a fever? His own ailments rendered it absolutely +impossible that he should attend to anybody but himself. But the young +man must have advice--the best advice; and Morgan was straightway +despatched with a note from Major Pendennis to his friend Doctor +Goodenough, who by good luck happened to be in London and at home, and +who quitted his dinner instantly, and whose carriage was in half an hour +in Upper Temple Lane, near Pen's chambers. + +The Major had asked the kind-hearted physician to bring him news of his +nephew at the Club where he himself was dining, and in the course of the +night the Doctor made his appearance. The affair was very serious: the +patient was in a high fever: he had had Pen bled instantly: and would +see him the first thing in the morning. The Major went disconsolate +to bed with this unfortunate news. When Goodenough came to see him +according to his promise the next day, the Doctor had to listen for a +quarter of an hour to an account of the Major's own maladies, before the +latter had leisure to hear about Arthur. + +He had had a very bad night--his--his nurse said: at one hour he had +been delirious. It might end badly: his mother had better be sent for +immediately. The Major wrote the letter to Mrs. Pendennis with +the greatest alacrity, and at the same time with the most polite +precautions. As for going himself to the lad, in his state it was +impossible. "Could I be of any use to him, my dear Doctor?" he asked. + +The Doctor, with a peculiar laugh, said, No: he didn't think the Major +could be of any use: that his own precious health required the most +delicate treatment, and that he had best go into the country and stay: +that he himself would take care to see the patient twice a day, and do +all in his power for him. + +The Major declared upon his honour, that if he could be of any use he +would rush to Pen's chambers. As it was, Morgan should go and see that +everything was right. The Doctor must write to him by every post to +Stillbrook: it was but forty miles distant from London, and if anything +happened he would come up at any sacrifice. + +Major Pendennis transacted his benevolence by deputy and by post. "What +else could he do," as he said? "Gad, you know, in these cases, it's best +not disturbing a fellow. If a poor fellow goes to the bad, why, Gad, you +know he's disposed of. But in order to get well (and in this, my dear +Doctor, I'm sure that you will agree with me), the best way is to keep +him quiet--perfectly quiet." + +Thus it was the old gentleman tried to satisfy his conscience and he +went his way that day to Stillbrook by railway (for railways have +sprung up in the course of this narrative, though they have not quite +penetrated into Pen's country yet), and made his appearance in his usual +trim order and curly wig, at the dinner-table of the Marquis of Steyne. +But we must do the Major the justice to say, that he was very unhappy +and gloomy in demeanour. Wagg and Wenham rallied him about his low +spirits; asked whether he was crossed in love? and otherwise diverted +themselves at his expense. He lost his money at whist after dinner, and +actually trumped his partner's highest spade. And the thoughts of the +suffering boy, of whom he was proud, and whom he loved after his manner, +kept the old fellow awake half through the night, and made him feverish +and uneasy. + +On the morrow he received a note in a handwriting which he did not know: +it was that of Mr. Bows, indeed, saying that Mr. Arthur Pendennis had +had a tolerable night; and that as Dr. Goodenough had stated that the +Major desired to be informed of his nephew's health, he, R. B., had sent +him the news per rail. + +The next day he was going out shooting, about noon, with some of the +gentlemen staying at Lord Steyne's house; and the company, waiting for +the carriages, were assembled on the terrace in front of the house, when +a fly drove up from the neighbouring station, and a grey-headed, rather +shabby old gentleman jumped out, and asked for Major Pendennis. It +was Mr. Bows. He took the Major aside and spoke to him; most of the +gentlemen round about saw that something serious had happened, from the +alarmed look of the Major's face. + +Wagg said, "It's a bailiff come down to nab the Major," but nobody +laughed at the pleasantry. + +"Hullo! What's the matter, Pendennis?" cried Lord Steyne, with his +strident voice;--"anything wrong?" + +"It's--it's--my boy that's dead," said the Major, and burst into a +sob--the old man was quite overcome. + +"Not dead, my Lord; but very ill when I left London," Mr. Bows said, in +a low voice. + +A britzka came up at this moment as the three men were speaking. +The Peer looked at his watch. "You've twenty minutes to catch the +mail-train. Jump in, Pendennis; and drive like h---, sir, do you hear?" + +The carriage drove off swiftly with Pendennis and his companions, and +let us trust that the oath will be pardoned to the Marquis of Steyne. + +The Major drove rapidly from the station to the Temple, and found a +travelling carriage already before him, and blocking up the narrow +Temple Lane. Two ladies got out of it, and were asking their way of the +porters; the Major looked by chance at the panel of the carriage, and +saw the worn-out crest of the Eagle looking at the Sun, and the motto, +"Nec tenui penna," painted beneath. It was his brother's old carriage, +built many, many years ago. It was Helen and Laura that were asking +their way to Pen's room. + +He ran up to them; hastily clasped his sister's arm and kissed her +hand; and the three entered into Lamb Court, and mounted the long gloomy +stair. + +They knocked very gently at the door, on which Arthur's name was +written, and it was opened by Fanny Bolton. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. A critical Chapter + + +As Fanny saw the two ladies and the anxious countenance of the eider, +who regarded her with a look of inscrutable alarm and terror, the +poor girl at once knew that Pen's mother was before her; there was a +resemblance between the widow's haggard eyes and Arthur's as he tossed +in his bed in fever. Fanny looked wistfully at Mrs. Pendennis and at +Laura afterwards; there was no more expression in the latter's face than +if it had been a mass of stone. Hard-heartedness and gloom dwelt on the +figures of both the new-comers; neither showed any the faintest gleam +of mercy or sympathy for Fanny. She looked desperately from them to the +Major behind them. Old Pendennis dropped his eyelids, looking up ever so +stealthily from under them at Arthur's poor little nurse. + +"I--I wrote to you yesterday, if you please, ma'am," Fanny said, +trembling in every limb as she spoke; and as pale as Laura, whose sad +menacing face looked over Mrs. Pendennis's shoulder. + +"Did you, madam?" Mrs. Pendennis said. "I suppose I may now relieve you +from nursing my son. I am his mother, you understand." + +"Yes, ma'am. I--this is the way to his--Oh, wait a minute," cried out +Fanny. "I must prepare you for his----" + +The widow, whose face had been hopelessly cruel and ruthless, here +started back with a gasp and a little cry, which she speedily stifled. + +"He's been so since yesterday," Fanny said, trembling very much, and +with chattering teeth. + +A horrid shriek of laughter came out of Pen's room, whereof the door was +open; and, after several shouts, the poor wretch began to sing a college +drinking-song, and then to hurray and to shout as if he was in the midst +of a wine-party, and to thump with his fist against the wainscot. He was +quite delirious. + +"He does not know me, ma'am," Fanny said. + +"Indeed. Perhaps he will know his mother; let me pass, if you please, +and go in to him." And the widow hastily pushed by little Fanny, and +through the dark passage which led into Pen's sitting-room. Laura sailed +by Fanny, too, without a word; and Major Pendennis followed them. Fanny +sat down on a bench in the passage, and cried, and prayed as well as she +could. She would have died for him; and they hated her. They had not a +word of thanks or kindness for her, the fine ladies. She sate there in +the passage, she did not know how long. They never came out to speak to +her. She sate there until Doctor Goodenough came to pay his second visit +that day; he found the poor little thing at the door. + +"What, nurse? How's your patient?" asked the good-natured Doctor. "Has +he had any rest?" + +"Go and ask them. They're inside," Fanny answered. + +"Who? his mother?" + +Fanny nodded her head and didn't speak. + +"You must go to bed yourself, my poor little maid," said the Doctor. +"You will be ill, too, if you don't." + +"Oh, mayn't I come and see him: mayn't I come and see him! I--I--love +him so," the little girl said; and as she spoke she fell down on her +knees and clasped hold of the Doctor's hand in such an agony that to see +her melted the kind physician's heart, and caused a mist to come over +his spectacles. + +"Pooh, pooh! Nonsense! Nurse, has he taken his draught? Has he had any +rest? Of course you must come and see him. So must I." + +"They'll let me sit here, won't they, sir? I'll never make no noise. +I only ask to stop here," Fanny said. On which the Doctor called her a +stupid little thing; put her down upon the bench where Pen's printer's +devil used to sit so many hours; tapped her pale cheek with his finger, +and bustled into the farther room. + +Mrs. Pendennis was ensconced pale and solemn in a great chair by Pen's +bedside. Her watch was on the bed-table by Pen's medicines. Her bonnet +and cloaks were laid in the window. She had her Bible in her lap, +without which she never travelled. Her first movement, after seeing +her son, had been to take Fanny's shawl and bonnet which were on his +drawers, and bring them out and drop them down upon his study-table. +She had closed the door upon Major Pendennis, and Laura too; and taken +possession of her son. + +She had had a great doubt and terror lest Arthur should not know her; +but that pang was spared to her in part at least. Pen knew his mother +quite well, and familiarly smiled and nodded at her. When she came in, +he instantly fancied that they were at home at Fairoaks; and began to +talk and chatter and laugh in a rambling wild way. Laura could hear him +outside. His laughter shot shafts of poison into her heart. It was true, +then. He had been guilty--and with that creature!--an intrigue with a +servant-maid, and she had loved him--and he was dying most likely raving +and unrepentant. The Major now and then hummed out a word of remark or +consolation, which Laura scarce heard. + +A dismal sitting it was for all parties; and when Goodenough appeared, +he came like an angel into the room. + +It is not only for the sick man, it is for the sick man's friends that +the Doctor comes. His presence is often as good for them as for the +patient, and they long for him yet more eagerly. How we have all watched +after him! what an emotion the thrill of his carriage-wheels in the +street, and at length at the door, has made us feel! how we hang upon +his words, and what a comfort we get from a smile or two, if he can +vouchsafe that sunshine to lighten our darkness! Who hasn't seen the +mother prying into his face, to know if there is hope for the sick +infant that cannot speak, and that lies yonder, its little frame +battling with fever? Ah how she looks into his eyes! What thanks if +there is light there; what grief and pain if he casts them down, and +dares not say "hope!" Or it is the house-father who is stricken. The +terrified wife looks on, while the Physician feels his patient's wrist, +smothering her agonies, as the children have been called upon to stay +their plays and their talk. Over the patient in the fever, the wife +expectant, the children unconscious, the Doctor stands as if he were +Fate, the dispenser of life and death: he must let the patient off this +time: the woman prays so for his respite! One can fancy how awful the +responsibility must be to a conscientious man: how cruel the feeling +that he has given the wrong remedy, or that it might have been possible +to do better: how harassing the sympathy with survivors, if the case is +unfortunate--how immense the delight of victory! + +Having passed through a hasty ceremony of introduction to the +new-comers, of whose arrival he had been made aware by the heartbroken +little nurse in waiting without, the Doctor proceeded to examine the +patient, about whose condition of high fever there could be no +mistake, and on whom he thought it necessary to exercise the strongest +antiphlogistic remedies in his power. He consoled the unfortunate mother +as best he might; and giving her the most comfortable assurances on +which he could venture, that there was no reason to despair yet, that +everything might still be hoped from his youth, the strength of his +constitution, and so forth; and having done his utmost to allay the +horrors of the alarmed matron, he took the elder Pendennis aside into +the vacant room (Warrington's bedroom), for the purpose of holding a +little consultation. + +The case was very critical. The fever, if not stopped, might and would +carry off the young fellow: he must be bled forthwith: the mother must +be informed of this necessity. Why was that other young lady brought +with her? She was out of place in a sick-room. + +"And there was another woman still, be hanged to it!" the Major said, +"the--the little person who opened the door." His sister-in-law had +brought the poor little devil's bonnet and shawl out, flung them upon +the study-table. Did Goodenough know anything about the--the little +person? "I just caught a glimpse of her as we passed in," the Major +said, "and begad she was uncommonly nice-looking." The Doctor looked +queer: the Doctor smiled--in the very gravest moments, with life and +death pending, such strange contrasts and occasions of humour will +arise, and such smiles will pass, to satirise the gloom, as it were, and +to make it more gloomy! + +"I have it," at last he said, re-entering the study; and he wrote a +couple of notes hastily at the table there, and sealed one of them. +Then, taking up poor Fanny's shawl and bonnet, and the notes, he went +out in the passage to that poor little messenger, and said, "Quick, +nurse; you must carry this to the surgeon, and bid him come instantly; +and then go to my house, and ask for my servant Harbottle, and tell him +to get this prescription prepared, and wait until I--until it is ready. +It may take a little in preparation." + +So poor Fanny trudged away with her two notes, and found the apothecary, +who lived in the Strand hard by, and who came straightway, his lancet +in his pocket, to operate on his patient; and then Fanny made for the +Doctor's house, in Hanover Square. + +The Doctor was at home again before the prescription was made up, which +took Harbottle, his servant, such a long time in compounding; and, +during the remainder of Arthur's illness, poor Fanny never made her +appearance in the quality of nurse at his chambers any more. But for +that day and the next, a little figure might be seen lurking about +Pen's staircase,--a sad, sad little face looked at and interrogated the +apothecary, and the apothecary's boy, and the laundress, and the kind +physician himself, as they passed out of the chambers of the sick man. +And on the third day, the kind Doctor's chariot stopped at Shepherd's +Inn, and the good, and honest, and benevolent man went into the porter's +lodge, and tended a little patient whom he had there, for the best +remedy he found was on the day when he was enabled to tell Fanny Bolton +that the crisis was over, and that there was at length every hope for +Arthur Pendennis. + +J. Costigan, Esquire, late of Her Majesty's service, saw the Doctor's +carriage, and criticised its horses and appointments. "Green liveries, +bedad!" the General said, "and as foin a pair of high-stepping bee +horses as ever a gentleman need sit behoind, let alone a docthor. +There's no ind to the proide and ar'gance of them docthors, +nowadays--not but that is a good one, and a scoientific cyarkter, and +a roight good fellow, bedad; and he's brought the poor little girl well +troo her faver, Bows, me boy;" and so pleased was Mr. Costigan with the +Doctor's behaviour and skill, that, whenever he met Dr. Goodenough's +carriage in future, he made a point of saluting it and the physician +inside, in as courteous and magnificent a manner, as if Dr. Goodenough +had been the Lord Liftenant himself, and Captain Costigan had been in +his glory in Phaynix Park. + +The widow's gratitude to the physician knew no bounds--or scarcely any +bounds, at least. The kind gentleman laughed at the idea of taking a +fee from a literary man, or the widow of a brother practitioner; and she +determined when she got to Fairoaks that she would send Goodenough the +silver-gilt vase, the jewel of the house, and the glory of the late John +Pendennis, preserved in green baize, and presented to him at Bath, by +the Lady Elizabeth Firebrace, on the recovery of her son, the late Sir +Anthony Firebrace, from the scarlet fever. Hippocrates, Hygeia, King +Bladud, and a wreath of serpents surmount the cup to this day; which was +executed in their finest manner by Messrs. Abednego, of Milsom Street; +and the inscription was by Mr. Birch, tutor to the young baronet. + +This priceless gem of art the widow determined to devote to Goodenough, +the preserver of her son; and there was scarcely any other favour which +her gratitude would not have conferred upon him, except one, which he +desired most, and which was that she should think a little charitably +and kindly of poor Fanny, of whose artless, sad story he had got +something during his interviews with her, and of whom he was induced to +think very kindly,--not being disposed, indeed, to give much credit to +Pen for his conduct in the affair, or not knowing what that conduct +had been. He knew enough, however, to be aware that the poor infatuated +little girl was without stain as yet; that while she had been in Pen's +room it was to see the last of him, as she thought, and that Arthur was +scarcely aware of her presence; and that she suffered under the deepest +and most pitiful grief, at the idea of losing him, dead or living. + +But on the one or two occasions when Goodenough alluded to Fanny, the +widow's countenance, always soft and gentle, assumed an expression so +cruel and inexorable, that the Doctor saw it was in vain to ask her for +justice or pity, and he broke off all entreaties, and ceased making +any further allusions regarding his little client. There is a complaint +which neither poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy syrups of +the East could allay, in the men in his time, as we are informed by +a popular poet of the days of Elizabeth; and which, when exhibited +in women, no medical discoveries or practice subsequent--neither +homoeopathy, nor hydropathy, nor mesmerism, nor Dr. Simpson, nor Dr. +Locock can cure, and that is--we won't call it jealousy, but rather +gently denominate rivalry and emulation in ladies. + +Some of those mischievous and prosaic people who carp and calculate at +every detail of the romancer, and want to know, for instance, how, when +the characters in the 'Critic' are at a dead lock with their daggers +at each other's throats, they are to be got out of that murderous +complication of circumstances, may be induced to ask how it was possible +in a set of chambers in the Temple, consisting of three rooms, two +cupboards, a passage, and a coal-box, Arthur a sick gentleman, Helen his +mother, Laura her adopted daughter, Martha their country attendant, Mrs. +Wheezer a nurse from St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Mrs. Flanagan an Irish +laundress, Major Pendennis a retired military officer, Morgan his +valet, Pidgeon Mr. Arthur Pendennis's boy, and others could be +accommodated--the answer is given at once, that almost everybody in the +Temple was out of town, and that there was scarcely a single occupant +of Pen's house in Lamb Court except those who were occupied round the +sick-bed of the sick gentleman, about whose fever we have not given a +lengthy account, neither enlarge we very much upon the more cheerful +theme of his recovery. + +Everybody we have said was out of town, and of course such a fashionable +man as young Mr. Sibwright, who occupied chambers on the second floor +in Pen's staircase, could not be supposed to remain in London. Mrs. +Flanagan, Mr. Pendennis's laundress was acquainted with Mrs. Rouncy who +did for Mr. Sibwright; and that gentleman's bedroom was got ready for +Miss Bell, or Mrs. Pendennis, when the latter should be inclined +to leave her son's sick-room, to try and seek for a little rest for +herself. + +If that young buck and flower of Baker Street, Percy Sibwright, could +have known who was the occupant of his bedroom, how proud he would have +been of that apartment:--what poems he would have written about Laura! +(several of his things have appeared in the annuals, and in manuscript +in the nobility's albums)--he was a Camford man and very nearly got the +English Prize Poem, it was said--Sibwright, however, was absent and his +bed given up to Miss Bell. It was the prettiest little brass bed in the +world, with chintz curtains lined with pink--he had a mignonette-box in +his bedroom window, and the mere sight of his little exhibition of shiny +boots, arranged in trim rows over his wardrobe, was a gratification to +the beholder. He had a museum of scent, pomatum, and bear's-grease pots, +quite curious to examine, too; and a choice selection of portraits +of females, almost always in sadness and generally in disguise or +deshabille, glittered round the neat walls of his elegant little bower +of repose. Medora with dishevelled hair was consoling herself over her +banjo for the absence of her Conrad--the Princesse Fleur de Marie (of +Rudolstein and the Mysteres de Paris) was sadly ogling out of the bars +of her convent cage, in which, poor prisoned bird, she was moulting +away,--Dorothea of Don Quixote was washing her eternal feet:--in fine, +it was such an elegant gallery as became a gallant lover of the sex. +And in Sibwright's sitting-room, while there was quite an infantine +law library clad in skins of fresh new-born calf, there was a tolerably +large collection of classical books which he could not read, and of +English and French works of poetry and fiction which he read a great +deal too much. His invitation cards of the past season still decorated +his looking-glass: and scarce anything told of the lawyer but the +wig-box beside the Venus upon the middle shelf of the bookcase, on which +the name of P. Sibwright, Esquire, was gilded. + +With Sibwright in chambers was Mr. Bangham. Mr. Bangham was a sporting +man married to a rich widow. Mr. Bangham had no practice--did not +come to chambers thrice in a term: went a circuit for those mysterious +reasons which make men go circuit,--and his room served as a great +convenience to Sibwright when that young gentleman gave his little +dinners. It must be confessed that these two gentlemen have nothing +to do with our history, will never appear in it again probably, but we +cannot help glancing through their doors as they happen to be open to +us, and as we pass to Pen's rooms; as in the pursuit of our own business +in life through the Strand, at the Club, nay at church itself, we cannot +help peeping at the shops on the way, or at our neighbour's dinner, or +at the faces under the bonnets in the next pew. + +Very many years after the circumstances about which we are at present +occupied, Laura, with a blush and a laugh showing much humour, owned +to having read a French novel once much in vogue, and when her husband +asked her, wondering where on earth she could have got such a volume, +she owned that it was in the Temple, when she lived in Mr. Percy +Sibwright's chambers. + +"And, also, I never confessed," she said, "on that same occasion, what +I must now own to: that I opened the japanned box, and took out that +strange-looking wig inside it, and put it on and looked at myself in the +glass in it." + +Suppose Percy Sibwright had come in at such a moment as that? What +would he have said,--the enraptured rogue? What would have been all the +pictures of disguised beauties in his room compared to that living one? +Ah, we are speaking of old times, when Sibwright was a bachelor and +before he got a county court,--when people were young--when most people +were young. Other people are young now; but we no more. + +When Miss Laura played this prank with the wig, you can't suppose that +Pen could have been very ill upstairs; otherwise, though she had grown +to care for him ever so little, common sense of feeling and decorum +would have prevented her from performing any tricks or trying any +disguises. + +But all sorts of events had occurred in the course of the last few +days which had contributed to increase or account for her gaiety, and a +little colony of the reader's old friends and acquaintances was by this +time established in Lamb Court, Temple, and round Pen's sick-bed there. +First, Martha, Mrs. Pendennis's servant, had arrived from Fairoaks, +being summoned thence by the Major who justly thought her presence would +be comfortable and useful to her mistress and her young master, for +neither of whom the constant neighbourhood of Mrs. Flanagan (who during +Pen's illness required more spirituous consolation than ever to support +her) could be pleasant. Martha then made her appearance in due season +to wait upon Mr. Pendennis, nor did that lady go once to bed until the +faithful servant had reached her, when, with a heart full of maternal +thankfulness she went and lay down upon Warrington's straw mattress, and +among his mathematical books as has been already described. + +It is true that ere that day a great and delightful alteration in Pen's +condition had taken place. The fever, subjugated by Dr. Goodenough's +blisters, potions, and lancet, had left the young man, or only returned +at intervals of feeble intermittence; his wandering senses had settled +in his weakened brain: he had had time to kiss and bless his mother +for coming to him, and calling for Laura and his uncle (who were both +affected according to their different natures by his wan appearance, his +lean shrunken hands, his hollow eyes and voice, his thin bearded face) +to press their hands and thank them affectionately; and after this +greeting, and after they had been turned out of the room by his +affectionate nurse, he had sunk into a fine sleep which had lasted for +about sixteen hours, at the end of which period he awoke calling out +that he was very hungry. If it is hard to be ill and to loathe food, oh, +how pleasant to be getting well and to be feeling hungry--how hungry! +Alas, the joys of convalescence become feebler with increasing years, as +other joys do--and then--and then comes that illness when one does not +convalesce at all. + +On the day of this happy event, too, came another arrival in Lamb Court. +This was introduced into the Pen-Warring sitting-room by large puffs of +tobacco smoke--the puffs of were followed by an individual with a cigar +in his mouth, and a carpet-bag under his arm--this was Warrington who +had run back from Norfolk, when Mr. Bows thoughtfully wrote to inform +him of his friend's calamity. But he had been from home when Bows's +letter had reached his brother's house--the Eastern Counties did not +then boast of a railway (for we beg the reader to understand that we +only commit anachronisms when we choose and when by a daring violation +of those natural laws some great ethical truth is to be advanced)--in +fine, Warrington only appeared with the rest of the good luck upon the +lucky day after Pen's convalescence may have been said to have begun. + +His surprise was, after all, not very great when he found the chambers +of his sick friend occupied, and his old acquaintance the Major seated +demurely in an easy-chair (Warrington had let himself into the rooms +with his own passkey), listening, or pretending to listen, to a young +lady who was reading to him a play of Shakspeare in a low sweet voice. +The lady stopped and started, and laid down her book, at the apparition +of the tall traveller with the cigar and the carpet-bag. He blushed, he +flung the cigar into the passage: he took off his hat, and dropped that +too, and going up to the Major, seized that old gentleman's hand, and +asked questions about Arthur. + +The Major answered in a tremulous, though cheery voice--it was curious +how emotion seemed to olden him--and returning Warrington's pressure +with a shaking hand, told him the news of Arthur's happy crisis, of his +mother's arrival--with her young charge--with Miss----. + +"You need not tell me her name," Mr. Warrington said with great +animation, for he was affected and elated with the thought of his +friend's recovery--"you need not tell me your name. I knew at once it +was Laura." And he held out his hand and took hers. Immense kindness and +tenderness gleamed from under his rough eyebrows, and shook his voice as +he gazed at her and spoke to her. "And this is Laura!" his looks seemed +to say. "And this is Warrington!" the generous girl's heart beat back. +"Arthur's hero--the brave and the kind--he has come hundreds of miles to +succour him, when he heard of his friend's misfortune!" + +"Thank you, Mr. Warrington," was all that Laura said, however; and as +she returned the pressure of his kind hand, she blushed so, that she was +glad the lamp was behind her to conceal her flushing face. + +As these two were standing in this attitude, the door of Pen's +bedchamber was opened stealthily as his mother was wont to open it, and +Warrington saw another lady, who first looked at him, and then turning +round towards the bed, said, "Hsh!" and put up her hand. + +It was to Pen Helen was turning, and giving caution. He called out +with a feeble, tremulous, but cheery voice, "Come in, Stunner--come in, +Warrington. I knew it was you--by the--by the smoke, old boy," he said, +as holding his worn hand out, and with tears at once of weakness and +pleasure in his eyes, he greeted his friend. + +"I--I beg pardon, ma'am, for smoking," Warrington said, who now almost +for the first time blushed for his wicked propensity. + +Helen only said, "God bless you, Mr. Warrington." She was so happy, she +would have liked to kiss George. Then, and after the friends had had a +brief, very brief interview, the delighted and inexorable mother, giving +her hand to Warrington, sent him out of the room, too, back to Laura and +the Major, who had not resumed their play of Cymbeline where they had +left it off at the arrival of the rightful owner of Pen's chambers. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. Convalescence + + +Our duty now is to record a fact concerning Pendennis, which, however +shameful and disgraceful, when told regarding the chief personage and +godfather of a novel, must, nevertheless, be made known to the public +who reads his veritable memoirs. Having gone to bed ill with fever, and +suffering to a certain degree under the passion of love, after he +had gone through his physical malady, and had been bled and had been +blistered, and had had his head shaved, and had been treated and +medicamented as the doctor ordained:--it is a fact, that, when he +rallied up from his bodily ailment, his mental malady had likewise +quitted him, and he was no more in love with Fanny Bolton than you or I, +who are much too wise, or too moral, to allow our hearts to go gadding +after porters' daughters. + +He laughed at himself as he lay on his pillow, thinking of this second +cure which had been effected upon him. He did not care the least about +Fanny now: he wondered how he ever should have cared: and according to +his custom made an autopsy of that dead passion, and anatomised his own +defunct sensation for his poor little nurse. What could have made him +so hot and eager about her but a few weeks back? Not her wit, not her +breeding, not her beauty--there were hundreds of women better-looking +than she. It was out of himself that the passion had gone: it did not +reside in her. She was the same; but the eyes which saw were changed; +and, alas, that it should be so! were not particularly eager to see her +any more. He felt very well disposed towards the little thing, and so +forth, but as for violent personal regard, such as he had but a few +weeks ago, it had fled under the influence of the pill and lancet, which +had destroyed the fever in his frame. And an immense source of comfort +and gratitude it was to Pendennis (though there was something selfish +in that feeling, as in most others of our young man), that he had been +enabled to resist temptation at the time when the danger was greatest, +and had no particular cause of self-reproach as he remembered his +conduct towards the young girl. As from a precipice down which he might +have fallen, so from the fever from which he had recovered, he reviewed +the Fanny Bolton snare, now that he had escaped out of it, but I'm +not sure that he was not ashamed of the very satisfaction which he +experienced. It is pleasant, perhaps, but it is humiliating to own that +you love no more. + +Meanwhile the kind smiles and tender watchfulness of the mother at +his bedside, filled the young man with peace and security. To see that +health was returning, was all the unwearied nurse demanded: to execute +any caprice or order of her patient's, her chiefest joy and reward. +He felt himself environed by her love, and thought himself almost as +grateful for it as he had been when weak and helpless in childhood. + +Some misty notions regarding the first part of his illness, and that +Fanny had nursed him, Pen may have had, but they were so dim that he +could not realise them with accuracy, or distinguish them from what he +knew to be delusions which had occurred and were remembered during +the delirium of his fever. So as he had not thought proper on former +occasions to make any allusions about Fanny Bolton to his mother, of +course he could not now confide to her his sentiments regarding Fanny, +or make this worthy lady a confidante. It was on both sides an unlucky +precaution and want of confidence; and a word or two in time might have +spared the good lady, and those connected with her, a deal of pain and +anguish. + +Seeing Miss Bolton installed as nurse and tender to Pen, I am sorry to +say Mrs. Pendennis had put the worst construction on the fact of the +intimacy of these two unlucky young persons, and had settled in her own +mind that the accusations against Arthur were true. Why not have stopped +to inquire?--There are stories to a man's disadvantage that the women +who are fondest of him are always the most eager to believe. Isn't a +man's wife often the first to be jealous of him? Poor Pen got a good +stock of this suspicious kind of love from the nurse who was now +watching over him; and the kind and pure creature thought that her boy +had gone through a malady much more awful and debasing than the mere +physical fever, and was stained by crime as well as weakened by illness. +The consciousness of this she had to bear perforce silently, and to try +to put a mask of cheerfulness and confidence over her doubt and despair +and inward horror. + +When Captain Shandon, at Boulogne, read the next number of the Pall Mall +Gazette, it was to remark to Mrs. Shandon that Jack Finucane's hand was +no longer visible in the leading articles, and that Mr. Warrington must +be at work there again. "I know the crack of his whip in a hundred, and +the cut which the fellow's thong leaves. There's Jack Bludyer, goes to +work like a butcher, and mangles a subject. Mr. Warrington finished a +man, and lays his cuts neat and regular, straight down the back, and +drawing blood every line;" at which dreadful metaphor, Mrs. Shandon +said, "Law, Charles, how can you talk so! I always thought Mr. +Warrington very high, but a kind gentleman; and I'm sure he was most +kind to the children." Upon which Shandon said, "yes; he's kind to the +children; but he's savage to the men; and to be sure, my dear, you don't +understand a word about what I'm saying; and it's best you shouldn't; +for it's little good comes out of writing for newspapers; and it's +better here, living easy at Boulogne, where the wine's plenty, and the +brandy costs but two francs a bottle. Mix us another tumbler, Mary, my +dear; we'll go back into harness soon. 'Cras ingens iterabimus aequor' +bad luck to it." + +In a word, Warrington went to work with all his might, in place of his +prostrate friend, and did Pen's portion of the Pall Mall Gazette "with a +vengeance," as the saying is. He wrote occasional articles and +literary criticisms; he attended theatres and musical performances, and +discoursed about them with his usual savage energy. His hand was too +strong for such small subjects, and it pleased him to tell Arthur's +mother, and uncle, and Laura, that there was no hand in all the band +of penmen more graceful and light, more pleasant and more elegant, than +Arthur's. "The people in this country, ma'am, don't understand what +style is, or they would see the merits of our young one," he said to +Mrs. Pendennis. "I call him ours, ma'am, for I bred him; and I am as +proud of him as you are; and, bating a little wilfulness, and a little +selfishness, and a little dandification, I don't know a more honest, +or loyal, or gentle creature. His pen is wicked sometimes, but he is as +kind as a young lady--as Miss Laura here--and I believe he would not do +any living mortal harm." + +At this, Helen, though she heaved a deep, deep sigh, and Laura, though +she, too, was sadly wounded, nevertheless were most thankful for +Warrington's good opinion of Arthur, and loved him for being so attached +to their Pen. And Major Pendennis was loud in his praises of Mr. +Warrington,--more loud and enthusiastic than it was the Major's wont to +be. "He is a gentleman, my dear creature," he said to Helen, "every inch +a gentleman, my good madam--the Suffolk Warringtons--Charles the +First's baronets:--what could he be but a gentleman, come out of that +family?--father,--Sir Miles Warrington; ran away with--beg your pardon, +Miss Bell. Sir Miles was a very well known man in London, and a friend +of the Prince of Wales, This gentleman is a man of the greatest talents, +the very highest accomplishments,--sure to get on, if he had a motive to +put his energies to work." + +Laura blushed for herself whilst the Major was talking and praising +Arthur's hero. As she looked at Warrington's manly face, and dark, +melancholy eyes, this young person had been speculating about him, and +had settled in her mind that he must have been the victim of an unhappy +attachment; and as she caught herself so speculating, why, Miss Bell +blushed. + +Warrington got chambers hard by,--Grenier's chambers in Flag Court; and +having executed Pen's task with great energy in the morning, his delight +and pleasure of an afternoon was to come and sit with the sick man's +company in the sunny autumn evenings; and he had the honour more than +once of giving Miss Bell his arm for a walk in the Temple Gardens; to +take which pastime, when the frank Laura asked of Helen permission, +the Major eagerly said, "Yes, yes, begad--of course you go out with +him--it's like the country, you know; everybody goes out with everybody +in the Gardens, and there are beadles, you know, and that sort of +thing--everybody walks in the Temple Gardens." If the great arbiter of +morals did not object, why should simple Helen? She was glad that her +girl should have such fresh air as the river could give, and to see +her return with heightened colour and spirits from these harmless +excursions. + +Laura and Helen had come, you must know, to a little explanation. +When the news arrived of Pen's alarming illness, Laura insisted upon +accompanying the terrified mother to London, would not hear of the +refusal which the still angry Helen gave her, and, when refused a second +time yet more sternly, and when it seemed that the poor lost lad's life +was despaired of, and when it was known that his conduct was such as to +render all thoughts of union hopeless, Laura had, with many tears, told +her mother a secret with which every observant person who reads this +story was acquainted already. Now she never could marry him, was she to +be denied the consolation of owning how fondly, how truly, how entirely +she had loved him? The mingling tears of the woman appeased the agony of +their grief somewhat; and the sorrows and terrors of their journey were +at least in so far mitigated that they shared them together. + +What could Fanny expect when suddenly brought up for sentence before a +couple of such judges? Nothing but swift condemnation, awful punishment, +merciless dismissal! Women are cruel critics in cases such as that in +which poor Fanny was implicated; and we like them to be so; for, besides +the guard which a man places round his own harem, and the defences which +a woman has in her heart, her faith, and honour, hasn't she all her own +friends of her own sex to keep watch that she does not go astray, and to +tear her to pieces if she is found erring? When our Mahmouds or Selims +of Baker Street or Belgrave Square visit their Fatimas with condign +punishment, their mothers sew up Fatima's sack for her, and her sisters +and sisters-in-law see her well under water. And this present writer +does not say nay. He protests most solemnly he is a Turk, too. He wears +a turban and a beard like another, and is all for the sack practice, +Bismillah! But O you spotless, who have the right of capital punishment +vested in you, at least be very cautious that you make away with the +proper (if so she may be called) person. Be very sure of the fact before +you order the barge out: and don't pop your subject into the Bosphorus, +until you are quite certain that she deserves it. This is all I would +urge in poor Fatima's behalf--absolutely all--not a word more, by the +beard of the Prophet. If she's guilty, down with her--heave over the +sack, away with it into the Golden Horn bubble and squeak, and justice +being done, give way, men, and let us pull back to supper. + +So the Major did not in any way object to Warrington's continued +promenades with Miss Laura, but, like a benevolent old gentleman, +encouraged in every way the intimacy of that couple. Were there any +exhibitions in town? he was for Warrington conducting her to them. +If Warrington had proposed to take her to Vauxhall itself, this most +complaisant of men would have seen no harm,--nor would Helen, if +Pendennis the elder had so ruled it,--nor would there have been any +harm between two persons whose honour was entirely spotless,--between +Warrington, who saw in intimacy a pure, and high-minded, and artless +woman for the first time in his life,--and Laura, who too for the +first time was thrown into the constant society of a gentleman of great +natural parts and powers of pleasing; who possessed varied acquirements, +enthusiasm, simplicity, humour, and that freshness of mind which his +simple life and habits gave him, and which contrasted so much with +Pen's dandy indifference of manner and faded sneer. In Warrington's very +uncouthness there was a refinement, which the other's finery lacked. In +his energy, his respect, his desire to please, his hearty laughter, +or simple confiding pathos, what a difference to Sultan Pen's yawning +sovereignty and languid acceptance of homage! What had made Pen at home +such a dandy and such a despot? The women had spoiled him, as we like +them and as they like to do. They had cloyed him with obedience, and +surfeited him with sweet respect and submission, until he grew weary +of the slaves who waited upon him, and their caresses and cajoleries +excited him no more. Abroad, he was brisk and lively, and eager and +impassioned enough--most men are so constituted and so nurtured.--Does +this, like the former sentence, run a chance of being misinterpreted, +and does any one dare to suppose that the writer would incite the women +to revolt? Nevert, by the whiskers of the Prophet again, he says. He +wears a beard, and he likes his women to be slaves. What man doesn't? +What man would be henpecked, I say? We will cut off all the heads in +Christendom or Turkeydom rather than that. + +Well, then, Arthur being so languid, and indifferent, and careless about +the favours bestowed upon him, how came it that Laura should have such a +love and rapturous regard for him, that a mere inadequate expression +of it should have kept the girl talking all the way from Fairoaks to +London, as she and Helen travelled in the post-chaise? As soon as Helen +had finished one story about the dear fellow, and narrated, with a +hundred sobs and ejaculations, and looks up to heaven, some thrilling +incidents which occurred about the period when the hero was breeched, +Laura began another equally interesting and equally ornamented with +tears, and told how heroically he had a tooth out or wouldn't have it +out, or how daringly he robbed a bird's nest or how magnanimously he +spared it; or how he gave a shilling to the old woman on the common, or +went without his bread-and-butter for the beggar-boy who came into the +yard--and so on One to another the sobbing women sang laments upon their +hero, who, my worthy reader has long since perceived, is no more a hero +than one of us. Being as he was, why should a sensible girl be so fond +of him? + +This point has been argued before in a previous unfortunate sentence +(which lately drew down all the wrath of Ireland upon the writer's +head), and which said that the greatest rascal-cut-throats have had +somebody to be fond of them, and if those monsters, why not ordinary +mortals? And with whom shall a young lady fall in love but with the +person she sees? She is not supposed to lose her heart in a dream, like +a Princess in the Arabian Nights; or to plight her young affections +to the portrait of a gentleman in the Exhibition, or a sketch in the +Illustrated London News. You have an instinct within you which inclines +you to attach yourself to some one: you meet Somebody: you hear Somebody +constantly praised: you walk, or ride, or waltz, or talk or sit in +the same pew at church with Somebody: you meet again, and again, +and--"Marriages are made in Heave," your dear mamma says, pinning your +orange-flowers wreath on, with her blessed eyes dimmed with tears--and +there is a wedding breakfast, and you take off your white satin and +retire to your coach-and-four, and you and he are a happy pair.--Or, the +affair is broken off, and then, poor wounded heart! why, then you meet +Somebody Else, and twine your young affections round number two. It is +your nature so to do. Do you suppose it is all for the man's sake that +you love, and not a bit for your own? Do you suppose you would drink if +you were not thirsty, or eat if you were not hungry? + +So then Laura liked Pen because she saw scarcely anybody else at +Fairoaks except Doctor Portman and Captain Glanders, and because his +mother constantly praised her Arthur, and because he was gentlemanlike, +tolerably good-looking and witty, and because, above all, it was of her +nature to like somebody. And having once received this image into her +heart, she there tenderly nursed it and clasped it--she there, in his +long absences and her constant solitudes, silently brooded over it +and fondled it--and when after this she came to London, and had an +opportunity of becoming rather intimate with Mr. George Warrington, +what on earth was to prevent her from thinking him a most odd, original, +agreeable, and pleasing person? + +A long time afterwards, when these days were over, and Fate in its +own way had disposed of the various persons now assembled in the dingy +building in Lamb Court, perhaps some of them looked back and thought how +happy the time was, and how pleasant had been their evening talks +and little walks and simple recreations round the sofa of Pen the +convalescent. The Major had a favourable opinion of September in London +from that time forward, and declared at his clubs and in society that +the dead season in town was often pleasant, doosid pleasant, begad. He +used to go home to his lodgings in Bury Street of a night, wondering +that it was already so late, and that the evening had passed away so +quickly. He made his appearance at the Temple pretty constantly in +the afternoon, and tugged up the long black staircase with quite a +benevolent activity and perseverance. And he made interest with the chef +at Bays's (that renowned cook, the superintendence of whose work upon +Gastronomy compelled the gifted author to stay in the metropolis), to +prepare little jellies, delicate clear soups, aspics, and other trifles +good for invalids, which Morgan the valet constantly brought down to the +little Lamb Court colony. And the permission to drink a glass or two of +pure sherry being accorded to Pen by Doctor Goodenough, the Major +told with almost tears in his eyes how his noble friend the Marquis of +Steyne, passing through London on his way to the Continent, had ordered +any quantity of his precious, his priceless Amontillado, that had been +a present from King Ferdinand to the noble Marquis, to be placed at the +disposal of Mr. Arthur Pendennis. The widow and Laura tasted it with +respect (though they didn't in the least like the bitter flavour) but +the invalid was greatly invigorated by it, and Warrington pronounced +it superlatively good, and proposed the Major's health in a mock speech +after dinner on the first day when the wine was served, and that of Lord +Steyne and the aristocracy in general. + +Major Pendennis returned thanks with the utmost gravity and in a speech +in which he used the words, 'the present occasion,' at least the proper +number of times. Pen cheered with his feeble voice from his armchair. +Warrington taught Miss Laura to cry "Hear! hear!" and tapped the table +with his knuckles. Pidgeon the attendant grinned, and honest Doctor +Goodenough found the party so merrily engaged, when he came in to pay +his faithful gratuitous visit. + +Warrington knew Sibwright, who lived below and that gallant gentleman, +in reply to a letter informing him of the use to which his apartment had +been put, wrote back the most polite and flowery letter of acquiescence +He placed his chambers at the service of their fair occupants, his +bed at their disposal, his carpets at their feet. Everybody was kindly +disposed towards the sick man and his family. His heart (and his +mother's too, as we may fancy) melted within him at the thought of so +much good-feeling and good-nature. Let Pen's biographer be pardoned +for alluding to a time not far distant when a somewhat similar mishap +brought him a providential friend, a kind physician, and a thousand +proofs of a most touching and surprising kindness and sympathy. + +There was a piano in Mr. Sibwright's chamber (indeed, this gentleman, a +lover of all the arts, performed himself--and excellently ill too--upon +the instrument; and had had a song dedicated to him, the words by +himself, the air by his devoted friend Leopoldo Twankidillo), and at +this music-box, as Mr. Warrington called it, Laura, at first with a +great deal of tremor and blushing (which became her very much), played +and sang, sometimes of an evening, simple airs, and old songs of home. +Her voice was a rich contralto, and Warrington, who scarcely knew one +tune from another and who had but one tune or bray in his repertoire,--a +most discordant imitation of 'God save the King'--sat rapt in delight +listening to these songs. He could follow their rhythm if not their +harmony; and he could watch, with a constant and daily growing +enthusiasm, the pure and tender and generous creature who made the +music. + +I wonder how that poor pale little girl in the black bonnet, who used to +stand at the lamp-post in Lamb Court sometimes of an evening, looking +up to the open windows from which the music came, liked to hear it? When +Pen's bedtime came the songs were hushed. Lights appeared in the upper +room: his room, whither the widow used to conduct him; and then the +Major and Mr. Warrington, and sometimes Miss Laura, would have a game at +ecarte or backgammon; or she would sit by working a pair of slippers in +worsted--a pair of gentleman's slippers--they might have been for Arthur +or for George or for Major Pendennis: one of those three would have +given anything for the slippers. + +Whilst such business as this was going on within, a rather shabby old +gentleman would come and lead away the pale girl in the black bonnet, +who had no right to be abroad in the night air; and the Temple porters, +the few laundresses, and other amateurs who had been listening to the +concert, would also disappear. + +Just before ten o'clock there was another musical performance, namely +that of the chimes of St. Clement's clock in the Strand, which played +the clear cheerful notes of a psalm, before it proceeded to ring its +ten fatal strokes. As they were ringing, Laura began to fold up the +slippers; Martha from Fairoaks appeared with a bed-candle, and a +constant smile on her face; the Major said, "God bless my soul, is it +so late?" Warrington and he left their unfinished game, and got up and +shook hands with Miss Bell. Martha from Fairoaks lighted them out of the +passage and down the stair, and, as they descended, they could hear +her bolting and locking "the sporting door" after them, upon her young +mistress and herself. If there had been any danger, grinning Martha +said she would have got down "that thar hooky soord which hung up in +gantleman's room,"--meaning the Damascus scimitar with the names of the +prophet engraved on the blade and the red velvet scabbard, which Percy +Sibwright, Esquire, brought back from his tour in the Levant, along with +an Albanian dress, and which he wore with such elegant effect at Lady +Mullingar's fancy ball, Gloucester Square, Hyde Park. It entangled +itself in Miss Kewsey's train, who appeared in the dress in which she, +with her mamma, had been presented to their sovereign (the latter by the +L--d Ch-nc-ll-r's lady), and led to events which have nothing to do with +this history. Is not Miss Kewsey now Mrs. Sibwright? Has Sibwright not +got a county court?--Good night, Laura and Fairoaks Martha. Sleep well +and wake happy, pure and gentle lady. + +Sometimes after these evenings Warrington would walk a little way with +Major Pendennis--just a little way just as far as the Temple gate--as +the Strand--as Charing Cross--as the Club--he was not going into the +Club? Well, as far as Bury Street, where he would laughingly shake hands +on the Major's own door-step. They had been talking about Laura all the +way. It was wonderful how enthusiastic the Major, who, as we know, used +to dislike her, had grown to be regarding the young lady--"Dev'lish +fine girl, begad. Dev'lish well-mannered girl--my sister-in-law has the +manners of a duchess and would bring up any girl well. Miss Bell's a +little countryfied. But the smell of the hawthorn is pleasant, demmy. +How she blushes! Your London girls would give many a guinea for a +bouquet like that--natural flowers, begad! And she's a little money +too--nothing to speak of--but a pooty little bit of money." In all which +opinions no doubt Mr. Warrington agreed; and though he laughed as +he shook hands with the Major, his face fell as he left his veteran +companion; and he strode back to chambers, and smoked pipe after pipe +long into the night, and wrote article upon article, more and more +savage, in lieu of friend Pen disabled. + +Well, it was a happy time for almost all parties concerned. Pen mended +daily. Sleeping and eating were his constant occupations. His appetite +was something frightful. He was ashamed of exhibiting it before Laura, +and almost before his mother who laughed and applauded him. As the roast +chicken of his dinner went away he eyed the departing friend with sad +longing, and began to long for jelly, or tea, or what not. He was like +an ogre in devouring. The Doctor cried stop, but Pen would not. Nature +called out to him more loudly than the Doctor, and that kind and +friendly physician handed him over with a very good grace to the other +healer. + +And here let us speak very tenderly and in the strictest confidence +of an event which befell him, and to which he never liked an allusion. +During his delirium the ruthless Goodenough ordered ice to be put to his +head, and all his lovely hair to be cut. It was done in the time of--of +the other nurse, who left every single hair of course in a paper for the +widow to count and treasure up. She never believed but that the girl +had taken away some of it, but then women are so suspicious upon these +matters. + +When this direful loss was made visible to Major Pendennis as of course +it was the first time the elder saw the poor young man's shorn pate, and +when Pen was quite out of danger, and gaining daily vigour, the Major, +with something like blushes and a queer wink of his eyes, said he knew +of a--a person--a coiffeur, in fact--a good man, whom he would send down +to the Temple, and who would--a--apply--a--a temporary remedy to that +misfortune. + +Laura looked at Warrington with the archest sparkle in her +eyes--Warrington fairly burst out into a boohoo of laughter: even the +widow was obliged to laugh: and the Major erubescent confounded the +impudence of the young folks, and said when he had his hair cut he would +keep a lock of it for Miss Laura. + +Warrington voted that Pen should wear a barrister's wig. There was +Sibwright's down below, which would become him hugely. Pen said "Stuff," +and seemed as confused as his uncle; and the end was that a gentleman +from Burlington Arcade waited next day upon Mr. Pendennis, and had a +private interview with him in his bedroom; and a week afterwards the +same individual appeared with a box under his arm, and an ineffable grin +of politeness on his face, and announced that he had brought 'ome Mr. +Pendennis's 'ead of 'air. + +It must have been a grand but melancholy sight to see Pen in the +recesses of his apartment, sadly contemplating his ravaged beauty, and +the artificial means of hiding its ruin. He appeared at length in the +'ead of 'air; but Warrington laughed so, that Pen grew sulky, and went +back for his velvet cap, a neat turban which the fondest of mammas had +worked for him. Then Mr. Warrington and Miss Bell got some flowers off +the ladies' bonnets and made a wreath, with which they decorated the wig +and brought it out in procession, and did homage before it. In fact they +indulged in a hundred sports, jularities, waggeries, and petits jeux +innocens: so that the second and third floors of Number 6 Lamb Court, +Temple, rang with more cheerfulness and laughter than had been known in +those precincts for many a long day. + +At last, after about ten days of this life, one evening when the little +spy of the court came out to take her usual post of observation at the +lamp, there was no music from the second-floor window, there were no +lights in the third-story chambers, the windows of each were open, and +the occupants were gone. Mrs. Flanagan, the laundress, told Fanny what +had happened. The ladies and all the party had gone to Richmond for +change of air. The antique travelling chariot was brought out again and +cushioned with many pillows for Pen and his mother; and Miss Laura went +in the most affable manner in the omnibus under the guardianship of Mr. +George Warrington. He came back and took possession of his old bed that +night in the vacant and cheerless chambers, and to his old books and his +old pipes, but not perhaps to his old sleep. + +The widow had left a jar full of flowers upon his table, prettily +arranged, and when he entered they filled the solitary room with odour. +They were memorials of the kind, gentle souls who had gone away, and who +had decorated for a little while that lonely cheerless place. He had +had the happiest days of his whole life George felt--he knew it now +they were just gone: he went and took up the flowers and put his face +to them, and smelt them--perhaps kissed them. As he put them down, he +rubbed his rough hand across his eyes with a bitter word and laugh. He +would have given his whole life and soul to win that prize which Arthur +rejected. Did she want fame? he would have won it for her:--devotion?--a +great heart full of pent-up tenderness and manly love and gentleness was +there for her, if she might take it. But it might not be. Fate had ruled +otherwise. "Even if I could, she would not have me," George thought. +"What has an ugly, rough old fellow like me, to make any woman like him? +I'm getting old, and I've made no mark in life. I've neither good looks, +nor youth, nor money, nor reputation. A man must be able to do something +besides stare at her and offer on his knees his smooth devotion, to make +a woman like him. What can I do? Lots of young fellows have passed me in +the race--what they call the prizes of life didn't seem to me worth the +trouble of the struggle. But for her. If she had been mine and liked a +diamond--ah! shouldn't she have worn it! Psha, what a fool I am to brag +of what I would have done! We are the slaves of destiny. Our lots are +shaped for us, and mine is ordained long ago. Come, let us have a pipe, +and put the smell of these flowers out of court, poor little silent +flowers! you'll be dead to-morrow. What business had you to show your +red cheeks in this dingy place?" + +By his bedside George found a new Bible which the widow had placed +there, with a note inside saying that she had not seen the book amongst +his collection in a room where she had spent a number of hours, and +where God had vouchsafed to her prayers the life of her son, and that +she gave to Arthur's friend the best thing she could, and besought him +to read in the volume sometimes, and to keep it as a token of a grateful +mother's regard and affection. Poor George mournfully kissed the book as +he had done the flowers; and the morning found him still reading in its +awful pages, in which so many stricken hearts, in which so many tender +and faithful souls, have found comfort under calamity, and refuge and +hope in affliction. + + + + +CHAPTER LV. Fanny's Occupation's gone + +Good Helen, ever since her son's illness, had taken, as we have seen, +entire possession of the young man, of his drawers and closets and all +which they contained: whether shirts that wanted buttons, or stockings +that required mending, or, must it be owned? letters that lay amongst +those articles of raiment, and which of course it was necessary that +somebody should answer during Arthur's weakened and incapable condition. +Perhaps Mrs. Pendennis was laudably desirous to have some explanations +about the dreadful Fanny Bolton mystery, regarding which she had never +breathed a word to her son, though it was present in her mind always, +and occasioned her inexpressible anxiety and disquiet. She had caused +the brass knocker to be screwed off the inner door of the chambers, +where upon the postman's startling double rap would, as she justly +argued, disturb the rest of her patient, and she did not allow him to +see any letter which arrived, whether from bootmakers who importuned +him, or hatters who had a heavy account to make up against next +Saturday, and would be very much obliged if Mr. Arthur Pendennis would +have the kindness to settle, etc. Of these documents, Pen, who was +always freehanded and careless, of course had his share, and though no +great one, one quite enough to alarm his scrupulous and conscientious +mother. She had some savings; Pen's magnificent self-denial, and her own +economy, amounting from her great simplicity and avoidance of show to +parsimony almost, had enabled her to put by a little sum of money, a +part of which she delightedly consecrated to the paying off the +young gentleman's obligations. At this price, many a worthy youth and +respected reader would hand over his correspondence to his parents; and +perhaps there is no greater test of a man's regularity and easiness of +conscience, than his readiness to face the postman. Blessed is he who is +made happy by the sound of the rat-tat! The good are eager for it: but +the naughty tremble at the sound thereof. So it was very kind of Mrs. +Pendennis doubly to spare Pen the trouble of hearing or answering +letters during his illness. + +There could have been nothing in the young man's chest of drawers and +wardrobes which could be considered as inculpating him in any way, +nor any satisfactory documents regarding the Fanny Bolton affair found +there, for the widow had to ask her brother-in-law if he knew anything +about the odious transaction, and the dreadful intrigue about which +her son was engaged. When they were at Richmond one day, and Pen with +Warrington had taken a seat on a bench on the terrace, the widow kept +Major Pendennis in consultation, and laid her terrors and perplexities +before him, such of them at least (for as is the wont of men and women, +she did not make quite a clean confession, and I suppose no spendthrift +asked for a schedule of his debts, no lady of fashion asked by her +husband for her dressmaker's bills, ever sent in the whole of them +yet)--such, we say, of her perplexities, at least, as she chose to +confide to her Director for the time being. + +When, then, she asked the Major what course she ought to pursue, +about this dreadful--this horrid affair, and whether he knew anything +regarding it? the old gentleman puckered up his face, so that you could +not tell whether he was smiling or not; gave the widow one queer look +with his little eyes; cast them down to the carpet again, and said, "My +dear, good creature, I don't know anything about it; and I don't wish to +know anything about it; and, as you ask me my opinion, I think you had +best know nothing about it too. Young men will be young men; begad, and, +my good ma'am, if you think our boy is a Jo----" + +"Pray, spare me this," Helen broke in, looking very stately. + +"My dear creature, I did not commence the conversation, permit me to +say," the Major said, bowing very blandly. + +"I can't bear to hear such a sin--such a dreadful sin--spoken of in such +a way," the widow said, with tears of annoyance starting from her eyes. +"I can't bear to think that my boy should commit such a crime. I wish he +had died, almost, before he had done it. I don't know how I survive it +myself; for it is breaking my heart, Major Pendennis, to think that his +father's son--my child--whom I remember so good--oh, so good, and full +of honour!--should be fallen so dreadfully low, as to--as to----" + +"As to flirt with a little grisette, my dear creature?" said the +Major. "Egad, if all the mothers in England were to break their +hearts because--Nay, nay; upon my word and honour, now, don't agitate +yourself--don't cry. I can't bear to see a woman's tears--I never +could--never. But how do we know that anything serious has happened? Has +Arthur said anything?" + +"His silence confirms it," sobbed Mrs. Pendennis, behind her +pocket-handkerchief. + +"Not at all. There are subjects, my dear, about which a young fellow +cannot surely talk to his mamma," insinuated the brother-in-law. + +"She has written to him," cried the lady, behind the cambric. + +"What, before he was ill? Nothing more likely." + +"No, since," the mourner with the batiste mask gasped out; "not before; +that is, I don't think so--that is, I----" + +"Only since; and you have--yes, I understand. I suppose when he was too +ill to read his own correspondence, you took charge of it, did you?" + +"I am the most unhappy mother in the world," cried out the unfortunate +Helen. + +"The most unhappy mother in the world, because your son is a man and +not a hermit! Have a care, my dear sister. If you have suppressed any +letters to him, you may have done yourself a great injury; and, if I +know anything of Arthur's spirit, may cause a difference between him and +you, which you'll rue all your life--a difference that's a dev'lish deal +more important, my good madam, than the little--little--trumpery cause +which originated it." + +"There was only one letter," broke out Helen,--"only a very little +one--only a few words. Here it is--Oh--how can you, how can you speak +so?" + +When the good soul said "only a very little one," the Major could not +speak at all, so inclined was he to laugh, in spite of the agonies of +the poor soul before him, and for whom he had a hearty pity and liking +too. But each was looking at the matter with his or her peculiar eyes +and views of morals, and the Major's morals, as the reader knows, were +not those of an ascetic. + +"I recommend you," he gravely continued, "if you can, to seal it +up--those letters ain't unfrequently sealed with wafers--and to put it +amongst Pen's other letters, and let him have them when he calls for +them Or if we'll can't seal it, we mistook it for a bill." + +"I can't tell my son a lie," said the widow. It had been put silently +into the letter-box two days previous to their departure from the +Temple, and had been brought to Mrs. Pendennis by Martha. She had never +seen Fanny's handwriting, of course; but when the letter was put into +her hands she knew the author at once. She had been on the watch for +that letter every day since Pen had been ill. She had opened some of his +other letters because she wanted to get at that one. She had the horrid +paper poisoning her bag at that moment. She took it out and offered it +to her brother-in-law. + +"Arther Pendennis, Esq.," he read in a timid little sprawling +handwriting, and with a sneer on his face. "No, my dear, I won't +read any more. But you who have read it may tell me what the letter +contains--only prayers for his health in bad spelling, you say--and a +desire to see him? Well--there's no harm in that. And as you ask me--" +Here the Major began to look a little queer for his own part, and put on +his demure look--"as you ask me, my dear, for information, why, I don't +mind telling you that--ah--that--Morgan, my man, has made some inquiries +regarding this affair, and that--my friend Doctor Goodenough also +looked into it--and it appears that this person was greatly smitten with +Arthur; that he paid for her and took her to Vauxhall Gardens, as Morgan +heard from an old acquaintance of Pen's and ours, an Irish gentleman, +who was very nearly once having the honour of being the--from an +Irishman, in fact;--that the girl's father, a violent man of intoxicated +habits, has beaten her mother, who persists in declaring her daughter's +entire innocence to her husband on the one hand, while on the other she +told Goodenough, that Arthur has acted like a brute to her child. And so +you see the story remains in a mystery. Will you have it cleared up? I +have but to ask Pen, and he will tell me at once--he is as honourable a +man as ever lived." + +"Honourable!" said the widow with bitter scorn. "Oh, brother, what is +this you call honour? If my boy has been guilty, he must marry her. I +would go down on my knees and pray him to do so." + +"Good God! are you mad?" screamed out the Major; and remembering former +passages in Arthur's history and Helen's, the truth came across his +mind that, were Helen to make this prayer to her son, he would marry the +girl: he was wild enough and obstinate enough to commit any folly when +a woman he loved was in the case. "My dear sister, have you lost your +senses?" he continued (after an agitated pause, during which the above +dreary reflection crossed him); and in a softened tone, "What right have +we to suppose that anything has passed between this girl and him? Let's +see the letter. Her heart is breaking; pray, pray, write to me--home +unhappy--unkind father--your nurse--poor little Fanny--spelt, as you +say, in a manner to outrage all sense of decorum. But, good heavens! my +dear, what is there in this? only that the little devil is making love +to him still. Why, she didn't come into his chambers until he was so +delirious that he didn't know her. What-d'you-call-'em, Flanagan, +the laundress, told Morgan, my man, so. She came in company of an old +fellow, an old Mr. Bows, who came most kindly down to Stillbrook and +brought me away--by the way, I left him in the cab, and never paid +the fare; and dev'lish kind it was of him. No, there's nothing in the +story." + +"Do you think so? Thank Heaven--thank God!" Helen cried. "I'll take the +letter to Arthur and ask him now. Look at him there. He's on the terrace +with Mr. Warrington. They are talking to some children. My boy was +always fond of children. He's innocent, thank God--thank God! Let me go +to him." + +Old Pendennis had his own opinion. When he briskly took the not guilty +side of the case, but a moment before, very likely the old gentleman +had a different view from that which he chose to advocate, and judged of +Arthur by what he himself would have done. If she goes to Arthur, and he +speaks the truth, as the rascal will, it spoils all, he thought. And he +tried one more effort. + +"My dear, good soul," he said, taking Helen's hand and kissing it, "as +your son has not acquainted you with this affair, think if you have +any right to examine it. As you believe him to be a man of honour, what +right have you to doubt his honour in this instance? Who is his accuser? +An anonymous scoundrel who has brought no specific charge against him. +If there were any such, wouldn't the girl's parents have come forward? +He is not called upon to rebut, nor you to entertain an anonymous +accusation; and as for believing him guilty because a girl of that rank +happened to be in his rooms acting as nurse to him, begad you might +as well insist upon his marrying that dem'd old Irish gin-drinking +laundress, Mrs. Flanagan." + +The widow burst out laughing through her tears--the victory was gained +by the old general. + +"Marry Mrs. Flanagan, by Ged," he continued, tapping her slender hand. +"No. The boy has told you nothing about it, and you know nothing about +it. The boy is innocent--of course. And what, my good soul, is the +course for us to pursue? Suppose he is attached to this girl--don't look +sad again, it's merely a supposition--and begad a young fellow may +have an attachment, mayn't he?