ive had drawn our baby there and its mother in a great variety of
attitudes), and gazes at his sketch of his dear old father: but of him
she never says a word."

"So it is best," says Mr. Pendennis.

"Yes--best," echoes Laura, with a sigh.

"You think, Laura," continues the husband, "you think she----"

"She what?" What did Mr. Pendennis mean? Laura his wife certainly
understood him, though upon my conscience the sentence went no
further--for she answered at once:

"Yes--I think she certainly did, poor boy! But that, of course, is over
now: and Ethel, though she cannot help being a worldly woman, has such
firmness and resolution of character, that if she has once determined to
conquer any inclination of that sort I am sure she will master it, and
make Lord Farintosh a very good wife."

"Since the Colonel's quarrel with Sir Barnes," cries Mr. Pendennis,
adverting by a natural transition from Ethel to her amiable brother,
"our banking friend does not invite us any more: Lady Clara sends you no
cards. I have a great mind to withdraw my account."

Laura, who understands nothing about accounts, did not perceive the
fine irony of this remark: but her face straightway put on the severe
expression which it chose to assume whenever Sir Barnes's family was
mentioned, and she said, "My dear, I am very glad indeed that Lady Clara
sends us no more of her invitations. You know very well why I disliked
them."

"Why?"

"I hear baby crying," says Laura. Oh, Laura, Laura! how could you tell
your husband such a fib?--and she quits the room without deigning to
give any answer to that "Why?"

Let us pay a brief visit to Newcome in the north of England, and there
we may get some answer to the question of which Mr. Pendennis had
just in vain asked a reply from his wife. My design does not include a
description of that great and flourishing town of Newcome, and of
the manufactures which caused its prosperity; but only admits of the
introduction of those Newcomites who are concerned in the affairs of the
family which has given its respectable name to these volumes.

Thus in previous pages we have said nothing about the Mayor and
Corporation of Newcome the magnificent bankers and manufacturers who had
their places of business in the town, and their splendid villas outside
its smoky precincts; people who would give their thousand guineas for a
picture or a statue, and write you off a cheque for ten times the amount
any day; people w