 Chapter 29 of the History of Pendentis. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The History of Pendentis by William Makepeace Thackery. Chapter 29. Babylon. Our reader must now please to quit the woods and see shore of the west and the gossip of clattering and the humdrum life of poor little fair oaks and transport himself with Arthur Pendentis on the alacrity coach to London, whether he goes once for all to face the world and to make his fortune. As the coach whirls through the night away from the friendly gates of home, many a plan does the young man cast in his mind a future life in conduct, prudence, and peradventure, success, and fame. He knows he is a better man than many who have hitherto been ahead of him in the race. His first failure has caused him remorse and brought with it reflection. It is not taken away his courage or let us add his good opinion of himself. A hundred eager fancies and busy hopes keep him awake. How much older his mishaps and a year's thought and self-communion have made him then win twelve months since he passed on this road on his way to and from Oxbridge. His thoughts turn in the night with inexpressible fondness and tenderness towards the fond mother who blessed him when parting, and who, in spite of all his past faults and follies, trusts him and loves him still. Blessings be on her, he prays, as he looks up to the stars overhead. O Heaven, give him strength to work, to endure, to be honest, to avoid temptation, to be worthy of the loving soul who loves him so entirely. Very likely she is awake too at that moment and sending up to the same father pure prayers than his for the welfare of her boy. That woman's love is a talisman by which he holds and hopes to get his safety, and, lords, he would have feigned her affection with him too, but she is denied it as he is not worthy of it. He owns as much with shame and remorse, confesses how much better, and loftier her nature is than his own, confesses it and yet is glad to be free. I am not good enough for such a creature he owns to himself. He draws back before her spotless beauty and innocence as from something that scares him. He feels he is not fit for such a mate as that, as many a wild prodigal who has been pious and guiltless in early days keeps away from a church which he used to frequent once, shunning it but not hostile to it, only feeding that he has no right in that pure place. With these thoughts to occupy him, Penn did not fall asleep until the nipping dawn of an October morning and woke considerably refreshed when the coach stopped at the old breakfasting place at B Blanks, where he had had a score of merry meals on his way to and from school and college many times since he was a boy. As they left that place, the sun broke out brightly, the pace was rapid, the horn blew, the milestones flew by, Penn smoked and joked with guard and fellow passengers and people along the familiar road. He grew more busy and animated at every instant. The last team of grays came out at H Blanks and the coach drove into London. What young fellow has not felt a thrill as he entered the vast place, hundreds of other carriages crowded with their thousands of men were hastening to the great city. Here is my place, thought Penn, here is my battle beginning in which I must fight and conquer or fall. I've been a boy and a dartler as yet, oh I long, I long to show that I can be a man and from this place on the coach roof the eager young fellow looked down upon the city with the sort of longing desire which young soldiers feel on the eve of a campaign. As they came along the road, Penn had formed acquaintance with a cheery fellow passenger in a shabby cloak who talked a great deal about men of letters with whom he was very familiar and who was in fact the reporter of a London newspaper as whose representative he had been to attend a great wrestling match in the West. This gentleman knew intimately as it appeared all the leading men of letters of his day and talked about Tom Campbell and Tom Hood and Sidney Smith and this and the other as if he had been their most intimate friend. As they passed by Brompton, this gentleman pointed out to Penn, Mr. Hurdle, the reviewer walking with his umbrella. Penn craned over the coach to have a long look at the great Hurdle. He was a bonafuss man, said Penn and Mr. Dulan of the Star newspaper for such was the gentleman's name and address upon the card which he handed to Penn said faith he was and he knew him very well. Penn thought it was quite an honor to have seen the great Mr. Hurdle whose works he admired. He believed finally as yet in authors, reviewers, and editors of newspapers even Wag whose books did not appear to him to be masterpieces of human intellect he yet secretly revered as a successful writer. He mentioned that he had met Wag in that country and Dulan told him how that famous novelist received 300 pounds of volume for every one of his novels. Penn began to calculate instantly whether he might not make five thousand a year. The very first acquaintance of his own whom Arthur met as the coach pulled up at the Gloucester coffee house was his old friend Harry Foker who came prancing down Arlington Street behind an enormous cab horse. He had white kid gloves and white reins and nature had by this time decorated him with a considerable tuff from the chin. A very small cab boy, vice, stupid, retired, swung on behind Foker's vehicle. Knocked neat and in the tightest leather breeches, Foker looked at the dusty coach and the smoking horses of the alacrity by which he had made journeys in former times. What, Foker, cried out Penn Dennis. Hello, Penn, my boy, said the other and he waved his whip by way of amity and salute to Arthur who was very glad to see his queer friend's kind old face. Mr. Dulan had a great respect for Penn who had an acquaintance and such a grand cab and Penn was greatly excited and pleased to be at Liberty and in London. He asked Dulan to come and dine with him at the covert garden coffee house where he put up. He called a cab and rattled away wither in the highest spirits. He was glad to see the busting waiter and polite bowing landlord again and asked for the landlady and missed the old boots and would have liked to shake hands with everybody. He had a hundred pounds in his pocket. He dressed himself in his very best dined in the coffee room with a modest pint of sherry for he was determined to be very economical and went to the theatre of joining. The lights in the music, the crowd and the gaiety, charmed and exhilarated Penn as those sights will do young fellows from college and the country to whom they are tolerably new. He laughed at the jokes, he applauded the songs through the delight of some of the dreary old habitual ways of the boxes which ceased long ago to find the least excitement in their place of nightly resort and were pleased to see anyone so fresh and so much amused. At the end of the first piece he went and strutted about the lobbies of the theatre as if he was in a resort of the highest fashion. What tired frequenter of the London pave is there that cannot remember having had similar early delusions and would not call them back again. Here was young folker again like an ardent rotary of pleasure as he was. He was walking with Grandie Tiptoff of the Household Brigade, Lord Tiptoff's brother and Lord Col Chicum, Captain Tiptoff's uncle, a venerable peer. We'd been a man of pleasure since the first French Revolution. Folker rushed upon Penn with eagerness and insisted that the latter should come into his private box where a lady with the longest ringlets and the fair shoulders was seated. This was Miss Blankensof, the eminent actress of high comedy and in the back of the box snoozing in a wig sat old Blankensof her papa. He was described in the theatrical prints as the veteran Blankensof, the useful Blankensof, that old favorite of the public Blankensof. Those parts in the drama which are called the heavy fathers were usually assigned to this veteran who indeed acted the heavy father in public as in private life. At this time it being about 11 o'clock Mrs. Pendenis was gone to bed at Bear Oaks and wondering whether her dear starter was at rest after his journey. At this time Laura too was awake and at this time yesterday night as the coach rolled over silent commons where cottage windows twinkle and by darkling woods under calm starlit guys Penn was vowing to reform and to resist temptation and his heart was at home. Meanwhile the forest was going on very successfully and Mrs. Leary in a hussar jacket and braided pantaloons was enchanting the audience with her archeness her lovely figure and her delightful ballads. Penn being new to the town would have liked to listen to Mrs. Leary but the other people in the box did not care about her song or her pantaloons and kept up an incessant chattering. Tipped off new where her maleo came from coach come saw her when she came out in 14 Miss Blankensof said she sang out of all team to the pain and astonishment of Penn who thought that she was as beautiful as an angel and that she sang like a nightingale and when Hoppus came on as Sir Harcourt feather beat the young man of the peace the gentleman in the box declared that Hoppus was getting too stale and tipped off was for flinging Miss Blankensof's bokeh to him. Not for the world cried the daughter of the veteran Blankensof Lord Colchicum gave it to me. Penn remembered that noble one's name and with a bow and a blush said he believed he had to thank Lord Colchicum for having proposed him at the mega-theorem club at the request of his uncle Major Penn Dennis what your wigsby nephew are you said the pier I beg your pardon we always call him wigsby Penn blushed to hear his venerable uncle call by such a familiar name we balloted you in last week didn't we yes last Wednesday night your uncle wasn't there here was delightful news for Penn he professed himself very much obliged indeed to Lord Colchicum and made him a handsome speech of thanks to which the other listened with his double opera glass up to his eyes Penn was full of excitement at the idea of being a member of this polite club don't be always looking at that box you naughty creature cried Miss Blankensof she's a devilish fine woman that Mirabelle said to talk though Mirabelle was uh turned fool to marry her a stupid old spoonie said the pier Mirabelle cried out Penn Dennis aha left out Harry Foker referred of her before haven't we Penn it was Penn's first love it was miss bothering gay the year before she had been led to the altar by sir Charles Mirabelle G cb and formerly envoy to the court of bumper nickel who had taken so active a part in the negotiations before the congress of swammer dam and signed on behalf of hbm the piece of poll tusk Emily was always as stupid as an owl said miss Blankensof a a pa seabed the old pier said oh for shame cried the actress who did not in the least know what he meant and Penn looked out and beheld his first love once again and wondered how he ever could have loved her thus on the very first night of his arrival in London Mr. Arthur Penn Dennis found himself introduced to a club to an actress of gentile comedy and a heavy father of the stage and to a dashing society of jovial blades old and young for my lord culture come those stricken in years bald of head and enfeebled in person was still indefatigable in the pursuit of enjoyment and it was the venerable by counts boast that he could drink as much claret as the youngest member of the society which he frequented he lived with the youth about town he gave them countless dinners at Richmond and Greenwich an enlightened patron of the drama in all languages about the Terpsicarean art he received dramatic professors of all nations at his banquets English from the covent garden and strand houses Italians from the hay market French from their own pretty little theater or the boards of the opera where they danced and at his villa on the Thames this pillar of the state gave sumptuous entertainments to scores of young men a fashion who very affably consorted with the ladies and gentlemen of the green room with the former chiefly for by count culture come preferred their society is more polished and gay than that of their male brethren pent went the next day and paid his entrance money at the club which operation carried off exactly one third of his hundred pounds and took possession of the edifice and ate his lunch in there with immense satisfaction he plunged into an easy chair in the library and tried to read all the magazines he wondered whether the members were looking at him and that they could dare to keep on their hats in such fine rooms he sat down and wrote a letter to Fair Oaks on their club paper and said what a comfort this place would be to him after his day's work was over he went over to his uncle's lodgings in Berry street with some considerable tremor and in compliance with his mother's earnest desire that he should instantly call on major pen Dennis and was not a little relieved to find that the major had not your return to town his apartments were blank brown Hollins covered his library table and bills and letters lay on the mantelpiece grimly awaiting the return of their owner the major was on the continent