As all this narrative is taken from Pen's own confessions, so that the
reader may be assured of the truth of every word of it, and as Pen
himself never had any accurate notion of the manner in which he spent his
money, and plunged himself in much deeper pecuniary difficulties, during
his luckless residence at Oxbridge University, it is, of course,
impossible for me to give any accurate account of his involvements,
beyond that general notion of his way of life, which has been sketched a
few pages back. He does not speak too hardly of the roguery of the
university tradesmen, or of those in London whom he honoured with his
patronage at the outset of his career. Even Finch, the money-lender, to
whom Bloundell introduced him, and with whom he had various transactions,
in which the young rascal's signature appeared upon stamped paper,
treated him, according to Pen's own account, with forbearance, and never
mulcted him of more than a hundred per cent. The old college-cook, his
fervent admirer, made him a private bill, offered to send him in dinners
up to the very last, and never would have pressed his account to his
dying day.
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