Page 160 [160]
114 OLIVER
TWIST.
* Don’t be frightened, miss ; I ain’t much
injured. He didn’t make a very despe¬
rate resistance, miss; I was soon too
many for him.”
c Hush!” replied the young. lady;
“vou frighten my aunt almost as much
as the thieves did. Is the poor creature
severely hurt ?”
‘Wounded desperate, miss,” replied
Giles, with indescribable complacency. .
“ He looks as if he was a-going, miss,”
bawled Brittles, in the same manner as
before. " Would nt you like to come and
look at him, miss, in case he should—?”
6 Hush, pray, there’s a good man!”
rejoined the young lady. " Wait quietly
one instant while I speak to aunt.”
With a footstep as soft and gentle as
the voice, the speaker tripped away, and
soon returned with the direction that the
wounded person was to be carried care¬
fully up stairs to Mr. Giles’s room, and
that Brittles was to saddle the pony and
betake himself instantly to Chertsey,
from which place he was to despatch
with all speed a constable and doctor.
“ But won’t you take one look at him
first, miss?” said Giles, with as much
pride as if Oliver were some bird of rare
plumage that he had skilfully brought
down. ‘ Not one little peep, miss.”
6 Not now for the world,” replied the
young lady. " Poor fellow! oh! treat
him kindly Giles, if it is only for my
sake!"
The old servant looked up at the
speaker, .as she turned away, with a
glance as proud and admiring as if she
had been his own child. ‘Then bending
. over Oliver, he helped to carry him up
stairs with the care and solicitude of a
woman.
CHAPTER THE SEVENTH
Has an introductory account of the inmates of
the house to which Oliver resorted, and relates
what they thought of him.
In a handsome room—though its furni¬
ture had rather the air of old-fashioned
comfort, than of modern elegance—there
sat two ladies at a well-spread breakfast¬
table. Mr. Giles, dressed with scrupu¬
lous care in a full suit of black, was in
attendance upon them. He had taken
his station some halfway between the
sideboard. and the breakfast-tabl e, and
with his body drawn up to its full height,
his head thrown back and inclined the
vanced, and his right hand thrust into his
waistcoat, while his left hung down by
his side ping a waiter, looked like
one who laboured under a very agreeable
sense of his own merits and importance.
Of the two ladies, one was well ad¬
vanced in years, but the high-backed
oaken chair in which she sat was not
more upright than she. Dressed with the
utmost nicety and precision in a quaint
mixture of bygone costume, with some
slight concessions to the prevailing taste,
which rather served to point the old style
pleasantly than to impair its effect, she
sat in a stately manner with her hands
folded on the table before her, and her
eyes, of which age had dimmed but little
of their brightness, attentively fixed upon
her young companion.
The younger. lady was in the lovely
bloom and spring-time of womanhood ; at
that age when, if ever angels be for
God’s good purposes enthroned in mortal
forms, they may be without impiety sup¬
posed to abide in such as hers.
She was not past seventeen. Cast in
so slight and exquisite a mould, so mild
and gentle, so pure and beautiful, that
earth seemed not her element, nor its
rough creatures her fit companions. The
very intelligence that shone in her deep
blue eye and was stamped upon her noble
the world, and yet the changing expres¬
sion of sweetness and good humour, the
thousand lights that played about the face
and left no shadow there; above all, the
smile — the cheerful happy smile— were
entwined with the best sympathies and
affections of our nature.
She was busily engaged in the little
offices of the table, and chancing to raise
her eyes as the elder lady was regardi
her, playfully put back her hair, whic
was simply braided on her forehead, and
threw into one beaming look such a gush
of affection and artless loveliness, that
blessed spirits might have smiled to look
upon her.
The elder lady smiled; but her heart
was full, and she brushed away a tear as
she did so.
“ And Brittles has been gone upwards
of an hour, has he?” asked the old lady
after a pause,
An hour and twelve minutes, ma’am ;”
replied Mr. Giles, referring to a silver
watch which he drew forth by a black
ribbon.
“ He is always slow,” remarked the
old lady. —
ia eeszék b—