"It is a good heart," said Nicholas, "that disentangles itself from the close avocations of every day, to heed such things. You were saying-"
"That the flowers belonged to this poor boy," said Tim; "that"s all. When it is fine weather, and he can crawl out of bed, he draws a chair close to the window, and sits there, looking at them and arranging them, all day long. He used to nod, at first, and then we came to speak. Formerly, when I called to him of a morning, and asked him how he was, he would smile, and say, "Better!" but now he shakes his head, and only bends more closely over his old plants. It must be dull to watch the dark housetops and the flying clouds, for so many months; but he is very patient."
"Is there n.o.body in the house to cheer or help him?" asked Nicholas.
"His father lives there, I believe," replied Tim, "and other people too; but no one seems to care much for the poor sickly cripple. I have asked him, very often, if I can do nothing for him; his answer is always the same. "Nothing." His voice is growing weak of late, but I can SEE that he makes the old reply. He can"t leave his bed now, so they have moved it close beside the window, and there he lies, all day: now looking at the sky, and now at his flowers, which he still makes shift to trim and water, with his own thin hands. At night, when he sees my candle, he draws back his curtain, and leaves it so, till I am in bed. It seems such company to him to know that I am there, that I often sit at my window for an hour or more, that he may see I am still awake; and sometimes I get up in the night to look at the dull melancholy light in his little room, and wonder whether he is awake or sleeping.
"The night will not be long coming," said Tim, "when he will sleep, and never wake again on earth. We have never so much as shaken hands in all our lives; and yet I shall miss him like an old friend. Are there any country flowers that could interest me like these, do you think? Or do you suppose that the withering of a hundred kinds of the choicest flowers that blow, called by the hardest Latin names that were ever invented, would give me one fraction of the pain that I shall feel when these old jugs and bottles are swept away as lumber? Country!" cried Tim, with a contemptuous emphasis; "don"t you know that I couldn"t have such a court under my bedroom window, anywhere, but in London?"
With which inquiry, Tim turned his back, and pretending to be absorbed in his accounts, took an opportunity of hastily wiping his eyes when he supposed Nicholas was looking another way.
Whether it was that Tim"s accounts were more than usually intricate that morning, or whether it was that his habitual serenity had been a little disturbed by these recollections, it so happened that when Nicholas returned from executing some commission, and inquired whether Mr Charles Cheeryble was alone in his room, Tim promptly, and without the smallest hesitation, replied in the affirmative, although somebody had pa.s.sed into the room not ten minutes before, and Tim took especial and particular pride in preventing any intrusion on either of the brothers when they were engaged with any visitor whatever.
"I"ll take this letter to him at once," said Nicholas, "if that"s the case." And with that, he walked to the room and knocked at the door.
No answer.
Another knock, and still no answer.
"He can"t be here," thought Nicholas. "I"ll lay it on his table."
So, Nicholas opened the door and walked in; and very quickly he turned to walk out again, when he saw, to his great astonishment and discomfiture, a young lady upon her knees at Mr Cheeryble"s feet, and Mr Cheeryble beseeching her to rise, and entreating a third person, who had the appearance of the young lady"s female attendant, to add her persuasions to his to induce her to do so.
Nicholas stammered out an awkward apology, and was precipitately retiring, when the young lady, turning her head a little, presented to his view the features of the lovely girl whom he had seen at the register-office on his first visit long before. Glancing from her to the attendant, he recognised the same clumsy servant who had accompanied her then; and between his admiration of the young lady"s beauty, and the confusion and surprise of this unexpected recognition, he stood stock-still, in such a bewildered state of surprise and embarra.s.sment that, for the moment, he was quite bereft of the power either to speak or move.
"My dear ma"am-my dear young lady," cried brother Charles in violent agitation, "pray don"t-not another word, I beseech and entreat you! I implore you-I beg of you-to rise. We-we-are not alone."
As he spoke, he raised the young lady, who staggered to a chair and swooned away.
"She has fainted, sir," said Nicholas, darting eagerly forward.
"Poor dear, poor dear!" cried brother Charles "Where is my brother Ned? Ned, my dear brother, come here pray."
