The two Miss Osbornes were rather proud young ladies. They did not think Amelia was good enough for their handsome brother, and they did not treat her kindly. "What can George see in that dull little creature?" they asked each other.

And what has happened to Amelia Sedley during this time? While Rebecca was working so hard to make her future safe with the Crawley family, her dear friend Amelia had nothing to do but to sit in her comfortable home, with loving parents, and wait for George Osborne's visits.

Unfortunately, these visits were not at all frequent. George was often with his regiment down in Kent, and when he was in London, he seemed to have so many other things to do, so many friends to see, so many games of cards to play. Amelia saw more of his sisters, Miss Jane Osborne and Miss Maria Osborne, since the Osbornes' home was just the other side of Russell Square.

So Amelia sat at home, waiting for George, and worrying about Napoleon Bonaparte and the talk of war. She had heard reports that George's regiment would be sent to France to fight Napoleon's army, and the thought terrified her. She asked Dobbin about it when he visited the Sedleys one day. No orders had yet been received, Dobbin told her gently. He was very upset to see Amelia so unhappy and so neglected by George.

These letters became quite a joke with George's friends in the regiment. On one occasion George was seen lighting his cigar with one of them, to the horror of Captain Dobbin, who would have very much liked to receive such a letter himself. In fact, Dobbin was so angry that he could remain silent no longer.

"Is that any business of yours?" George asked fiercely.

Time went past and still George did not visit, but poor little soft-hearted Amelia went on hoping and trusting. She loved George Osborne with all her heart, and wrote to him every day -- long, long letters, which were not very well written, but were full of love, devoted, uncritical, unquestioning love.

"George," he said, "are you going to marry Amelia or not?"

"I'm very fond of Amelia, of course I am," said George, "but -- but a man must enjoy himself before he gets married, you know."

"Yes, it is, George, because you're neglecting a sweet girl. You should have seen her sad little face when I visited the other day. Go and comfort her, you bad fellow, instead of spending all your time in gambling-houses when you're in town."

"You're right. Yes, I'll go tomorrow. It's true, she is very fond of me," George said, in a self-satisfied way.

"Go and see her," said Dobbin, "or write her a long letter. Do something to make her happy. It won't take much."

He did go to see Amelia the next day, and Dobbin even lent him some money to buy her a present. George probably would have done so, but on the way to the Sedleys' house, he saw a very nice diamond shirt-pin, and he bought it for himself.

When he arrived, Amelia's sad little face lit up in the sunshine of George's smile. She ran to him, and George kissed her fondly on the forehead and was very affectionate with her; and she thought his diamond shirt-pin (which she had not seen him wear before) was the prettiest thing ever seen.

Since George was only in town for one day, he invited Emmy to dine with him at his father's house that evening, and took her to spend the afternoon with his sisters while he went off to see to some important business (trying on a new coat, and playing several games of billiards with a friend).

"That little girl upstairs -- Amelia," he said. "What do you intend to do about her, George?"

"Well, well," Mr Osborne said, "young men will be young men. I know you're mixing in the best society, and I like to see it. You have to pay your own way, and my money's as good as theirs, George my boy. You can call at my bank tomorrow."

"Well, it's clear, isn't it?" George said. "She's very fond of me. Anyone can see that. And didn't you order me to marry her, and don't I always obey you?"

George was relieved and properly grateful, but it seemed that the old gentleman had something else on his mind.

He was late home for dinner, and found his father in a very bad mood and his sisters and Amelia eating in nervous silence. When the ladies had gone up to the drawing-room, leaving father and son to their wine, George watched his father's face anxiously. He needed urgently to ask his father for money, to pay off some of his debts, but when he cautiously raised the subject, he did not get the explosion of bad temper he had feared.

"Mmm," said Mr Osborne. "Pass the wine, boy. Why shouldn't you marry higher than just old Sedley's daughter, eh?"

"Poor little Emmy -- dear little Emmy! How fond she is of me," George said, reading the letter after a lively evening with his friends. "And oh Lord, what a headache this red wine has given me!" Poor little Emmy, indeed.

"But you and Mr Sedley arranged this years ago," said George.

"Things have changed since then," his father said, frowning. "Sedley's business is not doing well. I'm not sure that he can pay the money we agreed on for the marriage settlement. In fact, unless Sedley can pay me ten thousand pounds now, there will be no marriage between you and Amelia Sedley."

