Perhaps he thought and wondered at the way in which women play with men, and coax them and win them and drop them.
But Mr.Bows had not the least objection to acknowledge that he thought Miss Fotheringay was perfectly right in giving up Mr.Arthur Pendennis, and that in his idea the match was always an absurd one: and Miss Costigan owned that she thought so herself, only she couldn't send away two thousand a year.

"It all comes of believing Papa's silly stories," she said; "faith I'll choose for meself another time"-- and very likely the large image of Lieutenant Sir Derby Oaks entered into her mind at that instant.
After praising Major Pendennis, whom Miss Costigan declared to be a proper gentleman entirely, smelling of lavender, and as neat as a pin,--and who was pronounced by Mr.Bows to be the right sort of fellow, though rather too much of an old buck, Mr.Foker suddenly bethought him to ask the pair to come and meet the Major that very evening at dinner at his apartment at the George.

"He agreed to dine with me, and I think after the--after the little shindy this morning, in which I must say the General was wrong, it would look kind, you know .-- I know the Major fell in love with you, Miss Foth: he said so." "So she may be Mrs.Pendennis still," Bows said with a sneer--"No, thank you, Mr.F .-- I've dined." "Sure, that was at three o'clock," said Miss Costigan, who had an honest appetite, "and I can't go without you." "We'll have lobster-salad and champagne," said the little monster, who could not construe a line of Latin, or do a sum beyond the Rule of Three.

Now, for lobster-salad and champagne in an honourable manner, Miss Costigan would have gone anywhere--and Major Pendennis actually found himself at seven o'clock seated at a dinner-table in company with Mr.Bows, a professional fiddler, and Miss Costigan, whose father had wanted to blow his brains out a few hours before.
To make the happy meeting complete, Mr.Foker, who knew Costigan's haunts, despatched Stoopid to the club at the Magpie, where the General was in the act of singing a pathetic song, and brought him off to supper.

To find his daughter and Bows seated at the board was a surprise indeed--Major Pendennis laughed, and cordially held out his hand, which the General Officer grasped avec effusion as the French say.