Part 2 (2/2)

'Don't tease your uncle with questions when he is thinking only for our good, my love,' said Mrs Nickleby 'Nicholas, '

'Yes, mother, yes,' said Nicholas, who had hitherto reht 'If I ah to be appointed to this post, sir, for which I am so imperfectly qualified, ill become of those I leave behind?'

'Your mother and sister, sir,' replied Ralph, 'will be provided for, in that case (not otherwise), by me, and placed in some sphere of life in which they will be able to be independent That will be my immediate care; they will not remain as they are, one week after your departure, I will undertake'

'Then,' said Nicholas, starting gaily up, and wringing his uncle's hand, 'I a you wish me Let us try our fortune with Mr Squeers at once; he can but refuse'

'He won't do that,' said Ralph 'He will be glad to have you on my recommendation Make yourself of use to him, and you'll rise to be a partner in the establishment in no time Bless me, only think! if he were to die, why your fortune's made at once'

'To be sure, I see it all,' said poor Nicholas, delighted with a thousand visionary ideas, that his good spirits and his inexperience were conjuring up before hi educated at the Hall, were to take a fancy totutor when he left, and e come back from the continent, procured me some handsome appointment Eh! uncle?'

'Ah, to be sure!' sneered Ralph

'And who knows, but when he came to see ht fall in love with Kate, ould be keeping my house, and-and marry her, eh! uncle? Who knows?'

'Who, indeed!' snarled Ralph

'How happy we should be!' cried Nicholas with enthusiasain Kate will be a beautiful woman, and I so proud to hear theain, and all these sad tiht a one to bear, and Nicholas, fairly overpowered by it, smiled faintly, and burst into tears

This simple family, born and bred in retirement, and wholly unacquainted hat is called the world-a conventional phrase which, being interpreted, often signifieth all the rascals in it-ht of their first separation; and, this first gush of feeling over, were proceeding to dilate with all the buoyancy of untried hope on the bright prospects before theested, that if they lost tiht deprive Nicholas of the stepping-stone to fortune which the advertisement pointed out, and so undermine all their air-built castles This timely re carefully copied the address of Mr Squeers, the uncle and nephew issued forth together in quest of that acco hireat injustice in disliking hi at sohter that she was sure he was a much more kindly disposed person than he seeht very easily be

To tell the truth, the good lady's opinion had been not a little influenced by her brother-in-law's appeal to her better understanding, and his ih she had dearly loved her husband, and still doted on her children, he had struck so successfully on one of those little jarring chords in the human heart (Ralph ell acquainted with its worst weaknesses, though he knew nothing of its best), that she had already begun seriously to consider herself the a victim of her late husband's imprudence

CHAPTER 4

Nicholas and his Uncle (to secure the Fortune without loss of time) wait upon Mr Wackford Squeers, the Yorkshi+re Schoolmaster Snow Hill! What kind of place can the quiet townspeople who see the words eilt letters and dark shading, on the north-country coaches, take Snow Hill to be? All people have some undefined and shadowy notion of a place whose name is frequently before their eyes, or often in their ears What a vast nu about, regarding this saood one Snow Hill-Snow Hill too, coupled with a Saracen's Head: picturing to us by a double association of ideas, soed! A bleak desolate tract of country, open to piercing blasts and fierce wintry storlooht of by honest folks at night-a place which solitary wayfarers shun, and where desperate robbers congregate;-this, or so like this, should be the prevalent notion of Snow Hill, in those reh which the Saracen's Head, like soht withits swift and headlong course in all weathers, and see to bid defiance to the very elements themselves

The reality is rather different, but by noThere, at the very core of London, in the heart of its business and ani as it were the giant currents of life that flow ceaselessly on froate; and in that crowded street on which it frowns so darkly-within a few feet of the squalid tottering houses-upon the very spot on which the vendors of soup and fish and das, areat city is as nothing, four, six, or eight strong men at a time, have been hurried violently and swiftly frohtful with excess of hulared from casement and house-top, and wall and pillar; and when, in thewretch, in his all-coony, has met not one-not one-that bore the impress of pity or compassion

Near to the jail, and by consequence near to Smithfield also, and the Compter, and the bustle and noise of the city; and just on that particular part of Snow Hill where o down on purpose, and where horses in hackney cabriolets going ard not unfrequently fall by accident, is the coach-yard of the Saracen's Head Inn; its portal guarded by two Saracens' heads and shoulders, which it was once the pride and glory of the choice spirits of this ht, but which have for some time remained in undisturbed tranquillity; possibly because this species of humour is now confined to St Ja more portable, and bell-wires esteemed as convenient toothpicks Whether this be the reason or not, there they are, frowning upon you froarnished with another Saracen's Head, frowns upon you from the top of the yard; while from the door of the hind boot of all the red coaches that are standing therein, there glares a se Saracens' Heads below, so that the general appearance of the pile is decidedly of the Saracenic order

