Part 48 (2/2)

'Ah, sir!' interposed Squeers, confronting hi with that there devilish Nickleby, sir?'

But no threats or cuffs could elicit from Smike one word of reply to this question; for he had internally resolved that he would rather perish in the wretched prison to which he was again about to be consigned, than utter one syllable which could involve his first and true friend He had already called to mind the strict injunctions of secrecy as to his past life, which Nicholas had laid upon him when they travelled from Yorkshi+re; and a confused and perplexed idea that his benefactorhim ahich would render him liable to heavy punishree, to reduce him to his present state of apathy and terror

Such were the thoughts-if to visions so ih his enfeebled brain, the term can be applied-which were present to the mind of Smike, and rendered hi every effort useless, Mr Squeers conducted him to a little back roo the precaution of re the door on the outside, lest he should y to entleman left him to his meditations

What those meditations were, and how the poor creature's heart sunk within hiht-when did he, for a moment, cease to think?-of his late home, and the dear friends and familiar faces hich it was associated, cannot be told To prepare the our and cruelty in childhood; there htened by no ray of hope; the chords of the heart, which beat a quick response to the voice of gentleness and affection, must have rusted and broken in their secret places, and bear the lingering echo of no old word of love or kindness Gloo, long twilight, preceding such a night of intellect as his

There were voices which would have roused him, even then; but their welcome tones could not penetrate there; and he crept to bed the sahted creature, that Nicholas had first found him at the Yorkshi+re school

CHAPTER 39

In which another old Friend encounters Sht with so ht and cloudless su, when a north-country mail-coach traversed, with cheerful noise, the yet silent streets of Islington, and, giving brisk note of its approach with the lively winding of the guard's horn, clattered onward to its halting-place hard by the Post Office

The only outside passenger was a burly, honest-looking countryman on the box, ith his eyes fixed upon the do wonder, as to be quite insensible to all the bustle of getting out the bags and parcels, until one of the coach s being let sharply down, he looked round, and encountered a pretty female face which was just then thrust out

'See there, lass!' bawled the country towards the object of his admiration 'There be Paul's Church 'Ecod, he be a soizable 'un, he be'

'Goodness, John! I shouldn't have thought it could have been half the size What a ht theer, I reckon, Mrs Browdie,' said the countrye top-coat; 'and wa'at dost thee tak yon place to be noo-thot'un owor the wa'? Ye'd never cooin you thried for twolve moonths It's na' but a Poast Office! Ho! ho! They need to charge for dooble-latthers A Poast Office! Wa'at dost thee think o' thot? 'Ecod, if thot's on'y a Poast Office, I'd loike to see where the Lord Mayor o' Lunnun lives'

So saying, John Browdie-for he it was-opened the coach-door, and tapping Mrs Browdie, late Miss Price, on the cheek as he looked in, burst into a boisterous fit of laughter

'Weel!' said John 'Dang ean!'

'She's been asleep all night, and was, all yesterday, except for a minute or t and then,' replied John Browdie's choice, 'and I was very sorry when she woke, for she has been SO cross!'

The subject of these reure, so muffled in shawl and cloak, that it would have been uess at its sex but for a brown beaver bonnet and green veil which orna been crushed and flattened, for two hundred and fifty le of the vehicle from which the lady's snores now proceeded, presented an appearance sufficiently ludicrous to have moved less risible muscles than those of John Browdie's ruddy face

'Hollo!' cried John, twitching one end of the dragged veil 'Coos into the old corner, and led into a sitting posture; and there, under a mass of crumpled beaver, and surrounded by a semicircle of blue curl-papers, were the delicate features of Miss fanny Squeers

'Oh, 'Tilda!' cried Miss Squeers, 'how you have been kicking of ht!'

'Well, I do like that,' replied her friend, laughing, 'when you have had nearly the whole coach to yourself'

'Don't deny it, 'Tilda,' said Miss Squeers, io attehtn't have known it in your sleep, 'Tilda, but I haven't closed le wink, and so I THINK I am to be believed'

With which reply, Miss Squeers adjusted the bonnet and veil, which nothing but supernatural interference and an utter suspension of nature's laws could have reduced to any shape or for herself that it looked uncommonly neat, brushed off the sandwich-crumbs and bits of biscuit which had accu herself of John Browdie's proffered arm, descended from the coach

'Noo,' said John, when a hackney coach had been called, and the ladies and the luggage hurried in, 'gang to the Sarah's Head, mun'

'To the VERE?' cried the coachman

'Lawk, Mr Browdie!' interrupted Miss Squeers 'The idea! Saracen's Head'

'Sure-ly,' said John, 'I know'd it was so aboot Sarah's Son's Head Dost thou know thot?'

'Oh, ah! I know that,' replied the coached the door

”Tilda, dear, really,' remonstrated Miss Squeers, 'we shall be taken for I don't knohat'

'Let them tak' us as they foind us,' said John Browdie; 'we dean't coht but 'joy oursel, do we?'

'I hope not, Mr Browdie,' replied Miss Squeers, looking singularly dismal

'Well, then,' said John, 'it's no matther I've only been a married man fower days, 'account of poor old feyther deein, and puttin' it off Here be a weddin' party-broide and broide's-ht he, hey? Drat it all, thot's what I want to know'

So, in order that he in to enjoy hiave his wife a hearty kiss, and succeeded in wresting another fro and struggling on the part of that young lady, which was not quite over when they reached the Saracen's Head

Here, the party straightway retired to rest; the refresh a journey; and here they ain about noon, to a substantial breakfast, spread by direction of Mr John Browdie, in a s an uninterrupted view of the stables

To have seen Miss Squeers now, divested of the brown beaver, the green veil, and the blue curl-papers, and arrayed in all the virgin splendour of a white frock and spencer, with a white muslin bonnet, and an imitative damask rose in full blooed in curls so tight that it was impossible they could come out by any accident, and her bonnet-cap triht be supposed to be sorose-to have seen all this, and to have seen the broad da both the family rose and the little roses, which encircled her slender waist, and by a happy ingenuity took off from the shortness of the spencer behind,-to have beheld all this, and to have taken further into account the coral bracelets (rather short of beads, and with a very visible black string) which clasped her wrists, and the coral necklace which rested on her neck, supporting, outside her frock, a lonely cornelian heart, typical of her own disengaged affections-to have contemplated all these s of our nature, uishable fuel to the fire of youth

The waiter was touched Waiter as he was, he had hus, and he looked very hard at Miss Squeers as he handed the muffins

'Is nity

'Beg your pardon, miss?'

'My pa,' repeated Miss Squeers; 'is he in?'

'In where, miss?'

'In here-in the house!' replied Miss Squeers 'My pa-Mr Wackford Squeers-he's stopping here Is he at hoen'l'man of that name in the house, miss' replied the waiter 'There may be, in the coffee-room'

MAY BE Very pretty this, indeed! Here was Miss Squeers, who had been depending, all the way to London, upon showing her friends how much at home she would be, and how much respectful notice her name and connections would excite, told that her father MIGHT be there! 'As if he was a feller!' observed Miss Squeers, with enation

'Ye'd betther inquire, eon-pie, will 'ee? Dang the chap,'into the empty dish as the waiter retired; 'does he ca' this a pie-three yoong pigeons and a troifling ht that you doant knohen it's in your oes to a breakfast!'