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406
ERFGOEDBIBLIOTHEEK H. CONSCIENCE

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GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
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LECTURING ON CAPITAL."
 GREAT EXPECTATIONS

BY

CHARLES DICKENS
1

Illustrated

LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL

LIMITED
 RICHARD Clay & Sons,
BREAD STREET HILL, LONDON,
Bungay, Suffolk.
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

LECTURING ON CAPITAL Frontispiece

HE SAID, “ AHA ! WOULD YOU ? " AND BEGAN DANCING
BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS . Page 86
THEN SHE SOFTLY PATTED MY SHOULDER IN A SOOTHING
WAY . 123

DRAWLING TO HIS ATTENDANTS, “ DON'T KNOW YAH,

Don't KNOW YAH ” . 235

GRADUALLY I SLIPPED FROM THE CHAIR AND LAY ON

THE Floor 309

I HAD HAD TO FEEL MY WAY AMONG THE SHIPPING 363

“ DO YOU KNOW THIS ? » SAID HE 404

VE SAT DOWN ON A BENCH THAT WAS NEAR . 461

GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

CHAPTER I.

My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name

Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing
longer or more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip, and
came to be called Pip.
I give Pirrip as my father's family name, on the authority
of his tombstone and my sister - Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married
the blacksmith . As I never saw my father or my mother, and
never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were
long before the days of photographs ), my first fancies regarding
what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their
tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me
an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly
black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription ,
“ Also Georgiana, Wife of the Above,” I drew a childish con
clusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little
stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were
arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to
the memory of five little brothers of mine—who gave up trying
to get a living exceedingly early in that universal struggle
I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they
had all been born on their backs with their hands in their
trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state
of existence .
Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as
B
2 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid
and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me
to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards
evening. At such a time I found out for certain , that this
bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard ; and
that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana, wife
of the above, were dead and buried ; and that Alexander, Bar
tholomew, Abraham , Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the
aforesaid, were also dead and buried ; and that the dark flat
wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and
mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the
marshes ; and that the low leaden line beyond was the river ;
and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was
rushing, was the sea ; and that the small bundle of shivers
growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.
“ Hold your noise ! ” cried a terrible voice, as a man started
up from among the graves at the side of the church porch.
“ Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat !”
A fearful man , all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his
leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an
old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in
water, and smothered in mud , and lamed by stones, and cut by
flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briers ; who limped,
and chivered, and glared and growled ; and whose teeth
chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin .
"G
“ O ! Don't cut my throat, sir,” I pleaded in terror. “ Pray
don't do it, sir. ”
“Tell us your name ! ” said the man . “ Quick ! ”
«
Pip, sir."
“ Once more,” said the man, staring at me. “ Give it
mouth ! ”
“Pip. Pip, sir. "
“Show us where you live,” said the man . “Pint out the
place !”
I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat in -shore among
the alder -trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church.
The man , after looking at me for a moment, turned me
upside down, and emptied my pockets . There was nothing in
them but a piece of bread. When the church came to itself
for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over
heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet - when
 IN BODILY TERROR. 3

the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tomb.

stone, trembling, while he ate the bread ravenously.
> C
“ You young dog," said the man , licking his lips, “what fat
cheeks you ha' got.”
I believe they were fat, though I was at that time under
sized for my years, and not strong.
“ Darn Me if I couldn't eat 'em ," said the man , with a threat
ening shake of his head, and if I han't half a mind to't ! ”
I earnestly expressed my hope that he wouldn't, and held
tighter to the tombstone on which he had put me ; partly, to
keep myself upon it; partly, to keep myself from crying.
" Now lookee here ! said the man . “ Where's your
mother ? ”
“ There, sir ! ” said I.
He started, made a short run , and stopped and looked over
his shoulder.
“ There sir !” I timidly explained . “ Also Georgiana. That's
my mother.”
“Oh ! ” said he, coming back . “And is that your father
alonger your mother ? ”
“« Yes, sir,” said I ; “ him too ; late of this parish ."
“ Ha !” he muttered then , considering . “Who d'ye live with
-supposing you're kindly let to live, which I han't made up
my mind about ? "
66
My sister, sir — Mrs. Joe Gargery - wife of Joe Gargery,
the blacksmith , sir.”
“ Blacksmith, eh ? ” said he. And looked down at his leg.
After darkly looking at his leg and at me several times, he
came closer to my tombstone, took me by both arms, and tilted
me back as far as he could hold me ; so that his eyes looked
most powerfully down into mine, and mine looked most help
lessly up into his.
“ Now lookee here, ” he said, “the question being whether
you're to be let to live. You know what a file is ? "
<C
Yes, sir.”
“ And you know what wittles is ? "
“ Yes, sir . "
After each question he tilted me over a little more, so as to
give me a greater sense of helplessness and danger.
You get me a file.” He tilted me again. “ And you get
me wittles .” He tilted me again . “You bring 'em both to
B 2
4 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

me. ” He tilted me again . “ Or I'll have your heart and liver

out.” He tilted me again .
I was dreadfully frightened , and so giddy that I clung to him
with both hands, and said , “ If you would kindly please to let
me keep upright, sir, perhaps I shouldn't be sick, and perhaps
I could attend more .”
He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the
church jumped over its own weathercock . Then, he held me
by the arms in an upright position on the top of the stone, and
went on in these fearful terms :
“ You bring me, to-morrow morning early, that file and them
wittles. You bring the lot to me, at that old Battery over yonder.
You do it, and you never dare to say a word or dare to make a
sign concerning your having seen such a person as me, or any
person sumever, and you shall be let to live. You fail, or you
go from my words in any partickler, no matter how small it is,
and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted and ate .
Now, I ain't alone, as you may think I am. There's a young
man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am
a Angel. That young man hears the words I speak . That
young man has a secret way pecooliar to himself, of getting at
a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in wain for a
boy to attempt to hide himself from that young man. A boy
may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up,
may draw the clothes over his head, may think himself com
fortable and safe, but that young man will softly creep and
creep his way to him and tear him open. I am a keeping that
young man from harming of you at the present moment , with
great difficulty. I find it wery hard to hold that young man
off of your inside . Now what do you say ? "
I said that I would get him the file, and I would get him
what broken bits of food I could, and I would come to him at
the Battery, early in the morning.
>
“ Say, Lord strike you dead if you don't ! " said the man .
I said so, and he took me down.
“ Now ," he pursued , “ you remember what you've under
took , and you remember that young man , and you get home! ”
Goo -good night, sir , " I faltered .
“Much of that !” said he, glancing about him over the cold
wet flat. “ I wish I was a frog. Or a eel ! ”
At the same time, he hugged his shuddering body in both his
 IN THE MARSHES. 5

arms 5 - clasping himself, as if to hold himself together - and

limped towards the low church wall. As I saw him go, picking
his way among the nettles, and among the brambles that bound
the green mounds, he looked in my young eyes as if he were
eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously
out of their graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull
him in .
When he came to the low church wall, he got over it, like a
man whose legs were numbed and stiff, and then turned round
to look for me. When I saw him turning, I set my face to
wards home, and made the best use of my legs. But presently
I looked over my shoulder, and saw him going on again towards
the river, still hugging himself in both arms, and picking his
way with his sore feet among the great stones dropped into the
marshes here and there, for stepping -places when the rains
were heavy, or the tide was in .
The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then , as
I stopped to look after him ; and the river was just another
horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so black ; and the
sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black
lines intermixed. On the edge of the river I could faintly
make out the only two black things in all the prospect that
seemed to be standing upright ; one of these was the beacon
by which the sailors steered - like an unhooped cask upon a
pole — an ugly thing when you were near it; the other a gibbet,
with some chains hanging to it which had once held a pirate.
The man was limping on towards this latter, as if he were the
pirate come to life, and come down, and going back to hook
himself up again . It gave me a terrible turn when I thought
so ; and as I saw the cattle lifting their heads to gaze after
him, I wondered whether they thought so too. I looked all
round for the horrible young man , and could see no signs of
him . But now I was frightened again , and ran home without
stopping.
0 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

CHAPTER II .

