A profound silence succeeded to the reading of this choice epistle, during which Newman Noggs, as he folded it up, gazed with a kind of grotesque pity at the boy of desperate character therein referred to; who, having no more distinct perception of the matter in hand, than that he had been the unfortunate cause of heaping trouble and falsehood upon Nicholas, sat mute and dispirited, with a most woe-begone and heart-stricken look.
"Mr Noggs," said Nicholas, after a few moments" reflection, "I must go out at once."
"Go out!" cried Newman.
"Yes," said Nicholas, "to Golden Square. n.o.body who knows me would believe this story of the ring; but it may suit the purpose, or gratify the hatred of Mr Ralph Nickleby to feign to attach credence to it. It is due-not to him, but to myself-that I should state the truth; and moreover, I have a word or two to exchange with him, which will not keep cool."
"They must," said Newman.
"They must not, indeed," rejoined Nicholas firmly, as he prepared to leave the house.
"Hear me speak," said Newman, planting himself before his impetuous young friend. "He is not there. He is away from town. He will not be back for three days; and I know that letter will not be answered before he returns."
"Are you sure of this?" asked Nicholas, chafing violently, and pacing the narrow room with rapid strides.
"Quite," rejoined Newman. "He had hardly read it when he was called away. Its contents are known to n.o.body but himself and us."
"Are you certain?" demanded Nicholas, precipitately; "not even to my mother or sister? If I thought that they-I will go there-I must see them. Which is the way? Where is it?"
"Now, be advised by me," said Newman, speaking for the moment, in his earnestness, like any other man-"make no effort to see even them, till he comes home. I know the man. Do not seem to have been tampering with anybody. When he returns, go straight to him, and speak as boldly as you like. Guessing at the real truth, he knows it as well as you or I. Trust him for that."
"You mean well to me, and should know him better than I can," replied Nicholas, after some consideration. "Well; let it be so."
Newman, who had stood during the foregoing conversation with his back planted against the door, ready to oppose any egress from the apartment by force, if necessary, resumed his seat with much satisfaction; and as the water in the kettle was by this time boiling, made a gla.s.sful of spirits and water for Nicholas, and a cracked mug-full for the joint accommodation of himself and Smike, of which the two partook in great harmony, while Nicholas, leaning his head upon his hand, remained buried in melancholy meditation.
Meanwhile, the company below stairs, after listening attentively and not hearing any noise which would justify them in interfering for the gratification of their curiosity, returned to the chamber of the Kenwigses, and employed themselves in hazarding a great variety of conjectures relative to the cause of Mr Noggs" sudden disappearance and detention.
"Lor, I"ll tell you what," said Mrs Kenwigs. "Suppose it should be an express sent up to say that his property has all come back again!"
"Dear me," said Mr Kenwigs; "it"s not impossible. Perhaps, in that case, we"d better send up and ask if he won"t take a little more punch."
"Kenwigs!" said Mr Lillyvick, in a loud voice, "I"m surprised at you."
"What"s the matter, sir?" asked Mr Kenwigs, with becoming submission to the collector of water-rates.
"Making such a remark as that, sir," replied Mr Lillyvick, angrily. "He has had punch already, has he not, sir? I consider the way in which that punch was cut off, if I may use the expression, highly disrespectful to this company; scandalous, perfectly scandalous. It may be the custom to allow such things in this house, but it"s not the kind of behaviour that I"ve been used to see displayed, and so I don"t mind telling you, Kenwigs. A gentleman has a gla.s.s of punch before him to which he is just about to set his lips, when another gentleman comes and collars that gla.s.s of punch, without a "with your leave", or "by your leave", and carries that gla.s.s of punch away. This may be good manners-I dare say it is-but I don"t understand it, that"s all; and what"s more, I don"t care if I never do. It"s my way to speak my mind, Kenwigs, and that is my mind; and if you don"t like it, it"s past my regular time for going to bed, and I can find my way home without making it later."
Here was an untoward event! The collector had sat swelling and fuming in offended dignity for some minutes, and had now fairly burst out. The great man-the rich relation-the unmarried uncle-who had it in his power to make Morleena an heiress, and the very baby a legatee-was offended. Gracious Powers, where was this to end!
"I am very sorry, sir," said Mr Kenwigs, humbly.
"Don"t tell me you"re sorry," retorted Mr Lillyvick, with much sharpness. "You should have prevented it, then."
