|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
 |
||||
|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
|
|
||||
792 fortunate in having two such young men about us as our nephew Frank and Mr Nickleby. It should be a source of great satisfaction and pleasure to us.’ ‘Certainly, Charles, certainly,’ returned the other. ‘Of Tim,’ added brother Ned, ‘I say nothing whatever, because Tim is a mere child--an infant--a nobody that we never think of or take into account at all. Tim, you villain, what do you say to that, sir?’ ‘I am jealous of both of ’em,’ said Tim, ‘and mean to look out for another situation; so provide yourselves, gentlemen, if you please.’ Tim thought this such an exquisite, unparalleled, and most extraordinary joke, that he laid his pen upon the inkstand, and rather tumbling off his stool than getting down with his usual deliberation, laughed till he was quite faint, shaking his head all the time so that little particles of powder flew palpably about the office. Nor were the brothers at all behind-hand, for they laughed almost as heartily at the ludicrous idea of any voluntary separation between themselves and old Tim. Nicholas and Mr Frank laughed quite boisterously, perhaps to conceal some other emotion awakened by this little incident, (and so, indeed, did the three old fellows after the first burst,) so perhaps there was as much keen enjoyment and relish in that laugh, altogether, as the politest assembly ever derived from the most poignant witticism uttered at any one person’s expense. ‘Mr Nickleby,’ said brother Charles, calling him aside, and taking him kindly by the hand, ‘I--I--am anxious, my dear sir, to see that you are properly and comfortably settled in the cottage. We cannot allow those who serve us well to labour under any privation or discomfort that it is in our power to remove. I wish, |
