Page:Oliver Twist (1838) vol. 1.djvu/97

Rh the door there lay upon the ground something covered with an old blanket. Oliver shuddered as he cast his eyes towards the place, and crept involuntarily closer to his master; for though it was covered up, the boy felt that it was a corpse. The man's face was thin and very pale; his hair and beard were grizzly, and his eyes were bloodshot. The old woman's face was wrinkled, her two remaining teeth protruded over her under lip, and her eyes were bright and piercing. Oliver was afraid to look at either her or the man,—they seemed so like the rats he had seen outside. "Nobody shall go near her," said the man, starting fiercely up, as the undertaker approached the recess. "Keep back! d—n you, keep back, if you've a life to lose." "Nonsense! my good man," said the undertaker, who was pretty well used to misery in all its shapes,—"nonsense!" "I tell you," said the man, clenching his hands, and stamping furiously on the floor,—"I tell you I won't have her put into the