t; 'put what you haven't had time to
eat, in here, boys! You'll want it on the road!'

Nicholas was considerably startled by these very economical
arrangements; but he had no time to reflect upon them, for the little
boys had to be got up to the top of the coach, and their boxes had to
be brought out and put in, and Mr Squeers's luggage was to be seen
carefully deposited in the boot, and all these offices were in his
department. He was in the full heat and bustle of concluding these
operations, when his uncle, Mr Ralph Nickleby, accosted him.

'Oh! here you are, sir!' said Ralph. 'Here are your mother and sister,
sir.'

'Where?' cried Nicholas, looking hastily round.

'Here!' replied his uncle. 'Having too much money and nothing at all to
do with it, they were paying a hackney coach as I came up, sir.'

'We were afraid of being too late to see him before he went away from
us,' said Mrs Nickleby, embracing her son, heedless of the unconcerned
lookers-on in the coach-yard.

'Very good, ma'am,' returned Ralph, 'you're the best judge of course. I
merely said that you were paying a hackney coach. I never pay a hackney
coach, ma'am; I never hire one. I haven't been in a hackney coach of my
own hiring, for thirty years, and I hope I shan't be for thirty more, if
I live as long.'

'I should never have forgiven myself if I had not seen him,' said Mrs
Nickleby. 'Poor dear boy--going away without his breakfast too, because
he feared to distress us!'

'Mighty fine certainly,' said Ralph, with great testiness. 'When I first
went to business, ma'am, I took a penny loaf and a ha'porth of milk for
my breakfast as I walked to the city every morning; what do you say to
that, ma'am? Breakfast! Bah!'

'Now, Nickleby,' said Squeers, coming up at the moment buttoning his
greatcoat; 'I think you'd better get up behind. I'm afraid of one of
them boys falling off and then there's twenty pound a year gone.'

'Dear Nicholas,' whispered Kate, touching her brother's arm, 'who is
that vulgar man?'

'Eh!' growled Ralph, whose quick ears had caught the inquiry. 'Do you
wish to be introduced to Mr Squeers, my dear?'

'That the schoolmaster! No, uncle. Oh no!' replied Kate, shrinking back.

'I'm sure I heard you say as much, my dear,' retorted Ralph in his cold
sarcastic manner. 'Mr Squeers, here's my niece: Nicholas's sister!'

'Very glad to make your acquaintance, miss,' said Squeers, raising his
hat an inch or two. 'I wish Mrs Squeer