Mr. Linkinwater Intimates His Approval of Nicholas
Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)
Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby
1838
Wood engraving
Source: J. A. Hammerton, The Dickens Picture-Book, p. 161.
Image scan and text by Philip V. Allingham.
The following excerpt from Chapter 35 introduces the jovial clerk, Tim Linkinwater, and his benevolent employers, Charles and Edward ('Ned") Cheeryble:
"Where is Tim Linkinwater?" said brother Ned.
Stop, stop, stop!" said brother Charles, taking the other aside. "I've a plan, my dear brother, I've a plan. Tim is getting old, and Tim has been a faithful servant, brother Ned, and I don't think pensioning Tim's mother and sister, and buying a little tomb for the family when his poor brother died, was a sufficient recompense for his faithful services."
However, the specific passage illustrated comes two chapters later, when Tim reviews his forty-four years' worth of ledgers for Nicholas's inspection as the brothers enter the counting-house:
. . .Tim Linkinwater, without looking round, impatiently waved his hand as a caution that profound silence must be observed, and followed the nib of the inexperienced pen [of Nicholas, writing in the latest ledger] with strained and eager eyes.
The brothers looked on with smiling faces, but Tim Linkinwater smiled not, nor moved for some minutes. At length, he drew a long slow breath, and, still maintaining his position on the tilted stool, glanced at brother Charles, secretly pointed with the feather of his pen towards Nicholas, and nodded his head in a grave and resolute manner, plainly signifying "He'll do." [Chapter 37, " Nicholas finds further Favour in the Eyes of the Brothers Cheeryble and Mr. Timothy Linkinwater. The Brothers give a Banquet on a great Annual Occasion. Nicholas, on returning Home from it, receives a mysterious and important Disclosure from the Lips of Mrs. Nickleby," March 1839]
Though first disclosed in Phiz's narrative-pictorial sequence in their counting-house, Tim Linkinwater and the Brothers Cheeryble are the complete antithesis of Newmann Noggs and his duplicitous master, Ralph Nickleby. The charitable capitalists and their jolly clerk will prove key elements in the resolution of the plot, including the marriages of the hero and heroine, Nicholas and Kate Nickleby.
References
Hammerton, J. A. The Dickens Picture-Book. London: Educational Book, 1910.
Last modified 3 April 2002