hours till she should embrace her
dearest friend.

Laura, No. 2, expressed her delight at dearest Blanche's affectionate
reply. She hoped that their friendship would never diminish; that the
confidence between them would grow in after years; that they should have
no secrets from each other; that the aim of the life of each would be to
make one person happy.

Blanche, No. 2, followed in two days. "How provoking! Their house was
very small, the two spare bedrooms were occupied by that horrid Mrs.
Planter and her daughter, who had thought proper to fall ill (she always
fell ill in country-houses), and she could not or would not be moved for
some days."

Laura, No. 3. "It was indeed very provoking. L. had hoped to hear one
of dearest B.'s dear songs on Friday; but she was the more consoled to
wait, because Lady R. was not very well, and liked to be nursed by her.
Poor Major Pendennis was very unwell, too, in the same hotel--too unwell
even to see Arthur, who was constant in his calls on his uncle. Arthur's
heart was full of tenderness and affection. She had known Arthur all her
life. She would answer"--yes, even in italics she would answer--"for his
kindness, his goodness, and his gentleness."

Blanche, No. 3. "What is this most surprising, most extraordinary letter
from A. P.? What does dearest Laura know about it? What has happened?
What, what mystery is enveloped under his frightful reserve?"

Blanche, No. 3, requires an explanation; and it cannot be better given
than in the surprising and mysterious letter of Arthur Pendennis.

CHAPTER LXXIII. Mr. and Mrs. Sam Huxter

"Dear Blanche," Arthur wrote, "you are always reading and dreaming
pretty dramas, and exciting romances in real life: are you now prepared
to enact a part of one? And not the pleasantest part, dear Blanche, that
in which the heroine takes possession of her father's palace and wealth,
and introducing her husband to the loyal retainers and faithful vassals,
greets her happy bridegroom with 'All of this is mine and thine,'--but
the other character, that of the luckless lady, who suddenly discovers
that she is not the Prince's wife, but Claude Melnotte's the beggar's:
that of Alnaschar's wife, who comes in just as her husband has
kicked over the tray of porcelain which was to be the making of his
fortune--But stay; Alnaschar, who kicked down the china, was not a
married man; he had cast his eye on the Vizier's daughter, and his hopes
of her wen