. Nickleby, sir, Frank judged hastily, but he judged,
for once, correctly. Madeline's heart is occupied--give me your hand--it
is occupied by you and worthily. She chooses you, Mr. Nickleby, as we,
her dearest friends, would have her choose. Frank chooses as we would
have _him_ choose. He should have your sister's little hand, sir, if she
had refused it a score of times--ay, he should, and he shall! What? You
are the children of a worthy gentleman. The time was, sir, when my
brother Ned and I were two poor, simple-hearted boys, wandering almost
barefoot to seek bur fortunes. Oh, Ned, Ned, Ned, what a happy day this
is for you and me! If our poor mother had only lived to see us now, Ned,
how proud it would have made her dear heart at last!"

So Madeline gave her heart and fortune to Nicholas, and on the same day,
and at the same time, Kate became Mrs. Frank Cheeryble. Madeline's money
was invested in the firm of Cheeryble Brothers, in which Nicholas had
become a partner, and before many years elapsed the business was carried
on in the names of "Cheeryble and Nickleby."

Tim Linkinwater condescended, after much entreating and brow-beating, to
accept a share in the house; but he could never be prevailed upon to
suffer the publication of his name as partner, and always persisted in
the punctual and regular discharge of his clerkly duties.

The twin brothers retired. Who needs to be told that they were happy?

The first act of Nicholas, when he became a rich and prosperous
merchant, was to buy his father's old house. As time crept on, and there
came gradually about him a group of lovely children, it was altered and
enlarged; but no tree was rooted up, nothing with which there was any
association of bygone times was ever removed or changed. Mr. Squeers,
having come within the meshes of the law over some nefarious scheme of
Ralph Nickleby's, suffered transportation beyond the seas, and with his
disappearance Dotheboys Hall was broken up for good.

* * * * *

Oliver Twist

"The Adventures of Oliver Twist," published serially in
"Bentley's Miscellany," 1837-39, and in book form in 1838, was
the second of Dickens's novels. It lacks the exuberance of
"Pickwick," and is more limited in its scenes and characters
than any other novel he wrote, excepting "Hard Times" and
"Great Expectations." But the description of the workhouse,
its inmates and governor