Chapter 41 of the history of Pendennis. 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 Pendennis by William Makepeace Thackery. Chapter 41 carries the reader both to Richmond and Greenwich. Poor Foker found the dinner at Richmond to be the most dreary entertainment upon whichever mortal man wasted his guineas.    And old Colchacum, that old coal coming down here in his broom with his cornet on it and sitting bodkin between Mademoiselle Corley and her mother. It's too bad. An English pier and a horse rider of Franconies. It won't do by Jove, it won't do. I ain't proud, but it will not do. Two pints have penny for your thoughts, Fokie cried out Miss Rougemont, taking her cigar from her truly vermilion lips as she beheld the young fellow lost in thought. Seated at the head of his table amidst melting ices and cut pineapples and bottles full and empty and cigar ashes scattered on fruit and the ruins of a dessert which had no pleasure for him. Does Fokie ever think, drawled out, Mr. Points? Fokie is a considerable sum of money offered by a fair capitalist at this end of the table for the present emanations of your valuable and acute intellect, old boy. With the deuces that Points are talking about, Miss Calverly asked of her neighbor, I hate him. He's a drawlin' sneering beast.   I wish I were of his age, said the venerable Colchicum, with a sigh as he inclined his purple face towards a large goblet of cleric. C'est je n'est peu, je m'en fiche, said Madame Braque, Corly's mama, taking a great pinch out of Lord Colchicum's delicate gold snuff box. Je m'aime que les hommes fraient, moi, comme il est Corly, n'est-ce pas que tu n'aimes que les hommes fait ma bichette. My Lord said with a grin, you flatter me, Madame Braque. T'as-es-vous, maman, vos nets coumbettes, Corly cried without shrugger for robust shoulders, upon which my Lord said that she did not flatter at any rate and pocketed his snuff box, not desarious that Madame Braque's dubious fingers should plunge too frequently into his macabre. There is no need to give a prolonged detail of the animated conversation which ensued during the rest of the banquet, a conversation which would not much edify the reader and it is scarcely necessary to say that all ladies of the corps de danse are not like Miss Calverly any more than that all peers resemble that illustrious member of their order, the late lamented Viscount Colchicum. But there have been such in our memories who have loved the society of riotous youth better than the company of men of their own age and rank and have given the young ones the precious benefit of their experience and example. And there have been very respectable men too who have not objected so much to the kind of entertainment as to the publicity of it. I am sure for instance that our friend Major Pendennis would have made no sort of objection to join a party of pleasure provided that it were en petit comite and that such men as my Lord Stain and my Lord Colchicum were of the society. Give the young men their pleasures, this worthy guardian said to Penn more than once, I am not one of your straight laced moralists but an old man of the world began and I know that as long as it lasts young men will be young men. And there were some young men to whom this estimable philosopher recorded about seventy years as the proper period for his sowing their wild oats but they were men of fashion. Mr. Voker drove his lovely guest home to Brompton in the drag that night but he was quite thoughtful and gloomy during the whole of that little journey from Richmond neither listening to the jokes of the friends behind him and on the box by his side nor enlivening them as was his want by his own facetious sallies. And when the ladies whom he had conveyed alighted at the door of their house and asked their accomplished coachman whether he would not step in and take something to drink, he declined with so melancholy and air that they supposed that the governor and he had had a difference or that some calamity had befallen him. And he did not tell these people what the cause of his grief was but left made Don Rougement and Calvary unheeding the cries of the latter who hung over her balcony like Jezebel and called out to him to ask him to give another party soon. He sent the drag home under the guidance of one of the grooms and went on foot himself his hands in his pockets plunged in thought the stars of moon shining tranquilly overhead looked down upon Mr. Voker that night as he in his turn sentimentally regarded them and he went and gazed upwards at the house and gross venerate place and at the windows which he supposed to be those of the beloved object and he moaned and he sighed in a way piteous and surprising to witness which policeman ex did who informed Sir Francis Clevering's people as they took the refreshment of beer on their coach box at the neighboring public house after bringing home their lady from the French play that there had been another chap hanging about the premises that evening a little chap dressed like a swell. And now with that perspicuity and ingenuity and enterprise which only belongs to a certain passion Mr. Voker began to dodge Miss Amory through London and to appear wherever he could meet her if Lady Clevering went to the French play where her ladyship had a box Mr. Voker whose knowledge of the language as we have heard was not conspicuous appeared in a stall. He found out where her engagements were it is possible that Anna told his men was acquainted with Sir Francis Clevering's gentlemen and so got a sight of her ladyship's engagement book and at many of these evening parties Mr. Voker made his appearance to the surprise of the world and of his mother especially whom he ordered to apply for cards to these parties for which until now he had shown a supreme contempt. He told the pleased and unsuspicious lady that he went to parties because it was right for him to see the world. He told it that he went to the French play because he wanted to perfect himself in the language and there was no such good lesson as a comedy or a vaudeville and when one night the astonished Lady Agnes saw him stand up and dance and complimented him upon his elegance and activity the mendacious little rogue asserted that he had learned to dance in Paris whereas Anna told knew that his young master used to go off privately to an academy in Brewer Street and studied there for some hours in the morning because Sino of our modern days was not invented or was in its infancy as yet and gentlemen of Mr. Voker's time had not the facilities of acquiring the science of dancing which are enjoyed by our present youth. Old Pendennis seldom missed going to church he considered it to be his duty as a gentleman to patronize the institution of public worship and that it was quite a correct thing to be seen at church of a Sunday one day a chance that he and Arthur went wither together the latter who was now in high favor had been to breakfast with his uncle from whose lodging they walked across the park to a church not far from Belgrade Square there was a charity sermon at St. James's as the major knew by the bills posted on the pillars of his parish church which probably caused him for he was a thrifty man to forsake it for that day besides he had other views for himself and Penn we will go to church sir across the park and then begad we will go to the Cleverand's house and ask them for lunch in a friendly way Lady Cleverand likes to be asked for lunch and is uncommonly kind and monstrous hospitable I met them at dinner last weekend Lady Agnes Spoker sir Penn said and that Begum was very kind indeed so she was in the country so she is everywhere but I share your opinion about Miss Amery one of your opinions that is uncool for you were changing the last time we spoke about her and what do you think of her now the elder said I think her the most confounded little flirt in London Penn answered laughing she made a tremendous assault upon Harry Foker who sat next to her and to whom she gave all the talk though I took her down Bah Henry Foker was engaged to his cousin all the world knows it not a bad coup of Lady Rocheville's that I should say that the young man at his father's death and old Foker's life devilish back you know he had a fit at Arthur's last year I should say that young Foker won't have less than 14,000 a year from the brewery besides logwood and Norfolk property I have no pride about me Penn I like a man of birth certainly but dammy I like a brewery which brings in a man 14,000 a year hey Penn ha ha that's the sort of man for me and I recommend you now that you are lanced in the world to stick to fellows of that sort to fellows who have a stake in the country began Foker sticks to me sir Arthur answered he has been at our chamber several times lately he has asked me to dinner we are almost as great friends as we used to be in our youth and his talk is about Blanche Henry from morning till night I'm sure he's sweet upon her I'm sure he is engaged to his cousin and that they will keep the young man to his bargain said the major the marriages in these families are affairs of state Lady Agnes was made to marry old Foker by the late Lord although she was notoriously partial to her cousin who was killed at Alvira afterwards and who saved her life out of the lake at Drummington I remember Lady Agnes sir an exceedingly fine woman but what did she do of course she married her father's man why Mr. Foker sat for Drummington till the reform bill and paid devilish wealth for a seat too and you may depend upon this sir that Foker senior who is a parvenu and loves a great man as all parvenues do has ambitious views for his son as well as himself and that your friend Harry must do as his father bids him Lord bless you I've known a hundred cases of love in young men and women hey master Arthur do you take me they kick sir they resist they make a deuce of a riot and that sort of thing but they end by listening to reason began Blanche is a dangerous girl sir I was smitten with her myself once and very far gone too he added but that is years ago were you how far did it go did she return it asked the major looking hard at Penn Penn with a laugh said that at one time he did think he was pretty well in Miss Amory's good graces but my mother did not like her and the affair went off Penn did not think it fit to tell his uncle all the particulars of that courtship which had passed between himself and the young lady a man might go farther and fair worse the major said still looking clearly at his nephew her birth sir her father was the mate of a ship they say and she is not money enough objective Penn in a dandified manner what's ten thousand pound and a girl bred up like her you use my own words and it is all very well but I tell you in confidence Penn in strict honor mind that it's my belief she has a devilish deal more than ten thousand pound for what I saw her the other day and have heard of her I should say she was a devilish devil and would make a good wife with a sensible husband how do you know about her money Penn asks smiling you seem to have information about everybody and to know about all the town I do know a few things sir and I don't tell all I know mark that the uncle replied and as for that charming Miss Amory for charming Begad she is if I saw her Mrs. Arthur Penn Dennis I should neither be sorry nor surprised Begad and if you object to ten thousand pound what would you say sir to thirty or forty and the major looks still more knowingly and still harder at Penn well sir he said to his godfather namesake make her