Part 34 (2/2)

'Of little consequence!' exclaimed Mr Pluck 'Pyke, of what consequence to our friend, Sir Mulberry, is the good opinion of Mrs Nickleby?'

'Of what consequence?' echoed Pyke

'Ay,' repeated Pluck; 'is it of the greatest consequence?'

'Of the very greatest consequence,' replied Pyke

'Mrs Nickleby cannot be ignorant,' said Mr Pluck, 'of the iirl has-'

'Pluck!' said his friend, 'beware!'

'Pyke is right,' muttered Mr Pluck, after a short pause; 'I was not to ht Thank you, Pyke'

'Well now, really,' thought Mrs Nickleby within herself 'Such delicacy as that, I never saw!'

Mr Pluck, after feigning to be in a condition of great embarrass Mrs Nickleby to take no heed of what he had inadvertently said-to consider him imprudent, rash, injudicious The only stipulation he would ive him credit for the best intentions

'But when,' said Mr Pluck, 'when I see so much sweetness and beauty on the one hand, and so much ardour and devotion on the other, I-pardon e the subject, Pyke'

'We promised Sir Mulberry and Lord Frederick,' said Pyke, 'that we'd call this ht'

'Not the least in the world last night, sir,' replied Mrs Nickleby, 'withular, as I really am very subject to colds, indeed-very subject I had a cold once,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'I think it was in the year eighteen hundred and seventeen; let hteen hundred and seventeen, that I thought I never should get rid of; actually and seriously, that I thought I never should get rid of I was only cured at last by a remedy that I don't knohether you ever happened to hear of, Mr Pluck You have a gallon of water as hot as you can possibly bear it, with a pound of salt, and sixpen'orth of the finest bran, and sit with your head in it for twentyto bed; at least, I don't mean your head-your feet It's a most extraordinary cure-a most extraordinary cure I used it for the first time, I recollect, the day after Christone It seems quite a miracle when you co of Septe calamity!' said Mr Pyke

'Perfectly horrid!' exclai, only to know that Mrs Nickleby recovered it, isn't it, Pluck?' cried Mr Pyke

'That is the circu interest,' replied Mr Pluck

'But co hiet our mission in the pleasure of this interview We come on a ood lady, to whose e for Kate at once presented itself in lively colours

'From Sir Mulberry,' replied Pyke 'You must be very dull here'

'Rather dull, I confess,' said Mrs Nickleby

'We bring the compliments of Sir Mulberry Hawk, and a thousand entreaties that you'll take a seat in a private box at the play tonight,' said Mr Pluck

'Oh dear!' said Mrs Nickleby, 'I never go out at all, never'

'And that is the very reason, ht,' retorted Mr Pluck 'Pyke, entreat Mrs Nickleby'

'Oh, pray do,' said Pyke

'You positively ed Pluck

'You are very kind,' said Mrs Nickleby, hesitating; 'but-'

'There's not a but in the case, my dear Mrs Nickleby,' remonstrated Mr Pluck; 'not such a word in the vocabulary Your brother-in-law joins us, Lord Frederick joins us, Sir Mulberry joins us, Pyke joins us-a refusal is out of the question Sir Mulberry sends a carriage for you-twenty minutes before seven to the moment-you'll not be so cruel as to disappoint the whole party, Mrs Nickleby?'

'You are so very pressing, that I scarcely knohat to say,' replied the worthy lady

'Say nothing; not a word, not a word, ed Mr Pluck 'Mrs Nickleby,' said that excellent gentle, the most excusable breach of confidence in what I am about to say; and yet if my friend Pyke there overheard it-such is that man's delicate sense of honour, Mrs Nickleby-he'd have me out before dinner-tilance at the warlike Pyke, who had walked to the ; and Mr Pluck, squeezing her hand, went on: 'Your daughter has ratulate you Sir Mulberry, my dear ma'am, Sir Mulberry is her devoted slave Hem!'

'Hah!' cried Mr Pyke at this juncture, snatching so from the chimney-piece with a theatrical air 'What is this! what do I behold!'

