Part 60 (2/2)

'Oh, s you fancy!'

'It wasn't fancy, Kate, my dear, I'one now at any rate, so it don'tabout? Oh! Mr Frank I never saw such attention in MY life, never'

'Surely you are not serious,' returned Kate, colouring again; and this time beyond all dispute

'Not serious!' returned Mrs Nickleby; 'why shouldn't I be serious? I'm sure I never was more serious I will say that his politeness and attention to s I have seen for a very long ti men, and it strikes one more when one does meet with it'

'Oh! attention to YOU, mama,' rejoined Kate quickly-'oh yes'

'Dear irl you are! Was it likely I should be talking of his attention to anybody else? I declare I'm quite sorry to think he should be in love with a German lady, that I a,so that very first night he caentle tone, 'why should WE be sorry if it is the case? What is it to us,to US, Kate, perhaps,' said Mrs Nickleby, elish people to be thorough English people, and not half English and half I don't knohat I shall tell him point-blank next time he comes, that I wish he would marry one of his own country-women; and see what he says to that'

'Pray don't think of such a thing, mama,' returned Kate, hastily; 'not for the world Consider How very-'

'Well,her eyes in great astonishment

Before Kate had returned any reply, a queer little double knock announced that Miss La Creevy had called to see them; and when Miss La Creevy presented herself, Mrs Nickleby, though strongly disposed to be arguush of supposes about the coach she had co that the man who drove must have been either the man in the shi+rt-sleeves or the man with the black eye; that whoever he was, he hadn't found that parasol she left inside last week; that no doubt they had stopped a long while at the Halfway House, coht on; and, lastly, that they, surely,of him,' answered Miss La Creevy; 'but I saw that dear old soul Mr Linkinwater'

'Taking his evening walk, and co on to rest here, before he turns back to the city, I'll be bound!' said Mrs Nickleby

'I should think he was,' returned Miss La Creevy; 'especially as young Mr Cheeryble ith him'

'Surely that is no reason why Mr Linkinwater should be co here,' said Kate

'Why I think it is,reat walker; and I observe that he generally falls tired, and requires a good long rest, when he has come as far as this But where isglanced slyly at Kate 'He has not been run aith again, has he?'

'Ah! where is Mr Smike?' said Mrs Nickleby; 'he was here this instant'

Upon further inquiry, it turned out, to the good lady's unbounded astonishone upstairs to bed

'Well now,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'he is the strangest creature! Last Tuesday-was it Tuesday? Yes, to be sure it was; you recollect, Kate,Mr Cheeryble was here-last Tuesday night he went off in just the sae way, at the very moment the knock came to the door It cannot be that he don't like company, because he is always fond of people who are fond of Nicholas, and I a is, that he does not go to bed; therefore it cannot be because he is tired I know he doesn't go to bed, because my room is the next one, and when I went upstairs last Tuesday, hours after him, I found that he had not even taken his shoes off; and he had no candle, so hein the dark all the time Now, upon my word,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'when I come to think of it, that's very extraordinary!'

As the hearers did not echo this senti what to say, or as being unwilling to interrupt, Mrs Nickleby pursued the thread of her discourse after her own fashi+on

'I hope,' said that lady, 'that this unaccountable conductthere all his life, like the Thirsty Woman of Tutbury, or the cock-lane Ghost, or some of those extraordinary creatures One of theet, without looking back to sorandfather ent to school with the cock-lane Ghost, or the Thirsty Worandmother Miss La Creevy, you know, of course Which was it that didn't yman said? The cock-lane Ghost or the Thirsty Woman of Tutbury?'

'The cock-lane Ghost, I believe'

'Then I have no doubt,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'that it ith hirandfather went to school; for I know the reatin such an irew up Ah! Train up a Ghost-child, I mean-'

Any further reflections on this fruitful theme were abruptly cut short by the arrival of Tim Linkinwater and Mr Frank Cheeryble; in the hurry of receiving who else

'I am so sorry Nicholas is not at home,' said Mrs Nickleby 'Kate, my dear, you must be both Nicholas and yourself'

'Miss Nickleby need be but herself,' said Frank 'I-if I e in her'

'Then at all events she shall press you to stay,' returned Mrs Nickleby 'Mr Linkinwater says ten o so soon; Nicholas would be very much vexed, I areat nunificance, Kate added her entreaties that the visitors would remain; but it was observable that she addressed them exclusively to Tim Linkinwater; and there was, besides, a certain eh it was as far froe it co her beauty, was obvious at a glance even to Mrs Nickleby Not being of a very speculative character, however, save under circumstances when her speculations could be put into words and uttered aloud, that discreet matron attributed the e to have her best frock on: 'though I never saw her look better, certainly,' she reflected at the sa most complacently satisfied that in this, and in all other instances, her conjecture could not fail to be the right one, Mrs Nickleby disratulated herself on being so shrewd and knowing

Nicholas did not come home nor did Smike reappear; but neither circureat effect upon the little party, ere all in the best hu up quite a flirtation between Miss La Creevy and Tis, and becaallant, not to say tender Little Miss La Creevy, on her part, was in high spirits, and rallied Ti remained a bachelor all his life with so much success, that Tiet anybody to have hie his condition even yet Miss La Creevy earnestly recommended a lady she kneould exactly suit Mr Linkinwater, and had a very comfortable property of her own; but this latter qualification had very little effect upon Tim, who manfully protested that fortune would be no object with him, but that true worth and cheerfulness of disposition hat a man should look for in a wife, and that if he had these, he could find h for the moderate wants of both This avoas considered so honourable to Tim, that neither Mrs Nickleby nor Miss La Creevy could sufficiently extol it; and stimulated by their praises, Tim launched out into several other declarations also reat devotion to the fair sex: which were received with no less approbation This was done and said with a coreat ahter, made them very merry indeed

