most opportunely put, for at that instant Mr
Wititterly walked in, and to him Kate introduced her brother, who at
once announced his purpose, and the impossibility of deferring it.

'The quarter's notice,' said Mr Wititterly, with the gravity of a man on
the right side, 'is not yet half expired. Therefore--'

'Therefore,' interposed Nicholas, 'the quarter's salary must be lost,
sir. You will excuse this extreme haste, but circumstances require that
I should immediately remove my sister, and I have not a moment's time to
lose. Whatever she brought here I will send for, if you will allow me,
in the course of the day.'

Mr Wititterly bowed, but offered no opposition to Kate's immediate
departure; with which, indeed, he was rather gratified than otherwise,
Sir Tumley Snuffim having given it as his opinion, that she rather
disagreed with Mrs Wititterly's constitution.

'With regard to the trifle of salary that is due,' said Mr Wititterly,
'I will'--here he was interrupted by a violent fit of coughing--'I
will--owe it to Miss Nickleby.'

Mr Wititterly, it should be observed, was accustomed to owe small
accounts, and to leave them owing. All men have some little pleasant way
of their own; and this was Mr Wititterly's.

'If you please,' said Nicholas. And once more offering a hurried apology
for so sudden a departure, he hurried Kate into the vehicle, and bade
the man drive with all speed into the city.

To the city they went accordingly, with all the speed the hackney coach
could make; and as the horses happened to live at Whitechapel and to be
in the habit of taking their breakfast there, when they breakfasted
at all, they performed the journey with greater expedition than could
reasonably have been expected.

Nicholas sent Kate upstairs a few minutes before him, that his
unlooked-for appearance might not alarm his mother, and when the way had
been paved, presented himself with much duty and affection. Newman had
not been idle, for there was a little cart at the door, and the effects
were hurrying out already.

Now, Mrs Nickleby was not the sort of person to be told anything in
a hurry, or rather to comprehend anything of peculiar delicacy or
importance on a short notice. Wherefore, although the good lady had been
subjected to a full hour's preparation by little Miss La Creevy, and was
now addressed in most lucid terms both by Nicholas and his sister, she
was in a state of singular bewilderment and confusion, and co