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The History of Pendennis by William Makepeace Thackeray
page 75 of 1146 (06%)
sheriff's officer, who took him, was fond of him.

In his brief morning of life, Cos formed the delight of regimental
messes, and had the honour of singing his songs, bacchanalian and
sentimental, at the tables of the most illustrious generals and
commanders-in-chief, in the course of which period he drank three times
as much claret as was good for him, and spent his doubtful patrimony.
What became of him subsequently to his retirement from the army, is no
affair of ours. I take it, no foreigner understands the life of an Irish
gentleman without money, the way in which he manages to keep afloat--the
wind-raising conspiracies, in which he engages with heroes as unfortunate
as himself--the means by which he contrives, during most days of the
week, to get his portion of whisky-and-water: all these are mysteries to
us inconceivable: but suffice it to say, that through all the storms of
life Jack had floated somehow, and the lamp of his nose had never gone
out.

Before he and Pen had had a half-hour's conversation, the Captain managed
to extract a couple of sovereigns from the young gentleman for tickets
for his daughter's benefit, which was to take place speedily; and was not
a bona fide transaction such as that of the last year, when poor Miss
Fotheringay had lost fifteen shillings by her venture; but was an
arrangement with the manager, by which the lady was to have the sale of a
certain number of tickets, keeping for herself a large portion of the sum
for which they were sold.

Pen had but two pounds in his purse, and he handed them over to the
Captain for the tickets; he would have been afraid to offer more lest he
should offend the latter's delicacy. Costigan scrawled him an order for a
box, lightly slipped the sovereigns into his waistcoat, and slapped his
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