Oliver Twist(雾都孤儿(孤星血泪))-42

“Any news?” inquired Fagin.“Great.”“And—and—good?” asked Fagin, hesitating as though hefeared to vex the other man by being too sanguine.“Not bad, anyway,” replied Monks, with a smile. “I have beenprompt enough this time. Let me have a word with you.”The girl drew closer to the table, and made no offer to leave theroom, although she could see that Monks was pointing to her. TheJew, perhaps fearing she might say something aloud about themoney, if he endeavoured to get rid of her, pointed upward, andtook Monks out of the room.“Not that infernal hole we were in before,” she could hear theman say as they went upstairs. Fagin laughed; and making somereply which did not reach her, seemed, by the creaking of theCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 416boards, to lead his companion to the second storey.Before the sound of their footsteps had ceased to echo throughthe house, the girl had slipped off her shoes; and drawing hergown loosely over her head, and muffling her arms in it, stood atthe door, listening with breathless interest. The moment the noiseceased, she glided from the room; ascended the stairs withincredible softness and silence; and was lost in the gloom above.The room remained deserted for a quarter of an hour or more;the girl glided back with the same unearthly tread; and,immediately afterwards, the two men were heard descending.Monks went at once into the street; and the Jew crawled upstairsagain for the money. When he returned, the girl was adjusting hershawl and bonnet, as if preparing to be gone.“Why, Nance,” exclaimed the Jew, staring back as he put downthe candle, “how pale you are!”“Pale!” echoed the girl, shading her eyes with her hands, as if tolook steadily at him.“Quite horrible. What have you been doing to yourself?”“Nothing that I know of, except sitting in this close place for Idon’t know how long and all,” replied the girl carelessly. “Come!Let me get back; that’s a dear.”With a sigh for every piece of money, Fagin told the amountinto her hand. They parted without more conversation, merelyinterchanging a “good-night.”When the girl got into the open street, she sat down upon adoorstep; and seemed, for a few moments, wholly bewildered andunable to pursue her way. Suddenly she arose; and hurrying on, ina direction quite opposite to that in which Sikes was awaiting herreturn, quickened her pace, until it gradually resolved into aCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 417violent run. After completely exhausting herself, she stopped totake breath; and, as if suddenly recollecting herself, and deploringher inability to do something she was bent upon, wrung her hands,and burst into tears.It might be that her tears relieved her, or that she felt the fullhopelessness of her condition; but she turned back; and hurryingwith nearly as great rapidity in the contrary direction, partly torecover lost time, and partly to keep pace with the violent currentof her own thoughts, soon reached the dwelling where she had leftthe housebreaker.If she betrayed any agitation, when she presented herself to Mr.Sikes, he did not observe it; for merely inquiring if she hadbrought the money, and receiving a reply in the affirmative, heuttered a growl of satisfaction, and replacing his head upon thepillow, resumed the slumbers which her arrival had interrupted.It was fortunate for her that the possession of moneyoccasioned him so much employment next day in the way of eatingand drinking; and withal had so beneficial an effect in smoothingdown the asperities of his temper; that he had neither time norinclination to be very critical upon her behaviour and deportment.That she had all the abstracted and nervous manner of one who ison the eve of some bold and hazardous step, which it has requiredno common struggle to resolve upon, would have been obvious tothe lynx-eyed Fagin, who would most probably have taken thealarm at once; but Mr. Sikes, lacking the niceties ofdiscrimination, and being troubled with no more subtle misgivingsthan those which resolve themselves into a dogged roughness ofbehaviour towards everybody; and being, furthermore, in anunusually amiable condition, as has been already observed, sawCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 418nothing unusual in her demeanour, and indeed, troubled himselfso little about her, that, had her agitation been or more perceptiblethan it was, it would have been very unlikely to have awakened hissuspicions.As that day closed in, the girl’s excitement increased; and, whennight came on, and she sat by, watching until the housebreakershould drink himself asleep, there was an unusual paleness in hercheek, and a fire in her eye, that even Sikes observed withastonishment.Mr. Sikes being weak from the fever, was lying in bed, takinghot water with his gin to render it less inflammatory; and hadpushed his glass towards Nancy to be replenished for the third orfourth time, when these symptoms first struck him.