Oliver Twist(雾都孤儿(孤星血泪))-15

Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 144black riband, took a view of Oliver; who, seeing that he was theobject of inspection, coloured, and bowed again. “That’s the boy, isit?” said Mr. Grimwig, at length.“That is the boy,” replied Mr. Brownlow.“How are you, boy?” said Mr. Grimwig.“A great deal better, thank you, sir,” replied Oliver.Mr. Brownlow, seeming to apprehend that his singular friendwas about to say something disagreeable, asked Oliver to stepdownstairs and tell Mrs. Bedwin they were ready for tea; which, ashe did not half like the visitor’s manner, he was very happy to do.“He is a nice-looking boy, is he not?” inquired Mr. Brownlow.“I don’t know,” replied Mr. Grimwig pettishly.“Don’t know?”“No. I don’t know. I never see any difference in boys. I onlyknow two sorts of boys. Mealy boys, and beef-faced boys.”“And which is Oliver?”“Mealy. I know a friend who has a beef-faced boy; a fine boy,they call him; with a round head, and red cheeks and glaring eyes;a horrid boy; with a body and limbs that appear to be swelling outof the seams of his blue clothes; with the voice of a pilot, and theappetite of a wolf. I know him! The wretch!”“Come,” said Mr. Brownlow, “these are not the characteristicsof young Oliver Twist; so he needn’t excite your wrath.”“They are not,” replied Mr. Grimwig. “He may have worse.”Here, Mr. Brownlow coughed impatiently; which appeared toafford Mr. Grimwig the most exquisite delight.“He may have worse, I say,” repeated Mr. Grimwig. “Wheredoes he come from? Who is he? What is he? He has had a fever.What of that? Fevers are not peculiar to good people; are they?Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 145Bad people have fevers sometimes; haven’t they, eh? I knew aman who was hung in Jamaica for murdering his master. He hadhad a fever six times; he wasn’t recommended to mercy on thataccount. Pooh! nonsense!”Now, the fact was, that in the inmost recesses of his own heart,Mr. Grimwig was strongly disposed to admit that Oliver’sappearance and manner were unusually prepossessing; but hehad a strong appetite for contradiction, sharpened on this occasionby the finding of the orange-peel; and, inwardly determining thatno man should dictate to him whether a boy was well-looking ornot, he had resolved, from the first, to oppose his friend. When Mr.Brownlow admitted that on no one point of inquiry could he yetreturn a satisfactory answer, and that he had postponed anyinvestigation into Oliver’s previous history until he thought theboy was strong enough to bear it, Mr. Grimwig chuckledmaliciously. And he demanded, with a sneer, whether thehousekeeper was in the habit of counting the plate at night;because, if she didn’t find a table-spoon or two missing somesunshiny morning, why, he would be content to—and so forth.All this, Mr. Brownlow, although himself somewhat of animpetuous gentleman, knowing his friend’s peculiarities, bore withgreat good-humour; as Mr. Grimwig, at tea, was graciously pleasedto express his entire approval of the muffins, matters went on verysmoothly; and Oliver, who made one of the party, began to feelmore at his ease than he had yet done in the fierce old gentleman’spresence.“And when are you going to hear a full, true, and particularaccount of the life and adventures of Oliver Twist?” asked Mr.Grimwig of Mr. Brownlow, at the conclusion of the meal, lookingCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 146sideways at Oliver, as he resumed the subject.“Tomorrow morning,” replied Mr. Brownlow. “I would ratherhe was alone with me at the time. Come up to me tomorrowmorning at ten o’clock, my dear.”“Yes, sir,” replied Oliver. He answered with some hesitationbecause he was confused by Mr. Grimwig’s looking so hard athum.“I’ll tell you what,” whispered that gentleman to Mr. Brownlow;“he won’t come up to you tomorrow morning. I saw him hesitate.He is deceiving you, my good friend.”“I’ll swear he is not,” replied Mr. Brownlow warmly.“If he is not,” said Mr. Grimwig, “I’ll—” and down went thestick.“I’ll answer for that boy’s truth with my life!” said Mr.Brownlow, knocking the table.“And I for his falsehood with my head!” rejoined Mr. Grimwig,knocking the table also.“We shall see,” said Mr. Brownlow, checking his rising anger.“We will,” replied Mr. Grimwig, with a provoking smile; “wewill.”As fate would have it, Mrs. Bedwin chanced to bring in, at thismoment, a small parcel of books, which Mr. Brownlow had thatmorning purchased of the identical book-stall keeper, who hasalready figured in this history; having laid them on the table, sheprepared to leave the room. “Stop the boy, Mrs. Bedwin!” said Mr.Brownlow; “there is something to go back.”“He has gone, sir,” replied Mrs. Bedwin.