Festivities are held in honour of Nicholas, who suddenly withdraws himself from the society of Mr Vincent Crummles and his theatrical companions M R V INCENT C RUMMLES was no sooner acquainted with the public announcement which Nicholas had made relative to the probability of his shortly ceasing to be a member of the company, than he evinced many tokens of grief and consternation;and, in the extremity of his despair, even held out certain vague promises of a speedy improvement not only in the amount of his regular salary, but also in the contingent emoluments appertaining to his authorship. Finding Nicholas bent upon quitting the society -- for he had now determined that, even if no further tidings came from Newman, he would, at all hazards, ease his mind by repairing to London and ascertaining the exact position of his sister -- Mr Crummles was fain to content himself by calculating the chances of his coming back again, and taking prompt and energetic measures to make the most of him before he went away.
`Let me see,' said Mr Crummles, taking off his outlaw's wig, the better to arrive at a cool-headed view of the whole case. `Let me see. This is Wednesday night. We'll have posters out the first thing in the morning, announcing positively your last appearance for tomorrow.'
`But perhaps it may not be my last appearance, you know,' said Nicholas.
`Unless I am summoned away, I should be sorry to inconvenience you by leaving before the end of the week.'
`So much the better,' returned Mr Crummles. `We can have positively your last appearance, on Thursday -- re-engagement for one night more, on Friday -- and, yielding to the wishes of numerous influential patrons, who were disappointed in obtaining seats, on Saturday. That ought to bring three very decent houses.'
`Then I am to make three last appearances, am I?' inquired Nicholas, smiling.
`Yes,' rejoined the manager, scratching his head with an air of some vexation; `three is not enough, and it's very bungling and irregular not to have more, but if we can't help it we can't, so there's no use in talking.
A novelty would be very desirable. You couldn't sing a comic song on the pony's back, could you?'
`No,' replied Nicholas, `I couldn't indeed.'
`It has drawn money before now,' said Mr Crummles, with a look of disappointment.
`What do you think of a brilliant display of fireworks?'
`That it would be rather expensive,' replied Nicholas, drily.
`Eighteen-pence would do it,' said Mr Crummles. `You on the top of a pair of steps with the phenomenon in an attitude; "Farewell!" on a transparency behind; and nine people at the wings with a squib in each hand -- all the dozen and a half going off at once -- it would be very grand -- awful from the front, quite awful.'
As Nicholas appeared by no means impressed with the solemnity of the proposed effect, but, on the contrary, received the proposition in a most irreverent manner, and laughed at it very heartily, Mr Crummles abandoned the project in its birth, and gloomily observed that they must make up the best bill they could with combats and hornpipes, and so stick to the legitimate drama.
For the purpose of carrying this object into instant execution, the manager at once repaired to a small dressing-room, adjacent, where Mrs Crummles was then occupied in exchanging the habiliments of a melodramatic empress for the ordinary attire of matrons in the nineteenth century. And with the assistance of this lady, and the accomplished Mrs Grudden (who had quite a genius for ****** out bills, being a great hand at throwing in the notes of admiration, and knowing from long experience exactly where the largest capitals ought to go), he seriously applied himself to the composition of the poster.
`Heigho!' sighed Nicholas, as he threw himself back in the prompter's chair, after telegraphing the needful directions to Smike, who had been playing a meagre tailor in the interlude, with one skirt to his coat, and a little pocket-handkerchief with a large hole in it, and a woollen nightcap, and a red nose, and other distinctive marks peculiar to tailors on the stage. `Heigho! I wish all this were over.'
`Over, Mr Johnson!' repeated a female voice behind him, in a kind of plaintive surprise.
`It was an ungallant speech, certainly,' said Nicholas, looking up to see who the speaker was, and recognising Miss Snevellicci. `I would not have made it if I had known you had been within hearing.'
`What a dear that Mr Digby is!' said Miss Snevellicci, as the tailor went off on the opposite side, at the end of the piece, with great applause.
(Smike's theatrical name was Digby.)
`I'll tell him presently, for his gratification, that you said so,'
returned Nicholas.
`Oh you naughty thing!' rejoined Miss Snevellicci. `I don't know though, that I should much mind his knowing my opinion of him; with some other people, indeed, it might be --' Here Miss Snevellicci stopped, as though waiting to be questioned, but no questioning came, for Nicholas was thinking about more serious matters.
`How kind it is of you,' resumed Miss Snevellicci, after a short silence, `to sit waiting here for him night after night, night after night, no matter how tired you are; and taking so much pains with him, and doing it all with as much delight and readiness as if you were coining gold by it!'
`He well deserves all the kindness I can show him, and a great deal more,' said Nicholas. `He is the most grateful, single-hearted, affectionate creature that ever breathed.'
`So odd, too,' remarked Miss Snevellicci, `isn't he?'
`God help him, and those who have made him so; he is indeed,' rejoined Nicholas, shaking his head.
`He is such a devilish close chap,' said Mr Folair, who had come up a little before, and now joined in the conversation. `Nobody can ever get anything out of him.'
`What should they get out of him?' asked Nicholas, turning round with some abruptness.