 Chapter 53 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 Thackeray. Chapter 53, a critical chapter. As Fanny saw the two ladies and the anxious countenance of the elder, who regarded her with a look of inscrutable alarm and terror, the poor girl at once knew that Penn's mother was before her. There was a resemblance between the widow's haggard eyes and Arthur's as he tossed in his bed in fever. Fanny looked wistfully at Mrs. Pendentis and at Laura afterwards. There was no more expression in the latter's face than if it had been a mass of stone. Hard-heartedness and gloom dwelt on the figures of both the newcomers. Neither showed any of the faintest gleam of mercy or sympathy for Fanny. She looked desperately from them to the major behind them. Old Pendentis dropped his eyelids, looking up ever so stealthily from under them at Arthur's poor little nurse. I wrote to you yesterday, if you please, ma'am. Fanny said, trembling in every limb as she spoke. And as pale as Laura, whose sad menacing face looked over Mrs. Pendentis' shoulder. Did you, madam? Mrs. Pendentis said, I suppose I may now relieve you from nursing my son. I'm his mother, you understand? Yes, ma'am, I, this is the way to his, oh, wait a minute, cried out Fanny, I must prepare you for his. The widow whose face had been hopelessly cruel and ruthless, ears started back with a gasp and a little cry, which she speedily stifled. He's been so since yesterday, Fanny said, trembling very much and with chattering teeth. A horrid shriek of laughter came out of Penn's room, whereof the door was open. And after several shouts, the poor wretch began to sing a college drinking song. And then to hurray and to shout as if he was in the midst of a wine party. And to thump with his fist against the wane, Scott, he was quite delirious. He does not know me, ma'am, Fanny said. Indeed, perhaps he will know his mother, let me pass, if you please, and go into him. And the widow hastily pushed by little Fanny and through the dark passage, which led into Penn's sitting room. Laura sailed by Fanny too, without a word. And Major Pendennis followed them. Fanny sat down on a bench in the passage and cried and prayed as well as she could. She would have died for him and they hated her. They had not a word of thanks or kindness for her, the fine ladies. She sat there in the passage. She did not know how long. They never came out to speak to her. She sat there until Dr. Goodenough came to pay his second visit that day. He found the poor little thing at the door. What nurse, how's your patient? Ask the good nature doctor. Has he had any rest? Go and ask them. They're inside, Fanny answered. Who, his mother? Fanny nodded her head and didn't speak. You must go to bed yourself, my poor little maid, said the doctor. You will be ill, too, if you don't. Oh, may I come and see him? May I come and see him? I love him so, the little girl said. And as she spoke, she fell down on her knees and clasped hold of the doctor's hand in such an agony that to see her melted the kind physician's heart and caused a mist to come over his spectacles. Poo, poo, nonsense. Nurse, has he taken his draft? Has he had any rest? Of course, you must come and see him. So must I. There, let me sit here, won't they, sir? I'll never make a no noise. I only asked to stop here, Fanny said, on which the doctor called her a stupid little thing, put her down upon the bench where Penn's printer's devil used to sit so many hours, tapped her pale cheek with his finger, and bustled into the farther room. Mrs. Pendenis was ensconced, pale and solemn, in a great chair by Penn's bedside. Her watch was on the bed table by Penn's medicines. Her bonnet and cloaks were late in the window. She had her Bible in her lap, without which she never traveled. Her first movement, after seeing her son, had been to take Fanny's shawl and bonnet, which were on his drawers, and bring them out, and drop them down upon his study table. She had closed the door upon Major Pendenis and Laura, too, and taken possession of her son. She had had a great doubt and terror. Last Arthur should not know her, but that Penn was spared to her in part, at least. Penn knew his mother quite well, and familiarly smiled and nodded at her. When she came in, he instantly fancied that they were at home at Bear Oaks, and began to talk and chatter and laugh in a rambling, wild way. Laura could hear him outside. His laughter shot shafts of poison into her heart. It was true then. He had been guilty, and with that creature, an intrigue with a servant made. And she had loved him, and he was dying most likely, raving and unrepentant. The Major now and then hummed out a word of remark or consolation, which Laura scarce heard. A dismal sitting it was for all parties, and when good enough appeared, he came like an angel into the room. It is not only for the sick man, it is for the sick man's friends that the doctor comes. His presence is often as good for them as for the patient, and they long for him yet more eagerly. How we have all watched after him, what an emotion and the thrill of his carriage wheels in the street, and at length that the door has made us feel, how we hang upon his words, and what a comfort we get from a smile or two, if he can vouch safe that sunshine that lighten our darkness. Who hasn't seen the mother prying into his face to know if there is hope for the sick infant that cannot speak, and that lies yonder its little frame battling with fever? Ah, how she looks into his eyes. What thanks if there is light there? What grief and pain if he casts them down, and dares not say hope? Or it is the house father who is stricken, the terrified wife looks on while the physician feels his patient's wrist, smothering her agonies as the children have been called upon to stay their place, and their talk. Over the patient in the fever, the wife expectant, the children unconscious. The doctor stands as if he were fate. The dispenser of life and death, he must let the patient off this time. The woman prays so for his respite. One can fancy how awful the responsibility must be to a conscientious man, how cruel the feeling that he has given the wrong remedy or that it might have been possible to do better, how harassing the sympathy with survivors if the case is unfortunate, how immense the delight of victory. Having passed through a hasty ceremony of introduction to the newcomers of whose arrival, he'd been made aware by the heartbroken little nurse in waiting without the doctor proceeded to examine the patient about whose condition of high fever there could be no mistake, and on whom he thought it necessary to exercise the strongest antiflogistic remedies in his power. He consoled the unfortunate mother as best he might in giving her the most comfortable assurances on which he could venture that there was no reason to despair yet that everything might still be hoped from his youth, the strength of his constitution and so forth. And having done his utmost to allay the horrors of the alarmed matron, he took the elder, Pan Dennis aside, into the vacant room, Warrington's bedroom for the purpose of holding a little consultation. The case was very critical. The fever if not stopped might and would carry off the young fellow he must be bled forthwith. The mother must be informed of this necessity. Why was that other young lady brought with her? She was out of place in a sick room. And there was another woman still be hanged to it. The major said that the little person who opened the door his sister-in-law had brought the poor little devil's bonnet and shawl out, blung them upon the study table. Did good enough know anything about the little person? I just caught a glimpse of her as we passed in. The major said and began, she was uncommonly nice looking. The doctor looked queer, the doctor smiled in the very gravest moments with life and death pending such strange contrasts and occasions of humor will arise and such smiles will pass to satirize the gloom as it were and to make it more gloomy. I have it, at last he said re-entering the study and he wrote a couple of notes hastily at the table there and sealed one of them and taking up poor Fanny's shawl and bonnet and the notes he went out in the passage to that poor little messenger and said, quick nurse, you must carry this to the surgeon and bid him come instantly and then go to my house and ask for my servant hard bottle and tell him to get this prescription prepared and wait until I, until it is ready, it may take a little in preparation. So poor Fanny trudged away with her two notes and found the apothecary who lived in the strand hard buy and who came straight away. He has lancet in his pocket to operate on his patient and then Fanny made for the doctor's house and hand over his square. The doctor was at home again before the prescription was made up, which took hard bottle, his servant, such a long time in compounding and during the remainder of Arthur's illness, poor Fanny never made her appearance in the quality of nurse at his chambers anymore. But for that day in the next, a little figure might be seen lurking about Penn's staircase. A sad, sad little face looked at and interrogated the apothecary and the apothecary's boy and the laundress and the kind physician himself as they passed out of the chambers of the sick man. And on the third day, the kind doctor's chariot stopped it, shepherds in and the good and honest and benevolent man went into the porter's lodge and tended a little patient whom he had there for the best remedy he found was on the day when he was unable to tell Fanny Bolton that the crisis was over and that there was at length every hope for Arthur Penn Dennis. J. Costigan Esquire, late of her majesty's service saw the doctor's carriage and criticized its horses and appointments, green livery's at the dead, the general said, and as foin a pair of high-stepping bee horses as ever a gentleman need sit behind let alone a doctor. There's no end to that poid and arrogance of them doctors nowadays. Not but that is a good one and a scientific character and a right good fellow bedan and he's brought the poor little girl well through her favor Bose me boy and so pleased was Mr. Costigan with the doctor's behavior and skill. That whenever he met Dr. Goodenough's carriage in future he made a point of saluting it and the physician in sight in as courteous and magnificent a manner as if Dr. Goodenough had been the Lord Luke's Senate himself and Captain Costigan had been in his glory in Phoenix Park. The widow's gratitude to the physician knew no bounds or scarcely any bounds at least. The kind gentleman laughed at the idea of taking a fee from a literary man or the widow of a brother practitioner and she determined when she got to Fair Oaks that she would send Goodenough the Silver Guilt, Bose, the jewel of the house and the glory of the late John Pendennis preserved in green bays and presented to him at bath by the lady Elizabeth Firebrace on the recovery of her son, the late Sir Anthony Firebrace from the Scarlet Fever. Hippocrates, Higia, King Blood, dead and a wreath of serpents surmount the cup to this day which was executed in their finest manner by Messiers Abagnago of Milsam Street and the inscription was by Mr. Birch to the young Baronette. This priceless gem of art the widow determined to devote to Goodenough the preserver of her son and there was scarcely any other favor which her gratitude would not have conferred upon him except one which he desired most and which was that she should think a little charitably and kindly of poor fanning. Havu's artless sad story he had got something during his interviews with her and of whom he was induced to think very kindly not being disposed indeed to give much credit to Penn for his conduct in the affair or not knowing what that conduct had been. He knew enough however to be aware that the poor infatuated little girl was without Stain as yet that while she had been in Penn's room it was to see the last of him as she thought and that Arthur was scarcely aware of her presence and that she suffered under the deepest and most pitiful grief at the idea of losing him dead or living. But on the one or two occasions when good enough alluded to Fanny the widow's countenance always soft and gentle assumed an expression so cruel and inexorable that the doctor saw it was in vain to ask her for justice or pity and he broke off all entreaties and ceased making any further illusions regarding his little client. There is a complaint which neither Papi nor Mandragora nor all the drowsy serfs of the East could allay in the men in his time as we are informed by a popular poet of the days of Elizabeth and which when exhibited in women no medical discoveries are practiced subsequent neither homeopathy nor hydropathy nor mesmerism nor Dr. Simpson nor Dr. Locock can cure and that is we won't call it jealousy but rather gently denominate rivalry and emulation in ladies. Some of those mystivists and prosaic people who carved and calculated every detail of their own answer and want to know for instance how when the characters in that critic are at a deadlock with their daggers at each other's throats they are to be got out of that murderous complication of circumstances may be induced to ask how it was possible in a set of chambers in the temple consisting of three rooms to govern the passage and a cold box Arthur a sick gentleman Helen is mother Laura her adopted daughter Martha their country attendant Mrs. Weezer nurse from St. Bartholomew's hospital Mrs. Flanagan