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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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323 old account? Dear me, yes, my dear, how stupid you are! and spoke so affectionately of the old port wine that he used to drink a bottle and a half of every time he came. You must remember, Kate?’ ‘Yes, yes, mama; what of him?’ ‘Why, that Mr Watkins, my dear,’ said Mrs Nickleby slowly, as if she were making a tremendous effort to recollect something of paramount importance; ‘that Mr Watkins--he wasn’t any relation, Miss Knag will understand, to the Watkins who kept the Old Boar in the village; by-the-bye, I don’t remember whether it was the Old Boar or the George the Third, but it was one of the two, I know, and it’s much the same--that Mr Watkins said, when you were only two years and a half old, that you were one of the most astonishing children he ever saw. He did indeed, Miss Knag, and he wasn’t at all fond of children, and couldn’t have had the slightest motive for doing it. I know it was he who said so, because I recollect, as well as if it was only yesterday, his borrowing twenty pounds of her poor dear papa the very moment afterwards.’ Having quoted this extraordinary and most disinterested testimony to her daughter’s excellence, Mrs Nickleby stopped to breathe; and Miss Knag, finding that the discourse was turning upon family greatness, lost no time in striking in, with a small reminiscence on her own account. ‘Don’t talk of lending money, Mrs Nickleby,’ said Miss Knag, ‘or you’ll drive me crazy, perfectly crazy. My mama--hem--was the most lovely and beautiful creature, with the most striking and exquisite--hem--the most exquisite nose that ever was put upon a human face, I do believe, Mrs Nickleby (here Miss Knag rubbed her own nose sympathetically); the most delightful and |
