Pendennis treated him with the
greatest skill and tenderness. In a word, he got the good graces of the
Codlingbury family, and from that day began to prosper. The good company
of Bath patronised him, and amongst the ladies especially he was beloved
and admired. First his humble little shop became a smart one: then he
discarded the selling of tooth-brushes and perfumery, as unworthy of a
gentleman of an ancient lineage: then he shut up the shop altogether, and
only had a little surgery attended by a genteel young man: then he had a
gig with a man to drive him; and, before her exit from this world, his
poor old mother had the happiness of seeing from her bedroom window to
which her chair was rolled, her beloved John step into a close carriage
of his own, a one-horse carriage it is true, but with the arms of the
family of Pendennis handsomely emblazoned on the panels. "What would
Arthur say now?" she asked, speaking of a younger son of hers--"who never
so much as once came to see my dearest Johnny through all the time of his
poverty and struggles!"
"Captain Pendennis is with his regiment in India, mother," Mr.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33