Part 44 (1/2)

'However,' thought Nicholas as he departed on his benevolent errand; 'she cannot fail to become attached to him, when she knohat a devoted creature he is, and as she must quickly make the discovery, his probation will be a short one'

'I was afraid,' said Sain, 'that you had fallen into so, at last, that I alaily 'You will not be rid of me so easily, I promise you I shall rise to the surface many thousand times yet, and the harder the thrust that pushes me down, the more quickly I shall rebound, Smike But come; my errand here is to take you ho ti his arm 'Why not?'

'I had such hopes once,' said Sed for horief, but now-'

'And what now?' asked Nicholas, looking kindly in his face 'What now, old friend?'

'I could not part fro his hand; 'except one, except one I shall never be an old rave, and I could think, before I died, that you would come and look upon it sometimes with one of your kind s was alive-not dead like o to that home almost without a tear'

'Why do you talk thus, poor boy, if your life is a happy one with e; not those about ot me, I should never know it,' replied Smike 'In the churchyard we are all alike, but here there are none like me I am a poor creature, but I know that'

'You are a foolish, silly creature,' said Nicholas cheerfully 'If that is what you rant you that Why, here's a dismal face for ladies' company!-my pretty sister too, whom you have so often asked allantry? For shahtened up and smiled

'When I talk of home,' pursued Nicholas, 'I talk of mine-which is yours of course If it were defined by any particular four walls and a roof, God knows I should be sufficiently puzzled to say whereabouts it lay; but that is not what I mean When I speak of home, I speak of the place where-in default of a better-those I love are gathered together; and if that place were a gypsy's tent, or a barn, I should call it by the sa And now, for what isyour expectations nificence!'

So saying, Nicholas took his coreat deal s to a, led the way to Miss La Creevy's house

'And this, Kate,' said Nicholas, entering the room where his sister sat alone, 'is the faithful friend and affectionate fellow-traveller whom I prepared you to receive'

Poor Sh, at first, but Kate advanced towards him so kindly, and said, in such a sweet voice, how anxious she had been to see him after all her brother had told her, and how reatly in their very trying reverses, that he began to be very doubtful whether he should shed tears or not, and becaed to say, in a broken voice, that Nicholas was his only friend, and that he would lay down his life to help hih she was so kind and considerate, seemed to be so wholly unconscious of his distress and embarrassment, that he recovered almost immediately and felt quite at home

Then, Miss La Creevy came in; and to her Smike had to be presented also And Miss La Creevy was very kind too, and wonderfully talkative: not to Smike, for that would have made him uneasy at first, but to Nicholas and his sister Then, after a ti hiht that picture in the corner was like herself, and whether he didn't think it would have looked better if she had er, and whether he didn't think, as aladies looked better not only in pictures, but out of them too, than old ones; with many more small jokes and facetious reood-huht, within himself, she was the nicest lady he had ever seen; even nicer than Mrs Grudden, of Mr Vincent Crummles's theatre; and she was a nice lady too, and talked, perhaps th the door opened again, and a lady inaffectionately, and calling her his mother, led her towards the chair from which Smike had risen when she entered the room

'You are always kind-hearted, and anxious to help the oppressed, my dear mother,' said Nicholas, 'so you will be favourably disposed towards him, I know'

'I a very hard at her new friend, and bending to hi more of majesty than the occasion seemed to require: 'I aht to have, and reat claireat pleasure to me to be introduced to anybody you take an interest in There can be no doubt about that; none at all; not the least in the world,' said Mrs Nickleby 'At the same time I must say, Nicholas, my dear, as I used to say to your poor dear papa, when he WOULD bring gentle in the house, that if he had come the day before yesterday-no, I don't mean the day before yesterday now; I should have said, perhaps, the year before last-we should have been better able to entertain hihter, and inquired, in an audible whisper, whether the gentleht

'Because, if he is, Kate, my dear,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'I don't see that it's possible for him to sleep anywhere, and that's the truth'

Kate stepped gracefully forward, and without any show of annoyance or irritation, breathed a feords into her mother's ear

'La, Kate,back, 'how you do tickle one! Of course, I understand THAT,me; and I said the same to Nicholas, and I AM very much pleased You didn't tellround with an air of less reserve than she had before assumed, 'what your friend's name is'

'His name, mother,' replied Nicholas, 'is Smike'

The effect of this communication was by no means anticipated; but the name was no sooner pronounced, than Mrs Nickleby dropped upon a chair, and burst into a fit of crying

'What is theto support her

'It's so like Pyke,' cried Mrs Nickleby; 'so exactly like Pyke Oh! don't speak toevery sy about a tea-spoonful of water fro the remainder, Mrs Nickleby WAS better, and remarked, with a feeble smile, that she was very foolish, she knew

