Part 47 (1/2)

'You may well be surprised, Nicholas, my dear,' she said, 'I am sure I was It came upon me like a flash of fire, and alarden joins the botto a at his little hot-beds I used to think he stared rather, but I didn't take any particular notice of that, as ere newcoht be curious to see ere like But when he began to throw his cucumbers over our wall-'

'To throw his cucureat astonishment

'Yes, Nicholas, my dear,' replied Mrs Nickleby in a very serious tone; 'his cucuetable marrows likewise'

'Confound his i immediately 'What does he mean by that?'

'I don't think he means it impertinently at all,' replied Mrs Nickleby

'What!' said Nicholas, 'cucu at the heads of the faarden, and not meant impertinently! Why, mother-'

Nicholas stopped short; for there was an indescribable expression of placid triu between the borders of Mrs Nickleby's nightcap, which arrested his attention suddenly

'He must be a very weak, and foolish, and inconsiderate man,' said Mrs Nickleby; 'blamable indeed-at least I suppose other people would consider him so; of course I can't be expected to express any opinion on that point, especially after always defending your poor dear papa when other people bla proposals to me; and to be sure there can be no doubt that he has taken a very singular way of showing it Still at the saoes, and to a certain extent of course-a flattering sort of thing; and although I should never dreairl like Kate still unsettled in life-'

'Surely, mother, such an idea never entered your brain for an instant?' said Nicholas

'Bless my heart, Nicholas my dear,' returned his mother in a peevish tone, 'isn't that precisely what I aave it a second thought, and I am surprised and astonished that you should supposeAll I say is, what step is the best to take, so as to reject these advances civilly and delicately, and without hurting his feelings tooof that kind? My goodness me!' exclaio doing anything rash to hiain, Nicholas?'

Despite his vexation and concern, Nicholas could scarcely help s, as he rejoined, 'Now, do you think, mother, that such a result would be likely to ensue from the most cruel repulse?'

'Upon my word, my dear, I don't know,' returned Mrs Nickleby; 'really, I don't know I am sure there was a case in the day before yesterday's paper, extracted from one of the French newspapers, about a journey village, because she wouldn't shut herself up in an air-tight three-pair-of-stairs, and charcoal herself to death with him; and ent and hid himself in a ith a sharp-pointed knife, and rushed out, as she was passing by with a few friends, and killed himself first, and then all the friends, and then her-no, killed all the friends first, and then herself, and then HIMself-which it is quite frightful to think of Somehow or other,' added Mrs Nickleby, after a momentary pause, 'they always ARE journey to the papers I don't kno it is-so in the leather, I suppose'

'But this man, who is not a shoemaker-what has he done, mother, what has he said?' inquired Nicholas, fretted alned and patient as Mrs Nickleby herself 'You know, there is no language of vegetables, which converts a cucumber into a formal declaration of attach her head and looking at the ashes in the grate, 'he has done and said all sorts of things'

'Is there no mistake on your part?' asked Nicholas

'Mistake!' cried Mrs Nickleby 'Lord, Nicholas my dear, do you suppose I don't knohen a man's in earnest?'

'Well, well!' o to the ,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'he kisses one hand, and lays the other upon his heart-of course it's very foolish of hi, but he does it very respectfully-very respectfully indeed-and very tenderly, extrereatest credit; there can be no doubt about that Then, there are the presents which co over the wall every day, and very fine they certainly are, very fine; we had one of the cucu the rest for next winter And last evening,' added Mrs Nickleby, with increased confusion, 'he called gently over the wall, as I alking in the garden, and proposed e, and an elopelass-very like a lass indeed-but of course I didn't listen to it Then, the question is, Nicholas my dear, what am I to do?'

'Does Kate know of this?' asked Nicholas

'I have not said a word about it yet,' answered his mother

'Then, for Heaven's sake,' rejoined Nicholas, rising, 'do not, for it would ard to what you should do, , and respect for my father's memory, would prompt There are a thousand ways in which you can show your dislike of these preposterous and doting attentions If you act as decidedly as you ought and they are still continued, and to your annoyance, I can speedily put a stop to them But I should not interfere in a matter so ridiculous, and attach importance to it, until you have vindicated yourself Most woe and condition, in circuht I would not sha to take them to heart, or treat the, Nicholas kissed his ht, and they retired to their respective chambers

To do Mrs Nickleby justice, her attachment to her children would have prevented her seriously contee, even if she could have so far conquered her recollections of her late husband as to have any strong inclinations that way But, although there was no evil and little real selfishness in Mrs Nickleby's heart, she had a weak head and a vain one; and there was soht) in e at this time of day, that she could not disentlehtly as Nicholas appeared to dee, and ridiculous,' thought Mrs Nickleby, co with herself in her own room, 'I don't see that, at all It's hopeless on his part, certainly; but why he should be an absurd old idiot, I confess I don't see He is not to be supposed to know it's hopeless Poor fellow! He is to be pitied, I think!'

