The place was a handsome suite of private apartments in Regent Street;the time was three o'clock in the afternoon to the dull and plodding,and the first hour of morning to the gay and spirited; the persons wereLord Frederick Verisopht, and his friend Sir Mulberry Hawk.

These distinguished gentlemen were reclining listlessly on a coupleof sofas, with a table between them, on which were scattered in richconfusion the materials of an untasted breakfast. Newspapers lay strewnabout the room, but these, like the meal, were neglected and unnoticed;not, however, because any flow of conversation prevented the attractionsof the journals from being called into request, for not a word wasexchanged between the two, nor was any sound uttered, save when one,in tossing about to find an easier resting-place for his aching head,uttered an exclamation of impatience, and seemed for a moment tocommunicate a new restlessness to his companion.

These appearances would in themselves have furnished a pretty strongclue to the extent of the debauch of the previous night, even if therehad not been other indications of the amusements in which it had beenpassed. A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats,a champagne bottle with a soiled glove twisted round the neck, to allowof its being grasped more surely in its capacity of an offensiveweapon; a broken cane; a card-case without the top; an empty purse; awatch-guard snapped asunder; a handful of silver, mingled with fragmentsof half-smoked cigars, and their stale and crumbled ashes;--these, andmany other tokens of riot and disorder, hinted very intelligibly at thenature of last night's gentlemanly frolics.

Lord Frederick Verisopht was the first to speak. Dropping his slipperedfoot on the ground, and, yawning heavily, he struggled into a sittingposture, and turned his dull languid eyes towards his friend, to whom hecalled in a drowsy voice.

'Hallo!' replied Sir Mulberry, turning round.

'Are we going to lie here all da-a-y?' said the lord.

'I don't know that we're fit for anything else,' replied Sir Mulberry;'yet awhile, at least. I haven't a grain of life in me this morning.'

'Life!' cried Lord Verisopht. 'I feel as if there would be nothing sosnug and comfortable as to die at once.'

'Then why don't you die?' said Sir Mulberry.

With which inquiry he turned his face away, and seemed to occupy himselfin an attempt to fall asleep.

His hopeful friend and pupil drew a chair to the breakfast-table, andessayed to eat; but, finding that impossible, lounged to the window,then loitered up and down the room with his hand to his fevered head,and finally threw himself again on his sofa, and roused his friend oncemore.

'What the devil's the matter?' groaned Sir Mulberry, sitting upright onthe couch.

Although Sir Mulberry said this with sufficient ill-humour, he didnot seem to feel himself quite at liberty to remain silent; for, afterstretching himself very often, and declaring with a shiver that itwas 'infernal cold,' he made an experiment at the breakfast-table, andproving more successful in it than his less-seasoned friend, remainedthere.

'Suppose,' said Sir Mulberry, pausing with a morsel on the point of hisfork, 'suppose we go back to the subject of little Nickleby, eh?'

'Which little Nickleby; the money-lender or the ga-a-l?' asked LordVerisopht.

'You take me, I see,' replied Sir Mulberry. 'The girl, of course.'

'You promised me you'd find her out,' said Lord Verisopht.

'So I did,' rejoined his friend; 'but I have thought further of thematter since then. You distrust me in the business--you shall find herout yourself.'

'Na-ay,' remonstrated Lord Verisopht.

'But I say yes,' returned his friend. 'You shall find her out yourself.Don't think that I mean, when you can--I know as well as you that if Idid, you could never get sight of her without me. No. I say you shallfind her out--SHALL--and I'll put you in the way.'

'Now, curse me, if you ain't a real, deyvlish, downright, thorough-pacedfriend,' said the young lord, on whom this speech had produced a mostreviving effect.

'I'll tell you how,' said Sir Mulberry. 'She was at that dinner as abait for you.'

'No!' cried the young lord. 'What the dey--'

'As a bait for you,' repeated his friend; 'old Nickleby told me sohimself.'

'What a fine old cock it is!' exclaimed Lord Verisopht; 'a noblerascal!'

'Yes,' said Sir Mulberry, 'he knew she was a smart little creature--'

'Smart!' interposed the young lord. 'Upon my soul, Hawk, she's a perfectbeauty--a--a picture, a statue, a--a--upon my soul she is!'

'Well,' replied Sir Mulberry, shrugging his shoulders and manifesting anindifference, whether he felt it or not; 'that's a matter of taste; ifmine doesn't agree with yours, so much the better.'