My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older
than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and
the neighbours because she had brought me up “ by hand."
Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression
meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and
to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well
as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both
brought up by hand .
She was not a good -looking woman , my sister ; and I had a
general impression that she must have made Joe Gargery
marry her by hand. Joe was a fair man, with curls of flaxen
hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of such a
very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got
mixed with their own whites. He was a mild, good -natured ,
sweet-tempered, easy -going, foolish, dear fellow-- a sort of
Hercules in strength , and also in weakness.
My sister, Mrs. Joe, with black hair and eyes, had such a
prevailing redness of skin, that I sometimes used to wonder
whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg
grater instead of soap. She was tall and bony, and almost
always wore a coarse apron , fastened over her figure behind
with two loops, and having a square impregnable bib in front
that was stuck full of pins and needles . She made it a power
ful merit in herself, and a strong reproach against Joe, that
she wore this apron so much. Though I really see no reason
why she should have worn it at all : or why, if she did wear it
at all, she should not have taken it off every day of her life.
Joe's forge adjoined our house, which was a wooden house,
as many of the dwellings in our country were — most of them ,
at that time. When I ran home from the churchyard, the
forge was shut up, and Joe was sitting alone in the kitchen .
Joe and I being fellow - sufferers, and having confidences as
such, Joe imparted a confidence to me, the moment I raised
the latch of the door and peeped in at bim opposite to it,
sitting in the chimney corner .
“Mrs. Joe has been out a dozen times, looking for you, Pip.
And she's out now, making it a baker's dozen.”
" Is she ? "
 “ TICKLER .” 7
“Yes, Pip ,” said Joe ; “and what's worse, she's got Tickler
with her.”
At this dismal intelligence, I twistedthe only button on my
waistcoat round and round, and looked in great depression at
the fire. Tickler was a wax -ended piece of cane, worn smooth
by collision with my tickled frame.
“ She sot down,” said Joe, “and she got up, and she made a
grab at Tickler, and she Ram - paged out. That's what she
did,” said Joe, slowly clearing the fire between the lower bars
with the poker, and looking at it : “she Ram - paged out, Pip .”
“Has she been gone long, Joe ? ” I always treated him as
a larger species of child, and as no more than my equal.
66
Well,” said Joe, glancing up at the Dutch clock, " she's
been on the Ram - page this last spell about five minutes, Pip.
She's a - coming ! Get bebind the door, old chap, and have the
jack - towel betwixt you.”
I took the advice. My sister, Mrs. Joe, throwing the door
wide open , and finding an obstruction behind it, immediately
divined the cause, and applied Tickler to its further investiga
tion . She concluded by throwing me-I often served as a con
nubial missile-- at Joe, who, glad to get hold of me on any
terms, passed me on into the chimney and quietly fenced me
up there with his great leg.
“ Where have you been, you young monkey ? ” said Mrs. Joe,
stamping her foot. “ Tell me directly what you've been doing
to wear me away with fret and fright and worrit, or I'd have
you out of that corner if you was fifty Pips, and he was five
hundred Gargerys."
“ I have only been to the churchyard ,” said I, from my stool,
crying and rubbing myself.
6
Churchyard ! ” repeated my sister. “ If it warn't for me
you'd have been to the churchyard long ago , and stayed there.
Who brought you up by hand ?”
“ You did ," said I.
“And why did I do it, I should like to know ? " exclaimed
my sister.
I whimpered, “ I don't know ."
“ I don't !” said my sister.." I'd never do it again ! I
know that. I may truly say I've never had this apron of mine
off, since born you were. It's bad enough to be a blacksmith's
wife (and him a Gargery ), without being your mother . "
 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
My thoughts strayed from that question as I looked dis
consolately at the fire. For, the fugitive out on the marshes
with the ironed leg, the mysterious young man , the file, the
food, and the dreadful pledge I was under to commit a larceny
on those sheltering premises, rose before me in the avenging
coals.
“ Hah ! ” said Mrs. Joe, restoring Tickler to his station .
* Churchyard, indeed ! You may well say churchyard, you
“ You'll
two .” One of us, by the by, had not said it at all.
drive me to the churchyard betwixt you , one of these days,
and ob, a pr-r -recious pair you'd be without me! ”
As she applied herself to set the tea -things, Joe peeped down
at me over his leg, as if he were mentally casting me and him
self up, and calculating what kind of pairwe practically should
make, under the grievous circumstances foreshadowed. After
that, he sat feeling his right-side filaxen curls and whisker, and
following Mrs. Joe about with his blue eyes, as his manner
always was at squally times.
My sister had a trenchant way of cutting our bread -and
butter for us, that never varied . First, with her left hand she
jammed the loaf hard and fast against her bib — where it some
times got a pin into it, and sometimes a edle, which we after
wards got into our mouths. Then she took some butter (not
too much ) on a knife and spread it on the loaf, in an apothecary
kind of way, as if she were making a plaister - using both sides
of the knife with a slapping dexterity, and trimming and mould
ing the butter off round the crust. Then, she gave the knife
a final smart wipe on the edge of the plaister, and then sawed
a very thick round off the loaf: which she finally, before sepa
rating from the loaf, hewed into two halves, of which Joe got
one, and I the other.
On the present occasion, though I was hungry, I dared not
eat my slice. I felt that I must have something in reserve for
my dreadful acquaintance, and his ally the still more dreadful
young man . I knew Mrs. Joe's housekeeping to be of the
strictest kind, and that my larcenous researches might find
nothing available in the safe. Therefore I resolved to put
my hunk of bread -and-butter down the leg of my trousers.
The effort of resolution necessary to the achievement of this
purpose, I found to be quite awful. It was as if I had to make
up my mind to leap from the top of a high house , or plunge
 JOE AGHAST . 9

