When she and Rawdon are living on nothing a year, Rebecca deals with the creditors. It is she who starts the rumor that Rawdon has inherited from his rich aunt, and thereby gets out of Paris without paying any debts, since she has ordered a newly decorated apartment against her return. It is she who settles for a percentage of Rawdon's debts in England, so that he may return to London for a fresh start.
Among Rebecca's talents are music, both piano and voice. She can sketch, talk French like a native, dance, act, mimic. Not only her physical charm attracts Lord Steyne, but her wit and mimicry and her ability to get money out of him, even when he realizes she is outwitting him. The more money she wheedles out of him, the more amused he is, until the fatal day when Rawdon walks in on the two of them.
Rebecca's ambition is her outstanding characteristic. She sacrifices husband, child, friends to it; but she enjoys the battle. In a letter to Amelia, after Becky has gone to Queen's Crawley, she says, "At least I shall be amongst gentlefolks — and not with vulgar city people." This jibe refers to both the Sedleys and the Osbornes because George has thwarted her marriage with Joseph Sedley. She continues, "You might lodge all the people in Russell Square in the house, I think, and have space to spare."
