"Here is Miss Nickleby," observed Sir Mulberry, "wondering why the deuce somebody doesn"t make love to her."
"No, indeed," said Kate, looking hastily up, "I-" and then she stopped, feeling it would have been better to have said nothing at all.
"I"ll hold any man fifty pounds," said Sir Mulberry, "that Miss Nickleby can"t look in my face, and tell me she wasn"t thinking so."
"Done!" cried the n.o.ble gull. "Within ten minutes."
"Done!" responded Sir Mulberry. The money was produced on both sides, and the Honourable Mr Sn.o.bb was elected to the double office of stake-holder and time-keeper.
"Pray," said Kate, in great confusion, while these preliminaries were in course of completion. "Pray do not make me the subject of any bets. Uncle, I cannot really-"
"Why not, my dear?" replied Ralph, in whose grating voice, however, there was an unusual huskiness, as though he spoke unwillingly, and would rather that the proposition had not been broached. "It is done in a moment; there is nothing in it. If the gentlemen insist on it-"
"I don"t insist on it," said Sir Mulberry, with a loud laugh. "That is, I by no means insist upon Miss Nickleby"s making the denial, for if she does, I lose; but I shall be glad to see her bright eyes, especially as she favours the mahogany so much."
"So she does, and it"s too ba-a-d of you, Miss Nickleby," said the n.o.ble youth.
"Quite cruel," said Mr Pyke.
"Horrid cruel," said Mr Pluck.
"I don"t care if I do lose," said Sir Mulberry; "for one tolerable look at Miss Nickleby"s eyes is worth double the money."
"More," said Mr Pyke.
"Far more," said Mr Pluck.
"How goes the enemy, Sn.o.bb?" asked Sir Mulberry Hawk.
"Four minutes gone."
"Bravo!"
"Won"t you ma-ake one effort for me, Miss Nickleby?" asked Lord Frederick, after a short interval.
"You needn"t trouble yourself to inquire, my buck," said Sir Mulberry; "Miss Nickleby and I understand each other; she declares on my side, and shows her taste. You haven"t a chance, old fellow. Time, Sn.o.bb?"
"Eight minutes gone."
"Get the money ready," said Sir Mulberry; "you"ll soon hand over."
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Mr Pyke.
Mr Pluck, who always came second, and topped his companion if he could, screamed outright.
The poor girl, who was so overwhelmed with confusion that she scarcely knew what she did, had determined to remain perfectly quiet; but fearing that by so doing she might seem to countenance Sir Mulberry"s boast, which had been uttered with great coa.r.s.eness and vulgarity of manner, raised her eyes, and looked him in the face. There was something so odious, so insolent, so repulsive in the look which met her, that, without the power to stammer forth a syllable, she rose and hurried from the room. She restrained her tears by a great effort until she was alone upstairs, and then gave them vent.
"Capital!" said Sir Mulberry Hawk, putting the stakes in his pocket.
"That"s a girl of spirit, and we"ll drink her health."
It is needless to say, that Pyke and Co. responded, with great warmth of manner, to this proposal, or that the toast was drunk with many little insinuations from the firm, relative to the completeness of Sir Mulberry"s conquest. Ralph, who, while the attention of the other guests was attracted to the princ.i.p.als in the preceding scene, had eyed them like a wolf, appeared to breathe more freely now his niece was gone; the decanters pa.s.sing quickly round, he leaned back in his chair, and turned his eyes from speaker to speaker, as they warmed with wine, with looks that seemed to search their hearts, and lay bare, for his distempered sport, every idle thought within them.
Meanwhile Kate, left wholly to herself, had, in some degree, recovered her composure. She had learnt from a female attendant, that her uncle wished to see her before she left, and had also gleaned the satisfactory intelligence, that the gentlemen would take coffee at table. The prospect of seeing them no more, contributed greatly to calm her agitation, and, taking up a book, she composed herself to read.
She started sometimes, when the sudden opening of the dining-room door let loose a wild shout of noisy revelry, and more than once rose in great alarm, as a fancied footstep on the staircase impressed her with the fear that some stray member of the party was returning alone. Nothing occurring, however, to realise her apprehensions, she endeavoured to fix her attention more closely on her book, in which by degrees she became so much interested, that she had read on through several chapters without heed of time or place, when she was terrified by suddenly hearing her name p.r.o.nounced by a man"s voice close at her ear.
