She learns the hard way that friendship is fleeting in a world ruled by Mammon3. When George's sisters turn their backs on him to spend time with Miss Swartz, George tries to comfort her by explaining the simple facts of the "cash society": "They would have loved you if you had had two one hundred thousand pounds. . . [t]his is the way they were raised” (204). So when her father faces financial difficulties, Amelia discovers her own price. Mr. Osborne tells his son that if he does not see "Amelia's ten thousand dollars", George will not marry her, because he will have "no lame duck daughter" in his family (134) . This, despite the fact that it was "the lame duck", Mr. Sedley, who helped Mr. Osborne make his fortune in the first place (134). However, friendship, like many other things, is fleeting in Vanity Fair. Less explicit than the previous sum mentioned, is the allusion to Amelia's imminent fate, by the "chronometer surmounted by a joyful group of brass from the sacrifice of Iphigenia", and which summons the Osbornes to dinner (129). It references the Greek story of Agamemnon who sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia for good wind, but it is also an apt description of how Mr. Osborne "sacrifices" his future daughter-in-law for money and a status. When Mr. Osborne learns that Amelia's father is indeed bankrupt, he divorces her and calls off the engagement. She is no longer of any use to him, as she can no longer bring the money and status required to become his daughter-in-law. He therefore “sacrifices” her for the heiress Miss Swartz. Mr. Osborne breaks off the engagement between Amelia and George, because he wants to make a better marriage for his son, one that will bring both economic and social capital, from which his vanity will in turn benefit. So when George defies his father and secretly marries Amelia, his father