<p><SPAN name="link2HCH0052" id="link2HCH0052"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CHAPTER 52 </h2>
<p>Nicholas despairs of rescuing Madeline Bray, but plucks up his Spirits
again, and determines to attempt it. Domestic Intelligence of the
Kenwigses and Lillyvicks</p>
<p>Finding that Newman was determined to arrest his progress at any hazard,
and apprehensive that some well-intentioned passenger, attracted by the
cry of 'Stop thief,' might lay violent hands upon his person, and place
him in a disagreeable predicament from which he might have some difficulty
in extricating himself, Nicholas soon slackened his pace, and suffered
Newman Noggs to come up with him: which he did, in so breathless a
condition, that it seemed impossible he could have held out for a minute
longer.</p>
<p>'I will go straight to Bray's,' said Nicholas. 'I will see this man. If
there is a feeling of humanity lingering in his breast, a spark of
consideration for his own child, motherless and friendless as she is, I
will awaken it.'</p>
<p>'You will not,' replied Newman. 'You will not, indeed.'</p>
<p>'Then,' said Nicholas, pressing onward, 'I will act upon my first impulse,
and go straight to Ralph Nickleby.'</p>
<p>'By the time you reach his house he will be in bed,' said Newman.</p>
<p>'I'll drag him from it,' cried Nicholas.</p>
<p>'Tut, tut,' said Noggs. 'Be yourself.'</p>
<p>'You are the best of friends to me, Newman,' rejoined Nicholas after a
pause, and taking his hand as he spoke. 'I have made head against many
trials; but the misery of another, and such misery, is involved in this
one, that I declare to you I am rendered desperate, and know not how to
act.'</p>
<p>In truth, it did seem a hopeless case. It was impossible to make any use
of such intelligence as Newman Noggs had gleaned, when he lay concealed in
the closet. The mere circumstance of the compact between Ralph Nickleby
and Gride would not invalidate the marriage, or render Bray averse to it,
who, if he did not actually know of the existence of some such
understanding, doubtless suspected it. What had been hinted with reference
to some fraud on Madeline, had been put, with sufficient obscurity by
Arthur Gride, but coming from Newman Noggs, and obscured still further by
the smoke of his pocket-pistol, it became wholly unintelligible, and
involved in utter darkness.</p>
<p>'There seems no ray of hope,' said Nicholas.</p>
<p>'The greater necessity for coolness, for reason, for consideration, for
thought,' said Newman, pausing at every alternate word, to look anxiously
in his friend's face. 'Where are the brothers?'</p>
<p>'Both absent on urgent business, as they will be for a week to come.'</p>
<p>'Is there no way of communicating with them? No way of getting one of them
here by tomorrow night?'</p>
<p>'Impossible!' said Nicholas, 'the sea is between us and them. With the
fairest winds that ever blew, to go and return would take three days and
nights.'</p>
<p>'Their nephew,' said Newman, 'their old clerk.'</p>
<p>'What could either do, that I cannot?' rejoined Nicholas. 'With reference
to them, especially, I am enjoined to the strictest silence on this
subject. What right have I to betray the confidence reposed in me, when
nothing but a miracle can prevent this sacrifice?'</p>
<p>'Think,' urged Newman. 'Is there no way.'</p>
<p>'There is none,' said Nicholas, in utter dejection. 'Not one. The father
urges, the daughter consents. These demons have her in their toils; legal
right, might, power, money, and every influence are on their side. How can
I hope to save her?'</p>
<p>'Hope to the last!' said Newman, clapping him on the back. 'Always hope;
that's a dear boy. Never leave off hoping; it don't answer. Do you mind
me, Nick? It don't answer. Don't leave a stone unturned. It's always
something, to know you've done the most you could. But, don't leave off
hoping, or it's of no use doing anything. Hope, hope, to the last!'</p>
<p>Nicholas needed encouragement. The suddenness with which intelligence of
the two usurers' plans had come upon him, the little time which remained
for exertion, the probability, almost amounting to certainty itself, that
a few hours would place Madeline Bray for ever beyond his reach, consign
her to unspeakable misery, and perhaps to an untimely death; all this
quite stunned and overwhelmed him. Every hope connected with her that he
had suffered himself to form, or had entertained unconsciously, seemed to
fall at his feet, withered and dead. Every charm with which his memory or
imagination had surrounded her, presented itself before him, only to
heighten his anguish and add new bitterness to his despair. Every feeling
of sympathy for her forlorn condition, and of admiration for her heroism
and fortitude, aggravated the indignation which shook him in every limb,
and swelled his heart almost to bursting.</p>
<p>But, if Nicholas's own heart embarrassed him, Newman's came to his relief.
