"Am I to understand then, that you are going—away,William?" she said.
He gave a sad laugh. "I went once before," he said,"and came back after twelve years. We were young then, Amelia. Good-bye. I have spent enough of my life at this play."
Whilst they had been talking, the door into Mrs.Osborne's room had opened ever so little; indeed,Becky had kept a hold of the handle and had turned it on the instant when Dobbin quitted it, and she heard every word of the conversation that had passed between these two. "What a noble heart that man has," she thought, "and how shamefully that woman plays with it!" She admired Dobbin; she bore him no rancour for the part he had taken against her. It was an open move in the game, and played fairly. "Ah!" she thought, "if I could have had such a husband as that—a man with a heart and brains too! I would not have minded his large feet"; and running into her room, she absolutely bethought herself of something, and wrote him a note, beseeching him to stop for a few days—not to think of going—and that she could serve him with A.