No more than four months later, Mr Osborne's words to his son were proved true. Old John Sedley was a ruined man. He had judged badly and lost money, and could not recover from his mistakes. The final disaster struck when Napoleon escaped from the island of Elba and invaded France. The money market crashed, taking with it what remained of Mr Sedley's fortune. The family had to leave their fine home in Russell Square, and all the contents of the house were put up for sale.

George was especially good to Amelia that evening, and even visited her again the next morning on his way to his father's bank. Later in the day Amelia, still anxious about old Mr Osborne's coldness to her the day before, wrote George another of her long letters -- four pages of love and fear and hope and worry.

On the day of the sale, who should visit the house in Russell Square but our old friends, Captain and Mrs Rawdon Crawley? Rebecca had seen her dear friend Amelia a few times since she had been at Miss Crawley's house. Amelia and George Osborne visited her, and Rawdon invited George several times to little gambling parties, which George always accepted, happy to lose money to the son of a baronet and his high-society friends.

When they arrived in Russell Square, Rebecca was shocked to see a sale at the house where she had once been treated so kindly. However, this did not stop her from trying to buy Amelia's piano, though it is not clear why she wanted it. Perhaps her own piano had been sold in order to pay the rent.

About a month after Becky had set up home with Rawdon, she expressed a wish to see Amelia again. Money being short in the Crawleys' little home, and with no sign of forgiveness from Miss Crawley, Rawdon agreed that it would be good to see George Osborne again. "I'd like to play a few more games of cards with him. He'd be what I call useful just now," he said, with his loud soldier's laugh. Rawdon Crawley had no intention of cheating George Osborne, of course; it was just rather convenient to gamble with someone less skilful than himself.

"I'm sorry Mr Sedley has had such bad luck," Becky said as they got back into their carriage. "He was a very kind old man."

"Oh, it happens all the time with businessmen, you know," Rawdon said. "I don't suppose Osborne will marry your pretty little friend now. How upset she'll be, hey, Becky?"

But the piano was finally sold to Captain Dobbin, who knew how much Amelia loved her piano and who paid a great deal more for it than the piano was worth. Rebecca and Rawdon looked for him after the sale, hoping to find out more about what had caused the Sedleys' ruin, but he had already left.

The news of Sedley's ruin was announced in the newspaper, and soon became widely known. The family moved to a little house in an unfashionable street. Mr Sedley's former friends now avoided him, but what really hurt him was that his most bitter, most unforgiving enemy was John Osborne, George's father, whom Sedley had helped many years before, when Osborne was starting his own business.

"Oh, I expect she'll recover," Becky said with a smile, and they drove on and talked about something else.

In a short, cruel letter, Mr Osborne informed Amelia that her father's behaviour had been so shameful that there could be no marriage between her and his son. Amelia accepted the news almost as if she had been expecting it. For some time, she had suspected that George no longer loved her, although in her heart she wanted to go on believing that he did. She showed little emotion outwardly, but alone in her little room in the new house, that gentle heart quietly died a little more each day.

As for John Sedley, he spoke of the Osbornes with bitterness and anger, and swore that nothing on earth would persuade him to allow his daughter to marry John Osborne's son. He ordered Amelia to put George Osborne from her mind and to return all his gifts and letters. The poor girl tried to obey him, and put together a few of George's little gifts. She took out his letters and read them all again, but how could she return them? How could she put George from her mind? And she put the letters back in their secret place, to read later, over and over again.

When Dobbin heard the news, his first thought was for Amelia, knowing how this would add to her sorrows. George, however, felt nothing but excitement. He had just been made a captain, and he was enjoying trying on his fine new uniform. That evening he went to see his father, who told him again that there could be no marriage with Amelia -- and gave George a large amount of money to pay for his new clothes. Money was always useful to George, and he took it without many words. On the way back from his father's house, he passed the Sedleys" old home, now closed up. Where were the Sedleys now? The thought of their ruin made George sad.

Meanwhile, Napoleon was marching into Paris, and the British Army, including of course the regiment in which George and Dobbin served, was ordered abroad to join the fighting.

