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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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68 himself, closely followed by Nicholas. ‘There was an advertisement of yours in the papers this morning?’ ‘There was, sir. This way, if you please,’ said Squeers, who had by this time got back to the box by the fire-place. ‘Won’t you be seated?’ ‘Why, I think I will,’ replied Ralph, suiting the action to the word, and placing his hat on the table before him. ‘This is my nephew, sir, Mr Nicholas Nickleby.’ ‘How do you do, sir?’ said Squeers. Nicholas bowed, said he was very well, and seemed very much astonished at the outward appearance of the proprietor of Dotheboys Hall: as indeed he was. ‘Perhaps you recollect me?’ said Ralph, looking narrowly at the schoolmaster. ‘You paid me a small account at each of my half-yearly visits to town, for some years, I think, sir,’ replied Squeers. ‘I did,’ rejoined Ralph. ‘For the parents of a boy named Dorker, who unfortunately--’ ‘--unfortunately died at Dotheboys Hall,’ said Ralph, finishing the sentence. ‘I remember very well, sir,’ rejoined Squeers. ‘Ah! Mrs Squeers, sir, was as partial to that lad as if he had been her own; the attention, sir, that was bestowed upon that boy in his illness! Dry toast and warm tea offered him every night and morning when he couldn’t swallow anything--a candle in his bedroom on the very night he died--the best dictionary sent up for him to lay his head upon--I don’t regret it though. It is a pleasant thing to reflect that one did one’s duty by him.’ Ralph smiled, as if he meant anything but smiling, and looked |
