The third man went to call a cab to take them to the prison. Rawdon was not too anxious. "It's not a lot," he thought. "Becky can find that much quite easily. But she'll be asleep by now. Let her have her sleep. I'll write to her in the morning."

"How much is it for?" he asked the men.

DEAR BECKY, -- I HOPE you slept well. As I was walking home last night, I was arrested for Nathan's bills -- a hundred and seventy. Take my watch and anything you can spare and sell them to raise the money. Please do it soon, as tomorrow's Sunday and I don't want to spend another night here. I'm glad it's not Rawdy's weekend for coming home. Yours, R. (Please hurry.)

Rawdon went with the three men who arrested him without argument. He knew that if the money was paid, he would be released from prison the next day.

"Only a small amount," the first man replied. "A hundred and seventy pounds. Bills for Mr Nathan."

Early on Saturday, he sent this letter by messenger.

It would only take three hours, he thought, before Becky would arrive with the money and open his prison doors. But the day passed and no messenger came, and no Becky. It was not until the evening that this letter was delivered.

MY POOR DEAREST LOVE, -- I could not sleep at all last night because of worrying over what had happened to you. In the morning I felt so ill that I sent for the doctor, who gave me some medicine to help me sleep, and said I must not be disturbed. So your messenger spent hours waiting. You can imagine how I felt when I finally read your letter. I got ready at once to go out, but then Lord Steyne arrived with some friends (they were so full of compliments about last night!).

I was desperate for them to go and when at last they did, I went down on my knees to Lord Steyne and begged him to give me two hundred pounds. He was in a great fury -- but finally he went away, promising to send me the money in the morning, when I will bring it at once to my poor old prisoner -- with a kiss from his affectionate Becky. (P. S. I am writing in bed. Oh, I have such a headache, and such a heartache!)

When Rawdon read this letter, his face turned red with anger, and all his suspicions returned. She could not even go out and sell a few things to free him. She could talk about compliments paid to her while he was in prison. Who had put him there? He could hardly bear to think of what he suspected. Quickly, he sat down and wrote a short note to Sir Pitt or Lady Crawley. He begged them to help him, for the sake of his child.

An hour later, he was told he had a visitor. It was Lady Jane. "Pitt was out when your note arrived," she said, "so I came myself."

Rawdon was so moved by her kind voice that he ran to her, and threw his arms round her, gasping out his thanks.

The debt was quickly paid, and Rawdon thanked Lady Jane again and again, as the carriage took them home. It was nine o'clock at night. He left Lady Jane at her house, and walked and ran through the streets until he arrived breathless outside his own door. Trembling, he stopped and stared up at the house. Lights shone brightly from the drawing-room windows. She had said that she was in bed and ill. He stood there for some time, the light from the rooms on his pale face.

He took out his door key, let himself into the house, and went silently up the stairs. Everywhere was quiet; all the servants had been sent away. He heard laughter in the drawing-room -- laughter and singing. Becky was singing. And a voice shouted, "Well done! Well done!" It was Lord Steyne's.

Rawdon opened the door and went in. There was a little table with dinner for two -- and wine. Lord Steyne was leaning over the sofa on which Becky was sitting. She wore her finest evening dress, and around her neck sparkled the diamonds which Steyne had given her. He had her hand in his, and was bowing over it to kiss it, when Becky jumped up with a faint scream as she caught sight of Rawdon's white face. She tried to smile, and Steyne stood up, pale, and with fury in his face.

He attempted a laugh, and came forward, holding out his hand. "What, you're back? How are you, Crawley?" he said.

Rawdon seized him by the neck. "You lie!" he cried. "You lie, you cowardly devil!" he struck the noble Lord twice across the face, and threw him, bleeding, to the ground. Unable to stop him, Becky stood there trembling. She admired her husband, strong, brave, and victorious.

The expression on Rawdon's face made Becky throw herself in front of him. "I am innocent, Rawdon," she said. "Before God, I am innocent!" She turned to Lord Steyne. "Say I am innocent!" she cried.

"Come here," Rawdon said. Becky came at once.

He thought a trap had been laid for him, and was as furious with the wife as with the husband. "You -- innocent! Damn you!" he screamed. "You -- innocent! Why, every jewel on your body has been paid for by me! I have given you thousands of pounds which your husband has spent, and for which he has sold you! Don't think you can frighten me. Let me pass."

"Take off those jewels." She took them off, still trembling.