"Brother Charles, my dear fellow," replied his brother, hurrying into the room, "what is the-ah! what-"
"Hush! hush!-not a word for your life, brother Ned," returned the other. "Ring for the housekeeper, my dear brother-call Tim Linkinwater! Here, Tim Linkinwater, sir-Mr Nickleby, my dear sir, leave the room, I beg and beseech of you."
"I think she is better now," said Nicholas, who had been watching the patient so eagerly, that he had not heard the request.
"Poor bird!" cried brother Charles, gently taking her hand in his, and laying her head upon his arm. "Brother Ned, my dear fellow, you will be surprised, I know, to witness this, in business hours; but-" here he was again reminded of the presence of Nicholas, and shaking him by the hand, earnestly requested him to leave the room, and to send Tim Linkinwater without an instant"s delay.
Nicholas immediately withdrew and, on his way to the counting-house, met both the old housekeeper and Tim Linkinwater, jostling each other in the pa.s.sage, and hurrying to the scene of action with extraordinary speed. Without waiting to hear his message, Tim Linkinwater darted into the room, and presently afterwards Nicholas heard the door shut and locked on the inside.
He had abundance of time to ruminate on this discovery, for Tim Linkinwater was absent during the greater part of an hour, during the whole of which time Nicholas thought of nothing but the young lady, and her exceeding beauty, and what could possibly have brought her there, and why they made such a mystery of it. The more he thought of all this, the more it perplexed him, and the more anxious he became to know who and what she was. "I should have known her among ten thousand," thought Nicholas. And with that he walked up and down the room, and recalling her face and figure (of which he had a peculiarly vivid remembrance), discarded all other subjects of reflection and dwelt upon that alone.
At length Tim Linkinwater came back-provokingly cool, and with papers in his hand, and a pen in his mouth, as if nothing had happened.
"Is she quite recovered?" said Nicholas, impetuously.
"Who?" returned Tim Linkinwater.
"Who!" repeated Nicholas. "The young lady."
"What do you make, Mr Nickleby," said Tim, taking his pen out of his mouth, "what do you make of four hundred and twenty-seven times three thousand two hundred and thirty-eight?"
"Nay," returned Nicholas, "what do you make of my question first? I asked you-"
"About the young lady," said Tim Linkinwater, putting on his spectacles. "To be sure. Yes. Oh! she"s very well."
"Very well, is she?" returned Nicholas.
"Very well," replied Mr Linkinwater, gravely.
"Will she be able to go home today?" asked Nicholas.
"She"s gone," said Tim.
"Gone!"
"Yes."
"I hope she has not far to go?" said Nicholas, looking earnestly at the other.
"Ay," replied the immovable Tim, "I hope she hasn"t."
Nicholas hazarded one or two further remarks, but it was evident that Tim Linkinwater had his own reasons for evading the subject, and that he was determined to afford no further information respecting the fair unknown, who had awakened so much curiosity in the breast of his young friend. Nothing daunted by this repulse, Nicholas returned to the charge next day, emboldened by the circ.u.mstance of Mr Linkinwater being in a very talkative and communicative mood; but, directly he resumed the theme, Tim relapsed into a state of most provoking taciturnity, and from answering in monosyllables, came to returning no answers at all, save such as were to be inferred from several grave nods and shrugs, which only served to whet that appet.i.te for intelligence in Nicholas, which had already attained a most unreasonable height.
Foiled in these attempts, he was fain to content himself with watching for the young lady"s next visit, but here again he was disappointed. Day after day pa.s.sed, and she did not return. He looked eagerly at the superscription of all the notes and letters, but there was not one among them which he could fancy to be in her handwriting. On two or three occasions he was employed on business which took him to a distance, and had formerly been transacted by Tim Linkinwater. Nicholas could not help suspecting that, for some reason or other, he was sent out of the way on purpose, and that the young lady was there in his absence. Nothing transpired, however, to confirm this suspicion, and Tim could not be entrapped into any confession or admission tending to support it in the smallest degree.
