Chapter XLIV

by Charles Dickens

　　The Time Arrices For Nancy to Redeem Her Pledge to Rose Maylie. She FailsAdept as she was, in all the arts of cunning and dissimulation,the girl Nancy could not wholly conceal the effect which theknowledge of the step she had taken, wrought upon her mind. Sheremembered that both the crafty Jew and the brutal Sikes hadconfided to her schemes, which had been hidden from all others:in the full confidence that she was trustworthy and beyond thereach of their suspicion. Vile as those schemes were, desperateas were their originators, and bitter as were her feelingstowards Fagin, who had led her, step by step, deeper and deeperdown into an abyss of crime and misery, whence was no escape;still, there were times when, even towards him, she felt somerelenting, lest her disclosure should bring him within the irongrasp he had so long eluded, and he should fall at last--richlyas he merited such a fate--by her hand.But, these were the mere wanderings of a mind unwholly to detachitself from old companions and associations, though enabled tofix itself steadily on one object, and resolved not to be turnedaside by any consideration. Her fears for Sikes would have beenmore powerful inducements to recoil while there was yet time; butshe had stipulated that her secret should be rigidly kept, shehad dropped no clue which could lead to his discovery, she hadrefused, even for his sake, a refuge from all the guilt andwretchedness that encompasses her--and what more could she do!She was resolved.Though all her mental struggles terminated in this conclusion,they forced themselves upon her, again and again, and left theirtraces too. She grew pale and thin, even within a few days. Attimes, she took no heed of what was passing before her, or nopart in conversations where once, she would have been theloudest. At other times, she laughed without merriment, and wasnoisy without a moment afterwards--she sat silent and dejected,brooding with her head upon her hands, while the very effort bywhich she roused herself, told, more forcibly than even theseindications, that she was ill at ease, and that her thoughts wereoccupied with matters very different and distant from those inthe course of discussion by her companions.It was Sunday night, and the bell of the nearest church struckthe hour. Sikes and the Jew were talking, but they paused tolisten. The girl looked up from the low seat on which shecrouched, and listened too. Eleven.'An hour this side of midnight,' said Sikes, raising the blind tolook out and returning to his seat. 'Dark and heavy it is too.A good night for business this.''Ah!' replied Fagin. 'What a pity, Bill, my dear, that there'snone quite ready to be done.''You're right for once,' replied Sikes gruffly. 'It is a pity,for I'm in the humour too.'Fagin sighed, and shook his head despondingly.'We must make up for lost time when we've got things into a goodtrain. That's all I know,' said Sikes.'That's the way to talk, my dear,' replied Fagin, venturing topat him on the shoulder. 'It does me good to hear you.''Does you good, does it!' cried Sikes. 'Well, so be it.''Ha! ha! ha!' laughed Fagin, as if he were relieved by even thisconcession. 'You're like yourself to-night, Bill. Quite likeyourself.''I don't feel like myself when you lay that withered old claw onmy shoulder, so take it away,' said Sikes, casting off the Jew'shand.'It make you nervous, Bill,--reminds you of being nabbed, doesit?' said Fagin, determined not to be offended.'Reminds me of being nabbed by the devil,' returned Sikes. 'Therenever was another man with such a face as yours, unless it wasyour father, and I suppose he is singeing his grizzled red beardby this time, unless you came straight from the old 'un withoutany father at all betwixt you; which I shouldn't wonder at, abit.'Fagin offered no reply to this compliment: but, pulling Sikes bythe sleeve, pointed his finger towards Nancy, who had takenadvantage of the foregoing conversation to put on her bonnet, andwas now leaving the room.'Hallo!' cried Sikes. 'Nance. Where's the gal going to at thistime of night?''Not far.''What answer's that?' retorted Sikes. 'Do you hear me?''I don't know where,' replied the girl.'Then I do,' said Sikes, more in the spirit of obstinacy thanbecause he had any real objection to the girl going where shelisted. 