Introduces all the Rest.
There once lived, in a sequestered1 part of the county ofDevonshire, one Mr Godfrey Nickleby: a worthygentleman, who, taking it into his head rather late in lifethat he must get married, and not being young enough or richenough to aspire2 to the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded3 anold flame out of mere4 attachment5, who in her turn had taken himfor the same reason. Thus two people who cannot afford to playcards for money, sometimes sit down to a quiet game for love.
Some ill-conditioned persons who sneer6 at the life-matrimonial,may perhaps suggest, in this place, that the good couple would bebetter likened to two principals in a sparring match, who, whenfortune is low and backers scarce, will chivalrously7 set to, for themere pleasure of the buffeting8; and in one respect indeed thiscomparison would hold good; for, as the adventurous9 pair of theFives’ Court will afterwards send round a hat, and trust to thebounty of the lookers-on for the means of regaling themselves, soMr Godfrey Nickleby and his partner, the honeymoon10 being over,looked out wistfully into the world, relying in no inconsiderabledegree upon chance for the improvement of their means. MrNickleby’s income, at the period of his marriage, fluctuatedbetween sixty and eighty pounds per annum.
There are people enough in the world, Heaven knows! and evenin London (where Mr Nickleby dwelt in those days) but fewcomplaints prevail, of the population being scanty11. It is extraordinary how long a man may look among the crowd withoutdiscovering the face of a friend, but it is no less true. Mr Nicklebylooked, and looked, till his eyes became sore as his heart, but nofriend appeared; and when, growing tired of the search, he turnedhis eyes homeward, he saw very little there to relieve his wearyvision. A painter who has gazed too long upon some glaringcolour, refreshes his dazzled sight by looking upon a darker andmore sombre tint12; but everything that met Mr Nickleby’s gazewore so black and gloomy a hue13, that he would have been beyonddescription refreshed by the very reverse of the contrast.
At length, after five years, when Mrs Nickleby had presentedher husband with a couple of sons, and that embarrassedgentleman, impressed with the necessity of making someprovision for his family, was seriously revolving14 in his mind a littlecommercial speculation15 of insuring his life next quarter-day, andthen falling from the top of the Monument by accident, therecame, one morning, by the general post, a black-bordered letter toinform him how his uncle, Mr Ralph Nickleby, was dead, and hadleft him the bulk of his little property, amounting in all to fivethousand pounds sterling16.
As the deceased had taken no further notice of his nephew inhis lifetime, than sending to his eldest17 boy (who had beenchristened after him, on desperate speculation) a silver spoon in amorocco case, which, as he had not too much to eat with it,seemed a kind of satire18 upon his having been born without thatuseful article of plate in his mouth, Mr Godfrey Nickleby could, atfirst, scarcely believe the tidings thus conveyed to him. Onexamination, however, they turned out to be strictly19 correct. Theamiable old gentleman, it seemed, had intended to leave the whole to the Royal Humane20 Society, and had indeed executed a will tothat effect; but the Institution, having been unfortunate enough, afew months before, to save the life of a poor relation to whom hepaid a weekly allowance of three shillings and sixpence, he had, ina fit of very natural exasperation21, revoked22 the bequest23 in a codicil,and left it all to Mr Godfrey Nickleby; with a special mention of hisindignation, not only against the society for saving the poorrelation’s life, but against the poor relation also, for allowinghimself to be saved.
With a portion of this property Mr Godfrey Nickleby purchaseda small farm, near Dawlish in Devonshire, whither he retired24 withhis wife and two children, to live upon the best interest he couldget for the rest of his money, and the little produce he could raisefrom his land. The two prospered25 so well together that, when hedied, some fifteen years after this period, and some five after hiswife, he was enabled to leave, to his eldest son, Ralph, threethousand pounds in cash, and to his youngest son, Nicholas, onethousand and the farm, which was as small a landed estate as onewould desire to see.
These two brothers had been brought up together in a school atExeter; and, being accustomed to go home once a week, had oftenheard, from their mother’s lips, long accounts of their father’ssufferings in his days of poverty, and of their deceased uncle’simportance in his days of affluence26: which recitals27 produced a verydifferent impression on the two: for, while the younger, who was ofa timid and retiring disposition28, gleaned29 from thence nothing butforewarnings to shun30 the great world and attach himself to thequiet routine of a country life, Ralph, the elder, deduced from theoften-repeated tale the two great morals that riches are the only true source of happiness and power, and that it is lawful31 and justto compass their acquisition by all means short of felony. ‘And,’
reasoned Ralph with himself, ‘if no good came of my uncle’smoney when he was alive, a great deal of good came of it after hewas dead, inasmuch as my father has got it now, and is saving it upfor me, which is a highly virtuous32 purpose; and, going back to theold gentleman, good did come of it to him too, for he had thepleasure of thinking of it all his life long, and of being envied andcourted by all his family besides.’ And Ralph always wound upthese mental soliloquies by arriving at the conclusion, that therewas nothing like money.
Not confining himself to theory, or permitting his faculties33 torust, even at that early age, in mere abstract speculations34, thispromising lad commenced usurer on a limited scale at school;putting out at good interest a small capital of slate-pencil andmarbles, and gradually extending his operations until they aspiredto the copper35 coinage of this realm, in which he speculated toconsiderable advantage. Nor did he trouble his borrowers withabstract calculations of figures, or references to ready-reckoners;his simple rule of interest being all comprised in the one goldensentence, ‘two-pence for every half-penny,’ which greatlysimplified the accounts, and which, as a familiar precept36, moreeasily acquired and retained in the memory than any known ruleof arithmetic, cannot be too strongly recommended to the notice ofcapitalists, both large and small, and more especially of money-brokers and bill-discounters. Indeed, to do these gentlemenjustice, many of them are to this day in the frequent habit ofadopting it, with eminent37 success.
