To the rector's lady, who went off to tend her husband's broken

collar-bone at the Rectory at Queen's Crawley, the spinster's

communications were by no means so gracious. Mrs. Bute, that brisk,

managing, lively, imperious woman, had committed the most fatal of all

errors with regard to her sister-in-law. She had not merely oppressed

her and her household--she had bored Miss Crawley; and if poor Miss

Briggs had been a woman of any spirit, she might have been made happy

by the commission which her principal gave her to write a letter to

Mrs. Bute Crawley, saying that Miss Crawley's health was greatly

improved since Mrs. Bute had left her, and begging the latter on no

account to put herself to trouble, or quit her family for Miss

Crawley's sake. This triumph over a lady who had been very haughty and

cruel in her behaviour to Miss Briggs, would have rejoiced most women;

but the truth is, Briggs was a woman of no spirit at all, and the

moment her enemy was discomfited, she began to feel compassion in her

favour.

"How silly I was," Mrs. Bute thought, and with reason, "ever to hint

that I was coming, as I did, in that foolish letter when we sent Miss

Crawley the guinea-fowls. I ought to have gone without a word to the

poor dear doting old creature, and taken her out of the hands of that

ninny Briggs, and that harpy of a femme de chambre. Oh! Bute, Bute,

why did you break your collar-bone?"

Why, indeed? We have seen how Mrs. Bute, having the game in her hands,

had really played her cards too well. She had ruled over Miss Crawley's

household utterly and completely, to be utterly and completely routed

when a favourable opportunity for rebellion came. She and her

household, however, considered that she had been the victim of horrible

selfishness and treason, and that her sacrifices in Miss Crawley's

behalf had met with the most savage ingratitude. Rawdon's promotion,

and the honourable mention made of his name in the Gazette, filled this

good Christian lady also with alarm. Would his aunt relent towards him

now that he was a Lieutenant-Colonel and a C.B.? and would that odious

Rebecca once more get into favour? The Rector's wife wrote a sermon for

her husband about the vanity of military glory and the prosperity of

the wicked, which the worthy parson read in his best voice and without

understanding one syllable of it. He had Pitt Crawley for one of his

auditors--Pitt, who had come with his two half-sisters to church, which

the old Baronet could now by no means be brought to frequent.

Since the departure of Becky Sharp, that old wretch had given himself

up entirely to his bad courses, to the great scandal of the county and

the mute horror of his son. The ribbons in Miss Horrocks's cap became

more splendid than ever. The polite families fled the hall and its

owner in terror. Sir Pitt went about tippling at his tenants' houses;

and drank rum-and-water with the farmers at Mudbury and the

neighbouring places on market-days. He drove the family coach-and-four

to Southampton with Miss Horrocks inside: and the county people

expected, every week, as his son did in speechless agony, that his

marriage with her would be announced in the provincial paper. It was

indeed a rude burthen for Mr. Crawley to bear. His eloquence was

palsied at the missionary meetings, and other religious assemblies in

the neighbourhood, where he had been in the habit of presiding, and of

speaking for hours; for he felt, when he rose, that the audience said,

"That is the son of the old reprobate Sir Pitt, who is very likely

drinking at the public house at this very moment." And once when he was

speaking of the benighted condition of the king of Timbuctoo, and the

number of his wives who were likewise in darkness, some gipsy miscreant

from the crowd asked, "How many is there at Queen's Crawley, Young

Squaretoes?" to the surprise of the platform, and the ruin of Mr.

Pitt's speech. And the two daughters of the house of Queen's Crawley

would have been allowed to run utterly wild (for Sir Pitt swore that no

governess should ever enter into his doors again), had not Mr. Crawley,

by threatening the old gentleman, forced the latter to send them to

school.




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