m for a couple of minutes, until he disappeared down the
road, and the clatter of the pony's hoofs died away. Helen was still
lingering on the lawn waiting until the boy came back--she put his
hair off his forehead and kissed it fondly. She was afraid he had been
drinking too much wine. Why had Mr. Smirke gone away without any tea?

He looked at her with a kind humour beaming in his eyes "Smirke is
unwell," he said with a laugh. For a long while Hele had not seen the
boy looking so cheerful. He put his arm round her waist, and walked her
up and down the walk in front of the house. Laura began to drub on the
drawing-room window and nod and laugh from it. "Come along, you two
people," cried on Major Pendennis, "your coffee is getting quite cold."

When Laura was gone to bed, Pen, who was big with his secret, burst
out with it, and described the dismal but ludicrous scene which had
occurred. Helen heard of it with many blushes, which became her pale
face very well, and a perplexity which Arthur roguishly enjoyed.

"Confound the fellow's impudence," Major Pendennis said as he took his
candle, "where will the assurance of these people stop?" Pen and
his mother had a long talk that night, full of love, confidence, and
laughter, and the boy somehow slept more soundly and woke up more easily
than he had done for many months before.

Before the great Mr. Dolphin quitted Chatteris, he not only made an
advantageous engagement with Miss Fotheringay, but he liberally left
with her a sum of money to pay off any debts which the little family
might have contracted during their stay in the place, and which, mainly
through the lady's own economy and management, were not considerable.
The small account with the spirit merchant, which Major Pendennis had
settled, was the chief of Captain Costigan's debts, and though the
Captain at one time talked about repaying every farthing of the money,
it never appears that he executed his menace, nor did the laws of honour
in the least call upon him to accomplish that threat.

When Miss Costigan had seen all the outstanding bills paid to the
uttermost shilling, she handed over the balance to her father, who broke
out into hospitalities to all his friends, gave the little Creeds more
apples and gingerbread than he had ever bestowed upon them, so that the
widow Creed ever after held the memory of her lodger in veneration, and
the young ones wept bitterly when he went away; and in a word managed
the