Oliver Twist Chapter 30 Summary

"Relates what Oliver's new visitors thought of him."

• Rose and Mrs. Maylie still don’t know that the thief is just a boy, so the doctor decides to let them look for themselves at the kind of thief they’re harboring – but only after assuring them that although the thief "hasn’t shaved in a while," he’s really not so scary.
• When they get to the room, Oliver’s asleep on the bed and looking totally angelic as usual.
• Rose smoothes his hair on the pillow and cries over him a bit (she’s very soft-hearted).
• Rose, Mrs. Maylie, and Mr. Losberne discuss whether or not Oliver can really be a criminal.
• Mr. Losberne thinks it’s possible for crime and vice to take hold of a person from a very young age, and that even though Oliver looks innocent, he might really be a hardened criminal.
• Rose refuses to believe it, and begs her aunt to protect Oliver from the authorities, saying that she herself might have been an orphan all adrift in the world if Mrs. Maylie hadn’t taken care of her, so could she please, please do the same for Oliver?
• Mrs. Maylie promises to, and the doctor thinks about what they can do – after all, the authorities have already been notified about the break-in, and the servants know all about it, so it will be difficult to keep Oliver from being arrested.
• Mr. Losberne decides what to do, and gets Mrs. Maylie’s permission to do as he thinks proper – provided that, once they hear the boy’s story, they still think that he’s worth saving. Mrs. Maylie must really trust him, because she agrees to this, even though she doesn’t know what his plan is.
• Later on in the day, Oliver wakes up, and tells his story to Rose, Mrs. Maylie, and Mr. Losberne.
• They believe him, and put him to bed for the night.
• Mr. Losberne goes down to the kitchen, where Mr. Giles is once again telling the story of his heroism to the other servants.
• Mr. Losberne pretends to be very angry, and asks Giles and Losberne if they are Protestant – they are – and if they would be willing to swear up and down, on a stack of Bibles, that the boy they found on the doorstep that morning was the same as the boy they had shot the night before.
• Mr. Giles and Brittles are so rattled by his unexpected tone of voice that they say they aren’t sure.
• Just then, they hear a coach in the driveway.
• Brittles says it must be the two Bow-street officers that he and Mr. Giles had sent for that morning (Bow-street officers were the detective branch of the Metropolitan police force at that point – they’ve since been replaced by Scotland Yard).
• Mr. Losberne is annoyed that Giles and Brittles had sent for the officers without being asked, but he doesn’t say so, and walks out of the kitchen.