There are not many men who lie abed too late, or oversleep themselves,on their wedding morning. A legend there is of somebody remarkable forabsence of mind, who opened his eyes upon the day which was to give hima young wife, and forgetting all about the matter, rated his servantsfor providing him with such fine clothes as had been prepared for thefestival. There is also a legend of a young gentleman, who, not havingbefore his eyes the fear of the canons of the church for such cases madeand provided, conceived a passion for his grandmother. Both cases are ofa singular and special kind and it is very doubtful whether eithercan be considered as a precedent likely to be extensively followed bysucceeding generations.

Arthur Gride had enrobed himself in his marriage garments ofbottle-green, a full hour before Mrs Sliderskew, shaking off hermore heavy slumbers, knocked at his chamber door; and he had hobbleddownstairs in full array and smacked his lips over a scanty taste of hisfavourite cordial, ere that delicate piece of antiquity enlightened thekitchen with her presence.

'Faugh!' said Peg, grubbing, in the discharge of her domestic functions,among a scanty heap of ashes in the rusty grate. 'Wedding indeed! Aprecious wedding! He wants somebody better than his old Peg to take careof him, does he? And what has he said to me, many and many a time, tokeep me content with short food, small wages, and little fire? "My will,Peg! my will!" says he: "I'm a bachelor--no friends--no relations, Peg."Lies! And now he's to bring home a new mistress, a baby-faced chit of agirl! If he wanted a wife, the fool, why couldn't he have one suitableto his age, and that knew his ways? She won't come in MY way, he says.No, that she won't, but you little think why, Arthur boy!'

While Mrs Sliderskew, influenced possibly by some lingering feelingsof disappointment and personal slight, occasioned by her old master'spreference for another, was giving loose to these grumblings belowstairs, Arthur Gride was cogitating in the parlour upon what had takenplace last night.

'I can't think how he can have picked up what he knows,' said Arthur,'unless I have committed myself--let something drop at Bray's, forinstance--which has been overheard. Perhaps I may. I shouldn't besurprised if that was it. Mr Nickleby was often angry at my talking tohim before we got outside the door. I mustn't tell him that part ofthe business, or he'll put me out of sorts, and make me nervous for theday.'

Ralph was universally looked up to, and recognised among his fellows asa superior genius, but upon Arthur Gride his stern unyielding characterand consummate art had made so deep an impression, that he was actuallyafraid of him. Cringing and cowardly to the core by nature, Arthur Gridehumbled himself in the dust before Ralph Nickleby, and, even when theyhad not this stake in common, would have licked his shoes and crawledupon the ground before him rather than venture to return him wordfor word, or retort upon him in any other spirit than one of the mostslavish and abject sycophancy.

To Ralph Nickleby's, Arthur Gride now betook himself according toappointment; and to Ralph Nickleby he related how, last night, someyoung blustering blade, whom he had never seen, forced his way into hishouse, and tried to frighten him from the proposed nuptials. Told, inshort, what Nicholas had said and done, with the slight reservation uponwhich he had determined.

'Well, and what then?' said Ralph.

'Oh! nothing more,' rejoined Gride.

'He tried to frighten you,' said Ralph, 'and you WERE frightened Isuppose; is that it?'

'I frightened HIM by crying thieves and murder,' replied Gride. 'OnceI was in earnest, I tell you that, for I had more than half a mind toswear he uttered threats, and demanded my life or my money.'

'Oho!' said Ralph, eyeing him askew. 'Jealous too!'

'Dear now, see that!' cried Arthur, rubbing his hands and affecting tolaugh.

'Why do you make those grimaces, man?' said Ralph; 'you ARE jealous--andwith good cause I think.'

'No, no, no; not with good cause, hey? You don't think with good cause,do you?' cried Arthur, faltering. 'Do you though, hey?'

'Why, how stands the fact?' returned Ralph. 'Here is an old man aboutto be forced in marriage upon a girl; and to this old man there comes ahandsome young fellow--you said he was handsome, didn't you?'

