“Don’t know the bill, know Abrams quite well, sir.”
“I wish you would find out about it for me. And I wish you would find out where I can see Sir Francis Clavering, Morgan.”
And Morgan said, “Thank you, sir, yes, sir, I will, sir;” and retired from the room, as he had entered it, with his usual stealthy respect and quiet humility; leaving the Major to muse and wonder over what he had just heard.
The next morning the valet informed Major Pendennis that he had seen Mr. Abrams; what was the amount of the bill that gentleman was desirous to negotiate; and that the Baronet would be sure to be in the back-parlour of the Wheel of Fortune Tavern that day at one o’clock.
To this appointment Sir Francis Clavering was punctual, and as at one o’clock he sate in the parlour of the tavern in question, surrounded by spittoons, Windsor chairs, cheerful prints of boxers, trotting horses, and pedestrians, and the lingering of last night’s tobacco fumes—as the descendant of an ancient line sate in this delectable place accommodated with an old copy of Bell’s Life in London, much blotted with beer, the polite Major Pendennis walked into the apartment.
“So it’s you, old boy?” asked the Baronet, thinking that Mr. Moss Abrams had arrived with the money.
“How do you do, Sir Francis Clavering? I wanted to see you, and followed you here,” said the Major, at sight of whom the other’s countenance fell.
Now that he had his opponent before him, the Major was determined to make a brisk and sudden attack upon him, and went into action at once. “I know,” he continued, “who is the exceedingly disreputable person for whom you took me, Clavering; and the errand which brought you here.”
“It ain’t your business, is it?” asked the Baronet, with a sulky and deprecatory look. “Why are you following me about and taking the command, and meddling in my affairs, Major Pendennis? I’ve never done you any harm, have I? I’ve never had your money. And I don’t choose to be dodged about in this way, and domineered over. I don’t choose it, and I won’t have it. If Lady Clavering has any proposal to make to me, let it be done in the regular way, and through the lawyers. I’d rather not have you.”
“I am not come from Lady Clavering,” the Major said, “but of my own accord, to try and remonstrate with you, Clavering, and see if you can be kept from ruin. It is but a month ago that you swore on your honour, and wanted to get a Bible to strengthen the oath, that you would accept no more bills, but content yourself with the allowance which Lady Clavering gives you. All your debts were paid with that proviso, and you have broken it; this Mr. Abrams has a bill of yours for sixty pounds.”