Nixie

“ Another water-spirit not unlike the Lorelei is the nixie, which is both male and female, the male appearing like any human being, but, as in the case of the water-spirits of the Slavonic peoples and England, Scotland, and Central America, being possessed of green teeth. The male is called nix, the female nixie, the generic term for both being nicker, from a root which perhaps means ‘to wash.’ There is perhaps some truth in the statement which would derive the Satanic patronymic of ‘Old Nick’ from these beings, as spirits extremely familiar to the Teutonic mind. ”

“ A youth, who appeared a year or two older, stepped forward and saluted Ralph as his uncle.
"Oh," growled Ralph, with an ill-favoured frown, "you are Nicholas, I suppose?"
"That is my name, Sir," replied the youth.
"Put my hat down," said Ralph, imperiously. "Well, ma'am, how do you do? You must bear up against sorrow, ma'am; I always do."
"Mine was no common loss!" said Mrs. Nickleby, applying her handkerchief to her eyes.
"It was no uncommon loss, ma'am," returned Ralph, as he coolly unbuttoned his spencer. "Husbands die every day, ma'am, and wives too." ”

“ What would they have said had they known that the white sisters, too, had warnings whispered to them by the friendly folk who came to the crystal palace? “It was ill for Nixies ever to seek out the same man among mortals, and, indeed, to love the haunts of any mortals over-much.” Perhaps these speeches were prompted by jealousy as much in the crystal palace as they might have been in the village hut, but however this may be, the Nix-maidens heeded them not, and seemed, indeed, more eager than ever before to join the dances on the green. ”

“ Miss Snevellicci's papa rubbed the tip of his nose with a very yellow silk handkerchief, and gave the company to understand that these recollections overcame him.
"Well, Mr. Lillyvick," said Nicholas, "and how are you?"
"Quite well, Sir," replied the collector. "There is nothing like the married state, Sir, depend upon it."
"Indeed!" said Nicholas, laughing.
"Ah! nothing like it Sir," replied Mr. Lillyvick solemnly. "How do you think," whispered the collector, drawing him aside, "How do you think she looks to-night?" ”

“ Still there was no reply, and still Nicholas stared about him, as did the greater part of the boys who were by this time roused.
"Confound his impudence," muttered Squeers, rapping the stair-rail impatiently with his cane. "Nickleby."
"Well, Sir."
"Send that obstinate scoundrel down; don't you hear me calling?"
"He is not here, Sir," replied Nicholas.
"Don't tell me a lie," retorted the schoolmaster. "He is."
"He is not," retorted Nicholas angrily, "don't tell me one."
"We shall soon see that," said Mr. Squeers, rushing up stairs. "I'll find him I warrant you." ”

“ He is not to be supposed to know it’s hopeless. Poor fellow! He is to be pitied, I think!’
Having made these reflections, Mrs. Nickleby looked in her little dressing-glass, and walking backward a few steps from it, tried to remember who it was who used to say that when Nicholas was one-and-twenty he would have more the appearance of her brother than her son. Not being able to call the authority to mind, she extinguished her candle, and drew up the window-blind to admit the light of morning, which had, by this time, begun to dawn. ”

“ Good-night, Nickleby. Seven o’clock in the morning, mind.’
‘I shall be ready, sir,’ replied Nicholas. ‘Good-night.’
‘I’ll come in myself and show you where the well is,’ said Squeers. ‘You’ll always find a little bit of soap in the kitchen window; that belongs to you.’
Nicholas opened his eyes, but not his mouth; and Squeers was again going away, when he once more turned back.
‘I don’t know, I am sure,’ he said, ‘whose towel to put you on; but if you’ll make shift with something tomorrow morning, Mrs. Squeers will arrange that, in the course of the day. ”

“ Nickleby?" said Miss La Creevy. "I heard something of it last night."
"I do, indeed," replied Nicholas. "Needs must, you know, when somebody drives. Necessity is my driver, and that is only another name for the same gentleman."
"Well, I am very sorry for it, that's all I can say," said Miss La Creevy; "as much on your mother's and sister's account as on yours. Your sister is a very pretty young lady, Mr. Nickleby, and that is an additional reason why she should have somebody to protect her. ”