--Directly he gets well he will be at her +again." + +"He must come home! We must go off directly to Fairoaks," the widow +cried out. + +"My good creature, he'll bore himself to death at Fairoaks. He'll have +nothing to do but to think about his passion there. There's no place in +the world for making a little passion into a big one, and where a fellow +feeds on his own thoughts, like a dem'd lonely country-house where +there's nothing to do. We must occupy him: amuse him: we must take +him abroad: he's never been abroad except to Paris for a lark. We must +travel a little. He must have a nurse with him, to take great care of +him, for Goodenough says he had a dev'lish narrow squeak of it (don't +look frightened), and so you must come and watch: and I suppose you'll +take Miss Bell, and I should like to ask Warrington to come. +Arthur's dev'lish fond of Warrington. He can't do without Warrington. +Warrington's family is one of the oldest in England, and he is one of +the best young fellows I ever met in my life. I like him exceedingly." + +"Does Mr. Warrington know anything about this--this affair?" asked +Helen. "He had been away, I know, for two months before it happened; Pen +wrote me so." + +"Not a word--I--I've asked him about it. I've pumped him. He never heard +of the transaction, never; I pledge you my word," cried out the Major, +in some alarm. "And, my dear, I think you had much best not talk to him +about it--much best not--of course not: the subject is most delicate and +painful." + +The simple widow took her brother's hand and pressed it. "Thank you, +brother," she said. "You have been very, very kind to me. You have given +me a great deal of comfort. I'll go to my room, and think of what you +have said. This illness and these--these emotions--have agitated me a +great deal; and I'm not very strong, you know. But I'll go and thank God +that my boy is innocent. He is innocent. Isn't he, sir?" + +"Yes, my dearest creature, yes," said the old fellow, kissing her +affectionately, and quite overcome by her tenderness. He looked after +her as she retreated, with a fondness which was rendered more piquant, +as it were, by the mixture of a certain scorn which accompanied it. +"Innocent!" he said; "I'd swear, till I was black in the face, he was +innocent, rather than give that good soul pain." + +Having achieved this victory, the fatigued and happy warrior laid +himself down on the sofa, and put his yellow silk pocket-handkerchief +over his face, and indulged in a snug little nap, of which the dreams, +no doubt, were very pleasant, as he snored with refreshing regularity. +The young men sate, meanwhile, dawdling away the sunshiny hours on the +terrace, very happy, and Pen, at least, very talkative. He was narrating +to Warrington a plan for a new novel, and a new tragedy. Warrington +laughed at the idea of his writing a tragedy? By Jove, he would show +that he could; and he began to spout some of the lines of his play. + +The little solo on the wind instrument which the Major was performing +was interrupted by the entrance of Miss Bell. She had been on a visit +to her old friend, Lady Rockminster, who had taken a summer villa in the +neighbourhood; and who, hearing of Arthur's illness, and his mother's +arrival at Richmond, had visited the latter; and, for the benefit of the +former, whom she didn't like, had been prodigal of grapes, partridges, +and other attentions. For Laura the old lady had a great fondness, and +longed that she should come and stay with her; but Laura could not leave +her mother at this juncture. Worn out by constant watching over +Arthur's health, Helen's own had suffered very considerably; and Doctor +Goodenough had had reason to prescribe for her as well as for his +younger patient. + +Old Pendennis started up on the entrance of the young lady. His slumbers +were easily broken. He made her a gallant speech--he had been full of +gallantry towards her of late. Where had she been gathering those roses +which she wore on her cheeks? How happy he was to be disturbed out of +his dreams by such a charming reality! Laura had plenty of humour and +honesty; and these two caused her to have on her side something very +like a contempt for the old gentleman. It delighted her to draw out his +worldlinesses, and to make the old habitue of clubs and drawing-rooms +tell his twaddling tales about great folks, and expound his views of +morals. + +Not in this instance, however, was she disposed to be satirical. She had +been to drive with Lady Rockminster in the Park, she said; and she had +brought home game for Pen, and flowers for mamma. She looked very grave +about mamma. She had just been with Mrs. Pendennis. Helen was very much +worn, and she feared she was very, very ill. Her large eyes filled with +tender marks of the sympathy which she felt in her beloved friend's +condition. She was alarmed about her. Could not that good--that dear Dr. +Goodenough cure her? + +"Arthur's illness, and other mental anxiety," the Major slowly said, +"had, no doubt, shaken Helen." A burning blush upon the girl's face +showed that she understood the old man's allusion. But she looked him +full in the face and made no reply. "He might have spared me that," she +thought. "What is he aiming at in recalling that shame to me?" + +That he had an aim in view is very possible. The old diplomatist seldom +spoke without some such end. Doctor Goodenough had talked to him, he +said, about their dear friend's health, and she wanted rest and change +of scene--yes, change of scene. Painful circumstances which had occurred +must be forgotten and never alluded to; he begged pardon for even +hinting at them to Miss Bell--he never should do so again--nor, he was +sure, would she. Everything must be done to soothe and comfort their +friend, and his proposal was that they should go abroad for the autumn +to a watering-place in the Rhine neighbourhood, where Helen might rally +her exhausted spirits, and Arthur try and become a new man. Of course, +Laura would not forsake her mother? + +Of course not. It was about Helen, and Helen only--that is, about +Arthur too for her sake, that Laura was anxious. She would go abroad or +anywhere with Helen. + +And Helen having thought the matter over for an hour in her room, had by +that time grown to be as anxious for the tour as any schoolboy, who has +been reading a book of voyages, is eager to go to sea. Whither should +they go? the farther the better--to some place so remote that even +recollection could not follow them thither: so delightful that Pen +should never want to leave it--anywhere so that he could be happy. She +opened her desk with trembling fingers and took out her banker's book, +and counted up her little savings. If more was wanted, she had the +diamond cross. She would borrow from Laura again. "Let us go--let us +go," she thought; "directly he can bear the journey let us go away. +Come, kind Doctor Goodenough--come quick, and give us leave to quit +England." + +The good Doctor drove over to dine with them that very day. "If you +agitate yourself so," he said to her, "and if your heart beats so, +and if you persist in being so anxious about a young gentleman who is +getting well as fast as he can, we shall have you laid up, and Miss +Laura to watch you; and then it will be her turn to be ill, and I should +like to know how the deuce a doctor is to live who is obliged to come +and attend you all for nothing? Mrs. Goodenough is already jealous +of you, and says, with perfect justice, that I fall in love with my +patients. And you must please to get out of the country as soon as ever +you can, that I may have a little peace in my family." + +When the plan of going abroad was proposed, it was received by that +gentleman with the greatest alacrity and enthusiasm. He longed to be off +at once. He let his mustachios grow from that very moment, in order, I +suppose, that he might get his mouth into training for a perfect French +and German pronunciation; and he was seriously disquieted in his mind +because the mustachios, when they came, were of a decidedly red colour. +He had looked forward to an autumn at Fairoaks; and perhaps the idea of +passing two or three months there did not amuse the young man. "There +is not a soul to speak to in the place," he said to Warrington. "I can't +stand old Portman's sermons, and pompous after-dinner conversation. I +know all old Glanders's stories about the Peninsular war. The Claverings +are the only Christian people in the neighbourhood, and they are not to +be at home before Christmas, my uncle says: besides, Warrington, I want +to get out of the country. Whilst you were away, confound it, I had a +temptation, from which I am very thankful to have escaped, and which I +count that even my illness came very luckily to put an end to." And here +he narrated to his friend the circumstances of the Vauxhall affair, with +which the reader is already acquainted. + +Warrington looked very grave when he heard this story. Putting the moral +delinquency out of the question, he was extremely glad for Arthur's +sake that the latter had escaped from a danger which might have made +his whole life wretched; "which certainly," said Warrington, "would have +occasioned the wretchedness and ruin of the other party. And your mother +and--and your friends--what a pain it would have been to them!" urged +Pen's companion, little knowing what grief and annoyance these good +people had already suffered. + +"Not a word to my mother!" Pen cried out, in a state of great alarm. +"She would never get over it. An esclandre of that sort would kill her, +I do believe. And," he added, with a knowing air, and as if, like a +young rascal of a Lovelace, he had been engaged in what are called +affaires de coeur, all his life; "the best way, when a danger of that +sort menaces, is not to face it, but to turn one's back on it and run." + +"And were you very much smitten?" Warrington asked. + +"Hm!" said Lovelace. "She dropped her h's, but she was a dear little +girl." + +O Clarissas of this life, O you poor little ignorant vain foolish +maidens! if you did but know the way in which the Lovelaces speak of +you: if you could but hear Jack talking to Tom across the coffee-room +of a Club; or see Ned taking your poor little letters out of his +cigar-case, and handing them over to Charley, and Billy, and Harry +across the messroom table, you would not be so eager to write, or so +ready to listen! There's a sort of crime which is not complete unless +the lucky rogue boasts of it afterwards; and the man who betrays your +honour in the first place, is pretty sure, remember that, to betray your +secret too. + +"It's hard to fight, and it's easy to fall," said Warring gloomily. "And +as you say, Pendennis, when a danger like this is imminent, the best way +is to turn your back on it and run." + +After this little discourse upon a subject about which Pen would have +talked a great deal more eloquently a month back, the conversation +reverted to the plans for going abroad, and Arthur eagerly pressed his +friend to be of the party. Warrington was a part of the family--a part +of the cure. Arthur said he should not have half the pleasure without +Warrington. + +But George said no, he couldn't go. He must stop at home and take Pen's +place. The other remarked that that was needless, for Shandon was now +come back to London, and Arthur was entitled to a holiday. + +"Don't press me," Warrington said, "I can't go. I've particular +engagements. I'm best at home. I've not got the money to travel, that's +the long and short of it--for travelling costs money, you know." + +This little obstacle seemed fatal to Pen. He mentioned it to his mother: +Mrs. Pendennis was very sorry; Mr. Warrington had been exceedingly kind; +but she supposed he knew best about his affairs. And then, no doubt, she +reproached herself, for selfishness in wishing to carry the boy off and +have him to herself altogether. + +"What is this I hear from Pen, my dear Mr. Warrington?" the Major asked +one day, when the pair were alone and after Warrington's objection had +been stated to him. "Not go with us? We can't hear of such a thing--Pen +won't get well without you. I promise you, I'm not going to be his +nurse. He must have somebody with him that's stronger and gayer and +better able to amuse him than a rheumatic old fogy like me. I shall +go to Carlsbad very likely, when I've seen you people settle down. +Travelling costs nothing nowadays--or so little! And--and, pray, +Warrington, remember that I was your father's very old friend, and if +you and your brother are not on such terms as to--to enable you to--to +anticipate your younger brother's allowance, I beg you to make me your +banker, for hasn't Pen been getting into your debt these three weeks +past, during which you have been doing what he informs me is his work, +with such exemplary talent and genius, begad?" + +Still, in spite of this kind offer and unheard-of generosity on the part +of the Major, George Warrington refused, and said he would stay at home. +But it was with a faltering voice and an irresolute accent which showed +how much he would like to go, though his tongue persisted in saying nay. + +But the Major's persevering benevolence was not to be baulked in this +way. At the tea-table that evening, Helen happening to be absent from +the room for the moment, looking for Pen who had gone to roost, old +Pendennis returned to the charge and rated Warrington for refusing +to join in their excursion. "Isn't it ungallant, Miss Bell?" he said, +turning to that young lady. "Isn't it unfriendly? Here we have been the +happiest party in the world, and this odious selfish creature breaks it +up!" + +Miss Bell's long eyelashes looked down towards her teacup: and +Warrington blushed hugely but did not speak. Neither did Miss Bell +speak: but when he blushed she blushed too. + +"You ask him to come, my dear," said the benevolent old gentleman, "and +then perhaps he will listen to you----" + +"Why should Mr. Warrington listen to me?" asked the young lady, putting +the query to her teaspoon seemingly and not to the Major. + +"Ask him; you have not asked him," said Pen's artless uncle. + +"I should be very glad, indeed, if Mr. Warrington would come," remarked +Laura to the teaspoon. + +"Would you?" said George. + +She looked up and said, "Yes." Their eyes met. "I will go anywhere you +ask me, or do anything," said George, lowly, and forcing out the words +as if they gave him pain. + +Old Pendennis was delighted; the affectionate old creature clapped his +hands and cried "Bravo! bravo! It's a bargain--a bargain, begad! Shake +hands on it, young people!" And Laura, with a look full of tender +brightness, put out her hand to Warrington. He took hers; his face +indicated a strange agitation. He seemed to be about to speak, when from +Pen's neighbouring room Helen entered, looking at them as the candle +which she held lighted her pale frightened face. + +Laura blushed more red than ever and withdrew her hand. + +"What is it?" Helen asked. + +"It's a bargain we have been making, my dear creature," said the Major +in his most caressing voice. "We have just bound over Mr. Warrington in +a promise to come abroad with us." + +"Indeed!" Helen said. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. In which Fanny engages a new Medical Man + + +Could Helen have suspected that, with Pen's returning strength, his +unhappy partiality for little Fanny would also reawaken? Though she +never spoke a word regarding that young person, after her conversation +with the Major, and though, to all appearances, she utterly ignored +Fanny's existence, yet Mrs. Pendennis kept a particularly close watch +upon all Master Arthur's actions; on the plea of ill-health would +scarcely let him out of her sight; and was especially anxious that he +should be spared the trouble of all correspondence for the present at +least. Very likely Arthur looked at his own letters with some tremor; +very likely, as he received them at the family table, feeling his +mother's watch upon him (though the good soul's eye seemed fixed upon +her teacup or her book), he expected daily to see a little handwriting, +which he would have known, though he had never seen it yet, and his +heart beat as he received the letters to his address. Was he more +pleased or annoyed, that, day after day, his expectations were not +realised; and was his mind relieved, that there came no letter from +Fanny? Though, no doubt, in these matters, when Lovelace is tired of +Clarissa (or the contrary) it is best for both parties to break at once, +and each, after the failure of the attempt at union, to go his own way, +and pursue his course through life solitary; yet our self-love, or our +pity, or our sense of decency, does not like that sudden bankruptcy. +Before we announce to the world that our firm of Lovelace and Co. can't +meet its engagements, we try to make compromises: we have mournful +meetings of partners: we delay the putting up of the shutters, and the +dreary announcement of the failure. It must come: but we pawn our jewels +to keep things going a little longer. On the whole, I dare say, Pen was +rather annoyed that he had no remonstrances from Fanny. What! could she +part from him, and never so much as once look round? could she sink, and +never once hold a little hand out, or cry, "Help, Arthur?" Well, well: +they don't all go down who venture on that voyage. Some few drown when +the vessel founders; but most are only ducked, and scramble to shore. +And the reader's experience of A. Pendennis, Esquire, of the Upper +Temple, will enable him to state whether that gentleman belonged to the +class of persons who were likely to sink or to swim. + +Though Pen was as yet too weak to walk half a mile; and might not, on +account of his precious health, be trusted to take a drive in a carriage +by himself, and without a nurse in attendance; yet Helen could not keep +watch over Mr. Warrington too, and had no authority to prevent that +gentleman from going to London if business called him thither. Indeed, +if he had gone and stayed, perhaps the widow, from reasons of her own, +would have been glad; but she checked these selfish wishes as soon +as she ascertained or owned them; and, remembering Warrington's great +regard and services, and constant friendship for her boy, received him +as a member of her family almost, with her usual melancholy kindness +and submissive acquiescence. Yet somehow, one morning when his affairs +called him to town, she divined what Warrington's errand was, and that +he was gone to London to get news about Fanny for Pen. + +Indeed, Arthur had had some talk with his friend, and told him more +at large what his adventures had been with Fanny (adventures which the +reader knows already), and what were his feelings respecting her. He was +very thankful that he had escaped the great danger, to which Warrington +said Amen heartily: that he had no great fault wherewith to reproach +himself in regard of his behaviour to her, but that if they parted, as +they must, he would be glad to say a God bless her, and to hope that +she would remember him kindly. In his discourse with Warrington he +spoke upon these matters with so much gravity, and so much emotion, that +George, who had pronounced himself most strongly for the separation too, +began to fear that his friend was not so well cured as he boasted of +being; and that, if the two were to come together again, all the danger +and the temptation might have to be fought once more. And with what +result? "It is hard to struggle, Arthur, and it is easy to fall," +Warrington said: "and the best courage for us poor wretches is to fly +from danger. I would not have been what I am now, had I practised what I +preach. + +"And what did you practise, George?" Pen asked, eagerly. "I knew there +was something. Tell us about it, Warrington." + +"There was something that can't be mended, and that shattered my whole +fortunes early," Warrington answered. "I said I would tell you about it +some day, Pen: and will, but not now. Take the moral without the fable +now, Pen, my boy; and if you want to see a man whose whole life has been +wrecked, by an unlucky rock against which he struck as a boy--here he +is, Arthur: and so I warn you." + +We have shown how Mr. Huxter, in writing home to his Clavering friends, +mentioned that there was a fashionable club in London of which he was +an attendant, and that he was there in the habit of meeting an Irish +officer of distinction, who, amongst other news, had given that +intelligence regarding Pendennis, which the young surgeon had +transmitted to Clavering. This club was no other than the Back Kitchen, +where the disciple of Saint Bartholomew was accustomed to meet the +General, the peculiarities of whose brogue, appearance, disposition, and +general conversation, greatly diverted many young gentlemen who used +the Back Kitchen as a place of nightly entertainment and refreshment. +Huxter, who had a fine natural genius for mimicking everything, whether +it was a favourite tragic or comic actor, or a cock on a dunghill, a +corkscrew going into a bottle and a cork issuing thence, or an Irish +officer of genteel connexions who offered himself as an object of +imitation with only too much readiness, talked his talk, and twanged his +poor old long bow whenever drink, a hearer, and an opportunity occurred, +studied our friend the General with peculiar gusto, and drew the +honest fellow out many a night. A bait, consisting of sixpennyworth of +brandy-and-water, the worthy old man was sure to swallow: and under the +influence of this liquor, who was more happy than he to tell his stories +of his daughter's triumphs and his own, in love, war, drink, and polite +society? Thus Huxter was enabled to present to his friends many pictures +of Costigan: of Costigan fighting a jewel in the Phaynix--of Costigan +and his interview with the Juke of York--of Costigan at his sonunlaw's +teeble, surrounded by the nobilitee of his countree--of Costigan, +when crying drunk, at which time he was in the habit of confidentially +lamenting his daughter's ingratichewd, and stating that his grey hairs +were hastening to a praymachure greeve. And thus our friend was the +means of bringing a number of young fellows to the Back Kitchen, who +consumed the landlord's liquors whilst they relished the General's +peculiarities, so that mine host pardoned many of the latter's foibles, +in consideration of the good which they brought to his house. Not the +highest position in life was this--certainly, or one which, if we had a +reverence for an old man, we would be anxious that he should occupy: but +of this aged buffoon it may be mentioned that he had no particular idea +that his condition of life was not a high one, and that in his whiskied +blood there was not a black drop, nor in his muddled brains a bitter +feeling, against any mortal being. Even his child, his cruel Emily, he +would have taken to his heart and forgiven with tears; and what more can +one say of the Christian charity of a man than that he is actually ready +to forgive those who have done him every kindness, and with whom he is +wrong in a dispute! + +There was some idea amongst the young men who frequented the Back +Kitchen, and made themselves merry with the society of Captain Costigan, +that the Captain made a mystery regarding his lodgings for fear of duns, +or from a desire of privacy, and lived in some wonderful place. Nor +would the landlord of the premises, when questioned upon this subject, +answer any inquiries; his maxim being that he only knew gentlemen who +frequented that room, in that room; that when they quitted that room, +having paid their scores as gentlemen, and behaved as gentlemen, his +communication with them ceased; and that, as a gentleman himself, +he thought it was only impertinent curiosity to ask where any other +gentleman lived. Costigan, in his most intoxicated and confidential +moments, also evaded any replies to questions or hints addressed to him +on this subject: there was no particular secret about it, as we have +seen, who have had more than once the honour of entering his apartments, +but in the vicissitudes of a long life he had been pretty often in the +habit of residing in houses where privacy was necessary to his comfort, +and where the appearance of some visitors would have brought him +anything but pleasure. Hence all sorts of legends were formed by wags or +credulous persons respecting his place of abode. It was stated that he +slept habitually in a watch-box in the city: in a cab at a mews, where a +cab-proprietor gave him a shelter: in the Duke of York's Column etc, +the wildest of these theories being put abroad by the facetious and +imaginative Huxter. For Huxey, when not silenced by the company of +"swells," and when in the society of his own friends, was a very +different fellow to the youth whom we have seen cowed by Pen's +impertinent airs, and, adored by his family at home, was the life and +soul of the circle whom he met, either round the festive board or the +dissecting table. On one brilliant September morning, as Huxter was +regaling himself with a cup of coffee at a stall in Covent Garden, +having spent a delicious night dancing at Vauxhall, he spied the General +reeling down Henrietta Street, with a crowd of hooting blackguard boys +at his heels, who had left their beds under the arches of the river +betimes, and were prowling about already for breakfast, and the strange +livelihood of the day. The poor old General was not in that condition +when the sneers and jokes of these young beggars had much effect upon +him: the cabmen and watermen at the cabstand knew him and passed their +comments upon him: the policemen gazed after him and warned the boys off +him, with looks of scorn and pity; what did the scorn and pity of men, +the jokes of ribald children, matter to the General? He reeled along the +street with glazed eyes, having just sense enough to know whither he was +bound, and to pursue his accustomed beat homewards. He went to bed not +knowing how he had reached it, as often as any man in London. He woke +and found himself there, and asked no questions, and he was tacking +about on this daily though perilous voyage, when, from his station +at the coffee-stall, Huxter spied him. To note his friend, to pay his +twopence (indeed, he had but eightpence left, or he would have had a cab +from Vauxhall to take him home), was with the eager Huxter the work of +an instant--Costigan dived down the alleys by Drury Lane Theatre, +where gin-shops, oyster-shops, and theatrical wardrobes abound, the +proprietors of which were now asleep behind their shutters, as the +pink morning lighted up their chimneys; and through these courts Huxter +followed the General, until he reached Oldcastle Street, in which is the +gate of Shepherd's Inn. + +Here, just as he was within sight of home, a luckless slice of +orange-peel came between the General's heel and the pavement, and caused +the poor old fellow to fall backwards. + +Huxter ran up to him instantly, and after a pause, during which the +veteran, giddy with his fall and his previous whisky, gathered, as he +best might, his dizzy brains together, the young surgeon lifted up the +limping General, and very kindly and good-naturedly offered to conduct +him to his home. For some time, and in reply to the queries which the +student of medicine put to him, the muzzy General refused to say where +his lodgings were and declared that they were hard by, and that he could +reach them without difficulty; and he disengaged himself from Huxter's +arm, and made a rush as if to get to his own home unattended: but he +reeled and lurched so, that the young surgeon insisted upon accompanying +him, and, with many soothing expressions and cheering and consolatory +phrases, succeeded in getting the General's dirty old hand under what +he called his own fin, and led the old fellow, moaning piteously, across +the street. He stopped when he came to the ancient gate, ornamented with +the armorial bearings of the venerable Shepherd. "Here 'tis," said he, +drawing up at the portal, and he made a successful pull at the gate +bell, which presently brought out old Mr. Bolton, the porter, scowling +fiercely, and grumbling as he was used to do every morning when it +became his turn to let in that early bird. + +Costigan tried to hold Bolton for a moment in genteel conversation, but +the other surlily would not. "Don't bother me," said he; "go to your +hown bed Capting, and don't keep honest men out of theirs." So the +Captain tacked across the square and reached his own staircase, up which +he stumbled with the worthy Huxter at his heels. Costigan had a key of +his own, which Huxter inserted into the keyhole for him, so that there +was no need to call up little Mr. Bows from the sleep into which the old +musician had not long since fallen, and Huxter having aided to disrobe +his tipsy patient, and ascertained that no bones were broken, helped him +to bed and applied compresses an water to one of his knees and shins, +which, with the pair of trousers which encased them, Costigan had +severely torn in his fall. At the General's age, and with his habit of +body, such wounds as he had inflicted on himself are slow to heal: a +good deal of inflammation ensued, and the old fellow lay ill for some +days, suffering both pain and fever. + +Mr. Huxter undertook the case of his interesting patient with great +confidence and alacrity, and conducted it with becoming skill. He +visited his friend day after day, and consoled him with lively rattle +and conversation for the absence of the society which Costigan needed, +and of which he was an ornament; and he gave special instructions to the +invalid's nurse about the quantity of whisky which the patient was to +take--instructions which, as the poor old fellow could not for many days +get out of his bed or sofa himself, he could not by any means infringe. +Bows, Mrs. Bolton, and our little friend Fanny, when able to do so, +officiated at the General's bedside, and the old warrior was made as +comfortable as possible under his calamity. + +Thus Huxter, whose affable manners and social turn made him +quickly intimate with persons in whose society he fell, and whose +over-refinement did not lead them to repulse the familiarities of this +young gentleman, became pretty soon intimate in Shepherd's Inn, both +with our acquaintances in the garrets and those in the porter's lodge. +He thought he had seen Fanny somewhere: he felt certain that he had: but +it is no wonder that he should not accurately remember her, for the poor +little thing never chose to tell him where she had met him: he himself +had seen her at a period, when his own views both of persons and of +right and wrong were clouded by the excitement of drinking and dancing, +and also little Fanny was very much changed and worn by the fever and +agitation, and passion and despair, which the past three weeks had +poured upon the head of that little victim. Borne down was the head now, +and very pale and wan the face; and many and many a time the sad eyes +had looked into the postman's, as he came to the Inn, and the sickened +heart had sunk as he passed away. When Mr. Costigan's accident occurred, +Fanny was rather glad to have an opportunity of being useful and doing +something kind--something that would make her forget her own little +sorrows perhaps: she felt she bore them better whilst she did her duty, +though I dare say many a tear dropped into the old Irishman's gruel. Ah, +me! stir the gruel well, and have courage, little Fanny! If everybody +who has suffered from your complaint were to die of it straightway, what +a fine year the undertakers would have! + +Whether from compassion for his only patient, or delight in his society, +Mr. Huxter found now occasion to visit Costigan two or three times in +the day at least, and if any of the members of the porter's lodge family +were not in attendance on the General, the young doctor was sure to have +some particular directions to address to those at their own place of +habitation. He was a kind fellow; he made or purchased toys for the +children; he brought them apples and brandy-balls; he brought a mask and +frightened them with it, and caused a smile upon the face of pale Fanny. +He called Mrs. Bolton Mrs. B., and was very intimate, familiar, and +facetious with that lady, quite different from that "aughty, artless +beast," as Mrs. Bolton now denominated a certain young gentleman of our +acquaintance, and whom she now vowed she never could abear. + +It was from this lady, who was very free in her conversation, that +Huxter presently learnt what was the illness which was evidently preying +upon little Fan, and what had been Pen's behaviour regarding her. +Mrs. Bolton's account of the transaction was not, it may be imagined, +entirely an impartial narrative. One would have thought from her story +that the young gentleman had employed a course of the most persevering +and flagitious artifices to win the girl's heart, had broken the most +solemn promises made to her and was a wretch to be hated and chastised +by every champion of woman. Huxter, in his present frame of mind +respecting Arthur, and suffering under the latter's contumely, was +ready, of course, to take all for granted that was said in the disfavour +of this unfortunate convalescent. But why did he not write home to +Clavering, as he had done previously, giving an account of Pen's +misconduct, and of the particulars regarding it, which had now come to +his knowledge? He soon, in a letter to his brother-in-law, announced +that that nice young man, Mr. Pendennis, had escaped narrowly from a +fever, and that no doubt all Clavering, where he was so popular, would +be pleased at his recovery; and he mentioned that he had an interesting +case of compound fracture, an officer of distinction, which kept him +in town; but as for Fanny Bolton, he made no more mention of her in his +letters--no more than Pen himself had made mention of her. O you mothers +at home, how much do you think you know about your lads? How much do you +think you know? + +But with Bows, there was no reason why Huxter should not speak his mind, +and so, a very short time after his conversation with Mrs. Bolton, Mr. +Sam talked to the musician about his early acquaintance with Pendennis; +described him as a confounded conceited blackguard, and expressed a +determination to punch his impudent head as soon as ever he should be +well enough to stand up like a man. + +Then it was that Bows on his part spoke and told his version of the +story, whereof Arthur and little Fan were the hero and heroine; how they +had met by no contrivance of the former, but by a blunder of the +old Irishman, now in bed with a broken shin--how Pen had acted with +manliness and self-control in the business--how Mrs Bolton was an idiot; +and he related the conversation which he, Bows, had had with Pen, and +the sentiments uttered by the young man. Perhaps Bow's story caused some +twinges of conscience in the breast of Pen's accuser, and that gentleman +frankly owned that he had been wrong with regard to Arthur, and withdrew +his project for punching Mr. Pendennis's head. + +But the cessation of his hostility for Pen did not diminish Huxter's +attentions to Fanny, which unlucky Mr Bows marked with his usual +jealousy and bitterness of spirit, "I have but to like anybody" the old +fellow thought, "and somebody is sure to come and be preferred to me. It +has been the same ill-luck with me since I was a lad, until now that I +am sixty years old. What can such a man as I am expect better than to be +laughed at? It is for the young to succeed, and to be happy, and not for +old fools like me. I've played a second fiddle through life," he said, +with a bitter laugh; "how can I suppose the luck is to change after it +has gone against me so long?" This was the selfish way in which Bows +looked at the state of affairs: though few persons would have thought +there was any cause for his jealousy, who looked at the pale and +grief-stricken countenance of the hapless little girl, its object. +Fanny received Huxter's good-natured efforts at consolation and kind +attentions kindly. She laughed now and again at his jokes and games with +her little sisters, but relapsed quickly into a dejection which ought to +have satisfied Mr. Bows that the new-comer had no place in her heart as +yet, had jealous Mr. Bows been enabled to see with clear eyes. + +But Bows did not. Fanny attributed Pen's silence somehow to Bows's +interference. Fanny hated him. Fanny treated Bows with constant cruelty +and injustice. She turned from him when he spoke--she loathed his +attempts at consolation. A hard life had Mr. Bows, and a cruel return +for his regard. + +When Warrington came to Shepherd's Inn as Pen's ambassador, it was for +Mr. Bows's apartments he inquired (no doubt upon a previous agreement +with the principal for whom he acted in this delicate negotiation), and +he did not so much as catch a glimpse of Miss Fanny when he stopped at +the Inn-gate and made his inquiry. Warrington was, of course, directed +to the musician's chambers, and found him tending the patient there, +from whose chamber he came out to wait upon his guest. We have said that +they had been previously known to one another, and the pair shook hands +with sufficient cordiality. After a little preliminary talk, Warrington +said that he had come from his friend Arthur Pendennis, and from his +family, to thank Bows for his attention at the commencement of Pen's +illness, and for his kindness in hastening into the country to fetch the +Major. + +Bows replied that it was but his duty: he had never thought to have +seen the young gentleman alive again when he went in search of Pen's +relatives, and he was very glad of Mr. Pendennis's recovery, and that +he had his friends with him. "Lucky are they who have friends, Mr. +Warrington," said the musician. "I might be up in this garret and nobody +would care for me, or mind whether I was alive or dead." + +"What! not the General, Mr. Bows?" Warrington asked. + +"The General likes his whisky-bottle more than anything in life," the +other answered; "we live together from habit and convenience; and he +cares for me no more than you do. What is it you want to ask me, Mr. +Warrington? You ain't come to visit me, I know very well. Nobody comes +to visit me. It is about Fanny, the porter's daughter, you are come--I +see that--very well. Is Mr. Pendennis, now he has got well, anxious +to see her again? Does his lordship the Sultan propose to throw his +'andkerchief to her? She has been very ill, sir, ever since the day when +Mrs. Pendennis turned her out of doors--kind of a lady, wasn't it? +The poor girl and myself found the young gentleman raving in a fever, +knowing nobody, with nobody to tend him but his drunken laundress--she +watched day and night by him. I set off to fetch his uncle. Mamma comes +and turns Fanny to the right-about. Uncle comes and leaves me to pay the +cab. Carry my compliments to the ladies and gentleman, and say we are +both very thankful, very. Why, a countess couldn't have behaved better, +and for an apothecary's lady, as I'm given to understand Mrs. Pendennis +was--I'm sure her behaviour is most uncommon aristocratic and genteel. +She ought to have a double-gilt pestle and mortar to her coach." + +It was from Mr. Huxter that Bows had learned Pen's parentage, no doubt, +and if he took Pen's part against the young surgeon, and Fanny's against +Mr. Pendennis, it was because the old gentleman was in so savage a mood, +that his humour was to contradict everybody. + +Warrington was curious, and not ill pleased at the musician's taunts and +irascibility. "I never heard of these transactions," he said, "or got +but a very imperfect account of them from Major Pendennis. What was a +lady to do? I think (I have never spoken with her on the subject) she +had some notion that the young woman and my friend Pen were on--on +terms of--of an intimacy which Mrs. Pendennis could not, of course, +recognise----" + +"Oh, of course not, sir. Speak out, sir; say what you mean at once, +that the young gentleman of the Temple had made a victim of the girl of +Shepherd's Inn, eh? And so she was turned to be out of doors--or brayed +alive in the double-gilt pestle and mortar, by Jove! No, Mr. Warrington, +there was no such thing: there was no victimising, or if there was, +Mr. Arthur was the victim, not the girl. He is an honest fellow, he is, +though he is conceited, and a puppy sometimes. He can feel like a man, +and run away from temptation like a man. I own it, though I suffer by +it, I own it. He has a heart, he has: but the girl hasn't, sir. That +girl will do anything to win a man, and fling him away without a pang, +sir. If she's flung away herself, sir, she'll feel it and cry. She had a +fever when Mrs. Pendennis turned her out of doors; and she made love to +the Doctor, Doctor Goodenough, who came to cure her. Now she has taken +on with another chap--another sawbones, ha, ha! d---- it, sir, she likes +the pestle and mortar, and hangs round the pill-boxes, she's so fond +of 'em, and she has got a fellow from Saint Bartholomew's, who grins +through a horse-collar for her sisters, and charms away her melancholy. +Go and see, sir: very likely he's in the lodge now. If you want news +about Miss Fanny, you must ask at the Doctor's shop, sir, not of an old +fiddler like me--Good-bye, sir. There's my patient calling." + +And a voice was heard from the Captain's bedroom, a well-known voice, +which said, "I'd loike a dthrop of dthrink, Bows, I'm thirstee." And +not sorry, perhaps, to hear that such was the state of things, and that +Pen's forsaken was consoling herself, Warrington took his leave of the +irascible musician. + +As luck would have it, he passed the lodge door just as Mr. Huxter was +in the act of frightening the children with the mask whereof we have +spoken, and Fanny was smiling languidly at his farces. Warrington +laughed bitterly. "Are all women like that?" he thought. "I think +there's one that's not," he added, with a sigh. + +At Piccadilly, waiting for the Richmond omnibus, George fell in with +Major Pendennis, bound in the same direction, and he told the old +gentleman of what he had seen and heard respecting Fanny. + +Major Pendennis was highly delighted: and as might be expected of such +a philosopher, made precisely the same observation as that which had +escaped from Warrington. "All women are the same," he said. "La petite +se console. Daymy, when I used to read 'Telemaque' at school, Calypso ne +pouvait se consoler,--you know the rest, Warrington,--I used to say +it was absard. Absard, by Gad, and so it is. And so she's got a new +soupirant, has she, the little porteress? Dayvlish nice little girl. How +mad Pen will be--eh, Warrington? But we must break it to him gently, or +he'll be in such a rage that he will be going after her again. We must +menager the young fellow." + +"I think Mrs. Pendennis ought to know that Pen acted very well in the +business. She evidently thinks him guilty, and according to Mr. Bows, +Arthur behaved like a good fellow," Warrington said. + +"My dear Warrington," said the Major, with a look of some alarm, "in +Mrs. Pendennis's agitated state of health and that sort of thing, the +best way, I think, is not to say a single word about the subject--or, +stay, leave it to me: and I'll talk to her--break it to her gently, +you know, and that sort of thing. I give you my word I will. And so +Calypso's consoled, is she," And he sniggered over this gratifying +truth, happy in the corner of the omnibus during the rest of the +journey. + +Pen was very anxious to hear from his envoy what had been the result of +the latter's mission; and as soon as the two young men could be alone, +the ambassador spoke in reply to Arthur's eager queries. + +"You remember your poem, Pen, of Ariadne in Naxos," Warrington said; +"devilish bad poetry it was, to be sure." + +"Apres?" asked Pen, in a great state of excitement. + +"When Theseus left Ariadne, do you remember what happened to her, young +fellow?" + +"It's a lie, it's a lie! You don't mean that!" cried out Pen, starting +up, his face turning red. + +"Sit down, stoopid," Warrington said, and with two fingers pushed Pen +back into his seat again. "It's better for you as it is, young one," he +said sadly, in reply to the savage flush in Arthur's face. + + + + +CHAPTER LVII. Foreign Ground + + +Worthy Major Pendennis fulfilled his promise to Warrington so far as to +satisfy his own conscience, and in so far to ease poor Helen with regard +to her son, as to make her understand that all connexion between Arthur +and the odious little gatekeeper was at an end, and that she need +have no further anxiety with respect to an imprudent attachment or a +degrading marriage on Pen's part. And that young fellow's mind was also +relieved (after he had recovered the shock to his vanity) by thinking +that Miss Fanny was not going to die of love for him, and that no +unpleasant consequences were to be apprehended from the luckless and +brief connexion. + +So the whole party were free to carry into effect their projected +Continental trip, and Arthur Pendennis, rentier, voyageant avec Madame +Pendennis and Mademoiselle Bell, and George Warrington, particulier, age +de 32 ans, taille 6 pieds (Anglais), figure ordinaire, cheveux noirs, +barbe idem, etc., procured passports from the consul of H.M. the King of +the Belgians at Dover, and passed over from that port to Ostend, whence +the party took their way leisurely, visiting Bruges and Ghent on their +way to Brussels and the Rhine. It is not our purpose to describe this +oft-travelled tour, or Laura's delight at the tranquil and ancient +cities which she saw for the first time, or Helen's wonder and interest +at the Beguine convents which they visited, or the almost terror with +which she saw the black-veiled nuns with outstretched arms kneeling +before the illuminated altars, and beheld the strange pomps and +ceremonials of the Catholic worship. Barefooted friars in the streets; +crowned images of Saints and Virgins in the churches before which people +were bowing down and worshipping, in direct defiance, as she held, +of the written law; priests in gorgeous robes, or lurking in dark +confessionals; theatres opened, and people dancing on Sundays,--all +these new sights and manners shocked and bewildered the simple country +lady; and when the young men after their evening drive or walk returned +to the widow and her adopted daughter, they found their books of +devotion on the table, and at their entrance Laura would commonly cease +reading some of the psalms or the sacred pages which, of all others, +Helen loved. The late events connected with her son had cruelly shaken +her; Laura watched with intense, though hidden anxiety, every movement +of her dearest friend; and poor Pen was most constant and affectionate +in waiting upon his mother, whose wounded bosom yearned with love +towards him, though there was a secret between them, and an anguish or +rage almost on the mother's part, to think that she was dispossessed +somehow of her son's heart, or that there were recesses in it which she +must not or dared not enter. She sickened as she thought of the sacred +days of boyhood when it had not been so--when her Arthur's heart had +no secrets, and she was his all in all: when he poured his hopes and +pleasures, his childish griefs, vanities, triumphs into her willing +and tender embrace; when her home was his nest still; and before fate, +selfishness, nature, had driven him forth on wayward wings--to range his +own flight--to sing his own song--and to seek his own home and his own +mate. Watching this devouring care and racking disappointment in her +friend, Laura once said to Helen, "If Pen had loved me as you wished, +I should have gained him, but I should have lost you, mamma, I know I +should; and I like you to love me best. Men do not know what it is to +love as we do, I think,"--and Helen, sighing, agreed to this portion of +the young lady's speech, though she protested against the former part. +For my part I suppose Miss Laura was right in both statements, and +with regard to the latter assertion especially, that it is an old and +received truism--love is an hour with us: it is all night and all +day with a woman. Damon has taxes, sermon, parade, tailors' bills, +parliamentary duties, and the deuce knows what to think of; Delia has +to think about Damon--Damon is the oak (or the post) and stands up, and +Delia is the ivy or the honeysuckle whose arms twine about him. Is it +not so, Delia? Is it not your nature to creep about his feet and kiss +them, to twine round his trunk and hang there; and Damon's to stand like +a British man with his hands in his breeches pocket, while the pretty +fond parasite clings round him? + +Old Pendennis had only accompanied our friends to the water's edge, +and left them on board the boat, giving the chief charge of the little +expedition to Warrington. He himself was bound on a brief visit to the +house of a great man, a friend of his, after which sojourn he proposed +to join his sister-in-law at the German watering-place, whither the +party was bound. The Major himself thought that his long attentions to +his sick family had earned for him a little relaxation--and though the +best of the partridges were thinned off, the pheasants were still to +be shot at Stillbrook, where the noble owner still was; old Pendennis +betook himself to that hospitable mansion and disported there with +great comfort to himself. A royal Duke, some foreigners of note, some +illustrious statesmen, and some pleasant people visited it: it did the +old fellow's heart good to see his name in the Morning Post amongst +the list of the distinguished company which the Marquis of Steyne was +entertaining at his country-house at Stillbrook. He was a very useful +and pleasant personage in a country-house. He entertained the young +men with queer little anecdotes and grivoises stories on their +shooting-parties or in their smoking-room, where they laughed at him and +with him. He was obsequious with the ladies of a morning, in the +rooms dedicated to them. He walked the new arrivals about the park and +gardens, and showed them the carte du pays, and where there was the best +view of the mansion, and where the most favourable point to look at the +lake: he showed, where the timber was to be felled, and where the old +road went before the new bridge was built, and the hill cut down; and +where the place in the wood was where old Lord Lynx discovered Sir +Phelim O'Neal on his knees before her ladyship, etc. etc.; he called +the lodge-keepers and gardeners by their names; he knew the number of +domestics that sat down in the housekeeper's room, and how many dined +in the servants'-hall; he had a word for everybody, and about everybody, +and a little against everybody. He was invaluable in a country-house, in +a word: and richly merited and enjoyed his vacation after his labours. +And perhaps whilst he was thus deservedly enjoying himself with his +country friends, the Major was not ill pleased at transferring to +Warrington the command of the family expedition to the Continent, and +thus perforce keeping him in the service of the ladies,--a servitude +which George was only too willing to undergo, for his friend's sake, and +for that of a society which he found daily more delightful. Warrington +was a good German scholar, and was willing to give Miss Laura lessons in +the language, who was very glad to improve herself, though Pen, for his +part, was too weak or lazy now to resume his German studies. Warrington +acted as courier and interpreter; Warrington saw the baggage in and out +of ships, inns and carriages, managed the money matters, and put the +little troop into marching order. Warrington found out where the English +church was, and, if Mrs. Pendennis and Miss Laura were inclined to go +thither, walked with great decorum along with them. Warrington walked +by Mrs. Pendennis's donkey, when that lady went out on her evening +excursions; or took carriages for her; or got 'Galignani' for her; or +devised comfortable seats under the lime-trees for her, when the guests +paraded after dinner, and the Kursaal band at the bath, where our tired +friends stopped, performed their pleasant music under the trees. Many +a fine whiskered Prussian or French dandy, come to the bath for the +'Trente-et-quarante,' cast glances of longing towards the pretty +fresh-coloured English girl who accompanied the pale widow, and would +have longed to take a turn with her at the galop or the waltz. But +Laura did not appear in the ballroom, except once or twice, when Pen +vouchsafed to walk with her; and as for Warrington, that rough diamond +had not had the polish of a dancing-master, and he did not know how to +waltz,--though he would have liked to learn, if he could have had such a +partner as Laura.--Such a partner! psha, what had a stiff bachelor to do +with partners and waltzing? what was he about, dancing attendance here? +drinking in sweet pleasure at a risk he knows not of what after-sadness, +and regret, and lonely longing? But yet he stayed on. You would have +said he was the widow's son, to watch his constant care and watchfulness +of her; or that he was an adventurer, and wanted to marry her fortune, +or, at any rate, that he wanted some very great treasure or benefit +from her,--and very likely he did,--for ours, as the reader has possibly +already discovered, is a Selfish Story, and almost every person, +according to his nature, more or less generous than George, and +according to the way of the world as it seems to us, is occupied about +Number One. So Warrington selfishly devoted himself to Helen, who +selfishly devoted herself to Pen, who selfishly devoted himself to +himself at this present period, having no other personage or object +to occupy him, except, indeed, his mother's health, which gave him a +serious and real disquiet; but though they, sate together, they did not +talk much, and the cloud was always between them. + +Every day Laura looked for Warrington, and received him with more frank +and eager welcome. He found himself talking to her as he didn't +know himself that he could talk. He found himself performing acts of +gallantry which astounded him after the performance: he found himself +looking blankly in the glass at the crow's feet round his eyes, and at +some streaks of white in his hair, and some intrusive silver bristles in +his grim, blue beard. He found himself looking at the young bucks at the +bath--at the bland, tight-waisted Germans--at the capering Frenchmen, +with their lacquered mustachios and trim varnished boots--at the English +dandies, Pen amongst them, with their calm domineering air, and insolent +languor: and envied each one of these some excellence or quality of +youth, or good looks, which he possessed, and of which Warrington felt +the need. And every night, as the night came, he quitted the little +circle with greater reluctance; and, retiring to his own lodging in +their neighbourhood, felt himself the more lonely and unhappy. The widow +could not help seeing his attachment. She understood, now, why Major +Pendennis (always a tacit enemy of her darling project) had been so +eager that Warrington should be of their party. Laura frankly owned +her great, her enthusiastic, regard for him: and Arthur would make no +movement. Arthur did not choose to see what was going on; or did not +care to prevent, or actually encouraged, it. She remembered his often +having said that he could not understand how a man proposed to a woman +twice. She was in torture--at secret feud with her son, of all objects +in the world the dearest to her--in doubt, which she dared not express +to herself, about Laura--averse to Warrington, the good and generous. No +wonder that the healing waters of Rosenbad did not do her good, or that +Doctor von Glauber, the bath physician, when he came to visit her, found +that the poor lady made no progress to recovery. Meanwhile Pen got +well rapidly; slept with immense perseverance twelve hours out of the +twenty-four; ate huge meals; and, at the end of a couple of months, had +almost got back the bodily strength and weight which he had possessed +before his illness. + +After they had passed some fifteen days at their place of rest and +refreshment, a letter came from Major Pendennis announcing his speedy +arrival at Rosenbad, and, soon after the letter, the Major himself made +his appearance accompanied by Morgan his faithful valet, without whom +the old gentleman could not move. When the Major travelled he wore a +jaunty and juvenile travelling costume; to see his back still you +would have taken him for one of the young fellows whose slim waist and +youthful appearance Warrington was beginning to envy. It was not until +the worthy man began to move, that the observer remarked that Time had +weakened his ancient knees, and had unkindly interfered to impede +the action of the natty little varnished boots in which the gay old +traveller still pinched his toes. There were magnates both of our own +country and of foreign nations present that autumn at Rosenbad. The +elder Pendennis read over the strangers' list with great gratification +on the night of his arrival, was pleased to find several of his +acquaintances among the great folks, and would have the honour of +presenting his nephew to a German Grand Duchess, a Russian Princess, and +an English Marquis, before many days were over: nor was Pen by any means +averse to making the acquaintance of these great personages, having a +liking for polite life, and all the splendours and amenities belonging +to it. That very evening the resolute old gentleman, leaning on his +nephew's arm, made his appearance in the halls of the Kursaal, and lost +or won a napoleon or two at the table of 'Trente-et-quarante.' He did +not play to lose, he said, or to win, but he did as other folks did, +and betted his napoleon and took his luck as it came. He pointed out the +Russians and Spaniards gambling for heaps of gold, and denounced their +eagerness as something sordid and barbarous; an English gentleman should +play where the fashion is play, but should not elate or depress himself +at the sport; and he told how he had seen his friend the Marquis of +Steyne, when Lord Gaunt, lose eighteen thousand at a sitting, and break +the bank three nights running at Paris, without ever showing the least +emotion at his defeat or victory. "And that's what I call being an +English gentleman, Pen, my dear boy," the old gentleman said, warming as +he prattled about his recollections--"what I call the great manner +only remains with us and with a few families in France." And as Russian +Princesses passed him, whose reputation had long ceased to be doubtful, +and damaged English ladies, who are constantly seen in company of +their faithful attendant for the time being in these gay haunts of +dissipation, the old Major, with eager garrulity and mischievous relish, +told his nephew wonderful particulars regarding the lives of these +heroines; and diverted the young man with a thousand scandals. Egad, +he felt himself quite young again, he remarked to Pen, as, rouged +and grinning, her enormous chasseur behind her bearing her shawl, +the Princess Obstropski smiled and recognised and accosted him. He +remembered her in '14 when she was an actress of the Paris Boulevard, +and the Emperor Alexander's aide-de-camp Obstropski (a man of great +talents, who knew a good deal about the Emperor Paul's death, and was a +devil to play) married her. He most courteously and respectfully asked +leave to call upon the Princess, and to present to her his nephew, Mr. +Arthur Pendennis; and he pointed out to the latter a half-dozen of +other personages whose names were as famous, and whose histories were +as satisfying. What would poor Helen have thought, could she have heard +those tales, or known to what kind of people her brother-in-law was +presenting her son? Only once, leaning on Arthur's arm, she had passed +through the room where the green tables were prepared for play, and the +croaking croupiers were calling out their fatal words of Rouge gagne and +Couleur perd. She had shrunk terrified out of the pandemonium, imploring +Pen, extorting from him a promise, on his word of honour, that he would +never play at those tables; and the scene which so frightened the simple +widow, only amused the worldly old veteran, and made him young again! +He could breathe the air cheerfully which stifled her. Her right was not +his right: his food was her poison. Human creatures are constituted thus +differently, and with this variety the marvellous world is peopled. To +the credit of Mr. Pen, let it be said, that he kept honestly the promise +made to his mother, and stoutly told his uncle of his intention to abide +by it. + +When the Major arrived, his presence somehow cast a damp upon at least +three of the persons of our little party--upon Laura who had anything +but respect for him; upon Warrington, whose manner towards him showed +an involuntary haughtiness and contempt; and upon the timid and alarmed +widow, who dreaded lest he should interfere with her darling, though +almost desperate, projects for her boy. And, indeed, the Major, unknown +to himself, was the bearer of tidings which were to bring about a +catastrophe in the affairs of all our friends. + +Pen with his two ladies had apartments in the town of Rosenbad; honest +Warrington had lodgings hard by; the Major, on arrival at Rosenbad, had, +as befitted his dignity, taken his quarters at one of the great hotels, +at the Roman Emperor or the Four Seasons, where two or three hundred +gamblers, pleasure-seekers, or invalids, sate down and over-ate +themselves daily at the enormous table-d'hote. To this hotel Pen went on +the morning after the Major's arrival, dutifully to pay his respects +to his uncle, and found the latter's sitting-room duly prepared and +arranged by Mr. Morgan, with the Major's hats brushed, and his coats +laid out: his despatch-boxes and umbrella-cases, his guidebooks, +passports, maps, and other elaborate necessaries of the English +traveller, all as trim and ready as they could be in their master's own +room in Jermyn Street. Everything was ready, from the medicine-bottle +fresh filled from the pharmacien's, down to the old fellow's +prayer-book, without which he never travelled, for he made a point of +appearing at the English church at every place which he honoured with a +stay "Everybody did it," he said; "every English gentleman did it," +and this pious man would as soon have thought of not calling upon the +English ambassador in a Continental town, as of not showing himself at +the national place of worship. + +The old gentleman had been to take one of the baths for which Rosenbad +is famous, and which everybody takes, and his after-bath toilet was +not yet completed when Pen arrived. The elder called out to Arthur in +a cheery voice from the inner apartment, in which he and Morgan were +engaged, and the valet presently came in, bearing a little packet to +Pen's address--Mr. Arthur's letters and papers, Morgan said, which he +had brought from Mr. Arthur's chambers in London, and which consisted +chiefly of numbers of the Pall Mall Gazette, which our friend Mr. +Finucane thought his collaborateur would like to see. The papers were +tied together: the letters in an envelope, addressed to Pen, in the +last-named gentleman's handwriting. + +Amongst the letters there was a little note addressed, as a former +letter we have heard of had been, to "Arther Pendennis, Esquire," which +Arthur opened with a start and a blush, and read with a very keen pang +of interest, and sorrow, and regard. She had come to Arthur's house, +Fanny Bolton said--and found that he was gone--gone away to Germany +without ever leaving a word for her--or answer to her last letter, in +which she prayed but for one word of kindness--or the books which he had +promised her in happier times, before he was ill, and which she should +like to keep in remembrance of him. She said she would not reproach +those who had found her at his bedside when he was in the fever, and +knew nobody, and who had turned the poor girl away without a word. She +thought she should have died, she said, of that, but Doctor Goodenough +had kindly tended her, and kept her life, when, perhaps, the keeping +of it was of no good, and she forgave everybody and as for Arthur, she +would pray for him for ever. And when he was so ill, and they cut off +his hair, she had made so free as to keep one little lock for herself, +and that she owned. And might she still keep it, or would his mamma +order that that should be gave up too? She was willing to obey him in +all things, and couldn't but remember that once he was so kind, oh! so +good and kind! to his poor Fanny. + +When Major Pendennis, fresh and smirking from his toilet, came out of +his bedroom to his sitting-room, he found Arthur, with this note before +him, and an expression of savage anger on his face, which surprised +the elder gentleman. "What news from London, my boy?" he rather faintly +asked; "are the duns at you that you look so glum?" + +"Do you know anything about this letter, sir?" Arthur asked. + +"What letter, my good sir?" said the other dryly, at once perceiving +what had happened. + +"You know what I mean--about, about Miss--about Fanny Bolton--the poor +dear little girl," Arthur broke out. "When she was in my room? Was she +there when I was delirious--I fancied she was--was she? Who sent her out +of my chambers? who intercepted her letters to me? Who dared to do it? +Did you do it, uncle?" + +"It's not my practice to tamper with gentlemen's letters, or to answer +damned impertinent questions," Major Pendennis cried out, in a great +tremor of emotion and indignation. "There was a girl in your rooms when +I came up at great personal inconvenience, daymy--and to meet with a +return of this kind for my affection to you, is not pleasant, by Gad, +sir--not at all pleasant." + +"That's not the question, sir," Arthur said hotly--"and I beg your +pardon, uncle. You were, you always have been, most kind to me: but I +say again, did you say anything harsh to this poor girl? Did you send +her away from me?" + +"I never spoke a word to the girl," the uncle said, "and I never sent +her away from you, and know no more about her, and wish to know no more +about her, than about the man in the moon." + +"Then it's my mother that did it," Arthur broke out. "Did my mother send +that poor child away?" + +"I repeat I know nothing about it, sir," the elder said testily. "Let's +change the subject, if you please." + +"I'll never forgive the person who did it," said Arthur, bouncing up and +seizing his hat. + +The Major cried out, "Stop, Arthur, for God's sake, stop;" but before he +had uttered his sentence Arthur had rushed out of the room, and at the +next minute the Major saw him striding rapidly down the street that led +towards his home. + +"Get breakfast!" said the old fellow to Morgan, and he wagged his head +and sighed as he looked out of the window. "Poor Helen--poor soul! +There'll be a row. I knew there would: and begad all the fat's in the +fire." + +When Pen reached home he only found Warrington in the ladies' +drawing-room, waiting their arrival in order to conduct them to the room +where the little English colony at Rosenbad held their Sunday church. +Helen and Laura had not appeared as yet; the former was ailing, and her +daughter was with her. Pen's wrath was so great that he could not defer +expressing it. He flung Fanny's letter across the table to his friend. +"Look there, Warrington," he said; "she tended me in my illness, she +rescued me out of the jaws of death, and this is the way they have +treated the dear little creature. They have kept her letters from me; +they have treated me like a child, and her like a dog, poor thing! My +mother has done this." + +"If she has, you must remember it is your mother," Warrington +interposed. + +"It only makes the crime the greater, because it is she who has done +it," Pen answered. "She ought to have been the poor girl's defender, not +her enemy: she ought to go down on her knees and ask pardon of her. I +ought! I will! I am shocked at the cruelty which has been shown her. +What? She gave me her all, and this is her return! She sacrifices +everything for me, and they spurn her." + +"Hush!" said Warrington, "they can hear you from the next room." + +"Hear? let them hear!" Pen cried out, only so much the louder. "Those +may overhear my talk who intercept my letters. I say this poor girl has +been shamefully used, and I will do my best to right her; I will." + +The door of the neighbouring room opened, and Laura came forth with a +pale and stern face. She looked at Pen with glances from which beamed +pride, defiance, aversion. "Arthur, your mother is very ill," she said; +"it is a pity that you should speak so loud as to disturb her." + +"It is a pity that I should have been obliged to speak at all," Pen +answered. "And I have more to say before I have done." + +"I should think what you have to say will hardly be fit for me to hear," +Laura said, haughtily. + +"You are welcome to hear it or not, as you like," said Mr. Pen. "I shall +go in now and speak to my mother." + +Laura came rapidly forward, so that she should not be overheard by her +friend within. "Not now, sir," she said to Pen. "You may kill her if you +do. Your conduct has gone far enough to make her wretched." + +"What conduct?" cried out Pen, in a fury. "Who dares impugn it? +Who dares meddle with me? Is it you who are the instigator of this +persecution?" + +"I said before it was a subject of which it did not become me to hear +or to speak," Laura said. "But as for mamma, if she had acted otherwise +than she did with regard to--to the person about whom you seem to take +such an interest, it would have been I that must have quitted your +house, and not that--that person." + +"By heavens! this is too much," Pen cried out, with a violent +execration. + +"Perhaps that is what you wished," Laura said, tossing her head up. "No +more of this, if you please; I am not accustomed to hear such subjects +spoken of in such language," and with a stately curtsey the young +lady passed to her room, looking her adversary full in the face as she +retreated and closed the door upon him. + +Pen was bewildered with wonder, perplexity, fury, at this monstrous and +unreasonable persecution. He burst out into a loud and bitter laugh as +Laura quitted him, and with sneers and revilings, as a man who jeers +under an operation, ridiculed at once his own pain and his persecutor's +anger. The laugh, which was one of bitter humour, and no unmanly or +unkindly expression of suffering under most cruel and unmerited torture, +was heard in the next apartment, as some of his unlucky previous +expressions had been, and, like them, entirely misinterpreted by the +hearers. It struck like a dagger into the wounded and tender heart of +Helen; it pierced Laura, and inflamed the high-spirited girl with scorn +and anger. "And it was to this hardened libertine," she thought--"to +this boaster of low intrigues, that I had given my heart away." "He +breaks the most sacred laws," thought Helen. "He prefers the creature of +his passion to his own mother; and when he is upbraided, he laughs, and +glories in his crime. 'She gave me her all,' I heard him say it," +argued the poor widow, "and he boasts of it, and laughs, and breaks his +mother's heart." The emotion, the shame, the grief, the mortification +almost killed her. She felt she should die of his unkindness. + +Warrington thought of Laura's speech--"Perhaps that is what you wished." +"She loves Pen still," he said. "It was jealousy made her speak."--"Come +away, Pen. Come away, and let us go to church and get calm. You must +explain this matter to your mother. She does not appear to know the +truth: nor do you quite, my good fellow. Come away, and let us talk +about it." And again he muttered to himself, "'Perhaps that is what you +wished.' Yes, she loves him. Why shouldn't she love him? Whom else would +I have her love? What can she be to me but the dearest and the fairest +and the best of women?" + +So, leaving the women similarly engaged within, the two gentlemen walked +away, each occupied with his own thought, and silent for a considerable +space. "I must set this matter right," thought honest George "as she +loves him still--I must set his mind right about the other woman." And +with this charitable thought, the good fellow began to tell more at +large what Bows had said to him regarding Miss Bolton's behaviour and +fickleness, and he described how the girl was no better than a little +light-minded flirt; and, perhaps, he exaggerated the good-humour and +contentedness which he had himself, as he thought, witnessed in her +behaviour in the scene with Mr. Huxter. + +Now, all Bows's statements had been coloured by an insane jealousy and +rage on that old man's part; and instead of allaying Pen's renascent +desire to see his little conquest again, Warrington's accounts inflamed +and angered Pendennis, and made him more anxious than before to set +himself right, as he persisted in phrasing it, with Fanny. They arrived +at the church door presently; but scarce one word of the service, and +not a syllable of Mr. Shamble's sermon, did either of them comprehend, +probably--so much was each engaged with his own private speculations. +The Major came up to them after the service, with his well-brushed hat +and wig, and his jauntiest, most cheerful air. He complimented them upon +being seen at church; again he said that every comme-il faut person made +a point of attending the English service abroad; and he walked back with +the young men, prattling to them in garrulous good-humour, and making +bows to his acquaintances as they passed; and thinking innocently that +Pen and George were both highly delighted by his anecdotes, which they +suffered to run on in a scornful and silent acquiescence. + +At the time of Mr. Shamble's sermon (an erratic Anglican divine, hired +for the season at places of English resort, and addicted to debts, +drinking, and even to roulette, it was said), Pen, chafing under the +persecution which his womankind inflicted upon him, had been meditating +a great act of revolt and of justice, as he had worked himself up to +believe; and Warrington on his part had been thinking that a crisis +in his affairs had likewise come, and that it was necessary for him to +break away from a connexion which every day made more and more wretched +and dear to him. Yes, the time was come. He took those fatal words, +"Perhaps that is what you wished," as a text for a gloomy homily, which +he preached to himself, in the dark pew of his own heart, whilst Mr. +Shamble was feebly giving utterance to his sermon. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII. "Fairoaks to let" + + +Our poor widow (with the assistance of her faithful Martha of Fairoaks, +who laughed and wondered at the German ways, and superintend the affairs +of the simple household) had made a little feast in honour of Major +Pendennis's arrival, of which, however, only the Major and his two +younger friends partook, for Helen sent to say that she was too unwell +to dine at their table, and Laura bore her company. The Major talked for +the party, and did not perceive, or choose to perceive, what a gloom +and silence pervaded the other two sharers of the modest dinner. It was +evening before Helen and Laura came into the sitting-room to join the +company there. She came in leaning on Laura, with her back to the waning +light, so that Arthur could not see how pallid and woe-stricken her face +was, and as she went up to Pen, whom she had not seen during the day, +and placed her fond arms on his shoulders and kissed him tenderly, Laura +left her, and moved away to another part of the room. Pen remarked that +his mother's voice and her whole frame trembled, her hand was clammy +cold as she put it up to his forehead, piteously embracing him. The +spectacle of her misery only added, somehow, to the wrath and testiness +of the young man. He scarcely returned the kiss which the suffering lady +gave him: and the countenance with which he met the appeal of her look +was hard and cruel. "She persecutes me," he thought within himself, +"and she comes to me with the air of a martyr!" "You look very ill, my +child," she said. "I don't like to see you look in that way." And she +tottered to a sofa, still holding one of his passive hands in her thin +cold clinging fingers. + +"I have had much to annoy me, mother," Pen said, with a throbbing +breast: and as he spoke Helen's heart began to beat so, that she sate +almost dead and speechless with terror. + +Warrington, Laura, and Major Pendennis, all remained breathless, aware +that the storm was about to break. + +"I have had letters from London," Arthur continued, "and one that has +given me more pain than I ever had in my life. It tells me that +former letters of mine have been intercepted and purloined away from +me;--that--that a young creature who has shown the greatest love and +care for me, has been most cruelly used by--by you, mother." + +"For God's sake stop," cried out Warrington. "She's ill--don't you see +she is ill?" + +"Let him go on," said the widow, faintly. + +"Let him go on and kill her," said Laura, rushing up to her mother's +side. "Speak on, sir, and see her die." + +"It is you who are cruel," cried Pen, more exasperated and more savage, +because his own heart, naturally soft and weak, revolted indignantly at +the injustice of the very suffering which was laid at his door. "It is +you that are cruel, who attribute all this pain to me: it is you who are +cruel with your wicked reproaches, your wicked doubts of me, your wicked +persecutions of those who love me,--yes, those who love me, and who +brave everything for me, and whom you despise and trample upon because +they are of lower degree than you. Shall I tell you what I will +do,--what I am resolved to do, now that I know what your conduct has +been?