When you walk up this yard, you will see the booking-office on your left, and the tower of St Sepulchre's church, darting abruptly up into the sky, on your right, and a gallery of bedroo ith the words 'coffee-roo out of that , you would have seen in addition, if you had gone at the right time, Mr Wackford Squeers with his hands in his pockets

Mr Squeers's appearance was not prepossessing He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favour of two The eye he had, was unquestionably useful, but decidedly not orna the fan-light of a street door The blank side of his face was ave him a very sinister appearance, especially when he smiled, at which times his expression bordered closely on the villainous His hair was very flat and shi+ny, save at the ends, where it was brushed stiffly up fro forehead, which assorted ith his harsh voice and coarse manner He was about two or three and fifty, and a trifle below theends, and a suit of scholastic black; but his coat sleeves being a great deal too long, and his trousers a great deal too short, he appeared ill at ease in his clothes, and as if he were in a perpetual state of astonish hi in a box by one of the coffee-room fire-places, fitted with one such table as is usually seen in coffee-rooms, and two of extraordinary shapes and diles of the partition In a corner of the seat, was a very small deal trunk, tied round with a scanty piece of cord; and on the trunk was perched-his lace-up half-boots and corduroy trousers dangling in the air-a diminutive boy, with his shoulders drawn up to his ears, and his hands planted on his knees, who glanced timidly at the schoolmaster, from time to time, with evident dread and apprehension

'Half-past three,'sulkily at the coffee-room clock 'There will be nobody here today'

Much vexed by this reflection, Mr Squeers looked at the little boy to see whether he was doing anything he could beat hi at all, he ain

'At Midsu his complaint, 'I took down ten boys; ten twenties is two hundred pound I go back at eight o'clock toht-three twos is six-sixty pound What's coot in their heads? what does it all ave a violent sneeze

'Halloa, sir!' growled the school, please sir,' replied the little boy

'Nothing, sir!' exclaimed Mr Squeers

'Please sir, I sneezed,' rejoined the boy, tre till the little trunk shook under him

'Oh! sneezed, did you?' retorted Mr Squeers 'Then what did you say ”nothing” for, sir?'

In default of a better answer to this question, the little boy screwed a couple of knuckles into each of his eyes and began to cry, wherefore Mr Squeers knocked him off the trunk with a blow on one side of the face, and knocked hiet you down into Yorkshi+re, ive you the rest Will you hold that noise, sir?'

'Ye-ye-yes,' sobbed the little boy, rubbing his face very hard with the Beggar's Petition in printed calico

'Then do so at once, sir,' said Squeers 'Do you hear?'

As this adesture, and uttered with a savage aspect, the little boy rubbed his face harder, as if to keep the tears back; and, beyond alternately sniffing and choking, gave no further vent to his e in at this juncture; 'here's a gentleentleman in, Richard,' replied Mr Squeers, in a soft voice 'Put your handkerchief in your pocket, you little scoundrel, or I'll oes'

The schoolmaster had scarcely uttered these words in a fierce whisper, when the stranger entered Affecting not to see hi a pen, and offering benevolent advice to his youthful pupil

'My dear child,' said Mr Squeers, 'all people have their trials This early trial of yours that is fit to make your little heart burst, and your very eyes co; less than nothing You are leaving your friends, but you will have a father in htful village of Dotheboys, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshi+re, where youth are boarded, clothed, booked, washed, furnished with pocket-entle the schoolmaster in the rehearsal of his advertisement 'Mr Squeers, I believe, sir?'

'The same, sir,' said Mr Squeers, with an assuentleer, 'that advertised in the Ti Post, Chronicle, Herald, and Advertiser, regarding the Acadee of Dotheboys, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshi+re,' added Mr Squeers 'You co friends How do you do, entleman? and how do you do, sir?' With this salutation Mr Squeers patted the heads of two hollow-eyed, sht with him, and waited for further communications

'I am in the oil and colour way My naer

Squeers inclined his head as much as to say, 'And a reer continued 'I have been thinking, Mr Squeers, of placing my two boys at your school'

'It is not for me to say so, sir,' replied Mr Squeers, 'but I don't think you could possibly do a better thing'

'Hem!' said the other 'Twenty pounds per annewum, I believe, Mr Squeers?'

'Guineas,' rejoined the schoolmaster, with a persuasive smile

'Pounds for two, I think, Mr Squeers,' said Mr Snawley, solemnly

'I don't think it could be done, sir,' replied Squeers, as if he had never considered the proposition before 'Let me see; four fives is twenty, double that, and deduct the-well, a pound either way shall not stand betwixt us You must recommend me to your connection, sir, and reat eaters,' said Mr Snawley