“Call after him,” said Mr. Brownlow; “it’s particular. He is apoor man, and they are not paid for. There are some books to beCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 147taken back, too.”The street door was opened. Oliver ran one way; and the girlran another; and Mr. Bedwin stood on the step and screamed forthe boy; but there was no boy in sight. Oliver and the girl returnedin a breathless state, to report that there were no tidings of him.“Dear me, I am very sorry for that,” exclaimed Mr. Brownlow;“I particularly wished those books to be returned tonight.”“Send Oliver with them,” said Mr. Grimwig, with an ironicalsmile; “he will be sure to deliver them safely, you know.“Yes; do let me take them, if you please, sir,” said Oliver. “I’llrun all the way, sir.”The old gentleman was just going to say that Oliver should notgo out on any account, when a most malicious cough from Mr.Grimwig determined him that he should; and that, by his promptdischarge of the commission, he should prove to him the injusticeof his suspicions—on this head at least—at once.“You shall go, my dear,” said the old gentleman. “The books areon a chair by my table. Fetch them down.”Oliver, delighted to be of use, brought down the books underhis arm in a great bustle; and waited, cap in hand, to hear whatmessage he was to take.“You are to say,” said Mr. Brownlow, glancing steadily atGrimwig; “you are to say that you have brought those books back;and that you have come to pay the four pound ten I owe him. Thisis a five-pound note so you will have to bring me back ten shillingschange.”“I won’t be ten minutes, sir,” replied Oliver eagerly. Havingbuttoned up the bank-note in his jacket pocket, and placed thebooks carefully under his arm, he made a respectful bow, and leftCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 148the room. Mrs. Bedwin followed him to the street door, giving himmany directions about the nearest way, and the name of thebookseller, and the name of the street; all of which Oliver said heclearly understood, and having superadded many injunctions tobe sure and not take cold, the old lady at length permitted him todepart.“Bless his sweet face!” said the old lady, looking after him. “Ican’t bear, somehow, to let him go out of my sight.”At this moment, Oliver looked gaily round, and nodded beforehe turned the corner. The old lady smilingly returned hissalutation, and, closing the door, went back to her own room.“Let me see; he’ll be back in twenty minutes, at the longest,”said Mr. Brownlow, pulling out his watch, and placing it on thetable “It will be dark by that time.”“Oh! you really expect him to come back, do you?” inquired Mr.Grimwig.“Don’t you?” asked Mr. Brownlow, smiling.The spirit of contradiction was strong in Mr. Grimwig’s breast,at the moment; and it was rendered stronger by his friend’sconfident smile.“No,” he said, smiting the table with his fist, “I do not. The boyhas a new suit of clothes on his back, a set of valuable books underhis arm, and a five-pound note in his pocket. He’ll join his oldfriends the thieves, and laugh at you. If ever that boy returns tothis house. sir, I’ll eat my head.”With these words he drew his chair closer to the table; andthere the two friends sat, in silent expectation, with the watchbetween them.It was worthy of remark, as illustrating the importance weCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 149attach to our own judgments, and the pride with which we putforth our most rash and hasty conclusions, that, although Mr.Grimwig was not by any means a bad-hearted man, and though hewould have been unfeignedly sorry to see his respected friendduped and deceived, he really did most earnestly and stronglyhope at that moment, that Oliver Twist might not come back.It grew so dark, that the figures on the dial-plate were scarcelydiscernible; but there the two old gentlemen continued to sit, insilence, with the watch between them.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 150Chapter 15Showing How Very Fond Of Oliver Twist, TheMerry Old Jew And Miss Nancy Were.In the obscure parlour of a low public-house, situated in thefilthiest part of Little Saffron Hill—a dark and gloomy den,where a flaring gas-light burned all day in the wintertime, andwhere no ray of sun ever shone in the summer—there sat,brooding over a little pewter measure and a small glass, stronglyimpregnated with the smell of liquor, a man in a velveteen coat,drab shorts, half-boots and stockings, whom even by that dim lightno experienced agent of police would have hesitated to recogniseas Mr. William Sikes. At his feet sat a white-coated, red-eyed dog,who occupied himself, alternately, in winking at his master withboth eyes at the same time, and in licking a large, fresh cut on oneside of his mouth, which appeared to be the result of some recentconflict.