his own biography, but with the whole history of the family now coming
to Clavering. It was he who had made the marriage between his friend
Frank and the widow Amory. She wanted rank, and he wanted money. What
match could be more suitable? He organised it; he made those two people
happy. There was no particular romantic attachment between them; the
widow was not of an age or a person for romance, and Sir Francis, if he
had his game at billiards, and his dinner, cared for little besides.
But they were as happy as people could be. Clavering would return to his
native place and country, his wife's fortune would pay his encumbrances
off, and his son and heir would be one of the first men in the county.

"And Miss Amory?" Laura asked. Laura was uncommonly curious about Miss
Amory.

Strong laughed. "Oh, Miss Amory is a muse--Miss Amory is a mystery--Miss
Amory is a femme incomprise." "What is that?" asked simple Mrs.
Pendennis--but the Chevalier gave her no answer: perhaps could not
give her one. "Miss Amory paints, Miss Amory writes poems, Miss Amory
composes music, Miss Amory rides like Diana Vernon. Miss Amory is a
paragon, in a word."

"I hate clever women," said Pen.

"Thank you," said Laura. For her part she was sure she should be charmed
with Miss Amory, and quite longed to have such a friend. And with this
she looked Pen full in the face, as if every word the little hypocrite
said was Gospel truth.

Thus, an intimacy was arranged and prepared beforehand between the
Fairoaks family and their wealthy neighbours at the Park; and Pen and
Laura were to the full as eager for their arrival, as even the most
curious of the Clavering folks. A Londoner, who sees fresh faces and
yawns at them every day may smile at the eagerness with which country
people expect a visitor. A cockney comes amongst them, and is remembered
by his rural entertainers for years after he has left them, and
forgotten them very likely--floated far away from them on the vast
London sea. But the islanders remember long after the mariner has sailed
away, and can tell you what he said and what he wore, and how he looked
and how he laughed. In fine, a new arrival is an event in the country
not to be understood by us, who don't, and had rather not, know who
lives next door.

When the painters and upholsterers had done their work in the house, and
so beautified it, under Captain Strong's superintendence, that he might
well be proud of his taste, that gen