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The History of Pendennis: Francis

Now comes on the scene Sir Francis Clavering, Bart., who opens Clavering Park, which has long been closed. The papers a few years before announced his marriage with the rich widow of the late J. Amory, Esquire, from India. He brings Lady Clavering, her daughter Miss Blanche Amory, a young lady, and his son and heir, little Frank Clavering. Blanche has fair hair, dark eyebrows, long black lashes veiling brown eyes, slim figure, small feet, and constant smiles showing sweet pearly teeth and deep dimples. Sir Francis himself is a weak creature, a gambler, fond of low company, and rapidly wasting his wife's property with constant demands on her generosity. Lady Clavering, a good, kind soul, illiterate and murdering the King's English, is hardly more fortunate in her second marriage than in her first with the sailor and convict Amory. Shadowing the Claverings is a mysterious Colonel Altamont, with a strange influence over Sir Francis and a power to get money from him, despite the baronet's lack of ready cash.

Pen becomes enamoured of Blanche, writes her love poems, and meanwhile she leads him on, only to drop him again for any one with better prospects. When thus dropped, Pen offers himself to Laura, but in a half-hearted way. Laura replies, "When next you offer yourself, do not say as you have done to me, 'I have no heart--I do not love you; but I am ready to marry you because my mother wishes for the match.'" After Laura's refusal, Pen tires of the country and goes to London to study law. He settles in chambers at the Lamb Court Temple and makes a friend of and rooms with George Warrington, an older graduate of "Oxbridge." In London Pen leads a life not of study, but of joviality, though not of vice. He is too lofty to stoop to vulgar intrigue. When reduced to his last few pounds, Pen, by Warrington's help, gets a poem accepted in a magazine, is given books to review, becomes a contributor to the new Pall Mall Gazette, writes the popular novel Walter Lorraine and becomes well off and well known. His uncle is proud of him, gets him invitations to dine in high society, and introduces him, among other celebrities, to the great Duke of Wellington.

One night, the mysterious Colonel Altamont, half drunk, forces his way into the Clavering dining-room in London and Major Pendennis recognizes him as an Indian acquaintance. Soon after this, he urges Pen to marry for money, saying, " It is as easy to get a rich wife as a poor one," and encourages him to court Miss Blanche Amory. Somehow the Major persuades Sir Francis to give up his seat in Parliament in favor of Pen and to arrange for a large dowry for Miss Blanche. Finally, in lieu of any better prospect, she accepts Pen. The secret of Colonel Altamont's influence over Sir Francis becomes public property and reaches Pen's ears, for Altamont is none other than Amory, the husband of Lady Clavering. He was reported to have died, but in reality is alive. This makes the Clavering marriage invalid and Miss Amory heir to the fortune instead of young Frank. Pen then refuses to benefit by the fortune or to take the seat in Parliament, and writes Blanche he is still willing to marry her, though he admits he does not love her deeply. Later, when he calls, he finds his old schoolmate, Foker, rich through his father's death, now installed in Miss Blanche's affections. Still, the fair Blanche confidentially confesses to Pen that she would prefer him if he could lay aside his "absurd scruples." This he refuses to do, so the Foker and Amory wedding is arranged. Then Pen, freed from this mercenary alliance, finds his heart all the while was really devoted to Laura, so he proposes to her in earnest and this time is accepted. Foker in turn finds by accident the secret of Amory's survival, and, what is worse, that Blanche knew and yet concealed it from him. For this lack of confidence he leaves the fickle Blanche, so that there is only one wedding at Clavering and that not at the baronet's hall. It turns out that Altamont, alias Amory, already had a wife living when he went through the form of marriage with the future Lady Clavering; so, after all, Sir Francis and she are legally husband and wife.

Sir Francis reforms. Miss Blanche goes abroad and marries in Paris a count with doubtful title. Pen is elected to Parliament on his own merits, the new railroad buys some of Pen's lands and greatly increases the value of the rest, so he is well off and most happy with the adorable, high-minded, and devoted Laura.