MY FATHER HAS ordered me to return these presents to you, and this is the last time I may write to you. I am sure you are as unhappy as I am that we cannot marry, and I do not blame you in any way. I am sure you had nothing to do with the cruel things which Mr Osborne has said. Goodbye. I pray that I may be strong enough to bear this. I shall often play upon the piano -- your piano. It was so kind of you to send it. Amelia

Three days later, Dobbin found George looking miserable.

"She -- she's sent me back some things I gave her," he said, and he showed Dobbin the letter Amelia had sent.

Dobbin was very soft-hearted. The idea of Amelia so lonely and unhappy made him break out into a passion of praise for her. George listened, remembering Amelia's sweetness, her unquestioning love for him, and thought about what he had lost.

"Where are they?" he asked, ashamed that he had made no effort to find Amelia. "There's no address in the letter."

Four hours after the talk between Dobbin and Osborne, the Sedleys' little servant girl came into Amelia's room. As usual, Amelia was sitting reading her old love letters from George.

"George, she's dying," William Dobbin said.

"How is she? How did she look?" asked George.

Dobbin knew where they were. Had he not sent the piano there? In fact, he had visited Mrs Sedley and Amelia the day before, and been shocked by Amelia's pale face and lifeless eyes. It was he who had brought the packet back for George.

I must see you. Dearest Emmy -- dearest wife, come to me.

"Miss Emmy," said the girl. "There's someone -- look, here's a message." She gave her a letter, which Amelia opened and read.

A harder heart than George's would have melted at the sight of that sweet face, that flood of despairing tears as Amelia wept over his hand, kissing it again and again. Full of emotion at the sight of so grateful and devoted a slave, George swore to himself that he would make her happy, no matter what happened.

George and her mother were outside, waiting until she had read the letter, and a minute later the door was thrown open.

Overnight, Amelia became her old self again, bright-eyed and cheerful, full of smiles and laughter, and eagerly waiting for George's next visit. She smiled at Captain Dobbin, who usually came with George, but apart from that she did not notice him.

But that fierce old gentleman had other plans, and had his eye on an extremely wealthy young lady as a bride for his son.

Dobbin, though sad at heart, was content. He believed Amelia would only be happy if she married George, and so he was determined to make that happen. He urged George to speak to his father, and to persuade him to agree to the marriage.

"George!" said Jane Osborne, glancing in alarm at their father.

The storm broke one night at dinner. The name of Amelia Sedley, forbidden by the father, was spoken by the son. "She's the best, the gentlest, the sweetest girl in England," said George.

"How dare you, sir, mention that person's name in my house?" demanded old Mr Osborne, his face purple with fury.

"Stop, sir. You don't use the word 'dare' to a captain in the British Army," said George.

"I shall say what I like to my son, sir. I can cut him off with a penny if I like. I can make him a beggar if I like. I will say what I like," his father said. "No gentleman, not even a fine captain in the British Army, has the right to insult his father."

But George did not lack courage, and stared back at his father coolly. As soon as they could, his sisters hurried away to the drawing-room, leaving father and son to their battle.

"I never insulted you, sir," George said. "But I shall defend Miss Sedley and her name wherever I go."

"That name is forbidden in this house!" screamed his father.

George told him. "And I'll marry Amelia tomorrow," he said. "I love her more every day, Dobbin."

And with that, Mr Osborne shouted for a servant and ordered him to call a carriage for Captain Osborne.

"I won't have this damned nonsense, sir. If you choose to throw away eight thousand pounds a year, you may do it, but by God you will walk out of this house, sir, and not come back."

And so, quietly and secretly, George Osborne and Amelia Sedley were married, to the sound of rain beating down on the church roof, and Mrs Sedley crying quietly. Captain Dobbin arranged the wedding, and as old Mr Sedley refused to have anything to do with it, Amelia's brother Joseph came to give away the bride.

"Who told me to love her?" demanded George. "I might have chosen elsewhere, but I obeyed you. And now that her heart is mine, you order me to throw it away, to punish her for the faults of other people. Well, sir, I won't do it!"

An hour later in the army camp George, looking very pale, went to find Dobbin. "I've done it," he said.

"Done what?" asked Dobbin.

When the ceremony was over and the kissing and the hand-shaking were all done, the happy couple drove away in Joseph's carriage. Captain Dobbin stood outside the church and watched them go. Never in his life had he felt so miserable and lonely. Then he turned and walked away, through the rain.