George Osborne

“ Mrs. Sedley said: at which speech Miss Amelia only made a smile and a blush; and looking at Mr. George Osborne's pale interesting countenance, and those beautiful black, curling, shining whiskers, which the young gentleman himself regarded with no ordinary complacency, she thought in her little heart that in His Majesty's army, or in the wide world, there never was such a face or such a hero. "I don't care about Captain Dobbin's complexion," she said, "or about his awkwardness. I shall always like him, I know," her little reason being, that he was the friend and champion of George. ”

“ A gentle little woman in black, with large eyes and brown hair, seldom speaking, save when spoken to, and then in a voice not the least resembling Miss Glorvina's—a soft young mother tending an infant and beckoning the Major up with a smile to look at him—a rosy-cheeked lass coming singing into the room in Russell Square or hanging, on George Osborne's arm happy and loving—there was but this image that filled our honest Major's mind by day and by night and reigned over it always. ”

“ Oh Life, thou givest to us full sensations in our pulses! Oh Death, thou takest Goddess and Paradise and sensations all away! Cruel Life, to give us woman and earth! Vile Love, to give us goddess and Paradise! Blessed be kindly Death, that putteth all our pains and all our longings, all our hopes and all our sorrows, all our memories and all our dreams away for ever in the great sable storehouse of forlorn void! Once more George Osborne banished thought as, leaving London Road, he passed through St George's Circus into Westminster Bridge Road. ”

“ He believed Osborne to be the possessor of every perfection, to be the handsomest, the bravest, the most active, the cleverest, the most generous of created boys. He shared his money with him: bought him uncountable presents of knives, pencil-cases, gold seals, toffee, Little Warblers, and romantic books, with large coloured pictures of knights and robbers, in many of which latter you might read inscriptions to George Sedley Osborne, Esquire, from his attached friend William Dobbin—the which tokens of homage George received very graciously, as became his superior merit. ”

“ Osborne's wealth and importance in the city had very much increased of late years. He had been glad enough to put the elder George in a good private school, and a commission in the army for his son had been a source of no small pride to him; but for little George and his future prospects the old man looked much higher. He would make a gentleman of the little chap, a collegian, a parliament man—a baronet, perhaps. He would have none but a tip-top college man to educate him. ”

“ To see how nearly Hazlitt can reach the level of a rather older and cleverer George Osborne, turn to the paper here on Classical Education. He is quite orthodox for a wonder: perhaps because opinion was beginning to veer a little to the side of Useful Knowledge; but he is as dry as his own favourite biscuit, and as guiltless of freshness. He is best in this volume where he notes particular points such as Kean's Iago, Milton's versification (here, however, he does not get quite to the heart of the matter) , "John{164} Buncle," and "The Excursion." ”

“ Young George Osborne, Captain of the --th, old Sedley's godson, and the accepted lover of Amelia, thought Joseph was a milksop. He turned over in his mind, as the Sedleys did, the possibility of marriage between Joseph and Rebecca, and was not over well pleased that a member of a family into which he, George Osborne, was going to marry, should make a mesalliance with a little nobody--a little upstart governess. "Hang it, the family's low enough already without her," Osborne said to his friend Captain Dobbin. "A governess is all very well, but I'd rather have a lady for my sister-in-law. ”

“ His father could not see the kiss George had placed on the superscription of his letter. Mr. Osborne dropped it with the bitterest, deadliest pang of balked affection and revenge. His son was still beloved and unforgiven.
Two months afterwards an elaborate funeral monument to the memory of Captain George Osborne appeared on the wall of the church which Mr. Osborne attended, and in the autumn the old man went to Belgium. George's widow was still in Brussels, and very many of the brave--th, recovering of their wounds. The city was a vast military hospital for months after the great battle. ”

“ Who will be open where there is no sympathy, or has call to speak to those who never can understand? Our gentle Amelia was thus solitary. She had no confidante, so to speak, ever since she had anything to confide. She could not tell the old mother her doubts and cares; the would-be sisters seemed every day more strange to her. And she had misgivings and fears which she dared not acknowledge to herself, though she was always secretly brooding over them.
Her heart tried to persist in asserting that George Osborne was worthy and faithful to her, though she knew otherwise. ”

“ Will you visit the parent's offence upon the child's head? or will you forgive the child for poor George's sake?"
Osborne broke out into a rhapsody of self-praise and imprecations. By the first, excusing himself to his own conscience for his conduct; by the second, exaggerating the undutifulness of George. No father in all England could have behaved more generously to a son, who had rebelled against him wickedly. He had died without even so much as confessing he was wrong. Let him take the consequences of his undutifulness and folly. As for himself, Mr. Osborne, he was a man of his word. ”

“ Emmy had gone up to her room ailing and low-spirited. "She's not happy," the mother went on." George Osborne neglects her. I've no patience with the airs of those people. The girls have not been in the house these three weeks; and George has been twice in town without coming. Edward Dale saw him at the Opera. Edward would marry her I'm sure; and there's Captain Dobbin who, I think, would—only I hate all army men. Such a dandy as George has become. With his military airs, indeed! We must show some folks that we're as good as they. ”

“ My dear good George, it would be such a pleasure to me, who have been kicking about the world so long, owning nothing but my baggage, having no being on earth more dear to me than the waiter who last drew a cork for me, to find myself owner of a quiet English house on the top of one of these gentle hills, overlooking a little valley with an old-fashioned church in view, and the dearest girl in all the world by my side, and you and your wife--' 'Yes, I can understand, I can understand,' said Osborne, very softly. ”

