“You shall not shake me off, for all that,” replied Miss La Creevy, with as much sprightliness as she could assume. “I shall see you very often, and come and hear how you get on; and if, in all London, or all the wide world besides, there is no other heart that takes an interest in your welfare, there will be one little lonely woman that prays for it night and day.”
With this, the poor soul, who had a heart big enough for Gog, the guardian genius of London, and enough to spare for Magog to boot, after making a great many extraordinary faces which would have secured her an ample fortune, could she have transferred them to ivory or canvas, sat down in a corner, and had what she termed “a real good cry.”
But no crying, or talking, or hoping, or fearing, could keep off the dreaded Saturday afternoon, or Newman Noggs either; who, punctual to his time, limped up to the door, and breathed a whiff of cordial gin through the keyhole, exactly as such of the church clocks in the neighbourhood as agreed among themselves about the time, struck five. Newman waited for the last stroke, and then knocked.
“From Mr. Ralph Nickleby,” said Newman, announcing his errand, when he got upstairs, with all possible brevity.
“We shall be ready directly,” said Kate. “We have not much to carry, but I fear we must have a coach.”
“I’ll get one,” replied Newman.
“Indeed you shall not trouble yourself,” said Mrs. Nickleby.
“I will,” said Newman.
“I can’t suffer you to think of such a thing,” said Mrs. Nickleby.
“You can’t help it,” said Newman.
“Not help it!”
“No; I thought of it as I came along; but didn’t get one, thinking you mightn’t be ready. I think of a great many things. Nobody can prevent that.”
“Oh yes, I understand you, Mr. Noggs,” said Mrs. Nickleby. “Our thoughts are free, of course. Everybody’s thoughts are their own, clearly.”
“They wouldn’t be, if some people had their way,” muttered Newman.
“Well, no more they would, Mr. Noggs, and that’s very true,” rejoined Mrs. Nickleby. “Some people to be sure are such—how’s your master?”
Newman darted a meaning glance at Kate, and replied with a strong emphasis on the last word of his answer, that Mr. Ralph Nickleby was well, and sent his love.
“I am sure we are very much obliged to him,” observed Mrs. Nickleby.
“Very,” said Newman. “I’ll tell him so.”
It was no very easy matter to mistake Newman Noggs, after having once seen him, and as Kate, attracted by the singularity of his manner (in which on this occasion, however, there was something respectful and even delicate, notwithstanding the abruptness of his speech), looked at him more closely, she recollected having caught a passing glimpse of that strange figure before.
“Excuse my curiosity,” she said, “but did I not see you in the coach-yard, on the morning my brother went away to Yorkshire?”
Newman cast a wistful glance on Mrs. Nickleby and said “No,” most unblushingly.
“No!” exclaimed Kate, “I should have said so anywhere.”
“You’d have said wrong,” rejoined Newman. “It’s the first time I’ve been out for three weeks. I’ve had the gout.”
Newman was very, very far from having the appearance of a gouty subject, and so Kate could not help thinking; but the conference was cut short by Mrs. Nickleby’s insisting on having the door shut, lest Mr. Noggs should take cold, and further persisting in sending the servant girl for a coach, for fear he should bring on another attack of his disorder. To both conditions, Newman was compelled to yield. Presently, the coach came; and, after many sorrowful farewells, and a great deal of running backwards and forwards across the pavement on the part of Miss La Creevy, in the course of which the yellow turban came into violent contact with sundry foot-passengers, it (that is to say the coach, not the turban) went away again, with the two ladies and their luggage inside; and Newman, despite all Mrs. Nickleby’s assurances that it would be his death—on the box beside the driver.
They went into the city, turning down by the river side; and, after a long and very slow drive, the streets being crowded at that hour with vehicles of every kind, stopped in front of a large old dingy house in Thames Street: the door and windows of which were so bespattered with mud, that it would have appeared to have been uninhabited for years.
The door of this deserted mansion Newman opened with a key which he took out of his hat—in which, by the by, in consequence of the dilapidated state of his pockets, he deposited everything, and would most likely have carried his money if he had had any—and the coach being discharged, he led the way into the interior of the mansion.
Old, and gloomy, and black, in truth it was, and sullen and dark were the rooms, once so bustling with life and enterprise. There was a wharf behind, opening on the Thames. An empty dog-kennel, some bones of animals, fragments of iron hoops, and staves of old casks, lay strewn about, but no life was stirring there. It was a picture of cold, silent decay.
“This house depresses and chills one,” said Kate, “and seems as if some blight had fallen on it. If I were superstitious, I should be almost inclined to believe that some dreadful crime had been perpetrated within these old walls, and that the place had never prospered since. How frowning and how dark it looks!”
“Lord, my dear,” replied Mrs. Nickleby, “don’t talk in that way, or you’ll frighten me to death.”
“It is only my foolish fancy, mama,” said Kate, forcing a smile.
“Well, then, my love, I wish you would keep your foolish fancy to yourself, and not wake up my foolish fancy to keep it company,” retorted Mrs. Nickleby. “Why didn’t you think of all this before—you are so careless—we might have asked Miss La Creevy to keep us company or borrowed
