 it for, if it was
anybody but your sister?«
    »Dear mother,« said Nicholas, »surely it can't be!«
    »Very good, my dear,« replied Mrs. Nickleby, with great confidence. »Wait
and see.«
    Nicholas had never, until that moment, bestowed a thought on the remote
possibility of such an occurrence as that which was now communicated to him;
for, besides that he had been much from home of late and closely occupied with
other matters, his own jealous fears had prompted the suspicion that some secret
interest in Madeline, akin to that which he felt himself, occasioned those
visits of Frank Cheeryble which had recently become so frequent. Even now,
although he knew that the observation of an anxious mother was much more likely
to be correct in such a case than his own, and although she reminded him of many
little circumstances which, taken together, were certainly susceptible of the
construction she triumphantly put upon them, he was not quite convinced but that
they arose from mere good-natured thoughtless gallantry, which would have
dictated the same conduct towards any other girl who was young and pleasing. At
all events, he hoped so, and therefore tried to believe it.
    »I am very much disturbed by what you tell me,« said Nicholas, after a
little reflection, »though I yet hope you may be mistaken.«
    »I don't understand why you should hope so,« said Mrs. Nickleby, »I confess;
but you may depend upon it I am not.«
    »What of Kate?« inquired Nicholas.
    »Why that, my dear,« returned Mrs. Nickleby, »is just the point upon which I
am not yet satisfied. During this sickness, she has been constantly at
Madeline's bedside - never were two people so fond of each other as they have
grown - and to tell you the truth, Nicholas, I have rather kept her away now and
then, because I think it's a good plan, and urges a young man on. He doesn't get
too sure, you know.«
    She said this with such a mingling of high delight and self-congratulation,
that it was inexpressibly painful to Nicholas to dash her hopes; but he felt
that there was only one honorable course before him, and that he was bound to
take it.
    »Dear mother,« he said kindly, »don't you see that if there were really any
serious inclination on the part of Mr. Frank towards Kate, and we suffered
ourselves
