Put the sentences in the right order. 1)When Mr. Brownlow heard that Oliver was waiting in a coach at the door, he hurried out of the room

1) So the only proofs ______ Oliver's identity lie ______ the bottom _____ the river.

2) If you repeat this information ______ a gentleman whom I can summon _____ an instant______ the next room, you can be taken ______ some safe place immediately.

3) If I can take the life ______ my younger brother Oliver safely _____ bringing my own ______ danger, I will gladly do it.

4) Once you were very kind ______ a dear young friend ______ mine, and I am sure you will take an interest ______ hearing ______ him again.

5) Leaving her and Oliver, Mr. Brownlow led the way ______ another room; and there, heard ______ Rose a full narration ______ her interview ______ Nancy.

Put the verbs, given in brackets, in the right tense form.

1) 'I, lady!' replied the girl. 'I am the infamous creature you have (hear) of, that lives among the thieves, and that never has (know) any better life, or kinder words than they have (give) me, so help me God!'

2) I will be murdered by them if they know that I have (come) here to tell you what I have (overhear).

3) That's how I've (find) you.

4) I have (feel) more grief to think of what I (be), to-night, than I ever (do) before.

5) God bless you, sweet lady, and send as much happiness on your head as I have (bring) shame on mine!

6) I have never (forget) them or his quiet smile, but have (see) them every day.

Complete the sentences.

1) Monks, talking about the boy, and getting very wild, said, 'Though I've got the boy's money safely now, if …

2) Rose took her pen and was going to write the first line of her letter when …

3) The servant soon returned and …

4) In a few natural words Rose …

5) Oliver could not wait any longer and …

What do you think?

1) Why do you think Nancy decided to return to the gang?

2) Why do you think Nancy refused to take the money?

3) Why did Oliver enter the room in breathless haste and violent agitation?

4) Why was Mr. Brownlow so happy?

5) Why did Mr. Brownlow want to bring Monks upon his knees?

CHAPTER 18

The Time Arrives for Nancy. The Appointment Is Kept

It was Sunday night, and the bell of the nearest church struck the hour. Sikes and Fagin were talking, but they paused to listen. Nancy listened too. Eleven.

'An hour before midnight,' said Sikes. 'A dark and foggy night. It's a good night for business, isn't it?'

'Ah!' replied Fagin. 'What a pity, Bill, my dear, that there's none quite ready to be done.'

Nancy took advantage of their conversation to put on her bonnet, and was now leaving the room.

'Hey!' cried Sikes. 'Nancy, where are you going at this time 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. 'Nowhere. Sit down.'

'I'm not well. I told you that before,' rejoined the girl. 'I want a breath of air.'

'Put your head out of the window,' replied Sikes.

'I want it in the street.'

'Then you won't have it,' replied Sikes. With these words he rose, locked the door, took the key out, and pulling her bonnet from her head flung it on the floor.

'What do you mean, Bill?' said the girl turning very pale. 'Do you know what you're doing? Let me go!'

'No!' said Sikes.

'Tell him to let me go, Fagin. It'll be better for him. Do you hear me?' cried Nancy stamping her foot upon the ground.

Sikes looked at Nancy for a minute then dragged her into a small adjoining room, where he thrust her into a chair and held her down by force. She struggled until the clock struck twelve. And then she ceased her struggling. Sikes left her and joined Fagin.

'What has come over her? What did she want to go out to-night for, do you think?' asked Sikes. 'Come, you know her better. What does it mean?'

'Obstinacy;woman's obstinacy, I suppose, my dear.'

'Well, I suppose it is,' growled Sikes. 'I thought I have 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 in her blood, eh? Well, I'll let her blood a little without troubling the doctor, if she takes that way again.'

Fagin nodded an expressive approval of this mode of treatment. He took up his hat and bade Sikes good-night. He paused when he reached the room-door, and looking round, asked if somebody would light him down the dark stairs.

'Light him down,' said Sikes to Nancy, who was filling his pipe.

Nancy followed the old man downstairs, with a can­dle. When they reached the passage, he laid his finger on his lip, and drawing close 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 pointed with his skinny fore-finger up the stairs, 'is so hard with you, he's a brute, Nancy, a brute-beast, why don't you —'

'Well?' said the girl, as Fagin paused, with his mouth almost touching her ear, and his eyes looking into hers.

