Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 252: what you’re looking at

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22 been one of the family any time these three- and-twenty years. At six weeks old, he had received from John Sedley a present of a silver cup; at six months old, a coral with gold whistle and bells; from his youth, up- ward, he was * tipped” regularly by the old gentleman at Christmas; and on going back to school, remembered perfectly well being thrashed by Joseph Sedley, when the latter was a big. swaggering, hobbadyhoy, and George an impudent urchin of ten years old. In a word, George Osborne was as familiar with the family as such daily acts of kindness and intereourse could make him. ‘¢ Do you remember, Sedley, what a fury you were in, when I[ cut off the tassels of your Hessian boots, and how Miss—hem !— how Amelia rescued me from a beating, by falling down on her knees and erying out to her brother Jos, not to beat little George ?” Jos remembered this remarkable circum- stance perfectly well, but vowed that he had totally forgotten it. ‘‘ Well, do you remember coming down in a gig to Dr. Swishtail’s, to see me, before you went to India, and giving me half a suinea and a pat on the head? had an idea that you were at least seven feet high, and was quite astonished at your return from India to find you no taller than myself.” ‘‘ How good of Mr. Sedley to go to your school and give you the money !”’ exclaim- ed Rebecca, in accents of extreme delight. ‘¢ Yes, and after I had cut the tassels of his boots too. Boys never forget those tips at school, nor the givers.” ‘¢] delight in Hessian boots,” said Rebec- ca. Jos Sedley, who admired his own legs prodigiously, and always wore this ornamen- tal chaussure, was extremely pleased at this remark, though he drew his legs under his chair as it was made. ‘Miss Sharp!” said George Osborne, ‘¢you who are so clever an artist, you must make a grand historical picture of the scene of the boots. Sedley shall be represented in buckskins, and holding one of the injured boots in one hand; by the other he shall have hold of my shirt-frill. Amelia shall be kneeling near him, with her little hands up; and the picture shall have a grand allegori- cal title, as the frontispieces have in the Medulla and the spelling-book.”’ ‘¢T shan’t have time to do it here,”’ said Rebecca. “I'll do it when—when I am gone.” And she dropped her voice, and looked so sad and piteous, that every body felt how cruel her lot was, and how sorry they would be to part with her. ‘OQ that you could stay longer, dear Re- becca,’’ said Amelia. ‘Why?’ answered the other, still more sadly. ‘'‘l'hat I may be only the more un- hap—unwilling to lose you?” And she I always VANITY FAIR. turned away her head. Amelia began to give way to that natural infirmity of tears which, we have said, was one of the defects of this silly little thing. George Osborne looked at the two young women with a touched curiosity ; and Joseph Sedley heaved something very like a sigh out of his big chest, as he cast his eyes down toward his favorite Hessian boots. ‘‘ Let us have some music, Miss Sedley —Amelia,”’ said George, who felt at that moment an extraordinary, almost irresistible impulse to seize the above-mentioned young woman in his arms, and to kiss her in the face of the company; and she looked at him for a moment, and if I should say that they fell in love with each other at that single in- stant of time, I should perhaps be telling an untruth, for the fact is, that these two young people had been bred up by their parents for this very purpose, and their bans had, as it were, been read in their respective families any time these ten years. © They went off to the piano, which was sit- uated, as pianos usually are, in the back drawing-room; and as it was rather dark, Miss Amelia, in the most unaffeeted way in the world, put her hand into Mr. Os- borne’s, who, of course, could see the way among the chairs and ottomans a great deal better than she could. But this arrange- ment left Mr. Joseph Sedley téte-d-téte with Rebecca, at the drawing-room table, where the latter was occupied in netting a green silk purse. “There is no need to ask family se- crets,” said Miss Sharp. ‘Those two have told theirs.”’ ‘As soon as he gets his company,”’ said Joseph, ‘I believe the affair is settled. George Osborne is as good a fellow as ever breathed.” ‘‘ And your sister the dearest creature in the world,” said Rebecca. ‘‘ Happy the man who wins her!” With this, Miss Sharp gave a great sigh. When two unmarried persons get to- gether, and talk upon such delicate subjects as the present, a great deal of confidence and intimacy is presently established between them. ‘There is no need of giving a special report of the conversation which now took place between Mr. Sedley and the young lady ; for the conversation, as may be judged from the foregoing specimen, was not es- pecially witty or eloquent; it seldom is in private societies, or any where except in very high-flown and ingenious novels. As there was music in the next room, the talk was carried on, of course, in a low and be- coming tone, though, for the matter of that, the couple in the next apartment would not have been disturbed had the talking been ever so loud, so occupied were they with their own pursuits. Almost for the first time in his life, Mr, CORDICLOOO© <SEGO