Stranica 145 [145]
103
Jew was no sooner alone than his counte¬
nance resumed its former expression of
anxiety and thought. After a brief re¬
flection, he called a hack-cabriolet, and
bade the man drive towards Bethnal
Green. He dismissed him within some
quarter of a mile of Mr. Sikes’s residence,
and performed the short remainder of the
distance on foot.
(c Now,” muttered the Jew as he knock¬
ed at the door, “ if there is any deep pla
here, I shall have it out of you, my girl,
cunning as you are.”
She was in her room, the woman said;
so Fagin crept softly up-stairs, and entered
it without any previous ceremony. The
girl was alone, lying with her head upon
the table, and her hair straggling over it.
“She has been drinking,” thought the
Jew coolly, “or perhaps she is only mise¬
rable.”
The old man turned to close the door
as he made this reflection, and the noise
thus occasioned roused the girl. She
eyed his crafty face narrowly as she in¬
quired whether there was any news, and
listened to his recital of Toby Crackit’s
story. When it was concluded, she sunk
into her former attitude, but spoke not a
word. She pushed the candle impatiently
away, and once or twice, as she feverishly
changed her position, shuffled her feet
upon the ground; but this was all.
During this silence, the Jew looked
restlessly about the room, as if to assure
himself that there were no appearances
of Sikes having covertly returned. Ap¬
parently satisfied with his inspection, he
coughed twice or thrice, and made as
many efforts to open a conversation; but
the girl heeded him no more than if he
had been made of stone. At length he
made another attempt, and, rubbing his
hands together, said, in his most concilia¬
tory tone,
s And where should you think Bill was
now, my dear; eh!"
The girl moaned out some scarcely in¬
telligible reply, that she could not tell ;
and seemed, from the halfsmothered noise
that escaped her, to be crying.
“And the boy, too,” said the Jew,
straining his eyes to catcha glimpse of her
face. Poor leetle child !—left in a ditch,
Nance; only think!”
“The child,” said the girl, suddenly
looking up, “is better where he is, than
among us: and, if no harm comes to Bill
from it, | hope he lies dead in the ditch,
and that his young bones may rot there.”
“ What!” cried the Jew in amazement.
“ Ay, I do,” returned the girl, meeting
his gaze. “I shall be glad to have him
away from my eyes, and to know that the
worst is over. i can't bear to have him
about me: the sight of him turns me
against myself and all of you.”
“ Pooh!" said the Jew scornfully.
“ You "re drunk, girl.”
“Am I?" cried the girl bitterly. “It’s
no fault of yours if I am not; you’d ne¬
ver have me anything else if you had
your will, except now !—the humour
doesn’t suit you, doesn’t it ?”
s No!" rejoined the Jew furiously. “It
does not !”
“ Change it, then!” responded the girl
with a laugh.
“ Change it!” exclaimed the Jew, ex¬
asperated beyond all bounds by his com¬
panion’s unexpected obstinacy and the
vexation of the night, “Ill change it!
Listen to me, you drab! listen to me, who
with six words can strangle Sikes as sure¬
ly as if I had his bull’s throat between my
fingers now. If he comes back, and
leaves that boy behind him,—if he gets
off free, and, dead or alive, fails to restore
him to me, murder him yourself if you
would have him escape Jack Ketch, and
do it the moment he sets foot in this room,
or, mind me, it will be too late !”
“What is all this?’ cried the girl in¬
voluntarily.
4 What is it!” pursued Fagin, mad with
rage. “This! hen the boy’s worth
hundreds of pounds to me, am I to lose
what chance threw me in the way of
getting safely, through the whims of a
drunken gang that I could whistle away
the lives of,—and me bound, too, to a born
devil that only wants the will, and has
got the power to, to——”
Panting for breath, the old man stam¬
mered for a word, and in that one instant
checked the torrent of his wrath, and
changed the whole of his demeanour. A
moment before, his clenched hands had
grasped the air, his eyes had dilated, and
his face had grown livid with passion ; but
now he shrunk into a chair, and, cower¬
ing together, trembled with the apprehen¬
sion of having himself disclosed some
hidden villany. After a short silence he
ventured to look round at his companion,
and appeared somewhat reassured on be¬
holding her in the same listless attitude
from which he had first roused her.
“ Nancy dear !" croaked the Jew in his
usual voice. “Did you mind me, dear?"
« Don’t worry me now, Fagin!" replied
the girl, raising her head languidly. “If