 was out of himself that the passion had
gone; it did not reside in her. She was the same; but the eyes which saw her
were changed, and, alas that it should be so! were not particularly eager to see
her any more. He felt very well disposed towards the little thing, and so forth;
but as for violent personal regard, such as he had but a few weeks ago, it had
fled under the influence of the pill and lancet, which had destroyed the fever
in his frame. And an immense source of comfort and gratitude it was to Pendennis
(though there was something selfish in that feeling, as in most others of our
young man), that he had been enabled to resist temptation at the time when the
danger was greatest, and had no particular cause of self-reproach as he
remembered his conduct towards the young girl. As from a precipice down which he
might have fallen, so from the fever from which he had recovered he reviewed the
Fanny Bolton snare, now that he had escaped out of it; but I'm not sure that he
was not ashamed of the very satisfaction which he experienced. It is pleasant,
perhaps, but it is humiliating to own that you love no more.
    Meanwhile the kind smiles and tender watchfulness of the mother at his
bedside filled the young man with peace and security. To see that health was
returning, was all the unwearied nurse demanded; to execute any caprice or order
of her patient's, her chiefest joy and reward. He felt himself environed by her
love, and thought himself almost as grateful for it as he had been when weak and
helpless in childhood.
    Some misty notions regarding the first part of his illness, and that Fanny
had nursed him, Pen may have had; but they were so dim that he could not realize
them with accuracy, or distinguish them from what he knew to be delusions which
had occurred and were remembered during the delirium of his fever. So as he had
not thought proper on former occasions to make any allusions about Fanny Bolton
to his mother, of course he could not now confide to her his sentiments
regarding Fanny, or make this worthy lady a confidante. It was on both sides an
unlucky precaution and want of confidence, and a word or two in time might have
spared the good lady, and those connected with her, a deal of pain and anguish.
    Seeing Miss Bolton installed as nurse and tender to Pen, I am sorry to say
Mrs. Pendennis had put the worst construction on the fact of the intimacy of
these two
