roused him--and said, "Awake, Pendennis, I am here." That charming fever
--that delicious longing--and fire, and uncertainty; he hugged them to
him--be would not have lost them for all the world.




CHAPTER VI

Contains both Love and War


Cicero and Euripides did not occupy Mr. Pen much for some time after
this, and honest Mr. Smirke had a very easy time with his pupil. Rebecca
was the animal who suffered most in the present state of Pen's mind, for,
besides those days when he could publicly announce his intention of going
to Chatteris to take a fencing-lesson, and went thither with the
knowledge of his mother, whenever he saw three hours clear before him,
the young rascal made a rush for the city, and found his way to Prior's
Lane. He was as frantic with vexation when Rebecca went lame, as Richard
at Bosworth, when his horse was killed under him: and got deeply into the
books of the man who kept the hunting-stables at Chatteris for the
doctoring of his own, and the hire of another animal.

Then, and perhaps once in a week, under pretence of going to read a Greek
play with Smirke, this young reprobate set off so as to be in time for
the Competitor down coach, stayed a couple of hours in Chatteris, and
returned on the Rival which left for London at ten at night. Once his
secret was nearly lost by Smirke's simplicity, of whom Mrs. Pendennis
asked whether they had read a great deal the night before, or a question