r fan; she tapped Blanche; she tapped the
Major;--her contentment was boundless, and her method of showing her joy
equally expansive.

As the party went down the great staircase of Gaunt House, the morning
had risen stark and clear over the black trees of the square; the skies
were tinged with pink; and the cheeks of some of the people at the
ball,--ah, how ghastly they looked! That admirable and devoted Major
above all,--who had been for hours by Lady Clavering's side, ministering
to her and feeding her body with everything that was nice, and her ear
with everything that was sweet and flattering,--oh! what an object he
was! The rings round his eyes were of the colour of bistre; those
orbs themselves were like the plovers' eggs whereof Lady Clavering and
Blanche had each tasted; the wrinkles in his old face were furrowed
in deep gashes; and a silver stubble, like an elderly morning dew was
glittering on his chin, and alongside the dyed whiskers now limp and out
of curl.

There he stood, with admirable patience, enduring, uncomplainingly, a
silent agony; knowing that people could see the state of his face
(for could he not himself perceive the condition of others, males and
females, of his own age?)--longing to go to rest for hours past; aware
that suppers disagreed with him, and yet having eaten a little so as
to keep his friend, Lady Clavering, in good-humour; with twinges
of rheumatism in the back and knees; with weary feet burning in his
varnished boots,--so tired, oh, so tired and longing for bed! If a man,
struggling with hardship and bravely overcoming it, is an object of
admiration for the gods, that Power in whose chapels the old Major was
a faithful worshipper must have looked upwards approvingly upon the
constancy of Pendennis's martyrdom. There are sufferers in that cause as
in the other: the negroes in the service of Mumbo Jumbo tattoo and drill
themselves with burning skewers with great fortitude; and we read that
the priests in the service of Baal gashed themselves and bled freely.
You who can smash the idols, do so with a good courage; but do not be
too fierce with the idolaters,--they worship the best thing they know.

The Pendennises, the elder and the younger, waited with Lady Clavering
and her daughter until her ladyship's carriage was announced, when
the elder's martyrdom may be said to have come to an end, for the
good-natured Begum insisted upon leaving him at his door in Bury Street;
so he took