'Confound it!' reasoned the lord, 'you were thick enough with her thatday, anyhow. I could hardly get in a word.'

'Well enough for once, well enough for once,' replied Sir Mulberry; 'butnot worth the trouble of being agreeable to again. If you seriouslywant to follow up the niece, tell the uncle that you must know where shelives and how she lives, and with whom, or you are no longer a customerof his. He'll tell you fast enough.'

'Why didn't you say this before?' asked Lord Verisopht, 'instead ofletting me go on burning, consuming, dragging out a miserable existencefor an a-age!'

'I didn't know it, in the first place,' answered Sir Mulberrycarelessly; 'and in the second, I didn't believe you were so very muchin earnest.'

Now, the truth was, that in the interval which had elapsed since thedinner at Ralph Nickleby's, Sir Mulberry Hawk had been furtively tryingby every means in his power to discover whence Kate had so suddenlyappeared, and whither she had disappeared. Unassisted by Ralph, however,with whom he had held no communication since their angry parting on thatoccasion, all his efforts were wholly unavailing, and he had thereforearrived at the determination of communicating to the young lord thesubstance of the admission he had gleaned from that worthy. To this hewas impelled by various considerations; among which the certainty ofknowing whatever the weak young man knew was decidedly not the least,as the desire of encountering the usurer's niece again, and using hisutmost arts to reduce her pride, and revenge himself for her contempt,was uppermost in his thoughts. It was a politic course of proceeding,and one which could not fail to redound to his advantage in every pointof view, since the very circumstance of his having extorted from RalphNickleby his real design in introducing his niece to such society,coupled with his extreme disinterestedness in communicating it so freelyto his friend, could not but advance his interests in that quarter,and greatly facilitate the passage of coin (pretty frequent and speedyalready) from the pockets of Lord Frederick Verisopht to those of SirMulberry Hawk.

Thus reasoned Sir Mulberry, and in pursuance of this reasoning heand his friend soon afterwards repaired to Ralph Nickleby's, there toexecute a plan of operations concerted by Sir Mulberry himself, avowedlyto promote his friend's object, and really to attain his own.

They found Ralph at home, and alone. As he led them into thedrawing-room, the recollection of the scene which had taken place thereseemed to occur to him, for he cast a curious look at Sir Mulberry, whobestowed upon it no other acknowledgment than a careless smile.

They had a short conference upon some money matters then in progress,which were scarcely disposed of when the lordly dupe (in pursuance ofhis friend's instructions) requested with some embarrassment to speak toRalph alone.

'Alone, eh?' cried Sir Mulberry, affecting surprise. 'Oh, very good.I'll walk into the next room here. Don't keep me long, that's all.'

So saying, Sir Mulberry took up his hat, and humming a fragment ofa song disappeared through the door of communication between the twodrawing-rooms, and closed it after him.

'Now, my lord,' said Ralph, 'what is it?'

'Nickleby,' said his client, throwing himself along the sofa on whichhe had been previously seated, so as to bring his lips nearer to the oldman's ear, 'what a pretty creature your niece is!'

'Is she, my lord?' replied Ralph. 'Maybe--maybe--I don't trouble my headwith such matters.'

'You know she's a deyvlish fine girl,' said the client. 'You must knowthat, Nickleby. Come, don't deny that.'

'Yes, I believe she is considered so,' replied Ralph. 'Indeed, I knowshe is. If I did not, you are an authority on such points, and yourtaste, my lord--on all points, indeed--is undeniable.'

Nobody but the young man to whom these words were addressed could havebeen deaf to the sneering tone in which they were spoken, or blind tothe look of contempt by which they were accompanied. But Lord FrederickVerisopht was both, and took them to be complimentary.

'Well,' he said, 'p'raps you're a little right, and p'raps you're alittle wrong--a little of both, Nickleby. I want to know where thisbeauty lives, that I may have another peep at her, Nickleby.'

'Really--' Ralph began in his usual tones.

'Don't talk so loud,' cried the other, achieving the great point of hislesson to a miracle. 'I don't want Hawk to hear.'

'You know he is your rival, do you?' said Ralph, looking sharply at him.

'He always is, d-a-amn him,' replied the client; 'and I want to steala march upon him. Ha, ha, ha! He'll cut up so rough, Nickleby, at ourtalking together without him. Where does she live, Nickleby, that's all?Only tell me where she lives, Nickleby.'

'He bites,' thought Ralph. 'He bites.'

