my doing; nor Arthur's--Mr. Pendennis's--that I met
him at Vauxhall. It was the Captain took me and Ma there. We never
thought of nothing wrong, I'm sure. He came and rescued us, and he was
so very kind. Then he came to call and ask after us: and very, very good
it was of a such grand gentleman to be so polite to humble folks like
us! And yesterday Ma and me just went to walk in the Temple Gardens,
and--and"--here she broke out with that usual, unanswerable female
argument of tears--and cried, "Oh! I wish I was dead! I wish I was laid
in my grave; and had never, never seen him!"

"He said as much himself, Fanny," Bows said; and Fanny asked through her
sobs, Why, why should he wish he had never seen her? Had she ever
done him any harm? Oh, she would perish rather than do him any harm.
Whereupon the musician informed her of the conversation of the day
previous, showed her that Pen could not and must not think of her as a
wife fitting for him, and that she, as she valued her honest reputation,
must strive too to forget him. And Fanny, leaving the musician,
convinced, but still of the same mind, and promising that she would
avoid the danger which menaced her, went back to the porter's lodge, and
told her mother all. She talked of her love for Arthur, and bewailed, in
her artless manner, the inequality of their condition, that set barriers
between them. "There's the 'Lady of Lyons,'" Fanny said; "Oh, Ma! how
I did love Mr. Macready when I saw him do it; and Pauline, for being
faithful to poor Claude, and always thinking of him; and he coming back
to her, an officer, through all his dangers! And if everybody admires
Pauline--and I'm sure everybody does, for being so true to a poor
man--why should a gentleman be ashamed of loving a poor girl? Not that
Mr. Arthur loves me--Oh no, no! I ain't worthy of him; only a princess
is worthy of such a gentleman as him. Such a poet!--writing so
beautifully, and looking so grand! I am sure he's a nobleman, and of
ancient family, and kep' out of his estate. Perhaps his uncle has it.
Ah, if I might, oh, how I'd serve him, and work for him, and slave for
him, that I would. I wouldn't ask for more than that, Ma, just to be
allowed to see him of a morning; and sometimes he'd say 'How d'you,
Fanny?' or 'God bless you, Fanny!' as he said on Sunday. And I'd work,
and work; and I'd sit up all night, and read, and learn, and make myself
worthy of him. The Captain says his mother lives in the country