However this might have been, the young gentleman and the two who had
always spoken together, actually rose to go after a short interval, and
presently retired, leaving their friend alone with Nicholas.
It will be very readily supposed that to one in the condition of
Nicholas, the minutes appeared to move with leaden wings indeed, and
that their progress did not seem the more rapid from the monotonous
ticking of a French clock, or the shrill sound of its little bell which
told the quarters. But there he sat; and in his old seat on the opposite
side of the room reclined Sir Mulberry Hawk, with his legs upon the
cushion, and his handkerchief thrown negligently over his knees:
finishing his magnum of claret with the utmost coolness and
indifference.
Thus they remained in perfect silence for upwards of an hour--Nicholas
would have thought for three hours at least, but that the little
bell had only gone four times. Twice or thrice he looked angrily and
impatiently round; but there was Sir Mulberry in the same attitude,
putting his glass to his lips from time to time, and looking vacantly
at the wall, as if he were wholly ignorant of the presence of any living
person.
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