There was so much earnestness in his remonstrance, and such sincerity and
fervour in his manner, odd and ludicrous as it always was, that it
imparted to Nicholas new firmness, and enabled him to say, after he had
walked on for some little way in silence:</p>
<p>'You read me a good lesson, Newman, and I will profit by it. One step, at
least, I may take—am bound to take indeed—and to that I will
apply myself tomorrow.'</p>
<p>'What is that?' asked Noggs wistfully. 'Not to threaten Ralph? Not to see
the father?'</p>
<p>'To see the daughter, Newman,' replied Nicholas. 'To do what, after all,
is the utmost that the brothers could do, if they were here, as Heaven
send they were! To reason with her upon this hideous union, to point out
to her all the horrors to which she is hastening; rashly, it may be, and
without due reflection. To entreat her, at least, to pause. She can have
had no counsellor for her good. Perhaps even I may move her so far yet,
though it is the eleventh hour, and she upon the very brink of ruin.'</p>
<p>'Bravely spoken!' said Newman. 'Well done, well done! Yes. Very good.'</p>
<p>'And I do declare,' cried Nicholas, with honest enthusiasm, 'that in this
effort I am influenced by no selfish or personal considerations, but by
pity for her, and detestation and abhorrence of this scheme; and that I
would do the same, were there twenty rivals in the field, and I the last
and least favoured of them all.'</p>
<p>'You would, I believe,' said Newman. 'But where are you hurrying now?'</p>
<p>'Homewards,' answered Nicholas. 'Do you come with me, or I shall say
good-night?'</p>
<p>'I'll come a little way, if you will but walk: not run,' said Noggs.</p>
<p>'I cannot walk tonight, Newman,' returned Nicholas, hurriedly. 'I must
move rapidly, or I could not draw my breath. I'll tell you what I've said
and done tomorrow.'</p>
<p>Without waiting for a reply, he darted off at a rapid pace, and, plunging
into the crowds which thronged the street, was quickly lost to view.</p>
<p>'He's a violent youth at times,' said Newman, looking after him; 'and yet
like him for it. There's cause enough now, or the deuce is in it. Hope! I
SAID hope, I think! Ralph Nickleby and Gride with their heads together!
And hope for the opposite party! Ho! ho!'</p>
<p>It was with a very melancholy laugh that Newman Noggs concluded this
soliloquy; and it was with a very melancholy shake of the head, and a very
rueful countenance, that he turned about, and went plodding on his way.</p>
<p>This, under ordinary circumstances, would have been to some small tavern
or dram-shop; that being his way, in more senses than one. But, Newman was
too much interested, and too anxious, to betake himself even to this
resource, and so, with many desponding and dismal reflections, went
straight home.</p>
<p>It had come to pass, that afternoon, that Miss Morleena Kenwigs had
received an invitation to repair next day, per steamer from Westminster
Bridge, unto the Eel-pie Island at Twickenham: there to make merry upon a
cold collation, bottled beer, shrub, and shrimps, and to dance in the open
air to the music of a locomotive band, conveyed thither for the purpose:
the steamer being specially engaged by a dancing-master of extensive
connection for the accommodation of his numerous pupils, and the pupils
displaying their appreciation of the dancing-master's services, by
purchasing themselves, and inducing their friends to do the like, divers
light-blue tickets, entitling them to join the expedition. Of these
light-blue tickets, one had been presented by an ambitious neighbour to
Miss Morleena Kenwigs, with an invitation to join her daughters; and Mrs
Kenwigs, rightly deeming that the honour of the family was involved in
Miss Morleena's making the most splendid appearance possible on so short a
notice, and testifying to the dancing-master that there were other
dancing-masters besides him, and to all fathers and mothers present that
other people's children could learn to be genteel besides theirs, had
fainted away twice under the magnitude of her preparations, but, upheld by
a determination to sustain the family name or perish in the attempt, was
still hard at work when Newman Noggs came home.</p>
