d the wrongs she had received at the hands
of that gentleman; mentioned the vast sums of money out of which she and
her soul's darling had been tricked by that poor muddle-headed creature,
to say no worse of him; and described finally their present pressing
need. The doctors, the burial, Rosey's delicate condition, the cost of
sweetbreads, calf's-foot jelly, and cod-liver oil, were again passed in
a rapid calculation before me; and she ended her speech by expressing
her gratification that I had attended to her advice of the previous day,
and not given Clive Newcome a direct loan; that the family wanted it,
the Campaigner called upon Heaven to witness; that Clive and his absurd
poor father would fling guineas out of the window was a fact equally
certain; the rest of the argument was obvious, namely, that Mr.
Pendennis should administer a donation to herself.

I had brought but a small sum of money in my pocket-book, though Mrs.
Mackenzie, intimate with bankers, and having, thank Heaven, in spite of
all her misfortunes, the utmost confidence of all her tradesmen, hinted
a perfect willingness on her part to accept an order upon her friends,
Hobson Brothers of London.

This direct thrust I gently and smilingly parried by asking Mrs.
Mackenzie whether she supposed a gentleman who had just paid an
electioneering bill, and had, at the best of times, but a very small
income, might sometimes not be in a condition to draw satisfactorily
upon Messrs. Hobson or any other bankers? Her countenance fell at this
remark, nor was her cheerfulness much improved by the tender of one of
the two bank-notes which then happened to be in my possession. I said
that I had a use for the remaining note, and that it would not be more
than sufficient to pay my hotel bill, and the expenses of my party back
to London.

My party? I had here to divulge, with some little trepidation, the plan
which I had been making overnight; to explain how I thought that Clive's
great talents were wasted at Boulogne, and could only find a proper
market in London; how I was pretty certain, through my connection with
booksellers, to find some advantageous employment for him, and would
have done so months ago had I known the state of the case; but I had
believed, until within a very few days since, that the Colonel, in spite
of his bankruptcy, was still in the enjoyment of considerable military
pensions.

This statement, of course, elicited from the widow a number of r