"Is that letter for me?" growled Ralph, pointing to the little packet Mrs Nickleby held in her hand.
"For you, brother-in-law," replied Mrs Nickleby, "and I walked all the way up here on purpose to give it you."
"All the way up here!" cried Sir Mulberry, seizing upon the chance of discovering where Mrs Nickleby had come from. "What a confounded distance! How far do you call it now?"
"How far do I call it?" said Mrs Nickleby. "Let me see. It"s just a mile from our door to the Old Bailey."
"No, no. Not so much as that," urged Sir Mulberry.
"Oh! It is indeed," said Mrs Nickleby. "I appeal to his lordship."
"I should decidedly say it was a mile," remarked Lord Frederick, with a solemn aspect.
"It must be; it can"t be a yard less," said Mrs Nickleby. "All down Newgate Street, all down Cheapside, all up Lombard Street, down Gracechurch Street, and along Thames Street, as far as Spigwiffin"s Wharf. Oh! It"s a mile."
"Yes, on second thoughts I should say it was," replied Sir Mulberry. "But you don"t surely mean to walk all the way back?"
"Oh, no," rejoined Mrs Nickleby. "I shall go back in an omnibus. I didn"t travel about in omnibuses, when my poor dear Nicholas was alive, brother-in-law. But as it is, you know-"
"Yes, yes," replied Ralph impatiently, "and you had better get back before dark."
"Thank you, brother-in-law, so I had," returned Mrs Nickleby. "I think I had better say goodbye, at once."
"Not stop and-rest?" said Ralph, who seldom offered refreshments unless something was to be got by it.
"Oh dear me no," returned Mrs Nickleby, glancing at the dial.
"Lord Frederick," said Sir Mulberry, "we are going Mrs Nickleby"s way. We"ll see her safe to the omnibus?"
"By all means. Ye-es."
"Oh! I really couldn"t think of it!" said Mrs Nickleby.
But Sir Mulberry Hawk and Lord Verisopht were peremptory in their politeness, and leaving Ralph, who seemed to think, not unwisely, that he looked less ridiculous as a mere spectator, than he would have done if he had taken any part in these proceedings, they quitted the house with Mrs Nickleby between them; that good lady in a perfect ecstasy of satisfaction, no less with the attentions shown her by two t.i.tled gentlemen, than with the conviction that Kate might now pick and choose, at least between two large fortunes, and most unexceptionable husbands.
As she was carried away for the moment by an irresistible train of thought, all connected with her daughter"s future greatness, Sir Mulberry Hawk and his friend exchanged glances over the top of the bonnet which the poor lady so much regretted not having left at home, and proceeded to dilate with great rapture, but much respect on the manifold perfections of Miss Nickleby.
"What a delight, what a comfort, what a happiness, this amiable creature must be to you," said Sir Mulberry, throwing into his voice an indication of the warmest feeling.
"She is indeed, sir," replied Mrs Nickleby; "she is the sweetest-tempered, kindest-hearted creature-and so clever!"
"She looks clayver," said Lord Verisopht, with the air of a judge of cleverness.
"I a.s.sure you she is, my lord," returned Mrs Nickleby. "When she was at school in Devonshire, she was universally allowed to be beyond all exception the very cleverest girl there, and there were a great many very clever ones too, and that"s the truth-twenty-five young ladies, fifty guineas a year without the et-ceteras, both the Miss Dowdles the most accomplished, elegant, fascinating creatures-Oh dear me!" said Mrs Nickleby, "I never shall forget what pleasure she used to give me and her poor dear papa, when she was at that school, never-such a delightful letter every half-year, telling us that she was the first pupil in the whole establishment, and had made more progress than anybody else! I can scarcely bear to think of it even now. The girls wrote all the letters themselves," added Mrs Nickleby, "and the writing-master touched them up afterwards with a magnifying gla.s.s and a silver pen; at least I think they wrote them, though Kate was never quite certain about that, because she didn"t know the handwriting of hers again; but anyway, I know it was a circular which they all copied, and of course it was a very gratifying thing-very gratifying."
With similar recollections Mrs Nickleby beguiled the tediousness of the way, until they reached the omnibus, which the extreme politeness of her new friends would not allow them to leave until it actually started, when they took their hats, as Mrs Nickleby solemnly a.s.sured her hearers on many subsequent occasions, "completely off," and kissed their straw-coloured kid gloves till they were no longer visible.
