Oliver Twist(雾都孤儿(孤星血泪))-49

“Who is she?” inquired Noah.“One of us.”“Oh, Lor!” cried Noah, curling up his nose. “Yer doubtful ofher, are yer?”“She has found out some new friends, my dear, and I mustknow who they are,” replied Fagin.“I see,” said Noah. “Just to have the pleasure of knowing them,if they’re respectable people, eh? Ha! ha I ha! I’m your man.”“I knew you would be,” cried Fagin, elated by the success of hisproposal.“Of course, of course,” replied Noah. “Where is she? Where amI to wait for her? Where am I to go?”“All that, my dear, you shall hear from me. I’ll point her out atthe proper time,” said Fagin. “You keep ready, and leave the restto me.”That night, and the next, and the next again, the spy sat bootedand equipped in his carter’s dress, ready to turn out at a wordfrom Fagin. Six nights passed—six long, weary nights—and ateach, Fagin came home with a disappointed face, and brieflyintimated that it was not yet time. On the seventh, he returnedearlier, and with an exultation he could not conceal. It wasSunday.“She goes abroad tonight,” said Fagin, “and on the righterrand, I’m sure; for she has been alone all day, and the man she isafraid of, will not be back much before daybreak. Come with me,Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 486Quick.”Noah started up without saying a word; for the Jew was in astate of such intense excitement that it infected him. They left thehouse stealthily, and, hurrying through a labyrinth of streets,arrived at length before a public-house, which Noah recognised asthe same in which he had slept, on the night of his arrival inLondon.It was past eleven o’clock, and the door was closed. It openedsoftly on its hinges as Fagin gave a low whistle. They entered,without noise; and the door was closed behind them.Scarcely venturing to whisper, but substituting dumb show forwords, Fagin, and the young Jew who had admitted them, pointedout the pane of glass to Noah, and signed to him to climb up andobserve the person in the adjoining room. “Is that the woman?” heasked, scarcely above his breath.Fagin nodded yes.“I can’t see her face well,” whispered Noah. “She is lookingdown, and the candle is behind her.”“Stay here,” whispered Fagin. He signed to Barney, whowithdrew. In an instant, the lad entered the room adjoining, and,under pretence of snuffling the candle, moved it, in the requiredposition, and, speaking to the girl, caused her to raise her face.“I see her now,” cried the spy.“Plainly?”“I should know her among a thousand.”He hastily descended, as the room door opened, and the girlcame out. Fagin drew him behind a small partition which wascurtained off, and they held their breaths as she passed within afew feet of their place of concealment, and emerged by the door atCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 487which they had entered.“Hist!” cried the lad, who held the door. “Dow.”Noah exchanged a look with Fagin, and darted out.“To the left,” whispered the lad; “take the left had, and keep onthe other side.”He did so; and, by the light of the lamps, saw the girl’sretreating figure, already at some distance before him. Headvanced as near as he considered prudent, and kept on theopposite side of the street, the better to observe her motions. Shelooked nervously round, twice or thrice, and once stopped to lettwo men who were following close behind her, pass on. Sheseemed to gather courage as she advanced, and to walk with asteadier and firmer step. The spy preserved the same relativedistance between them, and followed, with his eye upon her.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 488Chapter 46The Appointment Kept.The church clocks chimed three quarters past eleven, astwo figures emerged on London Bridge. One, whichadvanced with a swift and rapid step, was that of a womanwho looked eagerly about her as though in quest of some expectedobject; the other figure was that of a man, who slunk along in thedeepest shadow he could find, and, at some distance,accommodated his pace to hers—stopping when she stopped, and,as she moved again, creeping stealthily on—but never allowinghimself, in the ardour of his pursuit, to gain upon her footsteps.Thus, they crossed the bridge, from the Middlesex to the Surreyshore, when the woman, apparently disappointed in her anxiousscrutiny of the foot-passengers, turned back. The movement wassudden; but he who watched her; was not thrown off his guard byit; for, shrinking into one of the recesses which surmount the piersof the bridge, and leaning over the parapet the better to concealhis figure, he suffered her to pass by on the opposite pavement.When she was about the same distance in advance as she hadbeen before, he slipped quietly down, and followed her again. Atnearly the centre of the bridge, she stopped. The man stopped too.It was a very dark night. The day had been unfavourable, and atthat hour and place there were few people stirring. Such as therewere, hurried quickly