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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2, 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, Vol. 2
+       His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy
+
+Author: William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+Posting Date: December 7, 2011 [EBook #9904]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: October 29, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Lee Dawei, Michael Lockey and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+HIS FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES, HIS FRIENDS AND HIS GREATEST ENEMY.
+
+
+
+
+
+BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD BY THE AUTHOR,
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOLUME II.
+
+1858
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+1.--RELATES TO MR. HARRY FOKER's AFFAIRS
+
+2.--CARRIES THE READER BOTH TO RICHMOND AND GREENWICH
+
+3.--CONTAINS A NOVEL INCIDENT
+
+4.--ALSATIA
+
+5.--IN WHICH THE COLONEL NARRATES SOME OF HIS ADVENTURES
+
+6.--A CHAPTER OF CONVERSATIONS
+
+7.--MISS AMORY'S PARTNERS
+
+8.--MONSEIGNEUR S'AMUSE
+
+9.--A VISIT OF POLITENESS
+
+10.--IN SHEPHERD'S INN
+
+11.--IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE GARDEN
+
+12.--THE HAPPY VILLAGE AGAIN
+
+13.--WHICH HAD VERY NEARLY BEEN THE LAST OF THE STORY
+
+14.--A CRITICAL CHAPTER
+
+15.--CONVALESCENCE
+
+16.--FANNY'S OCCUPATION'S GONE
+
+17.--IN WHICH FANNY ENGAGES A NEW MEDICAL MAN
+
+18.--FOREIGN GROUND
+
+19.--"FAIROAKS TO LET"
+
+20.--OLD FRIENDS
+
+21.--EXPLANATIONS
+
+22.--CONVERSATIONS
+
+23.--THE WAY OF THE WORLD
+
+24.--WHICH ACCOUNTS PERHAPS FOR CHAPTER XXIII
+
+25.--PHILLIS AND CORYDON
+
+26.--TEMPTATIONS
+
+27.--IN WHICH PEN BEGINS HIS CANVASS
+
+28.--IN WHICH PEN BEGINS TO DOUBT ABOUT HIS ELECTION
+
+29.--IN WHICH THE MAJOR IS BIDDEN TO STAND AND DELIVER
+
+30.--IN WHICH THE MAJOR NEITHER YIELDS HIS MONEY NOR HIS LIFE
+
+31.--IN WHICH PENDENNIS COUNTS HIS EGGS
+
+32.--FIAT JUSTITIA
+
+33.--IN WHICH THE DECKS BEGIN TO CLEAR
+
+34.--MR. AND MRS. SAM HUXTER
+
+35.--SHOWS HOW ARTHUR HAD BETTER HAVE TAKEN A RETURN-TICKET
+
+36.--A CHAPTER OF MATCH-MAKING
+
+37.--EXEUNT OMNES PENDENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+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 the
+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
+deviled 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
+theater. 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 to the tread-mill 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 checks from Mr. Foker, and autographs from the earl
+himself, with the letters I O U written over his illustrious
+signature.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Ann 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 favorite 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 any body 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 gray
+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 the full gallop; all round
+the chaste bed-room 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 favorite 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 fac-simile. Such were the
+pictures in which honest Harry delighted. He was no worse than many of
+his neighbors; 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 dégagé style of
+spelling and hand-writing, scrawling freely over the filigree paper,
+and commencing by calling Mr. Harry, her dear Hokey-pokey-fokey, lay
+on his bed table by his side, amid 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-corned 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 pleasures 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, motherly woman," Harry said.
+"But it isn't the Back Kitchen, neither," he added with a
+ghastly sigh.
+
+As Lady Agnes never denied her son any thing, 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 rigeur_, 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 Brooks's, whom I remember at Drummington, 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 every body 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--every body 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 every thing. The suprème de volaille was
+very good--uncommon, and the sweets were better than Moufflet's
+sweets. Did you taste the plombière, 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."
+
+"Hem!" said Lady Agnes.
+
+"I know what you mean. Lady C. ain't distangy exactly, but she is very
+good-natured." "O 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."
+
+"O, 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
+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 favorite 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
+colors: 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 pew_" 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 splendor and proceeded to sally out.
+
+"At what time 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 every body knows), where he just had
+the pleasure of peeping upward 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 your 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: while, 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 _prétendue_, 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 arch-way 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 place. 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 siren 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 every body, and never
+missed a day in the Park on his gray 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
+honor 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. "Who ever
+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? O, 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-by. 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 Lady Ann upon a new novel, which the sisters had just
+procured from the library.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CARRIES THE READER BOTH TO RICHMOND AND GREENWICH.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 pine-apples, 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?" Mrs. Calverley asked
+of her neighbor. "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 toward 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 n'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'ètes qu'une bête_," 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 danse_ 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 comité_, 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 straight-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 then
+accomplished coachman whether he would not step in and take some thing
+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 over head, looked down upon Mr.
+Foker that night, as he, in his turn, sentimentally regarded them. And
+he went and gazed upward 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 neighboring
+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 patronize the institution of public
+worship, and that it was quite a correct thing to be seen in church of
+a Sunday. One day it chanced that he and Arthur went thither together:
+the latter, who was now in high favor, 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 every where. 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 Mr. 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 the 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 _lancéd_ 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 afterward, 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 dandyfied 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 honor, 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 every body, 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; while 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 toward 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the congregation issued forth at the conclusion of the service,
+Foker was out among 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 Amory 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 Gray 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-humor
+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 any thing, 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,"--"O, 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
+voilà formé!_" 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 downward toward 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 every thing 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 any
+thing 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
+honor us with their company at Greenwich? Is Lady Clavering to go on
+forever 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 favor to be my guest? and Miss Blanche shall be Arthur's, if she
+will be so good."
+
+"O 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
+afterward 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 III.
+
+CONTAINS A NOVEL INCIDENT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 among 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 favorite
+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 afterward, 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 the 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 others were in which he thought he had
+expressed his full heart! This page was imitated from a then favorite
+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 to 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 profound 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 Oxbridge; it's a little like him; and Miss Amory is
+Neaera. By gad, Warrington, I did love 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 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 any thing 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 sentence 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 purposes 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 flavor 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 fervor 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
+vigor, 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 purfumed, and petted, in rather an
+absurd manner).
+
+"Do you think we can do any thing 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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; and Warrington,
+with a scornful smile, once more took up the manuscript with the tongs
+from out of the harmless cinders.
+
+"O, 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 piastres to Bacon or
+to Bungay. The rubbish is salable 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.
+
+While 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 out-bid his rival. Was any thing 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 odor 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 shattered 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 humorist, 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 personages 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 eying 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 great
+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."
+
+"O, 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 grand house, he
+comes and stays in these rickety old chambers with me. He's a man that
+can afford to live any where."
+
+"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 then 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 skillful 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 or five years, and make a fortune. In the mean time, I
+should wish him to live properly, take respectable apartments, and
+keep a brougham." And on this simple calculation it was that the major
+counseled Pen.
+
+Arthur, laughing, told Warrington what his uncle's advice had been;
+but he luckily had a much more reasonable counselor 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 inclosed
+to her such an installment 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 toward 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 a 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 honor, very great honor, 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.
+Every body 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 dependent."
+
+"A dependent! who ever so thought of you? You are the equal of all the
+world," Pynsent broke out.
+
+"I am a dependent 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 dispraise of others. Nor did their praise
+elate him overmuch; 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 hurt rather 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-humor!
+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 honor!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+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
+neighborhood of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, and the Temple. Somewhere
+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 venders, purveyors of theatrical prints for
+youth, dealers in dingy furniture, and bedding suggestive of any thing
+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 theater,
+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
+center 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
+mustaches, 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 luster 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
+daughter 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 practicing 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 mantle-piece 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 behavior "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 demeanor 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 daughter's choriot. Sir Chorlus, I
+saw your neem at the Levée; 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 clart and burgundee, until his own utterance began to
+fail him, over his sixth tumbler of whiskey-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 make 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 gray hairs from
+jail." And the good-natured Lady Mirabel dispatched 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 slip-shod
+messenger and aid-de-camp of the captain, who brought the letter
+announcing his mishap. If the servant had followed the captain's
+aid-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's
+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 courtesies, pointing toward 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 Travelers', 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." These 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 Nawaab of
+Lucknow, and Captain the 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 Embassador 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," as 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 mignonnette-box
+which bloomed in Bows's window.
+
+From Grady's kitchen casement often came odors still more fragrant.
+The three old soldiers who formed the garrison of No. 4, 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 any thing. 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 afterward; 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 honor 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 organizing 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 every thing: 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 intrusted), Strong was sent to him by his patron 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 burdened 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 every
+body 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 V.
+
+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 sat 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-humored 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 color of his heard 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 can not 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 Jingo. And
+it's my belief I had some more, too, afterward 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 cunning 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. 3, 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 any
+thing? Dammy, Strong, did I split any thing?"
+
+"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 recognized 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 any body 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 sattens 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. 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 kep 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 soirées--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 restaurateurs,
+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 swep off in another way. One night, at the
+countess's, there was several of us at supper--Mr. Bloundell-Bloundell,
+the Honorable 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 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
+Honorable 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 bed-side. So I said he was a gentleman, and asked him
+if he would like to take any thing, when my servant should get it for
+him; but the Honorable 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 any thing, 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 any thing 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 any
+price.' '_En effet_' says the marky, twiddling his little black
+mustaches 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 honor 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 voici._' 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 honor, 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 said, '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 while I'm fond of her. She said
+she could not bear 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 jewelry, 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 honor 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 honor?'
+
+"'Field of honor 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
+honor--I thought, I--but no matter. Good-by, 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 honor.'
+
+"What could I do? Every body 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 honor; 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. Clavering 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 any thing 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 suffered 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, by 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 two 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 colors 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 honor 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-humor. "Look here, baronet, I
+apologize; on my honor, 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, it's ungrateful." "By heavens, if ever you do it
+again. If ever you dare to show 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 Gad, or any where 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've 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 every
+body, 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 check 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 cleaned out,
+leaving that infernal check 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 farther 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 VI.
+
+A CHAPTER OF CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Every day, after the entertainments 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 also 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. Every
+body 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 rumors
+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. To name all the senators
+with whom Clavering consorted, would be invidious. We may mention
+only a few. There was Captain Raff, the honorable 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 favor 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 bay-window at Bays's. Don't
+look offended, I only mean that I am _blasé_ 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 every where--every where, 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 humor 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 protégé 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 neighborhood 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 forebore 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
+dispatched 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
+toward that fane in a carriage-and-four, so to speak, and might halt
+and take refreshments almost whenever he pleased. He wore varnished
+boots from the earliest period of youth, and had cambric handkerchiefs
+and lemon-colored 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 Havannas, 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, &c., 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 pleasures. 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 neighbor, 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 any body 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 too 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. "O, you don't know how
+miserable that man made me," she said, "or what a life I passed
+between 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 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 jail before his trial, instead of afterward, he would have saved
+me a deal of shame and 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 it. For 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 happy 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 among
+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 up-stairs 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 humor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 brusk, 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 every body 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 any thing 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 any body 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-by, 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 honor of a conversation, and patronized 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 any body
+should think of patronizing 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, 'O
+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, every body went there
+--every body who was in society: and then we talked of the new
+embassador 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 soirée to the neighboring 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 among 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 gayety 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 women 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 combinations 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 neighbor 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 girl's 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
+civilization. Ye gods! how rapidly we live and grow! In nine months,
+Mr. Paxton grows you a pine apple 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 pine-apples so is the
+race of man. Hoiaper--what's the Greek for a pine-apple, 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, while 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 gayly till the big
+bruised brazen one bumps him and sends him down--eh, vogue la
+galère!--you see a man sink in the race, and say good-by 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 galère, 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 pommeling 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. "And 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 world, 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 it, or he who descends to the
+ground, and takes his part in the contest? "That philosopher," Pen
+said, "had held a great place among 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 cushion, and
+cries out, that the whole struggle is an accursed one, and the works
+of the world are evil. Many a conscience-striken 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 paralyzed 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
+laborer 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 reveler 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 VII.
+
+MISS AMORY'S PARTNERS.
+
+
+The noble Henry Foker, of whom we have lost sight for a few pages, has
+been in the mean while 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 ardor, 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 favorite 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 among
+ill-regulated young gentlemen, and such, indeed, was Mr. H. Foker's
+condition, who, having been bred up to indulge in every propensity
+toward 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 practiced? 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 you,
+sir, 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 very elevation of your virtue and high attributes,
+of necessity lonely; we can't reach up and talk familiarly with such
+potentates. Good-by, 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 worshiped 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, among us, we need never despair. I have read
+of the passion of a transported pickpocket for a female convict (each
+of them being advanced in age, 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 honored 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, among 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, pâtes,
+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 splendor 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
+neighborhood of Jermyn-street, where his friends Loder, Punter, little
+Moss Abrams, 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 regarded each
+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, that I have for cold boiled
+veal." Upon which Blanche of course remarked, that Mr. Pendennis was
+wicked, _méchant_, 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 practiced 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 practiced 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 step-daughter. 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 gray 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, flavored 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 ball-room then passing before
+them, and about whose appearance or character Mr. Harry spoke with
+artless freedom, and a considerable dash of humor.
+
+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 god-mother, 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 danced and waltzed with
+renewed vigor and grace.
+
+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 favorite? 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 courtesy 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 expression 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 honor which had just been shown to her, and with
+other intoxicating events of the evening, that her good humor 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 every thing that was
+nice, and her ear with every thing that was sweet and flattering--oh!
+what an object he was! The rings round his eyes were of the color 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 humor; 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 worshiper must have looked upward 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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-colored 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.
+
+Among 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 dandyfied 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 every body: 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 peach? 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 cab-stand 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 sympathizing 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 valor! 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 splendor 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 fullness of his heart; and Mr. Pen must
+have been too much occupied with his own affairs to remark the concern
+and agitation of his neighbor, 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 ça_," 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
+toward 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 any thing it ain't. Talking
+about money and such a girl as that, it's--it's--what-d'ye-callem--_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, eying 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 any thing 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
+the sofa, face forward, 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 every body.
+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-by! 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 he?" 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 that 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 shriveled, 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 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 willfully or
+fatally astray, while the natural truth and love which should illumine
+him grew 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, 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 VIII.
+
+MONSEIGNEUR S'AMUSE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 neighbors, 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
+bay-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 mustaches, 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 chargé 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 _blasé_ 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 any thing but misanthropical. If he could not get a good
+dinner he sat 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-parlor or on board a Greenwich steam-boat, or in a jaunt
+to Hampstead with Mr. Finucane, his colleague at the Pall Mall
+Gazette; or in a visit to the summer theaters 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
+or the lovely equestrian of the arena by the hand. And while he could
+watch the grimaces or the graces of these with a satiric humor 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: he was
+pleased to possess it: and said that he hoped thus to the last he
+should retain it. As another man has an ardor for art or music, or
+natural science, Mr. Pen said that anthropology was his favorite
+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
+coqueting of a wrinkled dowager in a ball-room, 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 while 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 humor 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
+forever, 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 every thing. But you
+began to use the bear's-grease pot directly the hair-dresser 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 while 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 humor, 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 fire-works 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
+splendors 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 recognized, "Bedad, sir, if ye doubt me
+honor, 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 any reet 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, oi've seen Vauxhall, and I
+scawrun any interfayrance on moi account: but for these leedies, one
+of them has never been there, and oi should think ye'd harly take
+advantage of me misfartune in losing the tickut, to deproive her of
+her pleasure."
+
+"It ain't no use, captain. I can't go about your business," the
+checktaker 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 door-keeper, peevishly, out of the
+illuminated box. And at this minute Arthur came up, and recognizing
+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 toward 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
+favorite 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 sympathized
+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--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 gray
+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 demeanor.
+
+"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. 4."
+
+Fanny made a little courtesy, 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
+courtesy; "and I've never been at Vauxhall, sir, and Pa 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 splendor such
+as the finest fairy tale, the finest pantomime she had ever witnessed
+at the theater, had never realized. 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
+_blasé_ 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 native countee)--Mr. Pendennis,
+ye've been me preserver, and oi 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
+splendor 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 patronizing and affable manner pointing
+out to them the edifices worthy of note, and discoursing, 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 honor 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
+would 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 color 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 Caracoline, little Tom
+Tufthunt was in attendance upon Lord Colchicum; and rather pleased,
+too, with his position. When Don Juan scales 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 peer 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 god-father 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 patronize 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
+mantle-piece 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 dark
+porter's 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 among them, one or two
+of the acquaintances of Mr. Arthur Pendennis.
+
+Among 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 woe-begone 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 toward him with no little kindness and pity--but
+Harry did not see the beautiful dark eyes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 short 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 trowsers 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 at our place--I'm mostly at home
+Saturdays; and there's generally a cheese in the cupboard. Ta, Ta.
+There's the bell for the fire-works 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 fire-work
+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 fire-works, 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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?"
+
+"O 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 any thing
+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
+fire-works. You must know I live by myself, and work very hard. I
+write in books and newspapers, Fanny; and I was quite tired out, and
+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 grammarian's 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 Mr.
+Arthur Pendennis made any use of the monosyllable in question? Not so.
+In the first place it was dark: the fire-works 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 honor. She seems to have a great deal of dangerous and rather
+contagious sensibility, and I am very glad the fire-works 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 under tone. 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
+fire-works, 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 any thing to eat, ladies, and I wish you would permit me
+to invite you to supper."
+
+"Dad," said Costigan, "I'd loike a snack, tu; only I forgawt me purse,
+or I should have invoited these leedies to a colleetion."
+
+Mrs. Bolton, with considerable asperity, said, she ad an eadache, and
+would much rather go home.
+
+"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
+favor 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-humored 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 favorite 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, "like 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-humor 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 humor, 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 remonstrances 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 honor,
+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 pardon, 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-humor, "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 any thing about the dispute.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A VISIT OF POLITENESS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 _blasé_ 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 nightcap; 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 labor.
+
+Mr. Pendennis's labor, 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
+laborer, 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
+overmuch. 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 among 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;
+destined, 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 minanderies of
+the young ladies in the ball-rooms" (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 _voilées_ 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 _roué_ 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 dandyfied protecting air, his conceit, generosity, and good
+humor, 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 ginger-bread 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 realization 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 made 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 trowsers made his appearance under the Inn archway, and stopped
+at the porter's wicket, Fanny was not in the least surprised, only
+delighted, 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 humor 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 work-box 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 Pontydiddlum; 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 jewelry, 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 F----in society.
+
+"O, 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. Oh, 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, "O, 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, sent 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
+theater, 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 face 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-humor, 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 court-yard 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 X.
+
+IN SHEPHERD'S INN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 and 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 night
+previous, 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 every body.
+
+"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 honor,
+I am sure. They are rather high up; but--"
+
+"O! 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 honor my umble
+domicile with a visit," Mr. Bows said, with a 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 toward 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-by, 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, ony 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 sate 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 any thing 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 bed-chamber, indeed, but a very few minutes before the
+arrival of that gentleman. We have witnessed the deshabillé 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 odor 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
+woefully: 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 labored 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 among 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 an 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 toward 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 while 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 humor. He went off to endeavor 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 on 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 Theater 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 travestie 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 XI
+
+IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE GARDEN.
+
+
+Fashion has long deserted the green and pretty Temple Garden, in which
+Shakspeare 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. Newberry has sent.
+Treading heavily on the gravel, and rolling majestically along in a
+snuff-colored 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 Miter), and Mr. Johnson asks
+Mr. Goldsmith to come home and take a dish of tea with Miss Williams.
+Kind faith of Fancy! Sir Hoger 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 neighborhood 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 come 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 neighborhood
+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 wharves and 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 downward 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 toward the east.
+
+One cried out, "Oh!" the other began to laugh; and with a knowing
+little infantine 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Pen looked very grave, pompous, and dandified. He was unusually smart
+and brilliant in his costume. His white duck trowsers and white hat,
+his neckcloth of many colors, his light waistcoat, gold chains, and
+shirt studs, gave him the air of a prince of the blood at least. How
+his splendor became his figure! Was any body 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 won't 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!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Neara
+--Neara--I don't know the pronunciation. And how 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 down
+stairs 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, &c.) 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 hout, 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-by, good-by." 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 center 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 book-case 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 any body
+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 afterward, 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 fire-side; 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 tyrannizing 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. And I 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 thread-bare coat, and gets his
+bread by playing tunes at an alehouse? 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 every thing has 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 make her
+mock my deformity and old age?"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+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 inhabited 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
+vacations, 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, while 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
+farm-house; built a flaring new white-washed 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 indulged in the pleasures of the town together.
+Ascott, the theaters, Vauxhall, and the convivial taverns in the
+joyous neighborhood 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 rencounter 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 labored, 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 theaters 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 theater, 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 to 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 humor with himself and the world, it never
+entered his mind that he could be disagreeable to any body; 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 offense--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 recognize 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 afterward, 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 behavior 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 practicing his infernal
+arts; and he thought he should warn her father, &c., &c.,--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 favors.
+
+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 Honorable 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. Madam 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 Dr. 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 any thing 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 and
+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 hand
+writing, 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 unfavorable to his neighbors), 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, &c., &c.
+
+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
+rumors that were against him, and earnestly praying that he would
+break off and repent of a connection 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 XIII.
+
+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 endeavored to sooth 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
+wish 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 ball-room. 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 forego any
+thing 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 cozy 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, amicably 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 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 next the 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 endeavored, 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
+recognized 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 forego 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 forego 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 afterward, 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 endeavored 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, was yet
+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, afterward 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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, while 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 a
+romantic attachment 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 was so very kind. Then he came to call and ask after
+us: and very, very good it was of such a 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 every body admires Pauline--and I'm sure every body 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'm 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 do, 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 aid-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 looking 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 practice, and with which weapons of defense nature endows them,
+the traces of her emotion disappeared; and she went and took her work,
+and sat in the corner so demure and quiet, that the careless male
+parent never suspected that any thing 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 endeavoring 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 versâ: 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 toward 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 any body 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 any body but himself. But
+the young man must have advice--the best advice; and Morgan was
+straightway dispatched 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 honor, that if he could be of any use he
+would rush to Pen's chambers. As it was, Morgan should go and see that
+every thing was right. The doctor must write to him by every post to
+Stillbrook; it was but forty miles distant from London, and if any
+thing 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 demeanor. 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 neighboring station, and a
+gray-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; "any thing 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
+traveling 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 pennâ," 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 poor 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 XIV.
+
+A CRITICAL CHAPTER.
+
+
+As Fanny saw the two ladies and the anxious countenance of the elder,
+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 afterward; 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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--O, 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 hurra 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 into 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."
+
+"O, 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 further room.
+
+Mrs. Pendennis was ensconced, pale and solemn, in a great chair by
+Pen's bed-side. 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 traveled. 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 praying into his face, to know if there is hope for
+the sick infant that can not 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 heart-broken
+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 every thing 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 bed-room), 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, and flung them
+upon the study-table. Did Goodenough know any thing 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 humor
+will arise, and such smiles will pass, to satirize the gloom, as it
+were, and to make it more gloomy!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 time 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 he had there, for whom 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 behavior 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 back 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
+favor 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 mischievious 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 every body 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 shall
+we enlarge very much upon the more cheerful theme of his recovery.
+
+Every body 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 bears' grease pots, quite curious to
+examine, too; and a choice selection of portraits of females almost
+always in sadness and generally in disguise or dishabille, glittered
+round the neat walls of his elegant little bower of repose. Medora
+with disheveled hair was consoling herself over her banjo for the
+absence of her Conrad--the Princesse Fleur de Marie (of Rudolstein and
+the Mystères 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 any thing 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
+can not 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 can not help peeping at the shops on the way, or at our
+neighbor'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 humor 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 up-stairs; 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 gayety, 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 neighborhood 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 Mrs. 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 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 intermittance; 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
+Lambcourt. This was introduced into the Pen-Warrington sitting-room by
+large puffs of tobacco smoke--the puffs of smoke 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 pass-key), 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 traveler 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 succor 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
+bed-chamber 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 toward 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 XV.
+
+CONVALESCENCE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 anatomized 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 her
+were changed; and, alas, that it should be so! were not particularly
+eager to see her any more. He felt very well disposed toward 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 toward 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
+bed-side, 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 realize 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
+inward doubt and despair and 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 finishes 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
+willfulness, and a little selfishness, and a little dandyfication, 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 while 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 Flagcourt; 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 honor 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
+every body in the gardens, and there are beadles, you know, and that
+sort of thing--every body 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 color 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 is 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 women
+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
+defenses which a woman has in her heart, her faith, and honor, 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 away, 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 honor 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, humor, 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? Never, 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 favors 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 traveled 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 either 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-cutthroats 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 Heaven," 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 dear 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 any body else at
+Fairoaks except Doctor Portman and Captain Glanders, and because his
+mother constantly praised her Arthur, and because he was
+gentleman-like, 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 afterward, 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 favorable 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
+quietly. 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 flavor), 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
+arm-chair. 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
+apartments 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 toward 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 exceedingly
+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 time 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 bed-time 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 _écarté_ 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 any thing for
+the slippers.
+
+While 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 Mullinger'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 vigor,
+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
+afterward 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, jocularities, waggeries, and
+_petits jeux innocens_: so that the second and third floors of
+number 6, Lambcourt, Temple, rang with more cheerfulness and laughter
+than had been known in those precincts for many a long day.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 traveling 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 odor.
+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, 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 uncouth 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 bed-side George found a new Bible which the widow had placed
+there, with a note inside saying that she had not seen the book among
+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 XVI.
+
+FANNY'S OCCUPATION'S GONE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 among
+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, whereupon 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 boot-makers
+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, &c. Of these documents,
+Pen, who was always free-handed 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 chests 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 any
+thing 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 dress-maker'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 any thing
+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 any thing about it; and I
+don't wish to know any thing 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; and, begad, 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 honor!--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 honor, 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 any thing serious has happened?
+Has Arthur said any thing?"
+
+"His silence confirms it," sobbed Mrs. Pendennis, behind her
+pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Not at all. There are subjects, my dear, about which a young fellow
+can not 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 any thing 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--O--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 view 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
+among Pen's other letters, and let him have them when he calls for
+them. Or if we 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.
+
+"_Arthur 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 honor 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 had 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 honorable a man as
+ever lived."
+
+"Honorable!" said the widow, with bitter scorn. "O, brother, what is
+this you call honor? 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 any thing 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.
+Whatd'youcallem, 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 honor, what
+right have you to doubt his honor 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 pursoo? 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 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 any thing 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 neighborhood; 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 toward 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 humor 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 allusions. 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. Dr. 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. Every thing 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 neighborhood, 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
+any where 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 school-boy,
+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--any where 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 to Arthur, it was received
+by that gentleman with the greatest alacrity and enthusiasm. He longed
+to be off at once. He let his mustaches 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 mustaches, when they came, were of
+a decidedly red color. 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 neighborhood, and they are not to be at home before Christmas,
+my uncle says: besides, Warrington, I want to get out of the country.
+While 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 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
+_affairs 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 mess-room 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 afterward; and the man who betrays your
+honor 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," Warrington said 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 traveling 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. Traveling 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 enable you
+to--to anticipate you 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 balked 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 eye-lashes looked down toward her tea-cup: 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 her query to
+her tea-spoon, 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 tea-spoon.
+
+"Would you?" said George.
+
+She looked up and said, "Yes." Their eyes met. "I will go any where
+you ask me, or do any thing," 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 neighboring 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 XVII.
+
+IN WHICH FANNY ENGAGES A NEW MEDICAL MAN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 appearance, 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 tea-cup 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 realized; 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 staid, 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 behavior 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 practiced what I preach."
+
+"And what did you practice, 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, among 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 every thing, whether it was a favorite tragic or comic
+actor, a cock on a dunghill, a corkscrew going into a bottle and a
+cork issuing thence, or an Irish officer of genteel connections 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 sixpenny-worth 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 gray 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 while 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 among 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 honor 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 any thing 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, &c., 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 cab-stand 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 homeward.
+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 Theater, where gin-shops, oyster-shops, and theatrical
+wardrobes abound, the proprietors of which were now asleep behind
+the 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 fellow to fall backward.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 gatebell, 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," he said; "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 and water to one of
+his knees and shins, which, with the pair of trowsers 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 while 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 every body 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 learned what was the illness which was evidently
+preying upon little Fan, and what had been Pen's behavior 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 disfavor 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 once, 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 Bows'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 any body," 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 all
+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 embassador, 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 any thing 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 behavior 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 humor was to contradict every body.
+
+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, recognize--"
+
+"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 to be turned 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 victimizing, 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 any thing to win a man, and fling him
+away without a pang, sir. If she 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-by, 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_. Dayme, when I used to read 'Télémaque' 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 _ménager_ 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 a 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 embassador 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 XVIII.
