not know why--could there be any better reason?
There was a tone about Sir Barnes Newcome she did not like--especially
in his manner to women.

I remarked that he spoke sharply and in a sneering manner to his wife,
and treated one or two remarks which she made as if she was an idiot.

Mrs. Pendennis flung up her head as much as to say, "and so she is."

Mr. Pendennis. What, the wife too, my dear Laura! I should have thought
such a pretty, simple, innocent young woman, with just enough good looks
to make her pass muster, who is very well bred and not brilliant at
all,--I should have thought such a one might have secured a sister's
approbation.

Mrs. Pendennis. You fancy we are all jealous of one another. No protests
of ours can take that notion out of your heads. My dear Pen, I do not
intend to try. We are not jealous of mediocrity: we are not patient
of it. I dare say we are angry because we see men admire it so. You
gentlemen, who pretend to be our betters, give yourselves such airs of
protection, and profess such a lofty superiority over us, prove it by
quitting the cleverest woman in the room for the first pair of bright
eyes and dimpled cheeks that enter. It was those charms which attracted
you in Lady Clara, sir.

Pendennis. I think she is very pretty, and very innocent, and artless.

Mrs. P. Not very pretty, and perhaps not so very artless.

Pendennis. How can you tell, you wicked woman? Are you such a profound
deceiver yourself, that you can instantly detect artifice in others? O
Laura!

Mrs. P. We can detect all sorts of things. The inferior animals have
instincts, you know. (I must say my wife is always very satirical upon
this point of the relative rank of the sexes.) One thing I am sure of
is, that she is not happy; and oh, Pen! that she does not care much for
her little girl.

Pendennis. How do you know that, my dear?

Mrs. P. We went upstairs to see the child after dinner. It was at my
wish. The mother did not offer to go. The child was awake and crying.
Lady Clara did not offer to take it. Ethel--Miss Newcome took it, rather
to my surprise, for she seems very haughty; and the nurse, who I suppose
was at supper, came running up at the noise, and then the poor little
thing was quiet.

Pendennis. I remember we heard the music as the dining-room door
was open; and Newcome said, "That is what you will have to expect,
Pendennis."

Mrs. P. Hush, sir! If my baby cries, I think you must expect me to