and Irish laundress major pendentist retired military officer Morgan is ballet pigeon Mr. Arthur pendentist's boy and others could be accommodated the answer is given at once that almost everybody in the temple was out of town that there was scarcely a single occupant of Penn's house and lamb court except those who were occupied around the sick bed of the sick gentleman about whose fever we have not given a lengthy account neither enlarge we very much upon the more cheerful theme of his recovery. Everybody we have said was out of town and of course such a fashionable man as young Mr. Sib Wright who occupied chambers on the second floor of Penn's staircase could not be supposed to remain in London Mrs. Flanagan Mr. Pendentist's laundress was acquainted with Mrs. Roundsea who did for Mr. Sib Wright and that gentleman's bedroom was got ready for Miss Bell or Mrs. Pendentist when the latter should be inclined to leave her son's sick room to try and seek for a little rest for herself. If that young buck and flower of Baker Street Percy Sib Wright could have known who was the occupant of his bedroom how proud he would have been of that apartment what poems he would have written about Laura several of his things have appeared in the annuals and in manuscript in the nobility's albums he was a camphor man and very nearly got the English prize bone he was said Sib Wright however was absent and has been given up to Miss Bell it was the prettiest little brass bed in the world with gents curtains lined with pink yet a no net box in his bedroom window and the mere sight of his little exhibition of shiny boots arranged in trim rose over his wardrobe was a gratification to the beholder. He had a museum of scent, poem autumn and bears grease pots quite curious to examine too and a joy selection of portraits of females almost always in sadness and generally in disguise or des abus glittered round the neat walls of his elegant little bower of repose Madore with disheveled hair was consoling herself over her banjo for the absence of her conred the princess Fleur de Marie of Rudelstein and the Mr. de Paris was said the ogling out of the bars of her convent cage in which poor prison bird she was molting away Dorothy of Don Coyote was washing her eternal feet and find it was such an elegant gallery as became a gallant lover of the sex and in Sib Wright's sitting room while there was quite an infantile law library clad in skins of fresh newborn calf there was a tolerably large collection of classical books which she could not read and of English and French works of poetry and fiction which she read a great deal too much his invitation cards of the past season still decorated his looking glass and scarce anything told of the lawyer but the wig box beside the Venus upon the middle shelf of the bookcase on which the name of P. Sib Wright as square was gilded with Sib Wright in chambers was Mr. Bangham Mr. Bangham was a sporting man married to a rich widow Mr. Bangham had no practice did not come to chambers thrice in a term went to search for those mysterious reasons which make men go circuit and his room served as a great convenience to Sib Wright when that young gentleman gave his little dinners it must be confessed that these two gentlemen have nothing to do with our history will never appear in it again probably but we cannot help glancing through their doors as they happen to be open to us and as we pass to Penn's rooms as in the pursuit of our own business and life through the strand at the club may a church itself we cannot help peeping at the shops on the way or at our neighbor's dinner or at the faces under the bonnets in the next pee very many years after the circumstances about which we are at present occupied Laura with a blush and a laugh showing much humor owned to having read a french novel once much in vogue and when her husband asked her wondering where on earth she could have got such a volume she owned that it was in the temple when she lived in Mr. Percy Sib Wright's chambers and also I never confessed she said on that same occasion what I must now own to that I opened the Japan box and took out the strange looking wig inside it and put it on and looked at myself in the glass in it suppose Percy Sib Wright had come in at such a moment as that what would he have said the enraptured rogue what would have been all the pictures of disguised beauties in his room compared to that living one how we are speaking of old times when Sib Wright was a bachelor and before he got a county court when people were young when most people were young other people are young now but we know more when Miss Laura played this prank with the wig you can't suppose that Penn could have been very ill upstairs otherwise though she had grown to care for him ever so little common sense of feeling and decorum would have prevented her from performing any tricks or trying any disguises but all sorts of events had occurred in the course of the last few days which had contributed to increase her account for her gaiety and a little colony of the reader's old friends and acquaintances was by this time established in Lam Court Temple and round Penn's sick bed there first Martha, Mrs. Penn Dennis's servant, had arrived from Fair Oaks being summoned thence by the major who justly thought her presence would be comfortable and useful to her mistress and her young master for neither of whom the constant neighborhood of Mrs. Flanagan who during Penn's illness required more spiritist consolation than ever to support her could be pleasant Martha then made her appearance in due season to wait upon Mr. Penn Dennis nor did that lady go once to bed until the faithful servant had reached her and with a heart full of maternal thankfulness she went and lay down upon Warrington's straw mattress and among his mathematical books as has been already described it is true that ere that day a great and delightful alteration in Penn's condition had taken place the fever subjugated by good enough solicitors, potions and lancid had left the young man or only returned at intervals of feeble intermittence his wandering senses had settled in his weakened brain he had had time to kiss and bless his mother for coming to him and calling for Laura and his uncle who were both affected according to their different natures by his one appearance his lean shrunken hands his hollow eyes and voice his thin bearded face to press their hands and thank them affectionately and after this greeting and after they had been turned out of the room by his affectionate nurse he had sunk into a fine sleep which had lasted for about 16 hours at the end of which period he woke calling out that he was very hungry if it is hard to be ill and to loathe food or how pleasant to be getting well and to be feeling hungry how hungry alas the joys of convalescence become feeble with increasing years as other joys do and then and then comes that illness when one does not convalesce at all on the day of this happy event too came another arrival in lamb court this was introduced into the Penn Warring sitting room by large puffs of tobacco smoke the puffs of which were followed by an individual with a cigar in his mouth and a carpet bag under his arm this was Warrington who had run back from Norfolk when Mr Bose thoughtfully wrote to inform him of his friend's calamity but he had been from home when Bose's letter had reached his brother's house the eastern counties did not then boast of a railway for we begged the reader to understand that we only commit anachronisms when we choose and when by a daring violation of those natural laws some great ethical truth is to be advanced in fine Warrington only appeared with the rest of the good luck upon the lucky day after Penn's convalescence may have been said to have begun his surprise was after all not very great when he found the chambers of his sick friend occupied and as old acquaintance the major seated in an easy chair Warrington had led himself into the rooms with his own pass key listening or pretending to listen to a young lady who was reading to him a play of Shakespeare in a low sweet voice the lady stopped and started and laid down a book at the apparition of the tall traveler with the cigar and the carpet bag he blushed he flung the cigar into the pass seat he took off his hat and dropped that too and going up to the major sees that old gentleman's hand and asked questions about Arthur the major answered in a tremulous though cheery voice it was curious how emotion seemed to hold in him and returning Warrington's pressure with the shaking hand told him the news of Arthur's happy crisis of his mother's arrival with her young charge with miss you need not tell me her name mr. Warrington said with great animation for he was affected and elated with the thought of his friend's recovery you need not tell me your name i knew it once it was Laura and he held out his hand and took hers immense kindness and tenderness gleaned from under his rough eyebrows and shook his voice as he gazed at her and spoke to her and this is Laura his looks seem to say and this is Warrington the generous girl's heart beat back Arthur's hero the brave and the kind he has come hundreds of miles to sucker him when he heard of his friend's misfortune thank you mr. Warrington was all that Laura said however and as she returned the pressure of his kind hand she blushed so that she was glad the lamp was behind her to conceal her flushing face as these two were standing in this attitude the door of Penn's bed chamber was opened stealthily as his mother was want to open it and Warrington saw another lady who first looked at him and then turning round towards the bed said his and put up her hand it was to Penn Helen was turning and giving caution he called out with a feeble tremulous but cheery voice come in stunner come in Warrington i knew it was you by the by the smoker boy he said as holding his worn hand out and with tears at once of weakness and pleasure in his eyes he greeted his friend i beg pardon ma'am for smoking Warrington said who now almost for the first time blushed for his wicked propensity Helen only said god bless you mr. Warrington she was so happy she would have liked to kiss George then after the friends had had a brief very brief interview the delighted and inexorable mother giving her hand to Warrington sent him out of the room to back to Laura and the major would not resume their play of civil line where they had left it off at the arrival of the rightful owner of Penn's chambers end of chapter 53 chapter 54 of the history of pendentus 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 pendentus but will you make peace that curry chapter 54 convalescence our duty now is to record a fact concerning pendentus which however shameful and disgraceful when told regarding the chief personage and godfather of a novel must nevertheless be made known to the public who reads his veritable memoirs having gone to bed ill with fever and suffering to a certain degree under the passion of love after he had gone through his physical malady and had been bled and had been blistered and had had his head shaved and had been treated and medicamented as the doctor ordained it is a fact that when he rallied up from his bodily ailment his mental malady had likewise quitted him and he was no more in love with Fanny Bolton than you or I who are much too wise or too moral to allow our hearts to go getting after Porter's daughters he left it himself as he lay on his pillow thinking of this second cure which had been affected upon him he did not care the least about Fanny now he wanted however should have cared and according to his custom made an autopsy of that dead passion and an animized his own defunct sensation for his poor little nurse what could have made him so hot and eager about her but a few weeks back not a wit not a breeding not her beauty there were hundreds of women better looking than she it was out of himself that the passion had gone it did not reside in her she was the same but the eyes which saw were changed and alas that it should be so we're not particularly eager to see her anymore he felt very well disposed towards the little thing and so forth but as for violent personal regard such as he had but a few weeks ago it had fled under the influence of the pill and Lancet which had destroyed the fever in his brain and in the men's source of comfort and gratitude it was to pendenis though there was something selfish in that feeling as in most others of our young man that he had been enabled to resist temptation at the time when the danger was greatest and had no particular cause of self-reproach as he remembered his conduct towards the young girl as from a precipice down which he might have fallen so from the fever from which he had recovered he reviewed the fanny bolt and snare now that he had escaped out of it but i'm not sure that he was not ashamed of the very satisfaction which he experienced it is pleasant perhaps but it is humiliating to own that you love no more meanwhile the kind smiles and tender watchfulness of the mother at his bedside fill the young man with peace and security to see that health was returning was all the unwearyed nurse demanded to execute any caprice or order of her patients her chief was joy and reward he felt himself environed by her love and thought himself almost as grateful for it as he had been when weak and helpless in childhood some misty notions regarding the first part of his illness and that fanny had nursed him pen may have had but