+
+FOREIGN GROUND.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Worth 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 connection
+between Arthur and the odious little gate-keeper 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 connection.
+
+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, &c., 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-traveled 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 out-stretched
+arms kneeling before the illuminated altars, and beheld the strange
+pomps and ceremonials of the Catholic worship. Bare-footed friars in
+the streets, crowned images of Saints and Virgins in the churches
+before which people were bowing down and worshiping, 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 toward 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 on 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 honey-suckle 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," among
+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 favorable 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, &c.
+&c.; 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 every body,
+and about every body, and a little against every body. He was
+invaluable in a country house, in a word: and richly merited and
+enjoyed his vacation after his labors. And perhaps while 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 toward the pretty, fresh-colored 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 ball-room,
+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 staid 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 blond, tight-waisted Germans--at the capering
+Frenchmen, with their lackered mustaches and trim varnished boots--at
+the English dandies, Pen among 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 neighborhood, 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 traveled he wore
+a jaunty and juvenile traveling 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 old traveler
+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 honor 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 splendors and amenities
+belonging to it. That very evening the resolute old gentlemen, 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 recognized and accosted him. He remembered her in '14 when she was
+an actress of the Paris Boulevard, and the Emperor Alexander's
+aid-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 edifying. 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 honor, 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 breath 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 marvelous
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the major arrived, his presence somehow cast a damp upon at least
+three persons of our little party--upon Laura, who had any thing but
+respect for him; upon Warrington, whose manner toward 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 up 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 dispatch-boxes and umbrella-cases, his
+guide-books, passports, maps, and other elaborate necessaries of the
+English traveler, all as trim and ready as they could be in their
+master's own room in Jermyn-street. Every thing was ready, from the
+medicine-bottle fresh filled from the pharmacien's, down to the old
+fellow's prayer-book, without which he never traveled, for he made a
+point of appearing at the English church at every place which he
+honored with a stay. "Every body did it," he said; "every English
+gentleman did it," and this pious man would as soon have thought of
+not calling upon the English embassador 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 every body 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.
+
+Among the letters there was a little note addressed, as a former
+letter we have heard of had been, to "Arthur 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 would 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 every body:
+and as for Arthur, she would pray for him forever. 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 any thing about this letter, sir?" Arthur asked.
+
+"What letter, my good sir?" said the other drily, 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 was she 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 inconveinence, 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--and, I beg
+your pardon, uncle. You were, you always have been, most kind to me:
+but I say again, did you say any thing 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 toward 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
+every thing 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 neighboring room opened and Laura came forth with 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 courtesy the
+young lady passed to her friend's 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 humor, 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 thoughts, 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 behavior and fickleness, and he described how the girl was no
+better than a little light-minded flirt; and, perhaps, he exaggerated
+the good humor and contentedness which he had himself, as he thought,
+witnessed in her behavior in the scene with Mr. Huxter.
+
+Now, all Bows's statements had been colored 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-humor, 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 connection 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, while Mr. Shamble was feebly giving utterance to his
+sermon.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"FAIROAKS TO LET."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our poor widow (with the assistance of her faithful Martha of
+Fairoaks, who laughed and wondered at the German ways, and
+superintended the affairs of the simple household) had made a little
+feast in honor 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 palid 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 shoulder 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 a 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 every thing 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
+out-stretched 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
+honorable 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
+undishonored 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 a 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--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 dare say 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 toward 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 often 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, toward 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?"
+
+"O 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 neighborhood," 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 dullness 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 had 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 humor, "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 forever 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 afterward 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 honor 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 for 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 calling 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 moon. 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 uncheckered 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 sister departed, 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 neighbor died of
+a complaint in the heart; while that speculated upon the amount of
+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 every thing, 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 labored, and knew it
+would suddenly remove her: and a prayer was found in her hand-writing,
+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 toilet: the glass that was no more to reflect her dear sad face.
+After she had been here awhile, Pen knocked and led her down stairs to
+the parlor 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 cognizance. 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 good-will 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 to plaster a wounded heart with a bank-note 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 if 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 get 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 neighborhood;
+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 Doctor 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 every body--"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 to 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. XX.
+
+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 tents 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 Muffineer 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 embassador 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 chop-sticks 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 embassador 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 Maryborough 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 up-stairs, 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 embassador again--never; and, upon
+my word, he has never been to dine with us since. The Lord Mayor, who
+did me the honor 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
+embassador: 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-year's 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 just 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 every thing 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
+any thing 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. Halloo!
+There's Cobden here, of all men in the world! I must go and speak to
+him. Good-by, 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 green sward,
+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 colors 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. "Hurrah,
+hurrah!" he bawled out, "Podasokus is the horse! Supper for ten
+Wheeler, my boy. Ask you all round of course, and damn the expense."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+neighbor with suspicion, lest that neighbor, 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
+cab-stand 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-humor
+mantled on the girl's cheeks, and played over that fair countenance
+like the pretty shining cloudlets on the serene sky over head; the
+elder lady's cheek was red too; but that was a permanent mottled rose,
+deepening only as it received fresh 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 hurrahing
+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 she
+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 dark 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
+conjuror had used the same words to a hundred different carriages
+on that day.
+
+Making his way solitary among 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 recognized 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: but 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 Mrs. 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
+demeanor 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 'appy to see Mr. Pendennis, and how well he was a lookin', and we'd
+been talkin' about Mr. P. only jest before; hadn't we, Fanny? and if
+this was the famous Hepsom 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 knockin' of his head--don't
+you, Fanny?
+
+While 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 shame-faced 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-colored 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-colored 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 uncolored 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-colored dexter kid-glove was handed out, in
+token of amity, to Huxter.
+
+The dirty fist in the young surgeon's pocket was obliged to undouble
+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-humored face; and have seen, there upon that ground, 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-humor 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-colored dress, with a white parasol lined with pink,
+and the prettiest dove-colored boots that ever stepped, passed by Pen,
+leaning on the arm of a stalwart gentleman with a military mustache.
+The young lady clenched her little fist, and gave a mischievous
+side-look as she passed Pen. He of the mustaches 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-colored young lady. Immediately Huxter perceived the direction
+which they took, they ceased looking after the dove-colored nymph, and
+they turned and looked into Sam Huxter's orbs with the most artless
+good-humored 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 neighbor 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 colored 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 l'ai vue," she said; "elle a de bien beaux yeux; vous êtes un
+monstre!"
+
+"Why monster?" said Pen, with a laugh; "Honi soit qui mal y pense.
+My young friend, yonder, is as well protected as any young lady in
+Christendom. She has her mamma on one side, her 'prétendu' 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, colonel, 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 griped 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 _méchant_ nephew. He does not amuse
+me at all. He is as _béte_ as Captain Crackenbury."
+
+"What are you saying about me, Miss Amory?" said the guardsman, with a
+grin. "If it's any thing good, say it in English, for I don't
+understand French when it's spoke so devilish quick."
+
+"It _ain't_ any thing 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-humor, 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 toward 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 any body 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 neighbor 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
+every body--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, amid 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 humor 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 he
+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
+favorite. I'll never back the favorite 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 honor 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 woman. She
+declared she would separate, and pay no more debts for this 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,
+while 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 up stairs leaning on the
+major's arm--"for this cheat--for this black-leg--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 XXI.
+
+EXPLANATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 honor 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 every where 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 practice 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
+griefs 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 comfort, 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 afterward 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 parlor,
+because the tiptops wouldn't come.
+
+She had not the slightest ill-will toward "the canal," the poor, dear
+lady, or any pride about herself, or idea that she was better than her
+neighbor; 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 any thing 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 among 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 cognizance 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 favorite 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 where; 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 favor 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 beggerly
+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
+any body 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
+Penn 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 quarreling, afterward; and a girl
+who runs away with Jack to Gretna Green, constantly runs away with Tom
+to Switzerland afterward. 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
+many 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-humor. "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 ardor 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 gray hairs or our wrinkles--but the fulfillment
+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 awe-stricken,
+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
+crowds 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 no body 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 XXII.
+
+CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+honor, 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 every body--alike
+his turf-associates with whom he had made 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's 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 servant's 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 Blackfriar's-road. And Sir
+Francis's coachman told the news to other gentlemen's coachmen, who
+carried it to their masters, and to the neighboring 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 Curaçoa) 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 while
+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 jail (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 to 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
+wont 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 colors 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 aid-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--"any thing 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 embassador brought the
+news back at Short's hotel, where Strong found the baronet crying and
+drinking Curaçoa.
+
+"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, with out
+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 recognized 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 Curaçoa), 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 honored 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 parlor 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 Hackstraw, 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 _entrée_ of all the green-rooms in London," Tom urged; while
+little Moss Abrams 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 birth-day, 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 colors, 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 épergne and a bagatelle-board. The dinner épergne 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 practiced
+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 sat 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 among 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 tea-spoon, 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 tea-spoon--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 dam
+scoundrels! I'll 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 shirk 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 any thing
+about me? The other chap is dead--shot in the bush, and his body
+reckonized at Sydney. If I thought any body 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 ax. 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 any body; 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-humoredly.
+"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 authorize 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 jail, 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!--has had the confounded impudence to threaten to tell my
+lady: as if the things in my own house weren't my own, to sell or to
+keep, or to 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 honor 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 forever--forever, 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 any thing
+you like."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 neighbors
+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 think 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 befews 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 hevery thing: ponies and pianna, and
+Brougham, and all. Mrs. Montague Rivers 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 tremenduous scene: he went down on his knees, my lady
+told Mrs. Bonner, as told me--and swoar 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 offense,
+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 Earl of Burgrave, and are consulted
+by the Marquis of Steyne in every think. 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 dessay 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 every where; 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.
+
+"Pigeon 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-humor.
+
+"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 quarrelin'," 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 eats, 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 _tête-à-tête_ 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 parlor of the Wheel of Fortune
+public-house, in a snug little by-lane, leading out of one of the
+great streets of May Fair, 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 club room than a Pall Mall tradesman or a Lincoln's Inn attorney
+could get admission into Bay's or Spratt's. And it is because the
+conversation which we have been 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 XXIII.
+
+THE WAY OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A short time after the piece of good fortune which befel 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. Sergeant Kewsy, and Mrs. and Miss Kewsy; Colonel Altamont,
+Major Coddy, &c." The colonel traveled in state, and as became a
+gentleman: he appeared in a rich traveling 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 toilet, 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 Minturnae, 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 "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 unluckly 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
+pounds, 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 honor, I'll give you
+half if you can get any body to do us a little fifty."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But Ned said sternly that he had given his word of honor, 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 honor
+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 toward 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 thorough-bred 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 a-bear 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 every body, and that Mar had actially
+refused him twice, and had to wait three months to get seven shillings
+which he had borrered 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 Mr. 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, honored, 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 awe-stricken; the tenants cap in hand, and ready
+to act in the place of your worship's horses when your honor 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 honor; "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 apologize 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 storyteller, useless moralizing? 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 worshiped
+in his memory, and canonized 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 omnibuses 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
+daresay, 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 Bonaparte 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 honor 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 thay 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 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 fathers on this harmless, kind creature?
+She never did any thing 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
+afterward if he do. Are you, who are setting up to be a man of the
+world and 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 civilization, and own that a French cook was the thing in life
+best worth living for."
+
+"Because you like a raw beef-steak and a pipe afterward," 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 convention's 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 neighbor," 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 vain-glorious attempts to lead their fellows;
+and after they have found that men will no longer hear them, as indeed
+they never were in the least worthy to be heard, sink quietly into the
+rank and file--acknowledging their aims impracticable, or thankful
+that they were never put into practice. The fiercest reformers grow
+calm, and are fain 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 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 toward reform, but at the world's pace (and the
+movements of the vast body of mankind must needs be slow)--forego 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 Honorable 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 skepticism is more respectful and more modest than the
+revolutionary ardor 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 take these institutions as I find them, and wait
+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
+under-graduates in the lecture-room. An hereditary legislator, who
+passes his time with jockeys and blacklegs 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 toward 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 farther 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 humor; and acting without any pangs of remorse--but, on the
+contrary, with strict 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
+labor of my neighbor without taking any part in the struggle. Why,
+what a mere dilettante you own yourself to be, in this confession of
+general skepticism, 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 every thing."
+
+"Were the world composed of Saint Bernards or Saint Dominics, 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
+skeptic because I acknowledge what _is_; and in acknowledging that, be
+it linnet or lark, a 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 among 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 any where. 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 afterward
+by the policemen. 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 man 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
+skeptically. 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 endeavor 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 skepticism 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 skeptical 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 song-book babbling of honey and
+Hybla, and nymphs and fountains and love. To what, we say, does this
+skepticism lead? It leads a man to a shameful loneliness and
+selfishness, so to speak--the more shameful, because it is so
+good-humored 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
+farther 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 honor 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 in the Conservative side of the house, and among 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 every thing, friends, fame, dearest ties,
+closest vanities, the respect of an army of churchmen, the recognized
+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 endeavors to reconcile an irreconcileable
+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
+can not 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 skepticism, of your quietism, of
+your atheism, my poor fellow. You're going to sell yourself, and
+Heaven help you! You're 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 XXIV.
+
+WHICH ACCOUNTS PERHAPS FOR CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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,
+neutralized 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 every thing 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 honorable 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 among 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 out
+running the constables (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 clew 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
+down stairs," 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 scenes and other fugitive stratagems.
+
+So, though the elder Pendennis, having his own ulterior object, was
+bent upon seeing Pen's country neighbor 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
+cognizance 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 done: 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 victimized
+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 favored. And it chanced that Strong
+heard of this transaction at the place where the writings had been
+drawn--in the back parlor, 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 parlor. 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 daresay 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 honor of visiting our friend Major Pendennis in
+his lodgings. The major was walking daintily toward 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 every thing with their
+smoke," thought the major. "Here comes a fellow with mustaches and a
+cigar. Every fellow who smokes and wears mustaches 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 toward 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 toward him a couple of
+ungracious fingers.
+
+"What is your good news?" said Major Pendennis, patronizing the other
+still farther, and condescending to address to him an observation, for
+old Pendennis had kept such good company all his life, that he vaguely
+imagined he honored 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 favor 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 unburdened 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 honor, 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 any body, 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 jail 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 life--
+who, between you and me, Captain Strong, we must own is 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 hest
+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 patronizing 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-humor. "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 any thing 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 a long course of
+careful speculation, this wary and silent attendant had been amassing
+a considerable sum of money, during the years 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 humor 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 toward 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
+cognizance; 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 Covering's notes. Do you know any thing 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 parlor 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 sat in the parlor 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 honor,
+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 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 every body, 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 toward him.
+
+"No, no," said Clavering piteously, "I beg your pardon. I didn't mean
+to be angry, or say any thing 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 any body, or no design upon you," Pendennis said,
+"but an endeavor, 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 Sidney 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
+Snell'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 I should like Arthur to be
+there," the major said.
+
+"Dammy, does _he_ know it, too?" cried out Clavering.
+
+"Nobody knows any thing out of this room," Pendennis answered; "and if
+you do this favor 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 any thing 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 any thing 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 gayly 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-humored profession
+of faith.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+PHILLIS AND CORYDON.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On a picturesque common in the neighborhood 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
+school-boy 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 farm-houses; she read French novels habitually; she
+drove into Tunbridge Wells pretty often, and to any play, or ball, or
+conjuror, or musician who might happen to appear in the place; she
+slept a great deal; she quarreled 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 a 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 practice; 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 neighbors 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-butterless.
+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 any
+thing 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, &c. 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 any body 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 endeavors. 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 favor.
+
+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 bed-time, she said, "_Déjà!_"
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 to-night. 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."
+
+"O 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.
+
+"O! go on! I adore it," cried the lady of _Mes Larmes_. "Heavenly
+night! Heavenly, heavenly moon! but I most 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 good night 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? O, 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
+_succès?_ &c. &c.
+
+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 every thing."
+
+"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 XXVI.
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Clapham 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 might
+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 mean time 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 forego 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 afterward was united to Miss Stickney,
+of Lyme Regis, &c. 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 fullness 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 demeanor?--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, &c., &c.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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, while 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 defense 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 _jödel_, 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 neighbor'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
+aid-de-camps 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. It 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 humor, 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, every body'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, and 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 capital enough; if he
+could have stood one more turn of the wheel, he would have 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 this 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-humor.
+
+"I met that queer fellow Altamont the other day," Pen said to his
+uncle, a day or two afterward.
+
+"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; "and he said he
+did not like the name of Pendennis, though he did me the honor to
+think that I was a good fellow."
+
+"I don't know any man of the name of Altamont, I give you my honor,"
+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
+aid-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 such a secret, which is no 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 Parliament?"
+
+"Clavering thinks he ain't fit for Parliament!" the major answered.
+"No more he is. What's to prevent him from putting you or any body
+else into his place if he likes? Do you think that the 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 honorable 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 "every body does
+it," but because we like it; and our acquiescence, alas! proves not
+that every body 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 behavior 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 care 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 any thing but ardor 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! Oh, 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 all 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 storybook 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 every body does, almost
+every body; only it is luckier to fail before marriage than after."
+
+_"Merci du choix, Monsieur"_ said the Sylphide, making a courtesy.
+
+"Look, my little Blanche," said Pen, taking her hand, and with his
+voice of sad good-humor; "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 courtesy.
+
+"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 dhonneur!_ We used to call
+your Highness the Prince of Fairoaks. What an honor 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 afterward. 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 pootty 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 bef--by any of my--my--by any body"--she sobbed
+out, with much simplicity.
+
+"_Any body!_" 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 êtes 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, dispatched 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 the Publishers would
+sell!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+IN WHICH PEN BEGINS HIS CANVASS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 favor; 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 the 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 neighboring 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 game-keeper of a morning, and for the
+evenings there was a plenty of books and occupation for a literary
+genius like Mr. Arthur, and 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 among the
+simple people there. His sense of humor 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 every
+body 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 every body, 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 Harrowgate--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 the 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 Honorable 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-humor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 onward toward 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,
+&c. 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 clamber 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 honor by his tenant, and at
+which old Mrs. Stokes, Captain Glanders, Squire Hobnell, 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 humor 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 quarreled 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 linendrapery,
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 every thing that she desired, and was leaving the shop,
+Blanche, with a smiling face, and a sweet bow to one of the shop,
+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 any thing. 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 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 châtelaine, 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 Ivanhoe; 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 splendor 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."
+
+"Halloo--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 down stairs 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
+neighboring 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 any thing?" asked
+Altamont.
+
+Grady came out--"He says, will you take any thing 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 any thing 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
+newcomers, and so left them.
+
+"Will we take any thing 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 apostrophized, 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 chamber
+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 any body 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 XXVIII.
+
+IN WHICH PEN BEGINS TO DOUBT ABOUT HIS ELECTION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+While 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 a panic,
+and that he was acting like a rogue and hypocrite.
+
+How was it that a single 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 school-boy, 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 worshiped 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 good-will--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 _koh-i-noor_ 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 good-will and kindness of every body.
+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 good-will
+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 down stairs, and I am not sure that she did not embrace
+him in the presence of Calverley and Coldstream: not that those
+gentleman 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--Calverly 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 every thing 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 house-keeper. 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-humor, she
+performed for him the last Parisian courtesy.
+
+Lady Rockminster came in while this courtesy 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 favorable 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 favor 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 while 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 every body 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 I 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 life-time, 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 toward 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
+church-yard-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
+honor 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 honor. 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, balked 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 can not
+ask for more than love and kindness; and if you think humbly of
+yourself, Arthur, the love and kindness are not diminished--are they?
+I often thought our dearest mother spoiled you at home, by worshiping
+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 can not 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 fervor, 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 came 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 scared 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 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. "O 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, while 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 every thing 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 good-will, 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
+recognized; 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 Mère 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 troisième_ 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, &c. &c. &c.'"
+
+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 XXIX.
+
+IN WHICH THE MAJOR IS BIDDEN TO STAND AND DELIVER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 parlor 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, while
+Pendennis and Clavering had their discourse in the parlor. 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 Sidney?
+Clavering ain't no more married to my lady than I am! Altamont's the
+man: Altamont's a convick; 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 prejudices 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 gettin' into Parlyment on the strenth of it,
+and was as proud as if he was a duke with half a million a year (such,
+we grieve to say, was Morgan's opinion of his employer's nephew),
+would pay any think 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, or 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
+Poyns," 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 post-chaises 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 café 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
+cab-stand, 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 laboring 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 backs. 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, while 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 awhile 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 among us has not said good-by to
+his holiday; returned to dun London, and his fate; surveyed his labors
+and liabilities laid out before him, and been aware of that inevitable
+little account to settle? Smith and his little account, in the
+morning, symbolize 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 labors 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 plowed
+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 rail-road 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.
+
+While the major was absent from his lodgings, Morgan had been seated
+in the landlady's parlor, drinking freely of hot brandy-and-water,
+and pouring out on Mrs. Brixham some of the abuse which he had
+received from his master up-stairs. Mrs. Brixham was 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 boot-jack 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
+mantle-piece of his back-parlor. 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 up-stairs 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 laboring. 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 down stairs,
+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'?--_tooty-fay
+mame shose, sivvaplay, munseer?_"
+
+"Silence, you beast, and go!" cried out the major.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 formly, 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 wig-box. 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 honorable, done every thing 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 AlfPay."
+
+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 mean time, I desire to go to
+bed, and have not the slightest wish for your farther 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 fire-side 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 thine: 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 tonight. 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 gray 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 fire-side, 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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."
+
+"O 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. Every thing
+I had is his. He's a dreadful man." "Eh, Mrs. Brixham? _tant
+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
+down stairs 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 down stairs, 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. O, 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 campaigner 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-by--to Mrs. Brixham and Mr. Morgan."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+IN WHICH THE MAJOR NEITHER YIELDS HIS MONEY NOR HIS LIFE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 families, and I can vouch 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'ner 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 waited 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 can not 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 afterward 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 while the old
+gentleman is making his mysterious toilet, we will also
+modestly retire.
+
+After breakfast, Major Pendennis and his new aid-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 Dispatches, 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 demeanor 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 down stairs," he said, on entering.
+
+"Bring a couple of cabs, Frosch, if you please--and wait down stairs
+until I ring for you," said the major. Morgan saw Frosch down stairs,
+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 check 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 _possussion of certing
+information._"
+
+"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 honorable 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
+behavior. You have been listening at the door, sir, I suppose," said
+the major, looking very haughty; "I forgot to look at the key-hole
+when I went to that public-house, or I might have suspected what sort
+of 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 any body 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 me a note for one twenty-five. There's your
+check-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-barreled 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 toward 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 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 scared 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 up-stairs 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, recognized
+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 any thing, 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, sir, 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 farther 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 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. Among 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 up-stairs in my trunks;
+and having uttered falsehoods regarding his and other honorable
+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 courtesy, 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 parlor-window, discharged any
+thing 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 humor 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 doorsteps, 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 _i_s 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 honor 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 honor of waiting on you there: and would be thankful if you
+would favor 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 favor 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
+patronize 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, with which the reader has already had
+cognizance.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+IN WHICH PENDENNIS COUNTS HIS EGGS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our friend had arrived in London on that day only,
+though but for a brief visit, and having left some fellow-travelers at
+an hotel to which he had conveyed 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 at 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 Havanna, upon each other's mustaches. "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-by,
+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,
+colors 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 neighborhood 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
+Colonization 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 skeptical 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 every thing from the Begum's generosity, and
+says that she will come down very handsomely. And I think Blanche is
+devilish 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, while 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 any body 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
+afterward, 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 if? She's gone from us. God's blessing be with her!
+She might have staid, 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 hand-writing--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 awhile, 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 humor; 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 _pavé_ 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 cab-stand, 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 quarreled 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
+fetes 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' for 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 down stairs and walked
+to his uncle's lodgings.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+FIAT JUSTITIA.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 afterward," 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 while 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
+cognizant 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 acknowledgement 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 while 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 toward 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 neighboring 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 honor 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, bedad, 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 école, bonne école_, 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 among
+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 pennâ_, 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-do-you-call-'em, hey?"
+
+"About Miss Amory's father--about Lady Clavering's first husband, and
+who he is, and what."
+
+"Hem--a devilish 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 dead-lock like the fellow in the play--the
+Critic, hey?--devilish 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 near est 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 honor, 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 over-reached; 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 honor?"
+
+"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 honor 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 can not 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 afterward 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 XXXIII.
+
+IN WHICH THE DECK BEGINS 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-hag, 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 labor 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 vigor 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 afterward 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 labor. 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 any thing 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 book-case (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. O, 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.
+
+"Dr. 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----street 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+Rockminister'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
+Rockminister, who was astonished at his enthusiasm. She had never
+heard him so warm in praise of any body; 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 recognized 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 & 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-by!" 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 showed 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 skepticism 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 fullness 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 worshiped 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 skeptic'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 death-bed 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 fulfill 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 jeweler'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. Rumors from Naples and Paris, rumors,
+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 can not 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 any body'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 practice 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 can not be better
+given than in the surprising and mysterious letter of Arthur
+Pendennis.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+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 epaulets 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 where you are
+presented, and you shall give me a smile from your chariot window. I
+saw Lady Mirable 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 can not tell you now--afterward 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 dispatched a letter to Sir Francis
+Clavering, saying that I can not accept his seat in Parliament until
+after my marriage; in like manner I can not 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 gayly
+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 with-out, 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 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 humor: 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 any thing 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 hang-dog 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 to 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 sat down, with his hands
+on his knees, the sun shining 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 apostrophized, 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 favored 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 humor 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. Dr. 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 every thing. 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 rose 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 any thing 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 every body, 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 practices 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 bans 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 _protégée_ 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 candor 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 forever; 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 XXXV.
+
+SHOWS HOW ARTHUR HAD BETTER HAVE TAKEN A RETURN-TICKET.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 every body. 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
+neighbor 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
+blackcoated gentleman who was traveling 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 burden,
+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 short-comings, lost
+opportunities, weigh the passions which overpower, the defects which
+incapacitate reason?--what extent of truth and right his neighbor's
+mind is organized 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 splendors 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 neighbor, 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 carpetbag 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 forego the
+worldly advantages which a union with you offered, and which I could
+not accept without, as I fancy, being dishonored. 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 toward 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 a 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 jeweler'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 interest 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 forever
+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 toward 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 any
+body 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 l-l-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 every body 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-by, 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 différent._ I have been spoilt early. I can not live out
+of the world, out of excitement. I could have done so, but it is too
+late. If I can not have emotions, I must have the world. You would
+offer me neither one nor the other. You are _blasé_ in every thing,
+even in ambition. You had a career before you, and you would not take
+it. You give it up!--for what?--for a _bétise_, 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, _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-là. Il est bon. 1l 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 _à millions._ How does it affect me? It is not my
+fault. It will never appear."
+
+"You will tell Harry every thing, 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 defenseless 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 père, 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'écrit. Il écrit tres-bien,
+voyez-vous--comme un pirate--comme un Bohémien--comme un homme._ But
+for this I would have said to my mother--_Ma mère! quittons ce lâche
+mari, cette lâche société--retournons à mon père._
+
+"The pirate would have wearied you like the rest," said Pen.
+
+_"Eh! Il me faut des émotions"_ 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 XXXVI.
+
+A CHAPTER OF MATCH-MAKING.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 can not 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
+supplanted 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 humor, 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 practices 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 awe-stricken 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 night-caps on, I daresay. 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 humor
+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 parents cast 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 homeward 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 humor--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 while 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 honors. 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 any thing;
+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 beef-steak 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
+connection. 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 theater 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 theater? with his son? What
+a capital piece it was, and how charming Mrs. O'Leary looked and sang
+it! and what a good fellow young Huxter was! liked by every body, an
+honor 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 practice 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 every body 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."
+
+"His lordship 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 favor in his sight. There
+_must_ have been something 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 XXXVII.
+
+EXEUNT OMNES.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+re-assemble at the little country town where we were first introduced
+to them. Frederic Lightfoot, formerly _maître d'hôtel_ 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 gate-way.
+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 favor, 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 rumor 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)--rumor 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 favor 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 fulfill 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 any thing 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 met; 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 embassadress, "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 _manquée_,
+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 embassadress.
+
+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 demeanor, 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 acknowledged 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 up-stairs 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 no 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
+onward 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, every thing 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 jewelers were set to work and engaged to
+prepare the delightful paraphernalia of Hymen. Lady Clavering was in
+such a good humor, 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 up-stairs 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, "O, Arthur--Mr. Pendennis--I want you to tell dear Laura
+something?" and she came out to the door.
+
+"What is it?" he 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 wont," said Blanche. "I have promised him--_n'importe_. Wait
+until after our marriage--O, until after our marriage--O, how wretched
+I am," said the girl, who had been all smiles, and grace, and gayety
+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 any thing. Tell him tonight."
+
+"And give her this--_Il est là_--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?