“ And I might secretly advance a small loan towards a little furniture, and you might secretly advance another small loan, brother Ned; and if we find them doing well—as we shall; there's no fear, no fear—we can change the loans into gifts—carefully, brother Ned, and by degrees, and without pressing upon them too much; what do you say now, brother?"
Brother Ned gave his hand upon it, and not only said it should be done, but had it done too: and in one short week Nicholas took possession of the stool, and Mrs. Nickleby and Kate took possession of the house ”

“ Miss Snevellicci of course—Miss Ledrook—"
"The—the phenomenon," groaned the collector.
"Ha, ha!" cried Nicholas. "I beg your pardon, I don't know what I'm laughing at—yes, that'll be very pretty—the phenomenon—who else?"
"Some young woman or other," replied the collector, rising; "some other friend of Henrietta Petowker's. Well, you'll be careful not to say anything about it, will you?"
"You may safely depend upon me," replied Nicholas. "Won't you take anything to eat or drink?"
"No," said the collector; "I haven't any appetite. ”

“ There was a fire in Newman’s garret; and a candle had been left burning; the floor was cleanly swept, the room was as comfortably arranged as such a room could be, and meat and drink were placed in order upon the table. Everything bespoke the affectionate care and attention of Newman Noggs, but Newman himself was not there.
‘Do you know what time he will be home?’ inquired Nicholas, tapping at the door of Newman’s front neighbour.
‘Ah, Mr. Johnson!’ said Crowl, presenting himself. ‘Welcome, sir. How well you’re looking! ”

“ Nickleby.
‘Dear Nicholas, pray,’ urged the young lady.
‘Hold your tongue, sir,’ said Ralph. ‘Upon my word! Fine beginnings, Mrs Nickleby—fine beginnings!’
Mrs. Nickleby made no other reply than entreating Nicholas by a gesture to keep silent; and the uncle and nephew looked at each other for some seconds without speaking. The face of the old man was stern, hard-featured, and forbidding; that of the young one, open, handsome, and ingenuous. The old man’s eye was keen with the twinklings of avarice and cunning; the young man’s bright with the light of intelligence and spirit. ”

“ Brother Ned, my dear Mr. Nickleby—brother Ned, sir, is a perfect lion. So is Tim Linkinwater; Tim is quite a lion. We had Tim in to face him at first, and Tim was at him, sir, before you could say “Jack Robinson.”’
‘How can I ever thank you for all the deep obligations you impose upon me every day?’ said Nicholas.
‘By keeping silence upon the subject, my dear sir,’ returned brother Charles. ‘You shall be righted. At least you shall not be wronged. Nobody belonging to you shall be wronged. ”

“ Keenly alive to the tone and manner of this slight and careless mention of his sister s name in a public place, Nicholas fired at once; but he kept himself quiet by a great effort, and did not even turn his head.
"The jade!" said the same voice which had spoken before. "She's a true Nickleby—a worthy imitator of her old uncle Ralph—she hangs back to be more sought after—so does he; nothing to be got out of Ralph unless you follow him up, and then the money comes doubly welcome, and the bargain doubly hard, for you're impatient and he isn't. Oh! infernal cunning." ”

“ But when God does things," said Nicky savagely, "it isn't a rag."
He hated Grannie, and he hated Mr. Parsons, and he hated God. But he loved Dorothy who had given him Jerry.
Night after night Frances held him in her arms at bed-time while Nicky said the same thing. "If--if I could stop seeing him. But I keep on seeing him. When he sat on the mustard and cress. And when he bit me with his sleep-bites. And when he looked at me out of the tree of Heaven. Then I hear that little barking grunt he used to make when he was playing with himself--when he dashed off into the bushes. ”

“ As they shook each other by the hand, the face of each lighted up by beaming looks of affection, which would have been most delightful to behold in infants, and which, in men so old, was inexpressibly touching, Nicholas could observe that the last old gentleman was something stouter than his brother; this, and a slight additional shade of clumsiness in his gait and stature, formed the only perceptible difference between them. Nobody could have doubted their being twin brothers.
"Brother Ned," said Nicholas's friend, closing the room-door, "here is a young friend of mine that we must assist. ”

“ Nicholas shook his head.
‘Ha! ha!’ laughed the old gentleman, rubbing his hands and wrists as if he were washing them. ‘A very natural thought, at all events, after seeing me gazing at those bills. I thought the same of you, at first; upon my word I did.’
‘If you had thought so at last, too, sir, you would not have been far from the truth,’ rejoined Nicholas.
‘Eh?’ cried the old man, surveying him from head to foot. ‘What! Dear me! No, no. Well-behaved young gentleman reduced to such a necessity! ”