The book fell from her hand. Lounging on an ottoman close beside her, was Sir Mulberry Hawk, evidently the worse-if a man be a ruffian at heart, he is never the better-for wine.
"What a delightful studiousness!" said this accomplished gentleman. "Was it real, now, or only to display the eyelashes?"
Kate, looking anxiously towards the door, made no reply.
"I have looked at "em for five minutes," said Sir Mulberry. "Upon my soul, they"re perfect. Why did I speak, and destroy such a pretty little picture?"
"Do me the favour to be silent now, sir," replied Kate.
"No, don"t," said Sir Mulberry, folding his crushed hat to lay his elbow on, and bringing himself still closer to the young lady; "upon my life, you oughtn"t to. Such a devoted slave of yours, Miss Nickleby-it"s an infernal thing to treat him so harshly, upon my soul it is."
"I wish you to understand, sir," said Kate, trembling in spite of herself, but speaking with great indignation, "that your behaviour offends and disgusts me. If you have a spark of gentlemanly feeling remaining, you will leave me."
"Now why," said Sir Mulberry, "why will you keep up this appearance of excessive rigour, my sweet creature? Now, be more natural-my dear Miss Nickleby, be more natural-do."
Kate hastily rose; but as she rose, Sir Mulberry caught her dress, and forcibly detained her.
"Let me go, sir," she cried, her heart swelling with anger. "Do you hear? Instantly-this moment."
"Sit down, sit down," said Sir Mulberry; "I want to talk to you."
"Unhand me, sir, this instant," cried Kate.
"Not for the world," rejoined Sir Mulberry. Thus speaking, he leaned over, as if to replace her in her chair; but the young lady, making a violent effort to disengage herself, he lost his balance, and measured his length upon the ground. As Kate sprung forward to leave the room, Mr Ralph Nickleby appeared in the doorway, and confronted her.
"What is this?" said Ralph.
"It is this, sir," replied Kate, violently agitated: "that beneath the roof where I, a helpless girl, your dead brother"s child, should most have found protection, I have been exposed to insult which should make you shrink to look upon me. Let me pa.s.s you."
Ralph DID shrink, as the indignant girl fixed her kindling eye upon him; but he did not comply with her injunction, nevertheless: for he led her to a distant seat, and returning, and approaching Sir Mulberry Hawk, who had by this time risen, motioned towards the door.
"Your way lies there, sir," said Ralph, in a suppressed voice, that some devil might have owned with pride.
"What do you mean by that?" demanded his friend, fiercely.
The swoln veins stood out like sinews on Ralph"s wrinkled forehead, and the nerves about his mouth worked as though some unendurable emotion wrung them; but he smiled disdainfully, and again pointed to the door.
"Do you know me, you old madman?" asked Sir Mulberry.
"Well," said Ralph. The fashionable vagabond for the moment quite quailed under the steady look of the older sinner, and walked towards the door, muttering as he went.
"You wanted the lord, did you?" he said, stopping short when he reached the door, as if a new light had broken in upon him, and confronting Ralph again. "Damme, I was in the way, was I?"
Ralph smiled again, but made no answer.
"Who brought him to you first?" pursued Sir Mulberry; "and how, without me, could you ever have wound him in your net as you have?"
"The net is a large one, and rather full," said Ralph. "Take care that it chokes n.o.body in the meshes."
"You would sell your flesh and blood for money; yourself, if you have not already made a bargain with the devil," retorted the other. "Do you mean to tell me that your pretty niece was not brought here as a decoy for the drunken boy downstairs?"
Although this hurried dialogue was carried on in a suppressed tone on both sides, Ralph looked involuntarily round to ascertain that Kate had not moved her position so as to be within hearing. His adversary saw the advantage he had gained, and followed it up.
"Do you mean to tell me," he asked again, "that it is not so? Do you mean to say that if he had found his way up here instead of me, you wouldn"t have been a little more blind, and a little more deaf, and a little less flourishing, than you have been? Come, Nickleby, answer me that."