the landlady of the house said that badden badden with the marcus of stain pen left his card upon the shelf with the rest Fair Oaks was written on it still when the major returned to London which he did in time for the fogs of november after enjoying which he proposed to spend christmas with some friends in the country he found another card of arthers on which lamb court temple was engraved and a note from that young gentleman and from his mother stating that he was come to town was entered a member of the upper temple and was reading hard for the bar lamb court temple where was it major pen Dennis remembered that some ladies of fashion used to talk of dining with mr. a lift the barrister who was in society and who lived there in the king's bench of which prison there was probably a branch in the temple and a lift was very likely an officer mr. juice ace lord crabs his son had also lived there he recollected he dispatched morgan to find out where lamb court was and to report upon the lodging selected by mr. arthur that alert messenger had little difficulty in discovering mr. pans about discrete morgan had in his time traced people far more difficult to find than arthur what sort of a place is it morgan asked the major out of the bed curtains and buried street the next morning as the ballet was arranging his toilet in the deep yellow London fog I should say raider a shy place said mr. morgan the lawyers lives there and has their names on the doors mr. harther lives the three pair high sir mr. warrington lives there too sir suffocated warringtons I shouldn't wonder a good family thought the major the cadets of many of our good families follow the road as a profession comfortable room say only saw the outside the door serve with mr. warrington's name and mr. arthur's painted up and a piece of paper with back at six but I couldn't see no servant sir economical at any rate said the major very sir three pairs sir nasty black staircase as ever I see wonder how a gentleman can live in such a place pray who taught you where gentlemen should or should not live morgan mr. arthur sir is going to study for the bar sir the major said with much dignity and closed the conversation and began to array himself in the yellow fog boys will be boys the modified uncle thought to himself he has written to me a devilish good letter coach he comes says he has had him to dine and thinks him a gentleman like lad his mother is one of the best creatures in the world if he has sown his wild oats and will stick to his business he may do well yet think of charlie mirabelle the old fool marrying that flame of his that fathering gay he doesn't like to come here until I give him leave and puts it in a very manly nice way I was dused angry with him after his ox bridge ascapades and showed it to when he was here before god I'll go and see him hang me if I don't and having ascertained from morgan that he could reach the temple without much difficulty another city omnibus would put him down at the gate the major one day after breakfast at his club not the polyanthus where mr. penn was just elected a member but another club for the major was too wise to have a nephew as a constant inmate of any house where he was in the habit of passing his time the major one day entered one of those public vehicles and bad the conductor to put him down at the gate of the upper temple the major pendentist reached that dingy portal it was about 12 o'clock in the day and he was directed by a civil personage with a badge and a white apron through some dark alleys and under various melancholy archways into courts each more dismal than the other until finally he reached lamb court if it was dark in paul malt what was it in lamb court candles were burning in many of the rooms there in the pupil room of mr. hodgeman the special pleater where six pupils were scribbling declarations under the tower in sir hokey walker's clerk's room where the clerk a person far more gentlemen-like and cheerful in appearance than the celebrated council his master was conversing in a patronizing manner with the managing clerk of an attorney at the door and then curling the wigmaker's melancholy shop where from behind the feeble glimmer of a couple of lights large serpents and judges wigs were looming dreary with the blank blocks looking at the lamp post in the court two little clerks were playing at tall's half penny under that lamp a laundress and patents passed in at one door a newspaper boy issued from another a porter whose white apron was faintly visible paced up and down it would be impossible to conceive a place more dismal and the major shuttered to think that anyone should select such a resident's good gap he said the poor boy mustn't live on here the feeble and filthy oil lamps with which the staircases of the upper temple are lighted of nights were of course not illuminating the stairs by day and major pendent is having read with difficulty his nephew's name under mr. warrington's on the wall of number six found still greater difficulty in climbing the abominable black stairs up the banister's of which which contributed their damp exudations to his gloves he grew up painfully until he came to the third story a candle was in the passage of one of the two sets of rooms the doors were open and the names of mr. warrington and mr. a pendentist were very clearly visible to the major as he went in an Irish charwoman with a pale and a broom opened the door for the major is that the beer cried out a great voice give us hold of it the gentleman who was speaking was seated on a table unshorn and smoking a short pipe in a farther chair sat pen with a cigar and his legs near the fire a little boy who acted as the clerk of these gentlemen was grinning in the major's face at the idea of his being mistaken for beer here upon the third floor the rooms were somewhat lighter and the major could see place pen my boy it's I it's your uncle he said joking with the smoke but as most young men of fashion use the weed he pardoned the practice easily enough mr. warrington got up from the table and pen in a very perturbed manner from his chair beg your pardon for mistaking you said warrington in a frank loud voice will you take a cigar sir clear those things off the chair pigeon and pull it round to the fire pen flung a cigar into the grate and was pleased with the cordiality with which his uncle shook him by the hand as soon as he could speak for the stairs and the smoke the major began to ask pen very kindly about himself and about his mother for blood is blood and he was pleased once more to see the boy ben gave his news and then introduced mr. warrington an old boniface man whose chambers he shared the major was quite satisfied when he heard that mr. warrington was a younger son of sir miles warrington of suffolk he had served with an uncle of his in india and in new south wales years ago took a sheep on their serve made a fortune better thing than law or soldiering warrington said thank god she'll go there too and here the expected beer coming in in a tanker with a glass bottom mr. warrington with a laugh said he supposed the major would not have any and took a long deep draft himself after which he wiped his wrist across his beard with great satisfaction the young man was perfectly easy and unembarrassed he was dressed in a ragged old shooting jacket and had a bristly blue beard he was drinking beer like a coal heaver and yet you couldn't but perceive that he was a gentleman when he had sat for a minute or two after his draft he went out of the room leaving it to pen and his uncle that they might talk over family affairs were they so inclined rough and ready your chum seems the major said somewhat different from your dandy friends at oxbridge times are altered arthur replied with a blush warrington is only just called and has no business but he knows law pretty well and until i can afford to read with a pleader i use his books and get his help is that one of the books the major asked with a small a french novel was lying at the foot of pen's chair this is not a working day sir the lad said we were out very late at the party last night at lady wistens pen added knowing his uncle's weakness everybody in town was there except you sir counts ambassadors turks stars and garters i don't know who it's all in the paper and my name too said pen with great glee i met an old flame of mine there sir he added with a laugh you know whom i mean sir lady mirabelle to whom i was introduced over again she shook hands and was gracious enough i may thank you for being out of that scrape sir she presented me to the husband too an oboe in a star in a blonde wig he does not seem very wise she has asked me to call on her sir and i may go now without any fear of losing my heart what we have had some new loves have we the major asked in high good humor some two or three mr penn said laughing but i don't put on my grand sir here anymore sir that goes off after the first flame very right my dear boy flames and darts and passion and that sort of thing do very well for a lad and you were but a lad went out of affair with the father and gill father and gay what's her name came off but a man of the world gives up those follies you still may do very well you have been bit but you may recover your air to a little independence which everybody fancies is a lucid deal more you have a good name good wits good manners and a good person and began i don't see why you shouldn't marry a woman with money get into parliament distinguish yourself and and in fact that sort of thing remember it's as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman and a devilish deal pleasanter to sit down to a good dinner than to a scraggard button and lodgings make up your mind to that a woman with a good jointure is a lucid deal easier a profession than the law let me tell you that look out i shall be on the watch for you and i shall direct intent my boy if i can see you with a good lady like wife and a good carriage and a good pair of horses living in society and seeing your friends like a gentleman would you like to vegetate like your dear good mother at barrow's dammy sir life without money and the best society isn't worth having it was thus this affection that uncle spoke and expounded to pen his simple philosophy what would my mother and laura say to this i wonder thought the let indeed open denises morals were not their morals nor was his wisdom theirs this affecting conversation between uncle and nephew had scarcely concluded when warrington came out of his bedroom no longer in rags but dressed like a gentleman straight and tall and perfectly frank and good-humored he did the honors of his ragged sitting room with as much ease as if it had been the finest department in london and queer rooms they were in which the major found his nephew the carpet was full of holes the table stained with many circles of warrington's previous ale pots there was a small library of law books books of poetry met of mathematics of which he was very fond he had been one of the hardest livers and hardest readers of his time at oxbridge where the name of stunning warrington was yet famous for beating bargemen pulling matches winning prizes and drinking milk punch a print of the old college hung up over the mantle piece and some battered volumes of playtoe bearing its well-known arms were on the bookshelves there were two easy chairs a standing reading desk piled with bills a couple of very meager briefs on a broken legged study table indeed there was scarcely any article of furniture that had not been in the wars and was not wounded look here sir here is penn's room he is a dandy and has got curtains to his bed and wears shiny boots and a silver dressing case indeed penn's room was rather coquettishly arranged and a couple of neat prints of opera dancers besides the drawing of fair oaks hung on the walls in warrington's room there was scarcely any article of furniture save a great shower bath and a heap of books by the bedside where he lay upon straw like marjorie doll and smoked his pipe and read half through the night his favorite poetry or mathematics when he had completed his simple toilette mr. warrington came out of this room and proceeded to the cupboard to search for his breakfast might i offer you a mutton chop sir we cook them ourselves hot and hot and i'm teaching penn the first principles of law cooking and morality at the same time he's a lazy beggar sir and too much of a dandy and so saying mr. warrington wiped grudheim with a piece of paper put it on the fire and on it two button chops and took from the cupboard a couple of plates and some knives and silver forks and casters say but a word major pendentus he said there's another chop in the cupboard or pigeon shall go out and get you anything you like major pendentus sat in wonder and amusement but he said he had just breakfasted and wouldn't have any lunch so warrington cooked the chops and popped them hissing hot upon the plates penn fell to at his chop with a good appetite after looking up at his uncle and seeing that gentleman was still in good humor you see sir warrington said mrs. funnigan isn't here to do him and we can't implore the boy for the little beggar is all day occupied cleaning penn's boots and