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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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230 inch of your life, and spare you that.’ ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ laughed Mrs Squeers, ‘that’s a good ’un!’ ‘I was driven to do it,’ said Smike faintly; and casting another imploring look about him. ‘Driven to do it, were you?’ said Squeers. ‘Oh! it wasn’t your fault; it was mine, I suppose--eh?’ ‘A nasty, ungrateful, pig-headed, brutish, obstinate, sneaking dog,’ exclaimed Mrs Squeers, taking Smike’s head under her arm, and administering a cuff at every epithet; ‘what does he mean by that?’ ‘Stand aside, my dear,’ replied Squeers. ‘We’ll try and find out.’ Mrs Squeers, being out of breath with her exertions, complied. Squeers caught the boy firmly in his grip; one desperate cut had fallen on his body--he was wincing from the lash and uttering a scream of pain--it was raised again, and again about to fall--when Nicholas Nickleby, suddenly starting up, cried ‘Stop!’ in a voice that made the rafters ring. ‘Who cried stop?’ said Squeers, turning savagely round. ‘I,’ said Nicholas, stepping forward. ‘This must not go on.’ ‘Must not go on!’ cried Squeers, almost in a shriek. ‘No!’ thundered Nicholas. Aghast and stupefied by the boldness of the interference, Squeers released his hold of Smike, and, falling back a pace or two, gazed upon Nicholas with looks that were positively frightful. ‘I say must not,’ repeated Nicholas, nothing daunted; ‘shall not. I will prevent it.’ Squeers continued to gaze upon him, with his eyes starting out of his head; but astonishment had actually, for the moment, bereft him of speech. |