Mystery and disappointment are not absolutely indispensable to the growth of love, but they are, very often, its powerful auxiliaries. "Out of sight, out of mind," is well enough as a proverb applicable to cases of friendship, though absence is not always necessary to hollowness of heart, even between friends, and truth and honesty, like precious stones, are perhaps most easily imitated at a distance, when the counterfeits often pa.s.s for real. Love, however, is very materially a.s.sisted by a warm and active imagination: which has a long memory, and will thrive, for a considerable time, on very slight and sparing food. Thus it is, that it often attains its most luxuriant growth in separation and under circ.u.mstances of the utmost difficulty; and thus it was, that Nicholas, thinking of nothing but the unknown young lady, from day to day and from hour to hour, began, at last, to think that he was very desperately in love with her, and that never was such an ill-used and persecuted lover as he.
Still, though he loved and languished after the most orthodox models, and was only deterred from making a confidante of Kate by the slight considerations of having never, in all his life, spoken to the object of his pa.s.sion, and having never set eyes upon her, except on two occasions, on both of which she had come and gone like a flash of lightning-or, as Nicholas himself said, in the numerous conversations he held with himself, like a vision of youth and beauty much too bright to last-his ardour and devotion remained without its reward. The young lady appeared no more; so there was a great deal of love wasted (enough indeed to have set up half-a-dozen young gentlemen, as times go, with the utmost decency), and n.o.body was a bit the wiser for it; not even Nicholas himself, who, on the contrary, became more dull, sentimental, and lackadaisical, every day.
While matters were in this state, the failure of a correspondent of the brothers Cheeryble, in Germany, imposed upon Tim Linkinwater and Nicholas the necessity of going through some very long and complicated accounts, extending over a considerable s.p.a.ce of time. To get through them with the greater dispatch, Tim Linkinwater proposed that they should remain at the counting-house, for a week or so, until ten o"clock at night; to this, as nothing damped the zeal of Nicholas in the service of his kind patrons-not even romance, which has seldom business habits-he cheerfully a.s.sented. On the very first night of these later hours, at nine exactly, there came: not the young lady herself, but her servant, who, being closeted with brother Charles for some time, went away, and returned next night at the same hour, and on the next, and on the next again.
These repeated visits inflamed the curiosity of Nicholas to the very highest pitch. Tantalised and excited, beyond all bearing, and unable to fathom the mystery without neglecting his duty, he confided the whole secret to Newman Noggs, imploring him to be on the watch next night; to follow the girl home; to set on foot such inquiries relative to the name, condition, and history of her mistress, as he could, without exciting suspicion; and to report the result to him with the least possible delay.
Beyond all measure proud of this commission, Newman Noggs took up his post, in the square, on the following evening, a full hour before the needful time, and planting himself behind the pump and pulling his hat over his eyes, began his watch with an elaborate appearance of mystery, admirably calculated to excite the suspicion of all beholders. Indeed, divers servant girls who came to draw water, and sundry little boys who stopped to drink at the ladle, were almost scared out of their senses, by the apparition of Newman Noggs looking stealthily round the pump, with nothing of him visible but his face, and that wearing the expression of a meditative Ogre.
Punctual to her time, the messenger came again, and, after an interview of rather longer duration than usual, departed. Newman had made two appointments with Nicholas: one for the next evening, conditional on his success: and one the next night following, which was to be kept under all circ.u.mstances. The first night he was not at the place of meeting (a certain tavern about half-way between the city and Golden Square), but on the second night he was there before Nicholas, and received him with open arms.
"It"s all right," whispered Newman. "Sit down. Sit down, there"s a dear young man, and let me tell you all about it."
Nicholas needed no second invitation, and eagerly inquired what was the news.
"There"s a great deal of news," said Newman, in a flutter of exultation. "It"s all right. Don"t be anxious. I don"t know where to begin. Never mind that. Keep up your spirits. It"s all right."
"Well?" said Nicholas eagerly. "Yes?"
"Yes," replied Newman. "That"s it."
"What"s it?" said Nicholas. "The name-the name, my dear fellow!"
"The name"s Bobster," replied Newman.
"Bobster!" repeated Nicholas, indignantly.
"That"s the name," said Newman. "I remember it by lobster."
"Bobster!" repeated Nicholas, more emphatically than before. "That must be the servant"s name."
"No, it an"t," said Newman, shaking his head with great positiveness. "Miss Cecilia Bobster."
