shilling per week, per each
Miss Kenwigs, and one shilling over until such time as the baby might be
able to take it out in grammar.

This proposition was accepted with alacrity by Nicholas, who betook
himself to the Kenwigs' apartment with all speed. Here he found the four
Miss Kenwigses on their form of audience, and the baby in a dwarf
porter's chair, with a deal tray before it, amusing himself with a toy
horse, while Mrs. Kenwigs spoke to the little girls of the superior
advantages they enjoyed above other children. "But I hope," she said,
"that that will not make them proud; but that they will bless their own
good fortune which has born them superior to common people's children.
And when you go out in the streets, or elsewhere, I desire that you
don't boast of it to the other children," continued Mrs. Kenwigs, "and
that if you must say anything about it, you don't say no more than
'we've got a private master comes to teach us at home, but we ain't
proud, because Ma says its sinful,' Do you hear, Morleena?"

Upon the eldest Miss Kenwigs replying meekly that she did, permission
was conceded for the lesson to commence, and accordingly the four Miss
Kenwigses again arranged themselves upon their form, in a row, with
their tails all one way, while Nicholas Nickleby began his preliminary
explanations.

Some months after this, the Kenwigses were thrown into a fever of rage
and disappointment, by receiving the cruel news of their Uncle
Lillyvick's marriage, which blow was a terrible one to Mrs. Kenwigs,
blighting her hopes for her children's future. After weeping and wailing
in the most agonized fashion, Mrs. Kenwigs drew herself up in proud
defiance, and denounced her uncle in terms direct and plain, stating
that he should never again darken her doors. In this terrible state of
affairs, it remained for Morleena of the flaxen tails, to bring about a
family re-union, and in this way:

It had come to pass that she had received an invitation to repair next
day, per steamer from Westminster bridge, unto the Eel-Pie Island at
Twickenham, there to make merry upon a cold collation, and to dance in
the open air to the music of a locomotive band; the steamer having been
engaged by a dancing-master for his numerous pupils, one of whom had
extended an invitation to Miss Morleena, and Mrs. Kenwigs rightly deemed
the honor of the family was involved in her daughter making the most
splendid appearance possible. Now, between the Ita