his
fists, and seemed hugely amused in the drunken depths of his mind, as
these recollections passed, or, rather, reeled across it.

"Mr. Pendennis, you remember Colonel Altamont, at Baymouth?" Strong
said: upon which Pen, bowing rather stiffly, said, "he had the pleasure
of remembering that circumstance perfectly."

"What's his name?" cried the Colonel. Strong named Mr. Pendennis again.

"Pendennis!--Pendennis be hanged!" Altamont roared out to the surprise
of every one, and thumping with his fist on the table.

"My name is also Pendennis, sir," said the Major, whose dignity was
exceedingly mortified by the evening's events--that he, Major Pendennis,
should have been asked to such a party, and that a drunken man should
have been introduced to it. "My name is Pendennis, and I will be obliged
to you not to curse it too loudly."

The tipsy man turned round to look at him, and as he looked, it appeared
as if Colonel Altamont suddenly grew sober. He put his hand across his
forehead, and in doing so, displaced somewhat the black wig which he
wore; and his eyes stared fiercely at the Major, who, in his turn, like
a resolute old warrior as he was, looked at his opponent very keenly and
steadily. At the end of the mutual inspection, Altamont began to button
up his brass-buttoned coat, and rising up from his chair, suddenly, and
to the company's astonishment, reeled towards the door, and issued
from it, followed by Strong: all that the latter heard him utter
was--"Captain Beak! Captain Beak, by jingo!"

There had not passed above a quarter of an hour from his strange
appearance to his equally sudden departure. The two young men and
the baronet's other guest wondered at the scene, and could find no
explanation for it. Clavering seemed exceedingly pale and agitated, and
turned with looks of almost terror towards Major Pendennis. The latter
had been eyeing his host keenly for a moment or two. "Do you know him?"
asked Sir Francis of the Major.

"I am sure I have seen the fellow," the Major replied, looking as if
he, too, was puzzled. "Yes, I have it. He was a deserter from the Horse
Artillery who got into the Nawaub's service. I remember his face quite
well."

"Oh!" said Clavering, with a sigh which indicated immense relief of
mind, and the Major looked at him with a twinkle of his sharp old eyes.
The cab which Strong had desired to be called, drove away with the
Chevalier and Colonel Altamont; coffee was brought to the re