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"I know, but your heart was with the other. So is mine. It's fatal; it runs in the family, father." The boy looked so ineffably wretched that the father's heart melted still more. "I did my best, Clive," the Colonel gasped out. "I went to that villain Barnes and offered him to settle every shilling I was worth on you I did you didn't know that I'd kill myself for your sake, Clivy.
"Eh! there is plenty of time now," said the good Colonel. "I have all day long at Grey Friars, after chapel, you know. Do you know, sir, when I was a boy I used what they call to tib out and run down to a public-house in Cistercian Lane the Red Cowl sir, and buy rum there? I was a terrible wild boy, Clivy. You weren't so, sir, thank Heaven!
"And I have always felt a wish that Clivy should pay her, and he will pay her, I know he will," says the Colonel; "and then we shall lead a quiet life, Arthur; for, between ourselves, some women are the deuce when they are angry, sir." And again he laughed, as he told me this sly news, and he bowed meekly his gentle old head as we entered the dining-room.
As each saw the other's face, it was so very sad and worn and pale, that the young man started back; and the elder, with quite the tenderness of old days, cried, "God bless me, my boy, how ill you look! Come and warm yourself look, the fire's out. Have something, Clivy!" For months past they had not had a really kind word. The tender old voice smote upon Clive, and he burst into sudden tears.
He turned to his father, who still sate lost in his meditations. "You need never go back to Grey Friars, father!" he cried out. "Not go back, Clivy? Must go back, boy, to say Adsum, when my name is called. Newcome! Adsum! Hey! that is what we used to say we used to say!"
Pendennis! you saw the beef yesterday; eighteen pounds it weighed, and this is what comes up of it! As if there was not already ruin enough in the house!" "D n the beef!" cries out Clive. "No! no! Thank God for our good dinner! Benedicti benedicamus, Clivy my boy," says the Colonel, in a tremulous voice. "Swear on, sir! let the child hear your oaths!
The letter, of course, had no legal value, but Ethel was a rich woman, and insisted that the money should be sent, as from the family. The old Colonel seemed hardly to comprehend it, and when Clive told him the story of the legacy, and said they could now pay Mrs. Mackenzie, "Quite right, quite right; of course we shall pay her, Clivy, when we can!" was all he said.
Mackenzie," the Colonel replied, "Quite right, quite right," and added up the sum, principal and interest, in which they were indebted to her he knew it well enough, the good old man. "Of course we shall pay her, Clivy, when we can!" But in spite of what Clive had said he did not appear to understand the fact that the debt to Mrs. Mackenzie was now actually to be paid.
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