41 Oliver Twist - Read By Stephanie Poppins

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Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,

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Come with me as we immerse ourselves in a romantic journey to a time long since forgotten.

But before we begin,

Let's take a moment to focus on where we are now.

Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.

Now close your eyes and feel yourself sink deeper into the support beneath you.

It is time to relax and fully let go.

There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.

Happy listening.

Chapter 40.

A strange interview which is a sequel to the last chapter.

Nancy's life had been squandered in the streets and amongst the most noisome of the stews and dens of London.

But there was something of the woman's original nature left in her still and when she heard the light step approaching the door opposite to that which she had entered and thought of the wide contrast which the small room would in another moment contain,

She felt burdened with a sense of her own deep shame and shrunk as though she could scarcely bear the presence of her with whom she'd sought this interview.

But struggling with these better feelings was pride,

The vice of the lowest and most debased creatures,

No less than of the high and self-assured.

The miserable companion of thieves and ruffians,

The fallen outcasts of low haunts,

The associate of the scourings of the jails and hulks,

Living within the shadow of the gallows itself,

Even this degraded being felt too proud to betray a feeble gleam of the womanly feeling which she had thought a weakness but which alone connected her with that humanity of which her wasting life had obliterated so many,

Many traces when a very child.

She raised her eyes sufficiently to observe that the figure which presented itself was that of a slight and beautiful girl,

Then bending them on the ground she tossed her head with affected carelessness as she said,

It's a hard matter to get to see you lady,

If I'd taken offence and gone away as many would have done you'd have been sorry for it one day and not without reason either.

I'm very sorry if anyone has behaved harshly to you,

Replied Rose,

Do not think of that,

Tell me why you wish to see me,

I'm the person you inquired for.

The kind tone of this answer,

The sweet voice,

The gentle manner,

The absence of any accent of haughtiness or displeasure,

Took the girl completely by surprise and she burst into tears.

Oh lady,

Lady,

She said clasping her hands passionately before her face,

If there was more like you there would be fewer like me,

There would.

Sit down,

Said Rose earnestly,

If you're in poverty or affliction I shall be truly glad to relieve you if I can,

I shall indeed,

Sit down.

Let me stand lady,

Said the girl still weeping,

And do not speak to me so kindly till you know me better,

It's growing late,

Is that door shut?

Yes,

Said Rose recoiling a few steps as if to be nearer assistance in case she should require it,

Why?

Because I'm about to put my life and the others in your hands,

I am the girl that dragged little Oliver back to old Fagins on the night he went out from the house in Pentonville.

You,

Said Rose meekly,

I,

Replied the girl,

I am the infamous creature you've heard of that lives among the thieves and that never from the first moment I can recollect my eyes and senses opening on London streets have known any better life or kinder words than they've given me,

So help me God,

Don't mind shrinking openly from me lady,

I'm younger than you would think to look at me but I'm well used to it,

The poorest woman fall back as I make my way along the crowded pavement,

What dreadful things are these,

Said Rose involuntarily falling from her strange companion,

Thank heaven upon your knees dear lady,

Cried the girl,

That you had friends to care for and keep you in your childhood and you were never in the midst of cold and hunger and riot and drunkenness and and something worse than all as I've been from my cradle,

I may use the word for the alley and the gutter were mine as they will be my deathbed,

I pity you,

Said Rose in a broken voice,

It rings my heart to hear you,

Heaven bless you for goodness,

Rejoined the girl,

If you knew what I am sometimes you would pity me indeed but I've stolen away from those who would surely murder me if they knew I've been here to tell you what I've overheard,

Do you know a man named Monks?

No,

Said Rose,

Well he knows you and knew you were here for it was by hearing him tell the place that I found you out,

I never heard the name,

Said Rose,

Then he goes by some other amongst us which I more than thought before,

Some time ago and soon after Oliver was put into your house on the night of the robbery,

I suspect in this man listened to a conversation between him and Fagin in the dark and I found out from what I heard that Monks,

The man I asked you about,

That Monks had seen him accidentally with two of our boys on the day we first lost him and had known him directly to be the same child he was watching for,

Though I couldn't make out why,

A bargain was struck with Fagin that if Oliver was got back he should have a certain sum and he was to have more for making him a thief which is what Monks wanted for some purpose of his own,

What purpose?

He caught sight of my shadow on the wall as I listened in the hope of finding out and there are not many people besides me that could have got out their way in time to escape discovery but I did,

I saw him no more till last night,

What occurred then?

I'll tell you lady,

Last night he came again and away they went upstairs so I wrapped myself up so my shadow would not betray me and listened at the door and the first words I heard Monks say were,

So only proofs of the boy's identity lie at the bottom of the river and the old hag that received them from the mothers rotting in her coffin,

They laughed and talked of his success and Monks talking on about the boy and getting very wild said that though he had got the young devil's money safely he'd rather have had it the other way for what a game it would have been to have brought down the boast of the father's will by driving him through every jail in town then holding him up for some capital felony which Fagin could easily manage after having made a good profit of him besides.

