After this Oliver was ill for a long time, but he was carefully nursed,
especially by Miss Rose, who grew as fond of him as if she had been his
sister. As soon as he grew better she wrote a letter for him to Mr.
Brownlow, the old gentleman who had rescued him from the police station,
but to Oliver's grief she found that he had gone to the West Indies.
Thus the time passed till Oliver was quite well, and then Miss Rose
(first carefully instructing the servant who went with them not to lose
sight of him for a moment for fear of his old enemies) took him with her
for a visit to London.
Meantime there had been a dreadful scene in Fagin's house when Bill
Sikes got back to London and told the old Jew that the robbery had
failed and that Oliver was lost again. They were more afraid than ever
that they would be caught and sent to prison. Fagin swore at Sikes, and
Monks cursed Fagin, and between them all they determined that Oliver
must either be captured or killed.
While they were plotting afresh Nancy, who had been feeling sorrier and
sorrier for what she had done, overheard them, and so found out that
Monks was Oliver's half-brother and why he so hated him; and she made up
her mind to save the boy from his last and greatest danger.
So one evening, when she was alone with him, she gave Sikes some
laudanum in a glass of liquor, and when he was asleep she slipped away,
found Miss Rose and told her all about it. Bad as Nancy was, however,
she was not willing to betray Fagin or Bill Sikes, so she only told her
of Monks.
Miss Rose was greatly astonished, for she had never heard of him before,
but she pitied Nancy because she had tried to help Oliver, and, of
course, she herself wanted very much to help him discover who he was and
who his parents had been. She thanked Nancy and begged her to come to
see her again. Nancy was afraid to do this, because Bill Sikes watched
her so closely, but she promised that on the next Sunday at midnight she
would be on a certain bridge where Miss Rose might see her. Then Nancy
hurried back before Sikes should wake up.
Miss Rose was in trouble now, for there was no one in London with her
then who could help her. But the same afternoon, whom should Oliver see
at a distance, walking into his house, but Mr. Brownlow. He came back in
great joy to tell Miss Rose, and she concluded that the old gentleman
would be the very one to aid her. She took Oliver to the house, and,
sure enough, there was the boy's old benefactor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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