Page 163 [163]
OLIVER
TWIST. 117
‘ Let me think, ma’am,” said the doc¬
tor, “ let me think."
ést Losberne thrust his hands into his
pockets and took several turns up and
down the room, often stopping and balan¬
. cing himself on his toes and frowning
frightfally. After various exclamations
of “I’ve got it now,” and “no, I havn't,”
and as many renewals of the walking
and frowning, he at length made a dead
halt, and spoke as follows:— _
“T think if you give me a full and un¬
limited commission to bully Giles and
that little boy, Brittles, I can manage it.
He ts a faithful fellow and an old servant,
I know; but you can make it up to him
in a thousand ways, and reward him for
being such a shot besides. You
dont object to that?”
“Unless there is some other way of
pet the child,” replied Mrs. May¬
e.
“There is no other,” said the doctor.
“ No other, take my word for it.”
. ’Then aunt invests you with full pow¬
er," said Rose, smiling through her tears;
“ but pray don’t be harder upon the poor
fellows than is indispensably necessary.”
* You seem to think,” retorted the doc¬
tor, “that everybody is disposed to be
hard-hearted to-day except yourself. I
only hope, for the sake of the rising male
sex generally, that you may be found.in
as vulnerable and soft-hearted a mood by
the very first eligible young fellow who
appeals to your compassion; and I wish
I were a young fellow that I might avail
myself on the spot of such a favourable
opportunity for doing so, as the present.”
“You are as great a boy as poor Brit¬
tles himself,” returned Rose, blushing.
“Well,” said the doctor, laughing
heartily, “ that is no very difficult matter.
But to return to this boy: the great point
- of our agreement is yet to come. He
will wake in an hour or so, I dare say;
and although I have told that thick-head¬
ed constable fellow down stairs that he
musn’t be moved or spoken to, on peril
of his life, I think we may converse with
him without danger. Now, I make this
stipulation — that I shall examine him in
your presence, and that if from what he
says, we judge, and I can show to the
satisfaction of your cool reason, that he is
a real and thorough bad one, (which is
more than possible,) he shall be left to his
fate, without any further interference, on
my part, at all events.”
66 Oh, no, aunt!” entreated Rose.
“Oh, yes, aunt,” said the doctor.
it a bargain ?”
“Ts
*“ He cannot be hardened in vice,” said
Rose ; ‘it is impossible.”
“Very good,” retorted the doctor;
“then so much the more reason for ac¬
ceding to my proposition.”
Finally the treaty was entered into,
and the parties thereto sat down to wait
with some impatience until Oliver should
wake.
The patience of the two ladies was
destined to undergo a longer trial than
Mr. Losberne had led them to expect, for
hour after hour passed on, and still Oliver
slumbered heavily. It was evening, in¬
deed, before the kind-hearted doctor
brought them the intelligence that he had
at “ce roused sufficiently to be spoken
to. ‘The boy was very ill, he said, and
weak from the loss of blood; but his
mind was so troubled with anxiety to dis¬
close something, that he deemed it better
to give him the opportunity than to insist
upon his remaining quiet until next morn¬
ing, which he should otherwise have
done.
The -conference was a long one, for
Oliver told them all his simple history,
and want of strength. It was a solemn
thing to hear, in the darkened room, the
feeble voice of the sick child recounting
a weary catalogue of evils and calamities
which hard men had brought upon him,
Oh! if, when we oppress and grind our
fellow-creatures, we bestowed but one
thought on the dark evidences of human
error, which, like dense and heavy clouds
are rising slowly, it is true, but not less
surely, to heaven, to pour their after-ven¬
geance on our heads—if we heard but
one instant in imagination the deep testi¬
mony of dead men’s voices, which no
power can stifle and no pride shut out,
where would be the injury and injustice,
the suffering, misery, cruelty, and wrong,
that each day’s life brings with it!
Oliver’s pillow was smoothed by wo¬
man’s hands that night, and loveliness
and virtue watched him as he slept. He
felt calm and happy, and could have died
without a murmur.
The momentous interview was no
sooner concluded, and Oliver composed
to rest again, than the doctor, after wiping
his eyes and condemning them in the
usual phrase for being weak all at once,
betook himself down stairs to open upon
Mr. Giles. And finding nobody about the
parlours, it occurred to him that he could
perhaps originate the proceedings with ~
better effect in the kitchen; so into the
kitchen he went.