CONTENTS. CHAP. I. SHOWS HOW FIRST LOVE MAY INTERRUPT BREAKFAST XII. IN WHICH A SHOOTING-MATCH IS PROPOSED 132 CHAP. XXX. OLD AND NEW ACQUAINTANCES XXXI. IN WHICH THE PRINTer's Devil comES TO THE DOOR. . PAGE 344 358 373 XXXIII. IN WHICH THE HISTORY STILL HOVERS ABOUT FLEET STREET 385 XXXV. THE PALL MALL GAZETTE XXXVI. WHERE PEN APPEARS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY XXXVII. IN WHICH THE SYLPH REAPPEARS 392 404 4II 429 XXXVIII. IN WHICH COLONEL ALTAMONT APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS 438 LIST OF PLATES. PAGE COLONEL ALTAMONT REFUSES TO MOVE ON (Frontispiece). PENDENNIS. CHAPTER I. SHOWS HOW FIRST LOVE MAY INTERRUPT BREAKFAST. NE fine morning in the full London season, Major Arthur Pendennis came over from. his lodgings, according to his custom, to breakfast at a certain Club in Pall Mall, of which he was a chief ornament. At a quarter past ten the Major invariably made his appearance in the best blacked boots in all London, with a checked morning cravat that never was rumpled until dinner time, a buff waistcoat which bore the crown of his sovereign on the buttons, and linen so spotless that Mr. Brummel himself asked the name of his laundress, and would probably have employed her had not misfortunes compelled that great man to fly the country. Pendennis's coat, his white gloves, his whiskers, his very cane, were perfect of their kind! as specimens of the costume of a military man en retraite. At a distance, or seeing his back merely, you would have taken him to be not more than thirty years old: it was only by a nearer inspection I, VOL. I. that you saw the factitious nature of his rich brown hair, and that there were a few crows-feet round about the somewhat faded eyes of his handsome mottled face. His nose was of the Wellington pattern. His hands and wristbands were beautifully long and white. On the latter he wore handsome gold buttons given to him by his Royal Highness the Duke of York, and on the others more than one elegant ring, the chief and largest of them being emblazoned with the famous arms of Pendennis. He always took possession of the same table in the same corner of the room, from which nobody ever now thought of ousting him. One or two mad wags and wild fellows had, in former days, endeavoured to deprive him of this place; but there was a quiet dignity in the Major's manner as he took his seat at the next table, and surveyed the interlopers, which rendered it impossible for any man to sit and breakfast under his eye; and that table-by the fire, and yet near the window-became his own. His letters were laid out there in expectation of his arrival, and many was the young fellow about town who looked with wonder at the number of those notes, and at the seals and franks which they bore. If there was any question about etiquette, society, who was married to whom, of what age such and such a duke was, Pendennis was the man to whom every one appealed. Marchionesses used to drive up to the Club, and leave notes for him, or fetch him out. He was perfectly affable. The young men liked to walk with him in the Park or down Pall Mall; for he touched his hat to everybody, and every other man he met was a lord. The Major sate down at his accustomed table then, and while the waiters went to bring him his toast and his hot newspaper, he surveyed his letters through his gold double eye-glass, and examined one pretty note after another, and laid them by in order. There were large solemn dinner cards, suggestive of three courses and heavy conversation; there were neat little confidential notes, conveying female entreaties; there was a note on thick official paper from the Marquis of Steyne, telling him to come to Richmond to a little party at the Star and Garter; and another from the Bishop of Ealing and Mrs. Trail, requesting the honour of Major Pendennis's company at Ealing House, all of which letters Pendennis read gracefully, and with the more satisfaction, because Glowry, the Scotch surgeon, breakfasting opposite to him, was looking on, and hating him for having so many invitations, which nobody ever sent to Glowry. |