'No!' snarled Arthur Gride.

'Oh!' rejoined Ralph, 'I thought you did. Well! Handsome or nothandsome, to this old man there comes a young fellow who casts allmanner of fierce defiances in his teeth--gums I should rather say--andtells him in plain terms that his mistress hates him. What does he dothat for? Philanthropy's sake?'

'Not for love of the lady,' replied Gride, 'for he said that no word oflove--his very words--had ever passed between 'em.'

'He said!' repeated Ralph, contemptuously. 'But I like him for onething, and that is, his giving you this fair warning to keep your--whatis it?--Tit-tit or dainty chick--which?--under lock and key. Be careful,Gride, be careful. It's a triumph, too, to tear her away from a gallantyoung rival: a great triumph for an old man! It only remains to keep hersafe when you have her--that's all.'

'What a man it is!' cried Arthur Gride, affecting, in the extremity ofhis torture, to be highly amused. And then he added, anxiously, 'Yes; tokeep her safe, that's all. And that isn't much, is it?'

'Much!' said Ralph, with a sneer. 'Why, everybody knows what easy thingsto understand and to control, women are. But come, it's very nearly timefor you to be made happy. You'll pay the bond now, I suppose, to save ustrouble afterwards.'

'Oh what a man you are!' croaked Arthur.

'Why not?' said Ralph. 'Nobody will pay you interest for the money, Isuppose, between this and twelve o'clock; will they?'

'But nobody would pay you interest for it either, you know,' returnedArthur, leering at Ralph with all the cunning and slyness he could throwinto his face.

'Besides which,' said Ralph, suffering his lip to curl into a smile,'you haven't the money about you, and you weren't prepared for this, oryou'd have brought it with you; and there's nobody you'd so much like toaccommodate as me. I see. We trust each other in about an equal degree.Are you ready?'

Gride, who had done nothing but grin, and nod, and chatter, during thislast speech of Ralph's, answered in the affirmative; and, producing fromhis hat a couple of large white favours, pinned one on his breast, andwith considerable difficulty induced his friend to do the like. Thusaccoutred, they got into a hired coach which Ralph had in waiting, anddrove to the residence of the fair and most wretched bride.

Gride, whose spirits and courage had gradually failed him more and moreas they approached nearer and nearer to the house, was utterly dismayedand cowed by the mournful silence which pervaded it. The face of thepoor servant girl, the only person they saw, was disfigured with tearsand want of sleep. There was nobody to receive or welcome them; and theystole upstairs into the usual sitting-room, more like two burglars thanthe bridegroom and his friend.

'One would think,' said Ralph, speaking, in spite of himself, in a lowand subdued voice, 'that there was a funeral going on here, and not awedding.'

'He, he!' tittered his friend, 'you are so--so very funny!'

'I need be,' remarked Ralph, drily, 'for this is rather dull andchilling. Look a little brisker, man, and not so hangdog like!'

'Yes, yes, I will,' said Gride. 'But--but--you don't think she's comingjust yet, do you?'

'Why, I suppose she'll not come till she is obliged,' returned Ralph,looking at his watch, 'and she has a good half-hour to spare yet. Curbyour impatience.'

'I--I--am not impatient,' stammered Arthur. 'I wouldn't be hard withher for the world. Oh dear, dear, not on any account. Let her take hertime--her own time. Her time shall be ours by all means.'

While Ralph bent upon his trembling friend a keen look, which showedthat he perfectly understood the reason of this great consideration andregard, a footstep was heard upon the stairs, and Bray himself came intothe room on tiptoe, and holding up his hand with a cautious gesture, asif there were some sick person near, who must not be disturbed.

'Hush!' he said, in a low voice. 'She was very ill last night. I thoughtshe would have broken her heart. She is dressed, and crying bitterly inher own room; but she's better, and quite quiet. That's everything!'

