‘I’ve  been waiting here for two hours, Fagin,' said the stranger. 'Where have you been?'

 

'On your business, my dear,' said Fagin, glancing at him uneasily.

 

'We'd better talk inside.'

 

The door closed behind them and they crept quietly up to the top floor in order not to wake the sleeping boys downstairs. They sat in a dark room , the only light coming from a candle burning in the passage outside.

 

The stranger's name was Monks, and he was in an evil mlld.

 

He listened to Fagin for a while, frowning heavily. 'It was bakly planned,' he said angrily. 'Couldn't you have made the boy into an ordinary thief, and then got him arrested and sent out of the country for the rest of his life?'

 

'Kill her!' Monks said impatiently.

 

'We her!' Monks said impatiently.

 

'We can't afford to do that kind of thing,' said Fagin 'But I can turn the boy into an ordinary thief now . And then Nancy will hard her heart against him. I know how women are. But if he's already dead--'