"Who, indeed, pa!" replied that young lady, spitefully. "But you see "Tilda is married at last." "And I stond threat for a soight o' Lunnun, schoolmeasther," said John, vigorously attacking the pie. "One of them things that young men do when they get married," returned Squeers, "and as runs through with their money like nothing at all! How much better wouldn't it be now, to save it up for the eddication of any little boys, for instance. They come on you," said Mr. Squeers in a moralising way, "before you're aware of it; mine did upon me." "Will 'ee pick a bit?" said John. "I won't myself," returned Squeers; "but if you'll just let little Wackford tuck into something fat, I'll be obliged to you. Give it him in his fingers, else the waiter charges it on, and there's lot of profit on this sort of vittles without that. If you hear the waiter coming, sir, shove it in your pocket and look out of the window, d' ye hear?" "I'm awake, father," replied the dutiful Wackford. "Well," said Squeers, turning to his daughter, "It's your turn to be married You must make haste." next. "Oh, I'm in no hurry," said Miss Squeers, very sharply. "No, Fanny?" cried her old friend with some archness. No, 'Tilda," replied Miss Squeers, shaking her head vehemently. "I can wait.” "So can the young men, it seems, Fanny," observed Mrs. Browdie. "They an't draw'd into it by me, Tilda," retorted Miss Squeers. "No," returned her friend; "that's exceedingly true." The sarcastic tone of this reply might have provoked a rather acrimonious retort from Miss Squeers, who, besides being of a constitutionally vicious temper-aggravated, just now, by travel and recent jolting-was somewhat irritated by old recollections and the failure of her own designs upon Mr. Browdie. And the acrimonious retort might have led to a great many other retorts, which might have led to Heaven knows what, if the subject of conversation had not been, at that precise moment, accidentally changed by Mr. Squeers himself. "What do you think?" said that gentleman; "who do you suppose we have laid hands on, Wackford and me?" "Pa! not Mr. -?" Miss Squeers was unable to finish the sentence, but Mrs. Browdie did it for her, and added, "Nickleby?" "No," said Squeers. "But next door to him though." "You can't mean Smike?" cried Miss Squeers, clapping her hands. "Yes, I can though," rejoined her father. "I've got him, hard and fast." "Wa'at!" exclaimed John Browdie, pushing away his plate. "Got that poor -dom'd scoondrel? Where?" "Why, in the top back room, at my lodging," replied Squeers, "with him on one side, and the key on the other." 66 At thy loodgin'! Thee'st gotten him at thy loodgin'? Ho! ho! The schoolmeasther agin all England! Give us thee hond, mun; I'm darned but I must shak thee by the hond for thot.-Gotten him at thy loodgin'?" "Yes," replied Squeers, staggering in his chair under the congratulatory blow on the chest which the stout Yorkshireman dealt him; "thankee. Don't do it again. You mean it kindly, I know, but it hurts rather. Yes, there he is. That's not so bad, is it?" "Ba'ad !" repeated John Browdie. "It's eneaf to scare a mun to hear tell on." "I thought it would surprise you a bit," said Squeers, rubbing his hands. "It was pretty neatly done, and pretty quick too." John Browdie goes to Bed. 315 "Hoo wor it?" inquired John, sitting down close to him. "Tell us all aboot it, mun; coom, quick!" Although he could not keep pace with John Browdie's impatience, Mr. Squeers related the lucky chance by which Smike had fallen into his hands, as quickly as he could, and, except when he was interrupted by the admiring remarks of his auditors, paused not in the recital until he had brought it to an end. "For fear he should give me the slip, by any chance," observed Squeers, when he had finished, looking very cunning, "I've taken three outsides for to-morrow morning-for Wackford and him and me-and have arranged to leave the accounts and the new boys to the agent, don't you see? So, it's very lucky you come today, or you'd have missed us; as it is, unless you could come and tea with me tonight, we shan't see anything more of you before we go away.' "Dean't say anoother wurd," returned the Yorkshireman, shaking him by the hand. "We'd coom, if it was twonty mile." "No, would you though? returned Mr. Squeers, who had not expected quite such a ready acceptance of his invitation, or he would have