'She is ready, is she?' said Ralph.

'Quite ready,' returned the father.

'And not likely to delay us by any young-lady weaknesses--fainting, orso forth?' said Ralph.

'She may be safely trusted now,' returned Bray. 'I have been talking toher this morning. Here! Come a little this way.'

He drew Ralph Nickleby to the further end of the room, and pointedtowards Gride, who sat huddled together in a corner, fumbling nervouslywith the buttons of his coat, and exhibiting a face, of which everyskulking and base expression was sharpened and aggravated to the utmostby his anxiety and trepidation.

'Look at that man,' whispered Bray, emphatically. 'This seems a cruelthing, after all.'

'What seems a cruel thing?' inquired Ralph, with as much stolidity offace, as if he really were in utter ignorance of the other's meaning.

'This marriage,' answered Bray. 'Don't ask me what. You know as well asI do.'

Ralph shrugged his shoulders, in silent deprecation of Bray'simpatience, and elevated his eyebrows, and pursed his lips, as men dowhen they are prepared with a sufficient answer to some remark, but waitfor a more favourable opportunity of advancing it, or think it scarcelyworth while to answer their adversary at all.

'Look at him. Does it not seem cruel?' said Bray.

'No!' replied Ralph, boldly.

'I say it does,' retorted Bray, with a show of much irritation. 'It is acruel thing, by all that's bad and treacherous!'

When men are about to commit, or to sanction the commission of someinjustice, it is not uncommon for them to express pity for the objecteither of that or some parallel proceeding, and to feel themselves, atthe time, quite virtuous and moral, and immensely superior to thosewho express no pity at all. This is a kind of upholding of faith aboveworks, and is very comfortable. To do Ralph Nickleby justice, he seldompractised this sort of dissimulation; but he understood those whodid, and therefore suffered Bray to say, again and again, with greatvehemence, that they were jointly doing a very cruel thing, before heagain offered to interpose a word.

'You see what a dry, shrivelled, withered old chip it is,' returnedRalph, when the other was at length silent. 'If he were younger, itmight be cruel, but as it is--harkee, Mr Bray, he'll die soon, and leaveher a rich young widow! Miss Madeline consults your tastes this time;let her consult her own next.'

'True, true,' said Bray, biting his nails, and plainly very ill at ease.'I couldn't do anything better for her than advise her to accept theseproposals, could I? Now, I ask you, Nickleby, as a man of the world;could I?'

'Surely not,' answered Ralph. 'I tell you what, sir; there are a hundredfathers, within a circuit of five miles from this place; well off; good,rich, substantial men; who would gladly give their daughters, and theirown ears with them, to that very man yonder, ape and mummy as he looks.'

'So there are!' exclaimed Bray, eagerly catching at anything whichseemed a justification of himself. 'And so I told her, both last nightand today.'

'You told her truth,' said Ralph, 'and did well to do so; though Imust say, at the same time, that if I had a daughter, and my freedom,pleasure, nay, my very health and life, depended on her taking a husbandwhom I pointed out, I should hope it would not be necessary to advanceany other arguments to induce her to consent to my wishes.'

Bray looked at Ralph as if to see whether he spoke in earnest, andhaving nodded twice or thrice in unqualified assent to what had fallenfrom him, said:

'I must go upstairs for a few minutes, to finish dressing. When I comedown, I'll bring Madeline with me. Do you know, I had a very strangedream last night, which I have not remembered till this instant. Idreamt that it was this morning, and you and I had been talking as wehave been this minute; that I went upstairs, for the very purposefor which I am going now; and that as I stretched out my hand to takeMadeline's, and lead her down, the floor sunk with me, and after fallingfrom such an indescribable and tremendous height as the imaginationscarcely conceives, except in dreams, I alighted in a grave.'

