“Il m’a appele—Cuisinier,” hissed out the little Frenchman.
Strong could hardly help laughing. “Come away with me, poor Chevalier,” he said. “We must not quarrel before ladies. Come away; I will carry your message to Mr. Pendennis.—The poor fellow is not right in his head,” he whispered to one or two people about him;—and others, and anxious Laura’s face visible amongst these, gathered round Pen and asked the cause of the disturbance.
Pen did not know. “The man was going to give his arm to a young lady, on which I said that he was a cook, and the man called me a coward and challenged me to fight. I own I was so surprised and indignant, that if you gentlemen had not stopped me, I should have thrown him out of window,” Pen said.
“D—— him, serve him right, too,—the impudent foreign scoundrel,” the gentlemen said.
“I—I’m very sorry if I hurt his feelings, though,” Pen added and Laura was glad to hear him say that; although some of the young bucks said, “No, hang the fellow,—hang those impudent foreigners—little thrashing would do them good.”
“You will go and shake hands with him before you go to sleep—won’t you, Pen?” said Laura, coming up to him. “Foreigners may be more susceptible than we are, and have different manners. If you hurt a poor man’s feelings, I am sure you would be the first to ask his pardon. Wouldn’t you, dear Pen?”
She looked all forgiveness and gentleness, like an angel, as she spoke; and Pen took both her hands, and looked into her kind face, and said indeed he would.
“How fond that girl is of me!” he thought, as she stood gazing at him. “Shall I speak to her now? No—not now. I must have this absurd business with the Frenchman over.”
Laura asked—Wouldn’t he stop and dance with her? She was as anxious to keep him in the room, as he to quit it. “Won’t you stop and waltz with me, Pen? I’m not afraid to waltz with you.”
This was an affectionate, but an unlucky speech. Pen saw himself prostrate on the ground, having tumbled over Miss Roundle and the dragoon, and flung Blanche up against the wall—saw himself on the ground, and all the people laughing at him, Laura and Pynsent amongst them.