Joseph Sedley fled to Cheltenham, and Rebecca said in her heart, "It was
George Osborne who prevented my marriage." And she loved George Osborne
accordingly.

Miss Amelia would have been delighted that Joseph should carry back a
wife to India. Old Mr. Sedley was neutral. "Let Joseph marry whom he
likes," he said to his wife. "It's no affair of mine. This girl has no
fortune; no more had Mrs. Sedley. She seems good-humoured and clever,
and will keep him in order, perhaps. Better she, my dear, than a black
Mrs. Sedley, and a dozen of mahogany grandchildren. As I am perfectly
sure that if you and I and his sister were to die to-morrow, he would
say 'Good Gad!' and eat his dinner just as well as usual, I am not going
to make myself anxious about him. Let him marry whom he likes. It's no
affair of mine."

If he had had the courage, Joseph Sedley's bachelorhood would have been
at an end. He did not lie awake all night thinking whether or not he was
in love with Miss Sharp; the passion of love never interfered with the
appetite or the slumber of Mr. Joseph Sedley; but he thought to himself
how delightful it would be to hear such songs as Miss Sharp could sing
in India--what a _distinguée_ girl she was--how she could speak French
better than the governor-general's lady herself--and what a sensation
she would make at the Calcutta balls. "It's evident the poor devil's in
love with me" thought he. "She is just as rich as most of the girls who
come out to India. I might go further and fare worse, egad!"

Then came an evening at Vauxhall, on which occasion Dobbin, George
Osborne, and Joseph Sedley escorted Amelia and Rebecca, and the Indian
civilian got hopelessly tipsy on a bowl of rack punch. The next morning,