Is fraught with some Danger to Miss Nickleby’sPeace of Mind.

　　The place was a handsome suite of private apartments inRegent Street; the time was three o’clock in the afternoonto the dull and plodding, and the first hour of morning tothe gay and spirited; the persons were Lord Frederick Verisopht,and his friend Sir Mulberry Hawk.

　　These distinguished gentlemen were reclining listlessly on acouple of sofas, with a table between them, on which werescattered in rich confusion the materials of an untasted breakfast.

　　Newspapers lay strewn about the room, but these, like the meal,were neglected and unnoticed; not, however, because any flow ofconversation prevented the attractions of the journals from beingcalled into request, for not a word was exchanged between thetwo, nor was any sound uttered, save when one, in tossing about tofind an easier resting-place for his aching head, uttered anexclamation of impatience, and seemed for a moment tocommunicate a new restlessness to his companion.

　　These appearances would in themselves have furnished apretty strong clue to the extent of the debauch of the previousnight, even if there had not been other indications of theamusements in which it had been passed. A couple of billiardballs, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle witha soiled glove twisted round the neck, to allow of its being graspedmore surely in its capacity of an offensive weapon; a broken cane; a card-case without the top; an empty purse; a watch-guardsnapped asunder; a handful of silver, mingled with fragments ofhalf-smoked cigars, and their stale and crumbled ashes;—these,and many other tokens of riot and disorder, hinted very intelligiblyat the nature of last night’s gentlemanly frolics.

　　Lord Frederick Verisopht was the first to speak. Dropping hisslippered foot on the ground, and, yawning heavily, he struggledinto a sitting posture, and turned his dull languid eyes towards hisfriend, to whom he called 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 SirMulberry; ‘yet awhile, at least. I haven’t a grain of life in me thismorning.’

　　‘Life!’ cried Lord Verisopht. ‘I feel as if there would be nothingso snug 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 tooccupy himself in an attempt to fall asleep.

　　His hopeful fiend and pupil drew a chair to the breakfast-table,and essayed to eat; but, finding that impossible, lounged to thewindow, then loitered up and down the room with his hand to hisfevered head, and finally threw himself again on his sofa, androused his friend once more.

　　‘What the devil’s the matter?’ groaned Sir Mulberry, sittingupright on the couch.

　　Although Sir Mulberry said this with sufficient ill-humour, hedid not seem to feel himself quite at liberty to remain silent; for,after stretching himself very often, and declaring with a shiver that it was ‘infernal cold,’ he made an experiment at the breakfast-table, and proving more successful in it than his less-seasonedfriend, remained there.

　　‘Suppose,’ said Sir Mulberry, pausing with a morsel on thepoint of his fork, ‘suppose we go back to the subject of littleNickleby, eh?’

　　‘Which little Nickleby; the money-lender or the ga-a-l?’ askedLord Verisopht.

　　‘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 findher out yourself.’

　　‘Na-ay,’ remonstrated Lord Verisopht.

　　‘But I say yes,’ returned his friend. ‘You shall find her outyourself. Don’t think that I mean, when you can—I know as well asyou that if I did, you could never get sight of her without me. No. Isay you shall find her out—shall—and I’ll put you in the way.’

　　‘Now, curse me, if you ain’t a real, deyvlish, downright,thorough-paced friend,’ said the young lord, on whom this speechhad produced a most reviving 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’sa perfect beauty—a—a picture, a statue, a—a—upon my soul sheis!’

　　‘Well,’ replied Sir Mulberry, shrugging his shoulders andmanifesting an indifference, whether he felt it or not; ‘that’s amatter of taste; if mine doesn’t agree with yours, so much thebetter.’

　　‘Confound it!’ reasoned the lord, ‘you were thick enough withher that day, anyhow. I could hardly get in a word.’

　　‘Well enough for once, well enough for once,’ replied SirMulberry; ‘but not worth the trouble of being agreeable to again. Ifyou seriously want to follow up the niece, tell the uncle that youmust know where she lives and how she lives, and with whom, oryou are no longer a customer of his. He’ll tell you fast enough.’

　　‘Why didn’t you say this before?’ asked Lord Verisopht, ‘insteadof letting me go on burning, consuming, dragging out a miserableexistence for 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 verymuch in earnest.’

　　Now, the truth was, that in the interval which had elapsed sincethe dinner at Ralph Nickleby’s, Sir Mulberry Hawk had beenfurtively trying by every means in his power to discover whenceKate had so suddenly appeared, and whither she had disappeared.