<p>Now, between the italian-ironing of frills, the flouncing of trousers, the
trimming of frocks, the faintings and the comings-to again, incidental to
the occasion, Mrs Kenwigs had been so entirely occupied, that she had not
observed, until within half an hour before, that the flaxen tails of Miss
Morleena's hair were, in a manner, run to seed; and that, unless she were
put under the hands of a skilful hairdresser, she never could achieve that
signal triumph over the daughters of all other people, anything less than
which would be tantamount to defeat. This discovery drove Mrs Kenwigs to
despair; for the hairdresser lived three streets and eight dangerous
crossings off; Morleena could not be trusted to go there alone, even if
such a proceeding were strictly proper: of which Mrs Kenwigs had her
doubts; Mr Kenwigs had not returned from business; and there was nobody to
take her. So, Mrs Kenwigs first slapped Miss Kenwigs for being the cause
of her vexation, and then shed tears.</p>
<p>'You ungrateful child!' said Mrs Kenwigs, 'after I have gone through what
I have, this night, for your good.'</p>
<p>'I can't help it, ma,' replied Morleena, also in tears; 'my hair WILL
grow.'</p>
<p>'Don't talk to me, you naughty thing!' said Mrs Kenwigs, 'don't! Even if I
was to trust you by yourself and you were to escape being run over, I know
you'd run in to Laura Chopkins,' who was the daughter of the ambitious
neighbour, 'and tell her what you're going to wear tomorrow, I know you
would. You've no proper pride in yourself, and are not to be trusted out
of sight for an instant.'</p>
<p>Deploring the evil-mindedness of her eldest daughter in these terms, Mrs
Kenwigs distilled fresh drops of vexation from her eyes, and declared that
she did believe there never was anybody so tried as she was. Thereupon,
Morleena Kenwigs wept afresh, and they bemoaned themselves together.</p>
<p>Matters were at this point, as Newman Noggs was heard to limp past the
door on his way upstairs; when Mrs Kenwigs, gaining new hope from the
sound of his footsteps, hastily removed from her countenance as many
traces of her late emotion as were effaceable on so short a notice: and
presenting herself before him, and representing their dilemma, entreated
that he would escort Morleena to the hairdresser's shop.</p>
<p>'I wouldn't ask you, Mr Noggs,' said Mrs Kenwigs, 'if I didn't know what a
good, kind-hearted creature you are; no, not for worlds. I am a weak
constitution, Mr Noggs, but my spirit would no more let me ask a favour
where I thought there was a chance of its being refused, than it would let
me submit to see my children trampled down and trod upon, by envy and
lowness!'</p>
<p>Newman was too good-natured not to have consented, even without this
avowal of confidence on the part of Mrs Kenwigs. Accordingly, a very few
minutes had elapsed, when he and Miss Morleena were on their way to the
hairdresser's.</p>
<p>It was not exactly a hairdresser's; that is to say, people of a coarse and
vulgar turn of mind might have called it a barber's; for they not only cut
and curled ladies elegantly, and children carefully, but shaved gentlemen
easily. Still, it was a highly genteel establishment—quite
first-rate in fact—and there were displayed in the window, besides
other elegancies, waxen busts of a light lady and a dark gentleman which
were the admiration of the whole neighbourhood. Indeed, some ladies had
gone so far as to assert, that the dark gentleman was actually a portrait
of the spirted young proprietor; and the great similarity between their
head-dresses—both wore very glossy hair, with a narrow walk straight
down the middle, and a profusion of flat circular curls on both sides—encouraged
the idea. The better informed among the sex, however, made light of this
assertion, for however willing they were (and they were very willing) to
do full justice to the handsome face and figure of the proprietor, they
held the countenance of the dark gentleman in the window to be an
exquisite and abstract idea of masculine beauty, realised sometimes,
perhaps, among angels and military men, but very rarely embodied to
gladden the eyes of mortals.</p>
<p>It was to this establishment that Newman Noggs led Miss Kenwigs in safety.
