`No,' rejoined Kate. `Not long.'

`I was very glad of the opportunity which that respectable person, your mother, gave us of being known to them,' said Mrs Wititterly, in a lofty manner. `Some friends of ours were on the very point of introducing us, which makes it quite remarkable.'

This was said lest Miss Nickleby should grow conceited on the honour and dignity of having known four great people (for Pyke and Pluck were included among the delightful creatures), whom Mrs Wititterly did not know. But as the circumstance had made no impression one way or other upon Kate's mind, the force of the observation was quite lost upon her.

`They asked permission to call,' said Mrs Wititterly. `I gave it them of course.'

`Do you expect them today?' Kate ventured to inquire.

Mrs Wititterly's answer was lost in the noise of a tremendous rapping at the street-door, and before it had ceased to vibrate, there drove up a handsome cabriolet, out of which leaped Sir Mulberry Hawk and his friend Lord Verisopht.

`They are here now,' said Kate, rising and hurrying away.

`Miss Nickleby!' cried Mrs Wititterly, perfectly aghast at a companion's attempting to quit the room, without her permission first had and obtained. `Pray don't think of going.'

`You are very good!' replied Kate. `But --'

`For goodness' sake, don't agitate me by making me speak so much,' said Mrs Wititterly, with great sharpness. `Dear me, Miss Nickleby, I beg --'

It was in vain for Kate to protest that she was unwell, for the footsteps of the knockers, whoever they were, were already on the stairs. She resumed her seat, and had scarcely done so, when the doubtful page darted into the room and announced, Mr Pyke, and Mr Pluck, and Lord Verisopht, and Sir Mulberry Hawk, all at one burst.

`The most extraordinary thing in the world,' said Mr Pluck, saluting both ladies with the utmost cordiality; `the most extraordinary thing. As Lord Frederick and Sir Mulberry drove up to the door, Pyke and I had that instant knocked.'

`That instant knocked,' said Pyke.

`No matter how you came, so that you are here,' said Mrs Wititterly, who, by dint of lying on the same sofa for three years and a half, had got up quite a little pantomime of graceful attitudes, and now threw herself into the most striking of the whole series, to astonish the visitors. `I am delighted, I am sure.'

`And how is Miss Nickleby?' said Sir Mulberry Hawk, accosting Kate, in a low voice -- not so low, however, but that it reached the ears of Mrs Wititterly.

`Why, she complains of suffering from the fright of last night,' said the lady. `I am sure I don't wonder at it, for my nerves are quite torn to pieces.'

`And yet you look,' observed Sir Mulberry, turning round; `and yet you look --'

`Beyond everything,' said Mr Pyke, coming to his patron's assistance. Of course Mr Pluck said the same.

`I am afraid Sir Mulberry is a flatterer, my lord,' said Mrs Wititterly, turning to that young gentleman, who had been sucking the head of his cane in silence, and staring at Kate.