actually tried 'em on Mrs. Hobbler, sir--who brought him sixty thousand
pounds. I suppose you've tried verses, eh, Pen?"

Pen blushed again, and said, "Why, yes, he had written verses."

"And does the fair one respond in poetry or prose?" asked the Major,
eyeing his nephew with the queerest expression, as much as to say, "O
Moses and Green Spectacles! what a fool the boy is."

Pen blushed again. She had written, but not in verse, the young lover
owned, and he gave his breast-pocket the benefit of a squeeze with his
left arm, which the Major remarked, according to his wont.

"You have got the letters there, I see," said the old campaigner,
nodding at Pen and pointing to his own chest (which was manfully wadded
with cotton by Mr. Stultz). "You know you have. I would give twopence to
see 'em."

"Why," said Pen, twiddling the stalks of the strawberries, "I--I,"
but this sentence never finished; for Pen's face was so comical and
embarrassed, as the Major watched it, that the elder could contain his
gravity no longer, and burst into a fit of laughter, in which chorus
Pen himself was obliged to join after a minute: when he broke out fairly
into a guffaw.

It sent them with great good-humour into Mrs. Pendennis's drawing-room.
She was pleased to hear them laughing in the hall as they crossed it.

"You sly rascal!" said the Major, putting his arm gaily on Pen's
shoulder, and giving a playful push at the boy's breast-pocket. He
felt the papers crackling there sure enough. The young fellow was
delighted--conceited--triumphant--and in one word, a spoony.

The pair came to the tea-table in the highest spirits. The Major's
politeness was beyond expression. He had never tasted such good tea, and
such bread was only to be had in the country. He asked Mrs. Pendennis
for one of her charming songs. He then made Pen sing, and was delighted
and astonished at the beauty of the boy's voice: he made his nephew
fetch his maps and drawings, and praised them as really remarkable
works of talent in a young fellow: he complimented him on his French
pronunciation: he flattered the simple boy as adroitly as ever lover
flattered a mistress: and when bedtime came, mother and son went to
their several rooms perfectly enchanted with the kind Major.

When they had reached those apartments, I suppose Helen took to her
knees as usual: and Pen read over his letters before going to bed: just
as if he didn't know every word of them by heart already.