'Eh, Nickleby, eh?' pursued the client. 'Where does she live?'

'Really, my lord,' said Ralph, rubbing his hands slowly over each other,'I must think before I tell you.'

'No, not a bit of it, Nickleby; you mustn't think at all,' repliedVerisopht. 'Where is it?'

'No good can come of your knowing,' replied Ralph. 'She has beenvirtuously and well brought up; to be sure she is handsome, poor,unprotected! Poor girl, poor girl.'

Ralph ran over this brief summary of Kate's condition as if it weremerely passing through his own mind, and he had no intention to speakaloud; but the shrewd sly look which he directed at his companion as hedelivered it, gave this poor assumption the lie.

'I tell you I only want to see her,' cried his client. 'A ma-an may lookat a pretty woman without harm, mayn't he? Now, where DOES she live?You know you're making a fortune out of me, Nickleby, and upon my soulnobody shall ever take me to anybody else, if you only tell me this.'

'As you promise that, my lord,' said Ralph, with feigned reluctance,'and as I am most anxious to oblige you, and as there's no harm init--no harm--I'll tell you. But you had better keep it to yourself, mylord; strictly to yourself.' Ralph pointed to the adjoining room as hespoke, and nodded expressively.

The young lord, feigning to be equally impressed with the necessity ofthis precaution, Ralph disclosed the present address and occupation ofhis niece, observing that from what he heard of the family they appearedvery ambitious to have distinguished acquaintances, and that a lordcould, doubtless, introduce himself with great ease, if he feltdisposed.

'Your object being only to see her again,' said Ralph, 'you could effectit at any time you chose by that means.'

Lord Verisopht acknowledged the hint with a great many squeezes ofRalph's hard, horny hand, and whispering that they would now do well toclose the conversation, called to Sir Mulberry Hawk that he might comeback.

'I thought you had gone to sleep,' said Sir Mulberry, reappearing withan ill-tempered air.

'Sorry to detain you,' replied the gull; 'but Nickleby has been soama-azingly funny that I couldn't tear myself away.'

'No, no,' said Ralph; 'it was all his lordship. You know what a witty,humorous, elegant, accomplished man Lord Frederick is. Mind the step, mylord--Sir Mulberry, pray give way.'

With such courtesies as these, and many low bows, and the same coldsneer upon his face all the while, Ralph busied himself in showing hisvisitors downstairs, and otherwise than by the slightest possible motionabout the corners of his mouth, returned no show of answer to the lookof admiration with which Sir Mulberry Hawk seemed to compliment him onbeing such an accomplished and most consummate scoundrel.

There had been a ring at the bell a few minutes before, which wasanswered by Newman Noggs just as they reached the hall. In the ordinarycourse of business Newman would have either admitted the new-comer insilence, or have requested him or her to stand aside while the gentlemenpassed out. But he no sooner saw who it was, than as if for some privatereason of his own, he boldly departed from the established custom ofRalph's mansion in business hours, and looking towards the respectabletrio who were approaching, cried in a loud and sonorous voice, 'MrsNickleby!'

'Mrs Nickleby!' cried Sir Mulberry Hawk, as his friend looked back, andstared him in the face.

It was, indeed, that well-intentioned lady, who, having received anoffer for the empty house in the city directed to the landlord, hadbrought it post-haste to Mr Nickleby without delay.

'Nobody YOU know,' said Ralph. 'Step into the office, my--my--dear. I'llbe with you directly.'

'Nobody I know!' cried Sir Mulberry Hawk, advancing to the astonishedlady. 'Is this Mrs Nickleby--the mother of Miss Nickleby--the delightfulcreature that I had the happiness of meeting in this house the very lasttime I dined here? But no;' said Sir Mulberry, stopping short. 'No, itcan't be. There is the same cast of features, the same indescribable airof--But no; no. This lady is too young for that.'

'I think you can tell the gentleman, brother-in-law, if it concernshim to know,' said Mrs Nickleby, acknowledging the compliment with agraceful bend, 'that Kate Nickleby is my daughter.'

'Her daughter, my lord!' cried Sir Mulberry, turning to his friend.'This lady's daughter, my lord.'

'My lord!' thought Mrs Nickleby. 'Well, I never did--'

'This, then, my lord,' said Sir Mulberry, 'is the lady to whose obligingmarriage we owe so much happiness. This lady is the mother of sweetMiss Nickleby. Do you observe the extraordinary likeness, my lord?Nickleby--introduce us.'

