The Brothers Cheeryble make various Declarations for themselves and
others. Tim Linkinwater makes a Declaration for himself
Some weeks had passed, and the first shock of these events had subsided.
Madeline had been removed; Frank had been absent; and Nicholas and Kate
had begun to try in good earnest to stifle their own regrets, and to
live for each other and for their mother--who, poor lady, could in
nowise be reconciled to this dull and altered state of affairs--when
there came one evening, per favour of Mr. Linkinwater, an invitation from
the brothers to dinner on the next day but one: comprehending, not only
Mrs. Nickleby, Kate, and Nicholas, but little Miss La Creevy, who was
most particularly mentioned.
‘Now, my dears,’ said Mrs. Nickleby, when they had rendered becoming
honour to the bidding, and Tim had taken his departure, ‘what does THIS
mean?’
‘What do YOU mean, mother?’ asked Nicholas, smiling.
‘I say, my dear,’ rejoined that lady, with a face of unfathomable
mystery, ‘what does this invitation to dinner mean? What is its
intention and object?’
‘I conclude it means, that on such a day we are to eat and drink in
their house, and that its intent and object is to confer pleasure upon
us,’ said Nicholas.
‘And that’s all you conclude it is, my dear?’
‘I have not yet arrived at anything deeper, mother.’
‘Then I’ll just tell you one thing,’ said Mrs. Nickleby, you’ll find
yourself a little surprised; that’s all. You may depend upon it that
this means something besides dinner.’
‘Tea and supper, perhaps,’ suggested Nicholas.
‘I wouldn’t be absurd, my dear, if I were you,’ replied Mrs. Nickleby,
in a lofty manner, ‘because it’s not by any means becoming, and doesn’t
suit you at all. What I mean to say is, that the Mr. Cheerybles don’t ask
us to dinner with all this ceremony for nothing. Never mind; wait and
see. You won’t believe anything I say, of course. It’s much better to
wait; a great deal better; it’s satisfactory to all parties, and there
can be no disputing. All I say is, remember what I say now, and when I
say I said so, don’t say I didn’t.’
With this stipulation, Mrs. Nickleby, who was troubled, night and day,
with a vision of a hot messenger tearing up to the door to announce that
Nicholas had been taken into partnership, quitted that branch of the
subject, and entered upon a new one.
‘It’s a very extraordinary thing,’ she said, ‘a most extraordinary
thing, that they should have invited Miss La Creevy. It quite astonishes
me, upon my word it does. Of course it’s very pleasant that she should
be invited, very pleasant, and I have no doubt that she’ll conduct
herself extremely well; she always does. It’s very gratifying to think
that we should have been the means of introducing her into such society,
and I’m quite glad of it--quite rejoiced--for she certainly is an
exceedingly well-behaved and good-natured little person. I could wish
that some friend would mention to her how very badly she has her cap
trimmed, and what very preposterous bows those are, but of course that’s
impossible, and if she likes to make a fright of herself, no doubt she
has a perfect right to do so. We never see ourselves--never do, and
never did--and I suppose we never shall.’
This moral reflection reminding her of the necessity of being peculiarly
smart on the occasion, so as to counterbalance Miss La Creevy, and be
herself an effectual set-off and atonement, led Mrs. Nickleby into a
consultation with her daughter relative to certain ribbons, gloves, and
trimmings: which, being a complicated question, and one of paramount
importance, soon routed the previous one, and put it to flight.
The great day arriving, the good lady put herself under Kate’s hands an
hour or so after breakfast, and, dressing by easy stages, completed
her toilette in sufficient time to allow of her daughter’s making hers,
which was very simple, and not very long, though so satisfactory that
she had never appeared more charming or looked more lovely. Miss La
Creevy, too, arrived with two bandboxes (whereof the bottoms fell out as
they were handed from the coach) and something in a newspaper, which a
gentleman had sat upon, coming down, and which was obliged to be ironed
again, before it was fit for service. At last, everybody was dressed,
including Nicholas, who had come home to fetch them, and they went away
in a coach sent by the brothers for the purpose: Mrs. Nickleby wondering
very much what they would have for dinner, and cross-examining Nicholas
as to the extent of his discoveries in the morning; whether he had smelt
anything cooking at all like turtle, and if not, what he had smelt; and
diversifying the conversation with reminiscences of dinners to which she
had gone some twenty years ago, concerning which she particularised not
only the dishes but the guests, in whom her hearers did not feel a very
absorbing interest, as not one of them had ever chanced to hear their
names before.