+O, 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 cab-stands--any thing 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 every thing 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 any thing 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-cassée, 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 bridemaids' 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 Madam 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-humor.
+
+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, a-hem! 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 can not 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 quarreling
+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 awhile 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 quarreling 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 inclosure 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. O 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 any thing, 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 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 toward 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 toward the
+fire, but Foker ran to her and clutched her arm, "I must see that
+letter," he said; "give it to 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 Bessy, 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
+dishonored 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. Every thing'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 connection 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 Lady Clavering. "Take her, take every
+thing 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 dishonored, 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 splendor scarcely sufficed to make the idea
+of himself supportable. She was weaned 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 any thing happened to him?" gasped Lady Clavering. "O, 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 any thing 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.
+
+While 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 favorite beverage, and the parties engaged in
+general conversation.
+
+After awhile 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 every thing to soothe Mr.
+Morgan; and, under pretense 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 afterward, 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, while 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, "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 he 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
+hack 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 Honorable 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 Sidney, 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 reconnoiter. 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 down stairs 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 Bow'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 broom-stick,
+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 any body 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 practicing
+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 church-yard 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 Huxter, who has the entire command
+of Doctor Portman, brought Bows down from London to contest the organ
+chair 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 among 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 traveled 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 endeavor, 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, Vol. 2, by 
+William Makepeace Thackeray
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2, 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, Vol. 2
+       His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy
+
+Author: William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+Posting Date: December 7, 2011 [EBook #9904]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: October 29, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Lee Dawei, Michael Lockey and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+HIS FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES, HIS FRIENDS AND HIS GREATEST ENEMY.
+
+
+
+
+
+BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD BY THE AUTHOR,
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOLUME II.
+
+1858
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+1.--RELATES TO MR. HARRY FOKER's AFFAIRS
+
+2.--CARRIES THE READER BOTH TO RICHMOND AND GREENWICH
+
+3.--CONTAINS A NOVEL INCIDENT
+
+4.--ALSATIA
+
+5.--IN WHICH THE COLONEL NARRATES SOME OF HIS ADVENTURES
+
+6.--A CHAPTER OF CONVERSATIONS
+
+7.--MISS AMORY'S PARTNERS
+
+8.--MONSEIGNEUR S'AMUSE
+
+9.--A VISIT OF POLITENESS
+
+10.--IN SHEPHERD'S INN
+
+11.--IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE GARDEN
+
+12.--THE HAPPY VILLAGE AGAIN
+
+13.--WHICH HAD VERY NEARLY BEEN THE LAST OF THE STORY
+
+14.--A CRITICAL CHAPTER
+
+15.--CONVALESCENCE
+
+16.--FANNY'S OCCUPATION'S GONE
+
+17.--IN WHICH FANNY ENGAGES A NEW MEDICAL MAN
+
+18.--FOREIGN GROUND
+
+19.--"FAIROAKS TO LET"
+
+20.--OLD FRIENDS
+
+21.--EXPLANATIONS
+
+22.--CONVERSATIONS
+
+23.--THE WAY OF THE WORLD
+
+24.--WHICH ACCOUNTS PERHAPS FOR CHAPTER XXIII
+
+25.--PHILLIS AND CORYDON
+
+26.--TEMPTATIONS
+
+27.--IN WHICH PEN BEGINS HIS CANVASS
+
+28.--IN WHICH PEN BEGINS TO DOUBT ABOUT HIS ELECTION
+
+29.--IN WHICH THE MAJOR IS BIDDEN TO STAND AND DELIVER
+
+30.--IN WHICH THE MAJOR NEITHER YIELDS HIS MONEY NOR HIS LIFE
+
+31.--IN WHICH PENDENNIS COUNTS HIS EGGS
+
+32.--FIAT JUSTITIA
+
+33.--IN WHICH THE DECKS BEGIN TO CLEAR
+
+34.--MR. AND MRS. SAM HUXTER
+
+35.--SHOWS HOW ARTHUR HAD BETTER HAVE TAKEN A RETURN-TICKET
+
+36.--A CHAPTER OF MATCH-MAKING
+
+37.--EXEUNT OMNES PENDENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+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 the
+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
+deviled 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
+theater. 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 to the tread-mill 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 checks from Mr. Foker, and autographs from the earl
+himself, with the letters I O U written over his illustrious
+signature.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Ann 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 favorite 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 any body 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 gray
+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 the full gallop; all round
+the chaste bed-room 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 favorite 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 fac-simile. Such were the
+pictures in which honest Harry delighted. He was no worse than many of
+his neighbors; 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 hand-writing, scrawling freely over the filigree paper,
+and commencing by calling Mr. Harry, her dear Hokey-pokey-fokey, lay
+on his bed table by his side, amid 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-corned 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 pleasures 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, motherly woman," Harry said.
+"But it isn't the Back Kitchen, neither," he added with a
+ghastly sigh.
+
+As Lady Agnes never denied her son any thing, 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 rigeur_, 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 Brooks's, whom I remember at Drummington, 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 every body 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--every body 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 every thing. 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."
+
+"Hem!" said Lady Agnes.
+
+"I know what you mean. Lady C. ain't distangy exactly, but she is very
+good-natured." "O 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."
+
+"O, 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
+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 favorite 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
+colors: 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 pew_" 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 splendor and proceeded to sally out.
+
+"At what time 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 every body knows), where he just had
+the pleasure of peeping upward 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 your 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: while, 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 arch-way 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 place. 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 siren 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 every body, and never
+missed a day in the Park on his gray 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
+honor 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. "Who ever
+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? O, 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-by. 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 Lady Ann upon a new novel, which the sisters had just
+procured from the library.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CARRIES THE READER BOTH TO RICHMOND AND GREENWICH.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 pine-apples, 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?" Mrs. Calverley asked
+of her neighbor. "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 toward 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 n'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 danse_ 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 straight-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 then
+accomplished coachman whether he would not step in and take some thing
+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 over head, looked down upon Mr.
+Foker that night, as he, in his turn, sentimentally regarded them. And
+he went and gazed upward 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 neighboring
+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 patronize the institution of public
+worship, and that it was quite a correct thing to be seen in church of
+a Sunday. One day it chanced that he and Arthur went thither together:
+the latter, who was now in high favor, 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 every where. 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 Mr. 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 the 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 afterward, 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 dandyfied 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 honor, 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 every body, 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; while 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 toward 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the congregation issued forth at the conclusion of the service,
+Foker was out among 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 Amory 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 Gray 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-humor
+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 any thing, 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,"--"O, 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 downward toward 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 every thing 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 any
+thing 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
+honor us with their company at Greenwich? Is Lady Clavering to go on
+forever 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 favor to be my guest? and Miss Blanche shall be Arthur's, if she
+will be so good."
+
+"O 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
+afterward 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 III.
+
+CONTAINS A NOVEL INCIDENT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 among 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 favorite
+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 afterward, 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 the 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 others were in which he thought he had
+expressed his full heart! This page was imitated from a then favorite
+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 to 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 profound 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 Oxbridge; it's a little like him; and Miss Amory is
+Neaera. By gad, Warrington, I did love 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 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 any thing 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 sentence 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 purposes 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 flavor 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 fervor 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
+vigor, 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 purfumed, and petted, in rather an
+absurd manner).
+
+"Do you think we can do any thing 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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; and Warrington,
+with a scornful smile, once more took up the manuscript with the tongs
+from out of the harmless cinders.
+
+"O, 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 piastres to Bacon or
+to Bungay. The rubbish is salable 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.
+
+While 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 out-bid his rival. Was any thing 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 odor 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 shattered 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 humorist, 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 personages 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 eying 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 great
+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."
+
+"O, 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 grand house, he
+comes and stays in these rickety old chambers with me. He's a man that
+can afford to live any where."
+
+"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 then 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 skillful 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 or five years, and make a fortune. In the mean time, I
+should wish him to live properly, take respectable apartments, and
+keep a brougham." And on this simple calculation it was that the major
+counseled Pen.
+
+Arthur, laughing, told Warrington what his uncle's advice had been;
+but he luckily had a much more reasonable counselor 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 inclosed
+to her such an installment 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 toward 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 a 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 honor, very great honor, 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.
+Every body 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 dependent."
+
+"A dependent! who ever so thought of you? You are the equal of all the
+world," Pynsent broke out.
+
+"I am a dependent 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 dispraise of others. Nor did their praise
+elate him overmuch; 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 hurt rather 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-humor!
+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 honor!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+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
+neighborhood of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, and the Temple. Somewhere
+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 venders, purveyors of theatrical prints for
+youth, dealers in dingy furniture, and bedding suggestive of any thing
+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 theater,
+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
+center 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
+mustaches, 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 luster 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
+daughter 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 practicing 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 mantle-piece 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 behavior "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 demeanor 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 daughter'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 clart and burgundee, until his own utterance began to
+fail him, over his sixth tumbler of whiskey-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 make 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 gray hairs from
+jail." And the good-natured Lady Mirabel dispatched 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 slip-shod
+messenger and aid-de-camp of the captain, who brought the letter
+announcing his mishap. If the servant had followed the captain's
+aid-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's
+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 courtesies, pointing toward 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 Travelers', 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." These 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 Nawaab of
+Lucknow, and Captain the 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 Embassador 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," as 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 mignonnette-box
+which bloomed in Bows's window.
+
+From Grady's kitchen casement often came odors still more fragrant.
+The three old soldiers who formed the garrison of No. 4, 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 any thing. 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 afterward; 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 honor 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 organizing 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 every thing: 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 intrusted), Strong was sent to him by his patron 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 burdened 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 every
+body 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 V.
+
+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 sat 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-humored 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 color of his heard 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 can not 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 Jingo. And
+it's my belief I had some more, too, afterward 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 cunning 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. 3, 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 any
+thing? Dammy, Strong, did I split any thing?"
+
+"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 recognized 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 any body 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 sattens 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. 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 kep 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 restaurateurs,
+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 swep off in another way. One night, at the
+countess's, there was several of us at supper--Mr. Bloundell-Bloundell,
+the Honorable 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 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
+Honorable 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 bed-side. So I said he was a gentleman, and asked him
+if he would like to take any thing, when my servant should get it for
+him; but the Honorable 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 any thing, 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 any thing 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 any
+price.' '_En effet_' says the marky, twiddling his little black
+mustaches 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 honor 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 voici._' 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 honor, 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 said, '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 while I'm fond of her. She said
+she could not bear 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 jewelry, 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 honor 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 honor?'
+
+"'Field of honor 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
+honor--I thought, I--but no matter. Good-by, 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 honor.'
+
+"What could I do? Every body 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 honor; 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. Clavering 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 any thing 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 suffered 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, by 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 two 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 colors 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 honor 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-humor. "Look here, baronet, I
+apologize; on my honor, 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, it's ungrateful." "By heavens, if ever you do it
+again. If ever you dare to show 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 Gad, or any where 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've 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 every
+body, 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 check 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 cleaned out,
+leaving that infernal check 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 farther 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 VI.
+
+A CHAPTER OF CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Every day, after the entertainments 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 also 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. Every
+body 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 rumors
+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. To name all the senators
+with whom Clavering consorted, would be invidious. We may mention
+only a few. There was Captain Raff, the honorable 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 favor 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 bay-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 every where--every where, 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 humor 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 neighborhood 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 forebore 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
+dispatched 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
+toward that fane in a carriage-and-four, so to speak, and might halt
+and take refreshments almost whenever he pleased. He wore varnished
+boots from the earliest period of youth, and had cambric handkerchiefs
+and lemon-colored 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 Havannas, 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, &c., 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 pleasures. 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 neighbor, 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 any body 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 too 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. "O, you don't know how
+miserable that man made me," she said, "or what a life I passed
+between 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 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 jail before his trial, instead of afterward, he would have saved
+me a deal of shame and 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 it. For 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 happy 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 among
+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 up-stairs 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 humor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 brusk, 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 every body 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 any thing 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 any body 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-by, 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 honor of a conversation, and patronized 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 any body
+should think of patronizing 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, 'O
+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, every body went there
+--every body who was in society: and then we talked of the new
+embassador 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 neighboring 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 among 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 gayety 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 women 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 combinations 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 neighbor 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 girl's 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
+civilization. Ye gods! how rapidly we live and grow! In nine months,
+Mr. Paxton grows you a pine apple 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 pine-apples so is the
+race of man. Hoiaper--what's the Greek for a pine-apple, 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, while 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 gayly 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-by 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 pommeling 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. "And 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 world, 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 it, or he who descends to the
+ground, and takes his part in the contest? "That philosopher," Pen
+said, "had held a great place among 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 cushion, and
+cries out, that the whole struggle is an accursed one, and the works
+of the world are evil. Many a conscience-striken 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 paralyzed 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
+laborer 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 reveler 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 VII.
+
+MISS AMORY'S PARTNERS.
+
+
+The noble Henry Foker, of whom we have lost sight for a few pages, has
+been in the mean while 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 ardor, 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 favorite 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 among
+ill-regulated young gentlemen, and such, indeed, was Mr. H. Foker's
+condition, who, having been bred up to indulge in every propensity
+toward 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 practiced? 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 you,
+sir, 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 very elevation of your virtue and high attributes,
+of necessity lonely; we can't reach up and talk familiarly with such
+potentates. Good-by, 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 worshiped 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, among us, we need never despair. I have read
+of the passion of a transported pickpocket for a female convict (each
+of them being advanced in age, 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 honored 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, among 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 splendor 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
+neighborhood of Jermyn-street, where his friends Loder, Punter, little
+Moss Abrams, 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 regarded each
+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, that I have for 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 practiced 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 practiced 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 step-daughter. 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 gray 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, flavored 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 ball-room then passing before
+them, and about whose appearance or character Mr. Harry spoke with
+artless freedom, and a considerable dash of humor.
+
+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 god-mother, 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 danced and waltzed with
+renewed vigor and grace.
+
+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 favorite? 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 courtesy 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 expression 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 honor which had just been shown to her, and with
+other intoxicating events of the evening, that her good humor 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 every thing that was
+nice, and her ear with every thing that was sweet and flattering--oh!
+what an object he was! The rings round his eyes were of the color 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 humor; 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 worshiper must have looked upward 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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-colored 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.
+
+Among 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 dandyfied 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 every body: 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 peach? 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 cab-stand 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 sympathizing 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 valor! 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 splendor 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 fullness of his heart; and Mr. Pen must
+have been too much occupied with his own affairs to remark the concern
+and agitation of his neighbor, 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
+toward 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 any thing it ain't. Talking
+about money and such a girl as that, it's--it's--what-d'ye-callem--_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, eying 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 any thing 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
+the sofa, face forward, 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 every body.
+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-by! 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 he?" 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 that 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 shriveled, 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 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 willfully or
+fatally astray, while the natural truth and love which should illumine
+him grew 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, 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 VIII.
+
+MONSEIGNEUR S'AMUSE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 neighbors, 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
+bay-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 mustaches, 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 any thing but misanthropical. If he could not get a good
+dinner he sat 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-parlor or on board a Greenwich steam-boat, or in a jaunt
+to Hampstead with Mr. Finucane, his colleague at the Pall Mall
+Gazette; or in a visit to the summer theaters 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
+or the lovely equestrian of the arena by the hand. And while he could
+watch the grimaces or the graces of these with a satiric humor 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: he was
+pleased to possess it: and said that he hoped thus to the last he
+should retain it. As another man has an ardor for art or music, or
+natural science, Mr. Pen said that anthropology was his favorite
+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
+coqueting of a wrinkled dowager in a ball-room, 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 while 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 humor 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
+forever, 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 every thing. But you
+began to use the bear's-grease pot directly the hair-dresser 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 while 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 humor, 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 fire-works 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
+splendors 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 recognized, "Bedad, sir, if ye doubt me
+honor, 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 any reet 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, oi've seen Vauxhall, and I
+scawrun any interfayrance on moi account: but for these leedies, one
+of them has never been there, and oi should think ye'd harly take
+advantage of me misfartune in losing the tickut, to deproive her of
+her pleasure."
+
+"It ain't no use, captain. I can't go about your business," the
+checktaker 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 door-keeper, peevishly, out of the
+illuminated box. And at this minute Arthur came up, and recognizing
+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 toward 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
+favorite 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 sympathized
+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--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 gray
+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 demeanor.
+
+"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. 4."
+
+Fanny made a little courtesy, 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
+courtesy; "and I've never been at Vauxhall, sir, and Pa 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 splendor such
+as the finest fairy tale, the finest pantomime she had ever witnessed
+at the theater, had never realized. 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 native countee)--Mr. Pendennis,
+ye've been me preserver, and oi 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
+splendor 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 patronizing and affable manner pointing
+out to them the edifices worthy of note, and discoursing, 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 honor 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
+would 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 color 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 Caracoline, little Tom
+Tufthunt was in attendance upon Lord Colchicum; and rather pleased,
+too, with his position. When Don Juan scales 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 peer 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 god-father 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 patronize 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
+mantle-piece 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 dark
+porter's 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 among them, one or two
+of the acquaintances of Mr. Arthur Pendennis.
+
+Among 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 woe-begone 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 toward him with no little kindness and pity--but
+Harry did not see the beautiful dark eyes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 short 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 trowsers 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 at our place--I'm mostly at home
+Saturdays; and there's generally a cheese in the cupboard. Ta, Ta.
+There's the bell for the fire-works 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 fire-work
+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 fire-works, 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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?"
+
+"O 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 any thing
+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
+fire-works. You must know I live by myself, and work very hard. I
+write in books and newspapers, Fanny; and I was quite tired out, and
+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 grammarian's 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 Mr.
+Arthur Pendennis made any use of the monosyllable in question? Not so.
+In the first place it was dark: the fire-works 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 honor. She seems to have a great deal of dangerous and rather
+contagious sensibility, and I am very glad the fire-works 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 under tone. 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
+fire-works, 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 any thing to eat, ladies, and I wish you would permit me
+to invite you to supper."
+
+"Dad," said Costigan, "I'd loike a snack, tu; only I forgawt me purse,
+or I should have invoited these leedies to a colleetion."
+
+Mrs. Bolton, with considerable asperity, said, she ad an eadache, and
+would much rather go home.
+
+"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
+favor 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-humored 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 favorite 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, "like 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-humor 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 humor, 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 remonstrances 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 honor,
+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 pardon, 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-humor, "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 any thing about the dispute.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A VISIT OF POLITENESS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 nightcap; 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 labor.
+
+Mr. Pendennis's labor, 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
+laborer, 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
+overmuch. 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 among 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;
+destined, 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 minanderies of
+the young ladies in the ball-rooms" (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 dandyfied protecting air, his conceit, generosity, and good
+humor, 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 ginger-bread 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 realization 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 made 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 trowsers made his appearance under the Inn archway, and stopped
+at the porter's wicket, Fanny was not in the least surprised, only
+delighted, 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 humor 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 work-box 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 Pontydiddlum; 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 jewelry, 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 F----in society.
+
+"O, 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. Oh, 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, "O, 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, sent 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
+theater, 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 face 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-humor, 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 court-yard 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 X.
+
+IN SHEPHERD'S INN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 and 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 night
+previous, 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 every body.
+
+"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 honor,
+I am sure. They are rather high up; but--"
+
+"O! 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 honor my umble
+domicile with a visit," Mr. Bows said, with a 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 toward 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-by, 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, ony 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 sate 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 any thing 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 bed-chamber, 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 odor 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
+woefully: 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 labored 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 among 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 an 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 toward 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 while 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 humor. He went off to endeavor 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 on 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 Theater 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 travestie 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 XI
+
+IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE GARDEN.
+
+
+Fashion has long deserted the green and pretty Temple Garden, in which
+Shakspeare 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. Newberry has sent.
+Treading heavily on the gravel, and rolling majestically along in a
+snuff-colored 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 Miter), and Mr. Johnson asks
+Mr. Goldsmith to come home and take a dish of tea with Miss Williams.
+Kind faith of Fancy! Sir Hoger 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 neighborhood 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 come 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 neighborhood
+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 wharves and 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 downward 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 toward the east.
+
+One cried out, "Oh!" the other began to laugh; and with a knowing
+little infantine 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Pen looked very grave, pompous, and dandified. He was unusually smart
+and brilliant in his costume. His white duck trowsers and white hat,
+his neckcloth of many colors, his light waistcoat, gold chains, and
+shirt studs, gave him the air of a prince of the blood at least. How
+his splendor became his figure! Was any body 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 won't 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!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Neara
+--Neara--I don't know the pronunciation. And how 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 down
+stairs 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, &c.) 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 hout, 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-by, good-by." 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 center 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 book-case 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 any body
+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 afterward, 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 fire-side; 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 tyrannizing 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. And I 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 thread-bare coat, and gets his
+bread by playing tunes at an alehouse? 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 every thing has 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 make her
+mock my deformity and old age?"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+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 inhabited 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
+vacations, 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, while 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
+farm-house; built a flaring new white-washed 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 indulged in the pleasures of the town together.
+Ascott, the theaters, Vauxhall, and the convivial taverns in the
+joyous neighborhood 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 rencounter 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 labored, 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 theaters 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 theater, 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 to 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 humor with himself and the world, it never
+entered his mind that he could be disagreeable to any body; 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 offense--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 recognize 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 afterward, 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 behavior 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 practicing his infernal
+arts; and he thought he should warn her father, &c., &c.,--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 favors.
+
+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 Honorable 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. Madam 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 Dr. 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 any thing 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 and
+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 hand
+writing, 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 unfavorable to his neighbors), 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, &c., &c.
+
+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
+rumors that were against him, and earnestly praying that he would
+break off and repent of a connection 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 XIII.
+
+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 endeavored to sooth 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
+wish 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 ball-room. 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 forego any
+thing 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 cozy 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, amicably 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 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 next the 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 endeavored, 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
+recognized 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 forego 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 forego 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 afterward, 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 endeavored 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, was yet
+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, afterward 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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, while 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 a
+romantic attachment 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 was so very kind. Then he came to call and ask after
+us: and very, very good it was of such a 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 every body admires Pauline--and I'm sure every body 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'm 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 do, 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 aid-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 looking 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 practice, and with which weapons of defense nature endows them,
+the traces of her emotion disappeared; and she went and took her work,
+and sat in the corner so demure and quiet, that the careless male
+parent never suspected that any thing 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 endeavoring 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 toward 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 any body 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 any body but himself. But
+the young man must have advice--the best advice; and Morgan was
+straightway dispatched 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 honor, that if he could be of any use he
+would rush to Pen's chambers. As it was, Morgan should go and see that
+every thing was right. The doctor must write to him by every post to
+Stillbrook; it was but forty miles distant from London, and if any
+thing 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 demeanor. 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 neighboring station, and a
+gray-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; "any thing 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
+traveling 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 poor 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 XIV.
+
+A CRITICAL CHAPTER.
+
+
+As Fanny saw the two ladies and the anxious countenance of the elder,
+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 afterward; 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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--O, 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 hurra 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 into 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."
+
+"O, 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 further room.
+
+Mrs. Pendennis was ensconced, pale and solemn, in a great chair by
+Pen's bed-side. 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 traveled. 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 praying into his face, to know if there is hope for
+the sick infant that can not 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 heart-broken
+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 every thing 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 bed-room), 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, and flung them
+upon the study-table. Did Goodenough know any thing 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 humor
+will arise, and such smiles will pass, to satirize the gloom, as it
+were, and to make it more gloomy!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 time 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 he had there, for whom 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 behavior 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 back 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
+favor 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 mischievious 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 every body 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 shall
+we enlarge very much upon the more cheerful theme of his recovery.
+
+Every body 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 bears' grease pots, quite curious to
+examine, too; and a choice selection of portraits of females almost
+always in sadness and generally in disguise or dishabille, glittered
+round the neat walls of his elegant little bower of repose. Medora
+with disheveled 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 any thing 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
+can not 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 can not help peeping at the shops on the way, or at our
+neighbor'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 humor 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 up-stairs; 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 gayety, 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 neighborhood 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 Mrs. 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 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 intermittance; 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
+Lambcourt. This was introduced into the Pen-Warrington sitting-room by
+large puffs of tobacco smoke--the puffs of smoke 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 pass-key), 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 traveler 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 succor 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
+bed-chamber 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 toward 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 XV.
+
+CONVALESCENCE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 anatomized 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 her
+were changed; and, alas, that it should be so! were not particularly
+eager to see her any more. He felt very well disposed toward 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 toward 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
+bed-side, 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 realize 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
+inward doubt and despair and 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 finishes 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
+willfulness, and a little selfishness, and a little dandyfication, 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 while 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 Flagcourt; 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 honor 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
+every body in the gardens, and there are beadles, you know, and that
+sort of thing--every body 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 color 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 is 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 women
+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
+defenses which a woman has in her heart, her faith, and honor, 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 away, 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 honor 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, humor, 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? Never, 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 favors 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 traveled 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 either 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-cutthroats 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 Heaven," 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 dear 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 any body else at
+Fairoaks except Doctor Portman and Captain Glanders, and because his
+mother constantly praised her Arthur, and because he was
+gentleman-like, 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 afterward, 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 favorable 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
+quietly. 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 flavor), 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
+arm-chair. 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
+apartments 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 toward 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 exceedingly
+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 time 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 bed-time 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 any thing for
+the slippers.
+
+While 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 Mullinger'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 vigor,
+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
+afterward 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, jocularities, waggeries, and
+_petits jeux innocens_: so that the second and third floors of
+number 6, Lambcourt, Temple, rang with more cheerfulness and laughter
+than had been known in those precincts for many a long day.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 traveling 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 odor.
+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, 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 uncouth 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 bed-side George found a new Bible which the widow had placed
+there, with a note inside saying that she had not seen the book among
+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 XVI.
+
+FANNY'S OCCUPATION'S GONE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 among
+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, whereupon 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 boot-makers
+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, &c. Of these documents,
+Pen, who was always free-handed 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 chests 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 any
+thing 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 dress-maker'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 any thing
+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 any thing about it; and I
+don't wish to know any thing 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; and, begad, 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 honor!--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 honor, 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 any thing serious has happened?
+Has Arthur said any thing?"
+
+"His silence confirms it," sobbed Mrs. Pendennis, behind her
+pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Not at all. There are subjects, my dear, about which a young fellow
+can not 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 any thing 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--O--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 view 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
+among Pen's other letters, and let him have them when he calls for
+them. Or if we 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.
+
+"_Arthur 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 honor 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 had 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 honorable a man as
+ever lived."
+
+"Honorable!" said the widow, with bitter scorn. "O, brother, what is
+this you call honor? 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 any thing 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.
+Whatd'youcallem, 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 honor, what
+right have you to doubt his honor 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 pursoo? 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 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 any thing 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 neighborhood; 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 toward 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 humor 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 allusions. 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. Dr. 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. Every thing 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 neighborhood, 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
+any where 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 school-boy,
+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--any where 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 to Arthur, it was received
+by that gentleman with the greatest alacrity and enthusiasm. He longed
+to be off at once. He let his mustaches 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 mustaches, when they came, were of
+a decidedly red color. 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 neighborhood, and they are not to be at home before Christmas,
+my uncle says: besides, Warrington, I want to get out of the country.
+While 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 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
+_affairs 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 mess-room 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 afterward; and the man who betrays your
+honor 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," Warrington said 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 traveling 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. Traveling 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 enable you
+to--to anticipate you 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 balked 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 eye-lashes looked down toward her tea-cup: 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 her query to
+her tea-spoon, 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 tea-spoon.
+
+"Would you?" said George.
+
+She looked up and said, "Yes." Their eyes met. "I will go any where
+you ask me, or do any thing," 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 neighboring 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 XVII.
+
+IN WHICH FANNY ENGAGES A NEW MEDICAL MAN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 appearance, 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 tea-cup 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 realized; 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 staid, 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 behavior 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 practiced what I preach."
+
+"And what did you practice, 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, among 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 every thing, whether it was a favorite tragic or comic
+actor, a cock on a dunghill, a corkscrew going into a bottle and a
+cork issuing thence, or an Irish officer of genteel connections 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 sixpenny-worth 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 gray 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 while 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 among 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 honor 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 any thing 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, &c., 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 cab-stand 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 homeward.
+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 Theater, where gin-shops, oyster-shops, and theatrical
+wardrobes abound, the proprietors of which were now asleep behind
+the 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 fellow to fall backward.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 gatebell, 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," he said; "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 and water to one of
+his knees and shins, which, with the pair of trowsers 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 while 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 every body 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 learned what was the illness which was evidently
+preying upon little Fan, and what had been Pen's behavior 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 disfavor 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 once, 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 Bows'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 any body," 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 all
+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 embassador, 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 any thing 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 behavior 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 humor was to contradict every body.
+
+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, recognize--"
+
+"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 to be turned 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 victimizing, 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 any thing to win a man, and fling him
+away without a pang, sir. If she 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-by, 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_. Dayme, 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 a 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 embassador 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 XVIII.
