 was too young as
yet for women's society, which probably can only be had in perfection when a man
has ceased to think about his own person, and has given up all designs of being
a conqueror of ladies; he was too young to be admitted as an equal amongst men
who had made their mark in the world, and of whose conversation he could
scarcely as yet expect to be more than a listener. And he was too old for the
men of pleasure of his own age; too much a man of pleasure for the men of
business; destined, in a word, to be a good deal alone. Fate awards this lot of
solitude to many a man; and many like it from taste, as many without difficulty
bear it. Pendennis, in reality, suffered it very equanimously; but in words, and
according to his wont, grumbled over it not a little.
    »What a nice little artless creature that was,« Mr. Pen thought at the very
instant of waking after the Vauxhall affair; »what a pretty natural manner she
has; how much pleasanter than the minauderies of the young ladies in the
ball-rooms!« (and here he recalled to himself some instances of what he could
not help seeing was the artful simplicity of Miss Blanche, and some of the
stupid graces of other young ladies in the polite world); »who could have
thought that such a pretty rose could grow in a porter's lodge, or bloom in that
dismal old flower-pot of a Shepherd's Inn? So she learns to sing from old Bows?
If her singing voice is as sweet as her speaking voice, it must be pretty. I
like those low voilées voices. What would you like me to call you? indeed. Poor
little Fanny! It went to my heart to adopt the grand air with her, and tell her
to call me sir. But we'll have no nonsense of that sort - no Faust and Margaret
business for me. That old Bows! So he teaches her to sing, does he? He's a dear
old fellow, old Bows; a gentleman in those old clothes; a philosopher, and with
a kind heart, too. How good he was to me in the Fotheringay business. He, too,
has had his griefs and his sorrows. I must cultivate old Bows. A man ought to
see people of all sorts. I am getting tired of genteel society. Besides, there's
nobody in town. Yes, I'll go and see Bows, and Costigan
