终章
本书中登场人物的命运已近尾声。
史家尚须补叙者无多，仅以寥寥数语，朴朴素素道来。
未及三月，罗斯·弗莱明与哈里·梅利便在村中教堂成婚；此后那教堂便成了年轻牧师劳作之所。同日，二人迁入新居，满室欢愉。
梅利太太搬来与儿子、儿媳同住，于余生静好岁月里，享尽年高德劭者方能知晓的至福——凝望那一向倾注温热深情与不懈呵护的亲人，如今安然欢喜。
经详尽查核，蒙克斯（其名下遗财，无论在他抑或亡母手中皆从未兴旺）所管残产，若与奥利弗均分，每人仅得三千余镑。依其父遗命，奥利弗本应独承全数；然布朗洛先生不愿夺长子改过自新、循正途自立之机，遂倡此分法，稚龄受监护人欣然从之。
蒙克斯仍用假名，携其份资远遁新大陆僻壤；未几挥霍殆尽，故态复萌，后因新欺诈事系狱久禁，终旧疾骤发，死於狱中。其友费金帮中余孽，亦多客死异乡。
布朗洛先生认奥利弗为子。偕其与老管家迁居距牧师宅第不满一里处——其挚友所居也——遂了奥利弗赤心热肠最后一愿，结一小小世外之盟，其乐几近尘世易变中可得之圆满。
新婚未久，可敬的医生返彻特西；旧友不在，若其性情容得烦闷，必郁郁；若自知，必愠甚。初两三月，但暗示恐水土不服；既觉此地非复旧观，乃以业务托副手，于青年牧师治下村外筑独身小庐，迁焉而疾若失。自此事园艺、植木、垂钓、木工及诸般相近消遣，皆挟素日烈性为之。未几，周邻咸以彼为诸事渊深权威。
迁前，已与格令维格先生缔厚交，彼怪人亦投契甚。故岁中过从颇密。每至，格令维格先生辄热忱陪植陪钓陪木工；虽法皆诡异空前，然恒执其口头禅曰“吾法正也”。逢礼拜，必当面讥年轻牧师之讲章；事后却密语洛斯本先生，谓实佳构，但不宜明言。布朗洛先生恒以旧日预言奥利弗事相戏，且忆二人执表守夜待归之夜；格令维格先生则坚称大节不谬，证以奥利弗终未归也——言毕自笑，益酣然。
诺亚·克莱波尔：以证费金功，蒙 Crown 特赦；念本业未若所期之安，一时谋生无术，亦不任重劳。筹思既遍，乃业告密，藉此温饱。其法：每礼拜教堂礼时，衣冠整肃，偕夏洛特出行。妇辄昏仆于善人酒家门外，男得三钱白兰地灌救，翌日首告，罚没之半入囊。偶自昏，效亦同。
邦布尔夫妇既失其位，渐陷穷困，终为贫院丐者——即昔年作威作福之所。邦布尔先生尝言：虽遭沦落，亦无气力谢天分隔其妻。
贾尔斯与布里特尔斯仍居旧职，虽前者秃，后者少年已灰发。宿于牧师宅，然分其勤於宅中诸人、奥利弗、布朗洛、洛斯本之间，村人至今莫辨其究属何家。
查尔斯·贝茨少爷，骇于赛克斯之罪，潜思诚实生活或竟最善。既以为然，遂背昔日场，志改前非於新途。困顿久矣，以性知足、意诚悫，终有成；自农仆驿童，今为北安普敦郡最乐之牧犊少年。
今执笔书此者，临结而手颤，犹欲续织此冒险之缕，少延须臾。
吾久游其间，宁不眷恋，欲摹其欢以同乐。愿写罗斯·梅利韶年婉娩，幽径柔光，照同行者入心。愿绘其炉边活色、夏群组笑；随其午趋炎亩，听月下低语；观其外慈内勤；写其与亡姊之子相爱，共忆故人；召稚脸绕膝，听咿呀；追清笑，想碧眸泪。此及千般顾盼言笑，吾皆愿一一追还。
布朗洛先生日进养子以学，爱随性显而深；于中见故友早年痕，牵旧忆，凄而甜；二孤历艰，仁互相、感上天——皆不须述。吾言其真乐；非深爱、非仁心、非感彼以慈为律、以惠为德者，乐不可得。
旧村教堂祭坛内，白 marble 碑一，今惟一字：“艾格尼丝。”墓无棺，愿多年后始增他名！若亡灵归吊生前所爱之圣处——墓外之爱——吾信艾格尼丝之魂时徘徊此肃隅。吾信之，虽隅在堂、虽彼弱且迷。
AND LAST
The fortunes of those who have figured in this tale are nearly closed.
