s a lemon-ice. She
told her maid, having no other confidante at hand, that she had met with
the most romantic adventure--the most singular man--one who had known
the author of her being--her persecuted--her unhappy--her heroic--her
murdered father; and she began a sonnet to his manes before she went to
sleep.

So Pen returned to Fairoaks, in company with his friend the Chevalier,
without having uttered a word of the message which he had been so
anxious to deliver to Laura at Baymouth. He could wait, however, until
her return home, which was to take place on the succeeding day. He was
not seriously jealous of the progress made by Mr. Pynsent in her
favour; and he felt pretty certain that in this, as in any other family
arrangement, he had but to ask and have, and Laura, like his mother,
could refuse him nothing.

When Helen's anxious looks inquired of him what had happened at
Baymouth, and whether her darling project was fulfilled, Pen, in a gay
tone, told of the calamity which had befallen; laughingly said, that no
man could think about declarations under such a mishap, and made light
of the matter. "There will be plenty of time for sentiment, dear mother,
when Laura comes back," he said, and he looked in the glass with a
killing air, and his mother put his hair off his forehead and kissed
him, and of course thought, for her part, that no woman could resist
him: and was exceedingly happy that day.

When he was not with her, Mr. Pen occupied himself in packing books and
portmanteaus, burning and arranging papers, cleaning his gun and putting
it into its case: in fact, in making dispositions for departure. For
though he was ready to marry, this gentleman was eager to go to London
too, rightly considering that at three-and-twenty it was quite time for
him to begin upon the serious business of life, and to set about making
a fortune as quickly as possible.

The means to this end he had already shaped out for himself. "I shall
take chambers," he said, "and enter myself at an Inn of Court. With a
couple of hundred pounds I shall be able to carry through the first year
very well; after that I have little doubt my pen will support me, as
it is doing with several Oxbridge men now in town. I have a tragedy, a
comedy, and a novel, all nearly finished, and for which I can't fail to
get a price. And so I shall be able to live pretty well, without drawing
upon my poor mother, until I have made my way at the bar. Then, some day
I