Mrs Nickleby leant back in the furthest corner of the conveyance, and, closing her eyes, resigned herself to a host of most pleasing meditations. Kate had never said a word about having met either of these gentlemen; "that," she thought, "argues that she is strongly prepossessed in favour of one of them." Then the question arose, which one could it be. The lord was the youngest, and his t.i.tle was certainly the grandest; still Kate was not the girl to be swayed by such considerations as these. "I will never put any constraint upon her inclinations," said Mrs Nickleby to herself; "but upon my word I think there"s no comparison between his lordship and Sir Mulberry-Sir Mulberry is such an attentive gentlemanly creature, so much manner, such a fine man, and has so much to say for himself. I hope it"s Sir Mulberry-I think it must be Sir Mulberry!" And then her thoughts flew back to her old predictions, and the number of times she had said, that Kate with no fortune would marry better than other people"s daughters with thousands; and, as she pictured with the brightness of a mother"s fancy all the beauty and grace of the poor girl who had struggled so cheerfully with her new life of hardship and trial, her heart grew too full, and the tears trickled down her face.
Meanwhile, Ralph walked to and fro in his little back-office, troubled in mind by what had just occurred. To say that Ralph loved or cared for-in the most ordinary acceptation of those terms-any one of G.o.d"s creatures, would be the wildest fiction. Still, there had somehow stolen upon him from time to time a thought of his niece which was tinged with compa.s.sion and pity; breaking through the dull cloud of dislike or indifference which darkened men and women in his eyes, there was, in her case, the faintest gleam of light-a most feeble and sickly ray at the best of times-but there it was, and it showed the poor girl in a better and purer aspect than any in which he had looked on human nature yet.
"I wish," thought Ralph, "I had never done this. And yet it will keep this boy to me, while there is money to be made. Selling a girl-throwing her in the way of temptation, and insult, and coa.r.s.e speech. Nearly two thousand pounds profit from him already though. Pshaw! match-making mothers do the same thing every day."
He sat down, and told the chances, for and against, on his fingers.
"If I had not put them in the right track today," thought Ralph, "this foolish woman would have done so. Well. If her daughter is as true to herself as she should be from what I have seen, what harm ensues? A little teasing, a little humbling, a few tears. Yes," said Ralph, aloud, as he locked his iron safe. "She must take her chance. She must take her chance."
CHAPTER 27
Mrs Nickleby becomes acquainted with Messrs Pyke and Pluck, whose Affection and Interest are beyond all Bounds Mrs Nickleby had not felt so proud and important for many a day, as when, on reaching home, she gave herself wholly up to the pleasant visions which had accompanied her on her way thither. Lady Mulberry Hawk-that was the prevalent idea. Lady Mulberry Hawk!-On Tuesday last, at St George"s, Hanover Square, by the Right Reverend the Bishop of Llandaff, Sir Mulberry Hawk, of Mulberry Castle, North Wales, to Catherine, only daughter of the late Nicholas Nickleby, Esquire, of Devonshire. "Upon my word!" cried Mrs Nicholas Nickleby, "it sounds very well."
Having dispatched the ceremony, with its attendant festivities, to the perfect satisfaction of her own mind, the sanguine mother pictured to her imagination a long train of honours and distinctions which could not fail to accompany Kate in her new and brilliant sphere. She would be presented at court, of course. On the anniversary of her birthday, which was upon the nineteenth of July ("at ten minutes past three o"clock in the morning," thought Mrs Nickleby in a parenthesis, "for I recollect asking what o"clock it was"), Sir Mulberry would give a great feast to all his tenants, and would return them three and a half per cent on the amount of their last half-year"s rent, as would be fully described and recorded in the fashionable intelligence, to the immeasurable delight and admiration of all the readers thereof. Kate"s picture, too, would be in at least half-a-dozen of the annuals, and on the opposite page would appear, in delicate type, "Lines on contemplating the Portrait of Lady Mulberry Hawk. By Sir Dingleby Dabber." Perhaps some one annual, of more comprehensive design than its fellows, might even contain a portrait of the mother of Lady Mulberry Hawk, with lines by the father of Sir Dingleby Dabber. More unlikely things had come to pa.s.s. Less interesting portraits had appeared. As this thought occurred to the good lady, her countenance unconsciously a.s.sumed that compound expression of simpering and sleepiness which, being common to all such portraits, is perhaps one reason why they are always so charming and agreeable.
With such triumphs of aerial architecture did Mrs Nickleby occupy the whole evening after her accidental introduction to Ralph"s t.i.tled friends; and dreams, no less prophetic and equally promising, haunted her sleep that night. She was preparing for her frugal dinner next day, still occupied with the same ideas-a little softened down perhaps by sleep and daylight-when the girl who attended her, partly for company, and partly to a.s.sist in the household affairs, rushed into the room in unwonted agitation, and announced that two gentlemen were waiting in the pa.s.sage for permission to walk upstairs.
