d to be happy, and not for
old fools like me. I've played a second fiddle through life," he said,
with a bitter laugh; "how can I suppose the luck is to change after it
has gone against me so long?" This was the selfish way in which Bows
looked at the state of affairs: though few persons would have thought
there was any cause for his jealousy, who looked at the pale and
grief-stricken countenance of the hapless little girl, its object.
Fanny received Huxter's good-natured efforts at consolation and kind
attentions kindly. She laughed now and again at his jokes and games with
her little sisters, but relapsed quickly into a dejection which ought to
have satisfied Mr. Bows that the new-comer had no place in her heart as
yet, had jealous Mr. Bows been enabled to see with clear eyes.

But Bows did not. Fanny attributed Pen's silence somehow to Bows's
interference. Fanny hated him. Fanny treated Bows with constant cruelty
and injustice. She turned from him when he spoke--she loathed his
attempts at consolation. A hard life had Mr. Bows, and a cruel return
for his regard.

When Warrington came to Shepherd's Inn as Pen's ambassador, it was for
Mr. Bows's apartments he inquired (no doubt upon a previous agreement
with the principal for whom he acted in this delicate negotiation), and
he did not so much as catch a glimpse of Miss Fanny when he stopped at
the Inn-gate and made his inquiry. Warrington was, of course, directed
to the musician's chambers, and found him tending the patient there,
from whose chamber he came out to wait upon his guest. We have said that
they had been previously known to one another, and the pair shook hands
with sufficient cordiality. After a little preliminary talk, Warrington
said that he had come from his friend Arthur Pendennis, and from his
family, to thank Bows for his attention at the commencement of Pen's
illness, and for his kindness in hastening into the country to fetch the
Major.

Bows replied that it was but his duty: he had never thought to have
seen the young gentleman alive again when he went in search of Pen's
relatives, and he was very glad of Mr. Pendennis's recovery, and that
he had his friends with him. "Lucky are they who have friends, Mr.
Warrington," said the musician. "I might be up in this garret and nobody
would care for me, or mind whether I was alive or dead."

"What! not the General, Mr. Bows?" Warrington asked.

"The General likes his whisky-bottle more than anything