Mrs. Arthur Penn Dennis you can do it as well as I but sure you are laughing at me sir the other replied rather previously and you ought not to laugh so near a church gate here we are at St. Benedict's they say Mr. Oriel is a beautiful creature indeed the bells were tolling the people were trooping into the handsome church the carriages of the inhabitants of the lordly quarter poured forth their pretty loads of devotees in whose company Penn and his uncle ending their edifying conversation entered the fame I do not know whether other people carry their worldly affairs to the church door Arthur who from habitual reverence and feeling was always more than respectful in a place of worship thought of the incongruity of their talk perhaps whilst the old gentleman at his side was utterly unconscious of any such contrast his hat was brushed his wig was trimmed his neck cloth was perfectly tied he looked at every soul in the congregation it is true the bald heads and the bonnets the flowers and the feathers but so demurely that he hardly lifted up his eyes from his book from his book which he could not read without glasses as for Penn's gravity it was sorely put to the test when upon looking by chance towards the seats where the servants were collected he spied out by the side of a demure gentleman in Plesch Henry Foker Esquire who had discovered this place of devotion following the direction of Harry's eye which strayed a good deal from his book Penn found that it alighted upon a yellow bonnet and a pink one in that these bonnets were on the heads of Lady Clavering and Blanche Amery if Penn's uncle is not the only man who has talked about his worldly affairs up to the church door is poor Harry Foker the only one who has brought his worldly love into the isle when the congregation issued forth at the conclusion of the service Foker was out amongst the first but Penn came up with him presently as he was hankering about the entrance which he was unwilling to leave until my ladies Baruch with the beweaged coachman had borne away its mistress and her daughter from their devotions when the two ladies came out they found together the Penn Denises Uncle and Nephew and Harry Foker Esquire sucking the crook of his stick standing there in the sunshine to see and to ask to eat were simultaneous with the good nature of Begum and she invited the three gentlemen to the luncheon straightway Blanche was too particularly gracious oh do come she said to Arthur if you are not too great a man I want so to talk to you about but we mustn't say what here you know what would Mr. Oriole say and the young devotee jumped into the carriage after her mama I've read every word of it it's adorable she added still addressing herself to Penn I know who is said of Mr. Arthur making rather a pert bow what's the row about this clavaring means Walter Lorraine said the major looking knowing and nodding at Penn I suppose so sir there was a famous review in the Palmel this morning it was Warrington's doing though and I must not be too proud a review in Palmel Walter Lorraine what the deuce do you mean Foker asked Walter Lorraine died of the measles poor little beggar when we were at Greyfriars I remember his mother coming up you are not a literary man Foker Penn said laughing and hooking to his friends you must know I've been writing a novel and some of the papers have spoken very well of it perhaps you don't read the Sunday papers I read Bell's life regular oh boy Mr. Foker answered at which Penn laughed again and the three gentlemen proceeded in great good humor to Lady Clevering's house the subject of the novel was resumed after lunch and by Miss Amory who indeed loved poets and many of the letters if she loved anything and was sincerely an artist in feeling some of the passages in the book they made me cry positively they did she said Penn said with some fatuity I'm happy to think I've had a part of Vo La Miss Blanche and the major who had not read more than six pages of Penn's book put on his sanctified look saying yes there are some passages quite affecting Monts risk affecting and oh if it makes you cry Lady Amory declared she would not read it that she wouldn't and then she fell into a rhapsody about the book about the snatchers of poetry and dispersed in it about the two heroines Leonora and Nihara about the two heroes Walter Lorraine and his rival the young Duke and what good company you introduce us to said the young lady Archly Keltan how much of your life have you passed at court and are you a prime minister's son Mr. Arthur Penn began to laugh it is as cheap for a novelist to create a duke as to make a baronette he said shall I tell you a secret Miss Amory I promoted all my characters at the request of the publisher the young Duke was only a young baron when the novel was first written his false friend the Viscount was a simple commoner and so on with all the characters of the story what a wicked satirical pert young man you have become come voo voila form said the young lady how different from Arthur Penn Dennis of the country I think I like Arthur Penn Dennis of the country best though and she gave him the full benefit of her eyes both of the fond appealing glance into his own and of the modest look downwards towards the carpet which showed off her dark eyelids and long fringed lashes Penn of course protested that he had not changed in the lease to which the young lady replied by a tender sigh and thinking that she had done quite enough to make Arthur happy or miserable as the case might be she proceeded to cajole his companion Mr. Harry Foker who during the literary conversation had sat silently imbibing the head of his cane and wishing that he was a clever chap like that Penn if the major thought that by telling the same re of Mr. Foker's engagement to his cousin Lady Ann Milton which information the old gentleman neatly conveyed to the girl as he sat by her side at lunch and below the stairs if we say that major thought that the knowledge of this fact would prevent Blanche from paying any further attention to the young heir of Foker's entire he was entirely mistaken she became only the more gracious to Foker she praised him and everything belonging to him she praised his mama she praised the pony which he wrote in the park she praised the lovely Brie Loves or Jim Cracks which the young gentleman wore at his watch chain and that dear little darling of a cane and those dear little delicious monkey's heads with ruby eyes which ornamented Harry's shirt and formed the buttons of his waistcoat and then having praised and coaxed the weak youth until he blushed and tingled with pleasure and until Penn thought she really wasn't quite far enough she took another theme I'm afraid Mr. Foker is a very sad young man she said turning round to Penn he does not look so Penn answered with a sneer I mean we have heard sad stories about him haven't we mama what was Mr. Pointe saying here the other day about that party at Richmond oh you naughty creature but here seeing the Harry's countenance assumed a great expression of alarm while Penn's wore a look of amusement she turned to the latter and said I believe you are just as bad I believe you would like to have been there wouldn't you I know you would yes and so should I Laura Blanche mama cried well I would I never saw an actress in my life I would give anything to no one for I adore Tyler and I adore Richmond that I do and I adore Greenwich and I say I should like to go there why should not we three bachelor's the major here broke out gallantly and do his nephews special surprise beg these ladies to honor us with their company at Greenwich is Lady Clevering to go on forever being hospitable to us and may we make no return speak for yourselves young men a begad here's my nephew with his pockets full of money his pockets full began and Mr. Henry Foker who as I have heard say is pretty well to do in the world how is your lovely cousin lady and Mr. Foker here are these two young ones and they allow an old fellow like me to speak Lady Clevering will you do me the favor to be my guest Miss Blanche I'll be Arthur's if she will be so good oh delightful cried Blanche I like a bit of fun too said Lady Clevering and we will take some day when Sir Francis when Sir Francis dines out yes mama the daughter said it will be charming and a charming day it was the dinner was ordered at Greenwich and Foker though he did not invite Miss Amory had some delicious opportunities of conversation with her during the repast and afterwards on the balcony of their room at the hotel and again during the drive home in her Lady Ships Barouche Penn came down with his uncle in Sir Hugh trumpington's broom which the major bar for the occasion I'm an old soldier began he said and I learned in early life to make myself comfortable and being an old soldier he allowed the two young men to pay for the dinner between them and all the way home in the broom he rallied Penn about Miss Amory's evident partiality for him raised her good looks spirits and wit and again told Penn in the strictest confidence that she would be a devilish deal richer than that. Chapter 42 of the history of Penn Dennis 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 Penn Dennis by William make peace Thackery Chapter 42 contains a novel incident some account has been given in a former part of this story how Mr. Penn during his residence and home after his defeated Oxbridge had occupied himself with various literary compositions and amongst other works had written the greater part of a novel this book written under the influence of his youthful embarrassments Amatory and Pecuniary was of a very fierce gloomy and passionate sort of ironic despair the worthy despondency the mocking bitterness of Mephistophiles of Faust were all reproduced and developed in the character of the hero for our youth had just been learning the German language and imitated as almost all clever lads do his favorite poets and writers passages in the volumes once so loved and now read so seldom steer-bear the mark of the pencil with which he noted them in those days tears fell upon the leaf of the book perhaps or blistered the pages of his manuscript as the passionate young man dashed his thoughts down if he took up the books afterwards he had no ability or wish to sprinkle the leaves with that early do of former times his pencil was no longer eager to score its marks of approval but as he looked over the pages of his manuscript he remembered what had been overflowing feelings which had caused him to blot it and the pain which had inspired the line if the secret history of books could be written and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story how many insipid volumes would become interesting and doll tales excite the reader many a bitter smile passed over Penn's face as he read his novel and recall the time and feelings which gave it birth how pompous some of the grand passages appeared and how weak were others in which he thought he had expressed his full heart this page was imitated from a then favorite author as he could now clearly see and confess though he had believed himself to be writing originally then as he mused over certain lines he recollected the place and hour where he wrote them the ghost of the dead feeling came back as he mused and he blushed to review the faint image and what meant those blots on the page as you come in the place it to a ground where camel's hoofs are marked in the clay and traces of withered herbage are yet visible you know that water was there once so the place in Penn's mind was no longer green