ten to the house,
pretending to flatter Mrs. Wititterly, but really to see Kate, who
heartily disliked them both.

Mrs. Wititterly at last came to realize that the two men at whose
attentions she had felt so flattered really cared only for her young
companion, and, being vain and jealous, she tormented and scolded Kate
till the poor girl's life was a burden.

At length, feeling that she could endure it no longer, Kate went to
Ralph and begged him with tears to help her find another situation, but
the money-lender refused to aid her. Noggs, the clerk, was sorry for
her, but could do nothing except write to Nicholas, and this was the
reason for the letter that had brought Nicholas post-haste back to
London.

Just what kind of persecution Kate had had to bear he learned by
accident almost as soon as he got there.

As he sat in a coffee-house he suddenly heard the words, "little Kate
Nickleby," spoken by a man behind him. He turned and listened.

Four men whom he had never seen were drinking toasts to her, and
Nicholas grew hot with rage at the coarse words they used. Sitting
there, scarcely able to contain himself, he heard the whole story of his
Uncle Ralph's plot, he heard his sister's sufferings derided, her
goodness jeered at, her beauty made the subject of insolent jests. One
of the four men, of course, was Lord Frederick Verisopht, and the
coarsest and the most vulgar of them all, as may be guessed, was Sir
Mulberry Hawk.

White with anger, Nicholas confronted the party and, throwing down his
card on the table, declared that the lady in question was his sister,
and demanded of Hawk his name. Hawk refused to answer. Nicholas called
him a liar and a coward, and seating himself, swore the other should not
leave his sight before he knew who he was.

When Hawk attempted to enter his carriage Nicholas sprang on to the
step. The other, in a fury, struck him with the whip, and Nicholas,
wrenching it from him, with one blow laid open Hawk's cheek. The horse,
frightened at the struggle, started off at a terrific speed, and
Nicholas felt himself hurled to the ground.

As he rose, he saw the runaway horse, whirling across the pavement,
upset the carriage with a crash of breaking glass. Nicholas had no doubt
that the man it held had been frightfully hurt if not killed. He felt
faint from his own fall, and it was with difficulty that he reached
Noggs's garret, whither, before the adventure in the coffee-room, he
had sen