The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby | Page 7

coinage of this
realm, in which he speculated to considerable advantage. Nor did he
trouble his borrowers with abstract calculations of figures, or references
to ready-reckoners; his simple rule of interest being all comprised in
the one golden sentence, 'two-pence for every half-penny,' which
greatly simplified the accounts, and which, as a familiar precept, more
easily acquired and retained in the memory than any known rule of
arithmetic, cannot be too strongly recommended to the notice of
capitalists, both large and small, and more especially of money-brokers
and bill- discounters. Indeed, to do these gentlemen justice, many of
them are to this day in the frequent habit of adopting it, with eminent
success.

In like manner, did young Ralph Nickleby avoid all those minute and
intricate calculations of odd days, which nobody who has worked sums
in simple-interest can fail to have found most embarrassing, by
establishing the one general rule that all sums of principal and interest
should be paid on pocket-money day, that is to say, on Saturday: and
that whether a loan were contracted on the Monday, or on the Friday,
the amount of interest should be, in both cases, the same. Indeed he
argued, and with great show of reason, that it ought to be rather more
for one day than for five, inasmuch as the borrower might in the former
case be very fairly presumed to be in great extremity, otherwise he
would not borrow at all with such odds against him. This fact is
interesting, as illustrating the secret connection and sympathy which
always exist between great minds. Though Master Ralph Nickleby was
not at that time aware of it, the class of gentlemen before alluded to,
proceed on just the same principle in all their transactions.
From what we have said of this young gentleman, and the natural
admiration the reader will immediately conceive of his character, it
may perhaps be inferred that he is to be the hero of the work which we
shall presently begin. To set this point at rest, for once and for ever, we
hasten to undeceive them, and stride to its commencement.
On the death of his father, Ralph Nickleby, who had been some time
before placed in a mercantile house in London, applied himself
passionately to his old pursuit of money-getting, in which he speedily
became so buried and absorbed, that he quite forgot his brother for
many years; and if, at times, a recollection of his old playfellow broke
upon him through the haze in which he lived--for gold conjures up a
mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to
his feelings than the fumes of charcoal--it brought along with it a
companion thought, that if they were intimate he would want to borrow
money of him. So, Mr Ralph Nickleby shrugged his shoulders, and said
things were better as they were.
As for Nicholas, he lived a single man on the patrimonial estate until he
grew tired of living alone, and then he took to wife the daughter of a
neighbouring gentleman with a dower of one thousand pounds. This

good lady bore him two children, a son and a daughter, and when the
son was about nineteen, and the daughter fourteen, as near as we can
guess--impartial records of young ladies' ages being, before the passing
of the new act, nowhere preserved in the registries of this country--Mr
Nickleby looked about him for the means of repairing his capital, now
sadly reduced by this increase in his family, and the expenses of their
education.
'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, we shall
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's time he
was in the way of doing something for himself; and Kate too, 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. I WILL
speculate, my dear.'
Speculation is a round game; the players see little or nothing of their
cards at first starting; gains MAY be great--and so may losses. The run
of luck went against Mr Nickleby. A mania prevailed, a bubble burst,
four stock-brokers took villa residences at Florence, four hundred
nobodies were ruined, and among them Mr Nickleby.
'The very house I live in,' sighed the poor gentleman, 'may be taken
from me tomorrow. Not an article of