Vanity Fair - Page 494/573

Amelia seeing this propensity, laughingly encouraged it and looked

exceedingly roguish as she administered to him cup after cup. It is

true she did not know that the Major had had no dinner and that the

cloth was laid for him at the Slaughters', and a plate laid thereon to

mark that the table was retained, in that very box in which the Major

and George had sat many a time carousing, when she was a child just

come home from Miss Pinkerton's school.

The first thing Mrs. Osborne showed the Major was Georgy's miniature,

for which she ran upstairs on her arrival at home. It was not half

handsome enough of course for the boy, but wasn't it noble of him to

think of bringing it to his mother? Whilst her papa was awake she did

not talk much about Georgy. To hear about Mr. Osborne and Russell

Square was not agreeable to the old man, who very likely was

unconscious that he had been living for some months past mainly on the

bounty of his richer rival, and lost his temper if allusion was made to

the other.

Dobbin told him all, and a little more perhaps than all, that had

happened on board the Ramchunder, and exaggerated Jos's benevolent

dispositions towards his father and resolution to make him comfortable

in his old days. The truth is that during the voyage the Major had

impressed this duty most strongly upon his fellow-passenger and

extorted promises from him that he would take charge of his sister and

her child. He soothed Jos's irritation with regard to the bills which

the old gentleman had drawn upon him, gave a laughing account of his

own sufferings on the same score and of the famous consignment of wine

with which the old man had favoured him, and brought Mr. Jos, who was

by no means an ill-natured person when well-pleased and moderately

flattered, to a very good state of feeling regarding his relatives in

Europe.

And in fine I am ashamed to say that the Major stretched the truth so

far as to tell old Mr. Sedley that it was mainly a desire to see his

parent which brought Jos once more to Europe.

At his accustomed hour Mr. Sedley began to doze in his chair, and then

it was Amelia's opportunity to commence her conversation, which she did

with great eagerness--it related exclusively to Georgy. She did not

talk at all about her own sufferings at breaking from him, for indeed,

this worthy woman, though she was half-killed by the separation from

the child, yet thought it was very wicked in her to repine at losing

him; but everything concerning him, his virtues, talents, and

prospects, she poured out. She described his angelic beauty; narrated

a hundred instances of his generosity and greatness of mind whilst

living with her; how a Royal Duchess had stopped and admired him in

Kensington Gardens; how splendidly he was cared for now, and how he had

a groom and a pony; what quickness and cleverness he had, and what a

prodigiously well-read and delightful person the Reverend Lawrence Veal

was, George's master. "He knows EVERYTHING," Amelia said. "He has the

most delightful parties. You who are so learned yourself, and have

read so much, and are so clever and accomplished--don't shake your head

and say no--HE always used to say you were--you will be charmed with

Mr. Veal's parties. The last Tuesday in every month. He says there is

no place in the bar or the senate that Georgy may not aspire to. Look

here," and she went to the piano-drawer and drew out a theme of

Georgy's composition. This great effort of genius, which is still in

the possession of George's mother, is as follows: On Selfishness--Of all the vices which degrade the human character,

Selfishness is the most odious and contemptible. An undue love of Self

leads to the most monstrous crimes and occasions the greatest

misfortunes both in States and Families. As a selfish man will

impoverish his family and often bring them to ruin, so a selfish king

brings ruin on his people and often plunges them into war.