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.
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.