“Keep quiet, you varmint! Keep quiet!” said Mr. Sikes,suddenly breaking silence. Whether his meditations were sointense as to be disturbed by the dog’s winking, or whether hisfeelings were so wrought upon by his reflections that theyrequired all the relief derivable from kicking an unoffendinganimal to allay them, is matter for argument and consideration.Whatever was the cause, the effect was a kick and a cursebestowed upon the dog simultaneously.Dogs are not generally apt to revenge injuries inflicted uponthem by their masters; but Mr. Sikes’s dog, having faults of temperCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 151in common with his owner, and labouring, perhaps, at thismoment, under a powerful sense of injury, made no more ado butat once fixed his teeth in one of the half-boots. Having given it ahearty shake, he retired, growling, under a form; thereby justescaping the pewter measure which Mr. Sikes levelled at his head.“You would, would you—?” said Sikes, seizing the poker in onehand, and deliberately opening with the other a large clasp-knife,which he drew from his pocket. “Come here, you born devil! Comehere! D’ye hear?”The dog no doubt heard, because Mr. Sikes spoke in the veryharshest key of a very harsh voice; but, appearing to entertainsome unaccountable objection to having his throat cut, heremained where he was and growled more fiercely than before, atthe same time grasping the end of the poker between his teeth,and biting at it like a wild beast.This resistance only infuriated Mr. Sikes the more; who,dropping on his knees, began to assail the animal most furiously.The dog jumped from right to left, and from left to right—snapping, growling, and barking; the man thrust and swore, andstruck and blasphemed; and the struggle was reaching a mostcritical point for one or other, when the door suddenly opening,the dog darted out; leaving Bill Sikes with the poker and the clasp-knife in his hands.There must always be two parties to a quarrel, says the oldadage. Mr. Sikes, being disappointed of the dog’s participation, atonce transferred his share in the quarrel to the newcomer.“What the devil do you come in between me and my dog for?”said Sikes, with a fierce gesture.“I didn’t know, my dear, I didn’t know,” replied Fagin humbly;Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 152for the Jew was the newcomer.“Didn’t know, you white-livered thief!” growled Sikes.“Couldn’t you hear the noise?”“Not a sound of it, as I’m a living man, Bill,” replied the Jew.“Oh, no! You hear nothing, you don’t,” retorted Sikes, with afierce sneer. “Sneaking in and out, so as nobody hears how youcome or go! I wish you had been the dog, Fagin, half a minuteago.”“Why?” inquired the Jew, with a forced smile.“’Cause the government, as cares for the lives of such men asyou, as haven’t half the pluck of curs, lets a man kill a dog how helikes,” replied Sikes, shutting up the knife with a very expressivelook; “that’s why.”The Jew rubbed his hands; and, sitting down at the table,affected to laugh at the pleasantry of his friend. He was obviouslyvery ill at ease, however.”“Grin away,” said Sikes, replacing the poker, and surveyinghim with savage contempt; “grin away. You’ll never have thelaugh at me, though, unless it’s behind a night-cap. I’ve got theupper hand over you, Fagin; and d me I’ll keep it. There! If I go,you go; so take care of me.”“Well, well, my dear,” said the Jew. I know all that; we—we—have a mutual interest, Bill—a mutual interest.”“Humph,” said Sikes, as if he thought the interest lay rathermore on the Jew’s side than on his. “Well, what have you got to sayto me?”“It’s all passed safe through the melting-pot,” replied Fagin,“and this is your share. It’s rather more than it ought to be mydear; but as I know you’ll do me a good turn another time, and—”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 153“Stow that gammon,” interposed the robber impatiently.“Where is it? Hand over!”“Yes, yes, Bill; give me time, give me time,” replied the Jewsoothingly “Here it is! All safe!” As he spoke he drew forth an oldcotton handkerchief from his breast; and untying a large knot inone corner, produced a small brown paper packet. Sikes,snatching it from him, hastily opened it, and proceeded to countthe sovereigns it contained.“This is all, is it?” inquired Sikes.“All,” replied the Jew.“You haven’t opened the parcel and swallowed one or two asyou come along, have you?” inquired Sikes suspiciously “Don’tput on an injured look at the question; you’ve done it many a time.Jerk the tinkler.”These words, in plain English, conveyed an injunction to ringthe bell. It was answered by another Jew, younger than Fagin, butnearly as vile and repulsive in appearance.Bill Sikes merely pointed to the empty measure. The Jew,perfectly understanding the hint, retired to fill it; previouslyexchanging a remarkable look with Fagin, who raised his eyes foran instant, as if in expectation of it, and shook his head in reply, soslightly that the action would have been almost imperceptible toan observant third person. It was lost upon Sikes, who wasstooping at the moment to tie the boot-lace which the dog hadtorn. Possibly if he had observed the brief interchange of signals,he might have thought that it boded no good to him.