now for another spring at the beer penn drinks tea it's only fit for old women and so you were at lady wistons last night the major said not in truth knowing what observation to make to this rough diamond i at lady wistons not such a flat sir i don't care for female society in fact it bores me i spent my evening philosophically at the back kitchen the back kitchen indeed said the major i see you don't know what it means warrington said i spent he was there after lady wistons tell major penn dennis about the back kitchen penn don't be ashamed of yourself so penn said it was a little eccentric society of men of letters and men about town to which he had been presented and the major began to think of the young fellow had seen a good deal of the world since his arrival in london end of chapter 29 chapter 30 of the history of penn dennis this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org the history of penn dennis but will you make peace thackery the knights of the temple colleges schools and ends of courts still have some respect for antiquity and maintain a great number of the customs and institutions of our ancestors with which those persons who do not particularly regard their forefathers or perhaps are not very well acquainted with them have long since done away a well-ordained workhouse or prison is much better provided with the appliances of health comfort and cleanliness than a respectable foundation school a venerable college or a learned in in the latter place of residence men are contented to sleep in dingy closets and to pay for the sitting room and the cupboard which is their dormitory the price of a good villa and garden in the suburbs or of a roomy house in the neglected squares of the town the poorest mechanic in spittle fields has a cistern and an unbounded supply of water at his command but the gentlemen of the ends of court and the gentlemen of the universities have their supply of this cosmetic fetched in jugs by laundresses and bedmakers and live in abodes which were erected long before the custom of cleanliness and decency obtained among us there are individuals still alive who sneer at the people and speak of them with epithets of scorn gentlemen there can be but little doubt that your ancestors were the great unwashed and in the temple especially it is pretty certain that only under the greatest difficulties and restrictions the virtue which has been pronounced to be next to godliness could have been practiced at all oh grump of the Norfolk circuit who had lived for more than 30 years in the chambers under those occupied by warrington and pendennis and who used to be awakened by the roaring of the shower baths which those gentlemen had erected in their apartments a part of the contents of which occasionally trickled through the roof into mr. grump's room declared that the practice was an absurd new fangled and defied folly and daily cursed the laundress who swapped the staircase by which he had to pass grump now much more than half a century old had indeed never used the luxury in question he had done without water very well and so had our fathers before him of all those knights and baronettes lords and gentlemen bearing arms whose discussions are painted upon the walls of the famous hall of the upper temple was there no philanthropist who'd natured enough to devise a set of almonds for the benefit of the lawyers his fellows and successors the temple historian makes no mention of such a scheme there is pump court and fountain court with their hydraulic apparatus but one never heard of a venture to sporting in the fountain and can't but think how many are counsel learned in the law of old days might have benefited by the pump nevertheless there's venerable ends which have the lamb and flag in the winged horse for their incense have attractions for persons who inhabit them and a share of rough comforts and freedom which men always remember with pleasure i don't know whether the student of law permits himself the refreshment of enthusiasm or indulges in political reminiscences as he passes by historical chambers and says yonder elvin lived upon the site coke mused upon little ten here jiddy toiled here barn wall and alderson joined in their famous labors here bios composed his great work upon bills and smith compiled his immortal leading cases here gustavis still toils with Solomon to aid him but the man of letters can't but love the place which has been inhabited by so many of his brethren or people by their creations as real to us at this day as the authors whose children they were and sir roger decovalent walking in the temple garden and discoursing with mr spectator about the beauties and hoops and patches who are sauntering over the grass is just as lively a figure to me as old samuel johnson rolling through the fog with the scotch gentleman at his heels on their way to dr. goleson's chambers in brick court or harry fielding with inks ruffles and a wet towel round his head dashing off articles at midnight for the covent garden journal while the printer's boy is asleep in the passage if we could but get the history of a single day as it passed in any one of those four storied houses in the dingy court where our friend's pen in warrington dwelt some temple as medias might furnish us with a queer volume there may be a great parliamentary council on the ground floor who drives off to belgravia at dinnertime when his clerk too becomes a gentleman and goes away to entertain his friends and to take his pleasure but a short time since he was hungry and briefless in some garret of the inn lived by stealthy literature hoped and rated and sickened and no clients came exhausted his own means in his friend's kindness had to remonstrate humbly with duns and to implore the patience of poor creditors ruin seemed to be staring him in the face when behold a turn of the wheel of fortune and the lucky wretch in possession of one of those prodigious prizes which are sometimes drawn in the great lottery of the bar many a better lawyer than himself does not make a fifth part of the income of his clerk who a few months since could scarce the gift credit for blacking for his master's unpaid boots on the first floor perhaps you will have a venerable man whose name is famous who has lived for half a century in the inn whose brains are full of books and whose shelves are stored with classical and legal lore he has lived alone all these 50 years alone and for himself amassing learning and compiling a fortune he comes home now at night alone from the club where he has been dining freely to the lonely chambers where he lives a godless old recluse when he dies his inn will erect a tablet to his honor and his airs burn a part of his library would you like to have such a prospect for your old age to store up learning and money and and so but we must not linger too long by mr doom's day's door worthy mr grump lives over him who is also an ancient inhabitant of the inn and who when dune's day comes home to read katalus is sitting down with three steady seniors of his standing to a steady rubber at whisk after a dinner at which they have consumed their three steady bottles of port you may see the old boys asleep at the temple church of a sunday attorneys seldom trouble them and they have small fortunes of their own on the other side of the third landing where pennon warrington lived till long after midnight sits mr pailey who took the highest honors and who was a fellow of his college who will sit and read in no cases until two o'clock in the morning who will rise at seven and be at the pleader's chambers as soon as they are open where he will work until an hour before dinner time who will come home from hall and read and no cases again until dawn next day when perhaps mr arthur pendennis and his friend mr warrington are returning from some of their wild expeditions how differently employed mr pailey has been he has not been throwing himself away he's only been bringing a great intellect laboriously down to the comprehension of a mean subject and in his fierce grasp of that resolutely excluding from his mind all higher thoughts all better things all the wisdom of philosophers and historians all the thoughts of poets all with fancy reflection art love truth altogether so that he may master that enormous legend of the law which he proposes to gain his livelihood by expounding warrington and pailey had been competitors for university honors in former days and had run each other hard and everybody said now that the format was wasting his time and energies whilst all people praised pailey for his industry there may be doubts however as to which was using his time best the one could afford time to think and the other never could the one could have sympathies and do kindnesses and the other must needs be always selfish he could not cultivate a friendship or do a charity or admire a work of genius or kindle at the sight of beauty or the sound of a sweet song he had no time and no eyes for anything but his law books all was dark outside his reading lamp love and nature and art which is the expression of our praise and sense of the beautiful world of god were shut out from him and as he turned off his lonely lamp at night he never thought but that he had spent the day profitably and went to sleep alike thankless and remorseless but he shouted when he met his old companion warrington on the stairs and shunned him as one that was doomed to perdition it may have been the sight of that cadaverous ambition and self-complacent meanness which showed itself in pailey's yellow face and twinkled in his narrow eyes or may have been a natural appetite for pleasure and joviality of which it must be confessed mr penn was exceedingly fond which deterred that luckless youth from pursuing his designs upon the bench or the wolf sack with the order or rather steadiness which is requisite in gentlemen who would climb to those seats of honor he enjoyed the temple life with a great deal of relish is worthy relatives thought he was reading as became a regular student and his uncle wrote home congratulatory letters to the kind widow at ferrokes announcing that the lad had sown his wild oats and was becoming quite steady the truth is that it was a new sort of excitement to penn the life in which he was now engaged and having given up some of the dandy five pretensions and fine gentlemen heirs which he had contracted among his aristocratic college acquaintances of whom he now saw but little the rough pleasures and amusements of london bachelor were very novel and agreeable to him and he enjoyed them all time was he would have envied the dandies their fine horses and rotten row but he was contented now to walk in the park and look at them he was too young to succeed in london society without a better name and a larger fortune than he had and too lacy to get on without these adjuncts old penn dennis fondly thought he was busy with law because he neglected the social advantages presented to him and having been at half a dozen balls and eating parties retreated before their dullness and sameness and whenever anybody made inquiries of the worthy major about his nephew the old gentleman said the young rascal was reformed and could not be got away from his books but the major would have been almost as much horrified as mr pali was had he known what was mr penn's real course of life and how much pleasure entered into his law studies a long morning's reading a walk in the park a pool on the river a stretch up the hill to hamstead and a modest tavern dinner a bachelor night past here or there in joviality not vice for other penn dennis admired women so hardly that he never could bear the society of any of them that were not in his fancy at least good and pure a quiet evening at home alone with a friend in a pipe or two and a humble quotation of british spirits where of mrs flanigan the laundress invariably tested the quality these were our young gentleman's pursuits and it must be owned that his life was not unpleasant in term time mr penn showed up most praiseworthy regularity in performing one part of the law student's course of duty and eating his dinners in hall indeed that hall of the upper temple is a sight not uninteresting and with the exception of some trifling improvements and in acronyms which have been introduced into the practice there a man may sit down in fancy that he joins in a meal of the 17th century the bar have their messes the students their tables apart the benches sit at the high table on the raised platform surrounded by pictures of judges of the law and portraits of royal personages who have honored its festivities with their presence and patronage penn looked about on his first introduction not a little amused with the scene which he witnessed among his comrades of the student class there were gentlemen of all ages from 60 to 17 stout gray-headed attorneys who were proceeding to take the superior dignity dandies and men about town who wished for some reason to be barristers of seven-year standing swore the black-eyed natives of the colonies who came to be called here before they practiced in their own islands and many gentlemen of the irish nation who made a soldier in middle temple lane before they returned to the green country of