'Never--perform--business!' 'Very well, sir,' said Squeers, darting a withering look at the culprit.
'You and I will perform a little business on our private account by-and-by.' 'And just now,' said Ralph, 'we had better transact our own, perhaps.' 'If you please,' said Squeers.
'Well,' resumed Ralph, 'it's brief enough; soon broached; and I hope easily concluded.

You have advertised for an able assistant, sir ?' 'Precisely so,' said Squeers.
'And you really want one ?' 'Certainly,' answered Squeers.
'Here he is!' said Ralph.

'My nephew Nicholas, hot from school, with everything he learnt there, fermenting in his head, and nothing fermenting in his pocket, is just the man you want.' 'I am afraid,' said Squeers, perplexed with such an application from a youth of Nicholas's figure, 'I am afraid the young man won't suit me.' 'Yes, he will,' said Ralph; 'I know better.

Don't be cast down, sir; you will be teaching all the young noblemen in Dotheboys Hall in less than a week's time, unless this gentleman is more obstinate than I take him to be.' 'I fear, sir,' said Nicholas, addressing Mr Squeers, 'that you object to my youth, and to my not being a Master of Arts ?' 'The absence of a college degree IS an objection,' replied Squeers, looking as grave as he could, and considerably puzzled, no less by the contrast between the simplicity of the nephew and the worldly manner of the uncle, than by the incomprehensible allusion to the young noblemen under his tuition.
'Look here, sir,' said Ralph; 'I'll put this matter in its true light in two seconds.' 'If you'll have the goodness,' rejoined Squeers.
'This is a boy, or a youth, or a lad, or a young man, or a hobbledehoy, or whatever you like to call him, of eighteen or nineteen, or thereabouts,' said Ralph.
'That I see,' observed the schoolmaster.
'So do I,' said Mr Snawley, thinking it as well to back his new friend occasionally.
'His father is dead, he is wholly ignorant of the world, has no resources whatever, and wants something to do,' said Ralph.

'I recommend him to this splendid establishment of yours, as an opening which will lead him to fortune if he turns it to proper account.