noggs was right. ralph nickleby had never ceased to persecute kate and her mother. in fact, when he had invited kate to the dinner at which she had been insulted, it was for his own evil purpose. he had done so, hoping she might impress the foolish young lord verisopht, whose money he was hoping to get, and whom he wished to attract to his house.
the young nobleman, as ralph had intended, fell in love with kate's sweet face at once, and found out from her uncle where she lived.
she had lost her first position at the dressmaker's[pg 172] (for mr. mantalini had thrown away his wife's money on race-horses until the sheriff had seized the business), and she was acting now as companion to a mrs. wititterly, a pale, languid lady who considered herself a very fashionable person indeed, and was always suffering from imaginary ailments. lord frederick and sir mulberry hawk came often to the house, pretending to flatter mrs. wititterly, but really to see kate, who heartily disliked them both.
mrs. wititterly at last came to realize that the two men at whose attentions she had felt so flattered really cared only for her young companion, and, being vain and jealous, she tormented and scolded kate till the poor girl's life was a burden.
at length, feeling that she could endure it no longer, kate went to ralph and begged him with tears to help her find another situation, but the money-lender refused to aid her. noggs, the clerk, was sorry for her, but could do nothing except write to nicholas, and this was the reason for the letter that had brought nicholas post-haste back to london.
just what kind of persecution kate had had to bear he learned by accident almost as soon as he got there.
as he sat in a coffee-house he suddenly heard the words, "little kate nickleby," spoken by a man behind him. he turned and listened.
four men whom he had never seen were drinking[pg 173] toasts to her, and nicholas grew hot with rage at the coarse words they used. sitting there, scarcely able to contain himself, he heard the whole story of his uncle ralph's plot, he heard his sister's sufferings derided, her goodness jeered at, her beauty made the subject of insolent jests. one of the four men, of course, was lord frederick verisopht, and the coarsest and the most vulgar of them all, as may be guessed, was sir mulberry hawk.
white with anger, nicholas confronted the party and, throwing down his card on the table, declared that the lady in question was his sister, and demanded of hawk his name. hawk refused to answer. nicholas called him a liar and a coward, and seating himself, swore the other should not leave his sight before he knew who he was.
when hawk attempted to enter his carriage nicholas sprang on to the step. the other, in a fury, struck him with the whip, and nicholas, wrenching it from him, with one blow laid open hawk's cheek. the horse, frightened at the struggle, started off at a terrific speed, and nicholas felt himself hurled to the ground.
as he rose, he saw the runaway horse, whirling across the pavement, upset the carriage with a crash of breaking glass. nicholas had no doubt that the man it held had been frightfully hurt if not killed. he felt faint from his own fall, and it was with difficulty that he reached noggs's garret, whither,[pg 174] before the adventure in the coffee-room, he had sent smike to announce his coming.
his first step now was to write a letter to ralph, telling him he at last knew what a villain he was, and that he and his mother and sister cast him off for ever, with shame that they had ever asked his aid. the next day nicholas took kate from the wititterly house and his mother from her poor lodging, and rented them rooms in another part of the city. then he started out to find some employment for himself.
for a long time he was unsuccessful, but one day (and a very lucky day nicholas thought it ever afterward) he met on the street a round-faced, jolly-looking old gentleman, with whom he fell into conversation, and before long, almost without knowing it, he had told him all his troubles.
this old gentleman was named cheeryble, and the firm to which he belonged was cheeryble brothers. he and his twin brother had come to london, barefoot, when they were boys, and though they had grown very rich, they had never forgotten what it was to be poor and wretched. the old gentleman asked nicholas to come with him to his office and there they met the other mr. cheeryble.
nicholas could scarcely tell the two brothers apart, for they were like as two peas. they were precisely the same size, wore clothes just alike and laughed in the same key. each had even lost exactly the same number of teeth. they were loved[pg 175] by everybody, for they went through life doing good wherever they could. they both liked nicholas at once, and the upshot was that they gave him a position in their counting-room and rented a pleasant cottage near by for his mother and kate.
so there nicholas took up work and they were all happy and comfortable—very different from ralph nickleby, the money-lender, in his fine house, with only the memory of his own wickedness for company.
