Dobbin at this lost all patience, and if his accuser had not been so old and so broken, a quarrel might have ensued between them at the Slaughters' Coffee-house, in a box of which place of entertainment the gentlemen had their colloquy."Come upstairs, sir," lisped out the Major."I insist on your coming up the stairs, and I will show which is the injured party, poor George or I"; and, dragging the old gentleman up to his bedroom, he produced from his desk Osborne's accounts, and a bundle of IOU's which the latter had given, who, to do him justice, was always ready to give an IOU."He paid his bills in England," Dobbin added, "but he had not a hundred pounds in the world when he fell.I and one or two of his brother officers made up the little sum, which was all that we could spare, and you dare tell us that we are trying to cheat the widow and the orphan."Sedley was very contrite and humbled, though the fact is that William Dobbin had told a great falsehood to the old gentleman; having himself given every shilling of the money, having buried his friend, and paid all the fees and charges incident upon the calamity and removal of poor Amelia.
About these expenses old Osborne had never given himself any trouble to think, nor any other relative of Amelia, nor Amelia herself, indeed.She trusted to Major Dobbin as an accountant, took his somewhat confused calculations for granted, and never once suspected how much she was in his debt.
Twice or thrice in the year, according to her promise, she wrote him letters to Madras, letters all about little Georgy.How he treasured these papers! Whenever Amelia wrote he answered, and not until then.But he sent over endless remembrances of himself to his godson and to her.He ordered and sent a box of scarfs and a grand ivory set of chess-men from China.The pawns were little green and white men, with real swords and shields; the knights were on horseback, the castles were on the backs of elephants."Mrs.Mango's own set at the Pineries was not so fine," Mr.Pestler remarked.These chess-men were the delight of Georgy's life, who printed his first letter in acknowledgement of this gift of his godpapa.He sent over preserves and pickles, which latter the young gentleman tried surreptitiously in the sideboard and half-killed himself with eating.He thought it was a judgement upon him for stealing, they were so hot.Emmy wrote a comical little account of this mishap to the Major: it pleased him to think that her spirits were rallying and that she could be merry sometimes now.He sent over a pair of shawls, a white one for her and a black one with palm-leaves for her mother, and a pair of red scarfs, as winter wrappers, for old Mr.Sedley and George.
