Part 50 (1/2)

'It is a good heart,' said Nicholas, 'that disentangles itself fros You were saying-'

'That the flowers belonged to this poor boy,' said Tim; 'that's all When it is fine weather, and he can crawl out of bed, he draws a chair close to the , and sits there, looking at the He used to nod, at first, and then we ca, and asked him hoas, he would smile, and say, ”Better!” but now he shakes his head, and only bends more closely over his old plants Itclouds, for so many months; but he is very patient'

'Is there nobody in the house to cheer or help him?' asked Nicholas

'His father lives there, I believe,' replied Tim, 'and other people too; but no one seems to care much for the poor sickly cripple I have asked hi for hiroeak of late, but I can SEE that he makes the old reply He can't leave his bed now, so they have moved it close beside the , and there he lies, all day: now looking at the sky, and now at his flowers, which he still makes shi+ft to triht, when he sees my candle, he draws back his curtain, and leaves it so, till I am in bed It seems such company to him to know that I am there, that I often sit at myfor an hour or et up in the night to look at the dull ht in his little rooht will not be long coain on earth We have never so much as shaken hands in all our lives; and yet I shall miss him like an old friend Are there any country flowers that could interest me like these, do you think? Or do you suppose that the withering of a hundred kinds of the choicest flowers that blow, called by the hardest Latin naive me one fraction of the pain that I shall feel when these old jugs and bottles are swept away as lumber? Country!' cried Tim, with a contemptuous emphasis; 'don't you know that I couldn't have such a court under my bedroom , anywhere, but in London?'

With which inquiry, Ti to be absorbed in his accounts, took an opportunity of hastily wiping his eyes when he supposed Nicholas was looking another way

Whether it was that Ti, or whether it was that his habitual serenity had been a little disturbed by these recollections, it so happened that when Nicholas returned fro some commission, and inquired whether Mr Charles Cheeryble was alone in his room, Tim promptly, and without the sh somebody had passed into the room not ten minutes before, and Ti any intrusion on either of the brothers when they were engaged with any visitor whatever

'I'll take this letter to him at once,' said Nicholas, 'if that's the case' And with that, he walked to the room and knocked at the door

No answer

Another knock, and still no answer

'He can't be here,' thought Nicholas 'I'll lay it on his table'

So, Nicholas opened the door and walked in; and very quickly he turned to walk out again, when he saw, to his great astonish lady upon her knees at Mr Cheeryble's feet, and Mr Cheeryble beseeching her to rise, and entreating a third person, who had the appearance of the young lady's female attendant, to add her persuasions to his to induce her to do so

Nicholas sta, when the young lady, turning her head a little, presented to his view the features of the lovely girl who before Glancing fronised the same clumsy servant who had acco lady's beauty, and the confusion and surprise of this unexpected recognition, he stood stock-still, in such a bewildered state of surprise and embarrassment that, for the moment, he was quite bereft of the power either to speak orlady,' cried brother Charles in violent agitation, 'pray don't-not another word, I beseech and entreat you! I i of you-to rise We-we-are not alone'

As he spoke, he raised the young lady, who staggered to a chair and swooned away

'She has fainted, sir,' said Nicholas, darting eagerly forward

'Poor dear, poor dear!' cried brother Charles 'Where is my brother Ned? Ned, my dear brother, come here pray'

'Brother Charles,into the room, 'what is the-ah! what-'

'Hush!+ hush!+-not a word for your life, brother Ned,' returned the other 'Ring for the housekeeper, my dear brother-call Tim Linkinwater! Here, Tim Linkinwater, sir-Mr Nickleby,and beseech of you'

'I think she is better now,' said Nicholas, who had been watching the patient so eagerly, that he had not heard the request

'Poor bird!' cried brother Charles, gently taking her hand in his, and laying her head upon his arm 'Brother Ned, my dear fellow, you will be surprised, I know, to witness this, in business hours; but-' here he was again re him by the hand, earnestly requested him to leave the room, and to send Tim Linkinwater without an instant's delay

Nicholas i-house,each other in the passage, and hurrying to the scene of action with extraordinary speed Without waiting to hear his e, Tim Linkinwater darted into the room, and presently afterwards Nicholas heard the door shut and locked on the inside

He had abundance of time to ruminate on this discovery, for Tireater part of an hour, during the whole of which ti lady, and her exceeding beauty, and what could possibly have brought her there, and why they ht of all this, the more it perplexed him, and the more anxious he became to knoho and what she was 'I should have known her aht Nicholas And with that he walked up and down the rooure (of which he had a peculiarly vivid remembrance), discarded all other subjects of reflection and dwelt upon that alone

At length Tily cool, and with papers in his hand, and a pen in hishad happened

'Is she quite recovered?' said Nicholas, impetuously

'Who?' returned Ti lady'

'What do youhis pen out of his mouth, 'what do you make of four hundred and twenty-seven tiht?'