What is all this?

Said Rose,

The truth lady,

Even though it comes from my lips,

Then he said with oaths common enough in my ears but strange to yours,

If he could gratify his hatred by taking the boy's life without bringing his own neck in danger he would but as he couldn't he'd be upon the watch to meet him in every turn of life and if he took advantage of his birth and history he might disarm him yet.

In short Fagin,

He says,

Due as you are you've never laid such snares as are contrived from my young brother Oliver.

His brother?

Exclaimed Rose.

Oliver is Monk's brother?

Those were his words said Nancy glancing uneasily around and what's more when he spoke of you and the other young lady and said it seemed contrived by heaven or the devil against him that Oliver should come into your hands he laughed and said there was some comfort in that too for how many thousands and hundreds of thousands of pounds would you not give if you had them to know who your two-legged spaniel was.

You don't mean?

Said Rose turning very pale to tell me this was said in earnest he spoke in odd and angry earnest if ever a man did replied the girl he's an earnest man when his hatred's up I know many who do worse things but I'd rather listen to them all a dozen times than to monks once now it's growing late I have to reach home without suspicion of being on such an errand as this I must get back quickly but what can I do said Rose to what use can I turn this communication without you why do you wish to return anyway to companions you paint with such terrible colors if you repeat this information to a gentleman whom I can summon in an instant from the next room you can be consigned to some place of safety without half an hour's delay I wish to go back said the girl I must go back because how can I tell such things to an innocent lady like you because among the men I've told you of there is one the most desperate of them all that I can't believe not even to be safe in the life I'm leading now you're having interfered in this dear boy's behalf before said Rose you're coming here at so great a risk to tell me what you've heard your manner which convinces me of the truth of what you say your evident contrition and sense of shame all lead me to believe you might yet be reclaimed oh said the earnest girl folding her hands as the tears coursed down her face do not turn a deaf ear to the entreaties of one of your own sex the first I do believe whoever appealed to you in the voice of pity and compassion do hear my words and let me save you for better things lady cried the girl sinking on her knees dear sweet lady you are the first to ever bless me with such words and if I'd heard them years ago they might have turned me from a life of sin and sorrow but it's too late now it's too late it's never too late said Rose for penitence and atonement it is cried the girl writhing in agony of her mind I cannot leave him now I could not be his death why should you be asked Rose nothing could save him if I told others what I told you and led to their being taken he'd be sure to die he is the boldest and has been so cruel it is possible cried Rose that for a man such as this you can resign every future hope and the certainty of immediate rescue it is madness I don't know what it is the girl answered I only know it's so and not with me alone but with hundreds of others as bad and wretched as myself I must go back whether it's God's wrath for the wrong I've done I don't know but I'm drawn back to him through every suffering and ill usage and I should be I believe if I knew that I was to die by his hand at last what am I to do said Rose I should not let you depart from me thus you should lady and I know you will you'll not stop my going because I've trusted in your goodness and force no promise from you as I might have done of what use then is the communication you have made this mystery must be investigated or how will its disclosure to me benefit Oliver whom you're so anxious to serve you must have some kind gentle about you that will hear it in secret and advise you rejoin the girl but where can I find you again when it's necessary asked Rose I do not seek to know where these dreadful people live but where will you be walking or passing at any settled period from this time will you promise me you'll have my secret strictly kept could come alone or with the only other person that knows it and I'll not be watched or followed I promise you solemnly every Sunday night from 11 till the clock strikes 12 I'll walk on London Bridge if I'm alive stay another moment interposed Rose as the girl moved hurriedly to the door think once again on your own condition and the opportunity you have of escaping from it you have a claim on me not only as the voluntary bearer of this intelligence but as a woman lost almost beyond redemption will you return to this gang of robbers and to this man when a word can save you what fascination is it that can take you back and make you cling to wickedness and misery is there no cord in your heart that I can touch is there nothing left to which I can appeal against this terrible infatuation when ladies as young and good and beautiful as you are replied the girl steadily give away your hearts love will carry you all lengths even such as you have home friends other admirers everything to fill them when such as I who have no certain roof but the coffin lid and no friend in sickness or death but the hospital nurse set our rotten hearts on any man and let him fill the place that's been blank through all our wretched lives who can hope to cure us pity us lady pity us for having only one feeling of the woman left and for having that turned by every judgment from a comfort and a pride into a new means of violence and suffering you will said Rose after a pause take some money from me which may enable you to live without dishonesty in all events till we meet again not a penny replied the girl do not close your heart against all my efforts to help you begged Rose I wish to serve you indeed you would serve me best lady if you could take my life for once for I felt more grief to think of what I am tonight than I ever did before and it would be something not to die in the hell in which I've lived God bless you sweet lady and send as much happiness on your head as I've brought shame on mine thus speaking and sobbing aloud the unhappy creature turned away while Rose May Lee overpowered by this extraordinary interview which had more the semblance of a rapid dream than an actual occurrence sank into a chair and endeavored to collect her wandering thoughts