Perhaps Mrs. Bute pulled the string unnecessarily
tight. For though she worked up Miss Crawley
to a proper dislike of her disobedient nephew, the
invalid had a great hatred and secret terror of her
victimizer, and panted to escape from her. After
a brief space, she rebelled against Highgate and Hornsey
utterly. She would go into the Park. Mrs.
Bute knew they would meet the abominable Rawdon there,
and she was right. One day in the ring, Rawdon’s
stanhope came in sight; Rebecca was seated by him.
In the enemy’s equipage Miss Crawley occupied
her usual place, with Mrs. Bute on her left, the poodle
and Miss Briggs on the back seat. It was a nervous
moment, and Rebecca’s heart beat quick as she
recognized the carriage; and as the two vehicles crossed
each other in a line, she clasped her hands, and looked
towards the spinster with a face of agonized attachment
and devotion. Rawdon himself trembled, and his
face grew purple behind his dyed mustachios.
Only old Briggs was moved in the other carriage, and
cast her great eyes nervously towards her old friends.
Miss Crawley’s bonnet was resolutely turned
towards the Serpentine. Mrs. Bute happened to
be in ecstasies with the poodle, and was calling him
a little darling, and a sweet little zoggy, and a
pretty pet. The carriages moved on, each in
his line.
“Done, by Jove,” Rawdon said to his wife.
“Try once more, Rawdon,” Rebecca answered.
“Could not you lock your wheels into theirs,
dearest?”
Rawdon had not the heart for that manoeuvre.
When the carriages met again, he stood up in his
stanhope; he raised his hand ready to doff his hat;
he looked with all his eyes. But this time Miss
Crawley’s face was not turned away; she and
Mrs. Bute looked him full in the face, and cut their
nephew pitilessly. He sank back in his seat
with an oath, and striking out of the ring, dashed
away desperately homewards.
It was a gallant and decided triumph for Mrs. Bute.
But she felt the danger of many such meetings, as
she saw the evident nervousness of Miss Crawley; and
she determined that it was most necessary for her
dear friend’s health, that they should leave
town for a while, and recommended Brighton very strongly.
CHAPTER XX
In Which Captain Dobbin Acts as the Messenger of Hymen
Without knowing how, Captain William Dobbin found
himself the great promoter, arranger, and manager
of the match between George Osborne and Amelia.
But for him it never would have taken place:
he could not but confess as much to himself, and
smiled rather bitterly as he thought that he of all
men in the world should be the person upon whom the
care of this marriage had fallen. But though indeed
the conducting of this negotiation was about as painful
a task as could be set to him, yet when he had a duty
to perform, Captain Dobbin was accustomed to go through
it without many words or much hesitation: and,
having made up his mind completely, that if Miss Sedley
was balked of her husband she would die of the disappointment,
he was determined to use all his best endeavours to
keep her alive.
