The History of Pendennis

by William Makepeace Thackeray

  CHAPTER XXXVIII. In which the Sylph reappears

  Better folks than Morgan, the valet, were not so well instructed asthat gentleman, regarding the amount of Lady Clavering's riches; and thelegend in London, upon her Ladyship's arrival in the polite metropolis,was, that her fortune was enormous. Indigo factories, opium clippers,banks overflowing with rupees, diamonds and jewels of native princes,and vast sums of interest paid by them for loans contracted bythemselves or their predecessors to Lady Clavering's father, werementioned as sources of her wealth. Her account at her London banker'swas positively known, and the sum embraced so many cyphers as to createas many O's of admiration in the wondering hearer. It was a known factthat an envoy from an Indian Prince, a Colonel Altamont, the Nawaub ofLucknow's prime favourite, an extraordinary man, who had, it was said,embraced Mahometanism, and undergone a thousand wild and perilousadventures was at present in this country, trying to negotiate with theBegum Clavering, the sale of the Nawaub's celebrated nose-ring diamond,'the light of the Dewan.'

  Under the title of the Begum, Lady Clavering's fame began to spread inLondon before she herself descended upon the Capital, and as it has beenthe boast of Delolme, and Blackstone, and all panegyrists of the BritishConstitution, that we admit into our aristocracy merit of every kind,and that the lowliest-born man, if he but deserve it, may wear the robesof a peer, and sit alongside of a Cavendish or a Stanley: so it ought tobe the boast of our good society, that haughty though it be, naturallyjealous of its privileges, and careful who shall be admitted into itscircle, yet, if an individual be but rich enough, all barriers areinstantly removed, and he or she is welcomed, as from his wealth hemerits to be. This fact shows our British independence and honestfeeling--our higher orders are not such mere haughty aristocrats as theignorant represent them: on the contrary, if a man have money they willhold out their hands to him, eat his dinners, dance at his balls, marryhis daughters, or give their own lovely girls to his sons, as affably asyour commonest roturier would do.

  As he had superintended the arrangements of the country mansion, ourfriend, the Chevalier Strong, gave the benefit of his taste and adviceto the fashionable London upholsterers, who prepared the town house forthe reception of the Clavering family. In the decoration of this elegantabode, honest Strong's soul rejoiced as much as if he had been himselfits proprietor. He hung and re-hung the pictures, he studied thepositions of sofas, he had interviews with wine merchants and purveyorswho were to supply the new establishment; and at the same time theBaronet's factotum and confidential friend took the opportunity offurnishing his own chambers, and stocking his snug little cellar: hisfriends complimented him upon the neatness of the former; and theselect guests who came in to share Strong's cutlet now found a bottleof excellent claret to accompany the meal. The Chevalier was now, as hesaid, "in clover:" he had a very comfortable set of rooms in Shepherd'sInn. He was waited on by a former Spanish Legionary and comrade of hiswhom he had left at a breach of a Spanish fort, and found at a crossingin Tottenham-court Road, and whom he had elevated to the rank ofbody-servant to himself and to the chum who, at present, shared hislodgings. This was no other than the favourite of the Nawaub of Lucknow,the valiant Colonel Altamont.

  No man was less curious, or at any rate, more discreet, than Ned Strong,and he did not care to inquire into the mysterious connexion which, verysoon after their first meeting at Baymouth was established between SirFrancis Clavering and the envoy of the Nawaub. The latter knew somesecret regarding the former, which put Clavering into his power,somehow; and Strong, who knew that his patron's early life had beenrather irregular, and that his career with his regiment in India had notbeen brilliant, supposed that the Colonel, who swore he knew Claveringwell at Calcutta, had some hold upon Sir Francis, to which the latterwas forced to yield. In truth, Strong had long understood Sir FrancisClavering's character, as that of a man utterly weak in purpose, inprinciple, and intellect, a moral and physical trifler and poltroon.

  With poor Clavering, his Excellency had had one or two interviews aftertheir Baymouth meeting, the nature of which conversations the Baronetdid not confide to Strong: although he sent letters to Altamont by thatgentleman, who was his ambassador in all sorts of affairs. On one ofthese occasions the Nawaub's envoy must have been in an exceeding illhumour; for he crushed Clavering's letter in his hand, and said with hisown particular manner and emphasis:--

  "A hundred, be hanged. I'll have no more letters nor no moreshilly-shally. Tell Clavering I'll have a thousand, or by Jove I'llsplit, and burst him all to atoms. Let him give me a thousand and I'llgo abroad, and I give you my honour as a gentleman, I'll not ask him forno more for a year. Give him that message from me, Strong, my boy; andtell him if the money ain't here next Friday at twelve o'clock, assure as my name's what it is, I'll have a paragraph in the newspaper onSaturday, and next week I'll blow up the whole concern."

