eemed nothing else to do, so Nicholas agreed, and next day they
went to the Portsmouth theater, where he was introduced to all the
company.

It was a very curious mixture. There was Mrs. Crummles, who took the
tickets, and little Miss Crummles, whom the bills called "The Infant
Phenomenon," and who was always said to be only ten years old. There was
a slim young man with weak eyes who played the lover, and a fat man with
a turned-up nose who played the funny countryman, and a shabby old man
whose breath smelled of gin, who took the part of the good old banker
with the gray side-whiskers. Then there was the lady who acted the role
of the wicked adventuress, and all the others.

Nicholas had to begin by writing a play which had parts for all of them,
and it proved a great success. Smike, whom he drilled himself, took the
part of a hungry boy, and he looked so starved, naturally, from his life
with Squeers, that he was tremendously applauded.

One of the other actors was so jealous at the play's success that he
sent Nicholas a challenge to a duel, but Nicholas walked on to the stage
before the whole company and knocked the actor down, and after that he
had no trouble and was a great favorite.

He might have stayed a long time at Mr. Crummles's theater, for he had
earned quite a good deal of money, but one day he got a letter from
Noggs, the clerk, telling him that all was not well with his mother and
Kate. And without waiting an hour, Nicholas resigned from the company
and, with Smike, set out again for London.

III

NICHOLAS COMES TO KATE'S RESCUE

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 (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 of