'What DO you behold, my dear fellow?' asked Mr Pluck

'It is the face, the countenance, the expression,' cried Mr Pyke, falling into his chair with a ht, but still THE face, THE countenance, THE expression'

'I recognise it at this distance!' exclaimed Mr Pluck in a fit of enthusiasm 'Is it not, hter's portrait,' said Mrs Nickleby, with great pride And so it was And little Miss La Creevy had brought it hohts before

Mr Pyke no sooner ascertained that he was quite right in his conjecture, than he launched into the inal; and in the warmth of his enthusiasm kissed the picture a thousand times, while Mr Pluck pressed Mrs Nickleby's hand to his heart, and congratulated her on the possession of such a daughter, with so much earnestness and affection, that the tears stood, or seemed to stand, in his eyes Poor Mrs Nickleby, who had listened in a state of enviable coth quite overpowered by these tokens of regard for, and attachirl, who had peeped in at the door, remained rooted to the spot in astonishment at the ecstasies of the two friendly visitors

By degrees these raptures subsided, and Mrs Nickleby went on to entertain her guests with a lament over her fallen fortunes, and a picturesque account of her old house in the country: co a full description of the different apart the little store-room, and a lively recollection of how arden, and which way you turned when you came out at the parlour door, and what capital fixtures there were in the kitchen This last reflection naturally conducted her into the wash-house, where she stuht have wandered for an hour, if the mere mention of those implements had not, by an association of ideas, instantly re thirsty'

'And I'll tell you what,' said Mr Pyke; 'if you'll send round to the public-house for a pot of milk half-and-half, positively and actually I'll drink it'

And positively and actually Mr Pyke DID drink it, and Mr Pluck helped him, while Mrs Nickleby looked on in divided admiration of the condescension of the two, and the aptitude hich they accommodated the entlemen who, like Messrs Pyke and Pluck, live upon their wits (or not so much, perhaps, upon the presence of their oits as upon the absence of wits in other people) are occasionally reduced to very narrow shi+fts and straits, and are at such periods accustoale themselves in a very simple and primitive manner

'At twenty , 'the coach will be here One more look-one little look-at that sweet face Ah! here it is Uned!' This, by the as a very re liable to so es of expression-'Oh, Pluck! Pluck!'

Mr Pluck reat show of feeling and attachentlemen hastily withdrew

Mrs Nickleby was co herself credit for a pretty tolerable share of penetration and acuteness, but she had never felt so satisfied with her own sharp-sightedness as she did that day She had found it all out the night before She had never seen Sir Mulberry and Kate together-never even heard Sir Mulberry's name-and yet hadn't she said to herself from the very first, that she sa the case stood? and what a triumph it was, for there was now no doubt about it If these flattering attentions to herself were not sufficient proofs, Sir Mulberry's confidential friend had suffered the secret to escape him in so many words 'I am quite in love with that dear Mr Pluck, I declare I areat source of uneasiness in thenobody by, to whom she could confide it Once or twice she alht to Miss La Creevy's and tell it all to her 'But I don't know,' thought Mrs Nickleby; 'she is a very worthy person, but I am afraid too much beneath Sir Mulberry's station for us to rave consideration she rejected the idea of taking the little portrait painter into her confidence, and contented herself with holding out sundry vague and irl, who received these obscure hints of dawning greatness with much veneration and respect

Punctual to its time came the promised vehicle, which was no hackney coach, but a private chariot, having behind it a footht, as s, have set themselves up forto hear the clash and bustle hich he banged the door and juood lady was perfectly unconscious that he applied the gold-headed end of his long stick to his nose, and so telegraphed most disrespectfully to the coachman over her very head, she sat in a state of nity, not a little proud of her position

At the theatre entrance there wasandto escort her to her box; and so polite were they, that Mr Pyke threatened with ate' a very old man with a lantern who accidentally stureat terror of Mrs Nickleby, who, conjecturing more from Mr Pyke's excitey of the word that sation and bloodshed , was alar should occur Fortunately, however, Mr Pyke confined hiation, and they reached their box with no more serious interruption by the way, than a desire on the part of the saentle to mistake the number

Mrs Nickleby had scarcely been put away behind the curtain of the box in an armchair, when Sir Mulberry and Lord Verisopht arrived, arrayed froloves, and froloves to the toes of their boots, in the ant and costly manner Sir Mulberry was a little hoarser than on the previous day, and Lord Verisopht looked rather sleepy and queer; from which tokens, as well as fro extent unsteady upon their legs, Mrs Nickleby justly concluded that they had taken dinner