The company were quite paralysed by this domestic crash. The back-parlour sat with her mouth wide open, staring vacantly at the collector, in a stupor of dismay; the other guests were scarcely less overpowered by the great man"s irritation. Mr Kenwigs, not being skilful in such matters, only fanned the flame in attempting to extinguish it.
"I didn"t think of it, I am sure, sir," said that gentleman. "I didn"t suppose that such a little thing as a gla.s.s of punch would have put you out of temper."
"Out of temper! What the devil do you mean by that piece of impertinence, Mr Kenwigs?" said the collector. "Morleena, child-give me my hat."
"Oh, you"re not going, Mr Lillyvick, sir," interposed Miss Petowker, with her most bewitching smile.
But still Mr Lillyvick, regardless of the siren, cried obdurately, "Morleena, my hat!" upon the fourth repet.i.tion of which demand, Mrs Kenwigs sunk back in her chair, with a cry that might have softened a water-b.u.t.t, not to say a water-collector; while the four little girls (privately instructed to that effect) clasped their uncle"s drab shorts in their arms, and prayed him, in imperfect English, to remain.
"Why should I stop here, my dears?" said Mr Lillyvick; "I"m not wanted here."
"Oh, do not speak so cruelly, uncle," sobbed Mrs Kenwigs, "unless you wish to kill me."
"I shouldn"t wonder if some people were to say I did," replied Mr Lillyvick, glancing angrily at Kenwigs. "Out of temper!"
"Oh! I cannot bear to see him look so, at my husband," cried Mrs Kenwigs. "It"s so dreadful in families. Oh!"
"Mr Lillyvick," said Kenwigs, "I hope, for the sake of your niece, that you won"t object to be reconciled."
The collector"s features relaxed, as the company added their entreaties to those of his nephew-in-law. He gave up his hat, and held out his hand.
"There, Kenwigs," said Mr Lillyvick; "and let me tell you, at the same time, to show you how much out of temper I was, that if I had gone away without another word, it would have made no difference respecting that pound or two which I shall leave among your children when I die."
"Morleena Kenwigs," cried her mother, in a torrent of affection. "Go down upon your knees to your dear uncle, and beg him to love you all his life through, for he"s more a angel than a man, and I"ve always said so."
Miss Morleena approaching to do homage, in compliance with this injunction, was summarily caught up and kissed by Mr Lillyvick; and thereupon Mrs Kenwigs darted forward and kissed the collector, and an irrepressible murmur of applause broke from the company who had witnessed his magnanimity.
The worthy gentleman then became once more the life and soul of the society; being again reinstated in his old post of lion, from which high station the temporary distraction of their thoughts had for a moment dispossessed him. Quadruped lions are said to be savage, only when they are hungry; biped lions are rarely sulky longer than when their appet.i.te for distinction remains unappeased. Mr Lillyvick stood higher than ever; for he had shown his power; hinted at his property and testamentary intentions; gained great credit for disinterestedness and virtue; and, in addition to all, was finally accommodated with a much larger tumbler of punch than that which Newman Noggs had so feloniously made off with.
"I say! I beg everybody"s pardon for intruding again," said Crowl, looking in at this happy juncture; "but what a queer business this is, isn"t it? Noggs has lived in this house, now going on for five years, and n.o.body has ever been to see him before, within the memory of the oldest inhabitant."
"It"s a strange time of night to be called away, sir, certainly," said the collector; "and the behaviour of Mr Noggs himself, is, to say the least of it, mysterious."
"Well, so it is," rejoined Growl; "and I"ll tell you what"s more-I think these two geniuses, whoever they are, have run away from somewhere."
"What makes you think that, sir?" demanded the collector, who seemed, by a tacit understanding, to have been chosen and elected mouthpiece to the company. "You have no reason to suppose that they have run away from anywhere without paying the rates and taxes due, I hope?"
Mr Crowl, with a look of some contempt, was about to enter a general protest against the payment of rates or taxes, under any circ.u.mstances, when he was checked by a timely whisper from Kenwigs, and several frowns and winks from Mrs K., which providentially stopped him.
"Why the fact is," said Crowl, who had been listening at Newman"s door with all his might and main; "the fact is, that they have been talking so loud, that they quite disturbed me in my room, and so I couldn"t help catching a word here, and a word there; and all I heard, certainly seemed to refer to their having bolted from some place or other. I don"t wish to alarm Mrs Kenwigs; but I hope they haven"t come from any jail or hospital, and brought away a fever or some unpleasantness of that sort, which might be catching for the children."