"Cecilia, eh?" returned Nicholas, muttering the two names together over and over again in every variety of tone, to try the effect. "Well, Cecilia is a pretty name."
"Very. And a pretty creature too," said Newman.
"Who?" said Nicholas.
"Miss Bobster."
"Why, where have you seen her?" demanded Nicholas.
"Never mind, my dear boy," retorted Noggs, clapping him on the shoulder. "I HAVE seen her. You shall see her. I"ve managed it all."
"My dear Newman," cried Nicholas, grasping his hand, "are you serious?"
"I am," replied Newman. "I mean it all. Every word. You shall see her tomorrow night. She consents to hear you speak for yourself. I persuaded her. She is all affability, goodness, sweetness, and beauty."
"I know she is; I know she must be, Newman!" said Nicholas, wringing his hand.
"You are right," returned Newman.
"Where does she live?" cried Nicholas. "What have you learnt of her history? Has she a father-mother-any brothers-sisters? What did she say? How came you to see her? Was she not very much surprised? Did you say how pa.s.sionately I have longed to speak to her? Did you tell her where I had seen her? Did you tell her how, and when, and where, and how long, and how often, I have thought of that sweet face which came upon me in my bitterest distress like a glimpse of some better world-did you, Newman-did you?"
Poor Noggs literally gasped for breath as this flood of questions rushed upon him, and moved spasmodically in his chair at every fresh inquiry, staring at Nicholas meanwhile with a most ludicrous expression of perplexity.
"No," said Newman, "I didn"t tell her that."
"Didn"t tell her which?" asked Nicholas.
"About the glimpse of the better world," said Newman. "I didn"t tell her who you were, either, or where you"d seen her. I said you loved her to distraction."
"That"s true, Newman," replied Nicholas, with his characteristic vehemence. "Heaven knows I do!"
"I said too, that you had admired her for a long time in secret," said Newman.
"Yes, yes. What did she say to that?" asked Nicholas.
"Blushed," said Newman.
"To be sure. Of course she would," said Nicholas approvingly. Newman then went on to say, that the young lady was an only child, that her mother was dead, that she resided with her father, and that she had been induced to allow her lover a secret interview, at the intercession of her servant, who had great influence with her. He further related how it required much moving and great eloquence to bring the young lady to this pa.s.s; how it was expressly understood that she merely afforded Nicholas an opportunity of declaring his pa.s.sion; and how she by no means pledged herself to be favourably impressed with his attentions. The mystery of her visits to the brothers Cheeryble remained wholly unexplained, for Newman had not alluded to them, either in his preliminary conversations with the servant or his subsequent interview with the mistress, merely remarking that he had been instructed to watch the girl home and plead his young friend"s cause, and not saying how far he had followed her, or from what point. But Newman hinted that from what had fallen from the confidante, he had been led to suspect that the young lady led a very miserable and unhappy life, under the strict control of her only parent, who was of a violent and brutal temper; a circ.u.mstance which he thought might in some degree account, both for her having sought the protection and friendship of the brothers, and her suffering herself to be prevailed upon to grant the promised interview. The last he held to be a very logical deduction from the premises, inasmuch as it was but natural to suppose that a young lady, whose present condition was so unenviable, would be more than commonly desirous to change it.
It appeared, on further questioning-for it was only by a very long and arduous process that all this could be got out of Newman Noggs-that Newman, in explanation of his shabby appearance, had represented himself as being, for certain wise and indispensable purposes connected with that intrigue, in disguise; and, being questioned how he had come to exceed his commission so far as to procure an interview, he responded, that the lady appearing willing to grant it, he considered himself bound, both in duty and gallantry, to avail himself of such a golden means of enabling Nicholas to prosecute his addresses. After these and all possible questions had been asked and answered twenty times over, they parted, undertaking to meet on the following night at half-past ten, for the purpose of fulfilling the appointment; which was for eleven o"clock.
"Things come about very strangely!" thought Nicholas, as he walked home. "I never contemplated anything of this kind; never dreamt of the possibility of it. To know something of the life of one in whom I felt such interest; to see her in the street, to pa.s.s the house in which she lived, to meet her sometimes in her walks, to hope that a day might come when I might be in a condition to tell her of my love, this was the utmost extent of my thoughts. Now, however-but I should be a fool, indeed, to repine at my own good fortune!"
