 Chapter 51 of Nicholas Nekubai by Charles Dickens This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Nicholas Nekubai by Charles Dickens Chapter 51 The project of Mr. Raph Nekubai and his friend approaching the successful issue becomes unexpectedly known to another party, not admitted into their confidence. In an old house, this mild dark and dusty, which seemed to have withered like himself, and to have grown yellow and shriveled in holding him from the light of day, as he had in holding his money, lived utter pride. Mega-old chairs and tables of spare and bony make, and hard and cold as miser's hearts, were arranged in grim array against the gloomy walls. Attenuated presses grown lank and lantern-jawed holding the treasures they enclosed, and thottering, as dew from constant fear and dread of thieves, shrunk up in dark corners, whence they cast no shadows on the ground, and seemed to hide and cower from observation. A tall grim clock upon the stairs, with long, lean hands, and famished face, in cautious whispers, and when struck the time, in thin and piping sounds, like an old man's voice, rattled, as if it were pinched with hunger. No fireside couch was there to invite repose and comfort. Elbow chairs there were, but they looked uneasy in their minds, cocked their arms suspiciously and timidly, and kept up on their guard. Others were fantastically grim and gaunt, as having drawn themselves up to their utmost height, and put on their fiercest looks to stare all comers out of countenance. Others, again, knocked up against their neighbors, or leaned for support against the wall, somewhat ostentatiously, as if to call all men to witness that they were not worth the taking. The dark square lumbering bedsteads seemed built for restless dreams. The musty hangings seemed to creep in scanty folds together, whispering among themselves, when rustled by the wind. The trembling knowledge of the tempting wares that locked within the dark and tight-locked closets, from out of the most spare and hungry room, in all this spare and hungry house, beer came one morning, the tremulous tones of old Graid's voice. As it feebly chirrupted forth, the fag end of some forgotten song, of which the burden ran. Taran turned two, threw the old shoe, and made the wedding be lucky. Which he repeated in the same shrill quivering notes, again and again, until a violent fit of coffin obliged him to desist, and to pursue in silence the occupation upon which he was engaged. This occupation was to take down from the shelves of a warm-eating wardrobe a quantity of frowsy garments, one by one, to subject each to a careful and minute inspection by holding it up against the light, and after folding it with great exactness, to lay it on one or other of two little hips beside him. He never took two articles of gluten out together, but always brought them forth, singly, and never failed to shut the wardrobe door, and turn the key between each visit to his shelves. The snuff-colored suit sat at a gride, surveying a threadbare coat. Did I look well in snuff color? Let me think. The result of his cogitations appeared to be unfavorable, for he folded the garment once more, laid it aside, and mounted on a chair to get down on another, chopping well he did so. Young, loving and fair, oh what happiness there, the wedding is sure to be lucky. They always put in young, said the old author, but songs are only written for the sake of rhyme, and this is a silly one that the poor country people sang when I was a little boy. Though stop, young is quite right too, it means the bride, yes. He he he he, it means the bride, oh there, that's good, that's very good, and true besides, quite true. In the satisfaction of this discovery, he went over the verse again, with increased expression, and a shake or two here and there. He then resumed his employment. The bottle green, said old Otto, the bottle green was a famous suit to wear, and I bought it very cheap at the pawnbrokers, and there was, he he he, a tarnished shilling in the waste pocket to think that the pawnbroker shouldn't have known there was a shilling in it. I knew it, I felt it when I was examining the quality, oh what a dull dog of a pawnbroker. It was a lucky suit too, this bottle green. The very day I put it on first, old Lord Malford was born to death in his bed, and all the posts of bits fell in. I'll be married in the bottle green. Peg, Peg Sliders Q, I'll wear the bottle green. The skull, loudly repeated twice or thrice at the room door, brought into the apartment, a short, thin, whizzing, blare-eyed old woman, pelsis-tricking, and hideously ugly, who, wiping her shriveled face upon her dirty apron, inquired in that subdued tone in which deaf people commonly speak. Was that you are calling, or only the clock are striking? My hearing gets so bad I never know which is which. But when I hear a noise, I know it must be one of you because nothing else never stares in the house. Me, Peg, me, said at a glide, tapping himself on the breast to render the reply more intelligible. You are returned, Peg. And what do you want? I'll be married in the bottle green, cried at a glide. It's a deal too good to be married in master, rejoined, Peg, after a short inspection of the suit. Haven't you got anything worse than this? Nothing I will do, replied old Atta. Why not do, retorted Peg? Why don't you wear your everyday clothes? Like a man, eh? They ain't becoming enough Peg, returned her master. Not what enough, said Peg. Becoming, becoming what? Said Peg sharply. Not becoming too old to wear, at a glide mortared an implication on his housekeeper's deafness, as he roared in her ear, not smart enough. I want to look as well as I can. Look? Cried Peg. If she's as handsome as you say she is, she won't look much at you, master. Take your out of that. And as to how you look yourself, pepper and salt, bottle green, sky blue or tartan plate will make no difference in you. Quit quitch consolatory assurance. Peg, slider skewed, gathered up the chosen suit and folding her skinny arms upon the bundle, stood, mountain and grinning and blinking her watery eyes, like an uncowt figure in some monstrous piece of carving. Yet in a funny humor, aren't you, Peg? Said Atta, with not the best possible grace. Why? Isn't it enough to make me rejoin the old woman? I shall soon enough be put out though if anybody tries to domineer it over me. And so I give you notice, master. Nobody shall be put over Peg, slider skewed's head. After so many years. You know that, and so I didn't tell you. That won't do for me. No, no, not for you. Try that one and come to ring. Ring, ring. Oh dear, dear, I shall never try to say Atta, right. Appalled by the mention of the word. Not for the world. It would be very easy to ring me. We must be very careful. More saving than ever. With another mouth to feed. Only we. We mustn't let her lose her good looks, Peg. Because I like to see him. Take care you don't find good looks become expensive return, Peg. Shaking her forefinger. But she can earn money herself, Peg. Said Atta, cried. Eagaly watching what effect his communication produced upon the old man's continents. She can draw. Paint. Work all manner of pretty things for ornamental stools and chairs. Sleep pass. Peg. Watch guards. Hair chains. And a thousand little dental trifles that I couldn't give you half the names of. Then she can play the piano. And what's more, she's got one. And thing like a little bed. She'll be very cheap to dress and keep, Peg. Don't you think she will? If you don't let her make a fool of you, she may return, Peg. A fool of me, exclaimed Atta. Trust your old master not to be fooled by pretty faces, Peg. No, no, no. Not by ugly ones neither, Mrs. Sliderskew. He's softly added by way of solely lucky. You're saying something you don't want me to hear, said Peg. I know you are. Oh dear, the devils in this woman muttered Atta. Add in with an ugly layer. I said I trusted everything to you, Peg. That was all. You do that, master, and all your cares are over, said Peg, approvingly. When I do that, Peg, Sliderskew, thought Atta cried. They will be. Although he thought this very distinctly, he does not move his lips, lest the old woman should dictate him. He even seemed half afraid that she might have read his thoughts, for he leered coaxingly upon her as he said aloud. Take up all loose stitches in the bottle green with the best black scale. Silk. Have a scan of the best and some new buttons for the coat. And this is a good idea, Peg, and one you like, I'll know. As I have never given her anything yet. And girls like such attentions. You shall polish up a sparkling necklace that I have got upstairs, and I'll give it to her upon the wedding morning. Clasp it round her charming little neck myself, and take it away again next day. Hee hee hee. I'll lock it up for her, Peg, and lose it. Who will be made the fool of there, I wonder, to begin with? Er, Peg. Mrs. Sliderskew appeared to approve highly of this ingenious scheme, and expressed her satisfaction by various rackets and twitches of her head and body, which by no means enhanced her charms. These she prolonged until she had hobbles to the door when she exchanged them for a sore malignant look and twisting her under jaw from side to side muttered, healthy curses upon the future Mrs. Greid, as she crept slowly down the stairs and paused for breath at nearly everyone. She's half a witch, I think, said Atogreid, when he found himself again alone. But she's very frugal, and she's very deaf. Her living cost me next to nothing, and it's no use her listening at keyhose, for she can't hear. She's a charming woman, for the purpose, a most discreet old housekeeper, and what her weight in copper. Having exturned the merits of his domestic in these high terms, old Atogreid went back to the burden of his song. The suit designed to grace his approaching nuptials, being now selected. He replaced the others with no less care than he had displayed in drawing them from the musty nooks where they had silently reposed for many years. Startled by a ring at the door, he hastily concluded this operation and locked the press. But there was no need for any particular hurry. As the discreet peg seldom knew the bell was rung, unless she happened to cast a dim-eyes upwards and to see it shaking against the kitchen ceiling. After a short delay, however, peg tottered in, followed by new man Nox. Ah, Mr. Nox cried atogreid robbing his hands. My good friend Mr. Nox, what news do you bring for me? New man, with a steadfast and immovable aspect, and his fixed eye very fixed indeed replied, shooting the action to the ward. A letter from Mr. Ndekubai, B'yara waits, won't you take a new man looked up and smacked his lips? Achia? said Atogreid. No replied new man. Tanki! Ator opened the letter with trembling hands and devoured its contents with the utmost greediness. Chocking rapturously over it and reading it several times before he could take it from before his eyes. So many times did he peruse and reperuse it that new man