their birth there were little squads of reading students who talked law all dinner time there were rowing men whose discourse was of sculling matches the red house box hall and the opera there were others great in politics and orders of the students debating clubs with all of which sets except the first whose talk was an almost unknown and a quite uninteresting language to him mr penn made a gradual acquaintance and had many points of sympathy the ancient and liberal end of the upper temple provides in this hall and foremost moderate price and excellent wholesome dinner of soup meat tarts and port wine or sherry for the barristers and students who attend that place of reflection the parties are arranged in messes of four each of which quartets has its piece of beef or leg of mutton its sufficient apple pie and its bottle of wine but the honest habituaries of the hall amongst the lower rank of students who have a taste for good living have many harmless arts by which they improve their banquet and innocent dodges if we may be permitted to use an excellent phrase that has become vernacular since the appearance of the last dictionaries by which they strive to attain for themselves more delicate food than the common everyday roast meat of the students tables wait a bit said mr lauten one of these temple gourmands wait a bit said mr lauten tugging at pens gown the side tables are very full and there's only three benches to eat 10 dishes if we wait perhaps we sure get something from their table and pen looked with some amusement as did mr lauten with eyes of fond desire towards the benches high table where three old gentlemen were standing up before a dozen silver dish covers while the clerk was quivering out a grace lauten was great in the conduct of the dinner his aim was to manage so as to be the first a captain of the mess and to secure for himself the 13th glass of the bottle of port wine thus he would have the command of the joint on which he operated his favorite cuts and made rapid dexterous appropriations of gravy which amused pen infinitely poor jack lauten thy pleasures in life were very harmless and eager epicure thy desires did not go beyond 18 pens pen was somewhat older than many of his fellow students and there was that about his style and appearance which as we have said was rather haughty and impertinent that stamped him as a man of tall very unlike those pale students who were talking law to one another and those ferocious dandies in rowing shirts and astonishing pens and race coats who represented the idle part of the little community the humble and good nature of lauten had felt attracted by pen's superior looks and prescience and have made acquaintance with him at the mess by opening the conversation this is boil beef day i believe sir said lauten upon my word sir i'm not aware said pen hardly able to contain his laughter but added i'm a stranger this is my first term on which lauten began to point out to him the notabilities in the hall that's boozy the bencher the bald one sitting under the picture and having soup i wonder whether it's turtle they often have turtle next to balls the king's council and sweating them hives and sweating them you know that's all grunt the senior of the bar they say he's dined here 40 years they often send him down their fish from the benches to the senior table do you see those four fellows seated opposite us those are regular swells tipped up fellows i can tell you mr trail the fish above ealing son honorable fred ringwood lord sink bar's brother you know he'll have a good place i bet any money and bob suckling who's always with him a high fellow to ha ha here lauten burst into a lab what is it said pen still amused i say i like to mess with those chaps lauten said winking his eye knowingly and pouring out his glass of wine and why ask pen why they don't come down here to dine you know they only make believe to dine they dine here law bless you they go to some of the swell clubs or else to some grand dinner party you see their names in the morning post at all the fine parties in london why i bet anything that ringwood has his cab or trail his broon he's a devil of a fellow and makes the bishop's money spend i can tell you at the corner vestic street at this minute they dine they won't dine these two hours i dare say but why should you like to mess with them if they don't eat any dinner pen asks still puzzle there's plenty isn't there how green you are said lauten excuse me but you are green they don't drink any wine don't you see and a fellow gets the bottle to himself if he likes it when he messes with those three chaps that's why corkwin got in with him ah mr lauten i see you are a sly fellow pen said delighted with his acquaintance on which the other modestly replied that he had lived in london the better part of his life and of course had his eyes about him and went on with his catalog to pen there's a lot of irish here he said that corkwin's one and i can't say i like him you see that handsome chap with the blue neckcloth and pink shirt and yellow waistcoat that's another that's maloy maloney of valley maloney and nephew of major general sir hector odagh he he lauten said trying to imitate the hibernian accent he's always bragging about his uncle and came into hall and silver striped trousers the day he had been presented that other near him with the long black hair is a tremendous rebel by jove sir to hear him at the form it makes your blood freeze and the next is an irishman too jack vinnick kane reporter of a newspaper they all stick together those irish it's your term to fill your glass what you won't have any port don't like port with your dinner here's your health and this worthy man found himself not the less attached to pendennis because the latter disliked port wine at dinner it was while pen was taking his share of one of these dinners with his acquaintance lauten as the captain of his mess that there came to join them a gentleman in a barrister's gown who could not find a seat as it appeared amongst the persons of his own agree and who strode over the table and took his place on the bench where pen sat he was dressed in all clothes in a faded gown which hung behind him and he wore a shirt which though clean was extremely ragged and very different to the magnificent pink raiment of mr maloy maloney who occupied a commanding position in the next mess in order to notify their appearance at dinner it is the custom of the gentleman who eat in the upper temple hall to write down their names upon slips of paper which are provided for that purpose with a pencil for each mess lauten wrote his name first then came arthur pendennis and the next was that of the gentleman in the old clothes he smiled when he saw pen's name and looked at him we ought to know each other he said we're both boniface men my name's warrington are you flank warrington pen said delighted to see this hero warrington laughed stunning warrington yes he said i recollect you in your freshman's term but you appeared to have quite cut me out the college talks about you still said pen who had a generous admiration for talent and pluck the barge man you thrashed bill signs don't remember once you up again at oxbridge the miss not least the habit ashes hush said warrington glad to make your acquaintance pendennis heard a good deal about you young men were friends immediately and at once deep in college talk and pen we've been acting rather the fine gentleman on a previous day when he pretended to lauten that he could not drink port wine at dinner seeing warrington take his share with a great deal of gusto did not scruple about helping himself anymore rather to the disappointment of honest lauten when the dinner was over warrington asked arthur where he was going i thought of going home to dress and hear grissy in norma pen said are you going to meet anybody there he asked pen said no only to hear the music of which he was fond you'd much better come home and smoke a pipe with me said warrington a very short one come i live close by in lamb court and we'll talk over boniface and old times they went away lauten sighed after them he knew warrington was a bernett's son and he looked up with simple reverence to all the aristocracy pen and warrington became sworn friends from that night warrington's cheerfulness and draw a veal temper his good sense is rough welcome and is never a failing pipe of tobacco charmed pen who found it more pleasant to dive into shilling taverns with him than to dine in solitary state amongst the silent and polite frequenters of the polyanthus air long pen gave up the lodgings in st. james's to which he had migrated on quitting his hotel and found it was much more economical to take up as a boat with warrington in lamb court and furnish and occupy his friend's vacant room there for it must be said of pen that no man was more easily led than he to do a thing when it was a novelty or when he had a mind to it and pigeon the youth and flanagan the laundress divided their allegiance now between warrington and pen end of chapter 30 chapter 31 of the history of pendentus this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librae vox.org the history of pendentus by william make peace factory old and new acquaintances elated with the idea of seeing life pen went into a hundred queer london haunts he liked to think he was consorting with all sorts of men so he beheld coal heavers in their tafferoons boxers in their in parlors honest citizens desporting in the suburbs or on the river and he would have liked to hob and knob with celebrated pickpockets or drink a pot of ale with a company of burglars and cracksmen had chance afforded him an opportunity of making the acquaintance of this class of society it was good to see the gravity with which warrington listened to the tut berry pet or the brighton stunner at the champion's arms and behold the interest which he took in the coal heaving company assembled at the fox under the hill his acquaintance with the public houses of the metropolis and its neighborhood and with the frequenters of their various parlors was prodigious he was the personal friend of the landlord and landlady and welcome to the bar as to the club room he liked their society he said better than that of his own class whose manners annoyed him and whose conversation bored him in society he used to say everybody is the same whereas the same dress eats and drinks and says the same things one young dandy at the club talks and looks just like another one miss at a ball exactly resembles another whereas there's character here i like to talk with the strongest man in england or the man who can drink the most beer in england or with that tremendous republican of a hatter who thinks this award was the greatest character in history i like better gin and water than claret i like a sanded floor in carnaby market better than a chalked one in mayfair i prefer snobs i own it indeed this gentleman was a social republican and had never entered his head while conversing with jack and tom that he was in any respect they're better although perhaps the deference which they paid him might secretly please him penn followed him then to these various resorts of men with great glee and acidity but he was considerably younger and therefore much more pompous and stately than warrington in fact a young prince in disguise visiting the poor of his father's kingdom they respected him as a high chap a fine fellow a regular young swell he had somehow about him and an heir of imperious good humor and a royal frankness and majesty although he was only heir apparent two tuppence hey penny and but one in descent from a galley pot if these positions are made for us we acquiesce in them very easily and are always pretty ready to assume a superiority over those who are as good as ourselves penn's condescension at this time of his life was a fine thing to witness amongst men of ability this assumption and impertinence passes off with extreme youth but it is curious to watch the conceit of a generous and clever lad there is something almost touching in that early exhibition of simplicity and folly so after reading pretty hard of a morning and i fear not law merely but politics and general history and literature which were as necessary for the advancement and instruction of a young man as mere dry law after applying with tolerable acidity to letters to reviews to elemental books of law and above all to the newspaper until the hour of dinner was drawing nigh these young gentlemen would sally out upon the town with great spirits and appetite and bent upon enjoying a merry night as they had passed a pleasant forenoon it was a jovial time that of four and twenty when every muscle of mind and body was in healthy action when the world was new as yet and one moved over it spurred onwards by good spirits and the delightful capability to enjoy if ever we feel young afterwards it is with the comrades at that time the tunes we hum in our old age are those we learn then sometimes perhaps the festivity of that period revives in our memory but how dingy the pleasure garden has grown how tattered the garlands look how scant and old the company and what a number of the lights have gone out since that day gray hairs have come