ho said
a thousand jocose and facetious things, and became, by degrees, quite
gallant, not to say tender. Little Miss La Creevy, on her part, was in
high spirits, and rallied Tim on having remained a bachelor all his life
with so much success, that Tim was actually induced to declare, that
if he could get anybody to have him, he didn't know but what he might
change his condition even yet. Miss La Creevy earnestly recommended a
lady she knew, who would exactly suit Mr Linkinwater, and had a very
comfortable property of her own; but this latter qualification had very
little effect upon Tim, who manfully protested that fortune would be
no object with him, but that true worth and cheerfulness of disposition
were what a man should look for in a wife, and that if he had these, he
could find money enough for the moderate wants of both. This avowal was
considered so honourable to Tim, that neither Mrs Nickleby nor Miss La
Creevy could sufficiently extol it; and stimulated by their praises,
Tim launched out into several other declarations also manifesting the
disinterestedness of his heart, and a great devotion to the fair sex:
which were received with no less approbation. This was done and said
with a comical mixture of jest and earnest, and, leading to a great
amount of laughter, made them very merry indeed.

Kate was commonly the life and soul of the conversation at home; but she
was more silent than usual upon this occasion (perhaps because Tim and
Miss La Creevy engrossed so much of it), and, keeping aloof from the
talkers, sat at the window watching the shadows as the evening closed
in, and enjoying the quiet beauty of the night, which seemed to have
scarcely less attractions to Frank, who first lingered near, and then
sat down beside, her. No doubt, there are a great many things to be said
appropriate to a summer evening, and no doubt they are best said in a
low voice, as being most suitable to the peace and serenity of the hour;
long pauses, too, at times, and then an earnest word or so, and then
another interval of silence which, somehow, does not seem like silence
either, and perhaps now and then a hasty turning away of the head, or
drooping of the eyes towards the ground, all these minor circumstances,
with a disinclination to have candles introduced and a tendency to
confuse hours with minutes, are doubtless mere influences of the time,
as many lovely lips can clearly testify. Neither is there the slightest
reason wh