Page:Oliver Twist (1838) vol. 2.djvu/206

190 robbed of his money, though? What a start that was! better than any novel-book I ever see!"

"What was that?" inquired Rose, anxious to encourage any symptoms of goodhumour in the unwelcome visiters.

"It was a robbery, miss, that hardly any body would have been down upon," said Blathers. "This here Conkey Chickweed"

"Conkey means Nosey, ma'am," interposed Duff.

"Of course the lady knows that, don't she?" demanded Mr. Blathers. "Always interrupting you are, partner. This here Conkey Chickweed, miss, kept a public-house over Battlebridge way, and had a cellar where a good many young lords went to see cockfighting, and badger-drawing, and that; and a wery intellectual manner the sports was conducted in, for I've seen 'em off'en. He warn't one of the family at that time, and one night he was robbed of three hundred and twenty-seven guineas in a canvass bag, that was stole out of his bedroom in the dead of night by a tall man