“Why, burn my body!” said the man, raising himself on hishands as he stared the girl in the face. “You look like a corpsecome to life again. What’s the matter?”“Matter!” replied the girl. “Nothing. What do you look at me sohard for?”“What foolery is this?” demanded Sikes, grasping her by thearm, and shaking her roughly. “What is it? What do you mean?What are you thinking of?”“Of many things, Bill,” replied the girl, shivering, and as she didso, pressing her hands upon her eyes. “But, Lord! What odds inthat?”The tone of forced gaiety in which the last words were spoken,seemed to produce a deeper impression on Sikes than the wildand rigid look which had preceded them.“I tell you wot it is,” said Sikes; “if you haven’t caught the fever,and got it comin’ on, now, there’s something more than usual inCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 419the wind, and something dangerous, too. You’re not a-going to No,damme! you wouldn’t do that!”“Do what?” asked the girl.“There ain’t,” said Sikes, fixing his eyes upon her, andmuttering the words to himself—“there ain’t a stauncher-heartedgal going, or I’d have cut her throat three months ago. She’s gotthe fever coming on; that’s it.”Fortifying himself with this assurance, Sikes drained the glassto the bottom, and then, with many grumbling oaths, called for hisphysic. The girl jumped up, with great alacrity; poured it quicklyout, but with her back towards him; and held the vessel to his lips,while he drank off the contents.“Now,” said the robber, “come and sit aside of me, and put onyour own face; or I’ll alter it so, that you won’t know it again whenyou do want it.”The girl obeyed. Sikes, locking her hand in his, fell back uponthe pillow, turning his eyes upon her face. They closed; openedagain; closed once more; again opened. He shifted his positionrestlessly; and, after dozing again, and again, for two or threeminutes, and as often springing up with a look of terror, andgazing vacantly about him, was suddenly stricken, as it were,while in the very attitude of rising, into a deep and heavy sleep.The grasp of his hand relaxed; the upraised arm fell languidly byhis side; and he lay like one in a profound trance.“The laudanum has taken effect at last,” murmured the girl, asshe rose from the bedside. “I may be too late, even now.”She hastily dressed herself in her bonnet and shawl, lookingfearfully round, from time to time, as if, despite the sleepingdraught, she expected every moment to feel the pressure of Sikes’Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 420heavy hand upon her shoulders; then stooping softly over the bed,she kissed the robber’s lips; and then opening and closing theroom door with noiseless touch, hurried from the house.A watchman was crying half-past nine, down a dark passagethrough which she had to pass, in gaining the main thoroughfare.“Has it long gone the half-hour?” asked the girl.“It’ll strike the hour in another quarter,” said the man, raisingthe lantern to her face.“And I cannot get there in less than an hour or more,” mutteredNancy, brushing swiftly past him, and gliding rapidly down thestreet.Many of the shops were already closing in the back lanes andavenues through which she tracked her way, in making fromSpitalfields towards the west end of London. The clock struck ten,increasing her impatience. She tore along the narrow pavement,elbowing the passengers from side to side, and darting almostunder the horses’ heads, crossed crowded streets, where clustersof persons were eagerly watching their opportunity to do the like.“‘The woman is mad!” said the people, turning to look after heras she rushed away.When she reached the more wealthy quarter of the town, thestreets were comparatively deserted; and here her headlongprogress excited a still greater curiosity in the stragglers whomshe hurried past. Some quickened their pace behind, as though tosee whither she was hastening at such an unusual rate; and a fewmade head upon her, and looked back, surprised at herundiminished speed; but they fell off one by one; and when sheneared her place of destination, she was alone.It was a family hotel in a quiet but handsome street near HydeCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 421Park. As the brilliant light of the lamp which burned before itsdoor, guided her to the spot, the clock struck eleven. She hadloitered for a few paces as though irresolute, and making up hermind to advance; but the sound determined her, and she steppedinto the hall. The porter’s seat was vacant. She looked round withan air of incertitude, and advanced towards the stairs.“Now, young woman!” said a smartly-dressed female, lookingout from a door behind her, “who do you want here ?”“A lady who is stopping in this house,” answered the girl.“A lady!” was the reply, accompanied with a scornful look.“What lady?”“Miss Maylie,” said Nancy.The young woman, who had by this time noted her appearance,replied only by a look of virtuous disdain, and summoned a man toanswer her. To him, Nancy repeated her request.