t the Star and Garter on the next day but
one, after celebrating with both friends on the previous evening an
anniversary[16] which concerned us all (their second and my
twenty-sixth), and which we kept always in future at the same place,
except when they were living out of England, for twenty successive
years. It was a part of his love of regularity and order, as well as of
his kindliness of nature, to place such friendly meetings as these under
rules of habit and continuance.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] See _ante_, p. 120.

[15] There is an earlier allusion I may quote, from a letter in January,
for its mention of a small piece written by him at this time, but not
included in his acknowledged writings: "I am as badly off as you. I have
not done the _Young Gentlemen_, nor written the preface to _Grimaldi_,
nor thought of _Oliver Twist_, or even supplied a subject for the
plate." The _Young Gentlemen_ was a small book of sketches which he
wrote anonymously as the companion to a similar half-crown volume of
_Young Ladies_ (not written by him), for Messrs. Chapman & Hall. He
added subsequently a like volume of _Young Couples_, also without his
name.

[16] See _ante_, p. 113.

CHAPTER VIII.

OLIVER TWIST.

1838.

Interest in Characters at Close of
_Oliver_--Writing of the Last
Chapter--Cruikshank Illustrations--Etchings for
Last Volume--How executed--Slander respecting
them exposed--Falsehood ascribed to the
Artist--Reputation of the New Tale--Its
Workmanship--Social Evils passed away--Living
only in what destroyed them--Chief Design of
the Story--Its Principal Figures--Comedy and
Tragedy of Crime--Reply to Attacks--Le Sage,
Gay, and Fielding--Likeness to them--Again the
Shadow of _Barnaby_--Appeal to Mr. Bentley for
Delay--A Very Old Story--"Sic Vos non
Vobis"--_Barnaby_ given up by Mr.
Bentley--Resignation of _Miscellany_--Parent
parting from Child.

THE whole of his time not occupied by _Nickleby_ was now given to
_Oliver_, and as the story shaped itself to its close it took
extraordinary hold of him. I never knew him work so frequently after
dinner, or to such late hours (a practice he afterwards abhorred), as
during the final months of this task; which it was now his hope to
complete before October, though its close in the magazine would not be
due until the following March. "