Every soul in the coach agreed that on that night Jos would propose to

make Rebecca Sharp Mrs. Sedley. The parents at home had acquiesced in

the arrangement, though, between ourselves, old Mr. Sedley had a

feeling very much akin to contempt for his son. He said he was vain,

selfish, lazy, and effeminate. He could not endure his airs as a man

of fashion, and laughed heartily at his pompous braggadocio stories.

"I shall leave the fellow half my property," he said; "and he will

have, besides, plenty of his own; but as I am perfectly sure that if

you, and I, and his sister were to die to-morrow, he would say 'Good

Gad!' and eat his dinner just as well as usual, I am not going to make

myself anxious about him. Let him marry whom he likes. It's no affair

of mine."

Amelia, on the other hand, as became a young woman of her prudence and

temperament, was quite enthusiastic for the match. Once or twice Jos

had been on the point of saying something very important to her, to

which she was most willing to lend an ear, but the fat fellow could not

be brought to unbosom himself of his great secret, and very much to his

sister's disappointment he only rid himself of a large sigh and turned

away.

This mystery served to keep Amelia's gentle bosom in a perpetual

flutter of excitement. If she did not speak with Rebecca on the tender

subject, she compensated herself with long and intimate conversations

with Mrs. Blenkinsop, the housekeeper, who dropped some hints to the

lady's-maid, who may have cursorily mentioned the matter to the cook,

who carried the news, I have no doubt, to all the tradesmen, so that

Mr. Jos's marriage was now talked of by a very considerable number of

persons in the Russell Square world.

It was, of course, Mrs. Sedley's opinion that her son would demean

himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter. "But, lor', Ma'am,"

ejaculated Mrs. Blenkinsop, "we was only grocers when we married Mr.

S., who was a stock-broker's clerk, and we hadn't five hundred pounds

among us, and we're rich enough now." And Amelia was entirely of this

opinion, to which, gradually, the good-natured Mrs. Sedley was brought.

Mr. Sedley was neutral. "Let Jos marry whom he likes," he said; "it's

no affair of mine. This girl has no fortune; no more had Mrs. Sedley.

She seems good-humoured and clever, and will keep him in order,

perhaps. Better she, my dear, than a black Mrs. Sedley, and a dozen of

mahogany grandchildren."

So that everything seemed to smile upon Rebecca's fortunes. She took

Jos's arm, as a matter of course, on going to dinner; she had sate by

him on the box of his open carriage (a most tremendous "buck" he was,

as he sat there, serene, in state, driving his greys), and though

nobody said a word on the subject of the marriage, everybody seemed to

understand it. All she wanted was the proposal, and ah! how Rebecca

now felt the want of a mother!--a dear, tender mother, who would have

managed the business in ten minutes, and, in the course of a little

delicate confidential conversation, would have extracted the

interesting avowal from the bashful lips of the young man!




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024