There were sad hearts at Mr. Women Toms Classic Brownlow’s that night.
Oliver’s heart sank within him, when he thought of his good
kind friends; it was well for him that he could not know what they
had heard, or it might have broken outright.
How Oliver Passed His Time In The Improving
Society Of His Reputable Friends.
About noon next day, when the Dodger and Master Bates
had gone out to pursue their customary avocations, Mr.
Fagin took the opportunity of reading Oliver a long
lecture on the crying sin of ingratitude; of which he clearly
demonstrated he had been guilty, to no ordinary extent, in wilfully
absenting himself from the society of his anxious friends; and, still
more, in endeavouring to escape from them after so much trouble
and expense had been incurred in his recovery. Mr. Fagin laid
great stress on the fact of his having taken Oliver in, and cherished
him, when, without his timely aid, he might have perished with
hunger; and he related the dismal and affecting history of a young
lad whom, in his philanthropy, he had succoured under parallel
circumstances, but who, proving unworthy of his confidence and
evincing a desire to communicate with the police, had
unfortunately come to be hanged at the Old Bailey one morning.
Mr. Fagin did not seek to conceal his share in the catastrophe, but
lamented, with tears in his eyes, that the wrong-headed and
treacherous behaviour of the young person in question, had
rendered it necessary that he should become the victim of certain
evidence for the Crown; which, if it were not precisely true, was
indispensably necessary for the safety of him (Mr. Fagin) and a
few select friends. Mr. Fagin concluded by drawing a rather
disagreeable picture of the discomforts of hanging; and, with great
friendliness and politeness of manner, expressed his anxious
hopes that he might never be obliged to submit Oliver Twist to
that unpleasant operation.