"Bless my heart!" cried Mrs Nickleby, hastily arranging her cap and front, "if it should be-dear me, standing in the pa.s.sage all this time-why don"t you go and ask them to walk up, you stupid thing?"
While the girl was gone on this errand, Mrs Nickleby hastily swept into a cupboard all vestiges of eating and drinking; which she had scarcely done, and seated herself with looks as collected as she could a.s.sume, when two gentlemen, both perfect strangers, presented themselves.
"How do you DO?" said one gentleman, laying great stress on the last word of the inquiry.
"HOW do you do?" said the other gentleman, altering the emphasis, as if to give variety to the salutation.
Mrs Nickleby curtseyed and smiled, and curtseyed again, and remarked, rubbing her hands as she did so, that she hadn"t the-really-the honour to- "To know us," said the first gentleman. "The loss has been ours, Mrs Nickleby. Has the loss been ours, Pyke?"
"It has, Pluck," answered the other gentleman.
"We have regretted it very often, I believe, Pyke?" said the first gentleman.
"Very often, Pluck," answered the second.
"But now," said the first gentleman, "now we have the happiness we have pined and languished for. Have we pined and languished for this happiness, Pyke, or have we not?"
"You know we have, Pluck," said Pyke, reproachfully.
"You hear him, ma"am?" said Mr Pluck, looking round; "you hear the unimpeachable testimony of my friend Pyke-that reminds me,-formalities, formalities, must not be neglected in civilised society. Pyke-Mrs Nickleby."
Mr Pyke laid his hand upon his heart, and bowed low.
"Whether I shall introduce myself with the same formality," said Mr Pluck-"whether I shall say myself that my name is Pluck, or whether I shall ask my friend Pyke (who being now regularly introduced, is competent to the office) to state for me, Mrs Nickleby, that my name is Pluck; whether I shall claim your acquaintance on the plain ground of the strong interest I take in your welfare, or whether I shall make myself known to you as the friend of Sir Mulberry Hawk-these, Mrs Nickleby, are considerations which I leave to you to determine."
"Any friend of Sir Mulberry Hawk"s requires no better introduction to me," observed Mrs Nickleby, graciously.
"It is delightful to hear you say so," said Mr Pluck, drawing a chair close to Mrs Nickleby, and sitting himself down. "It is refreshing to know that you hold my excellent friend, Sir Mulberry, in such high esteem. A word in your ear, Mrs Nickleby. When Sir Mulberry knows it, he will be a happy man-I say, Mrs Nickleby, a happy man. Pyke, be seated."
"MY good opinion," said Mrs Nickleby, and the poor lady exulted in the idea that she was marvellously sly,-"my good opinion can be of very little consequence to a gentleman like Sir Mulberry."
"Of little consequence!" exclaimed Mr Pluck. "Pyke, of what consequence to our friend, Sir Mulberry, is the good opinion of Mrs Nickleby?"
"Of what consequence?" echoed Pyke.
"Ay," repeated Pluck; "is it of the greatest consequence?"
"Of the very greatest consequence," replied Pyke.
"Mrs Nickleby cannot be ignorant," said Mr Pluck, "of the immense impression which that sweet girl has-"
"Pluck!" said his friend, "beware!"
"Pyke is right," muttered Mr Pluck, after a short pause; "I was not to mention it. Pyke is very right. Thank you, Pyke."
"Well now, really," thought Mrs Nickleby within herself. "Such delicacy as that, I never saw!"
Mr Pluck, after feigning to be in a condition of great embarra.s.sment for some minutes, resumed the conversation by entreating Mrs Nickleby to take no heed of what he had inadvertently said-to consider him imprudent, rash, injudicious. The only stipulation he would make in his own favour was, that she should give him credit for the best intentions.
"But when," said Mr Pluck, "when I see so much sweetness and beauty on the one hand, and so much ardour and devotion on the other, I-pardon me, Pyke, I didn"t intend to resume that theme. Change the subject, Pyke."
"We promised Sir Mulberry and Lord Frederick," said Pyke, "that we"d call this morning and inquire whether you took any cold last night."