Kate was commonly the life and soul of the conversation at home; but she was more silent than usual upon this occasion (perhaps because Ti aloof fro the shadows as the evening closed in, and enjoying the quiet beauty of the night, which seeered near, and then sat down beside, her No doubt, there are a great , and no doubt they are best said in a low voice, as beingpauses, too, at times, and then an earnest word or so, and then another interval of silence which, somehow, does not seem like silence either, and perhaps now and then a hasty turning away of the head, or drooping of the eyes towards the ground, all these minor circumstances, with a disinclination to have candles introduced and a tendency to confuse hours with minutes, are doubtless mere influences of the time, as many lovely lips can clearly testify Neither is there the slightest reason why Mrs Nickleby should have expressed surprise when, candles being at length brought in, Kate's bright eyes were unable to bear the light which obliged her to avert her face, and even to leave the room for so, candles ARE dazzling, and nothing can be more strictly natural than that such results should be produced, as all well-infor people know For that matter, old people know it too, or did know it once, but they forget these things soood lady's surprise, however, did not end here It was greatly increased when it was discovered that Kate had not the least appetite for supper: a discovery so alar in what unaccountable efforts of oratory Mrs Nickleby's apprehensions eneral attention had not been attracted, at the , as the pale and treirl affir see roo quite plain to the comprehension of all present that, however extraordinary and iht appear, the noise did nevertheless proceed froe co sounds, all , Frank Cheeryble caught up a candle, and Tis, and they would have very quickly ascertained the cause of this disturbance if Mrs Nickleby had not been taken very faint, and declined being left behind, on any account This produced a short re to the troubled cha only Miss La Creevy, who, as the servant girl volunteered a confession of having been subject to fits in her infancy, reive the alarm and apply restoratives, in case of extre to the door of the mysterious apartment, they were not a little surprised to hear a huhly elaborated expression of melancholy, and in tones of suffocation which a huht have produced from under five or six feather-beds of the best quality, the once popular air of 'Has she then failed in her truth, the beautifulinto the roo a parley, was their astonishment lessened by the discovery that these romantic sounds certainly proceeded fro was visible but a pair of legs, which were dangling above the grate; apparently feeling, with extre

A sight so unusual and unbusiness-like as this, coentle pinches at the stranger's ankles, which were productive of no effect, stood clapping the tongs together, as if he were sharpening the else

'This must be some drunken fellow,' said Frank 'No thief would announce his presence thus'

As he said this, with great indignation, he raised the candle to obtain a better view of the legs, and was darting forward to pull the her hands, uttered a sharp sound, so between a scream and an exclamation, and demanded to knohether the rey worsted stockings, or whether her eyes had deceived her

'Yes,' cried Frank, looking a little closer 'Ss, too Do you know him, ma'am?'

'Kate,herself down in a chair with that sort of desperate resignation which seemed to iuise was useless, 'you will have the goodness, iven hiement-none whatever-not the least in the world You know that, ly respectful, when he declared, as you were a witness to; still at the saetable what's-his-naarden-stuff are to strewup our chimneys at home, I really don't know-upon my word I do NOT knohat is to beco I was ever exposed to, before I ood deal of annoyance then-but that, of course, I expected, and made up my mind for When I was not nearly so old as you, entleman who sat next us at church, who used, ale letters in the front of his pehile the ser, of course, naturally so, but still it was an annoyance, because the peas in a very conspicuous place, and he was several ti it But that was nothing to this This is a great deal worse, and a great dealI would rather, Kate, reat solemnity, and an effusion of tears: 'I would rather, I declare, have been a pig-faced lady, than be exposed to such a life as this!'

Frank Cheeryble and Tim Linkinwater looked, in irrepressible astonishment, first at each other and then at Kate, who felt that some explanation was necessary, but who, between her terror at the apparition of the legs, her fear lest their owner should be sive the least ridiculous solution of the , was quite unable to utter a single word

'He gives reat pain; but don't hurt a hair of his head, I beg On no account hurt a hair of his head'

It would not, under existing circuentleine, inasmuch as that part of his person was some feet up the chimney, which was by no means a wide one But, as all this ti about the bankruptcy of the beautiful an not only to croak very feebly, but to kick with great violence as if respiration became a task of difficulty, Frank Cheeryble, without further hesitation, pulled at the shorts and worsteds with such heartiness as to bring hireater precipitation than he had quite calculated upon

'Oh! yes, yes,' said Kate, directly the whole figure of this singular visitor appeared in this abrupt h with him Is he hurt? I hope not Oh, pray see if he is hurt'

'He is not, I assure you,' replied Frank, handling the object of his surprise, after this appeal, with sudden tenderness and respect 'He is not hurt in the least'

'Don't let hi as far as she could

'Oh, no, he shall not,' rejoined Frank 'You see I have him secure here But may I ask you what this entleman?'

'Oh, no,' said Kate, 'of course not; but he-entleman who has escaped from the next house, andhimself here'