considered it expedient to remind him of his presence. Answer, said new man, B'yara waits. True replied old Ator, yes, yes, I almost forgot. I do declare. I thought you were forgetting, said Mr. New Man. Quite right to remind me, Mr. Nox. Oh, very right indeed, said Ator. Yes, I'll write a line. I'm rather flurried, Mr. Nox. The news is bad, interrupted new man. No, Mr. Nox, thank you, good, good. The very best of news. Sit down. I'll get the pen and ink and write a line in answer. I'll not detain you long. I know ye a treasure to your master, Mr. Nox. He speaks of you in such terms, sometimes that, oh dear, you'd be astonished. I may say that I do too and always did. I always say the same of you. That's cost, Mr. Nox, with all my heart. Then, if you do, thought new man as cried, hurried out. The letter had fallen on the ground, looking carefully about him for an instant. New man, imperiled by curiosity to know the result of the design he had overhead from his office closet, caught it up and rapidly read as follows. I cried. I saw Bray again this morning and proposed the day after tomorrow, as he suggested for the marriage. There is no objection on his part, and all these are allied to his daughter. We will go together and you must be with me by seven in the morning. I need not tell you to be punctual. Make no further visits to the girl in the meantime. I have been there of late, much oftener than you should. She does not long wish for you, and it might have been dangerous. Restrain your youthful adult for eight and forty hours and leave her to the father. You only undo what he does and does well. Yoss, wrath, Nikobai. The footstep was hard without. New man dropped the letter on the same spot again, pressed it with his foot to prevent its fluttering away. Regained his seat in a single stride and looked as vacant and unconscious as ever, mortal looked. At a glide after peering nervously about him, he spied it on the ground, picked it up, and sitting down to right, glanced at new man Nogs, who was staring at the wall with an intensity so remarkable that Ato was quite alarmed. Do you see anything particular, Mr. Nogs? Said Ato, trying to follow the direction of new man's eyes, which was an impossibility and a thing no man had ever done. Only a cobweb replied new man. Oh, is that all? No, said new man, there's a fly in it. There are a good many cobwebs here, observed atogrid. So there are in a place returned new man and flies too. New man appeared to derive great entertainment from this repartee and to degrade this composure of atogrid's nerves, produced a series of sharp cracks from his finger joints, resembling the noise of a distant discharge of small artillery. Ato succeeded in finishing his reply to Ralph's note, nevertheless, and at length handed it over to the eccentric messenger for delivery. That's it, Mr. Nogs, said Gryde. New man gave a nod, put it in his hat and was shuffling away when Gryde, whose doting delight knew no bounds, beckoned him back again and said in a shrill whisper and with a grin which puckered up his whole face and almost obscured his eyes, will you take a little drop of something, just a taste? In good fellowship, if atogrid had been capable of it, New man would not have drunk with him one bubble of the richest wine that was ever made. But to see what he would be at and to punish him as much as he could, he accepted the offer immediately. Atogrid, therefore, again applied himself to the press and from a shelf laden with tall, flamish drinking glasses and quaint bottles. Some with necks like so many stalks and others with square, touch-built bodies and short, fat, apoplectic truths. Took down one dusty bottle of promising appearance and two glasses of curiously small size. You never tasted this, said Arthur. It's your door, golden water. I like it on account of its name. It's a delicious name. Water of gold, golden water. Oh dear me, it seems quite a sin to drink it as his courage appeared to be fast-filling him and he trifled with the stopper in a manner which threatened the dismissal of the bottle to its old place. New man took up one of the little glasses and clinked it, twice or thrice, against the bottle as a gentle reminder that he had not been helped yet. With a deep sigh, Atogrid slowly filled it, though not to the brim, and then filled his own. Stop, stop, don't drink it yet, he said, laying his hand on Newman's. It was given to me twenty years ago and when I take a little taste, which is very seldom, I like to think of it beforehand and tease myself. We'll drink a toast. Shall we drink a toast, Mr. Knox? Ah, said Newman, iron his little glass impatiently. Look sharp, bear awaits. Why then? I'll tell you what tittered Atogrid. We'll drink. He he he he. We'll drink a lady. The ladies, said Newman. No, no, Mr. Knox replied right at rest in his hand. A lady. You wonder to hear me say a lady. I know you do, I know you do. Here's little Madeline. That's the toast, Mr. Knox. Little Madeline. Madeline, said Newman, inwardly adding, and God help her. The rapidity and unconcern, which Newman dismissed his portion of the golden water, had a great effect upon the old man. Who sat upright in his chair and gazed at him, open-mouthed, as if the sight had taken away his breath. Quite unmoved, however, Newman left him to sip his own at leisure, or to pour it back again into the bottle if he chose, and departed. After greatly outraging the dignity of Peg, slider skew, by brushing pasta in the passage, without a word of apology or recognition, Mr. Greid and his housekeeper, immediately unbeen left alone, resolved themselves into a committee of ways and means, and discussed the arrangements which should be made for the reception of the young bride. As they were, like some other committees, extremely dull and prolix in debate, this history may pursue the footsteps of Newman Knox, thereby combining advantage with necessity, for it would have been necessary to do so under any circumstances. A necessity has no law, as the world knows. You've been a long time, said Raph, when Newman returned. He was a long time, replied Newman. Baah! cried Raph impatiently. Give me his note, if he gave you one. His message, if he didn't. And don't go away. I want a word with you, sir. Newman handed in the note, and looked very virtuous and innocent, while his employer broke the seal, and glanced his eye over it. He'll be sure to come, muttered Raph, as he toyed to pieces. Why, of course, I know he'll be sure to come. What need to say that? Nogs, pray, sir, what man was that with whom I saw you in the street last night? I don't know, replied Newman. You had better refresh your memory, sir, said Raph, with a threatening look. I tell you return, Newman boldly, that I don't know. He came here twice and asked for you. He came again, you packed him off yourself. He gave a name of Brucka. I know he did say Raph. What then? What then? Why, then, he looked about and dogged me in the street. He follows me night after night, and urges me to bring him face to face with you, as he says he has been once, and not long ago either. He wants to see you face to face, he says, and you will soon hear him out, he warrants. And what say you to that, inquired Raph, looking keenly at his drudge? That is no business of mine, and I won't. I told him he might catch you in the street, if that was all he wanted. But no, that wouldn't do. You wouldn't hear a word there, he said. He must have you alone in a room with the door locked, where he could speak without fear, and you would soon change your tone, and hear him patiently. An audacious dog, Raph muttered. That's all I know, said Newman. I say again, I don't know what man he is. I don't believe he knows himself. You have seen him perhaps, you do. I think I do, replied Raph. Well, returned Newman circularly. Don't expect me to know him too, that's all. You'll ask me next why I never told you this before. What would you say if I was to tell you all that people say of you? What do you call me when I sometimes do? Brute ass, and snap at me like a dragon. This was true enough. Though the question which Newman anticipated was in fact upon Raph's lips at the moment. He is an idol Raphian, said Raph. A vagabond from beyond the sea where he traveled for his crimes. A felon let loose to run his neck into the halter. A swindler who has the audacity to try his schemes on me who know him well. The next time he tampers with you, hand him over to the police for attempting to extort money by lies and threats. Do you hear? And leave the rest to me. He shall cool his heels in jail a little time, and I'll be bound he looks for other folks to flee when he comes out. You mind what I say, do you? I hear, said Newman. Do it then return Raph, and I'll reward you. Now you may go. Newman readily availed himself of the permission, and shortened himself up in his little office. Remained there in very serious cogitation all day. When he was released at night, he proceeded with all the expedition he could use to the city and took up his old position behind the pump to watch for Nicholas. For Newman Knox was proud in his way and could not bear to appear as his friend before the brothers, Cherry Bile, in the shabby and degraded state to which he was reduced. He had not occupied this position many minutes when he was rejoiced to see Nicholas approaching and darted out from his ambush gate to meet him. Nicholas on his path was no less pleased to encounter his friend, whom he had not seen for some time. So their greeting was a warm one. I was thinking of you at that moment, said Nicholas. That's right, rejoined Newman, and I of you. I couldn't help coming up tonight. I say I think I am going to find out something. And what may that be, returned Nicholas, smiling at this odd communication. I don't know what it may be. I don't know what it may not be, said Newman. It's some secret in which your uncle is concerned. But what have not yet been able to discover? Although I have my strong suspicions. I'll not hate him now in case you should be disappointed. I disappointed, cried Nicholas. Am I interested? I think you are, replied Newman. I have a crotchet in my head that it must be so. I have found that a man who plainly knows more than he cares to tell at once. And he has already dropped such hints to me as puzzle me. I say as puzzle me, said Newman, scratching his red nose into a state of violent inflammation and staring at Nicholas with all his might and meanwhile. Admiring what could have won his friend up to such a pitch of mystery, Nicholas, endeavored by his series of questions to elucidate the cause. But in vain, Newman could not be drawn into any more explicit statement than a repetition of the complexities he had already thrown out and a confused oration showing how it was necessary to use the utmost caution, how the links-eyed Ralph had already seen him in company with his unknown correspondent, and how he had baffled the said Ralph by extreme gatheredness of manner and ingenuity of speech, having prepared himself for such a