considered twice before he gave it. John Browdie's only reply was another squeeze of the hand, and an assurance that they would not begin to see London till to-morrow, so that they might be at Mr. Snawley's at six o'clock without fail. After some further conversation, Mr. Squeers and his son departed. During the remainder of the day, Mr. Browdie was in a very odd and excitable state; bursting occasionally into an explosion of laughter, and then taking up his hat and running into the coach-yard to have it out by himself. He was very restless too, constantly walking in and out, and snapping his fingers, and dancing scraps of uncouth country dances, and, in short, conducting himself in such a very extraordinary manner, that Miss Squeers opined he was going mad, and, begging her dear 'Tilda not to distress herself, communicated her suspicions in so many words. Mrs. Browdie, however, without discovering any great alarm, observed that she had seen him so, once before, and that although he was almost sure to be ill after it, it would not be anything very serious, and therefore he was better left alone. The result proved her to be perfectly correct; for, while they were all sitting in Mr. Snawley's parlour that night, and just as it was beginning to get dusk, John Browdie was taken so ill, and seized with such an alarming dizziness in the head, that the whole company were thrown into the utmost consternation. His good lady, indeed, was the only person present who retained presence of mind enough to observe that if he were allowed to lie down on Mr. Squeers's bed for an hour or so, and were left entirely to himself, he would be sure to recover again almost as quickly as he had been taken ill. Nobody could refuse to try the effect of so reasonable a proposal, before sending for a surgeon. Accordingly, John was supported up-stairs, with great difficulty (being a monstrous weight, and regularly tumbling down two steps every time they hoisted him up three), and, being laid on the bed, was left in charge of his wife, who after a short interval re-appeared in the parlour, with the gratifying intelligence that he had fallen fast asleep. Now, the fact was, that at that particular moment, John Browdie was sitting on the bed, with the reddest face ever seen, cramming the corner of the pillow into his mouth, to prevent his roaring out loud with laughter. He had no sooner succeeded in suppressing this emotion, than he slipped off his shoes, and, creeping to the adjoining room where the prisoner was confined, turned the key, which was on the outside, and darting in, covered Smike's mouth with his huge hand before he could utter a sound. "Ods-bobs, dost thee not know me, mun?" whispered the Yorkshireman to the bewildered lad. banged?" "Browdie. Chap as met thee efther schoolmeasther was "Yes, yes," cried Smike. "Oh! help me. "Help thee!" replied John, stopping his mouth again, the instant he had said thus much. "Thee didn't need help, if thee warn't as silly yoongster as ever draw'd breath. Wa'at did 'ee come here for, then?" "He brought me ; oh! he brought me," cried Smike. 66 "Brout thee!" replied John. Why didn't 'ee punch his head, or lay theeself doon and kick, and squeal out for the pollis? I'd ha' licked a doozen such as him when I was yoong as thee. But thee be'est a poor broken-doon chap," said John, sadly, "and God forgi' me for bragging ower yan o' his weakest creeturs! Smike opened his mouth to speak, but John Browdie stopped him. "Stan' still," said the Yorkshireman, "and doant'ee speak a morsel o' talk till I tell'ee." With this caution, John Browdie shook his head significantly, and, drawing a screw-driver from his pocket, took off the box of the lock in a very deliberate and workmanlike manner, and laid it, together with the implement, on the floor. "See thot?" said John. "Thot be thy doin'. Noo, coot awa'!" Smike looked vacantly at him, as if unable to comprehend his meaning. "I say, coot awa'," repeated John, hastily. "Dost thee know where thee livest? Thee dost? Weel. Are yon thy clothes, or schoolmeasther's?" "Mine," replied Smike, as the Yorkshireman hurried him to the adjoining room, and pointed out a pair of shoes and a coat which were lying on a chair. "On wi' 'em!" said John, forcing the wrong arm into the wrong sleeve, and winding the tails of the coat round the fugitive's neck. "Noo, foller me, and when thee get'st ootside