The atmosphere at Queen's Crawley shows in the following conversation. Sir Pitt says, "How's Buty, Hodson? I'm afraid he's better, Sir Pitt."
Sir Pitt brags that there is timber worth six thousand pounds along his driveway and immediately has two little boys flogged for gathering sticks. Although Sir Pitt isn't fit for anything (he can neither read nor spell), yet he is courted by ministers and statesmen. He rates high in Vanity Fair.
Part of the twist of Thackeray's plot is that the always correct and stuffy Pitt Crawley, who frowns on his half sisters' laughter, who will neither let them play cards nor escape household prayers at ten, is the instrument of introducing Becky into the household.
Often the author intrudes to tell the reader what to think. He says this installment is mild, but that he must tell things as he sees them. Rebecca is bad. Some people are "Faithless, Hopeless, Charityless: let us have at them, dear friends, with might and main. Some there are, and very successful too, mere quacks and fools; and it was to combat and expose such as those, no doubt, that Laughter was made." With cutting sarcasm Thackeray points out the foibles of a noble family. Miss Crawley is well treated "for she had a balance at her banker's which would have made her beloved anywhere."
Thackeray wishes someone would send him a rich old aunt, whom he would treat with all kindness, money being all-important in Vanity Fair. He says, "I, for my part, have known a five-pound note to interpose and knock up a half-century's attachment between two brethren; and can't but admire, as I think what a fine and durable thing Love is among worldly people." And he adds, "What a charming reconciler and peacemaker money is."