into a great depth of water. And it was made the more diffi
cult by the unconscious Joe. In our already -mentioned free
masonry as fellow -sufferers, and in his good -natured companion
ship with me, it was our evening habit to compare the way we
bit through our slices, by silently holding them up to each
other's admiration now and then — which stimulated us to new
exertions. To -night, Joe several times invited me, by the dis
play of his fast-diminishing slice, to enter upon our usual
friendly competition ; but he found me, each time, with my
yellow mug of tea on one knee, and my untouched bread -and
butter on the other. At last, I desperately considered that
the thing I contemplated must be done, and that it had best
be done in the least improbable manner consistent with the
circumstances. I took advantage of a moment when Joe had
just looked at me, and got my bread -and -butter down my leg.
Joe was evidently made uncomfortable by what he supposed
to be my loss of appetite, and took a thoughtful bite out of
his slice, which he didn't seem to enjoy. He turned it about
in his mouth much longer than usual, pondering over it a good
deal, and after all gulped it down like a pill. He was about to
take another bite, and had just got his head on one side for a
good purchase on it, when his eye fell on me, and he saw that
my bread -and -butter was gone.
The wonder and consternation with which Joe stopped on the
threshold of his bite and stared at me, were too evident to
escape my sister's observation .
“What's the matter now ? ” said she, smartly, as she put
down her cup .
“ I say , you know !” muttered Joe, shaking his head at me
in a very serious remonstrance. “Pip, old chap ! You'll do
yourself a mischiof. It'll stick somewhere. You can't have
chawed it, Pip .”
“ What's the matter now ? ” repeated my sister, more sharply
than before.
If you can cough any trifle on it up, Pip, I'd recommend
you to do it,” said Joe, all aghast. “ Manners is manners, but
still your elth's your elth .”
By this time, my sister was quite desperate, so she pounced
on Joe, and, taking him by the two whiskers, knocked his head
for a little while against the wall behind him : while I sat in
the corner , looking guiltily on.
 12 GREAT EXPECTA .
TIONS
It was not very polite to herself, I thought, to imply that I
should be told lies by her, even if I did ask questions. But
she never was polite, unless there was company.
At this point, Joe greatly augmented my curiosity by taking
the utmost pains to open his mouth very wide, and to put it
into the form of a word that looked to me like 6“ sulks. " There
fore, I naturally pointed to Mrs. Joe, and put my mouth into
the form of saying “ her ? ” But Joe wouldn't hear of that at
all, and again opened his mouth very wide , and shook the form
of a most emphatic word out of it . But I could make nothing
of the word .
“ Mrs. Joe, ” said I, as a last resort, “ I should like to know
-if you wouldn't much mind — where the firing comes from ? ”
“ Lord bless the boy ! ” exclaimed my sister, as if she didn't
quite mean that, but rather the contrary. “From the
Hulks ! ”
“ OL -h ! ” said I , looking at Joe. “ Hulks ! ”
Joe gave a reproachful cough, as much as to say, “ Well, I
told you so . "
“ And please what's Hulks ? ” said I.
“ That's the way with this boy ! ” exclaimed mysister, point
ing me out with her needle and thread , and shaking her head
16
at me . Answer him one question , and he'll ask you a dozen
directly. Hulks are prison -ships, right 'cross th' meshes." We
always used that name for marshes in our co
country.
“ I wonder who's put into prison -ships, and why they’re put
there ? ” said I , iu a general way, and with quiet desperation.
It was too much for Mrs. Joe, who immediately rose. “ I
tell you what,young fellow,” said she, “ I didn't bring you up
by hand to badger people's lives out. It would be blame to me,
and not praise, if I had . People are put in the Hulks because
they murder, and because they rob, and forge,and do all sorts
of bad ; and they always begin by asking questions. Now, you
get along to bed ! ”
I was never allowed a candle to light me to bed, and, as I
went up stairs in the dark, with my head tingling — from Mrs.
Joe's thimble having played the tambourine upon it,to accom
pany her last words- I felt fearfully sensible of the great con
venience that the Hulks were handy for me. I was clearly on
my way there. I had begun by asking questions, and I was
going to rob Mrs. Joe.
 A GUILTY CONSCIENCE, 13

Since that time, which is far enough away now, I have often
thought that few people know what secrecy there is in the
young, under terror. No matter how unreasonable the terror,
so that it be terror. I was in mortal terror of the young man
who wanted my heart and liver ; I was in mortal terror of my
interlocutor with the iron leg ; I was in mortal terror of myself,
from whom an awful promise had been extracted ; I had no
hope of deliverance through my all- powerful sister, who re
pulsed me at every turn ; I am afraid think of what I might
have done on requirement , in the secrecy of my terror.
If I slept at all that night, it was only to imagine myself
drifting down the river on a strong spring-tide, to the Hulks ;
a ghostly pirate calling out to me through a speaking-trumpet,
as I passed the gibbet-station, that I had better come ashore
and be hanged there at once, and not put it off. I was afraid
to sleep, even if I had been inclined, for I knew that at the
first faint dawn of morning I must rob the pantry . There was
TE no doing it in the night, for there was no getting a light by
easy friction then ; to have got one, I must have struck it out
of flint and steel, and have made a noise like the very pirate
himself rattling his chains.
As soon as the great black velvet pall outside my little window
was shot with grey, I got up and went down stairs ; every board
upon the way , and every crack in every board, calling after me,
' Stop thief! ” and “Get up, Mrs. Joe ! ” In the pantry, which
was far more abundantly supplied than usual, owing to the
season, I was very much alarmed, by a hare hanging up by the
heels, whom I rather thought I caught, when my back was half
turned , winking. I had no time for verification, no time for
selection, no time for anything,for I had no time to spare. I
stole some bread, some rind of cheese, about half a jar of
mincemeat (which I tied up in my pocket -handkerchief with
‫ܬܐ‬Uܳ‫ܫܳܐܶܢ‬ my last night's slice ), some brandy from a stone bottle (which
J
I decanted into a glass bottle I had secretly used for making
that intoxicating - fluid , Spanish -liquorice-water, up in my room ;
diluting the stone bottle from a jug in the kitchen cupboard ), a
meat bone with very little on it, and a beautiful round compact
pork pie. I was nearly going away without the pie, but I was
‫به‬ tempted to mount upon a shelf, to look what it was that was
ID put away so carefully in a covered earthenware dish in a corner,
and I found it was the pie, and I took it, in the hope that it
10 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ Now , perhaps you'll mention what's the matter," said my
sister, out of breath , " you staring great stuck pig :”
Joe looked at her in a helpless way ; then took a helpless
bite, and looked at me again .
“ You know, Pip,”" said Joe, solemnly , with his last bite in
his cheek, and speaking in a confidential voice, as if we two
were quite alone, “ you and me is always friends, and I'd be
the last to tell upon you, any time. But such a- ” he
moved his chair, and looked about the floor between us,
and then again at me — “ such a most uncommon bolt as
that !"
“ Been bolting his food, has be ? ” cried my sister.
“ You know, old chap ,” said Joe, looking at me, and not at
Mrs. Joe, with his bite still in his cheek, “ I Bolted myself,
when I was your age-- frequent — and as a boy I've been among
a many Bolters ; but I never see your bolting equal yet, Pip,
and it's a mercy you ain't Bolted dead ."
My sister made a dive at me, and fished me up by the
hair : saying nothing more than the awful words, “ You
come along and be dosed .”
Some medical beast had revived Tar-water in those days as a
fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the
cupboard ; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its
pastiness . At the best of times, so much of this elixir was
administered to me as a choice restorative, that I was conscious
of going about, smelling like a new fence. On this particular
evening, the urgency of my case demanded a pint of this
mixture, which was poured down my throat, for my greater
comfort, while Mrs. Joe held my head under her arm , as a
boot would be held in a boot-jack. Joe got off with half a
pint ; but was made to swallow that much to his disturbance,
as he sat slowly munching and meditating before the fire),
“ because he had had a turn." Judging from my myself, I
should say he certainly had a turn afterwards, if he had had
none before.
Conscience is a dreadful thing when it accuses man or boy ;
but when, in the case of a boy, that secret burden co-operates
with another secret burden down the leg of his trousers, it is
(as I can testify ) a great punishment. The guilty knowledge
that I was going to rob Mrs. Joe-I never thought I was going
to rob Joe, for I never thought of any of the housekeeping
 “ ANOTHER CONWICT OFF." 11