  Strong carried back these words to his principal, on whom their effectwas such that actually on the day and hour appointed, the Chevalier madehis appearance once more at Altamont's hotel at Baymouth, with the sumof money required. Altamont was a gentleman, he said, and behaved assuch; he paid his bill at the Inn, and the Baymouth paper announced hisdeparture on a foreign tour. Strong saw him embark at Dover. "It mustbe forgery at the very least," he thought, "that has put Clavering intothis fellow's power, and the Colonel has got the bill."

  Before the year was out, however, this happy country saw the Colonelonce more upon its shores. A confounded run on the red had finishedhim, he said, at Baden Baden: no gentleman could stand against a colourcoming up fourteen times. He had been obliged to draw upon Sir FrancisClavering for means of returning home: and Clavering, though pressed formoney (for he had election expenses, had set up his establishment in thecountry and was engaged in furnishing his London house), yet found meansto accept Colonel Altamont's bill, though evidently very much againsthis will; for in Strong's hearing, Sir Francis wished to heaven, withmany curses, that the Colonel could have been locked up in a debtor'sgoal in Germany for life, so that he might never be troubled again.

  These sums for the Colonel Sir Francis was obliged to raise without theknowledge of his wife; for though perfectly liberal, nay, sumptuous inher expenditure, the good lady had inherited a tolerable aptitude forbusiness along with the large fortune of her father, Snell, and gaveto her husband only such a handsome allowance as she thought befitteda gentleman of his rank. Now and again she would give him a present,or pay an outstanding gambling debt; but she always exacted a prettyaccurate account of the moneys so required; and respecting the subsidiesto the Colonel, Clavering fairly told Strong that he couldn't speak tohis wife.

  Part of Mr. Strong's business in life was to procure this money andother sums, for his patron. And in the Chevalier's apartments, inShepherd's Inn, many negotiations took place between gentlemen of themoneyed world and Sir Francis Clavering, and many valuable bank-notesand pieces of stamped paper were passed between them. When a man hasbeen in the habit of getting in debt from his early youth, and ofexchanging his promises to pay at twelve months against present sumsof money, it would seem as if no piece of good fortune ever permanentlybenefited him: a little while after the advent of prosperity, themoney-lender is pretty certain to be in the house again, and the billswith the old signature in the market. Clavering found it more convenientto see these gentry at Strong's lodgings than at his own; and such wasthe Chevalier's friendship for the Baronet that although he did notpossess a shilling of his own, his name might be seen as the drawer ofalmost all the bills of exchange which Sir Francis Clavering accepted.Having drawn Clavering's bills, he got them discounted "in the City."When they became due he parleyed with the bill-holders, and gavethem instalments of their debt, or got time in exchange for freshacceptances. Regularly or irregularly, gentlemen must live somehow:and as we read how, the other day, at Comorn, the troops forming thatgarrison were gay and lively, acted plays, danced at balls, and consumedtheir rations; though menaced with an assault from the enemy with
out thewalls, and with a gallows if the Austrians were successful,--so thereare hundreds of gallant spirits in this town, walking about in goodspirits, dining every day in tolerable gaiety and plenty, and going tosleep comfortably; with a bailiff always more or less near, and arope of debt round their necks--the which trifling inconveniences, NedStrong, the old soldier, bore very easily.

  But we shall have another opportunity of making acquaintance with theseand some other interesting inhabitants of Shepherd's Inn, and in themeanwhile are keeping Lady Clavering and her friends too long waiting onthe door-steps of Grosvenor Place.

  First they went into the gorgeous dining-room, fitted up, Lady Claveringcouldn't for goodness gracious tell why, in the middle-aged style,"unless," said her good-natured ladyship, laughing, "because me andClavering are middle-aged people;"--and here they were offered thecopious remains of the luncheon of which Lady Clavering and Blanche hadjust partaken. When nobody was near, our little Sylphide, who scarcelyate at dinner more than the six grains of rice of Amina, the friend ofthe Ghouls in the Arabian Nights, was most active with her knife andfork, and consumed a very substantial portion of mutton cutlets: inwhich piece of hypocrisy it is believed she resembled other young ladiesof fashion. Pen and his uncle declined the refection, but they admiredthe dining-room with fitting compliments, and pronounced it "verychaste," that being the proper phrase. There were, indeed, high-backedDutch chairs of the seventeenth century; there was a sculptured carvedbuffet of the sixteenth; there was a sideboard robbed out of the carvedwork of a church in the Low Countries, and a large brass cathedral lampover the round oak table; there were old family portraits from WardourStreet and tapestry from France, bits of armour, double-handed swordsand battle-axes made of carton-pierre, looking-glasses, statuettes ofsaints, and Dresden china--nothing, in a word, could be chaster. Behindthe dining-room was the library, fitted with busts and books all ofa size, and wonderful easy-chairs, and solemn bronzes in the severeclassic style. Here it was that, guarded by double doors, Sir Francissmoked cigars, and read Bell's Life in London, and went to sleep afterdinner, when he was not smoking over the billiard-table at his clubs, orpunting at the gambling-houses in Saint James's.