Mrs Kenwigs was so overpowered by this supposition, that it needed all the tender attentions of Miss Petowker, of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to restore her to anything like a state of calmness; not to mention the a.s.siduity of Mr Kenwigs, who held a fat smelling-bottle to his lady"s nose, until it became matter of some doubt whether the tears which coursed down her face were the result of feelings or SAL VOLATILE.
The ladies, having expressed their sympathy, singly and separately, fell, according to custom, into a little chorus of soothing expressions, among which, such condolences as "Poor dear!"-"I should feel just the same, if I was her"-"To be sure, it"s a very trying thing"-and "n.o.body but a mother knows what a mother"s feelings is," were among the most prominent, and most frequently repeated. In short, the opinion of the company was so clearly manifested, that Mr Kenwigs was on the point of repairing to Mr Noggs"s room, to demand an explanation, and had indeed swallowed a preparatory gla.s.s of punch, with great inflexibility and steadiness of purpose, when the attention of all present was diverted by a new and terrible surprise.
This was nothing less than the sudden pouring forth of a rapid succession of the shrillest and most piercing screams, from an upper story; and to all appearance from the very two-pair back, in which the infant Kenwigs was at that moment enshrined. They were no sooner audible, than Mrs Kenwigs, opining that a strange cat had come in, and sucked the baby"s breath while the girl was asleep, made for the door, wringing her hands, and shrieking dismally; to the great consternation and confusion of the company.
"Mr Kenwigs, see what it is; make haste!" cried the sister, laying violent hands upon Mrs Kenwigs, and holding her back by force. "Oh don"t twist about so, dear, or I can never hold you."
"My baby, my blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed baby!" screamed Mrs Kenwigs, making every blessed louder than the last. "My own darling, sweet, innocent Lillyvick-Oh let me go to him. Let me go-o-o-o!"
Pending the utterance of these frantic cries, and the wails and lamentations of the four little girls, Mr Kenwigs rushed upstairs to the room whence the sounds proceeded; at the door of which, he encountered Nicholas, with the child in his arms, who darted out with such violence, that the anxious father was thrown down six stairs, and alighted on the nearest landing-place, before he had found time to open his mouth to ask what was the matter.
"Don"t be alarmed," cried Nicholas, running down; "here it is; it"s all out, it"s all over; pray compose yourselves; there"s no harm done;" and with these, and a thousand other a.s.surances, he delivered the baby (whom, in his hurry, he had carried upside down), to Mrs Kenwigs, and ran back to a.s.sist Mr Kenwigs, who was rubbing his head very hard, and looking much bewildered by his tumble.
Rea.s.sured by this cheering intelligence, the company in some degree recovered from their fears, which had been productive of some most singular instances of a total want of presence of mind; thus, the bachelor friend had, for a long time, supported in his arms Mrs Kenwigs"s sister, instead of Mrs Kenwigs; and the worthy Mr Lillyvick had been actually seen, in the perturbation of his spirits, to kiss Miss Petowker several times, behind the room-door, as calmly as if nothing distressing were going forward.
"It is a mere nothing," said Nicholas, returning to Mrs Kenwigs; "the little girl, who was watching the child, being tired I suppose, fell asleep, and set her hair on fire."
"Oh you malicious little wretch!" cried Mrs Kenwigs, impressively shaking her forefinger at the small unfortunate, who might be thirteen years old, and was looking on with a singed head and a frightened face.
"I heard her cries," continued Nicholas, "and ran down, in time to prevent her setting fire to anything else. You may depend upon it that the child is not hurt; for I took it off the bed myself, and brought it here to convince you."
This brief explanation over, the infant, who, as he was christened after the collector! rejoiced in the names of Lillyvick Kenwigs, was partially suffocated under the caresses of the audience, and squeezed to his mother"s bosom, until he roared again. The attention of the company was then directed, by a natural transition, to the little girl who had had the audacity to burn her hair off, and who, after receiving sundry small slaps and pushes from the more energetic of the ladies, was mercifully sent home: the ninepence, with which she was to have been rewarded, being escheated to the Kenwigs family.
"And whatever we are to say to you, sir," exclaimed Mrs Kenwigs, addressing young Lillyvick"s deliverer, "I am sure I don"t know."