'And you awoke, and found you were lying on your back, or with your headhanging over the bedside, or suffering some pain from indigestion?' saidRalph. 'Pshaw, Mr Bray! Do as I do (you will have the opportunity, nowthat a constant round of pleasure and enjoyment opens upon you), and,occupying yourself a little more by day, have no time to think of whatyou dream by night.'

Ralph followed him, with a steady look, to the door; and, turning to thebridegroom, when they were again alone, said,

'Mark my words, Gride, you won't have to pay HIS annuity very long. Youhave the devil's luck in bargains, always. If he is not booked to makethe long voyage before many months are past and gone, I wear an orangefor a head!'

To this prophecy, so agreeable to his ears, Arthur returned no answerthan a cackle of great delight. Ralph, throwing himself into a chair,they both sat waiting in profound silence. Ralph was thinking, with asneer upon his lips, on the altered manner of Bray that day, andhow soon their fellowship in a bad design had lowered his pride andestablished a familiarity between them, when his attentive ear caughtthe rustling of a female dress upon the stairs, and the footstep of aman.

'Wake up,' he said, stamping his foot impatiently upon the ground, 'andbe something like life, man, will you? They are here. Urge those dry oldbones of yours this way. Quick, man, quick!'

Gride shambled forward, and stood, leering and bowing, close by Ralph'sside, when the door opened and there entered in haste--not Bray and hisdaughter, but Nicholas and his sister Kate.

If some tremendous apparition from the world of shadows had suddenlypresented itself before him, Ralph Nickleby could not have been morethunder-stricken than he was by this surprise. His hands fell powerlessby his side, he reeled back; and with open mouth, and a face ofashy paleness, stood gazing at them in speechless rage: his eyes soprominent, and his face so convulsed and changed by the passions whichraged within him, that it would have been difficult to recognise in himthe same stern, composed, hard-featured man he had been not a minuteago.

'The man that came to me last night,' whispered Gride, plucking at hiselbow. 'The man that came to me last night!'

'I see,' muttered Ralph, 'I know! I might have guessed as much before.Across my every path, at every turn, go where I will, do what I may, hecomes!'

The absence of all colour from the face; the dilated nostril; thequivering of the lips which, though set firmly against each other, wouldnot be still; showed what emotions were struggling for the masterywith Nicholas. But he kept them down, and gently pressing Kate's armto reassure her, stood erect and undaunted, front to front with hisunworthy relative.

As the brother and sister stood side by side, with a gallant bearingwhich became them well, a close likeness between them was apparent,which many, had they only seen them apart, might have failed to remark.The air, carriage, and very look and expression of the brother were allreflected in the sister, but softened and refined to the nicest limitof feminine delicacy and attraction. More striking still was someindefinable resemblance, in the face of Ralph, to both. While they hadnever looked more handsome, nor he more ugly; while they had never heldthemselves more proudly, nor he shrunk half so low; there never had beena time when this resemblance was so perceptible, or when all the worstcharacteristics of a face rendered coarse and harsh by evil thoughtswere half so manifest as now.

'Away!' was the first word he could utter as he literally gnashed histeeth. 'Away! What brings you here? Liar, scoundrel, dastard, thief!'

'I come here,' said Nicholas in a low deep voice, 'to save your victimif I can. Liar and scoundrel you are, in every action of your life;theft is your trade; and double dastard you must be, or you were nothere today. Hard words will not move me, nor would hard blows. Here Istand, and will, till I have done my errand.'

'Girl!' said Ralph, 'retire! We can use force to him, but I would nothurt you if I could help it. Retire, you weak and silly wench, and leavethis dog to be dealt with as he deserves.'

'I will not retire,' cried Kate, with flashing eyes and the red bloodmantling in her cheeks. 'You will do him no hurt that he will not repay.You may use force with me; I think you will, for I AM a girl, and thatwould well become you. But if I have a girl's weakness, I have a woman'sheart, and it is not you who in a cause like this can turn that from itspurpose.'

'And what may your purpose be, most lofty lady?' said Ralph.

