which had displayed the symmetry of her figure on the previous
night, and further ornamented with a beaver bonnet of some
antiquity, which she wore, with much ease and lightness, on the top
of the nightcap before mentioned.
'Drat the things,' said the lady, opening the cupboard; 'I can't
find the school spoon anywhere.'
'Never mind it, my dear,' observed Squeers in a soothing manner;
'it's of no consequence.'
'No consequence, why how you talk!' retorted Mrs Squeers sharply;
'isn't it brimstone morning?'
'I forgot, my dear,' rejoined Squeers; 'yes, it certainly is. We
purify the boys' bloods now and then, Nickleby.'
'Purify fiddlesticks' ends,' said his lady. 'Don't think, young
man, that we go to the expense of flower of brimstone and molasses,
just to purify them; because if you think we carry on the business
in that way, you'll find yourself mistaken, and so I tell you
plainly.'
'My dear,' said Squeers frowning. 'Hem!'
'Oh! nonsense,' rejoined Mrs Squeers. 'If the young man comes to be
a teacher here, let him understand, at once, that we don't want any
foolery about the boys. They have the brimstone and treacle, partly
because if they hadn't something or other in the way of medicine
they'd be always ailing and giving a world of trouble, and partly
because it spoils their appetites and comes cheaper than breakfast
and dinner. So, it does them good and us good at the same time, and
that's fair enough I'm sure.'
'A most invaluable woman, that, Nickleby,' said Squeers when his
consort had hurried away, pushing the drudge before her.
'Indeed, sir!' observed Nicholas.
'I don't know her equal,' said Squeers; 'I do not know her equal.
That woman, Nickleby, is always the same--always the same bustling,
lively, active, saving creetur that you see her now.'
'It's my way to say, when I am up in London,' continued Squeers,
'that to them boys she is a mother. But she is more than a mother
to them; ten times more. She does things for them boys, Nickleby,
that I don't believe half the mothers going, would do for their own
sons.'
'I should think they would not, sir,' answered Nicholas.
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