on like daylight streaming in daylight and a headache with it pleasure is gone to bed with the rouge on her cheeks well friend let us walk through the day sober and sad but friendly i wonder what laura and helen would have said could they have seen as they might not unfrequently have done had they been up and in london in the very early morning when the bridges began to blush in the sunrise and the tranquil streets of the city to shine in the dawn mr penn and mr warrington rattling over the echoing flags towards the temple after one of their wild nights the corrals nights while but not so wicked as such nights sometimes are for warrington was a woman hater and pen as we have said too lofty to stoop to a vulgar entry our young prince of faroaks never could speak to one of the sex but with respectful courtesy and shrank from our coarse word or gesture with instinctive delicacy for though we have seen him fall in love with a fool as his betters and inferiors have done and as it is probable that he did more than once in his life yet for the time of the delusion it was always as a goddess that he considered her and chose to wait upon her men serve women kneeling when they get on their feet they go away that was what an acquaintance of penns said to him in his hard homely way an old friend with whom he had fallen in again in london no other than honest mr bows of the chatterous theater who was now employed as piano forte player to accompany the eminent lyrical talent which not the delighted the public at the fieldings head in covent garden and where was held the little club called the back kitchen numbers of penns friends frequented this very merry meeting the fieldings head had been a house of entertainment almost since the time when the famous author of tom jones presided as magistrate in the neighboring bow street his place was pointed out and the chair said to have been his still occupied by the president of the knights entertainment the worthy cuts the landlord of the fieldings head generally occupied this post when not disabled by gout or other illness his jolly appearance and fine voice may be remembered by some of my male readers he used to sing profusely in the course of the harmonic meeting and his songs were of what may be called the british brandy and water school of song such as the good old english gentleman dear tom this brown jug and so forth songs in which pay thoughts and hospitality are blended and the praises of good liquor and the social affections are chanted in a baritone voice the charms of our women the heroic deeds of our naval and military commanders are often sung in the ballads of this school and many a time in my youth have i admired how cuts the singer after he had worked us all up to patriotic enthusiasm by describing the way in which the brave abercrombie received his death wound or made us join him in tears which he shed liberally himself as in faltering accidents he told how autumn's falling leaf proclaimed the old man he must die how cuts the singer became at once cuts the landlord and before the applause which we were making with our fists on his table in compliment to his hearts during melody had died away was calling now gentlemen give your orders the waiters in the room john a champagne cup for mr green i think sir you set sausages and mashed potatoes john attend on the gentleman and i'll thank you give me a glass of punch to john and take care that while they're boils a voice would cry not unfrequently a well-known voice to pen which made the lad blush and start when he heard it first that of the venerable captain castigan who was now established in london and one of the great pillars of the harmonic meetings at the fieldings head the captain's manners and conversation brought very many young men to the place he was a character and his fame had begun to spread soon after his arrival in the metropolis and especially after his daughter's marriage he was great in his conversation to the friend for the time being who was the neighbor drinking by his side about me daugther he told of her marriage and of the events previous and subsequent to that ceremony of the carriages she kept of mere bells adoration for her and for him of the hunter pounds which he was at perfect liberty to draw from his son-in-law whenever necessity urged him and having stated that it was his firm intention to do a thorough next saturday i give you me sacred word and honor next saturday the 14th when you'll see the money will be handed over to me at coots the very instant i present the check the captain would not unfrequently propose to borrow a half crown of his friend until the arrival of that day of greek callans went on the honor of an officer and a gentleman he would repeat the thrifling obligation sir charles mere bell had not that enthusiastic attachment to his father-in-law of which the latter sometimes boasted although in other stages of emotion cos would invade with tears in his eyes against the ingratitude of the child of his bosom and the stinginess of the wealthy old man who had married her but the pair had acted not unkindly towards costigan had settled a small pension on him which was paid regularly and forestalled with even more regularity by poor cars and the period of payments was always well known by his friend at the fieldings head wither the honest captain took care to repair banknotes in hand calling loudly for change in the midst of the full harmonic meeting i think you'll find that note won't be refused at the bank of england cuts my boy captain costigan would say bows have a glass you needn't stint yourself tonight anyhow and a glass of punch will make you play con spirit though for he was lavishly free with his money when it came to him and was scarcely known to button his breeches pocket except when the coin was gone or sometimes indeed when our creditor came by it was in one of these moments of exaltation that penn found his old friend swaggering at the singer's table at the back kitchen of the fieldings head and ordering glasses of brandy and water for any of his acquaintances who made their appearance in the apartment warrington he was on confidential terms with the bass singer made his way up to this quarter of the room and penn walked at his friend's heels penn started and blushed to see costigan he had just come from lady wiston's party where he had met and spoken with the captain's daughter again for the first time after very old old days he came up with outstretched hand very kindly and warmly to greet the all man still retaining a strong remembrance of the time when costigan's daughter had been everything in the world to him for though this young gentleman may have been somewhat capricious in his attachments and occasionally have transferred his affections from one woman to another yet he always respected the place where love had dwelt and like the sultan of turkey desired that honor should be paid to the lady towards whom he had once thrown the royal pocket handkerchief the tipsy captain returning the clasp of penn's hand with all the strength of a palm which had become very shaky by the constant lifting up of weights of brandy and water looked hard and penn's face and said grecious heavens is it possible my dear boy my dear fellow my dear friend and then with a look of muddle curiosity barely broke down with i know your face me dear dear friend but the death i've forgot your name five years a constant punch had passed since penn and costigan met Arthur was a good deal changed and the captain may certainly be excused for forgetting him when that man at the actual moment sees things double we may expect that his view of the past will be rather muzzy penn saw his condition and laughed although perhaps he was somewhat mortified don't you remember me captain he said i am penn denis arthur penn denis of chatterous the sound of the young man's friendly voice recalled and studied cost his tipsy remembrance and he saluted arthur as soon as he knew him with the loud valley of friendly greetings penn was his dearest boy his gallant young friend his noble collage in whom he had held in his inmost heart ever since they had parted how was his father know his mother and his guardian the general the major i presume from your appearance you've come into your property and the dead yield spend it like a man of spirit i'll go bail for that no not yet come into your estate if you want any frightful hierarchy there's poor old jack costigan has got a guinea or two in his pocket and be heavens you shall never want author me dear boy whether you have john come hither and look aloy give this gentleman a glass of punch and i'll pay for it your friend i've seen him before but made me to have the honor of making me self-known to ye sir and requesting you'll take a glass of punch i don't envy sir charles miller bell his father-in-law thought penn denis and how is my old friend mr bows captain have you any news of him and do you see him still no doubt he's very well said the captain jingling his money and whispering the air of a song the little du dine for the singing of which he was celebrated at the fieldings head me dear boy i forgot your name again but my name's costigan jack costigan and i'd like you to take as many tumblers a punch in my name as ever you like you know my name i'm not ashamed of it and so the captain went monitoring on it's payday with the general said mr hodgin the bass singer with whom warrington was in deep conversation and he's a precious deal more than half sees over he's already tried that little du dine of his and broke it too just before i sang king death have you heard my new song the body snatcher mr warrington anchored at saint bartholomew's the other night composed expressly for me perhaps you or your friend would like a copy of the song sir john just add the kindness to and overall body snatcher air will you there's a portrait of me sir as i sing it as the snatcher considered rather like thank you sir warrington heard it nine times know by heart hodgin here the gentleman who presided at the piano forte began to play upon his instrument and pen looking in the direction of the music beheld that very mr bows for whom he had been asking but now and whose existence costigan had momentarily forgotten the little old man sat before the battered piano which had injured its constitution woefully by sitting up so many nights and spoke with a voice as it were at once horse and faint and accompanied the singers or played with taste and grace in the intervals of the songs bows had seen and recollected pennant once when the latter came into the room and had remarked the eager warmth of the young man's recognition of costigan he now began to play an air which penn instantly remembered as one which used to be sung by the chorus of villagers in the stranger just before mrs howler came in it shook penn as he heard it he remembered how his heart used to beat as that air was played and before the divine emily made her entry nobody save arthur took any notice of old bows is playing it was scarcely heard amidst the quieter of knives and forks the calls for poached eggs and kidneys and the tramp of guests and waiters penn went up and kindly shook the player by the hand at the end of his performance and bows greeted arthur with great respect and cordiality but you haven't forgot the old tune mr penn dennis he said i thought you remember it i take it it was the first tune of that sort you ever heard played wasn't it sir you were quite a young chap then i feel the captain's very bad tonight he breaks out on a payday and i shall have the deuces on trouble in getting home we live together we still hang on sir in partnership though miss m though my lady mirabelle has left the farm and so you remember old times do you wasn't she a beauty sir your health and my service to you and he took a sip at the peter measure porter which stood by his side as he played penn had many opportunities of seeing his early acquaintance afterwards and ever knowing his relations with castigan and the old musician as they sat thus in friendly colloquy men of all sorts and conditions entered and quitted the house of entertainment and penn had the pleasure of seeing as many different persons of his race as the most eager observer need desire to inspect healthy country tradesmen and farmers in london for their business came and recreated themselves with the jolly singing and suppers of the back kitchen squads of young apprentices and assistants the shutters being closed over the scene of their labors came here for fresh air doubtless rakeish young medical students gallant dashing what is called loudly dressed and must it be owned somewhat dirty we're here smoking and drinking and vociferously applauding the songs young university bucks were to be found here too with that indescribable genteel simper which is only learned at the knees of alma mater and handsome young guardsmen and florid bucks from the st james's street clubs nay senators english and irish and even members of the house of peers the bass singer had made an immense hit with his song of the body snatcher and the town rushed to listen to it the curtain drew aside and mr hajin appeared in the character of the snatcher sitting on a coffin with a flask of gin