+
+FOREIGN GROUND.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Worth 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 connection
+between Arthur and the odious little gate-keeper 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 connection.
+
+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, &c., 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-traveled 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 out-stretched
+arms kneeling before the illuminated altars, and beheld the strange
+pomps and ceremonials of the Catholic worship. Bare-footed friars in
+the streets, crowned images of Saints and Virgins in the churches
+before which people were bowing down and worshiping, 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 toward 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 on 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 honey-suckle 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," among
+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 favorable 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, &c.
+&c.; 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 every body,
+and about every body, and a little against every body. He was
+invaluable in a country house, in a word: and richly merited and
+enjoyed his vacation after his labors. And perhaps while 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 toward the pretty, fresh-colored 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 ball-room,
+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 staid 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 blond, tight-waisted Germans--at the capering
+Frenchmen, with their lackered mustaches and trim varnished boots--at
+the English dandies, Pen among 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 neighborhood, 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 traveled he wore
+a jaunty and juvenile traveling 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 old traveler
+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 honor 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 splendors and amenities
+belonging to it. That very evening the resolute old gentlemen, 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 recognized and accosted him. He remembered her in '14 when she was
+an actress of the Paris Boulevard, and the Emperor Alexander's
+aid-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 edifying. 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 honor, 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 breath 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 marvelous
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the major arrived, his presence somehow cast a damp upon at least
+three persons of our little party--upon Laura, who had any thing but
+respect for him; upon Warrington, whose manner toward 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 up 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 dispatch-boxes and umbrella-cases, his
+guide-books, passports, maps, and other elaborate necessaries of the
+English traveler, all as trim and ready as they could be in their
+master's own room in Jermyn-street. Every thing was ready, from the
+medicine-bottle fresh filled from the pharmacien's, down to the old
+fellow's prayer-book, without which he never traveled, for he made a
+point of appearing at the English church at every place which he
+honored with a stay. "Every body did it," he said; "every English
+gentleman did it," and this pious man would as soon have thought of
+not calling upon the English embassador 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 every body 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.
+
+Among the letters there was a little note addressed, as a former
+letter we have heard of had been, to "Arthur 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 would 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 every body:
+and as for Arthur, she would pray for him forever. 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 any thing about this letter, sir?" Arthur asked.
+
+"What letter, my good sir?" said the other drily, 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 was she 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 inconveinence, 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--and, I beg
+your pardon, uncle. You were, you always have been, most kind to me:
+but I say again, did you say any thing 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 toward 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
+every thing 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 neighboring room opened and Laura came forth with 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 courtesy the
+young lady passed to her friend's 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 humor, 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 thoughts, 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 behavior and fickleness, and he described how the girl was no
+better than a little light-minded flirt; and, perhaps, he exaggerated
+the good humor and contentedness which he had himself, as he thought,
+witnessed in her behavior in the scene with Mr. Huxter.
+
+Now, all Bows's statements had been colored 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-humor, 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 connection 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, while Mr. Shamble was feebly giving utterance to his
+sermon.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"FAIROAKS TO LET."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our poor widow (with the assistance of her faithful Martha of
+Fairoaks, who laughed and wondered at the German ways, and
+superintended the affairs of the simple household) had made a little
+feast in honor 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 palid 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 shoulder 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 a 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 every thing 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
+out-stretched 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
+honorable 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
+undishonored 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 a 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--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 dare say 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 toward 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 often 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, toward 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?"
+
+"O 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 neighborhood," 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 dullness 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 had 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 humor, "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 forever 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 afterward 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 honor 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 for 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 calling 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 moon. 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 uncheckered 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 sister departed, 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 neighbor died of
+a complaint in the heart; while that speculated upon the amount of
+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 every thing, 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 labored, and knew it
+would suddenly remove her: and a prayer was found in her hand-writing,
+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 toilet: the glass that was no more to reflect her dear sad face.
+After she had been here awhile, Pen knocked and led her down stairs to
+the parlor 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 cognizance. 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 good-will 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 to plaster a wounded heart with a bank-note 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 if 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 get 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 neighborhood;
+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 Doctor 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 every body--"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 to 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. XX.
+
+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 tents 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 Muffineer 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 embassador 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 chop-sticks 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 embassador 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 Maryborough 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 up-stairs, 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 embassador again--never; and, upon
+my word, he has never been to dine with us since. The Lord Mayor, who
+did me the honor 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
+embassador: 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-year's 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 just 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 every thing 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
+any thing 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. Halloo!
+There's Cobden here, of all men in the world! I must go and speak to
+him. Good-by, 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 green sward,
+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 colors 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. "Hurrah,
+hurrah!" he bawled out, "Podasokus is the horse! Supper for ten
+Wheeler, my boy. Ask you all round of course, and damn the expense."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+neighbor with suspicion, lest that neighbor, 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
+cab-stand 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-humor
+mantled on the girl's cheeks, and played over that fair countenance
+like the pretty shining cloudlets on the serene sky over head; the
+elder lady's cheek was red too; but that was a permanent mottled rose,
+deepening only as it received fresh 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 hurrahing
+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 she
+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 dark 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
+conjuror had used the same words to a hundred different carriages
+on that day.
+
+Making his way solitary among 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 recognized 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: but 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 Mrs. 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
+demeanor 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 'appy to see Mr. Pendennis, and how well he was a lookin', and we'd
+been talkin' about Mr. P. only jest before; hadn't we, Fanny? and if
+this was the famous Hepsom 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 knockin' of his head--don't
+you, Fanny?
+
+While 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 shame-faced 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-colored 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-colored 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 uncolored 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-colored dexter kid-glove was handed out, in
+token of amity, to Huxter.
+
+The dirty fist in the young surgeon's pocket was obliged to undouble
+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-humored face; and have seen, there upon that ground, 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-humor 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-colored dress, with a white parasol lined with pink,
+and the prettiest dove-colored boots that ever stepped, passed by Pen,
+leaning on the arm of a stalwart gentleman with a military mustache.
+The young lady clenched her little fist, and gave a mischievous
+side-look as she passed Pen. He of the mustaches 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-colored young lady. Immediately Huxter perceived the direction
+which they took, they ceased looking after the dove-colored nymph, and
+they turned and looked into Sam Huxter's orbs with the most artless
+good-humored 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 neighbor 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 colored 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 l'ai vue," she said; "elle a de bien beaux yeux; vous etes un
+monstre!"
+
+"Why monster?" said Pen, with a laugh; "Honi soit qui mal y pense.
+My young friend, yonder, is as well protected as any young lady in
+Christendom. She has her mamma on one side, her 'pretendu' 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, colonel, 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 griped 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 any thing good, say it in English, for I don't
+understand French when it's spoke so devilish quick."
+
+"It _ain't_ any thing 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-humor, 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 toward 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 any body 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 neighbor 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
+every body--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, amid 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 humor 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 he
+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
+favorite. I'll never back the favorite 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 honor 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 woman. She
+declared she would separate, and pay no more debts for this 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,
+while 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 up stairs leaning on the
+major's arm--"for this cheat--for this black-leg--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 XXI.
+
+EXPLANATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 honor 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 every where 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 practice 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
+griefs 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 comfort, 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 afterward 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 parlor,
+because the tiptops wouldn't come.
+
+She had not the slightest ill-will toward "the canal," the poor, dear
+lady, or any pride about herself, or idea that she was better than her
+neighbor; 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 any thing 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 among 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 cognizance 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 favorite 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 where; 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 favor 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 beggerly
+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
+any body 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
+Penn 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 quarreling, afterward; and a girl
+who runs away with Jack to Gretna Green, constantly runs away with Tom
+to Switzerland afterward. 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
+many 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-humor. "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 ardor 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 gray hairs or our wrinkles--but the fulfillment
+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 awe-stricken,
+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
+crowds 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 no body 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 XXII.
+
+CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+honor, 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 every body--alike
+his turf-associates with whom he had made 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's 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 servant's 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 Blackfriar's-road. And Sir
+Francis's coachman told the news to other gentlemen's coachmen, who
+carried it to their masters, and to the neighboring 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 while
+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 jail (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 to 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
+wont 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 colors 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 aid-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--"any thing 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 embassador 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, with out
+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 recognized 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 honored 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 parlor 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 Hackstraw, 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 all the green-rooms in London," Tom urged; while
+little Moss Abrams 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 birth-day, 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 colors, 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 practiced
+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 sat 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 among 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 tea-spoon, 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 tea-spoon--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 dam
+scoundrels! I'll 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 shirk 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 any thing
+about me? The other chap is dead--shot in the bush, and his body
+reckonized at Sydney. If I thought any body 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 ax. 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 any body; 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-humoredly.
+"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 authorize 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 jail, 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!--has had the confounded impudence to threaten to tell my
+lady: as if the things in my own house weren't my own, to sell or to
+keep, or to 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 honor 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 forever--forever, 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 any thing
+you like."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 neighbors
+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 think 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 befews 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 hevery thing: ponies and pianna, and
+Brougham, and all. Mrs. Montague Rivers 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 tremenduous scene: he went down on his knees, my lady
+told Mrs. Bonner, as told me--and swoar 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 offense,
+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 Earl of Burgrave, and are consulted
+by the Marquis of Steyne in every think. 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 dessay 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 every where; 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.
+
+"Pigeon 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-humor.
+
+"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 quarrelin'," 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 eats, 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 parlor of the Wheel of Fortune
+public-house, in a snug little by-lane, leading out of one of the
+great streets of May Fair, 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 club room than a Pall Mall tradesman or a Lincoln's Inn attorney
+could get admission into Bay's or Spratt's. And it is because the
+conversation which we have been 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 XXIII.
+
+THE WAY OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A short time after the piece of good fortune which befel 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. Sergeant Kewsy, and Mrs. and Miss Kewsy; Colonel Altamont,
+Major Coddy, &c." The colonel traveled in state, and as became a
+gentleman: he appeared in a rich traveling 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 toilet, 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 Minturnae, 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 "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 unluckly 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
+pounds, 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 honor, I'll give you
+half if you can get any body to do us a little fifty."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But Ned said sternly that he had given his word of honor, 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 honor
+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 toward 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 thorough-bred 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 a-bear 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 every body, and that Mar had actially
+refused him twice, and had to wait three months to get seven shillings
+which he had borrered 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 Mr. 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, honored, 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 awe-stricken; the tenants cap in hand, and ready
+to act in the place of your worship's horses when your honor 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 honor; "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 apologize 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 storyteller, useless moralizing? 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 worshiped
+in his memory, and canonized 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 omnibuses 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
+daresay, 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 Bonaparte 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 honor 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 thay 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 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 fathers on this harmless, kind creature?
+She never did any thing 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
+afterward if he do. Are you, who are setting up to be a man of the
+world and 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 civilization, and own that a French cook was the thing in life
+best worth living for."
+
+"Because you like a raw beef-steak and a pipe afterward," 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 convention's 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 neighbor," 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 vain-glorious attempts to lead their fellows;
+and after they have found that men will no longer hear them, as indeed
+they never were in the least worthy to be heard, sink quietly into the
+rank and file--acknowledging their aims impracticable, or thankful
+that they were never put into practice. The fiercest reformers grow
+calm, and are fain 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 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 toward reform, but at the world's pace (and the
+movements of the vast body of mankind must needs be slow)--forego 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 Honorable 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 skepticism is more respectful and more modest than the
+revolutionary ardor 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 take these institutions as I find them, and wait
+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
+under-graduates in the lecture-room. An hereditary legislator, who
+passes his time with jockeys and blacklegs 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 toward 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 farther 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 humor; and acting without any pangs of remorse--but, on the
+contrary, with strict 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
+labor of my neighbor without taking any part in the struggle. Why,
+what a mere dilettante you own yourself to be, in this confession of
+general skepticism, 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 every thing."
+
+"Were the world composed of Saint Bernards or Saint Dominics, 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
+skeptic because I acknowledge what _is_; and in acknowledging that, be
+it linnet or lark, a 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 among 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 any where. 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 afterward
+by the policemen. 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 man 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
+skeptically. 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 endeavor 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 skepticism 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 skeptical 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 song-book babbling of honey and
+Hybla, and nymphs and fountains and love. To what, we say, does this
+skepticism lead? It leads a man to a shameful loneliness and
+selfishness, so to speak--the more shameful, because it is so
+good-humored 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
+farther 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 honor 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 in the Conservative side of the house, and among 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 every thing, friends, fame, dearest ties,
+closest vanities, the respect of an army of churchmen, the recognized
+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 endeavors to reconcile an irreconcileable
+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
+can not 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 skepticism, of your quietism, of
+your atheism, my poor fellow. You're going to sell yourself, and
+Heaven help you! You're 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 XXIV.
+
+WHICH ACCOUNTS PERHAPS FOR CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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,
+neutralized 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 every thing 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 honorable 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 among 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 out
+running the constables (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 clew 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
+down stairs," 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 scenes and other fugitive stratagems.
+
+So, though the elder Pendennis, having his own ulterior object, was
+bent upon seeing Pen's country neighbor 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
+cognizance 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 done: 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 victimized
+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 favored. And it chanced that Strong
+heard of this transaction at the place where the writings had been
+drawn--in the back parlor, 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 parlor. 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 daresay 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 honor of visiting our friend Major Pendennis in
+his lodgings. The major was walking daintily toward 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 every thing with their
+smoke," thought the major. "Here comes a fellow with mustaches and a
+cigar. Every fellow who smokes and wears mustaches 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 toward 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 toward him a couple of
+ungracious fingers.
+
+"What is your good news?" said Major Pendennis, patronizing the other
+still farther, and condescending to address to him an observation, for
+old Pendennis had kept such good company all his life, that he vaguely
+imagined he honored 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 favor 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 unburdened 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 honor, 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 any body, 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 jail 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 life--
+who, between you and me, Captain Strong, we must own is 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 hest
+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 patronizing 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-humor. "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 any thing 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 a long course of
+careful speculation, this wary and silent attendant had been amassing
+a considerable sum of money, during the years 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 humor 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 toward 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
+cognizance; 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 Covering's notes. Do you know any thing 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 parlor 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 sat in the parlor 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 honor,
+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 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 every body, 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 toward him.
+
+"No, no," said Clavering piteously, "I beg your pardon. I didn't mean
+to be angry, or say any thing 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 any body, or no design upon you," Pendennis said,
+"but an endeavor, 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 Sidney 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
+Snell'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 I should like Arthur to be
+there," the major said.
+
+"Dammy, does _he_ know it, too?" cried out Clavering.
+
+"Nobody knows any thing out of this room," Pendennis answered; "and if
+you do this favor 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 any thing 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 any thing 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 gayly 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-humored profession
+of faith.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+PHILLIS AND CORYDON.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On a picturesque common in the neighborhood 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
+school-boy 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 farm-houses; she read French novels habitually; she
+drove into Tunbridge Wells pretty often, and to any play, or ball, or
+conjuror, or musician who might happen to appear in the place; she
+slept a great deal; she quarreled 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 a 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 practice; 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 neighbors 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-butterless.
+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 any
+thing 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, &c. 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 any body 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 endeavors. 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 favor.
+
+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 bed-time, 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 to-night. 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."
+
+"O 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.
+
+"O! go on! I adore it," cried the lady of _Mes Larmes_. "Heavenly
+night! Heavenly, heavenly moon! but I most 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 good night 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? O, 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?_ &c. &c.
+
+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 every thing."
+
+"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 XXVI.
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Clapham 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 might
+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 mean time 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 forego 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 afterward was united to Miss Stickney,
+of Lyme Regis, &c. 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 fullness 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 demeanor?--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, &c., &c.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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, while 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 defense 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 _joedel_, 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 neighbor'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
+aid-de-camps 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. It 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 humor, 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, every body'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, and 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 capital enough; if he
+could have stood one more turn of the wheel, he would have 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 this 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-humor.
+
+"I met that queer fellow Altamont the other day," Pen said to his
+uncle, a day or two afterward.
+
+"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; "and he said he
+did not like the name of Pendennis, though he did me the honor to
+think that I was a good fellow."
+
+"I don't know any man of the name of Altamont, I give you my honor,"
+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
+aid-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 such a secret, which is no 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 Parliament?"
+
+"Clavering thinks he ain't fit for Parliament!" the major answered.
+"No more he is. What's to prevent him from putting you or any body
+else into his place if he likes? Do you think that the 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 honorable 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 "every body does
+it," but because we like it; and our acquiescence, alas! proves not
+that every body 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 behavior 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 care 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 any thing but ardor 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! Oh, 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 all 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 storybook 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 every body does, almost
+every body; only it is luckier to fail before marriage than after."
+
+_"Merci du choix, Monsieur"_ said the Sylphide, making a courtesy.
+
+"Look, my little Blanche," said Pen, taking her hand, and with his
+voice of sad good-humor; "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 courtesy.
+
+"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 dhonneur!_ We used to call
+your Highness the Prince of Fairoaks. What an honor 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 afterward. 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 pootty 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 bef--by any of my--my--by any body"--she sobbed
+out, with much simplicity.
+
+"_Any body!_" 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, dispatched 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 the Publishers would
+sell!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+IN WHICH PEN BEGINS HIS CANVASS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 favor; 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 the 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 neighboring 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 game-keeper of a morning, and for the
+evenings there was a plenty of books and occupation for a literary
+genius like Mr. Arthur, and 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 among the
+simple people there. His sense of humor 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 every
+body 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 every body, 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 Harrowgate--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 the 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 Honorable 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-humor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 onward toward 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,
+&c. 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 clamber 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 honor by his tenant, and at
+which old Mrs. Stokes, Captain Glanders, Squire Hobnell, 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 humor 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 quarreled 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 linendrapery,
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 every thing that she desired, and was leaving the shop,
+Blanche, with a smiling face, and a sweet bow to one of the shop,
+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 any thing. 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 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 Ivanhoe; 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 splendor 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."
+
+"Halloo--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 down stairs 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
+neighboring 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 any thing?" asked
+Altamont.
+
+Grady came out--"He says, will you take any thing 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 any thing 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
+newcomers, and so left them.
+
+"Will we take any thing 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 apostrophized, 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 chamber
+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 any body 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 XXVIII.
+
+IN WHICH PEN BEGINS TO DOUBT ABOUT HIS ELECTION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+While 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 a panic,
+and that he was acting like a rogue and hypocrite.
+
+How was it that a single 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 school-boy, 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 worshiped 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 good-will--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 _koh-i-noor_ 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 good-will and kindness of every body.
+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 good-will
+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 down stairs, and I am not sure that she did not embrace
+him in the presence of Calverley and Coldstream: not that those
+gentleman 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--Calverly 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 every thing 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 house-keeper. 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-humor, she
+performed for him the last Parisian courtesy.
+
+Lady Rockminster came in while this courtesy 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 favorable 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 favor 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 while 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 every body 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 I 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 life-time, 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 toward 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
+church-yard-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
+honor 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 honor. 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, balked 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 can not
+ask for more than love and kindness; and if you think humbly of
+yourself, Arthur, the love and kindness are not diminished--are they?
+I often thought our dearest mother spoiled you at home, by worshiping
+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 can not 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 fervor, 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 came 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 scared 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 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. "O 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, while 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 every thing 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 good-will, 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
+recognized; 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, &c. &c. &c.'"
+
+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 XXIX.
+
+IN WHICH THE MAJOR IS BIDDEN TO STAND AND DELIVER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 parlor 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, while
+Pendennis and Clavering had their discourse in the parlor. 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 Sidney?
+Clavering ain't no more married to my lady than I am! Altamont's the
+man: Altamont's a convick; 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 prejudices 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 gettin' into Parlyment on the strenth of it,
+and was as proud as if he was a duke with half a million a year (such,
+we grieve to say, was Morgan's opinion of his employer's nephew),
+would pay any think 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, or 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
+Poyns," 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 post-chaises 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
+cab-stand, 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 laboring 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 backs. 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, while 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 awhile 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 among us has not said good-by to
+his holiday; returned to dun London, and his fate; surveyed his labors
+and liabilities laid out before him, and been aware of that inevitable
+little account to settle? Smith and his little account, in the
+morning, symbolize 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 labors 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 plowed
+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 rail-road 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.
+
+While the major was absent from his lodgings, Morgan had been seated
+in the landlady's parlor, drinking freely of hot brandy-and-water,
+and pouring out on Mrs. Brixham some of the abuse which he had
+received from his master up-stairs. Mrs. Brixham was 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 boot-jack 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
+mantle-piece of his back-parlor. 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 up-stairs 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 laboring. 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 down stairs,
+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'?--_tooty-fay
+mame shose, sivvaplay, munseer?_"
+
+"Silence, you beast, and go!" cried out the major.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 formly, 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 wig-box. 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 honorable, done every thing 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 AlfPay."
+
+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 mean time, I desire to go to
+bed, and have not the slightest wish for your farther 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 fire-side 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 thine: 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 tonight. 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 gray 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 fire-side, 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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."
+
+"O 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. Every thing
+I had is his. He's a dreadful man." "Eh, Mrs. Brixham? _tant
+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
+down stairs 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 down stairs, 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. O, 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 campaigner 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-by--to Mrs. Brixham and Mr. Morgan."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+IN WHICH THE MAJOR NEITHER YIELDS HIS MONEY NOR HIS LIFE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 families, and I can vouch 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'ner 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 waited 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 can not 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 afterward 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 while the old
+gentleman is making his mysterious toilet, we will also
+modestly retire.
+
+After breakfast, Major Pendennis and his new aid-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 Dispatches, 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 demeanor 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 down stairs," he said, on entering.
+
+"Bring a couple of cabs, Frosch, if you please--and wait down stairs
+until I ring for you," said the major. Morgan saw Frosch down stairs,
+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 check 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 _possussion of certing
+information._"
+
+"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 honorable 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
+behavior. You have been listening at the door, sir, I suppose," said
+the major, looking very haughty; "I forgot to look at the key-hole
+when I went to that public-house, or I might have suspected what sort
+of 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 any body 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 me a note for one twenty-five. There's your
+check-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-barreled 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 toward 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 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 scared 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 up-stairs 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, recognized
+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 any thing, 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, sir, 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 farther 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 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. Among 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 up-stairs in my trunks;
+and having uttered falsehoods regarding his and other honorable
+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 courtesy, 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 parlor-window, discharged any
+thing 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 humor 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 doorsteps, 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 _i_s 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 honor 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 honor of waiting on you there: and would be thankful if you
+would favor 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 favor 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
+patronize 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, with which the reader has already had
+cognizance.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+IN WHICH PENDENNIS COUNTS HIS EGGS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our friend had arrived in London on that day only,
+though but for a brief visit, and having left some fellow-travelers at
+an hotel to which he had conveyed 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 at 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 Havanna, upon each other's mustaches. "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-by,
+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,
+colors 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 neighborhood 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
+Colonization 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 skeptical 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 every thing from the Begum's generosity, and
+says that she will come down very handsomely. And I think Blanche is
+devilish 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, while 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 any body 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
+afterward, 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 if? She's gone from us. God's blessing be with her!
+She might have staid, 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 hand-writing--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 awhile, 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 humor; 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 cab-stand, 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 quarreled 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
+fetes 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' for 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 down stairs and walked
+to his uncle's lodgings.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+FIAT JUSTITIA.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 afterward," 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 while 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
+cognizant 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 acknowledgement 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 while 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 toward 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 neighboring 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 honor 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, bedad, 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 among
+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-do-you-call-'em, hey?"
+
+"About Miss Amory's father--about Lady Clavering's first husband, and
+who he is, and what."
+
+"Hem--a devilish 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 dead-lock like the fellow in the play--the
+Critic, hey?--devilish 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 near est 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 honor, 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 over-reached; 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 honor?"
+
+"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 honor 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 can not 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 afterward 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 XXXIII.
+
+IN WHICH THE DECK BEGINS 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-hag, 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 labor 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 vigor 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 afterward 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 labor. 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 any thing 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 book-case (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. O, 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.
+
+"Dr. 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----street 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+Rockminister'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
+Rockminister, who was astonished at his enthusiasm. She had never
+heard him so warm in praise of any body; 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 recognized 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 & 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-by!" 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 showed 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 skepticism 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 fullness 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 worshiped 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 skeptic'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 death-bed 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 fulfill 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 jeweler'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. Rumors from Naples and Paris, rumors,
+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 can not 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 any body'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 practice 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 can not be better
+given than in the surprising and mysterious letter of Arthur
+Pendennis.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+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 epaulets 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 where you are
+presented, and you shall give me a smile from your chariot window. I
+saw Lady Mirable 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 can not tell you now--afterward 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 dispatched a letter to Sir Francis
+Clavering, saying that I can not accept his seat in Parliament until
+after my marriage; in like manner I can not 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 gayly
+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 with-out, 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 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 humor: 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 any thing 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 hang-dog 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 to 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 sat down, with his hands
+on his knees, the sun shining 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 apostrophized, 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 favored 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 humor 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. Dr. 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 every thing. 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 rose 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 any thing 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 every body, 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 practices 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 bans 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 candor 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 forever; 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 XXXV.
+
+SHOWS HOW ARTHUR HAD BETTER HAVE TAKEN A RETURN-TICKET.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 every body. 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
+neighbor 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
+blackcoated gentleman who was traveling 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 burden,
+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 short-comings, lost
+opportunities, weigh the passions which overpower, the defects which
+incapacitate reason?--what extent of truth and right his neighbor's
+mind is organized 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 splendors 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 neighbor, 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 carpetbag 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 forego the
+worldly advantages which a union with you offered, and which I could
+not accept without, as I fancy, being dishonored. 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 toward 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 a 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 jeweler'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 interest 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 forever
+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 toward 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 any
+body 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 l-l-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 every body 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-by, 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 can not live out
+of the world, out of excitement. I could have done so, but it is too
+late. If I can not have emotions, I must have the world. You would
+offer me neither one nor the other. You are _blase_ in every thing,
+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, _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. 1l 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 every thing, 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 defenseless 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 XXXVI.
+
+A CHAPTER OF MATCH-MAKING.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 can not 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
+supplanted 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 humor, 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 practices 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 awe-stricken 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 night-caps on, I daresay. 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 humor
+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 parents cast 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 homeward 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 humor--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 while 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 honors. 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 any thing;
+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 beef-steak 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
+connection. 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 theater 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 theater? with his son? What
+a capital piece it was, and how charming Mrs. O'Leary looked and sang
+it! and what a good fellow young Huxter was! liked by every body, an
+honor 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 practice 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 every body 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."
+
+"His lordship 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 favor in his sight. There
+_must_ have been something 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 XXXVII.
+
+EXEUNT OMNES.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+re-assemble 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 gate-way.
+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 favor, 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 rumor 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)--rumor 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 favor 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 fulfill 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 any thing 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 met; 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 embassadress, "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 embassadress.
+
+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 demeanor, 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 acknowledged 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 up-stairs 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 no 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
+onward 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, every thing 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 jewelers were set to work and engaged to
+prepare the delightful paraphernalia of Hymen. Lady Clavering was in
+such a good humor, 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 up-stairs 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, "O, Arthur--Mr. Pendennis--I want you to tell dear Laura
+something?" and she came out to the door.
+
+"What is it?" he 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 wont," said Blanche. "I have promised him--_n'importe_. Wait
+until after our marriage--O, until after our marriage--O, how wretched
+I am," said the girl, who had been all smiles, and grace, and gayety
+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 any thing. Tell him tonight."
+
+"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?
+O, 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 cab-stands--any thing 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 every thing 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 any thing 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 bridemaids' 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 Madam 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-humor.
+
+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, a-hem! 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 can not 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 quarreling
+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 awhile 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 quarreling 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 inclosure 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. O 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 any thing, 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 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 toward 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 toward the
+fire, but Foker ran to her and clutched her arm, "I must see that
+letter," he said; "give it to 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 Bessy, 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
+dishonored 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. Every thing'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 connection 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 Lady Clavering. "Take her, take every
+thing 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 dishonored, 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 splendor scarcely sufficed to make the idea
+of himself supportable. She was weaned 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 any thing happened to him?" gasped Lady Clavering. "O, 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 any thing 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.
+
+While 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 favorite beverage, and the parties engaged in
+general conversation.
+
+After awhile 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 every thing to soothe Mr.
+Morgan; and, under pretense 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 afterward, 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, while 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, "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 he 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
+hack 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 Honorable 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 Sidney, 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 reconnoiter. 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 down stairs 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 Bow'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 broom-stick,
+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 any body 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 practicing
+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 church-yard 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 Huxter, who has the entire command
+of Doctor Portman, brought Bows down from London to contest the organ
+chair 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 among 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 traveled 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 endeavor, 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, Vol. 2, by
+William Makepeace Thackeray
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2
+by William Makepeace Thackeray
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+Title: The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2
+       His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy
+
+Author: William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9904]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 29, 2003]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS, VOL. 2 ***
+
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+Produced by Lee Dawei, Michael Lockey and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+HIS FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES, HIS FRIENDS AND HIS GREATEST ENEMY.