past; very possibly without seeing, butcertainly without noticing, either the woman, or the man who kepther in view. Their appearance was not calculated to attract theCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 489importunate regards of such of London’s destitute population, aschanced to take their way over the bridge that night in search ofsome cold arch or doorless hovel wherein to lay their heads; theystood there in silence, neither speaking nor spoken, by any onewho passed.A mist hung over the river, deepening the red glare of the firesthat burned upon the small craft moored off the different wharves,and rendering darker and more indistinct the murky buildings onthe banks. The old smoke-stained storehouses on either side, roseheavy and dull from the dense mass of roofs and gables, andfrowned sternly upon water too black to reflect even theirlumbering shapes. The tower of old St. Saviour’s Church, and thespire of St. Magnus, so long the giant-warders of the ancientbridge, were visible in the gloom; but the forest of shipping belowbridge, and the thickly scattered spires of churches above werenearly all hidden from the sight.The girl had taken a few restless turns to and fro—closelywatched meanwhile by her hidden observer—when the heavy bellof St. Paul’s tolled for the death of another day. Midnight hadcome upon the crowded city. The palace, the night-cellar, the jail,the madhouse; the chambers of birth and death, of health andsickness, the rigid face of the corpse and the calm sleep of thechild; midnight was upon them all.The hour had not struck two minutes, when a young lady,accompanied by a grey-haired gentleman, alighted from ahackney-carriage within a short distance of the bridge, and,having dismissed the vehicle, walked straight towards it. They hadscarcely set foot upon its pavement, when the girl started, andimmediately made towards them.Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 490They walked onward, looking about them with the air ofpersons who entertained some very slight expectation which hadlittle chance of being realised, when they were suddenly joined bythis new associate. They halted with an exclamation of surprise,but suppressed it immediately; for a man in the garments of acountryman came close up—brushed against them indeed—at thatprecise moment.“Not here,” said Nancy hurriedly; “I am afraid to speak to youhere. Come away—out of the public road—down the stepsyonder!”As she uttered these words, and indicated, with her hand, thedirection in which she wished them to proceed, the countrymanlooked round, and roughly asking what they took up the wholepavement for, passed on.The steps to which the girl had pointed, were those which, onthe Surrey bank, and on the same side of the bridge as St.Saviour’s Church, form a landing-stairs from the river. To thisspot, the man bearing the appearance of a countryman, hastenedunobserved; and, after a moment’s survey of the place, he began todescend.These stairs are a part of the bridge; they consist of threeflights. Just below the end of the second, going down, the stonewall on the left terminates in an ornamental pilaster facingtowards the Thames. At this point the lower steps widen; so that aperson turning that angle of the wall, is necessarily unseen by anyothers on the stairs who chance to be above him, if only a step.The countryman looked hastily round, when he reached this point;and, as there seemed no better place of concealment, and the tidebeing out, there was plenty of room, he slipped aside, with hisCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 491back to the pilaster, and there waited; pretty certain that theywould come no lower, and that even if he could not hear what wassaid, he could follow them again, with safety.So tardily stole the time in this lonely place, and so eager wasthe spy to penetrate the motives of an interview so different fromwhat he had been led to expect, that he more than once gave thematter up for lost, and persuaded himself, either that they hadstopped far above, or had resorted to some entirely different spotto hold their mysterious conversation. He was on the point ofemerging from his hiding-place, and regaining the road above,when he heard the sound of footsteps, and directly afterwards ofvoices almost close to his ear.He drew himself straight upright against the wall, and, scarcelybreathing, listened attentively.“This is far enough,” said a voice, which was evidently that of agentleman. “I will not suffer the young lady to go any further.Many people would have distrusted you too much to have comeeven so far, but you see I am willing to humour you.”“To humour me!” cried the voice of the girl whom he hadfollowed. “You’re considerate, indeed, sir. To humour me! Well,well, it’s no matter.”“Why, for what,” said the gentleman in a kinder tone, “for whatpurpose can you have brought us to this strange place? Why nothave let me speak to you, above there, where it is light, and thereis something stirring, instead of bringing us to this dark anddismal hole?”