property as his - united to the necessity of always keeping ole

hand on my bread -and -butter as I sat, or when I was orderedi
about the kitchen on any small errand , almost drove me out of
my mind. Then , as the marsh winds made the fire glow and
flare, I thought I heard the voice outside, of the man with the
iron on his leg who had sworn me to secrecy, declaring that he
couldn't and wouldn't starve until to-morrow, but must be fed
now . At other times, I thought, What if the young man who
was with so much difficulty restrained from imbruing his hands
in me, should yield to a constitutional impatience, or should
mistake the time, and should think himself accredited to my
heart and liver to -night, instead of to -morrow ! If ever any
body's hair stood on end with terror, mine must have done so
then. “But, perhaps, nobody's ever did ?
It was Christmas Eve, and I had to stir the pudding for next
day, with a copper -stick , from seven to eight by the Dutch
clock . I tried it with the load upon my leg (and that made me
think afresh of the man with the load on his leg), and found
the tendency of exercise to bring the bread-and-butter out at
my ankle, quite unmanageable. Happily II slipped away, and
deposited that part of my conscience in my garret bedroom.
“ Hark !” said I, when I had done my stirring, and was
taking a final warm in the chimney corner before being sent
CG
up to bed ; was that great guns, Joe ? ”
“ Ah ! ” said Joe . “ There's another conwict off .”
“ What does that mean, Joe ? ” said I.
Mrs. Joe, who always took explanations upon herself, said
snappishly , “ Escaped. Escaped.” Administering the definition
like Tar -water .
While Mrs. Joe sat with her head bending over her needle
work, I put my mouth into the forms of saying to Joe, “ What's
a convict ?” Joe put his mouth into the forms of returning
such a highly elaborate answer, that I could make out nothing
of it but the single word, “ Pip .”
“ There was a conwict off last night,” said Joe, aloud, “ after
sun-set gun. And they fired warning of him . And now it
appears they're firing warning of another.”
“ Who's firing ? ” said I.
2
“ Drat that boy," interposed my sister, frowning at me over
her work , “ what a questioner he is. Ask no questions, and
you' ll be told no lies."
 12 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

It was not very polite to herself, I thought, to imply that I

should be told lies by her, even if I did ask questions. But
she never was polite, unless there was company .
At this point, Joe greatly augmented my curiosity by taking
the utmost pains to open his mouth very wide, and to put it
into the form of a word that looked to me like “ sulks." There
fore, I naturally pointed to Mrs. Joe, and put my mouth into
the form of saying “ her ? ” But Joe wouldn't hear of that at
all, and again opened his mouth very wide , and shook the form
of a most emphatic word out of it. But I could make nothing
of the word .
“ Mrs. Joe,” said I, as a last resort, “ I should like to know
-if you wouldn't much mind—where the firing comes from ? ”
“ Lord bless the boy ! ” exclaimed my sister, as if she didn't
quite mean that, but rather the contrary. " From the
Hulks ! »
“ Ol - h ! ” said I, looking at Joe. “ Hulks ! ”
Joe gave a reproachful cough , as much as to say, “ Well, I
told you so.”
“And please what's Hulks ? ” said I.
“That's the way with this boy ! ” exclaimed my sister, point
ing me out with her needle and thread , and shaking her head
at me . “ Answer him one question, and he'll ask you a dozen
directly. Hulks are prison -ships, right 'cross th’ meshes.” We
always used that name for marshes in our country.
“ I wonder who's put into prison-ships, and why they're put
there ? ” said I, in a general way, and with quiet desperation.
It was too much for Mrs. Joe, who immediately rose. “ I
tell you what, young fellow , ” said she, “ I didn't bring you up
by hand to badger people's lives out. It would be blame to me,
and not praise, if I had. People are put in the Hulks because
they murder, and because they rob, and forge, and do all sorts
of bad ; and they always begin by asking questions. Now, you
get along to bed ! ”
I was never allowed a candle to light me to bed, and, as I
went up stairs in the dark, with my head tingling — from Mrs.
Joe's thimble having played the tambourine upon it, to accom
pany her last words—I felt fearfully sensible of the great con
venience that the Hulks were handy for me. I was clearly on
my way there. I had begun by asking questions, and I was
going to rob Mrs. Joe.
 A GUILTY CONSCIENCE, 13

Since that time, which is far enough away now, I have often
thought that few people know what secrecy there is in the
young, under terror. No matter how unreasonable the terror,
so that it be terror. I was in mortal terror of the young man
who wanted my heart and liver ; I was in mortal terror of my
interlocutor with the iron leg ; I was in mortal terror of myself,
from whom an awful promise had been extracted ; I had no
hope of deliverance through my all- powerful sister, who re
pulsed me at every turn ; I am afraid to think of what I might
have done on requirement, in the secrecy of my terror.
If I slept at all that night, it was only to imagine myself
drifting down the river on a strong spring -tide, to the Hulks ;
a ghostly pirate calling out to me through a speaking -trumpet,
as I passed the gibbet - station, that I had better come ashore
and be hanged there at once, and not put it off. I was afraid
to sleep, even if I had been inclined, for I knew that at the
first faint dawn of morning I must rob the pantry. There was
no doing it in the night, for there was no getting a light by
easy friction then ; to have got one, I must have struck it out
of flint and steel, and have made a noise like the very pirate
himself rattling his cha
As soon as the great black velvet pall outside my little window
was shot with grey , I got up and went down stairs ; every board
upon the way, and every crack in every board, calling after me,
“ Stop thief ! ” and “ Get up, Mrs. Joe !” In the pantry, which
C

was far more abundantly supplied than usual, owing to the

season , I was very much alarmed, by a hare hanging up by the
heels, whom I rather thought I caught, when my back was half
turned , winking. I had no time for verification, no time for
selection , no time for anything, for I had no time to spare. I
stole some bread, some rind of cheese, about half a jar of
mincemeat (which I tied up in my pocket-handkerchief with
my last night's e ), me brandy from a stone bottle ( which
I decanted into a glass bottle I had secretly used for making
that intoxicating -fluid , Spanish -liquorice-water, up in my room ;
diluting the stone bottle from a jug in the kitchen cupboard ), a
meat bone with very little on it, and a beautiful round compact
pork pie. I was nearly going away without the pie, but I was
tempted to mount upon a shelf, to look what it was that was
put away so carefully in a covered earthenware dish in a corner ,
and I found it was the pie, and I took it, in the hope that it
14 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

was not intended for early use, and would not be missed for
some time.
There was a door in the kitchen communicating with the
forge ; I unlocked and unbolted that door, and got a file from
among Joe's tools . Then I put the fastenings as I had found
them, opened the door at which I had entered when I ran home
last night, shut it, and ran for the misty marshes.

CHAPTER III .

