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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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71 than I take him to be.’ ‘I fear, sir,’ said Nicholas, addressing Mr Squeers, ‘that you object to my youth, and to my not being a Master of Arts?’ ‘The absence of a college degree is an objection,’ replied Squeers, looking as grave as he could, and considerably puzzled, no less by the contrast between the simplicity of the nephew and the worldly manner of the uncle, than by the incomprehensible allusion to the young noblemen under his tuition. ‘Look here, sir,’ said Ralph; ‘I’ll put this matter in its true light in two seconds.’ ‘If you’ll have the goodness,’ rejoined Squeers. ‘This is a boy, or a youth, or a lad, or a young man, or a hobbledehoy, or whatever you like to call him, of eighteen or nineteen, or thereabouts,’ said Ralph. ‘That I see,’ observed the schoolmaster. ‘So do I,’ said Mr Snawley, thinking it as well to back his new friend occasionally. ‘His father is dead, he is wholly ignorant of the world, has no resources whatever, and wants something to do,’ said Ralph. ‘I recommend him to this splendid establishment of yours, as an opening which will lead him to fortune if he turns it to proper account. Do you see that?’ ‘Everybody must see that,’ replied Squeers, half imitating the sneer with which the old gentleman was regarding his unconscious relative. ‘I do, of course,’ said Nicholas, eagerly. ‘He does, of course, you observe,’ said Ralph, in the same dry, hard manner. ‘If any caprice of temper should induce him to cast aside this golden opportunity before he has brought it to |
