Part 72 (1/2)

'What document? Why, THE document,' replied Squeers 'The Madeline What's-her-name one It was a will; that's what it was'

'Of what nature, whose will, when dated, how benefiting her, to what extent?' asked Ralph hurriedly

'A will in her favour; that's all I know,' rejoined Squeers, 'and that's more than you'd have known, if you'd had the to your precious caution that they got hold of it If you had let one, it would have been a heap of ashes behind the fire, instead of being whole and sound, inside of reat-coat'

'Beaten at every point!' hed Squeers, who, between the brandy and water and his broken head, wandered strangely, 'at the delightful village of Dotheboys near Greta Bridge in Yorkshi+re, youth are boarded, clothed, booked, washed, furnished with pocket-uages living and dead, onoono-a cobbler's weapon U-p-up, adjective, not down S-q-u-double e-r-s-Squeers, noun substantive, a educator of youth Total, all up with Squeers!'

His running on, in this way, had afforded Ralph an opportunity of recovering his presence of , as far as possible, the school him to believe that his safety and best policy lay in the preservation of a rigid silence

'I tell you, once again,' he said, 'they can't hurt you You shall have an action for false imprisonment, and make a profit of this, yet We will devise a story for you that should carry you through twenty times such a trivial scrape as this; and if they want security in a thousand pounds for your reappearance in case you should be called upon, you shall have it All you have to do is, to keep back the truth You're a little fuddled tonight, and may not be able to see this as clearly as you would at another time; but this is what you must do, and you'll need all your senses about you; for a slip ht be aard'

'Oh!' said Squeers, who had looked cunningly at him, with his head stuck on one side, like an old raven 'That's what I'm to do, is it? Now then, just you hear a word or two fro to have any storiesto stick to any If I find ain me, I shall expect you to take your share, and I'll take care you do You never said anything about danger I never bargained for being brought into such a plight as this, and I don't mean to take it as quiet as you think I let you leadto another, because we had been ether in a certain sort of a way, and if you had liked to be ill-natured you ood-natured you ht now, that's quite correct, and I don't , then times are altered, and I shall just say and do whatever I think may serve me most, and take advice from nobody My moral influence with theravity, 'is a tottering to its basis The ihter, and my son Wackford, all short of vittles, is perpetually before me; every other consideration melts away and vanishes, in front of these; the only number in all arithmetic that I know of, as a husband and a father, is nu Mr Squeers ht have declaiht have led to, nobody knows Being interrupted, at this point, by the arrival of the coach and an attendant as to bear hinity on the top of the handkerchief that bound his head; and, thrusting one hand in his pocket, and taking the attendant's arm with the other, suffered himself to be led forth

'As I supposed froht Ralph 'This fellow, I plainly see through all his tipsy fooling, has made up his mind to turn upon me I am so beset and hemmed in, that they are not only all struck with fear, but, like the beasts in the fable, have their fling at o than yesterday too, when they were all civility and coive way I will not budge one inch!'

He went ho of illness, that heher away to where she lived: which was hard by Then, he sat down by the light of a single candle, and began to think, for the first time, on all that had taken place that day

He had neither eaten nor drunk since last night, and, in addition to the anxiety ofabout, from place to place almost incessantly, for many hours He felt sick and exhausted, but could taste nothing save a glass of water, and continued to sit with his head upon his hand; not resting nor thinking, but laboriously trying to do both, and feeling that every sense but one of weariness and desolation, was for the time benu at the door, and still sat quiet as before, as if he could not even bring his thoughts to bear upon that It had been often repeated, and he had, several tiht in the(, as he knew, his own candle), before he could rouse hio downstairs

'Mr Nickleby, there is terrible news for you, and I a you will conise He held his hand above his eyes, and, looking out, saw Tim Linkinwater on the steps

'Come where?' de I have a coach here'

'Why should I go there?' said Ralph

'Don't ask me why, but pray come withas though he would shut the door

'No, no!' cried Tithat has occurred: so very dreadful, Mr Nickleby, which concerns you nearly Do you think I would tell you so or come to you like this, if it were not the case?'

Ralph looked at hireatly excited, he faltered, and could not tell what to say or think

'You had better hear this now, than at any other time,' said Tim; 'it may have some influence with you For Heaven's sake come!'

Perhaps, at, another tiainst any appeal froed; but now, after a moment's hesitation, he went into the hall for his hat, and returning, got into the coach without speaking a word

Tim well remembered afterwards, and often said, that as Ralph Nickleby went into the house for this purpose, he saw hiht of the candle which he had set down upon a chair, reel and stagger like a drunken man He well remembered, too, that when he had placed his foot upon the coach-steps, he turned round and looked upon him with a face so ashy pale and so very wild and vacant that it made him shudder, and for thethat he had soht, perhaps, with greater show of reason, be referred to what he had undergone that day

A profound silence was observed during the ride Arrived at their place of destination, Ralph followed his conductor into the house, and into a room where the two brothers were He was so astounded, not to say awed, by so of a mute compassion for himself which was visible in their manner and in that of the old clerk, that he could scarcely speak

Having taken a seat, however, he contrived to say, though in broken words, 'What-what have you to say to me-more than has been said already?'

