have who have seen all drop round them, friend after friend,

perhaps the loss of life--on the object of her more recent fancy.

'With a little persuasion,' thought Fagin, 'what more likely than

that she would consent to poison him? Women have done such

things, and worse, to secure the same object before now. There

would be the dangerous villain: the man I hate: gone; another

secured in his place; and my influence over the girl, with a

knowledge of this crime to back it, unlimited.'

These things passed through the mind of Fagin, during the short