contingency from the first. Remembering his companions' propensity, of which his nose indeed perpetually warned all beholders like a beacon, Nicholas had drawn him into a sequestered tavern. Here they failed to review in the origin and progress of their acquaintance, as men sometimes do, and tracing out the little events by which it was most strongly marked came at last to miss Cecilia Bobster. And that reminds me, said Newman, that you never told me the young lady's real name. Madeleine, said Nicholas. Madeleine cried Newman. What Madeleine? Her other name, say her other name. Bray, said Nicholas, in great astonishment. It's the same, cried Newman. Sad story. Can you stand idly by and let that unnatural marriage take place without one attempt to save her? What do you mean, exclaimed Nicholas? Starting up. Marriage. Are you mad? Are you? Is she? Are you blind, deaf, senseless, dead, said Newman? Do you know that within one day, by means of your uncle Ralph, she will be married to a man as bad as he, and worse, if worse, there is? Do you know that within one day she will be sacrificed, as sure as you stand there alive, to a hurried wretch, a devil born and bred and gray in devil's ways? Be careful what you say, replied Nicholas. For heaven's sake, be careful. I am left here alone, and those who could stretch at a hand to rescue her are far away. What is it that you mean? I never heard her name, said Newman, choking with his energy. Why didn't you tell me? How was I to know? We might at least have had some time to think. What is it that you mean, cried Nicholas? It was not an easy task to arrive at this information. But after a great quantity of extraordinary pantomime, which in no way assisted it, Nicholas, who was almost as wild as Newman knocks himself, forced the latter down upon his seat and held him down until he began his tale. Rage, astonishment, indignation, and a storm of passions rushed through the listener's heart as the plot was laid bare. He no sooner understood it all than with a face of ashy paleness and trembling in every limb he darted from the house. Stop him, cried Newman, both not in pursuit. He'll be doing something desperate. He'll murder somebody. Hello there, stop him. Stop thief, stop thief. Stop thief. End of chapter 51. Chapter 52 of Nicholas Necobi by Charles Dickens. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Nicholas Necobi by Charles Dickens. Chapter 52. Nicholas despairs of rescuing Madeline Bray, but blocks up his spirits again and determines to attempt it. Domestic intelligence of the Kenwick's and Lilivix. Finding that Newman was determined to arrest his progress at any hazard. An apprehensive, that some well-intentioned passenger, attracted by the cry of stop thief, might lay violent hands upon his person and place him in a disagreeable predicament, from which he might have some difficulty in extricating himself. Nicholas soon slackened his pace and suffered numerous knocks to come up with him, which he did in so brilliantly a condition that it seemed impossible he could have held that for a minute longer. I will go straight to Bray's, said Nicholas. I will say this man. If there is a feeling of humanity lingering in his breast, a spark of consideration for his own child, more or less and friendless as she is, I will awoken it. You will not, replied Newman. You will not indeed. Then, said Nicholas, pressing onward, I will act upon my first impulse and go straight to Raph-Nikubai. By the time you reach his house, he will be in bed, said Newman. I'll drag him from it, cried Nicholas. Toot-toot, said Nox, be yourself. You are the best of friends to me, Newman. Rejoined Nicholas after a pause and taken his hand as his book. I have made head against many trials, but the misery of another and such misery is involved in this one that I declare to you I am rendered desperate and know not how to act. In truth, it did seem a hopeless case. It was impossible to make any use of such intelligence, as Newman Nox had gleaned when he lay concealed in the closet. The mere circumstance of the compact between Raph-Nikubai and Greid would not invalidate the marriage or render Bray adverse to it. Who, if he did not actually know of the existence of such, understanding doubtless suspected it. What had been hinted with reference to some fraud or meddling had been put with sufficient obscurity by Atogrid. But coming from Newman Nox and obscured still further by the smoke of his pocket-pixel, he became wholly unintelligible and involved in utter darkness. There seemed no ray of hope, said Nicholas. The greater necessity for coolness, for reason, for consideration, for thoughts, said Newman, pulsing at every alternate word to look anxiously in his transface. Where are the brothers? Both absent on urgent business as they will be for a week to come. Is there no way of communicating with them? No way of getting one of them here by tomorrow night? Impossible, said Nicholas. The sea is between us and them. With the fairest winds that ever blew to go and return would take three days and nights. Their nephew, said Newman, their old clerk. What could either do that I cannot rejoin Nicholas? With reference to them especially, I am enjoined to district silence on this subject. What right have I to betray the confidence reposed in me when nothing but a miracle can prevent the sacrifice? Think, urged Newman. Is there no way? There is none, said Nicholas, in utter dejection. Not one. The father urges the daughter consents. These demons have her in their tolls. Legal rights, might, power, money, and every influence are on their side. How can I hope to save her? Hope to the last, said Newman. Clapping him on the back. Always hope. That's it, dear boy. Never live off hoping, it don't answer. Do you mind me, Nick? It don't answer. Don't leave a stone unturned. It's always something to know you've done the most you could, but don't live off hoping, or it's of no use doing anything. Hope, hope to the last. Nicholas needed encouragement. The suddenness with which intelligence of the two usurers' plans had come upon him. The little time which remained for exertion. The probability, almost a mountain to certainty itself, that a few hours would place Madeleine Bray forever beyond his reach, consigned her to unspeakable misery, and perhaps to an untimely death. All this quite stunned and overwhelmed him. Every hope connected with her that he had suffered himself to form, or had entertained unconsciously, seemed to fall at his feet, withered and dead. Every charm with which his memory or imagination had surrounded her, presented itself before him, only to heighten his anguish and add new bitterness to his despair. Every feeling of sympathy for her fallen condition, and of admiration for her heroism and fortitude, aggravated the indignation which shook him in every limb, and swelled his heart almost bursting. But if Nicholas' own heart embarrassed him, new man's came to his relief. There was so much earnestness in his remonstrance, and such sincerity and favor in his manner, all than Ludicross as it always was, that it imparted to Nicholas new firmness, and enabled him to say, after he had worked on for some little way in silence, you read me a good lesson, new man, and I will profit by it. One step at least I may take, I am bound to take indeed, and to that I will apply myself tomorrow. What is that axed noxed wistfully, not to threaten Ralph, not to see the father, to see the daughter, new man replied, Nicholas, to do what after all is the utmost that the brothers could do if they were here, as heaven sent they were, to reason with her upon this hideous union, to point out to her all the horrors to which she is hastening, rashly in mid-be, and without due reflection, to entreat her, at least to pause. She can have had no counselor for her good. Perhaps even I may move her so far yet, though it is 11 o'clock, and she upon the very brink of ring. Bravely spoken said new man, well done, well done. Yes, very good. And I do declare, cried Nicholas, with honest enthusiasm, that in this effort, I am influenced by no selfish or personal considerations, but by pity for her, and detestation, and abhorrence of this scheme, and that I would do the same where there are twenty rivals in the field, and I, the last and least favoured of them all. You would, I believe, said new man, but where are you hurrying now? Homewards, answered Nicholas, Do you come with me, or I shall say good night? I'll come a little way if you will but walk, not run, said Nox. I cannot walk tonight, new man, return Nicholas hurriedly. I must move rapidly, or I could not draw my breath. I'll tell you what I've said and done tomorrow. Without waiting for a reply, he darted off at a rapid pace, and plunged into the crowds, along the street, was quickly lost to view. He said, violent youth at times, said new man, looking after him, and yet, like him for it, there's cost enough now, or the juice is in it. Hope, I said hope, I think, rough necoby and greed with their heads together, and hope for the opposite party, who, who? It was with a very melancholy laugh that new man Nox concluded this soliloquy, and it was with a very melancholy shake of the head and the very ruffle countenance that he turned about and went plodding on his way. This, under ordinary circumstances, would have been to some small tavern or drum shop, that being his way in more senses than one. But new man was too much interested and too anxious to be take himself even to this resource. And so, with many despondent and dismal reflections, went straight home. It had come to pass that afternoon that Miss Molina Kenwicks had received an invitation to repair next day pastima from Westminster Bridge onto the Ale Pie Island at Twinkenham. There to make merry upon a cold collision, bottled beer, shrub and shrimps, and to dance in the open air to the music of a locomotive band, conveyed tits for the purpose. This tima being specially engaged by a dancing master of extensive connection for the accommodation of his numerous pupils. And the pupils displaying their appreciation of the dancing master services by purchasing themselves and inducing their friends to do the like, diverse light blue tickets and titling them to join the expedition. Of these light blue tickets, one had been presented by an ambitious neighbor to Miss Molina Kenwicks with an invitation to join her daughters. And Mrs. Kenwicks rightly demeaned that the honor of the family was involved in Miss Molina's making the most splendid appearance possible on so short a notice and testifying to the dancing master that there were other dancing masters beside him and to all fathers and mothers present that other people's children could learn to be genteel beside theirs had fainted away twice under the magnitude of her preparations but upheld by a determination to sustain the family name or perish in the attempt was still hard at work when human dogs came home. Now, between the Italian ironing of frails, the flouncing of trousers, the trimming