and the fount's black rimarm was dried up he used this simile one morning to warrington as the latter sat over his pipe and book and penned with much gesticulation according to his want when excited and with a bitter laugh thumped his manuscript down on the table as things rattled and the blue milk danced in the jug on the previous night he had taken the manuscript out of a long neglected chest containing old shooting jackets old ox bridge scribbling books his old surplus and battered cap and gown and other memorials of youth school and home he read in the volume in bed until he fell asleep for the commencement of the tale was somewhat dull and he had come home tired from a london evening party on the papers when I think that these were written but very few years ago I am ashamed of my memory I wrote this when I believed myself to be eternally in love with that little coquette Miss Amory I used to carry down verses to her and put them into the hollow of a tree and dedicated them Amory that was a sweet little play upon words warrington remarked with a puff Amory it showed proof of scholarship let us hear a bit of the rubbish and he stretched over from his easy chair and caught hold of Penn's manuscript with the fire tongs which he was just using in order to put a coal into his pipe best in possession of the volume he began to read out from the leaves from the life book of Walter Lorraine false says thou art beautiful heartless is thou art fair mockery of passion Walter cried addressing Leonora what evil spirit has sent thee to torture me so oh Leonora cut that part cried out Penn making a dash at the book his comrade would not release or don't read it out at any rate that's about my other flame my first Lady Mirabil that is now I saw last night at Lady Wistens she asked me to a party at her house and said that as old friends we ought to meet oftener she has been seeing me anytime these two years in town never thought of inviting me before but seeing Wenham talking to me and Monsieur Dubois the French literary man who had a dozen orders on and might have passed for a marginal of France she condescended to invite me the cleverings are to be there on the same evening won't it be exciting to meet one's two flames at the same table two flames two heaps of burnt out cinders Warrington said are both the beauties in this book both or something like them Penn said Leonora who marries the Duke is the father-in-gay I drew the Duke from Magnus Charters with him I was at Oxford is a little like him and the same is Niera by Gad that first woman I thought of her as I walked home from Lady Wistens in the moonlight and the whole early scenes came back to me as if they had been yesterday and when I got home I pulled out the story which I wrote about her and the other three years ago do you know outrageous as it is it has some good stuff in it and the bongate won't publish it I think Bacon will that's the way of poets at Warrington they fall in love jilt or are jilted they suffer and they cry out that they suffer more than any other mortals they experience feelings enough they note them down in the book and take the book to market all poets are humbugs all literary men are humbugs directly a man begins to sell his feelings for money he's a humbug if a poet gets a pain in his side from to get a dinner he bellows I I louder than Prometheus I suppose a poet has a greater sensibility than another man said Penn with some spirit that is what makes him a poet I suppose that he sees of what he feels and sees you speak eagerly enough in your leading articles when you spy a false argument in an opponent or detect a quack in the house Paley who does not care for anything else in the world will talk for an hour about a question of law give another the privilege in which you take yourself and the free use of his faculty and let him be what nature has made him why should not a man sell his sentimental thoughts as well as you your political ideas or Paley his legal knowledge each alike is a matter of experience and practice it is not money which causes you to perceive a fallacy or Paley to argue a point but a natural or acquired aptitude for that kind of truth and a poet sets down his thoughts and experiences upon paper as a painter does a landscape or a face upon canvas to the best of his ability and according to his particular gift if ever I think I have the stuff in me to write an epic by Joe I will try if I only feel that enough to crack a joke or tell a story I will do that not a bad speech young one Warrington said but that does not prevent all poets from being humbucked what Homer Eastlis Shakespeare and all their names are not to be breathed in the same sense with you big means Mr. Warrington said there are men and men sir well Shakespeare was a man who wrote for money just as you and I do pen answer at which Warrington confounded his impudence and resumed his pipe and his manuscript there was not the slightest doubt then that this document contained a great deal of pens personal experiences and that leaves from that life book of Walter Lorraine would never have been written but for Arthur Penn Dennis's own private griefs passions and follies as we have become acquainted with these in the first volume of his biography it will not be necessary to make large extracts from the novel of Walter Lorraine in which the young gentleman had depicted such of them as he thought were likely to interest the reader suitable for the purpose of his story now though he had kept it in his box for nearly half of the period during which according to the Horatio Maxim a work of art ought to lie ripening a maxim the truth of which may by the way be questioned altogether Mr. Penn had not buried his novel for this time in order that the work might improve but because he did not know where else to bestow it or had no particular desire to see it a man who thinks of putting away a composition for ten years before he shall give it to the world or exercise his own mature judgment upon it had best be very sure of the original strength and durability of the work otherwise on withdrawing it from its crypt he may find that like small wine it has lost what flavor it once had and his only taste this went open there are works of all tastes and smacks the small and the strong those that improve by age and those that won't bear keeping at all but are pleasant at the first draft when they refreshed and sparkle and the pen had never any notion even in the time of his youthful inexperience and fervor of imagination that the story he was writing was a masterpiece of composition or that he was the equal of the great authors whom he admired and when he now reviewed his little performance he was keen enough alive to its faults and pretty modest regarding its merits it was not very good he thought but it was as good as most books of the kind that had the run of circulating libraries and the career of the season he critically examined more than one fashionable novel by the authors of the day than popular and he thought that his intellect was as good as theirs and that he could write the English language as well as those ladies or gentlemen and as he now ran over his early performance he was pleased to find here and there passages exhibiting both fancy and bigger and traits if not of genius of genuine passion and feeling this too was Warrington's verdict when that severe critic after half an hour's perusal of the manuscript and the consumption of a couple of pipes of tobacco laid pens booked down yawning portentously I can't read any more of that balderdash now he said but it seems to me there is some good stuff in it pen my boy there's a certain greenness and freshness in it which I like somehow the bloom disappears off the face of poetry after you begin to shade you can't get up that natural as an art in a rosy tint in after days your cheeks are pale and have got faded by exposure to eating parties and you are obliged to take holding irons and macassar and the deuce knows what to your whiskers they curl embrosially and you are very grand and genteel and so forth but I'll pen the springtime was the best let the deuce have my whiskers to do with the subject in hand Ben said who perhaps may have been nettle by Warrington's illusion to those ornaments wish to say the truth the young man coaxed and curled and oiled and perfumed and petted and rather an absurd manner do you think we can do anything with Walter Lorraine shall we take him to the publishers to make an utter defaith of him I don't see what is the good of incrimination Warrington said though I have a great mind to put him into the fire to punish your atrocious humbug and hypocrisy shall I burn him indeed you have much too great a value for him to hurt a hair of his head have I your ghost a pen and Walter Lorraine went off the table and was flung onto the coals but the fire having done its duty of boiling the young man's breakfast kettle had given up work for the day and had gone out as Pen did very well Warrington with a scornful smile once more took up the manuscript with the tongs from out of the harmless cinders open what a humbug you are Warrington said and what is worst of all sir a clumsy humbug I saw you look to see that the fire was out before you sent Walter Lorraine behind the bars no we won't burn him we will carry him to the Egyptians and sell him we will exchange him away for money yay for silver and gold and for beef and for liquors and for tobacco and for raiment the youth will fetch some price in the market for he's a comely lad though not over strong but we will fatten him up and give him the bath the crow's hair we will sell him for 100 piastres to bacon or to bungay the rubbish is saleable enough sir and my advice to use this the next time you go home for a holiday take Walter Lorraine in your carpet bag give him a more modern air prune away those sparingly some of the green passages and add a little comedy and cheerfulness and satire and that sort of thing and then we'll take him to market and sell him the book is not a wonder of wonders but it will do very well do you think so Warrington said Penn delighted for this was great praise from his cynical friend you silly young fool I think it's uncommonly clever Warrington said in a kind voice so do you sir and with the manuscript which he held in his hand he playfully struck Penn on the cheek that part of Penn's countenance turned as red as it had ever done in the earliest days of his blushes and his hand and said thank you Warrington with all his might and then he retired to his own room with his book and passed the greater part of the day upon his bed rereading it and he did as Warrington had advised and altered not a little and added a great deal until at length he had bashing Walter Lorraine pretty much into the shape in which as the respected novel reader knows it subsequently appeared while Steve was at work upon this performance the good natured Warrington artfully inspired the two gentlemen Steersbeckin and Bange with the greatest curiosity regarding Walter Lorraine and pointed out the peculiar merits of its distinguished author it was at the period when the novel called The Fashionable was invoked among us and Warrington did not fail to point out as before how Penn was a man of the very first fashion himself and received at the houses of some of the greatest personages in the land the simple and kind-hearted Percy Popjoy was brought to bear upon Mrs. Bange whom he informed that his friend Pendenis was occupied upon a work of the most exciting nature a work that the whole town would run after full