“I told you before,” replied Nancy, “that I was afraid to speak toyou there. I don’t know why it is,” said the girl, shuddering, “but Ihave such a fear and dread upon me tonight that I can hardlyCharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 492stand.”“A fear of what?” asked the gentleman, who seemed to pity her.“I scarcely know what,” replied the girl. “I wish I did. Horriblethoughts of death, and shrouds with blood upon them, and a fearthat has made me burn as if I was on fire, have been upon me allday. I was reading a book tonight, to wile the time away, and thesame things came into the print.”“Imagination,” said the gentleman, soothing her.“No imagination,” replied the girl, in a hoarse voice. “I’ll swearI saw ‘coffin’ written in every page of the book in large blackletters—aye, and they carried one close to me, in the streetstonight.”“There is nothing unusual in that,” said the gentleman. “Theyhave passed me often.”“Real ones,” rejoined the girl. “This was not.”There was something so uncommon in her manner, that theflesh of the concealed listener crept as he heard the girl utter thesewords, and the blood chilled within him. He had neverexperienced a greater relief than in hearing the sweet voice of theyoung lady as she begged her to be calm, and not allow herself tobecome the prey of such fearful fancies.“Speak to her kindly,” said the young lady to her companion.“Poor creature! She seems to need it.”“Your haughty religious people would have held their heads upto see me as I am tonight, and preached of flames and vengeance,”cried the girl. “Oh, dear lady, why ar’n’t those who claim to beGod’s own folks as gentle and as kind to us poor wretches as you,who, having youth, and beauty, and all that they have lost, mightbe a little proud instead of so much humbler.”Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 493“Ah!” said the gentleman. “A Turk turns his face, after washingit well, to the east, when he says his prayers; these good people,after giving their faces such a rub against the world as to take thesmiles off, turn with no less regularity to the darkest side ofheaven. Between the Mussulman and the Pharisee, commend meto the first.”These words appeared to be addressed to the young lady, andwere perhaps uttered with the view of affording Nancy time torecover herself. The gentleman, shortly afterwards, addressedhimself to her.“You were not here last Sunday night,” he said.“I couldn’t come,” replied Nancy; “I was kept by force.”“By whom?”“Him that I told the young lady of before.”“You were not suspected of holding any communication withanybody on the subject which has brought us here tonight, Ihope?” asked the old gentleman.“No,” replied the girl, shaking her head. “It’s not very easy forme to leave him unless he knows why; I couldn’t have seen thelady when I did, but that I gave him a drink of laudanum before Icame away.”“Did he awake before you returned?” inquired the gentleman.“No; and neither he nor any of them suspect me.”“Good,” said the gentleman. “Now listen to me.”“I am ready,” replied the girl, as he paused for a moment.“This young lady,” the gentleman began, “has communicated tome, and to some other friends who can be safely trusted, what youtold her nearly a fortnight since. I confess to you that I had doubts,at first, whether you were to be implicitly relied upon, but now ICharles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 494firmly believe you are.”“I am,” replied the girl earnestly.“I repeat that I firmly believe it. To prove to you that I amdisposed to trust you, I tell you without reserve, that we propose toextort the secret, whatever it may be, from the fears of this manMonks. But if—if—” said the gentleman, “he cannot be secured,or, if secured, cannot be acted upon as we wish, you must deliverup the Jew.”“Fagin,” cried the girl, recoiling.“That man must be delivered up by you,” said the gentleman.“I will not do it! I will never do it!” replied the girl. “Devil thathe is, and worse than devil as he has been to me, I will never dothat.”“You will not?” said the gentleman, who seemed fully preparedfor this answer.“Never!” returned the girl.“Tell me why?”“For one reason,” rejoined the girl firmly—“for one reason, thatthe lady knows and will stand by me in, I know she will, for I haveher promise; and for this other reason, besides, that, bad life as hehas led, I have led a bad life too; there are many of us who havekept the same courses together, and I’ll not turn upon them, whomight—any of them—have turned upon me but didn’t, bad as theyare.”“Then,” said the gentleman quickly, as if this had been thepoint that he had been aiming to attain, “put Monks into myhands, and leave him to me to deal with.”“What if he turned against the others?”“I promise you that in that case, if the truth is forced from him,Charles Dickens ElecBook ClassicsOliver Twist 495