"Not the least in the world last night, sir," replied Mrs Nickleby, "with many thanks to his lordship and Sir Mulberry for doing me the honour to inquire; not the least-which is the more singular, as I really am very subject to colds, indeed-very subject. I had a cold once," said Mrs Nickleby, "I think it was in the year eighteen hundred and seventeen; let me see, four and five are nine, and-yes, eighteen hundred and seventeen, that I thought I never should get rid of; actually and seriously, that I thought I never should get rid of. I was only cured at last by a remedy that I don"t know whether you ever happened to hear of, Mr Pluck. You have a gallon of water as hot as you can possibly bear it, with a pound of salt, and sixpen"orth of the finest bran, and sit with your head in it for twenty minutes every night just before going to bed; at least, I don"t mean your head-your feet. It"s a most extraordinary cure-a most extraordinary cure. I used it for the first time, I recollect, the day after Christmas Day, and by the middle of April following the cold was gone. It seems quite a miracle when you come to think of it, for I had it ever since the beginning of September."
"What an afflicting calamity!" said Mr Pyke.
"Perfectly horrid!" exclaimed Mr Pluck.
"But it"s worth the pain of hearing, only to know that Mrs Nickleby recovered it, isn"t it, Pluck?" cried Mr Pyke.
"That is the circ.u.mstance which gives it such a thrilling interest," replied Mr Pluck.
"But come," said Pyke, as if suddenly recollecting himself; "we must not forget our mission in the pleasure of this interview. We come on a mission, Mrs Nickleby."
"On a mission," exclaimed that good lady, to whose mind a definite proposal of marriage for Kate at once presented itself in lively colours.
"From Sir Mulberry," replied Pyke. "You must be very dull here."
"Rather dull, I confess," said Mrs Nickleby.
"We bring the compliments of Sir Mulberry Hawk, and a thousand entreaties that you"ll take a seat in a private box at the play tonight," said Mr Pluck.
"Oh dear!" said Mrs Nickleby, "I never go out at all, never."
"And that is the very reason, my dear Mrs Nickleby, why you should go out tonight," retorted Mr Pluck. "Pyke, entreat Mrs Nickleby."
"Oh, pray do," said Pyke.
"You positively must," urged Pluck.
"You are very kind," said Mrs Nickleby, hesitating; "but-"
"There"s not a but in the case, my dear Mrs Nickleby," remonstrated Mr Pluck; "not such a word in the vocabulary. Your brother-in-law joins us, Lord Frederick joins us, Sir Mulberry joins us, Pyke joins us-a refusal is out of the question. Sir Mulberry sends a carriage for you-twenty minutes before seven to the moment-you"ll not be so cruel as to disappoint the whole party, Mrs Nickleby?"
"You are so very pressing, that I scarcely know what to say," replied the worthy lady.
"Say nothing; not a word, not a word, my dearest madam," urged Mr Pluck. "Mrs Nickleby," said that excellent gentleman, lowering his voice, "there is the most trifling, the most excusable breach of confidence in what I am about to say; and yet if my friend Pyke there overheard it-such is that man"s delicate sense of honour, Mrs Nickleby-he"d have me out before dinner-time."
Mrs Nickleby cast an apprehensive glance at the warlike Pyke, who had walked to the window; and Mr Pluck, squeezing her hand, went on: "Your daughter has made a conquest-a conquest on which I may congratulate you. Sir Mulberry, my dear ma"am, Sir Mulberry is her devoted slave. Hem!"
"Hah!" cried Mr Pyke at this juncture, s.n.a.t.c.hing something from the chimney-piece with a theatrical air. "What is this! what do I behold!"
"What DO you behold, my dear fellow?" asked Mr Pluck.
"It is the face, the countenance, the expression," cried Mr Pyke, falling into his chair with a miniature in his hand; "feebly portrayed, imperfectly caught, but still THE face, THE countenance, THE expression."
"I recognise it at this distance!" exclaimed Mr Pluck in a fit of enthusiasm. "Is it not, my dear madam, the faint similitude of-"
"It is my daughter"s portrait," said Mrs Nickleby, with great pride. And so it was. And little Miss La Creevy had brought it home for inspection only two nights before.
Mr Pyke no sooner ascertained that he was quite right in his conjecture, than he launched into the most extravagant encomiums of the divine original; and in the warmth of his enthusiasm kissed the picture a thousand times, while Mr Pluck pressed Mrs Nickleby"s hand to his heart, and congratulated her on the possession of such a daughter, with so much earnestness and affection, that the tears stood, or seemed to stand, in his eyes. Poor Mrs Nickleby, who had listened in a state of enviable complacency at first, became at length quite overpowered by these tokens of regard for, and attachment to, the family; and even the servant girl, who had peeped in at the door, remained rooted to the spot in astonishment at the ecstasies of the two friendly visitors.