+
+
+
+
+
+BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD BY THE AUTHOR,
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOLUME II.
+
+1858
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+1.--RELATES TO MR. HARRY FOKER's AFFAIRS
+
+2.--CARRIES THE READER BOTH TO RICHMOND AND GREENWICH
+
+3.--CONTAINS A NOVEL INCIDENT
+
+4.--ALSATIA
+
+5.--IN WHICH THE COLONEL NARRATES SOME OF HIS ADVENTURES
+
+6.--A CHAPTER OF CONVERSATIONS
+
+7.--MISS AMORY'S PARTNERS
+
+8.--MONSEIGNEUR S'AMUSE
+
+9.--A VISIT OF POLITENESS
+
+10.--IN SHEPHERD'S INN
+
+11.--IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE GARDEN
+
+12.--THE HAPPY VILLAGE AGAIN
+
+13.--WHICH HAD VERY NEARLY BEEN THE LAST OF THE STORY
+
+14.--A CRITICAL CHAPTER
+
+15.--CONVALESCENCE
+
+16.--FANNY'S OCCUPATION'S GONE
+
+17.--IN WHICH FANNY ENGAGES A NEW MEDICAL MAN
+
+18.--FOREIGN GROUND
+
+19.--"FAIROAKS TO LET"
+
+20.--OLD FRIENDS
+
+21.--EXPLANATIONS
+
+22.--CONVERSATIONS
+
+23.--THE WAY OF THE WORLD
+
+24.--WHICH ACCOUNTS PERHAPS FOR CHAPTER XXIII
+
+25.--PHILLIS AND CORYDON
+
+26.--TEMPTATIONS
+
+27.--IN WHICH PEN BEGINS HIS CANVASS
+
+28.--IN WHICH PEN BEGINS TO DOUBT ABOUT HIS ELECTION
+
+29.--IN WHICH THE MAJOR IS BIDDEN TO STAND AND DELIVER
+
+30.--IN WHICH THE MAJOR NEITHER YIELDS HIS MONEY NOR HIS LIFE
+
+31.--IN WHICH PENDENNIS COUNTS HIS EGGS
+
+32.--FIAT JUSTITIA
+
+33.--IN WHICH THE DECKS BEGIN TO CLEAR
+
+34.--MR. AND MRS. SAM HUXTER
+
+35.--SHOWS HOW ARTHUR HAD BETTER HAVE TAKEN A RETURN-TICKET
+
+36.--A CHAPTER OF MATCH-MAKING
+
+37.--EXEUNT OMNES PENDENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+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 the
+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
+deviled 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
+theater. 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 to the tread-mill 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 checks from Mr. Foker, and autographs from the earl
+himself, with the letters I O U written over his illustrious
+signature.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Ann 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 favorite 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 any body 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 gray
+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 the full gallop; all round
+the chaste bed-room 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 favorite 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 fac-simile. Such were the
+pictures in which honest Harry delighted. He was no worse than many of
+his neighbors; 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 hand-writing, scrawling freely over the filigree paper,
+and commencing by calling Mr. Harry, her dear Hokey-pokey-fokey, lay
+on his bed table by his side, amid 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-corned 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 pleasures 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, motherly woman," Harry said.
+"But it isn't the Back Kitchen, neither," he added with a
+ghastly sigh.
+
+As Lady Agnes never denied her son any thing, 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 rigeur_, 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 Brooks's, whom I remember at Drummington, 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 every body 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--every body 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 every thing. 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."
+
+"Hem!" said Lady Agnes.
+
+"I know what you mean. Lady C. ain't distangy exactly, but she is very
+good-natured." "O 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."
+
+"O, 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
+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 favorite 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
+colors: 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 pew_" 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 splendor and proceeded to sally out.
+
+"At what time 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 every body knows), where he just had
+the pleasure of peeping upward 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 your 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: while, 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 arch-way 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 place. 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 siren 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 every body, and never
+missed a day in the Park on his gray 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
+honor 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. "Who ever
+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? O, 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-by. 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 Lady Ann upon a new novel, which the sisters had just
+procured from the library.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CARRIES THE READER BOTH TO RICHMOND AND GREENWICH.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 pine-apples, 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?" Mrs. Calverley asked
+of her neighbor. "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 toward 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 n'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 danse_ 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 straight-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 then
+accomplished coachman whether he would not step in and take some thing
+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 over head, looked down upon Mr.
+Foker that night, as he, in his turn, sentimentally regarded them. And
+he went and gazed upward 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 neighboring
+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 patronize the institution of public
+worship, and that it was quite a correct thing to be seen in church of
+a Sunday. One day it chanced that he and Arthur went thither together:
+the latter, who was now in high favor, 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 every where. 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 Mr. 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 the 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 afterward, 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 dandyfied 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 honor, 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 every body, 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; while 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 toward 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the congregation issued forth at the conclusion of the service,
+Foker was out among 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 Amory 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 Gray 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-humor
+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 any thing, 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,"--"O, 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 downward toward 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 every thing 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 any
+thing 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
+honor us with their company at Greenwich? Is Lady Clavering to go on
+forever 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 favor to be my guest? and Miss Blanche shall be Arthur's, if she
+will be so good."
+
+"O 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
+afterward 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 III.
+
+CONTAINS A NOVEL INCIDENT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 among 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 favorite
+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 afterward, 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 the 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 others were in which he thought he had
+expressed his full heart! This page was imitated from a then favorite
+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 to 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 profound 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 Oxbridge; it's a little like him; and Miss Amory is
+Neaera. By gad, Warrington, I did love 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 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 any thing 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 sentence 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 purposes 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 flavor 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 fervor 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
+vigor, 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 purfumed, and petted, in rather an
+absurd manner).
+
+"Do you think we can do any thing 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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; and Warrington,
+with a scornful smile, once more took up the manuscript with the tongs
+from out of the harmless cinders.
+
+"O, 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 piastres to Bacon or
+to Bungay. The rubbish is salable 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.
+
+While 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 out-bid his rival. Was any thing 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 odor 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 shattered 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 humorist, 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 personages 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 eying 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 great
+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."
+
+"O, 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 grand house, he
+comes and stays in these rickety old chambers with me. He's a man that
+can afford to live any where."
+
+"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 then 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 skillful 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 or five years, and make a fortune. In the mean time, I
+should wish him to live properly, take respectable apartments, and
+keep a brougham." And on this simple calculation it was that the major
+counseled Pen.
+
+Arthur, laughing, told Warrington what his uncle's advice had been;
+but he luckily had a much more reasonable counselor 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 inclosed
+to her such an installment 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 toward 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 a 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 honor, very great honor, 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.
+Every body 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 dependent."
+
+"A dependent! who ever so thought of you? You are the equal of all the
+world," Pynsent broke out.
+
+"I am a dependent 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 dispraise of others. Nor did their praise
+elate him overmuch; 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 hurt rather 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-humor!
+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 honor!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+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
+neighborhood of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, and the Temple. Somewhere
+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 venders, purveyors of theatrical prints for
+youth, dealers in dingy furniture, and bedding suggestive of any thing
+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 theater,
+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
+center 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
+mustaches, 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 luster 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
+daughter 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 practicing 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 mantle-piece 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 behavior "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 demeanor 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 daughter'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 clart and burgundee, until his own utterance began to
+fail him, over his sixth tumbler of whiskey-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 make 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 gray hairs from
+jail." And the good-natured Lady Mirabel dispatched 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 slip-shod
+messenger and aid-de-camp of the captain, who brought the letter
+announcing his mishap. If the servant had followed the captain's
+aid-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's
+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 courtesies, pointing toward 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 Travelers', 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." These 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 Nawaab of
+Lucknow, and Captain the 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 Embassador 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," as 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 mignonnette-box
+which bloomed in Bows's window.
+
+From Grady's kitchen casement often came odors still more fragrant.
+The three old soldiers who formed the garrison of No. 4, 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 any thing. 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 afterward; 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 honor 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 organizing 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 every thing: 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 intrusted), Strong was sent to him by his patron 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 burdened 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 every
+body 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 V.
+
+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 sat 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-humored 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 color of his heard 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 can not 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 Jingo. And
+it's my belief I had some more, too, afterward 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 cunning 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. 3, 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 any
+thing? Dammy, Strong, did I split any thing?"
+
+"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 recognized 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 any body 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 sattens 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. 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 kep 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 restaurateurs,
+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 swep off in another way. One night, at the
+countess's, there was several of us at supper--Mr. Bloundell-Bloundell,
+the Honorable 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 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
+Honorable 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 bed-side. So I said he was a gentleman, and asked him
+if he would like to take any thing, when my servant should get it for
+him; but the Honorable 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 any thing, 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 any thing 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 any
+price.' '_En effet_' says the marky, twiddling his little black
+mustaches 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 honor 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 voici._' 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 honor, 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 said, '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 while I'm fond of her. She said
+she could not bear 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 jewelry, 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 honor 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 honor?'
+
+"'Field of honor 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
+honor--I thought, I--but no matter. Good-by, 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 honor.'
+
+"What could I do? Every body 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 honor; 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. Clavering 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 any thing 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 suffered 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, by 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 two 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 colors 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 honor 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-humor. "Look here, baronet, I
+apologize; on my honor, 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, it's ungrateful." "By heavens, if ever you do it
+again. If ever you dare to show 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 Gad, or any where 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've 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 every
+body, 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 check 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 cleaned out,
+leaving that infernal check 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 farther 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 VI.
+
+A CHAPTER OF CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Every day, after the entertainments 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 also 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. Every
+body 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 rumors
+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. To name all the senators
+with whom Clavering consorted, would be invidious. We may mention
+only a few. There was Captain Raff, the honorable 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 favor 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 bay-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 every where--every where, 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 humor 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 neighborhood 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 forebore 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
+dispatched 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
+toward that fane in a carriage-and-four, so to speak, and might halt
+and take refreshments almost whenever he pleased. He wore varnished
+boots from the earliest period of youth, and had cambric handkerchiefs
+and lemon-colored 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 Havannas, 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, &c., 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 pleasures. 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 neighbor, 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 any body 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 too 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. "O, you don't know how
+miserable that man made me," she said, "or what a life I passed
+between 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 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 jail before his trial, instead of afterward, he would have saved
+me a deal of shame and 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 it. For 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 happy 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 among
+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 up-stairs 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 humor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 brusk, 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 every body 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 any thing 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 any body 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-by, 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 honor of a conversation, and patronized 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 any body
+should think of patronizing 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, 'O
+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, every body went there
+--every body who was in society: and then we talked of the new
+embassador 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 neighboring 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 among 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 gayety 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 women 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 combinations 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 neighbor 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 girl's 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
+civilization. Ye gods! how rapidly we live and grow! In nine months,
+Mr. Paxton grows you a pine apple 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 pine-apples so is the
+race of man. Hoiaper--what's the Greek for a pine-apple, 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, while 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 gayly 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-by 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 pommeling 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. "And 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 world, 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 it, or he who descends to the
+ground, and takes his part in the contest? "That philosopher," Pen
+said, "had held a great place among 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 cushion, and
+cries out, that the whole struggle is an accursed one, and the works
+of the world are evil. Many a conscience-striken 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 paralyzed 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
+laborer 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 reveler 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 VII.
+
+MISS AMORY'S PARTNERS.
+
+
+The noble Henry Foker, of whom we have lost sight for a few pages, has
+been in the mean while 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 ardor, 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 favorite 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 among
+ill-regulated young gentlemen, and such, indeed, was Mr. H. Foker's
+condition, who, having been bred up to indulge in every propensity
+toward 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 practiced? 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 you,
+sir, 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 very elevation of your virtue and high attributes,
+of necessity lonely; we can't reach up and talk familiarly with such
+potentates. Good-by, 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 worshiped 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, among us, we need never despair. I have read
+of the passion of a transported pickpocket for a female convict (each
+of them being advanced in age, 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 honored 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, among 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 splendor 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
+neighborhood of Jermyn-street, where his friends Loder, Punter, little
+Moss Abrams, 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 regarded each
+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, that I have for 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 practiced 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 practiced 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 step-daughter. 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 gray 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, flavored 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 ball-room then passing before
+them, and about whose appearance or character Mr. Harry spoke with
+artless freedom, and a considerable dash of humor.
+
+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 god-mother, 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 danced and waltzed with
+renewed vigor and grace.
+
+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 favorite? 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 courtesy 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 expression 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 honor which had just been shown to her, and with
+other intoxicating events of the evening, that her good humor 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 every thing that was
+nice, and her ear with every thing that was sweet and flattering--oh!
+what an object he was! The rings round his eyes were of the color 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 humor; 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 worshiper must have looked upward 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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-colored 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.
+
+Among 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 dandyfied 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 every body: 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 peach? 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 cab-stand 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 sympathizing 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 valor! 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 splendor 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 fullness of his heart; and Mr. Pen must
+have been too much occupied with his own affairs to remark the concern
+and agitation of his neighbor, 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
+toward 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 any thing it ain't. Talking
+about money and such a girl as that, it's--it's--what-d'ye-callem--_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, eying 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 any thing 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
+the sofa, face forward, 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 every body.
+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-by! 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 he?" 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 that 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 shriveled, 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 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 willfully or
+fatally astray, while the natural truth and love which should illumine
+him grew 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, 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 VIII.
+
+MONSEIGNEUR S'AMUSE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 neighbors, 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
+bay-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 mustaches, 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 any thing but misanthropical. If he could not get a good
+dinner he sat 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-parlor or on board a Greenwich steam-boat, or in a jaunt
+to Hampstead with Mr. Finucane, his colleague at the Pall Mall
+Gazette; or in a visit to the summer theaters 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
+or the lovely equestrian of the arena by the hand. And while he could
+watch the grimaces or the graces of these with a satiric humor 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: he was
+pleased to possess it: and said that he hoped thus to the last he
+should retain it. As another man has an ardor for art or music, or
+natural science, Mr. Pen said that anthropology was his favorite
+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
+coqueting of a wrinkled dowager in a ball-room, 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 while 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 humor 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
+forever, 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 every thing. But you
+began to use the bear's-grease pot directly the hair-dresser 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 while 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 humor, 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 fire-works 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
+splendors 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 recognized, "Bedad, sir, if ye doubt me
+honor, 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 any reet 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, oi've seen Vauxhall, and I
+scawrun any interfayrance on moi account: but for these leedies, one
+of them has never been there, and oi should think ye'd harly take
+advantage of me misfartune in losing the tickut, to deproive her of
+her pleasure."
+
+"It ain't no use, captain. I can't go about your business," the
+checktaker 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 door-keeper, peevishly, out of the
+illuminated box. And at this minute Arthur came up, and recognizing
+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 toward 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
+favorite 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 sympathized
+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--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 gray
+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 demeanor.
+
+"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. 4."
+
+Fanny made a little courtesy, 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
+courtesy; "and I've never been at Vauxhall, sir, and Pa 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 splendor such
+as the finest fairy tale, the finest pantomime she had ever witnessed
+at the theater, had never realized. 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 native countee)--Mr. Pendennis,
+ye've been me preserver, and oi 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
+splendor 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 patronizing and affable manner pointing
+out to them the edifices worthy of note, and discoursing, 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 honor 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
+would 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 color 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 Caracoline, little Tom
+Tufthunt was in attendance upon Lord Colchicum; and rather pleased,
+too, with his position. When Don Juan scales 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 peer 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 god-father 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 patronize 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
+mantle-piece 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 dark
+porter's 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 among them, one or two
+of the acquaintances of Mr. Arthur Pendennis.
+
+Among 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 woe-begone 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 toward him with no little kindness and pity--but
+Harry did not see the beautiful dark eyes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 short 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 trowsers 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 at our place--I'm mostly at home
+Saturdays; and there's generally a cheese in the cupboard. Ta, Ta.
+There's the bell for the fire-works 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 fire-work
+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 fire-works, 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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?"
+
+"O 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 any thing
+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
+fire-works. You must know I live by myself, and work very hard. I
+write in books and newspapers, Fanny; and I was quite tired out, and
+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 grammarian's 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 Mr.
+Arthur Pendennis made any use of the monosyllable in question? Not so.
+In the first place it was dark: the fire-works 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 honor. She seems to have a great deal of dangerous and rather
+contagious sensibility, and I am very glad the fire-works 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 under tone. 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
+fire-works, 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 any thing to eat, ladies, and I wish you would permit me
+to invite you to supper."
+
+"Dad," said Costigan, "I'd loike a snack, tu; only I forgawt me purse,
+or I should have invoited these leedies to a colleetion."
+
+Mrs. Bolton, with considerable asperity, said, she ad an eadache, and
+would much rather go home.
+
+"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
+favor 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-humored 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 favorite 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, "like 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-humor 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 humor, 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 remonstrances 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 honor,
+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 pardon, 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-humor, "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 any thing about the dispute.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A VISIT OF POLITENESS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 nightcap; 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 labor.
+
+Mr. Pendennis's labor, 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
+laborer, 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
+overmuch. 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 among 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;
+destined, 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 minanderies of
+the young ladies in the ball-rooms" (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 dandyfied protecting air, his conceit, generosity, and good
+humor, 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 ginger-bread 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 realization 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 made 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 trowsers made his appearance under the Inn archway, and stopped
+at the porter's wicket, Fanny was not in the least surprised, only
+delighted, 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 humor 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 work-box 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 Pontydiddlum; 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 jewelry, 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 F----in society.
+
+"O, 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. Oh, 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, "O, 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, sent 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
+theater, 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 face 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-humor, 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 court-yard 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 X.
+
+IN SHEPHERD'S INN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 and 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 night
+previous, 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 every body.
+
+"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 honor,
+I am sure. They are rather high up; but--"
+
+"O! 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 honor my umble
+domicile with a visit," Mr. Bows said, with a 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 toward 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-by, 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, ony 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 sate 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 any thing 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 bed-chamber, 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 odor 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
+woefully: 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 labored 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 among 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 an 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 toward 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 while 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 humor. He went off to endeavor 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 on 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 Theater 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 travestie 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 XI
+
+IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE GARDEN.
+
+
+Fashion has long deserted the green and pretty Temple Garden, in which
+Shakspeare 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. Newberry has sent.
+Treading heavily on the gravel, and rolling majestically along in a
+snuff-colored 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 Miter), and Mr. Johnson asks
+Mr. Goldsmith to come home and take a dish of tea with Miss Williams.
+Kind faith of Fancy! Sir Hoger 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 neighborhood 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 come 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 neighborhood
+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 wharves and 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 downward 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 toward the east.
+
+One cried out, "Oh!" the other began to laugh; and with a knowing
+little infantine 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Pen looked very grave, pompous, and dandified. He was unusually smart
+and brilliant in his costume. His white duck trowsers and white hat,
+his neckcloth of many colors, his light waistcoat, gold chains, and
+shirt studs, gave him the air of a prince of the blood at least. How
+his splendor became his figure! Was any body 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 won't 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!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Neara
+--Neara--I don't know the pronunciation. And how 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 down
+stairs 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, &c.) 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 hout, 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-by, good-by." 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 center 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 book-case 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 any body
+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 afterward, 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 fire-side; 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 tyrannizing 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. And I 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 thread-bare coat, and gets his
+bread by playing tunes at an alehouse? 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 every thing has 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 make her
+mock my deformity and old age?"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+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 inhabited 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
+vacations, 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, while 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
+farm-house; built a flaring new white-washed 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 indulged in the pleasures of the town together.
+Ascott, the theaters, Vauxhall, and the convivial taverns in the
+joyous neighborhood 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 rencounter 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 labored, 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 theaters 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 theater, 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 to 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 humor with himself and the world, it never
+entered his mind that he could be disagreeable to any body; 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 offense--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 recognize 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 afterward, 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 behavior 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 practicing his infernal
+arts; and he thought he should warn her father, &c., &c.,--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 favors.
+
+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 Honorable 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. Madam 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 Dr. 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 any thing 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 and
+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 hand
+writing, 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 unfavorable to his neighbors), 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, &c., &c.
+
+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
+rumors that were against him, and earnestly praying that he would
+break off and repent of a connection 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 XIII.
+
+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 endeavored to sooth 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
+wish 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 ball-room. 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 forego any
+thing 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 cozy 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, amicably 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 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 next the 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 endeavored, 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
+recognized 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 forego 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 forego 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 afterward, 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 endeavored 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, was yet
+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, afterward 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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, while 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 a
+romantic attachment 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 was so very kind. Then he came to call and ask after
+us: and very, very good it was of such a 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 every body admires Pauline--and I'm sure every body 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'm 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 do, 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 aid-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 looking 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 practice, and with which weapons of defense nature endows them,
+the traces of her emotion disappeared; and she went and took her work,
+and sat in the corner so demure and quiet, that the careless male
+parent never suspected that any thing 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 endeavoring 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 toward 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 any body 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 any body but himself. But
+the young man must have advice--the best advice; and Morgan was
+straightway dispatched 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 honor, that if he could be of any use he
+would rush to Pen's chambers. As it was, Morgan should go and see that
+every thing was right. The doctor must write to him by every post to
+Stillbrook; it was but forty miles distant from London, and if any
+thing 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 demeanor. 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 neighboring station, and a
+gray-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; "any thing 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
+traveling 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 poor 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 XIV.
+
+A CRITICAL CHAPTER.
+
+
+As Fanny saw the two ladies and the anxious countenance of the elder,
+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 afterward; 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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--O, 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 hurra 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 into 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."
+
+"O, 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 further room.
+
+Mrs. Pendennis was ensconced, pale and solemn, in a great chair by
+Pen's bed-side. 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 traveled. 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 praying into his face, to know if there is hope for
+the sick infant that can not 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 heart-broken
+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 every thing 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 bed-room), 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, and flung them
+upon the study-table. Did Goodenough know any thing 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 humor
+will arise, and such smiles will pass, to satirize the gloom, as it
+were, and to make it more gloomy!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 time 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 he had there, for whom 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 behavior 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 back 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
+favor 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 mischievious 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 every body 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 shall
+we enlarge very much upon the more cheerful theme of his recovery.
+
+Every body 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 bears' grease pots, quite curious to
+examine, too; and a choice selection of portraits of females almost
+always in sadness and generally in disguise or dishabille, glittered
+round the neat walls of his elegant little bower of repose. Medora
+with disheveled 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 any thing 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
+can not 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 can not help peeping at the shops on the way, or at our
+neighbor'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 humor 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 up-stairs; 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 gayety, 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 neighborhood 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 Mrs. 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 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 intermittance; 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
+Lambcourt. This was introduced into the Pen-Warrington sitting-room by
+large puffs of tobacco smoke--the puffs of smoke 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 pass-key), 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 traveler 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 succor 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
+bed-chamber 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 toward 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 XV.
+
+CONVALESCENCE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 anatomized 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 her
+were changed; and, alas, that it should be so! were not particularly
+eager to see her any more. He felt very well disposed toward 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 toward 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
+bed-side, 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 realize 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
+inward doubt and despair and 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 finishes 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
+willfulness, and a little selfishness, and a little dandyfication, 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 while 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 Flagcourt; 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 honor 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
+every body in the gardens, and there are beadles, you know, and that
+sort of thing--every body 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 color 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 is 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 women
+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
+defenses which a woman has in her heart, her faith, and honor, 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 away, 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 honor 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, humor, 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? Never, 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 favors 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 traveled 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 either 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-cutthroats 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 Heaven," 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 dear 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 any body else at
+Fairoaks except Doctor Portman and Captain Glanders, and because his
+mother constantly praised her Arthur, and because he was
+gentleman-like, 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 afterward, 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 favorable 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
+quietly. 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 flavor), 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
+arm-chair. 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
+apartments 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 toward 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 exceedingly
+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 time 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 bed-time 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 any thing for
+the slippers.
+
+While 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 Mullinger'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 vigor,
+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
+afterward 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, jocularities, waggeries, and
+_petits jeux innocens_: so that the second and third floors of
+number 6, Lambcourt, Temple, rang with more cheerfulness and laughter
+than had been known in those precincts for many a long day.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 traveling 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 odor.
+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, 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 uncouth 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 bed-side George found a new Bible which the widow had placed
+there, with a note inside saying that she had not seen the book among
+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 XVI.
+
+FANNY'S OCCUPATION'S GONE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 among
+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, whereupon 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 boot-makers
+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, &c. Of these documents,
+Pen, who was always free-handed 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 chests 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 any
+thing 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 dress-maker'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 any thing
+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 any thing about it; and I
+don't wish to know any thing 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; and, begad, 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 honor!--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 honor, 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 any thing serious has happened?
+Has Arthur said any thing?"
+
+"His silence confirms it," sobbed Mrs. Pendennis, behind her
+pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Not at all. There are subjects, my dear, about which a young fellow
+can not 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 any thing 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--O--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 view 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
+among Pen's other letters, and let him have them when he calls for
+them. Or if we 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.
+
+"_Arthur 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 honor 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 had 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 honorable a man as
+ever lived."
+
+"Honorable!" said the widow, with bitter scorn. "O, brother, what is
+this you call honor? 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 any thing 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.
+Whatd'youcallem, 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 honor, what
+right have you to doubt his honor 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 pursoo? 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 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 any thing 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 neighborhood; 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 toward 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 humor 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 allusions. 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. Dr. 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. Every thing 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 neighborhood, 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
+any where 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 school-boy,
+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--any where 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 to Arthur, it was received
+by that gentleman with the greatest alacrity and enthusiasm. He longed
+to be off at once. He let his mustaches 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 mustaches, when they came, were of
+a decidedly red color. 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 neighborhood, and they are not to be at home before Christmas,
+my uncle says: besides, Warrington, I want to get out of the country.
+While 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 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
+_affairs 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 mess-room 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 afterward; and the man who betrays your
+honor 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," Warrington said 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 traveling 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. Traveling 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 enable you
+to--to anticipate you 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 balked 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 eye-lashes looked down toward her tea-cup: 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 her query to
+her tea-spoon, 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 tea-spoon.
+
+"Would you?" said George.
+
+She looked up and said, "Yes." Their eyes met. "I will go any where
+you ask me, or do any thing," 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 neighboring 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 XVII.
+
+IN WHICH FANNY ENGAGES A NEW MEDICAL MAN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 appearance, 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 tea-cup 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 realized; 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 staid, 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 behavior 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 practiced what I preach."
+
+"And what did you practice, 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, among 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 every thing, whether it was a favorite tragic or comic
+actor, a cock on a dunghill, a corkscrew going into a bottle and a
+cork issuing thence, or an Irish officer of genteel connections 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 sixpenny-worth 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 gray 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 while 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 among 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 honor 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 any thing 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, &c., 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 cab-stand 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 homeward.
+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 Theater, where gin-shops, oyster-shops, and theatrical
+wardrobes abound, the proprietors of which were now asleep behind
+the 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 fellow to fall backward.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 gatebell, 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," he said; "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 and water to one of
+his knees and shins, which, with the pair of trowsers 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 while 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 every body 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 learned what was the illness which was evidently
+preying upon little Fan, and what had been Pen's behavior 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 disfavor 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 once, 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 Bows'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 any body," 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 all
+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 embassador, 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 any thing 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 behavior 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 humor was to contradict every body.
+
+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, recognize--"
+
+"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 to be turned 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 victimizing, 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 any thing to win a man, and fling him
+away without a pang, sir. If she 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-by, 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_. Dayme, 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 a 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 embassador 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 XVIII.
+
+FOREIGN GROUND.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Worth 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 connection
+between Arthur and the odious little gate-keeper 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 connection.
+
+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, &c., 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-traveled 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 out-stretched
+arms kneeling before the illuminated altars, and beheld the strange
+pomps and ceremonials of the Catholic worship. Bare-footed friars in
+the streets, crowned images of Saints and Virgins in the churches
+before which people were bowing down and worshiping, 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 toward 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 on 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 honey-suckle 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," among
+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 favorable 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, &c.
+&c.; 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 every body,
+and about every body, and a little against every body. He was
+invaluable in a country house, in a word: and richly merited and
+enjoyed his vacation after his labors. And perhaps while 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 toward the pretty, fresh-colored 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 ball-room,
+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 staid 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 blond, tight-waisted Germans--at the capering
+Frenchmen, with their lackered mustaches and trim varnished boots--at
+the English dandies, Pen among 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 neighborhood, 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 traveled he wore
+a jaunty and juvenile traveling 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 old traveler
+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 honor 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 splendors and amenities
+belonging to it. That very evening the resolute old gentlemen, 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 recognized and accosted him. He remembered her in '14 when she was
+an actress of the Paris Boulevard, and the Emperor Alexander's
+aid-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 edifying. 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 honor, 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 breath 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 marvelous
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the major arrived, his presence somehow cast a damp upon at least
+three persons of our little party--upon Laura, who had any thing but
+respect for him; upon Warrington, whose manner toward 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 up 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 dispatch-boxes and umbrella-cases, his
+guide-books, passports, maps, and other elaborate necessaries of the
+English traveler, all as trim and ready as they could be in their
+master's own room in Jermyn-street. Every thing was ready, from the
+medicine-bottle fresh filled from the pharmacien's, down to the old
+fellow's prayer-book, without which he never traveled, for he made a
+point of appearing at the English church at every place which he
+honored with a stay. "Every body did it," he said; "every English
+gentleman did it," and this pious man would as soon have thought of
+not calling upon the English embassador 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 every body 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.