--I will go back to this poor girl whom you turned out of my doors, +and ask her to come back and share my home with me. I'll defy the pride +which persecutes her, and the pitiless suspicion which insults her and +me." + +"Do you mean, Pen, that you----" here the widow, with eager eyes and +outstretched hands, was breaking out, but Laura stopped her: "Silence, +hush, dear mother," she cried, and the widow hushed. Savagely as Pen +spoke, she was only too eager to hear what more he had to say. "Go on, +Arthur, go on, Arthur," was all she said, almost swooning away as she +spoke. + +"By Gad, I say he shan't go on, or I won't hear him, by Gad," the Major +said, trembling too in his wrath. "If you choose, sir, after all we've +done for you, after all I've done for you myself, to insult your +mother and disgrace your name, by allying yourself with a low-born +kitchen-girl, go and do it, by Gad,--but let us, ma'am, have no more to +do with him. I wash my hands of you, sir,--I wash my hands of you. I'm +an old fellow,--I ain't long for this world. I come of as ancient and +honourable a family as any in England, by Gad, and I did hope, before I +went off the hooks, by Gad, that the fellow that I'd liked, and brought +up, and nursed through life, by Jove, would do something to show me that +our name--yes, the name of Pendennis, by Gad, was left undishonoured +behind us, but if he won't, dammy, I say, amen. By G--, both my father +and my brother Jack were the proudest men in England, and I never +would have thought that there would come this disgrace to my +name,--never--and--and I'm ashamed that it's Arthur Pendennis." The old +fellow's voice here broke off into a sob: it was the second time that +Arthur had brought tears from those wrinkled lids. + +The sound of his breaking voice stayed Pen's anger instantly, and he +stopped pacing the room, as he had been doing until that moment. Laura +was by Helen's sofa; and Warrington had remained hitherto an almost +silent, but not uninterested spectator of the family storm. As the +parties were talking, it had grown almost dark; and after the lull which +succeeded the passionate outbreak of the Major, George's deep voice, as +it here broke trembling into the twilight room, was heard with no small +emotion by all. + +"Will you let me tell you something about myself, my kind friends?" he +said,--"you have been so good to me, ma'am, you have been so kind to me, +Laura--I hope I may call you so sometimes--my dear Pen and I have been +such friends that I have long wanted to tell you my story such as it +is, and would have told it to you earlier but that it is a sad one and +contains another's secret. However, it may do good for Arthur to know +it--it is right that every one here should. It will divert you from thinking +about a subject, which, out of a fatal misconception, has caused a great +deal of pain to all of you. May I please tell you, Mrs. Pendennis?" + +"Pray speak," was all Helen said; and indeed she was not much heeding; +her mind was full of another idea with which Pen's words had supplied +her, and she was in a terror of hope that what he had hinted might be as +she wished. + +George filled himself a bumper of wine and emptied it, and began to +speak. "You all of you know how you see me," he said, "a man without a +desire to make an advance in the world: careless about reputation; and +living in a garret and from hand to mouth, though I have friends and a +name, and I daresay capabilities of my own, that would serve me if I had +a mind. But mind I have none. I shall die in that garret most likely, +and alone. I nailed myself to that doom in early life. Shall I tell +you what it was that interested me about Arthur years ago, and made me +inclined towards him when first I saw him? The men from our college at +Oxbridge brought up accounts of that early affair with the Chatteris +actress, about whom Pen has talked to me since; and who, but for the +Major's generalship, might have been your daughter-in-law, ma'am. I +can't see Pen in the dark, but he blushes, I'm sure; and I dare say Miss +Bell does; and my friend Major Pendennis, I dare say, laughs as he ought +to do--for he won. What would have been Arthur's lot now had he been +tied at nineteen to an illiterate woman older than himself, with no +qualities in common between them to make one a companion for the other, +no equality, no confidence, and no love speedily? What could he have +been but most miserable? And when he spoke just now and threatened a +similar union, be sure it was but a threat occasioned by anger, which +you must give me leave to say, ma'am, was very natural on his part, +for after a generous and manly conduct--let me say who know the +circumstances well--most generous and manly and self-denying (which is +rare with him),--he has met from some friends of his with a most unkind +suspicion, and has had to complain of the unfair treatment of another +innocent person, towards whom he and you all are under much obligation." + +The widow was going to get up here, and Warrington, seeing her attempt +to rise, said, "Do I tire you, ma'am?" + +"Oh no--go on--go on," said Helen, delighted, and he continued. + +"I liked him, you see, because of that early history of his, which had +come to my ears in college gossip, and because I like a man, if you will +pardon me for saying so, Miss Laura, who shows that he can have a great +unreasonable attachment for a woman. That was why we became friends--and +are all friends here--for always, aren't we?" he added, in a lower +voice, leaning over to her, "and Pen has been a great comfort and +companion to a lonely and unfortunate man. + +"I am not complaining of my lot, you see; for no man's is what he would +have it; and up in my garret, where you left the flowers, and with +my old books and my pipe for a wife, I am pretty contented, and only +occasionally envy other men, whose careers in life are more brilliant, +or who can solace their ill fortune by what Fate and my own fault has +deprived me of--the affection of a woman or a child." Here there came a +sigh from somewhere near Warrington in the dark, and a hand was held +out in his direction, which, however, was instantly, withdrawn, for the +prudery of our females is such, that before all expression of feeling, +or natural kindness and regard, a woman is 'taught to think of herself +and the proprieties, and to be ready to blush at the very slightest +notice;' and checking, as, of course, it ought, this spontaneous motion, +modesty drew up again, kindly friendship shrank back ashamed of itself, +and Warrington resumed his history. "My fate is such as I made it, and +not lucky for me or for others involved in it. + +"I, too, had an adventure before I went to college; and there was no +one to save me as Major Pendennis saved Pen. Pardon me, Miss Laura, if +I tell this story before you. It is as well that you all of you should +hear my confession. Before I went to college, as a boy of eighteen, I +was at a private tutor's, and there, like Arthur, I became attached, or +fancied I was attached, to a woman of a much lower degree and a greater +age than my own. You shrink from me----" + +"No, I don't," Laura said, and here the hand went out resolutely, +and laid itself in Warrington's. She had divined his story from some +previous hints let fall by him, and his first words at its commencement. + +"She was a yeoman's daughter in the neighbourhood," Warrington said, +with rather a faltering voice, "and I fancied--what all young men fancy. +Her parents knew who my father was, and encouraged me, with all sorts of +coarse artifices and scoundrel flatteries, which I see now, about their +house. To do her justice, I own she never cared for me, but was forced +into what happened by the threats and compulsion of her family. Would to +God that I had not been deceived: but in these matters we are deceived +because we wish to be so, and I thought I loved that poor woman. + +"What could come of such a marriage? I found, before long, that I was +married to a boor. She could not comprehend one subject that interested +me. Her dulness palled upon me till I grew to loathe it. And after some +time of a wretched, furtive union--I must tell you all--I found letters +somewhere (and such letters they were!) which showed me that her heart, +such as it was, had never been mine, but had always belonged to a person +of her own degree. + +"At my father's death, I paid what debts I had contracted at college, +and settled every shilling which remained to me in an annuity upon--upon +those who bore my name, on condition that they should hide themselves +away, and not assume it. They have kept that condition, as they would +break it, for more money. If I had earned fame or reputation, that woman +would have come to claim it: if I had made a name for myself those who +no right to it would have borne it; and I entered life at twenty, God +help me--hopeless and ruined beyond remission. I was the boyish victim +of vulgar cheats, and, perhaps, it is only of late I have found out how +hard--ah, how hard--it is to forgive them. I told you the moral before, +Pen; and now I have told you the fable. Beware how you marry out of +your degree. I was made for a better lot than this, I think: but God has +awarded me this one--and so, you see, it is for me to look on, and see +others successful and others happy, with a heart that shall be as little +bitter as possible." + +"By Gad, sir," cried the Major, in high good-humour, "I intended you to +marry Miss Laura here." + +"And, by Gad, Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound," Warrington +said. + +"How d'ye mean a thousand? it was only a pony, sir," replied the Major +simply, at which the other laughed. + +As for Helen, she was so delighted, that she started up, and said, "God +bless you--God for ever bless you, Mr. Warrington;" and kissed both his +hands, and ran up to Pen, and fell into his arms. + +"Yes, dearest mother," he said as he held her to him, and with a noble +tenderness and emotion, embraced and forgave her. "I am innocent, and my +dear, dear mother has done me a wrong." + +"Oh yes, my child, I have wronged you, thank God, I have wronged you!" +Helen whispered. "Come away, Arthur--not here--I want to ask my child to +forgive me--and--and my God, to forgive me; and to bless you, and love +you, my son." + +He led her, tottering, into her room, and closed the door, as the three +touched spectators of the reconciliation looked on in pleased silence. +Ever after, ever after, the tender accents of that voice faltering +sweetly at his ear--the look of the sacred eyes beaming with +an affection unutterable--the quiver of the fond lips smiling +mournfully--were remembered by the young man. And at his best moments, +and at his hours of trial and grief, and at his times of success or +well-doing, the mother's face looked down upon him, and blessed him with +its gaze of pity and purity, as he saw it in that night when she yet +lingered with him; and when she seemed, ere she quite left him, an +angel, transfigured and glorified with love--for which love, as for the +greatest of the bounties and wonders of God's provision for us, let us +kneel and thank Our Father. + +The moon had risen by this time; Arthur recollected well afterwards how +it lighted up his mother's sweet pale face. Their talk, or his rather, +for she scarcely could speak, was more tender and confidential than +it had been for years before. He was the frank and generous boy of her +early days and love. He told her the story, the mistake regarding which +had caused her so much pain--his struggles to fly from temptation, and +his thankfulness that he had been able to overcome it. He never would +do the girl wrong, never; or wound his own honour or his mother's +pure heart. The threat that he would return was uttered in a moment of +exasperation, of which he repented. He never would see her again. But +his mother said yes he should; and it was she who had been proud and +culpable--and she would like to give Fanny Bolton something--and she +begged her dear boy's pardon for opening the letter--and she would write +to the young girl, if,--if she had time. Poor thing! was it not natural +that she should love her Arthur? And again she kissed him, and she +blessed him. + +As they were talking the clock struck nine, and Helen reminded him how, +when he was a little boy, she used to go up to his bedroom at that hour, +and hear him say Our Father. And once more, oh, once more, the young man +fell down at his mother's sacred knees, and sobbed out the prayer which +the Divine Tenderness uttered for us, and which has been echoed by +twenty ages since by millions of sinful and humbled men. And as he spoke +the last words of the supplication, the mother's head fell down on her +boy's, and her arms closed round him, and together they repeated the +words "for ever and ever" and "Amen." + +A little time after, it might have been a quarter of an hour, Laura +heard Arthur's voice call from within, "Laura! Laura!" She rushed into +the room instantly and found the young man still on his knees, and +holding his mother's hand. Helen's head had sunk back and was quite +pale in the room. Pen looked round, scared with a ghastly terror. "Help, +Laura, help!" he said, "she's fainted--she's----" + +Laura screamed, and fell by the side of Helen. The shriek brought +Warrington and Major Pendennis and the servants to the room. The +sainted woman was dead. The last emotion of her soul here was joy to be +henceforth unchequered and eternal. The tender heart beat no more; it +was to have no more pangs, no more doubts, no more griefs and trials. +Its last throb was love; and Helen's last breath was a benediction. + +The melancholy party bent their way speedily homewards, and Helen was +laid by her husband's side at Clavering, in the old church where she had +prayed so often. For a while Laura went to stay with Dr. Portman, who +read the service over his dear departed sister, amidst his own sobs and +those of the little congregation which assembled round Helen's tomb. +There were not many who cared for her, or who spoke of her when gone. +Scarcely more than of a nun in a cloister did people know of that pious +and gentle lady. A few words among the cottagers whom her bounty was +accustomed to relieve, a little talk from house to house at Clavering, +where this lady told how their neighbour died of a complaint in the +heart; whilst that speculated upon the amount of a property which the +widow had left; and a third wondered whether Arthur would let Fairoaks +or live in it, and expected that he would not be long getting through +his property,--this was all, and except with one or two who cherished +her, the kind soul was forgotten by the next market-day. Would you +desire that grief for you should last for a few more weeks? and does +after-life seem less solitary, provided that our names, when we "go down +into silence," are echoing on this side of the grave yet for a little +while, and human voices are still talking about us? She was gone, the +pure soul, whom only two or three loved and knew. The great blank she +left was in Laura's heart, to whom her love had been everything, and +who had now but to worship her memory. "I am glad that she gave me +her blessing before she went away," Warrington said to Pen; and as for +Arthur, with a humble acknowledgment and wonder at so much affection, he +hardly dared to ask of Heaven to make him worthy of it, though he felt +that a saint there was interceding for him. + +All the lady's affairs were found in perfect order, and her little +property ready for transmission to her son, in trust for whom she +held it. Papers in her desk showed that she had long been aware of the +complaint, one of the heart, under which she laboured, and knew that it +would suddenly remove her: and a prayer was found in her handwriting, +asking that her end might be, as it was, in the arms of her son. + +Laura and Arthur talked over her sayings, all of which the former most +fondly remembered, to the young man's shame somewhat, who thought how +much greater her love had been for Helen than his own. He referred +himself entirely to Laura to know what Helen would have wished should be +done; what poor persons she would have liked to relieve; what legacies +or remembrances she would have wished to transmit. They packed up the +vase which Helen in her gratitude had destined to Dr. Goodenough, and +duly sent it to the kind Doctor; a silver coffee-pot, which she used, +was sent off to Portman: a diamond ring, with her hair, was given with +affectionate greeting to Warrington. + +It must have been a hard day for poor Laura when she went over to +Fairoaks first and to the little room which she had occupied, and which +was hers no more, and to the widow's own blank chamber in which those +two had passed so many beloved hours. There, of course, were the clothes +in the wardrobe, the cushion on which she prayed, the chair at the +toilette: the glass that was no more to reflect her dear sad face. After +she had been here a while Pen knocked and led her downstairs to the +parlour again, and made her drink a little wine, and said, "God bless +you," as she touched the glass. "Nothing shall ever be changed in your +room," he said--"it is always your room--it is always my sister's room. +Shall it not be so, Laura?" and Laura said, "Yes!" + +Among the widow's papers was found a packet, marked by the widow, +"Letters from Laura's father," and which Arthur gave to her. They were +the letters which had passed between the cousins in the early days +before the marriage of either of them. The ink was faded in which they +were written: the tears dried out that both perhaps had shed over them: +the grief healed now whose bitterness they chronicled: the friends +doubtless united whose parting on earth had caused to both pangs so +cruel. And Laura learned fully now for the first time what the tie was +which had bound her so tenderly to Helen: how faithfully her more than +mother had cherished her father's memory, how truly she had loved him, +how meekly resigned him. + +One legacy of his mother's Pen remembered, of which Laura could have no +cognisance. It was that wish of Helen's to make some present to Fanny +Bolton; and Pen wrote to her, putting his letter under an envelope to +Mr. Bows, and requesting that gentleman to read it before he delivered +it to Fanny. "Dear Fanny," Pen said, "I have to acknowledge two letters +from you, one of which was delayed in my illness" (Pen found the first +letter in his mother's desk after her decease and the reading it gave +him a strange pang), "and to thank you, my kind nurse and friend, who +watched me so tenderly during my fever. And I have to tell you that the +last words of my dear mother who is no more, were words of goodwill and +gratitude to you for nursing me: and she said she would have written to +you, had she had time--that she would like to ask your pardon if she had +harshly treated you--and that she would beg you to show your forgiveness +by accepting some token of friendship and regard from her." Pen +concluded by saying that his friend, George Warrington, Esq., of Lamb +Court, Temple, was trustee of a little sum of money, of which the +interest would be paid to her until she became of age, or changed her +name, which would always be affectionately remembered by her grateful +friend, A. Pendennis. The sum was in truth but small, although enough to +make a little heiress of Fanny Bolton, whose parents were appeased, and +whose father said Mr. P. had acted quite as the gentleman--though Bows +growled out that that to plaster a wounded heart with a banknote was an +easy kind of sympathy; and poor Fanny felt only too clearly that Pen's +letter was one of farewell. + +"Sending hundred-pound notes to porters' daughters is all dev'lish +well," old Major Pendennis said to his nephew (whom, as the proprietor +of Fairoaks and the head of the family, he now treated with marked +deference and civility), "and as there was a little ready money at the +bank, and your poor mother wished it, there's perhaps no harm done. But, +my good lad, I'd have you to remember that you've not above five hundred +a year, though, thanks to me the world gives you credit for being a +doosid deal better off; and, on my knees, I beg you, my boy, don't break +into your capital: Stick to it, sir; don't speculate with it, sir; keep +your land, and don't borrow on it. Tatham tells me that the Chatteris +branch of the railway may--will almost certainly pass through Chatteris, +and of it can be brought on this side of the Brawl, sir, and through +your fields, they'll be worth a dev'lish deal of money, and your five +hundred a year will jump up to eight or nine. Whatever it is, keep it, +I implore you keep it. And I say, Pen, I think you should give up living +in those dirty chambers in the Temple and let a decent lodging. And I +should have a man, sir, to wait upon me; and a horse or two in town in +the season. All this will pretty well swallow up your income, and I know +you must live close. But remember you have a certain place in society, +and you can't afford to cut a poor figure in the world. What are you +going to do in the winter? You don't intend to stay down here, or, I +suppose, to go on writing for that--what-d'ye-call-'em--that newspaper?" + +"Warrington and I are going abroad again, sir, for a little, and then we +shall see what is to be done," Arthur replied. + +"And you'll let Fairoaks, of course? Good school in the neighbourhood; +cheap country: dev'lish nice place for East India Colonels, or families +wanting to retire. I'll speak about it at the club; there are lots of +fellows at the club want a place of that sort." + +"I hope Laura will live in it for the winter, at least, and will make +it her home," Arthur replied: at which the Major pish'd and psha'd, and +said that there ought to be convents, begad, for English ladies, +and wished that Miss Bell had not been there to interfere with the +arrangements of the family, and that she would mope herself to death +alone in that place. + +Indeed, it would have been a very dismal abode for poor Laura, who was +not too happy either in Dr. Portman's household, and in the town where +too many things reminded her of the dear parent whom she had lost. But +old Lady Rockminster, who adored her young friend Laura, as soon as +she read in the paper of her loss, and of her presence in the country, +rushed over from Baymouth, where the old lady was staying, and insisted +that Laura should remain six months, twelve months, all her life with +her; and to her ladyship's house, Martha from Fairoaks, as femme de +chambre, accompanied her young mistress. + +Pen and Warrington saw her depart. It was difficult to say which of the +young men seemed to regard her the most tenderly. "Your cousin is pert +and rather vulgar, my dear, but he seems to have a good heart," little +Lady Rockminster said, who said her say about everybody--"but I like +Bluebeard best. Tell me, is he touche au coeur?" + +"Mr. Warrington has been long--engaged," Laura said, dropping her eyes. + +"Nonsense, child! And good heavens, my dear! that's a pretty diamond +cross. What do you mean by wearing it in the morning?" + +"Arthur--my brother, gave it me just now. It was--it was----" + +She could not finish the sentence. The carriage passed over the bridge, +and by the dear, dear gate of Fairoaks--home no more. + + + + +CHAPTER LIX. Old Friends + + +It chanced at that great English festival, at which all London takes a +holiday upon Epsom Downs, that a great number of the personages to whom +we have been introduced in the course of this history, were assembled to +see the Derby. In a comfortable open carriage, which had been brought +to the ground by a pair of horses, might be seen Mrs. Bungay, of +Paternoster Row, attired like Solomon in all his glory, and having by +her side modest Mrs. Shandon, for whom, since the commencement of +their acquaintance, the worthy publisher's lady had maintained a steady +friendship. Bungay, having recreated himself with a copious luncheon, +was madly shying at the sticks hard by, till the perspiration ran off +his bald pate. Shandon was shambling about among the drinking tenants +and gipsies: Finucane constant in attendance on the two ladies, to +whom gentlemen of their acquaintance, and connected with the publishing +house, came up to pay a visit. + +Among others, Mr. Archer came up to make her his bow, and told Mrs. +Bungay who was on the course. Yonder was the Prime Minister: his +lordship had just told him to back Borax for the race; but Archer +thought Munmeer the better horse. He pointed out countless dukes and +grandees to the delighted Mrs. Bungay. "Look yonder in the Grand Stand," +he said. "There sits the Chinese Ambassador with the Mandarins of his +suite, Fou-choo-foo brought me over letters of introduction from the +Governor-General of India, my most intimate friend, and I was for some +time very kind to him, and he had his chopsticks laid for him at my +table whenever he chose to come and dine. But he brought his own cook +with him, and--would you believe it, Mrs. Bungay?--one day, when I +was out, and the Ambassador was with Mrs. Archer in our garden eating +gooseberries, of which the Chinese are passionately fond, the beast of +a cook, seeing my wife's dear little Blenheim spaniel (that we had from +the Duke of Marlborough himself, whose ancestor's life Mrs. Archer's +great-great-grandfather saved at the battle of Malplaquet), seized upon +the poor little devil, cut his throat, and skinned him, and served him +up stuffed with forced-meat in the second course." + +"Law!" said Mrs. Bungay. + +"You may fancy my wife's agony when she knew what had happened! The cook +came screaming upstairs, and told us that she had found poor Fido's skin +in the area, just after we had all of us tasted of the dish! She never +would speak to the Ambassador again--never; and, upon my word, he has +never been to dine with us since. The Lord Mayor, who did me the honour +to dine, liked the dish very much; and, eaten with green peas, it tastes +rather like duck." + +"You don't say so, now!" cried the astonished publisher's lady. + +"Fact, upon my word. Look at that lady in blue, seated by the +Ambassador: that is Lady Flamingo, and they say she is going to be +married to him, and return to Pekin with his Excellency. She is getting +her feet squeezed down on purpose. But she'll only cripple herself, and +will never be able to do it--never. My wife has the smallest foot in +England, and wears shoes for a six-years-old child; but what is that to +a Chinese lady's foot, Mrs. Bungay?" + +"Who is that carriage as Mr. Pendennis is with, Mr. Archer?" Mrs. Bungay +presently asked. "He and Mr. Warrington was here jest now. He's 'aughty +in his manners, that Mr. Pendennis, and well he may be, for I'm told he +keeps tip-top company. 'As he 'ad a large fortune left him, Mr. Archer? +He's in black still, I see." + +"Eighteen hundred a year in land, and twenty-two thousand five hundred +in the Three-and-a-half per Cents; that's about it," said Mr. Archer. + +"Law! why, you know everything, Mr. A.!" cried the lady of Paternoster +Row. + +"I happen to know, because I was called in about poor Mrs. Pendennis's +will," Mr. Archer replied. "Pendennis's uncle, the Major, seldom does +anything without me; and as he is likely to be extravagant we've tied +up the property, so that he can't make ducks and drakes with it.--How do +you do, my lord?--Do you know that gentleman, ladies? You have read his +speeches in the House; it is Lord Rochester." + +"Lord Fiddlestick," cried out Finucane, from the box. "Sure it's Tom +Staples, of the Morning Advertiser, Archer." + +"Is it?" Archer said, simply. "Well I'm very short-sighted, and upon +my word I thought it was Rochester. That gentleman with the double +opera-glass (another nod) is Lord John; and the tall man with him, don't +you know him? is Sir James." + +"You know 'em because you see 'em in the House," growled Finucane. + +"I know them because they are kind enough to allow me to call them +my most intimate friends," Archer continued. "Look at the Duke of +Hampshire; what a pattern of a fine old English gentleman! He never +misses 'the Derby.' 'Archer,' he said to me only yesterday, 'I have been +at sixty-five Derbies! appeared on the field for the first time on a +piebald pony when I was seven years old, with my father, the Prince of +Wales, and Colonel Hanger; and only missing two races--one when I had +the measles at Eton, and one in the Waterloo year, when I was with my +friend Wellington in Flanders." + +"And who is that yellow carriage, with the pink and yellow parasols, +that Mr. Pendennis is talking to, and ever so many gentlemen?" asked +Mrs. Bungay. + +"That is Lady Clavering, of Clavering Park, next estate to my friend +Pendennis. That is the young son and heir upon the box; he's awfully +tipsy, the little scamp! and the young lady is Miss Amory, Lady +Clavering's daughter by a first marriage, and uncommonly sweet upon +my friend Pendennis; but I've reason to think he has his heart fixed +elsewhere. You have heard of young Mr. Foker--the great brewer, Foker, +you know--he was going to hang himself in consequence of a fatal passion +for Miss Amory who refused him, but was cut down just in time by his +valet, and is now abroad, under a keeper." + +"How happy that young fellow is!" sighed Mrs. Bungay. "Who'd have +thought when he came so quiet and demure to dine with us, three or four +years ago, he would turn out such a grand character! Why, I saw his name +at Court the other day, and presented by the Marquis of Steyne and all; +and in every party of the nobility his name's down as sure as a gun." + +"I introduced him a good deal when he first came up to town," Mr. Archer +said, "and his uncle, Major Pendennis, did the rest. Hallo! There's +Cobden here, of all men in the world! I must go and speak to him. +Good-bye, Mrs. Bungay. Good morning, Mrs. Shandon." + +An hour previous to this time, and at a different part of the course, +there might have been seen an old stage-coach, on the battered roof of +which a crowd of shabby raffs were stamping and hallooing, as the great +event of the day--the Derby race--rushed over the greensward, and by the +shouting millions of people assembled to view that magnificent scene. +This was Wheeler's (the Harlequin's Head) drag, which had brought down +a company of choice spirits from Bow Street, with a slap-up luncheon in +the boot. As the whirling race flashed by, each of the choice spirits +bellowed out the name of the horse or the colours which he thought or +he hoped might be foremost. "The Cornet!" "It's Muffineer!" "It's blue +sleeves!" "Yallow cap! yallow cap! yallow cap!" and so forth, yelled the +gentlemen sportsmen during that delicious and thrilling minute before +the contest was decided; and as the fluttering signal blew out, showing +the number of the famous horse Podasokus as winner of the race, one of +the gentlemen on the Harlequin's Head drag sprang up off the roof, as if +he was a pigeon and about to fly away to London or York with the news. + +But his elation did not lift him many inches from his standing-place, to +which he came down again on the instant, causing the boards of the crazy +old coach-roof to crack with the weight of his joy. "Hurray, hurray!" +he bawled out, "Podasokus is the horse! Supper for ten, Wheeler, my boy. +Ask you all round of course, and damn the expense." + +And the gentlemen on the carriage, the shabby swaggerers, the dubious +bucks, said, "Thank you--congratulate you, Colonel; sup with you with +pleasure:" and whispered to one another, "The Colonel stands to win +fifteen hundred, and he got the odds from a good man, too." + +And each of the shabby bucks and dusky dandies began to eye his +neighbour with suspicion, lest that neighbour, taking his advantage, +should get the Colonel into a lonely place and borrow money of him. +And the winner on Podasokus could not be alone during the whole of that +afternoon, so closely did his friends watch him and each other. + +At another part of the course you might have seen a vehicle certainly +more modest, if not more shabby than that battered coach which had +brought down the choice spirits from the Harlequin's Head; this was +cab No. 2002, which had conveyed a gentleman and two ladies from the +cabstand in the Strand: whereof one of the ladies, as she sate on the +box of the cab enjoying with her mamma and their companion a repast of +lobster salad and bitter ale, looked so fresh and pretty that many of +the splendid young dandies who were strolling about the course, and +enjoying themselves at the noble diversion of Sticks, and talking to +the beautifully dressed ladies in the beautiful carriages, on the +hill, forsook these fascinations to have a glance at the smiling and +rosy-cheeked lass on the cab. The blushes of youth and good-humour +mantled on the girl's cheeks, and played over that fair countenance +like the pretty shining cloudlets on the serene sky overhead; the +elder lady's cheek was red too; but that was a permanent mottled +rose, deepening only as it received free draughts of pale ale and +brandy-and-water, until her face emulated the rich shell of the lobster +which she devoured. + +The gentleman who escorted these two ladies was most active in +attendance upon them: here on the course, as he had been during the +previous journey. During the whole of that animated and delightful drive +from London, his jokes had never ceased. He spoke up undauntedly to the +most awful drags full of the biggest and most solemn guardsmen; as to +the humblest donkey-chaise in which Bob the dustman was driving Molly +to the race. He had fired astonishing volleys of what is called "chaff" +into endless windows as he passed; into lines of grinning girls' +schools; into little regiments of shouting urchins hurraying behind the +railings of their Classical and Commercial Academies; into casements +whence smiling maid-servants, and nurses tossing babies, or demure old +maiden ladies with dissenting countenances, were looking. And the pretty +girl in the straw bonnet with pink ribbon, and her mamma the devourer +of lobsters, had both agreed that when he was in "spirits" there was +nothing like that Mr. Sam. He had crammed the cab with trophies won +from the bankrupt proprietors of the Sticks hard by, and with countless +pincushions, wooden apples, backy-boxes, Jack-in-the-boxes, and little +soldiers. He had brought up a gipsy with a tawny child in her arms to +tell the fortunes of the ladies: and the only cloud which momentarily +obscured the sunshine of that happy party, was when the teller of fate +informed the young lady that had had reason to beware of a fair man, +who was false to her: that she had had a bad illness, and that she would +find that a man would prove true. + +The girl looked very much abashed at this news: her mother and the young +man interchanged signs of wonder and intelligence. Perhaps the conjurer +had used the same words to a hundred different carriages on that day. + +Making his way solitary amongst the crowd and the carriages, and noting, +according to his wont, the various circumstances and characters which +the animated scene presented, a young friend of ours came suddenly upon +cab 2002, and the little group of persons assembled on the outside +of the vehicle. As he caught sight of the young lady on the box, +she started and turned pale: her mother became redder than ever: the +heretofore gay and triumphant Mr. Sam immediately assumed a fierce and +suspicious look, and his eyes turned savagely from Fanny Bolton (whom +the reader, no doubt, has recognised in the young lady of the cab) to +Arthur Pendennis, advancing to meet her. + +Arthur, too, looked dark and suspicious on perceiving Mr. Samuel Huxter +in company with his old acquaintances: his suspicion was that of alarmed +morality, and, I dare say, highly creditable to Mr. Arthur: like the +suspicion of Mrs. Lynx, when she sees Mr. Brown and Mrs. Jones talking +together, or when she remarks Mrs. Lamb twice or thrice in a handsome +opera-box. There may be no harm in the conversation of Mr. B. and Mr. +J.: and Mrs. Lamb's opera-box (though she notoriously can't afford one) +may be honestly come by: but yet a moralist like Mrs. Lynx has a right +to the little precautionary fright: and Arthur was no doubt justified in +adopting that severe demeanour of his. + +Fanny's heart began to patter violently: Huxter's fists, plunged into +the pockets of his paletot, clenched themselves involuntarily and armed +themselves, as it were, in ambush: Mrs. Bolton began to talk with all +her might, and with a wonderful volubility: and Lor! she was so 'apply +to see Mr. Pendennis, and how well he was a-lookin', and we'd been +talking' about Mr. P. only jest before; hadn't we, Fanny? and if this +was the famous Epsom races that they talked so much about, she didn't +care, for her part, if she never saw them again. And how was Major +Pendennis, and that kind Mr. Warrington, who brought Mr. P.'s great +kindness to Fanny? and she never would forget it, never: and Mr. +Warrington was so tall, he almost broke his 'ead up against their lodge +door. You recollect Mr. Warrington a-knocking' of his head--don't you, +Fanny? + +Whilst Mrs. Bolton was so discoursing, I wonder how many thousands +of thoughts passed through Fanny's mind, and what dear times, sad +struggles, lonely griefs, and subsequent shamefaced consolations were +recalled to her? What pangs had the poor little thing, as she thought +how much she had loved him, and that she loved him no more? There he +stood, about whom she was going to die ten months since, dandified, +supercilious, with a black crape to his white hat, and jet buttons in +his shirt-front and a pink in his coat, that some one else had probably +given him: with the tightest lavender-coloured gloves sewn with black +and the smallest of canes. And Mr. Huxter wore no gloves, and great +Blucher boots, and smelt very much of tobacco certainly; and looked, oh, +it must be owned, he looked as if a bucket of water would do him a great +deal of good! All these thoughts, and a myriad of others, rushed through +Fanny's mind as her mamma was delivering herself of her speech, and as +the girl, from under her eyes, surveyed Pendennis--surveyed him entirely +from head to foot, the circle on his white forehead that his hat left +when he lifted it (his beautiful, beautiful hair had grown again), the +trinkets at his watch-chain, the ring on his hand under his glove, the +neat shining boot, so, so unlike Sam's high-low!--and after her hand had +given a little twittering pressure to the lavender-coloured kid grasp +which was held out to it, and after her mother had delivered herself of +her speech, all Fanny could find to say was, "This is Mr. Samuel Huxter +whom you knew formerly, I believe, sir; Mr. Samuel, you know you knew +Mr. Pendennis formerly--and--and, will you take a little refreshment?" + +These little words, tremulous and uncoloured as they were, yet were +understood by Pendennis in such a manner as to take a great load of +suspicion from off his mind--of remorse, perhaps, from his heart. The +frown on the countenance of the Prince of Fairoaks disappeared, and a +good-natured smile and a knowing twinkle of the eyes illuminated his +highness's countenance. "I am very thirsty," he said, "and I will be +glad to drink your health, Fanny; and I hope Mr. Huxter will pardon me +for having been very rude to him the last time we met, and when I was +so ill and out of spirits, that indeed I scarcely knew what I said." And +herewith the lavender-coloured Dexter kid-glove was handed out, in token +of amity, to Huxter. + +The dirty fist in the young surgeon's pocket was obliged to undoable +itself, and come out of its ambush disarmed. The poor fellow himself +felt, as he laid it in Pen's hand, how hot his own was, and how +black--it left black marks on Pen's gloves; he saw them,--he would +have liked to have clenched it again and dashed it into the other's +good-humoured face; and have seen, there upon that round, with Fanny, +with all England looking on, which was the best man--he Sam Huxter of +Bartholomew's, or that grinning dandy. + +Pen with ineffable good-humour took a glass--he didn't mind what it +was--he was content to drink after the ladies; and he filled it with +frothing lukewarm beer, which he pronounced to be delicious, and which +he drank cordially to the health of the party. + +As he was drinking and talking on in an engaging manner, a young lady +in a shot dove-coloured dress, with a white parasol lined with pink, +and the prettiest dove-coloured boots that ever stepped, passed by Pen, +leaning on the arm of a stalwart gentleman with a military moustache. + +The young lady clenched her little fist, and gave a mischievous +side-look as she passed Pen. He of the mustachios burst out into a +jolly laugh. He had taken off his hat to the ladies of cab No. 2002. You +should have seen Fanny Bolton's eyes watching after the dove-coloured +young lady. Immediately Huxter perceived the direction which they took, +they ceased looking after the dove-coloured nymph, and they turned +and looked into Sam Huxter's orbs with the most artless good-humoured +expression. + +"What a beautiful creature!" Fanny said. "What a lovely dress! Did you +remark, Mr. Sam, such little, little hands?" + +"It was Capting Strong," said Mrs. Bolton: "and who was the young woman, +I wonder?" + +"A neighbour of mine in the country--Miss 'Amory,'" Arthur said,--"Lady +Clavering's daughter. You've seen Sir Francis often in Shepherd's Inn, +Mrs. Bolton." + +As he spoke, Fanny built up a perfect romance in three volumes +love--faithlessness--splendid marriage at St. George's, Hanover +Square--broken-hearted maid--and Sam Huxter was not the hero of that +story--poor Sam, who by this time had got out an exceedingly rank Cuba +cigar, and was smoking it under Fanny's little nose. + +After that confounded prig Pendennis joined and left the party, the +sun was less bright to Sam Huxter, the sky less blue--the Sticks had no +attraction for him--the bitter beer hot and undrinkable--the world was +changed. He had a quantity of peas and a tin pea-shooter in the pocket +of the cab for amusement on the homeward route. He didn't take them out, +and forgot their existence until some other wag, on their return from +the races, fired a volley into Sam's sad face; upon which salute, after +a few oaths indicative of surprise, he burst into a savage and sardonic +laugh. + +But Fanny was charming all the way home. She coaxed, and snuggled, and +smiled. She laughed pretty laughs; she admired everything; she took out +the darling little Jack-in-the-boxes, and was so obliged to Sam. +And when they got home, and Mr. Huxter, still with darkness on his +countenance, was taking a frigid leave of her--she burst into tears, and +said he was a naughty unkind thing. + +Upon which, with a burst of emotion almost as emphatic as hers, the +young surgeon held the girl in his arms--swore that she was an angel, +and that he was a jealous brute; owned that he was unworthy of her, and +that he had no right to hate Pendennis; and asked her, implored her, to +say once more that she---- + +That she what?--The end of the question and Fanny's answer were +pronounced by lips that were so near each other, that no bystander could +hear the words. Mrs. Bolton only said, "Come, come, Mr. H.--no nonsense, +if you please; and I think you've acted like a wicked wretch, and been +most uncommon cruel to Fanny, that I do." + +When Arthur left No. 2002, he went to pay his respects to the carriage +to which, and to the side of her mamma, the dove-coloured author of Mes +Larmes had by this time returned. Indefatigable old Major Pendennis was +in waiting upon Lady Clavering, and had occupied the back seat in her +carriage; the box being in possession of young Hopeful, under the care +of Captain Strong. + +A number of dandies, and men of a certain fashion--of military bucks, of +young rakes of the public offices, of those who may be styled men's men +rather than ladies'--had come about the carriage during its station on +the hill--and had exchanged a word or two with Lady Clavering, and +a little talk (a little "chaff," some of the most elegant of the +men styled their conversation) with Miss Amory. They had offered her +sportive bets, and exchanged with her all sorts of free-talk and knowing +innuendoes. They pointed out to her who was on the course: and the "who" +was not always the person a young lady should know. + +When Pen came up to Lady Clavering's carriage, he had to push his way +through a crowd of these young bucks who were paying their court to Miss +Amory, in order to arrive as near that young lady, who beckoned him by +many pretty signals to her side. + +"Je lay vue," she said; "Elle a de bien beaux yeux; vous etes un +monster!" + +"Why monster?" said Pen, with a laugh; "Hone suit qui mal y peens. +My young friend, yonder, is as well protected as any young lady in +Christendom. She has her mamma on one side, her pretend on the other. +Could any harm happen to a girl between those two?" + +"One does not know what may or may not arrive," said Miss Blanche, in +French, "when a girl has the mind, and when she is pursued by a wicked +monster like you. Figure to yourself, Major, that I come to find +Monsieur, your nephew, near to a cab, by two ladies, and a man, oh, such +a man! and who ate lobsters, and who laughed, who laughed!" + +"It did not strike me that the man laughed," Pen said, "And as for +lobsters, I thought he would have liked to eat me after the lobsters. +He shook hands with me, and gripped me so, that he bruised my glove +black-and-blue. He is a young surgeon. He comes from Clavering. Don't +you remember the gilt pestle and mortar in High Street?" + +"If he attends you when you are sick," continued Miss Amory, "he will +kill you. He will serve you right; for you are a monster." + +The perpetual recurrence to the word "monster" jarred upon Pen. "She +speaks about these matters a great deal too lightly," he thought. "If I +had been a monster, as she calls it, she would have received me just +the same. This is not the way in which an English lady should speak or +think. Laura would not speak in that way, thank God;" and as he thought +so, his own countenance fell. + +"Of what are you thinking? Are you going to bouder me at present?" +Blanche asked. "Major, scold your mechant nephew. He does not amuse me +at all. He is as bete as Captain Crackenbury." + +"What are you saying about me, Miss Amory?" said the guardsman, with a +grin. "If it's anything good, say it in English, for I don't understand +French when it's spoke so devilish quick." + +"It ain't anything good, Crack," said Crackenbury's fellow, Captain +Clinker. "Let's come away, and don't spoil sport. They say Pendennis is +sweet upon her." + +"I'm told he's a devilish clever fellow," sighed Crackenbury. "Lady +Violet Lebas says he's a devilish clever fellow. He wrote a work, or +a poem, or something; and he writes those devilish clever things in +the--in the papers, you know. Dammy, I wish I was a clever fellow, +Clinker." + +"That's past wishing for, Crack, my boy," the other said. "I can't write +a good book, but I think I can make a pretty good one on the Derby. What +a flat Clavering is! And the Begum! I like that old Begum. She's +worth ten of her daughter. How pleased the old girl was at winning the +lottery!" + +"Clavering's safe to pay up, ain't he?" asked Captain Crackenbury. + +"I hope so," said his friend; and they disappeared, to enjoy themselves +among the Sticks. + +Before the end of the day's amusements, many more gentlemen of Lady +Clavering's acquaintance came up to her carriage, and chatted with +the party which it contained. The worthy lady was in high spirits and +good-humour, laughing and talking according to her wont, and offering +refreshments to all her friends, until her ample baskets and bottles +were emptied, and her servants and postillions were in such a royal +state of excitement as servants and postillions commonly are upon the +Derby day. + +The Major remarked that some of the visitors to the carriage appeared +to look with rather queer and meaning glances towards its owner. "How +easily she takes it!" one man whispered to another. "The Begum's made +of money," the friend replied. "How easily she takes what?" thought old +Pendennis. "Has anybody lost any money?" Lady Clavering said she was +happy in the morning because Sir Francis had promised her not to bet. + +Mr. Welbore, the country neighbour of the Claverings, was passing the +carriage, when he was called back by the Begum, who rallied him for +wishing to cut her. "Why didn't he come before? Why didn't he come +to lunch?" Her ladyship was in great delight, she told him--she told +everybody, that she had won five pounds in a lottery. As she conveyed +this piece of intelligence to him, Mr. Welbore looked so particularly +knowing, and withal melancholy, that a dismal apprehension seized +upon Major Pendennis. "He would go and look after the horses and those +rascals of postillions, who were so long in coming round." When he came +back to the carriage, his usually benign and smirking countenance +was obscured by some sorrow. "What is the matter with you now?" the +good-natured Begum asked. The Major pretended a headache from the +fatigue and sunshine of the day. The carriage wheeled off the course and +took its way Londonwards, not the least brilliant equipage in that vast +and picturesque procession. The tipsy drivers dashed gallantly over the +turf, amidst the admiration of foot-passengers, the ironical cheers of +the little donkey-carriages and spring vans, and the loud objurgations +of horse-and-chaise men, with whom the reckless post-boys came in +contact. The jolly Begum looked the picture of good-humour as she +reclined on her splendid cushions; the lovely Sylphide smiled with +languid elegance. Many an honest holiday-maker with his family wadded +into a tax-cart, many a cheap dandy working his way home on his weary +hack, admired that brilliant turn-out, and thought, no doubt, how happy +those "swells" must be. Strong sat on the box still, with a lordly voice +calling to the post-boys and the crowd. Master Frank had been put inside +of the carriage and was asleep there by the side of the Major, dozing +away the effects of the constant luncheon and champagne of which he had +freely partaken. + +The Major was revolving in his mind meanwhile the news the receipt of +which had made him so grave. "If Sir Francis Clavering goes on in this +way," Pendennis the elder thought, "this little tipsy rascal will be as +bankrupt as his father and grandfather before him. The Begum's fortune +can't stand such drains upon it: no fortune can stand them: she has paid +his debts half a dozen times already. A few years more of the turf, and +a few coups like this, will ruin her." + +"Don't you think we could get up races at Clavering, mamma?" Miss Amory +asked. "Yes, we must have them there again. There were races there in +the old times, the good old times. It's a national amusement, you know: +and we could have a Clavering ball: and we might have dances for the +tenantry, and rustic sports in the park--Oh, it would be charming." + +"Capital fun," said mamma. "Wouldn't it, Major?" + +"The turf is a very expensive amusement, my dear lady," Major Pendennis +answered, with such a rueful face, that the Begum rallied him, and asked +laughingly whether he had lost money on the race? + +After a slumber of about an hour and a half, the heir of the house began +to exhibit symptoms of wakefulness, stretching his youthful arms over +the Major's face, and kicking his sister's knees as she sate opposite +to him. When the amiable youth was quite restored to consciousness, he +began a sprightly conversation. + +"I say, Ma," he said, "I've gone and done it this time, I have." + +"What have you gone and done, Franky dear?" asked Mamma. + +"How much is seventeen half-crowns? Two pound and half-a crown, ain't +it? I drew Borax in our lottery, but I bought Podasokus and Man-milliner +of Leggat minor for two open tarts and a bottle of ginger-beer." + +"You little wicked gambling creature, how dare you begin so soon?" cried +Miss Amory. + +"Hold your tongue, if you please. Who ever asked your leave, miss?" the +brother said. "And I say, Ma----" + +"Well, Franky dear?" + +"You'll tip me all the same, you know, when I go back----" and here he +broke out into a laugh. "I say, Ma, shall I tell you something?" + +The Begum expressed her desire to hear this something, and her son and +heir continued: + +"When me and Strong was down at the grand stand after the race, and I +was talking to Leggat minor, who was there with his governor, I saw Pa +look as savage as a bear. And I say, Ma, Leggat minor told me that +he heard his governor say that Pa had lost seven thousand backing the +favourite. I'll never back the favourite when I'm of age. No, no--hang +me if I do: leave me alone, Strong, will you?" + +"Captain Strong! Captain Strong! is this true?" cried out the +unfortunate Begum. "Has Sir Francis been betting again? He promised me +he wouldn't. He gave me his word of honour he wouldn't." + +Strong, from his place on the box, had overheard the end of young +Clavering's communication, and was trying in vain to stop his unlucky +tongue. + +"I'm afraid it's true, ma'am," he said, turning round, "I deplore the +loss as much as you can. He promised me as he promised you; but the play +is too strong for him! he can't refrain from it." + +Lady Clavering at this sad news burst into a fit of tears. She deplored +her wretched fate as the most miserable of women, she declared she would +separate, and pay no more debts for the ungrateful man. She narrated +with tearful volubility a score of stories only too authentic, which +showed how her husband had deceived, and how constantly she had +befriended him: and in this melancholy condition, whilst young Hopeful +was thinking about the two guineas which he himself had won; and the +Major revolving, in his darkened mind, whether certain plans which he +had been forming had better not be abandoned; the splendid carriage +drove up at length to the Begum's house in Grosvenor Place; the idlers +and boys lingering about the place to witness, according to public wont, +the close of the Derby Day, cheering the carriage as it drew up, and +envying the happy folks who descended from it. + +"And it's for the son of this man that I am made a beggar!" Blanche +said, quivering with anger, as she walked upstairs leaning on the +Major's arm--"for this cheat--for this blackleg--for this liar--for this +robber of women." + +"Calm yourself, my dear Miss Blanche," the old gentleman said; "I pray +calm yourself. You have been hardly treated, most unjustly. But remember +that you have always a friend in me, and trust to an old fellow who will +try and serve you." + +And the young lady, and the heir of the hopeful house of Clavering, +having retired to their beds, the remaining three of the Epsom party +remained for some time in deep consultation. + + + + +CHAPTER LX. Explanations + + +Almost a year, as the reader will perceive, has passed since an event +described a few pages back. Arthur's black coat is about to be exchanged +for a blue one. His person has undergone other more pleasing and +remarkable changes. His wig has been laid aside, and his hair, though +somewhat thinner, has returned to public view. And he has had the honour +of appearing at Court in the uniform of a Cornet of the Clavering troop +of the ----shire Yeomanry Cavalry, being presented to the Sovereign by +the Marquis of Steyne. + +This was a measure strongly and pathetically urged by Arthur's uncle. +The Major would not hear of a year passing before this ceremony of +gentlemanhood was gone through. The old gentleman thought that +his nephew should belong to some rather more select Club than +the Megatherium; and has announced everywhere in the world his +disappointment that the young man's property has turned out not by any +means as well as he could have hoped, and is under fifteen hundred a +year. + +That is the amount at which Pendennis's property is set down in +the world--where his publishers begin to respect him much more than +formerly, and where even mammas are by no means uncivil to him. For if +the pretty daughters are, naturally, to marry people of very different +expectations--at any rate, he will be eligible for the plain ones: and +if the brilliant and fascinating Myra is to hook an Earl, poor little +Beatrice, who has one shoulder higher than the other, must hang on to +some boor through life, and why should not Mr. Pendennis be her support? +In the very first winter after the accession to his mother's fortune, +Mrs. Hawxby in a country-house caused her Beatrice to learn billiards +from Mr. Pendennis and would be driven by nobody but him in the pony +carriage, because he was literary and her Beatrice was literary too, +and declared that the young man, under the instigation of his horrid old +uncle, had behaved most infamously in trifling with Beatrice's feelings. +The truth is the old gentleman, who knew Mrs. Hawxby's character, and +how desperately that lady would practise upon unwary young men, had come +to the country-house in question and carried Arthur out of the danger +of her immediate claws, though not out of the reach of her tongue. The +elder Pendennis would have had his nephew pass a part of the Christmas +at Clavering, whither the family had returned; but Arthur had not the +heart for that. Clavering was too near poor old Fairoaks; and that was +too full of sad recollections for the young man. + +We have lost sight of the Claverings, too, until their reappearance +upon the Epsom race-ground, and must give a brief account of them in the +interval. During the past year, the world has not treated any member +of the Clavering family very kindly; Lady Clavering, one of the +best-natured women that ever enjoyed a good dinner, or made a slip in +grammar, has had her appetite and good-nature sadly tried by constant +family grievances, and disputes such as make the efforts of the best +French cook unpalatable, and the most delicately-stuffed sofa-cushion +hard to lie on. "I'd rather have a turnip, Strong, for dessert, than +that pineapple, and all them Muscatel grapes, from Clavering," says poor +Lady Clavering, looking at her dinner-table, and confiding her grief to +her faithful friend, "if I could but have a little quiet to eat it with. +Oh, how much happier I was when I was a widow and before all this money +fell in to me!" + +The Clavering family had indeed made a false start in life, and had got +neither conduct, nor position, nor thanks for the hospitalities which +they administered, nor a return of kindness from the people whom they +entertained. The success of their first London season was doubtful; and +their failure afterwards notorious. "Human patience was not great +enough to put up with Sir Francis Clavering," people said. "He was too +hopelessly low, dull, and disreputable. You could not say what, but +there was a taint about the house and its entourages. Who was the Begum, +with her money, and without her h's, and where did she come from? What +an extraordinary little piece of conceit the daughter was, with her +Gallicised graces and daring affectations, not fit for well-bred English +girls to associate with! What strange people were those they assembled +round about them! Sir Francis Clavering was a gambler, living +notoriously in the society of blacklegs and profligates. Hely Clinker, +who was in his regiment, said that he not only cheated at cards, but +showed the white feather. What could Lady Rockminster have meant by +taking her up? After the first season, indeed, Lady Rockminster, who had +taken up Lady Clavering, put her down; the great ladies would not take +their daughters to her parties; the young men who attended them behaved +with the most odious freedom and scornful familiarity; and poor Lady +Clavering herself avowed that she was obliged to take what she called +'the canal' into her parlour, because the tip-tops wouldn't come." + +She had not the slightest ill-will towards "the canal," the poor dear +lady, or any pride about herself, or idea, that she was better than her +neighbour; but she had taken implicitly the orders which on her entry +into the world her social godmother had given her: she had been willing +to know whom they knew, and ask whom they asked. The "canal," in fact, +was much pleasanter than what is called "society;" but, as we said +before, that to leave a mistress is easy, while, on the contrary, to be +left by her is cruel: so you may give up society without any great pang, +or anything but a sensation of relief at the parting; but severe are the +mortifications and pains you have if society gives up you. + +One young man of fashion we have mentioned, who at least it might have +been expected would have been found faithful amongst the faithless, and +Harry Foker, Esq., was indeed that young man. But he had not managed +matters with prudence, and the unhappy passion at first confided to Pen +became notorious and ridiculous to the town, was carried to the ears of +his weak and fond mother; and finally brought under the cognisance of +the bald-headed and inflexible Foker senior. + +When Mr. Foker learned this disagreeable news, there took place between +him and his son a violent and painful scene, which ended in the poor +little gentleman's banishment from England for a year, with a positive +order to return at the expiration of that time and complete his marriage +with his cousin, or to retire into private life and three hundred a year +altogether, and never see parent or brewery more. Mr. Henry Foker went +away then, carrying with him that grief and care which passes free at +the strictest Custom-houses, and which proverbially accompanies the +exile; and with this crape over his eyes, even the Parisian Boulevard +looked melancholy to him, and the sky of Italy black. + +To Sir Francis Clavering, that year was a most unfortunate one. The +events described in the last chapter came to complete the ruin of the +year. It was that year of grace in which, as our sporting readers may +remember, Lord Harrowhill's horse (he was a classical young nobleman, +and named his stud out of the Iliad)--when Podasokus won the Derby, to +the dismay of the knowing ones, who pronounced the winning horse's name +in various extraordinary ways, and who backed Borax, who was nowhere in +the race. Sir Francis Clavering, who was intimate with some of the +most rascally characters of the turf, and, of course, had "valuable +information," had laid heavy odds against the winning horse, and backed +the favourite freely, and the result of his dealings was, as his son +correctly stated to poor Lady Clavering, a loss of seven thousand +pounds. + +Indeed, it was a cruel blow upon the lady, who had discharged her +husband's debts many times over; who had received as many times his +oaths and promises of amendment; who had paid his money-lenders and +horse-dealers; who had furnished his town and country houses, and who +was called upon now instantly to meet this enormous sum, the penalty of +her cowardly husband's extravagance. + +It has been described in former pages how the elder Pendennis had become +the adviser of the Clavering family, and, in his quality of intimate +friend of the house, had gone over every room of it, and even seen that +ugly closet which we all of us have, and in which, according to the +proverb, the family skeleton is locked up. About the Baronet's pecuniary +matters, if the Major did not know, it was because Clavering himself did +not know them, and hid them from himself and others in such a hopeless +entanglement of lies that it was impossible for adviser or attorney or +principal to get an accurate knowledge of his affairs. But, concerning +Lady Clavering, the Major was much better informed; and when the unlucky +mishap of the Derby arose, he took upon himself to become completely and +thoroughly acquainted with all her means, whatsoever they were; and was +now accurately informed of the vast and repeated sacrifices which the +widow Amory had made in behalf of her present husband. + +He did not conceal--and he had won no small favour from Miss Blanche by +avowing it--his opinion, that Lady Clavering's daughter had been hardly +treated at the expense of her son, by her second marriage: and in his +conversations with Lady Clavering had fairly hinted that he thought +Miss Blanche ought to have a better provision. We have said that he had +already given the widow to understand that he knew all the particulars +of her early and unfortunate history, having been in India at the time +when--when the painful circumstances occurred which had ended in her +parting from her first husband. He could tell her where to find the +Calcutta newspaper which contained the account of Amory's trial, and +he showed, and the Begum was not a little grateful to him for his +forbearance, how, being aware all along of this mishap which had +befallen her, he had kept all knowledge of it to himself, and been +constantly the friend of her family. + +"Interested motives, my dear Lady Clavering," he said, "of course I may +have had. We all have interested motives, and mine, I don't conceal from +you, was to make a marriage between my nephew and your daughter." To +which Lady Clavering, perhaps with some surprise that the Major should +choose her family for a union with his own, said she was quite willing +to consent. + +But frankly he said, "My dear lady, my boy has but five hundred a year, +and a wife with ten thousand pounds to her fortune would scarcely better +him. We could do better for him than that, permit me to say, and he is +a shrewd, cautious young fellow who has sown his wild oats now--who has +very good parts and plenty of ambition--and whose object in marrying is +to better himself. If you and Sir Francis chose--and Sir Francis, take +my word for it, will refuse you nothing--you could put Arthur in a way +to advance very considerably in the world, and show the stuff which he +has in him. Of what use is that seat in Parliament to Clavering, who +scarcely ever shows his face in the House, or speaks a word there? I'm +told by gentlemen who heard my boy at Oxbridge, that he was famous as +an orator, begad!--and once put his foot into the stirrup and mount him, +I've no doubt he won't be the last of the field, ma'am. I've tested +the chap, and know him pretty well, I think. He is much too lazy, and +careless, and flighty a fellow, to make a jog-trot journey, and arrive, +as your lawyers do, at the end of their lives! but give him a start and +good friends, and an opportunity, and take my word for it, he'll make +himself a name that his sons shall be proud of. I don't see any way for +a fellow like him to parvenir, but by making a prudent marriage--not +with a beggarly heiress--to sit down for life upon a miserable fifteen +hundred a year--but with somebody whom he can help, and who can help him +forward in the world, and whom he can give a good name and a station in +the country, begad, in return for the advantages which she brings him. +It would be better for you to have a distinguished son-in-law, than to +keep your husband on in Parliament, who's of no good to himself or to +anybody else there, and that's, I say, why I've been interested about +you, and offer you what I think a good bargain for both." + +"You know I look upon Arthur as one of the family almost now," said the +good-natured Begum; "he comes and goes when he likes; and the more +I think of his dear mother, the more I see there's few people so +good--none so good to me. And I'm sure I cried when I heard of her +death, and would have gone into mourning for her myself, only black +don't become me. And I know who his mother wanted him to marry--Laura, +I mean--whom old Lady Rockminster has taken such a fancy to, and, +no wonder. She's a better girl than my girl. I know both. And my +Betsy--Blanche, I mean--ain't been a comfort to me, Major. It's Laura +Pen ought to marry. + +"Marry on five hundred a year! My dear good soul, you are mad!" Major +Pendennis said. "Think over what I have said to you. Do nothing in your +affairs with that unhappy husband of yours without consulting me; and +remember that old Pendennis is always your friend." + +For some time previous, Pen's uncle had held similar language to Miss +Amory. He had pointed out to her the convenience of the match which he +had at heart, and was bound to say, that mutual convenience was of all +things the very best in the world to marry upon--the only thing. "Look +at your love-marriages, my dear young creature. The love-match people +are the most notorious of all for quarrelling afterwards; and a girl who +runs away with Jack to Gretna Green, constantly runs away with Tom to +Switzerland afterwards. The great point in marriage is for people to +agree to be useful to one another. The lady brings the means, and the +gentleman avails himself of them. My boy's wife brings the horse, and +begad Pen goes in and wins the plate. That's what I call a sensible +union. A couple like that have something to talk to each other about +when they come together. If you had Cupid himself to talk to--if Blanche +and Pen were Cupid and Psyche, begad--they'd begin to yawn after a few +evenings, if they had nothing but sentiment to speak on." + +As for Miss Amory, she was contented enough with Pen as long as there +was nobody better. And how many other young ladies are like her?--and +how many love-marriages carry on well to the last?--and how sentimental +firms do not finish in bankruptcy?--and how many heroic passions don't +dwindle down into despicable indifference, or end in shameful defeat? + +These views of life and philosophy the Major was constantly, according +to his custom, inculcating to Pen, whose mind was such that he could +see the right on both sides of many questions, and, comprehending the +sentimental life which was quite out of the reach of the honest Major's +intelligence, could understand the practical life too, and accommodate +himself, or think he could accommodate himself, to it. So it came to +pass that during the spring succeeding his mother's death he became a +good deal under the influence of his uncle's advice, and domesticated +in Lady Clavering's house; and in a measure was accepted by Miss Amory +without being a suitor, and was received without being engaged. The +young people were extremely familiar, without being particularly +sentimental, and met and parted with each other in perfect good-humour. +"And I," thought Pendennis, "am the fellow who eight years ago had a +Grand passion, and last year was raging in a fever about Briseis!" + +Yes, it was the same Pendennis, and time had brought to him, as to the +rest of us, its ordinary consequences, consolations, developments. +We alter very little. When we talk of this man or that woman being no +longer the same person whom we remember in youth, and remark (of course +to deplore) changes in our friends, we don't, perhaps, calculate that +circumstance only brings out the latent defect or quality, and does not +create it. The selfish languor and indifference of to-day's possession +is the consequence of the selfish ardour of yesterday's pursuit: the +scorn and weariness which cries vanitas vanitatum is but the lassitude +of the sick appetite palled with pleasure: the insolence of the +successful parvenu is only the necessary continuance of the career of +the needy struggler: our mental changes are like our grey hairs or our +wrinkles--but the fulfilment of the plan of mortal growth and decay: +that which is snow-white now was glossy black once; that which is +sluggish obesity to-day was boisterous rosy health a few years back; +that calm weariness, benevolent, resigned, and disappointed, was +ambition, fierce and violent, but a few years since, and has only +settled into submissive repose after many a battle and defeat. Lucky he +who can bear his failure so generously, and give up his broken sword +to Fate the Conqueror with a manly and humble heart! Are you not +awestricken, you, friendly reader, who, taking the page up for +a moment's light reading, lay it down, perchance, for a graver +reflection,--to think how you, who have consummated your success or +your disaster, may be holding marked station, or a hopeless and nameless +place, in the crowd--who have passed through how many struggles of +defeat, success, crime, remorse, to yourself only known!--who may have +loved and grown cold, wept and laughed again, how often!--to think how +you are the same, You, whom in childhood you remember, before the voyage +of life began? It has been prosperous, and you are riding into port, the +people huzzaing and the guns saluting,--and the lucky captain bows from +the ship's side, and there is a care under the star on his breast which +nobody knows of: or you are wrecked, and lashed, hopeless, to a solitary +spar out at sea:--the sinking man and the successful one are thinking +each about home, very likely, and remembering the time when they were +children; alone on the hopeless spar, drowning out of sight; alone in +the midst of the crowd applauding you. + + + + +CHAPTER LXI. Conversations + + + +Our good-natured Begum was at first so much enraged at this last +instance of her husband's duplicity and folly, that she refused to give +Sir Francis Clavering any aid in order to meet his debts of honour, +and declared that she would separate from him, and leave him to the +consequences of his incorrigible weakness and waste. After that fatal +day's transactions at the Derby, the unlucky gambler was in such a +condition of mind that he was disposed to avoid everybody; alike his +turf-associates with whom he had made the debts which he trembled lest +he should not have the means of paying, and his wife, his long-suffering +banker, on whom he reasonably doubted whether he should be allowed any +longer to draw. When Lady Clavering asked the next morning whether Sir +Francis was in the house, she received answer that he had not returned +that night, but had sent a messenger to his valet, ordering him to +forward clothes and letters by the bearer. Strong knew that he should +have a visit or a message from him in the course of that or the +subsequent day, and accordingly got a note beseeching him to call upon +his distracted friend F. C. at Short Hotel, Blackfriars, and ask for Mr. +Francis there. For the Baronet was a gentleman of that peculiarity +of mind that he would rather tell a lie than not, and always began a +contest with fortune by running away and hiding himself. The Boots of +Mr. Short's establishment, who carried Clavering's message to Grosvenor +Place, and brought back his carpet-bag, was instantly aware who was the +owner of the bag, and he imparted his information to the footman who +was laying the breakfast-table, who carried down the news to the +servants'-hall, who took it to Mrs. Bonner, my lady's housekeeper and +confidential maid, who carried it to my lady. And thus every single +person in the Grosvenor Place establishment knew that Sir Francis was +in hiding, under the name of Francis, at an inn in the Blackfriars Road. +And Sir Francis's coachman told the news to other gentlemen's coachmen, +who carried it to their masters, and to the neighbouring Tattersall's, +where very gloomy anticipations were formed that Sir Francis Clavering +was about to make a tour in the Levant. + +In the course of that day the number of letters addressed to Sir Francis +Clavering, Bart., which found their way to his hall-table, was quite +remarkable. The French cook sent in his account to my lady; the +tradesmen who supplied her ladyship's table, and Messrs. Finer and +Gimcrack, the mercers and ornamental dealers, and Madame Crinoline, the +eminent milliner, also forwarded their little bills to her ladyship, +in company with Miss Amory's private, and by no means inconsiderable, +account at each establishment. + +In the afternoon of the day after the Derby, when Strong (after a +colloquy with his principal at Short's Hotel, whom he found crying and +drinking Curacoa) called to transact business according to his custom at +Grosvenor Place, he found all these suspicious documents ranged in the +Baronet's study; and began to open them and examine them with a rueful +countenance. + +Mrs. Bonner, my lady's maid and housekeeper, came down upon him whilst +engaged in this occupation. Mrs. Bonner, a part of the family and as +necessary to her mistress as the Chevalier was to Sir Francis, was +of course on Lady Clavering's side in the dispute between her and her +husband, and as by duty bound even more angry than her ladyship herself. + +"She won't pay, if she takes my advice," Mrs. Bonner said. "You'll +please to go back to Sir Francis, Captain--and he lurking about in a low +public-house and don't dare to face his wife like a man!--and say that +we won't pay his debts no longer. We made a man of him, we took him out +of gaol (and other folks too perhaps), we've paid his debts over and +over again--we set him up in Parliament and gave him a house in town and +country, and where he don't dare show his face, the shabby sneak! We've +given him the horse he rides and the dinner he eats and the very clothes +he has on his back; and we will give him no more. Our fortune, such as +is left of it, is left to ourselves, and we won't waste any more of it +on this ungrateful man. We'll give him enough to live upon and leave +him, that's what we'll do: and that's what you may tell him from Susan +Bonner." + +Susan Bonner's mistress hearing of Strong's arrival sent for him at this +juncture, and the Chevalier went up to her ladyship not without hopes +that he should find her more tractable than her factotum Mrs. Bonner. +Many a time before had he pleaded his client's cause with Lady Clavering +and caused her good-nature to relent. He tried again once more. He +painted in dismal colours the situation in which he had found Sir +Francis: and would not answer for any consequences which might ensue if +he could not find means of meeting his engagements. + +"Kill hisself," laughed Mrs. Bonner, "kill hisself, will he? Dying's +the best thing he could do." Strong vowed that he had found him with the +razors on the table; but at this, in her turn, Lady Clavering laughed +bitterly. "He'll do himself no harm, as long as there's a shilling left +of which he can rob a poor woman. His life's quite safe, Captain: you +may depend upon that. Ah! it was a bad day that ever I set eyes on him." + +"He's worse than the first man," cried out my lady's aide-de-camp. +"He was a man, he was--a wild devil, but he had the courage of a +man--whereas this fellow--what's the use of my lady paying his bills, +and selling her diamonds, and forgiving him? He'll be as bad again +next year. The very next chance he has he'll be a-cheating of her, +and robbing of her; and her money will go to keep a pack of rogues and +swindlers--I don't mean you, Captain--you've been a good friend to us +enough, bating we wish we'd never set eyes on you." + +The Chevalier saw from the words which Mrs. Bonner had let slip +regarding the diamonds, that the kind Begum was disposed to relent once +more at least, and that there were hopes still for his principal. + +"Upon my word, ma'am," he said, with a real feeling of sympathy for Lady +Clavering's troubles, and admiration for her untiring good-nature, and +with a show of enthusiasm which advanced not a little his graceless +patron's cause--"anything you say against Clavering, or Mrs. Bonner here +cries out against me, is no better than we deserve, both of us, and it +was an unlucky day for you when you saw either. He has behaved cruelly +to you and if you were not the most generous and forgiving woman in the +world, I know there would be no chance for him. But you can't let the +father of your son be a disgraced man, and send little Frank into the +world with such a stain upon him. Tie him down; bind him by any promises +you like: I vouch for him that he will subscribe them." + +"And break 'em," said Mrs. Bonner. + +"And keep 'em this time," cried out Strong. "He must keep them. If you +could have seen how he wept, ma'am! 'Oh, Strong,' he said to me, 'it's +not for myself I feel now: it's for my boy--it's for the best woman in +England, whom I have treated basely--I know I have.' He didn't intend to +bet upon this race, ma'am--indeed he didn't. He was cheated into it: all +the ring was taken in. He thought he might make the bet quite safely, +without the least risk. And it will be a lesson to him for all his life +long. To see a man cry--oh, it's dreadful." + +"He don't think much of making my dear missus cry," said Mrs. +Bonner--"poor dear soul!--look if he does, Captain." + + * * * * * * + +"If you've the soul of a man, Clavering," Strong said to his principal, +when he recounted this scene to him, "you'll keep your promise this +time: and, so help me Heaven! if you break word with her, I'll turn +against you, and tell all." + +"What all?" cried Mr. Francis, to whom his ambassador brought the +news back at Short's Hotel, where Strong found the Baronet crying and +drinking curacoa. + +"Psha! Do you suppose I am a fool?" burst out Strong. "Do you suppose I +could have lived so long in the world, Frank Clavering, without having +my eyes about me? You know I have but to speak and you are a beggar +to-morrow. And I am not the only man who knows your secret." + +"Who else does?" gasped Clavering. + +"Old Pendennis does, or I am very much mistaken. He recognised the man +the first night he saw him, when he came drunk into your house." + +"He knows it, does he?" shrieked out Clavering. "Damn him--kill him." + +"You'd like to kill us all, wouldn't you, old boy?" said Strong, with a +sneer, puffing his cigar. + +The Baronet dashed his weak hand against his forehead; perhaps the other +had interpreted his wish rightly. "Oh, Strong!" he cried, "if I dared, +I'd put an end to myself, for I'm the d-----est miserable dog in all +England. It's that that makes me so wild and reckless. It's that which +makes me take to drink" (and he drank, with a trembling hand, a bumper +of his fortifier--the curacoa), "and to live about with these thieves. I +know they're thieves, every one of 'em, d----d thieves. And--and how +can I help it?--and I didn't know it, you know--and, by Gad, I'm +innocent--and until I saw the d----d scoundrel first, I knew no more +about it than the dead--and I'll fly, and I'll go abroad out of the +reach of the confounded hells, and I'll bury myself in a forest, by Gad! +and hang myself up to a tree--and, oh--I'm the most miserable beggar in +all England!" And so with more tears, shrieks, and curses, the impotent +wretch vented his grief and deplored his unhappy fate; and, in the midst +of groans and despair and blasphemy, vowed his miserable repentance. + +The honoured proverb which declares that to be an ill wind which blows +good to nobody, was verified in the case of Sir Francis Clavering, and +another of the occupants of Mr. Strong's chambers in Shepherd's Inn. The +man was "good," by a lucky hap, with whom Colonel Altamont made his +bet; and on the settling day of the Derby--as Captain Clinker, who +was appointed to settle Sir Francis Clavering's book for him (for Lady +Clavering by the advice of Major Pendennis, would not allow the Baronet +to liquidate his own money transactions), paid over the notes to the +Baronet's many creditors--Colonel Altamont had the satisfaction of +receiving the odds of thirty to one in fifties, which he had taken +against the winning horse of the day. + +Numbers of the Colonel's friends were present on the occasion to +congratulate him on his luck--all Altamont's own set, and the gents +who met in the private parlour of the convivial Wheeler, my host of +the Harlequin's Head, came to witness their comrade's good fortune, and +would have liked, with a generous sympathy for success, to share in it. +"Now was the time," Tom Driver had suggested to the Colonel, "to have +up the specie ship that was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, with the +three hundred and eighty thousand dollars on board, besides bars and +doubloons." "The Tredyddlums were very low--to be bought for an old +song--never was such an opportunity for buying shares," Mr. Keightley +insinuated; and Jack Holt pressed forward his tobacco-smuggling scheme, +the audacity of which pleased the Colonel more than any other of the +speculations proposed to him. Then of the Harlequin's Head boys: there +was Jack Rackstraw, who knew of a pair of horses which the Colonel must +buy; Tom Fleet, whose satirical paper, The Swell, wanted but two hundred +pounds of capital to be worth a thousand a year to any man--"with such +a power and influence, Colonel, you rogue, and the entree of the +green-rooms in London," Tom urged; whilst little Moss Abiams entreated +the Colonel not to listen to these absurd fellows with their humbugging +speculations, but to invest his money in some good bills which Moss +could get for him, and which would return him fifty per cent as safe as +the Bank of England. + +Each and all of these worthies came round the Colonel with their various +blandishments; but he had courage enough to resist them, and to button +up his notes in the pocket of his coat, and go home to Strong, and +"sport" the outer door of the chambers. Honest Strong had given his +fellow-lodger good advice about all his acquaintances; and though, when +pressed, he did not mind frankly taking twenty pounds himself out of the +Colonel's winnings, Strong was a great deal too upright to let others +cheat him. + +He was not a bad fellow when in good fortune, this Altamont. He ordered +a smart livery for Grady, and made poor old Costigan shed tears of +quickly dried gratitude by giving him a five-pound note after a snug +dinner at the Back Kitchen, and he bought a green shawl for Mrs. Bolton, +and a yellow one for Fanny: the most brilliant "sacrifices" of a Regent +Street haberdasher's window. And a short time after this, upon her +birthday, which happened in the month of June, Miss Amory received from +"a friend" a parcel containing an enormous brass inlaid writing-desk, +in which there was a set of amethysts, the most hideous eyes ever looked +upon,--a musical snuff-box, and two Keepsakes of the year before last, +and accompanied with a couple of gown pieces of the most astounding +colours, the receipt of which goods made the Sylphide laugh and wonder +immoderately. Now it is a fact that Colonel Altamont had made a purchase +of cigars and French silks from some duffers in Fleet Street about +this period; and he was found by Strong in the open Auction Room in +Cheapside, having invested some money in two desks, several pairs of +richly-plated candlesticks, a dinner epergne, and a bagatelle-board. The +dinner epergne remained at chambers, and figured at the banquets there, +which the Colonel gave pretty freely. It seemed beautiful in his eyes, +until Jack Holt said it looked as if it had been taken "in a bill." And +Jack Holt certainly knew. + +The dinners were pretty frequent at chambers, and Sir Francis Clavering +condescended to partake of them constantly. His own house was shut up: +the successor of Mirobolant, who had sent in his bills so prematurely, +was dismissed by the indignant Lady Clavering: the luxuriance of the +establishment was greatly pruned and reduced. One of the large footmen +was cashiered, upon which the other gave warning, not liking to serve +without his mate, or in a family where on'y one footman was kep'. +General and severe economical reforms were practised by the Begum in +her whole household, in consequence of the extravagance of which her +graceless husband had been guilty. The Major, as her ladyship's friend; +Strong, on the part of poor Clavering; her ladyship's lawyer, and +the honest Begum herself, executed these reforms with promptitude and +severity. After paying the Baronet's debts, the settlement of which +occasioned considerable public scandal, and caused the Baronet to sink +even lower in the world's estimation than he had been before, Lady +Clavering quitted London for Tunbridge Wells in high dudgeon, refusing +to see her reprobate husband, whom nobody pitied. Clavering remained +in London patiently, by no means anxious to meet his wife's just +indignation, and sneaked in and out of the House of Commons, whence he +and Captain Raff and Mr. Marker would go to have a game at billiards +and a cigar or showed in the sporting public-houses; or might be seen +lurking about Lincoln's Inn and his lawyers', where the principals kept +him for hours waiting, and the clerks winked at each other, as he sate +in their office. No wonder that he relished the dinners at Shepherd's +Inn, and was perfectly resigned there: resigned? he was so happy nowhere +else; he was wretched amongst his equals, who scorned him--but here he +was the chief guest at the table, where they continually addressed +him with "Yes, Sir Francis" and "No, Sir Francis," where he told his +wretched jokes, and where he quavered his dreary little French song, +after Strong had sung his Jovial chorus, and honest Costigan had +piped his Irish ditties. Such a jolly menage as Strong's, with Grady's +Irish-stew, and the Chevalier's brew of punch after dinner, would have +been welcome to many a better man than Clavering, the solitude of whose +great house at home frightened him, where he was attended only by the +old woman who kept the house, and his valet who sneered at him. + +"Yes, dammit," said he to his friends in Shepherd's Inn, "that fellow of +mine, I must turn him away, only I owe him two years' wages, curse him, +and can't ask my lady. He brings me my tea cold of a morning, with a +dem'd leaden teaspoon, and he says my lady's sent all the plate to the +banker's because it ain't safe.