reverse. If we prolong this conversation, we might quarrel, which would
be no proof of wisdom in either you or me.'

With this rejoinder, and waiting for no further discussion, Sir Mulberry
Hawk yawned, and very leisurely turned back.

There was not a little tact and knowledge of the young lord's
disposition in this mode of treating him. Sir Mulberry clearly saw that
if his dominion were to last, it must be established now. He knew that
the moment he became violent, the young man would become violent too.
He had, many times, been enabled to strengthen his influence, when
any circumstance had occurred to weaken it, by adopting this cool and
laconic style; and he trusted to it now, with very little doubt of its
entire success.

But while he did this, and wore the most careless and indifferent
deportment that his practised arts enabled him to assume, he inwardly
resolved, not only to visit all the mortification of being compelled to
suppress his feelings, with additional severity upon Nicholas, but also
to make the young lord pay dearly for it, one day, in some shape or
other. So long as he had been a passive instrument in his hands, Sir
Mulberry had regarded him with no other feeling than contempt; but, now
that he presumed to avow opinions in opposition to his, and even to turn
upon him with a lofty tone and an air of superiority, he began to hate
him. Conscious that, in the vilest and most worthless sense of the term,
he was dependent upon the weak young lord, Sir Mulberry could the less
brook humiliation at his hands; and when he began to dislike him he
measured his dislike--as men often do--by the extent of the injuries he
had inflicted upon its object. When it is remembered that Sir Mulberry
Hawk had plundered, duped, deceived, and fooled his pupil in every
possible way, it will not be wondered at, that, beginning to hate him,
he began to hate him cordially.

On the other hand, the young lord having thought--which he very seldom
did about anything--and seriously too, upon the affair with Nicholas,
and the circumstances which led to it, had arrived at a manly and
honest conclusion. Sir Mulberry's coarse and insulting behaviour on
the occasion in question had produced a deep impression on his mind; a
strong suspicion of his having led him on to pursue Miss Nickleby for
purposes of his own, had been lurking there for some time; he was really
ashamed of his share in the transaction, and deeply mortified by the
misgi