The Duke of Saint
David's, whom I have the honour of knowing, always sings in the country,
and let me tell you, it has a doosed fine effect from the family pew. And
you are somebody down here. As long as the Claverings are away you are
the first man in the parish: and as good as any. You might represent the
town if you played your cards well. Your poor dear father would have done
so had he lived; so might you.--Not if you marry a lady, however amiable,
whom the country people won't meet.--Well, well: it's a painful subject.
Let us change it, my boy." But if Major Pendennis changed the subject
once he recurred to it a score of times in the day: and the moral of his
discourse always was, that Pen was throwing himself away. Now it does not
require much coaxing or wheedling to make a simple boy believe that he is
a very fine fellow.
Pen took his uncle's counsels to heart. He was glad enough, we have said,
to listen to his elder's talk. The conversation of Captain Costigan
became by no means pleasant to him, and the idea of that tipsy old
father-in-law haunted him with terror.
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