, with a smile. »Hannah, another cup and saucer. Now, I'll
tell you what, young man; I'll trouble you not to repeat the impertinence you
were guilty of, on the morning you went away.«
    »You would not be very angry, would you?« asked Nicholas.
    »Wouldn't I!« said Miss La Creevy. »You had better try; that's all!«
    Nicholas, with becoming gallantry, immediately took Miss La Creevy at her
word, who uttered a faint scream and slapped his face; but it was not a very
hard slap, and that's the truth.
    »I never saw such a rude creature!« exclaimed Miss La Creevy.
    »You told me to try,« said Nicholas.
    »Well; but I was speaking ironically,« rejoined Miss La Creevy.
    »Oh! that's another thing,« said Nicholas; »you should have told me that,
too.«
    »I dare say you didn't know, indeed!« retorted Miss La Creevy. »But, now I
look at you again, you seem thinner than when I saw you last, and your face is
haggard and pale. And how come you to have left Yorkshire?«
    She stopped here; for there was so much heart in her altered tone and
manner, that Nicholas was quite moved.
    »I need look somewhat changed,« he said, after a short silence; »for I have
undergone some suffering, both of mind and body, since I left London. I have
been very poor, too, and have even suffered from want.«
    »Good Heaven, Mr. Nicholas!« exclaimed Miss La Creevy, »what are you telling
me!«
    »Nothing which need distress you quite so much,« answered Nicholas, with a
more sprightly air; »neither did I come here, to bewail my lot, but on matter
more to the purpose. I wish to meet my uncle face to face. I should tell you
that first.«
    »Then all I have to say about that is,« interposed Miss La Creevy, »that I
don't envy you your taste; and that sitting in the same room with his very
boots, would put me out of humour for a fortnight.«
    »In the main,« said Nicholas, »there may be no great difference of opinion
between you and me, so far; but you will understand, that I desire to confront
him, to justify myself, and to cast his
