Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens Chapter 42 Page 20

‘Don’t mind me, my dear,’ said Fagin, drawing his chair closer. ‘Ha! ha! it was lucky it was only me that heard you by chance. It was very lucky it was only me.’

‘I didn’t take it,’ stammered Noah, no longer stretching out his legs like an independent gentleman, but coiling them up as well as he could under his chair; ‘it was all her doing; yer’ve got it now, Charlotte, yer know yer have.’

‘No matter who’s got it, or who did it, my dear,’ replied Fagin, glancing, nevertheless, with a hawk’s eye at the girl and the two bundles. ‘I’m in that way myself, and I like you for it.’

‘In what way?’ asked Mr. Claypole, a little recovering.