"The finest young fellow in the regiment," he continued. "Not a braver
or handsomer officer in the army; and such a charming wife! How you
would like her! how you will like her when you know her, Miss
Osborne." The young lady thought the actual moment had arrived, and
that Dobbin's nervousness which now came on and was visible in many
twitchings of his face, in his manner of beating the ground with his
great feet, in the rapid buttoning and unbuttoning of his frock-coat,
&c.--Miss Osborne, I say, thought that when he had given himself a
little air, he would unbosom himself entirely, and prepared eagerly to
listen. And the clock, in the altar on which Iphigenia was situated,
beginning, after a preparatory convulsion, to toll twelve, the mere
tolling seemed as if it would last until one--so prolonged was the
knell to the anxious spinster.
"But it's not about marriage that I came to speak--that is that
marriage--that is--no, I mean--my dear Miss Osborne, it's about our
dear friend George," Dobbin said.
"About George?" she said in a tone so discomfited that Maria and Miss
Wirt laughed at the other side of the door, and even that abandoned
wretch of a Dobbin felt inclined to smile himself; for he was not
altogether unconscious of the state of affairs: George having often
bantered him gracefully and said, "Hang it, Will, why don't you take
old Jane? She'll have you if you ask her. I'll bet you five to two she
will."
"Yes, about George, then," he continued. "There has been a difference
between him and Mr. Osborne. And I regard him so much--for you know
we have been like brothers--that I hope and pray the quarrel may be
settled. We must go abroad, Miss Osborne. We may be ordered off at a
day's warning. Who knows what may happen in the campaign? Don't be
agitated, dear Miss Osborne; and those two at least should part
friends."
"There has been no quarrel, Captain Dobbin, except a little usual scene
with Papa," the lady said. "We are expecting George back daily. What
Papa wanted was only for his good. He has but to come back, and I'm
sure all will be well; and dear Rhoda, who went away from here in sad
sad anger, I know will forgive him. Woman forgives but too readily,
Captain."
"Such an angel as YOU I am sure would," Mr. Dobbin said, with atrocious
astuteness. "And no man can pardon himself for giving a woman pain.
What would you feel, if a man were faithless to you?"
"I should perish--I should throw myself out of window--I should take
poison--I should pine and die. I know I should," Miss cried, who had
nevertheless gone through one or two affairs of the heart without any
idea of suicide.