of wit, genius, satire, pathos and every conceivable good quality we have said before that Bange knew no more about novels than he did about Hebrew or algebra and neither read nor understood any of the books which he published and paid for but he took his opinions from his professional advisors and from Mrs. B and evidently with a view to a commercial transaction as Pendenis and Warrington to dinner again Bacon when he found that Bange was about to treat of course began to be anxious and curious and desired to outbid his rival was anything settled between Mr. Pendenis and the odious house over the way about the new book Mr. Hack the confidential reader was told to make inquiries and see if anything was to be done and the result of the inquiries of that diplomatist was that one morning Bacon himself toiled up the staircase of Lamb Court on which the names of Mr. Warrington and Mr. Pendenis were painted for a gentleman of fashion as poor Penn was represented to be it must be confessed that the apartments he and his friend occupied were not very suitable the ragged carpet had grown only more ragged during the two years of joint occupancy a constant odor of tobacco perfumed the sitting room Bacon tumbled over the laundresses buckets in the passage through which he had to pass Warrington's shooting jacket was as tattered at the elbows as usual and the chair which Bacon was requested to take on entering broke down with the publisher Warrington burst out laughing said that Bacon had got the game chair and bowled out the pen to fetch the sound run from his bedroom and seeing the publisher looking around the dingy room with an air of profound pity and wonder asked him whether he didn't think the apartments were elegant and if he would like for Mrs. Bacon's drawing room any of the articles of furniture Mr. Warrington's character as a humorist was known to Mr. Bacon to chat about the publisher was heard to say or tell whether he is an earnest or only chatting it is very possible that Mr. Bacon would have set the two gentlemen down as imposters all together but that there chance to be on the breakfast table certain cards of invitation which the poster of the morning had brought in for pen and which happened to come from some very exalted personage of the Beaumont into which our young man had his introduction looking down upon these Bacon saw that the documents of stain would be at home to Mr. Arthur Pendenis upon a given day and that another lady of distinction proposed to have dancing at her house upon a certain future evening Warrington saw the admiring publisher eyeing these documents Ah said he with an air of simplicity Pendenis is one of the most affable young men I ever knew Mr. Bacon here is a young fellow that dines with all the men in London and yet he'll take his mutton chop with you and me quite contentedly of the old English gentleman oh no nothing said Mr. Bacon and you wonder why he should go on living up three pairs stairs with me don't you now well it is a queer taste but we are fond of each other and as I can't afford to live in a great house he comes and stays in these rickety old chambers with me he's a man that can afford to live anywhere I fancy you don't cost him much here thought Mr. Bacon and the object of these praises presently entered the room from his adjacent sleeping apartment then Mr. Bacon began to speak upon the subject of his visit said he heard that Mr. Pendenis had a manuscript novel professed himself anxious to have a sight of that work and had no doubt that they could come to terms respecting it what would be his price for would he give Bacon the refusal of it he would find our house a liberal house and so forth the delighted pen assumed an air of indifference and said that he was already in treaty with Bungay and could give no definite answer this peaked the other into such liberal the vague offers that pen began to fancy El Dorado was opening to him and that his fortune was made from that day I shall not mention what was the sum of money which Mr. Arthur Pendenis finally received for the first edition of his novel of Walter Lorraine last other young literary aspirants should expect to be as lucky as he was and unprofessional persons forsake their own callings whatever they may be for the sake of supplying the world with novels where there is already a sufficiency let no young people be misled and rushed fatally into romance writing for one book which succeeds let them remember the many that fail I do not say deservedly or otherwise and wholesomely abstain or if they venture at least let them do so at their own peril as for those who have already written novels this morning is not addressed of course to them let them take their wares to market let them apply to Bacon and Bungay and all the publishers in the row or the metropolis and may they be happy in their ventures this world is so wide and the taste of mankind happily so various that there is always a chance for every man and he may win the prize by his genius or by his good fortune but what is the chance of success or failure how obtaining popularity of holding it when achieved one man goes over the ice which bears in and a score who follow flounder in in fine Mr. Pendenis's was an exceptional case and applies to himself only and I assert solemnly and will do the last maintain that it is one thing to write a novel and another to get money for it I merit then or good fortune or the skillful playing off of Bungay against Bacon which Barrington performed and which an amateur novelist is quite welcome to try upon any two publishers in the trade Penn's novel was actually sold for a certain sum of money to one of the two eminent patrons of letters whom we have introduced to our readers the some was so considerable that Penn thought of opening an account out of bankers worth keeping a cab and horse or descending into the first floor of lamb court into newly furnished departments or migrating to the fashionable end of the town major Pendenis advised the letter move strongly he opened his eyes with wonder when he heard of the good luck that had befallen Penn in which the letter as soon as it occurred hastened eagerly to communicate to his uncle the major was almost angry that Penn should have earned so much money who the dues reached this kind of thing he thought to himself when he heard of the bargain which Penn never read your novels and rubbish except Paul the cock who certainly makes me laugh I don't think I've looked into a book of the sort these 30 years yeah Penn's a lucky fellow I should think he might write one of these in a month now say a month that's 12 in a year dammy he may go on spinning this nonsense for the next four to five years and make a fortune in the meantime I should wish him to live properly take respectable apartments and keep a broom and on this simple calculation it was that the major council Penn Arthur laughing told Warrington what his uncle's advice had been but he luckily had a much more reasonable counselor than the old gentleman and the person of his friend and in his own conscience which said to him be grateful for this piece of good fortune don't plunge into any extravagancies payback Laura and he wrote a letter to her in which he told her his thanks and his regard and enclosed to her such an installment of his debt as nearly wiped it off the widow and affected by the letter it was written with genuine tenderness and modesty and old doctor Portman when he read a passage in the letter in which Penn with an honest heart full of gratitude humbly thanked heaven for his present prosperity and for sending him such dear and kind friends to support him in his ill fortune when Dr. Portman read this portion of the letter his voice faltered and his eyes twinkled behind his spectacles and when he had quite finished reading the same and had taken his glasses off his nose and had folded back to the widow I'm constrained to say that after holding Mrs. Bendena's hand for a minute the doctor drew that lady towards him and fairly kissed her at which salute of course Helen burst out crying on the doctor's shoulder for her heart was too full to give any other reply and the doctor blushing at great deal after his feet let the lady with a bow to the sofa on which he seated himself by her and mumbled out in a low voice some words of a great poet whom he loved very much and who describes how in the days of his prosperity he made the widow's heart to sing for joy the letter does the boy very great honor very great honor my dear he said patting it as it lay on Helen's knee and I think we have all reason to be thankful for it very thankful I need not tell you in what quarter my dear for you are a sainted woman yes Laura my love your mother is a sainted woman and Mrs. Bendena's man I shall order a copy of the book for myself and another at the book club we may be sure that the widow and Laura walked out to meet the male which brought them their copy of Penn's precious novel as soon as that work was printed and ready for delivery to the public and that they read it to each other and that they also read it privately and separately for when the widow came out of her room in her dressing gown at one o'clock in the morning with volume two which he had finished she found Laura devouring volume three in bed Laura did not say much about the book but Helen pronounced that it was a happy mixture of Shakespeare and Barron and Walter Scott it was them in the world did Laura not think about the book and the author although she said so little at least she thought about Arthur Pendena's kind as his turn was at Baxter she did not like his eagerness to repay that money she would rather that her brother had taken her gift as she intended it and was paying that there should be money calculations between them his letters from London written with the good natured wish to amuse his mother were full of descriptions of the famous people and the great city everybody was flattering him and spoiling him she was sure was he not looking to some great marriage with that cunning uncle for a mentor between whom and Laura there was always an antipathy that embedded world whose whole thoughts were bent upon pleasure and rank and fortune he never alluded to two old times when he spoke of her he had forgotten them in her perhaps had he not forgotten other things and people these thoughts may have passed in Miss Laura's mind though she did not she could not confide them to Ellen she had one more secret too from that lady which she could not divulge perhaps because she knew how the widow would have rejoiced to know it this regarded an event which had occurred during that visit to Lady Rockminster which Laura had paid in the last Christmas holidays when Penn was at home with his mother and when Mr. Vincent supposed to be so cold and so ambitious had formally offered his hand to Miss Bell no one except herself and her admirer knew of this proposal or that Vincent had been rejected by her and probably the reason she gave to the mortified young man himself were not those which actuated her refusal or those which she chose to acknowledge to herself I never she told Vincent can accept such an offer as that which you make me which you own is unknown to your family as I am sure it would be unwelcome to them the difference of rank between us is too great you are very kind to me here too good and kind dear Mr. Vincent but I'm little better than a dependent a dependent whoever so thought of you you are the equal of all the world and sent broke out I'm a dependent at home to Laura said sweetly and indeed I would not be