'Nowhere. Sit down.''I'm not well. I told you that before,' rejoined the girl. 'Iwant a breath of air.''Put your head out of the winder,' replied Sikes.'There's not enough there,' said the girl. 'I want it in thestreet.''Then you won't have it,' replied Sikes. With which assurance herose, locked the door, took the key out, and pulling her bonnetfrom her head, flung it up to the top of an old press. 'There,'said the robber. 'Now stop quietly where you are, will you?''It's not such a matter as a bonnet would keep me,' said the girlturning very pale. 'What do you mean, Bill? Do you know whatyou're doing?''Know what I'm--Oh!' cried Sikes, turning to Fagin, 'she's out ofher senses, you know, or she daren't talk to me in that way.''You'll drive me on the something desperate,' muttered the girlplacing both hands upon her breast, as though to keep down byforce some violent outbreak. 'Let me go, will you,--thisminute--this instant.''No!' said Sikes.'Tell him to let me go, Fagin. He had better. It'll be betterfor him. Do you hear me?' cried Nancy stamping her foot upon theground.'Hear you!' repeated Sikes turning round in his chair to confronther. 'Aye! And if I hear you for half a minute longer, the dogshall have such a grip on your throat as'll tear some of thatscreaming voice out. Wot has come over you, you jade! Wot isit?''Let me go,' said the girl with great earnestness; then sittingherself down on the floor, before the door, she said, 'Bill, letme go; you don't know what you are doing. You don't, indeed. Foronly one hour--do--do!''Cut my limbs off one by one!' cried Sikes, seizing her roughlyby the arm, 'If I don't think the gal's stark raving mad. Getup.''Not till you let me go--not till you let me go--Never--never!'screamed the girl. Sikes looked on, for a minute, watching hisopportunity, and suddenly pinioning her hands dragged her,struggling and wrestling with him by the way, into a small roomadjoining, where he sat himself on a bench, and thrusting herinto a chair, held her down by force. She struggled and imploredby turns until twelve o'clock had struck, and then, wearied andexhausted, ceased to contest the point any further. With acaution, backed by many oaths, to make no more efforts to go outthat night, Sikes left her to recover at leisure and rejoinedFagin.'Whew!' said the housebreaker wiping the perspiration from hisface. 'Wot a precious strange gal that is!''You may say that, Bill,' replied Fagin thoughtfully. 'You maysay that.''Wot did she take it into her head to go out to-night for, do youthink?' asked Sikes. 'Come; you should know her better than me.Wot does is mean?''Obstinacy; woman's obstinacy, I suppose, my dear.''Well, I suppose it is,' growled Sikes. 'I thought I had tamedher, but she's as bad as ever.''Worse,' said Fagin thoughtfully. 'I never knew her like this,for such a little cause.''Nor I,' said Sikes. 'I think she's got a touch of that fever inher blood yet, and it won't come out--eh?''Like enough.''I'll let her a little blood, without troubling the doctor, ifshe's took that way again,' said Sikes.Fagin nodded an expressive approval of this mode of treatment.'She was hanging about me all day, and night too, when I wasstretched on my back; and you, like a blackhearted wolf as youare, kept yourself aloof,' said Sikes. 'We was poor too, all thetime, and I think, one way or other, it's worried and frettedher; and that being shut up here so long has made herrestless--eh?''That's it, my dear,' replied the Jew in a whisper. 'Hush!'As he uttered these words, the girl herself appeared and resumedher former seat. Her eyes were swollen and red; she rockedherself to and fro; tossed her head; and, after a little time,burst out laughing.'Why, now she's on the other tack!' exclaimed Sikes, turning alook of excessive surprise on his companion.Fagin nodded to him to take no further notice just then; and, ina few minutes, the girl subsided into her accustomed demeanour.Whispering Sikes that there was no fear of her relapsing, Fagintook up his hat and bade him good-night. He paused when hereached the room-door, and looking round, asked if somebody wouldlight him down the dark stairs.'Light him down,' said Sikes, who was filling his pipe. 