Sir Pitt reacts with his father's stinginess when his first thought is that Rawdon's trouble must be money. When his pocketbook isn't touched, he can relent and promise protection to little Rawdon, although after Rawdon goes to Coventry Island, he remits regularly to his brother, a consideration which shows how much Rawdon has grown in character.
Rawdon wins the reader's sympathy when he shows Macmurdo the thousand pound note and says:
This is what he gave her, Mac: and she kep' it unknown to me: and with this money in the house, she refused to stand by me when I was locked up!" The captain could not but own that the secreting of the money had a very ugly look.
The reader wonders if the withholding of the money proves to Rawdon his wife's infidelity with Lord Steyne. In Vanity Fair, the money would come first, and although Rawdon's values have changed, Rebecca's have not.
One of the most touching word pictures of the whole book is: "He [Rawdon] covered his face with his black hands; over which the tears rolled and made furrows of white . . ." Rawdon has been too disturbed to think of washing, or even of changing from his party clothes, which he was wearing when thrown into detention. Lady Jane, sympathetic, can't bear going to church after seeing Rawdon's agony.