otherwise left early a poor orphan I found the kindest and tenderness of mothers and I vowed never to leave her never pray do not speak of this again here under your relatives roof or elsewhere it is impossible if Lady Rockminster asked you herself will you listen to her Vincent cried eagerly no Laura said I beg you never to speak of this anymore I must go away if you do and with his she left him Vincent never asked for Lady Rockminster's intercession he knew how vain it was to look for that and he never spoke again on that subject to Laura or to any person when at length the famous novel appeared it not only met with applause for more impartial critics than Mrs. Pandenas but luckily for Penn it suited the taste of the public and obtained a quick and considerable popularity before two months were over the satisfaction and surprise of seeing the second edition of Walter Lorraine advertised in the newspapers and enjoyed the pleasure of reading and sending home the critiques of various literary journals and reviewers upon his book their censure did not much affect him for the good-natured young man was disposed to accept with considerable humility the dispraises of others nor did their praise elate him over much for like most honest persons he had his own opinion about his own performance and when a critic praised then pleased by the compliment but if a review of his work was very laudatory it was a great pleasure to him to send it home to his mother at Fair Oaks and to think of the joy which it would give there there are some natures and perhaps as we've said Penn Dennis's was one which are improved and softened by prosperity and kindness as there are men of other dispositions who become arrogant and graceless under good fortune happy he who can endure one or the other with modesty and good kindness has been educated to bear his fate whatsoever it may be by an early example of uprightness and a childish training in honor into chapter 42 chapter 43 of the history of Penn Dennis this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit www.vox.org the history of Penn Dennis by William Makepeace Thackery chapter 43 Alsatia bred up like a bailiff or a shabby attorney about the pearl use of the ends at court Shepherds Inn is always to be found in their close neighborhood of Lincoln's Inn Fields and the temple somewhere behind the black gables street hollywell street chancery lane the quadrangle lies hidden from the outer world and it is approached by curious passages and ambiguous smoky alleys on which the sun has forgotten to shine slop sellers brandy ball and heartbreak vendors purveyors of theatrical prints for youth dealers in dingy furniture embedding suggested of anything but sleep line the narrow walls and dark casements with their wares the doors are many bell and crowds of dirty children form endless groups about the steps or around the shellfish dealers trays in these courts where of the damp pavements resound with pottons and are drabed with a never fading mud valid singers come and chant here in deadly guttural tones satirical songs against the wig administration against the bishops and dignified clergy against the german relatives of an august royal family punch sets up his theater sure of an audience and occasionally of a half penny from the swarming occupants of the houses women scream after their children for loitering in the gutter or were still against the husband who comes reeling from the gin shop there is a ceaseless din and life in these courts out of which you pass into the tranquil old fashion quadrangle of shepherds in in a mangy little grass flat in the center rises up the statue of shepherd defended by iron railings from the assaults of boys the hall of the inn on which the founders arms are painted occupies one side of the square the tall and ancient chambers are carried round other two sides and over the central archway to old castle street and so into the great London thoroughfare the inn may have been occupied by lawyers once but the laity have long since been admitted into its precincts and I do not know that any of the principal legal firms have their chambers here the offices of the pole weedle and dreaded alum copper mines occupy one set of the ground floor chambers the registry of patent inventions and union of genius and capital company another the only gentleman whose name figures here and in the law list is Mr. Campion who wears moustache ears and who comes in his cab twice with rice in a week and his West Inn offices are in Curzon street may fare where Mrs. Campion entertains the nobility and gentry to whom her husband lends money there and on his glazed cars he is Mr. Somerset campion here he is campion and company and the same tough which ornaments his gin sprouts from the underlip of the rest of the firm it is splendid to see his cab horse harness blazing with heraldic bearings as the vehicle stops at the door leading to his chambers the horse flings froth off his nostrils as he chafes and tosses under the shining bit the reins and the breeches of the room are glittering white the lustre of that equipage makes a sunshine in that shady place our old friend Captain Costigan has examined Campion's cab and horse many an afternoon as he trailed about the court in his carpet slippers and dressing gown with his old hat cocked over his eye he sends himself there after his breakfast when the day is suitable and goes and pays a visit to the Porter's house the heads of the children and talks to Mrs. Bolton about the Aiders and my daughter Lady Mirabelle Mrs. Bolton was herself in the profession once and danced at the wells in early days as the 13th of Mr. Searle's 40 pupils Costigan lives in the third floor in number four in the rooms which were Mr. Podmore's and his name is still on the door somebody else's name by the way is on most all the doors in Shepherd's Inn when Charlie Podmore the pleasing tenor singer T.R.D.L and at the back kitchen concert rooms married and went to live at Lambeth he seated his chambers to Mr. Bose and Captain Costigan who occupy them in common now and you may often hear the tones of Mr. Bose's piano of fine days when the windows are open and when he is practicing for amusement or for the instruction of a theatrical pupil of whom he has one or two Bandy Bolton is one the poor tourist's daughter who has her tell of her mother's theatrical glories which she longs to emulate she has a good voice and a pretty face and figure for the stage and she prepares the rooms and makes the beds and breakfasts for Mr. Costigan and Bose in return for which the latter instructs her in music and singing that for his unfortunate propensity and in that excess she supposes that all men are fashioned and indulged she thinks the captain the finest gentleman in the world and believes in all the versions of all his stories and she is very fond of Mr. Bose too and very grateful to him and this shy queer old gentleman has a fatherly fondness for her too for in truth his heart is full of kindness and he is never easy unless he loves somebody Costigan has had the carriages of visitors of distinction before his humble door and shepherds in and to hear him talk of a morning for his evening song is of a much more melancholy nature he would fancy that Sir Charles and Lady Mirabelle were in the constant habit of calling at his chambers and bringing with them the select nobility to visit the old man the honest old half-pay captain poor old Jack Costigan as cause calls himself the truth is that Lady Mirabelle has left her husband's card and has been stuck in the little looking glass over the mantelpiece of the sitting room at number four for these many months past and has come in person to see her father but not of late days a kind person disposed to discharge her duties gravely upon her marriage with Sir Charles she settled a little pension upon her father who occasionally was admitted to the table of his daughter and son-in-law at first poor causes behavior quite a polite society as he denominated Lady Mirabelle's drawing room table was harmless if it was absurd as they clothed his person in his best attire so he selected the longest and richest words in his vocabulary to deck his conversation and adopted a solemnity of demeanor which struck with astonishment all those persons in whose company he happened to be was your leady ship in the pork to D he would demand of his daughter I look for your equipping being the poor man was not gratified by the sight of his daughter's chore yet Sir Choralis I saw your name at the levy many's the levy at the castle at Dublin that poor old Jack Costigan has attended in his time did the Duke look pretty well the dad I'll call at the house and leave me cured upon him I thank you James a little death more champagne indeed he was magnificent in his courtesy to all and addressed his observations not only to the master and the guests but to the domestics who waited at the table and who had some difficulty in maintaining their professional gravity while they waited on Captain Costigan on the first two or three visits to his son-in-law Costigan maintained a strict sobriety content to make up for his lost time when he got to the back kitchen where he bragged about his son-in-law's dart and burgundy until his own utterance began to fail him over his sixth tumbler of whiskey punch but with familiarity his caution vanished and poor cause lamentably disgraced himself at Sir Charles Mirbell's table by premature inebriation a carriage was called for him the hospitable door was shut upon him often and sadly did he speak to his friends at the kitchen of his resemblance to King Lear in the plea of his having a thankless joy of his being a poor worn-out lonely old man druth-riven to druth-thrinking by ingratitude and seeking to druth-throne his sorrows in punch it is painful to be obliged to record the weaknesses of fathers but it must be further more told of Costigan that when his credit was exhausted and his money gone would not unfrequently beg money from his daughter and made statements to her not hold together consistent with strict truth on one day a bailiff was about to lead him to prison he wrote unless the do you insignificant sum of three pound five can be forthcoming to liberate a poor man's gray hairs from jail and the good nature Lady Mirbell dispatched the money necessary for her father's liberation with the caution to him to be more economical for the future on a second occasion the captain met with a frightful accident and broke a plate glass window in the strand for which the proprietor of the shop held him liable the money was forthcoming on this time too to repair her papaz disaster and was carried down by Lady Mirbell's servant to the slip-shod messenger and aid to camp of the captain who brought the letter announcing his mishap if the servant had followed the captain's aid to camp who carried the remittance he would have seen that gentleman a person of Costigan's country too for have we not said that however poor an Irish gentleman is he always has a poor Irish gentleman to run on his errands and transact his pecuniary affairs call a cab from the nearest stand and rattle down to the Ross's head Harlequin Yard Drury Lane where the captain was indeed in pond and for several glasses containing rum and water or other spirits as refreshment of which he and his staff had partaken on a third melancholy occasion he wrote that he was attacked by illness and wanted money to pay the physician whom he was compelled to call in and this time Lady Mirbell alarmed about her father's safety and perhaps reproaching