Having made these reflections, Mrs Nickleby looked in her little dressing-glass, and walking backward a few steps from it, tried to remember who it ho used to say that when Nicholas was one-and-twenty he would haveable to call the authority to uished her candle, and drew up the -blind to adun to dawn

'It's a bad light to distinguish objects in,' arden, 'and hted froetable lass bottles at the top of the wall!'

CHAPTER 38

Co out of a Visit of Condolence, which may prove important hereafter Smike unexpectedly encounters a very old Friend, who invites him to his House, and will take no Denial Quite unconscious of the dehbour, or their effects upon the susceptible bosoun to enjoy a settled feeling of tranquillity and happiness, to which, even in occasional and transitory gli under the same roof with the beloved brother from whom she had been so suddenly and hardly separated: with a mind at ease, and free from any persecutions which could call a blush into her cheek, or a pang into her heart, she see Her forained its elasticity and lightness, the colour which had forsaken her cheek visited it once again, and Kate Nickleby looked more beautiful than ever

Such was the result to which Miss La Creevy's rue had been, as she ehts, from the chimney-pots to the street-door scraper,' and the busy little woth a moment's time to think about its inmates

'Which I declare I haven't had since I first caht of nothing but ha, noon, and night'

'You never bestowed one thought upon yourself, I believe,' returned Kate, s

'Upon s to think of, I should be a goose if I did,' said Miss La Creevy 'By-the-bye, I HAVE thought of soe in one of this fae?'

'In whom?' asked Kate, anxiously 'Not in-'

'Not in your brother,the close of the sentence, 'for he is always the saood-natured clever creature, with a spice of the-I won't say who-in him when there's any occasion, that he hen I first knew you No Smike, as he WILL be called, poor fellow! for he won't hear of a MR before his nareatly altered, even in this short time'

'How?' asked Kate 'Not in health?'

'N-n-o; perhaps not in health exactly,' said Miss La Creevy, pausing to consider, 'although he is a worn and feeble creature, and has that in his face which it would wring my heart to see in yours No; not in health'

'How then?'

'I scarcely know,' said the ht the tears into my eyes many times It is not a very difficult matter to do that, certainly, for I aood cause and reason I arown, fro cause, ives hireater pain to know that he wanders sos I have watched hi by himself, with such a look of pain as I could scarcely bear to see, and then get up and leave the room: so sorrowfully, and in such dejection, that I cannot tell you how it has hurt ht-hearted busy creature, overjoyed to be in a bustle, and as happy as the day was long Now, he is another being-the sa creature-but the sa else'

'Surely this will all pass off,' said Kate 'Poor fellow!'

'I hope,' returned her little friend, with a gravity very unusual in her, 'it may I hope, for the sake of that poor lad, itinto the cheerful, chattering tone, which was habitual to her, 'I have saidsay too, I shouldn't wonder at all I shall cheer hiht, at all events, for if he is to be my squire all the way to the Strand, I shall talk on, and on, and on, and never leave off, till I have roused hioes, the better for hio, the better forwith soh what there is to take away, besides tables and chairs, I don't know, except the miniatures: and he is a clever thief who can dispose of thee, for I can't, I know, and that's the honest truth'

So saying, little Miss La Creevy hid her face in a very flat bonnet, and herself in a very big shawl; and fixing herself tightly into the latter, by ht come as soon as it pleased, for she was quite ready

But there was still Mrs Nickleby to take leave of; and long before that good lady had concluded so upon, and appropriate to, the occasion, the oreat bustle, in consequence whereof, as she secretly rewarded the servant girl with eighteen-pence behind the street-door, she pulled out of her reticule ten-pennyworth of halfpence, which rolled into all possible corners of the passage, and occupied so up This cere of Kate and Mrs Nickleby, and a gathering together of the little basket and the brown-paper parcel, during which proceedings, 'the omnibus,' as Miss La Creevy protested, 'swore so dreadfully, that it was quite awful to hear it' At length and at last, itaway, and then Miss La Creevy darted out, and darted in, apologising with great volubility to all the passengers, and declaring that she wouldn't purposely have kept the about for a convenient seat, the conductor pushed Sh it wasn't-and aent the huge vehicle, with the noise of half-a-dozen brewers' drays at least

Leaving it to pursue its journey at the pleasure of the conductor aforeracefully on his little shelf behind, so on, or gallop, or crawl, as that gentleman deemed expedient and advisable; this narrativethe condition of Sir Mulberry Hawk, and to what extent he had, by this ti violently from his cabriolet, under the circumstances already detailed

With a shattered liured by half-healed scars, and pallid from the exhaustion of recent pain and fever, Sir Mulberry Hawk lay stretched upon his back, on the couch to which he was doomed to be a prisoner for so hard in the next roo the monotonous h, while the young lord-the only hly irredeemable, and who really had a kind heart-sat beside his Mentor, with a cigar in his ht of a laence from a paper of the day, as were most likely to yield him interest or amuse his head i stop their infernal throats?'

Messrs Pyke and Pluck heard the excla to each other as they did so, and filling their glasses to the brim, as some recompense for the deprivation of speech

'da ih, and the rooh, but THEY ht,' replied his friend