+
+Among the letters there was a little note addressed, as a former
+letter we have heard of had been, to "Arthur 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 would 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 every body:
+and as for Arthur, she would pray for him forever. 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 any thing about this letter, sir?" Arthur asked.
+
+"What letter, my good sir?" said the other drily, 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 was she 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 inconveinence, 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--and, I beg
+your pardon, uncle. You were, you always have been, most kind to me:
+but I say again, did you say any thing 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 toward 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
+every thing 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 neighboring room opened and Laura came forth with 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 courtesy the
+young lady passed to her friend's 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 humor, 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 thoughts, 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 behavior and fickleness, and he described how the girl was no
+better than a little light-minded flirt; and, perhaps, he exaggerated
+the good humor and contentedness which he had himself, as he thought,
+witnessed in her behavior in the scene with Mr. Huxter.
+
+Now, all Bows's statements had been colored 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-humor, 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 connection 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, while Mr. Shamble was feebly giving utterance to his
+sermon.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"FAIROAKS TO LET."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our poor widow (with the assistance of her faithful Martha of
+Fairoaks, who laughed and wondered at the German ways, and
+superintended the affairs of the simple household) had made a little
+feast in honor 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 palid 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 shoulder 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 a 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 every thing 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
+out-stretched 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
+honorable 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
+undishonored 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 a 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--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 dare say 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 toward 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 often 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, toward 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?"
+
+"O 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 neighborhood," 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 dullness 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 had 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 humor, "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 forever 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 afterward 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 honor 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 for 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 calling 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 moon. 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 uncheckered 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 sister departed, 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 neighbor died of
+a complaint in the heart; while that speculated upon the amount of
+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 every thing, 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 labored, and knew it
+would suddenly remove her: and a prayer was found in her hand-writing,
+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 toilet: the glass that was no more to reflect her dear sad face.
+After she had been here awhile, Pen knocked and led her down stairs to
+the parlor 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 cognizance. 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 good-will 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 to plaster a wounded heart with a bank-note 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 if 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 get 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 neighborhood;
+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 Doctor 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 every body--"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 to 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. XX.
+
+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 tents 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 Muffineer 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 embassador 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 chop-sticks 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 embassador 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 Maryborough 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 up-stairs, 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 embassador again--never; and, upon
+my word, he has never been to dine with us since. The Lord Mayor, who
+did me the honor 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
+embassador: 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-year's 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 just 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 every thing 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
+any thing 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. Halloo!
+There's Cobden here, of all men in the world! I must go and speak to
+him. Good-by, 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 green sward,
+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 colors 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. "Hurrah,
+hurrah!" he bawled out, "Podasokus is the horse! Supper for ten
+Wheeler, my boy. Ask you all round of course, and damn the expense."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+neighbor with suspicion, lest that neighbor, 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
+cab-stand 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-humor
+mantled on the girl's cheeks, and played over that fair countenance
+like the pretty shining cloudlets on the serene sky over head; the
+elder lady's cheek was red too; but that was a permanent mottled rose,
+deepening only as it received fresh 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 hurrahing
+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 she
+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 dark 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
+conjuror had used the same words to a hundred different carriages
+on that day.
+
+Making his way solitary among 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 recognized 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: but 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 Mrs. 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
+demeanor 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 'appy to see Mr. Pendennis, and how well he was a lookin', and we'd
+been talkin' about Mr. P. only jest before; hadn't we, Fanny? and if
+this was the famous Hepsom 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 knockin' of his head--don't
+you, Fanny?
+
+While 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 shame-faced 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-colored 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-colored 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 uncolored 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-colored dexter kid-glove was handed out, in
+token of amity, to Huxter.
+
+The dirty fist in the young surgeon's pocket was obliged to undouble
+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-humored face; and have seen, there upon that ground, 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-humor 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-colored dress, with a white parasol lined with pink,
+and the prettiest dove-colored boots that ever stepped, passed by Pen,
+leaning on the arm of a stalwart gentleman with a military mustache.
+The young lady clenched her little fist, and gave a mischievous
+side-look as she passed Pen. He of the mustaches 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-colored young lady. Immediately Huxter perceived the direction
+which they took, they ceased looking after the dove-colored nymph, and
+they turned and looked into Sam Huxter's orbs with the most artless
+good-humored 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 neighbor 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 colored 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 l'ai vue," she said; "elle a de bien beaux yeux; vous etes un
+monstre!"
+
+"Why monster?" said Pen, with a laugh; "Honi soit qui mal y pense.
+My young friend, yonder, is as well protected as any young lady in
+Christendom. She has her mamma on one side, her 'pretendu' 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, colonel, 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 griped 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 any thing good, say it in English, for I don't
+understand French when it's spoke so devilish quick."
+
+"It _ain't_ any thing 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-humor, 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 toward 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 any body 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 neighbor 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
+every body--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, amid 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 humor 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 he
+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
+favorite. I'll never back the favorite 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 honor 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 woman. She
+declared she would separate, and pay no more debts for this 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,
+while 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 up stairs leaning on the
+major's arm--"for this cheat--for this black-leg--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 XXI.
+
+EXPLANATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 honor 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 every where 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 practice 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
+griefs 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 comfort, 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 afterward 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 parlor,
+because the tiptops wouldn't come.
+
+She had not the slightest ill-will toward "the canal," the poor, dear
+lady, or any pride about herself, or idea that she was better than her
+neighbor; 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 any thing 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 among 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 cognizance 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 favorite 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 where; 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 favor 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 beggerly
+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
+any body 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
+Penn 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 quarreling, afterward; and a girl
+who runs away with Jack to Gretna Green, constantly runs away with Tom
+to Switzerland afterward. 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
+many 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-humor. "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 ardor 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 gray hairs or our wrinkles--but the fulfillment
+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 awe-stricken,
+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
+crowds 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 no body 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 XXII.
+
+CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+honor, 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 every body--alike
+his turf-associates with whom he had made 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's 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 servant's 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 Blackfriar's-road. And Sir
+Francis's coachman told the news to other gentlemen's coachmen, who
+carried it to their masters, and to the neighboring 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 while
+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 jail (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 to 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
+wont 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 colors 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 aid-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--"any thing 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 embassador 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, with out
+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 recognized 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 honored 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 parlor 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 Hackstraw, 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 all the green-rooms in London," Tom urged; while
+little Moss Abrams 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 birth-day, 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 colors, 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 practiced
+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 sat 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 among 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 tea-spoon, 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 tea-spoon--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 dam
+scoundrels! I'll 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 shirk 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 any thing
+about me? The other chap is dead--shot in the bush, and his body
+reckonized at Sydney. If I thought any body 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 ax. 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 any body; 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-humoredly.
+"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 authorize 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 jail, 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!--has had the confounded impudence to threaten to tell my
+lady: as if the things in my own house weren't my own, to sell or to
+keep, or to 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 honor 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 forever--forever, 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 any thing
+you like."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 neighbors
+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 think 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 befews 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 hevery thing: ponies and pianna, and
+Brougham, and all. Mrs. Montague Rivers 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 tremenduous scene: he went down on his knees, my lady
+told Mrs. Bonner, as told me--and swoar 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 offense,
+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 Earl of Burgrave, and are consulted
+by the Marquis of Steyne in every think. 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 dessay 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 every where; 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.
+
+"Pigeon 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-humor.
+
+"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 quarrelin'," 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 eats, 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 parlor of the Wheel of Fortune
+public-house, in a snug little by-lane, leading out of one of the
+great streets of May Fair, 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 club room than a Pall Mall tradesman or a Lincoln's Inn attorney
+could get admission into Bay's or Spratt's. And it is because the
+conversation which we have been 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 XXIII.
+
+THE WAY OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A short time after the piece of good fortune which befel 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. Sergeant Kewsy, and Mrs. and Miss Kewsy; Colonel Altamont,
+Major Coddy, &c." The colonel traveled in state, and as became a
+gentleman: he appeared in a rich traveling 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 toilet, 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 Minturnae, 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 "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 unluckly 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
+pounds, 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 honor, I'll give you
+half if you can get any body to do us a little fifty."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But Ned said sternly that he had given his word of honor, 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 honor
+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 toward 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 thorough-bred 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 a-bear 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 every body, and that Mar had actially
+refused him twice, and had to wait three months to get seven shillings
+which he had borrered 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 Mr. 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, honored, 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 awe-stricken; the tenants cap in hand, and ready
+to act in the place of your worship's horses when your honor 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 honor; "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 apologize 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 storyteller, useless moralizing? 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 worshiped
+in his memory, and canonized 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 omnibuses 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
+daresay, 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 Bonaparte 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 honor 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 thay 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 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 fathers on this harmless, kind creature?
+She never did any thing 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
+afterward if he do. Are you, who are setting up to be a man of the
+world and 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 civilization, and own that a French cook was the thing in life
+best worth living for."
+
+"Because you like a raw beef-steak and a pipe afterward," 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 convention's 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 neighbor," 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 vain-glorious attempts to lead their fellows;
+and after they have found that men will no longer hear them, as indeed
+they never were in the least worthy to be heard, sink quietly into the
+rank and file--acknowledging their aims impracticable, or thankful
+that they were never put into practice. The fiercest reformers grow
+calm, and are fain 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 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 toward reform, but at the world's pace (and the
+movements of the vast body of mankind must needs be slow)--forego 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 Honorable 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 skepticism is more respectful and more modest than the
+revolutionary ardor 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 take these institutions as I find them, and wait
+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
+under-graduates in the lecture-room. An hereditary legislator, who
+passes his time with jockeys and blacklegs 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 toward 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 farther 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 humor; and acting without any pangs of remorse--but, on the
+contrary, with strict 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
+labor of my neighbor without taking any part in the struggle. Why,
+what a mere dilettante you own yourself to be, in this confession of
+general skepticism, 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 every thing."
+
+"Were the world composed of Saint Bernards or Saint Dominics, 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
+skeptic because I acknowledge what _is_; and in acknowledging that, be
+it linnet or lark, a 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 among 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 any where. 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 afterward
+by the policemen. 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 man 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
+skeptically. 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 endeavor 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 skepticism 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 skeptical 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 song-book babbling of honey and
+Hybla, and nymphs and fountains and love. To what, we say, does this
+skepticism lead? It leads a man to a shameful loneliness and
+selfishness, so to speak--the more shameful, because it is so
+good-humored 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
+farther 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 honor 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 in the Conservative side of the house, and among 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 every thing, friends, fame, dearest ties,
+closest vanities, the respect of an army of churchmen, the recognized
+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 endeavors to reconcile an irreconcileable
+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
+can not 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 skepticism, of your quietism, of
+your atheism, my poor fellow. You're going to sell yourself, and
+Heaven help you! You're 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 XXIV.
+
+WHICH ACCOUNTS PERHAPS FOR CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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,
+neutralized 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 every thing 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 honorable 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 among 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 out
+running the constables (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 clew 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
+down stairs," 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 scenes and other fugitive stratagems.
+
+So, though the elder Pendennis, having his own ulterior object, was
+bent upon seeing Pen's country neighbor 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
+cognizance 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 done: 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 victimized
+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 favored. And it chanced that Strong
+heard of this transaction at the place where the writings had been
+drawn--in the back parlor, 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 parlor. 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 daresay 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 honor of visiting our friend Major Pendennis in
+his lodgings. The major was walking daintily toward 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 every thing with their
+smoke," thought the major. "Here comes a fellow with mustaches and a
+cigar. Every fellow who smokes and wears mustaches 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 toward 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 toward him a couple of
+ungracious fingers.
+
+"What is your good news?" said Major Pendennis, patronizing the other
+still farther, and condescending to address to him an observation, for
+old Pendennis had kept such good company all his life, that he vaguely
+imagined he honored 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 favor 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 unburdened 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 honor, 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 any body, 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 jail 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 life--
+who, between you and me, Captain Strong, we must own is 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 hest
+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 patronizing 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-humor. "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 any thing 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 a long course of
+careful speculation, this wary and silent attendant had been amassing
+a considerable sum of money, during the years 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 humor 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 toward 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
+cognizance; 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 Covering's notes. Do you know any thing 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 parlor 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 sat in the parlor 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 honor,
+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 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 every body, 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 toward him.
+
+"No, no," said Clavering piteously, "I beg your pardon. I didn't mean
+to be angry, or say any thing 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 any body, or no design upon you," Pendennis said,
+"but an endeavor, 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 Sidney 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
+Snell'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 I should like Arthur to be
+there," the major said.
+
+"Dammy, does _he_ know it, too?" cried out Clavering.
+
+"Nobody knows any thing out of this room," Pendennis answered; "and if
+you do this favor 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 any thing 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 any thing 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 gayly 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-humored profession
+of faith.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+PHILLIS AND CORYDON.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On a picturesque common in the neighborhood 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
+school-boy 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 farm-houses; she read French novels habitually; she
+drove into Tunbridge Wells pretty often, and to any play, or ball, or
+conjuror, or musician who might happen to appear in the place; she
+slept a great deal; she quarreled 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 a 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 practice; 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 neighbors 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-butterless.
+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 any
+thing 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, &c. 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 any body 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 endeavors. 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 favor.
+
+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 bed-time, 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 to-night. 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."
+
+"O 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.
+
+"O! go on! I adore it," cried the lady of _Mes Larmes_. "Heavenly
+night! Heavenly, heavenly moon! but I most 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 good night 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? O, 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?_ &c. &c.
+
+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 every thing."
+
+"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 XXVI.
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Clapham 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 might
+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 mean time 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 forego 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 afterward was united to Miss Stickney,
+of Lyme Regis, &c. 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 fullness 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 demeanor?--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, &c., &c.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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, while 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 defense 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 _joedel_, 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 neighbor'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
+aid-de-camps 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. It 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 humor, 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, every body'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, and 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 capital enough; if he
+could have stood one more turn of the wheel, he would have 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 this 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-humor.
+
+"I met that queer fellow Altamont the other day," Pen said to his
+uncle, a day or two afterward.
+
+"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; "and he said he
+did not like the name of Pendennis, though he did me the honor to
+think that I was a good fellow."
+
+"I don't know any man of the name of Altamont, I give you my honor,"
+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
+aid-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 such a secret, which is no 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 Parliament?"
+
+"Clavering thinks he ain't fit for Parliament!" the major answered.
+"No more he is. What's to prevent him from putting you or any body
+else into his place if he likes? Do you think that the 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 honorable 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 "every body does
+it," but because we like it; and our acquiescence, alas! proves not
+that every body 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 behavior 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 care 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 any thing but ardor 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! Oh, 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 all 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 storybook 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 every body does, almost
+every body; only it is luckier to fail before marriage than after."
+
+_"Merci du choix, Monsieur"_ said the Sylphide, making a courtesy.
+
+"Look, my little Blanche," said Pen, taking her hand, and with his
+voice of sad good-humor; "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 courtesy.
+
+"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 dhonneur!_ We used to call
+your Highness the Prince of Fairoaks. What an honor 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 afterward. 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 pootty 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 bef--by any of my--my--by any body"--she sobbed
+out, with much simplicity.
+
+"_Any body!_" 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, dispatched 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 the Publishers would
+sell!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+IN WHICH PEN BEGINS HIS CANVASS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 favor; 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 the 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 neighboring 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 game-keeper of a morning, and for the
+evenings there was a plenty of books and occupation for a literary
+genius like Mr. Arthur, and 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 among the
+simple people there. His sense of humor 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 every
+body 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 every body, 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 Harrowgate--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 the 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 Honorable 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-humor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 onward toward 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,
+&c. 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 clamber 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 honor by his tenant, and at
+which old Mrs. Stokes, Captain Glanders, Squire Hobnell, 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 humor 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 quarreled 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 linendrapery,
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 every thing that she desired, and was leaving the shop,
+Blanche, with a smiling face, and a sweet bow to one of the shop,
+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 any thing. 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 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 Ivanhoe; 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 splendor 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."
+
+"Halloo--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 down stairs 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
+neighboring 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 any thing?" asked
+Altamont.
+
+Grady came out--"He says, will you take any thing 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 any thing 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
+newcomers, and so left them.
+
+"Will we take any thing 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 apostrophized, 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 chamber
+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 any body 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 XXVIII.
+
+IN WHICH PEN BEGINS TO DOUBT ABOUT HIS ELECTION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+While 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 a panic,
+and that he was acting like a rogue and hypocrite.
+
+How was it that a single 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 school-boy, 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 worshiped 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 good-will--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 _koh-i-noor_ 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 good-will and kindness of every body.
+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 good-will
+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 down stairs, and I am not sure that she did not embrace
+him in the presence of Calverley and Coldstream: not that those
+gentleman 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--Calverly 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 every thing 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 house-keeper. 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-humor, she
+performed for him the last Parisian courtesy.
+
+Lady Rockminster came in while this courtesy 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 favorable 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 favor 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 while 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 every body 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 I 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 life-time, 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 toward 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
+church-yard-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
+honor 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 honor. 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, balked 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 can not
+ask for more than love and kindness; and if you think humbly of
+yourself, Arthur, the love and kindness are not diminished--are they?
+I often thought our dearest mother spoiled you at home, by worshiping
+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 can not 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 fervor, 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 came 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 scared 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 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. "O 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, while 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 every thing 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 good-will, 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
+recognized; 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, &c. &c. &c.'"
+
+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 XXIX.
+
+IN WHICH THE MAJOR IS BIDDEN TO STAND AND DELIVER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 parlor 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, while
+Pendennis and Clavering had their discourse in the parlor. 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 Sidney?
+Clavering ain't no more married to my lady than I am! Altamont's the
+man: Altamont's a convick; 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 prejudices 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 gettin' into Parlyment on the strenth of it,
+and was as proud as if he was a duke with half a million a year (such,
+we grieve to say, was Morgan's opinion of his employer's nephew),
+would pay any think 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, or 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
+Poyns," 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 post-chaises 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
+cab-stand, 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 laboring 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 backs. 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, while 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 awhile 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 among us has not said good-by to
+his holiday; returned to dun London, and his fate; surveyed his labors
+and liabilities laid out before him, and been aware of that inevitable
+little account to settle? Smith and his little account, in the
+morning, symbolize 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 labors 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 plowed
+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 rail-road 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.
+
+While the major was absent from his lodgings, Morgan had been seated
+in the landlady's parlor, drinking freely of hot brandy-and-water,
+and pouring out on Mrs. Brixham some of the abuse which he had
+received from his master up-stairs. Mrs. Brixham was 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 boot-jack 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
+mantle-piece of his back-parlor. 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 up-stairs 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 laboring. 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 down stairs,
+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'?--_tooty-fay
+mame shose, sivvaplay, munseer?_"
+
+"Silence, you beast, and go!" cried out the major.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 formly, 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 wig-box. 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 honorable, done every thing 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 AlfPay."
+
+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 mean time, I desire to go to
+bed, and have not the slightest wish for your farther 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 fire-side 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 thine: 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 tonight. 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 gray 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 fire-side, 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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."
+
+"O 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. Every thing
+I had is his. He's a dreadful man." "Eh, Mrs. Brixham? _tant
+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
+down stairs 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 down stairs, 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. O, 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 campaigner 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-by--to Mrs. Brixham and Mr. Morgan."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+IN WHICH THE MAJOR NEITHER YIELDS HIS MONEY NOR HIS LIFE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 families, and I can vouch 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'ner 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 waited 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 can not 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 afterward 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 while the old
+gentleman is making his mysterious toilet, we will also
+modestly retire.
+
+After breakfast, Major Pendennis and his new aid-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 Dispatches, 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 demeanor 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 down stairs," he said, on entering.
+
+"Bring a couple of cabs, Frosch, if you please--and wait down stairs
+until I ring for you," said the major. Morgan saw Frosch down stairs,
+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 check 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 _possussion of certing
+information._"
+
+"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 honorable 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
+behavior. You have been listening at the door, sir, I suppose," said
+the major, looking very haughty; "I forgot to look at the key-hole
+when I went to that public-house, or I might have suspected what sort
+of 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 any body 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 me a note for one twenty-five. There's your
+check-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-barreled 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 toward 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 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 scared 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 up-stairs 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, recognized
+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 any thing, 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, sir, 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 farther 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 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. Among 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 up-stairs in my trunks;
+and having uttered falsehoods regarding his and other honorable
+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 courtesy, 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 parlor-window, discharged any
+thing 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 humor 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 doorsteps, 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 _i_s 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 honor 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 honor of waiting on you there: and would be thankful if you
+would favor 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 favor 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
+patronize 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, with which the reader has already had
+cognizance.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+IN WHICH PENDENNIS COUNTS HIS EGGS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our friend had arrived in London on that day only,
+though but for a brief visit, and having left some fellow-travelers at
+an hotel to which he had conveyed 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 at 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 Havanna, upon each other's mustaches. "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-by,
+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,
+colors 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 neighborhood 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
+Colonization 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 skeptical 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 every thing from the Begum's generosity, and
+says that she will come down very handsomely. And I think Blanche is
+devilish 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, while 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 any body 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
+afterward, 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 if? She's gone from us. God's blessing be with her!
+She might have staid, 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 hand-writing--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 awhile, 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 humor; 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 cab-stand, 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 quarreled 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
+fetes 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' for 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 down stairs and walked
+to his uncle's lodgings.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+FIAT JUSTITIA.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 afterward," 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 while 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
+cognizant 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 acknowledgement 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 while 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 toward 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 neighboring 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 honor 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, bedad, 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 among
+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-do-you-call-'em, hey?"
+
+"About Miss Amory's father--about Lady Clavering's first husband, and
+who he is, and what."
+
+"Hem--a devilish 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 dead-lock like the fellow in the play--the
+Critic, hey?--devilish 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 near est 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 honor, 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 over-reached; 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 honor?"
+
+"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 honor 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 can not 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 afterward 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 XXXIII.
+
+IN WHICH THE DECK BEGINS 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-hag, 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 labor 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 vigor 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 afterward 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 labor. 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 any thing 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 book-case (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. O, 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.
+
+"Dr. 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----street 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+Rockminister'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
+Rockminister, who was astonished at his enthusiasm. She had never
+heard him so warm in praise of any body; 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 recognized 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 & 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-by!" 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 showed 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 skepticism 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 fullness 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 worshiped 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 skeptic'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 death-bed 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 fulfill 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 jeweler'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. Rumors from Naples and Paris, rumors,
+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 can not 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 any body'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 practice 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 can not be better
+given than in the surprising and mysterious letter of Arthur
+Pendennis.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+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 epaulets 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 where you are
+presented, and you shall give me a smile from your chariot window. I
+saw Lady Mirable 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 can not tell you now--afterward 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 dispatched a letter to Sir Francis
+Clavering, saying that I can not accept his seat in Parliament until
+after my marriage; in like manner I can not 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 gayly
+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 with-out, 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 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 humor: 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 any thing 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 hang-dog 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 to 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 sat down, with his hands
+on his knees, the sun shining 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 apostrophized, 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 favored 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 humor 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. Dr. 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 every thing. 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 rose 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 any thing 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 every body, 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 practices 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 bans 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 candor 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 forever; 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 XXXV.
+
+SHOWS HOW ARTHUR HAD BETTER HAVE TAKEN A RETURN-TICKET.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 every body. 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
+neighbor 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
+blackcoated gentleman who was traveling 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 burden,
+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 short-comings, lost
+opportunities, weigh the passions which overpower, the defects which
+incapacitate reason?--what extent of truth and right his neighbor's
+mind is organized 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 splendors 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 neighbor, 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 carpetbag 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 forego the
+worldly advantages which a union with you offered, and which I could
+not accept without, as I fancy, being dishonored. 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 toward 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 a 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 jeweler'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 interest 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 forever
+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 toward 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 any
+body 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 l-l-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 every body 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-by, 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 can not live out
+of the world, out of excitement. I could have done so, but it is too
+late. If I can not have emotions, I must have the world. You would
+offer me neither one nor the other. You are _blase_ in every thing,
+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, _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. 1l 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 every thing, 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 defenseless 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 XXXVI.
+
+A CHAPTER OF MATCH-MAKING.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 can not 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
+supplanted 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 humor, 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 practices 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 awe-stricken 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 night-caps on, I daresay. 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 humor
+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 parents cast 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 homeward 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 humor--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 while 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 honors. 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 any thing;
+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 beef-steak 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
+connection. 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 theater 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 theater? with his son? What
+a capital piece it was, and how charming Mrs. O'Leary looked and sang
+it! and what a good fellow young Huxter was! liked by every body, an
+honor 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 practice 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 every body 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."
+
+"His lordship 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 favor in his sight. There
+_must_ have been something 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 XXXVII.
+
+EXEUNT OMNES.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+re-assemble 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 gate-way.
+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 favor, 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 rumor 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)--rumor 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 favor 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 fulfill 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 any thing 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 met; 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 embassadress, "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 embassadress.
+
+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 demeanor, 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 acknowledged 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 up-stairs 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 no 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
+onward 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, every thing 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 jewelers were set to work and engaged to
+prepare the delightful paraphernalia of Hymen. Lady Clavering was in
+such a good humor, 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 up-stairs 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, "O, Arthur--Mr. Pendennis--I want you to tell dear Laura
+something?" and she came out to the door.
+
+"What is it?" he 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 wont," said Blanche. "I have promised him--_n'importe_. Wait
+until after our marriage--O, until after our marriage--O, how wretched
+I am," said the girl, who had been all smiles, and grace, and gayety
+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 any thing. Tell him tonight."
+
+"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?
+O, 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 cab-stands--any thing 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 every thing 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 any thing 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 bridemaids' 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 Madam 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-humor.
+
+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, a-hem! 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 can not 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 quarreling
+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 awhile 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 quarreling 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 inclosure 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. O 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 any thing, 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 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 toward 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 toward the
+fire, but Foker ran to her and clutched her arm, "I must see that
+letter," he said; "give it to 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 Bessy, 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
+dishonored 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. Every thing'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 connection 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 Lady Clavering. "Take her, take every
+thing 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 dishonored, 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 splendor scarcely sufficed to make the idea
+of himself supportable. She was weaned 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 any thing happened to him?" gasped Lady Clavering. "O, 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 any thing 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.
+
+While 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 favorite beverage, and the parties engaged in
+general conversation.
+
+After awhile 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 every thing to soothe Mr.
+Morgan; and, under pretense 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 afterward, 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, while 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, "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 he 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
+hack 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 Honorable 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 Sidney, 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 reconnoiter. 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 down stairs 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 Bow'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 broom-stick,
+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 any body 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 practicing
+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 church-yard 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 Huxter, who has the entire command
+of Doctor Portman, brought Bows down from London to contest the organ
+chair 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 among 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 traveled 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 endeavor, 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, Vol. 2
+by William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS, VOL. 2 ***
+
+This file should be named 7pnd210.txt or 7pnd210.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2
+by William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The History of Pendennis, Vol. 2
+       His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy
+
+Author: William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9904]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 29, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Lee Dawei, Michael Lockey and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+HIS FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES, HIS FRIENDS AND HIS GREATEST ENEMY.
+
+
+
+
+
+BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.
+
+
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD BY THE AUTHOR,
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOLUME II.
