He made the sacrifice, and it was the greater that few knew the extent of
it. His letters came down franked from town, and he showed the
invitations to Helen with a sigh. It was beautiful and tragical to see
him refuse one party after another--at least to those who could
understand, as Helen didn't, the melancholy grandeur of his self-denial.
Helen did not, or only smiled at the awful pathos with which the Major
spoke of the Court Guide in general: but young Pen looked with great
respect at the great names upon the superscriptions of his uncle's
letters, and listened to the Major's stories about the fashionable world
with constant interest and sympathy.

The elder Pendennis's rich memory was stored with thousands of these
delightful tales, and he poured them into Pen's willing ear with
unfailing eloquence. He knew the name and pedigree of everybody in the
Peerage, and everybody's relations. "My dear boy," he would say, with a
mournful earnestness and veracity, "you cannot begin your genealogical
studies too early; I wish to Heavens you would read in Debrett every day.
Not so much the historical part (for the pedigrees, between ourselves,
are many of them very fabulous, and there are few families that can show
such a clear descent as our own) as the account of family alliances, and
who is related to whom. I have known a man's career in life blasted by
ignorance on this important, this all-important subject. Why, only last
month, at dinner at my Lord Hobanob's, a young man, who has lately been
received among us, young Mr. Suckling (author of a work, I believe),
began to speak lightly of Admiral Bowser's conduct for ratting to
Ministers, in what I must own is the most audacious manner. But who do
you think sate next and opposite to this Mr. Suckling? Why--why, next to
him was Lady Grampound Bowser's daughter, and opposite to him was Lord
Grampound Bowser's son-in-law. The infatuated young man went on cutting