'It's apity he should break his neck himself, and disappoint thesight-seers. Show him a light.'Nancy followed the old man downstairs, with a candle. When theyreached the passage, he laid his finger on his lip, and drawingclose to the girl, said, in a whisper.'What is it, Nancy, dear?''What do you mean?' replied the girl, in the same tone.'The reason of all this,' replied Fagin. 'If he'--he pointedwith his skinny fore-finger up the stairs--'is so hard with you(he's a brute, Nance, a brute-beast), why don't you--''Well?' said the girl, as Fagin paused, with his mouth almosttouching her ear, and his eyes looking into hers.'No matter just now. We'll talk of this again. You have afriend in me, Nance; a staunch friend. I have the means at hand,quiet and close. If you want revenge on those that treat youlike a dog--like a dog! worse than his dog, for he humours himsometimes--come to me. I say, come to me. He is the mere houndof a day, but you know me of old, Nance.''I know you well,' replied the girls, without manifesting theleast emotion. 'Good-night.'She shrank back, as Fagin offered to lay his hand on hers, butsaid good-night again, in a steady voice, and, answering hisparting look with a nod of intelligence, closed the door betweenthem.Fagin walked towards his home, intent upon the thoughts that wereworking within his brain. He had conceived the idea--not fromwhat had just passed though that had tended to confirm him, butslowly and by degrees--that Nancy, wearied of the housebreaker'sbrutality, had conceived an attachment for some new friend. Heraltered manner, her repeated absences from home alone, hercomparative indifference to the interests of the gang for whichshe had once been so zealous, and, added to these, her desperateimpatience to leave home that night at a particular hour, allfavoured the supposition, and rendered it, to him at least,almost matter of certainty. The object of this new liking wasnot among his myrmidons. He would be a valuable acquisition withsuch an assistant as Nancy, and must (thus Fagin argued) besecured without delay.There was another, and a darker object, to be gained. Sikes knewtoo much, and his ruffian taunts had not galled Fagin the less,because the wounds were hidden. The girl must know, well, thatif she shook him off, she could never be safe from his fury, andthat it would be surely wreaked--to the maiming of limbs, orperhaps the loss of life--on the object of her more recent fancy.'With a little persuasion,' thought Fagin, 'what more likely thanthat she would consent to poison him? Women have done suchthings, and worse, to secure the same object before now. Therewould be the dangerous villain: the man I hate: gone; anothersecured in his place; and my influence over the girl, with aknowledge of this crime to back it, unlimited.'These things passed through the mind of Fagin, during the shorttime he sat alone, in the housebreaker's room; and with themuppermost in his thoughts, he had taken the opportunityafterwards afforded him, of sounding the girl in the broken hintshe threw out at parting. There was no expression of surprise, noassumption of an inability to understand his meaning. The girlclearly comprehended it. Her glance at parting showed that.But perhaps she would recoil from a plot to take the life ofSikes, and that was one of the chief ends to be attained. 'How,'thought Fagin, as he crept homeward, 'can I increase my influencewith her? what new power can I acquire?'Such brains are fertile in expedients. If, without extracting aconfession from herself, he laid a watch, discovered the objectof her altered regard, and threatened to reveal the whole historyto Sikes (of whom she stood in no common fear) unless she enteredinto his designs, could he not secure her compliance?'I can,' said Fagin, almost aloud. 'She durst not refuse methen. Not for her life, not for her life! I have it all. Themeans are ready, and shall be set to work. I shall have youyet!'He cast back a dark look, and a threatening motion of the hand,towards the spot where he had left the bolder villian; and wenton his way: busying his bony hands in the folds of his tatteredgarment, which he wrenched tightly in his grasp, as though therewere a hated enemy crushed with every motion of his fingers.