Ralph did so, in a kind of desperation.

'Upon my soul, it's a most delightful thing,' said Lord Frederick,pressing forward. 'How de do?'

Mrs Nickleby was too much flurried by these uncommonly kind salutations,and her regrets at not having on her other bonnet, to make any immediatereply, so she merely continued to bend and smile, and betray greatagitation.

'A--and how is Miss Nickleby?' said Lord Frederick. 'Well, I hope?'

'She is quite well, I'm obliged to you, my lord,' returned Mrs Nickleby,recovering. 'Quite well. She wasn't well for some days after that dayshe dined here, and I can't help thinking, that she caught cold in thathackney coach coming home. Hackney coaches, my lord, are such nastythings, that it's almost better to walk at any time, for although Ibelieve a hackney coachman can be transported for life, if he has abroken window, still they are so reckless, that they nearly all havebroken windows. I once had a swelled face for six weeks, my lord, fromriding in a hackney coach--I think it was a hackney coach,' said MrsNickleby reflecting, 'though I'm not quite certain whether it wasn'ta chariot; at all events I know it was a dark green, with a very longnumber, beginning with a nought and ending with a nine--no, beginningwith a nine, and ending with a nought, that was it, and of course thestamp-office people would know at once whether it was a coach or achariot if any inquiries were made there--however that was, there itwas with a broken window and there was I for six weeks with a swelledface--I think that was the very same hackney coach, that we found outafterwards, had the top open all the time, and we should never even haveknown it, if they hadn't charged us a shilling an hour extra for havingit open, which it seems is the law, or was then, and a most shameful lawit appears to be--I don't understand the subject, but I should say theCorn Laws could be nothing to THAT act of Parliament.'

Having pretty well run herself out by this time, Mrs Nickleby stopped assuddenly as she had started off; and repeated that Kate was quite well.'Indeed,' said Mrs Nickleby, 'I don't think she ever was better, sinceshe had the hooping-cough, scarlet-fever, and measles, all at the sametime, and that's the fact.'

'Is that letter for me?' growled Ralph, pointing to the little packetMrs Nickleby held in her hand.

'For you, brother-in-law,' replied Mrs Nickleby, 'and I walked all theway up here on purpose to give it you.'

'All the way up here!' cried Sir Mulberry, seizing upon the chanceof discovering where Mrs Nickleby had come from. 'What a confoundeddistance! How far do you call it now?'

'How far do I call it?' said Mrs Nickleby. 'Let me see. It's just a milefrom our door to the Old Bailey.'

'No, no. Not so much as that,' urged Sir Mulberry.

'Oh! It is indeed,' said Mrs Nickleby. 'I appeal to his lordship.'

'I should decidedly say it was a mile,' remarked Lord Frederick, with asolemn aspect.

'It must be; it can't be a yard less,' said Mrs Nickleby. 'All downNewgate Street, all down Cheapside, all up Lombard Street, downGracechurch Street, and along Thames Street, as far as Spigwiffin'sWharf. Oh! It's a mile.'

'Yes, on second thoughts I should say it was,' replied Sir Mulberry.'But you don't surely mean to walk all the way back?'

'Oh, no,' rejoined Mrs Nickleby. 'I shall go back in an omnibus. Ididn't travel about in omnibuses, when my poor dear Nicholas was alive,brother-in-law. But as it is, you know--'

'Yes, yes,' replied Ralph impatiently, 'and you had better get backbefore dark.'

'Thank you, brother-in-law, so I had,' returned Mrs Nickleby. 'I think Ihad better say goodbye, at once.'

'Not stop and--rest?' said Ralph, who seldom offered refreshments unlesssomething was to be got by it.

'Oh dear me no,' returned Mrs Nickleby, glancing at the dial.

'Lord Frederick,' said Sir Mulberry, 'we are going Mrs Nickleby's way.We'll see her safe to the omnibus?'

'By all means. Ye-es.'

'Oh! I really couldn't think of it!' said Mrs Nickleby.

But Sir Mulberry Hawk and Lord Verisopht were peremptory in theirpoliteness, and leaving Ralph, who seemed to think, not unwisely, thathe looked less ridiculous as a mere spectator, than he would have doneif he had taken any part in these proceedings, they quitted the housewith Mrs Nickleby between them; that good lady in a perfect ecstasyof satisfaction, no less with the attentions shown her by two titledgentlemen, than with the conviction that Kate might now pick and choose,at least between two large fortunes, and most unexceptionable husbands.

