into a book. Do you
know, sir, that I felt the very greatest desire to give him a kiss when he went
away? and that one which you had just now was intended for him.«
    »Take back thy gift, false girl!« says Mr. Pendennis; and then, finally, we
come to the particular circumstance which had occasioned so much enthusiasm on
Mrs. Laura's part.
    Colonel Newcome had summoned heart of grace, and in Clive's behalf had
regularly proposed him to Barnes as a suitor to Ethel - taking an artful
advantage of his nephew Barnes Newcome, and inviting that Baronet to a private
meeting, where they were to talk about the affairs of the Bundelcund Banking
Company.
    Now this Bundelcund Banking Company, in the Colonel's eyes, was in reality
his son Clive. But for Clive there might have been a hundred banking companies
established, yielding a hundred per cent. in as many districts of India, and
Thomas Newcome, who had plenty of money for his own wants, would never have
thought of speculation. His desire was to see his boy endowed with all the
possible gifts of fortune. Had he built a palace for Clive, and been informed
that a roc's egg was required to complete the decoration of the edifice, Tom
Newcome would have travelled to the world's end in search of the wanting
article. To see Prince Clive ride in a gold coach with a princess beside him was
the kind old Colonel's ambition; that done, he would be content to retire to a
garret in the prince's castle, and smoke his cheroot there in peace. So the
world is made. The strong and eager covet honour and enjoyment for themselves;
the gentle and disappointed (once they may have been strong and eager too)
desire these gifts for their children. I think Clive's father never liked or
understood the lad's choice of a profession. He acquiesced in it, as he would in
any of his son's wishes; but not being a poet himself, he could not see the
nobility of that calling, and felt secretly that his son was demeaning himself
by pursuing the art of painting. »Had he been a soldier, now,« thought Thomas
Newcome, »(though I prevented that), had he been richer than he is, he might
have married Ethel, instead of being unhappy, as he now is, God help him! I
remember my own time of grief well enough, and what years it took before my
wound was scarred over.«
    So