herself that she had of late lost sight of her father called for her carriage and drove to Shepard's Inn at the gate of which she alighted to her father's chambers number four third floor name of Padmore over the door the portrait said with many curtsies pointing towards the door of the house into which the affectionate daughter entered and mounted the dingy stair alas the door surmounted by the name of Padmore was opened to her by poor cause in his shirt sleeves and prepared with the grid down to receive the mutton chops which Mrs. Bolton had gone to purchase so it was not pleasant for Sir Charles Mirbell to have letters constantly addressed to him at Brooks's with the information that Captain Costigan was in the hall waiting for an answer or when he went to play his rubber at the travellers to be obliged to shoot out of his broom and run up the steps rapidly lest his father-in-law shed seas upon him and to think that while he read his paper or played his wist the captain was walking on the opposite side of Palmel with that third floor cocktail and the eye beneath it fixed steadily upon the windows of the club so Charles was a weak man he was old and had many infirmities he cried about his father-in-law to his wife whom he adored was seen out in fatuation he said he must go abroad he must go and live in the country he should die or have another fit if he sought that man again he knew he should and it was only by paying a second visit to Captain Costigan and representing to him that if he pled Sir Charles by letters and when the streeter made any further applications for loans his allowance would be withdrawn altogether that Lady Mirabelle was enabled to keep her papa in order and to restore tranquility to her husband and on occasion of this visit she sternly rebuked Bose for not keeping a better watch over the captain desired that he should not be allowed to drink in that shameful way and that the people at the Horde taverns which he frequented should be told upon no account to give him credit. Papa's conduct is bringing me to the grave she said though she looked perfectly healthy and knew as an old man Mr. Bose and one that pretended to have a regard for us ought to be ashamed of abetting him in it. Those were the thanks which honest Bose got for his friendship and his life's devotion I do not suppose that the old philosopher was much worse off than many other men or had greater reason to grumble. On the second floor of the next house the Bose's and Shepard's inn at number three live two other acquaintances of ours Colonel Altamont, agent to the Nawab of Lucknow and Captain Chevalier-Edwards John no name at all is over their door. The captain does not choose to let all the world know where he lives and his cards bear the address of a German street hotel and as for the ambassador Plenipotentier of the Indian potentate he is not an envoy accredited to the courts of St. James's or Leaden Hall Street but is here on a confidential mission quite independent of the East India Company or the Board of Control in fact Strong says Colonel Altamont's object being financial and to effectuate the sale of some of the principal diamonds and rubies of the Lucknow crown his wish does not to report himself at the Indian House or in Cannon Row but rather to negotiate with private capitalists with whom he has had important transactions both in this country and on the continent we have said that these anonymous chambers of Strong's had been very comfortably furnished since the arrival of Sir Francis Clevering in London and the Chevalier might boast with reason to the friends who visited him that few retired captains were more snuggly quartered than he in his crib in Shepherd's Inn there were three rooms below the office where Strong transacted his business whatever that might be and where still remained the desk and railings of the departed officials who had preceded him and the Chevalier's own bedroom and sitting room and a private stair let out of the office to two upper apartments the one occupied by Colonel Altamont and the other serving as the kitchen of the establishment and the bedroom of Mr. Grady the attendant these rooms were on a level with the apartments of our friends Bose and Costigan next door at number four searching over the communicating leads Grady could command the men in the net box which bloomed in Bose's window from Grady's kitchen Caseman Altamont came out as still more fragment the three old soldiers who formed the garrison of number three were all skilled in the culinary art Grady was great at an Irish stew the Colonel was famous for the laws and curries and as for Strong he could cook anything he made French dishes and Spanish dishes stews, fricacies and omelets to perfection nor was there any man in England more hospitable than he when his purse was full or his credit was good at those happy periods he could give a friend as he set a good dinner a good glass of wine and a good song afterwards and poor guys often heard with envy the roar of Strong's choruses and the musical clinking of the glasses as he sat in his own room so far removed and yet so near to those festivities it was not expedient to invite Mr. Kastien always his practice of inebriation was lamentable and he bore Strong's guests with his stories when sober and with his model and tears when drunk a strange amotry set they were these friends of the Chevalier though major pendantists would not much have relished their company Arthur and Warrington liked it not a little and Penn thought it as amusing as the society of the finest gentleman in the finest houses which he had the honor to frequent there was a history about every man of the set they seem to have had their tides of luck and bad fortune most of them had wonderful schemes and speculations in their pockets and plenty for making rapid and extraordinary fortunes Jack Holt had been in Don Carlos's army when Ned Strong had fought on the other side and was now organizing a little scheme for smuggling tobacco into London which must bring 30,000 a year to any man who would advance 1500 just to bribe the last officer of the excise who held out and had wind of the scheme Tom Diver who had been in the Mexican Navy knew of a species ship which had been sunk in the first year of the war with 380,000 dollars on board and 180,000 pounds in bars and doubloons give me 1,800 pounds Tom said and I'm off tomorrow I take out four men and a diving bell with me and I return in 10 months to take my seat in parliament by jove and to buy back my family estate nightly the manager of the treaded plum and Paul Liedl copper mines which were as yet under water besides singing as good as second as any professional man and besides the treaded deal office had a Smyrna sponge company and a little quick operation of you which would set him straight with the world yet Philby had been everywhere a corporal of drogoons a field preacher and missionary agent for converting the Irish an actor at a Greenwich fair booth in front of which his father's attorney found him when the old gentleman died and left him that famous property from which he got no rents now and of which nobody exactly knew this situation added to these was Sir Francis Clavering Bart who liked the fair society though he did not much had to its amuseness by his convivial powers he was made much of by the company now on account of his wealth and position in the world he told his little story and sang his little song or two with great affability and he'd had his own history too before his accession to good fortune and had seen the inside of more prisons than one and written his name on many a stamped paper when Altamont first returned from Paris and after he had communicated with Sir Francis Clavering from the hotel at which he had taken up his quarters and which he had reached a very denuded state considering the wealth of diamonds and rubies with which this honest man was entrusted strong was sent to his patron by the Baronette paid his little bill at the end and invited him to come and sleep for a night or two at the chambers where he subsequently took up his residence to negotiate with this man was very well but to have such a person settled in his rooms and to be constantly burdened with such with such a society did not suit the Chevalier's taste much and he grumbled not a little to his principal I wish you would put this bear into somebody else's cage he said to Clavering the fellow's no gentleman I don't like walking with him he dresses himself like a nigger on a holiday I took him to the play the other night and by Joseph Sir he abused the actor doing the part of villain in the play and swore at him so that the people in the boxes wanted to turn him out the after piece was the brigade where Wallach comes in wounded you know and dies when he died Altamont began to cry like a child and said it was a darn shame and cried and swore so that there was another row and everybody laughing then I had to take him away because he wanted to take his coat alt to one fellow who laughed at him and bellowed to him to stand up like a man who is he where the deuce does he come from you'd best tell me the whole story Frank you must one day you and he have robbed a church together that's my belief you'd better get it off your mind at once Clavering and tell me what this Altamont is and what hold he has over you hang him I wish he was dead was the baronet's only reply and his countenance became so gloomy that Strong did not think fit to question his patron any further at that time but resolved if need were to try and discover for himself what was the secret time between Altamont and Clavering End of Chapter 43 Chapter 44 of the history of Pendennis 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 Pendennis but we make peace Thackery Chapter 44 in which the Colonel narrates some of his adventures early in the forenoon of the day after the dinner engrossed in her place at which Colonel Altamont had chosen to appear the Colonel emerged from his chamber in the upper story at Shepherd's Inn and entered into Strong's sitting room where the Chevalier sat in his easy chair with the newspaper and his cigar he was a man who made his tent comfortable wherever he pitched it and long before Altamont's arrival had done justice to a copious breakfast of fried eggs and boiled rashes which Mr. Grady had prepared secundum artum good humor and talkative he preferred any company rather than none and though he had not the least liking of a lodger and would not have grieved to hear that the accident had befallen him which Sir Francis Clavering desired so fervently he had kept on fair terms with him he had seen Altamont to bed with great friendliness on the night previous and taken away his candle for fear of accidents and finding a spirit bottle empty upon which he had counted for his nocturnal refreshment had drunk a glass of water with perfect contentment over his pipe before he turned into his own crib and to sleep that enjoyment never failed him he had always an easy temper a faultless digestion and a rosy cheek and whether he was going into action the next morning or to prison and both had been his lot in the camp or the fleet the worthy captain snored healthfully through the night and woke with a good heart and appetite for the struggles or difficulties of the day the first act of Colonel Altamont was to bellow to Grady for a pint of pale ale the witch he first poured into a pewter flag whence he transferred it to his own lips he put down the tankard empty drew a great breath wiped his mouth and his dressing gown the difference