When he sees the cottage the next time, it is smiling in sunset; those
bedroom windows are open where the light was burning the night before;
and Pen's tenant, Captain Stokes, of the Bombay Artillery, (whose
mother, old Mrs. Stokes, lives in Clavering), receives his landlord's
visit with great cordiality: shows him over the grounds and the new
pond he has made in the back-garden from the stables; talks to him
confidentially about the roof and chimneys, and begs Mr. Pendennis to
name a day when he will do himself and Mrs. Stokes the pleasure to,
&c. Pen, who has been a fortnight in the country, excuses himself for
not having called sooner upon the captain by frankly owning that he
had not the heart to do it. "I understand you, sir," the captain says;
and Mrs. Stokes who had slipped away at the ring of the bell (how odd
it seemed to Pen to ring the bell!) comes down in her best gown,
surrounded by her children. The young ones clamber about Stokes: the
boy jumps into an arm-chair.
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