ered something about honour,
and winked knowingly at Pen, but Arthur said gallantly, "No, Fanny,
don't be frightened. It was my fault to have danced in such a place,--I
beg your padon to have asked you to dance there." And he gave her his
arm once more, and called a cab, and put his three friends into it.

He was about to pay the driver, and to take another carriage for
himself, when little Fanny, still alarmed, put her little hand out, and
caught him by the coat, and implored him and besought him to come in.

"Will nothing satisfy you," said Pen, in great good-humour, "that I am
not going back to fight him? Well, I will come home with you. Drive
to Shepherd's Inn, cab." The cab drove to its destination. Arthur was
immensely pleased by the girl's solicitude about him: her tender terrors
quite made him forget his previous annoyance.

Pen put the ladies into their lodge, having shaken hands kindly with
both of them; and the Captain again whispered to him that he would
see um in the morning if he was inclined, and take his message to that
"scounthrel." But the Captain was in his usual condition when he made
the proposal; and Pen was perfectly sure that neither he nor Mr. Huxter,
when they awoke, would remember anything about the dispute.

CHAPTYER XLVIII. A Visit of Politeness

Costigan never roused Pen from his slumbers; there was no hostile
message from Mr. Huxter to disturb him; and when Pen woke, it was with
a brisker and more lively feeling than ordinarily attends that moment in
the day of the tired and blase London man. A City man wakes up to care
and consols, and the thoughts of 'Change and the counting-house take
possession of him as soon as sleep flies from under his night-cap; a
lawyer rouses himself with the early morning to think of the case that
will take him all his day to work upon, and the inevitable attorney
to whom he has promised his papers ere night. Which of us has not his
anxiety instantly present when his eyes are opened, to it and to the
world, after his night's sleep? Kind strengthener that enables us
to face the day's task with renewed heart! Beautiful ordinance of
Providence that creates rest as it awards labour!

Mr. Pendennis's labour, or rather his disposition, was of that sort that
his daily occupations did not much interest him, for the excitement of
literary composition pretty soon subsides with the hired labourer, and
the delight of seeing one's-self in print only extends to t