 talking about? Oh! Mr. Frank. I never saw such
attention in my life, never.«
    »Surely you are not serious,« returned Kate, colouring again; and this time
beyond all dispute.
    »Not serious!« returned Mrs. Nickleby; »why shouldn't I be serious? I'm sure
I never was more serious. I will say that his politeness and attention to me is
one of the most becoming, gratifying, pleasant things I have seen for a very
long time. You don't often meet with such behaviour in young men, and it strikes
one more when one does meet with it.«
    »Oh! attention to you, mama,« rejoined Kate quickly - »oh yes.«
    »Dear me, Kate,« retorted Mrs. Nickleby, »what an extraordinary girl you
are. Was it likely I should be talking of his attention to anybody else? I
declare I'm quite sorry to think he should be in love with a German lady, that I
am.«
    »He said very positively that it was no such thing, mama,« returned Kate.
»Don't you remember his saying so that very first night he came here? Besides,«
she added, in a more gentle tone, »why should we be sorry if it is the case?
What is it to us, mama?«
    »Nothing to us, Kate, perhaps,« said Mrs. Nickleby emphatically; »but
something to me, I confess. I like English people to be thorough English people,
and not half English and half I don't know what. I shall tell him point-blank
next time he comes, that I wish he would marry one of his own countrywomen; and
see what he says to that.«
    »Pray don't think of such a thing, mama,« returned Kate hastily; »not for
the world. Consider. How very -«
    »Well, my dear, how very what!« said Mrs. Nickleby, opening her eyes in
great astonishment.
    Before Kate had returned any reply, a queer little double-knock announced
that Miss La Creevy had called to see them; and when Miss La Creevy presented
herself, Mrs. Nickleby, though strongly disposed to be argumentative on the
previous question, forgot all about it in a gush of supposes about the coach she
had come by; supposing that the man who drove must have been either the man in
the shirt-sleeves or the man with the black eye; that whoever he was,
