'
With this affecting speech Mr Mantalini fell down again very flat, and
lay to all appearance without sense or motion, until all the females
had left the room, when he came cautiously into a sitting posture, and
confronted Ralph with a very blank face, and the little bottle still in
one hand and the tea-spoon in the other.
'You may put away those fooleries now, and live by your wits again,'
said Ralph, coolly putting on his hat.
'Demmit, Nickleby, you're not serious?'
'I seldom joke,' said Ralph. 'Good-night.'
'No, but Nickleby--' said Mantalini.
'I am wrong, perhaps,' rejoined Ralph. 'I hope so. You should know best.
Good-night.'
Affecting not to hear his entreaties that he would stay and advise with
him, Ralph left the crest-fallen Mr Mantalini to his meditations, and
left the house quietly.
'Oho!' he said, 'sets the wind that way so soon? Half knave and half
fool, and detected in both characters? I think your day is over, sir.'
As he said this, he made some memorandum in his pocket-book in which Mr
Mantalini's name figured conspicuously, and finding by his watch that it
was between nine and ten o'clock, made all speed home.
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