 by
adopting this cool and laconic style; and he trusted to it now, with very little
doubt of its entire success.
    But while he did this, and wore the most careless and indifferent deportment
that his practised arts enabled him to assume, he inwardly resolved, not only to
visit all the mortification of being compelled to suppress his feelings, with
additional severity upon Nicholas, but also to make the young lord pay dearly
for it, one day, in some shape or other. So long as he had been a passive
instrument in his hands, Sir Mulberry had regarded him with no other feeling
than contempt; but, now, that he presumed to avow opinions in opposition to his,
and even to turn upon him with a lofty tone and an air of superiority, he began
to hate him. Conscious that, in the vilest and most worthless sense of the term,
he was dependent upon the weak young lord, Sir Mulberry could the less brook
humiliation at his hands; and when he began to dislike him he measured his
dislike - as men often do - by the extent of the injuries he had inflicted upon
its object. When it is remembered that Sir Mulberry Hawk had plundered, duped,
deceived, and fooled his pupil in every possible way, it will not be wondered
at, that, beginning to hate him, he began to hate him cordially.
    On the other hand, the young lord having thought - which he very seldom did
about anything - and seriously too, upon the affair with Nicholas, and the
circumstances which led to it, had arrived at a manly and honest conclusion. Sir
Mulberry's coarse and insulting behaviour on the occasion in question had
produced a deep impression on his mind; a strong suspicion of his having led him
on to pursue Miss Nickleby for purposes of his own, had been lurking there, for
some time; he was really ashamed of his share in the transaction, and deeply
mortified by the misgiving that he had been gulled. He had had sufficient
leisure to reflect upon these things, during their late retirement; and, at
times, when his careless and indolent nature would permit, had availed himself
of the opportunity. Slight circumstances, too, had occurred to increase his
suspicion. It wanted but a very slight circumstance to kindle his wrath against
Sir Mulberry. This his disdainful and insolent tone in their recent conversation
(the only one they had held upon the subject since the period to which Sir
Mulberry referred), effected.
    Thus they rejoined their friends: each with causes of dislike against the
other, rankling in his breast: the