'To offer to the unhappy subject of your treachery, at this lastmoment,' replied Nicholas, 'a refuge and a home. If the near prospectof such a husband as you have provided will not prevail upon her, I hopeshe may be moved by the prayers and entreaties of one of her own sex.At all events they shall be tried. I myself, avowing to her father fromwhom I come and by whom I am commissioned, will render it an act ofgreater baseness, meanness, and cruelty in him if he still dares toforce this marriage on. Here I wait to see him and his daughter. Forthis I came and brought my sister even into your presence. Our purposeis not to see or speak with you; therefore to you we stoop to say nomore.'

'Indeed!' said Ralph. 'You persist in remaining here, ma'am, do you?'

His niece's bosom heaved with the indignant excitement into which he hadlashed her, but she gave him no reply.

'Now, Gride, see here,' said Ralph. 'This fellow--I grieve to say mybrother's son: a reprobate and profligate, stained with every meanand selfish crime--this fellow, coming here today to disturb a solemnceremony, and knowing that the consequence of his presenting himself inanother man's house at such a time, and persisting in remaining there,must be his being kicked into the streets and dragged through them likethe vagabond he is--this fellow, mark you, brings with him his sisteras a protection, thinking we would not expose a silly girl to thedegradation and indignity which is no novelty to him; and, even afterI have warned her of what must ensue, he still keeps her by him, asyou see, and clings to her apron-strings like a cowardly boy to hismother's. Is not this a pretty fellow to talk as big as you have heardhim now?'

'And as I heard him last night,' said Arthur Gride; 'as I heard him lastnight when he sneaked into my house, and--he! he! he!--very soon sneakedout again, when I nearly frightened him to death. And HE wanting tomarry Miss Madeline too! Oh dear! Is there anything else he'd like?Anything else we can do for him, besides giving her up? Would he likehis debts paid and his house furnished, and a few bank notes for shavingpaper if he shaves at all? He! he! he!'

'You will remain, girl, will you?' said Ralph, turning upon Kate again,'to be hauled downstairs like a drunken drab, as I swear you shall ifyou stop here? No answer! Thank your brother for what follows. Gride,call down Bray--and not his daughter. Let them keep her above.'

'If you value your head,' said Nicholas, taking up a position before thedoor, and speaking in the same low voice in which he had spoken before,and with no more outward passion than he had before displayed; 'staywhere you are!'

'Mind me, and not him, and call down Bray,' said Ralph.

'Mind yourself rather than either of us, and stay where you are!' saidNicholas.

'Will you call down Bray?' cried Ralph.

'Remember that you come near me at your peril,' said Nicholas.

Gride hesitated. Ralph being, by this time, as furious as a baffledtiger, made for the door, and, attempting to pass Kate, clasped her armroughly with his hand. Nicholas, with his eyes darting fire, seized himby the collar. At that moment, a heavy body fell with great violenceon the floor above, and, in an instant afterwards, was heard a mostappalling and terrific scream.

They all stood still, and gazed upon each other. Scream succeededscream; a heavy pattering of feet succeeded; and many shrill voicesclamouring together were heard to cry, 'He is dead!'

'Stand off!' cried Nicholas, letting loose all the passion he hadrestrained till now; 'if this is what I scarcely dare to hope it is, youare caught, villains, in your own toils.'

He burst from the room, and, darting upstairs to the quarter from whencethe noise proceeded, forced his way through a crowd of persons who quitefilled a small bed-chamber, and found Bray lying on the floor quitedead; his daughter clinging to the body.

'How did this happen?' he cried, looking wildly about him.

Several voices answered together, that he had been observed, throughthe half-opened door, reclining in a strange and uneasy position upon achair; that he had been spoken to several times, and not answering, wassupposed to be asleep, until some person going in and shaking him by thearm, he fell heavily to the ground and was discovered to be dead.

'Who is the owner of this house?' said Nicholas, hastily.