of the color of his beard from his dyed whiskers had long struck Captain Strong who had seen too that his hair was fair big but made no remarks upon these circumstances the Colonel drew a great breath and professed himself immensely refreshed by his draft nothing like that beer he remarked when the coppers are hot many a day of drunk a dozen of bass at Calcutta and and and at luck now I suppose Strong said with a laugh I got the beer for you on purpose knew you'd want it after last night and the Colonel began to talk about the matters of the preceding evening I cannot help myself the Colonel said beating his head with his big hand I'm a madman when I get the liquor on board me and ain't fit to be trusted with a spirit bottle when I once begin I can't stop till I've emptied it and when I've swallowed it Lord knows what I say or what I don't say I dined at home here quite quiet Grady gave me just my two tumblers and I intended to pass the evening with a black and red as sober as a parson why did you leave that confounded sample bottle of Hollins out of the cupboard strong Grady must go out too and leave me the kettle a boiling for tea it was of no use I couldn't keep away from it washed it all down served by Jove and it's my belief I had some more too afterwards at that infernal little thieves den what were you there too strong asked and before you came to Grosvenor place that was beginning betimes early hours to be drunk and cleared out before nine o'clock a but so it was yes like a great big fool I must go there and found the fellows dining blackland and young moss and two or three more of the thieves if we'd gone to rouge a noir I must have won but we didn't try the black and red no hang him they'd know I'd have beat him at that I must have beat him I can't help beating him I tell you but they was too cunning for me that rascal blackland got the bones out and we played hazard on the dining table and I dropped all the money I had from you in the morning be hanged to my luck it was that that set me wild and I suppose I must have been very hot about the head for I went off thinking to get some more money from clattering I recollect and then and then I don't much remember what happened till I woke this morning and heard old Bowser number four playing on his piano strong muse for a while as he lighted his cigar with a coal I should like to know how you always draw money from clattering Colonel he said the Colonel burst out with a laugh haha he owes it me he said I don't know that that's a reason with Frank for paying strong answered he owes plenty besides you well he gives it me because he is so fond of me the other said with the same grinning sneer he loves me like a brother you know he does captain no he don't well perhaps he don't and if you ask me no questions perhaps I'll tell you no lies captain strong put that in your pipe and smoke it my boy but I'll give up that confounded brandy bottle the Colonel continued after a pause I must give it up or it'll be the ruin of me it makes you say queer things said the captain looking all to mount heart in the face remember what you said last night at Cliverings table say what did I say ask the other hastily did I split anything dammy strong did I split anything ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies the Chevalier replied on his part strong thought of the words Mr. Altamont had used in his abrupt departure from the Baronette's dining table and house as soon as he recognized major pandemics or captain beak as he called the major but strong resolved to seek an explanation of these words otherwise then from Colonel Altamont and did not choose to recall them to the other's memory no he said then you didn't split as you call it Colonel it was only a trap of mine to see if I could make you speak but you didn't say a word that anybody could comprehend you were too far gone for that so much the better Altamont thought and heaved a great sigh as if relieved strong remarked the emotion but took no notice and the other being in a communicative mood went on speaking yes I own to my faults continued the Colonel there are some things I can't do what I will resist a bottle of brandy a box of dice and a beautiful woman no man of pluck and spirit no man as was worth his salt ever could as I know of there's hardly perhaps a country in the world in which them three ain't got me into trouble indeed said strong yes from the age of 15 when I ran away from home and went cabin boy on board in India man till now when I'm 50 year old pretty nice then women have always been my ruin why it was one of them and with such black eyes and jewels on her neck and battens and ermine like a Duchess I tell you there's one of them at Paris that swept off the best part of the thousand pound as I went off with did not ever tell you of it well I don't mind at first I was very cautious and having such a lot of money kept it close and lived like a gentleman Colonel Altamont Maurice's hotel and that sort of thing never played except at the public tables and one more than I lost well sir there was a chap that I saw at the hotel and the palace royal to a regular glove and a tough to his chin Blondel Blondel his name was as I made acquaintance with somehow and he asked me to dinner and took me to Madame the Countess the full jam soirees such a woman strong such an eye such a hand at the piano Lord bless you she'd sit down and sing to you and gaze at you until she warbled your soul out of your body almost she asked me to go to her evening parties every Tuesday and didn't I take opera boxes and give her dinners at the restaurant tours that's all but I had a run of luck at the tables and it was not in the dinners and opera boxes that poor Cleverings money went no be hanged to it it was swept off in another way one night at the Countess's there was several of us at supper Mr. Blondel Blondel the honorable deuce ace the marquee de la tour de force all tip top knobs sir and the height of fashion when we had supper and champagne you may be sure and plenty and then some of that confounded brandy I would have it I would it go on the countess mixed the tumblers a punch for me and we had cards as well as grog after supper and I played and drank until I don't know what I did I was like I was last night I was taken away and put to bed somehow and never woke until the next day to a roaring headache and to see my servant who said the honorable deuce ace wanted to see me and was waiting in the sitting room how are you colonels as he are coming into my bedroom how long did you stay last night after I went away the play was getting too high for me and I had lost enough to you for one night to me says I how's that my dear fellow for though he was an Earl's son we was as familiar as you and me how's that my dear fellow says I and he tells me that he had borrowed 30 Louis of me at Vante that he gave me an IOU for the night before which I put into my pocketbook before he left the room I takes out my card case it was the countess has worked it for me and there was the IOU sure enough and he paid me 30 Louis on upon the table at my bedside so I said he was a gentleman and asked him if he would like to take anything when my servant should get it for him but the honorable deuce ace don't drink of a morning and he went away to some business which he said he had presently there's another ring at my outer door and this time it's blounder blounder and the marquee that comes in bong sure marquee says I good morning no headache says he so I said I had one and how I must have been uncommon queer the night before but they both declared I didn't show no signs of having had too much but took my liquor as grave as a judge so says the marquee deuce ace has been with you we met him in the Palais Royal as we were coming from breakfast as he settled with you get it while you can he's a slippery cart and as he won three ponies a blounder I recommend you to get your money while he has some he has paid me says I but I knew no more than the dead that he owed me anything and don't remember a bit about lending him 30 louis the marquee and blounder looks and smiles at each other this and blounder says colonel you are a queer fellow no man could have supposed from your manners that you had tasted anything stronger than tea all night and yet you forget things in the morning come come tell that to the marines my friend we won't have it at any price oh and they says the marquee twiddling his little black mustache used in the chimney glass and making a lunge or two as he used to do at the fencing school he was a wonder at the fencing school and I've seen him knock down the image 14 times running at lapoges let us speak of affairs colonel you understand that affairs of honor are best settled at once perhaps it won't be inconvenient to you to arrange our little matters of last night what little matter says I do you owe me any money marquee bah says he do not let us have any more jesting I have your note of hand for 340 louis la voyeur says he taking out a paper from a pocket book and mine for 210 says blounder blounder and he pulls out his bit of paper I was in such a rage of wonder at this that I sprang out of bed and wrapped my dressing gown around me are you come here to make a fool of me says I don't are you 200 or 2000 or two louis and I won't pay you a far thing do you suppose you can catch me with your notes of hand I laugh at him and at you and I believe you to be a couple a couple of what says mr. blounder you of course are aware that there are a couple of men of honor colonel altamont and not come here to trifle or to listen to abuse from you you will either pay us or we will expose you as a cheat and just as you as a cheat to says blounder we bar blur says the marquee but I didn't mind him for I could have thrown the little fella out of the window but it was different with foundle he was a large man that weighs three stone more than me and stands six inches higher and I think he could have done for me this year will pay me the reason why I believe you're a little better than a polis and colonel altamont that was the phrase he used ultimate said with a grin and I got plenty more of this language from the two fellows and was in the thick of the row with them when another of our party came in this was a friend of mine a gent I have met at Bologna and had taken to the countesses myself and as he hadn't played at all on the previous night and it actually warned me against blounder and the others I told the story to him and so did the other I'm very sorry says he you would go on playing the countess and treated you to discontinue these gentlemen offered repeatedly to stop it was you that insisted on the large stakes not pay in fact he charged that against me and when the two others went away he told me how the marquee would shoot me as sure as my name was was what it is I left the countess crying to said he she hates these two men she has warned you repeatedly against them which she actually had done and often told me to play with them and now colonel I've left her in hysterics almost less there should be any quarrel between you and that confounded marquee should put a bullet through your head it's my belief says my friend that that woman is distracted in love with you do you think so says I upon which my friend told me how she had actually gone down on her knees to him and save colonel Altamont as soon as I was dressed I went and called upon that lovely woman she gave her shriek and pretty near fainted when she called me for an end I'm blessed if she didn't I thought your name was Jack said