The proprietor, knowing that Miss Kenwigs had three sisters, each with two
flaxen tails, and all good for sixpence apiece, once a month at least,
promptly deserted an old gentleman whom he had just lathered for shaving,
and handing him over to the journeyman, (who was not very popular among
the ladies, by reason of his obesity and middle age,) waited on the young
lady himself.</p>
<p>Just as this change had been effected, there presented himself for
shaving, a big, burly, good-humoured coal-heaver with a pipe in his mouth,
who, drawing his hand across his chin, requested to know when a shaver
would be disengaged.</p>
<p>The journeyman, to whom this question was put, looked doubtfully at the
young proprietor, and the young proprietor looked scornfully at the
coal-heaver: observing at the same time:</p>
<p>'You won't get shaved here, my man.'</p>
<p>'Why not?' said the coal-heaver.</p>
<p>'We don't shave gentlemen in your line,' remarked the young proprietor.</p>
<p>'Why, I see you a shaving of a baker, when I was a looking through the
winder, last week,' said the coal-heaver.</p>
<p>'It's necessary to draw the line somewheres, my fine feller,' replied the
principal. 'We draw the line there. We can't go beyond bakers. If we was
to get any lower than bakers, our customers would desert us, and we might
shut up shop. You must try some other establishment, sir. We couldn't do
it here.'</p>
<p>The applicant stared; grinned at Newman Noggs, who appeared highly
entertained; looked slightly round the shop, as if in depreciation of the
pomatum pots and other articles of stock; took his pipe out of his mouth
and gave a very loud whistle; and then put it in again, and walked out.</p>
<p>The old gentleman who had just been lathered, and who was sitting in a
melancholy manner with his face turned towards the wall, appeared quite
unconscious of this incident, and to be insensible to everything around
him in the depth of a reverie—a very mournful one, to judge from the
sighs he occasionally vented—in which he was absorbed. Affected by
this example, the proprietor began to clip Miss Kenwigs, the journeyman to
scrape the old gentleman, and Newman Noggs to read last Sunday's paper,
all three in silence: when Miss Kenwigs uttered a shrill little scream,
and Newman, raising his eyes, saw that it had been elicited by the
circumstance of the old gentleman turning his head, and disclosing the
features of Mr Lillyvick the collector.</p>
<p>The features of Mr Lillyvick they were, but strangely altered. If ever an
old gentleman had made a point of appearing in public, shaved close and
clean, that old gentleman was Mr Lillyvick. If ever a collector had borne
himself like a collector, and assumed, before all men, a solemn and
portentous dignity as if he had the world on his books and it was all two
quarters in arrear, that collector was Mr Lillyvick. And now, there he
sat, with the remains of a beard at least a week old encumbering his chin;
a soiled and crumpled shirt-frill crouching, as it were, upon his breast,
instead of standing boldly out; a demeanour so abashed and drooping, so
despondent, and expressive of such humiliation, grief, and shame; that if
the souls of forty unsubstantial housekeepers, all of whom had had their
water cut off for non-payment of the rate, could have been concentrated in
one body, that one body could hardly have expressed such mortification and
defeat as were now expressed in the person of Mr Lillyvick the collector.</p>
<p>Newman Noggs uttered his name, and Mr Lillyvick groaned: then coughed to
hide it. But the groan was a full-sized groan, and the cough was but a
wheeze.</p>
<p>'Is anything the matter?' said Newman Noggs.</p>
<p>'Matter, sir!' cried Mr Lillyvick. 'The plug of life is dry, sir, and but
the mud is left.'</p>
<p>This speech—the style of which Newman attributed to Mr Lillyvick's
recent association with theatrical characters—not being quite
explanatory, Newman looked as if he were about to ask another question,
when Mr Lillyvick prevented him by shaking his hand mournfully, and then
waving his own.</p>
<p>'Let me be shaved!' said Mr Lillyvick. 'It shall be done before Morleena;
it IS Morleena, isn't it?'</p>
<p>'Yes,' said Newman.</p>
<p>'Kenwigses have got a boy, haven't they?' inquired the collector.</p>
<p>Again Newman said 'Yes.'</p>
<p>'Is it a nice boy?' demanded the collector.</p>
<p>'It ain't a very nasty one,' returned Newman, rather embarrassed by the
question.</p>