--Now ain't it hard that she won't trust +me with a single teaspoon; ain't it ungentlemanlike, Altamont? You know +my lady's of low birth--that is--I beg your pardon--hem--that is, +it's most cruel of her not to show more confidence in me. And the very +servants begin to laugh--the damn scoundrels! I break every bone in +their great hulking bodies, curse 'em, I will.--They don't answer +my bell: and--and my man was at Vauxhall last night with one of my +dress-shirts and my velvet waistcoat on, I know it was mine--the +confounded impudent blackguard--and he went on dancing before my eyes +confound him! I'm sure he'll live to be hanged--he deserves to be +hanged--all those infernal rascals of valets." + +He was very kind to Altamont now: he listened to the Colonel's loud +stories when Altamont described how--when he was working his way home +once from New Zealand, where he had been on a whaling expedition--he and +his comrades had been obliged to slink on board at night, to escape from +their wives, by Jove--and how the poor devils put out in their canoes +when they saw the ship under sail, and paddled madly after her: how he +had been lost in the bush once for three months in New South Wales, when +he was there once on a trading speculation: how he had seen Boney at +Saint Helena, and been presented to him with the rest of the officers +of the Indiaman of which he was a mate--to all these tales (and over his +cups Altamont told many of them; and, it must be owned, lied and bragged +a great deal) Sir Francis now listened with great attention; making a +point of drinking wine with Altamont at dinner and of treating him with +every distinction. + +"Leave him alone, I know what he's a-coming to," Altamont said, laughing +to Strong, who remonstrated with him, "and leave me alone; I know what +I'm a-telling, very well. I was officer on board an Indiaman, so I was; +I traded to New South Wales, so I did, in a ship of my own, and lost +her. I became officer to the Nawaub, so I did; only me and my royal +master have had a difference, Strong--that's it. Who's the better or +the worse for what I tell? or knows anything about me? The other chap is +dead--shot in the bush, and his body reckonised at Sydney. If I thought +anybody would split, do you think I wouldn't wring his neck? I've done +as good before now, Strong--I told you how I did for the overseer before +I took leave--but in fair fight, I mean--in fair fight; or, rayther, he +had the best of it. He had his gun and bay'net, and I had only an axe. +Fifty of 'em saw it--ay, and cheered me when I did it--and I'd do it +again,--him, wouldn't I? I ain't afraid of anybody; and I'd have the +life of the man who split upon me. That's my maxim, and pass me the +liquor.--You wouldn't turn on a man. I know you. You're an honest +feller, and will stand by a feller, and have looked death in the +face like a man. But as for that lily-livered sneak--that poor lyin' +swindlin' cringin' cur of a Clavering--who stands in my shoes--stands +in my shoes, hang him! I'll make him pull my boots off and clean 'em, I +will. Ha, ha!" Here he burst out into a wild laugh, at which Strong +got up and put away the brandy-bottle. The other still laughed +good-humouredly. "You're right, old boy," he said; "you always keep +your head cool, you do--and when I begin to talk too much--I say, when I +begin to pitch, I authorise you, and order you, and command you, to put +away the rum-bottle." + +"Take my counsel, Altamont," Strong said, gravely, "and mind how you +deal with that man. Don't make it too much his interest to get rid of +you; or who knows what he may do?" + +The event for which, with cynical enjoyment, Altamont had been on the +look-out, came very speedily. One day, Strong being absent upon an +errand for his principal, Sir Francis made his appearance in the +chambers, and found the envoy of the Nawaub alone. He abused the world +in general for being heartless and unkind to him: he abused his wife for +being ungenerous to him; he abused Strong for being ungrateful--hundreds +of pounds had he given Ned Strong--been his friend for life and kept +him out of gaol, by Jove,--and now Ned was taking her ladyship's side +against him and abetting her in her infernal unkind treatment of him. +"They've entered into a conspiracy to keep me penniless, Altamont," the +Baronet said: "they don't give me as much pocket money as Frank has at +school." + +"Why don't you go down to Richmond and borrow of him, Clavering?" +Altamont broke out with a savage laugh. "He wouldn't see his poor old +beggar of a father without pocket-money, would he?" + +"I tell you, I've been obliged to humiliate myself cruelly" Clavering +said. "Look here, sir--look here, at these pawn-tickets! Fancy a Member +of Parliament and an old English Baronet, by Gad! obliged to put +a drawing-room clock and a buhl inkstand up the spout; and a gold +duck's-head paper-holder, that I dare say cost my wife five pound, for +which they'd only give me fifteen-and-six! Oh, it's a humiliating +thing, sir, poverty to a man of my habits; and it's made me shed tears, +sir,--tears; and that d----d valet of mine--curse him, I wish he was +hanged!--he had the confounded impudence to threaten to tell my lady: as +the things in my own house weren't my own, to sell or to keep, or fling +out of window if I chose--by Gad! the confounded scoundrel. + +"Cry a little; don't mind cryin' before me--it'll relieve you +Clavering," the other said. "Why, I say, old feller, what a happy feller +I once thought you, and what a miserable son of a gun you really are!" + +"It's a shame that they treat me so, ain't it?" Clavering went on,--for, +though ordinarily silent and apathetic, about his own griefs the Baronet +could whine for an hour at a time. "And--and, by Gad, sir, I haven't got +the money to pay the very cab that's waiting for me at the door; and the +porteress, that Mrs. Bolton, lent me three shillin's, and I don't like +to ask her for any more: and I asked that d----d old Costigan, the +confounded old penniless Irish miscreant, and he hadn't got a shillin', +the beggar; and Campion's out of town, or else he'd do a little bill for +me, I know he would." + +"I thought you swore on your honour to your wife that you wouldn't put +your name to paper," said Mr. Altamont, puffing at his cigar. + +"Why does she leave me without pocket-money, then? Damme, I must have +money," cried out the Baronet. "Oh, Am----, oh, Altamont, I'm the most +miserable beggar alive." + +"You'd like a chap to lend you a twenty-pound note, wouldn't you now?" +the other asked. + +"If you would, I'd be grateful to you for ever--for ever, my dearest +friend," cried Clavering. + +"How much would you give? Will you give a fifty-pound bill, at six +months, for half down and half in plate?" asked Altamont. + +"Yes, I would, so help me----, and pay it on the day," screamed +Clavering. "I'll make it payable at my banker's: I'll do anything you +like." + +"Well, I was only chaffing you. I'll give you twenty pound." + +"You said a pony," interposed Clavering; "my dear fellow, you said a +pony, and I'll be eternally obliged to you; and I'll not take it as a +gift--only as a loan, and pay you back in six months. I take my oath, I +will." + +"Well--well--there's the money, Sir Francis Clavering. I ain't a bad +fellow. When I've money in my pocket, dammy, I spend it like a man. +Here's five-and-twenty for you. Don't be losing it at the hells now. +Don't be making a fool of yourself. Go down to Clavering Park, and it'll +keep you ever so long. You needn't 'ave butchers' meat: there's pigs, +I dare say, on the premises: and you can shoot rabbits for dinner, you +know, every day till the game comes in. Besides, the neighbours will ask +you about to dinner, you know, sometimes: for you are a Baronet, though +you have outrun the constable. And you've got this comfort, that I'm off +your shoulders for a good bit to come--p'raps this two years--if I don't +play; and I don't intend to touch the confounded black and red: and by +that time my lady, as you call her--Jimmy, I used to say--will have +come round again; and you'll be ready for me, you know, and come down +handsomely to yours truly." + +At this juncture of their conversation Strong returned, nor did the +Baronet care much about prolonging the talk, having got the money: +and he made his way from Shepherd's Inn, and went home and bullied +his servant in a manner so unusually brisk and insolent that the man +concluded his master must have pawned some more of the house furniture, +or, at any rate, have come into possession of some ready money. + + * * * * * * + +"And yet I've looked over the house, Morgan, and I don't thin he +has took any more of the things," Sir Francis's valet said to Major +Pendennis's man, as they met at their Club soon after. "My lady locked +up a'most all the bejews afore she went away, and he couldn't take +away the picters and looking-glasses in a cab and he wouldn't spout +the fenders and fire-irons--he ain't so bad as that. But he's got money +somehow. He's so dam'd imperent when he have. A few nights ago I sor +him at Vauxhall, where I was a-polkin with Lady Hemly Babewood's gals--a +wery pleasant room that is, and an uncommon good lot in it, hall except +the 'ousekeeper, and she's methodisticle--I was a-polkin--you're too old +a cove to polk, Mr. Morgan--and 'ere's your 'ealth--and I 'appened to +'ave on some of Clavering's abberdashery, and he sor it too: and he +didn't dare so much as speak a word." + +"How about the house in St. John's Wood?" Mr. Morgan asked. + +"Execution in it.--Sold up heverythin: ponies, and pianna, and brougham, +and all. Mrs. Montague were hoff to Boulogne,--non est inwentus, Mr. +Morgan. It's my belief she put the execution in herself: and was tired +of him." + +"Play much?" asked Morgan. + +"Not since the smash. When your Governor, and the lawyers, and my lady +and him had that tremendous scene: he went down on his knees, my lady +told Mrs. Bonner, as told me,--and swear as he never more would touch +a card or a dice, or put his name to a bit of paper; and my lady was +a-goin' to give him the notes down to pay his liabilities after the +race: only your Governor said (which he wrote it on a piece of paper, +and passed it across the table to the lawyer and my lady) that some one +else had better book up for him, for he'd have kep' some of the money. +He's a sly old cove, your Gov'nor." + +The expression of "old cove," thus flippantly applied by the younger +gentleman to himself and his master, displeased Mr. Morgan exceedingly. +On the first occasion, when Mr. Lightfoot used the obnoxious expression, +his comrade's anger was only indicated by a silent frown; but on the +second offence, Morgan, who was smoking his cigar elegantly, and holding +it on the tip of his penknife, withdrew the cigar from his lips, and +took his young friend to task. + +"Don't call Major Pendennis an old cove, if you'll 'ave the goodness, +Lightfoot, and don't call me an old cove, nether. Such words ain't used +in society; and we have lived in the fust society, both at 'ome and +foring. We've been intimate with the fust statesmen of Europe. When we +go abroad we dine with Prince Metternitch and Louy Philup reg'lar. We +go here to the best houses, the tip-tops, I tell you. We ride with Lord +John and the noble Whycount at the edd of Foring Affairs. We dine with +the Hearl of Burgrave, and are consulted by the Marquis of Steyne in +everythink. We ought to know a thing or two, Mr. Lightfoot. You're a +young man, I'm an old cove, as you say. We've both seen the world, and +we both know that it ain't money, nor bein' a Baronet, nor 'avin' a town +and country 'ouse, nor a paltry five or six thousand a year." + +"It's ten, Mr. Morgan," cried Mr. Lightfoot, with great animation. + +"It may have been, sir," Morgan said, with calm severity; "it may have +been, Mr. Lightfoot, but it ain't six now, nor five, sir. It's been +doosedly dipped and cut into, sir, by the confounded extravygance of +your master, with his helbow shakin', and his bill discountin', and his +cottage in the Regency Park, and his many wickednesses. He's a bad un, +Mr. Lightfoot,--a bad lot, sir, and that you know. And it ain't +money, sir--not such money as that, at any rate, come from a Calcuttar +attorney, and I dussay wrung out of the pore starving blacks--that +will give a pusson position in society, as you know very well. We've no +money, but we go everywhere; there's not a housekeeper's room, sir, in +this town of any consiquince, where James Morgan ain't welcome. And it +was me who got you into this Club, Lightfoot, as you very well know, +though I am an old cove, and they would have blackballed you without me +as sure as your name is Frederic." + +"I know they would, Mr. Morgan," said the other, with much humility. + +"Well, then, don't call me an old cove, sir. It ain't gentlemanlike, +Frederic Lightfoot, which I knew you when you was a cab-boy, and when +your father was in trouble, and got you the place you have now when the +Frenchman went away. And if you think, sir, that because you're making +up to Mrs. Bonner, who may have saved her two thousand pound--and I dare +say she has in five-and-twenty years as she have lived confidential maid +to Lady Clavering--yet, sir, you must remember who put you into that +service; and who knows what you were before, sir, and it don't become +you, Frederic Lightfoot, to call me an old cove." + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Morgan--I can't do more than make an +apology--will you have a glass, sir, and let me drink your 'ealth?" + +"You know I don't take sperrits. Lightfoot," replied Morgan, appeased. +"And so you and Mrs. Bonner is going to put up together, are you?" + +"She's old, but two thousand pound's a good bit, you see, Mr Morgan. And +we'll get the 'Clavering Arms' for a very little; and that'll be no bad +thing when the railroad runs through Clavering. And when we are there, I +hope you'll come and see us, Mr. Morgan." + +"It's a stoopid place, and no society," said Mr. Morgan. "I know it +well. In Mrs Pendennis's time we used to go down, reg'lar, and the hair +refreshed me after the London racket." + +"The railroad will improve Mr. Arthur's property," remarked Lightfoot. +"What's about the figure of it, should you say, sir?" + +"Under fifteen hundred, sir," answered Morgan; at which the other, who +knew the extent of poor Arthur's acres, thrust his tongue in his cheek, +but remained wisely silent. + +"Is his man any good, Mr. Morgan?" Lightfoot resumed. + +"Pidgeon ain't used to society as yet; but he's young and has good +talents, and has read a good deal, and I dessay he will do very well," +replied Morgan. "He wouldn't quite do for this kind of thing, Lightfoot, +for he ain't seen the world yet." + +When the pint of sherry for which Mr. Lightfoot called, upon Mr. +Morgan's announcement that he declined to drink spirits, had been +discussed by the two gentlemen, who held the wine up to the light, +and smacked their lips, and winked their eyes at it, and rallied the +landlord as to the vintage, in the most approved manner of connoisseurs, +Morgan's ruffled equanimity was quite restored, and he was prepared to +treat his young friend with perfect good-humour. + +"What d'you think about Miss Amory, Lightfoot--tell us in confidence, +now--Do you think we should do well--you understand--if we make Miss A. +into Mrs. A. P., comprendy vous?" + +"She and her Ma's always quarrellin'," said Mr. Lightfoot. "Bonner +is more than a match for the old lady, and treats Sir Francis like +that--like this year spill, which I fling into the grate. But she +daren't say a word to Miss Amory. No more dare none of us. When a +visitor comes in, she smiles and languishes, you'd think that butter +wouldn't melt in her mouth: and the minute he is gone, very likely, she +flares up like a little demon, and says things fit to send you wild. If +Mr. Arthur comes, it's 'Do let's sing that there delightful Song!' or, +'Come and write me them pooty verses in this halbum!' and very likely +she's been a-rilin' her mother, or sticking pins into her maid, a minute +before. She do stick pins into her and pinch her. Mary Hann showed me +one of her arms quite black and blue; and I recklect Mrs. Bonner, who's +as jealous of me as a old cat, boxed her ears for showing me. And then +you should see Miss at luncheon, when there's nobody but the family! She +makes b'leave she never heats, and my! you should only jest see her. She +has Mary Hann to bring her up plum-cakes and creams into her bedroom; +and the cook's the only man in the house she's civil to. Bonner says, +how, the second season in London, Mr. Soppington was a-goin' to propose +for her, and actially came one day, and sor her fling a book into the +fire, and scold her mother so, that he went down softly by the back +droring-room door, which he came in by; and next thing we heard of +him was, he was married to Miss Rider. Oh, she's a devil, that little +Blanche, and that's my candig apinium, Mr. Morgan." + +"Apinion, not apinium, Lightfoot, my good fellow," Mr. Morgan said, with +parental kindness, and then asked of his own bosom with a sigh, why the +deuce does my Governor want Master Arthur to marry such a girl as this? +and the tete-a-tete of the two gentlemen was broken up by the entry +of other gentlemen, members of the Club--when fashionable town-talk, +politics, cribbage, and other amusements ensued, and the conversation +became general. + +The Gentleman's Club was held in the parlour of the Wheel of Fortune +public-house, in a snug little by-lane, leading out of one of the great +streets of Mayfair, and frequented by some of the most select gentlemen +about town. Their masters' affairs, debts, intrigues, adventures; their +ladies' good and bad qualities and quarrels with their husbands; all the +family secrets were here discussed with perfect freedom and confidence, +and here, when about to enter into a new situation, a gentleman was +enabled to get every requisite information regarding the family of +which he proposed to become a member. Liveries it may be imagined +were excluded from this select precinct; and the powdered heads of the +largest metropolitan footmen might bow down in vain entreating admission +into the Gentleman's Club. These outcast giants in plush took their beer +in an outer apartment of the Wheel of Fortune, and could no more get an +entry into the Clubroom than a Pall Mall tradesman or a Lincoln's Inn +attorney could get admission into Bays's or Spratt's. And it is because +the conversation which we have permitted to overhear here, in some +measure explains the characters and bearings of our story, that we have +ventured to introduce the reader into a society so exclusive. + + + + +CHAPTER LXII. The Way of the World + + +A short time after the piece of good fortune which befell Colonel +Altamont at Epsom, that gentleman put into execution his projected +foreign tour, and the chronicler of the polite world who goes down to +London Bridge for the purpose of taking leave of the people of fashion +who quit this country, announced that among the company on board the +Soho to Antwerp last Saturday, were "Sir Robert, Lady, and the Misses +Hodge; Mr. Serjeant Kewsy, and Mrs. and Miss Kewsy; Colonel Altamont, +Major Coddy, etc." The Colonel travelled in state, and as became +a gentleman: he appeared in a rich travelling costume; he drank +brandy-and-water freely during the passage, and was not sick, as some of +the other passengers were; and he was attended by his body-servant; +the faithful Irish legionary who had been for some time in waiting upon +himself and Captain Strong in their chambers of Shepherd's Inn. + +The Chevalier partook of a copious dinner at Blackwall with his +departing friend the Colonel, and one or two others, who drank many +healths to Altamont at that liberal gentleman's expense. "Strong, old +boy," the Chevalier's worthy chum said, "if you want a little money, +now's your time. I'm your man. You're a good feller, and have been a +good feller to me, and a twenty-pound note, more or less, will make +no odds to me," But Strong said, No, he didn't want any money; he was +flush, quite flush--"that is, not flush enough to pay you back your last +loan, Altamont, but quite able to carry on for some time to come," and +so, with a not uncordial greeting between them, the two parted. Had the +possession of money really made Altamont more honest and amiable than he +had hitherto been, or only caused him to seem more amiable in Strong's +eyes? Perhaps he really was better, and money improved him. Perhaps it +was the beauty of wealth Strong saw and respected. But he argued within +himself, "This poor devil, this unlucky outcast of a returned convict, +is ten times as good a fellow as my friend Sir Francis Clavering, Bart. +He has pluck and honesty in his way. He will stick to a friend, and face +an enemy. The other never had courage to do either. And what is it that +has put the poor devil under a cloud? He was only a little wild, and +signed his father-in-law's name. Many a man has done worse, and come to +no wrong, and holds his head up. Clavering does. No, he don't hold his +head up: he never did in his best days." And Strong, perhaps, repented +him of the falsehood which he had told to the free-handed Colonel, +that he was not in want of money; but it was a falsehood on the side of +honesty, and the Chevalier could not bring down his stomach to borrow +a second time from his outlawed friend. Besides, he could get on. +Clavering had promised him some: not that Clavering's promises were much +to be believed, but the Chevalier was of a hopeful turn, and trusted in +many chances of catching his patron, and waylaying some of those stray +remittances and supplies, in the procuring of which for his principal +lay Mr. Strong's chief business. + +He had grumbled about Altamont's companionship in the Shepherd's Inn +chambers; but he found those lodgings more glum now without his partner +than with him. The solitary life was not agreeable to his social soul; +and he had got into extravagant and luxurious habits, too, having a +servant at his command to run his errands, to arrange his toilets, and +to cook his meal. It was rather a grand and touching sight now to see +the portly and handsome gentleman painting his own boots, and broiling +his own mutton chop. It has been before stated that the Chevalier had +a wife, a Spanish lady of Vittoria, who had gone back to her friends, +after a few months' union with the Captain, whose head she broke with +a dish. He began to think whether he should not go back and see his +Juanita. The Chevalier was growing melancholy after the departure of his +friend the Colonel; or, to use his own picturesque expression, was "down +on his luck." These moments of depression and intervals of ill fortune +occur constantly in the lives of heroes; Marius at Minturme, Charles +Edward in the Highlands, Napoleon before Elba. What great man has not +been called upon to face evil fortune? + +From Clavering no supplies were to be had for some time, the +five-and-twenty pounds or the "pony," which the exemplary Baronet had +received from Mr. Altamont, had fled out of Clavering's keeping as +swiftly as many previous ponies. He had been down the river with a +choice party of sporting gents, who dodged the police and landed in +Essex, where they put up Billy Bluck to fight Dick the cabman whom the +Baronet backed, and who had it all his own way for thirteen rounds, +when, by an unlucky blow in the windpipe, Billy killed him. "It's always +my luck, Strong," Sir Francis said; "the betting was three to one on the +cabman, and I thought myself as sure of thirty pound, as if I had it in +my pocket. And dammy, I owe my man Lightfoot fourteen pound now which +he's lent and paid for me: and he duns me--the confounded impudent +blackguard: and I wish to Heaven I knew any way of getting a bill done, +or of screwing a little out of my lady! I'll give you half, Ned, upon +my soul and honour, I'll give you half if you can get anybody to do us a +little fifty." + +But Ned said sternly that he had given his word of honour, as a +gentleman, that he would be no party to any future bill transactions in +which her husband might engage (who had given his word of honour too), +and the Chevalier said that he, at least, would keep his word, and would +black his own boots all his life rather than break his promise. And what +is more, he vowed he would advise Lady Clavering that Sir Francis was +about to break his faith towards her upon the very first hint which he +could get that such was Clavering's intention. + +Upon this information Sir Francis Clavering, according to his custom, +cried and cursed very volubly. He spoke of death as his only resource. +He besought and implored his dear Strong, his best friend, his dear old +Ned, not to throw him over: and when he quitted his dearest Ned, as he +went down the stairs of Shepherd's Inn, swore and blasphemed at Ned as +the most infernal villain, and traitor, and blackguard, and coward under +the sun, and wished Ned was in his grave, and in a worse place, only he +would like the confounded ruffian to live, until Frank Clavering had had +his revenge out of him. + +In Strong's chambers the Baronet met a gentleman whose visits were +now, as it has been shown, very frequent in Shepherd's Inn, Mr. Samuel +Huxter, of Clavering. That young fellow, who had poached the walnuts in +Clavering Park in his youth, and had seen the Baronet drive through the +street at home with four horses, and prance up to church with powdered +footmen, had an immense respect for his Member, and a prodigious delight +in making his acquaintance. He introduced himself with much blushing +and trepidation, as a Clavering man--son of Mr. Huxter, of the +market-place--father attended Sir Francis's keeper, Coxwood, when +his gun burst and took off three fingers--proud to make Sir Francis's +acquaintance. All of which introduction Sir Francis received +affably. And honest Huxter talked about Sir Francis to the chaps at +Bartholomew's: and told Fanny, in the lodge, that, after all, there was +nothing like a thoroughbred un, a regular good old English gentleman, +one of the olden time! To which Fanny replied, that she thought Sir +Francis was an ojous creature--she didn't know why--but she couldn't +abear him--she was sure he was wicked, and low, and mean--she knew he +was; and when Sam to this replied that Sir Francis was very affable, and +had borrowed half a sov' of him quite kindly, Fanny burst into a +laugh, pulled Sam's long hair (which was not yet of irreproachable +cleanliness), patted his chin, and called him a stoopid, stoopid, old +foolish stoopid, and said that Sir Francis was always borrering money of +everybody, and that Mar had actially refused him twice, and had had to +wait three months to get seven shillings which he had borrowed of 'er. + +"Don't say 'er but her, borrer but borrow, actially but actually, +Fanny," Mr. Huxter replied--not to a fault in her argument, but to +grammatical errors in her statement. + +"Well then, her, and borrow, and hactually--there then, you stoopid," +said the other; and the scholar made such a pretty face that the grammar +master was quickly appeased, and would have willingly given her a +hundred more lessons on the spot at the price which he took for that +one. + +Of course Mrs. Bolton was by, and I suppose that Fanny and Dr. Sam were +on exceedingly familiar and confidential terms by this time, and that +time had brought to the former certain consolations, and soothed certain +regrets, which are deucedly bitter when they occur, but which are, no +more than tooth-pulling, or any other pang, eternal. + +As you sit, surrounded by respect and affection; happy, honoured, and +flattered in your old age; your foibles gently indulged; your least +words kindly cherished; your garrulous old stories received for the +hundredth time with dutiful forbearance, and never-failing hypocritical +smiles; the women of your house constant in their flatteries; the +young men hushed and attentive when you begin to speak; the servants +awestricken; the tenants cap in hand, and ready to act in the place +of your worship's horses when your honour takes a drive--it has often +struck you, O thoughtful Dives! that this respect, and these glories, +are for the main part transferred, with your fee simple, to your +successor--that the servants will bow, and the tenants shout, for your +son as for you; that the butler will fetch him the wine (improved by a +little keeping) that's now in your cellar; and that, when your night is +come, and the light of your life is gone down, as sure as the morning +rises after you and without you, the sun of prosperity and flattery +shines on your heir. Men come and bask in the halo of consols and +acres that beams round about him: the reverence is transferred with +the estate; of which, with all its advantages, pleasures, respect, and +good-will, he in turn becomes the life-tenant. How long do you wish or +expect that your people will regret you? How much time does a man devote +to grief before he begins to enjoy? A great man must keep his heir at +his feast like a living memento mori. If he holds very much by life, the +presence of the other must be a constant sting and warning. "Make ready +to go," says the successor to your honour; "I am waiting: and I could +hold it as well as you." + +What has this reference to the possible reader, to do with any of the +characters of this history? Do we wish to apologise for Pen because he +has got a white hat, and because his mourning for his mother is fainter? +All the lapse of years, all the career of fortune, all the events of +life, however strongly they may move or eagerly excite him, never can +remove that sainted image from his heart, or banish that blessed love +from its sanctuary. If he yields to wrong, the dear eyes will look sadly +upon him when he dares to meet them; if he does well, endures pain, or +conquers temptation, the ever present love will greet him, he knows, +with approval and pity; if he falls, plead for him; if he suffers, cheer +him;--be with him and accompany him always until death is past; and +sorrow and sin are no more. Is this mere dreaming, or, on the part of an +idle story-teller, useless moralising? May not the man of the world take +his moment, too, to be grave and thoughtful? Ask of your own hearts and +memories, brother and sister, if we do not live in the dead; and (to +speak reverently) prove God by love? + +Of these matters Pen and Warrington often spoke in many a solemn and +friendly converse in after days; and Pendennis's mother was worshipped +in his memory, and canonised there, as such a saint ought to be. Lucky +he in life who knows a few such women! A kind provision of Heaven +it was, that sent us such; and gave us to admire that touching and +wonderful spectacle of innocence, and love, and beauty. + +But as it is certain that if, in the course of these sentimental +conversations, any outer stranger, Major Pendennis for instance, had +walked into Pen's chambers, Arthur and Warrington would have stopped +their talk, and chosen another subject, and discoursed about the Opera, +or the last debate in Parliament, or Miss Jones's marriage with Captain +Smith, or what not,--so, let us imagine that the public steps in at this +juncture, and stops the confidential talk between author and reader, +and begs us to resume our remarks about this world, with which both are +certainly better acquainted than with that other one into which we have +just been peeping. + +On coming into his property, Arthur Pendennis at first comported himself +with a modesty and equanimity which obtained his friend Warrington's +praises, though Arthur's uncle was a little inclined to quarrel with +his nephew's meanness of spirit, for not assuming greater state and +pretensions now that he had entered on the enjoyment of his kingdom. +He would have had Arthur installed in handsome quarters, and riding +on showy park hacks, or in well-built cabriolets, every day. "I am +too absent," Arthur said, with a laugh, "to drive a cab in London; the +omnibus would cut me in two, or I should send my horse's head into the +ladies' carriage-windows; and you wouldn't have me driven about by my +servant like an apothecary, uncle?" No, Major Pendennis would on +no account have his nephew appear like an apothecary; the august +representative of the house of Pendennis must not so demean himself. And +when Arthur, pursuing his banter, said, "And yet, I dare say, sir, my +father was proud enough when he first set up his gig," the old Major +hemmed and ha'd, and his wrinkled face reddened with a blush as he +answered, "You know what Buonaparte said, sir, 'Il faut laver son linge +sale en famille.' There is no need, sir, for you to brag that your +father was a--a medical man. He came of a most ancient but fallen house, +and was obliged to reconstruct the family fortunes as many a man of good +family has done before him. You are like the fellow in Sterne, sir--the +Marquis who came to demand his sword again. Your father got back +yours for you. You are a man of landed estate, by Gad, sir, and a +gentleman--never forget you are a gentleman." + +Then Arthur slily turned on his uncle the argument which he had heard +the old gentleman often use regarding himself. "In the society which I +have the honour of frequenting through your introduction, who cares to +ask about my paltry means or my humble gentility, uncle?" he asked. "It +would be absurd of me to attempt to compete with the great folks; and +all that they can ask from us is, that we should have a decent address +and good manners." + +"But for all that, sir, I should belong to a better Club or two," the +uncle answered: "I should give an occasional dinner, and select my +society well; and I should come out of that horrible garret in the +Temple, sir." And so Arthur compromised by descending to the second +floor in Lamb Court: Warrington still occupying his old quarters, +and the two friends being determined not to part one from the other. +Cultivate kindly, reader, those friendships of your youth: it is only in +that generous time that they are formed. How different the intimacies of +after days are, and how much weaker the grasp of your own hand after it +has been shaken about in twenty years' commerce with the world, and +has squeezed and dropped a thousand equally careless palms! As you can +seldom fashion your tongue to speak a new language after twenty, the +heart refuses to receive friendship pretty soon: it gets too hard to +yield to the impression. + +So Pen had many acquaintances, and being of a jovial and easy turn, got +more daily: but no friend like Warrington; and the two men continued to +live almost as much in common as the Knights of the Temple, riding upon +one horse (for Pen's was at Warrington's service), and having their +chambers and their servitor in common. + +Mr. Warrington had made the acquaintance of Pen's friends of Grosvenor +Place during their last unlucky season in London, and had expressed +himself no better satisfied with Sir Francis and Lady Clavering and +her ladyship's daughter than was the public in general. "The world is +right," George said, "about those people. The young men laugh and talk +freely before those ladies, and about them. The girl sees people whom +she has no right to know, and talks to men with whom no girl should +have an intimacy. Did you see those two reprobates leaning over Lady +Clavering's carriage in the Park the other day, and leering under Miss +Blanche's bonnet? No good mother would let her daughter know those men, +or admit them within her doors." + +"The Begum is the most innocent and good-natured soul alive," interposed +Pen. "She never heard any harm of Captain Blackball, or read that trial +in which Charley Lovelace figures. Do you suppose that honest ladies +read and remember the Chronique Scandaleuse as well as you, you old +grumbler?" + +"Would you like Laura Bell to know those fellows?" Warrington asked, +his face turning rather red. "Would you let any woman you loved be +contaminated by their company? I have no doubt that the poor Begum is +ignorant of their histories. It seems to me she is ignorant of a great +number of better things. It seems to me that your honest Begum is not +a lady, Pen. It is not her fault, doubtless, that she has not had the +education, or learned the refinements of a lady." + +"She is as moral as Lady Portsea, who has all the world at her balls, +and as refined as Mrs. Bull, who breaks the King's English, and has half +a dozen dukes at her table," Pen answered, rather sulkily. "Why should +you and I be more squeamish than the rest of the world? Why are we to +visit the sins of her father on this harmless kind creature? She never +did anything but kindness to you or any mortal soul. As far as she knows +she does her best. She does not set up to be more than she is. She gives +you the best dinners she can buy, and the best company she can get. She +pays the debts of that scamp of a husband of hers. She spoils her boy +like the most virtuous mother in England. Her opinion about literary +matters, to be sure, is not much; and I daresay she never read a line of +Wordsworth, or heard of Tennyson in her life." + +"No more has Mrs. Flanagan the laundress," growled out Pen's Mentor; "no +more has Betty the housemaid; and I have no word of blame against them. +But a high-souled man doesn't make friends of these. A gentleman doesn't +choose these for his companions, or bitterly rues it afterwards if +he do. Are you, who are setting up to be a man of the world and a +philosopher, to tell me that the aim of life is to guttle three courses +and dine off silver? Do you dare to own to yourself that your ambition +in life is good claret, and that you'll dine with any, provided you +get a stalled ox to feed on? You call me a Cynic--why, what a monstrous +Cynicism it is, which you and the rest of you men of the world admit! +I'd rather live upon raw turnips and sleep in a hollow tree, or turn +backwoodsman or savage, than degrade myself to this civilisation, and +own that a French cook was the thing in life best worth living for." + +"Because you like a raw beefsteak and a pipe afterwards," broke out Pen, +"you give yourself airs of superiority over people whose tastes are more +dainty, and are not ashamed of the world they live in. Who goes about +professing particular admiration, or esteem, or friendship, or gratitude +even, for the people one meets every day? If A. asks me to his house, +and gives me his best, I take his good things for what they are worth +and no more. I do not profess to pay him back in friendship, but in the +conventional money of society. When we part, we part without any grief. +When we meet, we are tolerably glad to see one another. If I were only +to live with my friends, your black muzzle, old George, is the only face +I should see." + +"You are your uncle's pupil," said Warrington, rather sadly; "and you +speak like a worldling." + +"And why not?" asked Pendennis; "why not acknowledge the world I stand +upon, and submit to the conditions of the society which we live in +and live by? I am older than you, George, in spite of your grizzled +whiskers, and have seen much more of the world than you have in your +garret here, shut up with your books and your reveries and your ideas of +one-and-twenty. I say, I take the world as it is, and being of it, will +not be ashamed of it. If the time is out of joint, have I any calling or +strength to set it right?" + +"Indeed, I don't think you have much of either," growled Pen's +interlocutor. + +"If I doubt whether I am better than my neighbour," Arthur continued, +"if I concede that I am no better,--I also doubt whether he is better +than I. I see men who begin with ideas of universal reform, and who, +before their beards are grown, propound their loud plans for the +regeneration of mankind, give up their schemes after a few years of +bootless talking and vainglorious attempts to lead their fellows; and +after they have found that men will no longer bear them, as indeed +they never were in the least worthy to be heard, sink quietly into the +ranks-and-file,--acknowledging their aims impracticable, or thankful +that they were never put into practice. The fiercest reformers grow +calm, and are faire to put up with things as they are: the loudest +Radical orators become dumb, quiescent placemen: the most fervent +Liberals when out of power, become humdrum Conservatives or downright +tyrants or despots in office. Look at the Thiers, look at Guizot, in +opposition and in place! Look at the Whigs appealing to the country, and +the Whigs in power! Would you say that the conduct of these men is an +act of treason, as the Radicals bawl,--who would give way in their turn, +were their turn ever to come? No, only that they submit to circumstances +which are stronger than they,--march as the world marches towards +reform, but at the world's pace (and the movements of the vast body +of mankind must needs be slow), forgo this scheme as impracticable, on +account of opposition,--that as immature, because against the sense of +the majority,--are forced to calculate drawbacks and difficulties, as +well as to think of reforms and advances,--and compelled finally to +submit, and to wait, and to compromise." + +"The Right Honourable Arthur Pendennis could not speak better, or be +more satisfied with himself, if he was First Lord of the Treasury and +Chancellor of the Exchequer," Warrington said. + +"Self-satisfied? Why self-satisfied?" continued Pen. "It seems to +me that my scepticism is more respectful and more modest than the +revolutionary ardour of other folks. Many a patriot of eighteen, many a +Spouting-Club orator, would turn the Bishops out of the House of Lords +to-morrow, and throw the Lords out after the Bishops, and throw the +Throne into the Thames after the Peers and the Bench. Is that man more +modest than I, who takes these institutions as I find them, and waits +for time and truth to develop, or fortify, or (if you like) destroy +them? A college tutor, or a nobleman's toady, who appears one fine day +as my right reverend lord, in a silk apron and a shovel-hat, and assumes +benedictory airs over me, is still the same man we remember at Oxbridge, +when he was truckling to the tufts, and bullying the poor undergraduates +in the lecture-room. An hereditary legislator, who passes his time with +jockeys and black-legs and ballet-girls, and who is called to rule +over me and his other betters because his grandfather made a lucky +speculation in the funds, or found a coal or tin mine on his property, +or because his stupid ancestor happened to be in command of ten thousand +men as brave as himself, who overcame twelve thousand Frenchmen, or +fifty thousand Indians--such a man, I say, inspires me with no more +respect than the bitterest democrat can feel towards him. But, such as +he is, he is a part of the old society to which we belong and I submit +to his lordship with acquiescence; and he takes his place above the best +of us at all dinner-parties, and there bides his time. I don't want +to chop his head off with a guillotine, or to fling mud at him in the +streets. When they call such a man a disgrace to his order; and such +another, who is good and gentle, refined and generous, who employs his +great means in promoting every kindness and charity, and art and grace +of life, in the kindest and most gracious manner, an ornament to his +rank--the question as to the use and propriety of the order is not in +the least affected one way or other. There it is, extant among us, a +part of our habits, the creed of many of us, the growth of centuries, +the symbol of a most complicated tradition--there stand my lord the +bishop and my lord the hereditary legislator--what the French call +transactions both of them,--representing in their present shape +mail-clad barons and double-sworded chiefs (from whom their lordships +the hereditaries, for the most part, don't descend), and priests, +professing to hold an absolute truth and a divinely inherited power, +the which truth absolute our ancestors burned at the stake, and denied +there; the which divine transmissible power still exists in print--to +be believed, or not, pretty much at choice; and of these, I say, I +acquiesce that they exist, and no more. If you say that these schemes, +devised before printing was known, or steam was born; when thought was +an infant, scared and whipped; and truth under its guardians was gagged, +and swathed, and blindfolded, and not allowed to lift its voice, or to +look out or to walk under the sun; before men were permitted to meet, or +to trade, or to speak with each other--if any one says (as some faithful +souls do) that these schemes are for ever, and having been changed +and modified constantly are to be subject to no further development or +decay, I laugh, and let the man speak. But I would have toleration for +these, as I would ask it for my own opinions; and if they are to die, +I would rather they had a decent and natural than an abrupt and violent +death." + +"You would have sacrificed to Jove," Warrington said, "had you lived in +the time of the Christian persecutions." + +"Perhaps I would," said Pen, with some sadness. "Perhaps I am a +coward,--perhaps my faith is unsteady; but this is my own reserve. +What I argue here is that I will not persecute. Make a faith or a dogma +absolute, and persecution becomes a logical consequence; and Dominic +burns a Jew, or Calvin an Arian, or Nero a Christian, or Elizabeth or +Mary a Papist or Protestant; or their father both or either, according +to his humour; and acting without any pangs of remorse,--but, on the +contrary, notions of duty fulfilled. Make dogma absolute, and to inflict +or to suffer death becomes easy and necessary; and Mahomet's soldiers +shouting, 'Paradise! Paradise!' and dying on the Christian spears, are +not more or less praiseworthy than the same men slaughtering a townful +of Jews, or cutting off the heads of all prisoners who would not +acknowledge that there was but one Prophet of God." + +"A little while since, young one," Warrington said, who had been +listening to his friend's confessions neither without sympathy nor +scorn, for his mood led him to indulge in both, "you asked me why I +remained out of the strife of the world, and looked on at the great +labour of my neighbour without taking any part in the struggle? Why, +what a mere dilettante you own yourself to be, in this confession of +general scepticism, and what a listless spectator yourself! You are +six-and-twenty years old; and as blase as a rake of sixty. You neither +hope much nor care much, nor believe much. You doubt about other men +as much as about yourself. Were it made of such pococuranti as you, the +world would be intolerable; and I had rather live in a wilderness of +monkeys, and listen to their chatter, than in a company of men who +denied everything." + +"Were the world composed of Saint Bernards or Saint Dominies, it would +be equally odious," said Pen, "and at the end of a few scores of years +would cease to exist altogether. Would you have every man with his head +shaved, and every woman in a cloister,--carrying out to the full the +ascetic principle? Would you have conventicle hymns twanging from every +lane in every city in the world? Would you have all the birds of the +forest sing one note and fly with one feather? You call me a sceptic +because I acknowledge what is; and in acknowledging that, be it linnet +or lark, or priest or parson, be it, I mean, any single one of the +infinite varieties of the creatures of God (whose very name I would be +understood to pronounce with reverence, and never to approach but with +distant awe), I say that the study and acknowledgment of that variety +amongst men especially increases our respect and wonder for the Creator, +Commander, and Ordainer of all these minds, so different and yet so +united,--meeting in a common adoration, and offering up, each +according to his degree and means of approaching the Divine centre, his +acknowledgment of praise and worship, each singing (to recur to the bird +simile) his natural song." + +"And so, Arthur, the hymn of a saint, or the ode of a poet, or the chant +of a Newgate thief, are all pretty much the same in your philosophy," +said George. + +"Even that sneer could be answered were it to the point," Pendennis +replied; "but it is not; and it could be replied to you, that even to +the wretched outcry of the thief on the tree, the wisest and the best of +all teachers we know of, the untiring Comforter and Consoler, promised a +pitiful hearing and a certain hope. Hymns of saints! odes of poets! who +are we to measure the chances and opportunities, the means of doing, or +even judging, right and wrong, awarded to men; and to establish the rule +for meting out their punishments and rewards? We are as insolent and +unthinking in judging of men's morals as of their intellects. We admire +this man as being a great philosopher, and set down the other as a +dullard, not knowing either, or the amount of truth in either, or being +certain of the truth anywhere. We sing Te Deum for this hero who has +won a battle, and De Profundis for that other one who has broken out of +prison, and has been caught afterwards by the policeman. Our measure +of rewards and punishments is most partial and incomplete, absurdly +inadequate, utterly worldly, and we wish to continue it into the next +world. Into that next and awful world we strive to pursue men, and send +after them our impotent party verdicts of condemnation or acquittal. We +set up our paltry little rods to measure Heaven immeasurable, as if, in +comparison to that, Newton's mind or Pascal's or Shakspeare's was any +loftier than mine; as if the ray which travels from the sun would reach +me sooner than the man who blacks my boots. Measured by that altitude, +the tallest and the smallest among us are so alike diminutive and +pitifully base, that I say we should take no count of the calculation, +and it is a meanness to reckon the difference." + +"Your figure fails there, Arthur," said the other, better pleased; +"if even by common arithmetic we can multiply as we can reduce almost +infinitely, the Great Reckoner must take count of all; and the small is +not small, or the great great, to his infinity." + +"I don't call those calculations in question," Arthur said; "I only say +that yours are incomplete and premature; false in consequence, and, by +every operation, multiplying into wider error. I do not condemn the men +who murdered Socrates and damned Galileo. I say that they damned Galileo +and murdered Socrates." + +"And yet but a moment since you admitted the propriety of acquiescence +in the present, and, I suppose, all other tyrannies?" + +"No: but that if an opponent menaces me, of whom and without cost of +blood and violence I can get rid, I would rather wait him out, and +starve him out, than fight him out. Fabius fought Hannibal sceptically. +Who was his Roman coadjutor, whom we read of in Plutarch when we +were boys, who scoffed at the other's procrastination and doubted his +courage, and engaged the enemy and was beaten for his pains?" + +In these speculations and confessions of Arthur, the reader may +perhaps see allusions to questions which, no doubt, have occupied +and discomposed himself, and which he has answered by very different +solutions to those come to by our friend. We are not pledging ourselves +for the correctness of his opinions, which readers will please to +consider are delivered dramatically, the writer being no more answerable +for them, than for the sentiments uttered by any other character of +the story: our endeavour is merely to follow out, in its progress, the +development of the mind of a worldly and selfish, but not ungenerous or +unkind or truth-avoiding man. And it will be seen that the lamentable +stage to which his logic at present has brought him, is one of general +scepticism and sneering acquiescence in the world as it is; or if you +like so to call it, a belief qualified with scorn in all things extant. +The tastes and habits of such a man prevent him from being a boisterous +demagogue, and his love of truth and dislike of cant keep him from +advancing crude propositions, such as many loud reformers are constantly +ready with; much more of uttering downright falsehoods in arguing +questions or abusing opponents, which he would die or starve rather than +use. It was not in our friend's nature to be able to utter certain lies; +nor was he strong enough to protest against others, except with a +polite sneer; his maxim being, that he owed obedience to all Acts of +Parliament, as long as they were not repealed. + +And to what does this easy and sceptical life lead a man? Friend Arthur +was a Sadducee, and the Baptist might be in the Wilderness shouting +to the poor, who were listening with all their might and faith to the +preacher's awful accents and denunciations of wrath or woe or salvation; +and our friend the Sadducee would turn his sleek mule with a shrug and a +smile from the crowd, and go home to the shade of his terrace, and +muse over preacher and audience, and turn to his roll of Plato, or his +pleasant Greek songbook babbling of honey and Hybla, and nymphs and +fountains and love. To what, we say, does this scepticism lead? It leads +a man to a shameful loneliness and selfishness, so to speak--the more +shameful, because it is so good-humoured and conscienceless and serene. +Conscience! What is conscience? Why accept remorse? What is public or +private faith? Mythuses alike enveloped in enormous tradition. If seeing +and acknowledging the lies of the world, Arthur, as see them you can +with only too fatal a clearness, you submit to them without any protest +further than a laugh: if, plunged yourself in easy sensuality, you allow +the whole wretched world to pass groaning by you unmoved: if the fight +for the truth is taking place, and all men of honour are on the ground +armed on the one side or the other, and you alone are to lie on your +balcony and smoke your pipe out of the noise and the danger, you had +better have died, or never have been at all, than such a sensual coward. + +"The truth, friend!" Arthur said, imperturbably; "where is the truth? +Show it me. That is the question between us. I see it on both sides. I +see it on the Conservative side of the house, and amongst the Radicals, +and even on the ministerial benches. I see it in this man, who worships +by Act of Parliament, and is rewarded with a silk apron and five +thousand a year; in that man, who, driven fatally by the remorseless +logic of his creed, gives up everything, friends, fame, dearest ties, +closest vanities, the respect of an army of churchmen, the recognised +position of a leader, and passes over, truth-impelled, to the enemy, in +whose ranks he will serve henceforth as a nameless private soldier:--I +see the truth in that man, as I do in his brother, whose logic drives +him to quite a different conclusion, and who, after having passed a life +in vain endeavours to reconcile an irreconcilable book, flings it at +last down in despair, and declares, with tearful eyes, and hands up to +heaven, his revolt and recantation. If the truth is with all these, why +should I take side with any one of them? Some are called upon to +preach: let them preach. Of these preachers there are somewhat too many, +methinks, who fancy they have the gift. But we cannot all be parsons in +church, that is clear. Some must sit silent and listen, or go to sleep +mayhap. Have we not all our duties? The head charity-boy blows the +bellows; the master canes the other boys in the organ-loft; the clerk +sings out Amen from the desk; and the beadle with the staff opens the +door for his Reverence, who rustles in silk up to the cushion. I won't +cane the boys, nay, or say Amen always, or act as the church's champion +and warrior, in the shape of the beadle with the staff; but I will take +off my hat in the place, and say my prayers there too, and shake hands +with the clergyman as he steps on the grass outside. Don't I know that +his being there is a compromise, and that he stands before me an Act +of Parliament? That the church he occupies was built for other worship? +That the Methodist chapel is next door; and that Bunyan the tinker is +bawling out the tidings of damnation on the common hard by? Yes, I am a +Sadducee; and I take things as I find them, and the world, and the Acts +of Parliament of the world, as they are; and as I intend to take a wife, +if I find one--not to be madly in love and prostrate at her feet like +a fool--not to worship her as an angel, or to expect to find her +as such--but to be good-natured to her, and courteous, expecting +good-nature and pleasant society from her in turn. And so, George, +if ever you hear of my marrying, depend on it, it won't be a romantic +attachment on my side: and if you hear of any good place under +Government, I have no particular scruples that I know of, which would +prevent me from accepting your offer." + +"O Pen, you scoundrel! I know what you mean," here Warrington broke +out. "This is the meaning of your scepticism, of your quietism, of your +atheism, my poor fellow. You're going to sell yourself, and Heaven help +you! You are going to make a bargain which will degrade you and make you +miserable for life, and there's no use talking of it. If you are once +bent on it, the devil won't prevent you." + +"On the contrary, he's on my side, isn't he, George?" said Pen with a +laugh. "What good cigars these are! Come down and have a little dinner +at the Club; the chef's in town, and he'll cook a good one for me. No, +you won't? Don't be sulky, old boy, I'm going down to--to the country +to-morrow." + + + + +CHAPTER LXIII. Which accounts perhaps for Chapter LXI. + +The information regarding the affairs of the Clavering family, which +Major Pendennis had acquired through Strong, and by his own personal +interference as the friend of the house, was such as almost made the old +gentleman pause in any plans which he might have once entertained for +his nephew's benefit. To bestow upon Arthur a wife with two such +fathers-in-law, as the two worthies whom the guileless and unfortunate +Lady Clavering had drawn in her marriage ventures, was to benefit no +man. And though the one, in a manner, neutralised the other, and the +appearance of Amory or Altamont in public would be the signal for his +instantaneous withdrawal and condign punishment,--for the fugitive +convict had cut down the officer in charge of him,--and a rope would be +inevitably his end; if he came again under British authorities; yet, no +guardian would like to secure for his ward a wife, whose parent was to +be got rid of in such a way; and the old gentleman's notion always had +been that Altamont, with the gallows before his eyes, would assuredly +avoid recognition; while, at the same time, by holding the threat of his +discovery over Clavering, the latter, who would lose everything by +Amory's appearance, would be a slave in the hands of the person who knew +so fatal a secret. + +But if the Begum paid Clavering's debts many times more, her wealth +would be expended altogether upon this irreclaimable reprobate; and her +heirs, whoever they might be, would succeed but to an emptied treasury; +and Miss Amory, instead of bringing her husband a good income and a seat +in Parliament, would bring to that individual her person only, and her +pedigree with that lamentable note of sus. per coll. at the name of the +last male of her line. + +There was, however, to the old schemer revolving these things in his +mind, another course yet open; the which will appear to the reader who +may take the trouble to peruse a conversation, which presently ensued, +between Major Pendennis and the honourable Baronet, the Member for +Clavering. + +When a man, under pecuniary difficulties, disappears from among his +usual friends and equals,--dives out of sight, as it were, from the +flock of birds in which he is accustomed to sail, it is wonderful at +what strange and distant nooks he comes up again for breath. I have +known a Pall Mall lounger and Rotten Row buck, of no inconsiderable +fashion, vanish from amongst his comrades of the Clubs and the Park, and +be discovered, very happy and affable, at an eighteenpenny ordinary +in Billingsgate: another gentleman, of great learning and wit, when +outrunning the constable (were I to say he was a literary man, some +critics would vow that I intended to insult the literary profession), +once sent me his address at a little public-house called the "Fox under +the Hill," down a most darksome and cavernous archway in the Strand. +Such a man, under such misfortunes, may have a house, but he is never +in his house; and has an address where letters may be left; but only +simpletons go with the hopes of seeing him.--Only a few of the faithful +know where he is to be found, and have the clue to his hiding-place. +So, after the disputes with his wife, and the misfortunes consequent +thereon, to find Sir Francis Clavering at home was impossible. "Ever +since I hast him for my book, which is fourteen pound, he don't come +home till three o'clock, and purtends to be asleep when I bring his +water of a mornin', and dodges hout when I'm downstairs," Mr. Lightfoot +remarked to his friend Morgan; and announced that he should go down to +my Lady, and be butler there, and marry his old woman. In like manner, +after his altercations with Strong, the Baronet did not come near +him, and fled to other haunts, out of the reach of the Chevalier's +reproaches;--out of the reach of conscience, if possible, which many +of us try to dodge and leave behind us by changes of scene and other +fugitive stratagems. + +So, though the elder Pendennis, having his own ulterior object, was bent +upon seeing Pen's country neighbour and representative in Parliament, +it took the Major no inconsiderable trouble and time before he could get +him into such a confidential state and conversation, as were necessary +for the ends which the Major had in view. For since the Major had been +called in as family friend, and had cognisance of Clavering's affairs, +conjugal and pecuniary, the Baronet avoided him: as he always avoided +all his lawyers and agents when there was an account to be rendered, or +an affair of business to be discussed between them; and never kept any +appointment but when its object was the raising of money. Thus, previous +to catching this most shy and timorous bird, the Major made more +than one futile attempt to hold him;--on one day it was a most +innocent-looking invitation to dinner at Greenwich, to meet a few +friends; the Baronet accepted, suspected something, and did not come; +leaving the Major (who indeed proposed to represent in himself the body +of friends) to eat his whitebait alone:--on another occasion the +Major wrote and asked for ten minutes' talk, and the Baronet instantly +acknowledged the note, and made the appointment at four o'clock the next +day at Bays's precisely (he carefully underlined the "precisely"); but +though four o'clock came, as in the course of time and destiny it could +not do otherwise, no Clavering made his appearance. Indeed, if he had +borrowed twenty pounds of Pendennis, he could not have been more timid, +or desirous of avoiding the Major; and the latter found that it was one +thing to seek a man, and another to find him. + +Before the close of that day in which Strong's patron had given the +Chevalier the benefit of so many blessings before his face and curses +behind his back, Sir Francis Clavering, who had pledged his word and his +oath to his wife's advisers to draw or accept no more bills of exchange, +and to be content with the allowance which his victimised wife still +awarded him, had managed to sign his respectable name to a piece of +stamped paper, which the Baronet's friend, Mr. Moss Abrams, had carried +off, promising to have the bill "done" by a party with whose intimacy +Mr. Abrams was favoured. And it chanced that Strong heard of this +transaction at the place where the writings had been drawn,--in the +back-parlour, namely, of Mr. Santiago's cigar-shop, where the Chevalier +was constantly in the habit of spending an hour in the evening. + +"He is at his old work again," Mr. Santiago told his customer. "He and +Moss Abrams were in my parlour. Moss sent out my boy for a stamp. It +must have been a bill for fifty pound. I heard the Baronet tell Moss +to date it two months back. He will pretend that it is an old bill, and +that he forgot it when he came to a settlement with his wife the other +day. I dare say they will give him some more money now he is clear." A +man who has the habit of putting his unlucky name to "promises to pay" +at six months, has the satisfaction of knowing, too, that his affairs +are known and canvassed, and his signature handed round among the very +worst knaves and rogues of London. + +Mr. Santiago's shop was close by St. James's Street and Bury Street, +where we have had the honour of visiting our friend Major Pendennis in +his lodgings. The Major was walking daintily towards his apartment, as +Strong, burning with wrath and redolent of Havanna, strode along the +same pavement opposite to him. + +"Confound these young men: how they poison everything with their smoke," +thought the Major. "Here comes a fellow with mustachios and a cigar. +Every fellow who smokes and wears mustachios is a low fellow. Oh! it's +Mr. Strong.--I hope you are well, Mr. Strong?" and the old gentleman, +making a dignified bow to the Chevalier, was about to pass into his +house; directing towards the lock of the door, with trembling hand, the +polished door-key. + +We have said that, at the long and weary disputes and conferences +regarding the payment of Sir Francis Clavering's last debts, Strong and +Pendennis had both been present as friends and advisers of the Baronet's +unlucky family. Strong stopped and held out his hand to his brother +negotiator, and old Pendennis put out towards him a couple of ungracious +fingers. + +"What is your good news?" said Major Pendennis, patronising the other +still further, and condescending to address to him an observation; for +old Pendennis had kept such good company all his life, that he vaguely +imagined he honoured common men by speaking to them. "Still in town, Mr. +Strong? I hope I see you well." + +"My news is bad news, sir," Strong answered; "it concerns our friends at +Tunbridge Wells, and I should like to talk to you about it. Clavering is +at his old tricks again, Major Pendennis." + +"Indeed! Pray do me the favour to come into my lodging," cried the Major +with awakened interest; and the pair entered and took possession of his +drawing-room. Here seated, Strong unburthened himself of his indignation +to the Major, and spoke at large of Clavering's recklessness and +treachery. "No promises will bind him, sir," he said. "You remember when +we met, sir, with my lady's lawyer, how he wouldn't be satisfied with +giving his honour, but wanted to take his oath on his knees to his wife, +and rang the bell for a Bible, and swore perdition on his soul if he +ever would give another bill. He has been signing one this very day, +sir: and will sign as many more as you please for ready money: and +will deceive anybody, his wife or his child, or his old friend, who has +backed him a hundred times. Why, there's a bill of his and mine will be +due next week." + +"I thought we had paid all." + +"Not that one," Strong said, blushing. "He asked me not to mention it, +and--and--I had half the money for that, Major; And they will be down +on me. But I don't care for it; I'm used to it. It's Lady Clavering that +riles me. It's a shame that that good-natured woman, who has paid him +out of gaol a score of times, should be ruined by his heartlessness. A +parcel of bill-stealers boxers, any rascals, get his money; and he don't +scruple to throw an honest fellow over. Would you believe it, sir, he +took money of Altamont--you know whom I mean." + +"Indeed? of that singular man, who I think came tipsy once to Sir +Francis's house?" Major Pendennis said, with impenetrable countenance. +"Who is Altamont, Mr. Strong?" + +"I am sure I don't know, if you don't know," the Chevalier answered, +with a look of surprise and suspicion. + +"To tell you frankly," said the Major, "I have my suspicions--I +suppose--mind, I only suppose--that in our friend Clavering's a +life--who, between you and me, Captain Strong, we must own about as +loose a fish as any in my acquaintance--there are, no doubt, some queer +secrets and stories which he would not like to have known: none of us +would. And very likely this fellow, who calls himself Altamont, knows +some story against Clavering, and has some hold on him, and gets money +out of him on the strength of his information. I know some of the best +men of the best families in England who are paying through the nose in +that way. But their private affairs are no business of mine, Mr. Strong; +and it is not to be supposed that because I go and dine with a man, I +pry into his secrets, or am answerable for all his past life. And so +with our friend Clavering, I am most interested for his wife's sake, and +her daughter's, who is a most charming creature: and when her ladyship +asked me, I looked into her affairs, and tried to set them straight; and +shall do so again, you understand, to the best of my humble power and +ability, if I can make myself useful. And if I am called upon--you +understand, if I am called upon--and--by the way, this Mr. Altamont, Mr. +Strong? How is this Mr. Altamont? I believe you are acquainted with him. +Is he in town?" + +"I don't know that I am called upon to know where he is, Major +Pendennis," said Strong, rising and taking up his hat in dudgeon, for +the Major's patronising manner and impertinence of caution offended the +honest gentleman not a little. + +Pendennis's manner altered at once from a tone of hauteur to one of +knowing good-humour. "Ah, Captain Strong, you are cautious too, I see; +and quite right, my good sir, quite right. We don't know what ears walls +may have, sir, or to whom we may be talking; and as a man of the world, +and an old soldier,--an old and distinguished soldier, I have been told, +Captain Strong,--you know very well that there is no use in throwing +away your fire; you may have your ideas, and I may put two and two +together and have mine. But there are things which don't concern him +that many a man had better not know, eh, Captain? and which I, for one, +won't know until I have reason for knowing them: and that I believe is +your maxim too. With regard to our friend the Baronet, I think with you, +it would be most advisable that he should be checked in his imprudent +courses; and most strongly reprehend any man's departure from his word, +or any conduct of his which can give any pain to his family, or cause +them annoyance in any way. That is my full and frank opinion, and I am +sure it is yours." + +"Certainly," said Mr. Strong, drily. + +"I am delighted to hear it; delighted that an old brother soldier should +agree with me so fully. And I am exceedingly glad of the lucky meeting +which has procured me the good fortune of your visit. Good evening. +Thank you. Morgan, show the door to Captain Strong." + +And Strong, preceded by Morgan, took his leave of Major Pendennis; the +Chevalier not a little puzzled at the old fellow's prudence; and the +valet, to say the truth, to the full as much perplexed at his master's +reticence. For Mr. Morgan, in his capacity of accomplished valet, moved +here and there in a house as silent as a shadow; and, as it so happened, +during the latter part of his master's conversation with his visitor, +had been standing very close to the door, and had overheard not a little +of the talk between the two gentlemen, and a great deal more than he +could understand. + +"Who is that Altamont? know anything about him and Strong?" Mr. Morgan +asked of Mr. Lightfoot, on the next convenient occasion when they met at +the Club. + +"Strong's his man of business, draws the Governor's bills, and indosses +'em, and does his odd jobs and that; and I suppose Altamont's in it +too," Mr. Lightfoot replied. "That kite-flying, you know, Mr. M., always +takes two or three on 'em to set the paper going. Altamont put the pot +on at the Derby, and won a good bit of money. I wish the Governor could +get some somewhere, and I could get my book paid up." + +"Do you think my Lady would pay his debts again?" Morgan asked. "Find +out that for me, Lightfoot, and I'll make it worth your while, my boy." + + * * * * * * + +Major Pendennis had often said with a laugh, that his valet Morgan was +a much richer man than himself: and, indeed, by long course of careful +speculation, this wary and silent attendant had been amassing a +considerable sum of money, during the year which he had passed in the +Major's service, where he had made the acquaintance of many other +valets of distinction, from whom he had learned the affairs of their +principals. When Mr. Arthur came into his property, but not until then, +Morgan had surprised the young gentleman, by saying that he had a little +sum of money, some fifty or a hundred pound, which he wanted to lay out +to advantage; perhaps the gentlemen in the Temple, knowing about affairs +and business and that, could help a poor fellow to a good investment? +Morgan would be very much obliged to Mr. Arthur, most grateful and +obliged indeed, if Arthur could tell him of one. When Arthur laughingly +replied, that he knew nothing about money matters, and knew no earthly +way of helping Morgan, the latter, with the utmost simplicity, was very +grateful, very grateful indeed, to Mr. Arthur, and if Mr. Arthur should +want a little money before his rents was paid, perhaps he would kindly +remember that his uncle's old and faithful servant had some as he would +like to put out: and be most proud if he could be useful anyways to any +of the family. + +The Prince of Fairoaks, who was tolerably prudent and had no need of +ready money, would as soon have thought of borrowing from his uncle's +servant as of stealing the valet's pocket-handkerchief, and was on the +point of making some haughty reply to Morgan's offer, but was checked by +the humour of the transaction. Morgan a capitalist! Morgan offering to +lend to him--The joke was excellent. On the other hand, the man might be +quite innocent, and the proposal of money a simple offer of good-will. +So Arthur withheld the sarcasm that was rising to his lips, and +contented himself by declining Mr. Morgan's kind proposal. He mentioned +the matter to his uncle, however, and congratulated the latter on having +such a treasure in his service. + +It was then that the Major said that he believed Morgan had been getting +devilish rich for a devilish long time; in fact, he had bought the house +in Bury Street, in which his master was a lodger and had actually made +a considerable sum of money, from his acquaintance with the Clavering +family and his knowledge obtained through his master that the Begum +would pay all her husband's debts, by buying up as many of the Baronet's +acceptances as he could raise money to purchase. Of these transactions +the Major, however, knew no more than most gentlemen do of their +servants, who live with us all our days and are strangers to us, so +strong custom is, and so pitiless the distinction between class and +class. + +"So he offered to lend you money, did he?" the elder Pendennis remarked +to his nephew. "He's a dev'lish sly fellow, and a dev'lish rich fellow; +and there's many a nobleman would like to have such a valet in his +service, and borrow from him too. And he ain't a bit changed, Monsieur +Morgan. He does his work just as well as ever--he's always ready to my +bell--steals about the room like a cat--he's so dev'lishly attached to +me, Morgan!" + +On the day of Strong's visit, the Major bethought him of Pen's story, +and that Morgan might help him, and rallied the valet regarding his +wealth with that free and insolent way which so high-placed a gentleman +might be disposed to adopt towards so unfortunate a creature. + +"I hear that you have got some money to invest, Morgan," said the Major. + +"It's Mr. Arthur has been telling, hang him," thought the valet. + +"I'm glad my place is such a good one." + +"Thank you, sir--I've no reason to complain of my place, nor of my +master," replied Morgan, demurely. + +"You're a good fellow: and I believe you are attached to me; and I'm +glad you get on well. And I hope you'll be prudent, and not be taking a +public-house or that kind of thing." + +A public-house, thought Morgan--me in a public-house!--the old +fool!--Dammy, if I was ten years younger I'd set in Parlyment before I +died, that I would.