In like manner, did young Ralph Nickleby avoid all those minute and intricate calculations of odd days, which nobody whohas worked sums in simple-interest can fail to have found mostembarrassing, by establishing the one general rule that all sums ofprincipal and interest should be paid on pocket-money day, that isto say, on Saturday: and that whether a loan were contracted onthe Monday, or on the Friday, the amount of interest should be, inboth cases, the same. Indeed he argued, and with great show ofreason, that it ought to be rather more for one day than for five,inasmuch as the borrower might in the former case be very fairlypresumed to be in great extremity38, otherwise he would not borrowat all with such odds39 against him. This fact is interesting, asillustrating the secret connection and sympathy which alwaysexist between great minds. Though Master Ralph Nickleby wasnot at that time aware of it, the class of gentlemen before alludedto, proceed on just the same principle in all their transactions.
From what we have said of this young gentleman, and thenatural admiration40 the reader will immediately conceive of hischaracter, it may perhaps be inferred that he is to be the hero ofthe work which we shall presently begin. To set this point at rest,for once and for ever, we hasten to undeceive them, and stride toits commencement.
On the death of his father, Ralph Nickleby, who had been sometime before placed in a mercantile house in London, appliedhimself passionately41 to his old pursuit of money-getting, in whichhe speedily became so buried and absorbed, that he quite forgothis brother for many years; and if, at times, a recollection of his oldplayfellow broke upon him through the haze42 in which he lived—for gold conjures43 up a mist about a man, more destructive of all hisold senses and lulling44 to his feelings than the fumes45 of charcoal—it brought along with it a companion thought, that if they wereintimate he would want to borrow money of him. So, Mr RalphNickleby shrugged46 his shoulders, and said things were better asthey were.
As for Nicholas, he lived a single man on the patrimonial47 estateuntil he grew tired of living alone, and then he took to wife thedaughter of a neighbouring gentleman with a dower of onethousand pounds. This good lady bore him two children, a son anda daughter, and when the son was about nineteen, and thedaughter fourteen, as near as we can guess—impartial records ofyoung ladies’ ages being, before the passing of the new act,nowhere preserved in the registries of this country—Mr Nicklebylooked about him for the means of repairing his capital, now sadlyreduced by this increase in his family, and the expenses of theireducation.
‘Speculate with it,’ said Mrs Nickleby.
‘Spec-u-late, my dear?’ said Mr Nickleby, as though in doubt.
‘Why not?’ asked Mrs Nickleby.
‘Because, my dear, if we should lose it,’ rejoined Mr Nickleby,who was a slow and time-taking speaker, ‘if we should lose it, weshall no longer be able to live, my dear.’
‘Fiddle,’ said Mrs Nickleby.
‘I am not altogether sure of that, my dear,’ said Mr Nickleby.
‘There’s Nicholas,’ pursued the lady, ‘quite a young man—it’stime he was in the way of doing something for himself; and Katetoo, poor girl, without a penny in the world. Think of your brother!
Would he be what he is, if he hadn’t speculated?’
‘That’s true,’ replied Mr Nickleby. ‘Very good, my dear. Yes. Iwill speculate, my dear.’
Speculation is a round game; the players see little or nothing oftheir cards at first starting; gains may be great—and so may losses.
The run of luck went against Mr Nickleby. A mania48 prevailed, abubble burst, four stock-brokers took villa49 residences at Florence,four hundred nobodies were ruined, and among them MrNickleby.
‘The very house I live in,’ sighed the poor gentleman, ‘may betaken from me tomorrow. Not an article of my old furniture, butwill be sold to strangers!’
The last reflection hurt him so much, that he took at once to hisbed; apparently50 resolved to keep that, at all events.
‘Cheer up, sir!’ said the apothecary51.
‘You mustn’t let yourself be cast down, sir,’ said the nurse.
‘Such things happen every day,’ remarked the lawyer.
‘And it is very sinful to rebel against them,’ whispered theclergyman.
‘And what no man with a family ought to do,’ added theneighbours.
Mr Nickleby shook his head, and motioning them all out of theroom, embraced his wife and children, and having pressed themby turns to his languidly beating heart, sunk exhausted52 on hispillow. They were concerned to find that his reason went astrayafter this; for he babbled53, for a long time, about the generosity54 andgoodness of his brother, and the merry old times when they wereat school together. This fit of wandering past, he solemnlycommended them to One who never deserted55 the widow or herfatherless children, and, smiling gently on them, turned upon hisface, and observed, that he thought he could fall asleep.
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1
sequestered
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| adj.扣押的；隐退的；幽静的；偏僻的v.使隔绝，使隔离( sequester的过去式和过去分词 )；扣押 | |
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aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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chivalrously
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| adv.象骑士一样地 | |
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buffeting
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| 振动 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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14
revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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satire
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| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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revoked
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| adj.[法]取消的v.撤销，取消，废除( revoke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bequest
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| n.遗赠；遗产，遗物 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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affluence
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| n.充裕，富足 | |
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recitals
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| n.独唱会( recital的名词复数 )；独奏会；小型音乐会、舞蹈表演会等；一系列事件等的详述 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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gleaned
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| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
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shun
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| vt.避开，回避，避免 | |
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lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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precept
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| n.戒律；格言 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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41
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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42
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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conjures
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的第三人称单数 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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44
lulling
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的现在分词形式） | |
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fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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46
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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patrimonial
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| adj.祖传的 | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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50
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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apothecary
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| n.药剂师 | |
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52
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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53
babbled
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| v.喋喋不休( babble的过去式和过去分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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54
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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