_A Song of Sympathetic Suggestion._
["Poor Mrs. NICKLEBY, who had at no time been remarkable for
the possession of a very clear understanding, had been reduced
by the late changes in affairs to a most complicated state of
perplexity....
"'I don't know what to think, one way or other, my dear,' said
Mrs. NICKLEBY; 'NICHOLAS is so violent, and your uncle has
so much composure, that I can only hear what he says, and not
what NICHOLAS does. Never mind--don't let us talk any more
about it.'...
"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....
"'Anybody who had come in upon us suddenly would have supposed
that I was confusing and distracting, instead of making things
plainer; upon my word they would.'...
"'I am very sorry indeed,' said Mrs. NICKLEBY. 'I am very
sorry indeed for all this. I really don't know what would be
the best to do, and that's the truth;... but if it could be
settled in any friendly manner--and some fair arrangement was
come to, so that we undertook to have fish twice a week, and
a pudding once, or a dumpling, or something of that sort, I
do think it might be very satisfactory and pleasant for all
parties.'
"This compromise, which was proposed with abundance of tears
and sighs, not exactly meeting the point at issue, nobody took
any notice of it."
_Dickens's "Nicholas Nickleby._"]