he was all that a fond mother could wish--these incidents and
reminiscences so agitated Lady Anne Newcome, that she, for her part,
went off in a series of hysterical fits, and acted as one distraught:
her second daughter screamed in sympathy with her and Miss Newcome had
to take the command of the whole of this demented household, hysterical
mamma and sister, mutineering servants, and shrieking abandoned nursery,
and bring young people and old to peace and quiet.

On the morrow after his little concussion Sir Barnes Newcome came home,
not much hurt in body, but woefully afflicted in temper, and venting his
wrath upon everybody round about him in that strong language which he
employed when displeased; and under which his valet, his housekeeper,
his butler, his farm-bailiff, his lawyer, his doctor, his dishevelled
mother herself--who rose from her couch and her sal-volatile to fling
herself round her dear boy's knees--all had to suffer. Ethel Newcome,
the Baronet's sister, was the only person in his house to whom Sir
Barnes did not utter oaths or proffer rude speeches. He was afraid of
offending her or encountering that resolute spirit, and lapsed into a
surly silence in her presence. Indistinct maledictions growled about Sir
Barnes's chair when he beheld my wife's pony-carriage drive up; and he
asked what brought her here? But Ethel sternly told her brother that
Mrs. Pendennis came at her particular request, and asked him whether he
supposed anybody could come into that house for pleasure now, or for any
other motive but kindness? Upon which, Sir Barnes fairly burst out into
tears, intermingled with execrations against his enemies and his own
fate, and assertions that he was the most miserable beggar alive. He
would not see his children: but with more tears he would implore Ethel
never to leave them, and, anon, would ask what he should do when she
married, and he was left alone in that infernal house?

T. Potts, Esq., of the Newcome Independent, used to say afterwards
that the Baronet was in the direst terror of another meeting with Lord
Highgate, and kept a policeman at the lodge-gate, and a second in the
kitchen, to interpose in event of a collision. But Mr. Potts made this
statement in after days, when the quarrel between his party and paper
and Sir Barnes Newcome was flagrant. Five or six days after the meeting
of the two rivals in Newcome market-place, Sir Barnes received a letter
from the friend of Lord Highgate, i