Part 61 (1/2)

'Kate,' interposed Mrs Nickleby with severe dignity, 'I aently remonstrated

'I am surprised at you,' repeated Mrs Nickleby; 'upon my word, Kate, I am quite astonished that you should join the persecutors of this unfortunate gentlens upon his property, and that that is the whole secret of it It would be much kinder of you, Kate, to ask Mr Linkinwater or Mr Cheeryble to interfere in his behalf, and see his to influence you; it's not right, very far fros be, do you suppose? If anybody ought to be indignant, who is it? I, of course, and very properly so Still, at the same time, I wouldn't commit such an injustice for the world No,' continued Mrs Nickleby, drawing herself up, and looking another ith a kind of bashful stateliness; 'this gentleman will understand ave hih I do believe hi himself in such dreadful situations on o away directly, or it will be impossible to keep his behaviour a secret froed to him, but I cannot listen to his addresses for a moment It's quite impossible'

While this address was in course of delivery, the old gentlee patches of soot, sat upon the ground with his ar the spectators in profound silence, and with a very majestic demeanour He did not appear to take the smallest notice of what Mrs Nickleby said, but when she ceased to speak he honoured her with a long stare, and inquired if she had quite finished

'I have nothing more to say,' replied that lady ood,' said the old gentle, a clean tu this order, the old gentleain and de either, he requested to be served with a fricassee of boot-tops and goldfish sauce, and then laughing heartily, gratified his hearers with a very long, very loud, and most melodious bellow

But still Mrs Nickleby, in reply to the significant looks of all about her, shook her head as though to assure the whatever in all this, unless, indeed, it were a slight degree of eccentricity She ht have remained impressed with these opinions down to the latest ht train of circumstances, which, trivial as they were, altered the whole complexion of the case

It happened that Miss La Creevy, finding her patient in no very threatening condition, and being strongly i forward, bustled into the roo It happened, too, that the instant the old gentleman saw her, he stopped short, skipped suddenly on his feet, and fell to kissing his hand violently: a change of demeanour which almost terrified the little portrait painter out of her senses, and caused her to retreat behind Tim Linkinwater with the ut his hands, and squeezing theainst each other 'I see her now; I see her now! My love, my life, my bride, as and gaiters!'

Mrs Nickleby looked rather disconcerted for a , nodded to Miss La Creevy and the other spectators several ti them to understand that she sahere the hts in a entle his hand upon his heart 'Cormoran and Blunderbore! She is come! All the wealth I have is hers if she will take race, beauty, and blandishascar? No In the Queen of Dia bathes in Kalydor for nothing? No Melt all these down into one, with the three Graces, the nine Muses, and fourteen biscuit-bakers' daughters from Oxford Street, and make a wo this rhapsody, the old gentleers twenty or thirty times, and then subsided into an ecstatic conte Mrs Nickleby a favourable opportunity of explanation, she went about it straight

'I ah, 'that it's a great relief, under such trying circumstances as these, to have anybody else reat relief; and it's a circuh I have several tihter Kate I have no doubt the people were very foolish, and perhaps ought to have known better, but still they did take me for her, and of course that was no fault of mine, and it would be very hard indeed if I was to be made responsible for it However, in this instance, of course, Iif I suffered anybody-especially anybody that I aations to-to be made uncomfortable on entleman that he is mistaken, that I am the lady who he was told by so-stones, and that I do beg and entreat of hio quietly away, if it's only for,' here Mrs Nickleby siht have been expected that the old gentleman would have been penetrated to the heart by the delicacy and condescension of this appeal, and that he would at least have returned a courteous and suitable reply What, then, was the shock which Mrs Nickleby received, when, accosting HER in the most unmistakable manner, he replied in a loud and sonourous voice: 'Avaunt! Cat!'

