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She rushed at Fagin , but Sikes caught her by the wrists , and after a short struggle she fainted . Oliver was taken to bed in his old rags , and he lay there in the dark , sick and tired , until he fell asleep . At about the same time Mr Bumble came to London on parish business . In a newspaper he saw an advertisement which offered a reward of five guineas for any news of a boy called Oliver Twist . The beadle went at once to Pentonville and told Mr Brownlow everything that he knew . Oliver , he said , was the son of poor and vicious parents . From the day of his birth he had shown only bad qualities , he had attacked a harmless boy without cause and he had run away by night from his master’s house . “ I would gladly have given you three times the money , ” said Mr Brownlow sadly , as he paid the five guineas , “ if your story had been good for the boy . ” When Mr Bumble had gone , he turned to his housekeeper . “ Mrs Bedwin , never let me hear the boy’s name again . ” “ It can’t be , sir , ” said the old lady firmly . “ It cannot be . He was a dear , grateful , gentle child . I never will believe it , sir , never . ” There were sad hearts that night at Mr Brownlow’s . And Oliver , far away in the dark , did not know that his friends now thought him a thief . IX . Old Sally’s Secret Far away , in the workhouse where Oliver was born , a cold wind was blowing on a dark winter night . Mrs Corney , the matron of the workhouse , was sitting in her warm little room with a pot of tea when somebody knocked at the door . It was Mr Bumble . Mr Bumble had come on parish business , but Mrs Corney invited him to have a cup of tea . While she was pouring it , the beadle looked round the room and counted the silver teaspoons . He also looked at the furniture and the cupboards , and he thought that a man could live very comfortably here . He moved his chair closer to the matron’s , and after a while he kissed her . At that moment there was a hasty knock at the door . An old woman from the workhouse had come to say that old Sally was dying . “ She says she has something to tell you , ” said the woman . “ She’ll never die quiet till you come , mistress . ” Mrs Corney went angrily to a small , bare room at the top of the building , where a very old woman lay on a bed . When the old woman saw the matron , she sent the others out of the room . “ Now listen to me , ” said Sally in a weak voice . “ In this same room , in this very bed , I once nursed a pretty young girl . She was brought into the house with her feet cut and bruised with walking , and she gave birth to a boy and died . Let me think . What year was it ? ”
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