Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 261: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A NOVEL WITHOUT A HERO. “Over Mrs. Flamingo’s~ crimson. silk gown,” said good-natured Mrs. Sedley. ‘What a gawky it was! And his sisters are not much more graceful. Lady Dob- bin was at Highbury last night with three of them. Such figures! my dears.” ‘The alderman’s very rich, isn’t he ?” Osborne said, archly. ‘* Don’t you think one of the daughters would be a good spec for me, Ma’am ?”’ ‘* You foolish creature! Who would take you, | should like to know, with your yellow face?) And what can Alderman Dobbin have among fourteen ?”’ ‘¢ Mine a yellow face? Stop till you see Dobbin. Why, he had the yellow fever three times; twice at Nassau, and once at St. Kitts.” “Well, well; yours is quite yellow enough for us. Isn’t it, Emmy?” Mrs. Sedley said : at which speech Miss Amelia only made a smile and a blush; and looking at Mr. George Osborne’s pale, interesting countenance, and those beautiful black, curling, shining whisk- ers, Which the young gentleman himself re- garded with no ordinary complacency, she thought in her little heart, that in His Maj- esty’s army, or in the wide world, there never was such a face or sucha hero. ‘I don’t care about Captair Dobbin’s complex- ion,’’ she said, ‘‘or about his awkwardness. I shall always like him, I know;” her little reason being, that he was the friend and champion of George. ‘+ l"here’s not a finer fellow in the service,” Osborne said, ‘‘ nor a better officer, though he is not an Adonis, certainly.”” And he looked toward the glass himself with much naiveté; and in so doing, caught Miss Sharp’s eye fixed keenly upon him, at which he blushed a little, and Rebecca thought in her heart, ‘* Ah, mon beau Monsieur! I think I have your gage’”’—the little artful minx ! That evening, when Amelia came trip- ping into the drawing-room in a white mus- lin frock, prepared for conquest at Vauxhall, singing like a lark, and as fresh as a rose—a very tall, ungainly gentleman, with large hands and feet, and large ears set off by a closely cropped head of black hair, and in the hideous, military frogged coat and cock- ed-hat of those times, advanced to meet her, and made her one of the clumsiest bows that was ever performed by a mortal. his was no other than Captain William Dobbin, of His Majesty’s Regiment of Foot, returned from yellow fever, in the West Indies, to which the fortune of the service had ordered his regiment, while so ' many of his gallant comrades were reaping glory in the Peninsula. He had arrived with a knock so very timid and quiet, that it was inaudible to the ladies up-stairs: otherwise, you may be sure Miss captain’s heart, and nestled there. 29 , Amelia would never have been so bold as to come singing into the room. As it was, the sweet, fresh little voice went straight to the When she held out her hand for him to shake, be- fore he enveloped it in his own, he paused, and thought—** Well, is it possible—are you the little maid I remember in the pink frock, such a short time ago—the night I upset the unchbowl, just after | was gazetted. Are u the little girl that George Osborne said should marry him?, What a blooming young creature you seem, and what a prize the rogue has got!’”’ All this he thought, before he took Amelia’s hand into his own, and as he let his cocked-hat fall. His history since he left school, until the very moment when we have the pleasure of meeting him again, although not fully nar- rated, has yet, I think, been indicated suf- ficiently for an ingenious reader by the con- versation in the last page. Dobbin, the despised grocer, was Alderman Dobbin— Alderman Dobbin was colonel of the City Light Horse, then burning with military ardor to resist the French invasion. Colo- nel Dobbin’s corps, in which Mr. Osborne himself was but an indifferent corporal, had been reviewed by the sovereign and the Duke of York; and the colonel and alderman had been knighted. His son had entered the army: and young Osborne fol- lowed presently in the same _ regiment. They had served in the West Indies and in Canada. ‘Their regiment had just come home, and the attachment of Dobbin to George Osborne was as warm and gener- ous now, as it had been, when the two were schoolboys. So these worthy people sat down to din- ner presently. ‘They talked about war and glory, and Boney and Lord Wellington, and the last gazette. In those famous days every gazette had a victory in it, and the two gallant young men longed to see their own names in the glorious list, and cursed their unlucky fate to belong to a regiment which had been away from the chances of honor. Miss Sharp kindled with this ex- citing talk, but Miss Sedley trembled and grew quite faint as she heard it. Mr. Joe told several of his tiger-hunting stories, fin- ished the one about Miss Cutler and Lance the surgeon: helped Rebecca to every thing on the table, and himself gobbled and drank a great deal. He sprang to open the door for the ladies, when they retired, with the most killing grace—and coming back to the table, filled himself bumper after bumper of claret, | which he swallowed with nervous rapidity. ‘‘He’s priming himself,’? Osborne whis- pered to Dobbin, and at length the hour and the carriage arrived for Vauxhall. awe GO NOOKS.CO 1)