limit posts per page

I changed the first line of my code to this and it worked to limit the posts

 $allcats = get_categories(array('child_of' => get_query_var('cat'), 'number' => 3,'order'=> 'asc')); 

Now on to the next problem…Pagination

Hata!: SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'divattrend_liink'@'localhost' (using password: YES)