  But what could equal the chaste splendour of the drawing-rooms?--thecarpets were so magnificently fluffy that your foot made no more noiseon them than your shadow: on their white ground bloomed roses and tulipsas big as warming-pans: about the room were high chairs and low chairs,bandy-legged chairs, chairs so attenuated that it was a wonder any buta sylph could sit upon them, marquetterie-tables covered with marvellousgimcracks, china ornaments of all ages and countries, bronzes, giltdaggers, Books of Beauty, yataghans, Turkish papooshes and boxes ofParisian bonbons. Wherever you sate down there were Dresden shepherdsand shepherdesses convenient at your elbow; there were, moreover, lightblue poodles and ducks and cocks and hens in porcelain; there werenymphs by Boucher, and shepherdesses by Greuze, very chaste indeed;there were muslin curtains and brocade curtains, gilt cages withparroquets and love-birds, two squealing cockatoos, each out-squealingand out-chattering the other; a clock singing tunes on a console-table,and another booming the hours like Great Tom, on the mantelpiece--therewas, in a word, everything that comfort could desire, and the mostelegant taste devise. A London drawing-room, fitted up without regardto expense, is surely one of the noblest and most curious sights of thepresent day. The Romans of the Lower Empire, the dear Marchionesses andCountesses of Louis XV., could scarcely have had a finer taste than ourmodern folks exhibit; and everybody who saw Lady Clavering's receptionrooms, was forced to confess that they were most elegant; and that theprettiest rooms in London--Lady Harley Quin's, Lady Hanway Wardour's,or Mrs. Hodge-Podgson's own; the great Railroad Croesus' wife, were notfitted up with a more consummate "chastity."

  Poor Lady Clavering, meanwhile, knew little regarding these things, andhad a sad want of respect for the splendours around her. "I only knowthey cost a precious deal of money, Major," she said to her guest, "andthat I don't advise you to try one of them gossamer gilt chairs: I camedown on one the night we gave our second dinner-party. Why didn't youcome and see us before? We'd have asked you to it."

  "You would have liked to see Mamma break a chair, wouldn't you, Mr.Pendennis?" dear Blanche said with a sneer. She was angry because Penwas talking and laughing with Mamma, because Mamma had made a number ofblunders in describing the house--for a hundred other good reasons.

  "I should like to have been by to give Lady Clavering my arm if she hadneed of it," Pen answered, with a bow and a blush.

  "Quel preux Chevalier!" cried the Sylphide, tossing up her little head.

  "I have a fellow-feeling with those who fall, remember," Pen said. "Isuffered myself very much from doing so once."

  "And you went home to Laura to console you," said Miss Amory. Penwinced. He did not like the remembrance of the consolation which Laurahad given to him, nor was he very well pleased to find that his rebuffin that quarter was known to the world; so as he had nothing to say inreply, he began to be immensely interested in the furniture round abouthim, and to praise Lady Clavering's taste with all his might.

  "No, don't praise me," said honest Lady Clavering, "it's all theupholsterer's doings and Captain Strong's, they did it all while wewas at the Park--and--and--Lady Rockminster has been here and says thesalongs are very well," said Lady Clavering, with an air and tone ofgreat deference.

  "My cousin Laura has been staying with her," Pen said.

  "It's not the dowager: it is the Lady Rockminster."

  "Indeed!" cried Major Pendennis, when he heard this great name offashion. "If you have her ladyship's approval, Lady Clavering, youcannot be far wrong. No, no, you cannot be far wrong. Lady Rockminster,I should say, Arthur, is the very centre of the circle of fashion andtaste. The rooms are beautiful indeed!" and the Major's voice hushedas he spoke of this great lady, and he looked round and surveyed theapartments awfully and respectfully, as if he had been at church.

  "Yes, Lady Rockminster has took us up," said Lady Clavering.