It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp
lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had
been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket
handkerchief. Now I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges
and spare grass, like a coarser sort of spiders' web ; hanging
itself from twig to twig and blade to blade . On every rail
and gate, wet lay clammy, and the marsh -mist was so thick ,
that the wooden finger on the post directing people to our
village - a direction which they never accepted, for they never
came there was invisible to me until I was quite close under it .
Then, as I looked up at it, while it dripped, it seemed to my
oppressed conscience like a phantom devoting me to the
Hulks.
The mist was heavier yet when got out upon the marshes,
so that instead of my running at everything, everything seemed
to run at me. This was very disagreeable to a guilty mind.
The gates and dykes and banks came bursting at me through
the mist, as if they cried as plainly as could be, “ A boy with
Somebody -else's pork pie ! Stop him ! ” The cattle came upon
ine with like suddenness, staring out of their eyes, and steam
ing out of their nostrils, “ Holloa, young thief !” One black
ox, with a white cravat on—who even had to my awakened
conscience something of a clerical air — fixed me so obstinately
with his eyes, and moved his blunt head round in such an
accusatory manner as I moved round, that I blubbered out to
him, " I couldn't help it, sir ! It wasn't for myself I took it !”
Upon which he put down his head, blew a cloud of smoke out
 AT THE BATTERY, 15

oi his nose, and vanished with a kick -up of his hind -legs and
a flourish of his tail.
All this time I was getting on towards the river ; but how
ever fast I went, I couldn't warm my feet, to which the damp
cold seemed riveted, as the iron was riveted to the leg of the
man I was running to meet. I knew my way to the Battery,
pretty straight, for I had been down there on a Sunday with
Joe, and Joe, sitting on an old gun, had told me that when I
was 'prentice to him, regularly bound, we would have such
Larks there ! However, in the confusion of the mist, I found
myself at last too far to the right, and consequently had to
try back along the river-side, on the bank of loose stones above
the mud and the stakes that staked the tide out. Making my
way along here with all despatch , I had just crossed a ditch
which I knew to be very near the Battery, and had just
scrambled up the mound beyond the ditch, when I saw the
man sitting before me. His back was towards me, and he
had his arms folded , and was nodding forward, heavy with
sleep.
I thought he would be more glad if I came upon him with
his breakfast, in that unexpected manner, so I went forward
softly and touched him on the shoulder. He instantly jumped
up, and it was not the same man, but another man !
And yet this man was dressed in coarse grey, too, and had a
great iron on his leg, and was lame, and hoarse, and cold, and
was everything that the other man was ; except that he had
not the same face, and had a flat, broad -brimmed , low - crowned
felt hat on. All this I saw in a moment, for I had only a
moment to see it in : he swore an oath at me, made a hit at me
-it was a round, weak blow that missed me and almost knocked
himself down, for it made him stumble — and then he ran into
the mist, stumbling twice as he went, and I lost him.
" It's the young man !” I thought, feeling my heart shoot as
I identified him. I dare say I should have felt a pain in my
liver too, if I had known where it was.
I was soon at the Battery , after that, and there was the
right man - hugging himself and limping to and fro, as if he
had never all night left off hugging and limping - waiting for
me. He was awfully cold, to be sure. I half expected to see
him drop down before my face and die of deadly cold. His
eyes looked so awfully hungry, too, that when I handed him the
16 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

file and he laid it down on the grass, it occurred to me he

would have tried to eat it, if he had not seen my bundle. He
did not turn me upside down, this time, to get at what I had,
but left me right side upwards while I opened the bundle and
emptied my pockets. "
“ What's in the bottle, boy ? ” said he.
“ Brandy,” said I.
He was already banding mincemeat down his throat in the
most curious manner-more like a man who was putting it
away somewhere in a violent burry, than a man who was
eating it—but he left off to take some of the liquor. He
shivered all the while so violently , that it was quite as much as
he could do to keep the neck of the bottle between his teeth,
without biting it off .
“ I think you have got the ague,” said I.
“ I'm much of your opinion, boy ,” said he.
“ It's bad about here, ” I told him . “ You've been lying out
on the meshes, and they're dreadful aguish. Rheumatic
too ."
>
“ I'll eat my breakfast afore they 're the death of me, " said
he. “ I'd do that if I was going to be strung up to that there
gallows as there is over there, direct arterwards. I'll beat
the shivers so far, I'll bet you.”
He was gobbling mincemeat, meatbone, bread, cheese, and
pork pie, all at once : staring distrustfully while he did so at
the mist all round us, and often stopping - even stopping his
jaws to listen . Some real or fancied sound, some clink upon
the river or breathing of beast upon the marsh , now gave him
a start, and he said suddenly :
“ You 're not a deceiving imp ? You brought no one with
you ? "
No, sir ! No !.”
“ Nor giv' no one the office to follow you ? ”
“No ! "
“Well,” said he, “ I believe you . You'd be but a fierce
young hound indeed, if at your time of life you could help to
hunt a wretched warmint, hunted as near death and dunghill
as this poor wretched warmint is ! ”
Something clicked in his throat as if he had works in him
like a clock, and was going to strike. And he smeared his
ragged rough sleeve over his eyes.
 “ THE YOUNG MAN . ” 17

Pitying his desolation, and watching him as he gradually

settled down upon the pie, I made bold to say, “ I am glad you
enjoy it."
“ Did you speak ? ”
“ I said, I was glad you enjoyed it .”
“ Thankee, my boy. I do .”
I had often watched a large dog of ours eating his food ; and
I now noticed a decided similarity between the dog's way of
eating, and the man's. The man took strong sharp sudden bites,
just like the dog. He swallowed , or rather snapped up, every
mouthful, too soon and too fast; and he looked sideways here
and there while he ate, as if he thought there was danger in
every direction of somebody's coming to take the pie away .
He was altogether too unsettled in his mind over it, to appre
ciate it comfortably, I thought, or to have anybody to dine with
him , without making a chop with his jaws at the visitor. In
all of which particulars he was very like the dog.
“ I am afraid you won't leave any of it for him , ” said I,
timidly ; after a silence during which I had hesitated as to the
politeness of making the remark. “ There's no more to be got
where that came from.” It was the certainty of this fact that
impelled me to offer the hint.
“ Leave any for him ? Who's him ? ” said my friend, stop
ping in his crunching of pie- crust.
“ The young man . That you spoke of. That was hid with
you.”
“ Oh ha ! ” he returned, with something like a gruff laugh.
“ Him ? Yes, yes ! He don't want no wittles. ”
“ I thought he looked as if he did , ” said I.
The man stopped eating, and regarded me with the keenest
scrutiny and the greatest surprise.
“ Looked ? When ? ”
" Just now .”
“ Where ?"
66
Yonder,” said I, pointing ; " over there, where I found him
nodding asleep, and thought it was you."
He held me by the collar and stared at me so, that I
began to think his first idea about cutting my throat had
revived .
“ Dressed like you, you know , only with a hat,” I explained,
trembling ; " and — and " -I was very anxious to put this
C
18 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
delicately—“ and with the same reason for wanting to
borrow a file. Didu't you hear the cannon last night ? "
“ Then, there was firing ! ” he said to himself.
“ I wonder you shouldn't have been sure of that, ” I returned ,
“ for we heard it up at home, and that's further away , and we
were shut in besides."
“ Why, see now !” said he. “ When a man ' s alone on these
flats, with a light head and a light stomach , perishing of cold
and want, he hears nothin ' all night, but guns firing, and
voices calling. Hears ? He sees the soldiers, with their red
coats lighted up by the torches carried afore, closing in round
him . Hears his number called , hears himself challenged,
hears the rattle of the muskets, hears the orders Make
ready ! Present ! Cover him steady, men ! ” and is laid hands
on -- and there's nothin ' ! Why, if I see one pursuing party
last night - coming up in order, Damn 'em, with their
tramp, tramp--I see a hundred. And as to firing ! Why,
I see the mist shake with the cannon , arter it was broad
day . - But this man " he had said all the rest as if he had
forgotten my being there ; “ did you notice anything in
him ?"
“ He had a badly bruised face,” said I, recalling what I
hardly knew I knew .
“ Not here ? ” exclaimed the man , striking his left cheek
mercilessly, with the flat of his hand .
“ Yes, there ! ”
“ Where is he ? " he crammed what little food was left, into
the breast of his grey jacket. “ Show me the way he went .
I'll pull him down, like a bloodhound. Curse this iron on my
sore leg ! Give us hold of the file, boy."
I indicated in what direction the mist had shrouded the
other man, and he looked up at it for an instant. But he was
down on the rank wet grass, filing at his iron like a madman,
and not minding me or minding his own leg, which had an old
chafe upon it and was bloody, but which he handled as roughly
as if it had no more feeling in it than the file . I was very
much afraid of him again, now that he had worked himself
into this fierce hurry, and I was likewise very much afraid of
keeping away from home any longer. I told him I must go,
but he took no notice, so I thought the best thing I could do
was to slip off. The last I saw of him, his head was bent over
 THE CROSSED FOREFINGERS . 19