“What name am I to say?” asked the waiter.“It’s of no use saying any,” replied Nancy.“Nor business?” said the man.“No, nor that neither,” rejoined the girl. “I must see the lady.”“Come!” said the man, pushing her towards the door. “None ofthis. Take yourself off.”“I shall be carried out, if I go!” said the girl violently; “and I canmake that a job that two of you won’t like to do. Isn’t thereanybody here,” she said, looking round, “that will see a simplemessage carried for a poor wretch like me?”This appeal produced an effect on a good-tempered-faced man-cook, who with some other of the servants was looking on, andwho stepped forward to interfere.“Take it up for her, Joe; can’t you?” said this person.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 422“What’s the good?” replied the man. “You don’t suppose theyoung lady will see such as her, do you?”This allusion to Nancy’s doubtful character, raised a vastquantity of chaste wrath in the bosoms of four housemaids, whoremarked, with great fervour, that the creature was a disgrace toher sex; and strongly advocated her being thrown, ruthlessly, intothe kennel.“Do what you like with me,” said the girl, turning to the menagain; “but do what I ask you first, and I ask you to give thismessage for God Almighty’s sake.”The soft-hearted cook added his intercession, and the resultwas that the man who had first appeared undertook its delivery.“What’s it to be?” said the man, with one foot on the stairs.“That a young woman earnestly asks to speak to Miss Mayliealone,” said Nancy; “and that if the lady will only hear the firstword she has to say, she will know whether to hear her business,or to have her turned out of doors as an impostor.”“I say,” said the man, “you’re coming it strong!”“You give the message,” said the girl firmly; “and let me hearthe answer.”The man ran upstairs. Nancy remained, pale and almostbreathless, listening with quivering lip to the very audibleexpressions of scorn, of which the chaste housemaids were veryprolific; and of which they became still more so, when the manreturned, and said the young woman was to walk upstairs.“It’s no good being proper in this world,” said the firsthousemaid.“Brass can do better than the gold what has stood the fire,” saidthe second.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 423The third contented herself with wondering “what ladies wasmade of;” and the fourth took the first in a quartet of “Shameful!”with which the Dianas concluded.Regardless of all this, for she had weightier matters at heart,Nancy followed the man, with trembling limbs, to a smallantechamber, lighted by a lamp from the ceiling. Here he left her,and retired.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 424Chapter 40A Strange Interview, Which Is A Sequel To TheLast Chapter.The girl’s life had been squandered in the streets, andamong the most noisome of the stews and dens of London,but there was something of the woman’s original natureleft in her still; and when she heard a light step approaching thedoor opposite to that by which she had entered, and thought of thewide contrast which the small room would in another momentcontain, she felt burdened with the sense of her own deep shame,and shrank as though she could scarcely bear the presence of herwith whom she had sought this interview.But struggling with these better feelings was pride—the vice ofthe lowest and most debased creatures no less than of the highand self-assured. The miserable companion of thieves andruffians, the fallen outcast of low haunts, the associate of thescourings of the jails and hulks, living within the shadow of thegallows itself—even this degraded being felt too proud to betray afeeble gleam of the womanly feeling which she thought aweakness, but which alone connected her with that humanity, ofwhich her wasting life had obliterated so many, many traces whena very child.She raised her eyes sufficiently to observe that the figure whichpresented itself was that of a slight and beautiful girl; then,bending them on the ground, she tossed her head with affectedcarelessness as she said:Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 425“It’s a hard matter to get to see you, lady. If I had taken offence,and gone away, as many would have done, you’d have been sorryfor it one day, and not without reason either.”“I am very sorry if any one has behaved harshly to you,” repliedRose. “Do not think of that. Tell me why you wished to see me. Iam the person you inquired for.”The kind tone of this answer, the sweet voice, the gentlemanner, the absence of any accent of haughtiness or displeasure,took the girl completely by surprise, and she burst into tears.“Oh, lady, lady!” she said, clasping her hands passionatelybefore her face, “if there was more like you, there would be fewerlike me—there would—there would!”“Sit down,” said Rose earnestly. “If you are in poverty oraffliction I shall be truly glad to relieve you if I can—I shall indeed.Sit down.”“Let me stand, lady,” said the girl, still weeping, “and do not