Nicholas Nickleby

ces all

life that he must get married, and not being young enough or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded an old flame out of mere attach

easure of the buffeting; and in one respect indeed this comparison would hold good; for, as the adventurous pair of the Fives' Court will afterwards send round a hat, and trust to the bounty of the lookers-on for the means of regaling themselves, so Mr. Godfrey Nickleby

, but it is no less true. Mr. Nickleby looked, and looked, till his eyes became sore as his heart, but no friend appeared; and when, growing tired of the search, he turned his eyes homeward, he saw very little there to relieve his weary vision. A painter who has gazed too

was seriously revolving in his mind a little commercial speculation of insuring his life next quarter-day, and then falling from the top of the Monument by accident, there came, one morning, by the

, at first, scarcely believe the tidings thus conveyed to him. On examination, however, they turned out to be strictly correct. The amiable old gentleman, it seemed, had intended to leave the whole to the Royal Humane Society, and had indeed executed a will to that effect; but the Institution, having been unfortunate enough, a few months before, to save the life of a poor

the rest of his money, and the little produce he could raise from his land. The two prospered so well together that, when he died, some fifteen years after this period, and some five after his wife, he

ce nothing but forewarnings to shun the great world and attach himself to the quiet routine of a country life, Ralph, the elder, deduced from the often-repeated tale the two great morals that riches are the only true source of happiness and power, and that it is lawful and just to compass their acquisition by all means short of felony. 'And,' reasoned Ralph with himself, 'if no good came of my uncle's money when he was alive, a great deal o

s realm, in which he speculated to considerable advantage. Nor did he trouble his borrowers with abstract calculations of figures, or references to ready-reckoners; his simple rule of interest being all comprised in the one golden sentence, 'two-pence for every half-penny,' which greatly simplified the accounts, and which, as a familiar precept, mor

d that whether a loan were contracted on the Monday, or on the Friday, the amount of interest should be, in both cases, the same. Indeed he argued, and with great show of reason, that it ought to be rather more for one day than for five, inasmuch as the borrower might in the former case be very fairly presumed to be in great extremity, othe

of his character, it may perhaps be inferred that he is to be the hero of the work which we shall presently begi

quite forgot his brother for many years; and if, at times, a recollection of his old playfellow broke upon him through the haze in which he lived-for gold conjures up a mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to

lady bore him two children, a son and a daughter, and when the son was about nineteen, and the daughter fourteen, as near as we can guess-impartial records of young ladies' ages being, before the passing of the ne

th it,' said

r?' said Mr. Nickleb

asked Mrs

ckleby, who was a slow and time-taking speaker, 'if we sh

said Mrs

sure of that, my dear

way of doing something for himself; and Kate too, poor girl, without a penny in t

kleby. 'Very good, my dear. Ye

great-and so may losses. The run of luck went against Mr. Nickleby. A mania prevailed, a bubble burst, four st

an, 'may be taken from me tomorrow. Not an article

hat he took at once to his bed; apparen

ir!' said th

rself be cast down,

en every day,' re

to rebel against them,'

a family ought to do,'

cerned to find that his reason went astray after this; for he babbled, for a long time, about the generosity and goodness of his brother, and the merry old times when they were at school together. This fit of