"I tell you this," replied Ralph, "that if I brought her here, as a matter of business-"
"Ay, that"s the word," interposed Sir Mulberry, with a laugh. "You"re coming to yourself again now."
"-As a matter of business," pursued Ralph, speaking slowly and firmly, as a man who has made up his mind to say no more, "because I thought she might make some impression on the silly youth you have taken in hand and are lending good help to ruin, I knew-knowing him-that it would be long before he outraged her girl"s feelings, and that unless he offended by mere puppyism and emptiness, he would, with a little management, respect the s.e.x and conduct even of his usurer"s niece. But if I thought to draw him on more gently by this device, I did not think of subjecting the girl to the licentiousness and brutality of so old a hand as you. And now we understand each other."
"Especially as there was nothing to be got by it-eh?" sneered Sir Mulberry.
"Exactly so," said Ralph. He had turned away, and looked over his shoulder to make this last reply. The eyes of the two worthies met, with an expression as if each rascal felt that there was no disguising himself from the other; and Sir Mulberry Hawk shrugged his shoulders and walked slowly out.
His friend closed the door, and looked restlessly towards the spot where his niece still remained in the att.i.tude in which he had left her. She had flung herself heavily upon the couch, and with her head drooping over the cushion, and her face hidden in her hands, seemed to be still weeping in an agony of shame and grief.
Ralph would have walked into any poverty-stricken debtor"s house, and pointed him out to a bailiff, though in attendance upon a young child"s death-bed, without the smallest concern, because it would have been a matter quite in the ordinary course of business, and the man would have been an offender against his only code of morality. But, here was a young girl, who had done no wrong save that of coming into the world alive; who had patiently yielded to all his wishes; who had tried hard to please him-above all, who didn"t owe him money-and he felt awkward and nervous.
Ralph took a chair at some distance; then, another chair a little nearer; then, moved a little nearer still; then, nearer again, and finally sat himself on the same sofa, and laid his hand on Kate"s arm.
"Hush, my dear!" he said, as she drew it back, and her sobs burst out afresh. "Hush, hush! Don"t mind it, now; don"t think of it."
"Oh, for pity"s sake, let me go home," cried Kate. "Let me leave this house, and go home."
"Yes, yes," said Ralph. "You shall. But you must dry your eyes first, and compose yourself. Let me raise your head. There-there."
"Oh, uncle!" exclaimed Kate, clasping her hands. "What have I done-what have I done-that you should subject me to this? If I had wronged you in thought, or word, or deed, it would have been most cruel to me, and the memory of one you must have loved in some old time; but-"
"Only listen to me for a moment," interrupted Ralph, seriously alarmed by the violence of her emotions. "I didn"t know it would be so; it was impossible for me to foresee it. I did all I could.-Come, let us walk about. You are faint with the closeness of the room, and the heat of these lamps. You will be better now, if you make the slightest effort."
"I will do anything," replied Kate, "if you will only send me home."
"Well, well, I will," said Ralph; "but you must get back your own looks; for those you have, will frighten them, and n.o.body must know of this but you and I. Now let us walk the other way. There. You look better even now."
With such encouragements as these, Ralph Nickleby walked to and fro, with his niece leaning on his arm; actually trembling beneath her touch.
In the same manner, when he judged it prudent to allow her to depart, he supported her downstairs, after adjusting her shawl and performing such little offices, most probably for the first time in his life. Across the hall, and down the steps, Ralph led her too; nor did he withdraw his hand until she was seated in the coach.
As the door of the vehicle was roughly closed, a comb fell from Kate"s hair, close at her uncle"s feet; and as he picked it up, and returned it into her hand, the light from a neighbouring lamp shone upon her face. The lock of hair that had escaped and curled loosely over her brow, the traces of tears yet scarcely dry, the flushed cheek, the look of sorrow, all fired some dormant train of recollection in the old man"s breast; and the face of his dead brother seemed present before him, with the very look it bore on some occasion of boyish grief, of which every minutest circ.u.mstance flashed upon his mind, with the distinctness of a scene of yesterday.
