ndeavours to pacify the wrath of Nicholas; which, after
some demur, was conceded. They then consulted together on the safest and
surest mode of communicating to him the circumstances which had rendered
his presence necessary.

'He must have time to cool before he can possibly do anything,' said
Miss La Creevy. 'That is of the greatest consequence. He must not be
told until late at night.'

'But he'll be in town between six and seven this evening,' replied
Newman. 'I can't keep it from him when he asks me.'

'Then you must go out, Mr Noggs,' said Miss La Creevy. 'You can easily
have been kept away by business, and must not return till nearly
midnight.'

'Then he will come straight here,' retorted Newman.

'So I suppose,' observed Miss La Creevy; 'but he won't find me at home,
for I'll go straight to the city the instant you leave me, make up
matters with Mrs Nickleby, and take her away to the theatre, so that he
may not even know where his sister lives.'

Upon further discussion, this appeared the safest and most feasible mode
of proceeding that could possibly be adopted. Therefore it was finally
determined that matters should be so arranged, and Newman, after
listening to many supplementary cautions and entreaties, took his leave
of Miss La Creevy and trudged back to Golden Square; ruminating as
he went upon a vast number of possibilities and impossibilities which
crowded upon his brain, and arose out of the conversation that had just
terminated.

CHAPTER 32

Relating chiefly to some remarkable Conversation, and some remarkable
Proceedings to which it gives rise

'London at last!' cried Nicholas, throwing back his greatcoat and
rousing Smike from a long nap. 'It seemed to me as though we should
never reach it.'

'And yet you came along at a tidy pace too,' observed the coachman,
looking over his shoulder at Nicholas with no very pleasant expression
of countenance.

'Ay, I know that,' was the reply; 'but I have been very anxious to be at
my journey's end, and that makes the way seem long.'

'Well,' remarked the coachman, 'if the way seemed long with such cattle
as you've sat behind, you MUST have been most uncommon anxious;' and
so saying, he let out his whip-lash and touched up a little boy on the
calves of his legs by way of emphasis.

They rattled on through the noisy, bustling, crowded street of London,
now displaying long double rows of brightly-burning lamps, dotted here
and there with the c