of frogs, the faintings and the coming to a game incidental to the occasion, Mrs. Kenwicks had been so entirely occupied that she had not observed until within an hour before that the flaxen tails of Miss Molina's hair were in a manner run to seed and that unless she were put under the hands of a skillful hairdresser she never could achieve that signal triumph over the daughters of all other people anything less than which would be that amount to defeat this discovery drove Mrs. Kenwicks to despair for the hairdresser lived three streets and its dangerous crosses off Molina could not be trusted to go there alone even if such a proceeding were strictly proper of which Mrs. Kenwicks had had doubts Mr. Kenwicks had not returned from business and there was nobody to take her so Mrs. Kenwicks first slapped Mrs. Kenwicks for being the cause of her vexation and then shed tears you ungrateful child said Mrs. Kenwicks after I have gone through what I have this night for your good can't help it ma replied Molina also in tears my hair will grow don't talk to me you're not the thing said Mrs. Kenwicks don't even if I was to trust you by yourself and you were to escape being run over I know you'd run into Laura Chopkins who was the daughter of the ambitious neighbor and tell her what you're going to wear tomorrow I know you would have no proper pride in yourself and are not to be trusted out of sight for an instant deploring the evil mindedness of her eldest daughter in these terms Mrs. Kenwicks distilled fresh drops of vexation from her eyes and declared that she did believe there never was anybody so tried as she was year upon Molina Kenwicks wept afresh and they bemoaned themselves together matters were at this point as Newman Logs was held to limp past the door on his way upstairs when Mrs. Kenwicks gaining new hope from the sound of his footsteps hastily removed from her countenance as many traces of her late emotion as were effecable on social notice and presenting herself before him and representing the dilemma and treated that he would escort Molina to the hairdresser shop I wouldn't ask you Mr. Logs said Mrs. Kenwicks if I didn't know what a good kind-hearted creature you are no, not for words I am a weak constitution Mr. Logs but my spirit would no more let me ask a favor where I thought there was a chance of his being refused then it would let me submit to see my children trampled down and trod upon by envy and lowness Newman was too good-natured not to have consented even without this avowal of confidence on the part of Mrs. Kenwicks accordingly a very few maids had elapsed when he and Miss Molina were on their way to the hairdressers it was not exactly a hairdresser that is to say people of a coerce and vulgar tone of mind might have called it a babas for they not only caught and curled ladies elegantly and killed them carefully but shaved gentlemen easily still it was a highly genteel establishment quite first-rate in fact and they were displayed in the window besides other elegances waxen busts of a light lady and a dark gentleman which were the admiration of the whole neighborhood indeed some ladies had gone so far as to assert that a dark gentleman was actually a portrait of the spirited young proprietor and the great similarity between their hairdressers both wore very glossy hair with a narrow walk straight down the middle and a proficient of flat circular calls on both sides encouraged the idea the better informed among the sex however made light of this assertion for however willing they were and they were very willing to do full justice to the handsome face and figure of the proprietor they held the countenance of the dark gentleman in the window to be an exquisite and abstract idea of masculine beauty realized sometimes perhaps among angels and military men but very rarely embodied to gladden the eyes of mortals it was to this establishment that Newman Knox led Miss Kenwick's in safety the proprietor knowing that Miss Kenwick had three sisters each with two flaxing tails and all good for six pence apiece once a month at least promptly deserted an old gentleman whom he had just let her for shaving and handing him over to the Johnny man who was not very popular among the ladies by reason of his obesity and middle age weighted on the young lady himself just as this change had been effected there presented himself for shaving a big, burly, good-humored coal-heaver with a pipe in his mouth who, drawing his hand across his chin requested to know when a shaver would be disengaged the Johnny man to whom this question was put looks doubtfully at the young proprietor and the young proprietor looks calmfully at the coal-heaver observing at the same time you won't get shaved here my man why not? said the coal-heaver we don't shave gentlemen in your line remarked the young proprietor why? I see you are shaving of a beaker when I was looking through the window last week said the coal-heaver it's necessary to draw the line somewhere as my fine fella replied the principal we draw the line there we can't go beyond bakers if we was to get any lower than bakers our customers would desert us and with my shut-up shop you must try some other establishments sir we couldn't do it here the applicant said green that human nugs who appeared highly entertained looked slightly around the shop as if in depreciation of the promoton pots and other articles of stock took his pipe out of his mouth and gave a very loud whistle and then put it in again and walked out the old gentleman who had just been laddered and who was sitting in a melancholy manner which is face turned towards the wall appeared quite unconscious of this incident and to be insensible to everything around him in the death of a reverie a very mournful one to judge from the size he occasionally vented in which he was absorbed affected by this example the proprietor began to clip Miss Kenwicks to join him and to scribe the old gentleman and human nugs to read last on this paper all three in silence when Miss Kenwicks uttered a shrill little scream and new man raising his eyes saw that it had been elicited by the circumstance of the old gentleman turning his head and disclosing the features of Mr. Lilivick the collector the features of Mr. Lilivick they were were strangely altered if ever an old gentleman had made a point of appearing in public shaved clothes and clean that old gentleman was Mr. Lilivick if ever a collector had born himself like a collector and assumed before all men a solemn and contentious dignity as if he had the world on his books and it was all two quarters in area that collector was Mr. Lilivick and now there he sat with the remains of a beard at least a week old encumbering his chain a sword and crumpled shirt frail crouching as it were upon his breast instead of standing boldly out a demeanor so abashed and drooping so despondent and expressive of such humiliation grief and shame that if the souls of 40 unsubstantial housekeepers all of whom had had their water cut off for non-payment of the rate could have been concentrated in one body that one body could hardly have expressed such modification and defeat as we are now expressed in the person of Mr. Lilivick the collector Newman Noggs uttered his name and Mr. Lilivick ground then coughed to hide it but the groan was a full-sized groan and the cough was but a whiz is anything the matter? said Newman Noggs matter sir cried Mr. Lilivick the plug of life is dry sir and but the mod is left the speech the style of which Newman attributed to Mr. Lilivick's recent association with surgical characters not being quite explanatory Newman looked as if he were about to ask another question when Mr. Lilivick prevented him by shaking his hand modfully and then waving his own let me be shaved said Mr. Lilivick it shall be done before Molina it is Molina isn't it? yes said Newman Ken Wixis have got a boy haven't they? inquired the collector again Newman said yes is it a nice boy demanded the collector it ain't a very nasty one returned Newman rather embarrassed by the question Susan Ken Wixis used to say observed the collector that if she ever had another boy she hoped it might be like me is this one like me Mr. Noggs? this was a positive inquiry but Newman evaded it by replying to Mr. Lilivick that he thought the baby might possibly come like him in time I should be glad to have somebody like me somehow said Mr. Lilivick before I die you don't mean to do that yet a while said Newman on to which Mr. Lilivick replied in a solemn voice let me be shaved and again consigning himself to the hands of the journeyman said no more this was remarkable behaviour so remarkable did this seem to Miss Molina that that young lady at the imminent hazard of having her ear sliced off had not been able to forbid looking round some score of times during the foregoing color quite of her however Mr. Lilivick took no notice rather striving so at least he seemed to Newman Noggs to evade her observation and to shrink into himself whenever he attracted her regards Newman wondered very much what could evoke this altered behaviour on the part of the collector but philosophically reflecting that he would most likely know sooner or later and that he could perfectly afford to wait he was very little disturbed by the singularity of the old gentleman's department the curtain on calling being at last concluded the old gentleman who had been sometime waiting rose to go and walking out with Newman and his charge took Newman's arm and proceeded for some time without making any observation Newman who in power of taciturnity was excelled by few people made no attempt to break silence and so they went on until they had very nearly reached Miss Molina's home when Mr. Lilivick said where the Ken Wicks is very much overpowered Mr. Noggs by that news what news returned Newman that about my being married suggested Newman replied Mr. Lilivick with underground this time not even disguised by a whiz he made my cry when she knew it interposed Miss Molina but we kept it from her for a long time and power was very low in his spirits but he is better now and I was very ill but I am better too would you give your great uncle Lilivick a case if he was to ask you Molina with some hesitation yes Uncle Lilivick I would return Miss Molina with the energy of both her parents combined but not Aunt Lilivick she is not an aunt of mine and I will never call her one immediately upon the utterance of those words Mr. Lilivick caught Miss Molina up in his arms and kissed her and being by this time at the door of the house where Mr. Kenwick's lodged which as has been before mentioned usually stood wide open he walked straight up into Mr. Kenwick's sitting room and put Miss Molina down in the mist Mr. and Mrs. Kenwick's were at supper at the sight of their padiode relative Mrs. Kenwick's turned fate and pale and Mr. Kenwick's rose majestically Kenwick's said the collector shake hands Sa said Mr. Kenwick's the time has been when I was proud to shake hands with such a man as