--"No, thank you kindly, sir. I don't think of the +public line, sir. And I've got my little savings pretty well put out, +sir." + +"You do a little in the discounting way, eh, Morgan?" + +"Yes, sir, a very little--I--I beg your pardon, sir--might I be so free +as to ask a question----" + +"Speak on, my good fellow," the elder said, graciously. + +"About Sir Francis Clavering's paper, sir? Do you think he's any longer +any good, sir? Will my Lady pay on 'em, any more, sir?" + +"What, you've done something in that business already?" + +"Yes, sir, a little," replied Morgan, dropping down his eyes. "And I +don't mind owning, sir, and I hope I may take the liberty of saying, +sir, that a little more would make me very comfortable if it turned out +as well as the last." + +"Why, how much have you netted by him, in Gad's name?" asked the Major. + +"I've done a good bit, sir, at it: that I own, sir. Having some +information, and made acquaintance with the fam'ly through your +kindness, I put on the pot, sir." + +"You did what?" + +"I laid my money on, sir--I got all I could, and borrowed, and bought +Sir Francis's bills; many of 'em had his name, and the gentleman's as is +just gone out, Edward Strong, Esquire, sir: and of course I know of the +blow-hup and shindy as is took place in Grosvenor Place, sir: and as I +may as well make my money as another, I'd be very much obleeged to you +if you'd tell me whether my Lady will come down any more." + +Although Major Pendennis was as much surprised at this intelligence +regarding his servant, as if he had heard that Morgan was a disguised +Marquis, about to throw off his mask and assume his seat in the House +of Peers; and although he was of course indignant at the audacity of +the fellow who had dared to grow rich under his nose, and without +his cognisance; yet he had a natural admiration for every man who +represented money and success, and found himself respecting Morgan, and +being rather afraid of that worthy, as the truth began to dawn upon him. + +"Well, Morgan," said he, "I mustn't ask how rich you are; and the +richer the better for your sake, I'm sure. And if I could give you +any information that could serve you, I would speedily help you. But +frankly, if Lady Clavering asks me whether she shall pay any more of Sir +Francis's debts, I shall advise and I hope she won't, though I fear she +will--and that is all I know. And so you are aware that Sir Francis is +beginning again in his--eh--reckless and imprudent course?" + +"At his old games, sir--can't prevent that gentleman. He will do it." + +"Mr. Strong was saying that a Mr. Moss Abrams was the holder of one of +Sir Francis Clavering's notes. Do you know anything of this Mr. Abrams; +or the amount of the bill?" + +"Don't know the bill, know Abrams quite well, sir." + +"I wish you would find out about it for me. And I wish you would find +out where I can see Sir Francis Clavering, Morgan." + +And Morgan said, "Thank you, sir, yes, sir, I will, sir;" and retired +from the room, as he had entered it, with his usual stealthy respect and +quiet humility; leaving the Major to muse and wonder over what he had +just heard. + +The next morning the valet informed Major Pendennis that he had seen Mr. +Abrams; what was the amount of the bill that gentleman was desirous to +negotiate; and that the Baronet would be sure to be in the back-parlour +of the Wheel of Fortune Tavern that day at one o'clock. + +To this appointment Sir Francis Clavering was punctual, and as at one +o'clock he sate in the parlour of the tavern in question, surrounded by +spittoons, Windsor chairs, cheerful prints of boxers, trotting horses, +and pedestrians, and the lingering of last night's tobacco fumes--as the +descendant of an ancient line sate in this delectable place accommodated +with an old copy of Bell's Life in London, much blotted with beer, the +polite Major Pendennis walked into the apartment. + +"So it's you, old boy?" asked the Baronet, thinking that Mr. Moss Abrams +had arrived with the money. + +"How do you do, Sir Francis Clavering? I wanted to see you, and followed +you here," said the Major, at sight of whom the other's countenance +fell. + +Now that he had his opponent before him, the Major was determined to +make a brisk and sudden attack upon him, and went into action at once. +"I know," he continued, "who is the exceedingly disreputable person for +whom you took me, Clavering; and the errand which brought you here." + +"It ain't your business, is it?" asked the Baronet, with a sulky +and deprecatory look. "Why are you following me about and taking the +command, and meddling in my affairs, Major Pendennis? I've never done +you any harm, have I? I've never had your money. And I don't choose to +be dodged about in this way, and domineered over. I don't choose it, and +I won't have it. If Lady Clavering has any proposal to make to me, let +it be done in the regular way, and through the lawyers. I'd rather not +have you." + +"I am not come from Lady Clavering," the Major said, "but of my own +accord, to try and remonstrate with you, Clavering, and see if you can +be kept from ruin. It is but a month ago that you swore on your honour, +and wanted to get a Bible to strengthen the oath, that you would accept +no more bills, but content yourself with the allowance which Lady +Clavering gives you. All your debts were paid with that proviso, and you +have broken it; this Mr. Abrams has a bill of yours for sixty pounds." + +"It's an old bill. I take my solemn oath it's an old bill," shrieked out +the Baronet. + +"You drew it yesterday, and you dated it three months back purposely. +By Gad, Clavering, you sicken me with lies, I can't help telling you +so. I've no patience with you, by Gad. You cheat everybody, yourself +included. I've seen a deal of the world, but I never met your equal at +humbugging. It's my belief you had rather lie than not." + +"Have you come here, you old--old beast, to tempt me to--to pitch +into you, and--and knock your old head off?" said the Baronet, with a +poisonous look of hatred at the Major. + +"What, sir?" shouted out the old Major, rising to his feet and clasping +his cane, and looking so fiercely, that the Baronet's tone instantly +changed towards him. + +"No, no," said Clavering, piteously, "I beg your pardon. I didn't mean +to be angry, or say anything unkind, only you're so damned harsh to me, +Major Pendennis. What is it you want of me? Why have you been hunting +me so? Do you want money out of me too? By Jove, you know I've not got +a shilling,"--and so Clavering, according to his custom, passed from a +curse into a whimper. + +Major Pendennis saw, from the other's tone, that Clavering knew his +secret was in the Major's hands. + +"I've no errand from anybody, or no design upon you," Pendennis said, +"but an endeavour, if it's not too late, to save you and your family +from utter ruin, through the infernal recklessness of your courses. I +knew your secret----" + +"I didn't know it when I married her; upon my oath I didn't know it till +the d----d scoundrel came back and told me himself; and it's the misery +about that which makes me so reckless, Pendennis; indeed it is," the +Baronet cried, clasping his hands. + +"I knew your secret from the very first day when I saw Amory come +drunk into your dining-room in Grosvenor Place. I never forget faces. +I remember that fellow in Sydney a convict, and he remembers me. I know +his trial, the date of his marriage, and of his reported death in the +bush. I could swear to him. And I know that you are no more married to +Lady Clavering than I am. I've kept your secret well enough, for I've +not told a single soul that I know it,--not your wife, not yourself till +now." + +"Poor Lady C., it would cut her up dreadfully," whimpered Sir Francis; +"and it wasn't my fault, Major; you know it wasn't." + +"Rather than allow you to go on ruining her as you do; I will tell her, +Clavering, and tell all the world too; that is what I swear I will do, +unless I can come to some terms with you, and put some curb on your +infernal folly. By play, debt, and extravagance of all kind, you've +got through half your wife's fortune, and that of her legitimate heirs, +mind--her legitimate heirs. Here it must stop. You can't live together. +You're not fit to live in a great house like Clavering; and before +three years' more were over would not leave a shilling to carry on. I've +settled what must be done. You shall have six hundred a year; you shall +go abroad and live on that. You must give up Parliament, and get on as +well as you can. If you refuse, I give you my word I'll make the +real state of things known to-morrow; I'll swear to Amory, who, when +identified, will go back to the country from whence he came, and will +rid the widow of you and himself together. And so that boy of yours +loses at once all title to old Spell's property, and it goes to your +wife's daughter. Ain't I making myself pretty clearly understood?" + +"You wouldn't be so cruel to that poor boy, would you, Pendennis?" asked +the father, pleading piteously; "hang it, think about him. He's a nice +boy: though he's dev'lish wild, I own he's dev'lish wild." + +"It's you who are cruel to him," said the old moralist. "Why, sir, +you'll ruin him yourself inevitably in three years." + +"Yes, but perhaps I won't have such dev'lish bad luck, you know;--the +luck must turn: and I'll reform, by Gad, I'll reform. And if you were +to split on me, it would cut up my wife so; you know it would, most +infernally." + +"To be parted from you," said the old Major, with a sneer; "you know she +won't live with you again." + +"But why can't Lady C. live abroad, or at Bath, or at Tunbridge, or at +the doose, and I go on here?" Clavering continued. "I like being here +better than abroad, and I like being in Parliament. It's dev'lish +convenient being in Parliament. There's very few seats like mine left; +and if I gave it to 'em, I should not wonder the ministry would give +me an island to govern, or some dev'lish good thing; for you know I'm +a gentleman of dev'lish good family, and have a handle to my name, +and--and that sort of thing, Major Pendennis. Eh, don't you see? Don't +you think they'd give me something dev'lish good if I was to play my +cards well? And then, you know, I'd save money, and be kept out of the +way of the confounded hells and rouge et noir--and--and so I'd rather +not give up Parliament, please." For at one instant to hate and defy +a man, at the next to weep before him, and at the next to be perfectly +confidential and friendly with him, was not an unusual process with our +versatile-minded Baronet. + +"As for your seat in Parliament," the Major said, with something of a +blush on his cheek, and a certain tremor, which the other did not see, +"you must part with that, Sir Francis Clavering, to--to me." + +"What! are you going into the House, Major Pendennis?" + +"No--not I; but my nephew, Arthur, is a very clever fellow and would +make a figure there: and when Clavering had two members, his father +might very likely have been one; and--and should like Arthur to be +there," the Major said. + +"Dammy, does he know it, too?" cried out Clavering. + +"Nobody knows anything out of this room," Pendennis answered; and if you +do this favour for me, I hold my tongue. "If not, I'm a man of my word, +and will do what I have said." + +"I say, Major," said Sir Francis, with a peculiarly humble smile +"You--You couldn't get me my first quarter in advance, could you, like +the best of fellows? You can do anything with Lady Clavering; and, upon +my oath, I'll take up that bill of Abrams'. The little dam scoundrel, +I know he'll do me in the business--he always does; and if you could do +this for me, we'd see, Major." + +"And I think your best plan would be to go down in September to +Clavering to shoot, and take my nephew with you, and introduce him. +Yes, that will be the best time. And we will try and manage about the +advance." (Arthur may lend him that, thought old Pendennis. Confound +him, a seat in Parliament is worth a hundred and fifty pounds.) "And, +Clavering, you understand, of course, my nephew knows nothing about this +business. You have a mind to retire: he is a Clavering man and a good +representative for the borough; you introduce him, and your people vote +for him--you see." + +"When can you get me the hundred and fifty, Major? When shall I come and +see you? Will you be at home this evening or to-morrow morning? Will you +have anything here? They've got some dev'lish good bitters in the bar. I +often have a glass of bitters, it sets one up so." + +The old Major would take no refreshment; but rose and took his leave of +the Baronet, who walked with him to the door of the Wheel of Fortune, +and then strolled into the bar, where he took a glass of gin and bitters +with the landlady there: and a gentleman connected with the ring (who +boarded at the Wheel of F.) coming in, he and Sir Francis Clavering and +the landlord talked about the fights and the news of the sporting world +in general; and at length Mr. Moss Abrams arrived with the proceeds of +the Baronet's bill, from which his own handsome commission was deducted, +and out of the remainder Sir Francis "stood" a dinner at Greenwich to +his distinguished friend, and passed the evening gaily at Vauxhall. + +Meanwhile Major Pendennis, calling a cab in Piccadilly, drove to Lamb +Court, Temple, where he speedily was closeted with his nephew in deep +conversation. + +After their talk they parted on very good terms, and it was in +consequence of that unreported conversation, whereof the reader +nevertheless can pretty well guess the bearing, that Arthur expressed +himself as we have heard in the colloquy with Warrington, which is +reported in the last chapter. + +When a man is tempted to do a tempting thing, he can find a hundred +ingenious reasons for gratifying his liking; and Arthur thought very +much that he would like to be in Parliament, and that he would like to +distinguish himself there, and that he need not care much what side he +took, as there was falsehood and truth on every side. And on this and +on other matters he thought he would compromise with his conscience, and +that Sadduceeism was a very convenient and good-humoured profession of +faith. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIV. Phyllis and Corydon + + +On a picturesque common in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells, Lady +Clavering had found a pretty villa, whither she retired after her +conjugal disputes at the end of that unlucky London season. Miss Amory, +of course, accompanied her mother, and Master Clavering came home for +the holidays, with whom Blanche's chief occupation was to fight and +quarrel. But this was only a home pastime, and the young schoolboy was +not fond of home sports. He found cricket, and horses, and plenty of +friends at Tunbridge. The good-natured Begum's house was filled with a +constant society of young gentlemen of thirteen, who ate and drank much +too copiously of tarts and champagne, who rode races on the lawn, and +frightened the fond mother, who smoked and made themselves sick, and the +dining-room unbearable to Miss Blanche. She did not like the society of +young gentlemen of thirteen. + +As for that fair young creature, any change as long as it was change was +pleasant to her; and for a week or two she would have liked poverty and +a cottage, and bread-and-cheese; and, for a night, perhaps, a dungeon +and bread-and-water, and so the move to Tunbridge was by no means +unwelcome to her. She wandered in the woods, and sketched trees and +farmhouses; she read French novels habitually; she drove into Tunbridge +Wells pretty often, and to any play, or ball, or conjurer, or musician +who might happen to appear in the place; she slept a great deal; she +quarrelled with Mamma and Frank during the morning; she found the little +village school and attended it, and first fondled the girls and thwarted +the mistress, then scolded the girls and laughed at the teacher; she was +constant at church, of course. It was a pretty little church, of immense +antiquity--a little Anglo-Norman bijou, built the day before yesterday, +and decorated with all sorts of painted windows, carved saints' heads, +gilt scripture texts, and open pews. Blanche began forthwith to work a +most correct high-church altar-cover for the church. She passed for a +saint with the clergyman for a while, whom she quite took in, and +whom she coaxed, and wheedled, and fondled so artfully, that poor Mrs. +Smirke, who at first was charmed with her, then bore with her, then +would hardly speak to her, was almost mad with jealousy. Mrs. Smirke was +the wife of our old friend Smirke, Pen's tutor and poor Helen's suitor. +He had consoled himself for her refusal with a young lady from Clapham +whom his mamma provided. When the latter died, our friend's views became +every day more and more pronounced. He cut off his coat collar, and let +his hair grow over his back. He rigorously gave up the curl which he +used to sport on his forehead, and the tie of his neckcloth, of which he +was rather proud. He went without any tie at all. He went without dinner +on Fridays. He read the Roman Hours, and intimated that he was ready +to receive confessions in the vestry. The most harmless creature in the +world, he was denounced as a black and most dangerous Jesuit and Papist, +by Muffin of the Dissenting chapel, and Mr. Simeon Knight at the old +church. Mr. Smirke had built his chapel-of-ease with the money left him +by his mother at Clapham. Lord! lord! what would she have said to hear a +table called an altar! to see candlesticks on it! to get letters +signed on the Feast of Saint So-and-so, or the Vigil of Saint +What-do-you-call-'em! All these things did the boy of Clapham practise; +his faithful wife following him. But when Blanche had a conference of +near two hours in the vestry with Mr. Smirke, Belinda paced up and down +on the grass, where there were only two little grave-stones as yet; she +wished that she had a third there: only, only he would offer very likely +to that creature, who had infatuated him in a fortnight. No, she would +retire; she would go into a convent, and profess and leave him. Such +bad thoughts had Smirke's wife and his neighbours regarding him; these, +thinking him in direct correspondence with the Bishop of Rome; that, +bewailing errors to her even more odious and fatal; and yet our friend +meant no earthly harm. The post-office never brought him any letters +from the Pope; he thought Blanche, to be sure, at first, the most pious, +gifted, right-thinking, fascinating person he had ever met; and her +manner of singing the Chants delighted him--but after a while he began +to grow rather tired of Miss Amory, her ways and graces grew stale +somehow; then he was doubtful about Miss Amory; then she made a +disturbance in his school, lost her temper, and rapped the children's +fingers. Blanche inspired this admiration and satiety, somehow, in many +men. She tried to please them, and flung out all her graces at +once; came down to them with all her jewels on, all her smiles, and +cajoleries, and coaxings, and ogles. Then she grew tired of them and of +trying to please them, and never having cared about them, dropped them: +and the men grew tired of her, and dropped her too. It was a happy night +for Belinda when Blanche went away; and her husband, with rather a +blush and a sigh, said "he had been deceived in her; he had thought her +endowed with many precious gifts, he feared they were mere tinsel; he +thought she had been a right-thinking person, he feared she had merely +made religion an amusement--she certainly had quite lost her temper to +the schoolmistress, and beat Polly Rucker's knuckles cruelly." Belinda +flew to his arms, there was no question about the grave or the veil +any more. He tenderly embraced her on the forehead. "There is none like +thee, my Belinda," he said, throwing his fine eyes up to the ceiling, +"precious among women!" As for Blanche, from the instant she lost sight +of him and Belinda, she never thought or cared about either any more. + +But when Arthur went down to pass a few days at Tunbridge Wells with the +Begum, this stage of indifference had not arrived on Miss Blanche's part +or on that of the simple clergyman. Smirke believed her to be an angel +and wonder of a woman. Such a perfection he had never seen, and sate +listening to her music in the summer evenings, open-mouthed, rapt in +wonder, tea-less, and bread-and-butter-less. Fascinating as he had +heard the music of the opera to be--he had never but once attended +an exhibition of that nature (which he mentioned with a blush and a +sigh--it was on that day when he had accompanied Helen and her son to +the play at Chatteris)--he could not conceive anything more delicious, +more celestial, he had almost said, than Miss Amory's music. She was a +most gifted being: she had a precious soul: she had the most remarkable +talents--to all outward seeming, the most heavenly disposition, etc. +etc. It was in this way that, being then at the height of his own fever +and bewitchment for Blanche, Smirke discoursed to Arthur about her. + +The meeting between the two old acquaintances had been very cordial. +Arthur loved anybody who loved his mother; Smirke could speak on that +theme with genuine feeling and emotion. They had a hundred things to +tell each other of what had occurred in their lives. "Arthur would +perceive," Smirke said, "that his--his views on Church matters had +developed themselves since their acquaintance." Mrs. Smirke, a most +exemplary person, seconded them with all her endeavours. He had built +this little church on his mother's demise, who had left him provided +with a sufficiency of worldly means. Though in the cloister himself, +he had heard of Arthur's reputation. He spoke in the kindest and most +saddened tone; he held his eyelids down, and bowed his fair head on +one side. Arthur was immensely amused with him; with his airs; with his +follies and simplicity; with his blank stock and long hair; with his +real goodness, kindness, friendliness of feeling. And his praises of +Blanche pleased and surprised our friend not a little, and made him +regard her with eyes of particular favour. + +The truth is, Blanche was very glad to see Arthur; as one is glad to +see an agreeable man in the country, who brings down the last news +and stories from the great city; who can talk better than most +country-folks, at least can talk that darling London jargon, so dear and +indispensable to London people, so little understood by persons out of +the world. The first day Pen came down, he kept Blanche laughing for +hours after dinner. She sang her songs with redoubled spirit. She did +not scold her mother; she fondled and kissed her, to the honest Begum's +surprise. When it came to be bedtime, she said, "Deja!" with the +prettiest air of regret possible; and was really quite sorry to go to +bed, and squeezed Arthur's hand quite fondly. He on his side gave her +pretty palm a very cordial pressure. Our young gentleman was of that +turn, that eyes very moderately bright dazzled him. + +"She is very much improved," thought Pen, looking out into the night, +"very much. I suppose the Begum won't mind my smoking with the window +open. She's a jolly good old woman, and Blanche is immensely improved. I +liked her manner with her mother tonight. I liked her laughing way +with that stupid young cub of a boy, whom they oughtn't to allow to get +tipsy. She sang those little verses very prettily; they were devilish +pretty verses too, though I say it who shouldn't say it." And he hummed +a tune which Blanche had put to some verses of his own. "Ah! what a +fine night! How jolly a cigar is at night! How pretty that little Saxon +church looks in the moonlight! I wonder what old Warrington's doing? +Yes, she's a dayvlish nice little thing, as my uncle says." + +"Oh, heavenly!" Here broke out a voice from a clematis-covered casement +near--a girl's voice: it was the voice of the author of 'Mes Larmes.' + +Pen burst into a laugh. "Don't tell about my smoking," he said, leaning +out of his own window. + +"Oh! go on! I adore it," cried the lady of 'Mes Larmes.' "Heavenly +night! heavenly, heavenly moon! but I must shut my window, and not talk +to you on account of les moeurs. How droll they are, les moeurs! Adieu." +And Pen began to sing the Goodnight to Don Basilio. + +The next day they were walking in the fields together, laughing and +chattering--the gayest pair of friends. They talked about the days of +their youth, and Blanche was prettily sentimental. They talked about +Laura, dearest Laura--Blanche had loved her as a sister: was she happy +with that odd Lady Rockminster? Wouldn't she come and stay with them +at Tunbridge? Oh, what walks they would take together! What songs +they would sing--the old, old songs! Laura's voice was splendid. Did +Arthur--she must call him Arthur--remember the songs they sang in +the happy old days, now he was grown such a great man, and had such a +succes? etc. etc. + +And the day after, which was enlivened with a happy ramble through the +woods to Penshurst, and a sight of that pleasant park and hall, came +that conversation with the curate which we have narrated, and which made +our young friend think more and more. + +"Is she all this perfection?" he asked himself. "Has she become serious +and religious? Does she tend schools, and visit the poor? Is she kind +to her mother and brother? Yes, I am sure of that, I have seen her." And +walking with his old tutor over his little parish, and going to visit +his school, it was with inexpressible delight that Pen found Blanche +seated instructing the children, and fancied to himself how patient +she must be, how good-natured, how ingenuous, how really simple in her +tastes, and unspoiled by the world. + +"And do you really like the country?" he asked her, as they walked +together. + +"I should like never to see that odious city again. O Arthur--that is, +Mr.--well, Arthur, then--one's good thoughts grow up in these sweet +woods and calm solitudes, like those flowers which won't bloom in +London, you know. The gardener comes and changes our balconies once a +week. I don't think I shall bear to look London in the face again--its +odious, smoky, brazen face! But, heigho!" + +"Why that sigh, Blanche?" + +"Never mind why." + +"Yes, I do mind why. Tell me, tell me everything." + +"I wish you hadn't come down;" and a second edition of 'Mes Soupirs' +came out. + +"You don't want me, Blanche?" + +"I don't want you to go away. I don't think this house will be very +happy without you, and that's why I wish that you never had come." + +'Mes Soupirs' were here laid aside, and 'Mes Larmes' had begun. + +Ah! What answer is given to those in the eyes of a young woman? What is +the method employed for drying them? What took place? O ringdoves and +roses, O dews and wildflowers, O waving greenwoods and balmy airs of +summer! Here were two battered London rakes, taking themselves in for +a moment, and fancying that they were in love with each other, like +Phillis and Corydon! + +When one thinks of country houses and country walks, one wonders that +any man is left unmarried. + + + + +CHAPTER LXV. Temptation + + +Easy and frank-spoken as Pendennis commonly was with Warrington, how +came it that Arthur did not inform the friend and depository of all his +secrets, of the little circumstances which had taken place at the villa +near Tunbridge Wells? He talked about the discovery of his old tutor +Smirke, freely enough, and of his wife, and of his Anglo-Norman church, +and of his departure from Clapha to Rome; but, when asked about Blanche, +his answers were evasive or general: he said she was a good-natured +clever little thing, that rightly guided she make no such bad wife after +all, but that he had for the moment no intention of marriage, that his +days of romance were over, that he was contented with his present lot, +and so forth. + +In the meantime there came occasionally to Lamb Court, Temple, pretty +little satin envelopes, superscribed in the neatest handwriting, and +sealed with one of those admirable ciphers, which, if Warrington had +been curious enough to watch his friend's letters, or indeed if the +cipher had been decipherable, would have shown George that Mr. Arthur +was in correspondence with a young lady whose initials were B. A. +To these pretty little compositions Mr. Pen replied in his best and +gallantest manner; with jokes, with news of the town, with points +of wit, nay, with pretty little verses very likely, in reply to the +versicles of the Muse of 'Mes Larmes.' Blanche we know rhymes with +"branch," and "stanch," and "launch," and no doubt a gentleman of Pen's +ingenuity would not forgo these advantages of position, and would ring +the pretty little changes upon these pleasing notes. Indeed we believe +that those love-verses of Mr. Pen's, which had such a pleasing success +in the 'Roseleaves,' that charming Annual edited by Lady Violet Lebas, +and illustrated by portraits of the female nobility by the famous artist +Pinkney, were composed at this period of our hero's life; and were first +addressed to Blanche per post, before they figured in print, cornets as +it were to Pinkney's pictorial garland. + +"Verses are all very well," the elder Pendennis said, who found Pen +scratching down one of these artless effusions at the Club as he was +waiting for his dinner; "and letter-writing if mamma allows it, +and between such old country friends of course there may be a +correspondence, and that sort of thing--but mind, Pen, and don't commit +yourself, my boy. For who knows what the doose may happen? The best way +is to make your letters safe. I never wrote a letter in all my life that +would commit me, and demmy, sir, I have had some experience of women." +And the worthy gentleman, growing more garrulous and confidential with +his nephew as he grew older, told many affecting instances of the +evil results consequent upon this want of caution to many persons in +"Society;"--how from using too ardent expressions in some poetical notes +to the widow Naylor, young Spoony had subjected himself to a visit of +remonstrance from the widow's brother, Colonel Flint; and thus had been +forced into a marriage with a woman old enough to be his mother: how +when Louisa Salter had at length succeeded in securing young Sir John +Bird, Hopwood, of the Blues, produced some letters which Miss S. had +written to him, and caused a withdrawal on Bird's part, who afterwards +was united to Miss Stickney, of Lyme Regis, etc. The Major, if he had +not reading, had plenty of observation, and could back his wise saws +with a multitude of modern instances, which he had acquired in a long +and careful perusal of the great book of the world. + +Pen laughed at the examples, and blushing a little at his uncle's +remonstrances, said that he would bear them in mind and be cautious. +He blushed, perhaps, because he had borne them in mind; because he was +cautious: because in his letters to Miss Blanche he had from instinct, +or honesty perhaps, refrained from any avowals which might compromise +him. "Don't you remember the lesson I had, sir, in Lady Mirabel's--Miss +Fotheringay's affair? I am not to be caught again, uncle," Arthur said +with mock frankness and humility. Old Pendennis congratulated himself +and his nephew heartily on the latter's prudence and progress, and was +pleased at the position which Arthur was taking as a man of the world. + +No doubt, if Warrington had been consulted, his opinion would have been +different: and he would have told Pen that the boy's foolish letters +were better than the man's adroit compliments and slippery gallantries; +that to win the woman he loves, only a knave or a coward advances under +cover, with subterfuges, and a retreat secured behind him: but Pen spoke +not on this matter to Mr. Warrington, knowing pretty well that he was +guilty, and what his friend's verdict would be. + +Colonel Altamont had not been for many weeks absent on his foreign tour, +Sir Francis Clavering having retired meanwhile into the country pursuant +to his agreement with Major Pendennis, when the ills of fate began to +fall rather suddenly and heavily upon the sole remaining partner of the +little firm of Shepherd's Inn. When Strong, at parting with Altamont, +refused the loan proffered by the latter in the fulness of his purse and +the generosity of his heart, he made such a sacrifice to conscience and +delicacy as caused him many an after twinge and pang; and he felt--it +was not very many hours in his life he had experienced the feeling--that +in this juncture of his affairs he had been too delicate and too +scrupulous. Why should a fellow in want refuse a kind offer kindly made? +Why should a thirsty man decline a pitcher of water from a friendly +hand, because it was a little soiled? Strong's conscience smote him for +refusing what the other had fairly come by, and generously proffered: +and he thought ruefully, now it was too late, that Altamont's cash +would have been as well in his pocket as in that of the gambling--house +proprietor at Baden or Ems, with whom his Excellency would infallibly +leave his Derby winnings. It was whispered among the tradesmen, +bill-discounters, and others who had commercial dealings with Captain +Strong, that he and the Baronet had parted company, and that the +Captain's "paper" was henceforth of no value. The tradesmen, who had put +a wonderful confidence in him hitherto,--for who could resist Strong's +jolly face and frank and honest demeanour?--now began to pour in +their bills with a cowardly mistrust and unanimity. The knocks at the +Shepherd's Inn chambers door were constant, and tailors, bootmakers, +pastrycooks who had furnished dinners, in their own persons, or by the +boys their representatives, held levees on Strong's stairs. To these +were added one or two persons of a less clamorous but far more sly and +dangerous sort,--the young clerks of lawyers, namely, who lurked about +the Inn, or concerted with Mr. Campion's young man in the chambers hard +by, having in their dismal pocketbooks copies of writs to be served on +Edward Strong, requiring him to appear on an early day next term before +our Sovereign Lady the Queen, and answer to, etc. etc. + +From this invasion of creditors, poor Strong, who had not a guinea +in his pocket, had, of course, no refuge but that of the Englishman's +castle, into which he retired, shutting the outer and inner door upon +the enemy, and not quitting his stronghold until after nightfall. +Against this outer barrier the foe used to come and knock and curse in +vain, whilst the Chevalier peeped at them from behind the little curtain +which he had put over the orifice of his letter-box; and had the dismal +satisfaction of seeing the faces of furious clerk and fiery dun, as they +dashed up against the door and retreated from it. But as they could not +be always at his gate, or sleep on his staircase, the enemies of the +Chevalier sometimes left him free. + +Strong, when so pressed by his commercial antagonists, was not quite +alone in his defence against them, but had secured for himself an ally +or two. His friends were instructed to communicate with him by a system +of private signals: and they thus kept the garrison from starving by +bringing in necessary supplies, and kept up Strong's heart and prevented +him from surrendering by visiting him and cheering him in his retreat. +Two of Ned's most faithful allies were Huxter and Miss Fanny Bolton: +when hostile visitors were prowling about the Inn, Fanny's little +sisters were taught a particular cry or jodel, which they innocently +whooped in the court: when Fanny and Huxter came up to visit Strong, +they archly sang this same note at his door; when that barrier was +straightway opened, the honest garrison came out smiling, the provisions +and the pot of porter were brought in, and in the society of his +faithful friends the beleaguered one passed a comfortable night. There +are some men who could not live under this excitement, but Strong was a +brave man, as we have said, who had seen service and never lost heart in +peril. + +But besides allies, our general had secured for himself, under +difficulties, that still more necessary aid, a retreat. It has been +mentioned in a former part of this history, how Messrs. Costigan and +Bows lived in the house next door to Captain Strong, and that the window +of one of their rooms was not very far off the kitchen-window which was +situated in the upper story of Strong's chambers. A leaden water-pipe +and gutter served for the two; and Strong, looking out from his kitchen +one day, saw that he could spring with great ease up to the sill of his +neighbour's window, and clamber up the pipe which communicated from one +to the other. He had laughingly shown this refuge to his chum, Altamont; +and they had agreed that it would be as well not to mention the +circumstance to Captain Costigan, whose duns were numerous, and who +would be constantly flying down the pipe into their apartments if this +way of escape were shown to him. + +But now that the evil days were come, Strong made use of the passage, +and one afternoon burst in upon Bows and Costigan with his jolly face, +and explained that the enemy was in waiting on his staircase, and that +he had taken this means of giving them the slip. So while Mr. Marks's +aides-de-camp were in waiting in the passage of No. 3, Strong walked +down the steps of No. 4, dined at the Albion, went to the play, and +returned home at midnight, to the astonishment of Mrs. Bolton and Fanny, +who had not seen him quit his chambers and could not conceive how he +could have passed the line of sentries. + +Strong bore this siege for some weeks with admirable spirit and +resolution, and as only such an old and brave soldier would, for the +pains and privations which he had to endure were enough to depress any +man of ordinary courage; and what vexed and riled him (to use his own +expression) was the infernal indifference and cowardly ingratitude of +Clavering, to whom he wrote letter after letter, which the Baronet never +acknowledged by a single word, or by the smallest remittance, though a +five-pound note, as Strong said, at that time would have been a fortune +to him. + +But better days were in store for the Chevalier, and in the midst of his +despondency and perplexities there came to him a most welcome aid. "Yes, +if it hadn't been for this good fellow here," said Strong,--"for a good +fellow you are, Altamont, my boy, and hang me if I don't stand by you as +long as I live,--I think, Pendennis, it would have been all up with Ned +Strong. I was the fifth week of my being kept a prisoner, for I couldn't +be always risking my neck across that water-pipe, and taking my walks +abroad through poor old Cos's window, and my spirit was quite broken, +sir--dammy, quite beat, and I was thinking of putting an end to myself, +and should have done it in another week, when who should drop down from +heaven but Altamont!" + +"Heaven ain't exactly the place, Ned," said Altamont. "I came from +Baden-Baden," said he, "and I'd had a deuced lucky month there, that's +all." + +"Well, sir, he took up Marks's bill, and he paid the other fellows +that were upon me, like a man, sir, that he did," said Strong, +enthusiastically. + +"And I shall be very happy to stand a bottle of claret for this company, +and as many more as the company chooses," said Mr. Altamont, with a +blush. "Hallo! waiter, bring us a magnum of the right sort, do you hear? +And we'll drink our healths all round, sir--and may every good fellow +like Strong find another good fellow to stand by him at a pinch. That's +my sentiment, Mr. Pendennis, though I don't like your name." + +"No! And why?" asked Arthur. + +Strong pressed the Colonel's foot under the table here; and Altamont, +rather excited, filled up another bumper, nodded to Pen, drank off his +wine, and said, "He was a gentleman, and that was sufficient, and they +were all gentlemen." + +The meeting between these "all gentlemen" took place at Richmond, +whither Pendennis had gone to dinner, and where he found the Chevalier +and his friend at table in the coffee-room. Both of the latter were +exceedingly hilarious, talkative, and excited by wine; and Strong, who +was an admirable story-teller, told the story of his own siege, and +adventures, and escapes with great liveliness and humour, and described +the talk of the sheriff's officers at his door, the pretty little +signals of Fanny, the grotesque exclamations of Costigan when the +Chevalier burst in at his window, and his final rescue by Altamont, in a +most graphic manner, and so as greatly to interest his hearers. + +"As for me, it's nothing," Altamont said. "When a ship's paid off, a +chap spends his money, you know. And it's the fellers at the black and +red at Baden-Baden that did it. I won a good bit of money there, and +intend to win a good bit more, don't I, Strong? I'm going to take him +with me. I've got a system. I'll make his fortune, I tell you. I'll make +your fortune, if you like--dammy, everybody's fortune. But what I'll do, +and no mistake, boys, I promise you. I'll put in for that little Fanny. +Dammy, sir, what do you think she did? She had two pound, and I'm blest +if she didn't go and lend it to Ned Strong! Didn't she, Ned? Let's drink +her health." + +"With all my heart," said Arthur, and pledged this toast with the +greatest cordiality. + +Mr. Altamont then began, with the greatest volubility, at great length, +to describe his system. He said that it was infallible, if played with +coolness; that he had it from a chap at Baden, who had lost by it, it +was true, but because he had not enough capital; if he could have stood +one more turn of the wheel, he would have had all his money back; that +he and several more chaps were going to make a bank, and try it; and +that he would put every shilling he was worth into it, and had come back +to the country for the express purpose of fetching away his money, and +Captain Strong; that Strong should play for him; that he could trust +Strong and his temper much better than he could his own; and much better +than Bloundell-Bloundell or the Italian that "stood in." As he emptied +his bottle, the Colonel described at full length all his plans and +prospects to Pen, who was interested in listening to his story, and the +confessions of his daring and lawless good-humour. + +"I met that queer fellow Altamont the other day," Pen said to his uncle, +a day or two afterwards. + +"Altamont? What Altamont? There's Lord Westport's son," said the Major. + +"No, no; the fellow who came tipsy into Clavering's dining-room one day +when we were there," said the nephew, laughing, "he said he did not like +the name of Pendennis, though he did me the honour to think that I was a +good fellow." + +"I don't know any man of the name of Altamont, I give you my honour," +said the impenetrable Major; "and as for your acquaintance, I think the +less you have to do with him the better, Arthur." + +Arthur laughed again. "He is going to quit the country, and make his +fortune by a gambling system. He and my amiable college acquaintance, +Bloundell, are partners, and the Colonel takes out Strong with him +as aide-de-camp. What is it that binds the Chevalier and Clavering, I +wonder?" + +"I should think, mind you, Pen, I should think, but of course I have +only the idea, that there has been something in Clavering's previous +life which gives these fellows and some others a certain power over him; +and if there should be no such a secret, which affair of ours, my boy, +dammy, I say, it ought to be a lesson to a man to keep himself straight +in life, and not to give any man a chance over him." + +"Why, I think you have some means of persuasion over Clavering, uncle, +or why should he give me that seat in Parlament?" + +"Clavering thinks he ain't fit for Parliament," the Major answered. "No +more he is. What's to prevent him from putting you or anybody else into +his place if he likes? Do you think that Government or the Opposition +would make any bones about accepting the seat if he offered it to +them! Why should you be more squeamish than the first men, and the +most honourable men, and men of the highest birth and position in the +country, begad?" The Major had an answer of this kind to most of Pen's +objections, and Pen accepted his uncle's replies, not so much because +he believed them, but because he wished to believe them. We do a +thing--which of us has not?--not because "everybody does it," but +because we like it; and our acquiescence, alas! proves not that +everybody is right, but that we and the rest of the world are poor +creatures alike. + +At his next visit to Tunbridge, Mr. Pen did not forget to amuse Miss +Blanche with the history which he had learned at Richmond of the +Chevalier's imprisonment, and of Altamont's gallant rescue. And after he +had told his tale in his usual satirical way, he mentioned with praise +and emotion little Fanny's generous behaviour to the Chevalier, and +Altamont's enthusiasm in her behalf. + +Miss Blanche was somewhat jealous, and a good deal piqued and curious +about Fanny. Among the many confidential little communications which +Arthur made to Miss Amory in the course of their delightful rural drives +and their sweet evening walks, it may be supposed that our hero would +not forget a story so interesting to himself and so likely to be +interesting to her, as that of the passion and cure of the poor little +Ariadne of Shepherd's Inn. His own part in that drama he described, to +do him justice, with becoming modesty; the moral which he wished to draw +from the tale being one in accordance with his usual satirical mood, +viz., that women get over their first loves quite as easily as men do +(for the fair Blanche, in their intimes conversations, did not cease to +twit Mr. Pen about his notorious failure in his own virgin attachment to +the Fotheringay), and, number one being withdrawn, transfer themselves +to number two without much difficulty. And poor little Fanny was offered +up in sacrifice as an instance to prove this theory. What griefs she had +endured and surmounted, what bitter pangs of hopeless attachment she had +gone through, what time it had taken to heal those wounds of the tender +little bleeding heart, Mr. Pen did not know, or perhaps did not choose +to know; for he was at once modest and doubtful about his capabilities +as a conqueror of hearts, and averse to believe that he had executed any +dangerous ravages on that particular one, though his own instance and +argument told against himself in this case; for if, as he said, Miss +Fanny was by this time in love with her surgical adorer, who had neither +good looks, nor good manners, nor wit, nor anything but ardour and +fidelity to recommend him, must she not in her first sickness of the +love-complaint have had a serious attack, and suffered keenly for a +man who had certainly a number of the showy qualities which Mr. Huxter +wanted? + +"You wicked odious creature," Miss Blanche said, "I believe that you are +enraged with Fanny for being so impudent as to forget you, and that you +are actually jealous of Mr. Huxter." Perhaps Miss Amory was right, as +the blush which came in spite of himself and tingled upon Pendennis's +cheek (one of those blows with which a man's vanity is constantly +slapping his face) proved to Pen that he was angry to think he had +been superseded by such a rival. By such a fellow as that! without any +conceivable good quality! O Mr. Pendennis! (although this remark does +not apply to such a smart fellow as you) if Nature had not made that +provision for each sex in the credulity of the other, which sees good +qualities where none exist, good looks in donkeys' ears, wit in their +numskulls, and music in their bray, there would not have been near so +much marrying and giving in marriage as now obtains, and as is necessary +for the due propagation and continuance of the noble race to which we +belong. + +"Jealous or not," Pen said, "and, Blanche, I don't say no, I should +have liked Fanny to have come to a better end than that. I don't like +histories that end in that cynical way; and when we arrive at the +conclusion of the story of a pretty girl's passion, to find such a +figure as Huxter's at the last page of the tale. Is a life a compromise, +my lady fair, and the end of the battle of love an ignoble surrender? +Is the search for the Cupid which my poor little Psyche pursued in the +darkness--the god of her soul's longing--the god of the blooming cheek +and rainbow pinions,--to result in Huxter smelling of tobacco and +gallypots? I wish, though I don't see it in life, that people could +be like Jenny and Jessamy, or my Lord and Lady Clementina in the +story-books and fashionable novels, and at once under the ceremony, and, +as it were, at the parson's benediction, become perfectly handsome and +good and happy ever after." + +"And don't you intend to be good and happy, pray, Monsieur le +Misanthrope--and are you very discontented with your lot--and will your +marriage be a compromise"--(asked the author of 'Mes Larmes,' with a +charming moue)--"and is your Psyche an odious vulgar wretch? You wicked +satirical creature, I can't abide you! You take the hearts of young +things, play with them, and fling them away with scorn. You ask for love +and trample on it. You--you make me cry, that you do, Arthur, and--and +don't--and I won't be consoled in that way--and I think Fanny was quite +right in leaving such a heartless creature." + +"Again, I don't say no," said Pen, looking very gloomily at Blanche, and +not offering by any means to repeat the attempt at consolation, which +had elicited that sweet monosyllable "don't" from the young lady. "I +don't think I have much of what people call heart; but I don't profess +it. I made my venture when I was eighteen, and lighted my lamp and +went in search of Cupid. And what was my discovery of love?--a vulgar +dancing-woman! I failed, as everybody does, almost everybody; only it is +luckier to fail before marriage than after." + +"Merci du choix, Monsieur," said the Sylphide, making a curtsey. + +"Look, my little Blanche," said Pen, taking her hand, and with his voice +of sad good-humour; "at least I stoop to no flatteries." + +"Quite the contrary," said Miss Blanche. + +"And tell you no foolish lies, as vulgar men do. Why should you and I, +with our experience, ape romance and dissemble passion? I do not believe +Miss Blanche Amory to be peerless among the beautiful, nor the greatest +poetess, nor the most surpassing musician, any more than I believe you +to be the tallest woman in the whole world--like the giantess whose +picture we saw as we rode through the fair yesterday. But if I don't set +you up as a heroine, neither do I offer you your very humble servant +as a hero. But I think you are--well, there, I think you are very +sufficiently good-looking." + +"Merci," Miss Blanche said, with another curtsey. + +"I think you sing charmingly. I'm sure you're clever. I hope and believe +that you are good-natured, and that you will be companionable." + +"And so, provided I bring you a certain sum of money and a seat +in Parliament, you condescend to fling to me your royal +pocket-handkerchief," said Blanche. "Que d'honneur! We used to call your +Highness the Prince of Fairoaks. What an honour to think that I am to +be elevated to the throne, and to bring the seat in Parliament as +backsheesh to the sultan! I am glad I am clever, and that I can play and +sing to your liking; my songs will amuse my lord's leisure." + +"And if thieves are about the house," said Pen, grimly pursuing the +simile, "forty besetting thieves in the shape of lurking cares and +enemies in ambush and passions in arms, my Morgiana will dance round +me with a tambourine, and kill all my rogues and thieves with a smile. +Won't she?" But Pen looked as if he did not believe that she would. "Ah, +Blanche," he continued after a pause, "don't be angry; don't be hurt at +my truth-telling.--Don't you see that I always take you at your word? +You say you will be a slave and dance--I say, dance. You say, 'I take +you with what you bring:' I say, 'I take you with what you bring.' To +the necessary deceits and hypocrisies of our life, why add any that are +useless and unnecessary? If I offer myself to you because I think we +have a fair chance of being happy together, and because by your help I +may get for both of us a good place and a not undistinguished name, why +ask me to feign raptures and counterfeit romance, in which neither of +us believe? Do you want me to come wooing in a Prince Prettyman's dress +from the masquerade warehouse, and to pay you compliments like Sir +Charles Grandison? Do you want me to make you verses as in the days when +we were--when we were children? I will if you like, and sell them +to Bacon and Bungay afterwards. Shall I feed my pretty princess with +bonbons?" + +"Mais j'adore les bonbons, moi," said the little Sylphide, with a queer +piteous look. + +"I can buy a hatful at Fortnum and Mason's for a guinea. And it shall +have its bonbons, its pooty little sugar-plums, that it shall," Pen +said with a bitter smile. "Nay, my dear, nay, my dearest little Blanche, +don't cry. Dry the pretty eyes, I can't bear that;" and he proceeded to +offer that consolation which the circumstance required, and which the +tears, the genuine tears of vexation, which now sprang from the angry +eyes of the author of 'Mes Larmes' demanded. + +The scornful and sarcastic tone of Pendennis quite frightened and +overcame the girl. "I--I don't want your consolation. I--I never +was--so--spoken to before--by any of my--my--by anybody"--she sobbed +out, with much simplicity. + +"Anybody!" shouted out Pen, with a savage burst of laughter, and +Blanche blushed one of the most genuine blushes which her cheek had ever +exhibited, and she cried out, "O Arthur, vous etes un homme terrible!" +She felt bewildered, frightened, oppressed, the worldly little flirt who +had been playing at love for the last dozen years of her life, and yet +not displeased at meeting a master. + +"Tell me, Arthur," she said, after a pause in this strange love-making. +"Why does Sir Francis Clavering give up his seat in Parliament?" + +"Au fait, why does he give it to me?" asked Arthur, now blushing in his +turn. + +"You always mock me, sir," she said. "If it is good to be in Parliament, +why does Sir Francis go out?" + +"My uncle has talked him over. He always said that you were not +sufficiently provided for. In the--the family disputes, when your +mamma paid his debts so liberally, it was stipulated, I suppose, that +you--that is, that I--that is, upon my word, I don't know why he goes +out of Parliament," Pen said, with rather a forced laugh. "You see, +Blanche, that you and I are two good little children, and that this +marriage has been arranged for us by our mammas and uncles, and that we +must be obedient, like a good little boy and girl." + +So, when Pen went to London, he sent Blanche a box of bonbons, each +sugar-plum of which was wrapped up in ready-made French verses, of the +most tender kind; and, besides, despatched to her some poems of his own +manufacture, quite as artless and authentic; and it was no wonder that +he did not tell Warrington what his conversations with Miss Amory +had been, of so delicate a sentiment were they, and of a nature so +necessarily private. + +And if, like many a worse and better man, Arthur Pendennis, the widow's +son, was meditating an apostasy, and going to sell himself to--we all +know whom,--at least the renegade did not pretend to be a believer in +the creed to which he was ready to swear. And if every woman and man in +this kingdom, who has sold her or himself for money or position, as Mr. +Pendennis was about to do, would but purchase a copy of his memoirs, +what tons of volumes Messrs. Bradbury and Evans would sell! + + + + +CHAPTER LXVI. In which Pen begins his Canvass + + +Melancholy as the great house at Clavering Park had been in the days +before his marriage, when its bankrupt proprietor was a refugee in +foreign lands, it was not much more cheerful now when Sir Francis +Clavering came to inhabit it. The greater part of the mansion was shut +up, and the Baronet only occupied a few of the rooms on the ground +floor, where his housekeeper and her assistant from the lodge-gate +waited upon the luckless gentleman in his forced retreat, and cooked +a part of the game which he spent the dreary mornings in shooting. +Lightfoot, his man, had passed over to my Lady's service; and, as Pen +was informed in a letter from Mr. Smirke, who performed the ceremony, +had executed his prudent intention of marrying Mrs. Bonner, my Lady's +woman, who, in her mature years, was stricken with the charms of the +youth, and endowed him with her savings and her mature person. + +To be landlord and landlady of the Clavering Arms was the ambition +of both of them; and it was agreed that they were to remain in Lady +Clavering's service until quarter-day arrived, when they were to take +possession of their hotel. Pen graciously promised that he would give +his election dinner there, when the Baronet should vacate his seat in +the young man's favour; and, as it had been agreed by his uncle, to +whom Clavering seemed to be able to refuse nothing, Arthur came down in +September on a visit to Clavering Park, the owner of which was very glad +to have a companion who would relieve his loneliness, and perhaps would +lend him a little ready money. + +Pen furnished his host with these desirable supplies a couple of days +after he had made his appearance at Clavering: and no sooner were +these small funds in Sir Francis's pocket, than the latter found he +had business at Chatteris and at the neighbouring watering-places, of +which------shire boasts many, and went off to see to his affairs, which +were transacted, as might be supposed, at the county race-grounds and +billiard-rooms. Arthur could live alone well enough, having many mental +resources and amusements which did not require other persons' company: +he could walk with the gamekeeper of a morning, and for the evenings +there was a plenty of books and occupation for a literary genius like +Mr. Arthur, who required but a cigar and a sheet of paper or two to make +the night pass away pleasantly. In truth, in two or three days he had +found the society of Sir Francis Clavering perfectly intolerable; and +it was with a mischievous eagerness and satisfaction that he offered +Clavering the little pecuniary aid which the latter according to his +custom solicited, and supplied him with the means of taking flight from +his own house. + +Besides, our ingenious friend had to ingratiate himself with the +townspeople of Clavering, and with the voters of the borough which he +hoped to represent; and he set himself to this task with only the more +eagerness, remembering how unpopular he had before been in Clavering, +and determined to vanquish the odium which he had inspired amongst the +simple people there. His sense of humour made him delight in this task. +Naturally rather reserved and silent in public, he became on a sudden as +frank, easy, and jovial as Captain Strong. He laughed with everybody who +would exchange a laugh with him, shook hands right and left, with what +may be certainly called a dexterous cordiality; made his appearance at +the market-day and the farmers' ordinary; and, in fine, acted like a +consummate hypocrite, and as gentlemen of the highest birth and most +spotless integrity act when they wish to make themselves agreeable to +their constituents, and have some end to gain of the country-folks. How +is it that we allow ourselves not to be deceived, but to be ingratiated +so readily by a glib tongue, a ready laugh, and a frank manner? We know, +for the most part, that it is false coin, and we take it we know that it +is flattery, which it costs nothing to distribute to everybody, and +we had rather have it than be without it. Friend Pen went about +at Clavering, laboriously simple and adroitly pleased, and quite a +different being from the scornful and rather sulky young dandy whom the +inhabitants remembered ten years ago. + +The Rectory was shut up. Doctor Portman was gone, with his gout and his +family, to Harrogate,--an event which Pen deplored very much in a letter +to the Doctor, in which, in a few kind and simple words, he expressed +his regret at not seeing his old friend, whose advice he wanted and +whose aid he might require some day: but Pen consoled himself for the +Doctor's absence by making acquaintance with Mr. Simcoe, the opposition +preacher, and with the two partners of the cloth-factory at Chatteris, +and with the Independent preacher there, all of whom he met at Clavering +Athenaeum, which the Liberal party had set up in accordance with +the advanced spirit of the age, and perhaps in opposition to the +aristocratic old reading-room, into which the Edinburgh Review had +once scarcely got an admission, and where no tradesmen were allowed an +entrance. He propitiated the younger partner of the cloth-factory, by +asking him to dine in a friendly way at the Park; he complimented the +Honourable Mrs. Simcoe with hares and partridges from the same quarter, +and a request to read her husband's last sermon; and being a little +unwell one day, the rascal took advantage of the circumstance to show +his tongue to Mr. Huxter, who sent him medicines and called the next +morning. How delighted old Pendennis would have been with his pupil! +Pen himself was amused with the sport in which he was engaged, and his +success inspired him with a wicked good-humour. + +And yet, as he walked out of Clavering of a night, after "presiding" +at a meeting of the Athenaeum, or working through an evening with +Mrs. Simcoe, who, with her husband, was awed by the young Londoner's +reputation, and had heard of his social successes; as he passed over the +old familiar bridge of the rushing Brawl, and heard that well-remembered +sound of waters beneath, and saw his own cottage of Fairoaks among the +trees, their darkling outlines clear against the starlit sky, different +thoughts no doubt came to the young man's mind, and awakened pangs of +grief and shame there. There still used to be a light in the windows of +the room which he remembered so well, and in which the Saint who loved +him had passed so many hours of care and yearning and prayer. He turned +away his gaze from the faint light which seemed to pursue him with its +wan reproachful gaze, as though it was his mother's spirit watching +and warning. How clear the night was! How keen the stars shone! how +ceaseless the rush of the flowing waters! the old home trees whispered, +and waved gently their dark heads and branches over the cottage roof. +Yonder, in the faint starlight glimmer, was the terrace where, as a boy, +he walked of summer evenings, ardent and trustful, unspotted, untried, +ignorant of doubts or passions; sheltered as yet from the world's +contamination in the pure and anxious bosom of love. The clock of +the near town tolling midnight, with a clang, disturbs our wanderer's +reverie, and sends him onwards towards his night's resting-place, +through the lodge into Clavering avenue, and under the dark arcades of +the rustling limes. + +When he sees the cottage the next time, it is smiling in sunset; those +bedroom windows are open where the light was burning the night before; +and Pen's tenant, Captain Stokes, of the Bombay Artillery (whose mother, +old Mrs. Stokes, lives in Clavering), receives his landlord's visit with +great cordiality: shows him over the grounds and the new pond he has +made in the back-garden from the stables; talks to him confidentially +about the roof and chimneys, and begs Mr. Pendennis to name a day when +he will do himself and Mrs. Stokes the pleasure to, etc. Pen, who has +been a fortnight in the country, excuses himself for not having called +sooner upon the Captain by frankly owning that he had not the heart to +do it. "I understand you, sir," the Captain says; and Mrs. Stokes, who +had slipped away at the ring of the bell (how odd it seemed to Pen +to ring the bell!), comes down in her best gown, surrounded by her +children. The young ones clamb about Stokes: the boy jumps into an +arm-chair. It was Pen's father's arm-chair; and Arthur remembers the +days when he would as soon have thought of mounting the king's throne as +of seating himself in that arm-chair. He asks if Miss Stokes--she is the +very image of her mamma--if she can play? He should like to hear a tune +on that piano. She plays. He hears the notes of the old piano once more, +enfeebled by age, but he does not listen to the player. He is listening +to Laura singing as in the days of their youth, and sees his mother +bending and beating time over the shoulder of the girl. + +The dinner at Fairoaks given in Pen's honour by his tenant, and at which +old Mrs. Stokes, Captain Glanders, Squire Hobnel and the clergyman and +his lady from Tinckleton, were present, was very stupid and melancholy +for Pen, until the waiter from Clavering (who aided the captain's +stable-boy and Mrs. Stokes's butler) whom Pen remembered as a street +boy, and who was now indeed barber in that place, dropped a plate over +Pen's shoulder, on which Mr. Hobnell (who also employed him) remarked, +"I suppose, Hodson, your hands are slippery with bear's-grease. He's +always dropping the crockery about, that Hodson is--haw, haw!" On which +Hodson blushed, and looked so disconcerted, that Pen burst out laughing; +and good-humour and hilarity were the order of the evening. For the +second course, there was a hare and partridges top and bottom, and +when after the withdrawal of the servants Pen said to the Vicar of +Tinckleton, "I think, Mr. Stooks, you should have asked Hodson to +cut the hare," the joke was taken instantly by the clergyman, who was +followed in the course of a few minutes by Captains Stokes and Glanders, +and by Mr. Hobnell, who arrived rather late, but with an immense guffaw. + + * * * * * * + +While Mr. Pen was engaged in the country in the above schemes, it +happened that the lady of his choice, if not of his affections, came up +to London from the Tunbridge villa bound upon shopping expeditions or +important business, and in company of old Mrs. Bonner, her mother's +maid, who had lived and quarrelled with Blanche many times since she was +an infant, and who now being about to quit Lady Clavering's service for +the hymeneal state, was anxious like a good soul to bestow some token of +respectful kindness upon her old and young mistress before she quitted +them altogether, to take her post as the wife of Lightfoot, and landlady +of the Clavering Arms. + +The honest woman took the benefit of Miss Amory's taste to make the +purchase which she intended to offer her ladyship; and, requested the +fair Blanche to choose something for herself that should be to her +liking, and remind her of her old nurse who had attended her through +many a wakeful night, and eventful teething, and childish fever, and who +loved her like a child of her own a'most. These purchases were made, and +as the nurse insisted on buying an immense Bible for Blanche, the young +lady suggested that Bonner should purchase a large Johnson's Dictionary +for her mamma. Each of the two women might certainly profit by the +present made to her. + +Then Mrs. Bonner invested money in some bargains in linen-drapery, +which might be useful at the Clavering Arms, and bought a red and yellow +neck-handkerchief, which Blanche could see at once was intended for Mr. +Lightfoot. Younger than herself by at least five-and-twenty years, +Mrs. Bonner regarded that youth with a fondness at once parental and +conjugal, and loved to lavish ornaments on his person, which already +glittered with pins, rings, shirt-studs, and chains and seals, purchased +at the good creature's expense. + +It was in the Strand that Mrs. Bonner made her purchases, aided by Miss +Blanche, who liked the fun very well; and when the old lady had bought +everything that she desired, and was leaving the shop, Blanche, with a +smiling face, and a sweet bow to one of the shopmen, said, "Pray, sir, +will you have the kindness to show us the way to Shepherd's Inn?" + +Shepherd's Inn was but a few score of yards off, Old Castle Street was +close by, the elegant young shopman pointed out the turning which the +young lady was to take, and she and her companion walked off together. + +"Shepherd's Inn! what can you want in Shepherd's Inn, Miss Blanche?" +Bonner inquired. "Mr. Strong lives there. Do you want to go and see the +Captain?" + +"I should like to see the Captain very well. I like the Captain; but it +is not him I want. I want to see a dear little good girl, who was very +kind to--to Mr. Arthur when he was so ill last year, and saved his life +almost; and I want to thank her and ask her if she would like anything. +I looked out several of my dresses on purpose this morning, Bonner!" +and she looked at Bonner as if she had a right to admiration, and had +performed an act of remarkable virtue. Blanche, indeed, was very fond +of sugar-plums; she would have fed the poor upon them, when she had had +enough, and given a country girl a ball-dress, when she had worn it and +was tired of it. + +"Pretty girl--pretty young woman!" mumbled Mrs. Bonner. "I know I want +no pretty young women to come about Lightfoot," and in imagination she +peopled the Clavering Arms with a harem of the most hideous chambermaids +and barmaids. + +Blanche, with pink and blue, and feathers, and flowers, and trinkets +(that wondrous invention, a chatelaine, was not extant yet, or she would +have had one, we may be sure), and a shot-silk dress, and a wonderful +mantle, and a charming parasol, presented a vision of elegance and +beauty such as bewildered the eyes of Mrs. Bolton, who was scrubbing the +lodge-floor of Shepherd's Inn and caused Betsy-Jane and Ameliar-Ann to +look with delight. + +Blanche looked on them with a smile of ineffable sweetness and +protection; like Rowena going to see Rebecca; like Marie Antoinette +visiting the poor in the famine; like the Marchioness of Carabas +alighting from her carriage-and-four at a pauper-tenant's door, and +taking from John No II. the packet of Epsom salts for the +invalid's benefit, carrying it with her own imperial hand into the +sick-room--Blanche felt a queen stepping down from her throne to visit a +subject, and enjoyed all the bland consciousness of doing a good action. + +"My good woman! I want to see Fanny--Fanny Bolton; is she here?" + +Mrs. Bolton had a sudden suspicion, from the splendour of Blanche's +appearance, that it must be a play-actor, or something worse. + +"What do you want with Fanny, pray?" she asked. + +"I am Lady Clavering's daughter--you have heard of Sir Francis +Clavering? And I wish very much indeed to see Fanny Bolton." + +"Pray step in, miss.--Betsy-Jane, where's Fanny?" + +Betsy-Jane said Fanny had gone into No. 3 staircase, on which Mrs. +Bolton said she was probably in Strong's rooms, and bade the child go +and see if she was there. + +"In Captain Strong's rooms! oh, let us go to Captain Strong's rooms," +cried out Miss Blanche. "I know him very well. You dearest little girl, +show us the way to Captain Strong!" cried out Miss Blanche, for the +floor reeked with the recent scrubbing, and the goddess did not like the +smell of brown-soap. + +And as they passed up the stairs, a gentleman by the name of Costigan, +who happened to be swaggering about the court, and gave a very knowing +look with his "oi" under Blanche's bonnet, remarked to himself, "That's +a devilish foine gyurll, bedad, goan up to Sthrong and Altamont: they're +always having foine gyurlls up their stairs." + +"Hallo--hwhat's that?" he presently said, looking up at the windows: +from which some piercing shrieks issued. + +At the sound of the voice of a distressed female the intrepid Cos rushed +up the stairs as fast as his old legs would carry him, being nearly +overthrown by Strong's servant, who was descending the stair. Cos found +the outer door of Strong's chambers opened, and began to thunder at +the knocker. After many and fierce knocks, the inner door was partially +unclosed, and Strong's head appeared. + +"It's oi, me boy. Hwhat's that noise, Sthrong?" asked Costigan. + +"Go to the d----!" was the only answer, and the door was shut on Cos's +venerable red nose: and he went downstairs muttering threats at the +indignity offered to him, and vowing that he would have satisfaction. +In the meanwhile the reader, more lucky than Captain Costigan, will +have the privilege of being made acquainted with the secret which was +withheld from that officer. + +It has been said of how generous a disposition Mr. Altamont was, and +when he was well supplied with funds how liberally he spent them. Of +a hospitable turn, he had no greater pleasure than drinking in company +with other people; so that there was no man more welcome at Greenwich +and Richmond than the Emissary of the Nawaub of Lucknow. + +Now it chanced that on the day when Blanche and Mrs. Bonner ascended the +staircase to Strong's room in Shepherd's Inn, the Colonel had invited +Miss Delaval of the ------ Theatre Royal, and her mother, Mrs. Hodge, to +a little party down the river, and it had been agreed that they were +to meet at Chambers, and thence walk down to a port in the neighbouring +Strand to take water. So that when Mrs. Bonner and Mes Larmes came to +the door, where Grady, Altamont's servant, was standing, the domestic +said, "Walk in, ladies," with the utmost affability, and led them into +the room, which was arranged as if they had been expected there. Indeed, +two bouquets of flowers, bought at Covent Garden that morning, and +instances of the tender gallantry of Altamont, were awaiting his guests +upon the table. Blanche smelt at the bouquet, and put her pretty little +dainty nose into it, and tripped about the room, and looked behind the +curtains, and at the books and prints, and at the plan of Clavering +estate hanging up on the wall; and had asked the servant for Captain +Strong, and had almost forgotten his existence and the errand about +which she had come, namely, to visit Fanny Bolton; so pleased was she +with the new adventure, and the odd, strange, delightful, droll little +idea of being in a bachelor's chambers in a queer old place in the city! + +Grady meanwhile, with a pair of ample varnished boots, had disappeared +into his master's room. Blanche had hardly the leisure to remark how big +the boots were, and how unlike Mr. Strong's. + +"The women's come," said Grady, helping his master to the boots. + +"Did you ask 'em if they would take a glass of anything?" asked +Altamont. + +Grady came out--"He says, will you take anything to drink?" the domestic +asked of them; at which Blanche, amused with the artless question, broke +out into a pretty little laugh, and asked of Mrs. Bonner, "Shall we take +anything to drink?" + +"Well, you may take it or lave it," said Mr. Grady, who thought his +offer slighted, and did not like the contemptuous manners of the +new-comers, and so left them. + +"Will we take anything to drink?" Blanche asked again: and again began +to laugh. + +"Grady," bawled out a voice from the chamber within:--a voice that made +Mrs. Bonner start. + +Grady did not answer: his song was heard from afar off, from the +kitchen, his upper room, where Grady was singing at his work. + +"Grady, my coat!" again roared the voice from within. + +"Why, that is not Mr. Strong's voice," said the Sylphide, still half +laughing. "Grady my coat!--Bonner, who is Grady my coat? We ought to go +away." + +Bonner still looked quite puzzled at the sound of the voice which she +had heard. + +The bedroom door here opened and the individual who had called out +"Grady, my coat," appeared without the garment in question. + +He nodded to the women, and walked across the room. "I beg your pardon, +ladies. Grady, bring my coat down, sir! Well, my dears, it's a fine day, +and we'll have a jolly lark at----" + +He said no more; for here Mrs. Bonner, who had been looking at him +with scared eyes, suddenly shrieked out, "Amory! Amory!" and fell back +screaming and fainting in her chair. + +The man, so apostrophised, looked at the woman an instant, and, rushing +up to Blanche, seized her and kissed her. "Yes, Betsy," he said, "by +G--it is me. Mary Bonner knew me. What a fine gal we've grown! But it's +a secret, mind. I'm dead, though I'm your father. Your poor mother +don't know it. What a pretty gal we've grown! Kiss me--kiss me close, my +Betsy? D---- it, I love you: I'm your old father." + +Betsy or Blanche looked quite bewildered, and began to scream too--once, +twice, thrice; and it was her piercing shrieks which Captain Costigan +heard as he walked the court below. + +At the sound of these shrieks the perplexed parent clasped his hands +(his wristbands were open, and on one brawny arm you could see letters +tattooed in blue), and, rushing to his apartment, came back with an +eau-de-Cologne bottle from his grand silver dressing-case, with the +fragrant contents of which he began liberally to sprinkle Bonner and +Blanche. + +The screams of these women brought the other occupants of the chambers +into the room: Grady from his kitchen, and Strong from his apartment in +the upper story. The latter at once saw from the aspect of the two women +what had occurred. + +"Grady, go and wait in the court," he said, "and if anybody comes--you +understand me." + +"Is it the play-actress and her mother?" said Grady. + +"Yes--confound you--say that there's nobody in chambers, and the party's +off for to-day." + +"Shall I say that, sir? and after I bought them bokays?" asked Grady of +his master. + +"Yes," said Amory, with a stamp of his foot; and Strong going to the +door, too, reached it just in time to prevent the entrance of Captain +Costigan, who had mounted the stair. + +The ladies from the theatre did not have their treat to Greenwich, nor +did Blanche pay her visit to Fanny Bolton on that day. And Cos, who took +occasion majestically to inquire of Grady what the mischief was, and +who was crying?--had for answer that 'twas a woman, another of them, and +that they were, in Grady's opinion, the cause of 'most all the mischief +in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVII. In which Pen begins to doubt about his Election + + +Whilst Pen, in his own county, was thus carrying on his selfish plans +and parliamentary schemes, news came to him that Lady Rockminster had +arrived at Baymouth, and had brought with her our friend Laura. At the +announcement that Laura his sister was near him, Pen felt rather guilty. +His wish was to stand higher in her esteem, perhaps; than in that of any +other person in the world. She was his mother's legacy to him. He was to +be her patron and protector in some sort. How would she brave the news +which he had to tell her; and how should he explain the plans which he +was meditating? He felt as if neither he nor Blanche could bear Laura's +dazzling glance of calm scrutiny, and as if he would not dare to +disclose his worldly hopes and ambitions to that spotless judge. At her +arrival at Baymouth, he wrote a letter thither which contained a great +number of fine phrases and protests of affection, and a great deal of +easy satire and raillery; in the midst of all which Mr. Pen could not +help feeling that he was in panic, and that he was acting like a rogue +and hypocrite. + +How was it that a simple country girl should be the object of fear and +trembling to such an accomplished gentleman as Mr. Pen? His worldly +tactics and diplomacy, his satire and knowledge of the world, could +not bear the test of her purity, he felt somehow. And he had to own to +himself that his affairs were in such a position, that he could not tell +the truth to that honest soul. As he rode from Clavering to Baymouth he +felt as guilty as a schoolboy who doesn't know his lesson and is about +to face the awful master. For is not truth the master always, and does +she not have the power and hold the book? + +Under the charge of her kind, though somewhat wayward and absolute +patroness, Lady Rockminster, Laura had seen somewhat of the world in +the last year, had gathered some accomplishments, and profited by the +lessons of society. Many a girl who had been accustomed to that too +great tenderness in which Laura's early life had been passed, would have +been unfitted for the changed existence which she now had to lead. Helen +worshipped her two children, and thought, as home-bred women will, that +all the world was made for them, or to be considered after them. She +tended Laura with a watchfulness of affection which never left her. If +she had a headache, the widow was as alarmed as if there had never been +an aching head before in the world. She slept and woke, read and moved +under her mother's fond superintendence, which was now withdrawn from +her, along with the tender creature whose anxious heart would beat no +more. And painful moments of grief and depression no doubt Laura had, +when she stood in the great careless world alone. Nobody heeded her +griefs or her solitude. She was not quite the equal, in social rank, of +the lady whose companion she was, or of the friends and relatives of +the imperious, but kind old dowager. Some very likely bore her no +goodwill--some, perhaps, slighted her: it might have been that servants +were occasionally rude; their mistress certainly was often. Laura not +seldom found herself in family meetings, the confidence and familiarity +of which she felt were interrupted by her intrusion; and her +sensitiveness of course was wounded at the idea that she should give +or feel this annoyance. How many governesses are there in the world, +thought cheerful Laura,--how many ladies, whose necessities make +them slaves and companions by profession! What bad tempers and coarse +unkindness have not these to encounter? How infinitely better my lot is +with these really kind and affectionate people than that of thousands of +unprotected girls! It was with this cordial spirit that our young lady +adapted herself to her new position; and went in advance of her fortune +with a trustful smile. + +Did you ever know a person who met Fortune in that way, whom the +goddess did not regard kindly? Are not even bad people won by a constant +cheerfulness and a pure and affectionate heart? When the babes in the +wood, in the ballad, looked up fondly and trustfully at those notorious +rogues whom their uncle had set to make away with the little folks, +we all know how one of the rascals relented, and made away with the +other--not having the heart to be unkind to so much innocence and +beauty. Oh, happy they who have that virgin loving trust and sweet +smiling confidence in the world, and fear no evil because they think +none! Miss Laura Bell was one of these fortunate persons; and besides +the gentle widow's little cross, which, as we have seen, Pen gave her, +had such a sparkling and brilliant kohinoor in her bosom, as is even +more precious than that famous jewel; for it not only fetches a price, +and is retained, by its owner in another world where diamonds are +stated to be of no value, but here, too, is of inestimable worth to its +possessor; is a talisman against evil, and lightens up the darkness of +life, like Cogia Hassan's famous stone. + +So that before Miss Bell had been a year in Lady Rockminster's house, +there was not a single person in it whose love she had not won by the +use of this talisman. From the old lady to the lowest dependent of her +bounty, Laura had secured the goodwill and kindness of everybody. With a +mistress of such a temper, my Lady's woman (who had endured her mistress +for forty years, and had been clawed and scolded and jibed every day and +night in that space of time) could not be expected to have a good temper +of her own; and was at first angry against Miss Laura, as she had been +against her Ladyship's fifteen preceding companions. But when Laura was +ill at Paris, this old woman nursed her in spite of her mistress, who +was afraid of catching the fever, and absolutely fought for her medicine +with Martha from Fairoaks, now advanced to be Miss Laura's own maid. As +she was recovering, Grandjean the chef wanted to kill her by the numbers +of delicacies which he dressed for her, and wept when she ate her first +slice of chicken. The Swiss major-domo of the house celebrated Miss +Bell's praises in almost every European language, which he spoke with +indifferent incorrectness; the coachman was happy to drive her out; +the page cried when he heard she was ill; and Calverley and Coldstream +(those two footmen, so large, so calm ordinarily, and so difficult +to move) broke out into extraordinary hilarity at the news of her +convalescence, and intoxicated the page at a wine-shop, to fete Laura's +recovery. Even Lady Diana Pynsent (our former acquaintance Mr. Pynsent +had married by this time), Lady Diana, who had had a considerable +dislike to Laura for some time, was so enthusiastic as to say that she +thought Miss Bell was a very agreeable person, and that grandmamma had +found a great trouvaille in her. All this goodwill and kindness Laura +had acquired, not by any arts, not by any flattery, but by the simple +force of good-nature, and by the blessed gift of pleasing and being +pleased. + +On the one or two occasions when he had seen Lady Rockminster, the old +lady, who did not admire him, had been very pitiless and abrupt with our +young friend, and perhaps Pen expected when he came to Baymouth to find +Laura installed in her house in the quality of humble companion, and +treated no better than himself. When she heard of his arrival she came +running downstairs, and I am not sure that she did not embrace him in +the presence of Calverley and Coldstream: not that those gentlemen ever +told: if the fractus orbis had come to a smash, if Laura, instead of +kissing Pen, had taken her scissors and snipped off his head--Calverley +and Coldstream would have looked on impavidly, without allowing a grain +of powder to be disturbed by the calamity. + +Laura had so much improved in health and looks that Pen could not +but admire her. The frank and kind eyes which met his, beamed with +good-health; the cheek which he kissed blushed with beauty. As he looked +at her, artless and graceful, pure and candid, he thought he had never +seen her so beautiful. Why should he remark her beauty now so much, and +remark too to himself that he had not remarked it sooner? He took her +fair trustful hand and kissed it fondly: he looked in her bright clear +eyes, and read in them that kindling welcome which he was always sure to +find there. He was affected and touched by the tender tone and the pure +sparkling glance; their innocence smote him somehow and moved him. + +"How good you are to me, Laura--sister!" said Pen; "I don't deserve that +you should--that you should be so kind to me." + +"Mamma left you to me," she said, stooping down and brushing his +forehead with her lips hastily. "You know you were to come to me when +you were in trouble, or to tell me when you were very happy: that was +our compact, Arthur, last year, before we parted. Are you very happy +now, or are you in trouble--which is it?" and she looked at him with +an arch glance of kindness. "Do you like going into Parliament! Do you +intend to distinguish yourself there? How I shall tremble for your first +speech!" + +"Do you know about the Parliament plan, then?" Pen asked. + +"Know?