The roohted, and ter so his eyes in this direction as he spoke, he thought he ure of athat the object moved, as if uneasy under his scrutiny

'Who's that yonder?' he said

'One who has conveyed to us, within these two hours, the intelligence which caused our sending to you,' replied brother Charles 'Let him be, sir, let him be for the present'

'More riddles!' said Ralph, faintly 'Well, sir?'

In turning his face towards the brothers he was obliged to avert it from the ; but, before either of theain It was evident that he was rendered restless and uncomfortable by the presence of the unseen person; for he repeated this action several tith, as if in a nervous state which rendered him positively unable to turn away fro as an excuse that he could not bear the light

The brothers conferred apart for a short tilanced at thereat effort to recover his self-possession, 'Nohat is this? If I aht, let it be for soot to tell me?' After a short pause, he added, 'Is my niece dead?'

He had struck upon a key which rendered the task of commencement an easier one Brother Charles turned, and said that it was a death of which they had to tell him, but that his niece ell

'You don't htened, 'that her brother's dead? No, that's too good I'd not believe it, if you told me so It would be too welcome news to be true'

'Shame on you, you hardened and unnatural man,' cried the other brother, warence which, if you have any hu in your breast, will make even you shrink and tremble What if we tell you that a poor unfortunate boy: a child in everything but never having known one of those tender endearhtsome hours which make our childhood a tih all our after life: a warm-hearted, harmless, affectionate creature, who never offended you, or did you wrong, but on whom you have vented the malice and hatred you have conceived for your nephew, and who your bad passions upon hi under your persecution, sir, and thein suffering, this poor creature has gone to tell his sad tale where, for your part in it, you must surely answer?'

'If you tell ive you all else If you tell me that he is dead, I am in your debt and bound to you for life He is! I see it in your faces Who triumphs now? Is this your dreadful news; this your terrible intelligence? You see how it moves me You did well to send I would have travelled a hundred h mud, mire, and darkness, to hear this news just at this tie joy, Ralph could see in the faces of the two brothers,of that indefinable compassion for hiht you the intelligence, did he?' said Ralph, pointing with his finger towards the recess already mentioned; 'and sat there, no doubt, to see me prostrated and overwhelmed by it! Ha, ha, ha! But I tell hi day to coain, that you don't know him yet; and that you'll rue the day you took coabond'

'You take me for your nephew,' said a hollow voice; 'it would be better for you, and for ure that he had seen so dimly, rose, and came slowly down He started back, for he found that he confronted-not Nicholas, as he had supposed, but Brooker

Ralph had no reason, that he knew, to fear this man; he had never feared him before; but the pallor which had been observed in his face when he issued forth that night, caed as he said, keeping his eyes upon him, 'What does this fellow here? Do you know he is a convict, a felon, a common thief?'

'Hear what he has to tell you Oh, Mr Nickleby, hear what he has to tell you, be he what he may!' cried the brothers, with such emphatic earnestness, that Ralph turned to theazed at him: as it seemed entle of-'

'That boy,' repeated Ralph, looking vacantly at him

'Whom I saw, stretched dead and cold upon his bed, and who is now in his grave-'

'Who is now in his grave,' echoed Ralph, like one who talks in his sleep

The ether: '-Was your only son, so help me God in heaven!'

In thehis two hands upon his temples He removed the hastly face as he then disclosed He looked at Brooker, as by this ti at a short distance frohtest sound or gesture

'Gentle past that If, in telling you how this has happened, I tell you that I was harshly used, and perhaps driven out of my real nature, I do it only as a necessary part of uiltyaway fro himself to the brothers, proceeded in a subdued and huentleo-there was one: a rough fox-hunting, hard-drinking gentleh his own fortune, and wanted to squander away that of his sister: they were both orphans, and she lived with hiinally, to back his influence and try to over-persuade the young woo down to the house in Leicestershi+re pretty often, and stop there ether, and he one on some of those, or to patch up his client's affairs, which were in a ruinous state; of course he went for profit The gentlewoirl, but she was, I have heard say, handsoe property In course of tiain which led hi kept strictly private; for a clause in her father's will declared that if she married without her brother's consent, the property, in which she had only sole, should pass away altogether to another branch of the faive no consent that the sister didn't buy, and pay for handsomely; Mr Nickleby would consent to no such sacrifice; and so they went on, keeping theirfor him to break his neck or die of a fever He did neither, and e was a son The child was put out to nurse, a long way off; his mother never saw him but once or twice, and then by stealth; and his father-so eagerly did he thirst after the rasp now, for his brother-in-laas very ill, and breakingany suspicion The brother lingered on; Mr Nickleby's wife constantly urged hie; he peremptorily refused She re little or no company but riotous, drunken sportsry quarrels and recriminations took place, and when they had been married nearly seven years, and ithin a feeeks of the time when the brother's death would have adjusted all, she eloped with a younger man, and left him'