that man as now surveys me the time has been Sa said Mr. Kenwick's when a visit from that man has excited in me and my family's bosoms sensations both natural and awakening but now I look upon that man with emotions totally surpassing everything and I ask myself where is his honor where is his straightforwardness and where is his human nature Susan Kenwick's said Mr. Lilivick turning humbly to his knees don't you say anything to me she is not equal to eat Sa said Mr. Kenwick's striking the table enfatically what with the nursing of a healthy baby and the reflections upon your cruel conduct four pints of malt liquid a day is hardly able to sustain her I am glad say the poor collector Meekly that the baby's a healthy one I am very glad of that this was touching the Kenwick's on the tenderest point Mrs. Kenwick's instantly burst into tears and Mr. Kenwick's evixed great emotion my pleasantest feeling all the time that child was expected said Mr. Kenwick's mournfully was I thinking if it's a boy as I hope it may be I have heard it's Uncle Lilivick say again and again he would prefer having a boy next if it's a boy what will his Uncle Lilivick say what will he like him to be called will he be Peter or Alexander or Pompey or Diogenes or what will he be and now when I look at him a precious unconscious helpless infant with no use in his little arms but to tear his little cap and no use in his little legs but to kick his little self when I see him aligning on his mother's lap cooing and cooing and in his innocent state almost abjoking himself with his little fist when I see him such an infant as he is and think that that Uncle Lilivick as was once a going to be so fond of him as withdrawed himself away such a feeling of vengeance comes over me as no language can depict her and I feel as if even that holy babe was a telling me to hate him this affecting picture moved Mrs. Kenwick's deeply after several imperfect words which vainly attempted to struggle to the surface but were drowned and washed away by the strong tide of her tears she spoke Uncle said Mrs. Kenwick's to think that you should have turned your back upon me and my dear children and upon Kenwick's which is the author of their being you who was once so kind and affectionate and who if anybody had told us such a thing of we should have withered with scorn like lightning you that little Lilivick her first and earliest boy was named after at the very altar oh gracious was it money that we cared for said Mr. Kenwick's was it property that we ever thought of no cried Mrs. Kenwick's I scorn it who do I said Mr. Kenwick's and always did my feelings have been lacerated said Mrs. Kenwick's my heart has been torn asunder with anguish I have been thrown back in my confinement my unoffending infant has been rendered uncomfortable and fractious Molina has pined herself away to nothing all this I forget and forgive and with you uncle I never can quarrel but never ask me to receive her never do it uncle for I will not, I will not I won't, I won't, I won't Susan my dear said Mr. Kenwick's consider your child yes shriek Mrs. Kenwick's I will consider my child I will consider my child my own child that no uncles can deprive me of my own hated, despised, deserted cut off little child and here the emotions of Mrs. Kenwick's became so violent that Mr. Kenwick's was feigned to administer heart shorn internally and vinegar externally and to destroy a stainless four particle strings and several small buttons Newman had been a silent spectator of this scene for Mr. Lilivick had signed to him not to withdraw and Mr. Kenwick's had further solicited his presence by a note of invitation when Mrs. Kenwick's had been in some degree restored and Newman as a person possessed of some influence with her had remonstrated and begged her to compose herself Mr. Lilivick said in a faltering voice I never shall ask anybody here to receive my I needn't mention the word you know what I mean Kenwick's and Susan yesterday was a week she eloped with a half-paid captain Mr. and Mrs. Kenwick started together eloped with a half-paid captain repeated Mr. Lilivick basely and falsely eloped with a half-paid captain with a butto-note captain that any man might have considered himself safe from it was in this room said Mr. Lilivick looking sternly round that I first see Henrietta Petokar it is in this room that I turn her off forever this declaration completely changed the whole posture of affairs Mrs. Kenwick threw herself upon the old gentleman's neck bitterly reproaching herself for her late harshness and exclaiming if she had suffered what must his sufferings have been Mr. Kenwick grasped his hand and vowed eternal friendship and remorse Mrs. Kenwick's was horror-stricken to think that she should have ever nourished in her bosom such a snake, adder, viper, serpent and base crocodile as Henrietta Petokar Mr. Kenwick argued that she must have been bad indeed not to have improved by so long a contemplation of Mrs. Kenwick's virtue Mrs. Kenwick's remembered that Mr. Kenwick had often said that he was not quite satisfied of the propriety of Miss Petokar's conduct and wondered how it was that she could have been blinded by such a wretch Mr. Kenwick's remembered that he had had his suspicions but did not wonder why Mrs. Kenwick's had not had hers as she was all chastity, purity and truth and Henrietta, all business, falsehood and deceit and Mr. and Mrs. Kenwick's both said with strong feelings and tears of sympathy that everything happened for the best and conjured the good collector not to give way to unhappily grief but to seek consolation in the society of those affectionate relations whose arms and hearts were ever open to him Out of affection and regard for you Susan and Kenwick's said Mr. Lilivik and not out of revenge or spite against her for she is below it I shall tomorrow morning settle upon your children and make payable to the survivors of them when they come of age of Mary that money that I once meant to leave them in my will The deed shall be executed tomorrow and Mr. Knox shall be one of the witnesses He hears me promise this and he shall see it done overpowered by this noble and generous offer Mr. Kenwick's, Mrs. Kenwick's and Mrs. Molina Kenwick's all began to sob together and the noise of the sobbing communicating itself in next room where the children lay at bed and causing them to cry too Mr. Kenwick's rushed widely in and bringing them out in his arms by two and two tumble them down in their nightcaps and gowns at the feet of Mr. Lilivik and called upon them to thank and blessing and now said Mr. Lilivik when a heart-rending scene had ensued and the children were cleared away again give me some supper This took place twenty miles from town I came up this morning and have been lingering about all day without being able to make up my mind to come and see you I humored her in everything She had her own way She did just as she pleased and now she has done this There was twelve teaspoons and twenty-four pound in sovereigns I missed them first It's a trial I feel I shall never be able to knock a double knock again when I go my rounds Don't say anything more about it, please The spoons were what? Never mind, never mind With such motored outpourings as these the old gentleman shared a few tears but they got him to the elbow chair and prevailed upon him without much pressing to make a hearty supper and by the time he had finished his first pipe and disposed of half a dozen glasses out of a crown bowl of punch ordered by Mr. Kenwick's in celebration of his return to the bosom of his family he seemed, though still very humble quite resigned to his fate and rather relieved than otherwise by the flight of his wife When I see that man, said Mr. Kenwick's with one hand round Mrs. Kenwick's waist his other hand supporting his pipe which made him wink and cough very much for he was no smoker and his eyes on Molina who sat upon her uncle's knee When I see that man as mingling once again in despair which he had done and see his affections developing themselves in legitimate situations I feel that his nature is as elevated and expanded as he stands in a forced society as a public character is unimpeached and the voices of my infant children provided for in life seem to whisper to me softly This is an event our pitch evens itself looks down End of chapter 52 Chapter 53 of Nicholas Nicolby by Charles Dickens This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Will Zufall Nicholas Nicolby by Charles Dickens Chapter 53 Containing the further progress of the plot contrived by Mr. Ralph Nicolby and Mr. Arthur Greid With that settled resolution and steadiness of purpose to which extreme circumstances so often give birth affecting upon far less excitable and more sluggish temperaments than that which was the lot of Madeline Bray's admirer Nicholas started at the dawn of day from the restless couch which no sleep had visited on the previous night and prepared to make that last appeal by whose slight and fragile thread her only remaining hope of escape depended Although to restless and ardent minds mourning may be the fitting season for exertion and activity it is not always at that time that hope is strongest or the spirit most sanguine and buoyant In trying and doubtful positions youth custom a steady contemplation of the difficulties which surround us and a familiarity with them imperceptively diminish our apprehensions and beget comparative indifference if not a vague and reckless confidence in some relief the means or nature of which we care not to foresee but when we come fresh upon such things in the morning with that dark and silent gap between us and yesterday with every link in the brittle chain of hope to rivet refresh our host enthusiasm subdued and cool calm reason substituted in its stead doubt and misgivings revive as the traveler sees farthest by day and becomes aware of rugged mountains and trackless plains which the friendly darkness had shrouded from his sight and mind altogether so the way fair in the toilsome path of human life sees with each returning sun some new obstacle dismount some new height to be attained distances stretch out before him which last night were scarcely taken into account and the light which guilds all nature with its beautiful beams seems but to shine upon the weary obstacles that yet lie strewn between him and the grave he thought Nicholas with the impatience natural to a situation like his he softly left the house and feeling as though to remain in bed were to lose most precious time and to be up and stirring were in some way to promote the end he had in view wandered into London perfectly well knowing that for hours to come he could not obtain speech with Madeline and could do nothing but wish the intervening time away and even now as he paced the streets and listlessly looked round on the gradually increasing bustle and preparation for the day everything appeared to yield to him some new occasion for despondency last night the sacrifice of a young affectionate and beautiful