Dobbin, who loves her to idolatry, and after many years of patience and great devotion, she consents to marry him. Becky Sharp rises from nothing to splendor, and then falls; Amelia falls from wealth to indigence, and then rises. =Vanhorne= (_Miss_), “an old woman with black eyes, a black wig, shining false teeth, a Roman nose and a high color,” who munches aromatic seeds coated with sugar, and tries to make or mar the fortunes of everybody she knows. Lonely, crabbed and rich.--Constance Fenimore Woolson, _Anne_ (1882). =Van Ness= (_Aunt_), sentimental, worldly old woman, who succeeds in marrying her niece, Constance Varley, to the man she does not want to accept.--Julia Constance Fletcher, _Mirage_ (1878). =Vanoc=, son of Merlin, one of the knights of the Round Table. Young Vanoc, of the beardless face (Fame spoke the youth of Merlin’s race), O’erpowered, at Gyneth’s footstool bled, His heart’s blood dyed her sandals red. Sir W. Scott, _Bridal of Triermain_, ii. 25 (1813). =Vantom= (_Mr._). Sir John Sinclair tells us that Mr. Vantom drank in twenty-three years 36,688 bottles (_i.e._, 59 pipes) of wine.--_Code of Health and Longevity_ (1807). ⁂ Between four and five bottles a day. =Vanwelt= (_Ian_), the supposed suitor of Rose Flammock.--Sir W. Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.). =Vapians= (_The_), a people of Utopia, who passed the equinoctial of Queūbus, “a torrid zone lying somewhere beyond three o’clock in the morning.” In sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last night, when thou spokest ... of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus.--Shakespeare, _Twelfth Night_, act ii. sc. 3 (1602). =Vapid=, the chief character in _The Dramatist_, by F. Reynolds, and said to be meant for the author himself. He goes to Bath “to pick up characters.” =Varbel=, “the lowly but faithful squire” of Floreski, a Polish count. He is a quaint fellow, always hungry.--J. P. Kemble, _Lodoiska_ (1719). =Varden= (_Gabriel_), locksmith, Clerkenwell; a round, red-faced, sturdy yeoman, with a double chin, and a voice husky with good living, good sleeping, good humor and good health. He was past the prime of life, but his heart and spirits were in full vigor. During the Gordon riots Gabriel refused to pick the lock of Newgate prison, though at the imminent risk of his life.