Squeers; a young lady in her three-and-twentieth year, resembling her mother in the harshness of her voice and the shrewishness of her disposition, and her father in the remarkable expression of her right eye, something akin to having none at all. ix, xii, xiii, xv, xxxix, xli, lxiv.

Squeers, Master Wackford, junior. Son of Mr. and Mrs. Wackford Squeers. viii, ix, xiii, xxix, xxxiv, xxxviii, xlii, lxiv. Swillenhausen, Baron von. Neighbor and father-in-law to the Baron of Grogzwig. vi.

Swillenhausen, Baroness von.

His wife. vi.

Timberry, Mr. Snittle. An actor belonging to Mr. Crummles's theatre.

xxi.

Tix, Mr. Tom. A broker who makes an inventory of the stock in Madame Mantalini's millinery establishment on the occasion of her sudden failure. xlviii.

Tom. Clerk at the General Agency office. xvi, xliii.

Tomkins. One of Squeers's pupils. xiii.

Trimmers, Mr. A friend of the Cheeryble Brothers. XXXV. Verisopht, Lord Frederick. A silly young nobleman, the tool of Sir Mulberry Hawk. He becomes enamored of Kate Nickleby, and has an angry altercation concerning her with Sir Mulberry. The quarrel leads to a duel, in which Lord Frederick is killed. xix, xxvi-xxviii, xxxviii, 1.

Westwood, Mr. One of the seconds in the duel between Sir Mulberry Hawk and Lord Verisopht. 1.

William. A waiter at the Saracen's Head Inn. V.

Wititterly, Mrs. Julia. A lady of the middle class, who apes the airs and style of the aristocracy, and with whom Kate Nickleby lives for a while as companion. xxi, xxvii, xxviii. Wititterly, Mr. Henry. Husband of Mrs. Wititterly. Being informed that Kate has applied for a situation as companion to his wife, he discusses the matter for some time with Mrs. Wititterly in whispers. At last he notices Kate.

"Oh!" he said, turning round, "yes. This is a most important matter. Mrs. Wititterly is of a very excitable nature, very delicate, very fragile, a hot-house plant, an exotic."

!

"O Henry my dear," interposed Mrs. Wititterly.

"You are, my love; you know you are. One breath"- said Mr. W., blowing an imaginary feather away. "Pho! you're gone.” The lady sighed.

"Your soul is too large for your body," said Mr. Wititterly. "Your intellect wears you out: all the medical men say so. You know that there is not a physician who is not proud of being called in to you. What is their unanimous declaration? My

dear doctor,' said I to Sir Tumley Snuffim, in this very room, the very last time he came, my dear doctor, what is my wife's complaint? Tell me all. I can bear it. Is it nerves?'. 'My dear fellow,' he said, 'be proud of that woman; make much of her: she is an ornament to the fashionable world, and to you. Her complaint is soul: it swells, expands, dilates the blood fires, the pulse quickens, the excitement increases-whew!'" Here Mr. Wititterly, who, in the ardor of his description, had flourished his right hand to within something less than an inch of Mrs. Nickleby's bonnet, drew it hastily back again, and blew his nose as fiercely as if it had been done by some violent machinery.

"You make me out worse than I am, Henry," said Mrs. Wititterly with a faint smile.

"I do not, Julia; I do not," said Mr. W. "The society in which you move necessarily move, from your station, connection, and endowments - is one vortex and whirlpool of the most frightful excitement. . . . And for that very reason you must have a companion in whom there is great gentleness, great sweetness, excessive sympathy, and perfect repose."

...

Here both Mr. and Mrs. Wititterly, who had talked rather at the Nicklebys than to each other, left off speaking, and looked at their two hearers with an expression of countenance which seemed to say," What do you think of all that?"

"Mrs. Wititterly," said her husband, addressing himself to Mrs. Nickleby, "is sought after and courted by glittering crowds and brilliant circles. She is excited by the opera, the drama, the fine arts, the the-the".

"The nobility, my love," interposed Mrs. Wititterly.

"The nobility, of course," said Mr. Wititterly, "and the military. She forms and expresses an immense variety of opinions, on an immense variety of subjects. If some people in public life were acquainted with Mrs. Wititterly's real opinion of them, they would not hold their heads perhaps quite as high as they do." xxi, xxvii, xxviii, xxxiii.

