ld fellow, old Bows: a gentleman in those
old clothes: a philosopher, and with a kind heart, too. How good he was
to me in the Fotheringay business. He, too, has had his griefs and his
sorrows. I must cultivate old Bows. A man ought to see people of all
sorts. I am getting tired of genteel society. Besides, there's nobody
in town. Yes, I'll go and see Bows, and Costigan too; what a rich
character! begad, I'll study him, and put him into a book." In this way
our young anthropologist talked with himself, and as Saturday was the
holiday of the week, the Pall Mall Gazette making its appearance upon
that day, and the contributors to that journal having no further calls
upon their brains or ink-bottles, Mr. Pendennis determined he would take
advantage of his leisure, and pay a visit to Shepherd's Inn--of course
to see old Bows.

The truth is, that if Arthur had been the most determined roue and
artful Lovelace who ever set about deceiving a young girl, he could
hardly have adopted better means for fascinating and overcoming poor
little Fanny Bolton than those which he had employed on the previous
night. His dandified protecting air, his conceit, generosity, and
good-humour, the very sense of good and honesty which had enabled him
to check the tremulous advances of the young creature, and not to take
advantage of that little fluttering sensibility,--his faults and his
virtues at once contributed to make her admire him; and if we could peep
into Fanny's bed (which she shared in a cupboard, along with those
two little sisters to whom we have seen Mr. Costigan administering
gingerbread and apples), we should find the poor little maid tossing
upon her mattress, to the great disturbance of its other two occupants,
and thinking over all the delights and events of that delightful,
eventful night, and all the words, looks, and actions of Arthur, its
splendid hero. Many novels had Fanny read, in secret and at home, in
three volumes and in numbers. Periodical literature had not reached
the height which it has attained subsequently, and the girls of Fanny's
generation were not enabled to purchase sixteen pages of excitement for
a penny, rich with histories of crime, murder, oppressed virtue, and the
heartless seductions of the aristocracy; but she had had the benefit
of the circulating library which, in conjunction with her school and a
small brandy-ball and millinery business, Miss Minifer kept,--and Arthur
appeared to her at once as th