An elderly woman was pointed out to him; and to her he said, as he kneltdown and gently unwound Madeline's arms from the lifeless mass roundwhich they were entwined: 'I represent this lady's nearest friends, asher servant here knows, and must remove her from this dreadful scene.This is my sister to whose charge you confide her. My name and addressare upon that card, and you shall receive from me all necessarydirections for the arrangements that must be made. Stand aside, everyone of you, and give me room and air for God's sake!'

The people fell back, scarce wondering more at what had just occurred,than at the excitement and impetuosity of him who spoke. Nicholas,taking the insensible girl in his arms, bore her from the chamber anddownstairs into the room he had just quitted, followed by his sister andthe faithful servant, whom he charged to procure a coach directly, whilehe and Kate bent over their beautiful charge and endeavoured, but invain, to restore her to animation. The girl performed her office withsuch expedition, that in a very few minutes the coach was ready.

Ralph Nickleby and Gride, stunned and paralysed by the awful eventwhich had so suddenly overthrown their schemes (it would not otherwise,perhaps, have made much impression on them), and carried away by theextraordinary energy and precipitation of Nicholas, which bore downall before him, looked on at these proceedings like men in a dreamor trance. It was not until every preparation was made for Madeline'simmediate removal that Ralph broke silence by declaring she should notbe taken away.

'Who says so?' cried Nicholas, rising from his knee and confrontingthem, but still retaining Madeline's lifeless hand in his.

'I!' answered Ralph, hoarsely.

'Hush, hush!' cried the terrified Gride, catching him by the arm again.'Hear what he says.'

'Ay!' said Nicholas, extending his disengaged hand in the air, 'hearwhat he says. That both your debts are paid in the one great debt ofnature. That the bond, due today at twelve, is now waste paper. Thatyour contemplated fraud shall be discovered yet. That your schemes areknown to man, and overthrown by Heaven. Wretches, that he defies youboth to do your worst.'

'This man,' said Ralph, in a voice scarcely intelligible, 'this manclaims his wife, and he shall have her.'

'That man claims what is not his, and he should not have her if he werefifty men, with fifty more to back him,' said Nicholas.

'Who shall prevent him?'

'I will.'

'By what right I should like to know,' said Ralph. 'By what right Iask?'

'By this right. That, knowing what I do, you dare not tempt me further,'said Nicholas, 'and by this better right; that those I serve, and withwhom you would have done me base wrong and injury, are her nearest andher dearest friends. In their name I bear her hence. Give way!'

'One word!' cried Ralph, foaming at the mouth.

'Not one,' replied Nicholas, 'I will not hear of one--save this. Look toyourself, and heed this warning that I give you! Your day is past, andnight is comin' on.'

'My curse, my bitter, deadly curse, upon you, boy!'

'Whence will curses come at your command? Or what avails a curse orblessing from a man like you? I tell you, that misfortune and discoveryare thickening about your head; that the structures you have raised,through all your ill-spent life, are crumbling into dust; that your pathis beset with spies; that this very day, ten thousand pounds of yourhoarded wealth have gone in one great crash!'

''Tis false!' cried Ralph, shrinking back.

''Tis true, and you shall find it so. I have no more words to waste.Stand from the door. Kate, do you go first. Lay not a hand on her, or onthat woman, or on me, or so much a brush their garments as they pass youby!--You let them pass, and he blocks the door again!'

Arthur Gride happened to be in the doorway, but whether intentionallyor from confusion was not quite apparent. Nicholas swung him away, withsuch violence as to cause him to spin round the room until he was caughtby a sharp angle of the wall, and there knocked down; and then takinghis beautiful burden in his arms rushed out. No one cared to stop him,if any were so disposed. Making his way through a mob of people, whom areport of the circumstances had attracted round the house, and carryingMadeline, in his excitement, as easily as if she were an infant, hereached the coach in which Kate and the girl were already waiting, and,confiding his charge to them, jumped up beside the coachman and bade himdrive away.