his knee and he was working hard at his fetter, muttering im

patient imprecations at it and his leg. The last I heard of
him , I stopped in the mist to listen , and the file was still
going.

CHAPTER IV.

I FULLY expected to find a Constable in the kitchen, waiting

to take me up. But not only was there no Constable there,
but no discovery had yet been made of the robbery. Mrs. Joe
was prodigiously busy in getting the house ready for the festi
vities of the day, and Joe had been put upon the kitchen
door-step to keep him out of the dust-pan - an article into
which his destiny always led him, sooner or later, when my
sister was vigorously sweeping the floors of her establishment.
“And where the deuce ha' you been ? " was Mrs. Joe's
Christmas salutation, when I and my conscience showed
ourselves.
I said I had been down to hear the Carols. "Ah ! well ! ”
observed Mrs. Joe . “ You might ha' done worse ." Not a
doubt of that I thought.
CG
Perhaps if I warn’t a blacksmith's wife, and (what's the
same thing) a slave with her apron never off, I should have
been to hear the Carols, " said Mrs. Joe. “ I'm rather partial
to Carols myself, and that's the best of reasons for my never
hearing any."
Joe, who had ventured into the kitchen after me as the
dust -pan had retired before us, drew the back of his hand
across his nose with a conciliatory air, when Mrs. Joe darted
a look at him, and, when her eyes were withdrawn, secretly
crossed his two forefingers, and exhibited them to me, as our
token that Mrs. Joe was in a cross temper. This was so
much her normal state, that Joe and I would often, for weeks '
together, be, as to our fingers, like monumental Crusaders as
to their legs.
We were to have a superb dinner, consisting of a leg of
C2
 20 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
pickled pork and greens, and a pair of roast stuffed fowls.
A handsome mince-pie had been made yesterday morning
(which accounted for the mincemeat not being missed) and
the pudding was already on the boil. These extensive
arrangements occasioned us to be cut off unceremoniously in
respect of breakfast ; “for I ain't , ” said Mrs. Joe, “ I ain't a
going to have no formal cramming and busting and washing
up now, with what I've got before me, I promise you !"
So, we had our slices served out, as if we were two thousand
troops on a forced march instead of a man and boy at home ;
and we took gulps of milk and water, with apologetic counten
ances, from a jug on the dresser. In the meantime, Mrs. Joe
put clean white curtains up, and tacked a new flowered - flounce
across the wide chimney to replace the old one, and uncovered
the little state parlour across the passage, which was never
uncovered at any other time, but passed the rest of the year
in a cool haze of silver paper, which even extended to the
four little white crockery poodles on the mantelshelf, each
with a black nose and a basket of flowers in his mouth , and
each the counterpart of the other. Mrs. Joe was a very clean
housekeeper, but had an exquisite art of making her cleanli
ness more uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and some people do the same
by their religion.
My sister having so much to do, was going to church
vicariously ; that is to say , Joe and I were going. In his
working clothes, Joe was a well -knit characteristic-looking
blacksmith ; in his holiday clothes, he was more like a scare
crow in good circumstances, than anything else. Nothing that
he wore then, fitted him or seemed to belong to him ; and
everything that he wore then, grazed him . On the present
festive occasion he emerged from his room, when the blithe
bells were going, the picture of misery, in aa full suit of Sunday
penitentials. As to me, I think my sister must have had
some general idea that I was a young offender whom an
Accoucheur Policeman had taken up (on my birthday ) and
delivered over to her, to be dealt with according to the out
*raged majesty of the law. I was always treated as if I had
insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason,
religion , and morality, and against the dissuading arguments
of my best friends. Even when I was taken to have a new
 MR . WOPSLE. 21

suit of clothes, the tailor had orders to make them like a

kind of Reformatory, and on no account to let me have the
free use of my limbs.
Joe and I going to church , therefore, must have been a
moving spectacle for compassionate minds. Yet, what I
suffered outside was nothing to what I underwent within.
The terrors that had assailed me whenever Mrs. Joe had gone
near the pantry , or out of the room, were only to be equalled
by the remorse with which my mind dwelt on what my hands
had done. Under the weight of my wicked secret, I pondered
whether the Church would be powerful enough to shield me
from the vengeance of the terrible young man, if I divulged to
that establishment. I conceived the idea that the time when
the banns were read and when the clergyman said, “ Ye are
now to declare it ! ” would be the time for me to rise and
propose a private conference in the vestry. I am far from
being sure that I might not have astonished our small con
gregation by resorting to this extreme measure, but for its
being Christmas Day and no Sunday.
Mr. Wopsle, the clerk at church , was to dine with us ; and
Mr. Hubble, the wheelwright, and Mrs. Hubble ; and Uncle
Pumblechook ( Joe's uncle, but Mrs. Joe appropriated him ),
who was a well -to -do cornchandler in the nearest town , and
drove his own chaise - cart. The dinner bour was half-past one.
When Joe and I got home, we found the table laid, and Mrs.
Joe dressed, and the dinner dressing, and the front door un
locked (it never was at any other time) for the company to
enter by, and everything most splendid . And still, not a word
of the robbery.
The time came, without bringing with it any relief to my
feelings, and the company came. Mr. Wopsle, united to a
Roman nose and a large shining bald forehead, had a deep
voice which he was uncommonly proud of ; indeed it was
understood among his acquaintance that if you could only give
him his head ,he would read the clergyman into fits ; he himself
confessed that if the Church was “ thrown open," meaning to
competition, he would not
"
despair of making his mark in it .
The Church not being “ thrown open,” he was, as I have said ,
our clerk . But he punished the Amens tremendously ; and
when he gave out the psalm - always giving the whole verse
he looked all round the congregation first, as much as to say
22 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

