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still in an amorous rapture with his wife, who rewarded him with a kiss by way of reply, and was indeed not a little gratified by the generous confidence of her husband.

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If he had but a little more brains,' she thought to herself, 'I might make something of him;' but she never let him perceive the opinion she had of him; listened with indefatigable complacency to his stories of the stable and the mess; laughed at all his jokes; felt the greatest interest in Jack Spatterdash, whose cab-horse had come down, and Bob Martingale, who had been taken up in a gamblinghouse, and Tom Cinqbars, who was going to ride the steeplechase. When he came home she was alert and happy : when he went out she pressed him to go: when he stayed at home, she played and sang for him, made him good drinks, superintended his dinner, warmed his slippers, and steeped his soul in comfort. The best of women (I have heard my grandmother say) are hypocrites. We don't know how much they hide from us: how watchful they are when they seem most artless and confidential: how often those frank smiles which they wear so easily, are traps to cajole or elude or disarm-I don't mean in your mere coquettes, but your domestic models, and paragons of female virtue. Who has not seen a woman hide the dullness of a stupid husband, or coax the fury of a savage one? We accept this amiable slavishness, and praise a woman for it: we call this pretty treachery truth. A good housewife is of necessity a humbug; and Cornelia's husband was hoodwinked, as Potiphar was-only in a different way.

By these attentions that veteran rake, Rawdon Crawley, found himself converted into a very happy and submissive married man. His former haunts knew him not. They asked about him once or twice at his clubs, but did not miss him much in those booths of Vanity Fair people seldom do miss each other. His secluded wife ever smiling and cheerful, his little comfortable lodgings, snug meals, and homely evenings, had all the charms of novelty and secrecy. The marriage was not yet declared to the world, or published in the Morning Post. All his creditors would have come rushing on him in a body, had they known that he was united to a woman without fortune. My relations won't cry fie upon me,' Becky said, with rather a bitter laugh; and she was quite contented to wait until the old aunt should be reconciled, before she claimed her place in society. So she

lived at Brompton, and meanwhile saw no one, or only those few of her husband's male companions who were admitted into her little dining-room. These were all charmed with her. The little dinners, the laughing and chatting, the music afterwards, delighted all who participated in these enjoyments. Major Martingale never thought about asking to see the marriage licence. Captain Cinqbars was perfectly enchanted with her skill in making punch. And young Lieutenant Spatterdash (who was fond of piquet, and whom Crawley would often invite) was evidently and quickly smitten by Mrs. Crawley; but her own circumspection and modesty never forsook her for a moment, and Crawley's reputation as a fire-eating and jealous warrior, was a further and complete defence to his little wife.

There are gentlemen of very good blood and fashion in this city who never have entered a lady's drawing-room; so that though Rawdon Crawley's marriage might be talked about in his county, where, of course, Mrs. Bute had spread the news, in London it was doubted, or not heeded, or not talked about at all. He lived comfortably on credit. He had a large capital of debts, which, laid out judiciously, will carry a man along for many years, and on which certain men about town contrive to live a hundred times better than even men with ready money can do. Indeed who is there that walks London streets, but can point out a halfdozen of men riding by him splendidly, while he is on foot, courted by fashion, bowed into their carriages by tradesmen, denying themselves nothing, and living on who knows what? We see Jack Thriftless prancing in the Park, or darting in his brougham down Pall Mall: we eat his dinners served on his miraculous plate. 'How did this begin,' we say, 'or where will it end?' 'My dear fellow,' I heard Jack once say, ' I owe money in every capital in Europe.' The end must come some day, but in the mean time Jack thrives as much as ever; people are glad enough to shake him by the hand, ignore the little dark stories that are whispered every now and then against him, and pronounce him a good-natured, jovial, reckless fellow.

Truth obliges us to confess that Rebecca had married a gentleman of this order. Everything was plentiful in his house but ready money, of which their ménage pretty early felt the want; and reading the Gazette one day, and coming upon the announcement of Lieutenant G. Osborne

to be captain by purchase, vice Smith, who exchanges,' Rawdon uttered that sentiment regarding Amelia's lover, which ended in the visit to Russell Square.

When Rawdon and his wife wished to communicate with Captain Dobbin at the sale, and to know particulars of the catastrophe which had befallen Rebecca's old acquaintances, the captain had vanished; and such information as they got was from a stray porter or broker at the auction.

Look at them with their hooked beaks,' Becky said, getting into the buggy, her picture under her arm in great glee. They're like vultures after a battle.'