creature to such a wretch and in such a cause had seemed a thing too monstrous to succeed and the warmer he grew the more confident he felt that some interposition must save her from his clutches and now when he thought how regularly things went on from day to day in the same unvarying round how youth and beauty died and ugly griping age lived tottering on how crafty avarice grew rich and manly honest hearts were poor and fat how few they were who teneted the stately houses and how many of those who lay in noisome pens or rose each day and laid them down each night and lived and died father and son mother and child race upon race and generation upon generation without a home to shelter them or the energies of one single man directed to their aid how in seeking not a luxurious and splendid life but the bare means of a most wretched and inadequate substance there were women and children in that one town divided into classes numbered and estimated as regularly as the noble families and folks of a great degree and reared from infancy to drive most criminals and ridful trades how ignorance was punished and never taught how jail doors gaped and gallows loomed for thousands urged towards them by circumstances darkly pertaining their very cradle's heads and but for which they might have earned their honest bread and lived in peace how many died in soul and had no chance of life how many who could scarcely go astray be they evictious as they would turn tautly from the crushed and stricken wretch who could scarce do otherwise and who would have been a greater wonder had he or she done well than even they had done ill how much injustice misery and wrong there was and yet how the world rolled on from year to year alike careless and indifferent and no man seeking to remedy or address it when he thought of all this and selected from the mass the one slight case on which his thoughts were bent he felt indeed that there was little ground for hope and little reason why it should not form an atom in the huge aggregate of distress and sorrow and add one small and unimportant unit to swallow the great amount but youth is not prone to contemplate and the darkest side of a picture it can shift at will by dint of reflecting on what he had to do and reviving the train of thought which night had interrupted Nicholas gradually summoned up his utmost energy and when the morning was sufficiently advanced for his purpose had no thought but that of using it to the best advantage a hasty breakfast taken and such affairs of business as required prompt attention disposed of he directed his steps to the residence of Madeleine Bray whether he lost no time in arriving it had occurred to him that very possibly the young lady might be denied although to him she never had been and he was still pondering upon the surest method of obtaining access to her in that case when coming to the door of the house he found it had been left ajar probably by the last person who had gone out the occasion was not one upon which to observe the nicest ceremony therefore availing himself of this advantage Nicholas walked gently upstairs and knocked at the door of the room into which he had been accustomed to be shown receiving permission to enter from some person on the other side he opened the door and walked in Bray and his daughter were sitting there alone it was nearly three weeks since he had seen her last but there was a change in the lovely girl before him which told Nicholas in startling terms how much mental suffering had been compressed into that short time there were no words which can express nothing with which can be compared the perfect pallor, the clear transparent whiteness of the beautiful face which turned toward him when he entered her hair was a rich deep brown but shading that face and straying upon a neck that rivaled it in whiteness it seemed by the strong contrast raven black something of a wildness and restlessness there was in the dark eye but there was the same patient look the same expression of gentle mournfulness which he well remembered and no trace of a single tear most beautiful more beautiful perhaps than ever there was something in her face which quite unmanned him and appeared far more touching than the wildest agony grief it was not merely calm and composed but fixed and rigid as though the violent effort which had summoned that composure beneath her father's eye while it mastered all their thoughts had prevented even the momentary expression they had communicated to the features from subsiding and had fastened it there as an evidence of its triumph the father said opposite her not looking directly in her face but glancing at her as he talked with a gay air which ill disguised the anxiety of his thoughts the drying materials were not on their custom table nor were any of the other tokens of her usual occupations to be seen the little vases which Nicholas had always seen filled with fresh flowers were empty or supplied only with a few withered stalks and leaves the bird was silent the cloth that covered his cage at night was not removed his mistress had forgotten him there are times when the mind being painfully alive to receive impressions a great deal may be noted at a glance this was one for Nicholas had but to glance around him when he was recognized by Mr. Bray who said impatiently now sir, what do you want? name your errand here quickly if you please, for my daughter and I are busily engaged with other more important matters than those you come about come sir, address yourself to your business at once Nicholas could very well discern that the irritability and impatience of this speech were assumed and that Bray, in his heart was rejoiced at any interruption which promised to engage the attention of his daughter he bent his eyes involuntarily upon the father as he spoke and marked his uneasiness for he colored and turned his head away the device however, so far as it was a device for causing Madeline to interfere was successful she rose and advancing toward Nicholas paused half way and stretched out her hand as if expecting a letter Madeline said her father my love, what are you doing? Miss Bray expects an enclosure perhaps said Nicholas, speaking very distinctly and with an emphasis she could scarcely misunderstand my employer was absent from England or I should have brought a letter with me I hope she will give me a time a little time I ask very little time if that is all you come about sir said Mr Bray you may make easy yourself on that head Madeline my dear, I didn't know this person was in your debt a trifle I believe returned Madeline faintly I suppose you think now said Bray, wheeling his chair round and confronting Nicholas that for such pitiful sums as you bring here because my daughter has chosen to employ her time as she has we should starve I have not thought about it returned Nicholas you have not thought about it sneered the invalid you know you have thought about it and have thought that and think so every time you come here do you suppose young man that I don't know what little purse crowd tradesmen are when through some fortunate circumstance they get the upper hand for a brief day or think they get the upper hand of a gentleman my business said Nicholas respectively is with a lady with a gentleman's daughter sir returned the old sick man and the petty fogging spirit is the same but perhaps you bring orders eh have you any fresh orders for my daughter sir Nicholas understood the tone of triumph in which this enteriguatory was put but remembering the necessity of supporting his assumed character produced a scrap of paper purporting to a contained a list of some subjects for drawing which his employer desired to have executed and with which he had prepared himself in case of any such contingency oh said Mr. Bray these are the orders are they since you insist upon the term sir yes replied Nicholas then you may tell your master said Bray tossing the paper back again with an exulting smile that my daughter Miss Madeline Bray condescends to employ herself no longer in such labors as these that she is not at his beck and call as he supposes her to be and that we don't live upon his money as he fighters himself we do that he may give whatever he owes us to the first beggar that passes his shop or add it to his own profits next time he calculates them and that he may go to the devil for me that is my acknowledgement of his orders sir and this is the independence of a man who sells his daughter as he has sold that weeping girl thought Nicholas the father was too much absorbed with his own exultation to mark the look of scorn which for an instant Nicholas could not have suppressed that he had been upon the rack there he continued after a short silence you have your message and can retire unless you have any further ha any further orders I have none said Nicholas nor in the consideration of the station you once held have I used that or any other word which however harmless in itself could be supposed to imply authority on my part or dependence on yours I have no orders but I have fears fears that I will express chafe as you may fears that you may be consigning that young lady to something worse than supporting you by the labor of her hands had she worked herself dead these are my fears and these fears I have found upon your own demeanor your conscience I will tell you sir whether I construe it well or not for heaven's sake cried Madeline interposing an alarm between them remember sir he is ill ill occurred the invalid gasping and catching for breath ill ill I am bearded and bullied by a shop boy and he beseeches him to pity me and remember I am ill he fell into a paroxysm of his disorder so violent that for a few moments Nicholas was alarmed for his life but finding that he began to recover he withdrew after signifying by a gesture to the young lady that he had something important to communicate and would wait for her outside the room he could hear the sick man came gradually but slowly to himself and that without any reference to what had just occurred as though he had no distinct recollection of it as yet he requested to be left alone oh thought Nicholas that this slender chance might not be lost and that I might prevail if it were but for a one weeks time and reconsideration you are charged with some commission to me sir said Madeline presenting herself in great agitation do not press it now I beg and pray you the day after tomorrow come here then it will be too late too late for what I have to say Nicholas and you will not be here oh madam if you have but one thought of him who sent me here but one last lingering care for your own peace of mind and heart I do for God's sake urge you to give me a hearing she attempted to pass him but Nicholas gently detained her hearing said Nicholas I ask you but to hear me not me alone but him for whom I speak who is far away and does not know your danger in the name of heaven hear me the poor attendant with her eyes swollen and red with weeping stood by and to her Nicholas