they were so dim that he could not realize them with accuracy or distinguish them from what he knew to be delusions which had occurred and were remembered during the delirium of his fever so as he had not thought proper on former occasions to make any illusions about fanny bolt into his mother of course he could not now confide to her his sentiments regarding fanny or make this worthy lady a confidant it was on both sides an unlucky precaution and want of confidence and a word or two in time might have spared the good lady and those connected with her a deal of pain and anguish seeing miss bolton installed as nurse and tender to pen i am sorry to say mrs pendennis had put the worst construction on the fact of the intimacy of these two unlucky young persons and had settled in their own mind that the accusations against arthur were true why not have stopped to inquire there are stories to a man's disadvantage that the women who are fondest of him are always the most eager to believe isn't a man's wife often the first to be jealous of him poor pen got a good stock of this suspicious kind of love from the nurse who was now watching over him and the kind and pure creature thought that her boy had gone through a melody much more awful and debasing than the mere physical fever and was stained by crime as well as weakened by illness the consciousness of this she had to bear perforce silently and to try to put a mask of cheerfulness and confidence over her doubt and despair and inward horror when captain shandon at balonia read the next number of the pal mel gazette it was to remark to mrs shandon that jack benoucain's hand was no longer visible in the leading articles and that mr warrington must be at work there again i know the crack of his whip in a hundred and the cut which the fellow's thong leaves there's jack bludier goes to work like a butcher and mangles the subject mr warrington finished a man and lays his cuts neat and regular straight down the back and drawing blood every line at which dreadful metaphor mrs shandon said law charles how can you talk so i always thought mr warrington very high but a kind gentleman and i'm sure he was most kind to the children upon which shandon said yes he's kind to the children but he's savage to the men and to be sure my dear you don't understand a word about what i'm saying and it's best you shouldn't for its little good comes out of writing for newspapers and it's better here living easy at balonia where the wine's plenty and the brandy cost but two francs a bottle looks us another tumbler mary my dear we'll go back into harness soon crass engines in terabimus icor bad luck to it in a word warrington went to work with all his might in place of his prostrate friend and did penn's portion of the pal mel gazette with a vengeance as the saying is he wrote occasional articles and literary criticisms he attended theaters and musical performances and discussed about them with his usual savage energy his hand was too strong for such small subjects and it pleased him to tell arthur's mother and uncle and laura that there was no hand in all of the band of penman more graceful and light more pleasant and more elegant than arthur's the people in this country ma'am don't understand what style is or they would see the merits of our young one he said to mrs pendentist i call him ours ma'am for i bred him and i am as proud of him as you are imbating a little wilfulness and a little selfishness and a little dandification i don't know a more honest or loyal or gentle creature he's been as wicked sometimes but he is as kind as a young lady as miss laura here and i believe he would not do any living mortal harm at this helen though she heaved a deep deep sigh and laura though she too was sadly wounded nevertheless were most thankful for warrington's good opinion of arthur and loved him for being so attached to their pen and major pendentist was loud in his praises of mr warrington more loud and enthusiastic than it was the major's want to be he is a gentleman my dear creature he said to helen every ancient gentleman my good madam pacific warrington's charles the first baronettes what could he be but a gentleman come out of that family father sir miles warrington ran away with beg your pardon miss bell sir miles was a very well known man in london and a friend of the prince of wales this gentleman is a man of the greatest talents the very highest accomplishments sure to get on if he had a motive to put his energies to work laura blushed for herself whilst the major was talking and praising arthur's hero as she looked at warrington's manly face and dark melancholy eyes this young person had been speculating about him and had settled in her mind that he must have been the victim of an unhappy attachment and as she caught herself so speculating why miss bell blushed warrington got chambers hard buy granures chambers in flag court and having executed penn's task with great energy in the morning his delight and pleasure of an afternoon was to come and sit with the sick man's company in the sunny autumn evenings and he had the honor more than once of giving miss bell his arm for a walk in the temple gardens to take which past time when the frank laura asked of helen permission the major eagerly said yes yes began of course you go out with him it's like country you know everybody goes out with everybody in the gardens and there are beetles you know and that sort of thing everybody walks in the temple gardens if the great arbiter of morals did not object why should simple helen she was glad that her girl should have such fresh air as the river could give and to see her return with heightened color and spirits from these harmless excursions laura and helen had come you must know to a little explanation when the news arrived depends alarming illness laura insisted upon accompanying the terrified mother to london we're not here of the refusal which the still angry helen gave her and then refused a second time yet more sternly and when it seemed that the poor lost lives life was disparate of and when it was known that his conduct was such as to render all thoughts of union hopeless laura had with many tears told her mother a secret with which every observant person who reads this story was acquainted already now she never could marry him was she to be denied the consolation of owning how fondly how truly how entirely she had loved him the mingling tears of the woman appeased the agony of their grief somewhat and the sorrows and terrors of their journey were at least and so far mitigated that they shared them together what could fanny expect when suddenly brought up for a sentence before a couple of such judges nothing but swift condemnation awful punishment merciless dismissal women are cruel critics in cases such as that in which poor fanny was implicated and we like them to be so for besides the guard which man places round his own harem and the defenses which a woman has in her heart her faith and honor hasn't she all her own friends of her own sex to keep watch that she does not go astray and to tear two pieces if she is found erring when our ma moods or shillings of baker's feet or bell grave square visit their fatimas with condoned punishment their mother sew up fatimas sack for her and her sisters and sisters-in-law see her well underwater and this present writer does not say nay he protests most solemnly he is a turk too he wears a turban and a beard like another and is all for the sack practice this miller but oh you spotless you have the right of capital punishment vested in you at least be very cautious that you make a way with the proper if so she may be called person be very sure of the fact before you order the barge out and don't pop your subject into the boss first until you are quite certain that she deserves it this is all I would urge import Fatima's behalf absolutely all not a word more by the beard of the prophet if she's guilty down with her heave over the sack away with it into the golden horn bubble and squeak and justice being done give way men and let us pull back to supper so the major did not in any way object to warring tins continued promenades with miss Laura but like a benevolent old gentleman encouraged in every way the intimacy of that couple were there any exhibitions in town he was for warrington conducting her to them if warrington had proposed to take her to vox hall itself this most complacent of men would have seen no harm nor would Helen if pendent is the elder had so ruled it nor would there have been any harm between two persons whose honor was entirely spotless between warrington who saw in intimacy a pure and high-minded and artless woman for the first time in his life and Laura who too for the first time was thrown into the constant society of a gentleman of great natural parts and powers pleasing who possessed varied requirements enthusiasm simplicity humor and that freshness of mind which is simple life and habits gave him and which contrasted so much with pens dandy indifference of manner and faded sneer in warrington's very uncouthness there was a refinement which the others finally lacked in his energy his respect his desire to please his hearty laughter or simple confiding pathos what a difference to sultan pens yawning sovereignty and languid acceptance of homage what it made pen at home such a dandy and such a despot the women had spoiled him as we like them and as they like to do they had cloyed him with obedience and surfaced at him with sweet respect and submission until he grew weary of the slaves who waited upon him and their caresses and cajolaries excited him no more abroad he was brisk and lively and eager and impassioned enough most men are so constituted and so nurtured does this like the former sentence run a chance of being misinterpreted and does anyone dare to suppose that the writer would incite the women to revolt never by the whiskers of the prophet again he says he wears a beard and he likes his women to be slaves what man doesn't what man would be hand packed I say we will cut off all the heads and christened them or turkiedem rather than that well then Arthur being so languid and indifferent and careless about the favors bestowed upon him how came it that Laura should have such a love and rapture's regard for him that a mere inadequate expression of it should have kept the girl talking all the way from Fair Oaks to London as she and Helen traveled in the post-jeves as soon as Helen had finished one story about the dear fellow and narrated with a hundred sobs and ejaculations and looks up to heaven some thrilling incidents which occurred about the period when the hero was breached Laura began another equally interesting and equally ornamented with tears and told how heroically he had a tooth out or wouldn't have it out or how daringly he robbed a bird's nest or how magnanimously he spared it or how he gave her shilling to the old woman on the common or went without his bread and butter for the beggar boy who came into the yard and so on one to another the sobbing women saying laments upon their hero who might worthy reader has long since perceived is no more a hero than one of us being as he was why should a sensible girl be so fond of him this point has been argued before in a previous unfortunate sentence which lately drew down all the wrath of Ireland upon the writer's head and which said that the greatest rascal cutthroats have had somebody to be fond of them and if those monsters why not ordinary mortals and with whom shall a young lady fall in love but with the person she sees she is not supposed to lose her heart in a dream like a princess in the arabian knights or to plight her young affections to the portrait of a gentleman in the exhibition or a sketch in the illustrated london news you have an instinct within you which inclines you to attach yourself to someone you meet somebody you hear somebody constantly praised you walk or ride or also talk or sit in the same pew at church with somebody you meet again and again and marriages are made in heaven your dear mama says pinning your orange flowers wreath on with her blessed eyes dim with tears and there's a wedding breakfast and you take off your white satin and retire to your coach and for and you and he are a happy pair or the affair is broken off and then poor wounded heart why then you meet somebody else entwine your young affections round number two it is your nature so to do do you suppose it is all for the man's sake that you love and not a bit for your own do you suppose you would drink if you were not thirsty or eat if you were not hungry so then laura liked pen because she saw scarcely anybody else at fair oaks except dr portman and captain glanders and because his mother constantly praised her arthur and because he was gentleman like tolerably good-looking and witty and because above all it was of her nature to like somebody and having once received this image into her heart she there tenderly nursed it and clasped it she there in his long absences and her constant solitude silently brooded over it and fondled it and when after this she came to london and had an opportunity of becoming rather intimate with mr george warrington what on earth was to prevent her from thinking him a most odd original agreeable and pleasing person a long time afterwards when these days were over and fate in its own way had disposed of the various persons now assembled in the dingy building in lamb court perhaps some of them looked back and thought how happy the time was