<p>'Susan Kenwigs used to say,' observed the collector, 'that if ever she had
another boy, she hoped it might be like me. Is this one like me, Mr
Noggs?'</p>
<p>This was a puzzling inquiry; but Newman evaded it, by replying to Mr
Lillyvick, that he thought the baby might possibly come like him in time.</p>
<p>'I should be glad to have somebody like me, somehow,' said Mr Lillyvick,
'before I die.'</p>
<p>'You don't mean to do that, yet awhile?' said Newman.</p>
<p>Unto which Mr Lillyvick replied in a solemn voice, 'Let me be shaved!' and
again consigning himself to the hands of the journeyman, said no more.</p>
<p>This was remarkable behaviour. So remarkable did it seem to Miss Morleena,
that that young lady, at the imminent hazard of having her ear sliced off,
had not been able to forbear looking round, some score of times, during
the foregoing colloquy. Of her, however, Mr Lillyvick took no notice:
rather striving (so, at least, it seemed to Newman Noggs) to evade her
observation, and to shrink into himself whenever he attracted her regards.
Newman wondered very much what could have occasioned this altered
behaviour on the part of the collector; but, philosophically reflecting
that he would most likely know, sooner or later, and that he could
perfectly afford to wait, he was very little disturbed by the singularity
of the old gentleman's deportment.</p>
<p>The cutting and curling being at last concluded, the old gentleman, who
had been some time waiting, rose to go, and, walking out with Newman and
his charge, took Newman's arm, and proceeded for some time without making
any observation. Newman, who in power of taciturnity was excelled by few
people, made no attempt to break silence; and so they went on, until they
had very nearly reached Miss Morleena's home, when Mr Lillyvick said:</p>
<p>'Were the Kenwigses very much overpowered, Mr Noggs, by that news?'</p>
<p>'What news?' returned Newman.</p>
<p>'That about—my—being—'</p>
<p>'Married?' suggested Newman.</p>
<p>'Ah!' replied Mr Lillyvick, with another groan; this time not even
disguised by a wheeze.</p>
<p>'It made ma cry when she knew it,' interposed Miss Morleena, 'but we kept
it from her for a long time; and pa was very low in his spirits, but he is
better now; and I was very ill, but I am better too.'</p>
<p>'Would you give your great-uncle Lillyvick a kiss if he was to ask you,
Morleena?' said the collector, with some hesitation.</p>
<p>'Yes; uncle Lillyvick, I would,' returned Miss Morleena, with the energy
of both her parents combined; 'but not aunt Lillyvick. She's not an aunt
of mine, and I'll never call her one.'</p>
<p>Immediately upon the utterance of these words, Mr Lillyvick caught Miss
Morleena up in his arms, and kissed her; and, being by this time at the
door of the house where Mr Kenwigs lodged (which, as has been before
mentioned, usually stood wide open), he walked straight up into Mr
Kenwigs's sitting-room, and put Miss Morleena down in the midst. Mr and
Mrs Kenwigs were at supper. At sight of their perjured relative, Mrs
Kenwigs turned faint and pale, and Mr Kenwigs rose majestically.</p>
<p>'Kenwigs,' said the collector, 'shake hands.'</p>
<p>'Sir,' said Mr Kenwigs, 'the time has been, when I was proud to shake
hands with such a man as that man as now surweys me. The time has been,
sir,' said Mr Kenwigs, 'when a wisit from that man has excited in me and
my family's boozums sensations both nateral and awakening. But, now, I
look upon that man with emotions totally surpassing everythink, and I ask
myself where is his Honour, where is his straight-for'ardness, and where
is his human natur?'</p>
<p>'Susan Kenwigs,' said Mr Lillyvick, turning humbly to his niece, 'don't
you say anything to me?'</p>
<p>'She is not equal to it, sir,' said Mr Kenwigs, striking the table
emphatically. 'What with the nursing of a healthy babby, and the
reflections upon your cruel conduct, four pints of malt liquor a day is
hardly able to sustain her.'</p>
<p>'I am glad,' said the poor collector meekly, 'that the baby is a healthy
one. I am very glad of that.'</p>
<p>This was touching the Kenwigses on their tenderest point. Mrs Kenwigs
instantly burst into tears, and Mr Kenwigs evinced great emotion.</p>
<p>'My pleasantest feeling, all the time that child was expected,' said Mr
Kenwigs, mournfully, 'was a thinking, "If it's a boy, as I hope it may be;
for I have heard its uncle Lillyvick say again and again he would prefer
our having a boy next, if it's a boy, what will his uncle Lillyvick say?