The little that remains to their historian to relate, is told in few
and simple words.
Before three months had passed, Rose Fleming and Harry Maylie were
married in the village church which was henceforth to be the scene of
the young clergyman’s labours; on the same day they entered into
possession of their new and happy home.
Mrs. Maylie took up her abode with her son and daughter-in-law, to
enjoy, during the tranquil remainder of her days, the greatest felicity
that age and worth can know—the contemplation of the happiness of those
on whom the warmest affections and tenderest cares of a well-spent
life, have been unceasingly bestowed.
It appeared, on full and careful investigation, that if the wreck of
property remaining in the custody of Monks (which had never prospered
either in his hands or in those of his mother) were equally divided
between himself and Oliver, it would yield, to each, little more than
three thousand pounds. By the provisions of his father’s will, Oliver
would have been entitled to the whole; but Mr. Brownlow, unwilling to
deprive the elder son of the opportunity of retrieving his former vices
and pursuing an honest career, proposed this mode of distribution, to
which his young charge joyfully acceded.
Monks, still bearing that assumed name, retired with his portion to a
distant part of the New World; where, having quickly squandered it, he
once more fell into his old courses, and, after undergoing a long
confinement for some fresh act of fraud and knavery, at length sunk
under an attack of his old disorder, and died in prison. As far from
home, died the chief remaining members of his friend Fagin’s gang.
Mr. Brownlow adopted Oliver as his son. Removing with him and the old
housekeeper to within a mile of the parsonage-house, where his dear
friends resided, he gratified the only remaining wish of Oliver’s warm
and earnest heart, and thus linked together a little society, whose
condition approached as nearly to one of perfect happiness as can ever
be known in this changing world.
Soon after the marriage of the young people, the worthy doctor returned
to Chertsey, where, bereft of the presence of his old friends, he would
have been discontented if his temperament had admitted of such a
feeling; and would have turned quite peevish if he had known how. For
two or three months, he contented himself with hinting that he feared
the air began to disagree with him; then, finding that the place really
no longer was, to him, what it had been, he settled his business on his
assistant, took a bachelor’s cottage outside the village of which his
young friend was pastor, and instantaneously recovered. Here he took to
gardening, planting, fishing, carpentering, and various other pursuits
of a similar kind: all undertaken with his characteristic impetuosity.
In each and all he has since become famous throughout the neighborhood,
as a most profound authority.
Before his removal, he had managed to contract a strong friendship for
Mr. Grimwig, which that eccentric gentleman cordially reciprocated. He
is accordingly visited by Mr. Grimwig a great many times in the course
of the year. On all such occasions, Mr. Grimwig plants, fishes, and
carpenters, with great ardour; doing everything in a very singular and
unprecedented manner, but always maintaining with his favourite
asseveration, that his mode is the right one. On Sundays, he never
fails to criticise the sermon to the young clergyman’s face: always
informing Mr. Losberne, in strict confidence afterwards, that he
considers it an excellent performance, but deems it as well not to say
so. It is a standing and very favourite joke, for Mr. Brownlow to rally
him on his old prophecy concerning Oliver, and to remind him of the
night on which they sat with the watch between them, waiting his
return; but Mr. Grimwig contends that he was right in the main, and, in
proof thereof, remarks that Oliver did not come back after all; which
always calls forth a laugh on his side, and increases his good humour.
