ther Charles, 'that we dine at half-past five
today instead of two o'clock; we always depart from our usual custom on
this anniversary, as you very well know, Tim Linkinwater. Mr Nickleby,
my dear sir, you will make one. Tim Linkinwater, give me your snuff-box
as a remembrance to brother Charles and myself of an attached and
faithful rascal, and take that, in exchange, as a feeble mark of our
respect and esteem, and don't open it until you go to bed, and never
say another word upon the subject, or I'll kill the blackbird. A dog! He
should have had a golden cage half-a-dozen years ago, if it would have
made him or his master a bit the happier. Now, brother Ned, my dear
fellow, I'm ready. At half-past five, remember, Mr Nickleby! Tim
Linkinwater, sir, take care of Mr Nickleby at half-past five. Now,
brother Ned.'

Chattering away thus, according to custom, to prevent the possibility
of any thanks or acknowledgment being expressed on the other side, the
twins trotted off, arm-in-arm; having endowed Tim Linkinwater with a
costly gold snuff-box, enclosing a bank note worth more than its value
ten times told.

At a quarter past five o'clock, punctual to the minute, arrived,
according to annual usage, Tim Linkinwater's sister; and a great to-do
there was, between Tim Linkinwater's sister and the old housekeeper,
respecting Tim Linkinwater's sister's cap, which had been dispatched,
per boy, from the house of the family where Tim Linkinwater's sister
boarded, and had not yet come to hand: notwithstanding that it had
been packed up in a bandbox, and the bandbox in a handkerchief, and the
handkerchief tied on to the boy's arm; and notwithstanding, too, that
the place of its consignment had been duly set forth, at full length,
on the back of an old letter, and the boy enjoined, under pain of divers
horrible penalties, the full extent of which the eye of man could not
foresee, to deliver the same with all possible speed, and not to loiter
by the way. Tim Linkinwater's sister lamented; the housekeeper condoled;
and both kept thrusting their heads out of the second-floor window to
see if the boy was 'coming'--which would have been highly satisfactory,
and, upon the whole, tantamount to his being come, as the distance to
the corner was not quite five yards--when, all of a sudden, and when he
was least expected, the messenger, carrying the bandbox with elaborate
caution, appeared in an exactly opposite direction, puffing and panting
f