ndish now, but on which was written Sir Barnes Newcome's
reply to his cousin's polite invitation. Sir Barnes Newcome wrote, "that
he thought a reference to a friend was quite unnecessary, in the most
disagreeable and painful dispute in which Mr. Clive desired to interfere
as a principal; that the reasons which prevented Sir Barnes from taking
notice of Colonel Newcome's shameful and ungentlemanlike conduct applied
equally, as Mr. Clive Newcome very well knew, to himself; that if
further insult was offered, or outrage attempted, Sir Barnes should
resort to the police for protection; that he was about to quit London,
and certainly should not delay his departure on account of Mr. Clive
Newcome's monstrous proceedings; and that he desired to take leave of
an odious subject, as of an individual whom he had striven to treat
with kindness, but from whom, from youth upwards, Sir Barnes Newcome had
received nothing but insolence, enmity, and ill-will."

"He is an ill man to offend," remarked Mr. Pendennis. "I don't think he
has ever forgiven that claret, Clive."

"Pooh! the feud dates from long before that," said Clive; "Barnes wanted
to lick me when I was a boy, and I declined: in fact, I think he had
rather the worst of it; but then I operated freely on his shins, and
that wasn't fair in war, you know."

"Heaven forgive me," cries the Colonel; "I have always felt the fellow
was my enemy: and my mind is relieved now war is declared. It has been
a kind of hypocrisy with me to shake his hand and eat his dinner. When
I trusted him it was against my better instinct; and I have been
struggling against it these ten years, thinking it was a wicked
prejudice, and ought to be overcome."

"Why should we overcome such instincts?" asks Mr. Warrington. "Why
shouldn't we hate what is hateful in people and scorn what is mean? From
what friend Pen has described to me, and from some other accounts which
have come to my ears, your respectable nephew is about as loathsome
a little villain as crawls on the earth. Good seems to be out of his
sphere, and away from his contemplation. He ill-treats every one he
comes near; or, if, gentle to them, it is that they may serve some base
purpose. Since my attention has been drawn to the creature, I have been
contemplating his ways with wonder and curiosity. How much superior
Nature's rogues are, Pen, to the villains you novelists put into your
books! This man goes about his life business with a natural p