Ralph Nickleby, who was proof against all appeals of blood and kindred-who was steeled against every tale of sorrow and distress-staggered while he looked, and went back into his house, as a man who had seen a spirit from some world beyond the grave.
CHAPTER 20
Wherein Nicholas at length encounters his Uncle, to whom he expresses his Sentiments with much Candour. His Resolution.
Little Miss La Creevy trotted briskly through divers streets at the west end of the town, early on Monday morning-the day after the dinner-charged with the important commission of acquainting Madame Mantalini that Miss Nickleby was too unwell to attend that day, but hoped to be enabled to resume her duties on the morrow. And as Miss La Creevy walked along, revolving in her mind various genteel forms and elegant turns of expression, with a view to the selection of the very best in which to couch her communication, she cogitated a good deal upon the probable causes of her young friend"s indisposition.
"I don"t know what to make of it," said Miss La Creevy. "Her eyes were decidedly red last night. She said she had a headache; headaches don"t occasion red eyes. She must have been crying."
Arriving at this conclusion, which, indeed, she had established to her perfect satisfaction on the previous evening, Miss La Creevy went on to consider-as she had done nearly all night-what new cause of unhappiness her young friend could possibly have had.
"I can"t think of anything," said the little portrait painter. "Nothing at all, unless it was the behaviour of that old bear. Cross to her, I suppose? Unpleasant brute!"
Relieved by this expression of opinion, albeit it was vented upon empty air, Miss La Creevy trotted on to Madame Mantalini"s; and being informed that the governing power was not yet out of bed, requested an interview with the second in command; whereupon Miss Knag appeared.
"So far as I am concerned," said Miss Knag, when the message had been delivered, with many ornaments of speech; "I could spare Miss Nickleby for evermore."
"Oh, indeed, ma"am!" rejoined Miss La Creevy, highly offended. "But, you see, you are not mistress of the business, and therefore it"s of no great consequence."
"Very good, ma"am," said Miss Knag. "Have you any further commands for me?"
"No, I have not, ma"am," rejoined Miss La Creevy.
"Then good-morning, ma"am," said Miss Knag.
"Good-morning to you, ma"am; and many obligations for your extreme politeness and good breeding," rejoined Miss La Creevy.
Thus terminating the interview, during which both ladies had trembled very much, and been marvellously polite-certain indications that they were within an inch of a very desperate quarrel-Miss La Creevy bounced out of the room, and into the street.
"I wonder who that is," said the queer little soul. "A nice person to know, I should think! I wish I had the painting of her: I"D do her justice." So, feeling quite satisfied that she had said a very cutting thing at Miss Knag"s expense, Miss La Creevy had a hearty laugh, and went home to breakfast in great good humour.
Here was one of the advantages of having lived alone so long! The little bustling, active, cheerful creature existed entirely within herself, talked to herself, made a confidante of herself, was as sarcastic as she could be, on people who offended her, by herself; pleased herself, and did no harm. If she indulged in scandal, n.o.body"s reputation suffered; and if she enjoyed a little bit of revenge, no living soul was one atom the worse. One of the many to whom, from straitened circ.u.mstances, a consequent inability to form the a.s.sociations they would wish, and a disinclination to mix with the society they could obtain, London is as complete a solitude as the plains of Syria, the humble artist had pursued her lonely, but contented way for many years; and, until the peculiar misfortunes of the Nickleby family attracted her attention, had made no friends, though brimful of the friendliest feelings to all mankind. There are many warm hearts in the same solitary guise as poor little Miss La Creevy"s.
However, that"s neither here nor there, just now. She went home to breakfast, and had scarcely caught the full flavour of her first sip of tea, when the servant announced a gentleman, whereat Miss La Creevy, at once imagining a new sitter transfixed by admiration at the street-door case, was in unspeakable consternation at the presence of the tea-things.
"Here, take "em away; run with "em into the bedroom; anywhere," said Miss La Creevy. "Dear, dear; to think that I should be late on this particular morning, of all others, after being ready for three weeks by half-past eight o"clock, and not a soul coming near the place!"
"Don"t let me put you out of the way," said a voice Miss La Creevy knew. "I told the servant not to mention my name, because I wished to surprise you."