; are not to be
described. Refused! refused by a teacher, picked up by advertisement, at an
annual salary of five pounds payable at indefinite periods, and found in food
and lodging like the very boys themselves; and this too in the presence of a
little chit of millers daughter of eighteen, who was going to be married in
three weeks' time, to a man who had gone down on his very knees to ask her! She
could have choked in right good earnest, at the thought of being so humbled.
    But there was one thing clear in the midst of her mortification; and that
was, that she hated and detested Nicholas with all the narrowness of mind and
littleness of purpose worthy a descendant of the house of Squeers. And there was
one comfort too; and that was, that every hour in every day she could wound his
pride, and goad him with the infliction of some slight, or insult, or
deprivation, which could not but have some effect on the most insensible person,
and must be acutely felt by one so sensitive as Nicholas. With these two
reflections uppermost in her mind, Miss Squeers made the best of the matter to
her friend, by observing that Mr. Nickleby was such an odd creature, and of such
a violent temper, that she feared she should be obliged to give him up; and
parted from her.
    And here it may be remarked, that Miss Squeers, having bestowed her
affections (or whatever it might be that, in the absence of anything better,
represented them) on Nicholas Nickleby, had never once seriously contemplated
the possibility of his being of a different opinion from herself in the
business. Miss Squeers reasoned that she was prepossessing and beautiful, and
that her father was master, and Nicholas man, and that her father had saved
money, and Nicholas had none, all of which seemed to her conclusive arguments
why the young man should feel only too much honoured by her preference. She had
not failed to recollect, either, how much more agreeable she could render his
situation if she were his friend, and how much more disagreeable if she were his
enemy; and, doubtless, many less scrupulous young gentlemen than Nicholas would
have encouraged her extravagance had it been only for this very obvious and
intelligible reason. However, he had thought proper to do otherwise, and Miss
Squeers was outrageous.
    »Let him see,« said the irritated young lady, when she had regained her own
room, and eased her mind by committing an assault on Phib, »if I don't set
mother against him a
