′I don′t know how it is,′ muttered Ralph, walking up and down the room, ′but whenever a man dies without any property of his own, he always seems to think he has a right to dispose of other people′s. What is your daughter fit for, ma′am?′
′Kate has been well educated,′ sobbed Mrs Nickleby. ′Tell your uncle, my dear, how far you went in French and extras.′
The poor girl was about to murmur something, when her uncle stopped her, very unceremoniously.
′We must try and get you apprenticed at some boarding-school,′ said Ralph. ′You have not been brought up too delicately for that, I hope?′
′No, indeed, uncle,′ replied the weeping girl. ′I will try to do anything that will gain me a home and bread.′
′Well, well,′ said Ralph, a little softened, either by his niece′s beauty or her distress (stretch a point, and say the latter). ′You must try it, and if the life is too hard, perhaps dressmaking or tambour-work will come lighter. Have YOU ever done anything, sir?′ (turning to his nephew.)
′No,′ replied Nicholas, bluntly.
′No, I thought not!′ said Ralph. ′This is the way my brother brought up his children, ma′am.′
′Nicholas has not long completed such education as his poor father could give him,′ rejoined Mrs Nickleby, ′and he was thinking of—′
′Of making something of him someday,′ said Ralph. ′The old story; always thinking, and never doing. If my brother had been a man of activity and prudence, he might have left you a rich woman, ma′am: and if he had turned his son into the world, as my father turned me, when I wasn′t as old as that boy by a year and a half, he would have been in a situation to help you, instead of being a burden upon you, and increasing your distress. My brother was a thoughtless, inconsiderate man, Mrs Nickleby, and nobody, I am sure, can have better reason to feel that, than you.′
This appeal set the widow upon thinking that perhaps she might have made a more successful venture with her one thousand pounds, and then she began to reflect what a comfortable sum it would have been just then; which dismal thoughts made her tears flow faster, and in the excess of these griefs she (being a well-meaning woman enough, but weak withal) fell first to deploring her hard fate, and then to remarking, with many sobs, that to be sure she had been a slave to poor Nicholas, and had often told him she might have married better (as indeed she had, very often), and that she never knew in his lifetime how the money went, but that if he had confided in her they might all have been better off that day; with other bitter recollections common to most married ladies, either during their coverture, or afterwards, or at both periods. Mrs Nickleby concluded by lamenting that the dear departed had never deigned to profit by her advice, save on one occasion; which was a strictly veracious statement, inasmuch as he had only acted upon it once, and had ruined himself in consequence.
Mr Ralph Nickleby heard all this with a half-smile; and when the widow had finished, quietly took up the subject where it had been left before the above outbreak.
′Are you willing to work, sir?′ he inquired, frowning on his nephew.
′Of course I am,′ replied Nicholas haughtily.
′Then see here, sir,′ said his uncle. ′This caught my eye this morning, and you may thank your stars for it.
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