The old butler received them with profound respect and many smiles,
and ushered them into the drawing-room, where they were received by
the brothers with so much cordiality and kindness that Mrs. Nickleby was
quite in a flutter, and had scarcely presence of mind enough, even to
patronise Miss La Creevy. Kate was still more affected by the reception:
for, knowing that the brothers were acquainted with all that had passed
between her and Frank, she felt her position a most delicate and trying
one, and was trembling on the arm of Nicholas, when Mr. Charles took her
in his, and led her to another part of the room.
‘Have you seen Madeline, my dear,’ he said, ‘since she left your house?’
‘No, sir!’ replied Kate. ‘Not once.’
‘And not heard from her, eh? Not heard from her?’
‘I have only had one letter,’ rejoined Kate, gently. ‘I thought she
would not have forgotten me quite so soon.’
‘Ah,’ said the old man, patting her on the head, and speaking as
affectionately as if she had been his favourite child. ‘Poor dear! what
do you think of this, brother Ned? Madeline has only written to her
once, only once, Ned, and she didn’t think she would have forgotten her
quite so soon, Ned.’
‘Oh! sad, sad; very sad!’ said Ned.
The brothers interchanged a glance, and looking at Kate for a little
time without speaking, shook hands, and nodded as if they were
congratulating each other on something very delightful.
‘Well, well,’ said brother Charles, ‘go into that room, my dear--that
door yonder--and see if there’s not a letter for you from her. I think
there’s one upon the table. You needn’t hurry back, my love, if there
is, for we don’t dine just yet, and there’s plenty of time. Plenty of
time.’
Kate retired as she was directed. Brother Charles, having followed her
graceful figure with his eyes, turned to Mrs. Nickleby, and said:
‘We took the liberty of naming one hour before the real dinner-time,
ma’am, because we had a little business to speak about, which would
occupy the interval. Ned, my dear fellow, will you mention what we
agreed upon? Mr. Nickleby, sir, have the goodness to follow me.’
Without any further explanation, Mrs. Nickleby, Miss La Creevy, and
brother Ned, were left alone together, and Nicholas followed brother
Charles into his private room; where, to his great astonishment, he
encountered Frank, whom he supposed to be abroad.
‘Young men,’ said Mr. Cheeryble, ‘shake hands!’
‘I need no bidding to do that,’ said Nicholas, extending his.
‘Nor I,’ rejoined Frank, as he clasped it heartily.
The old gentleman thought that two handsomer or finer young fellows
could scarcely stand side by side than those on whom he looked with so
much pleasure. Suffering his eyes to rest upon them, for a short time in
silence, he said, while he seated himself at his desk:
‘I wish to see you friends--close and firm friends--and if I thought
you otherwise, I should hesitate in what I am about to say. Frank, look
here! Mr. Nickleby, will you come on the other side?’
The young men stepped up on either hand of brother Charles, who produced
a paper from his desk, and unfolded it.
‘This,’ he said, ‘is a copy of the will of Madeline’s maternal
grandfather, bequeathing her the sum of twelve thousand pounds, payable
either upon her coming of age or marrying. It would appear that this
gentleman, angry with her (his only relation) because she would not put
herself under his protection, and detach herself from the society of her
father, in compliance with his repeated overtures, made a will leaving
this property (which was all he possessed) to a charitable institution.
He would seem to have repented this determination, however, for three
weeks afterwards, and in the same month, he executed this. By some
fraud, it was abstracted immediately after his decease, and the
other--the only will found--was proved and administered. Friendly
negotiations, which have only just now terminated, have been proceeding
since this instrument came into our hands, and, as there is no doubt
of its authenticity, and the witnesses have been discovered (after some
trouble), the money has been refunded. Madeline has therefore obtained
her right, and is, or will be, when either of the contingencies which I
have mentioned has arisen, mistress of this fortune. You understand me?’
Frank replied in the affirmative. Nicholas, who could not trust himself
to speak lest his voice should be heard to falter, bowed his head.
‘Now, Frank,’ said the old gentleman, ‘you were the immediate means
of recovering this deed. The fortune is but a small one; but we love
Madeline; and such as it is, we would rather see you allied to her with
that, than to any other girl we know who has three times the money. Will
you become a suitor to her for her hand?’
‘No, sir. I interested myself in the recovery of that instrument,
believing that her hand was already pledged to one who has a thousand
times the claims upon her gratitude, and, if I mistake not, upon her
heart, that I or any other man can ever urge. In this it seems I judged
hastily.’