What will he like him to be called? Will he be Peter, or Alexander, or
Pompey, or Diorgeenes, or what will he be?" And now when I look at him; a
precious, unconscious, helpless infant, with no use in his little arms but
to tear his little cap, and no use in his little legs but to kick his
little self—when I see him a lying on his mother's lap, cooing and
cooing, and, in his innocent state, almost a choking hisself with his
little fist—when I see him such a infant as he is, and think that
that uncle Lillyvick, as was once a-going to be so fond of him, has
withdrawed himself away, such a feeling of wengeance comes over me as no
language can depicter, and I feel as if even that holy babe was a telling
me to hate him.'</p>
<p>This affecting picture moved Mrs Kenwigs deeply. After several imperfect
words, which vainly attempted to struggle to the surface, but were drowned
and washed away by the strong tide of her tears, she spake.</p>
<p>'Uncle,' said Mrs Kenwigs, 'to think that you should have turned your back
upon me and my dear children, and upon Kenwigs which is the author of
their being—you who was once so kind and affectionate, and who, if
anybody had told us such a thing of, we should have withered with scorn
like lightning—you that little Lillyvick, our first and earliest
boy, was named after at the very altar! Oh gracious!'</p>
<p>'Was it money that we cared for?' said Mr Kenwigs. 'Was it property that
we ever thought of?'</p>
<p>'No,' cried Mrs Kenwigs, 'I scorn it.'</p>
<p>'So do I,' said Mr Kenwigs, 'and always did.'</p>
<p>'My feelings have been lancerated,' said Mrs Kenwigs, 'my heart has been
torn asunder with anguish, I have been thrown back in my confinement, my
unoffending infant has been rendered uncomfortable and fractious, Morleena
has pined herself away to nothing; all this I forget and forgive, and with
you, uncle, I never can quarrel. But never ask me to receive HER, never do
it, uncle. For I will not, I will not, I won't, I won't, I won't!'</p>
<p>'Susan, my dear,' said Mr Kenwigs, 'consider your child.'</p>
<p>'Yes,' shrieked Mrs Kenwigs, 'I will consider my child! I will consider my
child! My own child, that no uncles can deprive me of; my own hated,
despised, deserted, cut-off little child.' And, here, the emotions of Mrs
Kenwigs became so violent, that Mr Kenwigs was fain to administer
hartshorn internally, and vinegar externally, and to destroy a staylace,
four petticoat strings, and several small buttons.</p>
<p>Newman had been a silent spectator of this scene; for Mr Lillyvick had
signed to him not to withdraw, and Mr Kenwigs had further solicited his
presence by a nod of invitation. When Mrs Kenwigs had been, in some
degree, restored, and Newman, as a person possessed of some influence with
her, had remonstrated and begged her to compose herself, Mr Lillyvick said
in a faltering voice:</p>
<p>'I never shall ask anybody here to receive my—I needn't mention the
word; you know what I mean. Kenwigs and Susan, yesterday was a week she
eloped with a half-pay captain!'</p>
<p>Mr and Mrs Kenwigs started together.</p>
<p>'Eloped with a half-pay captain,' repeated Mr Lillyvick, 'basely and
falsely eloped with a half-pay captain. With a bottle-nosed captain that
any man might have considered himself safe from. It was in this room,'
said Mr Lillyvick, looking sternly round, 'that I first see Henrietta
Petowker. It is in this room that I turn her off, for ever.'</p>
<p>This declaration completely changed the whole posture of affairs. Mrs
Kenwigs threw herself upon the old gentleman's neck, bitterly reproaching
herself for her late harshness, and exclaiming, if she had suffered, what
must his sufferings have been! Mr Kenwigs grasped his hand, and vowed
eternal friendship and remorse. Mrs Kenwigs was horror-stricken to think