“ Chopper, dined together in the same box. Chopper brought the letter from Mr. Osborne, in which the latter briefly presented his compliments to Captain Dobbin, and requested him to forward the inclosed to Captain George Osborne. Chopper knew nothing further; he described Mr. Osborne's appearance, it is true, and his interview with his lawyer, wondered how the governor had sworn at nobody, and—especially as the wine circled round—abounded in speculations and conjectures. ”

“ EMMA. "Papa is only joking, George; you may sit still. I can guess what you are going to say, papa. 'Is not our voyage imaginary, and should we not be consistent?' Am I right?"
MR. WILTON. "Very nearly, my dear. You are very sharp to-night: the extra duty has quickened your discernment."
CHARLES. "I enjoy this imaginary travelling very much; but I must confess, if everything connected with it is to be consistent, I shall not be at all satisfied with my supper."
"No! no!" exclaimed the other children; "supper is to be real, because we get really hungry." ”

“ GEORGY IS MADE A GENTLEMAN.
EORGY OSBORNE was now fairly established in his grandfather's mansion in Russell Square: occupant of his father's room in the house, and heir-apparent of all the splendours there. The good looks, gallant bearing, and gentlemanlike appearance of the boy won the grandsire's heart for him. Mr. Osborne was as proud of him as ever he had been of the elder George.
The child had many more luxuries and indulgencies than had been awarded to his father. Osborne's commerce had prospered greatly of late years. His wealth and importance in the City had very much increased. ”

“ As for remaining in the army as a married man, that was impossible. Fancy Mrs. George Osborne in lodgings in a country town; or, worse still, in the East or West Indies, with a society of officers' and patronized by Mrs. Major O'Dowd! Amelia died with laughing at Osborne's stories about Mrs. Major O'Dowd. He loved her much too fondly to subject her to that horrid woman and her vulgarities, and the rough treatment of a soldier's wife. He didn't care for himself— not he ”

“ Pitt, who, as George the Second said, had never opened Vattel, and which was very near making a Chancellor of the Exchequer of Mr. Sheridan, who could not work a sum in long division. This was the sort of talent which raised Clifford from obscurity to the head of affairs. To this talent Osborne, by birth a simple country gentleman, owed his white staff, his garter, and his dukedom. The encroachment of the power of the Parliament on the power of the Crown resembled a fatality, or the operation of some great law of nature. ”

“ GEORGE. "Must we go through Bhering's Straits: they will take us into such very cold regions?"
EMMA. "We must not mind the cold if we can learn anything by going; but, as you are afraid of venturing so far, we will leave you at Point Hope, while we make our way to Point Barrow."
CHARLES. "Appear not at Point Hope. George; for if you do, you must never hope to see us again. Do you know that the Indians who live in the mountains not far from the Point are cannibals, and would seize you for a delicious morsel? They are not at all particular folks ”

“ Fred, whose hopes had been raised when George had been disinherited, thought himself infamously swindled by the old merchant, and for some time made as if he would break off the match altogether. Osborne withdrew his account from Bullock and Hulker's, went on Change with a horsewhip which he swore he would lay across the back of a certain scoundrel that should be nameless, and demeaned himself in his usual violent manner. Jane Osborne condoled with her sister Maria during this family feud. ”

“ George meanwhile, with his hat on one side, his elbows squared, and his swaggering martial air, made for Bedford Row, and stalked into the attorney's offices as if he was lord of every pale-faced clerk who was scribbling there. He ordered somebody to inform Mr. Higgs that Captain Osborne was waiting, in a fierce and patronizing way, as if the pekin of an attorney, who had thrice his brains, fifty times his money, and a thousand times his experience, was a wretched underling who should instantly leave all his business in life to attend on the Captain's pleasure. ”

“ His offense seems to have been that he is bughouse through confinement in the jail. So in their enlightened wisdom they have sent him back there; to cure him, I suppose, on the homeopathic principle, similia similibus curantur.
Before the march to breakfast George kindly brings me another package of sugar. It is evidently of distinct advantage, in more ways than one, to stand well with the trusties; I wish I knew them all, but possibly some may be afraid to show themselves at the door of my cell. ”

“ The narrative of his defence of Castle Cornet for the King, embodied in his own letters, in the letters and papers of George Carteret, Governor of Jersey, in the detailed account left behind by a native of Guernsey, and in the State papers of the period, is one of the most interesting episodes in an epoch of episodes. But though the collected material for some short life of Sir Peter Osborne lies at hand, it seems scarcely necessary for the purpose of this book, and so not without reluctance it is set aside.
Sir Peter was an ardent loyalist. ”

“ The seaman performed his part so well, that the giant accompanied him to the commander's vessel. He pointed to the sky, wishing to inquire if the Spaniards had descended from heaven. His size was such that the sailors' heads did not come up to his waist."
GEORGE. "But are they really giants, papa?"
MR. WILTON. "Not exactly giants, my dear; not men who could travel in seven league boots: but they are really large people; many of them seven feet high; and such men seen through a traveller's microscope, would be magnified to huge giants!" ”

“ Have you other grievances, weighty as those you have mentioned?"
"You, of all men, need not ask what are our wrongs," rejoined Henry Osborne. "You need not be told, that wicked men are allowed to put their hands in our pockets, and draw from thence pay for their parasites and plunderers."
"Why, in being taxed, you do but share the fate of other British subjects," answered the Chief Justice. "To take protection implies that you promise obedience; and really, after England has fed you, clothed you, and fought for you, it is not unreasonable you should do something for your own support." ”

“ So far as my knowledge goes, there is no such a person as James Osborne. If, by any unhappy chance, he does exist, I trust that he will pardon the civil law of Washington, my own measure of familiarity, and the questionable taste on the part of my hero—hero, because, from the rise to the fall of the curtain, he occupies the center of the stage in this little comedy-drama, and because authors have yet to find a happy synonym for the word. ”