‘As you always do, sir,’ cried brother Charles, utterly forgetting his
assumed dignity, ‘as you always do. How dare you think, Frank, that we
would have you marry for money, when youth, beauty, and every amiable
virtue and excellence were to be had for love? How dared you, Frank, go
and make love to Mr. Nickleby’s sister without telling us first what you
meant to do, and letting us speak for you?’
‘I hardly dared to hope--’
‘You hardly dared to hope! Then, so much the greater reason for having
our assistance! Mr. Nickleby, sir, Frank, although he judged hastily,
judged, for once, correctly. Madeline’s heart IS occupied. Give me
your hand, sir; it is occupied by you, and worthily and naturally. This
fortune is destined to be yours, but you have a greater fortune in her,
sir, than you would have in money were it forty times told. She chooses
you, Mr. Nickleby. She chooses as we, her dearest friends, would have her
choose. Frank chooses as we would have HIM choose. He should have your
sister’s little hand, sir, if she had refused it a score of times; ay,
he should, and he shall! You acted nobly, not knowing our sentiments,
but now you know them, sir, you must do as you are bid. What! You are
the children of a worthy gentleman! The time was, sir, when my dear
brother Ned and I were two poor simple-hearted boys, wandering, almost
barefoot, to seek our fortunes: are we changed in anything but years
and worldly circumstances since that time? No, God forbid! Oh, Ned, Ned,
Ned, what a happy day this is for you and me! If our poor mother had
only lived to see us now, Ned, how proud it would have made her dear
heart at last!’
Thus apostrophised, brother Ned, who had entered with Mrs. Nickleby, and
who had been before unobserved by the young men, darted forward, and
fairly hugged brother Charles in his arms.
‘Bring in my little Kate,’ said the latter, after a short silence.
‘Bring her in, Ned. Let me see Kate, let me kiss her. I have a right
to do so now; I was very near it when she first came; I have often
been very near it. Ah! Did you find the letter, my bird? Did you find
Madeline herself, waiting for you and expecting you? Did you find that
she had not quite forgotten her friend and nurse and sweet companion?
Why, this is almost the best of all!’
‘Come, come,’ said Ned, ‘Frank will be jealous, and we shall have some
cutting of throats before dinner.’
‘Then let him take her away, Ned, let him take her away. Madeline’s in
the next room. Let all the lovers get out of the way, and talk among
themselves, if they’ve anything to say. Turn ‘em out, Ned, every one!’
Brother Charles began the clearance by leading the blushing girl to the
door, and dismissing her with a kiss. Frank was not very slow to follow,
and Nicholas had disappeared first of all. So there only remained Mrs
Nickleby and Miss La Creevy, who were both sobbing heartily; the two
brothers; and Tim Linkinwater, who now came in to shake hands with
everybody: his round face all radiant and beaming with smiles.
‘Well, Tim Linkinwater, sir,’ said brother Charles, who was always
spokesman, ‘now the young folks are happy, sir.’
‘You didn’t keep ‘em in suspense as long as you said you would, though,’
returned Tim, archly. ‘Why, Mr. Nickleby and Mr. Frank were to have
been in your room for I don’t know how long; and I don’t know what you
weren’t to have told them before you came out with the truth.’
‘Now, did you ever know such a villain as this, Ned?’ said the old
gentleman; ‘did you ever know such a villain as Tim Linkinwater?
He accusing me of being impatient, and he the very man who has been
wearying us morning, noon, and night, and torturing us for leave to go
and tell ‘em what was in store, before our plans were half complete, or
we had arranged a single thing. A treacherous dog!’
‘So he is, brother Charles,’ returned Ned; ‘Tim is a treacherous dog.
Tim is not to be trusted. Tim is a wild young fellow. He wants gravity
and steadiness; he must sow his wild oats, and then perhaps he’ll become
in time a respectable member of society.’
This being one of the standing jokes between the old fellows and Tim,
they all three laughed very heartily, and might have laughed much
longer, but that the brothers, seeing that Mrs. Nickleby was labouring to
express her feelings, and was really overwhelmed by the happiness of the
time, took her between them, and led her from the room under pretence of
having to consult her on some most important arrangements.
