want Mr Nickleby,' replied a voice.

'What with him?'

'That's not Mr Nickleby's voice, surely?' was the rejoinder.

It was not like it; but it was Ralph who spoke, and so he said.

The voice made answer that the twin brothers wished to know whether the
man whom he had seen that night was to be detained; and that although it
was now midnight they had sent, in their anxiety to do right.

'Yes,' cried Ralph, 'detain him till tomorrow; then let them bring him
here--him and my nephew--and come themselves, and be sure that I will be
ready to receive them.'

'At what hour?' asked the voice.

'At any hour,' replied Ralph fiercely. 'In the afternoon, tell them. At
any hour, at any minute. All times will be alike to me.'

He listened to the man's retreating footsteps until the sound had
passed, and then, gazing up into the sky, saw, or thought he saw, the
same black cloud that had seemed to follow him home, and which now
appeared to hover directly above the house.

'I know its meaning now,' he muttered, 'and the restless nights, the
dreams, and why I have quailed of late. All pointed to this. Oh! if men
by selling their own souls could ride rampant for a term, for how short
a term would I barter mine tonight!'

The sound of a deep bell came along the wind. One.

'Lie on!' cried the usurer, 'with your iron tongue! Ring merrily for
births that make expectants writhe, and marriages that are made in hell,
and toll ruefully for the dead whose shoes are worn already! Call men
to prayers who are godly because not found out, and ring chimes for the
coming in of every year that brings this cursed world nearer to its end.
No bell or book for me! Throw me on a dunghill, and let me rot there, to
infect the air!'

With a wild look around, in which frenzy, hatred, and despair were
horribly mingled, he shook his clenched hand at the sky above him, which
was still dark and threatening, and closed the window.

The rain and hail pattered against the glass; the chimneys quaked and
rocked; the crazy casement rattled with the wind, as though an impatient
hand inside were striving to burst it open. But no hand was there, and
it opened no more.

'How's this?' cried one. 'The gentleman say they can't make anybody
hear, and have been trying these two hours.'

'And yet he came home last night,' said another; 'for he spoke to
somebody out of that window upstairs.'

They were a little knot of men, and, the window being mentioned, went