Of all the other articles which Mr. Hammerdown had the honour to offer

for public competition that day it is not our purpose to make mention,

save of one only, a little square piano, which came down from the upper

regions of the house (the state grand piano having been disposed of

previously); this the young lady tried with a rapid and skilful hand

(making the officer blush and start again), and for it, when its turn

came, her agent began to bid.

But there was an opposition here. The Hebrew aide-de-camp in the

service of the officer at the table bid against the Hebrew gentleman

employed by the elephant purchasers, and a brisk battle ensued over

this little piano, the combatants being greatly encouraged by Mr.

Hammerdown.

At last, when the competition had been prolonged for some time, the

elephant captain and lady desisted from the race; and the hammer coming

down, the auctioneer said:--"Mr. Lewis, twenty-five," and Mr. Lewis's

chief thus became the proprietor of the little square piano. Having

effected the purchase, he sate up as if he was greatly relieved, and

the unsuccessful competitors catching a glimpse of him at this moment,

the lady said to her friend, "Why, Rawdon, it's Captain Dobbin."

I suppose Becky was discontented with the new piano her husband had

hired for her, or perhaps the proprietors of that instrument had

fetched it away, declining farther credit, or perhaps she had a

particular attachment for the one which she had just tried to purchase,

recollecting it in old days, when she used to play upon it, in the

little sitting-room of our dear Amelia Sedley.

The sale was at the old house in Russell Square, where we passed some

evenings together at the beginning of this story. Good old John Sedley

was a ruined man. His name had been proclaimed as a defaulter on the

Stock Exchange, and his bankruptcy and commercial extermination had

followed. Mr. Osborne's butler came to buy some of the famous port

wine to transfer to the cellars over the way. As for one dozen

well-manufactured silver spoons and forks at per oz., and one dozen

dessert ditto ditto, there were three young stockbrokers (Messrs. Dale,

Spiggot, and Dale, of Threadneedle Street, indeed), who, having had

dealings with the old man, and kindnesses from him in days when he was

kind to everybody with whom he dealt, sent this little spar out of the

wreck with their love to good Mrs. Sedley; and with respect to the

piano, as it had been Amelia's, and as she might miss it and want one

now, and as Captain William Dobbin could no more play upon it than he

could dance on the tight rope, it is probable that he did not purchase

the instrument for his own use.




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