“ You have heard our friend overhead ; oblige me with your

opinion of this style ! ”
I opened the door to the company - making believe that it
was a habit of ours to open that door -- and I opened it first to
Mr. Wopsle, next to Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, and last of all to
Uncle Pumblechook. N.B. I was not allowed to call him
uncle , under the severest penalties.
“ Mrs. Joe," said Uncle Pumblechook ; a large hard -breathing
middle-aged slow man, with a mouth like a fish , dull staring
eyes, and sandy hair standing upright on his head, so that he
looked as if he had just been all but choked , and had that
moment come to ; " I have brought you as the compliments of
the season-I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of sherry wine
--and I have brought you, Mum, a bottle of port wine.”
Every Christmas Day he presented himself, as a profound
novelty, with exactly the same words, and carrying the two
bottles like dumb-bells. Every Christmas Day, Mrs. Joe re
plied, as she now replied , “ Oh, Un-cle Pum - ble - chook !
This is kind !” Every Christmas Day, he retorted , as he now
retorted, " It's no more than your merits. And now are you
all bobbish, and how's Sixpennorth of halfpence ? " meaning
me .
We dined on these occasions in the kitchen, and adjourned,
for the nuts and oranges and apples, to the parlour ; which was
a change very like Joe's change from his working clothes to his
Sunday dress. My sister was uncommonly lively on the pre
sent occasion, and indeed was generally more gracious in the
society of Mrs. Hubble than in other company. I remember
Mrs. Hubble as a little curly sharp-edged person in sky-blue,
who held a conventionally juvenile position, because she had
married Mr. Hubble -- I don't know at what remote period
when she was much younger than he. I remember Mr. Hubble
as a tough high-shouldered stooping old man, of a sawdusty
fragrance, with his legs extraordinarily wide apart: so that in
my short days I always saw some miles of open country
between them when I met him coming up the lane.
Among this good company I should have felt myself, even if
I hadn't robbed the pantry, in a false position . Not because I
was squeezed in at an acute angle of the table-cloth, with the
table in my chest, and the Pumblechookian elbow in my eye,
nor because I was not allowed to speak (I didn't want to speak),
 THE CONVERSATION AT THE DINNER TABLE. 23
nor because I was regaled with the scaly tips of the drumsticks
of the fowls, and with those obscure corners of pork of which
the pig, when living, had had the least reason to be vain . No ;
I should not have minded that if they would only have left me
alone. But they wouldn't leave me alone. They seemed to
think the opportunity lost, if they failed to point the con
versation at me, every now and then , and stick the point into
me. I might have been an unfortunate little bull in a Spanish
arena, I got so smartingly touched up by these moral goads.
It began the moment we sat down to dinner. Mr. Wopsle
said grace with theatrical declamation - as it now appears to
me, something like a religious cross of the Ghost in Hamlet
with Richard the Third - and ended with the very proper
aspiration that we might be truly grateful. Upon which my
sister fixed me with her eye, and said , in a low reproachful
voice, “ Do you hear that ? Be grateful.”
“ Especially,” said Mr. Pumblechook, “ be grateful, boy, to
them which brought you up by hand."
Mrs. Hubble shook her head, and contemplating me with a
mournful presentiment that I should come to no good, asked,
“ Why is it that the young are never grateful ? ” This moral
mystery seemed too much for the company until Mr. Hubble
tersely solved it by saying, “ Naterally wicious.” Everybody
then murmured “ True ! ” and looked at me in a particularly
unpleasant and personal manner .
Joe's station and influence were something feebler (if possible)
when there was company, than when there was none . But he
always aided and comforted me when he could , in some way of
his own, and he always did so at dinner -time by giving me
gravy, if there were any. There being plenty of gravy to-day,
Joe spooned into my plate, at this point, about half a pint.
A little later on in the dinner, Mr. Wopsle reviewed the
sermon with some severity, and intimated-in the usual hypo
thetical case of the Church being “thrown open " _what kind
of sermon he would have given them . After favouring them
with some heads of that discourse , he remarked that he con
sidered the subject of the day's homily ill-chosen ; which was
the less excusable, he added, when there were so many subjects
“ going about."
“ True again , ” said Uncle Pumblechook . “ You've hit it,
sir ! Plenty of subjects going about, for them that know how
24 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

to put salt upon their tails. That's what's wanted . A man"

needn't go far to find a subject, if he's ready with his salt -box . ”
Mr. Pumblechook added, after a short interval of reflection ,
“ Look at Pork alone. There's a subject ! If you want a
subject, look at Pork !”
“ True, sir. Many a moral for the young,” returned Mr.
Wopsle ; and I knew he was going to lug me in, before he said
it ; " might be deduced from that text.”
(“ You listen to this,” said my sister to me, in a severe paren
thesis. )
Joe gave me some more gravy .
“ Swine,” pursued Mr. Wopsle, in his deepest voice, and
pointing his fork at my blushes, as if he were mentioning my
C
christian name; “ Swine were the companions of the prodigal.
The gluttony of Swine is put before us, as an example to the
young . ” (I thought this pretty well in him who had been
praising up the pork for being so plump and juicy .) “ What is
detestable in a pig, is more detestable in a boy. ”
“ Or girl,” suggested Mr. Hubble.
“ Of course, or girl, Mr. Hubble,” assented Mr. Wopsle,
rather irritably , “ but there is no girl present.”
“ Besides, ” said Mr. Pumblechook, turning sharp on me,
“think what you've got to be grateful for. If you'd been
born a Squeaker---- " 7
“ He was, if ever a child was, ” said my sister, most em
phatically.
Joe gave me some more gravy .
“Well, but I mean a four-footed Squeaker,” said Mr. Pum
blechook . “ If you had been born such , would you have been
22
here now ? Not you
“ Unless in that form , " said Mr. Wopsle, nodding towards
the dish.
“ But I don't mean in that form, sir," returned Mr. Pumble
chook, who had an objection to being interrupted ; “ I mean ,
enjoying himself with his elders and betters, and improving
kimself with their conversation , and rolling in the lap of luxury .
Would he have been doing that ? No, he wouldn't. And
what would have been your destination ? " turning on me
again. “ You would havebeen disposed of for so many shillings
according to the market price of the article, and Dunstable
the butcher would have come up to you as you lay in your
 ON THE VERGE OF DISCOVERY . 25

st w , and he would have whipped you under his left arm , and
with his right he would have tucked up his frock to get a
penknife from out of his waistcoat -pocket, and he would have
shed your blood and had your life. No bringing up by hand
then . Not a bit of it ! ”
Joe offered me more gravy, which I was afraid to take.
“ He was a world of trouble to you, ma'am ,” said Mrs.
Hubble, commiserating my sister.
6 Trouble ? ” echoed my sister, “ trouble ? ” And then
entered on a fearful catalogue of all the illnesses I had been
guilty of, and all the acts of sleeplessness I had committed,
and all the high places I had tumbled from , and all the low
places I had tumbled into, and all the injuries I had done my
self, and all the times she had wished me in my grave, and I
had contumaciously refused to go there.
I think the Romans must have aggravated one another
very much, with their noses . Perhaps, they became the rest
less people they were, in consequence . Anyhow, Mr. Wopsle's
Roman nose so aggravated me, during the recital of my misde
meanours, that I should have liked to pull it until he howled .
But, all I had endured up to this time, was nothing in com
parison with the awful feelings that took possession of me
when the pause was broken which ensued upon my sister's
recital, and in which pause everybody had looked at me (as I
felt painfully conscious) with indignation and abhorrence .
“ Yet,” said Mr. Pumblechook, leading the company gently
back to the theme from which they had strayed, “ Pork - re
"
garded as biled — is rich , too ; ain't it ? ”
“ Have a little brandy, uncle,” said my sister .
O Heavens, it had come at last ! He would find it was weak,
he would say it was weak, and I was lost ! I held tight to the
leg of the table, under the cloth , with both hands, and awaited
my fate.
My sister went for the stone bottle, came back with the stone
bottle, and poured his brandy out : no one else taking any.
The wretched man trifled with his glass — took it up, looked
at it through the light, put it down - prolonged my misery.
All this time Mrs. Joe and Joe were briskly clearing the table
for the pie and pudding.
I couldn't keep my eyes off him. Always holding tight by
the leg of the table with my hands and feet, I saw themiserable
26 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