before him with a spade and a candle stuck in his skull the song was sung with a really admirable terrific humor the singer's voice went down so low that it scrumbles rumbled into the hear's ostrich and soul and in the chorus he clamped with his spade and gave a demoniac ha ha which caused the very glasses to quiver on the table as with terror none of the other singers not even cuts himself as that high-minded man owned could stand up before the snatcher and he commonly used to retire to mrs cuts private apartments or into the bar before that fatal song extinguished him poor causes diddy the little du dine which bose accompanied charmingly on the piano was sung but to a few admirers who might choose to remain after the tremendous resurrectionist chant the room was commonly emptied after that or only left in possession of a very few unpersevering votaries of pleasure boss pen and his friend were sitting here together one night or rather morning two habituaries of the house entered almost together mr. hulan and mr. dulan whispered warrington to pen saluting these gentlemen and in the latter pen recognized his friend of the alacrity coach who could not dine with pen on the day on which the latter had invited him being compelled by his professional duties to decline dinner engagements on fridays he had stated with his compliments to mr. pen denis dulan's paper the dawn was lying on the table much best stained by porter and cheek by jaw with hulan's paper which we shall call the day the dawn was liberal the day was ultra conservative many of our journals are officers by Irish gentlemen and their gallant brigade does the penning among us as their ancestors used to transact the fighting in Europe and engage under many a flag to be good friends when the battle is over kidneys john and a glass of stout says hulan how are you morgan how's the mrs. dulan doing pretty well thank you mc my boy faith she's accustomed to it said dulan how's the lady the rng maybe i'll step down sending have a glass of punch kill burn way don't bring patsy with you mc for our george's got the measles said the friendly morgan and they straightway felt to talk about matters connected with their trade about the four males about who was correspondent at paris and who wrote from Madrid about the expense the morning journal was at in sending couriers about the circulation of the evening star and so forth Warrington laughing took the dawn which was lying before him and pointed to one of the leading articles in that journal which commenced with us as rogues of note in former days who had some wicked work to perform an enemy to be put out of the way a quantity of false coin to be passed a lie to be told or a murder to be done employed a professional perjurer or assassin to do the work which they were themselves too notorious or too cowardly to execute our notorious contemporary the day engages smashers out of doors to utter forgeries against individuals and calls in auxiliary cutthroats to murder the reputation of those who offend him a black visited ruffian whom we will unmask who signs the forge name of tree for is at present one of the chief bravos and bullies in our contemporaries establishment he is the eunuch who brings the bow string and strangles at the order of the day we can convict this cowardly slave and propose to do so the charge which he has brought against lord bang bannagur because he is a liberal irish peer and against the board of poor law guardians of the bang bannagur union is etc how did they like the article at your place mick asked morgan when the captain puts his hand to it he's a tremendous hand at a smasher he wrote the article in two hours in a few you know where while the boy was waiting our governor thanks to public don't mind a straw about these newspaper rows and as though the doctor to stop answering said the other then to talk it out together in my room the doctor would have liked a turn for he says it's such easy writing and requires no reading up of a subject but the governor put a stopper on him the taste for eloquence is going out mick said morgan d then it is morgan submick that was fine writing when the doctor wrote in the phoenix and he and kandhi runi blazed away at each other day after day and with powder and shot too as well as paper says morgan faith the doctor was out twice and kandhi runi winged his man they are talking about dr boine and captain shandon warrington said who are the two irish controversialists of dawn and the day dr boine being the protestant champion and captain shandon the liberal orator they are the best friends in the world i believe in spite of their newspaper controversies and though they cry out against the english for abusing their country by jove they abuse it themselves more in a single article than we should take the pains to do in a dozen volumes how are you doing your servant mr warrington mr pendennis i'm delighted to have the honor of seeing ye again the night's journey on the top of the alacrity was one of the most agreeable i ever enjoyed in my life and it was your liveliness and a urbanity that made the trip so charming i've often thought over that happy night sir and talked over to mrs duelen i've seen your elegant young friend mr foker to hear sir not unfrequently he is an occasional frequenter of this house story and a right good one it is mr pendennis when i saw you i was on the tom and jerry weekly paper i have now the honor to be a subeditor of the dawn one of the best written papers of the empire and he bowed very slightly to mr warrington his speech was unctuous and measured his courtesy oriental his tone when talking with the two englishmen quite different to that with which he spoke to his comrade why the devil with the fellow compliments so growled warrington with a sneer which he hardly took the pains to suppress basha who comes here all par masses is abroad tonight here's archer we shall have some fun well archer house up haven't been there i have been said archer with an air of mystery where i was wanting get me some supper john something substantial i hate your grandees who give you nothing to eat if it had been at apsley house it would have been quite different the duke knows what i like and says to the groom of the chambers martin you will have some cold beef not too much done and a pint bottle of pale ale and some brown sherry ready in my study as usual archer is coming here this evening the duke doesn't eat supper himself but he likes to see a man enjoy a hearty meal and he knows that i dine early a man can't live upon air be hanged to him let me introduce you to my friend mr pendennis warrington said with great gravity pen this is mr archer when you have heard me talk about you must know pen's uncle the major archer you who know everybody dined with him the day before yesterday at gaunt house archer said we were for the french ambassador stain and we two commoners why my uncle is in scott pen was going to break out but warrington pressed his foot under the table as a signal for him to be quiet it was about the same business that i have been to the palace tonight archer went on simply and where i've been kept for hours in an empty room with nothing but yesterday's times which i knew by heart as i wrote three of the leading articles myself and there the lord chamberlain came in four times and once holding the royal tea cup and saucer in his hand he did not so much as say to me archer will you have a cup of tea indeed what is in the wind now ask warrington and turning to pen added you know i suppose that when there is anything wrong at court they always send for archer there is something wrong said mr archer and as the story will be all over the town in a day or two i don't mind telling it at the last chantilly race is where i wrote brian borough for my old friend the du du san cloud the old king said to me archer i'm uneasy about san cloud i've arranged his marriage with the princess marie conna gonda the peace of europe depends upon it for russia will declare war if the marriage does not take place and the young fool is so mad about madame massina marshal massina's wife that he actually refuses to be a party to the marriage well sir i spoke to saint cloud and having got him into pretty good humor about winning the race and a good bit of money into the bar and he said to me archer tell the governor i'll think of it how do you say governor in french as panu peaked himself on knowing that language or we speak in english i taught him when we were boys and i saved his life at trichinum when he fell out of a punt archer said i shall never forget the queen's looks as i brought him out of the water she gave me this diamond ring and always calls me charles to this day madame massina must be rather an old woman archer warrington said devilish old old enough to be his grandmother i told him so archer answered it once but those attachments for old women are the du san all that's what the king feels that's what shocks the poor queen so much they went away from paris last tuesday night and are living at this present moment at johnny's hotel has there been a private marriage archer asked warrington whether there has or not i don't know mr archer replied all i know is that i was kept waiting for four hours at the palace but i never saw a man in such a state of agitation as the king of belgium when he came out to speak to me and that i'm devilish hungry and here comes some supper he has been pretty well tonight said warrington as the parrot went home together but i've known him in much greater force in keeping a whole room in a state of wonder put aside his archery practice that man is both able and honest a good man of business an excellent friend admirable to his family as husband father and son what is it makes him pull the long bow in that wonderful manner an amiable insanity answered warrington he never did anybody harm by his talk or said evil of anybody he is a stout politician too and would never write a word or do an act against his party as many of us do of us who are we as pen of what profession is mr archer of the corporation of the goose quill of the press my boy said warrington of the fourth estate are you too of the craft then penn denis said we will talk about that another time answered the other they were passing through the strand as they talked and by a newspaper office which was all lighted up and bright reporters were coming out of the place or rushing up to it in cabs there were lamps burning in the editor's rooms and above where the compositors were at work the windows of the building were in a blaze of gas look at that pen warrington said there she is the great engine she never sleeps she has her ambassadors in every quarter of the world her couriers upon every road her offices marched along with armies and her envoys walk into statesman's cabinets they are ubiquitous yonder journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes at madrid and another inspecting the price of potatoes in coven garden look here comes the foreign express galloping in they will be able to give news to downing street tomorrow funds will rise or fall fortunes be made or lost lord b will get up and holding the paper in his hand and seeing the noble mark wiss in his place he will make a great speech and and mr dulan will be called away from his supper at the back kitchen for he is foreign sub editor and sees the mail on the newspaper sheet before he goes to his own and so talking the friends turned into their chambers as the dawn was beginning to peep end of chapter 31 chapter 32 of the history of ben denis this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org the history of ben denis by william make peace thackery in which the printers devil comes to the door pen in the midst of his revels and enjoyments humble as they were and moderate in cost if not in kind saw an awful sword hanging over him which must drop down before long and put an end to his frolics and feasting his money was very nearly spent his club subscription had carried away a third part of it he had paid for the chief articles of furniture with which he had supplied his little bedroom in fine he was come to the last five pound note in his pocketbook and could think of no method of providing a successor for our friend had been bred up like a young prince as yet whereas a child in arms whom his mother feeds when it cries out warrington did not know what his comrades means were an only child with a mother at her country house and an old dandy of an uncle who dined with a great man every day pen might have a large bank at his command for anything that the other knew he had gold chains and a dressing case fit for a lord his habits were those of an aristocrat not that he was expensive upon any particular point for he dined and laughed over the pint of porter and the plate of beef from the cook's shop with perfect content and good appetite but he could not adopt the many wise precautions of life he could not give tuppence to a waiter he could not refrain from taking a cab if he had a mind to do so or if it rained and as surely as he took the cab he overpaid the driver he had a scorn for cleaned gloves and minor economies had he been bred to 10 000 a year he could scarcely have been more free handed and