“ Noggs shook his head and sighed; upon which Nicholas rose, and remarking that he required no rest, bade him good morning.
It was a great exertion for Newman Noggs, and nobody knows to this day how he ever came to make it, the other party being wholly unknown to him, but he drew a long breath and actually said out loud, without once stopping, that if the young gentleman did not object to tell, he should like to know what his uncle was going to do for him. ”

“ Newman Noggs scrambled in violent haste upstairs with the steaming beverage, which he had so unceremoniously snatched from the table of Mr Kenwigs, and indeed from the very grasp of the water-rate collector, who was eyeing the contents of the tumbler, at the moment of its unexpected abstraction, with lively marks of pleasure visible in his countenance. He bore his prize straight to his own back-garret, where, footsore and nearly shoeless, wet, dirty, jaded, and disfigured with every mark of fatiguing travel, sat Nicholas and Smike, at once the cause and partner of his toil ”

“ Frances thought she could bear it better too. It would be good for Nicky that he should grow into beautiful adolescence and a perfect manhood; but it was better for her that he should be a baby still, that she should have him on her knee and hold him close to her; that she should feel his adorable body press quivering against her body, and the heat of his earache penetrating her cool flesh. For now she was lost to herself and utterly absorbed in Nicky. And her agony became a sort of ecstasy, as if, actually, she bore his pain. ”

“ Nickleby, while he was thus engaged. "He is dead. Dear me. Well, that's a sudden thing. I shouldn't have thought it, really." With these touching expressions of sorrow, Mr. Nickleby replaced his watch in his fob, and fitting on his gloves to a nicety, turned upon his way, and walked slowly westward with his hands behind him.
"Children alive?" inquired Noggs, stepping up to him.
"Why, that's the very thing," replied Mr. Nickleby, as though his thoughts were about them at that moment. "They are both alive."
"Both!" repeated Newman Noggs, in a low voice.
"And the widow, too," added Mr. ”

“ He hadn't the heart to say: "Because you're too old."
"Nicky's brains will be more use to the country than my old carcass."
Nicky thought: "You're the very last of us that can be spared." But he couldn't say it. The thing was so obvious. All he said was: "It's out of the question, your going."
"Old Nicky's out of the question, if you like," said John. "He's going to be married. He ought to be thinking of his wife and children."
"Of course he ought," said Anthony. "Whoever goes first, it isn't Nicky."
"You ought to think of Mummy, Daddy ducky; and you ought to think of us," said Dorothy. ”

“ This done, Noggs limped away with great alacrity; looking over his shoulder every instant, to make quite certain that Nicholas was obeying his directions; and, ascending the steps of a house some half-dozen doors off, was lost to view.
After a short delay, he reappeared, and limping back again, halted midway, and beckoned Nicholas to follow him.
‘Well?’ said Nicholas, advancing towards him on tiptoe.
‘All right,’ replied Newman, in high glee. ‘All ready; nobody at home. Couldn’t be better. Ha! ”

“ Have you ever done anything, sir?’ (turning to his nephew.)
‘No,’ replied Nicholas, bluntly.
‘No, I thought not!’ said Ralph. ‘This is the way my brother brought up his children, ma’am.’
‘Nicholas has not long completed such education as his poor father could give him,’ rejoined Mrs. Nickleby, ‘and he was thinking of—’
‘Of making something of him someday,’ said Ralph. ‘The old story; always thinking, and never doing. ”

“ Nicholas bowed low to the young lady and retired, pondering upon Mr. Bray's ideas of independence, and devoutly hoping that there might be few such independent spirits as he mingling with the baser clay of humanity.
He heard a light footstep above him as he descended the stairs, and looking round saw that the young lady was standing there, and glancing timidly towards him, seemed to hesitate whether she should call him back or no. The best way of settling the question was to turn back at once, which Nicholas did. ”

“ How do you know that?’
‘No matter how,’ replied Nicholas, ‘I know it. The young lady who is to give you her hand hates and despises you. Her blood runs cold at the mention of your name; the vulture and the lamb, the rat and the dove, could not be worse matched than you and she. You see I know her.’
Gride looked at him as if he were petrified with astonishment, but did not speak; perhaps lacking the power.
‘You and another man, Ralph Nickleby by name, have hatched this plot between you,’ pursued Nicholas. ‘You pay him for his share in bringing about this sale of Madeline Bray. You do. ”