Now, Tim and Miss La Creevy had met very often, and had always been
very chatty and pleasant together--had always been great friends--and
consequently it was the most natural thing in the world that Tim,
finding that she still sobbed, should endeavour to console her. As Miss
La Creevy sat on a large old-fashioned window-seat, where there was
ample room for two, it was also natural that Tim should sit down beside
her; and as to Tim’s being unusually spruce and particular in his attire
that day, why it was a high festival and a great occasion, and that was
the most natural thing of all.
Tim sat down beside Miss La Creevy, and, crossing one leg over the other
so that his foot--he had very comely feet and happened to be wearing
the neatest shoes and black silk stockings possible--should come easily
within the range of her eye, said in a soothing way:
‘Don’t cry!’
‘I must,’ rejoined Miss La Creevy.
‘No, don’t,’ said Tim. ‘Please don’t; pray don’t.’
‘I am so happy!’ sobbed the little woman.
‘Then laugh,’ said Tim. ‘Do laugh.’
What in the world Tim was doing with his arm, it is impossible to
conjecture, but he knocked his elbow against that part of the window
which was quite on the other side of Miss La Creevy; and it is clear
that it could have no business there.
‘Do laugh,’ said Tim, ‘or I’ll cry.’
‘Why should you cry?’ asked Miss La Creevy, smiling.
‘Because I’m happy too,’ said Tim. ‘We are both happy, and I should like
to do as you do.’
Surely, there never was a man who fidgeted as Tim must have done then;
for he knocked the window again--almost in the same place--and Miss La
Creevy said she was sure he’d break it.
‘I knew,’ said Tim, ‘that you would be pleased with this scene.’
‘It was very thoughtful and kind to remember me,’ returned Miss La
Creevy. ‘Nothing could have delighted me half so much.’
Why on earth should Miss La Creevy and Tim Linkinwater have said all
this in a whisper? It was no secret. And why should Tim Linkinwater have
looked so hard at Miss La Creevy, and why should Miss La Creevy have
looked so hard at the ground?
‘It’s a pleasant thing,’ said Tim, ‘to people like us, who have passed
all our lives in the world alone, to see young folks that we are fond
of, brought together with so many years of happiness before them.’
‘Ah!’ cried the little woman with all her heart, ‘that it is!’
‘Although,’ pursued Tim ‘although it makes one feel quite solitary and
cast away. Now don’t it?’
Miss La Creevy said she didn’t know. And why should she say she didn’t
know? Because she must have known whether it did or not.
‘It’s almost enough to make us get married after all, isn’t it?’ said
Tim.
‘Oh, nonsense!’ replied Miss La Creevy, laughing. ‘We are too old.’
‘Not a bit,’ said Tim; ‘we are too old to be single. Why shouldn’t we
both be married, instead of sitting through the long winter evenings by
our solitary firesides? Why shouldn’t we make one fireside of it, and
marry each other?’
‘Oh, Mr. Linkinwater, you’re joking!’
‘No, no, I’m not. I’m not indeed,’ said Tim. ‘I will, if you will. Do,
my dear!’
‘It would make people laugh so.’
‘Let ‘em laugh,’ cried Tim stoutly; ‘we have good tempers I know, and
we’ll laugh too. Why, what hearty laughs we have had since we’ve known
each other!’
‘So we have,’ cried Miss La Creevy--giving way a little, as Tim
thought.
‘It has been the happiest time in all my life; at least, away from the
counting-house and Cheeryble Brothers,’ said Tim. ‘Do, my dear! Now say
you will.’
‘No, no, we mustn’t think of it,’ returned Miss La Creevy. ‘What would
the brothers say?’
‘Why, God bless your soul!’ cried Tim, innocently, ‘you don’t suppose I
should think of such a thing without their knowing it! Why they left us
here on purpose.’
‘I can never look ‘em in the face again!’ exclaimed Miss La Creevy,
faintly.
‘Come,’ said Tim, ‘let’s be a comfortable couple. We shall live in the
old house here, where I have been for four-and-forty year; we shall go
to the old church, where I’ve been, every Sunday morning, all through
that time; we shall have all my old friends about us--Dick, the archway,
the pump, the flower-pots, and Mr. Frank’s children, and Mr. Nickleby’s
children, that we shall seem like grandfather and grandmother to. Let’s
be a comfortable couple, and take care of each other! And if we should
get deaf, or lame, or blind, or bed-ridden, how glad we shall be that we
have somebody we are fond of, always to talk to and sit with! Let’s be a
comfortable couple. Now, do, my dear!’