'Nay,' returned Nicholas, 'what do you make oflady,' said Ti on his spectacles 'To be sure Yes Oh! she's very well'

'Very well, is she?' returned Nicholas

'Very well,' replied Mr Linkinwater, gravely

'Will she be able to go hoone,' said Tim

'Gone!'

'Yes'

'I hope she has not far to go?' said Nicholas, looking earnestly at the other

'Ay,' replied the immovable Tim, 'I hope she hasn't'

Nicholas hazarded one or two further remarks, but it was evident that Ti the subject, and that he was deter the fair unknoho had awakened sodaunted by this repulse, Nicholas returned to the charge next day, e in a very talkative and communicative mood; but, directly he resu taciturnity, and fro no answers at all, save such as were to be inferred fros, which only served to whet that appetite for intelligence in Nicholas, which had already attained a ht

Foiled in these atte for the young lady's next visit, but here again he was disappointed Day after day passed, and she did not return He looked eagerly at the superscription of all the notes and letters, but there was not one a On two or three occasions he was employed on business which took him to a distance, and had formerly been transacted by Ti that, for some reason or other, he was sent out of the way on purpose, and that the young lady was there in his absence Nothing transpired, however, to confirm this suspicion, and Tim could not be entrapped into any confession or adree

Mystery and disappointrowth of love, but they are, very often, its powerful auxiliaries 'Out of sight, out of h as a proverb applicable to cases of friendshi+p, though absence is not always necessary to hollowness of heart, even between friends, and truth and honesty, like precious stones, are perhaps most easily imitated at a distance, when the counterfeits often pass for real Love, however, is very ination: which has a long ht and sparing food Thus it is, that it often attains its rowth in separation and under circumstances of the ut of nothing but the unknown young lady, froan, at last, to think that he was very desperately in love with her, and that never was such an ill-used and persecuted lover as he

Still, though he loved and languished after thea confidante of Kate by the slight considerations of having never, in all his life, spoken to the object of his passion, and having never set eyes upon her, except on two occasions, on both of which she had co-or, as Nicholas himself said, in the numerous conversations he held with hiht to last-his ardour and devotion re lady appeared no h indeed to have set up half-a-dozen young gentleo, with the utmost decency), and nobody was a bit the wiser for it; not even Nicholas himself, who, on the contrary, became more dull, sentimental, and lackadaisical, every day

While matters were in this state, the failure of a correspondent of the brothers Cheeryble, in Germany, ioing through so over a considerable space of tireater dispatch, Ti-house, for a week or so, until ten o'clock at night; to this, as nothing damped the zeal of Nicholas in the service of his kind patrons-not even romance, which has seldom business habits-he cheerfully assented On the very first night of these later hours, at nine exactly, there ca closeted with brother Charles for soht at the saain

These repeated visits inflahest pitch Tantalised and excited, beyond all bearing, and unable to fatho his duty, he confided the whole secret to Newht; to follow the girl home; to set on foot such inquiries relative to the name, condition, and history of hersuspicion; and to report the result to him with the least possible delay

Beyond all s took up his post, in the square, on the following evening, a full hour before the needful ti his hat over his eyes, began his watch with an elaborate appearance of mystery, admirably calculated to excite the suspicion of all beholders Indeed, divers servant girls who came to draater, and sundry little boys who stopped to drink at the ladle, were almost scared out of their senses, by the apparition of New of hi the expression of a er caer duration than usual, departed Newman had , conditional on his success: and one the next night following, which was to be kept under all circu (a certain tavern about half-way between the city and Golden Square), but on the second night he was there before Nicholas, and received hiht,' whispered New man, and let me tell you all about it'

Nicholas needed no second invitation, and eagerly inquired as the news