What for me? cries Clive. We are no such great folks that I know of; and if we were, I say a painter is as good as a lawyer, or a doctor, or even a soldier. In Dr. Johnstons Life which my father is always reading I like to read about Sir Joshua Reynolds best: I think he is the best gentleman of all in the book. My! wouldnt I like to paint a picture like Lord Heathfield in the National Gallery! Wouldnt I just! I think I would sooner have done that, than have fought at Gibraltar. And those Three Graces oh, arent they graceful! And that Cardinal Beaufort at Dulwich! it frightens me so, I darent look at it. Wasnt Reynolds a clipper, thats all! and wasnt Rubens a brick! He was an ambassador, and Knight of the Bath; so was Vandyck. And Titian, and Raphael, and Velasquez? Ill just trouble you to show me better gentlemen than them, Uncle Charles different kinds of vibrators
Far be it from me to say that the pictorial calling is not honourable, says Uncle Charles; but as the world goes there are other professions in greater repute; and I should have thought Colonel Newcomes son different kinds of vibrators
He shall follow his own bent, said the Colonel; as long as his calling is honest it becomes a gentleman; and if he were to take a fancy to play on the fiddle actually on the fiddle I shouldnt object great vibrators
Such a rum chap there was upstairs! Clive resumes, looking up from his scribbling. He was walking up and down on the landing in a dressing-gown, with scarcely any other clothes on, holding a plate in one hand, and a pork-chop he was munching with the other. Like this (and Clive draws a figure). What do you think, sir? He was in the Cave of Harmony, he says, that night you flared up about Captain Costigan. He knew me at once; and he says, Sir, your father acted like a gentleman, a Christian, and a man of honour. Maxima debetur puero reverentia. Give him my compliments. I dont know his highly respectable name. His highly respectable name, says Clive, cracking with laughter those were his very words. And inform him that I am an orphan myself in needy circumstances he said he was in needy circumstances; and I heartily wish hed adopt me.
The lad puffed out his face, made his voice as loud and as deep as he could; and from his imitation and the picture he had drawn, I knew at once that Fred Bayham was the man he mimicked.
And does the Red Rover live here, cried Mr. Pendennis, and have we earthed him at last?
He sometimes comes here, Mr. Honeyman said with a careless manner. My landlord and landlady were butler and housekeeper to his father, Bayham of Bayham, one of the oldest families in Europe. And Mr. Frederick Bayham, the exceedingly eccentric person of whom you speak, was a private pupil of my own dear father in our happy days at Borehambury
He had scarcely spoken when a knock was heard at the door, and before the occupant of the lodgings could say Come in! Mr. Frederick Bayham made his appearance, arrayed in that peculiar costume which he affected. In those days we wore very tall stocks, only a very few poetic and eccentric persons venturing on the Byron collar; but Fred Bayham confined his neck by a simple ribbon, which allowed his great red whiskers to curl freely round his capacious jowl. He wore a black frock and a large broad-brimmed hat, and looked somewhat like a Dissenting preacher. At other periods you would see him in a green coat and a blue neckcloth, as if the turf or the driving of coaches was his occupation.