--all the world knows! I have heard it talked about many times. +Lady Rockminster's doctor talked about it to-day. I daresay it will be +in the Chatteris paper to-morrow. It is all over the county that Sir +Francis Clavering, of Clavering, is going to retire, in behalf of Mr. +Arthur Pendennis, of Fairoaks; and that the young and beautiful Miss +Blanche Amory is----" + +"What! that too?" asked Pendennis. + +"That, too, dear Arthur. Tout se sait, as somebody would say, whom I +intend to be very fond of; and who I am sure is very clever and pretty. +I have had a letter from Blanche. The kindest of letters. She speaks so +warmly of you, Arthur! I hope--I know she feels what she writes.--When +is it to be, Arthur? Why did you not tell me? I may come and live with +you then, mayn't I?" + +"My home is yours, dear Laura, and everything I have," Pen said. "If +I did not tell you, it was because--because--I do not know: nothing is +decided as yet. No words have passed between us. But you think Blanche +could be happy with me--don't you? Not a romantic fondness, you know. +I have no heart, I think; I've told her so: only a sober-sided +attachment:--and want my wife on one side of the fire and my sister on +the other,--Parliament in the session and Fairoaks in the holidays, and +my Laura never to leave me until somebody who has a right comes to take +her away." + +Somebody who has a right--somebody with a right! Why did Pen, as he +looked at the girl and slowly uttered the words, begin to feel angry +and jealous of the invisible somebody with the right to take her away? +Anxious, but a minute ago, how she would take the news regarding his +probable arrangements with Blanche, Pen was hurt somehow that she +received the intelligence so easily, and took his happiness for granted. + +"Until somebody comes," Laura said, with a laugh, "I will stay at home +and be aunt Laura, and take care of the children when Blanche is in the +world. I have arranged it all. I am an excellent housekeeper. Do you +know I have been to market at Paris with Mrs. Beck, and have taken +some lessons from M. Grandjean? And I have had some lessons in Paris in +singing too, with the money which you sent me, you kind boy: and I can +sing much better now: and I have learned to dance, though not so well as +Blanche; and when you become a minister of state, Blanche shall present +me:" and with this, and with a provoking good-humour, she performed for +him the last Parisian curtsey. + +Lady Rockminster came in whilst this curtsey was being performed, and +gave to Arthur one finger to shake; which he took, and over which he +bowed as well as he could, which, in truth, was very clumsily. + +"So you are going to be married, sir," said the old lady. + +"Scold him, Lady Rockminster, for not telling us," Laura said, going +away: which, in truth, the old lady began instantly to do. "So you +are going to marry, and to go into Parliament in place of that +good-for-nothing Sir Francis Clavering. I wanted him to give my grandson +his seat--why did he not give my grandson his seat? I hope you are to +have a great deal of money with Miss Amory. I wouldn't take her without +a great deal." + +"Sir Francis Clavering is tired of Parliament," Pen said, wincing, +"and--and I rather wish to attempt that career. The rest of the story is +at least premature." + +"I wonder, when you had Laura at home, you could take up with such an +affected little creature as that," the old lady continued. + +"I am very sorry Miss Amory does not please your ladyship," said Pen, +smiling. + +"You mean--that it is no affair of mine, and that I am not going to +marry her. Well, I'm not, and I'm very glad I am not--a little odious +thing--when I think that a man could prefer her to my Laura, I've no +patience with him, and so I tell you, Mr. Arthur Pendennis." + +"I am very glad you see Laura with such favourable eyes," Pen said. + +"You are very glad, and you are very sorry. What does it matter, sir, +whether you are very glad or very sorry? A young man who prefers Miss +Amory to Miss Bell has no business to be sorry or glad. A young man +who takes up with such a crooked lump of affectation as that little +Amory,--for she is crooked, I tell you she is,--after seeing my Laura, +has no right to hold up his head again. Where is your friend Bluebeard? +The tall young man, I mean,--Warrington, isn't his name? Why does he not +come down, and marry Laura? What do the young men mean by not marrying +such a girl as that? They all marry for money now. You are all selfish +and cowards. We ran away with each other, and made foolish matches in my +time. I have no patience with the young men! When I was at Paris in the +winter, I asked all the three attaches at the Embassy why they did not +fall in love with Miss Bell? They laughed--they said they wanted money. +You are all selfish--you are all cowards." + +"I hope before you offered Miss Bell to the attaches," said Pen, with +some heat, "you did her the favour to consult her?" + +"Miss Bell has only a little money. Miss Bell must marry soon. Somebody +must make a match for her, sir; and a girl can't offer herself," said +the old dowager, with great state. "Laura, my dear, I've been telling +your cousin that all the young men are selfish; and that there is not a +pennyworth of romance left among them. He is as bad as the rest." + +"Have you been asking Arthur why he won't marry me?" said Laura, with a +kindling smile, coming back and taking her cousin's hand. (She had been +away, perhaps, to hide some traces of emotion, which she did not wish +others to see.) "He is going to marry somebody else; and I intend to be +very fond of her, and to go and live with them, provided he then does +not ask every bachelor who comes to his house, why he does not marry +me?" + +The terrors of Pen's conscience being thus appeased, and his examination +before Laura over without any reproaches on the part of the latter, +Pen began to find that his duty and inclination led him constantly to +Baymouth, where Lady Rockminster informed him that a place was always +reserved for him at her table. "And I recommend you to come often," the +old lady said, "for Grandjean is an excellent cook, and to be with Laura +and me will do your manners good. It is easy to see that you are always +thinking about yourself. Don't blush and stammer--almost all young men +are always thinking about themselves. My sons and grandsons always were +until I cured them. Come here, and let us teach you to behave properly; +you will not have to carve, that is done at the side-table. Hecker will +give you as much wine as is good for you; and on days when you are very +good and amusing you shall have some champagne. Hecker, mind what I +say. Mr. Pendennis is Miss Laura's brother; and you will make him +comfortable, and see that he does not have too much wine, or disturb +me whilst I am taking my nap after dinner. You are selfish: I intend +to cure you of being selfish. You will dine here when you have no other +engagements; and if it rains you had better put up at the hotel." As +long as the good lady could order everybody round about her, she was not +hard to please; and all the slaves and subjects of her little dowager +court trembled before her, but loved her. + +She did not receive a very numerous or brilliant society. The doctor, of +course, was admitted as a constant and faithful visitor; the vicar and +his curate; and on public days the vicar's wife and daughters, and some +of the season visitors at Baymouth, were received at the old lady's +entertainments: but generally the company was a small one, and Mr. +Arthur drank his wine by himself, when Lady Rockminster retired to take +her doze, and to be played and sung to sleep by Laura after dinner. + +"If my music can give her a nap," said the good-natured girl, "ought I +not to be very glad that it can do so much good? Lady Rockminster sleeps +very little of nights: and I used to read to her until I fell ill at +Paris, since when she will not hear of my sitting up." + +"Why did you not write to me when you were ill?" asked Pen, with a +blush. + +"What good could you do me? I had Martha to nurse me and the doctor +every day. You are too busy to write to women or to think about them. +You have your books and your newspapers, and your politics and your +railroads to occupy you. I wrote when I was well." + +And Pen looked at her, and blushed again, as he remembered that, +during all the time of her illness, he had never written to her and had +scarcely thought about her. + +In consequence of his relationship, Pen was free to walk and ride with +his cousin constantly, and in the course of those walks and rides, +could appreciate the sweet frankness of her disposition, and the truth, +simplicity, and kindliness of her fair and spotless heart. In their +mother's lifetime, she had never spoken so openly or so cordially as +now. The desire of poor Helen to make an union between her two children, +had caused a reserve on Laura's part towards Pen; for which, under the +altered circumstances of Arthur's life, there was now no necessity. +He was engaged to another woman; and Laura became his sister at +once,--hiding, or banishing from herself, any doubts which she might +have as to his choice; striving to look cheerfully forward, and hope for +his prosperity; promising herself to do all that affection might do to +make her mother's darling happy. + +Their talk was often about the departed mother. And it was from a +thousand stories which Laura told him that Arthur was made aware how +constant and absorbing that silent maternal devotion had been; which had +accompanied him present and absent through life, and had only ended with +the fond widow's last breath. One day the people in Clavering saw a lad +in charge of a couple of horses at the churchyard-gate: and it was told +over the place that Pen and Laura had visited Helen's grave together. +Since Arthur had come down into the country, he had been there once or +twice: but the sight of the sacred stone had brought no consolation to +him. A guilty man doing a guilty deed: a mere speculator, content to lay +down his faith and honour for a fortune and a worldly career; and owning +that his life was but a contemptible surrender--what right had he in the +holy place? what booted it to him in the world he lived in, that others +were no better than himself? Arthur and Laura rode by the gates of +Fairoaks; and he shook hands with his tenant's children, playing on the +lawn and the terrace--Laura looked steadily at the cottage wall, at the +creeper on the porch and the magnolia growing up to her window. "Mr. +Pendennis rode by to-day," one of the boys told his mother, "with +a lady, and he stopped and talked to us, and he asked for a bit of +honeysuckle off the porch, and gave it the lady. I couldn't see if she +was pretty; she had her veil down. She was riding one of Cramp's horses, +out of Baymouth." + +As they rode over the downs between home and Baymouth, Pen did not +speak much, though they rode very close together. He was thinking what +a mockery life was, and how men refuse happiness when they may have it; +or, having it, kick it down; or barter it, with their eyes open, for a +little worthless money or beggarly honour. And then the thought came, +what does it matter for the little space? The lives of the best and +purest of us are consumed in a vain desire, and end in a disappointment: +as the dear soul's who sleeps in her grave yonder. She had her selfish +ambition, as much as Caesar had; and died, baulked of her life's +longing. The stone covers over our hopes and our memories. Our place +knows us not. "Other people's children are playing on the grass," he +broke out, in a hard voice, "where you and I used to play, Laura. And +you see how the magnolia we planted has grown up since our time. I have +been round to one or two of the cottages where my mother used to visit. +It is scarcely more than a year that she is gone, and the people whom +she used to benefit care no more for her death than for Queen Anne's. We +are all selfish: the world is selfish: there are but a few exceptions, +like you, my dear, to shine like good deeds in a naughty world, and make +the blackness more dismal." + +"I wish you would not speak in that way, Arthur," said Laura, looking +down and bending her head to the honeysuckle on her breast. "When you +told the little boy to give me this, you were not selfish." + +"A pretty sacrifice I made to get it for you!" said the sneerer. + +"But your heart was kind and full of love when you did so. One cannot +ask for more than love and kindness; and if you think humbly of yourself +Arthur, the love and kindness are--diminished--are they? I often thought +our dearest mother spoiled you at home, by worshipping you; and that if +you are--I hate the word--what you say, her too great fondness helped +to make you so. And as for the world, when men go out into it, I suppose +they cannot be otherwise than selfish. You have to fight for yourself, +and to get on for yourself, and to make a name for yourself. Mamma and +your uncle both encouraged you in this ambition. If it is a vain thing, +why pursue it? I suppose such a clever man as you intend to do a great +deal of good to the country, by going into Parliament, or you would not +wish to be there. What are you going to do when you are in the House of +Commons?" + +"Women don't understand about politics, my dear," Pen said sneering at +himself as he spoke. + +"But why don't you make us understand? I could never tell about Mr. +Pynsent why he should like to be there so much. He is not a clever +man----" + +"He certainly is not a genius, Pynsent," said Pen. + +"Lady Diana says that he attends Committees all day; that then again he +is at the House all night; that he always votes as he is told; that he +never speaks; that he will never get on beyond a subordinate place; and +as his grandmother tells him, he is choked with red-tape. Are you going +to follow the same career; Arthur? What is there in it so brilliant that +you should be so eager for it? I would rather that you should stop +at home, and write books--good books, kind books, with gentle kind +thoughts, such as you have, dear Arthur, and such as might do people +good to read. And if you do not win fame, what then? You own it is +vanity, and you can live very happily without it. I must not pretend to +advise; but I take you at your own word about the world; and as you own +it is wicked, and that it tires you, ask you why you don't leave it?" + +"And what would you have me do?" asked Arthur. + +"I would have you bring your wife to Fairoaks to live there, and study, +and do good round about you. I would like to see your own children +playing on the lawn, Arthur, and that we might pray in our mother's +church again once more, dear brother. If the world is a temptation, are +we not told to pray that we may not be led into it?" + +"Do you think Blanche would make a good wife for a petty country +gentleman? Do you think I should become the character very well, Laura?" +Pen asked. "Remember temptation walks about the hedgerows as well as the +city streets: and idleness is the greatest tempter of all." + +"What does--does Mr. Warrington say?" said Laura, as a blush mounted up +to her cheek, and of which Pen saw the fervour, though Laura's veil fell +over her face to hide it. + +Pen rode on by Laura's side silently for a while. George's name so +mentioned brought back the past to him, and the thoughts which he had +once had regarding George and Laura. Why should the recurrence of the +thought agitate him, now that he knew the union was impossible? Why +should he be curious to know if, during the months of their intimacy, +Laura had felt a regard for Warrington? From that day until the present +time George had never alluded to his story, and Arthur remembered now +that since then George had scarcely ever mentioned Laura's name. + +At last he cane close to her. "Tell me something, Laura," he said. + +She put back her veil and looked at him. "What is it, Arthur?" she +asked--though from the tremor of her voice she guessed very well. + +"Tell me--but for George's misfortune--I never knew him speak of it +before or since that day--would you--would you have given him--what you +refused me?" + +"Yes, Pen," she said, bursting into tears. + +"He deserved you better than I did," poor Arthur groaned forth, with an +indescribable pang at his heart. "I am but a selfish wretch, and George +is better, nobler, truer, than I am. God bless him!" + +"Yes, Pen," said Laura, reaching out her hand to her cousin, and he put +his arm round her, and for a moment she sobbed on his shoulder. + +The gentle girl had had her secret, and told it. In the widow's last +journey from Fairoaks, when hastening with her mother to Arthur's +sick-bed, Laura had made a different confession; and it was only when +Warrington told his own story, and described the hopeless condition of +his life, that she discovered how much her feelings had changed, +and with what tender sympathy, with what great respect, delight, and +admiration she had grown to regard her cousin's friend. Until she knew +that some plans she might have dreamed of were impossible, and that +Warrington, reading in her heart, perhaps, had told his melancholy story +to warn her, she had not asked herself whether it was possible that +her affections could change; and had been shocked and seared by the +discovery of the truth. How should she have told it to Helen, and +confessed her shame? Poor Laura felt guilty before her friend, with +the secret which she dared not confide to her; felt as if she had been +ungrateful for Helen's love and regard; felt as if she had been wickedly +faithless to Pen in withdrawing that love from him which he did not even +care to accept; humbled even and repentant before Warrington, lest she +should have encouraged him by undue sympathy, or shown the preference +which she began to feel. + +The catastrophe which broke up Laura's home, and the grief and anguish +which she felt for her mother's death, gave her little leisure for +thoughts more selfish; and by the time she rallied from that grief the +minor one was also almost cured. It was but for a moment that she had +indulged a hope about Warrington. Her admiration and respect for him +remained as strong as ever. But the tender feeling with which she knew +she had regarded him, was schooled into such calmness, that it may be +said to have been dead and passed away. The pang which it left behind +was one of humility and remorse. "Oh, how wicked and proud I was about +Arthur," she thought, "how self-confident and unforgiving! I never +forgave from my heart this poor girl, who was fond of him, or him +for encouraging her love; and I have been more guilty than she, poor, +little, artless creature! I, professing to love one man, could listen to +another only too eagerly; and would not pardon the change of feelings in +Arthur, whilst I myself was changing and unfaithful:" And so humiliating +herself, and acknowledging her weakness, the poor girl sought for +strength and refuge in the manner in which she had been accustomed to +look for them. + +She had done no wrong: but there are some folks who suffer for a fault +ever so trifling as much as others whose stout consciences can walk +under crimes of almost any weight; and poor Laura chose to fancy that +she had acted in this delicate juncture of her life as a very great +criminal. She determined that she had done Pen a great injury by +withdrawing that love which, privately in her mother's hearing, she had +bestowed upon him; that she had been ungrateful to her dead benefactress +by ever allowing herself to think of another or of violating her +promise; and that, considering her own enormous crimes, she ought to +be very gentle in judging those of others, whose temptations were much +greater, very likely, and whose motives she could not understand. + +A year back Laura would have been indignant at the idea that Arthur +should marry Blanche: and her high spirit would have risen, as she +thought that from worldly motives he should stoop to one so unworthy. +Now when the news was brought to her of such a chance (the intelligence +was given to her by old Lady Rockminster, whose speeches were as direct +and rapid as a slap on the face), the humbled girl winced a little at +the blow, but bore it meekly, and with a desperate acquiescence. "He has +a right to marry, he knows a great deal more of the world than I do," +she argued with herself. "Blanche may not be so light-minded as she +seemed, and who am I to be her judge? I daresay it is very good that +Arthur should go into Parliament and distinguish himself, and my duty +is to do everything that lies in my power to aid him and Blanche, and to +make his home happy. I daresay I shall live with them. If I am godmother +to one of their children, I will leave her my three thousand pounds!" +And forthwith she began to think what she could give Blanche out of her +small treasures, and how best to conciliate her affection. She wrote her +forthwith a kind letter, in which, of course, no mention was made of the +plans in contemplation, but in which Laura recalled old times, and spoke +her goodwill, and in reply to this she received an eager answer from +Blanche: in which not a word about marriage was said, to be sure, but +Mr. Pendennis was mentioned two or three times in the letter, and they +were to be henceforth, dearest Laura, and dearest Blanche, and loving +sisters, and so forth. + +When Pen and Laura reached home, after Laura's confession (Pen's noble +acknowledgment of his own inferiority and generous expression of love +for Warrington, causing the girl's heart to throb, and rendering doubly +keen those tears which she sobbed on his shoulder), a little slim letter +was awaiting Miss Bell in the hall, which she trembled rather guiltily +as she unsealed, and which Pen blushed as he recognised: for he saw +instantly that it was from Blanche. + +Laura opened it hastily, and cast her eyes quickly over it, as Pen kept +his fixed on her, blushing. + +"She dates from London," Laura said. "She has been with old Bonner, Lady +Clavering's maid. Bonner is going to marry Lightfoot the butler. Where +do you think Blanche has been?" she cried out eagerly. + +"To Paris, to Scotland, to the Casino?" + +"To Shepherd's Inn, to see Fanny; but Fanny wasn't there, and Blanche is +going to leave a present for her. Isn't it kind of her and thoughtful?" +And she handed the letter to Pen, who read-- + +"'I saw Madame Mere, who was scrubbing the room, and looked at me with +very scrubby looks; but la belle Fanny was not au logis; and as I heard +that she was in Captain Strong's apartments, Bonner and I mounted au +troisieme to see this famous beauty. Another disappointment--only the +Chevalier Strong and a friend of his in the room: so we came away after +all without seeing the enchanting Fanny. + +"'Je t'envoie mille et mille baisers. When will that horrid canvassing +be over? Sleeves are worn, etc. etc. etc.'" + +After dinner the doctor was reading the Times. "A young gentleman I +attended when he was here some eight or nine years ago, has come into a +fine fortune," the doctor said. "I see here announced the death of John +Henry Foker, Esq., of Logwood Hall, at Pau, in the Pyrenees, on the 15th +ult." + + + + +CHAPTER LXVIII. In which the Major is bidden to Stand and Deliver + + +Any gentleman who has frequented the Wheel of Fortune public-house, +where it may be remembered that Mr. James Morgan's Club was held, and +where Sir Francis Clavering had an interview with Major Pendennis, +is aware that there are three rooms for guests upon the ground floor, +besides the bar where the landlady sits. One is a parlour frequented by +the public at large; to another room gentlemen in livery resort; and +the third apartment, on the door of which "Private" is painted, is that +hired by the Club of "The Confidentials," of which Messrs Morgan and +Lightfoot were members. + +The noiseless Morgan had listened to the conversation between Strong and +Major Pendennis at the latter's own lodgings, and had carried away from +it matter for much private speculation; and a desire of knowledge +had led him to follow his master when the Major came to the Wheel of +Fortune, and to take his place quietly in the Confidential room, whilst +Pendennis and Clavering had their discourse in the parlour. There was +a particular corner in the Confidential room from which you could hear +almost all that passed in the next apartment; and as the conversation +between the two gentlemen there was rather angry, and carried on in a +high key, Morgan had the benefit of overhearing almost the whole of +it and what he heard, strengthened the conclusions which his mind had +previously formed. + +"He knew Altamont at once, did he, when he saw him in Sydney? Clavering +ain't no more married to my Lady than I am! Altamont's the man: +Altamont's a convict; young Harthur comes into Parlyment, and the +Gov'nor promises not to split. By Jove, what a sly old rogue it is, that +old Gov'nor! No wonder he's anxious to make the match between Blanche +and Harthur: why, she'll have a hundred thousand if she's a penny, and +bring her man a seat in Parlyment into the bargain." Nobody saw, but a +physiognomist would have liked to behold, the expression of Mr. Morgan's +countenance, when this astounding intelligence was made clear to him. +"But for my hage, and the confounded preudices of society," he said, +surveying himself in the glass, "dammy, James Morgan, you might marry +her yourself." But if he could not marry Miss Blanche and her fortune, +Morgan thought he could mend his own by the possession of this +information, and that it might be productive of benefit to him from very +many sources. Of all the persons whom the secret affected, the greater +number would not like to have it known. For instance, Sir Francis +Clavering, whose fortune it involved, would wish to keep it quiet; +Colonel Altamont, whose neck it implicated, would naturally be desirous +to hush it: and that young hupstart beast, Mr. Harthur, who was for +getting' into Parlyment on the strenth of it, and was as proud as if +he was a duke with half a millium a year (such, we grieve to say, was +Morgan's opinion of his employer's nephew), would pay anythink sooner +than let the world know that he was married to a convick's daughter, and +had got his seat in Parlyment by trafficking with this secret. As for +Lady C., Morgan thought, if she's tired of Clavering, and wants to get +rid of him, she'll pay: if she's frightened about her son, and fond +of the little beggar, she'll pay all the same: and Miss Blanche will +certainly come down handsome to the man who will put her into her +rights, which she was unjustly defrauded of them, and no mistake. +"Dammy," concluded the valet, reflecting upon this wonderful hand which +luck had given him to play, "with such cards as these, James Morgan, you +are a made man. It may be a reg'lar enewity to me. Every one of 'em must +susscribe. And with what I've made already, I may cut business, give +my old Gov'nor warning, turn gentleman, and have a servant of my own, +begad." Entertaining himself with calculations such as these, that were +not a little likely to perturb a man's spirit, Mr. Morgan showed a very +great degree of self-command by appearing and being calm, and by not +allowing his future prospects in any way to interfere with his present +duties. + +One of the persons whom the story chiefly concerned, Colonel Altamont, +was absent from London when Morgan was thus made acquainted with his +history. The valet knew of Sir Francis Clavering's Shepherd's Inn haunt, +and walked thither an hour or two after the Baronet and Pendennis +had had their conversation together. But that bird was flown; Colonel +Altamont had received his Derby winnings, and was gone to the Continent. +The fact of his absence was exceedingly vexatious to Mr. Morgan. "He'll +drop all that money at the gambling-shops on the Rhind," thought Morgan, +"and I might have had a good bit of it. It's confounded annoying to +think he's gone and couldn't have waited a few days longer." Hope, +triumphant or deferred, ambition or disappointment, victory or patient +ambush, Morgan bore all alike, with similar equable countenance. Until +the proper day came, the Major's boots were varnished and his hair was +curled, his early cup of tea was brought to his bedside, his oaths, +rebukes, and senile satire borne, with silent, obsequious fidelity. Who +would think, to see him waiting upon his master, packing and shouldering +his trunks, and occasionally assisting at table, at the country-houses +where he might be staying, that Morgan was richer than his employer, and +knew his secrets and other people's? In the profession Mr. Morgan was +greatly respected and admired, and his reputation for wealth and wisdom +got him much renown at most supper-tables: the younger gentlemen voted +him stoopid, a feller of no idears, and a fogey, in a word: but not one +of them would not say amen to the heartfelt prayer which some of the +most serious-minded among the gentlemen uttered, "When I die may I cut +up as well as Morgan Pendennis!" + +As became a man of fashion, Major Pendennis spent the autumn passing +from house to house of such country friends as were at home to receive +him; and if the Duke happened to be abroad, the Marquis in Scotland, +condescending to sojourn with Sir John or the plain Squire. To say the +truth, the old gentleman's reputation was somewhat on the wane: many of +the men of his time had died out, and the occupants of their halls and +the present wearers of their titles knew not Major Pendennis: and little +cared for his traditions of "the wild Prince and Poins," and of the +heroes of fashion passed away. It must have struck the good man with +melancholy as he walked by many a London door, to think how seldom it +was now opened for him, and how often he used to knock at it--to what +banquets and welcome he used to pass through it--a score of years back. +He began to own that he was no longer of the present age, and dimly to +apprehend that the young men laughed at him. Such melancholy musings +must come across many a Pall Mall philosopher. The men, thinks he, +are not such as they used to be in his time: the old grand manner and +courtly grace of life are gone: what is Castlewood House and the present +Castlewood, compared to the magnificence of the old mansion and owner? +The late lord came to London with four postchaises and sixteen horses: +all the North Road hurried out to look at his cavalcade: the people in +London streets even stopped as his procession passed them. The present +lord travels with five bagmen in a railway carriage, and sneaks away +from the station, smoking a cigar in a brougham. The late lord in autumn +filled Castlewood with company, who drank claret till midnight: the +present man buries himself in a hut on a Scotch mountain, and passes +November in two or three closets in an entresol at Paris, where his +amusements are a dinner at a cafe and a box at a little theatre. What a +contrast there is between his Lady Lorraine, the Regent's Lady Lorraine, +and her little ladyship of the present era! He figures to himself the +first, beautiful, gorgeous, magnificent in diamonds and velvets, +daring in rouge, the wits of the world (the old wits, the old polished +gentlemen--not the canaille of to-day with their language of the +cabstand, and their coats smelling of smoke) bowing at her feet; and +then thinks of to-day's Lady Lorraine--a little woman in a black silk +gown, like a governess, who talks astronomy, and labouring classes, +and emigration, and the deuce knows what, and lurks to church at eight +o'clock in the morning. Abbots-Lorraine, that used to be the noblest +house in the county, is turned into a monastery--a regular La Trappe. +They don't drink two glasses of wine after dinner, and every other man +at table is a country curate, with a white neckcloth, whose talk is +about Polly Higson's progress at school, or widow Watkins's lumbago. +"And the other young men, those lounging guardsmen and great lazy +dandies--sprawling over sofas and billiard-tables, and stealing off to +smoke pipes in each other's bedrooms, caring for nothing, reverencing +nothing, not even an old gentleman who has known their fathers and their +betters, not even a pretty woman--what a difference there is between +these men, who poison the very turnips and stubble-fields with their +tobacco, and the gentlemen of our time!" thinks the Major; "the breed +is gone--there's no use for 'em; they're replaced by a parcel of damned +cotton-spinners and utilitarians, and young sprigs of parsons with +their hair combed down their barks. I'm getting old: they're getting +past me: they laugh at us old boys," thought old Pendennis. And he was +not far wrong; the times and manners which he admired were pretty nearly +gone--the gay young men "larked" him irreverently, whilst the serious +youth had a grave pity and wonder at him; which would have been even +more painful to bear, had the old gentleman been aware of its extent. +But he was rather simple: his examination of moral questions had never +been very deep; it had never struck him perhaps, until very lately, that +he was otherwise than a most respectable and rather fortunate man. Is +there no old age but his without reverence? Did youthful folly never +jeer at other bald pates? For the past two or three years, he had begun +to perceive that his day was well-nigh over, and that the men of the new +time had begun to reign. + +After a rather unsuccessful autumn season, then, during which he was +faithfully followed by Mr. Morgan, his nephew Arthur being engaged, as +we have seen, at Clavering, it happened that Major Pendennis came back +for a while to London, at the dismal end of October, when the fogs and +the lawyers come to town. Who has not looked with interest at those +loaded cabs, piled boxes, and crowded children, rattling through the +streets on the dun October evenings; stopping at the dark houses, +where they discharge nurse and infant, girls, matron and father, whose +holidays are over? Yesterday it was France and sunshine, or Broadstairs +and liberty; to-day comes work and a yellow fog; and, ye gods! what a +heap of bills there lies in Master's study! And the clerk has brought +the lawyer's papers from Chambers; and in half an hour the literary man +knows that the printer's boy will be in the passage; and Mr. Smith +with that little account (that particular little account) has called +presentient of your arrival, and has left word that he will call +to-morrow morning at ten. Who amongst us has not said Good-bye to his +holiday; returned to dun London, and his fate; surveyed his labours +and liabilities laid out before him, and been aware of that inevitable +little account to settle? Smith and his little account in the morning, +symbolise duty, difficulty, struggle, which you will meet, let us hope, +friend, with a manly and honest heart.--And you think of him, as the +children are slumbering once more in their own beds, and the watchful +housewife tenderly pretends to sleep. + +Old Pendennis had no special labours or bills to encounter on the +morrow, as he had no affection at home to soothe him. He had always +money in his desk sufficient for his wants; and being by nature and +habit tolerably indifferent to the wants of other people, these latter +were not likely to disturb him. But a gentleman may be out of temper +though he does not owe a shilling and though he may be ever so selfish, +he must occasionally feel dispirited and lonely. He had had two or three +twinges of gout in the country-house where he had been staying: the +birds were wild and shy, and the walking over the ploughed fields had +fatigued him deucedly: the young men had laughed at him, and he had been +peevish at table once or twice: he had not been able to get his whist +of an evening: and, in fine, was glad to come away. In all his dealings +with Morgan, his valet, he had been exceedingly sulky and discontented. +He had sworn at him and abused him for many days past. He had scalded +his mouth with bad soup at Swindon. He had left his umbrella in the +railroad carriage: at which piece of forgetfulness, he was in such a +rage, that he cursed Morgan more freely than ever. Both, the chimneys +smoked furiously in his lodgings; and when he caused the windows to be +flung open, he swore so acrimoniously, that Morgan was inclined to fling +him out of window too, through that opened casement. The valet swore +after his master, as Pendennis went down the street on his way to the +Club. + +Bays's was not at all pleasant. The house had been new painted, and +smelt of varnish and turpentine, and a large streak of white paint +inflicted itself on the back of the old boy's fur-collared surtout. The +dinner was not good: and the three most odious men in all London--old +Hawkshaw, whose cough and accompaniments are fit to make any man +uncomfortable; old Colonel Gripley, who seizes on all the newspapers; +and that irreclaimable old bore Jawkins, who would come and dine at the +next table to Pendennis, and describe to him every inn-bill which he had +paid in his foreign tour: each and all of these disagreeable personages +and incidents had contributed to make Major Pendennis miserable; and the +Club waiter trod on his toe as he brought him his coffee. Never alone +appear the Immortals. The Furies always hunt in company: they pursued +Pendennis from home to the Club, and from the Club home. + +Whilst the Major was absent from his lodgings, Morgan had been seated +in the landlady's parlour, drinking freely of hot brandy-and-water, and +pouring out on Mrs. Brixham some of the abuse which he had received from +his master upstairs. Mrs. Brixham was Mr. Morgan's slave. He was his +landlady's landlord. He had bought the lease of the house which she +rented; he had got her name and her son's to acceptances, and a bill of +sale which made him master of the luckless widow's furniture. The young +Brixham was a clerk in an insurance office, and Morgan could put him +into what he called quod any day. Mrs. Brixham was a clergyman's widow, +and Mr. Morgan, after performing his duties on the first floor, had a +pleasure in making the old lady fetch him his bootjack and his slippers. +She was his slave. The little black profiles of her son and daughter; +the very picture of Tiddlecot Church, where she was married, and her +poor dear Brixham lived and died, was now Morgan's property, as it +hung there over the mantelpiece of his back-parlour. Morgan sate in the +widow's back-room, in the ex-curate's old horse-hair study-chair, making +Mrs. Brixham bring supper for him, and fill his glass again and again. + +The liquor was bought with the poor woman's own coin, and hence Morgan +indulged in it only the more freely; and he had eaten his supper and was +drinking a third tumbler, when old Pendennis returned from the Club, and +went upstairs to his rooms. Mr. Morgan swore very savagely at him and +his bell, when he heard the latter, and finished his tumbler of brandy +before he went up to answer the summons. + +He received the abuse consequent on this delay in silence, nor did the +Major condescend to read in the flushed face and glaring eyes of +the man, the anger under which he was labouring. The old gentleman's +foot-bath was at the fire; his gown and slippers awaiting him there. +Morgan knelt down to take his boots off with due subordination: and as +the Major abused him from above, kept up a growl of maledictions below +at his feet. Thus, when Pendennis was crying "Confound you, sir, mind +that strap--curse you, don't wrench my foot off," Morgan sotto voce +below was expressing a wish to strangle him, drown him, and punch his +head off. + +The boots removed, it became necessary to divest Mr. Pendennis of his +coat: and for this purpose the valet had necessarily to approach very +near to his employer; so near that Pendennis could not but perceive +what Mr. Morgan's late occupation had been; to which he adverted in that +simple and forcible phraseology which men are sometimes in the habit of +using to their domestics; informing Morgan that he was a drunken beast, +and that he smelt of brandy. + +At this the man broke out, losing patience, and flinging up all +subordination, "I'm drunk, am I? I'm a beast, am I? I'm d----d, am I? +you infernal old miscreant. Shall I wring your old head off, and +drownd yer in that pail of water? Do you think I'm a-goin' to bear your +confounded old harrogance, you old Wigsby! Chatter your old hivories at +me, do you, you grinning old baboon! Come on, if you are a man, and can +stand to a man. Ha! you coward, knives, knives!" + +"If you advance a step, I'll send it into you," said the Major, seizing +up a knife that was on the table near him. "Go downstairs, you drunken +brute, and leave the house; send for your book and your wages in the +morning, and never let me see your insolent face again. This d----d +impertinence of yours has been growing for some months past. You have +been growing too rich. You are not fit for service. Get out of it, and +out of the house." + +"And where would you wish me to go, pray, out of the 'ouse?" asked the +man, "and won't it be equal convenient to-morrow mornin'?--tootyfay mame +shose, sivvaplay, munseer?" + +"Silence, you beast, and go!" cried out the Major. + +Morgan began to laugh, with rather a sinister laugh. "Look yere, +Pendennis," he said, seating himself; "since I've been in this room +you've called me beast, brute, dog: and d----d me, haven't you? How do +you suppose one man likes that sort of talk from another? How many years +have I waited on you, and how many damns and cusses have you given me, +along with my wages? Do you think a man's a dog, that you can talk to +him in this way? If I choose to drink a little, why shouldn't I? I've +seen many a gentleman drunk form'ly, and peraps have the abit from them. +I ain't a-goin' to leave this house, old feller, and shall I tell you +why? The house is my house, every stick of furnitur' in it is mine, +excep' your old traps, and your shower-bath, and your wigbox. I've +bought the place, I tell you, with my own industry and perseverance. +I can show a hundred pound, where you can show a fifty, or your damned +supersellious nephew either. I've served you honourable, done everythink +for you these dozen years, and I'm a dog, am I? I'm a beast, am I? +That's the language for gentlemen, not for our rank. But I'll bear it no +more. I throw up your service; I'm tired on it; I've combed your old +wig and buckled your old girths and waistbands long enough, I tell you. +Don't look savage at me, I'm sitting in my own chair, in my own room, +a-telling the truth to you. I'll be your beast, and your brute, and your +dog, no more, Major Pendennis Alf Pay." + +The fury of the old gentleman, met by the servant's abrupt revolt, +had been shocked and cooled by the concussion, as much as if a sudden +shower-bath or a pail of cold water had been flung upon him. That effect +produced, and his anger calmed, Morgan's speech had interested him, and +he rather respected his adversary, and his courage in facing him; as of +old days, in the fencing-room, he would have admired the opponent who +hit him. + +"You are no longer my servant," the Major said, "and the house may be +yours; but the lodgings are mine, and you will have the goodness to +leave them. To-morrow morning, when we have settled our accounts, I +shall remove into other quarters. In the meantime, I desire to go to +bed, and have not the slightest wish for your further company." + +"We'll have a settlement, don't you be afraid," Morgan said, getting up +from his chair. "I ain't done with you yet; nor with your family, nor +with the Clavering family, Major Pendennis; and that you shall know." + +"Have the goodness to leave the room, sir--I'm tired," said the Major. + +"Hah! you'll be more tired of me afore you've done," answered the man, +with a sneer, and walked out of the room; leaving the Major to compose +himself as best he might, after the agitation of this extraordinary +scene. + +He sate and mused by his fireside over the past events, and the +confounded impudence and ingratitude of servants; and thought how he +should get a new man: how devilish unpleasant it was for a man of his +age, and with his habits, to part with a fellow to whom he had been +accustomed: how Morgan had a receipt for boot-varnish, which was +incomparably better and more comfortable to the feet than any he had +ever tried: how very well he made mutton-broth, and tended him when he +was unwell. "Gad, it's a hard thing to lose a fellow of that sort: but +he must go," thought the Major. "He has grown rich, and impudent since +he has grown rich. He was horribly tipsy and abusive to-night. We must +part, and I must go out of the lodgings. Dammy, I like the lodgings; +I'm used to 'em. It's very unpleasant, at my time of life, to change my +quarters." And so on, mused the old gentleman. The shower-bath had done +him good: the testiness was gone: the loss of the umbrella, the smell +of paint at the Club, were forgotten under the superior excitement. +"Confound the insolent villain!" thought the old gentleman. "He +understood my wants to a nicety: he was the best servant in England." +He thought about his servant as a man thinks of a horse that has carried +him long and well, and that has come down with him, and is safe no +longer. How the deuce to replace him? Where can he get such another +animal? + +In these melancholy cogitations the Major, who had donned his own +dressing-gown and replaced his head of hair (a little grey had been +introduced into the coiffure of late by Mr. Truefitt, which had given +the Major's head the most artless and respectable appearance); in these +cogitations, we say, the Major, who had taken off his wig and put on his +night-handkerchief, sate absorbed by the fireside, when a feeble knock +came at his door, which was presently opened by the landlady of the +lodgings. + +"God bless my soul, Mrs. Brixham!" cried out the Major, startled that +a lady should behold him in the simple appareil of his night-toilet. +"It--it's very late, Mrs. Brixham." + +"I wish I might speak to you, sir," said the landlady, very piteously. + +"About Morgan, I suppose? He has cooled himself at the pump. Can't take +him back, Mrs. Brixham. Impossible. I'd determined to part with him +before, when I heard of his dealings in the discount business--I suppose +you've heard of them, Mrs. Brixham? My servant's a capitalist, begad." + +"Oh, sir," said Mrs. Brixham, "I know it to my cost. I borrowed from +him a little money five years ago; and though I have paid him many times +over, I am entirely in his power. I am ruined by him, sir. Everything I +had is his. He's a dreadful man." + +"Eh, Mrs. Brixham? tout pis--dev'lish sorry for you, and that I must +quit your house after lodging here so long: there's no help for it. I +must go." + +"He says we must all go, sir," sobbed out the luckless widow. "He came +downstairs from you just now--he had been drinking, and it always makes +him very wicked--and he said that you had insulted him, sir, and treated +him like a dog, and spoken to him unkindly; and he swore he would be +revenged, and--and I owe him a hundred and twenty pounds, sir--and he +has a bill of sale of all my furniture--and says he will turn me out of +my house, and send my poor George to prison. He has been the ruin of my +family, that man." + +"Dev'lish sorry, Mrs. Brixham; pray take a chair. What can I do?" + +"Could you not intercede with him for us? George will give half his +allowance; my daughter can send something. If you will but stay on, sir, +and pay a quarter's rent in advance----" + +"My good madam, I would as soon give you a quarter in advance as not, if +I were going to stay in the lodgings. But I can't; and I can't afford +to fling away twenty pounds, my good madam. I'm a poor half-pay officer, +and want every shilling I have, begad. As far as a few pounds goes--say +five pounds--I don't say--and shall be most happy, and that sort of +thing: and I'll give it you in the morning with pleasure: but--but it's +getting late, and I have made a railroad journey." + +"God's will be done, sir," said the poor woman, drying her tears. I must +bear my fate." + +"And a dev'lish hard one it is, and most sincerely I pity you, Mrs. +Brixham. I--I'll say ten pounds, if you will permit me. Good night." + +"Mr. Morgan, sir, when he came downstairs, and when--when I besought him +to have pity on me, and told him he had been the ruin of my family, +said something which I did not well understand--that he would ruin +every family in the house--that he knew something would bring you down +too--and that you should pay him for your--your insolence to him. I--I +must own to you, that I went down on my knees to him, sir; and he said, +with a dreadful oath against you, that he would have you on your knees." + +"Me?--by Gad, that is too pleasant! Where is the confounded fellow?" + +"He went away, sir. He said he should see you in the morning. Oh, pray +try and pacify him, and save me and my poor boy." And the widow went +away with this prayer, to pass her night as she might, and look for the +dreadful morrow. + +The last words about himself excited Major Pendennis so much, that his +compassion for Mrs. Brixham's misfortunes was quite forgotten in the +consideration of his own case. + +"Me on my knees?" thought he, as he got into bed: "confound his +impudence! Who ever saw me on my knees? What the devil does the fellow +know? Gad, I've not had an affair these twenty years. I defy him." And +the old compaigner turned round and slept pretty sound, being rather +excited and amused by the events of the day--the last day in Bury +Street, he was determined it should be. "For it's impossible to stay on +with a valet over me, and a bankrupt landlady. What good can I do this +poor devil of a woman? I'll give her twenty pound--there's Warrington's +twenty pound, which he has just paid--but what's the use? She'll want +more, and more, and more, and that cormorant Morgan will swallow all. +No, dammy, I can't afford to know poor people; and to-morrow I'll say +Good-bye--to Mrs. Brixham and Mr. Morgan." + + + + +CHAPTER LXIX. In which the Major neither yields his Money nor his Life + + +Early next morning Pendennis's shutters were opened by Morgan, who +appeared as usual, with a face perfectly grave and respectful, bearing +with him the old gentleman's clothes, cans of water, and elaborate +toilet requisites. + +"It's you, is it?" said the old fellow from his bed. "I shan't take you +back again, you understand." + +"I ave not the least wish to be took back agin, Major Pendennis," Mr. +Morgan said, with grave dignity, "nor to serve you nor hany man. But as +I wish you to be comftable as long as you stay in my house, I came up +to do what's nessary." And once more, and for the last time, Mr. James +Morgan laid out the silver dressing-case, and strapped the shining +razor. + +These offices concluded, he addressed himself to the Major with an +indescribable solemnity, and said: "Thinkin' that you would most likely +be in want of a respectable pusson, until you suited yourself, I spoke +to a young man last night, who is 'ere." + +"Indeed," said the warrior in the tent-bed. + +"He ave lived in the fust famlies, and I can wouch for his +respectability." + +"You are monstrous polite," grinned the old Major. And the truth is, +that after the occurrences of the previous evening, Morgan had gone out +to his own Club at the Wheel of Fortune, and there finding Frosch, a +courier and valet just returned from a foreign tour with young Lord +Cubley, and for the present disposable, had represented to Mr. Frosch, +that he, Morgan, had "a devil of a blow hup with his own Gov'nor, and +was goin' to retire from the business haltogether, and that if Frosch +wanted a tempory job, he might probbly have it by applying in Bury +Street." + +"You are very polite," said the Major, "and your recommendation, I am +sure, will have every weight." + +Morgan blushed; he felt his master was 'a-chaffin' of him.' "The man +have awaited on you before, sir," he said with great dignity. "Lord De +la Pole, sir, gave him to his nephew young Lord Cubley, and he have been +with him on his foring tour, and not wishing to go to Fitzurse Castle, +which Frosch's chest is delicate, and he cannot bear the cold in +Scotland, he is free to serve you or not, as you choose." + +"I repeat, sir, that you are exceedingly polite," said the Major. Come +in, Frosch--you will do very well--Mr. Morgan, will you have the great +kindness to----" + +"I shall show him what is nessary, sir, and what is customry for you to +wish to ave done. Will you please to take breakfast 'ere or at the Club, +Major Pendennis?" + +"With your kind permission, I will breakfast here, and afterwards we +will make our little arrangements." + +"If you please, sir." + +"Will you now oblige me by leaving the room?" + +Morgan withdrew; the excessive politeness of his ex-employer made him +almost as angry as the Major's bitterest words. And whilst the old +gentleman is making his mysterious toilet, we will also modestly retire. + +After breakfast, Major Pendennis and his new aide-de-camp occupied +themselves in preparing for their departure. The establishment of the +old bachelor was not very complicated. He encumbered himself with no +useless wardrobe. A bible (his mother's), a road book, Pen's novel (calf +elegant), and the Duke of Wellington's Despatches, with a few prints, +maps, and portraits of that illustrious general, and of various +sovereigns and consorts of this country, and of the General under whom +Major Pendennis had served in India, formed his literary and artistical +collection: he was always ready to march at a few hours' notice, and +the cases in which he had brought his property into his lodgings some +fifteen years before, were still in the lofts amply sufficient to +receive all his goods. These, the young woman who did the work of the +house, and who was known by the name of Betty to her mistress, and +of "Slavey" to Mr. Morgan, brought down from their resting-place, and +obediently dusted and cleaned under the eyes of the terrible Morgan. His +demeanour was guarded and solemn; he had spoken no word as yet to Mrs. +Brixham respecting his threats of the past night, but he looked as if he +would execute them, and the poor widow tremblingly awaited her fate. + +Old Pendennis, armed with his cane, superintended the package of his +goods and chattels, under the hands of Mr. Frosch, and the Slavey burned +such of his papers as he did not care to keep; flung open doors and +closets until they were all empty; and now all boxes and chests were +closed, except his desk, which was ready to receive the final accounts +of Mr. Morgan. + +That individual now made his appearance, and brought his books. "As I +wish to speak to you in privick, peraps you will ave the kindness to +request Frosch to step downstairs," he said, on entering. + +"Bring a couple of cabs, Frosch, if you please--and wait downstairs +until I ring for you," said the Major. Morgan saw Frosch downstairs, +watched him go along the street upon his errand, and produced his books +and accounts, which were simple and very easily settled. + +"And now, sir," said he, having pocketed the cheque which his +ex-employer gave him, and signed his name to his book with a flourish, +"and now that accounts is closed between us, sir," he said, "I porpose +to speak to you as one man to another"--(Morgan liked the sound of his +own voice; and, as an individual, indulged in public speaking whenever +he could get an opportunity, at the Club, or the housekeeper's +room)--"and I must tell you, that I'm in possession of certing +infamation." + +"And may I inquire of what nature, pray?" asked the Major. + +"It's valuble information, Major Pendennis, as you know very well. I +know of a marriage as is no marriage--of a honourable Baronet as is no +more married than I am; and which his wife is married to somebody else, +as you know too, sir." + +Pendennis at once understood all. "Ha! this accounts for your behaviour. +You have been listening at the door, sir, I suppose," said the Major, +looking very haughty; "I forgot to look at the keyhole when I went to +that public-house, or I might have suspected what sort of a person was +behind it." + +"I may have my schemes as you may have yours, I suppose," answered +Morgan. "I may get my information, and I may act on that information, +and I may find that information valuble as anybody else may. A poor +servant may have a bit of luck as well as a gentleman, mayn't he? Don't +you be putting on your aughty looks, sir, and comin' the aristocrat over +me. That's all gammon with me. I'm an Englishman, I am, and as good as +you." + +"To what the devil does this tend, sir? and how does the secret which +you have surprised concern me, I should like to know?" asked Major +Pendennis, with great majesty. + +"How does it concern me, indeed! how grand we are! How does it concern +my nephew, I wonder? How does it concern my nephew's seat in Parlyment: +and to subornation of bigamy? How does it concern that? What, are you to +be the only man to have a secret, and to trade on it? Why shouldn't I go +halves, Major Pendennis? I've found it out too. Look here! I ain't goin' +to be unreasonable with you. Make it worth my while, and I'll keep the +thing close. Let Mr. Arthur take his seat, and his rich wife, if you +like; I don't want to marry her. But I will have my share, as sure as my +name's James Morgan. And if I don't----" + +"And if you don't, sir--what?" Pendennis asked. + +"If I don't, I split, and tell all. I smash Clavering, and have him +and his wife up for bigamy--so help me, I will! I smash young Hopeful's +marriage, and I show up you and him as makin' use of this secret, in +order to squeeze a seat in Parlyment out of Sir Francis, and a fortune +out of his wife." + +"Mr. Pendennis knows no more of this business than the babe unborn, +sir," cried the Major, aghast. "No more than Lady Clavering, than Miss +Amory does." + +"Tell that to the marines, Major," replied the valet; "that cock won't +fight with me." + +"Do you doubt my word, you villain?" + +"No bad language. I don't care one twopence'a'p'ny whether your word's +true or not. I tell you, I intend this to be a nice little annuity to +me, Major: for I have every one of you; and I ain't such a fool as to +let you go. I should say that you might make it five hundred a year to +me among you, easy. Pay me down the first quarter now and I'm as mum as +a mouse. Just give a note for one twenty-five. There's your cheque-book +on your desk." + +"And there's this too, you villain," cried the old gentleman. In the +desk to which the valet pointed was a little double-barrelled +pistol, which had belonged to Pendennis's old patron; the Indian +commander-in-chief, and which had accompanied him in many a campaign. +"One more word, you scoundrel and I'll shoot you, like a mad dog. +Stop--by Jove, I'll do it now. You'll assault me, will you? You'll +strike at an old man, will you, you lying coward? Kneel down and say +your prayers, sir, for by the Lord you shall die." + +The Major's face glared with rage at his adversary, who looked terrified +before him for a moment, and at the next, with a shriek of "Murder!" +sprang towards the open window, under which a policeman happened to be +on his beat. "Murder! Police!" bellowed Mr. Morgan. + +To his surprise, Major Pendennis wheeled away the table and walked to +the other window, which was also open. He beckoned the policeman. "Come +up here, policeman," he said, and then went and placed himself against +the door. + +"You miserable sneak," he said to Morgan; "the pistol hasn't been loaded +these fifteen years, as you would have known very well, if you had not +been such a coward. That policeman is coming, and I will have him up, +and have your trunks searched; I have reason to believe that you are a +thief, sir. I know you are. I'll swear to the things." + +"You gave 'em to me--you gave 'em to me!" cried Morgan. + +The Major laughed. "We'll see," he said; and the guilty valet +remembered some fine lawn-fronted shirts--a certain gold-headed cane--an +opera-glass, which he had forgotten to bring down, and of which he had +assumed the use along with certain articles of his master's clothes, +which the old dandy neither wore nor asked for. + +Policeman X entered; followed by the seared Mrs. Brixham and her +maid-of-all-work, who had been at the door and found some difficulty in +closing it against the street amateurs, who wished to see the row. The +Major began instantly to speak. + +"I have had occasion to discharge this drunken scoundrel," he said. +"Both last night and this morning he insulted and assaulted me. I am an +old man and took up a pistol. You see it is not loaded, and this coward +cried out before he was hurt. I am glad you are come. I was charging +him with taking my property, and desired to examine his trunks and his +room." + +"The velvet cloak you ain't worn these three years, nor the weskits, and +I thought I might take the shirts, and I--I take my hoath I intended +to put back the hopera-glass," roared Morgan, writhing with rage and +terror. + +"The man acknowledges that he is a thief," the Major said, calmly. "He +has been in my service for years, and I have treated him with every +kindness and confidence. We will go upstairs and examine his trunks." + +In those trunks Mr. Morgan had things which he would fain keep from +public eyes. Mr. Morgan, the bill-discounter, gave goods as well as +money to his customers. He provided young spendthrifts with snuff boxes +and pins and jewels and pictures and cigars, and of a very doubtful +quality those cigars and jewels and pictures were. Their display at a +police-office, the discovery of his occult profession, and the exposure +of the Major's property, which he had appropriated, indeed, rather than +stolen,--would not have added to the reputation of Mr. Morgan. He looked +a piteous image of terror and discomfiture. + +"He'll smash me, will he?" thought the Major. "I'll crush him now, and +finish with him." + +But he paused. He looked at poor Mrs. Brixham's scared face; and he +thought for a moment to himself that the man brought to bay and in +prison might make disclosures which had best be kept secret, and that it +was best not to deal too fiercely with a desperate man. + +"Stop," he said, "policeman. I'll speak with this man by himself." + +"Do you give Mr. Morgan in charge?" said the policeman. + +"I have brought no charge as yet," the Major said, with a significant +look at his man. + +"Thank you, sir," whispered Morgan, very low. + +"Go outside the door, and wait there, policeman, if you please.--Now, +Morgan, you have played one game with me, and you have not had the best +of it, my good man. No, begad, you've not had the best of it, though you +had the best hand; and you've got to pay, too, now, you scoundrel." + +"Yes, sir," said the man. + +"I've only found out, within the last week, the game which you have been +driving, you villain. Young De Boots, of the Blues, recognised you +as the man who came to barracks, and did business one-third in money, +one-third in eau-de-Cologne, and one-third in French prints, you +confounded demure old sinner! I didn't miss anything, or care a straw +what you'd taken, you booby; but I took the shot, and it hit--hit the +bull's-eye, begad. Dammy, six, I'm an old campaigner." + +"What do you want with me, sir?" + +"I'll tell you. Your bills, I suppose, you keep about you in that dem'd +great leather pocket-book, don't you? You'll burn Mrs. Brixham's bill?" + +"Sir, I ain't a-goin' to part with my property," growled the man. + +"You lent her sixty pounds five years ago. She and that poor devil of an +insurance clerk, her son, have paid you fifty pounds a year ever since; +and you have got a bill of sale of her furniture, and her note of hand +for a hundred and fifty pounds. She told me so last night. By Jove, sir, +you've bled that poor woman enough." + +"I won't give it up," said Morgan; "If I do I'm----" + +"Policeman!" cried the Major. + +"You shall have the bill," said Morgan. "You're not going to take money +of me, and you a gentleman?" + +"I shall want you directly," said the Major to X, who here entered, and +who again withdrew. + +"No, my good sir," the old gentleman continued; "I have not any desire +to have further pecuniary transactions with you; but we will draw out a +little paper, which you will have the kindness to sign. No, stop!--you +shall write it: you have improved immensely in writing of late, and +have now a very good hand. You shall sit down and write, if you +please--there, at that table--so--let me see--we may as well have the +date. Write 'Bury Street, St. James's, October 21, 18--.'" + +And Mr. Morgan wrote as he was instructed, and as the pitiless old Major +continued:-- + +"'I, James Morgan, having come in extreme poverty into the service of +Arthur Pendennis, Esquire, of Bury Street, St. James's, a Major in her +Majesty's service, acknowledge that I received liberal wages and board +wages from my employer, during fifteen years.'--You can't object to +that, I am sure," said the Major. + +"During fifteen years," wrote Morgan. + +"'In which time, by my own care and prudence,'" the dictator resumed, +"'I have managed to amass sufficient money to purchase the house in +which my master resides, and, besides, to effect other savings. Amongst +other persons from whom I have had money, I may mention my present +tenant, Mrs. Brixham, who, in consideration of sixty pounds advanced +by me five years since, has paid back to me the sum of two hundred and +fifty pounds sterling, besides giving me a note of hand for one hundred +and twenty pounds, which I restore to her at the desire of my late +master, Major Arthur Pendennis, and therewith free her furniture, of +which I had a bill of sale.'--Have you written?" + +"I think if this pistol was loaded, I'd blow your brains out," said +Morgan. + +"No, you wouldn't. You have too great a respect for your valuable +life, my good man," the Major answered. "Let us go on and begin a new +sentence. + +"'And having, in return for my master's kindness, stolen his property +from him, which I acknowledge to be now upstairs in my trunks; and +having uttered falsehoods regarding his and other honourable families, I +do hereby, in consideration of his clemency to me, express my regret for +uttering these falsehoods, and for stealing his property; and declare +that I am not worthy of belief, and that I hope'--yes, begad--'that I +hope to amend for the future. Signed, James Morgan.'" + +"I'm d----d if I sign it," said Morgan. + +"My good man, it will happen to you, whether you sign or no, begad," +said the old fellow, chuckling at his own wit "There, I shall not use +this, you understand, unless--unless I am compelled to do so. Mrs. +Brixham, and our friend the policeman, will witness it, I dare say, +without reading it: and I will give the old lady back her note of hand, +and say, which you will confirm, that she and you are quits. I see +there is Frosch come back with the cab for my trunks; I shall go to an +hotel.--You may come in now, policeman; Mr. Morgan and I have arranged +our little dispute. If Mrs. Brixham will sign this paper, and you, +policeman, will do so, I shall be very much obliged to you both. Mrs. +Brixham, you and your worthy landlord, Mr. Morgan, are quits. I wish you +joy of him. Let Frosch come and pack the rest of the things." + +Frosch, aided by the Slavey, under the calm superintendence of Mr. +Morgan, carried Major Pendennis's boxes to the cabs in waiting; and +Mrs. Brixham, when her persecutor was not by, came and asked a Heaven's +blessing upon the Major, her preserver, and the best and quietest and +kindest of lodgers. And having given her a finger to shake, which the +humble lady received with a curtsey, and over which she was ready +to make a speech full of tears, the Major cut short that valedictory +oration, and walked out of the house to the hotel in Jermyn Street, +which was not many steps from Morgan's door. + +That individual, looking forth from the parlour-window, discharged +anything but blessings at his parting guest; but the stout old boy could +afford not to be frightened at Mr. Morgan, and flung him a look of great +contempt and humour as he strutted away with his cane. + +Major Pendennis had not quitted his house of Bury Street many hours, and +Mr. Morgan was enjoying his otium in a dignified manner, surveying +the evening fog, and smoking a cigar, on the door-steps, when Arthur +Pendennis, Esq., the hero of this history, made his appearance at the +well-known door. + +"My uncle out, I suppose, Morgan?" he said to the functionary; knowing +full well that to smoke was treason, in the presence of the Major. + +"Major Pendennis is hout, sir," said Morgan, with gravity, bowing, but +not touching the elegant cap which he wore. "Major Pendennis have left +this ouse to-day, sir, and I have no longer the honour of being in his +service, sir." + +"Indeed, and where is he?" + +"I believe he ave taken tempory lodgings at Cox's otel, in Jummin +Street," said Mr. Morgan; and added, after a pause, "Are you in town +for some time, pray, sir? Are you in Chambers? I should like to have +the honour of waiting on you there: and would be thankful if you would +favour me with a quarter of an hour." + +"Do you want my uncle to take you back?" asked Arthur, insolent and +good-natured. + +"I want no such thing; I'd see him----" The man glared at him for a +minute, but he stopped. "No, sir, thank you," he said in a softer +voice; "it's only with you that I wish to speak, on some business which +concerns you; and perhaps you would favour me by walking into my house." + +"If it is but for a minute or two, I will listen to you, Morgan," +said Arthur; and thought to himself, "I suppose the fellow wants me +to patronise him;" and he entered the house. A card was already in the +front windows, proclaiming that apartments were to be let; and having +introduced Mr. Pendennis into the dining-room, and offered him a chair, +Mr. Morgan took one himself, and proceeded to convey some information to +him, of which the reader has already had cognisance. + + + + +CHAPTER LXX. In which Pendennis counts his Eggs + + +Our friend had arrived in London on that day only, though but for a +brief visit; and having left some fellow-travellers at an hotel to which +he had convoyed them from the West, he hastened to the Chambers in Lamb +Court, which were basking in as much sun as chose to visit that dreary +but not altogether comfortless building. Freedom stands in lieu of +sunshine in chambers; and Templars grumble, but take their ease in their +Inn. Pen's domestic announced to him that Warrington was in Chambers +too, and, of course, Arthur ran up to his friend's room straightway, +and found it, as of old, perfumed with the pipe, and George once more at +work with his newspapers and reviews. The pair greeted each other with +the rough cordiality which young Englishmen use one to another: and +which carries a great deal of warmth and kindness under its rude +exterior. Warrington smiled and took his pipe out of his mouth, and +said, "Well, young one!" Pen advanced and held out his hand, and said, +"How are you, old boy?" And so this greeting passed between two friends +who had not seen each other for months. Alphonse and Frederic would +have rushed into each other's arms and shrieked Ce bon coeur! ce cher +Alphonse! over each other's shoulders. Max and Wilhelm would have +bestowed half a dozen kisses, scented with Havannah, upon each other's +mustachios. "Well, young one!" "How are you, old boy?" is what two +Britons say: after saving each other's lives, possibly, the day before. +To-morrow they will leave off shaking hands, and only wag their heads at +one another as they come to breakfast. Each has for the other the very +warmest confidence and regard: each would share his purse with the +other: and hearing him attacked would break out in the loudest and most +enthusiastic praise of his friend; but they part with a mere Good-bye, +they meet with a mere How-d'you-do? and they don't write to each other +in the interval. Curious, modesty, strange stoical decorum of English +friendship! "Yes, we are not demonstrative like those confounded +foreigners," says Hardman: who not only shows no friendship, but never +felt any all his life long. + +"Been in Switzerland?" says Pen. + +"Yes," says Warrington. + +"Couldn't find a bit of tobacco fit to smoke till we came to Strasburg, +where I got some caporal." The man's mind is full, very likely, of the +great sights which he has seen, of the great emotions with which the +vast works of nature have inspired it. But his enthusiasm is too coy to +show itself, even to his closest friend, and he veils it with a cloud of +tobacco. He will speak more fully of confidential evenings, however, +and write ardently and frankly about that which he is shy of saying. The +thoughts and experience of his travel will come forth in his writings; +as the learning, which he never displays in talk, enriches his style +with pregnant allusion and brilliant illustration, colours his generous +eloquence, and points his wit. + +The elder gives a rapid account of the places which he has visited in +his tour. He has seen Switzerland, North Italy, and the Tyrol--he has +come home by Vienna, and Dresden, and the Rhine. He speaks about these +places in a shy sulky voice, as if he had rather not mention them at +all, and as if the sight of them had rendered him very unhappy. The +outline of the elder man's tour thus gloomily sketched out, the +young one begins to speak. He has been in the country--very much +bored--canvassing uncommonly slow--he is here for a day or two, and +going on to--to the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells, to some friends +that will be uncommonly slow, too. How hard it is to make an Englishman +acknowledge that he is happy! + +"And the seat in Parliament, Pen? Have you made it all right?" asks +Warrington. + +"All right,--as soon as Parliament meets and a new writ can be issued, +Clavering retires, and I step into his shoes," says Pen. + +"And under which king does Bezonian speak or die?" asked Warrington. "Do +we come out as Liberal Conservative, or as Government man, or on our own +hook?" + +"Hem! There are no politics now; every man's politics, at least, +are pretty much the same. I have not got acres enough to make me a +Protectionist; nor could I be one, I think, if I had all the land in the +county. I shall go pretty much with Government, and in advance of them +upon some social questions which I have been getting up during the +vacation;--don't grin, you old cynic, I have been getting up the +Blue Books, and intend to come out rather strong on the Sanitary and +Colonisation questions." + +"We reserve to ourselves the liberty of voting against Government, +though we are generally friendly. We are, however, friends of the people +avant tout. We give lectures at the Clavering Institute, and shake hands +with the intelligent mechanics. We think the franchise ought to be very +considerably enlarged; at the same time we are free to accept office +some day, when the House has listened to a few crack speeches from us, +and the Administration perceives our merit." + +"I am not Moses," said Pen, with, as usual, somewhat of melancholy in +his voice. "I have no laws from Heaven to bring down to the people from +the mountain. I don't belong to the mountain at all, or set up to be a +leader and reformer of mankind. My faith is not strong enough for that; +nor my vanity, nor my hypocrisy, great enough. I will tell no lies, +George, that I promise you; and do no more than coincide in those which +are necessary and pass current, and can't be got in without recalling +the whole circulation. Give a man at least the advantage of his +sceptical turn. If I find a good thing to say in the House, I will say +it; a good measure, I will support it; a fair place, I will take it, and +be glad of my luck. But I would no more flatter a great man than a mob; +and now you know as much about my politics as I do. What call have I to +be a Whig? Whiggism is not a divine institution. Why not vote with the +Liberal Conservatives? They have done for the nation what the Whigs +would never have done without them. Who converted both?