f flower of his life. Say it is a dream: say it
passes: better the recollection of a dream than an aimless waking from a
blank stupor.

The two friends sate in silence a while, each occupied with his own
thoughts and aware of the other's. Pen broke it presently, by saying
that he must go and seek for his uncle, and report progress to the old
gentleman. The Major had written in a very bad humour; the Major was
getting old. "I should like to see you in Parliament, and snugly settled
with a comfortable house and an heir to the name before I make my bow.
Show me these," the Major wrote, "and then, let old Arthur Pendennis
make room for the younger fellows; he has walked the Pall Mall pave long
enough."

"There is a kindness about the old heathen," said Warrington. "He cares
for somebody besides himself, at least for some other part of himself
besides that which is buttoned into his own coat;--for you and your
race. He would like to see the progeny of the Pendennises multiplying
and increasing, and hopes that they may inherit the land. The old
patriarch blesses you from the Club window of Bays's, and is carried
off and buried under the flags of St. James's Church, in sight of
Piccadilly, and the cabstand, and the carriages going to the levee. It
is an edifying ending."

"The new blood I bring into the family," mused Pen, "is rather tainted.
If I had chosen, I think my father-in-law Amory would not have been the
progenitor I should have desired for my race; nor my grandfather-in-law
Snell; nor our Oriental ancestors. By the way, who was Amory? Amory was
lieutenant of an Indiaman. Blanche wrote some verses about him, about
the storm, the mountain wave, the seaman's grave, the gallant father,
and that sort of thing. Amory was drowned commanding a country ship
between Calcutta and Sydney; Amory and the Begum weren't happy together.
She has been unlucky in her selection of husbands, the good old lady,
for, between ourselves, a more despicable creature than Sir Francis
Clavering, of Clavering Park, Baronet, never----" "Never legislated for
his country," broke in Warrington; at which Pen blushed rather.

"By the way, at Baden," said Warrington, "I found our friend the
Chevalier Strong in great state, and wearing his orders. He told me that
he had quarrelled with Clavering, of whom he seemed to have almost as
bad an opinion as you have, and in fact, I think, though I will not
be certain, confided to me his opinion, that Claverin