He moved away as he said this; but seeing that Nicholas was about to speak, good-naturedly slackened his pace, as if he were unwilling to cut him short. After a little of that hesitation which may be sometimes observed between two people in the street who have exchanged a nod, and are both uncertain whether they shall turn back and speak, or not, Nicholas found himself at the old man's side.
`You were about to speak, young gentleman; what were you going to say?'
`Merely that I almost hoped -- I mean to say, thought -- you had some object in consulting those advertisements,' said Nicholas.
`Ay, ay? what object now -- what object?' returned the old man, looking slily at Nicholas. `Did you think I wanted a situation now -- eh? Did you think I did?'
Nicholas shook his head.
`Ha! ha!' laughed the old gentleman, rubbing his hands and wrists as if he were washing them. `A very natural thought, at all events, after seeing me gazing at those bills. I thought the same of you, at first; upon my word I did.'
`If you had thought so at last, too, sir, you would not have been far from the truth,' rejoined Nicholas.
`Eh?' cried the old man, surveying him from head to foot. `What! Dear me! No, no. Well-behaved young gentleman reduced to such a necessity! No no, no no.'
Nicholas bowed, and bidding him good-morning, turned upon his heel.
`Stay,' said the old man, beckoning him into a by-street, where they could converse with less interruption. `What d'ye mean, eh?'
`Merely that your kind face and manner -- both so unlike any I have ever seen -- tempted me into an avowal, which, to any other stranger in this wilderness of London, I should not have dreamt of making,' returned Nicholas.
`Wilderness! Yes, it is, it is. Good! It is a wilderness,' said the old man with much animation. `It was a wilderness to me once. I came here barefoot -- I have never forgotten it. Thank God!' and he raised his hat from his head, and looked very grave.
`What's the matter -- what is it -- how did it all come about?' said the old man, laying his hand on the shoulder of Nicholas, and walking him up the street. `You're -- Eh?' laying his finger on the sleeve of his black coat. `Who's it for -- eh?'
`My father,' replied Nicholas.
`Ah!' said the old gentleman quickly. `Bad thing for a young man to lose his father. Widowed mother, perhaps?'
Nicholas sighed.
`Brothers and sisters too -- eh?'
`One sister,' rejoined Nicholas.
`Poor thing, poor thing! You are a scholar too, I dare say?' said the old man, looking wistfully into the face of the young one.
`I have been tolerably well educated,' said Nicholas.
`Fine thing,' said the old gentleman, `education a great thing -- a very great thing -- I never had any. I admire it the more in others. Avery fine thing -- yes, yes. Tell me more of your history. Let me hear it all. No impertinent curiosity -- no, no, no.'
There was something so earnest and guileless in the way in which all this was said, and such a complete disregard of all conventional restraints and coldnesses, that Nicholas could not resist it. Among men who have any sound and sterling qualities, there is nothing so contagious as pure openness of heart. Nicholas took the infection instantly, and ran over the main points of his little history without reserve: merely suppressing names, and touching as lightly as possible upon his uncle's treatment of Kate.
The old man listened with great attention, and when he had concluded, drew his arm eagerly through his own.
`Don't say another word -- not another word' said he. `Come along with me. We mustn't lose a minute.'
So saying, the old gentleman dragged him back into Oxford Street, and hailing an omnibus on its way to the City, pushed Nicholas in before him, and followed himself.
As he appeared in a most extraordinary condition of restless excitement, and whenever Nicholas offered to speak, immediately interposed with --`Don't say another word, my dear sir, on any account -- not another word,'
the young man thought it better to attempt no further interruption. Into the City they journeyed accordingly, without interchanging any conversation;and the farther they went, the more Nicholas wondered what the end of the adventure could possibly be.
The old gentleman got out, with great alacrity, when they reached the Bank, and once more taking Nicholas by the arm, hurried him along Threadneedle Street, and through some lanes and passages on the right, until they, at length, emerged in a quiet shady little square. Into the oldest and cleanest-looking house of business in the square, he led the way. The only inscription on the door-post was `Cheeryble, Brothers;' but from a hasty glance at the directions of some packages which were lying about, Nicholas supposed that the brothers Cheeryble were German merchants.
Passing through a warehouse which presented every indication of a thriving business, Mr Cheeryble (for such Nicholas supposed him to be, from the respect which had been shown him by the warehousemen and porters whom they passed) led him into a little partitioned-off counting-house like a large glass case, in which counting-house there sat -- as free from dust and blemish as if he had been fixed into the glass case before the top was put on, and had never come out since -- a fat, elderly, large-faced clerk, with silver spectacles and a powdered head.
`Is my brother in his room, Tim?' said Mr Cheeryble, with no less kindness of manner than he had shown to Nicholas.
`Yes, he is, sir,' replied the fat clerk, turning his spectacle-glasses towards his principal, and his eyes towards Nicholas, `but Mr Trimmers is with him.'
`Ay! And what has he come about, Tim?' said Mr Cheeryble.
`He is getting up a subscription for the widow and family of a man who was killed in the East India Docks this morning, sir,' rejoined Tim. `Smashed, sir, by a cask of sugar.'
`He is a good creature,' said Mr Cheeryble, with great earnestness.