+
+1858
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+1.--RELATES TO MR. HARRY FOKER's AFFAIRS
+
+2.--CARRIES THE READER BOTH TO RICHMOND AND GREENWICH
+
+3.--CONTAINS A NOVEL INCIDENT
+
+4.--ALSATIA
+
+5.--IN WHICH THE COLONEL NARRATES SOME OF HIS ADVENTURES
+
+6.--A CHAPTER OF CONVERSATIONS
+
+7.--MISS AMORY'S PARTNERS
+
+8.--MONSEIGNEUR S'AMUSE
+
+9.--A VISIT OF POLITENESS
+
+10.--IN SHEPHERD'S INN
+
+11.--IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE GARDEN
+
+12.--THE HAPPY VILLAGE AGAIN
+
+13.--WHICH HAD VERY NEARLY BEEN THE LAST OF THE STORY
+
+14.--A CRITICAL CHAPTER
+
+15.--CONVALESCENCE
+
+16.--FANNY'S OCCUPATION'S GONE
+
+17.--IN WHICH FANNY ENGAGES A NEW MEDICAL MAN
+
+18.--FOREIGN GROUND
+
+19.--"FAIROAKS TO LET"
+
+20.--OLD FRIENDS
+
+21.--EXPLANATIONS
+
+22.--CONVERSATIONS
+
+23.--THE WAY OF THE WORLD
+
+24.--WHICH ACCOUNTS PERHAPS FOR CHAPTER XXIII
+
+25.--PHILLIS AND CORYDON
+
+26.--TEMPTATIONS
+
+27.--IN WHICH PEN BEGINS HIS CANVASS
+
+28.--IN WHICH PEN BEGINS TO DOUBT ABOUT HIS ELECTION
+
+29.--IN WHICH THE MAJOR IS BIDDEN TO STAND AND DELIVER
+
+30.--IN WHICH THE MAJOR NEITHER YIELDS HIS MONEY NOR HIS LIFE
+
+31.--IN WHICH PENDENNIS COUNTS HIS EGGS
+
+32.--FIAT JUSTITIA
+
+33.--IN WHICH THE DECKS BEGIN TO CLEAR
+
+34.--MR. AND MRS. SAM HUXTER
+
+35.--SHOWS HOW ARTHUR HAD BETTER HAVE TAKEN A RETURN-TICKET
+
+36.--A CHAPTER OF MATCH-MAKING
+
+37.--EXEUNT OMNES PENDENNIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+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 the
+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
+deviled 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
+theater. 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 to the tread-mill 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 checks from Mr. Foker, and autographs from the earl
+himself, with the letters I O U written over his illustrious
+signature.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Ann 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 favorite 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 any body 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 gray
+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 the full gallop; all round
+the chaste bed-room 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 favorite 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 fac-simile. Such were the
+pictures in which honest Harry delighted. He was no worse than many of
+his neighbors; 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 dégagé style of
+spelling and hand-writing, scrawling freely over the filigree paper,
+and commencing by calling Mr. Harry, her dear Hokey-pokey-fokey, lay
+on his bed table by his side, amid 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-corned 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 pleasures 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, motherly woman," Harry said.
+"But it isn't the Back Kitchen, neither," he added with a
+ghastly sigh.
+
+As Lady Agnes never denied her son any thing, 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 rigeur_, 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 Brooks's, whom I remember at Drummington, 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 every body 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--every body 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 every thing. The suprème de volaille was
+very good--uncommon, and the sweets were better than Moufflet's
+sweets. Did you taste the plombière, 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."
+
+"Hem!" said Lady Agnes.
+
+"I know what you mean. Lady C. ain't distangy exactly, but she is very
+good-natured." "O 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."
+
+"O, 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
+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 favorite 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
+colors: 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 pew_" 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 splendor and proceeded to sally out.
+
+"At what time 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 every body knows), where he just had
+the pleasure of peeping upward 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 your 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: while, 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 _prétendue_, 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 arch-way 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 place. 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 siren 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 every body, and never
+missed a day in the Park on his gray 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
+honor 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. "Who ever
+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? O, 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-by. 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 Lady Ann upon a new novel, which the sisters had just
+procured from the library.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CARRIES THE READER BOTH TO RICHMOND AND GREENWICH.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 pine-apples, 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?" Mrs. Calverley asked
+of her neighbor. "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 toward 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 n'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'ètes qu'une bête_," 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 danse_ 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 comité_, 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 straight-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 then
+accomplished coachman whether he would not step in and take some thing
+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 over head, looked down upon Mr.
+Foker that night, as he, in his turn, sentimentally regarded them. And
+he went and gazed upward 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 neighboring
+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 patronize the institution of public
+worship, and that it was quite a correct thing to be seen in church of
+a Sunday. One day it chanced that he and Arthur went thither together:
+the latter, who was now in high favor, 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 every where. 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 Mr. 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 the 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 _lancéd_ 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 afterward, 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 dandyfied 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 honor, 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 every body, 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; while 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 toward 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the congregation issued forth at the conclusion of the service,
+Foker was out among 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 Amory 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 Gray 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-humor
+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 any thing, 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,"--"O, 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
+voilà formé!_" 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 downward toward 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 every thing 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 any
+thing 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
+honor us with their company at Greenwich? Is Lady Clavering to go on
+forever 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 favor to be my guest? and Miss Blanche shall be Arthur's, if she
+will be so good."
+
+"O 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
+afterward 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 III.
+
+CONTAINS A NOVEL INCIDENT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 among 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 favorite
+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 afterward, 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 the 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 others were in which he thought he had
+expressed his full heart! This page was imitated from a then favorite
+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 to 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 profound 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 Oxbridge; it's a little like him; and Miss Amory is
+Neaera. By gad, Warrington, I did love 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 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 any thing 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 sentence 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 purposes 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 flavor 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 fervor 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
+vigor, 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 purfumed, and petted, in rather an
+absurd manner).
+
+"Do you think we can do any thing 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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; and Warrington,
+with a scornful smile, once more took up the manuscript with the tongs
+from out of the harmless cinders.
+
+"O, 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 piastres to Bacon or
+to Bungay. The rubbish is salable 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.
+
+While 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 out-bid his rival. Was any thing 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 odor 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 shattered 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 humorist, 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 personages 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 eying 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 great
+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."
+
+"O, 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 grand house, he
+comes and stays in these rickety old chambers with me. He's a man that
+can afford to live any where."
+
+"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 then 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 skillful 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 or five years, and make a fortune. In the mean time, I
+should wish him to live properly, take respectable apartments, and
+keep a brougham." And on this simple calculation it was that the major
+counseled Pen.
+
+Arthur, laughing, told Warrington what his uncle's advice had been;
+but he luckily had a much more reasonable counselor 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 inclosed
+to her such an installment 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 toward 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 a 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 honor, very great honor, 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.
+Every body 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 dependent."
+
+"A dependent! who ever so thought of you? You are the equal of all the
+world," Pynsent broke out.
+
+"I am a dependent 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 dispraise of others. Nor did their praise
+elate him overmuch; 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 hurt rather 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-humor!
+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 honor!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+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
+neighborhood of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, and the Temple. Somewhere
+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 venders, purveyors of theatrical prints for
+youth, dealers in dingy furniture, and bedding suggestive of any thing
+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 theater,
+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
+center 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
+mustaches, 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 luster 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
+daughter 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 practicing 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 mantle-piece 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 behavior "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 demeanor 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 daughter's choriot. Sir Chorlus, I
+saw your neem at the Levée; 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 clart and burgundee, until his own utterance began to
+fail him, over his sixth tumbler of whiskey-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 make 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 gray hairs from
+jail." And the good-natured Lady Mirabel dispatched 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 slip-shod
+messenger and aid-de-camp of the captain, who brought the letter
+announcing his mishap. If the servant had followed the captain's
+aid-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's
+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 courtesies, pointing toward 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 Travelers', 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." These 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 Nawaab of
+Lucknow, and Captain the 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 Embassador 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," as 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 mignonnette-box
+which bloomed in Bows's window.
+
+From Grady's kitchen casement often came odors still more fragrant.
+The three old soldiers who formed the garrison of No. 4, 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 any thing. 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 afterward; 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 honor 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 organizing 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 every thing: 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 intrusted), Strong was sent to him by his patron 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 burdened 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 every
+body 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 V.
+
+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 sat 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-humored 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 color of his heard 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 can not 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 Jingo. And
+it's my belief I had some more, too, afterward 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 cunning 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. 3, 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 any
+thing? Dammy, Strong, did I split any thing?"
+
+"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 recognized 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 any body 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 sattens 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. 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 kep 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 soirées--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 restaurateurs,
+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 swep off in another way. One night, at the
+countess's, there was several of us at supper--Mr. Bloundell-Bloundell,
+the Honorable 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 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
+Honorable 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 bed-side. So I said he was a gentleman, and asked him
+if he would like to take any thing, when my servant should get it for
+him; but the Honorable 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 any thing, 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 any thing 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 any
+price.' '_En effet_' says the marky, twiddling his little black
+mustaches 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 honor 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 voici._' 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 honor, 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 said, '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 while I'm fond of her. She said
+she could not bear 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 jewelry, 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 honor 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 honor?'
+
+"'Field of honor 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
+honor--I thought, I--but no matter. Good-by, 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 honor.'
+
+"What could I do? Every body 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 honor; 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. Clavering 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 any thing 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 suffered 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, by 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 two 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 colors 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 honor 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-humor. "Look here, baronet, I
+apologize; on my honor, 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, it's ungrateful." "By heavens, if ever you do it
+again. If ever you dare to show 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 Gad, or any where 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've 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 every
+body, 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 check 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 cleaned out,
+leaving that infernal check 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 farther 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 VI.
+
+A CHAPTER OF CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Every day, after the entertainments 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 also 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. Every
+body 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 rumors
+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. To name all the senators
+with whom Clavering consorted, would be invidious. We may mention
+only a few. There was Captain Raff, the honorable 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 favor 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 bay-window at Bays's. Don't
+look offended, I only mean that I am _blasé_ 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 every where--every where, 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 humor 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 protégé 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 neighborhood 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 forebore 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
+dispatched 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
+toward that fane in a carriage-and-four, so to speak, and might halt
+and take refreshments almost whenever he pleased. He wore varnished
+boots from the earliest period of youth, and had cambric handkerchiefs
+and lemon-colored 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 Havannas, 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, &c., 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 pleasures. 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 neighbor, 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 any body 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 too 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. "O, you don't know how
+miserable that man made me," she said, "or what a life I passed
+between 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 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 jail before his trial, instead of afterward, he would have saved
+me a deal of shame and 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 it. For 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 happy 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 among
+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 up-stairs 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 humor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 brusk, 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 every body 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 any thing 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 any body 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-by, 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 honor of a conversation, and patronized 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 any body
+should think of patronizing 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, 'O
+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, every body went there
+--every body who was in society: and then we talked of the new
+embassador 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 soirée to the neighboring 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 among 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 gayety 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 women 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 combinations 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 neighbor 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 girl's 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
+civilization. Ye gods! how rapidly we live and grow! In nine months,
+Mr. Paxton grows you a pine apple 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 pine-apples so is the
+race of man. Hoiaper--what's the Greek for a pine-apple, 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, while 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 gayly till the big
+bruised brazen one bumps him and sends him down--eh, vogue la
+galère!--you see a man sink in the race, and say good-by 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 galère, 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 pommeling 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. "And 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 world, 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 it, or he who descends to the
+ground, and takes his part in the contest? "That philosopher," Pen
+said, "had held a great place among 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 cushion, and
+cries out, that the whole struggle is an accursed one, and the works
+of the world are evil. Many a conscience-striken 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 paralyzed 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
+laborer 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 reveler 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 VII.
+
+MISS AMORY'S PARTNERS.
+
+
+The noble Henry Foker, of whom we have lost sight for a few pages, has
+been in the mean while 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 ardor, 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 favorite 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 among
+ill-regulated young gentlemen, and such, indeed, was Mr. H. Foker's
+condition, who, having been bred up to indulge in every propensity
+toward 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 practiced? 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 you,
+sir, 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 very elevation of your virtue and high attributes,
+of necessity lonely; we can't reach up and talk familiarly with such
+potentates. Good-by, 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 worshiped 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, among us, we need never despair. I have read
+of the passion of a transported pickpocket for a female convict (each
+of them being advanced in age, 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 honored 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, among 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, pâtes,
+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 splendor 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
+neighborhood of Jermyn-street, where his friends Loder, Punter, little
+Moss Abrams, 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 regarded each
+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, that I have for cold boiled
+veal." Upon which Blanche of course remarked, that Mr. Pendennis was
+wicked, _méchant_, 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 practiced 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 practiced 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 step-daughter. 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 gray 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, flavored 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 ball-room then passing before
+them, and about whose appearance or character Mr. Harry spoke with
+artless freedom, and a considerable dash of humor.
+
+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 god-mother, 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 danced and waltzed with
+renewed vigor and grace.
+
+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 favorite? 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 courtesy 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 expression 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 honor which had just been shown to her, and with
+other intoxicating events of the evening, that her good humor 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 every thing that was
+nice, and her ear with every thing that was sweet and flattering--oh!
+what an object he was! The rings round his eyes were of the color 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 humor; 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 worshiper must have looked upward 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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-colored 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.
+
+Among 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 dandyfied 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 every body: 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 peach? 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 cab-stand 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 sympathizing 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 valor! 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 splendor 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 fullness of his heart; and Mr. Pen must
+have been too much occupied with his own affairs to remark the concern
+and agitation of his neighbor, 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 ça_," 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
+toward 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 any thing it ain't. Talking
+about money and such a girl as that, it's--it's--what-d'ye-callem--_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, eying 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 any thing 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
+the sofa, face forward, 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 every body.
+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-by! 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 he?" 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 that 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 shriveled, 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 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 willfully or
+fatally astray, while the natural truth and love which should illumine
+him grew 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, 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 VIII.
+
+MONSEIGNEUR S'AMUSE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 neighbors, 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
+bay-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 mustaches, 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 chargé 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 _blasé_ 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 any thing but misanthropical. If he could not get a good
+dinner he sat 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-parlor or on board a Greenwich steam-boat, or in a jaunt
+to Hampstead with Mr. Finucane, his colleague at the Pall Mall
+Gazette; or in a visit to the summer theaters 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
+or the lovely equestrian of the arena by the hand. And while he could
+watch the grimaces or the graces of these with a satiric humor 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: he was
+pleased to possess it: and said that he hoped thus to the last he
+should retain it. As another man has an ardor for art or music, or
+natural science, Mr. Pen said that anthropology was his favorite
+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
+coqueting of a wrinkled dowager in a ball-room, 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 while 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 humor 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
+forever, 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 every thing. But you
+began to use the bear's-grease pot directly the hair-dresser 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 while 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 humor, 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 fire-works 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
+splendors 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 recognized, "Bedad, sir, if ye doubt me
+honor, 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 any reet 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, oi've seen Vauxhall, and I
+scawrun any interfayrance on moi account: but for these leedies, one
+of them has never been there, and oi should think ye'd harly take
+advantage of me misfartune in losing the tickut, to deproive her of
+her pleasure."
+
+"It ain't no use, captain. I can't go about your business," the
+checktaker 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 door-keeper, peevishly, out of the
+illuminated box. And at this minute Arthur came up, and recognizing
+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 toward 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
+favorite 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 sympathized
+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--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 gray
+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 demeanor.
+
+"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. 4."
+
+Fanny made a little courtesy, 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
+courtesy; "and I've never been at Vauxhall, sir, and Pa 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 splendor such
+as the finest fairy tale, the finest pantomime she had ever witnessed
+at the theater, had never realized. 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
+_blasé_ 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 native countee)--Mr. Pendennis,
+ye've been me preserver, and oi 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
+splendor 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 patronizing and affable manner pointing
+out to them the edifices worthy of note, and discoursing, 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 honor 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
+would 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 color 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 Caracoline, little Tom
+Tufthunt was in attendance upon Lord Colchicum; and rather pleased,
+too, with his position. When Don Juan scales 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 peer 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 god-father 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 patronize 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
+mantle-piece 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 dark
+porter's 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 among them, one or two
+of the acquaintances of Mr. Arthur Pendennis.
+
+Among 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 woe-begone 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 toward him with no little kindness and pity--but
+Harry did not see the beautiful dark eyes.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 short 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 trowsers 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 at our place--I'm mostly at home
+Saturdays; and there's generally a cheese in the cupboard. Ta, Ta.
+There's the bell for the fire-works 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 fire-work
+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 fire-works, 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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?"
+
+"O 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 any thing
+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
+fire-works. You must know I live by myself, and work very hard. I
+write in books and newspapers, Fanny; and I was quite tired out, and
+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 grammarian's 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 Mr.
+Arthur Pendennis made any use of the monosyllable in question? Not so.
+In the first place it was dark: the fire-works 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 honor. She seems to have a great deal of dangerous and rather
+contagious sensibility, and I am very glad the fire-works 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 under tone. 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
+fire-works, 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 any thing to eat, ladies, and I wish you would permit me
+to invite you to supper."
+
+"Dad," said Costigan, "I'd loike a snack, tu; only I forgawt me purse,
+or I should have invoited these leedies to a colleetion."
+
+Mrs. Bolton, with considerable asperity, said, she ad an eadache, and
+would much rather go home.
+
+"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
+favor 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-humored 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 favorite 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, "like 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-humor 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 humor, 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 remonstrances 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 honor,
+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 pardon, 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-humor, "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 any thing about the dispute.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A VISIT OF POLITENESS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 _blasé_ 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 nightcap; 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 labor.
+
+Mr. Pendennis's labor, 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
+laborer, 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
+overmuch. 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 among 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;
+destined, 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 minanderies of
+the young ladies in the ball-rooms" (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 _voilées_ 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 _roué_ 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 dandyfied protecting air, his conceit, generosity, and good
+humor, 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 ginger-bread 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 realization 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 made 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 trowsers made his appearance under the Inn archway, and stopped
+at the porter's wicket, Fanny was not in the least surprised, only
+delighted, 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 humor 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 work-box 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 Pontydiddlum; 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 jewelry, 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 F----in society.
+
+"O, 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. Oh, 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, "O, 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, sent 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
+theater, 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 face 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-humor, 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 court-yard 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 X.
+
+IN SHEPHERD'S INN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 and 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 night
+previous, 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 every body.
+
+"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 honor,
+I am sure. They are rather high up; but--"
+
+"O! 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 honor my umble
+domicile with a visit," Mr. Bows said, with a 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 toward 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-by, 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, ony 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 sate 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 any thing 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 bed-chamber, indeed, but a very few minutes before the
+arrival of that gentleman. We have witnessed the deshabillé 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 odor 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
+woefully: 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 labored 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 among 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 an 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 toward 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 while 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 humor. He went off to endeavor 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 on 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 Theater 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 travestie 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 XI
+
+IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE GARDEN.
+
+
+Fashion has long deserted the green and pretty Temple Garden, in which
+Shakspeare 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. Newberry has sent.
+Treading heavily on the gravel, and rolling majestically along in a
+snuff-colored 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 Miter), and Mr. Johnson asks
+Mr. Goldsmith to come home and take a dish of tea with Miss Williams.
+Kind faith of Fancy! Sir Hoger 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 neighborhood 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 come 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 neighborhood
+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 wharves and 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 downward 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 toward the east.
+
+One cried out, "Oh!" the other began to laugh; and with a knowing
+little infantine 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Pen looked very grave, pompous, and dandified. He was unusually smart
+and brilliant in his costume. His white duck trowsers and white hat,
+his neckcloth of many colors, his light waistcoat, gold chains, and
+shirt studs, gave him the air of a prince of the blood at least. How
+his splendor became his figure! Was any body 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 won't 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!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Neara
+--Neara--I don't know the pronunciation. And how 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 down
+stairs 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, &c.) 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 hout, 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-by, good-by." 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 center 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 book-case 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 any body
+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 afterward, 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 fire-side; 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 tyrannizing 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. And I 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 thread-bare coat, and gets his
+bread by playing tunes at an alehouse? 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 every thing has 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 make her
+mock my deformity and old age?"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+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 inhabited 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
+vacations, 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, while 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
+farm-house; built a flaring new white-washed 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 indulged in the pleasures of the town together.
+Ascott, the theaters, Vauxhall, and the convivial taverns in the
+joyous neighborhood 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 rencounter 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 labored, 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 theaters 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 theater, 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 to 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 humor with himself and the world, it never
+entered his mind that he could be disagreeable to any body; 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 offense--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 recognize 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 afterward, 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 behavior 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 practicing his infernal
+arts; and he thought he should warn her father, &c., &c.,--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 favors.
+
+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 Honorable 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. Madam 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 Dr. 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 any thing 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 and
+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 hand
+writing, 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 unfavorable to his neighbors), 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, &c., &c.
+
+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
+rumors that were against him, and earnestly praying that he would
+break off and repent of a connection 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 XIII.
+
+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 endeavored to sooth 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
+wish 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 ball-room. 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 forego any
+thing 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 cozy 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, amicably 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 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 next the 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 endeavored, 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
+recognized 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 forego 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 forego 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 afterward, 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 endeavored 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, was yet
+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, afterward 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?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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, while 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 a
+romantic attachment 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 was so very kind. Then he came to call and ask after
+us: and very, very good it was of such a 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 every body admires Pauline--and I'm sure every body 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'm 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 do, 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 aid-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 looking 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 practice, and with which weapons of defense nature endows them,
+the traces of her emotion disappeared; and she went and took her work,
+and sat in the corner so demure and quiet, that the careless male
+parent never suspected that any thing 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 endeavoring 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 versâ: 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 toward 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 any body 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 any body but himself. But
+the young man must have advice--the best advice; and Morgan was
+straightway dispatched 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 honor, that if he could be of any use he
+would rush to Pen's chambers. As it was, Morgan should go and see that
+every thing was right. The doctor must write to him by every post to
+Stillbrook; it was but forty miles distant from London, and if any
+thing 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 demeanor. 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 neighboring station, and a
+gray-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; "any thing 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
+traveling 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 pennâ," 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 poor 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 XIV.
+
+A CRITICAL CHAPTER.
+
+
+As Fanny saw the two ladies and the anxious countenance of the elder,
+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 afterward; 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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--O, 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 hurra 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 into 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."
+
+"O, 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 further room.
+
+Mrs. Pendennis was ensconced, pale and solemn, in a great chair by
+Pen's bed-side. 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 traveled. 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 praying into his face, to know if there is hope for
+the sick infant that can not 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 heart-broken
+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 every thing 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 bed-room), 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, and flung them
+upon the study-table. Did Goodenough know any thing 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 humor
+will arise, and such smiles will pass, to satirize the gloom, as it
+were, and to make it more gloomy!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 time 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 he had there, for whom 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 behavior 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 back 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
+favor 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 mischievious 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 every body 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 shall
+we enlarge very much upon the more cheerful theme of his recovery.
+
+Every body 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 bears' grease pots, quite curious to
+examine, too; and a choice selection of portraits of females almost
+always in sadness and generally in disguise or dishabille, glittered
+round the neat walls of his elegant little bower of repose. Medora
+with disheveled hair was consoling herself over her banjo for the
+absence of her Conrad--the Princesse Fleur de Marie (of Rudolstein and
+the Mystères 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 any thing 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
+can not 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 can not help peeping at the shops on the way, or at our
+neighbor'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 humor 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 up-stairs; 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 gayety, 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 neighborhood 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 Mrs. 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 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 intermittance; 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
+Lambcourt. This was introduced into the Pen-Warrington sitting-room by
+large puffs of tobacco smoke--the puffs of smoke 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 pass-key), 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 traveler 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 succor 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
+bed-chamber 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 toward 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 XV.
+
+CONVALESCENCE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 anatomized 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 her
+were changed; and, alas, that it should be so! were not particularly
+eager to see her any more. He felt very well disposed toward 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 toward 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
+bed-side, 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 realize 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
+inward doubt and despair and 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 finishes 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
+willfulness, and a little selfishness, and a little dandyfication, 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 while 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 Flagcourt; 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 honor 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
+every body in the gardens, and there are beadles, you know, and that
+sort of thing--every body 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 color 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 is 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 women
+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
+defenses which a woman has in her heart, her faith, and honor, 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 away, 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 honor 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, humor, 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? Never, 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 favors 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 traveled 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 either 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-cutthroats 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 Heaven," 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 dear 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 any body else at
+Fairoaks except Doctor Portman and Captain Glanders, and because his
+mother constantly praised her Arthur, and because he was
+gentleman-like, 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 afterward, 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 favorable 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
+quietly. 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 flavor), 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
+arm-chair. 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
+apartments 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 toward 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 exceedingly
+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 time 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 bed-time 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 _écarté_ 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 any thing for
+the slippers.
+
+While 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 Mullinger'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 vigor,
+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
+afterward 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, jocularities, waggeries, and
+_petits jeux innocens_: so that the second and third floors of
+number 6, Lambcourt, Temple, rang with more cheerfulness and laughter
+than had been known in those precincts for many a long day.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 traveling 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 odor.
+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, 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 uncouth 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 bed-side George found a new Bible which the widow had placed
+there, with a note inside saying that she had not seen the book among
+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 XVI.
+
+FANNY'S OCCUPATION'S GONE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 among
+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, whereupon 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 boot-makers
+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, &c. Of these documents,
+Pen, who was always free-handed 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 chests 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 any
+thing 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 dress-maker'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 any thing
+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 any thing about it; and I
+don't wish to know any thing 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; and, begad, 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 honor!--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 honor, 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 any thing serious has happened?
+Has Arthur said any thing?"
+
+"His silence confirms it," sobbed Mrs. Pendennis, behind her
+pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"Not at all. There are subjects, my dear, about which a young fellow
+can not 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 any thing 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--O--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 view 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
+among Pen's other letters, and let him have them when he calls for
+them. Or if we 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.
+
+"_Arthur 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 honor 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 had 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 honorable a man as
+ever lived."
+
+"Honorable!" said the widow, with bitter scorn. "O, brother, what is
+this you call honor? 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 any thing 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.
+Whatd'youcallem, 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 honor, what
+right have you to doubt his honor 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 pursoo? 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 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 any thing 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 neighborhood; 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 toward 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 humor 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 allusions. 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. Dr. 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. Every thing 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 neighborhood, 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
+any where 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 school-boy,
+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--any where 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 to Arthur, it was received
+by that gentleman with the greatest alacrity and enthusiasm. He longed
+to be off at once. He let his mustaches 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 mustaches, when they came, were of
+a decidedly red color. 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 neighborhood, and they are not to be at home before Christmas,
+my uncle says: besides, Warrington, I want to get out of the country.
+While 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 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
+_affairs 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 mess-room 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 afterward; and the man who betrays your
+honor 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," Warrington said 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 traveling 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. Traveling 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 enable you
+to--to anticipate you 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 balked 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 eye-lashes looked down toward her tea-cup: 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 her query to
+her tea-spoon, 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 tea-spoon.
+
+"Would you?" said George.
+
+She looked up and said, "Yes." Their eyes met. "I will go any where
+you ask me, or do any thing," 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 neighboring 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 XVII.
+
+IN WHICH FANNY ENGAGES A NEW MEDICAL MAN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 appearance, 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 tea-cup 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 realized; 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 staid, 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 behavior 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 practiced what I preach."
+
+"And what did you practice, 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, among 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 every thing, whether it was a favorite tragic or comic
+actor, a cock on a dunghill, a corkscrew going into a bottle and a
+cork issuing thence, or an Irish officer of genteel connections 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 sixpenny-worth 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 gray 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 while 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 among 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 honor 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 any thing 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, &c., 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 cab-stand 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 homeward.
+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 Theater, where gin-shops, oyster-shops, and theatrical
+wardrobes abound, the proprietors of which were now asleep behind
+the 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 fellow to fall backward.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 gatebell, 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," he said; "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 and water to one of
+his knees and shins, which, with the pair of trowsers 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 while 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 every body 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 learned what was the illness which was evidently
+preying upon little Fan, and what had been Pen's behavior 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 disfavor 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 once, 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 Bows'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 any body," 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 all
+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 embassador, 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 any thing 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 behavior 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 humor was to contradict every body.
+
+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, recognize--"
+
+"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 to be turned 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 victimizing, 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 any thing to win a man, and fling him
+away without a pang, sir. If she 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-by, 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_. Dayme, when I used to read 'Télémaque' 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 _ménager_ 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 a 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 embassador 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 XVIII.
+
+FOREIGN GROUND.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Worth 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 connection
+between Arthur and the odious little gate-keeper 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 connection.
+
+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, &c., 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-traveled 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 out-stretched
+arms kneeling before the illuminated altars, and beheld the strange
+pomps and ceremonials of the Catholic worship. Bare-footed friars in
+the streets, crowned images of Saints and Virgins in the churches
+before which people were bowing down and worshiping, 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 toward 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 on 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 honey-suckle 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," among
+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 favorable 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, &c.
+&c.; 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 every body,
+and about every body, and a little against every body. He was
+invaluable in a country house, in a word: and richly merited and
+enjoyed his vacation after his labors. And perhaps while 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 toward the pretty, fresh-colored 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 ball-room,
+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 staid 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 blond, tight-waisted Germans--at the capering
+Frenchmen, with their lackered mustaches and trim varnished boots--at
+the English dandies, Pen among 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 neighborhood, 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 traveled he wore
+a jaunty and juvenile traveling 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 old traveler
+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 honor 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 splendors and amenities
+belonging to it. That very evening the resolute old gentlemen, 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 recognized and accosted him. He remembered her in '14 when she was
+an actress of the Paris Boulevard, and the Emperor Alexander's
+aid-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 edifying. 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 honor, 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 breath 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 marvelous
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When the major arrived, his presence somehow cast a damp upon at least
+three persons of our little party--upon Laura, who had any thing but
+respect for him; upon Warrington, whose manner toward 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 up 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 dispatch-boxes and umbrella-cases, his
+guide-books, passports, maps, and other elaborate necessaries of the
+English traveler, all as trim and ready as they could be in their
+master's own room in Jermyn-street. Every thing was ready, from the
+medicine-bottle fresh filled from the pharmacien's, down to the old
+fellow's prayer-book, without which he never traveled, for he made a
+point of appearing at the English church at every place which he
+honored with a stay. "Every body did it," he said; "every English
+gentleman did it," and this pious man would as soon have thought of
+not calling upon the English embassador 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 every body 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.