Still, Nicholas was dissatisfied; and there was more in the dissatisfaction than mere revulsion of feeling. He was angry with the young lady for being so easily won, "because," reasoned Nicholas, "it is not as if she knew it was I, but it might have been anybody,"-which was certainly not pleasant. The next moment, he was angry with himself for entertaining such thoughts, arguing that nothing but goodness could dwell in such a temple, and that the behaviour of the brothers sufficiently showed the estimation in which they held her. "The fact is, she"s a mystery altogether," said Nicholas. This was not more satisfactory than his previous course of reflection, and only drove him out upon a new sea of speculation and conjecture, where he tossed and tumbled, in great discomfort of mind, until the clock struck ten, and the hour of meeting drew nigh.
Nicholas had dressed himself with great care, and even Newman Noggs had trimmed himself up a little; his coat presenting the phenomenon of two consecutive b.u.t.tons, and the supplementary pins being inserted at tolerably regular intervals. He wore his hat, too, in the newest taste, with a pocket-handkerchief in the crown, and a twisted end of it straggling out behind after the fashion of a pigtail, though he could scarcely lay claim to the ingenuity of inventing this latter decoration, inasmuch as he was utterly unconscious of it: being in a nervous and excited condition which rendered him quite insensible to everything but the great object of the expedition.
They traversed the streets in profound silence; and after walking at a round pace for some distance, arrived in one, of a gloomy appearance and very little frequented, near the Edgeware Road.
"Number twelve," said Newman.
"Oh!" replied Nicholas, looking about him.
"Good street?" said Newman.
"Yes," returned Nicholas. "Rather dull."
Newman made no answer to this remark, but, halting abruptly, planted Nicholas with his back to some area railings, and gave him to understand that he was to wait there, without moving hand or foot, until it was satisfactorily ascertained that the coast was clear. This done, Noggs limped away with great alacrity; looking over his shoulder every instant, to make quite certain that Nicholas was obeying his directions; and, ascending the steps of a house some half-dozen doors off, was lost to view.
After a short delay, he reappeared, and limping back again, halted midway, and beckoned Nicholas to follow him.
"Well?" said Nicholas, advancing towards him on tiptoe.
"All right," replied Newman, in high glee. "All ready; n.o.body at home. Couldn"t be better. Ha! ha!"
With this fortifying a.s.surance, he stole past a street-door, on which Nicholas caught a glimpse of a bra.s.s plate, with "BOBSTER," in very large letters; and, stopping at the area-gate, which was open, signed to his young friend to descend.
"What the devil!" cried Nicholas, drawing back. "Are we to sneak into the kitchen, as if we came after the forks?"
"Hush!" replied Newman. "Old Bobster-ferocious Turk. He"d kill "em all-box the young lady"s ears-he does-often."
"What!" cried Nicholas, in high wrath, "do you mean to tell me that any man would dare to box the ears of such a-"
He had no time to sing the praises of his mistress, just then, for Newman gave him a gentle push which had nearly precipitated him to the bottom of the area steps. Thinking it best to take the hint in good part, Nicholas descended, without further remonstrance, but with a countenance bespeaking anything rather than the hope and rapture of a pa.s.sionate lover. Newman followed-he would have followed head first, but for the timely a.s.sistance of Nicholas-and, taking his hand, led him through a stone pa.s.sage, profoundly dark, into a back-kitchen or cellar, of the blackest and most pitchy obscurity, where they stopped.
"Well!" said Nicholas, in a discontented whisper, "this is not all, I suppose, is it?"
"No, no," rejoined Noggs; "they"ll be here directly. It"s all right."
"I am glad to hear it," said Nicholas. "I shouldn"t have thought it, I confess."
They exchanged no further words, and there Nicholas stood, listening to the loud breathing of Newman Noggs, and imagining that his nose seemed to glow like a red-hot coal, even in the midst of the darkness which enshrouded them. Suddenly the sound of cautious footsteps attracted his ear, and directly afterwards a female voice inquired if the gentleman was there.
"Yes," replied Nicholas, turning towards the corner from which the voice proceeded. "Who is that?"