Part 51 (1/2)

'Only me, sir,' replied the voice 'Now if you please, ht shone into the place, and presently the servant girl appeared, bearing a light, and followed by her young mistress, who seeht of the young lady, Nicholas started and changed colour; his heart beat violently, and he stood rooted to the spot At that instant, and almost simultaneously with her arrival and that of the candle, there was heard a loud and furious knocking at the street-door, which caused Newility, from a beer-barrel on which he had been seated astride, and to exclaim abruptly, and with a face of ashy paleness, 'Bobster, by the Lord!'

The young lady shrieked, the attendant wrung her hands, Nicholas gazed from one to the other in apparent stupefaction, and New his hands into all his pockets successively, and drawing out the linings of every one in the excess of his irresolution It was but a ination can exaggerate

'Leave the house, for Heaven's sake! We have done wrong, we deserve it all,' cried the young lady 'Leave the house, or I am ruined and undone for ever'

'Will you hear me say but one word?' cried Nicholas 'Only one I will not detain you Will you hear me say one word, in explanation of this ht as well have spoken to the wind, for the young lady, with distracted looks, hurried up the stairs He would have followed her, but Newed hie by which they had entered

'Let o, Newman, in the Devil's name!' cried Nicholas 'I must speak to her I will! I will not leave this house without'

'Reputation-character-violence-consider,' said New hio, as we came, directly it's shut Come This way Here'

Overpowered by the reirl, and the tre above, which had never ceased, Nicholas allowed himself to be hurried off; and, precisely as Mr Bobster s ate

They hurried away, through several streets, without stopping or speaking At last, they halted and confronted each other with blank and rueful faces

'Neverfor breath 'Don't be cast down It's all right More fortunate next time It couldn't be helped I did MY part'

'Excellently,' replied Nicholas, taking his hand 'Excellently, and like the true and zealous friend you are Only-mind, I am not disappointed, Newman, and feel just as much indebted to you-only IT WAS THE WRONG LADY'

'Eh?' cried News 'Taken in by the servant?'

'New his hand upon his shoulder: 'it was the wrong servant too'

Newazed at Nicholas, with his sound eye fixed fast and motionless in his head

'Don't take it to heart,' said Nicholas; 'it's of no consequence; you see I don't care about it; you followed the wrong person, that's all'

That WAS all Whether New direction, so long, that his sight beca that there was time to spare, he had recruited hier than the pump could yield-by whatsoever means it had come to pass, this was his mistake And Nicholas went home to brood upon it, and tolady, now as far beyond his reach as ever

CHAPTER 41

Containing soes between Mrs Nickleby and the Gentleman in the Small-clothes next Door Ever since her last un to display unusual care in the adorn to those staid and matronly habiliments, which had, up to that time, formed her ordinary attire, a variety of eht perhaps in theether, and considered with reference to the subject of her disclosure, of noof a deadly-lively air from the jaunty style in which it orn; and, eked out as its lingering attractions were; by a prudent disposal, here and there, of certain juvenile ornaments of little or no value, which had, for that reason alone, escaped the general wreck and been permitted to slumber peacefully in odd corners of old drawers and boxes where daylight seldoar the outward tokens of respect and sorrow for the dead, they beca designs upon the living

Mrs Nicklebyby a lofty sense of duty, and iht, by this tience in unavailing woe, or the necessity of setting a proper exahter Considerations of duty and responsibility apart, the change s of the purest and entlematised as a dotard and an idiot; and for these attacks upon his understanding, Mrs Nickleby was, in soht have felt that it was the act of a good Christian to show by all entleman was neither the one nor the other And what better means could she adopt, towards so virtuous and laudable an end, than proving to all men, in her own person, that his passion was the most rational and reasonable in the world, and just the very result, of all others, which discreet and thinking personsher matured charms, without reserve, under the very eye, as it were, of an ardent and too-susceptibleher head; 'if Nicholas knehat his poor dear papa suffered before ere engaged, when I used to hate hiet theI looked scornfully at hiht, when I frowned at hirate It very nearly drove hiht not have been better off if he had erated in his bachelor days, was a question which his relict did not stop to consider; for Kate entered the rooe of her reflections; and a hter interruption, or no interruption at all, would have diverted Mrs Nickleby's thoughts into a new channel at any time

'Kate, my dear,' said Mrs Nickleby; 'I don't kno it is, but a fine war in every direction, always puts ravy'

'That's a curious association of ideas, is it not, mama?'