for a beggar with a sad story or a couple of pretty piteous faced children he never could resist putting his hand into his pocket it was a sumptuous nature perhaps that could not be brought to regard money a natural generosity and kindness and possibly a petty vanity that was pleased with praise even with the praise of waiters and cab men i doubt whether the wisest of us know what our own motives are and whether some of the actions of which we are the very proudest will not surprise us when we trace them as we shall one day do their source warrington then did not know and penn had not fought proper to confide to his friend his pecuniary history that penn had been wild and wickedly extravagant at college the other was aware everybody at college was extravagant and wild but how great the son's expenses had been and how small the mother's means were points which had not been as yet submitted to mr warrington's examination at last the story came out while penn was grimly surveying the change for the last five pound note as it lay upon the tray from the public house by mr warrington's part of ale it is the last rose of summer said penn its blooming companions have gone long ago and behold the last one of the garland has shed its leaves and he told warrington the whole story which we know of his mother's means of his own follies of law's generosity during which time warrington smoked his pipe and listened intent in pecuniacity will do you good penn's friend said knocking out the ashes at the end of the narration i don't know anything more wholesome for a man for an honest man mind you for another the medicine loses its effect than a state of tick it is an alterative and tonic it keeps your moral man in a perpetual state of excitement as a man who is writing at a fence or has his opponent single stick before him is forced to look his obstacle steadily in the face embraces himself to repulse or overcome it a little necessity brings out your plot if you have any and nerves you to grapple with fortune you will discover what a number of things you can do without when you have no money to buy them you won't want new gloves and varnished boots oh the colonia and cabs to ride in you have been bred up as a molly coddle pen and spoiled by the women single man who has health and brains and can't find the livelihood in the world doesn't deserve to stay there let him pay his last hey penny and jump over a waterloo bridge let him steal a leg of mutton and be transported and get out of the country he is not fit to live in it dig see i have spoken give us another poll at the pale ale you have certainly spoken but how is one to live said penn there's beef and bread and plenty in england but you must pay for it with work or money and who won't take my work and what work can i do warrington burst out laughing suppose we advertise in the times he said for an usher's place at a classical and commercial academy a gentleman b a of saint boniface college and who was plucked for his degree confound you cried penn wishes to give lessons in classics and mathematics and the rudiments of the french language he can cut hair attend to the younger pupils and play a second on the piano with the daughters of the principal address ap lamb court temple go on said penn growling men take to all sorts of professions why there is your friend bloundel bloundel is a professional black leg and travels the continent where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion and fleeces them there is babbo too with whom i was at school who drives the ballet na fad mail now and carries on us jack binnie canes own correspondence to that city i know a man sir a doctor's son like well don't be angry i meant nothing offensive a doctor's son i say who was walking the hospitals here and quarreled with his governor on questions of finance and what did he do when he came to his last five pound note he let his moustache deals grow went into a provincial town where he announced himself as professor spin at two chariopatist to the emperor of all the russians and by a happy operation on the editor of the country newspaper established himself in practice and lived reputably for three years he has been reconciled to his family and has succeeded to his father's galley pots hang galley pots cried penn i can't drive a coach cut corns or cheat at cars there's nothing else you propose yes there's our own correspondent warrington said every man has his secrets look you before you told me the story of your money matters i had no idea but that you were a gentleman of fortune for with your confounded heirs and appearance anybody would suppose you to be so from what you tell me about your mother's income it is clear that you must not lay any more hands on it you can't go on sponging upon the women you must pay off that trump of a girl laura is her name here is your health laura and carry a hod rather than ask for a shilling from home but how earn one ask pen how do i live thank you said the other are my younger brother's allowance pandemis i have secrets of my own my boy and here at warrington's countenance fell i made a way with that allowance five years ago if i had made a way with myself a little time before it would have been better i've played off my own bat ever since i don't want much money when my purse is out i go to work and fill it and then lie idle like a serpent or an indian until i have digested the mass look i begin to feel empty warrington said and showed penn a long lean purse with but a few sovereigns at one end of it but how do you fill it said penn i write said warrington i don't tell the world that i do so he added with a blush i do not choose that question should be asked or perhaps i am an ass and don't wish it to be said that george warrington writes for bread but i write in the law reviews look here these articles are mine and he turned over some sheets i write in the newspaper now and then of which a friend of mine is editor and warrington going with pendentas to the club one day called for a file of the dawn and pointed with his finger silently to one or two articles which penn read with delight he had no difficulty in recognizing the style afterwards the strong thoughts and current periods the sense the satire and the scholarship i am not up to this at penn with a genuine admiration of his friend's powers i know very little about politics or history warrington and have but a smattering of letters i can't fly upon such a wing as yours but you can on your own my boy which is lighter and soars higher perhaps the others said good naturedly those little scraps and verses which i've seen of yours show me what is rare in these days a natural gift sir you needn't blush you conceded young jack and apes you have thought so yourself anytime these 10 years you've got the sacred flame a little of the real political fire sir i think and all our oil lamps are nothing compared to that though ever so well trimmed you are a poet pen my boy and so speaking warrington stretched out his broad hand and clapped pen on the shoulder arthur was so delighted that the tears came into his eyes how kind you are to me warrington he said i like you oh boy said the other i was devilish lonely in chambers and wanted somebody and the sight of your honest face somehow pleased me i like the way you laughed at lauten that poor good little snob and didn't find the reason why i cannot tell but so it is young and i'm alone in the world sir and i wanted someone to keep me company and a glance of extreme kindness and melancholy passed out of warrington's dark eyes pen was too much pleased with his own thoughts to perceive the sadness of the friend who was complimenting him thank you warrington he said thank you for your friendship to me and and what you say about me i have often thought i was a poet i will be one i think i am one as you say so though the world manned is it is it the ariadne in naksas which you liked i was only 18 when i wrote it or the prize poem warrington burst into a roar of laughter while you goose he yelled out of all the miserable weak rubbish i ever tried ariadne in naksas is the most mockish and disgusting the prize poem is so pompous and feeble that i'm positively surprised sir it didn't get the medal you don't suppose that you are a serious poet do you and are going to cut out melton and east gliss are you setting up to be a pindar you absurd little tom tit and fancy you have the strength and pinion which the theven eagle bear sailing with supreme dominion through the azure fields of air no my boy i think you can write a magazine article and turn a pretty copy of verses that's what i think of you by joe said pen bouncing up and stamping his foot i'll show you that i am a better man than you think for warrington only laughed the more and blew 24 puffs rapidly out of his pipe by way of reply to pen an opportunity for showing his skill presented itself before very long that eminent publisher mr bacon formerly bacon and bungay of pattern astro besides being the proprietor of the legal review in which mr warrington wrote and other periodicals of noting gravity used to present to the world every year a beautiful guilt volume calva spring annual edited by the lady pilot the bar and numbering amongst its contributors not only the most eminent but the most fashionable poets of our time young lord dodo's poems first appeared in this miscellany the honorable persi pop joy whose chivalrous ballots have obtained him such a reputation bedwin sands is eastern gazoos and many more of the works of our young nobles were fast given to the world in the spring annual which has since shared the fate of other vernal blossoms and perished out of the world the book was daintily illustrated with pictures of reigning beauties or other prints of a tender and voluptuous character and as these plates were prepared long beforehand requiring much time in engraving it was the eminent poets who had to write to the plates and not the painters who illustrated the poems one day just when this volume was on the eve of publication a chance that mr warrington called and pattern asked a row to talk with mr hack mr bacon's reader and general manager of publications for mr bacon not having the least taste in poetry or in literature of any kind wisely employed the services of a professional gentleman warrington then going into mr hacks room on business of his own found that gentleman with a bundle of proof plates and sheets of the spring annual before him and glanced at some of them persi pop joy had written some verses to illustrate one of the pictures which was called the church porch a spanish damsel was hastening to church with a large prayer book a youth in a cloak was hidden in a niche watching this young woman the picture was pretty but the great genius of persi pop joy had deserted him for he had made the most executable verses whichever were perpetrated by a young nobleman warrington burst out laughing as he read the poem and mr hack life too but with rather a rueful face he won't do he said the public won't stand it bungays people are going to bring out a very good book and have set up miss bunion against lady violet we have most titles to be sure but the verses are too bad lady violet herself owns it she's busy with her own poem what's to be done we can't lose the plate the governor gave 60 pounds for it i know a fellow who would do some verses i think said warrington let me take the plate home in my pocket and send to my chambers in the morning for the verses you'll pay well of course of course said mr hack and warrington having dispatched his own business went home to mr penn played in hand now boy here's a chance for you turn me off a copy of verses to this what's this a church porch a lady entering it and a youth out about wine shop window ogling her what to do semi to do with it try said warrington earn your livelihood for once you who long so to do it well i will try said penn and i'll go out to dinner said warrington and left mr penn in a brown study when warrington came home that night at a very late hour the verses were done there they are said penn i've screwed them out at last i think they'll do i think they will said warrington after reading them they ran as follows the church porch although i enter not yet round about the spot sometimes i hover and at the sacred gate with longing eyes i wait expectant other the minster bell tolls out above the city's route and noise and humming they've stopped the chiming bell i hear the organ swell she's coming she's coming my lady comes at last timid and stepping fast and hastening hither with modest eyes downcast she comes she's here she's passed may heaven go with her kneel undisturbed fair saint pour out your praise or plant meekly and duly i will not enter there to settle your pure prayer with thoughts unruly but suffer me to pace round the forbidden place lingering a minute like outcast spirits who wait and see through heaven's gate angels within it have you got any more young fellow ask warrington we must make them give you a couple of guineas a page and if the verses are like why you'll get an entree into bacon's magazines and may turn a decent penny penny examined his portfolio and found another ballot which he thought might figure with advantage