'And about what I was saying, my dear?' observed the Jew, keepinghis glistening eye steadily upon her.

　　'Your must say it all over again, if it's anything you want me todo,' rejoined Nancy; 'and if it is, you had better wait tillto-morrow.  You put me up for a minute; but now I'm stupidagain.'

　　Fagin put several other questions: all with the same drift ofascertaining whether the girl had profited by his unguardedhints; but, she answered them so readily, and was withal soutterly unmoved by his searching looks, that his originalimpression of her being more than a trifle in liquor, wasconfirmed.  Nancy, indeed, was not exempt from a failing whichwas very common among the Jew's female pupils; and in which, intheir tenderer years, they were rather encouraged than checked.Her disordered appearance, and a wholesale perfume of Genevawhich pervaded the apartment, afforded stong confirmatoryevidence of the justice of the Jew's supposition; and when, afterindulging in the temporary display of violence above described,she subsided, first into dullness, and afterwards into a compoundof feelings: under the influence of which she shed tears oneminute, and in the next gave utterance to various exclamations of'Never say die!' and divers calculations as to what might be theamount of the odds so long as a lady or gentleman was happy, Mr.Fagin, who had had considerable experience of such matters in histime, saw, with great satisfaction, that she was very far goneindeed.

　　Having eased his mind by this discovery; and having accomplishedhis twofold object of imparting to the girl what he had, thatnight, heard, and of ascertaining, with his own eyes, that Sikeshad not returned, Mr. Fagin again turned his face homeward:leaving his young friend asleep, with her head upon the table.

　　It was within an hour of midnight.  The weather being dark, andpiercing cold, he had no great temptation to loiter.  The sharpwind that scoured the streets, seemed to have cleared them ofpassengers, as of dust and mud, for few people were abroad, andthey were to all appearance hastening fast home. It blew from theright quarter for the Jew, however, and straight before it hewent: trembling, and shivering, as every fresh gust drove himrudely on his way.

　　He had reached the corner of his own street, and was alreadyfumbling in his pocket for the door-key, when a dark figureemerged from a projecting entrance which lay in deep shadow, and,crossing the road, glided up to him unperceived.

　　'Fagin!' whispered a voice close to his ear.

　　'Ah!' said the Jew, turning quickly round, 'is that--'

　　'Yes!' interrupted the stranger.  'I have been lingering herethese two hours.  Where the devil have you been?'