Following the publication of the preceding chapters, some readers wrote that they could see nothing in Amelia. Thackeray says this is the greatest compliment one woman can pay another. With men around, no woman gives another credit for anything. The Osborne girls are jealous of their brother. Miss Maria Osborne's special friend, Mr. Bullock, has danced with Amelia, which attention makes Maria jealous, although she pretends joy.
Osborne is humiliated by the way his fellow soldiers kid him about Amelia's letters. He horrifies Dobbin by lighting his cigar with one. Dobbin hears the men gossiping about Osborne's wild life. Irate, he tells them Osborne is engaged to Miss Sedley. When this revelation angers George, Dobbin asks him if he is ashamed of his engagement. Osborne says he doesn't want his business to be everybody's business and he wants his little fling. Dobbin begs him to make Amelia happy, and Osborne says he will take her a present. Dobbin loans him money, but Osborne buys himself a diamond shirt-pin.
Delighted to see Osborne, Amelia doesn't think of gifts. She has been picturing him tending wounded or performing other rigorous duties. Amelia thinks Lieutenant Osborne the most wonderful man in the world and he agrees with her. She visits the Osborne home in Russell Square. Old Osborne comes home in bad humor, sees Amelia there, glares at her, and complains about the meal.
When George comes home late for supper, his father tells him he can't marry Amelia unless she has ten thousand pounds, and the elder Osborne suspects Sedley's financial condition is shaky. He promises George money, as he wants him to go about in good society, which he believes can do no wrong, but he insists that George must never gamble. Relieved that his father hasn't heard of some of his activities, George seems reconciled to break with Amelia, but he does not tell her.