+
+Among the letters there was a little note addressed, as a former
+letter we have heard of had been, to "Arthur 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 would 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 every body:
+and as for Arthur, she would pray for him forever. 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 any thing about this letter, sir?" Arthur asked.
+
+"What letter, my good sir?" said the other drily, 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 was she 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 inconveinence, 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--and, I beg
+your pardon, uncle. You were, you always have been, most kind to me:
+but I say again, did you say any thing 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 toward 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
+every thing 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 neighboring room opened and Laura came forth with 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 courtesy the
+young lady passed to her friend's 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 humor, 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 thoughts, 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 behavior and fickleness, and he described how the girl was no
+better than a little light-minded flirt; and, perhaps, he exaggerated
+the good humor and contentedness which he had himself, as he thought,
+witnessed in her behavior in the scene with Mr. Huxter.
+
+Now, all Bows's statements had been colored 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-humor, 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 connection 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, while Mr. Shamble was feebly giving utterance to his
+sermon.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+"FAIROAKS TO LET."
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our poor widow (with the assistance of her faithful Martha of
+Fairoaks, who laughed and wondered at the German ways, and
+superintended the affairs of the simple household) had made a little
+feast in honor 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 palid 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 shoulder 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 a 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 every thing 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
+out-stretched 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
+honorable 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
+undishonored 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 a 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--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 dare say 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 toward 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 often 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, toward 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?"
+
+"O 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 neighborhood," 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 dullness 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 had 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 humor, "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 forever 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 afterward 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 honor 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 for 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 calling 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 moon. 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 uncheckered 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 sister departed, 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 neighbor died of
+a complaint in the heart; while that speculated upon the amount of
+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 every thing, 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 labored, and knew it
+would suddenly remove her: and a prayer was found in her hand-writing,
+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 toilet: the glass that was no more to reflect her dear sad face.
+After she had been here awhile, Pen knocked and led her down stairs to
+the parlor 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 cognizance. 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 good-will 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 to plaster a wounded heart with a bank-note 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 if 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 get 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 neighborhood;
+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 Doctor 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 every body--"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 to 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. XX.
+
+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 tents 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 Muffineer 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 embassador 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 chop-sticks 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 embassador 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 Maryborough 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 up-stairs, 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 embassador again--never; and, upon
+my word, he has never been to dine with us since. The Lord Mayor, who
+did me the honor 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
+embassador: 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-year's 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 just 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 every thing 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
+any thing 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. Halloo!
+There's Cobden here, of all men in the world! I must go and speak to
+him. Good-by, 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 green sward,
+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 colors 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. "Hurrah,
+hurrah!" he bawled out, "Podasokus is the horse! Supper for ten
+Wheeler, my boy. Ask you all round of course, and damn the expense."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+neighbor with suspicion, lest that neighbor, 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
+cab-stand 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-humor
+mantled on the girl's cheeks, and played over that fair countenance
+like the pretty shining cloudlets on the serene sky over head; the
+elder lady's cheek was red too; but that was a permanent mottled rose,
+deepening only as it received fresh 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 hurrahing
+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 she
+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 dark 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
+conjuror had used the same words to a hundred different carriages
+on that day.
+
+Making his way solitary among 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 recognized 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: but 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 Mrs. 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
+demeanor 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 'appy to see Mr. Pendennis, and how well he was a lookin', and we'd
+been talkin' about Mr. P. only jest before; hadn't we, Fanny? and if
+this was the famous Hepsom 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 knockin' of his head--don't
+you, Fanny?
+
+While 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 shame-faced 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-colored 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-colored 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 uncolored 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-colored dexter kid-glove was handed out, in
+token of amity, to Huxter.
+
+The dirty fist in the young surgeon's pocket was obliged to undouble
+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-humored face; and have seen, there upon that ground, 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-humor 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-colored dress, with a white parasol lined with pink,
+and the prettiest dove-colored boots that ever stepped, passed by Pen,
+leaning on the arm of a stalwart gentleman with a military mustache.
+The young lady clenched her little fist, and gave a mischievous
+side-look as she passed Pen. He of the mustaches 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-colored young lady. Immediately Huxter perceived the direction
+which they took, they ceased looking after the dove-colored nymph, and
+they turned and looked into Sam Huxter's orbs with the most artless
+good-humored 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 neighbor 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 colored 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 l'ai vue," she said; "elle a de bien beaux yeux; vous êtes un
+monstre!"
+
+"Why monster?" said Pen, with a laugh; "Honi soit qui mal y pense.
+My young friend, yonder, is as well protected as any young lady in
+Christendom. She has her mamma on one side, her 'prétendu' 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, colonel, 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 griped 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 _méchant_ nephew. He does not amuse
+me at all. He is as _béte_ as Captain Crackenbury."
+
+"What are you saying about me, Miss Amory?" said the guardsman, with a
+grin. "If it's any thing good, say it in English, for I don't
+understand French when it's spoke so devilish quick."
+
+"It _ain't_ any thing 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-humor, 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 toward 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 any body 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 neighbor 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
+every body--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, amid 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 humor 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 he
+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
+favorite. I'll never back the favorite 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 honor 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 woman. She
+declared she would separate, and pay no more debts for this 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,
+while 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 up stairs leaning on the
+major's arm--"for this cheat--for this black-leg--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 XXI.
+
+EXPLANATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 honor 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 every where 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 practice 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
+griefs 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 comfort, 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 afterward 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 parlor,
+because the tiptops wouldn't come.
+
+She had not the slightest ill-will toward "the canal," the poor, dear
+lady, or any pride about herself, or idea that she was better than her
+neighbor; 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 any thing 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 among 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 cognizance 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 favorite 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 where; 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 favor 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 beggerly
+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
+any body 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
+Penn 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 quarreling, afterward; and a girl
+who runs away with Jack to Gretna Green, constantly runs away with Tom
+to Switzerland afterward. 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
+many 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-humor. "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 ardor 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 gray hairs or our wrinkles--but the fulfillment
+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 awe-stricken,
+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
+crowds 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 no body 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 XXII.
+
+CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+honor, 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 every body--alike
+his turf-associates with whom he had made 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's 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 servant's 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 Blackfriar's-road. And Sir
+Francis's coachman told the news to other gentlemen's coachmen, who
+carried it to their masters, and to the neighboring 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 Curaçoa) 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 while
+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 jail (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 to 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
+wont 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 colors 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 aid-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--"any thing 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 embassador brought the
+news back at Short's hotel, where Strong found the baronet crying and
+drinking Curaçoa.
+
+"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, with out
+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 recognized 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 Curaçoa), 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 honored 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 parlor 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 Hackstraw, 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 _entrée_ of all the green-rooms in London," Tom urged; while
+little Moss Abrams 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 birth-day, 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 colors, 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 épergne and a bagatelle-board. The dinner épergne 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 practiced
+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 sat 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 among 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 tea-spoon, 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 tea-spoon--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 dam
+scoundrels! I'll 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 shirk 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 any thing
+about me? The other chap is dead--shot in the bush, and his body
+reckonized at Sydney. If I thought any body 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 ax. 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 any body; 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-humoredly.
+"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 authorize 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 jail, 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!--has had the confounded impudence to threaten to tell my
+lady: as if the things in my own house weren't my own, to sell or to
+keep, or to 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 honor 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 forever--forever, 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 any thing
+you like."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 neighbors
+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 think 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 befews 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 hevery thing: ponies and pianna, and
+Brougham, and all. Mrs. Montague Rivers 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 tremenduous scene: he went down on his knees, my lady
+told Mrs. Bonner, as told me--and swoar 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 offense,
+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 Earl of Burgrave, and are consulted
+by the Marquis of Steyne in every think. 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 dessay 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 every where; 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.
+
+"Pigeon 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-humor.
+
+"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 quarrelin'," 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 eats, 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 _tête-à-tête_ 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 parlor of the Wheel of Fortune
+public-house, in a snug little by-lane, leading out of one of the
+great streets of May Fair, 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 club room than a Pall Mall tradesman or a Lincoln's Inn attorney
+could get admission into Bay's or Spratt's. And it is because the
+conversation which we have been 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 XXIII.
+
+THE WAY OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A short time after the piece of good fortune which befel 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. Sergeant Kewsy, and Mrs. and Miss Kewsy; Colonel Altamont,
+Major Coddy, &c." The colonel traveled in state, and as became a
+gentleman: he appeared in a rich traveling 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 toilet, 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 Minturnae, 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 "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 unluckly 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
+pounds, 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 honor, I'll give you
+half if you can get any body to do us a little fifty."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But Ned said sternly that he had given his word of honor, 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 honor
+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 toward 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 thorough-bred 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 a-bear 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 every body, and that Mar had actially
+refused him twice, and had to wait three months to get seven shillings
+which he had borrered 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 Mr. 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, honored, 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 awe-stricken; the tenants cap in hand, and ready
+to act in the place of your worship's horses when your honor 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 honor; "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 apologize 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 storyteller, useless moralizing? 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 worshiped
+in his memory, and canonized 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 omnibuses 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
+daresay, 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 Bonaparte 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 honor 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 thay 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 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 fathers on this harmless, kind creature?
+She never did any thing 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
+afterward if he do. Are you, who are setting up to be a man of the
+world and 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 civilization, and own that a French cook was the thing in life
+best worth living for."
+
+"Because you like a raw beef-steak and a pipe afterward," 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 convention's 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 neighbor," 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 vain-glorious attempts to lead their fellows;
+and after they have found that men will no longer hear them, as indeed
+they never were in the least worthy to be heard, sink quietly into the
+rank and file--acknowledging their aims impracticable, or thankful
+that they were never put into practice. The fiercest reformers grow
+calm, and are fain 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 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 toward reform, but at the world's pace (and the
+movements of the vast body of mankind must needs be slow)--forego 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 Honorable 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 skepticism is more respectful and more modest than the
+revolutionary ardor 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 take these institutions as I find them, and wait
+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
+under-graduates in the lecture-room. An hereditary legislator, who
+passes his time with jockeys and blacklegs 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 toward 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 farther 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 humor; and acting without any pangs of remorse--but, on the
+contrary, with strict 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
+labor of my neighbor without taking any part in the struggle. Why,
+what a mere dilettante you own yourself to be, in this confession of
+general skepticism, 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 every thing."
+
+"Were the world composed of Saint Bernards or Saint Dominics, 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
+skeptic because I acknowledge what _is_; and in acknowledging that, be
+it linnet or lark, a 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 among 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 any where. 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 afterward
+by the policemen. 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 man 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
+skeptically. 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 endeavor 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 skepticism 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 skeptical 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 song-book babbling of honey and
+Hybla, and nymphs and fountains and love. To what, we say, does this
+skepticism lead? It leads a man to a shameful loneliness and
+selfishness, so to speak--the more shameful, because it is so
+good-humored 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
+farther 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 honor 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 in the Conservative side of the house, and among 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 every thing, friends, fame, dearest ties,
+closest vanities, the respect of an army of churchmen, the recognized
+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 endeavors to reconcile an irreconcileable
+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
+can not 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 skepticism, of your quietism, of
+your atheism, my poor fellow. You're going to sell yourself, and
+Heaven help you! You're 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 XXIV.
+
+WHICH ACCOUNTS PERHAPS FOR CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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,
+neutralized 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 every thing 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 honorable 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 among 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 out
+running the constables (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 clew 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
+down stairs," 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 scenes and other fugitive stratagems.
+
+So, though the elder Pendennis, having his own ulterior object, was
+bent upon seeing Pen's country neighbor 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
+cognizance 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 done: 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 victimized
+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 favored. And it chanced that Strong
+heard of this transaction at the place where the writings had been
+drawn--in the back parlor, 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 parlor. 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 daresay 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 honor of visiting our friend Major Pendennis in
+his lodgings. The major was walking daintily toward 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 every thing with their
+smoke," thought the major. "Here comes a fellow with mustaches and a
+cigar. Every fellow who smokes and wears mustaches 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 toward 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 toward him a couple of
+ungracious fingers.
+
+"What is your good news?" said Major Pendennis, patronizing the other
+still farther, and condescending to address to him an observation, for
+old Pendennis had kept such good company all his life, that he vaguely
+imagined he honored 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 favor 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 unburdened 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 honor, 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 any body, 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 jail 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 life--
+who, between you and me, Captain Strong, we must own is 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 hest
+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 patronizing 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-humor. "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 any thing 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 a long course of
+careful speculation, this wary and silent attendant had been amassing
+a considerable sum of money, during the years 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 humor 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 toward 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
+cognizance; 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 Covering's notes. Do you know any thing 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 parlor 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 sat in the parlor 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 honor,
+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 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 every body, 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 toward him.
+
+"No, no," said Clavering piteously, "I beg your pardon. I didn't mean
+to be angry, or say any thing 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 any body, or no design upon you," Pendennis said,
+"but an endeavor, 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 Sidney 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
+Snell'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 I should like Arthur to be
+there," the major said.
+
+"Dammy, does _he_ know it, too?" cried out Clavering.
+
+"Nobody knows any thing out of this room," Pendennis answered; "and if
+you do this favor 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 any thing 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 any thing 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 gayly 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-humored profession
+of faith.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+PHILLIS AND CORYDON.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On a picturesque common in the neighborhood 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
+school-boy 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 farm-houses; she read French novels habitually; she
+drove into Tunbridge Wells pretty often, and to any play, or ball, or
+conjuror, or musician who might happen to appear in the place; she
+slept a great deal; she quarreled 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 a 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 practice; 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 neighbors 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-butterless.
+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 any
+thing 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, &c. 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 any body 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 endeavors. 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 favor.
+
+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 bed-time, she said, "_Déjà!_"
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 to-night. 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."
+
+"O 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.
+
+"O! go on! I adore it," cried the lady of _Mes Larmes_. "Heavenly
+night! Heavenly, heavenly moon! but I most 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 good night 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? O, 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
+_succès?_ &c. &c.
+
+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 every thing."
+
+"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 XXVI.
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 Clapham 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 might
+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 mean time 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 forego 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 afterward was united to Miss Stickney,
+of Lyme Regis, &c. 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 fullness 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 demeanor?--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, &c., &c.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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, while 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 defense 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 _jödel_, 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 neighbor'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
+aid-de-camps 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. It 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 humor, 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, every body'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, and 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 capital enough; if he
+could have stood one more turn of the wheel, he would have 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 this 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-humor.
+
+"I met that queer fellow Altamont the other day," Pen said to his
+uncle, a day or two afterward.
+
+"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; "and he said he
+did not like the name of Pendennis, though he did me the honor to
+think that I was a good fellow."
+
+"I don't know any man of the name of Altamont, I give you my honor,"
+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
+aid-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 such a secret, which is no 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 Parliament?"
+
+"Clavering thinks he ain't fit for Parliament!" the major answered.
+"No more he is. What's to prevent him from putting you or any body
+else into his place if he likes? Do you think that the 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 honorable 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 "every body does
+it," but because we like it; and our acquiescence, alas! proves not
+that every body 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 behavior 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 care 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 any thing but ardor 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! Oh, 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 all 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 storybook 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 every body does, almost
+every body; only it is luckier to fail before marriage than after."
+
+_"Merci du choix, Monsieur"_ said the Sylphide, making a courtesy.
+
+"Look, my little Blanche," said Pen, taking her hand, and with his
+voice of sad good-humor; "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 courtesy.
+
+"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 dhonneur!_ We used to call
+your Highness the Prince of Fairoaks. What an honor 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 afterward. 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 pootty 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 bef--by any of my--my--by any body"--she sobbed
+out, with much simplicity.
+
+"_Any body!_" 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 êtes 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, dispatched 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 the Publishers would
+sell!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+IN WHICH PEN BEGINS HIS CANVASS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 favor; 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 the 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 neighboring 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 game-keeper of a morning, and for the
+evenings there was a plenty of books and occupation for a literary
+genius like Mr. Arthur, and 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 among the
+simple people there. His sense of humor 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 every
+body 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 every body, 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 Harrowgate--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 the 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 Honorable 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-humor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 onward toward 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,
+&c. 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 clamber 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 honor by his tenant, and at
+which old Mrs. Stokes, Captain Glanders, Squire Hobnell, 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 humor 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 quarreled 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 linendrapery,
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 every thing that she desired, and was leaving the shop,
+Blanche, with a smiling face, and a sweet bow to one of the shop,
+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 any thing. 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 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 châtelaine, 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 Ivanhoe; 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 splendor 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."
+
+"Halloo--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 down stairs 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
+neighboring 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 any thing?" asked
+Altamont.
+
+Grady came out--"He says, will you take any thing 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 any thing 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
+newcomers, and so left them.
+
+"Will we take any thing 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 apostrophized, 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 chamber
+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 any body 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 XXVIII.
+
+IN WHICH PEN BEGINS TO DOUBT ABOUT HIS ELECTION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+While 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 a panic,
+and that he was acting like a rogue and hypocrite.
+
+How was it that a single 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 school-boy, 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 worshiped 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 good-will--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 _koh-i-noor_ 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 good-will and kindness of every body.
+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 good-will
+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 down stairs, and I am not sure that she did not embrace
+him in the presence of Calverley and Coldstream: not that those
+gentleman 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--Calverly 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 every thing 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 house-keeper. 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-humor, she
+performed for him the last Parisian courtesy.
+
+Lady Rockminster came in while this courtesy 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 favorable 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 favor 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 while 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 every body 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 I 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 life-time, 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 toward 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
+church-yard-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
+honor 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 honor. 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, balked 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 can not
+ask for more than love and kindness; and if you think humbly of
+yourself, Arthur, the love and kindness are not diminished--are they?
+I often thought our dearest mother spoiled you at home, by worshiping
+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 can not 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 fervor, 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 came 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 scared 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 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. "O 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, while 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 every thing 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 good-will, 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
+recognized; 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 Mère 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 troisième_ 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, &c. &c. &c.'"
+
+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 XXIX.
+
+IN WHICH THE MAJOR IS BIDDEN TO STAND AND DELIVER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 parlor 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, while
+Pendennis and Clavering had their discourse in the parlor. 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 Sidney?
+Clavering ain't no more married to my lady than I am! Altamont's the
+man: Altamont's a convick; 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 prejudices 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 gettin' into Parlyment on the strenth of it,
+and was as proud as if he was a duke with half a million a year (such,
+we grieve to say, was Morgan's opinion of his employer's nephew),
+would pay any think 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, or 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
+Poyns," 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 post-chaises 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 café 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
+cab-stand, 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 laboring 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 backs. 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, while 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 awhile 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 among us has not said good-by to
+his holiday; returned to dun London, and his fate; surveyed his labors
+and liabilities laid out before him, and been aware of that inevitable
+little account to settle? Smith and his little account, in the
+morning, symbolize 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 labors 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 plowed
+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 rail-road 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.
+
+While the major was absent from his lodgings, Morgan had been seated
+in the landlady's parlor, drinking freely of hot brandy-and-water,
+and pouring out on Mrs. Brixham some of the abuse which he had
+received from his master up-stairs. Mrs. Brixham was 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 boot-jack 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
+mantle-piece of his back-parlor. 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 up-stairs 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 laboring. 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 down stairs,
+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'?--_tooty-fay
+mame shose, sivvaplay, munseer?_"
+
+"Silence, you beast, and go!" cried out the major.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 formly, 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 wig-box. 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 honorable, done every thing 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 AlfPay."
+
+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 mean time, I desire to go to
+bed, and have not the slightest wish for your farther 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 fire-side 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 thine: 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 tonight. 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 gray 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 fire-side, 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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."
+
+"O 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. Every thing
+I had is his. He's a dreadful man." "Eh, Mrs. Brixham? _tant
+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
+down stairs 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 down stairs, 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. O, 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 campaigner 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-by--to Mrs. Brixham and Mr. Morgan."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+IN WHICH THE MAJOR NEITHER YIELDS HIS MONEY NOR HIS LIFE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 families, and I can vouch 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'ner 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 waited 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 can not 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 afterward 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 while the old
+gentleman is making his mysterious toilet, we will also
+modestly retire.
+
+After breakfast, Major Pendennis and his new aid-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 Dispatches, 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 demeanor 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 down stairs," he said, on entering.
+
+"Bring a couple of cabs, Frosch, if you please--and wait down stairs
+until I ring for you," said the major. Morgan saw Frosch down stairs,
+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 check 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 _possussion of certing
+information._"
+
+"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 honorable 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
+behavior. You have been listening at the door, sir, I suppose," said
+the major, looking very haughty; "I forgot to look at the key-hole
+when I went to that public-house, or I might have suspected what sort
+of 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 any body 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 me a note for one twenty-five. There's your
+check-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-barreled 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 toward 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 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 scared 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 up-stairs 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, recognized
+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 any thing, 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, sir, 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 farther 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 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. Among 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 up-stairs in my trunks;
+and having uttered falsehoods regarding his and other honorable
+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 courtesy, 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 parlor-window, discharged any
+thing 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 humor 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 doorsteps, 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 _i_s 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 honor 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 honor of waiting on you there: and would be thankful if you
+would favor 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 favor 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
+patronize 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, with which the reader has already had
+cognizance.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+IN WHICH PENDENNIS COUNTS HIS EGGS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our friend had arrived in London on that day only,
+though but for a brief visit, and having left some fellow-travelers at
+an hotel to which he had conveyed 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 at 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 Havanna, upon each other's mustaches. "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-by,
+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,
+colors 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 neighborhood 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
+Colonization 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 skeptical 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 every thing from the Begum's generosity, and
+says that she will come down very handsomely. And I think Blanche is
+devilish 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, while 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 any body 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
+afterward, 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 if? She's gone from us. God's blessing be with her!
+She might have staid, 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 hand-writing--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 awhile, 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 humor; 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 _pavé_ 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 cab-stand, 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 quarreled 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
+fetes 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' for 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 down stairs and walked
+to his uncle's lodgings.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+FIAT JUSTITIA.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 afterward," 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 while 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
+cognizant 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 acknowledgement 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 while 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 toward 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 neighboring 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 honor 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, bedad, 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 école, bonne école_, 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 among
+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 pennâ_, 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-do-you-call-'em, hey?"
+
+"About Miss Amory's father--about Lady Clavering's first husband, and
+who he is, and what."
+
+"Hem--a devilish 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 dead-lock like the fellow in the play--the
+Critic, hey?--devilish 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 near est 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 honor, 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 over-reached; 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 honor?"
+
+"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 honor 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 can not 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 afterward 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 XXXIII.
+
+IN WHICH THE DECK BEGINS 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-hag, 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 labor 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 vigor 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 afterward 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 labor. 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 any thing 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 book-case (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. O, 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.
+
+"Dr. 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----street 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+Rockminister'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
+Rockminister, who was astonished at his enthusiasm. She had never
+heard him so warm in praise of any body; 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 recognized 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 & 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-by!" 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 showed 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 skepticism 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 fullness 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 worshiped 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 skeptic'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 death-bed 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 fulfill 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 jeweler'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. Rumors from Naples and Paris, rumors,
+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 can not 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 any body'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 practice 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 can not be better
+given than in the surprising and mysterious letter of Arthur
+Pendennis.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+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 epaulets 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 where you are
+presented, and you shall give me a smile from your chariot window. I
+saw Lady Mirable 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 can not tell you now--afterward 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 dispatched a letter to Sir Francis
+Clavering, saying that I can not accept his seat in Parliament until
+after my marriage; in like manner I can not 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 gayly
+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 with-out, 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 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 humor: 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 any thing 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 hang-dog 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 to 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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"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 sat down, with his hands
+on his knees, the sun shining 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 apostrophized, 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 favored 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 humor 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. Dr. 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 every thing. 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 rose 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 any thing 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 every body, 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 practices 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 bans 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 _protégée_ 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 candor 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 forever; 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 XXXV.
+
+SHOWS HOW ARTHUR HAD BETTER HAVE TAKEN A RETURN-TICKET.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 every body. 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
+neighbor 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
+blackcoated gentleman who was traveling 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 burden,
+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 short-comings, lost
+opportunities, weigh the passions which overpower, the defects which
+incapacitate reason?--what extent of truth and right his neighbor's
+mind is organized 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 splendors 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 neighbor, 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 carpetbag 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 forego the
+worldly advantages which a union with you offered, and which I could
+not accept without, as I fancy, being dishonored. 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 toward 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 a 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 jeweler'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 interest 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 forever
+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 toward 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 any
+body 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 l-l-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 every body 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-by, 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 différent._ I have been spoilt early. I can not live out
+of the world, out of excitement. I could have done so, but it is too
+late. If I can not have emotions, I must have the world. You would
+offer me neither one nor the other. You are _blasé_ in every thing,
+even in ambition. You had a career before you, and you would not take
+it. You give it up!--for what?--for a _bétise_, 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, _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-là. Il est bon. 1l 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 _à millions._ How does it affect me? It is not my
+fault. It will never appear."
+
+"You will tell Harry every thing, 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 defenseless 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 père, 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'écrit. Il écrit tres-bien,
+voyez-vous--comme un pirate--comme un Bohémien--comme un homme._ But
+for this I would have said to my mother--_Ma mère! quittons ce lâche
+mari, cette lâche société--retournons à mon père._
+
+"The pirate would have wearied you like the rest," said Pen.
+
+_"Eh! Il me faut des émotions"_ 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 XXXVI.
+
+A CHAPTER OF MATCH-MAKING.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 can not 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
+supplanted 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 humor, 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 practices 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 awe-stricken 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 night-caps on, I daresay. 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 humor
+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 parents cast 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 homeward 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 humor--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 while 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 honors. 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 any thing;
+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 beef-steak 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
+connection. 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 theater 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 theater? with his son? What
+a capital piece it was, and how charming Mrs. O'Leary looked and sang
+it! and what a good fellow young Huxter was! liked by every body, an
+honor 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 practice 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 every body 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."
+
+"His lordship 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 favor in his sight. There
+_must_ have been something 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 XXXVII.
+
+EXEUNT OMNES.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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
+re-assemble at the little country town where we were first introduced
+to them. Frederic Lightfoot, formerly _maître d'hôtel_ 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 gate-way.
+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 favor, 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 rumor 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)--rumor 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 favor 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 fulfill 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 any thing 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 met; 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 embassadress, "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 _manquée_,
+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 embassadress.
+
+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 demeanor, 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 acknowledged 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 up-stairs 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 no 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
+onward 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, every thing 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 jewelers were set to work and engaged to
+prepare the delightful paraphernalia of Hymen. Lady Clavering was in
+such a good humor, 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 up-stairs 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, "O, Arthur--Mr. Pendennis--I want you to tell dear Laura
+something?" and she came out to the door.
+
+"What is it?" he 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 wont," said Blanche. "I have promised him--_n'importe_. Wait
+until after our marriage--O, until after our marriage--O, how wretched
+I am," said the girl, who had been all smiles, and grace, and gayety
+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 any thing. Tell him tonight."
+
+"And give her this--_Il est là_--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?
+O, 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 cab-stands--any thing 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 every thing 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 any thing 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-cassée, 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 bridemaids' 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 Madam 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-humor.
+
+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, a-hem! 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 can not 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 quarreling
+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 awhile 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 quarreling 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 inclosure 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. O 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 any thing, 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 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 toward 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 toward the
+fire, but Foker ran to her and clutched her arm, "I must see that
+letter," he said; "give it to 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 Bessy, 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
+dishonored 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. Every thing'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 connection 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 Lady Clavering. "Take her, take every
+thing 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 dishonored, 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 splendor scarcely sufficed to make the idea
+of himself supportable. She was weaned 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 any thing happened to him?" gasped Lady Clavering. "O, 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 any thing 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.
+
+While 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 favorite beverage, and the parties engaged in
+general conversation.
+
+After awhile 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 every thing to soothe Mr.
+Morgan; and, under pretense 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 afterward, 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, while 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, "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 he 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
+hack 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 Honorable 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 Sidney, 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 reconnoiter. 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 down stairs 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 Bow'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 broom-stick,
+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 any body 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 practicing
+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 church-yard 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 Huxter, who has the entire command
+of Doctor Portman, brought Bows down from London to contest the organ
+chair 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 among 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 traveled 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 endeavor, 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, Vol. 2
+by William Makepeace Thackeray
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS, VOL. 2 ***
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+This file should be named 8pnd210.txt or 8pnd210.zip
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