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'Don't know. Never was in action, my dear. Ask Martingale; he was in Spain, aide de camp to General Blazes.'

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He was a very kind old man, Mr. Sedley,' Rebecca said; 'I'm really sorry he's gone wrong.'

'Oh,

stockbrokers-bankrupts-used to it, you know.' Rawdon replied, cutting a fly off the horse's ear.

'I wish we could have afforded some of the plate, Rawdon,' the wife continued sentimentally. 'Five-and-twenty guineas was monstrously dear for that little piano. We chose it at Broadwood's for Amelia, when she came from school. It only cost five-and-thirty then.'

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What-d'ye-call-'em-" Osborne "will cry off now, I suppose, since the family is smashed. How cut up your pretty little friend will be; hey, Becky?'

'I dare say she'll recover it,' Becky said, with a smileand they drove on and talked about something else.

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CHAPTER XVIII

WHO PLAYED ON THE PIANO CAPTAIN DOBBIN BOUGHT?

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UR surprised story now finds
itself for a moment among very
famous events and personages,
and hanging on to the skirts
of history. When the eagles
of Napoleon Bonaparte, the
Corsican upstart, were flying
from Provence, where they had
perched after a brief sojourn in
Elba, and from steeple to steeple
until they reached the towers of
Notre Dame, I wonder whether
the Imperial birds had any eye
for a little corner of the parish

of Bloomsbury, London, which you might have thought
so quiet, that even the whirring and flapping of those
mighty wings would pass unobserved there?

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Napoleon has landed at Cannes.' Such news might create a panic at Vienna, and cause Russia to drop his cards, and take Prussia into a corner, and Talleyrand and Metternich to wag their heads together, while Prince Hardenberg, and even the present Marquis of Londonderry, were puzzled; but how was this intelligence to affect a young lady in Russell Square, before whose door the watchman sang the hours when she was asleep who, if she strolled in the square, was guarded there by the railings and the beadle: who, if she walked ever so short a distance to buy a ribbon in Southampton Row, was followed by black Sambo with an enormous cane who was always cared for, dressed, put to bed, and watched over by ever so many guardian angels, with and without wages. Bon Dieu, I say, is it not hard that the fateful rush of the great Imperial struggle can't take place without affecting a poor little harmless girl of eighteen, who is occupied in billing and cooing, or working muslin collars in Russell Square? You, too, kindly, homely flower!-is the great roaring war tempest coming to sweep you down, here,

although cowering under the shelter of Holborn? Yes Napoleon is flinging his last stake, and poor little Emm Sedley's happiness forms, somehow, part of it.

In the first place, her father's fortune was swept dow with that fatal news. All his speculations had of late gon wrong with the luckless old gentleman. Ventures ha failed; merchants had broken; funds had risen when h calculated they would fall. What need to particularize If success is rare and slow, everybody knows how quic and easy ruin is. Old Sedley had kept his own sad counse Everything seemed to go on as usual in the quiet, opulen house; the good-natured mistress pursuing, quite un suspiciously, her bustling idleness, and daily easy avoca tions; the daughter absorbed still in one selfish, tende thought, and quite regardless of all the world besides when that final crash came, under which the worthy family fell.

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One night Mrs. Sedley was writing cards for a party; the Osbornes had given one, and she must not be behindhand; John Sedley, who had come home very late from the City, sat silent at the chimney side, while his wife was prattling to him; Emmy had gone up to her room ailing and lowspirited. She's not happy,' the mother went on. George Osborne neglects her. I've no patience with the airs of those people. The girls have not been in the house these three weeks; and George has been twice in town without coming. Edward Dale saw him at the opera. Edward would marry her, I'm sure: and there's Captain Dobbin who, I think, would-only I hate all army men. Such a dandy as George has become. With his military airs, indeed! We must show some folks that we're as good as they. Only give Edward Dale any encouragement, and you'll see. We must have a party, Mr. S. Why don't you speak, John? Shall I say Tuesday fortnight? Why don't you answer? Good God, John, what has happened?' John Sedley sprang up out of his chair to meet his wife, who ran to him. He seized her in his arms, and said, with a hasty voice, We're ruined, Mary. We've got the world to begin over again, dear. It's best that you should know all, and at once.' As he spoke, he trembled in every limb, and almost fell. He thought the news would have overpowered his wife-his wife, to whom he had never said a hard word. But it was he that was the most moved,

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