door, turn to the right, and they wean't see thee pass." "But-but-he'll hear me shut the door," replied Smike, trembling from head to foot. "Then dean't shut it at all," retorted John Browdie. afeard o' schoolmeasther's takkin cold, I hope?" "N-no," said Smike, his teeth chattering in his head. back before, and will again. He will, he will indeed." "Dang it, thee bean't "But he brought me "He wull, he wull?" replied John, impatiently. "He wean't, he wean't. Look'ee! I wont to do this neighbourly loike, and let them think thee's gotten awa' o' theeself, but if he cooms oot o' thot parlour awhiles thee'rt clearing off, he mun' have mercy on his oun boans, for I wean't. If he foinds it oot, soon efther, I'll put un' on a wrong scent, I warrant 'ee. But if thee keep'st a good hart, thee'lt be at whoam afore they know thee'st gotten off. Coom!" Smike, who comprehended just enough of this to know it was intended as encouragement, prepared to follow with tottering steps, when John whispered in his ear. "Thee'lt just tell yoong Measther, that I'm sploiced to 'Tilly Price, and to be heerd on at the Saracen by latther, and that I bean't jealous of 'un-dang it, I'm loike to boost when I thick o' that neight! 'Cod, I think I see 'un now, a pow derin' awa' at the thin bread an' butther!" It was rather a ticklish recollection for John just then, for he was within an ace of breaking out into a loud guffaw. Restraining himself, however, just in time, by a great effort, he glided down stairs, hauling Smike behind him; then, placing himself close to the parlour-door, to confront the first person that might come out, he signed to Sinike to make off. Having got so far, Smike needed no second bidding. Opening the housedoor gently, and casting a look of mingled gratitude and terror at his deliverer, he took the direction which had been indicated to him, and sped away, like the wind. The Yorkshireman remained on his post, for a few minutes, but, finding that there was no pause in the conversation inside, crept back again unheard, and stood listening over the stair-rail for a full hour. Everything remaining perfectly quiet, he got into Mr. Squeers's bed, once more, and drawing the clothes over his head, laughed till he was nearly smothered. If there could only have been somebody by, to see how the bed-clothes shook, and to see the Yorkshireman's great red face and round head appear above the sheets, every now and then, like some jovial monster coming to the surface to breathe, and once more dive down convulsed with the laughter which came bursting forth afresh-that somebody would have been scarcely less amused than John Browdie himself. CHAPTER XL. IN WHICH NICHOLAS FALLS IN LOVE. ONCE more out of the clutches of his old persecutor, it needed no fresh stimulation to call forth the utmost energy and exertion that Smike was capable of summoning to his aid. Without pausing for a moment to reflect upon the course he was taking, or the probability of its leading him homewards or the reverse, he fled away with surprising swiftness and constancy of purpose, borne upon such wings as only Fear can wear, and impelled by imaginary shouts in the well-remembered voice of Squeers, who, with a host of pursuers, seemed to the poor fellow's disordered senses to press hard upon his track; now left at a greater distance in the rear, and now gaining faster and faster upon him, as the alternations of hope and terror agitated him by turns. Long after he had become assured that these sounds were but the creation of his excited brain, he still held on, at a pace, which even weakness and exhaustion could scarcely retard. It was not until the darkness and quiet of a country road, recalled him to a sense of external objects, and the starry sky, above, warned him of the rapid flight of time, that, covered with dust and panting for breath, he stopped to listen and look about him. It All was still and silent. A glare of light in the distance, casting a warm glow upon the sky, marked where the huge city lay. Solitary fields, divided by hedges and ditches, through many of which he had crashed and scrambled in his flight, skirted the road, both by the way he had come and upon the opposite side. was late now. They could scarcely trace him by such paths as he had taken, and if he could hope to regain his own dwelling, it must surely be at such a time as that, and under cover of the