Mr. Chitling was older in years than the Dodger:having perhaps numbered eighteen winters;but there was a degree of deference in his deportment towards that young gentleman which seemed to indicate that he felt himself conscious of a slight inferiority in point of genius and professional aquirements. He had small twinkling eyes, and a pock-marked face; wore a fur cap, a dark corduroy jacket, greasy fustian trousers, and an apron. His wardrobe was, in truth, rather out of repair; but he excused himself to the company by stating that his “time” was only out an hour before; and that, in consequence of having worn the regimentals for six weeks past, he had not been able to bestow any attention on his private clothes. Mr. Chitling added, with strong marks of irritation, that the new way of fumigating clothes up yonder was infernal unconstitutional, for it burnt holes in them, and there was no remedy against the county. The same remark he considered to apply to the regulation mode of cutting the hair: which he held to be decidedly unlawful. Mr. Chitling wound up his observations by stating that he had not touched a drop of anything for forty-two moral long hard-working days; and that he “wished he might be busted if he warn’t as dry as a lime-basket.”
“Where do you think the gentleman has come from, Oliver?” inquired the Jew, with a grin,as the other boys put a bottle of spirits on the table.
“I—I—don’t know, sir,” replied Oliver.
“Who’s that?” inquired Tom Chitling,casting a contemptuous look at Oliver.
“A young friend of mine, my dear,” replied the Jew.
“He’s in luck, then,” said the young man,with a meaning look at Fagin.“Never mind where I came from, young ’un;you’ll find your way there, soon enough, I’ll bet a crown!”
At this sally, the boys laughed.After some more jokes on the same subject,they exchanged a few short whispers with Fagin; and withdrew.
After some words apart between the last comer and Fagin,they drew their chairs towards the fire; and the Jew,telling Oliver to come and sit by him,led the conversation to the topics most calculated to interest his hearers.These were, the great advantages of the trade,the proficiency of the Dodger,the amiability of Charley Bates,and the liberality of the Jew himself.At length these subjects displayed signs of being thoroughly exhausted;and Mr. Chitling did the same:for the house of correction becomes fatiguing after a week or two.Miss Betsy accordingly withdrew;and left the party to their repose.
From this day, Oliver was seldom left alone;but was placed in almost constant communication with the two boys,who played the old game with the Jew every day:whether for their own improvement or Oliver’s, Mr.Fagin best knew. At other times the old man would tell them stories of robberies he had committed in his younger days: mixed up with so much that was droll and curious, that Oliver could not help laughing heartily, and showing that he was amused in spite of all his better feelings.
In short, the wily old Jew had the boy in his toils.Having prepared his mind, by solitude and gloom,to prefer any society to the companionship of his own sad thoughts in such a dreary place, he was now slowly instilling into his soul the poison which he hoped would blacken it, and change its hue for ever.
CHAPTER XIX. IN WHICH A NOTABLE PLAN IS DISCUSSED AND DETERMINED ON
It was a chill, damp, windy night, when the Jew:buttoning his great-coat tight round his shrivelled body,and pulling the collar up over his ears so as completely to obscure the lower part of his face: emerged from his den. He paused on the step as the door was locked and chained behind him; and having listened while the boys made all secure, and until their retreating footsteps were no longer audible, slunk down the street as quickly as he could.
The house to which Oliver had been conveyed,was in the neighborhood of Whitechapel.The Jew stopped for an instant at the corner of the street;and, glancing suspiciously round, crossed the road,and struck off in the direction of the Spitalfields.
The mud lay thick upon the stones,and a black mist hung over the streets;the rain fell sluggishly down,and everything felt cold and clammy to the touch.It seemed just the night when it befitted such a being as the Jew to be abroad.As he glided stealthily along,creeping beneath the shelter of the walls and doorways,the hideous old man seemed like some loathsome reptile,engendered in the slime and darkness through which he moved:crawling forth, by night,in search of some rich offal for a meal.
He kept on his course,through many winding and narrow ways,until he reached Bethnal Green; then,turning suddenly off to the left,he soon became involved in a maze of the mean and dirty streets which abound in that close and densely-populated quarter.
The Jew was evidently too familiar with the ground he traversed to be at all bewildered, either by the darkness of the night, or the intricacies of the way. He hurried through several alleys and streets, and at length turned into one, lighted only by a single lamp at the farther end. At the door of a house in this street, he knocked; having exchanged a few muttered words with the person who opened it, he walked upstairs.
A dog growled as he touched the handle of a room-door;and a man’s voice demanded who was there.
“Only me, Bill; only me, my dear,” said the Jew looking in.
“Bring in your body then,” said Sikes. “Lie down, you stupid brute!Don’t you know the devil when he’s got a great-coat on?”
Apparently, the dog had been somewhat deceived by Mr.Fagin’s outer garment; for as the Jew unbuttoned it,and threw it over the back of a chair,he retired to the corner from which he had risen:wagging his tail as he went,to show that he was as well satisfied as it was in his nature to be.
“Well!” said Sikes.
“Well, my dear,” replied the Jew.—“Ah!Nancy.”
The latter recognition was uttered with just enough of embarrassment to imply a doubt of its reception; for Mr. Fagin and his young friend had not met, since she had interfered in behalf of Oliver. All doubts upon the subject, if he had any, were speedily removed by the young lady’s behaviour. She took her feet off the fender, pushed back her chair, and bade Fagin draw up his, without saying more about it: for it was a cold night, and no mistake.
“It _is_ cold, Nancy dear,” said the Jew,as he warmed his skinny hands over the fire.“It seems to go right through one,” added the old man, touching his side.