Page:Oliver Twist (1838) vol. 2.djvu/175

Rh the fat gentleman. "My dear Mrs. Maylie—bless my soul—in the silence of night too—I never heard of such a thing!"

With these expressions of condolence, the fat gentleman shook hands with both ladies, and drawing up a chair, inquired how they found themselves.

"You ought to be dead—positively dead with the fright," said the fat gentleman. "Why didn't you send? Bless me, my man should have come in a minute, and so would I, and my assistant would have been delighted, or any body I'm sure, under such circumstances; dear, dear—so unexpected—in the silence of night too!"

The doctor seemed especially troubled by the fact of the robbery having been unexpected, and attempted in the night-time, as if it were the established custom of gentlemen in the housebreaking way to transact business at noon, and to make an appointment by the twopenny post a day or two previous.

"And you, Miss Rose," said the doctor, turning to the young lady, "I"