Vanity Fair - Page 126/573

Miss Crawley and Briggs in a word, after the affair of Sir Pitt,

indulged in the utmost luxury of sentiment, and Rebecca became an

object of the most tender interest to them. In her absence Miss

Crawley solaced herself with the most sentimental of the novels in her

library. Little Sharp, with her secret griefs, was the heroine of the

day.

That night Rebecca sang more sweetly and talked more pleasantly than

she had ever been heard to do in Park Lane. She twined herself round

the heart of Miss Crawley. She spoke lightly and laughingly of Sir

Pitt's proposal, ridiculed it as the foolish fancy of an old man; and

her eyes filled with tears, and Briggs's heart with unutterable pangs

of defeat, as she said she desired no other lot than to remain for ever

with her dear benefactress. "My dear little creature," the old lady

said, "I don't intend to let you stir for years, that you may depend

upon it. As for going back to that odious brother of mine after what

has passed, it is out of the question. Here you stay with me and

Briggs. Briggs wants to go to see her relations very often. Briggs,

you may go when you like. But as for you, my dear, you must stay and

take care of the old woman."

If Rawdon Crawley had been then and there present, instead of being at

the club nervously drinking claret, the pair might have gone down on

their knees before the old spinster, avowed all, and been forgiven in a

twinkling. But that good chance was denied to the young couple,

doubtless in order that this story might be written, in which numbers

of their wonderful adventures are narrated--adventures which could

never have occurred to them if they had been housed and sheltered under

the comfortable uninteresting forgiveness of Miss Crawley.

Under Mrs. Firkin's orders, in the Park Lane establishment, was a young

woman from Hampshire, whose business it was, among other duties, to

knock at Miss Sharp's door with that jug of hot water which Firkin

would rather have perished than have presented to the intruder. This

girl, bred on the family estate, had a brother in Captain Crawley's

troop, and if the truth were known, I daresay it would come out that

she was aware of certain arrangements, which have a great deal to do

with this history. At any rate she purchased a yellow shawl, a pair of

green boots, and a light blue hat with a red feather with three guineas

which Rebecca gave her, and as little Sharp was by no means too liberal

with her money, no doubt it was for services rendered that Betty Martin

was so bribed.

On the second day after Sir Pitt Crawley's offer to Miss Sharp, the sun

rose as usual, and at the usual hour Betty Martin, the upstairs maid,

knocked at the door of the governess's bedchamber.