'It's a weakness in our family,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'so, of course, I can't be blarandmama, Kate, was exactly the sahtest surprise-she fainted away directly I have heard her say, often and often, that when she was a young lady, and before she wasa corner into Oxford Street one day, when she ran against her own hairdresser, who, it see from a bear;-the mere suddenness of the encounter h,' added Mrs Nickleby, pausing to consider 'Let ht Was it her hairdresser who had escaped from a bear, or was it a bear who had escaped from her hairdresser's? I declare I can't remember just now, but the hairdresser was a very handsoentle to do with the point of the story'

Mrs Nickleby having fallen imperceptibly into one of her retrospective lided, by an easy change of the conversation occasionally, into various other anecdotes, no less remarkable for their strict application to the subject in hand

'Mr Smike is from Yorkshi+re, Nicholas, my dear?' said Mrs Nickleby, after dinner, and when she had been silent for some time

'Certainly, otten his melancholy history'

'O dear no,' cried Mrs Nickleby 'Ah! melancholy, indeed You don't happen, Mr Smike, ever to have dined with the Gri, do you?' said the good lady, addressing herself to hirown-up and hters, and the finest park in the county'

'My dear mother,' reasoned Nicholas, 'do you suppose that the unfortunate outcast of a Yorkshi+re school was likely to receive entry in the neighbourhood?'

'Really, my dear, I don't knohy it should be so very extraordinary,' said Mrs Nickleby 'I know that when I was at school, I alent at least twice every half-year to the Hawkinses at Taunton Vale, and they are much richer than the Grie; so you see it's not so very unlikely, after all'

Having put down Nicholas in this triuetfulness of Smike's real name, and an irresistible tendency to call him Mr Slammons; which circumstance she attributed to the remarkable si with an S, and ht be on this point, there was none as to his being a most excellent listener; which circu the Mrs Nickleby to express the highest opinion of his general deportment and disposition

Thus, the little circle re, until the Monday , when Nicholas withdrew himself from it for a short time, seriously to reflect upon the state of his affairs, and to determine, if he could, upon some course of life, which would enable him to support those ere so entirely dependent upon his exertions

Mr Cruh Kate was acquainted with the whole history of his connection with that gentleman, his mother was not; and he foresaw a thousand fretful objections, on her part, to his seeking a livelihood upon the stage There were graver reasons, too, against his returning to thatout of its spare and precarious earnings, and his own internal conviction that he could never hope to aspire to any great distinction, even as a provincial actor, how could he carry his sister from town to town, and place to place, and debar her from any other associates than those hole? 'It won't do,' said Nicholas, shaking his head; 'Ielse'

It was much easier to reater experience of the world than he had acquired for hi rashness and precipitation (qualities not altogether unnatural at his time of life); with a very slender stock of money, and a still ad!' said Nicholas, 'I'll try that Register Office again'

He smiled at himself as he walked aith a quick step; for, an instant before, he had been internally blah hi to himself, as he approached the place, all kinds of splendid possibilities, and i hiood reason, very fortunate to be endoith so buoyant and sanguine a temperament

The office looked just the same as when he had left it last, and, indeed, with one or two exceptions, there seemed to be the very same placards in thethat he had seen before There were the same unimpeachable masters and mistresses in want of virtuous servants, and the same virtuous servants in want of uninificent estates for the investment of capital, and the same enormous quantities of capital to be invested in estates, and, in short, the same opportunities of all sorts for people anted to make their fortunes And a most extraordinary proof it was of the national prosperity, that people had not been found to avail theo

As Nicholas stopped to look in at the , an old gentle the -panes froht in search of some capital-text placard which should be applicable to his own case, caught sight of this old gentleure, and instinctively withdrew his eyes from the , to observe the same more closely

He was a sturdy old fellow in a broad-skirted blue coat, e, to fit easily, and with no particular waist; his bulky legs clothed in drab breeches and high gaiters, and his head protected by a loned broad-briht wear He wore his coat buttoned; and his dimpled double chin rested in the folds of a white neckerchief-not one of your stiff-starched apoplectic cravats, but a good, easy, old-fashi+oned white neckcloth that a o to bed in and be none the worse for But what principally attracted the attention of Nicholas was the old gentle, honest,a little upward, with one hand thrust into the breast of his coat, and the other playing with his old-fashi+oned gold watch-chain: his head thrown a little on one side, and his hat a little more on one side than his head, (but that was evidently accident; not his ordinary way of wearing it,) with such a pleasant s about his led slyness, si up his jolly old face, that Nicholas would have been content to have stood there and looked at hiotten,as a soured mind or a crabbed countenance to be met with in the whole orld

But, even a very reratification was not to bebeen the subject of observation, he looked casually at Nicholas; and the latter, fearful of giving offence, resumed his scrutiny of theinstantly

Still, the old gentle fro his eyes to his face again Grafted upon the quaintness and oddity of his appearance, was so soabout the corners of his mouth and eyes, that it was not a ht to look at hi the case, it is no wonder that the old ht Nicholas in the fact, more than once At such times, Nicholas coloured and looked eun to wonder whether the stranger could, by any possibility, be looking for a clerk or secretary; and thinking this, he felt as if the old gentle as all this takes to tell, it was not er was ain, and, in the aardness of the y

'No offence Oh no offence!' said the old man