that she should ever have nourished in her bosom such a snake, adder,
viper, serpent, and base crocodile as Henrietta Petowker. Mr Kenwigs
argued that she must have been bad indeed not to have improved by so long
a contemplation of Mrs Kenwigs's virtue. Mrs Kenwigs remembered that Mr
Kenwigs had often said that he was not quite satisfied of the propriety of
Miss Petowker's conduct, and wondered how it was that she could have been
blinded by such a wretch. Mr Kenwigs remembered that he had had his
suspicions, but did not wonder why Mrs Kenwigs had not had hers, as she
was all chastity, purity, and truth, and Henrietta all baseness,
falsehood, and deceit. And Mr and Mrs Kenwigs both said, with strong
feelings and tears of sympathy, that everything happened for the best; and
conjured the good collector not to give way to unavailing grief, but to
seek consolation in the society of those affectionate relations whose arms
and hearts were ever open to him.</p>
<p>'Out of affection and regard for you, Susan and Kenwigs,' said Mr
Lillyvick, 'and not out of revenge and spite against her, for she is below
it, I shall, tomorrow morning, settle upon your children, and make payable
to the survivors of them when they come of age of marry, that money that I
once meant to leave 'em in my will. The deed shall be executed tomorrow,
and Mr Noggs shall be one of the witnesses. He hears me promise this, and
he shall see it done.'</p>
<p>Overpowered by this noble and generous offer, Mr Kenwigs, Mrs Kenwigs, and
Miss Morleena Kenwigs, all began to sob together; and the noise of their
sobbing, communicating itself to the next room, where the children lay
a-bed, and causing them to cry too, Mr Kenwigs rushed wildly in, and
bringing them out in his arms, by two and two, tumbled them down in their
nightcaps and gowns at the feet of Mr Lillyvick, and called upon them to
thank and bless him.</p>
<p>'And now,' said Mr Lillyvick, when a heart-rending scene had ensued and
the children were cleared away again, 'give me some supper. This took
place twenty mile from town. I came up this morning, and have being
lingering about all day, without being able to make up my mind to come and
see you. I humoured her in everything, she had her own way, she did just
as she pleased, and now she has done this. There was twelve teaspoons and
twenty-four pound in sovereigns—I missed them first—it's a
trial—I feel I shall never be able to knock a double knock again,
when I go my rounds—don't say anything more about it, please—the
spoons were worth—never mind—never mind!'</p>
<p>With such muttered outpourings as these, the old gentleman shed a few
tears; but, they got him into the elbow-chair, and prevailed upon him,
without much pressing, to make a hearty supper, and by the time he had
finished his first pipe, and disposed of half-a-dozen glasses out of a
crown bowl of punch, ordered by Mr Kenwigs, in celebration of his return
to the bosom of his family, he seemed, though still very humble, quite
resigned to his fate, and rather relieved than otherwise by the flight of
his wife.</p>
<p>'When I see that man,' said Mr Kenwigs, with one hand round Mrs Kenwigs's
waist: his other hand supporting his pipe (which made him wink and cough
very much, for he was no smoker): and his eyes on Morleena, who sat upon
her uncle's knee, 'when I see that man as mingling, once again, in the
spear which he adorns, and see his affections deweloping themselves in
legitimate sitiwations, I feel that his nature is as elewated and
expanded, as his standing afore society as a public character is
unimpeached, and the woices of my infant children purvided for in life,
seem to whisper to me softly, "This is an ewent at which Evins itself
looks down!"'</p>
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