'We'll talk about it later. You have a friend in me, Nancy. I have the means at hand, quiet and close. If you want revenge on those who treat you like a dog, worse than his dog, come to me. I say, come to me. You know me, Nancy.'

'I know you very well,' replied the girl. 'Good-night.'

Fagin walked towards his home. He was thinking about Nancy. Everything that he saw in the last days proved the idea that the girl was tired of the housebreaker's brutality. Most probably she found some new friends. Her altered manner, her repeated absences from home alone, her comparative indifference to the interests of the gang, her desperate impatience to leave home that night at a particular hour, all favoured the supposition. He had to find the object of her new liking without delay.

There was another, and a darker object, to be gained. Sikes knew too much. 'With a little persuasion,' thought Fagin, 'she will consent to poisonhim. Then the man I hate will be gone. Another one will take his place. And my influence over the girl, with a knowledge of this crime, will be unlimited.'

These things passed through the mind of Fagin.   

'But perhaps Nancy won't agree to take the life of Sikes. How,' thought Fagin, as he crept homeward, 'can I increase my influence with her? What new power can I acquire?'

'I can,' said Fagin, almost aloud. 'I can!'

Next morning he found a spy.

'I want you,' said Fagin, leaning over the table, 'to do a piece of work for me, my dear, that needs great care and caution. There is a young woman. I want to know where she goes, whom she sees, and, if possible, what she says; I want you to remember the street, if it is a street, or the house, if it is a house; and to bring me back all the information you can.'

'What'll you give me?' asked the spy, looking eagerly in the face of his employer.

'If you do it well, a pound, my dear. One pound,' said Fagin.

'Who is she?' inquired the young man.

'One of us.'

'Oh, Lord!' cried the young man. 'You are doubtful of her, aren't you?'

'She has found some new friends, my dear, and I must know who they are,' replied Fagin.

'I see,' said the spy. 'Just to have the pleasure of knowing them, if they're respectable people, eh? Ha! Ha! Ha! I'm your man. Where is she? Where am I to wait for her? Where am I to go?'

'All that, my dear, you shall hear from me. I'll point her out at the proper time,' said Fagin. 'You keep ready, and leave the rest to me.'

That night, and the next, and the next again, the spy sat ready to turn out at a word from Fagin. Six nights passed, and on each Fagin came home with a disappointed face. On the seventh night he returned earlier. It was Sunday.

'She goes out to-night,' said Fagin, 'the man she is afraid of will not be back much before daybreak. Come with me. Quick!'

It was about eleven o'clock when the spy saw a young woman, leaving a public-house.

'Is that the woman?' he asked.

Fagin nodded yes.

Nancy looked nervously round, twice or thrice, and once stopped to let two men, who were close behind her, pass on. She seemed to gather courage. The spy kept the same relative distance between them, and followed the young woman with his eye upon her.

It was a very dark night. A mist hung over the river. There were few people on the bridge at that hour. The heavy bell of St. Paul'stolled for the death of another day. A young lady, accompanied by a grey-haired gentleman, alighted from a carriage within a short distance of the bridge and walked straight towards it. Nancy came up to them immediately.

'Not here,' said the girl hurriedly, 'I am afraid to speak to you here. Come out of the public road down the steps yonder!'

The spy drew himself straight upright against the wall, and, scarcely breathing, listened attentively.

'You were not here last Sunday night,' said the gentleman.

'I couldn't come,' replied Nancy; 'I was kept by force.'

'By whom?'

'By him about whom I told the young lady before.'

'You were not suspected of holding any communication with anybody on the subject which has brought us here to-night, I hope?' asked the old gentleman.

'No,' replied the girl, shaking her head. 'No, and neither he nor any of them suspect me.'

'Good,' said the gentleman. 'Now listen to me.'

'I am ready,' replied the girl, as he paused for a moment.

'You must deliverup the old villain.'

'Fagin!' cried the girl.

'That man must be delivered up by you,' said the gentleman.

'I will not do it! I will never do it!' replied the girl. 'Devil that he is, and worse than devil as he has been to me, I will never do that.'

'You will not?' said the gentleman, who seemed fully prepared for this answer.

