your hand and heart, you can apply to
the Lord Chancellor or call out the military if necessary--sending my
toothpick to the commander-in-chief will be sufficient--and so clear the
house of them before the ceremony is performed. After that, love, bliss
and rapture; rapture, love and bliss. Be mine, be mine!'

Repeating these last words with great rapture and enthusiasm, the old
gentleman put on his black velvet cap again, and looking up into the
sky in a hasty manner, said something that was not quite intelligible
concerning a balloon he expected, and which was rather after its time.

'Be mine, be mine!' repeated the old gentleman.

'Kate, my dear,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'I have hardly the power to speak;
but it is necessary for the happiness of all parties that this matter
should be set at rest for ever.'

'Surely there is no necessity for you to say one word, mama?' reasoned
Kate.

'You will allow me, my dear, if you please, to judge for myself,' said
Mrs Nickleby.

'Be mine, be mine!' cried the old gentleman.

'It can scarcely be expected, sir,' said Mrs Nickleby, fixing her eyes
modestly on the ground, 'that I should tell a stranger whether I feel
flattered and obliged by such proposals, or not. They certainly are made
under very singular circumstances; still at the same time, as far as
it goes, and to a certain extent of course' (Mrs Nickleby's customary
qualification), 'they must be gratifying and agreeable to one's
feelings.'

'Be mine, be mine,' cried the old gentleman. 'Gog and Magog, Gog and
Magog. Be mine, be mine!'

'It will be sufficient for me to say, sir,' resumed Mrs Nickleby, with
perfect seriousness--'and I'm sure you'll see the propriety of taking
an answer and going away--that I have made up my mind to remain a widow,
and to devote myself to my children. You may not suppose I am the mother
of two children--indeed many people have doubted it, and said that
nothing on earth could ever make 'em believe it possible--but it is the
case, and they are both grown up. We shall be very glad to have you for
a neighbour--very glad; delighted, I'm sure--but in any other character
it's quite impossible, quite. As to my being young enough to marry
again, that perhaps may be so, or it may not be; but I couldn't think
of it for an instant, not on any account whatever. I said I never would,
and I never will. It's a very painful thing to have to reject proposals,
and I would much rather that none were made; at