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Chapter XXIV

In Which Mr. Osborne Takes

Down the Family Bible

So having prepared the sisters, Dobbin hastened away
to the City to perform the rest and more difficult part of
the task which he had undertaken. The idea of facing old
Osborne rendered him not a little nervous, and more than
once he thought of leaving the young ladies to communi-
cate the secret, which, as he was aware, they could not long
retain. But he had promised to report to George upon the
manner in which the elder Osborne bore the intelligence;
so going into the City to the paternal counting-house in
Thames Street, he despatched thence a note to Mr. Osborne
begging for a half-hour’s conversation relative to the affairs
of his son George. Dobbin’s messenger returned from Mr.
Osborne’s house of business, with the compliments of the
latter, who would be very happy to see the Captain immedi-
ately, and away accordingly Dobbin went to confront him.
The Captain, with a half-guilty secret to confess, and
with the prospect of a painful and stormy interview be-
fore him, entered Mr. Osborne’s offices with a most dismal

334 Vanity Fair