"Then why the devil didn't you come before?"
"Please, sir, I fell asleep over the fire," answered Smike, with humility.
"Fire! what fire? Where's there a fire?" demanded the schoolmaster, sharply.
"Only in the kitchen, sir," replied the boy. "Missus said, as I was sitting up, I might go in there for a warm."
"Your Missus is a fool," retorted Squeers. "You'd have been a deuced deal more wakeful in the cold, I'll engage."
By this time Mr. Squeers had dismounted; and after ordering the boy to see to the pony, and to take care that he hadn't any more corn that night, he told Nicholas to wait at the front door a minute while he went round and let him in.
A host of unpleasant misgivings, which had been crowding upon Nicholas during the whole journey, thronged into his mind with redoubled force when he was left alone. And as he looked up at the dreary house and dark windows, and upon the wild country round, covered with snow, he felt a depression of heart and spirit which he had never experienced before.
Presently he was ushered into a cheerless-looking parlor where stood a large, angular woman about half a head taller than Mr. Squeers.
"This is the new young man, my dear," said that gentleman.
"Oh," replied Mrs. Squeers, nodding her head at Nicholas, and eyeing him coldly from top to toe.