Stranica 110 [110]
74
advice in the beginning ; you would, if he
hadn't had a fever, I suppose,—eh! He
was interesting, wasn’t he? Interesting!
Bah!” and Mr.Grimwig poked the fire
with a flourish.
‘“ He was a dear, grateful, gentle child,
sir,’ retorted Mrs. Bedwin indignantly.
c] know what children are, sir, and have
done these forty years: and people who
can’t say the same shouldn’t say anything
about them—that’s my opinion.”
This was a hard hit at Mr. Grimwig,
who was a bachelor; but as it extorted
the old lady tossed her head and smoothed
down her apron, preparatory to another
speech, when she was stopped by Mr.
Brownlow.
s Silence!” said the old gentleman,
feigning an anger which he was far from
feeling. ‘ Never let me hear the boy’s
ver—never, on any pretence, mind. You
may leave the room, Mrs. Bedwin. Re¬
member; I am in earnest.”
There were sad hearts at Mr. Brown¬
low’s that night. Oliver’s sank within
him when he thought of his good, kind
friends; but it was well for him that he
it would have broken outright.
CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH.
How Oliver passed his time in the improving
society of his reputable friends.
Axsour noon next day, when the Dodger
and Master Bates had gone out to pursue
their customary avocations, Mr. Fagin
oon the opportunity of reading Oliver a
0
tain of which he clearly demonstrated
he had been guilty to no ordinary extent
in wilfully absenting himself from the
society of his anxious friends, and still
more in endeavouring to escape from
them after so much trouble and expense
had been incurred in his recovery. Mr.
Fagin laid great stress on the fact of his
having taken Oliver in and cherished
him, when without his timely aid he
might have perished with hunger; and
related the dismal and affecting history
of a young lad whom in his philanthropy
he had succoured under parallel circum¬
stances, but who, proving unworthy of his
confidence, and evincing a desire to com¬
municate with the police, had unfortunate¬
iy come to be hung at the Old Bailey one
morning. Mr. Fagin did not seek to con
ceal his share in the catastrophe, but
lamented with tears in his eyes that the
wrong-headed and treacherous behaviour
of the young person in question had ren¬
=
the victim of certain evidence for the
crown, which, if it were not precisely
true, was indispensably necessary for the
safety of him (Mr. Fagin,) and a few
select friends. Mr. Fagin concluded by
drawing a rather disagreeable picture of
the discomforts of hanging, and, with
oreat friendliness and politeness of man¬
ner, expressed his anxious hope that he
might never be obliged to submit Oliver
Twist to that unpleasant operation.
Little Oliver’s blood ran cold as he lis¬
tened to the Jew’s words, and imperfectly
comprehended the dark threats conveyed
in them: that it was possible even for
justice itself to confound the innocent
dental companionship, he knew already ;
and that deeply-laid plans for the destruc¬
tion of inconveniently-knowing, or over¬
communicative persons, had been really
devised and carried out by the old Jew on
more occasions than one, he thought by
no means unlikely when he recollected
the general nature of the altercations be¬
tween that gentleman and Mr. Sikes,
which seemed to bear reference to some
foregone conspiracy of the kind. As he
glanced timidly up, and met the Jew’s
searching look, he felt that his pale face
and trembling limbs were neither un¬
noticed nor unrelished by the wary vil¬
Jain.
The Jew smiled hideously, and, patting
Oliver on the head, said that if he kept
himself quiet, and applied himself to busi¬
ness, he saw they would be very good
friends yet. Then taking his hat, and
covering himself up in an old patched
oreat-coat, he went out and locked the
room-door behind him.
And so Oliver remained all that day,
and for the greater part of many sub¬
sequent days, seeing nobody between
early morning and midnight, and left
during the long hours to commune with
his own thoughts; which, never failing
to revert to his kind friends, and the opin¬
ion they must long ago have formed of
him, were sad indeed. After the lapse
of a week or so, the Jew left the room¬
door unlocked, and he was at liberty to
wander about the house.
It was a very dirty place; but the
rooms up stairs had great high wooden
mantel-pieces and large doors, with panel¬