　　Unassisted by Ralph, however, with whom he had held nocommunication since their angry parting on that occasion, all hisefforts were wholly unavailing, and he had therefore arrived at thedetermination of communicating to the young lord the substance of the admission he had gleaned from that worthy. To this he wasimpelled by various considerations; among which the certainty ofknowing whatever the weak young man knew was decidedly notthe least, as the desire of encountering the usurer’s niece again,and using his utmost arts to reduce her pride, and revenge himselffor her contempt, was uppermost in his thoughts. It was a politiccourse of proceeding, and one which could not fail to redound tohis advantage in every point of view, since the very circumstanceof his having extorted from Ralph Nickleby his real design inintroducing his niece to such society, coupled with his extremedisinterestedness in communicating it so freely to his friend, couldnot but advance his interests in that quarter, and greatly facilitatethe passage of coin (pretty frequent and speedy already) from thepockets of Lord Frederick Verisopht to those of Sir MulberryHawk.

　　Thus reasoned Sir Mulberry, and in pursuance of thisreasoning he and his friend soon afterwards repaired to RalphNickleby’s, there to execute a plan of operations concerted by SirMulberry himself, avowedly to promote his friend’s object, andreally 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 placethere seemed to occur to him, for he cast a curious look at SirMulberry, who bestowed upon it no other acknowledgment than acareless smile.

　　They had a short conference upon some money matters then inprogress, which were scarcely disposed of when the lordly dupe(in pursuance of his friend’s instructions) requested with someembarrassment to speak to Ralph alone.

　　 ‘Alone, eh?’ cried Sir Mulberry, affecting surprise. ‘Oh, verygood. I’ll walk into the next room here. Don’t keep me long, that’sall.’

　　So saying, Sir Mulberry took up his hat, and humming afragment of a song disappeared through the door ofcommunication between the two drawing-rooms, and closed itafter him.

　　‘Now, my lord,’ said Ralph, ‘what is it?’

　　‘Nickleby,’ said his client, throwing himself along the sofa onwhich he had been previously seated, so as to bring his lips nearerto the old man’s ear, ‘what a pretty creature your niece is!’

　　‘Is she, my lord?’ replied Ralph. ‘Maybe—maybe—I don’ttrouble my head with such matters.’

　　‘You know she’s a deyvlish fine girl,’ said the client. ‘You mustknow that, Nickleby. Come, don’t deny that.’

　　‘Yes, I believe she is considered so,’ replied Ralph. ‘Indeed, Iknow she is. If I did not, you are an authority on such points, andyour taste, my lord—on all points, indeed—is undeniable.’

　　Nobody but the young man to whom these words wereaddressed could have been deaf to the sneering tone in which theywere spoken, or blind to the look of contempt by which they wereaccompanied. But Lord Frederick Verisopht was both, and tookthem 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 ofhis lesson to a miracle. ‘I don’t want Hawk to hear.’

　　 ‘You know he is your rival, do you?’ said Ralph, looking sharplyat him.

　　‘He always is, d-a-amn him,’ replied the client; ‘and I want tosteal a march upon him. Ha, ha, ha! He’ll cut up so rough,Nickleby, at our talking together without him. Where does shelive, 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 overeach 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 hasbeen virtuously 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 itwere merely passing through his own mind, and he had nointention to speak aloud; but the shrewd sly look which hedirected at his companion as he delivered it, gave this poorassumption the lie.

　　‘I tell you I only want to see her,’ cried his client. ‘A ma-an maylook at a pretty woman without harm, mayn’t he? Now, whereDOES she live? You know you’re making a fortune out of me,Nickleby, and upon my soul nobody shall ever take me to anybodyelse, if you only tell me this.’

　　‘As you promise that, my lord,’ said Ralph, with feignedreluctance, ‘and as I am most anxious to oblige you, and as there’sno harm in it—no harm—I’ll tell you. But you had better keep it toyourself, my lord; strictly to yourself.’ Ralph pointed to the adjoining room as he spoke, and nodded expressively.

　　The young lord, feigning to be equally impressed with thenecessity of this precaution, Ralph disclosed the present addressand occupation of his niece, observing that from what he heard ofthe family they appeared very ambitious to have distinguishedacquaintances, and that a lord could, doubtless, introduce himselfwith great ease, if he felt disposed.

　　‘Your object being only to see her again,’ said Ralph, ‘you couldeffect it at any time you chose by that means.’

　　Lord Verisopht acknowledged the hint with a great manysqueezes of Ralph’s hard, horny hand, and whispering that theywould now do well to close the conversation, called to SirMulberry Hawk that he might come back.

　　‘I thought you had gone to sleep,’ said Sir Mulberry,reappearing with an ill-tempered air.

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