and how pleasant it had been their evening talks and little walks and simple recreations round the sofa of pen the convalescent the major had a favorable opinion of september in london from that time forward and declared at his clubs and in society that the dead season in town was often pleasant deucid pleasant begad he used to go home to his lodgings in berry street of a night wondering that it was already so late and that the evening had passed away so quickly he made his appearance at the temple pretty constantly in the afternoon and tugged up the long black staircase with quite a benevolent activity and perseverance and he made interest with the chef that basis that renowned cook the superintendent's of whose work upon gastronomy compelled the gifted author to stay in the metropolis to prepare little jellies delicate clear soups aspects and other trifles good for indolence which morgan the ballet constantly brought down to the little lamb court colony and that permission to drink a glass or two a pure sherry being accorded to pen by dr good enough the major told with almost tears in his eyes how his noble friend the mark was of stain passing through london on his way to the continent had ordered any quantity of his precious a montiata that had been a present from king ferdinand to the noble mark was to be placed at the disposal of mr arthur pendennis the widow and laura tasted it with respect though they didn't in the least like the bitter flavor but the indolent was greatly invigorated by it and warrington pronounced it superlatively good and proposed the major's health in a mock speech after dinner on the first day when the wine was served and that of lord stain and the aristocracy in general major pendennis returned thanks with the utmost gravity and in a speech in which he used the words the present occasion at least the proper number of times pen cheered with his feeble voice from his armchair warrington taught miss laura to cry here here and tap the table with his knuckles pigeon the attendant grinned and honest dr good enough found the party so merely engaged when he came in to pay his faithful gratuitous visit warrington knew cib write who lived below and that gallant gentleman in reply to a letter informing him of the use to which his apartment had been put wrote back the most polite and flowery letter of acquiescence he placed his chambers at the service of their fair occupants his bed at their disposal his carpets at their feet everybody was kindly disposed towards the sick man and his family his heart and his mother's too as we may fancy melted within him at the thought of so much good feeling and good nature let pens biographer be pardoned for alluding to a time not far distant when a somewhat similar mishap brought him a providential friend a kind physician and a thousand proof so most touching and surprising kindness and sympathy there was a piano in mr cib writes chamber indeed this gentleman a lover of all the arts performed himself and excellently ill too upon the instrument and had had a song dedicated to him the words by himself the air by his devoted friend leopoldo troncadillo and at this music box as mr warrington called it laura at first with a great deal of tremor and blushing which became her very much played and sang sometimes of an evening simple heirs and oh songs of home her voice was a rich contralto and warrington who scarcely knew one tune from another and who had but one tune or break in his repertoire a most discordant invitation of god save the king sat wrapped in delight listening to these songs he could follow their rhythm if not their harmony and he could watch with a constant and daily growing enthusiasm the pure and tender and generous creature who made the music i wonder how that poor pale little girl in the black bonnet who used to stand at the lamp post in lamb court sometimes of an evening looking up to the open windows from which the music came like to hear it when pan's bedtime came the songs were harsh lights appeared in the upper room his room with the widow used to conduct him and then the major and mr warrington and sometimes miss laura would have a game as a cart or a backgammon or she would sit by working a pair of slippers and were stood a pair of gentlemen slippers they might have been for arthur or for george or for major pendentas one of those three would have given anything for the slippers while such business as this was going on within a rather shabby old gentleman will come and lead away the pale girl in the black bonnet who had no right to be abroad in the night air and the temple porters the few laundresses and other amateurs who had been listening to the concert would also disappear just before ten o'clock there was another musical performance namely that of the chimes of st clements clock in the strand which played the clear cheerful notes of a psalm before it proceeded to ring its ten fatal strokes as they were ringing laura began to fold up the slippers martha from ferrugs appeared with a bed candle and a constant smile on her face the major said god bless my soul is it so late warrington and he left their unfinished game and got up and shook hands with miss bell martha from ferrugs lighted them out of the passage and down the stair and as they descended they could hear her bolting and locking the sporting door after them upon her young mistress and herself if there had been any danger grinning martha said she would have got down that thar hooky sword which hung up in gantelman's room meaning the damascus scimitar with the names of the prophet engraved on the blade and the red velvet scabbard which persi sivrite esquire brought back from his tour in the levant along with an albanian dress and which he wore with such elegant effect at lady mullin gar's fancy ball glaster square hide park it entangled itself in miss koozie's train who appeared in the dress in which she with her mama had been presented to their sovereign the latter by the lord chancellor's lady and led to events which have nothing to do with this history is not miss koozie now mrs sivrite has sivrite you not got our county court goodnight laura and ferrugs martha sleep well and wake happy pure and gentle lady sometimes after these evenings warrington would walk a little way with major pendentus just a little way just as far as the temple gate as the strand as chairing cross as the club he was not going into the club well as far as berry street where he would laughingly shake hands on the major's own doorstep they'd been talking about laura all the way it was wonderful how enthusiastic the major who as we know used to dislike her had grown to be regarding the young lady devilish fine girl began devilish well mannered girl my sister-in-law has the manners of a duchess and would bring up any girl well miss bell's a little country fine but the smell of the hawthorn is pleasant demmy how she blushes your london girls would give many a guinea for a bouquet like that natural flowers began and she's a little money too nothing to speak of but a poody little bit of money in all rich opinions no doubt mr warrington agreed and though he laughed as he shook hands with the major his face fell as he left his veteran companion and he strode back to chambers and smoked pipe after pipe long into the night and wrote article upon article more and more savage in lieu of friend pen disabled well it was a happy time for almost all parties concerned pen mended daily sleeping and eating were his constant occupations his appetite was something frightful he was ashamed of exhibiting it before laura and almost before his mother who laughed and applauded him as the roast chicken of his dinner went away he eyed the departing friend was sad longing and began to long for jelly or tea or whatnot he was like an ogre in devouring the doctor cried stop the pen would not nature called out to him more loudly than the doctor and that kind and friendly physician handed him over with a very good grace to the other healer and here let us speak very tenderly and in the strictest confidence of an event which befell him and to which he never liked an illusion during his delirium the ruthless good enough ordered ice to be put to his head and all his lovely hair to be cut it was done in the time of of the other nurse who left every single hair of course in a paper for the widow to count and treasurer she never believed that the girl had taken away some of it but then women are so suspicious upon these matters when this dourful loss was made visible to major pendentis as of course it was the first time the elder saw the poor young man's shorn paint and then pen was quite out of danger and gaining daily vigor the major was something like blushes and a queer wink of his eyes said he knew of a a person aquifer in fact a good man whom he would send down to the temple and who would apply a temporary remedy to that misfortune Laura looked at warrington with the arches sparkle in her eyes warrington fairly burst out into a boo-hoo of laughter even the widow was obliged to laugh and the major arabescent confounded the impudence of the young folks and said when he had his hair cut he would keep a lock of it for miss Laura warrington voted that pen should wear a barrister's wig there was sibrites down below which would become him hugely pen said stuff and seemed as confused as his uncle and the end was that a gentleman from burlington arcade waited next day upon mr pendentis and had a private interview with him in his bedroom and a week afterwards the same individual appeared with a box under his arm and an ineffable grin of politeness on his face and announced that he brought home mr pendentis's head of air it must have been a grand but melancholy sight to see pen in the recesses of his apartment sadly contemplating his ravaged beauty and the artificial means of hiding its ruin he appeared at length in the head of air but warrington laughed so that pen grew sulky and went back for his velvet cap a neat turban which the fondest of mamas had worked for him then mr warrington and miss bell got some flowers off the ladies bonnets and made a wreath with which they decorated the wig and brought it out in procession and did homage before it in fact they indulged in a hundred sports jocularities wagaries and pâtissier annon so that the second and third floors of number six lamb court temple rang with more cheerfulness and laughter than had been known in those precincts for many a long day at last after about 10 days of this life one evening when the little spy of the court came out to take her usual post of observation at the lamp there was no music from the second four window there were no lights in the third-story chambers the windows of each were open and the occupants were gone mrs flanagan the laundress told fanny what had happened the ladies and all the party had gone to richman for a change of air the antique traveling chariot was brought out again and cushioned with many pillows for pen and his mother and miss laura went in the most affable manner in the omnibus under the guardianship of mr george warrington he came back and took possession of his old bed that night in the vacant and cheerless chambers and to his old books and his old pipes but not perhaps to his old sleep the widow had left a jar full of flowers upon his table puttily arranged and when he entered they filled the solitary room with odor they were memorials of the kind gentle souls who've gone away and who had decorated for a little while that lonely cheerless place he'd had the happiest days of his whole life george felt he knew it now they were just gone he went and took up the flowers and put his face to them and smelled them perhaps kissed them as he put them down he rubbed his rough hand across his eyes with a bitter word and laugh he would have given his whole life and soul to win that prize which arthur rejected did she want fame he would have won it for her devotion a great heart full of pent-up tenderness and manly love and gentleness was there for her if she might take it but it might not be fated ruled otherwise even if i could she would not have me george thought what has an ugly rough old fellow like me to make any woman like him i'm getting old and i've made no mark in life i'm neither good looks no youth no money no reputation a man must be able to do something besides stare at her and offer on his knees his smooth devotion to make women like him what can i do lots of young fellows have passed me in the race what they call the prizes of life didn't seem to me worth the trouble of the struggle but for her if she had been mine and like the diamond ah shouldn't she have worn it pasha what a fool i am to brag of what i would have done we are the slaves of destiny our lots are shaped for us and mine is ordained long ago come let us have a pipe and put the smell of these flowers out of court poor little silent flowers you'll be dead tomorrow what business had you to show your red cheeks in this dingy place by his bedside george found a new bible which the widow had placed there with a note inside saying that she had not seen the book amongst his collection in a room where she had spent a number of hours and where god had vouchsafed to her prayers the life of her son and that she gave to arthur's friend the best thing she could and besought him to read in the volume sometimes and to keep it as a token of a grateful mother's regard and affection poor george mournfully kissed the book as he had done the flowers and the morning found him still reading