Page:Vanity Fair 1848.djvu/636

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544
VANITY FAIR.

with great humour and eloquence: and he spoke afterwards of a d—d king's officer that's always hanging about the house — a long, thin, queer-looking oldish fellow — a dry fellow though, that took the shine out of a man in the talking line.

Had the Major possessed a little more personal vanity he would have been jealous of so dangerous a young buck, as that fascinating Bengal Captain. But Dobbin was of too simple and generous a nature to have any doubts about Amelia. He was glad that the young men should pay her respect; and that others should admire her. Ever since her womanhood almost, had she not been persecuted and undervalued? It pleased him to see how kindness brought out her good qualities, and how her spirits gently rose with her prosperity. Any person who appreciated her paid a compliment to the Major's good judgment — that is, if a man may be said to have good judgment who is under the influence of Love's delusion.


After Jos went to Court, which we may be sure he did as a loyal subject of his Sovereign (showing himself in his full court suit at the tie Club, whither Dobbin came to fetch him in a very shabby old uniform,) he who had always been a staunch Loyalist and admirer of George IV., became such a tremendous Tory and pillar of the State, that he was for having Amelia to go to a drawing-room, too. He somehow had worked himself up to believe that he was implicated in the maintenance of the public welfare, and that the Sovereign would not be happy unless Jos Sedley and his family appeared to rally round him at Saint James's.

Emmy laughed. "Shall I wear the family diamonds, Jos?" she said. "I wish you would let me buy you some," thought the Major. "I should like to see any that were too good for you."