Part 35 (1/2)

'We have been-we have been-toasting your lovely daughter, Mrs Nickleby,' whispered Sir Mulberry, sitting down behind her

'Oh, ho!' thought that knowing lady; 'wine in, truth out-You are very kind, Sir Mulberry'

'No, no upon my soul!' replied Sir Mulberry Hawk 'It's you that's kind, upon ht'

'So very kind of you to inviteher head, and looking prodigiously sly

'I aood opinion, so desirous that there should be a delicious kind of har between us,' said Sir Mulberry, 'that you mustn't think I'm disinterested in what I do I'm infernal selfish; I am-upon my soul I am'

'I am sure you can't be selfish, Sir Mulberry!' replied Mrs Nickleby 'You have enerous a countenance for that'

'What an extraordinary observer you are!' said Sir Mulberry Hawk

'Oh no, indeed, I don't see very far into things, Sir Mulberry,' replied Mrs Nickleby, in a tone of voice which left the baronet to infer that she saw very far indeed

'I am quite afraid of you,' said the baronet 'Uponround to his companions; 'I am afraid of Mrs Nickleby She is so immensely sharp'

Messrs Pyke and Pluck shook their heads ether that they had found that out long ago; upon which Mrs Nickleby tittered, and Sir Mulberry laughed, and Pyke and Pluck roared

'But where's my brother-in-law, Sir Mulberry?' inquired Mrs Nickleby 'I shouldn't be here without hi'

'Pyke,' said Sir Mulberry, taking out his toothpick and lolling back in his chair, as if he were too lazy to invent a reply to this question 'Where's Ralph Nickleby?'

'Pluck,' said Pyke, i the lie over to his friend, 'where's Ralph Nickleby?'

Mr Pluck was about to return so the next box seeentleinning to converse together, Sir Mulberry suddenly assumed the character of a most attentive listener, and implored his friends not to breathe-not to breathe

'Why not?' said Mrs Nickleby 'What is thehis hand on her arnise the tones of that voice?'

'Deyvle take me if I didn't think it was the voice of Miss Nickleby'

'Lor,her head round the curtain 'Why actually-Kate, my dear, Kate'

'YOU here, mama! Is it possible!'

'Possible, my dear? Yes'

'Why ho on earth is that you have with you, ht of ahis hand

'Who do you suppose,towards Mrs Wititterly, and speaking a little louder for that lady's edification 'There's Mr Pyke, Mr Pluck, Sir Mulberry Hawk, and Lord Frederick Verisopht'

'Gracious Heaven!' thought Kate hurriedly 'How coht thus SO hurriedly, and the surprise was so great, and ht back so forcibly the recollection of what had passed at Ralph's delectable dinner, that she turned extre observed by Mrs Nickleby, were at once set down by that acute lady as being caused and occasioned by violent love But, although she was in no shted by this discovery, which reflected so much credit on her own quickness of perception, it did not lessen her ly, with a vast quantity of trepidation, she quitted her own box to hasten into that of Mrs Wititterly Mrs Wititterly, keenly alive to the glory of having a lord and a baronet a to Mr Wititterly to open the door, and thus it was that in less than thirty seconds Mrs Nickleby's party had made an irruption into Mrs Wititterly's box, which it filled to the very door, there being in fact only rooet in their heads and waistcoats

'My dear Kate,' said Mrs Nickleby, kissing her daughter affectionately 'How ill you looked a htened me, I declare!'

