now we ought, perhaps, to describe another scene which took place at
Fairoaks, between the widow and Laura, when the latter had to tell Helen
that she had refused Arthur Pendennis. Perhaps it was the hardest task
of all which Laura had to go through in this matter: and the one which
gave her the most pain. But as we do not like to see a good woman
unjust, we shall not say a word more of the quarrel which now befell
between Helen and her adopted daughter, or of the bitter tears which the
poor girl was made to shed. It was the only difference which she and the
widow had ever had as yet, and the more cruel from this cause. Pen left
home whilst it was as yet pending--and Helen, who could pardon almost
everything, could not pardon an act of justice in Laura.

CHAPTER XXIX. Babylon

Our reader must now please to quit the woods and sea-shore of the
west, and the gossip of Clavering, and the humdrum life of poor little
Fairoaks, and transport himself with Arthur Pendennis, on the 'Alacrity'
coach, to London, whither he goes once for all to face the world and to
make his fortune. As the coach whirls through the night away from the
friendly gates of home, many a plan does the young man cast in his mind
of future life and conduct, prudence, and peradventure success and fame.
He knows he is a better man than many who have hitherto been ahead of
him in the race: his first failure has caused him remorse, and brought
with it reflection; it has not taken away his courage, or, let us add,
his good opinion of himself. A hundred eager fancies and busy hopes
keep him awake. How much older his mishaps and a year's thought and
self-communion have made him, than when, twelve months since, he passed
on this road on his way to and from Oxbridge! His thoughts turn in the
night with inexpressible fondness and tenderness towards the fond mother
who blessed him when parting, and who, in spite of all his past faults
and follies, trusts him and loves him still. Blessings be on her! he
prays, as he looks up to the stars overhead. O Heaven! give him strength
to work, to endure, to be honest, to avoid temptation, to be worthy of
the loving soul who loves him so entirely! Very likely she is awake,
too, at that moment, and sending up to the same Father purer prayers
than his for the welfare of her boy. That woman's love is a talisman by
which he holds and hopes to get his safety. And Laura's--he would have
fain carried her affection with him too,