"This is him, sir," replied Mr. Bumble. "Bow to the magistrate, my dear."
Oliver roused himself, and made his best obeisance. He had been wondering, with his eyes fixed on the magistrates' powder, whether all boards were born with that white stuff on their heads, and were boards from thenceforth, on that account.
"Well," said the old gentleman, "I suppose he's fond of chimney-sweeping?"
"He dotes on it, your worship," replied Bumble, giving Oliver a sly pinch, to intimate that he had better not say he didn't.
"And he will be a sweep, will he?" inquired the old gentleman.
"If we was to bind him to any other trade to-morrow, he'd run away simultaneously, your worship," replied Bumble.
"And this man that's to be his master,—you, sir,—you'll treat him well, and feed him, and do all that sort of thing,—will you?" said the old gentleman.
"When I says I will, I means I will," replied Mr. Gamfield doggedly.
"You're a rough speaker, my friend, but you look an honest, open-hearted man," said the old gentleman, turning his spectacles in the direction of the candidate for Oliver's premium, whose villanous countenance was a regular stamped receipt for cruelty. But the magistrate was half blind, and half childish, so he couldn't reasonably be expected to discern what other people did.
"I hope I am, sir," said Mr. Gamfield with an ugly leer.