"I am innocent," Becky said. And he left her without another word.

"Yes," Becky answered.

He laughed angrily. "I want to see if that man lies about the money as he has about me. Has he given you any?"

"Did he give you this?" Rawdon said.

"Come upstairs," Rawdon said to his wife.

Rawdon took the diamonds and threw them at Lord Steyne.

"Give me your keys," Rawdon said, and they went out together.

Becky had kept back the key to her secret little desk, but Rawdon searched long and hard, and in the end she was forced to open her desk too. It contained love letters, jewellery, and bank-notes -- including a new one for a thousand pounds.

"Don't kill me, Rawdon," she said.

"No," said Becky, "that is --"

"I'll send it back to him today," said Rawdon. "And I'll pay Miss Briggs, who was kind to the boy, and some of the debts. You might have sent me a hundred pounds, Becky, out of all this. I have always shared with you."

What were her thoughts when he left her? She sat for hours, with the sunlight now pouring into the room. She had heard the door bang as her husband left. She knew he would never come back. He was gone for ever. Would he kill himself? No, not until he had fought Lord Steyne. She thought of all her past life -- how comfortless it seemed, how miserable, lonely, and pointless.

"I warned you. I always said this would happen," his brother answered. "I can't give you any more money, Rawdon."

When Rawdon arrived at his brother's house in Great Gaunt Street, he was shown into the study to wait. As the clock struck nine, Sir Pitt came into the room, fresh and clean, a model of neatness. He stared in surprise when he saw poor Rawdon, redeyed and unshaven, with untidy hair.

"Good heavens, Rawdon!" he said. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you at home?"

"I wish I was," said Rawdon. "If there wasn't my son to worry about, I'd have killed myself this morning, and that devil too."

"It's not money I want," Rawdon said. "It's the boy I'm worried about. Promise me that when I'm gone you'll take him. Your wife has always been kind to him. My marriage is over."

"Home!" said Rawdon, with a wild laugh. "Pitt, I'm finished."

Sir Pitt immediately guessed the truth, and that the "devil" Rawdon wanted to kill was Lord Steyne. Rawdon told his brother the story, and went on, in a broken voice, "There has to be a fight. I attacked him, so he must have his chance of revenge. And I may be killed. Will you and Jane take care of the boy, Pitt? It would comfort me to know that."

"Good God! Is she dead?" Sir Pitt said, in concern.

Sir Pitt was deeply moved, and shook his brother's hand. "Of course, Rawdon, of course. You have my word on it."

Rawdon told him.

The money for Miss Briggs was not forgotten, and Rawdon gave it to Pitt. "Please see that she gets it," he said. "I've always felt ashamed of taking the poor old woman's money."

"No," said Rawdon. He took out the thousand-pound note he had found in Becky's desk. "He gave her this, Mac, and she hid it. She had all this money in the house, and she didn't come and rescue me when I was locked up for debt. You don't know how much I loved her. I sacrificed everything for her."

"Steyne! Good God! He's a friend of the Prince. But -- she may be innocent, after all," Macmurdo said.

Rawdon went next to see his friend, Captain Macmurdo, to ask him to make the arrangements for the fight. "I'm going to kill him, Mac," Rawdon said. "There's only one way out of it. They had me arrested. I found them alone together. I told him he was a liar and a coward, and knocked him down and beat him."

"Good thing too," Macmurdo said. "Who is it?"

Becky was furious. "How dare you!" she screamed at them. "How dare you sit on my sofas, drinking my wine!"

When Becky finally shook off her mood of black despair, it was late in the morning. She rang the bell for the servants, again and again, but no one came. In the end she went downstairs and found several people in the drawing-room. The landlord, the landlord's wife, the cook, and several other servants were sitting there, complaining loudly and drinking wine.

"Your sofa, indeed!" said the cook. "I'm sitting on a sofa that belongs to your landlord, like everything else in this house!"

Every servant in the house knew what had happened, and that Becky was finished. They knew she had no money, and could not pay them their long-overdue wages. Some of them had already left, taking valuables with them. Becky's French maid had taken the jewellery left lying on the drawing-room floor, together with all the silver spoons and several of Becky's fine dresses.

The Captain sighed, and agreed to make the arrangements.

The landlord was almost weeping. "Where's my rent, Mrs Crawley, eh? You've ruined me! I've known the Crawley family all my life. I never thought that one of them would ruin me!"

