|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
 |
||||
|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
|
|
||||
613 vanity. Meantime the fools bring grist to my mill, so let them live out their day, and the longer it is, the better.’ These agreeable reflections occurred to Ralph Nickleby, as sundry small caresses and endearments, supposed to be unseen, were exchanged between the objects of his thoughts. ‘If you have nothing more to say, my dear, to Mr Nickleby,’ said Madame Mantalini, ‘we will take our leaves. I am sure we have detained him much too long already.’ Mr Mantalini answered, in the first instance, by tapping Madame Mantalini several times on the nose, and then, by remarking in words that he had nothing more to say. ‘Demmit! I have, though,’ he added almost immediately, drawing Ralph into a corner. ‘Here’s an affair about your friend Sir Mulberry. Such a demd extraordinary out-of-the-way kind of thing as never was--eh?’ ‘What do you mean?’ asked Ralph. ‘Don’t you know, demmit?’ asked Mr Mantalini. ‘I see by the paper that he was thrown from his cabriolet last night, and severely injured, and that his life is in some danger,’ answered Ralph with great composure; ‘but I see nothing extraordinary in that--accidents are not miraculous events, when men live hard, and drive after dinner.’ ‘Whew!’ cried Mr Mantalini in a long shrill whistle. ‘Then don’t you know how it was?’ ‘Not unless it was as I have just supposed,’ replied Ralph, shrugging his shoulders carelessly, as if to give his questioner to understand that he had no curiosity upon the subject. ‘Demmit, you amaze me,’ cried Mantalini. Ralph shrugged his shoulders again, as if it were no great feat |