'Upon my word, ; let me see On the day five weeks after you were christened, we had a roast-no, that couldn't have been a pig, either, because I recollect there were a pair of theht of sitting down to two pigs-they ! I hardly think we ever could have had one, now I coht of them in the shops, and used to say that they always put his had much fairer complexions; and he had a horror of little babies, too, because he couldn't very well afford any increase to his family, and had a natural dislike to the subject It's very odd nohat can have put that inonce at Mrs Bevan's, in that broad street round the corner by the coachh the cellar-flap of an empty house nearly a week before the quarter-day, and wasn't found till the new tenant went in-and we had roast pig there It must be that, I think, that reminds me of it, especially as there was a little bird in the roo all the time of dinner-at least, not a little bird, for it was a parrot, and he didn't sing exactly, for he talked and swore dreadfully: but I think it must be that Indeed I am sure it must Shouldn't you say so, my dear?'

'I should say there was not a doubt about it, mama,' returned Kate, with a cheerful smile

'No; but DO you think so, Kate?' said Mrs Nickleby, with as ravity as if it were a question of theinterest 'If you don't, say so at once, you know; because it's just as well to be correct, particularly on a point of this kind, which is very curious and worth settling while one thinks about it'

Kate laughingly replied that she was quite convinced; and as her mama still appeared undetermined whether it was not absolutely essential that the subject should be renewed, proposed that they should take their work into the summer-house, and enjoy the beauty of the afternoon Mrs Nickleby readily assented, and to the summer-house they repaired, without further discussion

'Well, I will say,' observed Mrs Nickleby, as she took her seat, 'that there never was such a good creature as S this little arbour to rights, and training the sweetest flowers about it, are beyond anything I could have-I wish he wouldn't put ALL the gravel on your side, Kate,but mould for me'

'Dear e me, mama'

'No, indeed, my dear I shall keep my own side,' said Mrs Nickleby 'Well! I declare!'

Kate looked up inquiringly

'If he hasn't been,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'and got, from somewhere or other, a couple of roots of those flowers that I said I was so fond of, the other night, and asked you if you were not-no, that YOU said YOU were so fond of, the other night, and askedNow, upon my word, I take that as very kind and attentive indeed! I don't see,' added Mrs Nickleby, looking narrowly about her, 'any of theravel You may depend upon it they do, Kate, and that's the reason they are all near you, and he has put the gravel there, because it's the sunny side Upon my word, that's very clever now! I shouldn't have had half asover her work so that her face was almost hidden, 'before you were married-'

'Dear oodness graciousness makes you fly off to the ti to you about his thoughtfulness and attention to arden'

'Oh! ain, 'you know I do'

'Well then, my dear, why don't you praise the neatness and prettiness hich it's kept?' said Mrs Nickleby 'How very odd you are, Kate!'

'I do praise it, ently 'Poor fellow!'

'I scarcely ever hear you, ot to say' By this ti while upon one topic, so she fell at once into her daughter's little trap, if trap it were, and inquired what she had been going to say

'About what, otten her diversion

'Lor, Kate, my dear,' returned her mother, 'why, you're asleep or stupid! About the time before I wasto ask, mama, before you were married, had you many suitors?'

'Suitors, my dear!' cried Mrs Nickleby, with a smile of wonderful complacency 'First and last, Kate, I must have had a dozen at least'

'Mama!' returned Kate, in a tone of remonstrance

'I had indeed,your poor papa, or a young gentle school, and who WOULD send gold watches and bracelets to our house in gilt-edged paper, (which were always returned,) and who afterwards unfortunately went out to Botany Bay in a cadet shi+p-a convict shi+p I mean-and escaped into a bush and killed sheep, (I don't kno they got there,) and was going to be hung, only he accidentally choked hi Lukin,' said Mrs Nickleby, beginning with her left thuley-Tipslark-Cabbery-Ser, Mrs Nickleby was carrying the account over to the other hand, when a loud 'Hearden-wall, gave both herself and her daughter a violent start

'Mama! as that?' said Kate, in a low tone of voice