d of course, it is a very great pleasure
to me to be introduced to anybody you take an interest in. There can he
no doubt about that; none at all; not the least in the world,' said Mrs
Nickleby. 'At the same time I must say, Nicholas, my dear, as I used
to say to your poor dear papa, when he WOULD bring gentlemen home to
dinner, and there was nothing in the house, that if he had come the
day before yesterday--no, I don't mean the day before yesterday now;
I should have said, perhaps, the year before last--we should have been
better able to entertain him.'
With which remarks, Mrs Nickleby turned to her daughter, and inquired,
in an audible whisper, whether the gentleman was going to stop all
night.
'Because, if he is, Kate, my dear,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'I don't see that
it's possible for him to sleep anywhere, and that's the truth.'
Kate stepped gracefully forward, and without any show of annoyance or
irritation, breathed a few words into her mother's ear.
'La, Kate, my dear,' said Mrs Nickleby, shrinking back, 'how you do
tickle one! Of course, I understand THAT, my love, without your telling
me; and I said the same to Nicholas, and I AM very much pleased. You
didn't tell me, Nicholas, my dear,' added Mrs Nickleby, turning round
with an air of less reserve than she had before assumed, 'what your
friend's name is.'
'His name, mother,' replied Nicholas, 'is Smike.'
The effect of this communication was by no means anticipated; but the
name was no sooner pronounced, than Mrs Nickleby dropped upon a chair,
and burst into a fit of crying.
'What is the matter?' exclaimed Nicholas, running to support her.
'It's so like Pyke,' cried Mrs Nickleby; 'so exactly like Pyke. Oh!
don't speak to me--I shall be better presently.'
And after exhibiting every symptom of slow suffocation in all its
stages, and drinking about a tea-spoonful of water from a full tumbler,
and spilling the remainder, Mrs Nickleby WAS better, and remarked, with
a feeble smile, that she was very foolish, she knew.
'It's a weakness in our family,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'so, of course,
I can't be blamed for it. Your grandmama, Kate, was exactly the
same--precisely. The least excitement, the slightest surprise--she
fainted away directly. I have heard her say, often and often, that when
she was a young lady, and before she was married, she was turning
a corner into Oxford Street one day, when she ran against her own
hairdresser, who, it seems, was e
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