 you know what one's going to
say, before it has time to rise to one's lips. Oh, very good! Ha, ha, ha!«
    »For myself,« observed Madame Mantalini, glancing with affected carelessness
at her assistant, and laughing heartily in her sleeve, »I consider Miss Nickleby
the most awkward girl I ever saw in my life.«
    »Poor dear thing,« said Miss Knag, »it's not her fault. If it was, we might
hope to cure it; but as it's her misfortune, Madame Mantalini, why really you
know, as the man said about the blind horse, we ought to respect it.«
    »Her uncle told me she had been considered pretty,« remarked Madame
Mantalini. »I think her one of the most ordinary girls I ever met with.«
    »Ordinary!« cried Miss Knag with a countenance beaming delight; »and
awkward! Well, all I can say is, Madame Mantalini, that I quite love the poor
girl; and that if she was twice as indifferent-looking, and twice as awkward as
she is, I should be only so much the more her friend, and that's the truth of
it.«
    In fact, Miss Knag had conceived an incipient affection for Kate Nickleby,
after witnessing her failure that morning, and this short conversation with her
superior increased the favourable prepossession to a most surprising extent;
which was the more remarkable, as when she first scanned that young lady's face
and figure, she had entertained certain inward misgivings that they would never
agree.
    »But now,« said Miss Knag, glancing at the reflection of herself in a mirror
at no great distance, »I love her - I quite love her - I declare I do!«
    Of such a highly disinterested quality was this devoted friendship, and so
superior was it to the little weaknesses of flattery or ill nature, that the
kind-hearted Miss Knag candidly informed Kate Nickleby, next day, that she saw
she would never do for the business, but that she need not give herself the
slightest uneasiness on this account, for that she (Miss Knag) by increased
exertions on her own part, would keep her as much as possible in the background,
and that all she would have to do, would be to remain perfectly quiet before
company, and to shrink from attracting notice by every means in her power. This
last suggestion was so much in accordance with the timid girl's own feelings and
wishes, that she readily promised implicit
