Vanity Fair

in Presence

ple green coat with steel buttons almost as large as crown pieces (it was the morning costume of a dandy or blood of those days) was reading the paper by the

he two fingers which he held out. "I've come home FOR GOOD, you know

uch-"that is, yes-what abominably cold weather, Miss"-and herewith he fell t

whispered Rebecca to

" said the latter

ly made a respectful virgin-like curtsey to the gentleman, and her modest eyes gazed so persev

brother," said Amelia to the fire pok

and her eyes went from the ca

ing as red as his yellow face would allow him. "I can't make you such handsome presents, Joseph," contin

t the bell-rope, that article of furniture came away in his hand, and increased the honest fellow's confusion.

d in, rattling his seals like a true British

his-his buggy is at the d

in," said the old gentlema

er; in which, encountering the eye of Miss Sharp,

ery happy to see you. Have you and Emmy been quarre

r service, sir," said Jo

tell your mother yo

dress it's

handsome enough to dine

friend, and they both set off in a fit of la

like those at Miss Pinkerton's?" con

vens! Father,

r son's feelings. I have alluded to his buckskins. Ask Miss Sharp if I have

you like it, and Papa has brought h

ll follow with these two young women," said the father, and

play the harp if they have handsome arms and neat elbows, and to wear Lincoln Green toxophilite hats and feathers, but that they may bring down some "desirable" young man with those killing bows and arrows of theirs? What causes respectable parents to take up their carpets, set their houses topsy-turvy, and spend a fifth of their year's income in ball suppers and iced champagne? Is it sheer love of their species, and an unadulterated wish to see young people happy and dancing? Psha! they want to marry their daughters; and, as honest Mrs. Sedley has, in the depths of her kind heart, already arranged a score of little schemes for the settlement of her Amelia, so also had our beloved but unprotected Rebecca determined to do her very best to secure the husband, who was even more necessary for her than for her friend. She h

he period of which we write, in the Bengal division of the East India Register, as collector of Boggley Wollah, an honourable and lucrativ

forty miles off, and there is a cavalry station about thirty miles farther; so Joseph wrote home to his parents, when he took possession of his collectorship. He had lived for about eight years

lodgings of his own, like a gay young bachelor. Before he went to India he was too young to partake of the delightful pleasures of a man about town, and plunged into them on his return with considerable assiduity. He drove his horses in

ere the jokes of his good-natured old father frightened his amour-propre. His bulk caused Joseph much anxious thought and alarm; now and then he would make a desperate attempt to get rid of his superabundant fat; but his indolence and love of good living speedily got the better of these endeavours at reform, and he found himself again at his three meals a day. He never was well dressed; but he took the hugest pains to adorn his big person, and passed many hours daily in that occupation. His valet made a fortune out of his wardrobe: his toilet-table was covered with as many pomatums and essences as ever were employed by an old beauty: he had tried, in

is heart that he was a very fine man) the praise thrilled through every fibre of his big body, and made it tingle with pleasure. Then, however, came a recoil. "Is the girl making fun of me?" he thought, and straightway he bounced towards the bell, and was for retreating, as we have seen, when his father's jokes and his mother's entreaties caused him to pause and stay where he was. He conducted the young lady down to dinner in a dubious and agitated frame of mind. "Does she really think

ards. She was dressed in white, with bare shoulders as white as snow-the picture of youth, unprotected innocence

as he liked it, and in the course of dinner a portion of this dish was offer

ce quite red with the delightful exercise of gobblin

dish," said Miss Rebecca. "I am sure ever

curry, my dear," sai

ever tasted t

as everything else from

ca, who was suffering tortu

Miss Sharp," said Jose

one into her mouth. It was hotter than the curry; flesh and blood could bear it no longer. She laid down her fork. "Water, for Heaven's sake, water!" she cried. Mr. Sedley burst out l

hoke old Sedley, but she swallowed her mortification as well as she had the abominable curry before it, and as soon as she could speak, said, with a comical, good-humoured ai

oseph simply said, "Cream-tarts, Miss? Our cream is very bad in Bengal. We

leman; but when the ladies had retired after dinner, the wily old fellow

and Mulligatawney, whom I mentioned to you before dinner-a devilish good fellow Mulligatawney-he's a magistrate at Budgebudge, and sure to be in council in five years. Well, sir, the Artillery gave a ball, and Quintin, of t

t for that day. But he was always exceedingly communicative in a man's party, and has told this delightful tale

ut cakes that were lying neglected in a plate near him, and certainly (for novelists have the privilege of knowing everything) he thought a great deal about the girl upstairs. "A nice, gay, merry

as a hackney-coach standing hard by in Southampton Row. "I'll go and see the Forty Thieves," said he, "and Miss Decamp's

oking from the open windows of the drawing-r

away," said Mrs. Sedley. "Poo