By degrees these raptures subsided, and Mrs Nickleby went on to entertain her guests with a lament over her fallen fortunes, and a picturesque account of her old house in the country: comprising a full description of the different apartments, not forgetting the little store-room, and a lively recollection of how many steps you went down to get into the garden, and which way you turned when you came out at the parlour door, and what capital fixtures there were in the kitchen. This last reflection naturally conducted her into the wash-house, where she stumbled upon the brewing utensils, among which she might have wandered for an hour, if the mere mention of those implements had not, by an a.s.sociation of ideas, instantly reminded Mr Pyke that he was "amazing thirsty."
"And I"ll tell you what," said Mr Pyke; "if you"ll send round to the public-house for a pot of milk half-and-half, positively and actually I"ll drink it."
And positively and actually Mr Pyke DID drink it, and Mr Pluck helped him, while Mrs Nickleby looked on in divided admiration of the condescension of the two, and the apt.i.tude with which they accommodated themselves to the pewter-pot; in explanation of which seeming marvel it may be here observed, that gentlemen who, like Messrs Pyke and Pluck, live upon their wits (or not so much, perhaps, upon the presence of their own wits as upon the absence of wits in other people) are occasionally reduced to very narrow shifts and straits, and are at such periods accustomed to regale themselves in a very simple and primitive manner.
"At twenty minutes before seven, then," said Mr Pyke, rising, "the coach will be here. One more look-one little look-at that sweet face. Ah! here it is. Unmoved, unchanged!" This, by the way, was a very remarkable circ.u.mstance, miniatures being liable to so many changes of expression-"Oh, Pluck! Pluck!"
Mr Pluck made no other reply than kissing Mrs Nickleby"s hand with a great show of feeling and attachment; Mr Pyke having done the same, both gentlemen hastily withdrew.
Mrs Nickleby was commonly in the habit of giving herself credit for a pretty tolerable share of penetration and acuteness, but she had never felt so satisfied with her own sharp-sightedness as she did that day. She had found it all out the night before. She had never seen Sir Mulberry and Kate together-never even heard Sir Mulberry"s name-and yet hadn"t she said to herself from the very first, that she saw how the case stood? and what a triumph it was, for there was now no doubt about it. If these flattering attentions to herself were not sufficient proofs, Sir Mulberry"s confidential friend had suffered the secret to escape him in so many words. "I am quite in love with that dear Mr Pluck, I declare I am," said Mrs Nickleby.
There was one great source of uneasiness in the midst of this good fortune, and that was the having n.o.body by, to whom she could confide it. Once or twice she almost resolved to walk straight to Miss La Creevy"s and tell it all to her. "But I don"t know," thought Mrs Nickleby; "she is a very worthy person, but I am afraid too much beneath Sir Mulberry"s station for us to make a companion of. Poor thing!" Acting upon this grave consideration she rejected the idea of taking the little portrait painter into her confidence, and contented herself with holding out sundry vague and mysterious hopes of preferment to the servant girl, who received these obscure hints of dawning greatness with much veneration and respect.
Punctual to its time came the promised vehicle, which was no hackney coach, but a private chariot, having behind it a footman, whose legs, although somewhat large for his body, might, as mere abstract legs, have set themselves up for models at the Royal Academy. It was quite exhilarating to hear the clash and bustle with which he banged the door and jumped up behind after Mrs Nickleby was in; and as that good lady was perfectly unconscious that he applied the gold-headed end of his long stick to his nose, and so telegraphed most disrespectfully to the coachman over her very head, she sat in a state of much stiffness and dignity, not a little proud of her position.
At the theatre entrance there was more banging and more bustle, and there were also Messrs Pyke and Pluck waiting to escort her to her box; and so polite were they, that Mr Pyke threatened with many oaths to "smifligate" a very old man with a lantern who accidentally stumbled in her way-to the great terror of Mrs Nickleby, who, conjecturing more from Mr Pyke"s excitement than any previous acquaintance with the etymology of the word that smifligation and bloodshed must be in the main one and the same thing, was alarmed beyond expression, lest something should occur. Fortunately, however, Mr Pyke confined himself to mere verbal smifligation, and they reached their box with no more serious interruption by the way, than a desire on the part of the same pugnacious gentleman to "smash" the a.s.sistant box-keeper for happening to mistake the number.
Mrs Nickleby had scarcely been put away behind the curtain of the box in an armchair, when Sir Mulberry and Lord Verisopht arrived, arrayed from the crowns of their heads to the tips of their gloves, and from the tips of their gloves to the toes of their boots, in the most elegant and costly manner. Sir Mulberry was a little hoa.r.s.er than on the previous day, and Lord Verisopht looked rather sleepy and queer; from which tokens, as well as from the circ.u.mstance of their both being to a trifling extent unsteady upon their legs, Mrs Nickleby justly concluded that they had taken dinner.