in its awful pages in which so many stricken hearts in which so many tender and faithful souls have found comfort under calamity and refuge and hope in affliction in chapter 54 of chapter 55 of the history of pendentis this is a leber vox recording all leber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit leber vox dot org the history of pendentis by william matepiece feckery chapter 55 fanny's occupations gone good hellen ever since her son's illness had taken as we have seen entire possession of the young man of his drawers and closets and all which they contained whether shirts that wanted buttons or stockings that required mending or must it be owned letters that lay amongst those articles arraignment and which of course it was necessary that somebody should answer during arthur's weakened and incapable condition perhaps mrs pendentis was laudably desirous to have some explanations about the dreadful fanny bolton mystery regarding which she had never breathed a word to her son though it was present in her mind always indication her inexpressible anxiety and disquiet she had caused the brass knocker to be screwed off the inner door of the chambers where upon the postman startling double wrap would as she justly argued to stir the rest of her patient and she did not allow him to see any letter which arrived whether from bootmakers who importuned him or headers who had a heavy account to make up against next saturday and would be very much obliged if mr arthur pendentis would have the kindness to settle etc of these documents penn who was always free-handed and careless of course had his share and though no great one one quite enough to alarm his scrupulous and conscientious mother she had some savings penn's magnificent self-denial and her own economy amounting from her great simplicity and avoidance of show to parsimony almost had enabled her to put by a little sum of money a part of which she delightedly consecrated to the paying off the young gentleman's obligations at this price many of where the youth and respected reader would hand over his correspondence to his parents and perhaps there is no greater test of a man's regularity and easiness of conscience than his readiness to face the postman blessed as he was made happy by the sound of the rat tat the good are eager for it but the minority tremble at the sound thereof so it was very kind of mrs pendentis doubly to spare pen the trouble of hearing or answering letters during his illness there could have been nothing in the young man's chest of drawers and wardrobe which could be considered as inculpating him in any way nor any satisfactory documents regarding the fanny bolt in a fair found there for the widow had to ask her brother-in-law if he knew anything about the odious transaction and the dreadful intrigue about which her son was engaged when they were at richman one day and penn with warrington had taken a seat on a bench on the terrace the widow kept major pendentis in consultation and laid her tears and perplexities before him such of them at least whereas is the want of men and women she did not make quite a clean confession and i suppose no spendthrift asked for a schedule of his debts no lady of fashion asked by her husband for her dressmaker's bills ever sent in the whole of them yet such we say of her perplexities at least as she chose to confide to her director for the time being when then she asked the major what course she ought to pursue about this dreadful this hard affair and whether he knew anything regarding it the old gentleman puckered up his face so that you could not tell whether he was smiling or not gave the widow one queer look with his little eyes cast them down to the carpet again and said my dear good creature i don't know anything about it and i don't wish to know anything about it and as you asked me my opinion i think you had best know nothing about it too young men will be young men begad and my good man if you think our boy is a joe pray spare me this helen broke in looking very stately my dear creature i did not commence the conversation permitted me to say the major said bowing very blindly i can't bear to hear such as sin such a dreadful sin spoken of in such a way the widow said with tears of annoyance starting from her eyes i can't bear to think that my boy should commit such a crime i wish he had died almost before he had done it i don't know how i survive it myself where it is breaking my heart major pendentis to think that his father's son my child whom i remember so good oh so good and full of honor should be fallen so dreadfully low as to as to as to flirt with that little grizzette my dear creature said the major egad if all the mothers in england were to break their hearts because nay nay upon my word in honor now don't agitate yourself don't cry i can't bear to see a woman's tears i never could never but how do we know that anything serious has happened has arthur said anything his silence confirms that sobbed mrs pendentis behind her pocket hankered you not at all there are subjects my dear about which a young fellow cannot surely talk to his mama insinuated the brother-in-law she has written to him cried the lady behind the camber right before he was ill nothing more likely no sense the mourner with the baptized mask gasped out not before that is i don't think so that is i only sense and you have yes i understand i suppose when he was too ill to read his own correspondence you took charge of it did you i'm the most unhappy mother in the world cried out the unfortunate hellen the most unhappy mother in the world because your son is a man and not a hermit have a care my dear sister if you have suppressed any letters to him you may have done yourself a great injury and if i know anything of arthur's spirit may cause a difference between him and you which you'll rule all your life a difference that's a devilish deal more important my good madam than the little little trump cause which originated it there was only one letter broke out hellen only a very little one only a few words here it is oh how can you how can you speak so when the good soul said only a very little one the major could not speak at all so inclined was he to laugh in spite of the agonies of the poor soul before him and for whom he had a hearty pity and liking too but each was looking at the matter with his or her peculiar eyes and views of morals and the major's morals as the reader knows were not those of an ascetic i recommend you he gravely continued if you can to seal it up those letters ain't unfrequently sealed with wafers and to put it amongst pen's other letters and let him have them when he calls for them or if we can seal it we can mistook it for bill i can't tell my son a lie said the widow it had been put silently into the letter box two days previous to their departure from the temple and had been brought to mrs pendennis by martha she'd never seen fanny's handwriting of course but when the letter was put into her hands she knew the author at once she had been on the watch for the letter every day since pen had been ill she'd opened some of his other letters because she wanted to get at that one she had the poor paper poisoning her bag at that moment she took it out and offered it to her brother-in-law arthur pendennis asquire he read in a timid little sprawling handwriting and with a sneer on his face no my dear i won't read any more but you who have read it may tell me what the letter contains only prayers for his health and bad spelling you'd say and a desire to see him well there's no harm in that and as you ask me here the major began to look a little queer for his own part and put on his demure look as you ask me my dear for information why i don't mind telling you that ah that morgan my man has made some inquiries regarding this affair and that my friend dr good enough also looked into it and it appears that this person was greatly smitten with arthur that he paid for her and took her to vox hall gardens as morgan heard from an old acquaintance of pens and ours an irish gentleman who was very nearly once having the honor of being the from an irishman in fact that's the girl's father a violent man of intoxicated habits has beaten her mother who persists in declaring her daughter's entire innocence to her husband on the one hand while on the other she told good enough that arthur has acted like a brute to her child and so you see the story remains in a mystery well you have it cleared up i have but to ask pen and he will tell me at once he is as honorable a man has ever lived honorable said the widow with bitter scorn oh brother what is this you call honor if my boy has been guilty he must marry her i would go down on my knees and pray him to do so good god are you mad screamed out the major and remembering former passages in arthur's history and helens the truth came across his mind that were helen to make this prayer to her son he would marry the girl he was wild enough and obstinate enough to commit any folly when a woman he loved was in the case my dear sister have you lost sense as he continued after an agitated pause during which the above jury reflection crossed him and in a softened tone what right have we to suppose that anything has passed between this girl and him let's see the letter her heart is breaking pray pray right to me home unhappy unkind father your nurse poor little fanny spelt as you say in a manner to outrage all sense of decorum but good heavens my dear what is there in this only that the little devil is making love to him still why she didn't come into his chambers and so he was so delirious that he didn't know her what do you call him plan again the launderers told morgan my man so she came in company of an old fella and all mr bows who came most kindly down to steelbrook and brought me away by the way i left him in the cab and never paid the fare and devilish kind it was of him no there's nothing in this story do you think so thank heaven thank god helen cried i'll take the letter to arthur and ask him now look at him there he's on the terrace with mr warrington they're talking to some children my boy was always fond of children he's innocent thank god thank god let me go to him old penn denis had his own opinion when he briskly took the not guilty side of the case but a moment before very likely the old gentleman had a different view from that which he chose to advocate and judged of arthur by what he himself would have done if she goes to arthur and he speaks the truth as the rascal will it spoils all he thought and he tried one more effort my dear good soul he said taking helen's hand in kissing it as your son has not acquainted you with this affair think if you have any right to examine it as you believe him to be a man of honor what right have you to doubt his honor in this instance who is his accuser an anonymous scoundrel who has brought no specific charge against him if there were any such wouldn't the girl's parents have come forward he is not called upon to rebut nor you to entertain an anonymous accusation enough for believing him guilty because a girl of that rank happened to be in his rooms acting as the nurse to him began he might as well insist upon his marrying that damned old irish gin drinking laundress mrs flanigan the widow burst out laughing through her tears the victory was gained by the old general mary mrs flanigan by god he continued tapping her slender hand no the boy has told you nothing about it and you know nothing about it the boy is innocent of course and what my good soul is the course for us to pursue suppose he is attached to this girl don't look sad again it's merely a supposition and begat a young fellow may have an attachment may indeed directly he gets well he will be at her again he must come home we must go off directly to fair oaks the widow cried out my good creature he'll bore himself to death at bear oaks he'll have nothing to do but to think about his passion there there's no place in the world for making a little passion into a big one and where a fellow feeds on his own thoughts like a damned lonely country house where there's nothing to do we must occupy him amuse him we must take him abroad he's never been abroad except to paris for a lark we must travel a little he must have a nurse with him to take great care of him for good enough says he had a devilish narrow squeak of it don't look frightened and so he must come and watch and i suppose you take miss bill and i should like to ask warrington to come arthur's devilish bond of warrington he can't do without warrington warrington's family is one of the oldest in england and he's one of the best young fellows i ever met in my life i like him exceedingly does mr warrington know anything about this this affair ask ellen he had been away i know for two months before it happened pen wrote me so not a word i i've asked him about it i've pumped him he never heard of the transaction never i pledge you my word cried out the major in some alarm and my dear i think you had much best not talk to him about it much best not of course not the subject is most delicate and painful the simple widow took her brother's hand and pressed it thank you brother she said you've been very very kind to me you have given me a great deal of comfort i'll go to my room and think of what you've said this illness and these these emotions have agitated me a great deal and i'm not very strong you know but i'll go and thank god that my boy is innocent he is innocent isn't he sir yes my dearest creature yes