and Ned together, 'pray, Tim, pray now, don't.'

Tim, taking the hint, stifled his indignation as well as he could,
and suffered it to escape through his spectacles, with the additional
safety-valve of a short hysterical laugh now and then, which seemed to
relieve him mightily.

'As nobody bids me to a seat,' said Ralph, looking round, 'I'll take
one, for I am fatigued with walking. And now, if you please, gentlemen,
I wish to know--I demand to know; I have the right--what you have to
say to me, which justifies such a tone as you have assumed, and that
underhand interference in my affairs which, I have reason to suppose,
you have been practising. I tell you plainly, gentlemen, that little as
I care for the opinion of the world (as the slang goes), I don't choose
to submit quietly to slander and malice. Whether you suffer yourselves
to be imposed upon too easily, or wilfully make yourselves parties to
it, the result to me is the same. In either case, you can't expect from
a plain man like myself much consideration or forbearance.'

So coolly and deliberately was this said, that nine men out of ten,
ignorant of the circumstances, would have supposed Ralph to be really
an injured man. There he sat, with folded arms; paler than usual,
certainly, and sufficiently ill-favoured, but quite collected--far more
so than the brothers or the exasperated Tim--and ready to face out the
worst.

'Very well, sir,' said brother Charles. 'Very well. Brother Ned, will
you ring the bell?'

'Charles, my dear fellow! stop one instant,' returned the other. 'It
will be better for Mr Nickleby and for our object that he should remain
silent, if he can, till we have said what we have to say. I wish him to
understand that.'

'Quite right, quite right,' said brother Charles.

Ralph smiled, but made no reply. The bell was rung; the room-door
opened; a man came in, with a halting walk; and, looking round, Ralph's
eyes met those of Newman Noggs. From that moment, his heart began to
fail him.

'This is a good beginning,' he said bitterly. 'Oh! this is a good
beginning. You are candid, honest, open-hearted, fair-dealing men! I
always knew the real worth of such characters as yours! To tamper with a
fellow like this, who would sell his soul (if he had one) for drink, and
whose every word is a lie. What men are safe if this is done? Oh, it's a
good beginning!'

'I WILL speak,' cried Newman, standing on tiptoe to look over
Tim's head, who had int