ed in his passion for Miss
Fotheringay, and the cavity of which he afterwards used for other
purposes than to insert his baits and fishing-cans in. The truth is,
be converted this tree into a post-office. Under a piece of moss and a
stone, he used to put little poems, or letters equally poetical, which
were addressed to a certain Undine, or Naiad who frequented the stream,
and which, once or twice, were replaced by a receipt in the shape of a
flower, or by a modest little word or two of acknowledgment, written
in a delicate hand, in French or English, and on pink scented paper.
Certainly, Miss Amory used to walk by this stream, as we have seen; and
it is a fact that she used pink scented paper for her correspondence.
But after the great folks had invaded Clavering Park, and the family
coach passed out of the lodge-gates, evening after evening, on their way
to the other great country houses, nobody came to fetch Pen's letters at
the post-office; the white paper was not exchanged for the pink, but lay
undisturbed under its stone and its moss, whilst the tree was reflected
into the stream, and the Brawl went rolling by. There was not much in
the letters certainly; in the pink notes scarcely anything--merely a
little word or two, half jocular, half sympathetic, such as might be
written by any young lady. But oh, you silly Pendennis, if you wanted
this one, why did you not speak? Perhaps neither party was in earnest.
You were only playing at being in love, and the sportive little Undine
was humouring you at the same play.

But if a man is baulked at this game, he not unfrequently loses his
temper; and when nobody came any more for Pen's poems, he began to look
upon those compositions in a very serious light. He felt almost tragical
and romantic again, as in his first affair of the heart:--at any rate
he was bent upon having an explanation. One day he went to the Hall and
there was a roomful of visitors: on another, Miss Amory was not to be
seen; she was going to a ball that night, and was lying down to take a
little sleep. Pen cursed balls, and the narrowness of his means, and
the humility of his position in the country that caused him to be passed
over by the givers of these entertainments. On a third occasion, Miss
Amory was in the garden, and he ran thither; she was walking there in
state with no less personages than the Bishop and Bishopess of Chatteris
and the episcopal family, who scowled at him, and drew up in great
d