Mr. Noah Claypole: receiving a free pardon from the Crown in
consequence of being admitted approver against Fagin: and considering
his profession not altogether as safe a one as he could wish: was, for
some little time, at a loss for the means of a livelihood, not burdened
with too much work. After some consideration, he went into business as
an informer, in which calling he realises a genteel subsistence. His
plan is, to walk out once a week during church time attended by
Charlotte in respectable attire. The lady faints away at the doors of
charitable publicans, and the gentleman being accommodated with
three-penny worth of brandy to restore her, lays an information next
day, and pockets half the penalty. Sometimes Mr. Claypole faints
himself, but the result is the same.
Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, deprived of their situations, were gradually
reduced to great indigence and misery, and finally became paupers in
that very same workhouse in which they had once lorded it over others.
Mr. Bumble has been heard to say, that in this reverse and degradation,
he has not even spirits to be thankful for being separated from his
wife.
As to Mr. Giles and Brittles, they still remain in their old posts,
although the former is bald, and the last-named boy quite grey. They
sleep at the parsonage, but divide their attentions so equally among
its inmates, and Oliver and Mr. Brownlow, and Mr. Losberne, that to
this day the villagers have never been able to discover to which
establishment they properly belong.
Master Charles Bates, appalled by Sikes’s crime, fell into a train of
reflection whether an honest life was not, after all, the best.
Arriving at the conclusion that it certainly was, he turned his back
upon the scenes of the past, resolved to amend it in some new sphere of
action. He struggled hard, and suffered much, for some time; but,
having a contented disposition, and a good purpose, succeeded in the
end; and, from being a farmer’s drudge, and a carrier’s lad, he is now
the merriest young grazier in all Northamptonshire.
And now, the hand that traces these words, falters, as it approaches
the conclusion of its task; and would weave, for a little longer space,
the thread of these adventures.
I would fain linger yet with a few of those among whom I have so long
moved, and share their happiness by endeavouring to depict it. I would
show Rose Maylie in all the bloom and grace of early womanhood,
shedding on her secluded path in life soft and gentle light, that fell
on all who trod it with her, and shone into their hearts. I would paint
her the life and joy of the fire-side circle and the lively summer
group; I would follow her through the sultry fields at noon, and hear
the low tones of her sweet voice in the moonlit evening walk; I would
watch her in all her goodness and charity abroad, and the smiling
untiring discharge of domestic duties at home; I would paint her and
her dead sister’s child happy in their love for one another, and
passing whole hours together in picturing the friends whom they had so
sadly lost; I would summon before me, once again, those joyous little
faces that clustered round her knee, and listen to their merry prattle;
I would recall the tones of that clear laugh, and conjure up the
sympathising tear that glistened in the soft blue eye. These, and a
thousand looks and smiles, and turns of thought and speech—I would fain
recall them every one.
How Mr. Brownlow went on, from day to day, filling the mind of his
adopted child with stores of knowledge, and becoming attached to him,
more and more, as his nature developed itself, and showed the thriving
seeds of all he wished him to become—how he traced in him new traits of
his early friend, that awakened in his own bosom old remembrances,
melancholy and yet sweet and soothing—how the two orphans, tried by
adversity, remembered its lessons in mercy to others, and mutual love,
and fervent thanks to Him who had protected and preserved them—these
are all matters which need not to be told. I have said that they were
truly happy; and without strong affection and humanity of heart, and
gratitude to that Being whose code is Mercy, and whose great attribute
is Benevolence to all things that breathe, happiness can never be
attained.
Within the altar of the old village church there stands a white marble
tablet, which bears as yet but one word: “AGNES.” There is no coffin in
that tomb; and may it be many, many years, before another name is
placed above it! But, if the spirits of the Dead ever come back to
earth, to visit spots hallowed by the love—the love beyond the grave—of
those whom they knew in life, I believe that the shade of Agnes
sometimes hovers round that solemn nook. I believe it none the less
because that nook is in a Church, and she was weak and erring.