in the spring annual and consigning these two precious documents to warrington the pair walked from the temple to the famous haunt of the muses and their master's pattern astro vacant shop was an ancient lowbrow building with a few of the books published by the firm displayed in the windows under bust of my lord of verulam and the name of mr bacon and brass on the private door exactly opposite to bacon's house was that of mr bungie which was newly painted and elaborately decorated in the style of the 17th century so that you might have fancied stately mr evelin passing over the threshold or curious mr peeps examining the books in the window warrington went into the shop of mr bacon but penn stayed without it was agreed that his ambassador should act for him entirely and the young fellow paced up and down the street in a very nervous condition until he should learn the result of the negotiation many a poor devil before him has trodden those flags with similar cares and anxieties at his heels his bread and his fame dependent upon the sentence of his magnanimous patrons of the row penn looked at all the wonders of all the shops and the strange variety of literature which they exhibit in this were displayed black letter volumes and books in the clear pale types of all this and elsever in the next you might see the penny horrific register the high penny annals of crime and history of the most celebrated murderers of all countries the rafts magazine the larky swell and other publications of the penny press lost at the next window portraits of ill-favored individuals with fac similes of the venerated signatures of the reverend grimes wop shot the reverend elise howl and the works written and the sermons preached by them showed the british dissenter where he could find mental pabulum hard by would be a little casement hung with emblems with medals and rosaries with little paltry prints of saint's guilt and painted and books of controversial theology by which the faithful of the roman opinion might learn a short way to deal with protestants at a penny of peace or nine pence the dozen for distribution whilst in the very next window you might see come out of Rome a sermon preached at the opening of the shepherds bush college by john thomas lord bishop of ealing scarce in opinion but has its expository and its place of exhibition in this peaceful old pattern ostero under the toe of the bells of saint paul then looked in at all the windows and shops as a gentleman who is going to have an interview with the dentist examines the books on the waiting room table he remembered them afterwards it seemed to him that warrington would never come out and indeed the latter was engaged for some time in pleading his friend's cause pen's natural conceit would have swollen immensely if he could but have heard the report which warrington gave of him it happened that mr bacon himself had occasion to descend to mr hax room whilst warrington was talking there and warrington knowing bacon's weaknesses acted upon them with great adroitness in his friend's behalf in the first place he put on his hat to speak to bacon and addressed him from the table on which he seated himself bacon like to be treated with rudeness by a gentleman and used to pass it on to his inferiors as boys passed the mark what not know mr pendennis mr bacon warrington said you can't live much in the world or you would know him a man of property in the west of one of the most ancient families in england related to half the nobility in the empire he's cousin to lord pontipool he was one of the most distinguished men at oxbridge he dines at gaunt house every week law bless me you don't say so sir well really law bless me now said mr bacon i've just been showing us to hack some of his verses which he sat up last night at my request to write and hack talks about giving him a copy of the book the what do you call him law bless me now does he the what do you call him indeed the spring annual is its name has payment for those verses you don't suppose that such a man as mr arthur pendennis gives up a dinner at gaunt house for nothing you know as well as anybody that the men of fashion want to be paid that they do mr warrington sir said the publisher i tell you he's a star he'll make a name sir he's a new man sir they've said that of so many of those young swells mr warrington the publisher interposed with a sigh there was lord by count dodo now i gave his lordship a good bit of money for his poems and only sold 80 copies mr pop joys hadgen court sir fell dead well then i'll take my man over to bung gate warrington said and rose from the table this threat was too much for mr bacon who was instantly ready to exceed to any reasonable proposal of mr warrington's and finally asked his manager what those proposals were when he heard that the negotiation only related as yet to a couple of ballots which mr warrington offered for the spring annual mr bacon said law bless you give him a check directly and with his paper warrington went out to his friend and placed it grinning in penn's hands penn was as elated as if somebody had left him a fortune he offered warrington a dinner at richmond instantly what should he go and buy for laura and his mother he must buy something for them they're like the book better than anything else at warrington with the young one's name to the verses printed among the swells thank god thank god cried arthur i needn't be a charge upon the old mother i can pay off laura now i can get my own living i can make my own way i can marry the grand vizier's daughter i can purchase a house in bell grave square i can build a fine castle in the air said warrington pleased with the others exaltation well you may get bread and cheese pen and i own it taste well the bread which you earn yourself they had a magnum of claret at dinner at the club that day at penn's charges it was long since he had indulged in such a luxury but warrington would not bulk him and they drank together to the health of the spring annual it never rains but it pours according to the proverb so very speedily another chance occurred by which mr penn was to be helped in his scheme of making a livelihood warrington one day threw him a letter across the table which was brought by a printer's boy from captain shandon sir the little emissary said and then went and fell asleep on his accustomed bench in the passage he paid many a subsequent visit there and brought many a message to penn fp tuesday morning my dear sir bungay will be here today about the palmel gazette you would be the very man to help us with a genuine west end article you understand dashing transient and darned aristocratic lady hip shot was right but she's not much you know and we've two lords but the less they do the better we must have you will give you your own terms and we'll make a hit with the gazette shall be come and see you or can you look in upon me here ever yours see as some more opposition warrington said when penn had read the note bungay and bacon are at daggers drawn each married the sister of the other and they were for some time the closest friends and partners hax says it was mrs bungay who caused all the mischief between the two whereas shandon who reads for bungay a good deal says mrs bacon did the business but i don't know which is right peach and or locket but since they have separated it is a furious war between the two publishers and no sooner does one bring out a book of travels or poems a magazine or periodical quarterly or monthly or weekly or annual but the rival is in the field with something similar i've heard poor shandon tell with great glee how he made bungay give a grand dinner a black wall to all his writers by saying that bacon had invited his core to an entertainment at greenwich when bungay engaged your celebrated friend mr wag to edit the london bacon straightway rushed off and secured mr grindle to give his name to the westminster magazine when bacon brought out his comic irish novel of barnie rolligan off went bungay to dublin and produced his rollicking hibernian story of looney mech twalter when dr hicks brought out his wanderings in mesopotamia under bacon's auspices bungay produced professor sanderman's researchers in zahara and bungay is publishing his pal mel gazette as a counterpoise to bacon's whitehall review let us go and hear about the gazette there may be a place for you in it pen my boy we will go and see shandon we are sure to find him at home where does he live last pen in the fleet prison warrington said and very much at home he is there too he is the king of the place pen had never seen this scene of london life and walked with no small interest in at the grim gate of that dismal edifice they went through the ante room where the officers and janitors of the place were seated and passing in at the wicked entered the prison the noise in the crowd the life in the shouting the shabby bustle of the place struck an excited pen people moved about ceaselessly and restless like caged animals in a menagerie men were playing at fives others pacing and tramping this one in colloquy with his lawyer in dingy black that when walking sadly with his wife by his side and a child on his arm some were a raiden tattered dressing gowns and at a look of rakeish fashion everybody seemed to be busy humming and on the move pen felt as if he choked in the place and as if the door being locked upon him they never would let him out they went through a court up a stone staircase and through passages full of people and noise and cross lights and black doors clapping and banging pen feeling as one does in a feverish morning dream at last the same little runner who had brought shandon's note and had followed them down fleet street munching apples and who showed the way to the two gentlemen through the prison said this is the captain's door and mr shandon's voice from within by them enter the room though bare was not un-chairful the sun was shining in at the window near which sat a lady at work who had been gay and beautiful once but in whose faded face kindness and tenderness still beamed through all his errors and reckless mishaps and misfortunes this faithful creature adored her husband and thought him the best and cleverest as indeed he was one of the kindest of men nothing ever seemed to disturb the sweetness of his temper not debts not guns not misery not the bottle not his wife's unhappy position or his children's ruined chances he was perfectly fond of wife and children after his fashion he always had the kindest words and smiles for them and ruined them with the utmost sweetness of temper he never could refuse himself or any man any enjoyment which his money could purchase he would share his last guinea with jack and tom and we may be sure he had a score of such retainers he would sign his name at the back of any man's bill and never pay any debt of his own he would write on any side and attack himself or another man with equal indifference he was one of the wittiest the most amiable and the most incorrigible of irish men nobody could help liking charlie shandon who saw him once and those whom he ruined could scarcely be angry with him when pen and warrington arrived the captain he had been in an irish militia regiment once and the title remained with him was sitting on his bed in a torn dressing gown with a desk on his knees at which he was scribbling as fast as his rapid pen could write slip after slip of paper fell off the desk wet onto the ground a picture of his children was hung up over his bed and the youngest of them was pattering about the room opposite the captain sat mr bungay a portly man of stolid countenance with whom the little child had been trying a conversation papa's a very clever man said she mama says so oh very said mr bungay and you're a very rich man mr bundy cried the child who could hardly speak plain mary said mama from her work oh never mind bungay roared out with a great laugh no harm in saying i'm rich he he i'm pretty well off my little dear if you're rich why don't you take papa out of prison as the child mama at this began to wipe her eyes with the work on which she was employed the poor lady had hung curtains up in the room had brought the children's picture and placed it there and made one or two attempts to ornament it mama began to cry mr bungay turned red and looked fiercely out of his bloodshot little eyes shandon's pen went on and penn and warrington arrived with their knock captain shandon looked up from his work how do you do mr warrington he said i'll speak to you in a minute please sit down gentlemen if you can find places and away went the pen again warrington pulled forward an old portmanteau the only available seat and sat down on it with a bow to mrs shandon and a nod to bungay the child came and looked at penn solemnly and in a couple of minutes the swift scribbling ceased and shandon turning the desk over on the bed stooped and picked up the papers i think this will do said he it's the prospectus for the palmel gazette and here's the money for it mr bungay said laying down a five pound note i'm as good as my word i am when i say i'll pay i pay faith that's more than some of us can say said shandon and he eagerly clapped the note into his pocket end of chapter 32