ally a partner, and it was eleven years before he was in England
again.

Then, one day he went down to the old ruined house where Miss Havisham
had lived.

He entered the weed-grown garden, and there on a bench, a sad, beautiful
widow, sat Estella. Her husband had treated her brutally till he died,
and she had learned through suffering to know that she had a heart and
had thrown away the one thing that could have made her happy--Pip's
love.

When Pip and she left the old house that day it was hand in hand, never
to part again.

LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY

Published 1839

_Scene_: London, Portsmouth and the Country

_Time_: About 1830

CHARACTERS

Nicholas Nickleby A young gentleman

Mrs. Nickleby His mother

Kate His sister

Ralph Nickleby His uncle
A miserly money-lender

Noggs Ralph Nickleby's clerk

Squeers The proprietor of Dotheboys Hall, a
country school for boys

Mrs. Squeers His wife

Fanny Their daughter

Wackford Their son

Smike A poor drudge at Dotheboys Hall
Befriended by Nicholas. In reality Ralph Nickleby's son

Madame Mantalini A London dressmaker
Kate's first employer

Mr. Mantalini Her husband

Miss Knag Her forewoman

Sir Mulberry Hawk A dissolute man of the world

Lord Frederick Verisopht A young nobleman
Hawk's friend

Mr. Vincent Crummles Manager of a theater in Portsmouth

Mrs. Crummles His wife

Ninetta Their daughter
Known as "The Infant Phenomenon"

Mrs. Wititterly A would-be fashionable lady
Kate's second employer

The Cheeryble Brothers Twin merchants
Nicho