--the Radicals +and the country outside. I think the Morning Post is often right, and +Punch is often wrong. I don't profess a call, but take advantage of a +chance. Parlons d'autre chose." + +"The next thing at your heart, after ambition is love, I suppose?" +Warrington said. "How have our young loves prospered? Are we going to +change our condition, and give up our chambers? Are you going to divorce +me, Arthur, and take unto yourself a wife?" + +"I suppose so. She is very good-natured and lively. She sings, and +she don't mind smoking. She'll have a fair fortune--I don't know how +much--but my uncle augurs everything from the Begum's generosity, and +says that she will come down very handsomely. And I think Blanche is +dev'lish fond of me," said Arthur, with a sigh. + +"That means that we accept her caresses and her money." + +"Haven't we said before that life was a transaction?" Pendennis said. "I +don't pretend to break my heart about her. I have told her pretty fairly +what my feelings are--and--and have engaged myself to her. And since I +saw her last, and for the last two months especially, whilst I have been +in the country, I think she has been growing fonder and fonder of me; +and her letters to me, and especially to Laura, seem to show it. Mine +have been simple enough--no raptures, nor vows, you understand--but +looking upon the thing as an affaire faite; and not desirous to hasten +or defer the completion." + +"And Laura? how is she?" Warrington asked frankly. + +"Laura, George," said Pen, looking his friend hard in the face--"by +heaven, Laura is the best, and noblest, and dearest girl the sun ever +shone upon." His own voice fell as he spoke: it seemed as if he could +hardly utter the words: he stretched out his hand to his comrade, who +took it and nodded his head. + +"Have you only found out that now, young un?" Warrington said after a +pause. + +"Who has not learned things too late, George?" cried Arthur, in his +impetuous way, gathering words and emotion as he went on. "Whose life is +not a disappointment? Who carries his heart entire to the grave without +a mutilation? I never knew anybody who was happy quite: or who has not +had to ransom himself out of the hands of Fate with the payment of some +dearest treasure or other. Lucky if we are left alone afterwards, when +we have paid our fine, and if the tyrant visits us no more. Suppose I +have found out that I have lost the greatest prize in the world, now +that it can't be mine--that for years I had an angel under my tent, and +let her go?--am I the only one--ah, dear old boy, am I the only one? And +do you think my lot is easier to bear because I own that I deserve it? +She's gone from us. God's blessing be with her! She might have stayed, +and I lost her; it's like Undine: isn't it, George?" + +"She was in this room once," said George. + +He saw her there--he heard the sweet low voice--he saw the sweet smile +and eyes shining so kindly--the face remembered so fondly--thought of in +what night-watches--blest and loved always--gone now! A glass that had +held a nosegay--a bible with Helen's handwriting--were all that were +left him of that brief flower of his life. Say it is a dream: say it +passes: better the recollection of a dream than an aimless waking from a +blank stupor. + +The two friends sate in silence a while, each occupied with his own +thoughts and aware of the other's. Pen broke it presently, by saying +that he must go and seek for his uncle, and report progress to the old +gentleman. The Major had written in a very bad humour; the Major was +getting old. "I should like to see you in Parliament, and snugly settled +with a comfortable house and an heir to the name before I make my bow. +Show me these," the Major wrote, "and then, let old Arthur Pendennis +make room for the younger fellows; he has walked the Pall Mall pave long +enough." + +"There is a kindness about the old heathen," said Warrington. "He cares +for somebody besides himself, at least for some other part of himself +besides that which is buttoned into his own coat;--for you and your +race. He would like to see the progeny of the Pendennises multiplying +and increasing, and hopes that they may inherit the land. The old +patriarch blesses you from the Club window of Bays's, and is carried +off and buried under the flags of St. James's Church, in sight of +Piccadilly, and the cabstand, and the carriages going to the levee. It +is an edifying ending." + +"The new blood I bring into the family," mused Pen, "is rather tainted. +If I had chosen, I think my father-in-law Amory would not have been the +progenitor I should have desired for my race; nor my grandfather-in-law +Snell; nor our Oriental ancestors. By the way, who was Amory? Amory was +lieutenant of an Indiaman. Blanche wrote some verses about him, about +the storm, the mountain wave, the seaman's grave, the gallant father, +and that sort of thing. Amory was drowned commanding a country ship +between Calcutta and Sydney; Amory and the Begum weren't happy together. +She has been unlucky in her selection of husbands, the good old lady, +for, between ourselves, a more despicable creature than Sir Francis +Clavering, of Clavering Park, Baronet, never----" "Never legislated for +his country," broke in Warrington; at which Pen blushed rather. + +"By the way, at Baden," said Warrington, "I found our friend the +Chevalier Strong in great state, and wearing his orders. He told me that +he had quarrelled with Clavering, of whom he seemed to have almost as +bad an opinion as you have, and in fact, I think, though I will not +be certain, confided to me his opinion, that Clavering was an utter +scoundrel. That fellow Bloundell, who taught you card-playing at +Oxbridge, was with Strong; and time, I think, has brought out his +valuable qualities, and rendered him a more accomplished rascal than +he was during your undergraduateship. But the king of the place was the +famous Colonel Altamont, who was carrying all before him, giving flies +to the whole society, and breaking the bank, it was said." + +"My uncle knows something about that fellow--Clavering knows something +about him. There's something louche regarding him. But come! I must +go to Bury Street, like a dutiful nephew." And, taking his hat, Pen +prepared to go. + +"I will walk, too," said Warrington. And they descended the stairs, +stopping, however, at Pen's chambers, which, as the reader has been +informed, were now on the lower story. + +Here Pen began sprinkling himself with eau-de-Cologne, and carefully +scenting his hair and whiskers with that odoriferous water. + +"What is the matter? You've not been smoking. Is it my pipe that has +poisoned you?" growled Warrington. + +"I am going to call upon some women," said Pen. "I'm--I'm going to dine +with 'em. They are passing through town, and are at an hotel in Jermyn +Street." + +Warrington looked with good-natured interest at the young fellow +dandifying himself up to a pitch of completeness; and appearing at +length in a gorgeous shirt-front and neckcloth, fresh gloves, and +glistening boots. George had a pair of thick high-lows, and his old +shirt was torn about the breast, and ragged at the collar, where his +blue beard had worn it. + +"Well, young un," said he, simply, "I like you to be a buck; somehow. +When I walk about with you, it is as if I had a rose in my button-hole. +And you are still affable. I don't think there is any young fellow in +the Temple turns out like you; and I don't believe you were ever ashamed +of walking with me yet." + +"Don't laugh at me, George." said Pen. + +"I say, Pen," continued the other, sadly, "if you write--if you write to +Laura, I wish you would say 'God bless her' from me." + +Pen blushed; and then looked at Warrington; and then--and then burst +into an uncontrollable fit of laughing. + +"I'm going to dine with her," he said. "I brought her and Lady +Rockminster up from the country to-day--made two days of it--slept last +night at Bath--I say, George, come and dine, too. I may ask any one I +please, and the old lady is constantly talking about you." + +George refused. George had an article to write. George hesitated; and +oh, strange to say! at last he agreed to go. It was agreed that they +should go and call upon the ladies; and they marched away in high +spirits to the hotel in Jermyn Street. Once more the dear face shone +upon him; once more the sweet voice spoke to him, and the tender hand +pressed a welcome. + +There still wanted half an hour to dinner. "You will go and see your +uncle now, Mr. Pendennis," old Lady Rockminster said. "You will not +bring him to dinner-no--his old stories are intolerable; and I want +to talk to Mr. Warrington; I daresay he will amuse us. I think we have +heard all your stories. We have been together for two whole days, and I +think we are getting tired of each other." + +So, obeying her ladyship's orders, Arthur went downstairs and walked to +his uncle's lodgings. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXI. Fiat Justitia + + +The dinner was served when Arthur returned, and Lady Rockminster began +to scold him for arriving late. But Laura, looking at her cousin, saw +that his face was so pale and scared, that she interrupted her imperious +patroness; and asked, with tender alarm, what had happened? Was Arthur +ill? + +Arthur drank a large bumper of sherry. "I have heard the most +extraordinary news; I will tell you afterwards," he said, looking at +the servants. He was very nervous and agitated during the dinner. "Don't +tramp and beat so with your feet under the table," Lady Rockminster +said. "You have trodden on Fido, and upset his saucer. You see Mr. +Warrington keeps his boots quiet." + +At the dessert--it seemed as if the unlucky dinner would never be +over--Lady Rockminster said, "This dinner has been exceedingly stupid. +I suppose something has happened, and that you want to speak to Laura. +I will go and have my nap. I am not sure that I shall have any tea--no. +Good night, Mr. Warrington. You must come again, and when there is no +business to talk about." And the old lady, tossing up her head, walked +away from the room with great dignity. + +George and the others had risen with her, and Warrington was about to go +away, and was saying "Good night" to Laura, who, of course, was looking +much alarmed about her cousin, when Arthur said, "Pray, stay, George. +You should hear my news too, and give me your counsel in this case. I +hardly know how to act in it." + +"It's something about Blanche, Arthur," said Laura, her heart beating, +and her cheek blushing as she thought it had never blushed in her life. + +"Yes--and the most extraordinary story," said Pen. "When I left you to +go to my uncle's lodgings, I found his servant, Morgan, who has been +with him so long, at the door, and he said that he and his master had +parted that morning; that my uncle had quitted the house, and had gone +to an hotel--this hotel. I asked for him when I came in; but he was +gone out to dinner. Morgan then said that he had something of a most +important nature to communicate to me, and begged me to step into the +house; his house it is now. It appears the scoundrel has saved a great +deal of money whilst in my uncle's service, and is now a capitalist and +a millionaire, for what I know. Well, I went into the house, and what do +you think he told me? This must be a secret between us all--at least if +we can keep it, now that it is in possession of that villain. Blanche's +father is not dead. He has come to life again. The marriage between +Clavering and the Begum is no marriage." + +"And Blanche, I suppose, is her grandfather's heir," said Warrington. + +"Perhaps: but the child of what a father! Amory is an escaped +convict--Clavering knows it; my uncle knows it--and it was with this +piece of information held over Clavering in terrorem that the wretched +old man got him to give up his borough to me." + +"Blanche doesn't know it," said Laura, "nor poor Lady Clavering?" + +"No," said Pen; "Blanche does not even know the history of her father. +She knew that he and her mother had separated, and had heard as a child, +from Bonner, her nurse, that Mr. Amory was drowned in New South Wales. +He was there as a convict, not as a ship's-captain, as the poor girl +thought. Lady Clavering has told me that they were not happy, and that +her husband was a bad character. She would tell me all, she said, some +day: and I remember her saying to me, with tears in her eyes, that it +was hard for a woman to be forced to own that she was glad to hear her +husband was dead: and that twice in her life she should have chosen so +badly. What is to be done now? The man can't show and claim his +wife: death is probably over him if he discovers himself: return +to transportation certainly. But the rascal has held the threat of +discovery over Clavering for some time past, and has extorted money from +him time after time." + +"It is our friend Colonel Altamont, of course," said Warrington "I see +all now." + +"If the rascal comes back," continued Arthur, "Morgan, who knows his +secret, will use it over him--and having it in his possession, proposes +to extort money from us all. The d----d rascal supposed I was cognisant +of it," said Pen, white with anger; "asked me if I would give him an +annuity to keep it quiet; threatened me, me, as if I was trafficking +with this wretched old Begum's misfortune, and would extort a seat in +Parliament out of that miserable Clavering. Good heavens! was my uncle +mad, to tamper in such a conspiracy? Fancy our mother's son, Laura, +trading on such a treason!" + +"I can't fancy it, dear Arthur," said Laura, seizing Arthur's hand, and +kissing it. + +"No!" broke out Warrington's deep voice, with a tremor; he surveyed the +two generous and loving young people with a pang of indescribable love +and pain. "No. Our boy can't meddle with such a wretched intrigue as +that. Arthur Pendennis can't marry a convict's daughter; and sit in +Parliament as member for the hulks. You must wash your hands of the +whole affair, Pen. You must break off. You must give no explanations +of why and wherefore, but state that family reasons render a match +impossible. It is better that those poor women should fancy you false +to your word than that they should know the truth. Besides, you can +get from that dog Clavering--I can fetch that for you easily enough an +acknowledgment that the reasons which you have given to him as the head +of the family are amply sufficient for breaking off the union. Don't you +think with me, Laura?" He scarcely dared to look her in the face as he +spoke. Any lingering hope that he might have--any feeble hold that he +might feel upon the last spar of his wrecked fortune, he knew he was +casting away; and he let the wave of his calamity close over him. Pen +had started up whilst he was speaking, looking eagerly at him. He turned +his head away. He saw Laura rise up also and go to Pen, and once more +take his hand and kiss it. "She thinks so too--God bless her!" said +George. + +"Her father's shame is not Blanche's fault, dear Arthur, is it?" Laura +said, very pale, and speaking very quickly. "Suppose you had been +married, would you desert her because she had done no wrong? Are you not +pledged to her? Would you leave her because she is in misfortune? And if +she is unhappy, wouldn't you console her? Our mother would, had she been +here." And, as she spoke, the kind girl folded her arms round him, and +buried her face upon his heart. + +"Our mother is an angel with God," Pen sobbed out. "And you are the +dearest and best of women--the dearest, the dearest and the best. Teach +me my duty. Pray for me that I may do it--pure heart. God bless you--God +bless you, my sister!" + +"Amen," groaned out Warrington, with his head in his hands. "She is +right," he murmured to himself. "She can't do any wrong, I think--that +girl." Indeed, she looked and smiled like an angel. Many a day after he +saw that smile--saw her radiant face as she looked up at Pen--saw her +putting back her curls, blushing and smiling, and still looking fondly +towards him. + +She leaned for a moment her little fair hand on the table, playing on +it. "And now, and now," she said, looking at the two gentlemen-- + +"And what now?" asked George. + +"And now we will have some tea," said Miss Laura, with her smile. + +But before this unromantic conclusion to a rather sentimental scene +could be suffered to take place, a servant brought word that Major +Pendennis had returned to the hotel, and was waiting to see his nephew. +Upon this announcement, Laura, not without some alarm, and an appealing +look to Pen, which said, "Behave yourself well--hold to the right, and +do your duty--be gentle, but firm with your uncle"--Laura, we say, with +these warnings written in her face, took leave of the two gentlemen, and +retreated to her dormitory. Warrington, who was not generally fond +of tea, yet grudged that expected cup very much. Why could not old +Pendennis have come in an hour later? Well, an hour sooner or later, +what matter? The hour strikes at last. The inevitable moment comes to +say Farewell, The hand is shaken, the door closed, and the friend gone; +and, the brief joy over, you are alone. "In which of those many windows +of the hotel does her light beam?" perhaps he asks himself as he passes +down the street. He strides away to the smoking-room of a neighbouring +Club, and, there applies himself to his usual solace of a cigar. Men are +brawling and talking loud about politics, opera-girls, horse-racing, the +atrocious tyranny of the committee:--bearing this sacred secret about +him, he enters into this brawl. Talk away, each louder than the other. +Rattle and crack jokes. Laugh and tell your wild stories. It is strange +to take one's place and part in the midst of the smoke and din, and +think every man here has his secret ego most likely, which is sitting +lonely and apart, away in the private chamber, from the loud game in +which the rest of us is joining! + +Arthur, as he traversed the passages of the hotel, felt his anger +rousing up within him. He was indignant to think that yonder old +gentleman whom he was about to meet, should have made him such a +tool and puppet, and so compromised his honour and good name. The +old fellow's hand was very cold and shaky when Arthur took it. He was +coughing; he was grumbling over the fire; Frosch could not bring his +dressing-gown or arrange his papers as that d----d confounded impudent +scoundrel of a Morgan. The old gentleman bemoaned himself, and cursed +Morgan's ingratitude with peevish pathos. + +"The confounded impudent scoundrel! He was drunk last night, and +challenged me to fight him, Pen; and, begad, at one time I was so +excited that I thought I should have driven a knife into him; and the +infernal rascal has made ten thousand pound, I believe--and deserves to +be hanged, and will be; but, curse him, I wish he could have lasted +out my time. He knew all my ways, and, dammy, when I rang the bell, the +confounded thief brought the thing I wanted--not like that stupid German +lout. And what sort of time have you had in the country? Been a good +deal with Lady Rockminster? You can't do better. She is one of the +old school--vieille ecole, bonne ecole, hey? Dammy, they don't make +gentlemen and ladies now; and in fifty years you'll hardly know one man +from another. But they'll last my time. I ain't long for this business: +I am getting very old, Pen, my boy; and, gad, I was thinking to-day, as +I was packing up my little library, there's a bible amongst the books +that belonged to my poor mother; I would like you to keep that, Pen. I +was thinking, sir, that you would most likely open the box when it was +your property, and the old fellow was laid under the sod, sir," and the +Major coughed and wagged his old head over the fire. + +His age--his kindness, disarmed Pen's anger somewhat, and made Arthur +feel no little compunction for the deed which he was about to do. He +knew that the announcement which he was about to make would destroy the +darling hope of the old gentleman's life, and create in his breast a +woeful anger and commotion. + +"Hey--hey--I'm off, sir," nodded the Elder; "but I'd like to read +a speech of yours in the Times before I go--'Mr. Pendennis said, +Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking'--hey, sir? hey, Arthur? Begad, +you look dev'lish well and healthy, sir. I always said my brother Jack +would bring the family right. You must go down into the west, and buy +the old estate, sir. Nec tenui penna, hey? We'll rise again, sir--rise +again on the wing--and, begad, I shouldn't be surprised that you will be +a Baronet before you die." + +His words smote Pen. "And it is I," he thought, "that am going to +fling down the poor old fellow's air-castle. Well, it must be. Here +goes.--I--I went into your lodgings at Bury Street, though I did not +find you," Pen slowly began--"and I talked with Morgan, uncle." + +"Indeed!" The old gentleman's cheek began to flush involuntarily, and he +muttered, "The cat's out of the bag now, begad!" + +"He told me a story, sir, which gave me the deepest surprise and pain," +said Pen. + +The Major tried to look unconcerned. "What--that story +about--about--What-d'-you-call-'em, hey?" + +"About Miss Amory's father--about Lady Clavering's first husband, and +who he is, and what." + +"Hem--a dev'lish awkward affair!" said the old man, rubbing his nose. +"I--I've been aware of that--eh--confounded circumstance for some time." + +"I wish I had known it sooner, or not at all," said Arthur, gloomily. + +"He is all safe," thought the Senior, greatly relieved. "Gad! I should +have liked to keep it from you altogether--and from those two poor +women, who are as innocent as unborn babes in the transaction." + +"You are right. There is no reason why the two women should hear it; +and I shall never tell them--though that villain, Morgan, perhaps may," +Arthur said, gloomily. "He seems disposed to trade upon his secret, and +has already proposed terms of ransom to me. I wish I had known of the +matter earlier, sir. It is not a very pleasant thought to me that I am +engaged to a convict's daughter." + +"The very reason why I kept it from you--my dear boy. But Miss Amory is +not a convict's daughter, don't you see? Miss Amory is the daughter of +Lady Clavering, with fifty or sixty thousand pounds for a fortune; and +her father-in-law, a Baronet and country gentleman, of high reputation, +approves of the match, and gives up his seat in Parliament to his +son-in-law. What can be more simple?" + +"Is it true, sir?" + +"Begad, yes, it is true, of course it's true. Amory's dead. I tell +you he is dead. The first sign of life he shows, he is dead. He can't +appear. We have him at a deadlock, like the fellow in the play--the +'Critic,' hey?--dev'lish amusing play, that 'Critic.' Monstrous witty +man, Sheridan; and so was his son. By Gad, sir, when I was at the Cape, +I remember----" + +The old gentleman's garrulity, and wish to conduct Arthur to the Cape, +perhaps arose from a desire to avoid the subject which was nearest his +nephew's heart; but Arthur broke out, interrupting him--"If you had told +me this tale sooner, I believe you would have spared me and yourself +a great deal of pain and disappointment; and I should not have found +myself tied to an engagement from which I can't, in honour, recede." + +"No, begad, we've fixed you--and a man who's fixed to a seat in +Parliament, and a pretty girl, with a couple of thousand a year, is +fixed to no bad thing, let me tell you," said the old man. + +"Great Heavens, sir!" said Arthur, "are you blind? Can't you see?" + +"See what, young gentleman?" asked the other. + +"See, that rather than trade upon this secret of Amory's," Arthur cried +out, "I would go and join my father-in-law at the hulks! See, that +rather than take a seat in Parliament as a bribe from Clavering for +silence, I would take the spoons off the table! See, that you have given +me a felon's daughter for a wife; doomed me to poverty and shame; cursed +my career when it might have been--when it might have been so different +but for you! Don't you see that we have been playing a guilty game, and +have been overreached;--that in offering to marry this poor girl, +for the sake of her money, and the advancement she would bring, I was +degrading myself, and prostituting my honour?" + +"What in Heaven's name do you mean, sir?" cried the old man. + +"I mean to say that there is a measure of baseness which I can't pass," +Arthur said. "I have no other words for it, and am sorry if they hurt +you. I have felt, for months past, that my conduct in this affair has +been wicked, sordid, and worldly. I am rightly punished by the event, +and having sold myself for money and a seat in Parliament, by losing +both." + +"How do you mean that you lose either?" shrieked the old gentleman. "Who +the devil's to take your fortune or your seat away from you? By G--, +Clavering shall give 'em to you. You shall have every shilling of eighty +thousand pounds." + +"I'll keep my promise to Miss Amory, sir," said Arthur. + +"And, begad, her parents shall keep theirs to you." + +"Not so, please God," Arthur answered. "I have sinned, but, Heaven help +me, I will sin no more. I will let Clavering off from that bargain which +was made without my knowledge. I will take no money with Blanche but +that which was originally settled upon her; and I will try to make her +happy. You have done it. You have brought this on me, sir. But you knew +no better: and I forgive----" + +"Arthur--in God's name--in your father's, who, by Heavens, was the +proudest man alive, and had the honour of the family always at heart--in +mine--for the sake of a poor broken-down old fellow, who has always been +dev'lish fond of you--don't fling this chance away--I pray you, I beg +you, I implore you, my dear, dear boy, don't fling this chance away. +It's the making of you. You're sure to get on. You'll be a Baronet; it's +three thousand a year: dammy, on my knees, there, I beg of you, don't do +this." + +And the old man actually sank down on his knees, and, seizing one of +Arthur's hands, looked up piteously at him. It was cruel to remark the +shaking hands, the wrinkled and quivering face, the old eyes weeping and +winking, the broken voice. "Ah, sir," said Arthur, with a groan, "you +have brought pain enough on me, spare me this. You have wished me to +marry Blanche. I marry her. For God's sake, sir, rise! I can't bear it." + +"You--you mean to say that you will take her as a beggar, and be one +yourself?" said the old gentleman, rising up and coughing violently. + +"I look at her as a person to whom a great calamity has befallen, and +to whom I am promised. She cannot help the misfortune; and as she had my +word when she was prosperous, I shall not withdraw it now she is poor. I +will not take Clavering's seat, unless afterwards it should be given +of his free will. I will not have a shilling more than her original +fortune." + +"Have the kindness to ring the bell," said the old gentleman. "I +have done my best, and said my say; and I'm a dev'lish old fellow. +And--and--it don't matter. And--and Shakspeare was right--and Cardinal +Wolsey--begad--'and had I but served my God as I've served you'--yes, on +my knees, by Jove, to my own nephew--I mightn't have been--Good night, +sir, you needn't trouble yourself to call again." + +Arthur took his hand, which the old man left to him; it was quite +passive and clammy. He looked very much oldened; and it seemed as if the +contest and defeat had quite broken him. + +On the next day he kept his bed, and refused to see his nephew. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXII. In which the Decks begin to clear + + +When, arrayed in his dressing-gown, Pen walked up, according to custom, +to Warrington's chambers next morning, to inform his friend of the issue +of the last night's interview with his uncle, and to ask, as usual, for +George's advice and opinion, Mrs. Flanagan, the laundress, was the only +person whom Arthur found in the dear old chambers. George had taken a +carpet-bag, and was gone. His address was to his brother's house, in +Suffolk. Packages addressed to the newspaper and review for which he +wrote lay on the table, awaiting delivery. + +"I found him at the table, when I came, the dear gentleman!" Mrs. +Flanagan said, "writing at his papers, and one of the candles was burned +out; and hard as his bed is, he wasn't in it all night, sir." + +Indeed, having sat at the Club until the brawl there became intolerable +to him, George had walked home, and had passed the night finishing some +work on which he was employed, and to the completion of which he bent +himself with all his might. The labour was done, and the night was worn +away somehow, and the tardy November dawn came and looked in on +the young man as he sate over his desk. In the next day's paper, or +quarter's review, many of us very likely admired the work of his genius, +the variety of his illustration, the fierce vigour of his satire, the +depth of his reason. There was no hint in his writing of the other +thoughts which occupied him, and always accompanied him in his work--a +tone more melancholy than was customary, a satire more bitter and +impatient than that which he afterwards showed, may have marked the +writings of this period of his life to the very few persons who knew his +style or his name. We have said before, could we know the man's feelings +as well as the author's thoughts--how interesting most books would +be!--more interesting than merry. I suppose harlequin's face behind his +mask is always grave, if not melancholy--certainly each man who lives +by the pen, and happens to read this, must remember, if he will, his own +experiences, and recall many solemn hours of solitude and labour. What a +constant care sate at the side of the desk and accompanied him! Fever +or sickness were lying possibly in the next room: a sick child might be +there, with a wife watching over it terrified and in prayer: or grief +might be bearing him down, and the cruel mist before the eyes rendering +the paper scarce visible as he wrote on it, and the inexorable necessity +drove on the pen. What man among us has not had nights and hours like +these? But to the manly heart--severe as these pangs are, they are +endurable: long as the night seems, the dawn comes at last, and the +wounds heal, and the fever abates, and rest comes, and you can afford to +look back on the past misery with feelings that are anything but bitter. + +Two or three books for reference, fragments of torn-up manuscript, +drawers open, pens and inkstand, lines half visible on the +blotting-paper, a bit of sealing-wax twisted and bitten and broken into +sundry pieces--such relics as these were about the table, and Pen flung +himself down in George's empty chair--noting things according to his +wont, or in spite of himself. There was a gap in the bookcase (next to +the old College Plato, with the Boniface Arms), where Helen's bible used +to be. He has taken that with him, thought Pen. He knew why his friend +was gone. Dear, dear old George! + +Pen rubbed his hand over his eyes. Oh, how much wiser, how much better, +how much nobler he is than I! he thought. Where was such a friend, or +such a brave heart? Where shall I ever hear such a frank voice, and kind +laughter? Where shall I ever see such a true gentleman? No wonder she +loved him. God bless him! What was I compared to him? What could she do +else but love him? To the end of our days we will be her brothers, as +fate wills that we can be no more. We'll be her knights, and wait on +her: and when we're old, we'll say how we loved her. Dear, dear old +George! + +When Pen descended to his own chambers, his eye fell on the letter-box +of his outer door, which he had previously overlooked, and there was a +little note to A. P., Esq., in George's well-known handwriting, George +had put into Pen's box probably as he was going away. + + + "Dear Pen,--I shall be half-way home when you breakfast, and intend + to stay over Christmas, in Norfolk, or elsewhere. + + "I have my own opinion of the issue of matters about which we talked + in J------ St. yesterday; and think my presence de trop. + + "Vale. G. W." + + "Give my very best regards and adieux to your cousin." + + +And so George was gone, and Mrs. Flanagan, the laundress, ruled over his +empty chambers. + +Pen of course had to go and see his uncle on the day after their +colloquy, and not being admitted, he naturally went to Lady +Rockminster's apartments, where the old lady instantly asked for +Bluebeard, and insisted that he should come to dinner. + +"Bluebeard is gone," Pen said, and he took out poor George's scrap of +paper, and handed it to Laura, who looked at it--did not look at Pen in +return, but passed the paper back to him, and walked away. Pen rushed +into an eloquent eulogium upon his dear old George to Lady Rockminster, +who was astonished at his enthusiasm. She had never heard him so warm +in praise of anybody; and told him with her usual frankness, that she +didn't think it had been in his nature to care so much about any other +person. + +As Mr. Pendennis was passing in Waterloo Place, in one of his many walks +to the hotel where Laura lived, and whither duty to his uncle carried +Arthur every day, Arthur saw issuing from Messrs. Gimcrack's celebrated +shop an old friend, who was followed to his brougham by an obsequious +shopman bearing parcels. The gentleman was in the deepest mourning: +the brougham, the driver, and the horse were in mourning. Grief in easy +circumstances and supported by the comfortablest springs and cushions, +was typified in the equipage and the little gentleman, its proprietor. + +"What, Foker! Hail, Foker!" cried out Pen--the reader, no doubt, has +likewise recognised Arthur's old schoolfellow--and he held out his hand +to the heir of the late lamented John Henry Foker, Esq., the master of +Logwood and other houses, the principal partner in the great brewery of +Foker and Co.: the greater portion of Foker's Entire. + +A little hand, covered with a glove of the deepest ebony, and set off +by three inches of a snowy wristband, was put forth to meet Arthur's +salutation. The other little hand held a little morocco case, +containing, no doubt, something precious, of which Mr. Foker had just +become proprietor in Messrs. Gimcrack's shop. Pen's keen eyes and +satiric turn showed him at once upon what errand Mr. Foker had been +employed; and he thought of the heir in Horace pouring forth the +gathered wine of his father's vats; and that human nature is pretty much +the same in Regent Street as in the Via Sacra. + +"Le Roi est mort. Vive le Roi!" said Arthur. + +"Ah!" said the other. "Yes. Thank you--very much obliged. How do you do, +Pen?--very busy--good-bye!" and he jumped into the black brougham, and +sate like a little black Care behind the black coachman. He had blushed +on seeing Pen, and shown other signs of guilt and perturbation, which +Pen attributed to the novelty of his situation; and on which he began to +speculate in his usual sardonic manner. + +"Yes: so wags the world," thought Pen. "The stone closes over Harry the +Fourth, and Harry the Fifth reigns in his stead. The old ministers at +the brewery come and kneel before him with their books; the draymen, +his subjects, fling up their red caps, and shout for him. What a grave +deference and sympathy the bankers and the lawyers show! There was too +great a stake at issue between those two that they should ever love each +other very cordially. As long as one man keeps another out of twenty +thousand a year, the younger must be always hankering after the crown, +and the wish must be the father to the thought of possession. Thank +Heaven, there was no thought of money between me and our dear mother, +Laura." + +"There never could have been. You would have spurned it!" cried Laura. +"Why make yourself more selfish than you are, Pen; and allow your mind +to own for an instant that it would have entertained such--such dreadful +meanness? You make me blush for you, Arthur: you make me----" her eyes +finished this sentence, and she passed her handkerchief across them. + +"There are some truths which women will never acknowledge," Pen said, +"and from which your modesty always turns away. I do not say that I ever +knew the feeling, only that I am glad I had not the temptation. Is there +any harm in that confession of weakness?" + +"We are all taught to ask to be delivered from evil, Arthur," said +Laura, in a low voice. "I am glad if you were spared from that great +crime; and only sorry to think that you could by any possibility have +been led into it. But you never could; and you don't think you could. +Your acts are generous and kind: you disdain mean actions. You take +Blanche without money, and without a bribe. Yes, thanks be to Heaven, +dear brother. You could not have sold yourself away; I knew you could +not when it came to the day, and you did not. Praise be--be where praise +is due. Why does this horrid scepticism pursue you, my Arthur? Why doubt +and sneer at your own heart--at every one's? Oh, if you knew the pain +you give me--how I lie awake and think of those hard sentences, dear +brother, and wish them unspoken, unthought!" + +"Do I cause you many thoughts and many tears, Laura?" asked Arthur. +The fulness of innocent love beamed from her in reply. A smile heavenly +pure, a glance of unutterable tenderness, sympathy, pity, shone in +her face--all which indications of love and purity Arthur beheld and +worshipped in her, as you would watch them in a child, as one fancies +one might regard them in an angel. + +"I--I don't know what I have done," he said, simply, "to have merited +such regard from two such women. It is like undeserved praise, Laura--or +too much good fortune, which frightens one--or a great post, when a man +feels that he is not fit for it. Ah, sister, how weak and wicked we are; +how spotless, and full of love and truth, Heaven made you! I think for +some of you there has been no fall," he said, looking at the charming +girl with an almost paternal glance of admiration. "You can't help +having sweet thoughts, and doing good actions. Dear creature! they are +the flowers which you bear." + +"And what else, sir?" asked Laura. "I see a sneer coming over your face. +What is it? Why does it come to drive all the good thoughts away?" + +"A sneer, is there? I was thinking, my dear, that nature in making you +so good and loving did very well: but----" + +"But what? What is that wicked but? and why are you always calling it +up?" + +"But will come in spite of us. But is reflection. But is the sceptic's +familiar, with whom he has made a compact; and if he forgets it, and +indulges in happy day-dreams, or building of air-castles, or listens to +sweet music let us say, or to the bells ringing to church, But taps +at the door, and says, Master, I am here. You are my master; but I am +yours. Go where you will you can't travel without me. I will whisper +to you when you are on your knees at church. I will be at your marriage +pillow. I will sit down at your table with your children. I will be +behind your deathbed curtain. That is what But is," Pen said. + +"Pen, you frighten me," cried Laura. + +"Do you know what But came and said to me just now, when I was looking +at you? But said, If that girl had reason as well as love, she would +love you no more. If she knew you as you are--the sullied, selfish being +which you know--she must part from you, and could give you no love and +no sympathy. Didn't I say," he added fondly, "that some of you seem +exempt from the fall? Love you know; but the knowledge of evil is kept +from you." + +"What is this you young folks are talking about?" asked Lady +Rockminster, who at this moment made her appearance in the room, having +performed, in the mystic retirement of her own apartments, and under the +hands of her attendant, those elaborate toilet-rites without which the +worthy old lady never presented herself to public view. "Mr. Pendennis, +you are always coming here." + +"It is very pleasant to be here," Arthur said; "and we were talking, +when you came in, about my friend Foker, whom I met just now; and who, +as your ladyship knows, has succeeded to his father's kingdom." + +"He has a very fine property, he has fifteen thousand a year. He is my +cousin. He is a very worthy young man. He must come and see me," said +Lady Rockminster, with a look at Laura. + +"He has been engaged for many years past to his cousin, Lady----" + +"Lady Ann is a foolish little chit," Lady Rockminster said, with much +dignity; "and I have no patience with her. She has outraged every +feeling of society. She has broken her father's heart, and thrown away +fifteen thousand a year." + +"Thrown away? What has happened?" asked Pen. + +"It will be the talk of the town in a day or two; and there is no need +why I should keep the secret any longer," said Lady Rockminster, who +had written and received a dozen letters on the subject. "I had a letter +yesterday from my daughter, who was staying at Drummington until all +the world was obliged to go away on account of the frightful catastrophe +which happened there. When Mr. Foker came home from Nice, and after the +funeral, Lady Ann went down on her knees to her father, said that +she never could marry her cousin, that she had contracted another +attachment, and that she must die rather than fulfil her contract. Poor +Lord Rosherville, who is dreadfully embarrassed, showed his daughter +what the state of his affairs was, and that it was necessary that the +arrangements should take place; and in fine, we all supposed that she +had listened to reason, and intended to comply with the desires of +her family. But what has happened?--last Thursday she went out +after breakfast with her maid, and was married in the very church +in Drummington Park to Mr. Hobson, her father's own chaplain and her +brother's tutor; a red-haired widower with two children. Poor dear +Rosherville is in a dreadful way: he wishes Henry Foker should marry +Alice or Barbara; but Alice is marked with the small-pox, and Barbara is +ten years older than he is. And, of course, now the young man is his own +master, he will think of choosing for himself. The blow on Lady Agnes is +very cruel. She is inconsolable. She has the house in Grosvenor Street +for her life, and her settlement, which was very handsome. Have you not +met her? Yes, she dined one day at Lady Clavering's--the first day I saw +you, and a very disagreeable young man I thought you were. But I have +formed you. We have formed him, haven't we, Laura? Where is Bluebeard? +let him come. That horrid Grindley, the dentist, will keep me in town +another week." + +To the latter part of her ladyship's speech Arthur gave no ear. He was +thinking for whom could Foker be purchasing those trinkets which he was +carrying away from the jeweller's? Why did Harry seem anxious to avoid +him? Could he be still faithful to the attachment which had agitated him +so much, and sent him abroad eighteen months back? Psha! The bracelets +and presents were for some of Harry's old friends of the Opera or the +French theatre. Rumours from Naples and Paris, rumours such as are +borne to Club smoking-rooms, had announced that the young man had found +distractions; or, precluded from his virtuous attachment, the +poor fellow had flung himself back upon his old companions and +amusements--not the only man or woman whom society forces into evil, or +debars from good; not the only victim of the world's selfish and wicked +laws. + +As a good thing when it is to be done cannot be done too quickly, Laura +was anxious that Pen's marriage intentions should be put into execution +as speedily as possible, and pressed on his arrangements with rather a +feverish anxiety. Why could she not wait? Pen could afford to do so with +perfect equanimity, but Laura would hear of no delay. She wrote to Pen: +she implored Pen: she used every means to urge expedition. It seemed as +if she could have no rest until Arthur's happiness was complete. + +She offered herself to dearest Blanche to come and stay at Tunbridge +with her, when Lady Rockminster should go on her intended visit to the +reigning house of Rockminster; and although the old dowager scolded, and +ordered, and commanded, Laura was deaf and disobedient: she must go to +Tunbridge, she would go to Tunbridge: she who ordinarily had no will of +her own, and complied smilingly with anybody's whim and caprices, showed +the most selfish and obstinate determination in this instance. The +dowager lady must nurse herself in her rheumatism, she must read herself +to sleep, if she would not hear her maid, whose voice croaked, and who +made sad work of the sentimental passages in the novels--Laura must +go,--and be with her new sister. In another week, she proposed, with +many loves and regards to dear Lady Clavering, to pass some time with +dearest Blanche. + +Dearest Blanche wrote instantly in reply to dearest Laura's No. 1, +to say with what extreme delight she should welcome her sister: how +charming it would be to practise their old duets together, to wander +o'er the grassy sward, and amidst the yellowing woods of Penshurst and +Southborough! Blanche counted the hours till she should embrace her +dearest friend. + +Laura, No. 2, expressed her delight at dearest Blanche's affectionate +reply. She hoped that their friendship would never diminish; that the +confidence between them would grow in after years; that they should have +no secrets from each other; that the aim of the life of each would be to +make one person happy. + +Blanche, No. 2, followed in two days. "How provoking! Their house was +very small, the two spare bedrooms were occupied by that horrid Mrs. +Planter and her daughter, who had thought proper to fall ill (she always +fell ill in country-houses), and she could not or would not be moved for +some days." + +Laura, No. 3. "It was indeed very provoking. L. had hoped to hear one +of dearest B.'s dear songs on Friday; but she was the more consoled to +wait, because Lady R. was not very well, and liked to be nursed by her. +Poor Major Pendennis was very unwell, too, in the same hotel--too unwell +even to see Arthur, who was constant in his calls on his uncle. Arthur's +heart was full of tenderness and affection. She had known Arthur all her +life. She would answer"--yes, even in italics she would answer--"for his +kindness, his goodness, and his gentleness." + +Blanche, No. 3. "What is this most surprising, most extraordinary letter +from A. P.? What does dearest Laura know about it? What has happened? +What, what mystery is enveloped under his frightful reserve?" + +Blanche, No. 3, requires an explanation; and it cannot be better given +than in the surprising and mysterious letter of Arthur Pendennis. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIII. Mr. and Mrs. Sam Huxter + + +"Dear Blanche," Arthur wrote, "you are always reading and dreaming +pretty dramas, and exciting romances in real life: are you now prepared +to enact a part of one? And not the pleasantest part, dear Blanche, that +in which the heroine takes possession of her father's palace and wealth, +and introducing her husband to the loyal retainers and faithful vassals, +greets her happy bridegroom with 'All of this is mine and thine,'--but +the other character, that of the luckless lady, who suddenly discovers +that she is not the Prince's wife, but Claude Melnotte's the beggar's: +that of Alnaschar's wife, who comes in just as her husband has +kicked over the tray of porcelain which was to be the making of his +fortune--But stay; Alnaschar, who kicked down the china, was not a +married man; he had cast his eye on the Vizier's daughter, and his hopes +of her went to the ground with the shattered bowls and tea-cups. + +"Will you be the Vizier's daughter, and refuse and laugh to scorn +Alnaschar, or will you be the Lady of Lyons, and love the penniless +Claude Melnotte? I will act that part if you like. I will love you my +best in return. I will do my all to make your humble life happy: for +humble it will be: at least the odds are against any other conclusion; +we shall live and die in a poor prosy humdrum way. There will be no +stars and epaulettes for the hero of our story. I shall write one or two +more stories, which will presently be forgotten. I shall be called to +the Bar, and try to get on in my profession: perhaps some day, if I am +very lucky, and work very hard (which is absurd), I may get a colonial +appointment, and you may be an Indian Judge's lady. Meanwhile. I shall +buy back the Pall Mall Gazette; the publishers are tired of it since the +death of poor Shandon, and will sell it for a small sum. Warrington +will be my right hand, and write it up to a respectable sale. I will +introduce you to Mr. Finucane the sub-editor, and I know who in the +end will be Mrs. Finucane,--a very nice gentle creature, who has lived +sweetly through a sad life and we will jog on, I say, and look out +for better times, and earn our living decently. You shall have the +opera-boxes, and superintend the fashionable intelligence, and +break your little heart in the poet's corner. Shall we live over the +offices?--there are four very good rooms, a kitchen, and a garret for +Laura, in Catherine Street in the Strand; or would you like a house +in the Waterloo Road?--it would be very pleasant, only there is that +halfpenny toll at the Bridge. The boys may go to King's College, mayn't +they? Does all this read to you like a joke? + +"Ah, dear Blanche, it is no joke, and I am sober and telling the truth. +Our fine day-dreams are gone. Our carriage has whirled out of sight like +Cinderella's: our house in Belgravia has been whisked away into the air +by a malevolent Genius, and I am no more a member of Parliament than I +am a Bishop on his bench in the House of Lords, or a Duke with a garter +at his knee. You know pretty well what my property is, and your own +little fortune: we may have enough with those two to live in decent +comfort; to take a cab sometimes when we go out to see our friends, and +not to deny ourselves an omnibus when we are tired. But that is all: is +that enough for you, my little dainty lady? I doubt sometimes whether +you can bear the life which I offer you--at least, it is fair that you +should know what it will be. If you say, 'Yes, Arthur, I will follow +your fate whatever it may be, and be a loyal and loving wife to aid and +cheer you'--come to me, dear Blanche, and may God help me so that I may +do my duty to you. If not, and you look to a higher station, I must not +bar Blanche's fortune--I will stand in the crowd, and see your ladyship +go to Court when you are presented, and you shall give me a smile from +your chariot window. I saw Lady Mirabel going to the drawing-room last +season: the happy husband at her side glittered with stars and cordons. +All the flowers in the garden bloomed in the coachman's bosom. Will +you have these and the chariot, or walk on foot and mend your husband's +stockings? + +"I cannot tell you now--afterwards I might, should the day come when we +may have no secrets from one another--what has happened within the last +few hours which has changed all my prospects in life: but so it is, that +I have learned something which forces me to give up the plans which +I had formed, and many vain and ambitious hopes in which I had been +indulging. I have written and despatched a letter to Sir Francis +Clavering, saying that I cannot accept his seat in Parliament until +after my marriage; in like manner I cannot and will not accept any +larger fortune with you than that which has always belonged to you since +your grandfather's death, and the birth of your half-brother. Your +good mother is not in the least aware--I hope she never may be--of the +reasons which force me to this very strange decision. They arise from a +painful circumstance, which is attributable to none of our faults; but, +having once befallen, they are as fatal and irreparable as that shock +which overset honest Alnaschar's porcelain, and shattered all his hopes +beyond the power of mending. I write gaily enough, for there is no use +in bewailing such a hopeless mischance. We have not drawn the great +prize in the lottery, dear Blanche: but I shall be contented enough +without it, if you can be so; and I repeat, with all my heart, that I +will do my best to make you happy. + +"And now, what news shall I give you? My uncle is very unwell, and takes +my refusal of the seat in Parliament in sad dudgeon: the scheme was +his, poor old gentleman, and he naturally bemoans its failure. But +Warrington, Laura, and I had a council of war: they know this awful +secret, and back me in my decision. You must love George as you love +what is generous and upright and noble; and as for Laura--she must be +our Sister, Blanche, our Saint, our good Angel. With two such friends +at home, what need we care for the world without; or who is member +for Clavering, or who is asked or not asked to the great balls of the +season?" + +To this frank communication came back the letter from Blanche to Laura, +and one to Pen himself, which perhaps his own letter justified. "You are +spoiled by the world," Blanche wrote; "you do not love your poor Blanche +as she would be loved, or you would not offer thus lightly to take her +or to leave her, no, Arthur, you love me not--a man of the world, you +have given me your plighted troth, and are ready to redeem it; but that +entire affection, that love whole and abiding, where--where is that +vision of my youth? I am but a pastime of your life, and I would be its +all;--but a fleeting thought, and I would be your whole soul. I would +have our two hearts one; but ah, my Arthur, how lonely yours is! how +little you give me of it! You speak of our parting with a smile on +your lip; of our meeting, and you care not to hasten it! Is life but a +disillusion, then, and are the flowers of our garden faded away? I have +wept--I have prayed--I have passed sleepless hours--I have shed bitter, +bitter tears over your letter! To you I bring the gushing poesy of my +being--the yearnings of the soul that longs to be loved--that pines +for love, love, love, beyond all!--that flings itself at your feet, +and cries, Love me, Arthur! Your heart beats no quicker at the +kneeling appeal of my love!--your proud eye is dimmed by no tear of +sympathy!--you accept my soul's treasure as though 'twere dross! not the +pearls from the unfathomable deeps of affection! not the diamonds from +the caverns of the heart. You treat me like a slave, and bid me bow to +my master! Is this the guerdon of a free maiden--is this the price of +a life's passion? Ah me! when was it otherwise? when did love meet with +aught but disappointment? Could I hope (fond fool!) to be the exception +to the lot of my race; and lay my fevered brow on a heart that +comprehended my own? Foolish girl that I was! One by one, all the +flowers of my young life have faded away; and this, the last, the +sweetest, the dearest, the fondly, the madly loved, the wildly +cherished--where is it? But no more of this. Heed not my bleeding +heart.--Bless you, bless you always, Arthur! + +"I will write more when I am more collected. My racking brain renders +thought almost impossible. I long to see Laura! She will come to us +directly we return from the country, will she not? And you, cold one! + +"B." + + +The words of this letter were perfectly clear, and written in Blanche's +neatest hand upon her scented paper; and yet the meaning of the +composition not a little puzzled Pen. Did Blanche mean to accept or to +refuse his polite offer? Her phrases either meant that Pen did not love +her, and she declined him, or that she took him, and sacrificed herself +to him, cold as he was. He laughed sardonically over the letter, and +over the transaction which occasioned it. He laughed to think how +Fortune had jilted him, and how he deserved his slippery fortune. He +turned over and over the musky gilt-edged riddle. It amused his humour: +he enjoyed it as if it had been a funny story. + +He was thus seated, twiddling the queer manuscript in his hand, +joking grimly to himself, when his servant came in with a card from a +gentleman, who wished to speak to him very particularly. And if Pen +had gone out into the passage, he would have seen, sucking his +stick, rolling his eyes, and showing great marks of anxiety, his old +acquaintance, Mr. Samuel Huxter. + +"Mr. Huxter on particular business! Pray, beg Mr. Huxter to come in," +said Pen, amused rather; and not the less so when poor Sam appeared +before him. + +"Pray take a chair, Mr. Huxter," said Pen, in his most superb manner. +"In what way can I be of service to you?" + +"I had rather not speak before the flunk--before the man, Mr. +Pendennis:" on which Mr. Arthur's attendant quitted the room. + +"I'm in a fix," said Mr. Huxter, gloomily. + +"Indeed." + +"She sent me to you," continued the young surgeon. + +"What, Fanny? Is she well? I was coming to see her, but I have had a +great deal of business since my return to London." + +"I heard of you through my governor and Jack Hobnell," broke in Huxter. +"I wish you joy, Mr. Pendennis, both of the borough and the lady, sir. +Fanny wishes you joy, too," he added, with something of a blush. + +"There's many a slip between the cup and the lip! Who knows what may +happen, Mr. Huxter, or who will sit in Parliament for Clavering next +session?" + +"You can do anything with my governor," continued Mr. Huxter. "You got +him Clavering Park. The old boy was very much pleased, sir, at your +calling him in. Hobnell wrote me so. Do you think you could speak to the +governor for me, Mr. Pendennis?" + +"And tell him what?" + +"I've gone and done it, sir," said Huxter, with a particular look. + +"You--you don't mean to say you have--you have done any wrong to that +dear little creature, sir?" said Pen, starting up in a great fury. + +"I hope not," said Huxter, with a hangdog look: "but I've married her. +And I know there will be an awful shindy at home. It was agreed that I +should be taken into partnership when I had passed the College, and it +was to have been Huxter and Son. But I would have it, confound it. It's +all over now, and the old boy's wrote me that he's coming up to town for +drugs: he will be here to-morrow, and then it must all come out." + +"And when did this event happen?" asked Pen, not over well pleased, most +likely, that a person who had once attracted some portion of his royal +good graces should have transferred her allegiance, and consoled herself +for his loss. + +"Last Thursday was five weeks--it was two days after Miss Amory came to +Shepherd's Inn," Huxter answered. + +Pen remembered that Blanche had written and mentioned her visit. "I was +called in," Huxter said. "I was in the Inn looking after old Cos's leg; +and about something else too, very likely: and I met Strong, who told +me there was a woman taken ill in Chambers, and went up to give her my +professional services. It was the old lady who attends Miss Amory--her +housekeeper, or some such thing. She was taken with strong hysterics: +I found her kicking and screaming like a good one--in Strong's chamber, +along with him and Colonel Altamont, and Miss Amory crying and as pale +as a sheet; and Altamont fuming about--a regular kick-up. They were two +hours in the Chambers; and the old woman went whooping off in a cab. She +was much worse than the young one. I called in Grosvenor Place next day +to see if I could be of any service, but they were gone without so much +as thanking me: and the day after I had business of my own to attend +to--a bad business too," said Mr. Huxter, gloomily. "But it's done, and +can't be undone; and we must make the best of it" + +She has known the story for a month, thought Pen, with a sharp pang of +grief, and a gloomy sympathy--this accounts for her letter of to-day. +She will not implicate her father, or divulge his secret; she wishes to +let me off from the marriage--and finds a pretext--the generous girl! + +"Do you know who Altamont is, sir?" asked Huxter, after the pause during +which Pen had been thinking of his own affairs. "Fanny and I have talked +him over, and we can't help fancying that it's Mrs. Lightfoot's first +husband come to life again, and she who has just married a second. +Perhaps Lightfoot won't be very sorry for it," sighed Huxter, looking +savagely at Arthur, for the demon of jealousy was still in possession +of his soul; and now, and more than ever since his marriage, the poor +fellow fancied that Fanny's heart belonged to his rival. + +"Let us talk about your affairs," said Pen. "Show me how I can be of any +service to you, Huxter. Let me congratulate you on your marriage. I am +thankful that Fanny, who is so good, so fascinating, so kind a creature, +has found an honest man, and a gentleman who will make her happy. Show +me what I can do to help you." + +"She thinks you can, sir," said Huxter, accepting Pen's proffered hand, +"and I'm very much obliged to you, I'm sure; and that you might talk +over my father, and break the business to him, and my mother, who always +has her back up about being a clergyman's daughter. Fanny ain't of a +good family, I know, and not up to us in breeding and that--but she's a +Huxter now." + +"The wife takes the husband's rank, of course," said Pen. + +"And with a little practice in society," continued Huxter, imbibing his +stick, "she'll be as good as any girl in Clavering. You should hear +her sing and play on the piano. Did you ever? Old Bows taught her. And +she'll do on the stage, if the governor was to throw me over; but +I'd rather not have her there. She can't help being a coquette, Mr. +Pendennis, she can't help it. Dammy, sir! I'll be bound to say, that two +or three of the Bartholomew chaps, that I've brought into my place, are +sitting with her now: even Jack Linton, that I took down as my best man, +is as bad as the rest, and she will go on singing and making eyes at +him. It's what Bows says, if there were twenty men in a room, and one +not taking notice of her, she wouldn't be satisfied until the twentieth +was at her elbow." + +"You should have her mother with her," said Pen, laughing. + +"She must keep the lodge. She can't see so much of her family as she +used. I can't, you know, sir, go on with that lot. Consider my rank in +life," said Huxter, putting a very dirty hand up to his chin. + +"Au fait," said Mr. Pen, who was infinitely amused, and concerning whom +mutato nomine (and of course concerning nobody else in the world) the +fable might have been narrated. + +As the two gentlemen were in the midst of this colloquy, another knock +came to Pen's door, and his servant presently announced Mr. Bows. The +old man followed slowly, his pale face blushing, and his hand trembling +somewhat as he took Pen's. He coughed, and wiped his face in his checked +cotton pocket-handkerchief, and sate down with his hands on his knees, +the sunshining on his bald head. Pen looked at the homely figure with no +small sympathy and kindness. This man, too, has had his griefs and his +wounds, Arthur thought. This man, too, has brought his genius and his +heart, and laid them at a woman's feet; where she spurned them. The +chance of life has gone against him, and the prize is with that creature +yonder. Fanny's bridegroom, thus mutely apostrophised, had winked +meanwhile with one eye at old Bows, and was driving holes in the floor +with the cane which he loved. + +"So we have lost, Mr. Bows, and here is the lucky winner," Pen said, +looking hard at the old man. + +"Here is the lucky winner, sir, as you say." + +"I suppose you have come from my place?" asked Huxter, who, having +winked at Bows with one eye, now favoured Pen with a wink of +the other--a wink which seemed to say, "Infatuated old boy--you +understand--over head and ears in love with her poor old fool." + +"Yes, I have been there ever since you went away. It was Mrs. Sam +who sent me after you: who said that she thought you might be doing +something stupid--something like yourself, Huxter." + +"There's as big fools as I am," growled the young surgeon. + +"A few, p'raps," said the old man; "not many, let us trust. Yes, she +sent me after you for fear you should offend Mr. Pendennis; and I +daresay because she thought you wouldn't give her message to him, and +beg him to go and see her; and she knew I would take her errand. Did he +tell you that, sir?" + +Huxter blushed scarlet, and covered his confusion with an imprecation. +Pen laughed; the scene suited his bitter humour more and more. + +"I have no doubt Mr. Huxter was going to tell me," Arthur said, "and +very much flattered I am sure I shall be to pay my respects to his +wife." + +"It's in Charterhouse Lane, over the baker's, on the right hand side as +you go from St. John's Street," continued Bows, without any pity. "You +know Smithfield, Mr. Pendennis? St. John's Street leads into Smithfield. +Doctor Johnson has been down the street many a time with ragged shoes, +and a bundle of penny-a-lining for the Gent's Magazine. You literary +gents are better off now--eh? You ride in your cabs, and wear yellow kid +gloves now." + +"I have known so many brave and good men fail, and so many quacks and +impostors succeed, that you mistake me if you think I am puffed up by my +own personal good luck, old friend," Arthur said, sadly. "Do you think +the prizes of life are carried by the most deserving? and set up that +mean test of prosperity for merit? You must feel that you are as good +as I. I have never questioned it. It is you that are peevish against the +freaks of fortune, and grudge the good luck that befalls others. It's +not the first time you have unjustly accused me, Bows." + +"Perhaps you are not far wrong, sir," said the old fellow, wiping his +bald forehead. "I am thinking about myself and grumbling; most men do +when they get on that subject. Here's the fellow that's got the prize in +the lottery; here's the fortunate youth." + +"I don't know what you are driving at," Huxter said, who had been much +puzzled as the above remarks passed between his two companions. + +"Perhaps not," said Bows, drily. "Mrs. H. sent me here to look after +you, and to see that you brought that little message to Mr. Pendennis, +which you didn't, you see, and so she was right. Women always are; they +have always a reason for everything. Why, sir," he said, turning round +to Pen with a sneer, "she had a reason even for giving me that message. +I was sitting with her after you left us, very quiet and comfortable; I +was talking away, and she was mending your shirts, when your two young +friends, Jack Linton and Bob Blades, looked in from Bartholomew's; and +then it was she found out that she had this message to send. You needn't +hurry yourself, she don't want you back again; they'll stay these two +hours, I daresay." + +Huxter arose with great perturbation at this news, and plunged his stick +into the pocket of his paletot, and seized his hat. + +"You'll come and see us, sir, won't you?" he said to Pen. "You'll talk +over the governor, won't you, sir, if I can get out of this place and +down to Clavering?" + +"You will promise to attend me gratis if ever I fall ill at Fairoaks, +will you, Huxter?" Pen said, good-naturedly. "I will do anything I +can for you. I will come and see Mrs. Huxter immediately, and we will +conspire together about what is to be done." + +"I thought that would send him out, sir," Bows said, dropping into his +chair again as soon as the young surgeon had quitted the room. "And it's +all true, sir--every word of it. She wants you back again, and sends her +husband after you. She cajoles everybody, the little devil. She tries it +on you, on me, on poor Costigan, on the young chaps from Bartholomew's. +She's got a little court of 'em already. And if there's nobody there, +she practises on the old German baker in the shop, or coaxes the black +sweeper at the crossing." + +"Is she fond of that fellow?" asked Pen. + +"There is no accounting for likes and dislikes," Bows answered. + +"Yes, she is fond of him; and having taken the thing into her head, she +would not rest until she married him. They had their banns published at +St. Clement's, and nobody heard it or knew any just cause or impediment. +And one day she slips out of the porter's lodge and has the business +done, and goes off to Gravesend with Lothario; and leaves a note for me +to go and explain all things to her Ma. Bless you! the old woman knew it +as well as I did, though she pretended ignorance. And so she goes, and +I'm alone again. I miss her, sir, tripping along that court, and coming +for her singing lesson; and I've no heart to look into the porter's +lodge now, which looks very empty without her, the little flirting +thing. And I go and sit and dangle about her lodgings, like an old fool. +She makes 'em very trim and nice, though; gets up all Huxter's shirts +and clothes: cooks his little dinner, and sings at her business like a +little lark. What's the use of being angry? I lent 'em three pound to go +on with: for they haven't got a shilling till the reconciliation, and Pa +comes down." + +When Bows had taken his leave, Pen carried his letter from Blanche, and +the news which he had just received, to his usual adviser, Laura. It was +wonderful upon how many points Mr. Arthur, who generally followed his +own opinion, now wanted another person's counsel. He could hardly so +much as choose a waistcoat without referring to Miss Bell: if he wanted +to buy a horse he must have Miss Bell's opinion; all which marks of +deference tended greatly to the amusement of the shrewd old lady with +whom Miss Bell lived, and whose plans regarding her protegee we have +indicated. + +Arthur produced Blanche's letter then to Laura, and asked her to +interpret it. Laura was very much agitated and puzzled by the contents +of the note. + +"It seems to me," she said, "as if Blanche is acting very artfully." + +"And wishes so to place matters that she may take me or leave me? Is it +not so?" + +"It is, I am afraid, a kind of duplicity which does not augur well +for your future happiness; and is a bad reply to your own candour and +honesty, Arthur. Do you know, I think, I think--I scarcely like to say +what I think," said Laura with a deep blush; but of course the blushing +young lady yielded to her cousin's persuasion, and expressed what her +thoughts were. "It looks to me, Arthur, as if there might be--there +might be somebody else," said, Laura, with a repetition of the blush. + +"And if there is," broke in Arthur, "and if I am free once again, will +the best and dearest of all women----" + +"You are not free, dear brother," Laura said calmly. "You belong to +another; of whom I own it grieves me to think ill. But I can't do +otherwise. It is very odd that in this letter she does not urge you to +tell her the reason why you have broken arrangements which would have +been so advantageous to you; and avoids speaking on the subject. She +somehow seems to write as if she knows her father's secret." + +Pen said, "Yes, she must know it;" and told the story, which he had just +heard from Huxter, of the interview at Shepherd's Inn. + +"It was not so that she described the meeting," said Laura; and, going +to her desk, produced from it that letter of Blanche's which mentioned +her visit to Shepherd's Inn. 'Another disappointment--only the Chevalier +Strong and a friend of his in the room.' This was all that Blanche had +said. "But she was bound to keep her father's secret, Pen," Laura added. +"And yet, and yet--it is very puzzling." + +The puzzle was this, that for three weeks after this eventful discovery +Blanche had been only too eager about her dearest Arthur; was urging, +as strongly as so much modesty could urge, the completion of the happy +arrangements which were to make her Arthur's for ever; and now it seemed +as if something had interfered to mar these happy arrangements--as if +Arthur poor was not quite so agreeable to Blanche as Arthur rich and a +member of Parliament--as if there was some mystery. At last she said: + +"Tunbridge Wells is not very far off, is it, Arthur? Hadn't you better +go and see her?" + +They had been in town a week, and neither had thought of that simple +plan before! + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIV. Shows how Arthur had better have taken a Return-ticket + + +The train carried Arthur only too quickly to Tunbridge, though he had +time to review all the circumstances of his life as he made the brief +journey; and to acknowledge to what sad conclusions his selfishness and +waywardness had led him. "Here is the end of hopes and aspirations," +thought he, "of romance and ambitions! Where I yield or where I am +obstinate, I am alike unfortunate; my mother implores me, and I refuse +an angel! Say I had taken her; forced on me as she was, Laura would +never have been an angel to me. I could not have given her my heart at +another's instigation; I never could have known her as she is had I +been obliged to ask another to interpret her qualities and point out +her virtues. I yield to my uncle's solicitations, and accept on his +guarantee Blanche, and a seat in Parliament, and wealth, and ambition, +and a career; and see!--fortune comes and leaves me the wife without the +dowry, which I had taken in compensation of a heart. Why was I not more +honest, or am I not less so? It would have cost my poor old uncle no +pangs to accept Blanche's fortune whencesoever it came; he can't even +understand, he is bitterly indignant, heart-stricken, almost, at the +scruples which actuate me in refusing it. I dissatisfy everybody. A +maimed, weak, imperfect wretch, it seems as if I am unequal to any +fortune. I neither make myself nor any one connected with me happy. What +prospect is there for this poor little frivolous girl, who is to take +my obscure name and share my fortune? I have not even ambition to excite +me, or self-esteem enough to console myself, much more her, for my +failure. If I were to write a book that should go through twenty +editions, why, I should be the very first to sneer at my reputation. Say +I could succeed at the Bar, and achieve a fortune by bullying witnesses +and twisting evidence; is that a fame which would satisfy my longings, +or a calling in which my life would be well spent? How I wish I could be +that priest opposite, who never has lifted his eyes from his breviary, +except when we were in Reigate tunnel, when he could not see; or that +old gentleman next him, who scowls at him with eyes of hatred over his +newspaper. The priest shuts his eyes to the world, but has his thoughts +on the book, which is his directory to the world to come. His neighbour +hates him as a monster, tyrant, persecutor, and fancies burning martyrs, +and that pale countenance looking on, and lighted up by the flame. These +have no doubts; these march on trustfully, bearing their load of logic." + +"Would you like to look at the paper, sir?" here interposed the +stout gentleman (it had a flaming article against the order of the +black-coated gentleman who was travelling with them in the carriage), +and Pen thanked him and took it, and pursued his reverie, without +reading two sentences of the journal. + +"And yet, would you take either of those men's creeds, with its +consequences?" he thought. "Ah me! you must bear your own burthen, +fashion your own faith, think your own thoughts, and pray your own +prayer. To what mortal ear could I tell all, if I had a mind? or +who could understand all? Who can tell another's shortcomings, lost +opportunities, weigh the passions which overpower, the defects which +incapacitate reason?--what extent of truth and right his neighbour's +mind is organised to perceive and to do?--what invisible and forgotten +accident, terror of youth, chance or mischance of fortune, may have +altered the whole current of life? A grain of sand may alter it, as the +flinging of a pebble may end it. Who can weigh circumstances, passions, +temptations, that go to our good and evil account, save One, before +whose awful wisdom we kneel, and at whose mercy we ask absolution? Here +it ends," thought Pen; "this day or to-morrow will wind up the account +of my youth; a weary retrospect, alas! a sad history, with many a page +I would fain not look back on! But who has not been tired or fallen, and +who has escaped without scars from that struggle?" And his head fell on +his breast, and the young man's heart prostrated itself humbly and sadly +before that Throne where sits wisdom, and love, and pity for all, and +made its confession. "What matters about fame or poverty!" he thought. +"If I marry this woman I have chosen, may I have strength and will to be +true to her, and to make her happy. If I have children, pray God teach +me to speak and to do the truth among them, and to leave them an honest +name. There are no splendours for my marriage. Does my life deserve +any? I begin a new phase of it; a better than the last may it be, I pray +Heaven!" + +The train stopped at Tunbridge as Pen was making these reflections; and +he handed over the newspaper to his neighbour, of whom he took leave, +while the foreign clergyman in the opposite corner still sate with his +eyes on his book. Pen jumped out of the carriage then, his carpet-bag in +hand, and briskly determined to face his fortune. + +A fly carried him rapidly to Lady Clavering's house from the station; +and, as he was transported thither, Arthur composed a little speech, +which he intended to address to Blanche, and which was really as +virtuous, honest, and well-minded an oration as any man of his turn of +mind, and under his circumstances, could have uttered. The purport of +it was--"Blanche, I cannot understand from your last letter what your +meaning is, or whether my fair and frank proposal to you is acceptable +or no. I think you know the reason which induces me to forgo the worldly +advantages which a union with you offered, and which I could not accept +without, as I fancy, being dishonoured. If you doubt of my affection, +here I am ready to prove it. Let Smirke be called in, and let us be +married out of hand; and with all my heart I purpose to keep my vow, and +to cherish you through life, and to be a true and a loving husband to +you." + +From the fly Arthur sprang out then to the hall-door, where he was met +by a domestic whom he did not know. The man seemed to be surprised at +the approach of the gentleman with the carpet-bag, which he made no +attempt to take from Arthur's hands. "Her Ladyship's not at home, sir," +the man remarked. + +"I am Mr. Pendennis," Arthur said. "Where is Lightfoot?" + +"Lightfoot is gone," answered the man. "My Lady is out, and my orders +was----" + +"I hear Miss Amory's voice in the drawing-room," said Arthur. "Take the +bag to a dressing-room, if you please;" and, passing by the porter, he +walked straight towards that apartment, from which, as the door opened, +a warble of melodious notes issued. + +Our little Siren was at her piano singing with all her might and +fascinations. Master Clavering was asleep on the sofa, indifferent to +the music; but near Blanche sat a gentleman who was perfectly enraptured +with her strain, which was of a passionate and melancholy nature. + +As the door opened, the gentleman started up with Hullo! the music +stopped, with a little shriek from the singer; Frank Clavering woke up +from the sofa, and Arthur came forward and said, "What, Foker! how do +you do, Foker?" He looked at the piano, and there, by Miss Amory's side, +was just such another purple-leather box as he had seen in Harry's +hand three days before, when the heir of Logwood was coming out of a +jeweller's shop in Waterloo Place. It was opened, and curled round +the white satin cushion within was, oh, such a magnificent serpentine +bracelet, with such a blazing ruby head and diamond tail! + +"How de-do, Pendennis?" said Foker. Blanche made many motions of the +shoulders, and gave signs of unrest and agitation. And she put her +handkerchief over the bracelet, and then she advanced, with a hand which +trembled very much, to greet Pen. + +"How is dearest Laura?" she said. The face of Foker looking up from his +profound mourning--that face, so piteous and puzzled, was one which the +reader's imagination must depict for himself; also that of Master Frank +Clavering, who, looking at the three interesting individuals with an +expression of the utmost knowingness, had only time to ejaculate the +words, "Here's a jolly go!" and to disappear sniggering. + +Pen, too, had restrained himself up to that minute; but looking still at +Foker, whose ears and cheeks tingled with blushes, Arthur burst out into +a fit of laughter, so wild and loud, that it frightened Blanche much +more than any the most serious exhibition. + +"And this was the secret, was it? Don't blush and turn away, Foker, +my boy. Why, man, you are a pattern of fidelity. Could I stand between +Blanche and such constancy--could I stand between Miss Amory and fifteen +thousand a year?" + +"It is not that, Mr. Pendennis," Blanche said, with great dignity. "It +is not money, it is not rank, it is not gold that moves me; but it is +constancy, it is fidelity, it is a whole trustful loving heart offered +to me, that I treasure--yes, that I treasure!" And she made for her +handkerchief, but, reflecting what was underneath it, she paused. "I do +not disown, I do not disguise--my life is above disguise--to him on whom +it is bestowed, my heart must be for ever bare--that I once thought I +loved you,--yes, thought I was beloved by you, I own! How I clung to +that faith! How I strove, I prayed, I longed to believe it! But your +conduct always--your own words so cold, so heartless, so unkind, have +undeceived me. You trifled with the heart of the poor maiden! You flung +me back with scorn the troth which I had plighted! I have explained +all--all to Mr. Foker." + +"That you have," said Foker, with devotion, and conviction in his looks. + +"What, all?" said Pen, with a meaning look at Blanche. "It is I am in +fault, is it? Well, well, Blanche, be it so. I won't appeal against +your sentence, and bear it in silence. I came down here looking to very +different things, Heaven knows, and with a heart most truly and kindly +disposed towards you. I hope you may be happy with another, as, on my +word, it was my wish to make you so; and I hope my honest old friend +here will have a wife worthy of his loyalty, his constancy, and +affection. Indeed they deserve the regard of any woman--even Miss +Blanche Amory. Shake hands, Harry; don't look askance at me. Has anybody +told you that I was a false and heartless character?" + +"I think you're a----" Foker was beginning, in his wrath, when Blanche +interposed. + +"Henry, not a word!