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PinkMonkey.com-Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens




591

request which Nicholas had made. Sir Mulberry, however, who
was not quite sober, and who was in a sullen and dogged state of
obstinacy, soon silenced the representations of his weak young
friend, and further seemed--as if to save himself from a repetition
of them--to insist on being left alone. However this might have
been, the young gentleman and the two who had always spoken
together, actually rose to go after a short interval, and presently
retired, leaving their friend alone with Nicholas.

It will be very readily supposed that to one in the condition of
Nicholas, the minutes appeared to move with leaden wings
indeed, and that their progress did not seem the more rapid from
the monotonous ticking of a French clock, or the shrill sound of its
little bell which told the quarters. But there he sat; and in his old
seat on the opposite side of the room reclined Sir Mulberry Hawk,
with his legs upon the cushion, and his handkerchief thrown
negligently over his knees: finishing his magnum of claret with the
utmost coolness and indifference.

Thus they remained in perfect silence for upwards of an hour--
Nicholas would have thought for three hours at least, but that the
little bell had only gone four times. Twice or thrice he looked
angrily and impatiently round; but there was Sir Mulberry in the
same attitude, putting his glass to his lips from time to time, and
looking vacantly at the wall, as if he were wholly ignorant of the
presence of any living person.

At length he yawned, stretched himself, and rose; walked coolly
to the glass, and having surveyed himself therein, turned round
and honoured Nicholas with a long and contemptuous stare.
Nicholas stared again with right good-will; Sir Mulberry shrugged
his shoulders, smiled slightly, rang the bell, and ordered the waiter


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