He turned red, and moved back from her with a look of great alarm and horror.

Becky promised to pay them all the next day, and hurried out of the house. She walked quickly through the streets (she had no money to pay for a carriage) to Sir Pitt's house in Great Gaunt Street. Where was Lady Jane Crawley? It was Sunday, she was at church. And Sir Pitt? In his study. Becky slipped past the servant and was in Sir Pitt's room before her astonished brother-in-law had even laid down his newspaper.

"Don't look at me like that," Becky said. "I am not guilty, dear Pitt. You must believe me! You were my friend once. Oh, how could this happen just when I had such good news -- just when all our problems were going to be ended."

"Is it true, then, what I read in the paper?" said Sir Pitt. He had just read a paragraph that had surprised him greatly.

And so she went on with her persuasive story, pouring it into the ears of her confused brother-in-law. Yes, she had money of which Rawdon knew nothing. But Pitt knew what his brother was like, knew how careless he was about money, how he would have spent it on horses and gambling…

As she spoke, she threw herself down on her knees and, weeping passionately, seized Pitt's hand and kissed it.

"I did it all for my dear husband," she cried. "Lord Steyne liked me, yes, and I tried hard, in every honest way I could, to please him. But it was for Rawdon -- and you! I wanted him to get Rawdon a good position -- I wanted him to make you a lord. Oh, Pitt, dear Pitt, pity me! Bring Rawdon back to me!"

It was at that moment that Lady Jane, returning from church, came into the room. She was pale with anger.

"Yes, it's true. Lord Steyne told me on Friday night that as soon as the news arrived of the death of the previous Governor, he obtained the position for my husband. Rawdon will be the new Governor of Coventry Island! But I had to wait until the announcement was official. And then Rawdon came home…"

Lord Steyne refused to challenge Colonel Crawley to a duel. He sent a friend to talk to Captain Macmurdo, and the friend explained that Lord Steyne was innocent, Mrs Crawley was innocent; that he and his wife had also been invited to Curzon Street on that fatal evening but had failed to come owing to his wife's headache; and finally, that the proof of Lord Steyne's friendship for Colonel Crawley was demonstrated beyond question by the appointment of Colonel Crawley as the new Governor of Coventry Island.

"My love!" cried Sir Pitt. "You do Rebecca an injustice…"

"How dare Mrs Crawley enter this house?" she said. "She's a wicked woman -- a heartless mother, a false wife!"

"It was the diamond bracelet you gave me," Becky said sadly. And before she left him, Sir Pitt had promised to find Rawdon and do all he could to persuade him to forgive his wife.

"I have been a faithful and obedient wife to you, Pitt," Lady Jane continued, "but I will not have that woman in my house. If she enters it, I and my children will leave it. You must choose, sir, between her and me." And with that, she walked out of the room, leaving Becky and Sir Pitt astonished by her strong words.

But Rawdon would not hear of it. "She's been hiding money from me for ten years," he said. "She swore that night that she had received no money from Steyne. She knew it was all over, as soon as I found it. If she's not guilty, Pitt, she's as bad as guilty; and I'll never see her again -- never." His head sank down on his chest as he said this, and he looked quite broken and sad.

Rawdon still wanted to fight, but Captain Macmurdo said no.

"Don't be a fool, man," he said. "You've knocked Steyne down and beaten him already. It's my belief your wife's innocent. I think you should take the appointment and hold your tongue."

So there was no duel between the two men. The thousand-pound note was sent back to Lord Steyne, and after long, hard persuasion from his friends, Rawdon finally agreed to accept the position of Governor of Coventry Island. The climate on the island was said to be very unhealthy -- the previous Governor had died after only eighteen months there -- but the salary was excellent, and Rawdon would be free of debt for the first time in many long years.

Sir Pitt tried hard to bring Rawdon and Becky together again. He pointed out to his brother all the arguments that supported Becky's story, and stated his own belief in her innocence.

His mother never made any attempt to see him. Was she guilty or not? Everybody knows that Vanity Fair is never kind with its verdicts in these matters. Rawdon's lawyers paid her enough money to live on, and people said she had gone to Europe, but where she lived, or how she lived, no one knew -- or cared.

True to his word, Rawdon left for Coventry Island without forgiving Becky, and young Rawdy went home to Sir Pitt and Lady Jane at Queen's Crawley in the school holidays, where he was very happy. His father wrote to him by every mail.