e English and before you come to
the Greek," Warrington cried out, laughing. "I never heard you make such
a long speech, or was aware that you had penetrated so deeply into the
female mysteries. Who taught you all this, and into whose boudoirs
and nurseries have you been peeping, whilst I was smoking my pipe, and
reading my book, lying on my straw bed?"

"You are on the bank; old boy, content to watch the waves tossing in
the winds, and the struggles of others at sea," Pen said. "I am in
the stream now, and by Jove I like it. How rapidly we go down it, hey?
Strong and feeble, old and young--the metal pitchers and the earthen
pitchers--the pretty little china boat swims gaily till the big bruised
brazen one bumps him and sends him down--eh, vogue la galere!--you see
a man sink in the race, and say good-bye to him--look, he has only
dived under the other fellow's legs, and comes up shaking his pole, and
striking out ever so far ahead. Eh, vogue la galere, I say. It's good
sport, Warrington--not winning merely, but playing."

"Well, go in and win, young 'un. I'll sit and mark the game," Warrington
said, surveying the ardent young fellow with an almost fatherly
pleasure. "A generous fellow plays for the play, a sordid one for the
stake; an old fogy sits by and smokes the pipe of tranquillity, while
Jack and Tom are pummelling each other in the ring."

"Why don't you come in, George, and have a turn with the gloves? You are
big enough and strong enough," Pen said. "Dear old boy, you are worth
ten of me."

"You are not quite as tall as Goliath, certainly," the other answered,
with a laugh that was rough and yet tender. "As for me, I am disabled.
I had a fatal hit in early life. I will tell you about it some day. You
may, too, meet with your master. Don't be too eager, or too confident,
or too worldly, my boy."

Was Pendennis becoming worldly, or only seeing the worldly, or both? and
is a man very wrong for being after all only a man? Which is the
most reasonable, and does his duty best: he who stands aloof from
the struggle of life, calmly contemplating, or he who descends to the
ground, and takes his part in the contest? "That philosopher," Pen said,
"had held a great place amongst the leaders of the world, and enjoyed
to the full what it had to give of rank and riches, renown and pleasure,
who came, weary-hearted, out of it, and said that all was vanity and
vexation of spirit. Many a teacher of those whom we reverence,