Dickens ends the suspenseful chapter on an anticlimactic note that is meant to be read as comic when Nicholas reveals that Newman followed and got information about the wrong person. While Newman’s mistake is played in part for laughs, Nicholas’s dejection at missing an opportunity to meet the woman he has been thinking about makes it clear that Nicholas feels that something is missing in his life, and he hopes that meeting the woman will help alleviate that sense of emptiness.