Jos went away, convinced that she was the most virtuous, as she was one

of the most fascinating of women, and revolving in his mind all sorts

of benevolent schemes for her welfare. Her persecutions ought to be

ended: she ought to return to the society of which she was an ornament.

He would see what ought to be done. She must quit that place and take

a quiet lodging. Amelia must come and see her and befriend her. He

would go and settle about it, and consult with the Major. She wept

tears of heart-felt gratitude as she parted from him, and pressed his

hand as the gallant stout gentleman stooped down to kiss hers.

So Becky bowed Jos out of her little garret with as much grace as if it

was a palace of which she did the honours; and that heavy gentleman

having disappeared down the stairs, Max and Fritz came out of their

hole, pipe in mouth, and she amused herself by mimicking Jos to them as

she munched her cold bread and sausage and took draughts of her

favourite brandy-and-water.

Jos walked over to Dobbin's lodgings with great solemnity and there

imparted to him the affecting history with which he had just been made

acquainted, without, however, mentioning the play business of the night

before. And the two gentlemen were laying their heads together and

consulting as to the best means of being useful to Mrs. Becky, while

she was finishing her interrupted dejeuner a la fourchette.

How was it that she had come to that little town? How was it that she

had no friends and was wandering about alone? Little boys at school are

taught in their earliest Latin book that the path of Avernus is very

easy of descent. Let us skip over the interval in the history of her

downward progress. She was not worse now than she had been in the days

of her prosperity--only a little down on her luck.

As for Mrs. Amelia, she was a woman of such a soft and foolish

disposition that when she heard of anybody unhappy, her heart

straightway melted towards the sufferer; and as she had never thought

or done anything mortally guilty herself, she had not that abhorrence

for wickedness which distinguishes moralists much more knowing. If she

spoiled everybody who came near her with kindness and compliments--if

she begged pardon of all her servants for troubling them to answer the

bell--if she apologized to a shopboy who showed her a piece of silk, or

made a curtsey to a street-sweeper with a complimentary remark upon

the elegant state of his crossing--and she was almost capable of every

one of these follies--the notion that an old acquaintance was

miserable was sure to soften her heart; nor would she hear of anybody's

being deservedly unhappy. A world under such legislation as hers would

not be a very orderly place of abode; but there are not many women, at

least not of the rulers, who are of her sort. This lady, I believe,

would have abolished all gaols, punishments, handcuffs, whippings,

poverty, sickness, hunger, in the world, and was such a mean-spirited

creature that--we are obliged to confess it--she could even forget a

mortal injury.




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