 country where »Werther« is still
read, and the »Wahlverwandtschaften« of Goethe is considered an edifying moral
book, nobody thought of refusing to receive her in the very highest society of
the little Duchy; and the ladies were even more ready to call her du, and to
swear eternal friendship for her, than they had been to bestow the same
inestimable benefits upon Amelia. Love and Liberty are interpreted by those
simple Germans in a way which honest folks in Yorkshire and Somersetshire little
understand; and a lady might, in some philosophic and civilized towns, be
divorced ever so many times from her respective husbands, and keep her character
in society. Jos's house never was so pleasant since he had a house of his own,
as Rebecca caused it to be. She sang, she played, she laughed, she talked in two
or three languages; she brought everybody to the house; and she made Jos believe
that it was his own great social talents and wit which gathered the society of
the place round about him.
    As for Emmy, who found herself not in the least mistress of her own house,
except when the bills were to be paid, Becky soon discovered the way to soothe
and please her. She talked to her perpetually about Major Dobbin sent about his
business, and made no scruple of declaring her admiration for that excellent,
high-minded gentleman, and of telling Emmy that she had behaved most cruelly
regarding him. Emmy defended her conduct, and showed that it was dictated only
by the purest religious principles - that a woman once, etc., and to such an
angel as him whom she had had the good fortune to marry, was married for ever;
but she had no objection to hear the Major praised as much as ever Becky chose
to praise him, and indeed brought the conversation round to the Dobbin subject a
score of times every day.
    Means were easily found to win the favour of Georgy and the servants.
Amelia's maid, it has been said, was heart and soul in favour of the generous
Major. Having at first disliked Becky for being the means of dismissing him from
the presence of her mistress, she was reconciled to Mrs. Crawley subsequently,
because the latter became William's most ardent admirer and champion. And in
those nightly conclaves in which the two ladies indulged after their parties,
and while Miss Payne was »brushing their 'airs,« as she called the yellow locks
of the one and the soft brown tresses of the other, this girl always put in her
word for that dear good gentleman, Major Dobbin