strong with a laugh at which the colonel blushed very much behind his dyed whiskers a man may have more names than one man T strong Altamont asked when I'm with a lady I like to take a good one she called me my Christian name she cried fit to break your heart I can't stand seeing a woman cry never could not whilst I'm fond of her she said she could bear not to think of my losing so much money in her house wouldn't I take her diamonds and necklaces and pay repart I swear I wouldn't touch a farthing's worth of her jewelry which perhaps I did not think was worth a great deal but what kind of woman do more than give you her all that's the sort I like and I know there's plenty of them and I told her to be easy about the money for I would not pay one single farthing then they'll shoot you she says she they'll kill my Ferdinand they'll kill my Jack wouldn't have sounded well in French strong said laughing never mind about names of the other locally a man of honor may take any name he chooses I suppose well go on with your story said strong she said they will kill you no says I they won't for I will not let that scamp of a marquee send me out of this world and if he lays a hand on me I'll brain him marquee as he is at this the count has shrank back for me as if I had said something very shocking do I understand Colonel Altamonte right says she and that a British officer refuses to meet any person who provokes the field of honor field of honor be hanged countess says I you would not have me be a target for that little scoundrels pistol practice Colonel Altamonte says the countess I thought you were a man of honor I thought I but no matter goodbye sir and she was sleeping out of the room her voice regular choking in her pocket handkerchief countess says I brushing after and seizing her hand leave me Mr. Colonel says she shaking me off my father was a general of the grand army a soldier should know how to pay all his debts of honor what could I do everybody was against me Caroline said I had lost the money though I didn't remember a syllable about the business I had taken do say says money too but then it was because he offered it to me you know and that's a different thing every one of these chaps was a man of fashion and honor and the marquee and the countess of the first families in France and by Joe sir rather than a vendor I paid the money up 560 gold Napoleon's by Joe besides 300 which I lost when I had my revenge and I can't tell you at this minute whether I was done or not concluded the Colonel musing sometimes I think I was but then Caroline was so fond of me that woman would never have seen me done never I'm sure she wouldn't at least if she would I'm deceived in woman any further revelations of his past life which Altamont might have been disposed to confide to his honest comrade the Chevalier were interrupted by a knocking at the outer door of their chambers which went open by Grady the servant admitted no less a person than Sir Francis Clevering into the presence of the two were these the governor by Joe cried strong regarding the arrival of his patron with surprise what's brought you here grow altamont looking sternly from under his heavy eyebrows at the baronet it's no good I warrant and indeed good very seldom brought Sir Francis Clevering into that or any other place whenever he came into shepherds in it was money that brought the lucky baronet into those precincts and there was commonly a gentleman of the money-dealing world in waiting for him at strong chambers or at campions below and a question of bills to negotiate or to renew Clevering was a man who had never looked his death fairly in the face familiar as he had been with them all his life as long as he could renew a bill his mind was easy regarding it and he would sign almost anything for tomorrow provided today could be left unmolested he was a man whom scarcely any amount of fortune could have benefited permanently and it was made to be ruined to cheat small tradesmen to be the victim of a stutter sharpers to be niggardly and reckless and as destitute of honesty as the people who cheated him and adduped chiefly because he was too mean to be a successful naïve he had told more lies in his time and undergone more baseness of strategy in order to stave off a small debt or to swindle a poor creditor than would have suffice to fortune for a braver rogue he was abject in a shuffler in the very height of his prosperity had he been a crown prince he could not have been more weak useless dissolute or ungrateful he could not move through life except leaning on the arm of somebody and yet he never had an agent but he mistrusted him and marred any plans which might be arranged for his benefit and secretly acting against the people whom he employed strong new Clevering and judged him he was not as friends that this pair meant but the Chevalier worked for his principle as he would win in the army have pursued a harassing march or undergone his part in the danger and privations of a siege because it was his duty and because he had agreed to it what is it he wants thought the officers of the shepherds in garrison when that baronette came among them his pale face expressed extreme anger and irritation so sir he said addressing Altamont you've been at your old tricks which of them asked Altamont with a sneer you've been at the rouge a noir you were there last night cried the baronette how do you know were you there the other said I was at the club but it wasn't on the colors I played ask the captain I've been telling him of it it was with the bones it was at hazard Sir Francis upon my word and honor it was and he looked at the baronette without knowing humors mock humility which only seemed to make the other more proud of how a man like you loses his money and whether it is at hazard or roulette screened the baronette with a multiplicity of oaths and at the top of his voice what will I not have sir is that you should use my name or a couple with yours damn him strong why don't you keep him in better order I tell you he has gone and used my name again sir drawn a bill upon me and lost the money on the table I can't stand it I won't stand it flesh and blood won't this was only a very little and sir Francis only 15 pound captain strong they wouldn't stand another and it out into anger you governor why it's so trifling I did not even mention it to strong did I now captain I protest did had quite slip my memory and all on account of that confounded liquor I took liquor or no liquor sir it is no business of mine I don't care what you drink or where you drink it only it shan't be in my house and I will not have you breaking into my house how did you show yourself in growths from our place last night sir and and what do you suppose my friends must think of me when they see a man of your sort walking into my dining room uninvited and drunk and calling for liquor as if you were the master of the house they'll thank you know some very queer sort of people I dare say Altamont said within penetrable good humor look here bernett I apologize on my honor I do and ain't an apology enough between my own walking into your cutting and calling for drink as if I was the captain but I had had too much before you see that's why I wanted some more nothing can be more simple and it was because they wouldn't give me no more money upon your name at the black and red that I thought I would come down and speak to you about it to refuse me was nothing but to refuse a bill drawn on you that have been such a friend to the shop and are a bernett and a member of parliament and a gentlemen and no mistake damn it's you ever do it again if ever you dare show yourself in my house or give my name at a gambling house or any other house by job at any other house or give any reference at all to me or speak to me in the street by God or anywhere else until I speak to you I just claim you all together I won't give you another shilling governor don't be provoking Altamont said solely don't talk to me about daring to do this thing or tether or when my dander is up it's at the very thing to urge me on I ought to have come last night I know I ought but I told him that ought to be sufficient between gentlemen and gentlemen you a gentleman dammy sir said the bernett how there's a fellow like you to call himself a gentleman I ain't a bernett I know growl the other and I've forgotten how to be a gentleman almost now but but I was one once and my father was one and I'll not have this sort of talk from you sir if clattering that's flat I want to go abroad again why don't you come down with the money and let me go why the devil are you to be rolling in riches and me to have none why should you have a house and a table covered with plate and me being a garret here in this beggarly shepherd's inn we're partners ain't we hide as good a right to be rich as you have haven't I tell the story to strong here if you like and ask him to be on par between us I don't mind letting my secret out to a man that won't split look here strong perhaps you guessed the story already the fact is me and the governor hold your tongue shrieked out the bernett in a fury you shall have the money as soon as I can get it I ain't made of money I'm so pressed in badgered I don't know where to turn I should go mad by Joe I shall I wish I was deaf or I'm the most miserable alive I say Mr. Altamount don't mind me when I'm out of health and I'm devilish beliefs this morning hang me I abuse everybody and don't know what I say excuse me if I've offended you I'll try and get that little business done strong shall try upon my word he shall and I say strong my boy I want to speak to you come into the office for a minute almost all cleverings assaults ended in this ignominiest way and in a shameful retreat Altamount sneered after the bernette as he left the room and entered into the office to talk privately with his factotum what is the matter now the latter ask of him it's the old story I suppose turn it yes the bernette said I dropped 200 and ready money at the little coventry last night and gave a check for 300 more on our ladieship spankers too for tomorrow and I must meet it for else the last time she paid my play debts I swore I would not touch a dice box again and she'll keep her word strong and dissolve partnership if I go on I wish I had 300 a year and was away at a German watering place you can do devilish well with 300 a year but my habits are so darn reckless I wish I was in that serpentine I wish I was dead by Gad I wish I was I wish I'd never touch those confounded bones I had such a run of luck last night with five for the main and seven to pay me with Altamont's bill upon me the luck turned from that minute never held the box again for three mains and came away cleared out leaving that infernal check behind me how shall I pay it black land won't hold it over Hawker and Bullock will write about it directly to her ladieship by Joe Nedd I'm the most miserable brute in all England it was necessary for Nedd to devise some plan to console the bernette under this pressure of grief and no doubt he found the means of procuring alone for he was closeted at Mr. Campion's office says that day for some time Altamont had once more a guinea or two in his pocket with a promise of a further settlement and the bernette had no need to wish himself dead for the next two or three months at least and strong putting together what he had learned from the Colonel and Sir Francis began to form in his own mind a pretty accurate opinion as to the nature of the tie which bound the two men together End of chapter 44