Five minutes after this honest and straightforward speech, little Miss
La Creevy and Tim were talking as pleasantly as if they had been married
for a score of years, and had never once quarrelled all the time; and
five minutes after that, when Miss La Creevy had bustled out to see if
her eyes were red and put her hair to rights, Tim moved with a stately
step towards the drawing-room, exclaiming as he went, ‘There an’t such
another woman in all London! I KNOW there an’t!’
By this time, the apoplectic butler was nearly in fits, in consequence
of the unheard-of postponement of dinner. Nicholas, who had been engaged
in a manner in which every reader may imagine for himself or herself,
was hurrying downstairs in obedience to his angry summons, when he
encountered a new surprise.
On his way down, he overtook, in one of the passages, a stranger
genteelly dressed in black, who was also moving towards the dining-room.
As he was rather lame, and walked slowly, Nicholas lingered behind, and
was following him step by step, wondering who he was, when he suddenly
turned round and caught him by both hands.
‘Newman Noggs!’ cried Nicholas joyfully
‘Ah! Newman, your own Newman, your own old faithful Newman! My dear boy,
my dear Nick, I give you joy--health, happiness, every blessing! I can’t
bear it--it’s too much, my dear boy--it makes a child of me!’
‘Where have you been?’ said Nicholas. ‘What have you been doing? How
often have I inquired for you, and been told that I should hear before
long!’
‘I know, I know!’ returned Newman. ‘They wanted all the happiness to
come together. I’ve been helping ‘em. I--I--look at me, Nick, look at
me!’
‘You would never let ME do that,’ said Nicholas in a tone of gentle
reproach.
‘I didn’t mind what I was, then. I shouldn’t have had the heart to put
on gentleman’s clothes. They would have reminded me of old times and
made me miserable. I am another man now, Nick. My dear boy, I can’t
speak. Don’t say anything to me. Don’t think the worse of me for these
tears. You don’t know what I feel today; you can’t, and never will!’
They walked in to dinner arm-in-arm, and sat down side by side.
Never was such a dinner as that, since the world began. There was the
superannuated bank clerk, Tim Linkinwater’s friend; and there was
the chubby old lady, Tim Linkinwater’s sister; and there was so much
attention from Tim Linkinwater’s sister to Miss La Creevy, and
there were so many jokes from the superannuated bank clerk, and Tim
Linkinwater himself was in such tiptop spirits, and little Miss La
Creevy was in such a comical state, that of themselves they would
have composed the pleasantest party conceivable. Then, there was Mrs
Nickleby, so grand and complacent; Madeline and Kate, so blushing and
beautiful; Nicholas and Frank, so devoted and proud; and all four so
silently and tremblingly happy; there was Newman so subdued yet
so overjoyed, and there were the twin brothers so delighted and
interchanging such looks, that the old servant stood transfixed behind
his master’s chair, and felt his eyes grow dim as they wandered round
the table.
When the first novelty of the meeting had worn off, and they began truly
to feel how happy they were, the conversation became more general, and
the harmony and pleasure if possible increased. The brothers were in a
perfect ecstasy; and their insisting on saluting the ladies all
round, before they would permit them to retire, gave occasion to the
superannuated bank clerk to say so many good things, that he quite
outshone himself, and was looked upon as a prodigy of humour.
‘Kate, my dear,’ said Mrs. Nickleby, taking her daughter aside, as soon
as they got upstairs, ‘you don’t really mean to tell me that this is
actually true about Miss La Creevy and Mr. Linkinwater?’
‘Indeed it is, mama.’
‘Why, I never heard such a thing in my life!’ exclaimed Mrs. Nickleby.
‘Mr. Linkinwater is a most excellent creature,’ reasoned Kate, ‘and, for
his age, quite young still.’
‘For HIS age, my dear!’ returned Mrs. Nickleby, ‘yes; nobody says
anything against him, except that I think he is the weakest and most
foolish man I ever knew. It’s HER age I speak of. That he should have
gone and offered himself to a woman who must be--ah, half as old again
as I am--and that she should have dared to accept him! It don’t signify,
Kate; I’m disgusted with her!’
Shaking her head very emphatically indeed, Mrs. Nickleby swept away;
and all the evening, in the midst of the merriment and enjoyment that
ensued, and in which with that exception she freely participated,
conducted herself towards Miss La Creevy in a stately and distant
manner, designed to mark her sense of the impropriety of her
conduct, and to signify her extreme and cutting disapprobation of the
misdemeanour she had so flagrantly committed.