said, in the abbey church of Clavering St. Mary's. A fair marble slab,
from which the above inscription is copied, was erected over the
Fairoaks' pew in the church. On it you may see the Pendennis coat of
arms, and crest, an eagle looking towards the sun, with the motto 'nec
tenui penna,' to the present day. Doctor Portman alluded to the deceased
most handsomely and affectingly, as "our dear departed friend," in his
sermon next Sunday; and Arthur Pendennis reigned in his stead.




CHAPTER III

In which Pendennis appears as a very young Man indeed


Arthur was about sixteen years old, we have said, when he began to reign;
in person (for I see that the artist who is to illustrate this book, and
who makes sad work of the likeness, will never be able to take my friend
off) he had what his friends would call a dumpy, but his mamma styled a
neat little figure. His hair was of a healthy brown colour, which looks
like gold in the sunshine, his face was round, rosy, freckled, and
good-humoured, his whiskers (when those facial ornaments for which he
sighed so ardently were awarded to him by nature) were decidedly of a
reddish hue; in fact, without being a beauty, he had such a frank,
good-natured kind face, and laughed so merrily at you out of his honest
blue eyes, that no wonder Mrs. Pendennis thought him the pride of the
whole county. Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen he rose from five
feet six to five feet eight inches in height, at which altitude he
paused. But his mother wondered at it. He was three inches taller than