  "Taken us up, Mamma," cried Blanche, in a shrill voice.

  "Well, taken us up, then," said my lady; "it's very kind of her, andI dare say we shall like it when we git used to it, only at first onedon't fancy being took--well, taken up, at all. She is going to giveour balls for us; and wants to invite all our dinners. But I won't standthat. I will have my old friends and I won't let her send all the cardsout, and sit mum at the head of my own table. You must come to me,Arthur and Major--come, let me see, on the 14th.--It ain't one of ourgrand dinners, Blanche," she said, looking round at her daughter, whobit her lips and frowned very savagely for a sylphide.

  The Major, with a smile and a bow, said he would much rather come to aquiet meeting than to a grand dinner. He had had enough of those largeentertainments, and preferred the simplicity of the home circle.

  "I always think a dinner's the best the second day," said LadyClavering, thinking to mend her first speech. "On the 14th we'll bequite a snug little party;" at which second blunder, Miss Blancheclasped her hands in despair, and said "O, mamma, vous etesincorrigible." Major Pendennis vowed that he liked snug dinners of allthings in the world, and confounded her ladyship's impudence for daringto ask such a man as him to a second day's dinner. But he was a man ofan economical turn of mind, and bethinking himself that he could throwover these people if anything better should offer, he accepted withthe blandest air. As for Pen, he was not a diner-out of thirty years'standing as yet, and the idea of a fine feast in a fine house was stillperfectly welcome to him.

  "What was that pretty little quarrel which engaged itself between yourworship and Miss Amory?" the Major asked of Pen, as they walked awaytogether. "I thought you used to au mieux in that quarter."

  "Used to be," answered Pen, with a dandified air "is a vague phraseregarding a woman. Was and is are two very different terms, sir, asregards women's hearts especially.

  "Egad, they change as we do," cried the elder. "When we took the Cape ofGood Hope
, I recollect there was a lady who talked poisoning herself foryour humble servant; and, begad, in three months she ran away from herhusband with somebody else. Don't get yourself entangled with that MissAmory, She is forward, affected, and under-bred; and her character issomewhat--never mind what. But don't think of her; ten thousand poundwon't do for you. What, my good fellow, is ten thousand pound? I wouldscarcely pay that girl's milliner's bill with the interest of themoney."

  "You seem to be a connoisseur in millinery, Uncle" Pen said.

  "I was, sir, I was," replied the senior; "and the old war-horse, youknow, never hears the sound of a trumpet, but he begins to he, he!--youunderstand,"--and he gave a killing and somewhat superannuated leer andbow to a carriage that passed them and entered the Park.

  "Lady Catherine Martingale's carriage" he said "mons'ous fine girlsthe daughters, though, gad, I remember their mother a thousandtimes handsomer. No, Arthur, my dear fellow, with your person andexpectations, you ought to make a good coup in marriage some day orother; and though I wouldn't have this repeated at Fairoaks, you rogue,ha! ha! a reputation for a little wickedness, and for being an hommedangereux, don't hurt a young fellow with the women. They like it, sir,they hate a milksop--young men must be young men, you know. But formarriage," continued the veteran moralist, "that is a very differentmatter. Marry a woman with money. I've told you before it is as easy toget a rich wife as a poor one; and a doosed deal more comfortable to sitdown to a well-cooked dinner, with your little entrees nicely served,than to have nothing but a damned cold leg of mutton between you andyour wife. We shall have a good dinner on the 14th, when we dine withSir Francis Clavering: stick to that, my boy, in your relations with thefamily. Cultivate 'em, but keep 'em for dining. No more of your youthfulfollies and nonsense about love in a cottage."

  "It must be a cottage with a double coach-house, a cottage of gentility,sir," said Pen, quoting the hackneyed ballad of the Devil's Walk: buthis Uncle did not know that poem (though, perhaps, he might beleading Pen upon the very promenade in question), and went on with hisphilosophical remarks, very much pleased with the aptness of the pupilto whom he addressed them. Indeed Arthur Pendennis was a clever fellow,who took his colour very readily from his neighbour, and found theadaptation only too easy.

  Warrington, the grumbler, growled out that Pen was becoming such a puppythat soon there would be no bearing him. But the truth is, the youngman's success and dashing manners pleased his elder companion. He likedto see Pen gay and spirited, and brimful of health, and life, andhope; as a man who has long since left off being amused with clown andharlequin, still gets a pleasure in watching a child at a pantomime.Mr. Pen's former sulkiness disappeared with his better fortune: and hebloomed as the sun began to shine upon him.