nd devise untiring
charities:--so I would have you to know, that, though Mr. Pendennis was
parcus suorum cultor et infrequens, Mrs. Laura found plenty of time to
go from Westminster to Bloomsbury; and to pay visits to her Colonel and
her Clive, both of whom she had got to love with all her heart again,
now misfortune was on them; and both of whom returned her kindness with
an affection blessing the bestower and the receiver; and making the
husband proud and thankful whose wife had earned such a noble regard.
What is the dearest praise of all to a man? his own--or that you should
love those whom he loves? I see Laura Pendennis ever constant and tender
and pure, ever ministering in her sacred office of kindness--bestowing
love and followed by blessings. Which would I have, think you; that
priceless crown hymeneal, or the glory of a Tenth Edition?

Clive and his father had found not only a model friend in the lady above
mentioned, but a perfect prize landlady in their happy lodgings. In
her house, besides those apartments which Mr. Newcome had originally
engaged, were rooms just sufficient to accommodate his wife, child, and
servant, when they should come to him, with a very snug little upper
chamber for the Colonel, close by Boy's nursery, where he liked best to
be. "And if there is not room for the Campaigner, as you call her," says
Mrs. Laura, with a shrug of her shoulders, "why, I am very sorry, but
Clive must try and bear her absence as well as possible. After all, my
dear Pen, you know he is married to Rosa and not to her mamma; and so,
and so I think it will be quite best that they shall have their menage
as before."

The cheapness of the lodgings which the prize landlady let, the quantity
of neat new furniture which she put in, the consultations which she had
with my wife regarding these supplies, were quite singular to me. "Have
you pawned your diamonds, you reckless little person, in order to supply
all this upholstery?" "No, sir, I have not pawned my diamonds," Mrs.
Laura answers; and I was left to think (if I thought on the matter at
all) that the landlady's own benevolence had provided these good things
for Clive. For the wife of Laura's husband was perforce poor; and she
asked me for no more money at this time than at any other.

At first, in spite of his grumbling, Clive's affairs looked so
prosperous, and so many sitters came to him from amongst his old
friends, that I was half inclined to believe with th