ly right in giving up Mr. Arthur Pendennis,
and that in his idea the match was always an absurd one: and Miss
Costigan owned that she thought so herself, only she couldn't send away
two thousand a year. "It all comes of believing Papa's silly stories,"
she said; "faith I'll choose for meself another time"--and very likely
the large image of Lieutenant Sir Derby Oaks entered into her mind at
that instant.

After praising Major Pendennis, whom Miss Costigan declared to be
a proper gentleman entirely, smelling of lavender, and as neat as a
pin,--and who was pronounced by Mr. Bows to be the right sort of fellow,
though rather too much of an old buck, Mr. Foker suddenly bethought him
to ask the pair to come and meet the Major that very evening at dinner
at his apartment at the George. "He agreed to dine with me, and I think
after the--after the little shindy this morning, in which I must say the
General was wrong, it would look kind, you know.--I know the Major fell
in love with you, Miss Foth: he said so."

"So she may be Mrs. Pendennis still," Bows said with a sneer--"No, thank
you, Mr. F.--I've dined."

"Sure, that was at three o'clock," said Miss Costigan, who had an honest
appetite, "and I can't go without you."

"We'll have lobster-salad and champagne," said the little monster,
who could not construe a line of Latin, or do a sum beyond the Rule of
Three. Now, for lobster-salad and champagne in an honourable manner,
Miss Costigan would have gone anywhere--and Major Pendennis actually
found himself at seven o'clock seated at a dinner-table in company with
Mr. Bows, a professional fiddler, and Miss Costigan, whose father had
wanted to blow his brains out a few hours before.

To make the happy meeting complete, Mr. Foker, who knew Costigan's
haunts, despatched Stoopid to the club at the Magpie, where the General
was in the act of singing a pathetic song, and brought him off to
supper. To find his daughter and Bows seated at the board was a surprise
indeed--Major Pendennis laughed, and cordially held out his hand, which
the General Officer grasped avec effusion as the French say. In fact he
was considerably inebriated, and had already been crying over his own
song before he joined the little party at the George. He burst into
tears more than once, during the entertainment, and called the Major his
dearest friend. Stoopid and Mr. Foker walked home with him: the Major
gallantly giving his arm to Miss Costigan. He was rec