As usual the topic of discussion and chief preoccupation of Vanity Fair is MONEY. Miss Crawley thinks of how Rawdon might have married a brewer's daughter with a quarter of a million. Miss Crawley's relatives try to keep in her favor by sending tokens of affection. Later when Countess Southdown is eager to convert and cure Miss Crawley, Pitt says, "Remember she has seventy thousand pounds; think of her age, and her highly nervous and delicate condition: I know that she has destroyed the will which was made in my brother's favour: it is by soothing that wounded spirit that we must lead it into the right path, and not by frightening it . . ."
The author adds, "Lady Southdown, we say, for the sake of the invalid's health, or for the sake of her soul's ultimate welfare, or for the sake of her money, agreed to temporize."
Pitt Crawley (Machiavel) reveals diplomacy and duplicity in getting rid of James. In calling him Machiavel, Thackeray has hinted at his double dealing. Pitt uses psychology and charm on Miss Briggs, and he wins the inheritance. As Bute Crawley says to his wife, "You are a clever woman, but you manage too well, you know." She has outmanaged herself.
Thackeray says of Lady Jane's character and attachment to Miss Crawley, "The young lady herself had never received kindness except from this old spinster, and her brother and father: and she repaid Miss Crawley's engollement by artless sweetness and friendship." This reflects the author's opinion of Lady Jane's tract-scattering, medicine-dosing mother.
