have a very
comfortable carriage, in which I propose to take a seat." I don't know
whether Jos understood the words in this sense. But he was profoundly
mortified by the lady's inattention to him during their stay at
Brussels. He had never been presented to any of Rawdon Crawley's great
acquaintances: he had scarcely been invited to Rebecca's parties; for
he was too timid to play much, and his presence bored George and Rawdon
equally, who neither of them, perhaps, liked to have a witness of the
amusements in which the pair chose to indulge. "Ah!" thought Jos, "now
she wants me she comes to me. When there is nobody else in the way she
can think about old Joseph Sedley!" But besides these doubts he felt
flattered at the idea Rebecca expressed of his courage.

He blushed a good deal, and put on an air of importance. "I should like
to see the action," he said. "Every man of any spirit would, you know.
I've seen a little service in India, but nothing on this grand scale."

"You men would sacrifice anything for a pleasure," Rebecca answered.
"Captain Crawley left me this morning as gay as if he were going to a
hunting party. What does he care? What do any of you care for the
agonies and tortures of a poor forsaken woman? (I wonder whether he
could really have been going to the troops, this great lazy gourmand?)
Oh! dear Mr. Sedley, I have come to you for comfort--for consolation.
I have been on my knees all the morning. I tremble at the frightful
danger into which our husbands, our friends, our brave troops and
allies, are rushing. And I come here for shelter, and find another of
my friends--the last remaining to me--bent upon plunging into the
dreadful scene!"

"My dear madam," Jos replied, now beginning to be quite soothed, "don't
be alarmed. I only said I should like to go--what Briton would not?
But my duty keeps me here: I can't leave that poor creature in the
next room." And he pointed with his finger to the door of the chamber
in which Amelia was.

"Good noble brother!" Rebecca said, putting her handkerchief to her
eyes, and smelling the eau-de-cologne with which it was scented. "I
have done you injustice: you have got a heart. I thought you had not."

"O, upon my honour!" Jos said, making a motion as if he would lay his
hand upon the spot in question. "You do me injustice, indeed you
do--my dear Mrs. Crawley."

"I do, now your heart is true to your sister. But I remember two years
ago--when i