York, The Five Sisters of. The title of a story told by a grayhaired gentleman at a roadside inn between Grantham and Newark, for the amusement of his fellow-passengers, who have been detained there by the breaking-down of a stage-coach. The five sisters are represented as living in York in the early part of the sixteenth century, in an old house belonging to the black monks of St. Benedict. While engaged in embroidering a complicated and intricate pattern, they are visited by one of the monks, who urges them to take the veil; but, under the influence of the youngest sister (named Alice), they refuse to do so, believing that

peace and virtue can be found beyond as well as within a convent's walls. Years pass by, bringing change and separation and sorrow; but at last the four elder sisters meet again in the old home and again the same black monk urges them by all the sad memories of the past to seek consolation and peace within the sheltering arms of the Church. Remembering how the young heart of their lost sister had sickened at the thought of cloistered walls, they again refuse. As a work of piety, however, as well as a memorial of affection, they cause to be executed in five compartments of stained glass fitted into a large window in York Cathedral (which is still shown there under the name of the Five Sisters), a faithful copy of their old embroidery-work through which the sun may shine brightly on a flat stone in the nave, which bears the name of Alice. vi.

THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP

OUTLINE

Chapter A child, lost in London streets at night, fell into the hands I of a gentleman, who led her back to her home and found on entering a singular household, for this little Nell Trent lived with her grandfather, the keeper of an old curiosity shop, and Kit Nubbles, an awkward but faithful errand boy. When the gentleman left, the old grandfather took his stick and set forth, too, on some mysterious errand. The whole scene affected the gentleman so much that he made a visit a week later to the old curiosity II shop, and entering, found an unwelcome visitor, who proved to be a scapegrace brother of Nell's, bent on browbeating the old grandfather into helping him with money. With Fred Trent was a companion in idleness, one Dick Swiveller, who made up for Fred's loss of virtue by an excess of good-natured vagabondism, and a power of drawing at pleasure upon a solvent bank of poetical quotations and images. As the three were together, Nell herself

III

entered, followed by an old dwarf, Daniel Quilp, who appeared to have some secret dealings with the keeper of the old curiosity shop. One by one they left, leaving the visitor alone with Nell and her grandfather, the place enlivened by a pet bird in a well-dressed cage. The old man opened his trembling heart a little to the stranger, as he spoke of his hopes and fears for his dependent granddaughter, who was engaged presently in giving a writing lesson to the not very receptive Kit.

IV

To know Daniel Quilp better, one needed to see him in his own home on Tower Hill, not far from the Thames. His place of business was Quilp's wharf, on the other side of the river. Mrs. Quilp was a gentle, mild-mannered woman, who had somehow been fascinated by this outlandish dwarf. Even Mrs. Jiniwin, Mrs. Quilp's mother, who lived near by, though bold as a lion in Quilp's absence, somehow became abject under his masterful presence. This was notable enough one afternoon when Quilp, coming home, found the two women and some neighbors at tea, and overheard a little of their conversation not meant for his ears. He took his revenge on his wife by sitting up all night smoking and keeping

her awake on the floor. Apparently he made up for lack of sleep when, the next morning, he went to his dingy office, and, V after tyrannizing over his boy, who found a certain relief in standing on his own head, stretched himself out on his table. He was interrupted by the advent of little Nell.

VI

Nell, accompanied by Kit, had come with a note from her grandfather, and Quilp, making horrible show of affection for the child, pretended he must needs go home to write the answer. So, taking the two with him, having first separated Kit and his wharf boy, who had been fighting over the reputation of their respective employers, he went to Tower Hill and gave Nell into Mrs. Quilp's charge, commanding that poor woman to worm all she could out of the child, while he listened on the other side of the door. Apparently, he was satisfied with what he heard, for soon he appeared with the note, which was to say he would see the grandfather in a day or two, and sent Nell and Kit back to their home. Mr. Quilp, in his leering pleasantry, had suggested to Nell VII that when Mrs. Quilp died, in say four or five years, he would be happy to make her his second wife. She was terrified enough, but she would have been shocked in another way, had she known that her dissolute brother Fred had proposed to his boon companion, Dick Swiveller, that he should lay siege to the child's heart, she was now fourteen, — and so secure for both the grandfather's money, which he himself had been baffled in attempting to secure. Dick saw the scheme in a rosy light, but presently remembered that really he was somewhat in the chains of Miss Sophy Wackles, who, at this moment, herself brought a note of invitation to a dance. In truth, Miss Wackles, in company with her mother and sisters, had grown somewhat distrustful of Dick's attentions, and, having secured a more promising claimant in the person of Mr. Cheggs, resorted to the expedient of a party, at which they could play off this enamored butcher against the shady Dick; and thus the plans of both jumped; for Dick, becoming at once jealous of Mr. Cheggs, made an excuse of his objectionable courtesies, and threw off the entire Wackles family, thus leaving himself clear for the more promising connection offered by Fred Trent.

VIII

IX

Meantime, Nelly, living alone with her grandfather, grew more sorrowful over his mysterious suffering, and implored him one evening, as he waited, disconsolately, for Quilp's appearance, past the promised time, to take her away with him into the country, even if they were but beggars, so they might escape their present misery. As they talked, Quilp entered unnoticed, and overheard some of their talk. Then, when he was discovered, he sent