said the old fellow kissing her affectionately and quite overcome by her tenderness he looked after her as she retreated with a fondness which was rendered more precant as it were by the mixture of a certain scorn which accompanied it innocent he said i'd swear till i was black in the face he was innocent rather than give that good soul pain having achieved this victory the fatigued and happy warrior laid himself down on the sofa and put his yellow silk pocket handkerchief over his face and indulged in a snug little map of which the dreams no doubt were very pleasant as he ignored with refreshing regularity the young men sat meanwhile dawdling away the sunshiny hours on the terrace very happy and pen at least very talkative he was narrating to warrington a plan for a new novel and a new tragedy warrington laughed at the idea of his writing a tragedy by jove he would show that he could and he began to spout some of the lines of his play the little solo on the wind instrument which the major was performing was interrupted by the entrance of miss bell she had been on a visit to her old friend lady rock minster who had taken up summer villa in the neighborhood and who hearing of arthur's illness and his mother's arrival at richmond had visited the latter and for the benefit of the former whom she didn't like had been part of the grapes partridges and other attentions for laura the old lady had a great fondness and long that she should come and stay with her but laura could not leave her mother at this juncture worn out by constant watching over arthur's health helenzone had suffered very considerably and dr goodenot had had a reason to prescribe for her as well as for his younger patient open Dennis started up on the entrance of the young lady his slumbers were easily broken he made her a gallant speech he had been full of gallantry towards her of late where had she been gathering those roses which she wore on her cheeks how happy he was to be disturbed out of his dreams by such a charming reality laura had plenty of humor and honesty and these two caused her to have on her side something very like contempt for the old gentleman it delighted her to draw out his worldliness and to make the old habitue of clubs and drawing rooms tell his twaddling tales about great folks and expound his views of morals not in this instance however where she disposed to be satirical she had been to drive with lady rock minster in the park she said and she had brought home game four pen and flowers for mama she looked very grave about mama she had just been with mrs penn Dennis Helen was very much worn and she feared she was very very ill her large eyes filled with tender marks of the sympathy which she felt in her beloved friend's condition she was alarmed about her could not that good that dear doctor good enough cure her Arthur's illness and other mental anxiety the major slowly said had no doubt shaken Helen a burning blush upon the girl's face showed that she understood the old man's illusion but she looked him full in the face and made no reply he might have spared me that she thought what is he aiming at in recalling that shame to me that he had an amen view is very possible the old diplomat has seldom spoke without some such in doctor good enough had talked to him he said about their dear friend's health and she wanted rest and change of scene yes change of scene painful circumstances which had occurred must be forgotten and never alluded to he beg pardon for even hinting at them to miss bell he never should do so again nor he was sure would she everything must be done to soothe and comfort their friend and his proposal was that they should go abroad for the autumn do a watering place in the rye neighborhood where Helen might rally her exhausted spirits and Arthur try and become a new man of course Laura would not forsake her mother of course not it was about Helen and Helen only that is about Arthur too for her sake that Laura was anxious she would go abroad or anywhere with Helen and Helen having thought the matter over for an hour in a room had by that time grown to be as anxious for the tour as any schoolboy who has been reading a book of voyages is eager to go to sea with her should they go the farther the better to someplace so remote that even recollection could not follow them wither so delightful that pen should never want to leave it anywhere so that he could be happy she opened her desk with trembling fingers and took out her bankers book and counted up her little savings if more was wanted she had the diamond cross she would borrow from Laura again let us go let us go she thought directly he can bear the journey let us go away come kind doctor good enough come quick and give us leave to quit england the good doctor drove over to dine with them that very day if you agitate yourself so he said to her and if your heart beats so and if you persist in being so anxious about a young gentleman who is getting well as fast as he can we shall have you laid up and miss Laura to watch you and then it will be her turn to be ill and i should like to know how the do so doctor is to live who is obliged to come and attend you all for nothing mrs good enough is already jealous of you and says with perfect justice that i fall in love with my patients and you must please to get out of the country as soon as ever you can but i may have a little piece in my family when the plan of going abroad was proposed it was received by that gentleman with the greatest alacrity and enthusiasm he longed to be off at once he let his mustachios grow from that very moment in order i suppose that he might get his mouth into training for a perfect french and german pronunciation and he was seriously disquieted in his mind because the mustachios when they came were of a decidedly red color he had looked forward to an autumn at ferrokes and perhaps the idea of passing two or three months there did not amuse the young man there was not a soul to speak to in the place he said to warrington i can't stand old portman sermons and pompous after dinner conversation i know all old glander stories about the peninsular war the cleverings of the only christian people in the neighborhood and they are not to be at home before christmas my uncle says besides warrington i want to get out of the country whilst you were away confounded i had a temptation from which i'm very thankful to have escaped in which i count that even my illness came very luckily to put an end to and here he narrated to his friend the circumstances of the volkshall affair with which the reader is already acquainted warrington looked very great when he heard this story putting the moral delinquency out of the question he was extremely glad for arthur's sake that the latter had escaped from a danger which might have made his whole life wretched which certainly said warrington would have occasioned the wretchedness and ruin of the other party and your mother and and your friends what a pain it would have been to them urged penn's companion little knowing what grief and annoyance these good people had already suffered not a word to my mother penn cried out in a state of great alarm she would never get over it and a splendor of that sort would kill her i do believe and he added with a knowing air and as if like a young rascal about loveless he had been engaged in what are called a pair of dark or all his life the best way when a danger of that sort menaces is not to face it but to turn ones back on it and run and were you very much smitten warrington asked so loveless she dropped her h's but she was a dear girl oh clarices of this life oh you poor little ignorant vain foolish maidens if you did but know the way in which the lovelesses speak of you if you could but hear jack talking to tom across the coffee room of a club or see ned taking your poor little letters out of his cigar case and handing them over to charlie and billy and harry across the mess room table you would not be so eager to write or so ready to listen there's a sort of crime which is not complete unless the lucky rogue boasts of it afterwards and the man who betrays your honor in the first place is pretty sure remember that to betray your secret too it's hard to fight and it's easy to fall so warrington gloomily and as you say pendennis when a danger like this is imminent the best way is to turn your back on it and run after this little discourse upon a subject about which pen would have talked a great deal more eloquently a month back the conversation reverted to the plans for going abroad and arthur eagerly pressed his friend to be of the party warrington was a part of the family a part of the cure arthur said he should not have half the pleasure without warrington but george said no he couldn't go he must stop at home and take pen's place the other remark that that was needless for shandon was now come back to london and arthur was entitled to a holiday don't press me warrington said i can't go i have particular engagements i'm best at home i've not got the money we to travel that's the long and short of it for traveling cost money you know this little obstacle seemed fatal to pen he mentioned it to his mother mrs pendennis was very sorry mr warrington had been exceedingly kind but she supposed he knew best about his affairs and then no doubt she reproached herself for selfishness and wishing to carry the boy off and have him to herself altogether what is this i hear from pen my dear mr warrington the major asked one day when the pair were alone and after warrington's objection had been stated to him not go with us we can't hear of such a thing pen won't get well without you i promise you i'm not going to be his nurse he must have somebody with him that's stronger and gayer and better able to amuse him than a dramatic old fogey like me i should go to carlsbad very likely when i've seen you people settle down traveling costs nothing nowadays or so little and and pray warrington remember that i was your father's very old friend and if you and your brother are not on such terms as to to enable you to to anticipate your younger brother's allowance i beg you to make me your banker for hasn't pen been getting into your debt these three weeks past during which you have been doing what he informs me is his work with such exemplary talent and genius begad still in spite of this kind offer and unheard of generosity on the part of the major george warrington refused and said he would stay at home but it was with a faltering voice and an irresolute accent which shared how much he would like to go though his tongue persisted in saying nay but the major's persevering benevolence was not to be balked in this way at the tea table that evening hellen happening to be absent from the room for the moment looking for pen who had gone to roost open Dennis returned to the charge and rated warrington for refusing to join in their excursion isn't it ungallant miss bell he said turning to that young lady isn't it unfriendly here we have been the happiest party in the world and this odious selfish creature breaks it up miss bell's long eyelashes looked down towards her tea cup and warrington blushed hugely but did not speak neither did miss bell speak but when he blushed she blushed too you ask him to come my dear said the benevolent old gentleman and then perhaps he will listen to you why should mr warrington listen to me asked the young lady putting the query to her teaspoon seemingly and not to the major ask him you've not asked him said pens artless uncle i should be very glad indeed if mr warrington would come remarked laura to the teaspoon would you said george she looked up and said yes their eyes met i will go anywhere you ask me or do anything said george lowly and forcing out the words as if they gave him pain old penn dennis was delighted the affectionate old creature clapped his hands and cried bravo bravo it's a bargain a bargain begad shake hands on it young people and laura with a look full of tender brightness put out her hand to warrington he took hers his face indicated a strange agitation he seemed to be about to speak when from penn's neighboring room hellen entered looking at them as the candle which she held lighted her pale frightened face laura blushed more red than ever and with through her hand what is it hellen asked it's a bargain we've been making my dear creature said the major in his most caressing voice we have just bound over mr warrington in a promise to come abroad with us indeed hellen said end of chapter 55 chapter 56 of the history of penn dennis 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 penn dennis by william make peace thakery chapter 56 in which fanny engages a new medical man could hellen have suspected that with penn's returning strength his unhappy partiality for little fanny would also reawaken though she never spoke a word regarding that young person after her conversation with the major and though to all appearances she utterly ignored fanny's existence yet mrs penn dennis kept a particularly close watch upon all master arthur's actions on the plea of ill health would scarcely let him out of her sight and was especially anxious that he should be spared the trouble of all correspondence for the president at least very likely arthur looked at his own letters with some tremor very likely as he received them at the family table feeling his mother's watch upon him though the good soul's eye seemed fixed upon her tea cup or her book he expected daily to see a little handwriting which he would