'
So saying, Mrs Nickleby nodded her head, and patted the back of her
daughter's hand, a great many times, and looked as if she could tell
something vastly important if she chose, but had self-denial, thank
Heaven; and wouldn't do it.
'What do you mean, mama?' demanded Kate, in evident surprise.
'Don't be flurried, my dear,' replied Mrs Nickleby, looking towards
the garden-wall, 'for you see I'm not, and if it would be excusable
in anybody to be flurried, it certainly would--under all the
circumstances--be excusable in me, but I am not, Kate--not at all.'
'It seems designed to attract our attention, mama,' said Kate.
'It is designed to attract our attention, my dear; at least,' rejoined
Mrs Nickleby, drawing herself up, and patting her daughter's hand more
blandly than before, 'to attract the attention of one of us. Hem! you
needn't be at all uneasy, my dear.'
Kate looked very much perplexed, and was apparently about to ask for
further explanation, when a shouting and scuffling noise, as of an
elderly gentleman whooping, and kicking up his legs on loose gravel,
with great violence, was heard to proceed from the same direction as the
former sounds; and before they had subsided, a large cucumber was seen
to shoot up in the air with the velocity of a sky-rocket, whence it
descended, tumbling over and over, until it fell at Mrs Nickleby's feet.
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