'Sir!' cried Mrs Nickleby, in a faint tone

'Cat!' repeated the old gentleman 'Puss, Kit, tit, Grimalkin, Tabby, Brindle! Whoosh!+' hich last sound, uttered in a hissinghis arms violently round and round, and at the same time alternately advanced on Mrs Nickleby, and retreated froe dance hich boys on s, sheep, and other ani dorong street

Mrs Nickleby wasted no words, but uttered an exclamation of horror and surprise, and immediately fainted away

'I'll attend to htened But pray take him away: pray take him away!'

Frank was not at all confident of his power of coht hi Miss La Creevy on a few paces in advance, and urging the old gentleman to follow her It succeeded to a ly guarded by Tim Linkinwater on one side, and Frank himself on the other

'Kate,'when the coast was clear, 'is he gone?'

She was assured that he was

'I shall never forgive entleman has lost his senses, and I areatly astonished

'I, my love,' replied Mrs Nickleby, with a desperate calmness 'You sahat he was the other day; you see what he is now I told your brother, weeks and weeks ago, Kate, that I hoped a disappointht not be tooallowance for his being a little flighty, you kno rationally, and sensibly, and honourably he talked,hiarden You have heard the dreadful nonsense he has been guilty of this night, and the one on with that poor unfortunate little old ht about?'

'I should scarcely think they could,' said Kate mildly

'I should scarcely think so, either,' rejoined her mother 'Well! if I am the unfortunate cause of this, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I am not to blame I told Nicholas, I said to him, ”Nicholas, my dear, we should be very careful hoe proceed” He would scarcely hear me If the matter had only been properly taken up at first, as I wished it to be! But you are both of you so like your poor papa However, I have MY consolation, and that should be enough forher hands, thus, of all responsibility under this head, past, present, or to coht never have greater cause to reproach themselves than she had, and prepared herself to receive the escort, who soon returned with the intelligence that the old gentleman was safely housed, and that they found his custodians, who had been norant of his absence

Quiet being again restored, a delicious half-hour-so Frank called it, in the course of subsequent conversation with Ti hoth apprising hih tih not without many offers on the part of Frank to reht it hbourly irruption, they entertained the least fear of being left to themselves As their freedom from all further apprehension, however, left no pretext for his insisting on ed to abandon the citadel, and to retire with the trusty Tim

Nearly three hours of silence passed away Kate blushed to find, when Nicholas returned, how long she had been sitting alone, occupied with her own thoughts

'I really thought it had not been half an hour,' she said

'They aily, 'to make time pass away like that What were they now?'

Kate was confused; she toyed with some trifle on the table, looked up and smiled, looked down and dropped a tear

'Why, Kate,' said Nicholas, drawing his sister towards hi her, 'let lier look than that, Kate Cohts for you'

There was so in this proposition, albeit it was said without the slightest consciousness or application, which so alared the subject to dorees, as they left the rooether, how lonely Srees, too; for on this subject also, Kate seemed to speak with soently at his door, 'what can be the cause of all this?'

Kate was hanging on her brother's are herself, before Sard, and completely dressed, confronted them

'And have you not been to bed?' said Nicholas

'N-n-no,' was the reply

Nicholas gently detained his sister, who made an effort to retire; and asked, 'Why not?'

'I could not sleep,' said S the hand which his friend extended to him

'You are not well?' rejoined Nicholas

'I areat deal better,' said Sive way to these fits of melancholy?' inquired Nicholas, in his kindest row a different creature, Smike'

'I do; I know I do,' he replied 'I will tell you the reason one day, but not now I hate ood and kind But I cannot help it My heart is very full; you do not kno full it is'

He wrung Nicholas's hand before he released it; and glancing, for a ether, as if there were so affection which touched him very deeply, withdrew into his chamber, and was soon the only watcher under that quiet roof

CHAPTER 50

Involves a serious Catastrophe

The little race-course at Haaiety; the day as dazzling as day could be; the sun high in the cloudless sky, and shi+ning in its fullest splendour Every gaudy colour that fluttered in the air froaudiest hues Old dingy flags gre again, faded gilding was re-burnished, stained rotten canvas looked a snohite, the very beggars' rags were freshened up, and sentiot its charity in its fervent admiration of poverty so picturesque