第81章

`Maybe so, but I am sanguine, and did expect,' said Nicholas, `and am proportionately disappointed.' Saying which, he gave Newman an account of his proceedings.

`If I could do anything,' said Nicholas, `anything, however slight, until Ralph Nickleby returns, and I have eased my mind by confronting him, I should feel happier. I should think it no disgrace to work, Heaven knows.

Lying indolently here, like a half-tamed sullen beast, distracts me.'

`I don't know,' said Newman; `small things offer--they would pay the rent, and more--but you wouldn't like them; no, you could hardly be expected to undergo it--no, no.'

`What could I hardly be expected to undergo?' asked Nicholas, raising his eyes. `Show me, in this wide waste of London, any honest means by which I could even defray the weekly hire of this poor room, and see if I shrink from resorting to them! Undergo! I have undergone too much, my friend, to feel pride or squeamishness now. Except--' added Nicholas hastily, after a short silence, `except such squeamishness as is common honesty, and so much pride as constitutes self-respect. I see little to choose, between assistant to a brutal pedagogue, and toadeater to a mean and ignorant upstart, be he member or no member.'

`I hardly know whether I should tell you what I heard this morning, or not,' said Newman.

`Has it reference to what you said just now?' asked Nicholas.

`It has.'

`Then in Heaven's name, my good friend, tell it me,' said Nicholas.

`For God's sake consider my deplorable condition; and, while I promise to take no step without taking counsel with you, give me, at least, a vote in my own behalf.'

Moved by this entreaty, Newman stammered forth a variety of most unaccountable and entangled sentences, the upshot of which was, that Mrs Kenwigs had examined him, at great length that morning, touching the origin of his acquaintance with, and the whole life, adventures, and pedigree of, Nicholas;that Newman had parried these questions as long as he could, but being, at length, hard pressed and driven into a corner, had gone so far as to admit, that Nicholas was a tutor of great accomplishments, involved in some misfortunes which he was not at liberty to explain, and bearing the name of Johnson. That Mrs Kenwigs, impelled by gratitude, or ambition, or maternal pride, or maternal love, or all four powerful motives conjointly, had taken secret conference with Mr Kenwigs, and had finally returned to propose that Mr Johnson should instruct the four Miss Kenwigses in the French language as spoken by natives, at the weekly stipend of five shillings, current coin of the realm; being at the rate of one shilling per week, per each Miss Kenwigs, and one shilling over, until such time as the baby might be able to take it out in grammar.

`Which, unless I am very much mistaken,' observed Mrs Kenwigs in making the proposition, `will not be very long; for such clever children, Mr Noggs, never were born into this world, I do believe.'

`There,' said Newman, `that's all. It's beneath you, I know; but I thought that perhaps you might--'

`Might!' cried Nicholas, with great alacrity; `of course I shall. Iaccept the offer at once. Tell the worthy mother so, without delay, my dear fellow; and that I am ready to begin whenever she pleases.'

Newman hastened, with joyful steps, to inform Mrs Kenwigs of his friend's acquiescence, and soon returning, brought back word that they would be happy to see him in the first floor as soon as convenient; that Mrs Kenwigs had, upon the instant, sent out to secure a second-hand French grammar and dialogues, which had long been fluttering in the sixpenny box at the bookstall round the corner; and that the family, highly excited at the prospect of this addition to their gentility, wished the initiatory lesson to come off immediately.