appealed in such passionate terms that she opened the side door and supporting her mistress into an adjoining room beckoning Nicholas to follow them leave me sir I pray said the young lady I cannot I will not leave you thus rejoining Nicholas I have a duty to discharge and either here or in the room from which we have just now come whatever risk or hazard to Mr. Bray I must besiege you to contemplate again the fearful course to which you have been impelled what course is this you speak of and impelled by whom sir demanded the young lady with an effort to speak proudly I speak of this marriage returned Nicholas of this marriage fixed for tomorrow by one whom never faltered in a bad purpose or lent his aid to any good design of this marriage the history of which is known to me better far better than it is to you I know what web is wound about you I know what men they are and from whom these schemes have come you are betrayed and sold for money for gold whose every coin is rusted with tears if not read with the blood of ruined men who have fallen desperately by their own hands and you say you have a duty to discharge said Madeline and so have I and with the help of heaven I will perform it say rather with the help of devils devils replied Nicholas with the help of men one of whom your destined husband who are I must not hear this cried the young lady striving to repress a shutter occasioned as it seemed even by this slight illusion to Arthur cried this evil if it if evil it be has been of my own seeking I am impelled to this course by no one but follow it of my own free will you see I am not constrained or forced report this said Madeline to my dear friend and benefactor and taking with you my prayers and thanks for him and for yourself leave me forever not until I have besought you with all the earnestness and fervor by which I am animated cried Nicholas to postpone this marriage for one short week not until I have sought you to think more deeply than you have done influenced as you are upon the step you are about to take although you cannot be fully conscious of the villainy of this man whom you are about to give your hand some of his seeds you know you have heard him speak you and have looked upon his face reflect reflect before it is too late on the mockery of plighting to him at the altar faith in which your heart can have no share of uttering solemn words against which nature and reason must rebel of the degradation of yourself in your own esteem which must ensue and must be aggravated every day as his detested character opens upon more and more shrink from the loathsome companionship of this wretch as you would from corruption and disease suffer toil and labor if you will but shun him shun him and be happy for believe me I speak the truth the most abject poverty the most wretched condition of human life with a pure and upright mind would be happiness to that which you must undergo as the wife of such a man as this long before Nicholas used to speak the young lady buried her face in her hands and gave her tears freeway in a voice at first in articulate with emotion but gradually recovering strength as she proceeded she answered him I will not disguise from you sir though perhaps I ought that I have undergone great pain of mind and have been nearly broken hearted since I saw you last I do not love this gentleman the difference between our ages tastes and habits forbids it this he knows and knowing still offers me his hand by accepting it and by that step alone I can release my father who is dying in this place prolong his life perhaps for many years restore him to comfort I may almost call it affluence and relieve a generous man from the burden of assisting one by whom I grieve to say his noble heart is little understood do not think so poorly of me as to believe that I fake love I do not feel do not report so ill of me for that I could not bear if I cannot in reason or in nature love the man who pays this price for my poor hand I can discharge the duties of a wife I can be all he seeks in me and will he is content to take me as I am I have passed my word and should rejoice not weep that it is so I do the interest you take in one so friendless and forlorn as I the delicacy with which you have discharged your trust the faith you have kept with me have my warmest thanks and while I make this last feeble acknowledgement move me to tears as you see but I do not repent nor am I unhappy I am happy in the prospect of all I can achieve so easily I shall be more so when I look back upon it and all is done I know your tears fall faster as you talk of happiness said Nicholas and you shun the contemplation of that dark future which must be laden with so much misery to you defer this marriage for a week for but one week he was talking when you came upon us just now with such smiles as I remember to have seen of old and have not seen for many and many a day of the freedom that was to come tomorrow said Madeleine with momentary firmness of the welcome change fresh air all the new scenes and objects that would bring fresh life to his exhausted frame his eye grew bright and his face lightened at the thought I will not defer it for an hour these are but tricks and wiles to urge you on cried Nicholas I'll hear no more said Madeleine hurriedly I have heard too much much more than I should already what I have said to you sir I have said as to the dear friend to whom I trust in you honorably to repeat it sometime hence when I am more composed and reconciled to my new mode of life if I should live so long I will write to him meantime all holy angels shower blessings on his head and prosper and preserve him she was hurrying past Nicholas when he threw himself before her and implored her to think but once again upon the fate to which she was precipitately hastening there is no retreat said Nicholas in an agony of supplication all regret will be unavailing and deep and bitter it must be what can I say that will induce you to pause at this last moment what can I do to save you nothing she incoherently replied this is the hardest trial I have had have mercy on me sir I beseech and do not pierce my heart with such appeals as these I hear him calling I I must not will not remain near for another instant if this were a plot said Nicholas with the same violent rapidity with which she spoke a plot not yet laid bare by me but which with time I might unravel if you were not knowing it entitled to fortune of your own which being recovered would do all that this marriage can accomplish would you not retract no no no it is impossible it is a child's tale time would bring his death he is calling me again it may be the last time we shall ever meet on earth said Nicholas be better for me that we should never meet more for both for both replied Madeline not heeding what she said the time will come when to recall the memory of this one interview might drive me mad be sure to tell them that you left me calm and happy and God be with you sir and my grateful heart and blessing she was gone Nicholas staggering from the house thought of the hurried scene which had just closed upon him as if it were the phantom of some wild unquiet dream the day wore on at night having been enabled in some measure to collect his thoughts he issued forth again that night being the last of Arthur Gryde's bachelorship found him in tip-top spirits in great glee the bottle green suit had been brushed ready for the morrow Pegg's slitter skew had rendered the accounts of her past housekeeping the 18 pence had been rigidly accounted for she never trusted with a larger some at once and the accounts were not usually balanced more than twice a day every preparation had been made for the coming festival and Arthur might have sat down and contemplated his approaching happiness but that he preferred sitting down and contemplating the entries in a dirty old vellum book with rusty eat clasps while a day he chuckled as sinking on his knees before a strong chest screwed down to the floor his arm nearly up to the shoulder and slowly drew forth this greasy volume while a day now this is all my library but it's one of the most entertaining books that were ever written it's a delightful book and all true and real that's the best of it true as the bank of england and real as its gold and silver written by Arthur Gryde none of your story book writers will ever make a good as book as this I warrant me for private circulation for my own particular reading and nobody else's muttering this soliloquy Arthur carried his precious volume to the table and adjusting it upon a dusty desk put on his spectacles and began to pour among the leaves it's a large sum to Mr. Nicolby he said in a dollarous voice debt to be paid in full 975.43 additional sum as per bond 1475 pounds 4 shillings and 3 pence tomorrow at 12 o'clock on the other side though there's the per contra by means of this pretty chick but again there's the question whether I mightn't have brought all this about myself faint heart never won fair lady why was my heart so faint why didn't I boldly open it to bray myself and save 1475.43 these reflections depressed the old user so much as to wring a feeble groan or two from his breast and cause him to declare with uplifted hands that he would die in a workhouse remembering on further cogitation however that under any circumstances he might have paid or handsomely compounded for Ralph's debt and being by no means confident that he would have succeeded had he undertaken his enterprise alone he regained his equanimity and chattered in mode over the satisfactory items until the entrance of Peg's slitter skew interrupted him aha Peg said Arthur what is it, what is it now Peg it's the foul replied Peg holding of a plate containing a little a very little one quite a phenomenon of a foul so very small and skinny a beautiful bird said Arthur after inquiring the price and finding it proportionate to its size do you have ham and an egg made into sauce and potatoes and greens and an apple of pudding Peg in a little bit of cheese we shall have a dinner for an emperor there will only be she and me and you Peg when we've done don't you complain of the expense afterwards said Mrs. Slitter Skew sulkily I'm afraid we must live expensively for the first week returned Arthur with a groan and then we must make up for it and I know you love your old master too much to eat more than you can help don't you Peg don't I what said Peg love your old master too much no not a bit too much said Peg oh dear I wish the devil had this woman cried Arthur love him too much to eat more than you can help at his expense at his what said Peg oh dear she can never hear the most important word and here's all the others why cried at his expense you catamaran last mentioned tribute to the charms of Mrs. Slitter Skew being uttered in a whisper that lady assented to the general proposition by a harsh growl which was accompanied by a ring at the street door there's the bell said Arthur aye aye I know that rejoined Peg then why don't you go go where