ur,' said Madame Mantalini, 'to hear
me give him notice of what it is my fixed intention to do--my fixed
intention, sir,' repeated Madame Mantalini, darting an angry look at her
husband.

'Will she call me "Sir"?' cried Mantalini. 'Me who dote upon her with
the demdest ardour! She, who coils her fascinations round me like a pure
angelic rattlesnake! It will be all up with my feelings; she will throw
me into a demd state.'

'Don't talk of feelings, sir,' rejoined Madame Mantalini, seating
herself, and turning her back upon him. 'You don't consider mine.'

'I do not consider yours, my soul!' exclaimed Mr Mantalini.

'No,' replied his wife.

And notwithstanding various blandishments on the part of Mr Mantalini,
Madame Mantalini still said no, and said it too with such determined and
resolute ill-temper, that Mr Mantalini was clearly taken aback.

'His extravagance, Mr Nickleby,' said Madame Mantalini, addressing
herself to Ralph, who leant against his easy-chair with his hands behind
him, and regarded the amiable couple with a smile of the supremest and
most unmitigated contempt,--'his extravagance is beyond all bounds.'

'I should scarcely have supposed it,' answered Ralph, sarcastically.

'I assure you, Mr Nickleby, however, that it is,' returned Madame
Mantalini. 'It makes me miserable! I am under constant apprehensions,
and in constant difficulty. And even this,' said Madame Mantalini,
wiping her eyes, 'is not the worst. He took some papers of value out of
my desk this morning without asking my permission.'

Mr Mantalini groaned slightly, and buttoned his trousers pocket.

'I am obliged,' continued Madame Mantalini, 'since our late misfortunes,
to pay Miss Knag a great deal of money for having her name in the
business, and I really cannot afford to encourage him in all his
wastefulness. As I have no doubt that he came straight here, Mr
Nickleby, to convert the papers I have spoken of, into money, and as you
have assisted us very often before, and are very much connected with us
in this kind of matters, I wish you to know the determination at which
his conduct has compelled me to arrive.'

Mr Mantalini groaned once more from behind his wife's bonnet, and
fitting a sovereign into one of his eyes, winked with the other at
Ralph. Having achieved this performance with great dexterity, he whipped
the coin into his pocket, and groaned again with increased penitence.

'I have made up my mind,' said Madame Mantalin