Nicholas understood the tone of triumph in which this interrogatory was put; but remembering the necessity of supporting his assumed character, produced a scrap of paper purporting to contain a list of some subjects for drawings which his employer desired to have executed; and with which he had prepared himself in case of any such contingency.

‘Of course I must see that,’ rejoined Mrs Nickleby. ‘Sad experience, you know, brother–in–law.—Kate, my dear, put that down in the next letter to Nicholas, or remind me to do it if I write.’