'It was hts perhaps,' replied Kate, glancing nervously round, and finding it impossible to whisper any caution or explanation

'Don't you see Sir Mulberry Hawk,her lip turned her head towards the stage

But Sir Mulberry Haas not to be so easily repulsed, for he advanced with extended hand; and Mrs Nickleby officiously infored to extend her own Sir Mulberry detained it while hewhat had passed between theravations of the insult he had already put upon her Then followed the recognition of Lord Verisopht, and then the greeting of Mr Pyke, and then that of Mr Pluck, and finally, to co lady's mortification, she was compelled at Mrs Wititterly's request to perforarded with the utnation and abhorrence

'Mrs Wititterly is delighted,' said Mr Wititterly, rubbing his hands; 'delighted,an acquaintance which, I trust, my lord, we shall improve Julia, my dear, you must not allow yourself to be too much excited, you must not Indeed you must not Mrs Wititterly is of a most excitable nature, Sir Mulberry The snuff of a candle, the wick of a laht blow her away, ht blow her away'

Sir Mulberry seereat convenience if the lady could be bloay He said, however, that the delight was mutual, and Lord Verisopht added that it was mutual, whereupon Messrs Pyke and Pluck were heard to murmur from the distance that it was very mutual indeed

'I take an interest, my lord,' said Mrs Wititterly, with a faint smile, 'such an interest in the dra,' replied Lord Verisopht

'I'm always ill after Shakespeare,' said Mrs Wititterly 'I scarcely exist the next day; I find the reaction so very great after a tragedy, my lord, and Shakespeare is such a delicious creature'

'Ye-es!' replied Lord Verisopht 'He was a clayver man'

'Do you know,silence, 'I find I take sobeen to that dear little dull house he was born in! Were you ever there, my lord?'

'No, nayver,' replied Verisopht

'Then really you ought to go, uid and drawling accents 'I don't kno it is, but after you've seen the place and written your name in the little book, somehow or other you seem to be inspired; it kindles up quite a fire within one'

'Ye-es!' replied Lord Verisopht, 'I shall certainly go there'

'Julia,his lordshi+p-unintentionally,you It is your poetical teination, which throws you into a glow of genius and excite'

'I think therein the place,' said Mrs Nickleby, who had been listening in silence; 'for, soon after I was married, I went to Stratford with ha; 'yes, itat the tireen shade over his left eye;-in a post-chaise froham, and after we had seen Shakespeare's tomb and birthplace, ent back to the inn there, where we slept that night, and I recollect that all night long I dreath, in plaster-of-Paris, with a lay-down collar tied with two tassels, leaning against a post and thinking; and when I woke in theand described him to Mr Nickleby, he said it was Shakespeare just as he had been when he was alive, which was very curious indeed Stratford-Stratford,' continued Mrs Nickleby, considering 'Yes, I am positive about that, because I recollect I was in the family ith htened by an Italian i In fact, it was quite a mercy, ma'am,' added Mrs Nickleby, in a whisper to Mrs Wititterly, 'that my son didn't turn out to be a Shakespeare, and what a dreadful thing that would have been!'

When Mrs Nickleby had brought this interesting anecdote to a close, Pyke and Pluck, ever zealous in their patron's cause, proposed the adjournment of a detachment of the party into the next box; and with so much skill were the preliminaries adjusted, that Kate, despite all she could say or do to the contrary, had no alternative but to suffer herself to be led away by Sir Mulberry Hawk Her mother and Mr Pluck acco herself upon her discretion, took particular care not so , and to seem wholly absorbed in the jokes and conversation of Mr Pluck, who, having been appointed sentry over Mrs Nickleby for that especial purpose, neglected, on his side, no possible opportunity of engrossing her attention

Lord Frederick Verisopht remained in the next box to be talked to by Mrs Wititterly, and Mr Pyke was in attendance to throw in a word or then necessary As to Mr Wititterly, he was sufficiently busy in the body of the house, infor such of his friends and acquaintance as happened to be there, that those two gentlemen upstairs, whouished Lord Frederick Verisopht and his ay Sir Mulberry Hawk-a communication which inflamed several respectable house-keepers with the uthters to the very brink of despair

The evening came to an end at last, but Kate had yet to be handed downstairs by the detested Sir Mulberry; and so skilfully were the manoeuvres of Messrs Pyke and Pluck conducted, that she and the baronet were the last of the party, and were even-without an appearance of effort or design-left at some little distance behind

'Don't hurry, don't hurry,' said Sir Mulberry, as Kate hastened on, and attempted to release her arm

She made no reply, but still pressed forward