"You need say nothing at all," replied Nicholas. "I have done nothing to found any very strong claim upon your eloquence, I am sure."
"He might have been burnt to death, if it hadn"t been for you, sir," simpered Miss Petowker.
"Not very likely, I think," replied Nicholas; "for there was abundance of a.s.sistance here, which must have reached him before he had been in any danger."
"You will let us drink your health, anyvays, sir!" said Mr Kenwigs motioning towards the table.
"-In my absence, by all means," rejoined Nicholas, with a smile. "I have had a very fatiguing journey, and should be most indifferent company-a far greater check upon your merriment, than a promoter of it, even if I kept awake, which I think very doubtful. If you will allow me, I"ll return to my friend, Mr Noggs, who went upstairs again, when he found nothing serious had occurred. Good-night."
Excusing himself, in these terms, from joining in the festivities, Nicholas took a most winning farewell of Mrs Kenwigs and the other ladies, and retired, after making a very extraordinary impression upon the company.
"What a delightful young man!" cried Mrs Kenwigs.
"Uncommon gentlemanly, really," said Mr Kenwigs. "Don"t you think so, Mr Lillyvick?"
"Yes," said the collector, with a dubious shrug of his shoulders, "He is gentlemanly, very gentlemanly-in appearance."
"I hope you don"t see anything against him, uncle?" inquired Mrs Kenwigs.
"No, my dear," replied the collector, "no. I trust he may not turn out-well-no matter-my love to you, my dear, and long life to the baby!"
"Your namesake," said Mrs Kenwigs, with a sweet smile.
"And I hope a worthy namesake," observed Mr Kenwigs, willing to propitiate the collector. "I hope a baby as will never disgrace his G.o.dfather, and as may be considered, in arter years, of a piece with the Lillyvicks whose name he bears. I do say-and Mrs Kenwigs is of the same sentiment, and feels it as strong as I do-that I consider his being called Lillyvick one of the greatest blessings and Honours of my existence."
"THE greatest blessing, Kenwigs," murmured his lady.
"THE greatest blessing," said Mr Kenwigs, correcting himself. "A blessing that I hope, one of these days, I may be able to deserve."
This was a politic stroke of the Kenwigses, because it made Mr Lillyvick the great head and fountain of the baby"s importance. The good gentleman felt the delicacy and dexterity of the touch, and at once proposed the health of the gentleman, name unknown, who had signalised himself, that night, by his coolness and alacrity.
"Who, I don"t mind saying," observed Mr Lillyvick, as a great concession, "is a good-looking young man enough, with manners that I hope his character may be equal to."
"He has a very nice face and style, really," said Mrs Kenwigs.
"He certainly has," added Miss Petowker. "There"s something in his appearance quite-dear, dear, what"s that word again?"
"What word?" inquired Mr Lillyvick.
"Why-dear me, how stupid I am," replied Miss Petowker, hesitating. "What do you call it, when Lords break off door-knockers and beat policemen, and play at coaches with other people"s money, and all that sort of thing?"
"Aristocratic?" suggested the collector.
"Ah! aristocratic," replied Miss Petowker; "something very aristocratic about him, isn"t there?"
The gentleman held their peace, and smiled at each other, as who should say, "Well! there"s no accounting for tastes;" but the ladies resolved unanimously that Nicholas had an aristocratic air; and n.o.body caring to dispute the position, it was established triumphantly.
The punch being, by this time, drunk out, and the little Kenwigses (who had for some time previously held their little eyes open with their little forefingers) becoming fractious, and requesting rather urgently to be put to bed, the collector made a move by pulling out his watch, and acquainting the company that it was nigh two o"clock; whereat some of the guests were surprised and others shocked, and hats and bonnets being groped for under the tables, and in course of time found, their owners went away, after a vast deal of shaking of hands, and many remarks how they had never spent such a delightful evening, and how they marvelled to find it so late, expecting to have heard that it was half-past ten at the very latest, and how they wished that Mr and Mrs Kenwigs had a wedding-day once a week, and how they wondered by what hidden agency Mrs Kenwigs could possibly have managed so well; and a great deal more of the same kind. To all of which flattering expressions, Mr and Mrs Kenwigs replied, by thanking every lady and gentleman, SERIATIM, for the favour of their company, and hoping they might have enjoyed themselves only half as well as they said they had.
