t those were slight advantages compared with yours. Luck, luck! These
hang-dog outcasts have it.'

'He'll need the most he has, when I am well again,' said Sir Mulberry
Hawk, 'let him fly where he will.'

'Oh!' returned Ralph quickly, 'he doesn't dream of that. He is here,
good sir, waiting your pleasure, here in London, walking the streets
at noonday; carrying it off jauntily; looking for you, I swear,' said
Ralph, his face darkening, and his own hatred getting the upper hand
of him, for the first time, as this gay picture of Nicholas presented
itself; 'if we were only citizens of a country where it could be safely
done, I'd give good money to have him stabbed to the heart and rolled
into the kennel for the dogs to tear.'

As Ralph, somewhat to the surprise of his old client, vented this
little piece of sound family feeling, and took up his hat preparatory to
departing, Lord Frederick Verisopht looked in.

'Why what in the deyvle's name, Hawk, have you and Nickleby been talking
about?' said the young man. 'I neyver heard such an insufferable riot.
Croak, croak, croak. Bow, wow, wow. What has it all been about?'

'Sir Mulberry has been angry, my Lord,' said Ralph, looking towards the
couch.

'Not about money, I hope? Nothing has gone wrong in business, has it,
Nickleby?'

'No, my Lord, no,' returned Ralph. 'On that point we always agree. Sir
Mulberry has been calling to mind the cause of--'

There was neither necessity nor opportunity for Ralph to proceed; for
Sir Mulberry took up the theme, and vented his threats and oaths against
Nicholas, almost as ferociously as before.

Ralph, who was no common observer, was surprised to see that as this
tirade proceeded, the manner of Lord Frederick Verisopht, who at the
commencement had been twirling his whiskers with a most dandified
and listless air, underwent a complete alteration. He was still more
surprised when, Sir Mulberry ceasing to speak, the young lord angrily,
and almost unaffectedly, requested never to have the subject renewed in
his presence.

'Mind that, Hawk!' he added, with unusual energy. 'I never will be a
party to, or permit, if I can help it, a cowardly attack upon this young
fellow.'

'Cowardly!' interrupted his friend.

'Ye-es,' said the other, turning full upon him. 'If you had told him
who you were; if you had given him your card, and found out, afterwards,
that his station or character prevented your fighting him, it would have
been bad e