# Chapter XLIX explained — Nicholas Nickleby > Chapter companion for Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. ## What happens Nicholas is increasingly preoccupied with Madeline Bray, while Mrs. Nickleby and Kate live quietly, troubled only by Mr. Snawley's legal actions and Smike's declining health. Smike shows signs of a fatal disease, causing anxiety. Mrs. Nickleby mistakes an old gentleman's advances, leading to a comical confrontation where he calls her 'Cat' and she faints. Frank Cheeryble and Tim Linkinwater escort the man away. The Cheeryble brothers continue their kindness, and Frank's frequent visits spark Mrs. Nickleby's comments about his attentiveness, causing Kate to blush. ## Themes in this chapter ### Family and Loyalty Nicholas's devotion to Smike and the family's collective anxiety over his health highlight familial bonds and loyalty. ### Love and Marriage Nicholas's growing feelings for Madeline Bray and Mrs. Nickleby's commentary on Frank Cheeryble's attentiveness to Kate explore romantic tensions. ### Hypocrisy and Appearance vs. Reality Mrs. Nickleby's self-dramatization and misinterpretation of the old gentleman's behavior contrast with the actual comical situation. ## Character check-ins ### Nicholas Nickleby Absorbed in thoughts of Madeline Bray and executing brother Charles's commissions; anxious about Smike's health. ### Kate Nickleby Lives peacefully with her mother; flushes when Mrs. Nickleby praises Frank Cheeryble's attentiveness. ### Mrs. Nickleby Mistaken for Kate by an old gentleman who calls her 'Cat,' causing her to faint; later discusses Frank Cheeryble's visits with Kate. ### Smike Health declining due to a dread disease; shows bright eyes, flushed cheeks, and labored breath, causing unease. ### Frank Cheeryble Frequently visits the cottage; helps escort the old gentleman away; subject of Mrs. Nickleby's remarks about attentiveness. ### Tim Linkinwater Guards the old gentleman alongside Frank; takes delight in his new friends. ## Key lines > There is a dread disease which so prepares its victim, as it were, for death; which so refines it of its grosser aspect, and throws around familiar looks unearthly indications of the coming change; a dread disease, in which the struggle between soul and body is so gradual, quiet, and solemn, and the result so sure, that day by day, and grain by grain, the mortal part wastes and withers away, so that the spirit grows light and sanguine with its lightening load, and, feeling immortality at hand, deems it but a new term of mortal life; a disease in which death and life are so strangely blended, that death takes the glow and hue of life, and life the gaunt and grisly form of death; a disease which medicine never cured, wealth never warded off, or poverty could boast exemption from; which sometimes moves in giant strides, and sometimes at a tardy sluggish pace, but, slow or quick, is ever sure and certain. The narrator describes a fatal illness (consumption) that gradually transforms the sufferer, blending life and death until the spirit seems to welcome its end, a disease that spares no one regardless of wealth or poverty. _This passage poetically characterizes Smike's tuberculosis, emphasizing its inevitability and the eerie calm it brings._ > Avaunt! Cat! The old gentleman shouts 'Begone! Cat!' at Mrs. Nickleby, startling her. _This exclamation is the climax of the comedic misunderstanding, leading to Mrs. Nickleby fainting._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicholas_nickleby_se/chapters/xlix - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicholas_nickleby_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicholas_nickleby_se/chapters