As to Nicholas, quite unconscious of the impression he had produced, he had long since fallen asleep, leaving Mr Newman Noggs and Smike to empty the spirit bottle between them; and this office they performed with such extreme good-will, that Newman was equally at a loss to determine whether he himself was quite sober, and whether he had ever seen any gentleman so heavily, drowsily, and completely intoxicated as his new acquaintance.
CHAPTER 16
Nicholas seeks to employ himself in a New Capacity, and being unsuccessful, accepts an engagement as Tutor in a Private Family The first care of Nicholas, next morning, was, to look after some room in which, until better times dawned upon him, he could contrive to exist, without trenching upon the hospitality of Newman Noggs, who would have slept upon the stairs with pleasure, so that his young friend was accommodated.
The vacant apartment to which the bill in the parlour window bore reference, appeared, on inquiry, to be a small back-room on the second floor, reclaimed from the leads, and overlooking a soot-bespeckled prospect of tiles and chimney-pots. For the letting of this portion of the house from week to week, on reasonable terms, the parlour lodger was empowered to treat; he being deputed by the landlord to dispose of the rooms as they became vacant, and to keep a sharp look-out that the lodgers didn"t run away. As a means of securing the punctual discharge of which last service he was permitted to live rent-free, lest he should at any time be tempted to run away himself.
Of this chamber, Nicholas became the tenant; and having hired a few common articles of furniture from a neighbouring broker, and paid the first week"s hire in advance, out of a small fund raised by the conversion of some spare clothes into ready money, he sat himself down to ruminate upon his prospects, which, like the prospect outside his window, were sufficiently confined and dingy. As they by no means improved on better acquaintance, and as familiarity breeds contempt, he resolved to banish them from his thoughts by dint of hard walking. So, taking up his hat, and leaving poor Smike to arrange and rearrange the room with as much delight as if it had been the costliest palace, he betook himself to the streets, and mingled with the crowd which thronged them.
Although a man may lose a sense of his own importance when he is a mere unit among a busy throng, all utterly regardless of him, it by no means follows that he can dispossess himself, with equal facility, of a very strong sense of the importance and magnitude of his cares. The unhappy state of his own affairs was the one idea which occupied the brain of Nicholas, walk as fast as he would; and when he tried to dislodge it by speculating on the situation and prospects of the people who surrounded him, he caught himself, in a few seconds, contrasting their condition with his own, and gliding almost imperceptibly back into his old train of thought again.
Occupied in these reflections, as he was making his way along one of the great public thoroughfares of London, he chanced to raise his eyes to a blue board, whereon was inscribed, in characters of gold, "General Agency Office; for places and situations of all kinds inquire within." It was a shop-front, fitted up with a gauze blind and an inner door; and in the window hung a long and tempting array of written placards, announcing vacant places of every grade, from a secretary"s to a foot-boy"s.
Nicholas halted, instinctively, before this temple of promise, and ran his eye over the capital-text openings in life which were so profusely displayed. When he had completed his survey he walked on a little way, and then back, and then on again; at length, after pausing irresolutely several times before the door of the General Agency Office, he made up his mind, and stepped in.
He found himself in a little floor-clothed room, with a high desk railed off in one corner, behind which sat a lean youth with cunning eyes and a protruding chin, whose performances in capital-text darkened the window. He had a thick ledger lying open before him, and with the fingers of his right hand inserted between the leaves, and his eyes fixed on a very fat old lady in a mob-cap-evidently the proprietress of the establishment-who was airing herself at the fire, seemed to be only waiting her directions to refer to some entries contained within its rusty clasps.
As there was a board outside, which acquainted the public that servants-of-all-work were perpetually in waiting to be hired from ten till four, Nicholas knew at once that some half-dozen strong young women, each with pattens and an umbrella, who were sitting upon a form in one corner, were in attendance for that purpose: especially as the poor things looked anxious and weary. He was not quite so certain of the callings and stations of two smart young ladies who were in conversation with the fat lady before the fire, until-having sat himself down in a corner, and remarked that he would wait until the other customers had been served-the fat lady resumed the dialogue which his entrance had interrupted.
"Cook, Tom," said the fat lady, still airing herself as aforesaid.
"Cook," said Tom, turning over some leaves of the ledger. "Well!"
"Read out an easy place or two," said the fat lady.
"Pick out very light ones, if you please, young man," interposed a genteel female, in shepherd"s-plaid boots, who appeared to be the client.