--I pray you let there be forgiveness!" + +"You're an angel, by Jove, you're an angel!" said Foker, at which +Blanche looked seraphically up to the chandelier. + +"In spite of what has passed, for the sake of what has passed, I must +always regard Arthur as a brother," the seraph continued; "we have known +each other years, we have trodden the same fields, and plucked the same +flowers together. Arthur! Henry! I beseech you to take hands and to be +friends! Forgive you!--I forgive you, Arthur, with my heart I do. Should +I not do so for making me so happy?" + +"There is only one person of us three whom I pity, Blanche," Arthur +said, gravely, "and I say to you again, that I hope you will make this +good fellow, this honest and loyal creature, happy." + +"Happy! O Heavens!" said Harry. He could not speak. His happiness gushed +out at his eyes. "She don't know--she can't know how fond I am of her, +and--and who am I? a poor little beggar, and she takes me up and says +she'll try and I--I--love me. I ain't worthy of so much happiness. +Give us your hand, old boy, since she forgives you after your heartless +conduct, and says she loves you. I'll make you welcome. I tell you I'll +love everybody who loves her. By---, if she tells me to kiss the ground +I'll kiss it. Tell me to kiss the ground! I say, tell me. I love you so. +You see I love you so." + +Blanche looked up seraphically again. Her gentle bosom heaved. She held +out one hand as if to bless Harry, and then royally permitted him to +kiss it. She took up the pocket-handkerchief and hid her own eyes, as +the other fair hand was abandoned to poor Harry's tearful embrace. + +"I swear that is a villain who deceives such a loving creature as that," +said Pen. + +Blanche laid down the handkerchief, and put hand No. 2 softly on Foker's +head, which was bent down kissing and weeping over hand No. 1. "Foolish +boy?" she said, "it shall be loved as it deserves: who could help loving +such a silly creature!" + +And at this moment Frank Clavering broke in upon the sentimental trio. + +"I say, Pendennis!" he said. + +"Well, Frank!" + +"The man wants to be paid, and go back. He's had some beer." + +"I'll go back with him," cried Pen. "Good-bye, Blanche. God bless you, +Foker, old friend. You know, neither of you want me here." He longed to +be off that instant. + +"Stay--I must say one word to you. One word in private, if you please," +Blanche said. "You can trust us together, can't you, Henry?" The tone +in which the word Henry was spoken, and the appeal, ravished Foker with +delight. "Trust you!" said he. "Oh, who wouldn't trust you! Come along, +Franky, my boy." + +"Let's have a cigar," said Frank, as they went into the hall. + +"She don't like it," said Foker, gently. + +"Law bless you--she don't mind. Pendennis used to smoke regular," said +the candid youth. + +"It was but a short word I had to say," said Blanche to Pen, with great +calm, when they were alone. "You never loved me, Mr. Pendennis." + +"I told you how much," said Arthur. "I never deceived you." + +"I suppose you will go back and marry Laura," continued Blanche. + +"Was that what you had to say?" said Pen. + +"You are going to her this very night, I am sure of it. There is no +denying it. You never cared for me." + +"Et vous?" + +"Et moi, c'est different. I have been spoilt early. I cannot live out of +the world, out of excitement. I could have done so, but it is too late. +If I cannot have emotions, I must have the world. You would offer +me neither one nor the other. You are blase in everything, even in +ambition. You had a career before you, and you would not take it. You +give it up!--for what?--for a betise, for an absurd scruple. Why would +you not have that seat, and be such a puritain? Why should you refuse +what is mine by right, by right, entendez-vous?" + +"You know all, then?" said Pen. + +"Only within a month. But I have suspected ever since +Baymouth--n'importe since when. It is not too late. He is as if he had +never been; and there is a position in the world before you yet. Why not +sit in Parliament, exert your talent, and give a place in the world to +yourself, to your wife? I take celui-la. Il est bon. Il est riche. Il +est--vous le connaissez autant que moi enfin. Think you that I would not +prefer un homme qui fera parler de moi? If the secret appears I am rich +a millions. How does it affect me? It is not my fault. It will never +appear." + +"You will tell Harry everything, won't you?" + +"Je comprends. Vous refusez," said Blanche, savagely. "I will tell Harry +at my own time, when we are married. You will not betray me, will you? +You, having a defenceless girl's secret, will not turn upon her and use +it? S'il me plait de le cacher, mon secret; pourquoi le donnerai je? Je +l'aime, mon pauvre pere, voyez-vous? I would rather live with that man +than with you fades intriguers of the world. I must have emotions--il +m'en donne. Il m'ecrit. Il ecrit tres-bien, voyez-vous--comme un +pirate--comme un Bohemien--comme un homme. But for this I would +have said to my mother--Ma mere! quittons ce lache mari, cette lache +societe--retournons a mon pere." + +"The pirate would have wearied you like the rest," said Pen. + +"Eh! Il me faut des emotions," said Blanche. Pen had never seen her or +known so much about her in all the years of their intimacy as he saw +and knew now: though he saw more than existed in reality. For this young +lady was not able to carry out any emotion to the full; but had a sham +enthusiasm, a sham hatred, a sham love, a sham taste, a sham grief, each +of which flared and shone very vehemently for an instant, but subsided +and gave place to the next sham emotion. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXV. A Chapter of Match-making + + +Upon the platform at Tunbridge, Pen fumed and fretted until the arrival +of the evening train to London, a full half-hour,--six hours it seemed +to him; but even this immense interval was passed, the train arrived, +the train sped on, the London lights came in view--a gentleman who +forgot his carpet-bag in the train rushed at a cab, and said to the man, +"Drive as hard as you can go to Jermyn Street." The cabman, although a +hansom-cabman, said Thank you for the gratuity which was put into his +hand, and Pen ran up the stairs of the hotel to Lady Rockminster's +apartments. Laura was alone in the drawing-room, reading, with a pale +face, by the lamp. The pale face looked up when Pen opened the door. +May we follow him? The great moments of life are but moments like the +others. Your doom is spoken in a word or two. A single look from the +eyes; a mere pressure of the hand may decide it; or of the lips, though +they cannot speak. + +When Lady Rockminster, who has had her after-dinner nap, gets up and +goes into her sitting-room, we may enter with her ladyship. + +"Upon my word, young people!" are the first words she says, and her +attendant makes wondering eyes over her shoulder. And well may she say +so; and well may the attendant cast wondering eyes; for the young people +are in an attitude; and Pen in such a position as every young lady who +reads this has heard tell of, or has seen, or hopes, or at any rate +deserves to see. + +In a word, directly he entered the room, Pen went up to Laura of the +pale face, who had not time even to say, What, back so soon? and seizing +her outstretched and trembling hand just as she was rising from her +chair, fell down on his knees before her, and said quickly, "I have seen +her. She has engaged herself to Harry Foker--and--and Now, Laura?" + +The hand gives a pressure--the eyes beam a reply--the quivering lips +answer, though speechless. Pen's head sinks down in the girl's lap, as +he sobs out, "Come and bless us, dear mother," and arms as tender as +Helen's once more enfold him. + +In this juncture it is that Lady Rockminster comes in and says, "Upon my +word, young people! Beck! leave the room. What do you want poking your +nose in here?" + +Pen starts up with looks of triumph, still holding Laura's hand. "She is +consoling me for my misfortune, ma'am," he says. + +"What do you mean by kissing her hand? I don't know what you will be +next doing." + +Pen kissed her Ladyship's. "I have been to Tunbridge," he says, "and +seen Miss Amory; and find on my arrival that--that a villain has +transplanted me in her affections," he says with a tragedy air. + +"Is that all? Is that what you were whimpering on your knees about?" +says the old lady, growing angry. "You might have kept the news till +to-morrow." + +"Yes--another has superseded me," goes on Pen; "but why call him +villain? He is brave, he is constant, he is young, he is wealthy, he is +beautiful." + +"What stuff are you talking, sir?" cried the old lady. "What has +happened?" + +"Miss Amory has jilted me, and accepted Henry Foker, Esq. I found +her warbling ditties to him as he lay at her feet; presents had been +accepted, vows exchanged, these ten days. Harry was old Mrs. Planter's +rheumatism, which kept dearest Laura out of the house. He is the most +constant and generous of men. He has promised the living of Logwood to +Lady Ann's husband, and given her a splendid present on her marriage; +and he rushed to fling himself at Blanche's feet the instant he found he +was free." + +"And so, as you can't get Blanche, you put up with Laura; is that it, +sir?" asked the old lady. + +"He acted nobly," Laura said. + +"I acted as she bade me," said Pen. "Never mind how, Lady Rockminster; +but to the best of my knowledge and power. And if you mean that I am +not worthy of Laura, I know it, and pray Heaven to better me; and if the +love and company of the best and purest creature in the world can do so, +at least I shall have these to help me." + +"Hm, hm," replied the old lady to this, looking with rather an appeased +air at the young people. "It is all very well; but I should have +preferred Bluebeard." + +And now Pen, to divert the conversation from a theme which was growing +painful to some parties present, bethought him of his interview with +Huxter in the morning, and of Fanny Bolton's affairs, which he had +forgotten under the immediate pressure and excitement of his own. And he +told the ladies how Huxter had elevated Fanny to the rank of wife, +and what terrors he was in respecting the arrival of his father. He +described the scene with considerable humour, taking care to dwell +especially upon that part of it which concerned Fanny's coquetry and +irrepressible desire of captivating mankind; his meaning being, "You +see, Laura, I was not so guilty in that little affair; it was the girl +who made love to me, and I who resisted. As I am no longer present, the +little siren practises her arts and fascinations upon others. Let that +transaction be forgotten in your mind, if you please; or visit me with a +very gentle punishment for my error." + +Laura understood his meaning under the eagerness of his explanations. +"If you did any wrong, you repented, dear Pen," she said; "and you +know," she added, with meaning eyes and blushes, "that I have no right +to reproach you." + +"Hm!" grumbled the old lady; "I should have preferred Bluebeard." + +"The past is broken away. The morrow is before us. I will do my best to +make your morrow happy, dear Laura," Pen said. His heart was humbled by +the prospect of his happiness: it stood awestricken in the contemplation +of her sweet goodness and purity. He liked his wife better that she had +owned to that passing feeling for Warrington, and laid bare her generous +heart to him. And she--very likely she was thinking, "How strange it is +that I ever should have cared for another! I am vexed almost to think I +care for him so little, am so little sorry that he is gone away. Oh, in +these past two months how I have learned to love Arthur! I care about +nothing but Arthur: my waking and sleeping thoughts are about him; he is +never absent from me. And to think that he is to be mine, mine! and that +I am to marry him, and not to be his servant as I expected to be only +this morning; for I would have gone down on my knees to Blanche to beg +her to let me live with him. And now--Oh, it is too much. Oh, mother! +mother, that you were here!" Indeed, she felt as if Helen were there--by +her actually, though invisibly. A halo of happiness beamed from her. + +She moved with a different step, and bloomed with a new beauty. Arthur +saw the change; and the old Lady Rockminster remarked it with her shrewd +eyes. + +"What a sly demure little wretch you have been," she whispered to +Laura--while Pen, in great spirits, was laughing, and telling his story +about Huxter--"and how you have kept your secret!" + +"How are we to help the young couple?" said Laura. Of course Miss Laura +felt an interest in all young couples, as generous lovers always love +other lovers. + +"We must go and see them," said Pen. + +"Of course we must go and see them," said Laura. "I intend to be very +fond of Fanny. Let us go this instant. Lady Rockminster, may I have the +carriage?" + +"Go now!--why, you stupid creature, it is eleven o'clock at night. Mr. +and Mrs. Huxter have got their nightcaps on, I dare say. And it is time +for you to go now. Good night, Mr. Pendennis." + +Arthur and Laura begged for ten minutes more. + +"We will go to-morrow morning, then. I will come and fetch you with +Martha." + +"An earl's coronet," said Pen, who, no doubt, was pleased himself, +"will have a great effect in Lamb Court and Smithfield. Stay--Lady +Rockminster, will you join us in a little conspiracy?" + +"How do you mean conspiracy, young man?" + +"Will you please to be a little ill to-morrow; and when old Mr. Huxter +arrives, will you let me call him in? If he is put into a good humour at +the notion of attending a baronet in the country, what influence won't +a countess have on him? When he is softened--when he is quite ripe, we +will break the secret upon him; bring in the young people, extort the +paternal benediction, and finish the comedy." + +"A parcel of stuff," said the old lady. "Take your hat, sir. Come away, +miss. There--my head is turned another way. Good night, young people." +And who knows but the old lady thought of her own early days as she went +away on Laura's arm, nodding her head and humming to herself? + +With the early morning came Laura and Martha according to appointment; +and the desired sensation was, let us hope, effected in Lamb Court, +whence the three proceeded to wait upon Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Huxter, at +their residence in Charterhouse Lane. + +The two ladies looked at each other with great interest, and not a +little emotion on Fanny's part. She had not seen her "guardian," as she +was pleased to call Pen in consequence of his bequest, since the event +had occurred which had united her to Mr. Huxter. + +"Samuel told me how kind you had been," she said. "You were always very +kind, Mr. Pendennis. And--and I hope your friend is better, who was took +ill in Shepherd's Inn, ma'am." + +"My name is Laura," said the other, with a blush. "I am--that is, I +was--that is, I am Arthur's sister; and we shall always love you for +being so good to him when he was ill. And when we live in the country, +I hope we shall see each other. And I shall be always happy to hear of +your happiness, Fanny." + +"We are going to do what you and Huxter have done, Fanny.--Where is +Huxter? What nice, snug lodgings you've got! What a pretty cat!" + +While Fanny is answering these questions in reply to Pen, Laura says to +herself--"Well, now really! is this the creature about whom we were all +so frightened? What could he see in her? She's a homely little thing, +but such manners! Well, she was very kind to him,--bless her for that." + +Mr. Samuel had gone out to meet his Pa. Mrs. Huxter said that the old +gentleman was to arrive that day at the Somerset Coffee-house, in the +Strand; and Fanny confessed that she was in a sad tremor about the +meeting. "If his parent casts him off, what are we to do?" she said. "I +shall never pardon myself for bringing ruing on my 'usband's 'ead. You +must intercede for us, Mr. Arthur. If mortal man can, you can bend and +influence Mr. Huxter senior." Fanny still regarded Pen in the light of +a superior being, that was evident. No doubt Arthur thought of the past, +as he marked the solemn little tragedy-airs and looks, the little ways, +the little trepidations, vanities, of the little bride. As soon as the +interview was over, entered Messrs. Linton and Blades, who came, of +course, to visit Huxter, and brought with them a fine fragrance of +tobacco. They had watched the carriage at the baker's door, and remarked +the coronet with awe. They asked of Fanny who was that uncommonly heavy +swell who had just driven off? and pronounced the countess was of +the right sort. And when they heard that it was Mr. Pendennis and his +sister, they remarked that Pen's father was only a sawbones; and that he +gave himself confounded airs; they had been in Huxter's company on the +night of his little altercation with Pen in the Back Kitchen. + +Returning homewards through Fleet Street, and as Laura was just stating +to Pen's infinite amusement that Fanny was very well, but that really +there was no beauty in her,--there might be, but she could not see +it,--as they were locked near Temple Bar, they saw young Huxter +returning to his bride. "The governor had arrived; was at the Somerset +Coffee-house--was in tolerable good-humour--something about the railway: +but he had been afraid to speak about--about that business. Would Mr. +Pendennis try it on?" + +Pen said he would go and call at that moment upon Mr. Huxter, and see +what might be done. Huxter junior would lurk outside whilst that awful +interview took place. The coronet on the carriage inspired his soul also +with wonder; and old Mr. Huxter himself beheld it with delight, as he +looked from the coffee-house window on that Strand which it was always a +treat to him to survey. + +"And I can afford to give myself a lark, sir," said Mr. Huxter, shaking +hands with Pen. "Of course you know the news? we have got our bill, sir. +We shall have our branch line--our shares are up, sir--and we buy your +three fields along the Brawl, and put a pretty penny into your pocket, +Mr. Pendennis." + +"Indeed!--that was good news." Pen remembered that there was a letter +from Mr. Tatham, at Chambers, these three days; but he had not opened +the communication, being interested with other affairs. + +"I hope you don't intend to grow rich, and give up practice," said Pen. +"We can't lose you at Clavering, Mr. Huxter; though I hear very good +accounts of your son. My friend, Dr. Goodenough speaks most highly of +his talents. It is hard that a man of your eminence, though, should be +kept in a country town." + +"The metropolis would have been my sphere of action, sir," said Mr. +Huxter, surveying the Strand. "But a man takes his business where he +finds it; and I succeeded to that of my father." + +"It was my father's, too," said Pen. "I sometimes wish I had followed +it." + +"You, sir, have taken a more lofty career," said the old gentleman. "You +aspire to the senate: and to literary honours. You wield the poet's +pen, sir, and move in the circles of fashion. We keep an eye upon you at +Clavering. We read your name in the lists of the select parties of the +nobility. Why, it was only the other day that my wife was remarking how +odd it was that at a party at the Earl of Kidderminster's your name was +not mentioned. To what member of the aristocracy may I ask does that +equipage belong from which I saw you descend? The Countess Dowager of +Rockminster? How is her Ladyship?" + +"Her Ladyship is not very well; and when I heard that you were coming to +town, I strongly urged her to see you, Mr. Huxter," Pen said. Old Huxter +felt, if he had a hundred votes for Clavering, he would give them all to +Pen. + +"There is an old friend of yours in the carriage--a Clavering lady, +too--will you come out and speak to her?" asked Pen. The old surgeon +was delighted to speak to a coroneted carriage in the midst of the full +Strand: he ran out bowing and smiling. Huxter junior, dodging about +the district, beheld the meeting between his father and Laura, saw the +latter put out her hand, and presently, after a little colloquy with +Pen, beheld his father actually jump into the carriage, and drive away +with Miss Bell. + +There was no room for Arthur, who came back, laughing, to the young +surgeon, and told him whither his parent was bound. During the whole of +the journey, that artful Laura coaxed, and wheedled, and cajoled him so +adroitly, that the old gentleman would have granted her anything; and +Lady Rockminster achieved the victory over him by complimenting him +on his skill, and professing her anxiety to consult him. What were +her Ladyship's symptoms? Should he meet her Ladyship's usual medical +attendant? Mr. Jones was called out of town? He should be delighted to +devote his very best energies and experience to her Ladyship's service. + +He was so charmed with his patient, that he wrote home about her to his +wife and family; he talked of nothing but Lady Rockminster to Samuel, +when that youth came to partake of beefsteak and oyster-sauce and +accompany his parent to the play. There was a simple grandeur, a polite +urbanity, a high-bred grace about her Ladyship, which he had never +witnessed in any woman. Her symptoms did not seem alarming; he had +prescribed--Spir: Ammon: Aromat: with a little Spir: Menth: Pip: and +orange-flower, which would be all that was necessary. + +"Miss Bell seemed to be on the most confidential and affectionate +footing with her Ladyship. She was about to form a matrimonial +connexion. All young people ought to marry. Such were her Ladyship's +words; and the Countess condescended to ask respecting my own family, +and I mentioned you by name to her Ladyship, Sam, my boy. I shall look +in to-morrow, when, if the remedies which I have prescribed for her +Ladyship have had the effect which I anticipate, I shall probably follow +them up by a little Spir: Lavend: Comp:--and so set my noble patient +up. What is the theatre which is most frequented by the--by the higher +classes in town, hey, Sam! and to what amusement will you take an old +country doctor to-night, hey, sir?" + +On the next day, when Mr. Huxter called in Jermyn Street at twelve +o'clock, Lady Rockminster had not yet left her room, but Miss Bell and +Mr. Pendennis were in waiting to receive him. Lady Rockminster had had a +most comfortable night, and was getting on as well as possible. How had +Mr. Huxter amused himself? at the theatre? with his son? What a capital +piece it was, and how charmingly Mrs. O'Leary looked and sang it! and +what a good fellow young Huxter was! liked by everybody, an honour to +his profession. He has not his father's manners, I grant you, or that +old-world tone which is passing away from us, but a more excellent, +sterling fellow never lived. "He ought to practise in the country +whatever you do, sir," said Arthur--"he ought to marry--other people are +going to do so--and settle." + +"The very words that her Ladyship used yesterday, Mr. Pendennis. He +ought to marry. Sam should marry, sir." + +"The town is full of temptations, sir," continued Pen. The old gentleman +thought of that houri, Mrs. O'Leary. + +"There is no better safeguard for a young man than an early marriage +with an honest affectionate creature." + +"No better, sir, no better." + +"And love is better than money, isn't it?" + +"Indeed it is," said Miss Bell. + +"I agree with so fair an authority," said the old gentleman, with a bow. + +"And--and suppose, sir," Pen said, "that I had a piece of news to +communicate to you." + +"God bless my soul, Mr. Pendennis! what do you mean?" asked the old +gentleman. + +"Suppose I had to tell you that a young man, carried away by an +irresistible passion for an admirable and most virtuous young +creature--whom everybody falls in love with--had consulted the dictates +of reason and his heart, and had married. Suppose I were to tell you +that that man is my friend; that our excellent, our truly noble friend +the Countess Dowager of Rockminster is truly interested about him +(and you may fancy what a young man can do in life when THAT family is +interested for him); suppose I were to tell you that you know him--that +he is here--that he is----" + +"Sam married! God bless my soul, sir, you don't mean that!" + +"And to such a nice creature, dear Mr. Huxter." + +"Her Ladyship is charmed with her," said Pen, telling almost the first +fib which he has told in the course of this story. + +"Married! the rascal, is he?" thought the old gentleman. + +"They will do it, sir," said Pen; and went and opened the door. Mr. and +Mrs. Samuel Huxter issued thence, and both came and knelt down before +the old gentleman. The kneeling little Fanny found favour in his sight. +There must have been some thing attractive about her, in spite of +Laura's opinion. + +"Will never do so any more, sir," said Sam. + +"Get up, sir," said Mr. Huxter. And they got up, and Fanny came a little +nearer and a little nearer still, and looked so pretty and pitiful, +that somehow Mr. Huxter found himself kissing the little crying-laughing +thing, and feeling as if he liked it. + +"What's your name, my dear?" he said, after a minute of this sport. + +"Fanny, papa," said Mrs. Samuel. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVI. Exeunt Omnes + + +Our characters are all a month older than they were when the +last-described adventures and conversations occurred, and a great number +of the personages of our story have chanced to reassemble at the little +country town where we were first introduced to them. Frederic Lightfoot, +formerly maitre d'hotel in the service of Sir Francis Clavering, of +Clavering Park, Bart., has begged leave to inform the nobility and +gentry of ------shire that he has taken that well-known and comfortable +hotel, the Clavering Arms, in Clavering, where he hopes for the +continued patronage of the gentlemen and families of the county. "This +ancient and well-established house," Mr. Lightfoot's manifesto states, +"has been repaired and decorated in a style of the greatest comfort. +Gentlemen hunting with the Dumplingbeare hounds will find excellent +stabling and loose-boxes for horses at the Clavering Arms. A commodious +billiard-room has been attached to the hotel, and the cellars have been +furnished with the choicest wines and spirits, selected, without regard +to expense, by C. L. Commercial gentlemen will find the Clavering Arms +a most comfortable place of resort: and the scale of charges has been +regulated for all, so as to meet the economical spirit of the present +times." + +Indeed, there is a considerable air of liveliness about the old inn. +The Clavering arms have been splendidly repainted over the gateway. The +coffee-room windows are bright and fresh, and decorated with Christmas +holly; the magistrates have met in petty sessions in the card-room +of the old Assembly. The farmers' ordinary is held as of old, and +frequented by increased numbers, who are pleased with Mrs. Lightfoot's +cuisine. Her Indian curries and Mulligatawny soup are especially +popular: Major Stokes, the respected tenant of Fairoaks Cottage, Captain +Glanders, H.P., and other resident gentry, have pronounced in their +favour, and have partaken of them more than once both in private and at +the dinner of the Clavering Institute, attendant on the incorporation +of the reading-room, and when the chief inhabitants of that flourishing +little town met together and did justice to the hostess's excellent +cheer. The chair was taken by Sir Francis Clavering, Bart., supported +by the esteemed rector, Dr. Portman; the vice chair being ably filled +by Barker, Esq. (supported by the Rev. J. Simcoe and the Rev. S. Jowls), +the enterprising head of the ribbon factory in Clavering, and chief +director of the Clavering and Chatteris Branch of the Great Western +Railway, which will be opened in another year, and upon the works of +which the engineers and workmen are now busily engaged. + +"An interesting event, which is likely to take place in the life of our +talented townsman, Arthur Pendennis, Esq., has, we understand, caused +him to relinquish the intentions which he had of offering himself as +a candidate for our borough: and rumour whispers" (says the Chatteris +Champion, Clavering Agriculturist, and Baymouth Fisherman,--that +independent county paper, so distinguished for its unswerving +principles and loyalty to the British oak, and so eligible a medium for +advertisements)--rumour states, says the C. C. C. A. and B. F., "that +should Sir Francis Clavering's failing health oblige him to relinquish +his seat in Parliament, he will vacate it in favour of a young gentleman +of colossal fortune and related to the highest aristocracy of the +empire, who is about to contract a matrimonial alliance with an +accomplished and lovely lady, connected by the nearest ties with the +respected family at Clavering Park. Lady Clavering and Miss Amory have +arrived at the Park for the Christmas holidays; and we understand that a +large number of the aristocracy are expected, and that festivities of a +peculiarly interesting nature will take place there at the commencement +of the new year." + +The ingenious reader will be enabled, by the help of the above +announcement, to understand what has taken place during the little break +which has occurred in our narrative. Although Lady Rockminster grumbled +a little at Laura's preference for Pendennis over Bluebeard, those who +are aware of the latter's secret will understand that the young girl +could make no other choice, and the kind old lady who had constituted +herself Miss Bell's guardian was not ill pleased that she was to fulfil +the great purpose in life of young ladies and marry. She informed her +maid of the interesting event that very night, and of course Mrs. +Beck, who was perfectly aware of every single circumstance, and kept by +Martha, of Fairoaks, in the fullest knowledge of what was passing, was +immensely surprised and delighted. "Mr. Pendennis's income is so much; +the railroad will give him so much more, he states; Miss Bell has so +much, and may probably have a little more one day. For persons in their +degree, they will be able to manage very well. And I shall speak to my +nephew Pynsent, who I suspect was once rather attached to her,--but of +course that was out of the question ('Oh! of course, my lady; I should +think so indeed!')--not that you know anything whatever about it, or +have any business to think at all on the subject,--I shall speak to +George Pynsent, who is now chief secretary of the Tape and Sealing Wax +Office, and have Mr. Pendennis made something. And, Beck, in the morning +you will carry down my compliments to Major Pendennis, and say that I +shall pay him a visit at one o'clock."--"Yes," muttered the old lady, +"the Major must be reconciled, and he must leave his fortune to Laura's +children." + +Accordingly, at one o'clock, the Dowager Lady Rockminster appeared at +Major Pendennis's, who was delighted, as may be imagined, to receive so +noble a visitor. The Major had been prepared, if not for the news which +her Ladyship was about to give him, at least with the intelligence +that Pen's marriage with Miss Amory was broken off. The young gentleman +bethinking him of his uncle, for the first time that day it must be +owned, and meeting his new servant in the hall of the hotel, asked after +the Major's health from Mr. Frosch; and then went into the coffee-room +of the hotel, where he wrote a half-dozen lines to acquaint his guardian +with what had occurred. "Dear uncle," he said, "if there has been +any question between us, it is over now. I went to Tunbridge Wells +yesterday, and found that somebody else had carried off the prize about +which we were hesitating. Miss A., without any compunction for me, has +bestowed herself upon Harry Foker, with his fifteen thousand a year. I +came in suddenly upon their loves, and found and left him in possession. + +"And you'll be glad to hear, Tatham writes me, that he has sold three of +my fields at Fairoaks to the Railroad Company, at a great figure. I +will tell you this, and more when we meet; and am always your +affectionate,--A. P." + +"I think I am aware of what you were about to tell me," the Major said, +with a most courtly smile and bow to Pen's ambassadress. "It was a very +great kindness of your Ladyship to think of bringing me the news. How +well you look! How very good you are! How very kind you have always been +to that young man!" + +"It was for the sake of his uncle," said Lady Rockminster, most +politely. + +"He has informed me of the state of affairs, and written me a nice +note,--yes, a nice note," continued the old gentleman; "and I find he +has had an increase to his fortune,--yes; and, all things considered, I +don't much regret that this affair with Miss Amory is manquee, though +I wished for it once, in fact, all things considered, I am very glad of +it." + +"We must console him, Major Pendennis," continued the lady; "we must get +him a wife." The truth then came across the Major's mind, and he saw +for what purpose Lady Rockminster had chosen to assume the office of +ambassadress. + +It is not necessary to enter into the conversation which ensued, or to +tell at any length how her Ladyship concluded a negotiation which, in +truth, was tolerably easy. There could be no reason why Pen should +not marry according to his own and his mother's wish; and as for Lady +Rockminster, she supported the marriage by intimations which had very +great weight with the Major, but of which we shall say nothing, as her +ladyship (now, of course, much advanced in years) is still alive, and +the family might be angry; and, in fine, the old gentleman was quite +overcome by the determined graciousness of the lady, and her fondness +for Laura. Nothing, indeed, could be more bland and kind than Lady +Rockminster's whole demeanour, except for one moment when the Major +talked about his boy throwing himself away, at which her ladyship broke +out into a little speech, in which she made the Major understand, what +poor Pen and his friends acknowledge very humbly, that Laura was a +thousand times too good for him. Laura was fit to be the wife of a +king,--Laura was a paragon of virtue and excellence. And it must be +said, that when Major Pendennis found that a lady of the rank of the +Countess of Rockminster seriously admired Miss Bell, he instantly began +to admire her himself. + +So that when Herr Frosch was requested to walk upstairs to Lady +Rockminster's apartments, and inform Miss Bell and Mr. Arthur Pendennis +that the Major would receive them, and Laura appeared blushing and happy +as she hung on Pen's arm, the Major gave a shaky hand to one and the +other, with unaffected emotion and cordiality, and then went through +another salutation to Laura, which caused her to blush still more. Happy +blushes! bright eyes beaming with the light of love! The story-teller +turns from this group to his young audience, and hopes that one day +their eyes may all shine so. + +Pen having retreated in the most friendly manner, and the lovely Blanche +having bestowed her young affections upon a blushing bridegroom with +fifteen thousand a year, there was such an outbreak of happiness in Lady +Clavering's heart and family as the good Begum had not known for many +a year, and she and Blanche were on the most delightful terms of +cordiality and affection. The ardent Foker pressed onwards the happy +day, and was as anxious as might be expected to abridge the period of +mourning which had put him in possession of so many charms and amiable +qualities, of which he had been only, as it were, the heir-apparent, not +the actual owner, until then. The gentle Blanche, everything that her +affianced lord could desire, was not averse to gratify the wishes of +her fond Henry. Lady Clavering came up from Tunbridge. Milliners +and jewellers were set to work and engaged to prepare the delightful +paraphernalia of Hymen. Lady Clavering was in such a good humour, that +Sir Francis even benefited by it, and such a reconciliation was effected +between this pair, that Sir Francis came to London, sate at the head of +his own table once more, and appeared tolerably flush of money at his +billiard-rooms and gambling-houses again. One day, when Major +Pendennis and Arthur went to dine in Grosvenor Place, they found an old +acquaintance established in the quality of major-domo, and the gentleman +in black, who, with perfect politeness and gravity, offered them their +choice of sweet or dry champagne, was no other than Mr. James Morgan. +The Chevalier Strong was one of the party; he was in high spirits and +condition, and entertained the company with accounts of his amusements +abroad. + +"It was my Lady who invited me," said Strong to Arthur, under his +voice--"that fellow Morgan looked as black as thunder when I came in. He +is about no good here. I will go away first, and wait for you and Major +Pendennis at Hyde Park Gate." + +Mr. Morgan helped Major Pendennis to his great-coat when he was quitting +the house; and muttered something about having accepted a temporary +engagement with the Clavering family. + +"I have got a paper of yours, Mr. Morgan," said the old gentleman. + +"Which you can show, if you please, to Sir Francis, sir, and perfectly +welcome," said Mr. Morgan, with downcast eyes. "I'm very much obliged +to you, Major Pendennis, and if I can pay you for all your kindness I +will." + +Arthur overheard the sentence, and saw the look of hatred which +accompanied it, suddenly cried out that he had forgotten his +handkerchief, and ran upstairs to the drawing-room again. Foker was +still there; still lingering about his siren. Pen gave the siren a look +full of meaning, and we suppose that the siren understood meaning looks, +for when, after finding the veracious handkerchief of which he came in +quest, he once more went out, the siren, with a laughing voice, said, +"Oh, Arthur--Mr. Pendennis--I want you to tell dear Laura something!" +and she came out to the door. + +"What is it?" she asked, shutting the door. + +"Have you told Harry? Do you know that villain Morgan knows all?" + +"I know it," she said. + +"Have you told Harry?" + +"No, no," she said. "You won't betray me?" + +"Morgan will," said Pen. + +"No, he won't," said Blanche. "I have promised him--n'importe. Wait +until after our marriage--Oh, until after our marriage--Oh, how wretched +I am," said the girl, who had been all smiles, and grace, and gaiety +during the evening. + +Arthur said, "I beg and implore you to tell Harry. Tell him now. It is +no fault of yours. He will pardon you anything. Tell him to-night." + +"And give her this--Il est la--with my love, please; and I beg your +pardon for calling you back; and if she will be at Madame Crinoline's at +half-past three, and if Lady Rockminster can spare her, I should so like +to drive with her in the park;" and she went in, singing and kissing her +little hand, as Morgan the velvet-footed came up the carpeted stair. + +Pen heard Blanche's piano breaking out into brilliant music as he went +down to join his uncle; and they walked away together. Arthur briefly +told him what he had done. "What was to be done?" he asked. + +"What is to be done, begad?" said the old gentleman. "What is to be done +but to leave it alone? Begad, let us be thankful," said the old fellow, +with a shudder, "that we are out of the business, and leave it to those +it concerns." + +"I hope to Heaven she'll tell him," said Pen. + +"Begad, she'll take her own course," said the old man. "Miss Amory is +a dev'lish wide-awake girl, sir, and must play her own cards; and I'm +doosid glad you are out of it--doosid glad, begad. Who's this smoking? +Oh, it's Mr. Strong again. He wants to put in his oar, I suppose. I tell +you, don't meddle in the business, Arthur." + +Strong began once or twice, as if to converse upon the subject, but +the Major would not hear a word. He remarked on the moonlight on Apsley +House, the weather, the cabstands--anything but that subject. He bowed +stiffly to Strong, and clung to his nephew's arm, as he turned down St. +James's Street, and again cautioned Pen to leave the affair alone. "It +had like to have cost you so much, sir, that you may take my advice," he +said. + +When Arthur came out of the hotel, Strong's cloak and cigar were visible +a few doors off. The jolly Chevalier laughed as they met. "I'm an old +soldier, too," he said. "I wanted to talk to you, Pendennis. I have +heard of all that has happened, and all the chops and changes that have +taken place during my absence. I congratulate you on your marriage, and +I congratulate you on your escape, too,--you understand me. It was not +my business to speak, but I know this, that a certain party is as arrant +a little--well--well, never mind what. You acted like a man and a trump, +and are well out of it." + +"I have no reason to complain," said Pen. "I went back to beg and +entreat poor Blanche to tell Foker all: I hope, for her sake, she will; +but I fear not. There is but one policy, Strong, there is but one." + +"And lucky he that can stick to it," said the Chevalier. "That rascal +Morgan means mischief. He has been lurking about our chambers for the +last two months: he has found out that poor mad devil Amory's secret. +He has been trying to discover where he was: he has been pumping Mr. +Bolton, and making old Costigan drunk several times. He bribed the Inn +porter to tell him when we came back: and he has got into Clavering's +service on the strength of his information. He will get very good pay +for it, mark my words, the villain." + +"Where is Amory?" asked Pen. + +"At Boulogne, I believe. I left him there, and warned him not to come +back. I have broken with him, after a desperate quarrel, such as one +might have expected with such a madman. And I'm glad to think that he +is in my debt now, and that I have been the means of keeping him out of +more harms than one." + +"He has lost all his winnings, I suppose," said Pen. + +"No: he is rather better than when he went away, or was a fortnight ago. +He had extraordinary luck at Baden: broke the bank several nights, and +was the fable of the place. He lied himself there with a fellow by the +name of Bloundell, who gathered about him a society of all sorts of +sharpers, male and female, Russians, Germans, French, English. Amory got +so insolent, that I was obliged to thrash him one day within an inch of +his life. I couldn't help myself; the fellow has plenty of pluck, and I +had nothing for it but to hit out." + +"And did he call you out?" said Pen. + +"You think if I had shot him I should have done nobody any harm? No, +sir; I waited for his challenge, but it never came and the next time I +met him he begged my pardon, and said, 'Strong, I beg your pardon; you +whopped me and you served me right.' I shook hands: but I couldn't live +with him after that. I paid him what I owed him the night before," said +Strong with a blush, "I pawned everything to pay him, and then I went +with my last ten florins, and had a shy at the roulette. If I had lost, +I should have let him shoot me in the morning. I was weary of my life. +By Jove, sir, isn't it a shame that a man like me, who may have had a +few bills out, but who never deserted a friend, or did an unfair action, +shouldn't be able to turn his hand to anything to get bread? I made a +good night, sir, at roulette, and I've done with that. I'm going into +the wine business. My wife's relations live at Cadiz. I intend to bring +over Spanish wine and hams; there's a fortune to be made by it, sir,--a +fortune--here's my card. If you want any sherry or hams, recollect +Ned Strong is your man." And the Chevalier pulled out a handsome card, +stating that Strong and Company, Shepherd's Inn, were sole agents of the +celebrated Diamond Manzanilla of the Duke of Garbanzos, Grandee of Spain +of the First Class; and of the famous Toboso hams, fed on acorns only in +the country of Don Quixote. "Come and taste 'em, sir,--come and try 'em +at my chambers. You see, I've an eye to business, and by Jove this time +I'll succeed." + +Pen laughed as he took the card. "I don't know whether I shall be +allowed to go to bachelors' parties," he said. "You know I'm going +to----" + +"But you must have sherry, sir. You must have sherry." + +"I will have it from you, depend on it," said the other. "And I think +you are very well out of your other partnership. That worthy Altamont +and his daughter correspond, I hear," Pen added after a pause. + +"Yes; she wrote him the longest rigmarole letters, that I used to read: +the sly little devil; and he answered under cover to Mrs. Bonner. He was +for carrying her off the first day or two, and nothing would content +him but having back his child. But she didn't want to come, as you may +fancy; and he was not very eager about it." Here the Chevalier burst out +in a laugh. "Why, sir, do you know what was the cause of our quarrel and +boxing match? There was a certain widow at Baden, a Madame la Baronne +de la Cruche-cassee, who was not much better than himself, and whom the +scoundrel wanted to marry; and would, but that I told her he was married +already. I don't think that she was much better than he was. I saw her +on the pier at Boulogne the day I came to England." + +And now we have brought up our narrative to the point, whither the +announcement in the Chatteris Champion had already conducted us. + +It wanted but very, very few days before that blissful one when Foker +should call Blanche his own; the Clavering folks had all pressed to see +the most splendid new carriage in the whole world, which was standing in +the coach-house at the Clavering Arms; and shown, in grateful return +for drink, commonly, by Mr. Foker's head-coachman. Madame Fribsby was +occupied in making some lovely dresses for the tenants' daughters, who +were to figure as a sort of bridesmaids' chorus at the breakfast and +marriage ceremony. And immense festivities were to take place at the +Park upon this delightful occasion. + +"Yes, Mr. Huxter, yes; a happy tenantry, its country's pride, will +assemble in the baronial hall, where the beards will wag all. The ox +shall be slain, and the cup they'll drain; and the bells shall peal +quite genteel; and my father-in-law, with the tear of sensibility +bedewing his eye, shall bless us at his baronial porch. That shall be +the order of proceedings, I think, Mr. Huxter; and I hope we shall +see you and your lovely bride by her husband's side; and what will +you please to drink, sir? Mrs. Lightfoot, madam, you will give to +my excellent friend and body-surgeon, Mr. Huxter, Mr. Samuel Huxter, +M.R.C.S., every refreshment that your hostel affords, and place the +festive amount to my account; and Mr. Lightfoot, sir, what will you +take? though you've had enough already, I think; yes, ha." + +So spoke Harry Foker in the bar of the Clavering Arms. He had apartments +at that hotel, and had gathered a circle of friends round him there. He +treated all to drink who came. He was hail-fellow with every man. He was +so happy! He danced round Madame Fribsby, Mrs. Lightfoot's great ally, +as she sate pensive in the bar. He consoled Mrs. Lightfoot, who had +already begun to have causes of matrimonial disquiet; for the truth +must be told, that young Lightfoot, having now the full command of the +cellar, had none over his own unbridled desires, and was tippling and +tipsy from morning till night. And a piteous sight it was for his fond +wife to behold the big youth reeling about the yard and coffee-room, or +drinking with the farmers and tradesmen his own neat wines and carefully +selected stock of spirits. + +When he could find time, Mr. Morgan the butler came from the Park, and +took a glass at the expense of the landlord of the Clavering Arms. +He watched poor Lightfoot's tipsy vagaries with savage sneers. Mrs. +Lightfoot felt always doubly uncomfortable when her unhappy spouse was +under his comrade's eye. But a few months married, and to think he had +got to this! Madame Fribsby could feel for her. Madame Fribsby could +tell her stories of men every bit as bad. She had had her own woes +too, and her sad experience of men. So it is that nobody seems happy +altogether; and that there's bitters, as Mr. Foker remarked, in the cup +of every man's life. And yet there did not seem to be any in his, +the honest young fellow! It was brimming over with happiness and +good-humour. + +Mr. Morgan was constant in his attentions to Foker. "And yet I don't +like him somehow," said the candid young man to Mrs. Lightfoot. +"He always seems as if he was measuring me for my coffin somehow. +Pa-in-law's afraid of him; pa-in-law's, ahem! never mind, but +ma-in-law's a trump, Mrs. Lightfoot." + +"Indeed my Lady was," and Mrs. Lightfoot owned, with a sigh, that +perhaps it had been better for her had she never left her mistress. + +"No, I do not like thee, Dr. Fell; the reason why I cannot tell," +continued Mr. Foker; "and he wants to be taken as my head man. Blanche +wants me to take him. Why does Miss Amory like him so?" + +"Did Miss Blanche like him so?" The notion seemed to disturb Mrs. +Lightfoot very much; and there came to this worthy landlady another +cause for disturbance. A letter, bearing the Boulogne postmark, was +brought to her one morning, and she and her husband were quarrelling +over it as Foker passed down the stairs by the bar, on his way to +the Park. His custom was to breakfast there, and bask a while in +the presence of Armida; then, as the company of Clavering tired him +exceedingly, and he did not care for sporting, he would return for an +hour or two to billiards and the society of the Clavering Arms; then it +would be time to ride with Miss Amory, and, after dining with her, he +left her and returned modestly to his inn. + +Lightfoot and his wife were quarrelling over the letter. What was that +letter from abroad? Why was she always having letters from abroad? Who +wrote 'em?--he would know. He didn't believe it was her brother. It +was no business of his? It was a business of his; and, with a curse, he +seized hold of his wife, and dashed at her pocket for the letter. + +The poor woman gave a scream; and said, "Well, take it." Just as her +husband seized on the letter, and Mr. Foker entered at the door, she +gave another scream at seeing him, and once more tried to seize the +paper. Lightfoot opened it, shaking her away, and an enclosure dropped +down on the breakfast-table. + +"Hands off, man alive!" cried little Harry, springing in. "Don't lay +hands on a woman, sir. The man that lays his hand upon a woman, save in +the way of kindness, is a--hallo! it's a letter for Miss Amory. What's +this, Mrs. Lightfoot?" + +Mrs. Lightfoot began, in piteous tones of reproach to her husband,--"You +unmanly! to treat a woman so who took you off the street. Oh, you +coward, to lay your hand upon your wife! Why did I marry you? Why did I +leave my Lady for you? Why did I spend eight hundred pound in fitting up +this house that you might drink and guzzle?" + +"She gets letters, and she won't tell me who writes letters," said Mr. +Lightfoot, with a muzzy voice; "it's a family affair, sir. Will you take +anything, sir?" + +"I will take this letter to Miss Amory, as I am going to the Park," said +Foker, turning very pale; and taking it up from the table, which was +arranged for the poor landlady's breakfast, he went away. + +"He's comin'--dammy, who's a-comin'? Who's J. A., Mrs. Lightfoot--curse +me, who's J. A.?" cried the husband. + +Mrs. Lightfoot cried out, "Be quiet, you tipsy brute, do," and running +to her bonnet and shawl, threw them on, saw Mr. Foker walking down the +street, took the by-lane which skirts it, and ran as quickly as she +could to the lodge-gate, Clavering Park. Foker saw a running figure +before him, but it was lost when he got to the lodge-gate. He stopped +and asked, "Who was that who had just come in? Mrs. Bonner, was it?" He +reeled almost in his walk: the trees swam before him. He rested once or +twice against the trunks of the naked limes. + +Lady Clavering was in the breakfast-room with her son, and her husband +yawning over his paper. "Good morning, Harry," said the Begum. "Here's +letters, lots of letters; Lady Rockminster will be here on Tuesday +instead of Monday, and Arthur and the Major come to-day; and Laura is +to go to Dr. Portman's, and come to church from there: and--what's the +matter, my dear? What makes you so pale, Harry?" + +"Where is Blanche!" asked Harry, in a sickening voice--"not down yet?" + +"Blanche is always the last," said the boy, eating muffins; "she's +a regular dawdle, she is. When you're not here, she lays in bed till +lunch-time." + +"Be quiet, Frank," said the mother. + +Blanche came down presently, looking pale, and with rather an eager look +towards Foker; then she advanced and kissed her mother, and had a face +beaming with her very best smiles on when she greeted Harry. + +"How do you do, sir?" she said, and put out both her hands. + +"I'm ill," answered Harry. "I--I've brought a letter for you, Blanche." + +"A letter, and from whom is it, pray? Voyons," she said. + +"I don't know--I should like to know," said Foker. + +"How can I tell until I see it?" asked Blanche. + +"Has Mrs. Bonner not told you?" he said, with a shaking voice;--"there's +some secret. You give her the letter, Lady Clavering." + +Lady Clavering, wondering, took the letter from poor Foker's shaking +hand, and looked at the superscription. As she looked at it, she too +began to shake in every limb, and with a scared face she dropped the +letter, and running up to Frank, clutched the boy to her, and burst out +with a sob--"Take that away--it's impossible, it's impossible." + +"What is the matter?" cried Blanche, with rather a ghastly smile; "the +letter is only from--from a poor pensioner and relative of ours." + +"It's not true, it's not true," screamed Lady Clavering. "No, my +Frank--is it, Clavering?" + +Blanche had taken up the letter, and was moving with it towards the +fire, but Foker ran to her and clutched her arm--"I must see that +letter," he said; "give it me. You shan't burn it." + +"You--you shall not treat Miss Amory so in my house," cried the Baronet; +"give back the letter, by Jove!" + +"Read it--and look at her," Blanche cried, pointing to her mother; +"it--it was for her I kept the secret! Read it, cruel man!" + +And Foker opened and read the letter:-- + +"I have not wrote, my darling Betsy, this three weeks; but this is to +give her a father's blessing, and I shall come down pretty soon as quick +as my note, and intend to see the ceremony, and my son-in-law. I shall +put up at Bonner's. I have had a pleasant autumn, and am staying here at +an hotel where there is good company, and which is kep' in good style. I +don't know whether I quite approve of your throwing over Mr. P. for Mr. +F., and don't think Foker's such a pretty name, and from your account of +him he seems a muff, and not a beauty. But he has got the rowdy, which +is the thing. So no more, my dear little Betsy, till we meet, from your +affectionate father, J. Amory Altamont." + +"Read it, Lady Clavering; it is too late to keep it from you now," said +poor Foker; and the distracted woman, having cast her eyes over it, +again broke out into hysterical screams, and convulsively grasped her +son. + +"They have made an outcast of you, my boy," she said. "They've +dishonoured your old mother; but I'm innocent, Frank; before God, I'm +innocent. I didn't know this, Mr. Foker; indeed, indeed, I didn't." + +"I'm sure you didn't," said Foker, going up and kissing her hand. + +"Generous, generous Harry!" cried out Blanche, in an ecstasy. But he +withdrew his hand, which was upon her side, and turned from her with a +quivering lip. "That's different," he says. + +"It was for her sake--for her sake, Harry." Again Miss Amory is in an +attitude. + +"There was something to be done for mine," said Foker. "I would have +taken you, whatever you were. Everything's talked about in London. I +knew that your father had come to--to grief. You don't think it was--it +was for your connexion I married you? D---- it all! I've loved you with +all my heart and soul for two years, and you've been playing with me, +and cheating me," broke out the young man, with a cry. "Oh, Blanche, +Blanche, it's a hard thing, a hard thing!" and he covered his face with +his hands, and sobbed behind them. + +Blanche thought, "Why didn't I tell him that night when Arthur warned +me?" + +"Don't refuse her, Harry," cried out Lady Clavering. "Take her, take +everything I have. It's all hers, you know, at my death. This boy's +disinherited."--(Master Frank, who had been looking as scared at the +strange scene, here burst into a loud cry.) "Take every shilling. Give +me just enough to live, and to go and hide my head with this child, and +to fly from both. Oh, they've both been bad, bad men. Perhaps he's here +now. Don't let me see him. Clavering, you coward, defend me from him." + +Clavering started up at this proposal. "You ain't serious, Jemima? You +don't mean that?" he said. "You won't throw me and Frank over? I +didn't know it, so help me ----. Foker, I'd no more idea of it than the +dead--until the fellow came and found me out, the d----d escaped convict +scoundrel." + +"The what?" said Foker. Blanche gave a scream. + +"Yes," screamed out the Baronet in his turn, "yes, a d----d runaway +convict--a fellow that forged his father-in-law's name--a d----d +attorney, and killed a fellow in Botany Bay, hang him--and ran into the +Bush, curse him; I wish he'd died there. And he came to me, a good six +years ago, and robbed me; and I've been ruining myself to keep him, the +infernal scoundrel! And Pendennis knows it, and Strong knows it, and +that d----d Morgan knows it, and she knows it, ever so long; and I never +would tell it, never: and I kept it from my wife." + +"And you saw him, and you didn't kill him, Clavering, you coward?" +said the wife of Amory. "Come away, Frank; your father's a coward. I am +dishonoured, but I'm your old mother, and you'll--you'll love me, won't +you?" + +Blanche, eploree, went up to her mother; but Lady Clavering shrank from +her with a sort of terror. "Don't touch me," she said; "you've no heart; +you never had. I see all now. I see why that coward was going to give +up his place in Parliament to Arthur; yes, that coward! and why you +threatened that you would make me give you half Frank's fortune. And +when Arthur offered to marry you without a shilling, because he wouldn't +rob my boy, you left him, and you took poor Harry. Have nothing to do +with her, Harry. You're good, you are. Don't marry that--that convict's +daughter. Come away, Frank, my darling; come to your poor old mother. +We'll hide ourselves; but we're honest, yes, we are honest." + +All this while a strange feeling of exultation had taken possession of +Blanche's mind. That month with poor Harry had been a weary month to +her. All his fortune and splendour scarcely sufficed to make the idea +of himself supportable. She was wearied of his simple ways, and sick of +coaxing and cajoling him. + +"Stay, mamma; stay, madam!" she cried out, with a gesture which was +always appropriate, though rather theatrical; "I have no heart, have +I? I keep the secret of my mother's shame. I give up my rights to my +half-brother and my bastard brother, yes, my rights and my fortune. +I don't betray my father, and for this I have no heart. I'll have my +rights now, and the laws of my country shall give them to me. I appeal +to my country's laws--yes, my country's laws! The persecuted one returns +this day. I desire to go to my father." And the little lady swept round +her hand, and thought that she was a heroine. + +"You will, will you?" cried out Clavering, with one of his usual oaths. +"I'm a magistrate, and dammy, I'll commit him. Here's a chaise coming; +perhaps it's him. Let him come." + +A chaise was indeed coming up the avenue; and the two women shrieked +each their loudest, expecting at that moment to see Altamont arrive. + +The door opened, and Mr. Morgan announced Major Pendennis and Mr. +Pendennis, who entered, and found all parties engaged in this fierce +quarrel. A large screen fenced the breakfast-room from the hall; and +it is probable that, according to his custom, Mr. Morgan had taken +advantage of the screen to make himself acquainted with all that +occurred. + +It had been arranged on the previous day that the young people should +ride; and at the appointed hour in the afternoon, Mr. Foker's horses +arrived from the Clavering Arms. But Miss Blanche did not accompany +him on this occasion. Pen came out and shook hands with him on the +door-steps; and Harry Foker rode away, followed by his groom in +mourning. The whole transactions which have occupied the most active +part of our history were debated by the parties concerned during those +two or three hours. Many counsels had been given, stories told, and +compromises suggested; and at the end, Harry Foker rode away, with a sad +"God bless you!" from Pen. There was a dreary dinner at Clavering Park, +at which the lately installed butler did not attend; and the ladies were +both absent. After dinner, Pen said, "I will walk down to Clavering and +see if he is come." And he walked through the dark avenue, across the +bridge and road by his own cottage,--the once quiet and familiar fields +of which were flaming with the kilns and forges of the artificers +employed on the new railroad works; and so he entered the town, and made +for the Clavering Arms. + +It was past midnight when he returned to Clavering Park. He was +exceedingly pale and agitated. "Is Lady Clavering up yet?" he asked. +Yes, she was in her own sitting-room. He went up to her, and there found +the poor lady in a piteous state of tears and agitation. + +"It is I,--Arthur," he said, looking in; and entering, he took her +hand very affectionately and kissed it. "You were always the kindest of +friends to me, dear Lady Clavering," he said. "I love you very much. I +have got some news for you." + +"Don't call me by that name," she said, pressing his hand. "You were +always a good boy, Arthur; and it's kind of you to come now,--very kind. +You sometimes look very like your ma, my dear." + +"Dear good Lady Clavering," Arthur repeated, with particular emphasis, +"something very strange has happened." + +"Has anything happened to him?" gasped Lady Clavering. "Oh, it's horrid +to think I should be glad of it--horrid!" + +"He is well. He has been and is gone, my dear lady. Don't alarm +yourself;--he is gone, and you are Lady Clavering still." + +"Is it true? what he sometimes said to me," she screamed out,--"that +he----" + +"He was married before he married you," said Pen. "He has confessed it +to-night. He will never come back." There came another shriek from Lady +Clavering, as she flung her arms round Pen, and kissed him, and burst +into tears on his shoulder. + +What Pen had to tell, through a multiplicity of sobs and interruptions, +must be compressed briefly, for behold our prescribed limit is reached, +and our tale is coming to its end. With the Branch Coach from the +railroad, which had succeeded the old Alacrity and Perseverance, Amory +arrived, and was set down at the Clavering Arms. He ordered his dinner +at the place under his assumed name of Altamont; and, being of a jovial +turn, he welcomed the landlord, who was nothing loth, to a share of his +wine. Having extracted from Mr. Lightfoot all the news regarding the +family at the Park, and found, from examining his host, that Mrs. +Lightfoot, as she said, had kept his counsel, he called for more wine +of Mr. Lightfoot; and at the end of this symposium, both, being greatly +excited, went into Mrs. Lightfoot's bar. + +She was there taking tea with her friend, Madame Fribsby; and Lightfoot +was by this time in such a happy state as not to be surprised at +anything which might occur, so that, when Altamont shook hands with Mrs. +Lightfoot as an old acquaintance, the recognition did not appear to +him to be in the least strange, but only a reasonable cause for further +drinking. The gentlemen partook then of brandy-and-water, which they +offered to the ladies, not heeding the terrified looks of one or the +other. + +Whilst they were so engaged, at about six o'clock in the evening, Mr. +Morgan, Sir Francis Clavering's new man, came in, and was requested to +drink. He selected his favourite beverage, and the parties engaged in +general conversation. + +After a while Mr. Lightfoot began to doze. Mr. Morgan had repeatedly +given hints to Mrs. Fribsby to quit the premises; but that lady, +strangely fascinated, and terrified it would seem, or persuaded by Mrs. +Lightfoot not to go, kept her place. Her persistence occasioned much +annoyance to Mr. Morgan, who vented his displeasure in such language as +gave pain to Mrs. Lightfoot, and caused Mr. Altamont to say, that he was +a rum customer, and not polite to the sex. + +The altercation between the two gentlemen became very painful to the +women, especially to Mrs. Lightfoot, who did everything to soothe Mr. +Morgan; and, under pretence of giving a pipe-light to the stranger, she +handed him a paper on which she had privily written the words, "He knows +you. Go." There may have been something suspicious in her manner of +handing, or in her guest's of reading, the paper; for when he got up +a short time afterwards, and said he would go to bed, Morgan rose too, +with a laugh, and said it was too early to go to bed. + +The stranger then said he would go to his bedroom. Morgan said he would +show him the way. + +At this the guest said, "Come up. I've got a brace of pistols up there +to blow out the brains of any traitor or skulking spy," and glared so +fiercely upon Morgan, that the latter, seizing hold of Lightfoot by the +collar, and waking him, said, "John Amory, I arrest you in the Queen's +name. Stand by me, Lightfoot. This capture is worth a thousand pounds." + +He put forward his hand as if to seize his prisoner, but the other, +doubling his fist, gave Morgan with his left hand so fierce a blow +on the chest, that it knocked him back behind Mr. Lightfoot. That +gentleman, who was athletic and courageous, said he would knock his +guest's head off, and prepared to do so, as the stranger, tearing off +his coat, and cursing both of his opponents, roared to them to come on. + +But with a piercing scream Mrs. Lightfoot flung herself before her +husband, whilst with another and louder shriek Madame Fribsby ran to the +stranger, and calling out "Armstrong, Johnny Armstrong!" seized hold +of his naked arm, on which a blue tattooing of a heart and M. F. were +visible. + +The ejaculation of Madame Fribsby seemed to astound and sober the +stranger. He looked down upon her, and cried out, "it's Polly, by Jove." + +Mrs. Fribsby continued to exclaim, "This is not Amory. This is Johnny +Armstrong, my wicked--wicked husband, married to me in St. Martin's +Church, mate on board an Indiaman, and he left me two months after, the +wicked wretch. This is John Armstrong--here's the mark on his arm which +he made for me." + +The stranger said, "I am John Armstrong, sure enough, Polly. I'm John +Armstrong, Amory, Altamont--and let 'em all come on, and try what they +can do against a British sailor. Hurray, who's for it?" + +Morgan still called out, "Arrest him!" But Mrs. Lightfoot said, "Arrest +him! arrest you, you mean spy! What! stop the marriage and ruin my lady, +and take away the Clavering Arms from us?" + +"Did he say he'd take away the Clavering Arms from us?" asked Mr. +Lightfoot, turning round. "Hang him, I'll throttle him." + +"Keep him, darling, till the coach passes to the up train. It'll be here +now directly." + +"D---- him, I'll choke him if he stirs," said Lightfoot. And so they +kept Morgan until the coach came, and Mr. Amory or Armstrong went away +back to London. + +Morgan had followed him: but of this event Arthur Pendennis did not +inform Lady Clavering, and left her invoking blessings upon him at her +son's door, going to kiss him as he was asleep. It had been a busy day. + +We have to chronicle the events of but one day more, and that was a day +when Mr. Arthur, attired in a new hat, a new blue frock-coat and blue +handkerchief, in a new fancy waistcoat, new boots, and new shirt-studs +(presented by the Right Honourable the Countess Dowager of Rockminster), +made his appearance at a solitary breakfast-table, in Clavering Park, +where he could scarce eat a single morsel of food. Two letters were laid +by his worship's plate; and he chose to open the first, which was in +a round clerk-like hand, in preference to the second more familiar +superscription. + +Note 1 ran as follows:-- + + +"Garbanzos Wine Company, Shepherd's Inn.--Monday. + +"My Dear Pendennis,--In congratulating you heartily upon the event which +is to make you happy for life, I send my very kindest remembrances to +Mrs. Pendennis, whom I hope to know even longer than I have already +known her. And when I call her attention to the fact, that one of the +most necessary articles to her husband's comfort is pure sherry, I know +I shall have her for a customer for your worship's sake. + +"But I have to speak to you of other than my own concerns. Yesterday +afternoon, a certain J. A. arrived at my chambers from Clavering, which +he had left under circumstances of which you are doubtless now aware. In +spite of our difference, I could not but give him food and shelter (and +he partook freely both of the Garbanzos Amontillado and the Toboso +ham), and he told me what had happened to him, and many other surprising +adventures. The rascal married at sixteen, and has repeatedly since +performed that ceremony--in Sydney, in New Zealand, in South America, in +Newcastle, he says, first, before he knew our poor friend the milliner. +He is a perfect Don Juan. + +"And it seemed as if the commendatore had at last overtaken him, for, +as we were at our meal, there came three heavy knocks at my outer door, +which made our friend start. I have sustained a siege or two here, and +went to my usual place to reconnoitre. Thank my stars I have not a bill +out in the world, and besides, those gentry do not come in that way. I +found that it was your uncle's late valet, Morgan, and a policeman (I +think a sham policeman), and they said they had a warrant to take +the person of John Armstrong, alias Amory, alias Altamont, a runaway +convict, and threatened to break in the oak. + +"Now, sir, in my own days of captivity I had discovered a little passage +along the gutter into Bows and Costigan's window, and I sent Jack Alias +along this covered way, not without terror of his life, for it had grown +very cranky; and then, after a parley, let in Mons. Morgan and friend. + +"The rascal had been instructed about that covered way, for he made for +the room instantly, telling the policeman to go downstairs and keep +the gate; and he charged up my little staircase as if he had known the +premises. As he was going out of the window we heard a voice that you +know, from Bows's garret, saying, 'Who are ye, and hwhat the divvle +are ye at? You'd betther leave the gutther; bedad there's a man killed +himself already.' + +"And as Morgan, crossing over and looking into the darkness, was trying +to see whether this awful news was true, he took a broomstick, and with +a vigorous dash broke down the pipe of communication--and told me this +morning, with great glee, that he was reminded of that 'aisy sthratagem +by remembering his dorling Emilie, when she acted the pawrt of Cora in +the Plee--and by the bridge in Pezawro, bedad.' I wish that scoundrel +Morgan had been on the bridge when the General tried his 'sthratagem.' + +"If I hear more of Jack Alias I will tell you. He has got plenty of +money still, and I wanted him to send some to our poor friend the +milliner; but the scoundrel laughed, and said he had no more than he +wanted, but offered to give anybody a lock of his hair. Farewell--be +happy! and believe me always truly yours, E. Strong." + + +"And now for the other letter," said Pen. "Dear old fellow!" and he +kissed the seal before he broke it. + + +"Warrington, Tuesday. + +"I must not let the day pass over without saying a God bless you, to +both of you. May Heaven make you happy, dear Arthur, and dear Laura. I +think, Pen, that you have the best wife in the world; and pray that, +as such, you will cherish her and tend her. The chambers will be lonely +without you, dear Pen; but if I am tired, I shall have a new home to go +to in the house of my brother and sister. I am practising in the nursery +here, in order to prepare for the part of Uncle George. Farewell! make +your wedding tour, and come back to your affectionate G. W." + + +Pendennis and his wife read this letter together after Doctor Portman's +breakfast was over, and the guests were gone; and when the carriage was +waiting amidst the crowd at the Doctor's outer gate. But the wicket led +into the churchyard of St. Mary's, where the bells were pealing with +all their might, and it was here, over Helen's green grass, that Arthur +showed his wife George's letter. For which of those two--for grief was +it or for happiness, that Laura's tears abundantly fell on the paper? +And once more, in the presence of the sacred dust, she kissed and +blessed her Arthur. + +There was only one marriage on that day at Clavering Church; for in +spite of Blanche's sacrifices for her dearest mother, honest Harry Foker +could not pardon the woman who had deceived her husband, and justly +argued that she would deceive him again. He went to the Pyramids and +Syria, and there left his malady behind him, and returned with a fine +beard, and a supply of tarbooshes and nargillies, with which he regales +all his friends. He lives splendidly, and, through Pen's mediation, gets +his wine from the celebrated vintages of the Duke of Garbanzos. + +As for poor Cos, his fate has been mentioned in an early part of this +story. No very glorious end could be expected to such a career. Morgan +is one of the most respectable men in the parish of St. James's, and in +the present political movement has pronounced himself like a man and a +Briton. And Bows,--on the demise of Mr. Piper, who played the organ at +Clavering, little Mrs. Sam Hunter, who has the entire command of Doctor +Portman, brought Bows down from London to contest the organ-loft, and +her candidate carried the chair. When Sir Francis Clavering quitted this +worthless life, the same little indefatigable canvasser took the borough +by storm, and it is now represented by Arthur Pendennis, Esq. Blanche +Amory, it is well known, married at Paris, and the saloons of Madame la +Comtesse de Montmorenci de Valentinois were amongst the most suivis +of that capital. The duel between the Count and the young and fiery +Representative of the Mountain, Alcide de Mirobo, arose solely from the +latter questioning at the Club the titles borne by the former nobleman. +Madame de Montmorenci de Valentinois travelled after the adventure: and +Bungay bought her poems, and published them, with the Countess's coronet +emblazoned on the Countess's work. + +Major Pendennis became very serious in his last days, and was never +so happy as when Laura was reading to him with her sweet voice, or +listening to his stories. For this sweet lady is the friend of the young +and the old: and her life is always passed in making other lives happy. + +"And what sort of a husband would this Pendennis be?" many a reader will +ask, doubting the happiness of such a marriage and the fortune of Laura. +The querists, if they meet her, are referred to that lady herself, who, +seeing his faults and wayward moods--seeing and owning that there are +men better than he--loves him always with the most constant affection. +His children or their mother have never heard a harsh word from him; and +when his fits of moodiness and solitude are over, welcome him back +with a never-failing regard and confidence. His friend is his friend +still,--entirely heart-whole. That malady is never fatal to a sound +organ. And George goes through his part of godpapa perfectly, and lives +alone. If Mr. Pen's works have procured him more reputation than has +been acquired by his abler friend, whom no one knows, George lives +contented without the fame. If the best men do not draw the great prizes +in life, we know it has been so settled by the Ordainer of the lottery. +We own, and see daily, how the false and worthless live and prosper, +while the good are called away, and the dear and young perish +untimely,--we perceive in every man's life the maimed happiness, the +frequent falling, the bootless endeavour, the struggle of Right and +Wrong, in which the strong often succumb and the swift fail: we see +flowers of good blooming in foul places, as, in the most lofty and +splendid fortunes, flaws of vice and meanness, and stains of evil; and, +knowing how mean the best of us is, let us give a hand of charity to +Arthur Pendennis, with all his faults and shortcomings, who does not +claim to be a hero, but only a man and a brother. + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Pendennis, by +William Makepeace Thackeray + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS *** + +***** This file should be named 7265.txt or 7265.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/2/6/7265/ + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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