llars at Fairoaks, he hinted that Messrs. B. and L. might send in his
university account for wine at the same time with the Fairoaks bill.
The poor widow was frightened at the amount. But Pen laughed at her
old-fashioned views, said that the bill was moderate, that everybody
drank claret and champagne now, and, finally, the widow paid, feeling
dimly that the expenses of her household were increasing considerably,
and that her narrow income would scarce suffice to meet them. But
they were only occasional. Pen merely came home for a few weeks at the
vacation. Laura and she might pinch when he was gone. In the brief time
he was with them, ought they not to make him happy?

Arthur's own allowances were liberal all this time; indeed, much more
so than those of the sons of far more wealthy men. Years before, the
thrifty and affectionate John Pendennis, whose darling project it had
ever been to give his son a university education, and those advantages
of which his own father's extravagance had deprived him, had begun
laying by a store of money which he called Arthur's Education Fund. Year
after year in his book his executors found entries of sums vested as A.
E. F., and during the period subsequent to her husband's decease, and
before Pen's entry at college, the widow had added sundry sums to
this fund, so that when Arthur went up to Oxbridge it reached no
inconsiderable amount. Let him be liberally allowanced, was Major
Pendennis's maxim. Let him make his first entree into the world as a
gentleman, and take his place with men of good rank and station: after
giving it to him, it will be his own duty to hold it. There is no such
bad policy as stinting a boy--or putting him on a lower allowance than
his fellows. Arthur will have to face the world and fight for himself
presently. Meanwhile we shall have procured for him good friends,
gentlemanly habits, and have him well backed and well trained against
the time when the real struggle comes. And these liberal opinions the
Major probably advanced both because they were just, and because he was
not dealing with his own money.

Thus young Pen, the only son of an estated country gentleman, with a
good allowance, and a gentlemanlike bearing and person, looked to be
a lad of much more consequence than he was really; and was held by the
Oxbridge authorities, tradesmen, and undergraduates, as quite a young
buck and member of the aristocracy. His manner was frank, brave, and
perhaps a lit