. »Number one for ever.«
    »In a little community like ours, my dear,« said Fagin, who felt it
necessary to qualify this position, »we have a general number one; that is, you
can't consider yourself as number one, without considering me too as the same,
and all the other young people.«
    »Oh, the devil!« exclaimed Mr. Bolter.
    »You see,« pursued Fagin, affecting to disregard this interruption, »we are
so mixed up together, and identified in our interests, that it must be so. For
instance, it's your object to take care of number one - meaning yourself.«
    »Certainly,« replied Mr. Bolter. »Yer about right there.«
    »Well! You can't take care of yourself, number one, without taking care of
me, number one.«
    »Number two, you mean,« said Mr. Bolter, who was largely endowed with the
quality of selfishness.
    »No, I don't!« retorted Fagin. »I'm of the same importance to you, as you
are to yourself.«
    »I say,« interrupted Mr. Bolter, »yer a very nice man, and I'm very fond of
yer; but we ain't quite so thick together, as all that comes to.«
    »Only think,« said Fagin, shrugging his shoulders, and stretching out his
hands; »only consider. You've done what's a very pretty thing, and what I love
you for doing; but what at the same time would put the cravat round your throat,
that's so very easily tied and so very difficult to unloose - in plain English,
the halter!«
    Mr. Bolter put his hand to his neckerchief, as if he felt it inconveniently
tight; and murmured an assent, qualified in tone but not in substance.
    »The gallows,« continued Fagin, »the gallows, my dear, is an ugly
finger-post, which points out a very short and sharp turning that has stopped
many a bold fellow's career on the broad highway. To keep in the easy road, and
keep it at a distance, is object number one with you.«
    »Of course it is,« replied Mr. Bolter. »What do yer talk about such things
for?«
    »Only to show you my meaning clearly,« said the Jew, raising his eyebrows.
»To be able to do that, you depend upon