As she was carried away for the moment by an irresistible train ofthought, all connected with her daughter's future greatness, SirMulberry Hawk and his friend exchanged glances over the top of thebonnet which the poor lady so much regretted not having left at home,and proceeded to dilate with great rapture, but much respect on themanifold perfections of Miss Nickleby.

'What a delight, what a comfort, what a happiness, this amiablecreature must be to you,' said Sir Mulberry, throwing into his voice anindication of the warmest feeling.

'She is indeed, sir,' replied Mrs Nickleby; 'she is thesweetest-tempered, kindest-hearted creature--and so clever!'

'She looks clayver,' said Lord Verisopht, with the air of a judge ofcleverness.

'I assure you she is, my lord,' returned Mrs Nickleby. 'When she wasat school in Devonshire, she was universally allowed to be beyond allexception the very cleverest girl there, and there were a great manyvery clever ones too, and that's the truth--twenty-five young ladies,fifty guineas a year without the et-ceteras, both the Miss Dowdles themost accomplished, elegant, fascinating creatures--Oh dear me!' said MrsNickleby, 'I never shall forget what pleasure she used to give meand her poor dear papa, when she was at that school, never--such adelightful letter every half-year, telling us that she was the firstpupil in the whole establishment, and had made more progress thananybody else! I can scarcely bear to think of it even now. The girlswrote all the letters themselves,' added Mrs Nickleby, 'and thewriting-master touched them up afterwards with a magnifying glass anda silver pen; at least I think they wrote them, though Kate was neverquite certain about that, because she didn't know the handwriting ofhers again; but anyway, I know it was a circular which they all copied,and of course it was a very gratifying thing--very gratifying.'

With similar recollections Mrs Nickleby beguiled the tediousness of theway, until they reached the omnibus, which the extreme politeness ofher new friends would not allow them to leave until it actually started,when they took their hats, as Mrs Nickleby solemnly assured her hearerson many subsequent occasions, 'completely off,' and kissed theirstraw-coloured kid gloves till they were no longer visible.

Mrs Nickleby leant back in the furthest corner of the conveyance,and, closing her eyes, resigned herself to a host of most pleasingmeditations. Kate had never said a word about having met either ofthese gentlemen; 'that,' she thought, 'argues that she is stronglyprepossessed in favour of one of them.' Then the question arose, whichone could it be. The lord was the youngest, and his title was certainlythe grandest; still Kate was not the girl to be swayed by suchconsiderations as these. 'I will never put any constraint upon herinclinations,' said Mrs Nickleby to herself; 'but upon my word Ithink there's no comparison between his lordship and Sir Mulberry--SirMulberry is such an attentive gentlemanly creature, so much manner,such a fine man, and has so much to say for himself. I hope it's SirMulberry--I think it must be Sir Mulberry!' And then her thoughts flewback to her old predictions, and the number of times she had said, thatKate with no fortune would marry better than other people's daughterswith thousands; and, as she pictured with the brightness of a mother'sfancy all the beauty and grace of the poor girl who had struggled socheerfully with her new life of hardship and trial, her heart grew toofull, and the tears trickled down her face.

Meanwhile, Ralph walked to and fro in his little back-office, troubledin mind by what had just occurred. To say that Ralph loved or caredfor--in the most ordinary acceptation of those terms--any one of God'screatures, would be the wildest fiction. Still, there had somehow stolenupon him from time to time a thought of his niece which was tingedwith compassion and pity; breaking through the dull cloud of dislike orindifference which darkened men and women in his eyes, there was, in hercase, the faintest gleam of light--a most feeble and sickly ray at thebest of times--but there it was, and it showed the poor girl in a betterand purer aspect than any in which he had looked on human nature yet.

'I wish,' thought Ralph, 'I had never done this. And yet it willkeep this boy to me, while there is money to be made. Selling agirl--throwing her in the way of temptation, and insult, and coarsespeech. Nearly two thousand pounds profit from him already though.Pshaw! match-making mothers do the same thing every day.'

He sat down, and told the chances, for and against, on his fingers.

'If I had not put them in the right track today,' thought Ralph, 'thisfoolish woman would have done so. Well. If her daughter is as true toherself as she should be from what I have seen, what harm ensues? Alittle teasing, a little humbling, a few tears. Yes,' said Ralph, aloud,as he locked his iron safe. 'She must take her chance. She must take herchance.'