darkness. This, by degrees, became pretty plain, even to the mind of Smike. He had, at first, entertained some vague and childish idea of travelling into the country for ten or a dozen miles, and then returning homewards, by a wide circuit, which should keep him clear of London-so great was his apprehension of traversing the streets alone, lest he should again encounter his dreaded enemy-but, yielding to the conviction which these thoughts inspired, he turned back, and taking the open road, though not without many fears and misgivings, made for London again, with scarcely less speed of foot than that with which he had left the temporary abode of Mr. Squeers. By the time he re-entered it, at the western extremity, the greater part of the shops were closed. Of the throngs of people who had been tempted abroad after the heat of the day, but few remained in the streets, and they were lounging home. But of these he asked his way from time to time, and, by dint of repeated inquiries, he at length reached the dwelling of Newman Noggs. his ears. All that evening, Newman had been hunting and searching in by-ways and corners for the very person who now knocked at his door, while Nicholas had been pursuing the same inquiry in other directions. He was sitting, with a melancholy air, at his poor supper, when Smike's timorous and uncertain knock reached Alive to every sound, in his anxious and expectant state, Newman hurried down stairs, and, uttering a cry of joyful surprise, dragged the welcome visitor into the passage and up the stairs, and said not a word until he had him safe in his own garret and the door was shut behind them, when he mixed a great mug-full of gin and water, and holding it to Smike's mouth, as one might hold a bowl of medicine to the lips of a refractory child, commanded him to drain it to the last drop. Newman looked uncommonly blank when he found that Smike did little more than put his lips to the precious mixture; he was in the act of raising the mug to his own mouth with a deep sigh of compassion for his poor friend's weakness, when Smike, beginning to relate the adventures which had befallen him, arrested him half-way, and he stood listening, with the mug in his hand. It was odd enough to see the change that came over Newman as Smike proceeded. At first he stood, rubbing his lips with the back of his hand, as a preparatory ceremony towards composing himself for a draught; then, at the mention of Squeers, he took the mug under his arm, and opening his eyes very wide, looked on in the utmost astonishment. When Smike came to the assault upon himself, in the hackney-coach, he hastily deposited the mug upon the table, and limped up and down the room in a state of the greatest excitement, stopping him. self with a jerk, every now and then, as if to listen more attentively. When John Browdie came to be spoken of, he dropped, by slow and gradual degrees, into a chair, and rubbing his hands upon his knees-quicker and quicker as the story reached its climax-burst, at last, into a laugh composed of one loud sonorous "Ha! ha!" Having given vent to which, his countenance immediately fell again as he inquired, with the utmost anxiety, whether it was probable that John Browdie and Squeers had come to blows? "No! I think not,” replied Smike. “I don't think he could have missed me till I had got quite away. Newman scratched his head with a show of great disappointment, and once more lifting up the mug, applied himself to the contents; smiling meanwhile, over the rim, with a grim and ghastly smile at Smike. "You shall stay here," said Newman; "you're tired-fagged. I'll tell them you're come back. They have been half mad about you. Mr. Nicholas-" "God bless him!" cried Smike. "Amen!" returned Newman. "He hasn't had a minute's rest or peace; no more has the old lady, nor Miss Nickleby.' 66 No, no. Has she thought about me?" said Smike. "Has she though? Oh, has she, has she? Don't tell me so, if she has not." "She has," cried Newman. "Yes, yes!" cried Smike. "She is as noble-hearted as she is beautiful." "So mild and gentle," said Newman. "Yes, yes! cried Smike, with increasing eagerness. “And yet with such a true and gallant spirit," pursued Newman. He was going on, in his enthusiasm, when, chancing to look at his companion, he saw that he had covered his face with his hands, and that tears were stealing out between his fingers. |