retorted Peg I ain't doing any harm here am I Arthur cried in reply repeated the word bell as loud as he could roar and his meaning being rendered further intelligible to Mrs. Slitter Skew's dull sense of hearing by pantomime expressive of ringing at a door street door Peg hobbled out after sharply demanding why he hadn't said there was a ring before instead of talking about all manner of things that had nothing to do with it and keeping her half pint of beer waiting on the steps there's a change come over you Mrs. Peg said Arthur following her out with his eyes what it means I don't quite know but if it lasts we shan't agree together long I see you are turning crazy I think if you are you must take yourself off Mrs. Peg or be taken off all's one to me turning over the leaves of his book as he muttered this he soon lighted upon something which attracted his attention and forgot Peg slitter Skew and everything else in the engrossing interest of its pages the room had no other light than that which it derived from a dim and dirt clock lamp whose lazy wick being still further obscured by a dark shade cast its feeble rays over a very little space and left all beyond in heavy shadow this lamp the moneylender had drawn so close to him that there was only room between it and himself for the book over which he bent and as he sat with his elbows on the desk and his sharp cheekbones sitting on his hands it only served to bring out his ugly features in strong relief together with the little table at which he sat and to shroud all the rest of the chamber in a deep, swollen gloom raising his eyes and looking vacantly into this gloom as he made some mental calculation Arthur Gryde suddenly met the fixed gaze of a man thieves, thieves cried the user starting up and folding his book to his breast robbers, murder what's the matter, said the form advancing keep off, cried their trembling wretch is it a man or a for what do you take me if not for a man, was the inquiry yes, yes, cried Arthur Gryde, shading his eyes with his hand it is a man and not a spirit it is a man, robbers, robbers for what are these cries raised unless indeed you know me and have some purpose in your brain said the stranger coming close up to him I am no thief what then and how come you here cried Gryde somewhat reassured but still retreating from his visitor what is your name and what do you want my name you did not know, was the reply I came here because I was shown the way by your servant I have addressed you twice or thrice but you were too profoundly engaged with your book to hear me and I have been silently waiting until you should be lay subtracted what I want I will tell you I have been up courage enough to hear and understand me Arthur Gryde venturing to regard his visitor more attentively and perceiving that he was a young man of good mean and bearing returned his seat and muttering that there were bad characters about and that this with former attempts upon his house had made him nervous requested his visitor to sit down this however he declined good god I don't stand up to have you Nicholas for Nicholas it was as he observed a gesture of alarm on the part of Gryde listen to me you are to be married tomorrow morning no rejoined Gryde who said I was how do you know that no matter how replied Nicholas I know it the young lady who is to give you her hand hates and despises you her blood runs cold at the mention of your name the vulture and the lamb the rat and the dove could not be worse matched than you and she you see I know her Gryde looked at him as if he were petrified with astonishment but did not speak perhaps lacking the power you and another man Ralph Nicholby by name have hatched this plot between you pursued Nicholas you pay him for his share in bringing about this sale of Madeleine Bray you do a lie is trembling on your lips I see he paused but Arthur making no reply resumed again you pay yourself by defrauding her how or by what means for I scorn to sully her cause by falset or deceit I do not know at present I do not know but I am not alone or single handed in this business if the energy of man can compass the discovery of your fright and treachery before your death if wealth revenge and just hatred can hunt and track you through your windings you will yet be called to a dear account for this we are on the scent already judge you who know what we do not when we shall have you down he paused again and still Arthur grad glared upon him in silence if you were a man to whom I could appeal with any hope of touching his compassion or humanity said Nicholas I would urge upon you to remember the helplessness the innocence the youth of this lady her worth and beauty her filial excellence and last and more than all as concerning you more nearly the appeal she has made to your mercy and your manly feeling but I take the only ground that I can be taken with men like you and ask what money will buy you off remember the danger to which you are exposed you see I know enough to know much more with very little help bait some expected gain for the risk you save and say what is your price old Arthur grad moved his lips but they only formed an ugly smile and were motionless again you think said Nicholas that the price would not be paid Miss Bray has wealthy friends who would coin their very hearts to save her in such a straight as this name your price defer these nuptials for but a few days and see whether those I speak of shrink from the payment do you hear me when Nicholas began Arthur grad's impression was that Ralph he had betrayed him but as he proceeded he felt convinced that however he had come by the knowledge he possessed the part he acted was a genuine one and that with Ralph he had no concern all he seemed to know for certain was that he cried paid Ralph debts but that to anybody who knew the circumstances of braised attention even to Bray himself on Ralph's own statement must be perfectly glorious as to the fraud on Madeleine herself his visitor knew so little about its nature or extent that it might be a lucky guess or haphazard accusation whether or no he had clearly no key to the mystery and could not hurt him who kept it close within his own breast the illusion to friends and the offer of money great held to be merely empty vaporing for purposes of delay and even if money were to be had thought Arthur as he glanced at Nicholas and trembled with passion at his boldness and audacity I'd have that dainty check for my wife and cheat you of her young smooth face long habit of weighing and noting well what clients said and nicely balancing chances in his mind and calculating odds to their faces without the least of being so engaged had rendered quick in forming conclusions and arriving from puzzling intricate and often contradictory premises at very cunning deductions hence it was that as Nicholas went on he followed him closely with his own constructions and when he ceased to speak was as well prepared as if he had deliberated for a fortnight I hear you he cried starting from his seat and casting back the fastenings of the window shutters and throwing up the sash help there help help what are you doing said Nicholas ceasing him by the arm I'll cry robbers thieves murder alarm the neighborhoods struggle with you let loose some blood and swear you came to rob me if you don't quit my house replied cried drawing in his head with a frightful grin I will wretch cried Nicholas you'll bring threats here will you said cried whom jealousy of Nicholas and a sense of his own triumph had converted into a perfect fiend you the disappointed lover oh dear he he he but you shan't have her nor she you she's my wife my doting little wife do you think she'll miss you do you think she'll weep I shall like to see her weep I shan't mind that she looks prettier in tears villain said Nicholas choking with rage one minute more cried Arthur cried and I'll rouse the street with such screams as if they were raised by anybody else should wake me even in the arms of pretty Madeline you hound said Nicholas if you were but a younger man oh yes neared Arthur cried if I were but a younger man it wouldn't be so bad but for me so old and ugly to be jilted by little Madeline for me hear me said Nicholas and be thankful I have enough command over myself not to fling you into the street which no aid could prevent my doing if I once grappled with you I have been no lover of this ladies no contract or engagement nor word of love has ever passed between us she does not even know my name I'll ask it for all that I'll beg it of her with kisses said Arthur cried yes and she'll tell me and pay them back and we'll laugh together and hug ourselves and be very merry when we think of the poor youth that wanted to have her but couldn't she was bespoke to be this taunt brought such an expression into the face of Nicholas that Arthur cried plainly apprehended it to be the forerunner of his putting his thread of throwing him into the street in immediate execution for he thrust his head out of the window and holding tight on with both hands raised a pretty brisk alarm not thinking it necessary to abide by the issue of the noise Nicholas gave vent to an indignant defiance and stalked from the room and from the house Arthur cried watched him across the street then with drawing in his head fastened the window as before and sat down to take a breath if she ever turns pedish or ill-humored I'll taunt her with that spark he said when he recovered she'll little think I know about him and if I manage it well I can break her spirit by this means and have her under my thumb I'm glad nobody came I didn't call too loud the audacity to enter my house and open upon me but I shall have a very good triumph tomorrow and he'll be gnawing off his fingers perhaps drown himself or cut his throat I shouldn't wonder that would make it quite complete that would quite when he had become restored to his usual condition by these and other comments on his approaching triumph Arthur cried put away his book and having locked his chest with great caution descended into the kitchen to warn Peg slitter-skew to bed and scold her for having afforded such ready admission to a stranger the unconscious Peg however not being able to comprehend the offense of which she had been guilty he summoned her to hold the light while he made a tour of the fastenings and secured the street door with his own hands top bolt muttered Arthur fastening as he spoke bottom bolt chain bar double lock and key out to put under my pillow so if any more rejected admirers come they may come through the keyhole and now I'll go to sleep till half past five when I must get up to be married Peg with that he jocularly tapped Mrs. Slitter-skew under the chin and appeared for the moment inclined to celebrate the close of his bachelor days by imprinting a kiss on her shriveled lips thinking better of it however he gave her chin another tap and loo of that warmer familiarity and stole away to bed this is the end of chapter 53 of Nicholas Nickelwee by Charles Dickens