have known though he had never seen it yet and his heart beat as he received the letters to his address was he more pleased or annoyed that day after day his expectations were not realized and was his mind relieved that there came no letter from fanny though no doubt in these matters when loveless is tired of chorissa or the contrary it is best for both parties to break it once and each after the failure of the attempt at union to go his own way and pursue his course through life solitary yet our self-love or our pity or our sense of decency does not like that sudden bankruptcy before we announce to the world that our firm of loveless and company can't meet its engagements we try to make compromises we have mournful meetings of partners we delay the putting up of the shutters and the dreary announcement of the failure it must come that we pawn our jewels to keep things going a little longer on the whole i dare say pen was rather annoyed that he had no remonstances from fanny what could she apart from him and never so much as once look round could she sink and never once hold a little handout or cry help arthur well well they don't all go down to venture on that voyage some few drown when the vessel founders but most are only ducked and scrambled to shore and the reader's experience of a pendenis the square of the upper temple will enable him to state whether that gentleman belonged to the class of persons who were likely to sink or to swim though pen was as yet too weak to walk have a mile and might not on account of his precious health be trusted to take a drive in a carriage by himself and without a nurse in attendance yet hellen could not keep watch over mr warrington too and had no authority to prevent that gentleman from going to london if business called him bitter indeed if he had gone and stayed perhaps the widow from reasons of our own would have been glad but she checked these selfish wishes as soon as she ascertained or own them and remembering warrington's great regard and services and constant friendship for her boy received him as a member of her family almost with her usual melancholy kindness and submissive acquiescence yet somehow one morning when his affairs called him to town she defined what warrington's errand was and that he was gone to london to get news about fanny for pen indeed arthur had had some talk with his friend and told him more at large what his adventures have been with fanny adventures which the reader knows already and what were his feelings respecting her he was very thankful that he had escaped the great danger to which warrington said amen heartily that he had no great fault wherewith to reproach himself in regard of his behavior to her but that if they parted as they must he would be glad to say a god bless her and to hope that she would remember him kindly in his discourse with warrington he spoke upon these matters with so much gravity and so much emotion that george who had pronounced himself most strongly for the separation too began to fear that his friend was not so well cured as he boasted of being and that if the two were to come together again all the danger and the temptation might have to be fought once more and with what result it is hard to struggle arthur and it is easy to fall warrington said and the best courage for us poor riches is to fly from danger i wouldn't have been what i am now had i practiced what i preach and what did you practice george penn asked eagerly i knew there was something tell us about it warrington there was something that can't be mended and that shouted my whole fortunes early warrington answered i said i would tell you about it someday penn and will but not now take the moral without the fable now penn my boy and if you want to see a man whose whole life has been wrecked by an unlucky rock against which he struck as a boy here he is arthur and so i warn you we've shown how mr huckster in writing home to his clustering friends mentioned that there was a fashionable club in london of which he was an attendant and that he was there in the habit of meeting an irish officer of distinction who amongst other news had given that intelligence regarding pandenas which the young surgeon had transmitted to clustering this club was no other than the back kitchen where the disciple of saint bartholomew was accustomed to meet the general the peculiarities of whose brogue appearance disposition and general conversation greatly diverted many young gentlemen who used the back kitchen as a place of nightly entertainment and refreshment huckster who had a fine natural genius for mimicking everything whether it was a favorite tragic or comic actor or a cock on a dung hill a cork screw going into a bottle and a cork issuing vents or an irish officer of genteel connections who offered himself as an object of invitation with only too much readiness talk to his talk and twang to his poor long bow whenever drink a hearer and an opportunity occurred studied our friend the general with procure your guest and drew the honest fellow out many a night a bait consisting of six penny worth of brandy and water the worthy old man were sure to swallow and under the influence of this liquor who was more happy than he to tell his stories of his daughter's triumphs and his own in love war drink and polite society thus huckster was unable to present to his friends many pictures of castigan of castigan fighting a jewel in the fey nicks of castigan in his interview with the juke of york of castigan at his son-in-law's t-ball surrounded by the nobility of his country of castigan when crying drunk at which time he was in the habit of contentionally lamenting his daughter's ingratitude and stating that his gray hairs were hastening to a premature greed and thus our friend was the means of bringing a number of young fellows to the back kitchen who consumed the landlord's liquors whilst they relished the general's peculiarities so that mine hose pardon many of the latter's foibles in consideration of the good which they brought to his house not the highest position in life was this certainly or one which if we had a reverence for an old man we would be anxious that he should occupy but of this age buffoon it may be mentioned that he had no particular idea that his condition of life was not a high one and that in his whiskey blood there was not a black drop nor in his muddle brains a bitter feeling against any mortal being even his child his cruel emily he would have taken to his heart and forgiven with tears and what more can one say of the christian charity of a man than that he is actually ready to forgive those who have done him every kindness and with whom he is wrong in a dispute there was some idea amongst the young men who frequented the back kitchen and made themselves married with the society of captain costigan that the captain made a mystery regarding his lodgings for fear of dons or from a desire of privacy and lived in some wonderful place nor were the landlord of the premises when questioned upon this subject answer any inquiries is maxim being that he only knew gentlemen who frequented that room in that room that when they quitted that room having paid their scores as gentlemen and behaved as gentlemen his communication with them ceased and that as a gentleman himself he thought it was only impertinent curiosity to ask where any other gentleman lived costigan in his most intoxicated and confidential moments also evaded any replies to questions or hints addressed to him on this subject there was no particular secret about it as we have seen who have had more than once the honor of entering his apartments but in the vicissitudes of a long life he had been pretty often in the habit of residing in houses where privacy was necessary to his comfort and where the appearance of some visitors would have brought him anything but pleasure hence all sorts of legends were formed by wags or credulous persons respecting his place of a boat he was stated that he slept habitually in a watch box in the city in a cab at a muse where a cab proprietor gave him a shelter in the duke of york's column etc the wildest of these theories being put abroad by the vicissitudes and imaginative huckster for a hucksy when not silenced by the company of swells and went in the society of his own friends was a very different fellow to the youth whom we have seen cowed by pens and pertinent heirs and adored by his family at home was the life and soul of the circle he met either around the festive board or the dissecting table on one brilliant september morning as huckster was regaling himself with a cup of coffee at a stall in covet garden having spent a delicious night dancing at vox hall he spied the general reeling down henry at a street with a crowd of hooting blackered boys at his heels who had left their beds under the arches of the river betimes and were prowling about already for breakfast and the strange livelihood of the day the poor old general was not in that condition when the sneers and jokes of these young beggars had much effect upon him the cabin and waterman at the cab stand knew him and passed their comments upon him the policeman gazed after him and warned the boys off him what looks of scorn and pity what did the scorn and pity of men the jokes of rivaled children matter to the general he reeled along the street with glazed eyes having just sense enough to know whether he was bound and to pursue his accustomed beat homewards he went to bed not knowing how he had reached it as often as any man in london he woke and found himself there and asked no questions and he was talking about on this daily though perilous voyage went from his station at the coffee stall huckster spied him to note his friend to pay his tuppence indeed he had but eight pence left or he would have had a cab from vox hall to take him home was with the eager huckster the work of an instant castigan dived down the alleys by dreary lane theater where gin shops oyster shops and theatrical wardrobes abound the proprietors of which were now asleep behind their shutters as the pink morning lighted up their chimneys and through these courts huckster followed the general until he reached old castle street in which is the gate of shepherd's inn here just as he was within side of home a luckless slice of orange peel came between the general's heel and the pavement and caused the poor old fellow to fall backwards huckster ran up to him instantly and after a pause during which the veteran giddy with his fall and his previous whiskey gathered as he best might his dizzy brains together the young surgeon lifted up the limping general and very kindly and good naturally offered to conduct him to his home for some time and in reply to the queries which the student of medicine put to him the muzzy general refused to say where his lodgings were and declared that they were hard by and that he could reach them without difficulty and he disengaged himself from huckster's arm and made a rush as if to get to his own home unattended but he reeled and lurched so that the young surgeon insisted upon accompanying him and with many soothing expressions and cheering and consolatory phrases succeeded in getting the general's dirty old hand under what he called his own fin and that the old fellow moaning piteously across the street. He stopped when he came to the ancient gate ornamented with the armorial bearings of the venerable shepherd here it is that he drawing up at the portal and he made a successful pull at the gate bell which presently brought out old Mr. Bolton the porter scowling fiercely and grumbling as he was used to do every morning when it became his turn to let in that early bird. Costigan tried to hold Bolton for a moment in genteel conversation but the other solely would not don't bother me said he go to your own bed captain and don't keep honest men out of theirs so the captain tacked across the square and reached his own staircase up which he stumbled with the worthy huckster at his heels. Costigan had a key of his own which huckster inserted into the keyhole for him so that there was no need to call up little Mr. Bose from the sleep into which the old musician had not long since fallen an huckster having aided to disrobe his tipsy patient and ascertain that no bones were broken helped him to bed and applied compresses and water to one of his knees and shins which with the pair of trousers which encased them Costigan had severely torn in his fall at the general's age and with his habit of body such wounds as he had inflicted on himself are slow to heal a good deal of inflammation in suit and the old fellow lay ill for some day suffering both pain and fever Mr. Huckster undertook the case of his interesting patient with great confidence and aliquity and conducted it with becoming skill he visited his friend day after day and consulted him with lively rattle and conversation for the absence of the society which Costigan needed and of which he was in ornament and he gave special instructions to the invalid's nurse about the quantity of whiskey which the patient was to take instructions which as the poor old fellow could not for many days get out of his bed or so for himself he could not by any means infringe those Mrs. Bolton and our little friend Fanny when able to do so officiated at the general's bedside and the old warrior was made as comfortable as possible under his calamity thus Huckster whose affable manners and social term made him quickly intimate with persons in whose society he fell and whose over