rious,' returned Kate, colouring again; and this
time beyond all dispute.

'Not serious!' returned Mrs Nickleby; 'why shouldn't I be serious?
I'm sure I never was more serious. I will say that his politeness and
attention to me is one of the most becoming, gratifying, pleasant
things I have seen for a very long time. You don't often meet with such
behaviour in young men, and it strikes one more when one does meet with
it.'

'Oh! attention to YOU, mama,' rejoined Kate quickly--'oh yes.'

'Dear me, Kate,' retorted Mrs Nickleby, 'what an extraordinary girl you
are! Was it likely I should be talking of his attention to anybody else?
I declare I'm quite sorry to think he should be in love with a German
lady, that I am.'

'He said very positively that it was no such thing, mama,' returned
Kate. 'Don't you remember his saying so that very first night he came
here? Besides,' she added, in a more gentle tone, 'why should WE be
sorry if it is the case? What is it to us, mama?'

'Nothing to US, Kate, perhaps,' said Mrs Nickleby, emphatically; 'but
something to ME, I confess. I like English people to be thorough English
people, and not half English and half I don't know what. I shall tell
him point-blank next time he comes, that I wish he would marry one of
his own country-women; and see what he says to that.'

'Pray don't think of such a thing, mama,' returned Kate, hastily; 'not
for the world. Consider. How very--'

'Well, my dear, how very what?' said Mrs Nickleby, opening her eyes in
great astonishment.

Before Kate had returned any reply, a queer little double knock
announced that Miss La Creevy had called to see them; and when Miss La
Creevy presented herself, Mrs Nickleby, though strongly disposed to be
argumentative on the previous question, forgot all about it in a gush
of supposes about the coach she had come by; supposing that the man who
drove must have been either the man in the shirt-sleeves or the man with
the black eye; that whoever he was, he hadn't found that parasol she
left inside last week; that no doubt they had stopped a long while at
the Halfway House, coming down; or that perhaps being full, they had
come straight on; and, lastly, that they, surely, must have passed
Nicholas on the road.

'I saw nothing of him,' answered Miss La Creevy; 'but I saw that dear
old soul Mr Linkinwater.'

'Taking his evening walk, and coming on to rest here, before he turns
back to the city, I'll be bound!' said Mrs