'Never!' returned the girl.

'Tell me why?'

'For one reason,' rejoined the girl firmly, 'for one reason, that the lady knows and will stand by me in, I know she will, for I have her promise: and for this other reason, besides, that, bad life as he has led, I have led a bad life too; there are many of us who have kept the same courses together.'

'Then,' said the gentleman, quickly, 'put Monks into my hands, and leave him to me to deal with.'

'What if he turns against the others?'

'I promise you that in that case, if the truth is forced from him, there the matter will rest; there must be circumstances in Oliver's little history which it would be painful to drag before the public eye.'

'Have I the lady's promise for that?' asked the girl.

'You have,' replied Rose. 'My true word.'

After receiving an assurance from both, that she might safely do so, she proceeded in a voice so low that it was often difficult for the spy to understand her words. She thoroughly explained the localities of the public-house, the best position from which to watch it, and the night and hour on which Monks was most in the habit of going there. After that Nancy described his appearance.

'He is tall,' said the girl, 'and a strongly made man, but not stout. As he walks he constantly looks over his shoulder, first on one side, and then on the other. His face is dark, like his hair and eyes. I think that's all I can give you to know him by. Stay though,' she added, 'upon his throat: so high that you can see a part of it below his neckerchief when he turns his face: there is —'

'A broad red mark, like a burn or scald?' cried the gentleman.

'How's this?' said the girl. 'You know him!'

The young lady uttered a cry of surprise, and for a few moments they were so still that the spy could distinctly hear them breathe.

'I think I do,' said the gentleman, breaking silence. 'We shall see. Many people look like each other.

'Now,' said the old gentleman, 'you have given us most valuable assistance, young woman. What can I do to serve you?'

'Nothing,' replied Nancy. 'Nothing, sir. You can do nothing to help me. I am past all hope, indeed. I am chained to my old life. I loathe and hate it now, but I cannot leave it. I have gone too far to turn back. I must go home.'

'Home!' repeated the young lady, with great stress upon the word.

'Home, lady,' rejoined the girl. 'And now all I ask is that you leave me and let me go my way alone.'

'What,' cried the young lady, 'can be the end of this poor creature's life!'

'What!' repeated the girl. 'Look before you, lady. Look at that dark water —'

'Do not speak thus, pray,' returned the young lady, sobbing.

'It will never reach your ears, dear lady,' replied the girl. 'Good-night, good-night!'

'This purse,' cried the young lady. 'Take it for my sake, that you may have some resource in an hour of need and trouble.'

'No!' replied the girl. 'I have not done this for money. And yet give me something that you have worn: I should like to have something — no, no, not a ring — your gloves or handkerchief, anything that I can keep. There. Bless you! God bless you. Goodnight, good-night!'

The two figures of the young lady and her companion soon afterwards appeared upon the bridge. The old gentleman drew the lady's arm through his, and led her, with gentle force, away.

As they disappeared, the girl sunk down and burst into tears.

After some time she arose and with feeble steps went away. The astonished spy remained motionless for some minutes afterwards. When he was certain that he was again alone he crept slowly from his hiding-place. Peeping out, more than once, when he reached the top, to make sure that he was unobserved, the spy darted away at his utmost speed, and made for Fagin's house as fast as his legs could carry him.

Helpful Words & Notes

obstinacyn — упрямство

tamev — приручать

nodded an expressive approval of this mode of treatment— выразительно кивнул в знак одобрения такого метода лечения

poisonv — отравлять

St. Paul's= St. Paul's Cathedral — собор Святого Павла в Лондоне

deliver upv — сдавать, выдавать

assurancen — гарантия, заверение

scaldn — ожог (кипящей жидкостью или паром)

Activities

Answer the questions.

1)What did Nancy want to do?

2) What did Fagin think about on his way home?

3) What did Fagin want the spy to do?

4) Whom did Fagin show to the spy?

5) Where did Nancy go and whom did she meet there?

6) Why didn't Nancy want to speak on the bridge?

7) What did Mr. Brownlow want Nancy to do?

8) What did Nancy thoroughly explain?

9) What did Rose offer the girl? Did Nancy take it?

10) What did Nancy ask Rose to give her?

11) What did the spy do when he was certain that he was alone again?

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