refinement did not lead them to repulse the familiarities of this young gentleman became pretty soon intimate in Shepherds Inn both with Eric Wainton since the McGarrett's and those in the Porter's Lodge he thought he had seen Fanny somewhere he felt certain that he had but it is no wonder that he should not accurately remember her for the poor little thing never chose to tell him where she had met him he himself had seen her at a period when his own views both of persons of right and wrong were clouded by the excitement of drinking and dancing and also little Fanny was very much changed and worn by the fever and agitation and passion and despair which the past three weeks had poured upon the head of that little victim born down was the head now and very pale and wand the face and many many a time the sad eyes had looked into the postman's as he came to the inn and the second heart had sunk as he passed away when Mr. Costigan's accident occurred Fanny was rather glad to have an opportunity of being useful and doing something kind something that would make her forget her own little sorrows perhaps she felt she bore them better whilst she did her duty though I dare say many a tear dropped into the old Irishman's gruel ah me stir the gruel well and have courage little Fanny if everybody who has suffered from your complaint were to die of it straight away what a fine year the undertakers would have whether from compassion for his only patient or delight in his society Mr. Huxter found out occasion to visit Costigan two or three times in the day at least and if any of the members of the Porter's Lodge family were not in attendance on the general the young doctor was sure to have some particular directions to address to those at their own place of habitation he was a kind fellow he made or purchased toys for the children he brought them apples and brandy balls he brought a mask and frightened them with it and caused a smile upon the face of pale Fanny he called Mrs. Bolton Mrs. B and was very intimate familiar and facetious with that lady quite different from that arty artless beast as Mrs. Bolton now denominated a certain young gentleman of our acquaintance in whom she now about she never could aber he was from this lady who was very free in her conversation that Huxter presently learned what was the illness which was evidently praying upon little fan and would have been Penn's behavior regarding her Mrs. Bolton's account of the transaction was not it may be imagined entirely an impartial narrative one would have thought for her story that the young gentleman had employed a course of the most persevering, legigious artifices to win the girl's heart had broken the most solemn promises made to her and was a wretch to be hated and chastised by every champion of woman Huxter and his present frame of mind respecting Arthur and suffering under the latter's contumely was ready of course to take all for granted that was said in the disfavor of this unfortunate convalescent but why did he not write home to Clevering as he had done previously giving an account of Penn's misconduct and of the particulars regarding it which had now come to his knowledge he soon in a letter to his brother-in-law announced that that nice young man Mr. Penn Dennis had escaped narrowly from her fever and that no doubt all Clevering where he was so popular would be pleased at his recovery and he mentioned that he had an interesting case of compound fracture an officer of distinction which kept him in town but as for Fanny Bolton he made no more mention of her in his letters no more than Penn himself had made mention of her though you mothers at home how much do you think you know about your lads how much do you think you know but with those there was no reason why Huxter should not speak his mind and so a very short time after his conversation with Mrs. Bolton Mr. Sam talked to the musician about his early acquaintance with Penn Dennis described him as a confounded conceited blacker and expressed a determination to punch his impudent head as soon as ever he should be well enough to stand up like a man then it was that Bose on his part spoke and told his version of the story where of Arthur and little fan were the hero and heroine how they had met by no contrivance of the former but by a blunder of the old Irish men now in bed with a broken shin how Penn had acted with manliness and self-control in the business how Mrs. Bolton was an idiot and he related the conversation which he Bose had had with Penn and the sentiments uttered by the young man perhaps Bose's story caused some twinges of conscience in the breast of Penn's accuser and that gentleman frankly owned that he had been wrong with regard to Arthur and withdrew his project for punching Mr. Penn Dennis's head but the cessation of his hostility for Penn did not diminish Huckster's attentions to Fanny which unlucky Mr. Bose marked with his usual jealousy and bitterness of spirit I have but to like anybody the old fellow thought and somebody is sure to come and be preferred to me it has been the same ill luck with me since I was a lad until now that I am 60 years old what can such a man as I am expect better than to be laughed at it is for the young to succeed and to be happy and not for old fools like me I've played a second fiddle through life he said with a bitter laugh how can I suppose the luck is to change after it has gone against me so long this was the selfish way in which Bose looked at the state of affairs though few persons would have thought there was any cause for his jealousy who looked at the pale and grief-stricken countenance of the hapless little girl its object Fanny received Huckster's good-natured efforts at consolation and kind attentions kindly she laughed now and again at his jokes in games with her little sisters but relapsed quickly into dejection which all to have satisfied Mr. Bose that the newcomer had no place in her heart as yet had jealous Mr. Bose been enabled to see with clear eyes the Bose did not Fanny attributed Penn's silence somehow to Bose's interference Fanny hated him Fanny treated Bose with constant cruelty and injustice she turned from him when he spoke she loathed his attempts at consolation a hard life had Mr. Bose and a cruel return for his regard when Moarrington came to Shepherd's Inn as Penn's ambassador it was for Mr. Bose's apartments he inquired no doubt upon a previous agreement with the principal for whom he acted in this delicate negotiation and he did not so much as catch a glimpse of Ms. Fanny when he stopped at the inn gate and made his inquiry Moarrington was of course directed to the musician's chambers and found him tending the patient there from whose chamber he came out to wait upon his guest we have said that they had been previously known to one another and the pair shook hands with sufficient cordiality after a little preliminary talk Moarrington said that he had come from his friend Arthur Penn Dennis and from his family to thank both for his attention at the commencement of Penn's illness and for his kindness and hastening into the country to fetch the major Bose replied that it was but his duty he'd never thought to have seen the young gentleman alive again when he went in search of Penn's relatives and he was very glad of Mr. Penn Dennis's recovery and they had his friends with him lucky out they who have friends Mr. Moarrington said to the musician I might be up in this carrot and nobody would care for me or mine whether I was alive or dead what not the general Mr. Bose Moarrington asked the general likes his whiskey bottle more than anything in life the other answer we live together from habit and convenience and he cares for me no more than you do what is it you want to ask me Mr. Moarrington you ain't come to visit me I know very well nobody comes to visit me it is about Fanny the porter's daughter you are come I see that very well is Mr. Penn Dennis now he has got well anxious to see her again does his lordship the sultan proposed to throw his anchorchief to her she has been very ill sir ever since the day Mrs. Penn Dennis turned her out of doors kind of a lady wasn't it the poor girl myself found the young gentleman's raving in a fever knowing nobody with nobody to tend him but is drunk and laundress she watched day and night by him I set off to fetch his uncle a ma comes and turns Fanny to the right about uncle comes and leaves me to pay the cab carry my compliments to the ladies and gentlemen and say we are both very thankful very why accountants couldn't have behaved better and for an apothecary's lady as I'm given to understand Mrs. Penn Dennis was I'm sure her behavior is most uncommon aristocratic and genteel she ought to have a double guilt pestle and mortar to her coach it was from Mr. Huckster that Bose had learned Penn's parentage no doubt and if he took Penn's part against the young surgeon and Fanny's against Mr. Penn Dennis it was because the old gentleman was in so savage a mood that his humor was to contradict everybody Warrington was curious and not ill pleased at the musicians taunts and harassability I never heard of these transactions he said or got but a very imperfect account of them from major Penn Dennis what was the lady to do I think I've never spoken with her on the subject she had some notion that the young woman and my friend Penn were on terms of of an intimacy which Mrs. Penn Dennis could not of course recognize oh of course not sir speak out sir say what you mean at once that the young gentleman of the temple had made a victim of the girl of shepherds in a and so she was turned to be out of doors or braid alive in the double guilt pestle and mortar by Joe no Mr. Warrington there was no such thing there was no victimizing or if there was Mr. Arthur was the victim not the girl he is an honest fellow he is though he is conceded and a puppy sometimes he can feel like a man and run away from temptation like a man I own it though I suffer by it I own it he has a heart he has but the girl hasn't sir that girl would do anything to win a man and fling him away without a pang sir if she's flung away herself sir she'll feel it and cry she had a fever when Mrs. Penn Dennis turned her out of doors and she made love to the doctor Dr. Goodenough who came to cure her now she has taken on with another chap and other saw bones ha ha darned it sir she likes the pestle and mortar and hangs around the pill boxes she's so fond of him and she has got a fellow from Saint Bartholomew's who grins through a horse collar for her sisters and charms away her melancholy go and see sir very likely he's in the lodge now if you want news about Miss Fanning you must ask at the doctor's shop sir not of an old fiddler like me goodbye sir there's my patient calling and a voice was heard from the captain's bedroom a well-known voice which said I like a drop of drink booze I'm thirsty and not sorry perhaps to hear that such was the state of things and that pens forsaken was consoling herself Warrington took his leave of the irascible musician as luck would have it he passed the large door just as Mr. Huckster was in the act of frightening the children with the mask where we have spoken and Fanning was smiling languidly at his forces Warrington laughed bitterly are all women like that he thought I think there's one that's not he added with a sigh at Piccadilly waiting for the Richmond omnibus George fell in with Major Pendennis bound in the same direction and he told the old gentleman of what he had seen and heard respecting Fanning major Pendennis was highly delighted and as might be expected of such a philosopher made precisely the same observation as that which had escaped from Warrington all women are the same he said la petite cirque console gave me when I used to read telemark at school Calypso ne pouvet cirque en soleil you know the rest Warrington I used to say it was absurd absorbed by a gad and so it is and so she's got a new soup you'll all have to eat the little porterus davlish nice little girl how mad pen will be a Warrington but we must break it to him gently or he'll be in such a rage that he will be going after her again we must know now jay the young fellow I think Mrs. Pendennis ought to know that pen acted very well in the business she evidently thinks him guilty and according to Mr. Bose Arthur behave like a good fellow Warrington said my dear Warrington said the major with the look of some along and Mrs. Pendennis is agitated state of health and that sort of thing the best way I think is not to say a single word about the subject or stay leave it to me and I'll talk to her break it to her gently you know and that sort of thing I give you my word I will and so Calypso's consoled is she and he sneaked over this gratifying truth happy in the corner of the omnibus during the rest of the journey then was very anxious to hear from his envoy what had been the result of the latter's mission and as soon as the two young men could be alone the ambassador spoke and replied to Arthur's eager queries you remember your poem pen of Ariadne in knack sauce Warrington said devilish that poetry was to be sure up way as pen in a great state of excitement Manthesius left Ariadne do you remember what happened to her young fellow it's a lie it's a lie you don't mean that cried out pen starting up his face turning red sit down stupid Warrington said number two fingers push pen back into a seat again it's better for you as it is young one he said sadly and replied to the savage blush in Arthur's face end of chapter 56