creature finger his glass playfully, take it up, smile, throw Jis
head back, and drink the brandy off. Instantly afterwards, the
company was seized with unspeakable consternation, owing to
his springing to his feet, turning round several times in an
appalling spasmodic whooping -cough dance, and rushing out at
the door ; he then became visible through the window, violently
plunging and expectorating, making the most hideous faces,
and apparently out of his mind .
I held on tight, while Mrs. Joe and Joe ran to him . I didn't
know how I had done it, but I had no doubt I had murdered
him somehow . In my dreadful situation, it was a relief when
he was brought back, and, surveying the company all round as
if they had disagreed with him , sank down into his chair with
the one significant gasp, “ Tar ! ”
I had filled up the bottle from the tar-water jug. I knew he
would be worse by and by. I moved the table, like a Medium
of the present day, by the vigour of my unseen hold upon it.
“ Tar !” cried my sister, in amazement. 6 Why, how ever
could Tar come there ? "
But, Uncle Pumblechook, who was omnipotent in that kitchen ,
wouldn't hear the word, wouldn't hear of the subject, im
periously waived it all away with his hand, and asked for hot
gin -and-water. My sister, who had begun to be alarmingly
meditative, had to employ herself actively in getting the gin,
the hot water, the sugar, and the lemon -peel, and mixing them.
For the time at least, I was saved. I still held on to the leg
of the table, but clutched it now with the fervour of gratitude .
By degrees, I became calm enough to release my grasp, and
partake of pudding. Mr. Pumblechook partook of pudding.
All partook of pudding. The course terminated , and Mr.
Pumblechook had begun to beam under the genial influence of
gin - and -water. I began to think I should get over the day,
when my sister said to Joe, “ Clean plates- cold .”
I clutched the leg of the table again immediately, and
pressed it to my bosom as if it had been the companion of my
youth and friend of my soul . I foresaw what was coming, and
I felt that this time I really was gone.
“ You must taste," said my sister, addressing the guests with
her best grace, “ You must taste, to finish with, such a delight
ful and delicious present of Uncle Pumblechook's ! ”
Must they ! Let them not hope to taste it !
 A CLIMAX. 27

“ You must know ," said my sister, rising, “ it's a pie ; a

savoury pork pie.”
The company murmured their compliments. Uncle Pumble
chook , sensible of having deserved well of his fellow -creatures,
said - quite vivaciously, all things considered -— “ Well, Mrs.
Joe, we'll do our best endeavours ; let us have a cut at this
same pie.”
My sister went out to get it. I heard her steps proceed to
the pantry. I saw Mr. Pumblechook balance his knife . I saw
re-awakening appetite in the Roman nostrils of Mr. Wopsle.
I heard Mr. Hubble remark that " a bit of savoury pork pie
would lay atop of anything you could mention, and do no
harm," and I heard Joe say, “ You shall have some, Pip .” I
have never been absolutely certain whether I uttered a shrill
yell of terror, merely in spirit, or in the bodily hearing of the
company. I felt that I could bear no more , and that I must
run away . I released the leg of the table, and ran for my life.
But I ran no further than the house door, for there I ran
head foremost into a party of soldiers with their muskets : one
of whom held out a pair of handcuffs to me, saying, “ Here you
are, look sharp, comeon ! ”

CHAPTER V.
The apparition of a file of soldiers ringing down the butt-ends
of their loaded muskets on our door -step caused the dinner
party to rise from table in confusion, and caused Mrs. Joe , re
entering the kitchen emp handed, to short and stare, in
her wondering lament of“ Gracious goodness gracious me , what's
1
gone - with the --pie !'
The sergeant and I were in the kitchen when Mrs. Joe stood
staring ; at which crisis I partially recovered the use of my
senses. It was the sergeant who had spoken to me, and he was
now looking round at the company, with his handcuffs in
vitingly extended towards them in his right hand , and his left
on my shoulder.
28 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen ,” said the sergeant, “ but 9

as I have mentioned at the door to this smart young shaver ”
(which he hadn't ), “ I am on a chase in the name of the king,
and I want the blacksmith .”
“And pray , what might you want with him ? ” retorted my
sister, quick to resent his being wanted at all.
• Missis,” returned the gallant sergeant, “ speaking for my
self, I should reply, the honour and pleasure of his fine wife's
acquaintance ; speaking for the king, I answer , a little job
done.”
This was received as rather neat in the sergeant; insomuch
«
that Mr. Pumblechook cried audibly , “ Good again !
“ You see, blacksmith ,” said the sergeant, who had by this
time picked out Joe with his eye ,“ we have had an accident
with these, and I find the lock of one of 'em goes wrong, and
the coupling don't act pretty . As they are wanted for im
mediate service, will you throw your eye over them ? ”
Joe threw his eye over them, and pronounced that the job
would necessitate the lighting of his forge fire, and would take
nearer two hours than one. “ Will it ? Then will you set about
it at once, blacksmith ? ” said the off-hand sergeant, 4 as it's on
his Majesty's service. And if my men can bear a band any
where, they 'll make themselves useful.” With that he called to
his men, who came trooping into the kitchen one after another,
and piled their arms ina corner. And then they stood about,
as soldiers do ; now, with their hands loosely clasped before
them ; now, resting a knee or a shoulder ; now , easing a belt or
a pouch ; now, opening the door to spit stifly over their high
stocks, out into the yard .
All these things I saw without then knowing that I saw them,
for I was in an agony of apprehension . But, beginning to per
ceive that the handcuffs were not for me, and that the military
had so far got the better of the pie as to put it in the back
ground, I collected a little more of my scattered wits.
“ Would you give me the Time! " said the sergeant, address
ing himself to Mr. Pumblechook , as to a man whose appre
ciative powers justified the inference that he was equal to the
time.
“ It's just gone half-past two."
“ That's not so bad , ” said the sergeant, reflecting ; “ even if I
was forced to halt here nigh two hours, that'll do. How far
 A MAN THAT KNOWS WHAT'S WHAT. 29

might you call yourselves from the marshes, hereabouts ? Not

above a mile, I reckon ? "
“ Just a mile,” said Mrs. Joe.
“ That 'll do. Webegin to close in upon 'em about dusk. A
little before dusk , my orders are . That'll do .”
“Convicts, sergeant ? ” asked Mr. Wopsle, in a matter-of
course way .
“ Ay ! ” returned the sergeant, “ two. They're pretty well
known to be out on the marshes still, and they won't try to get
clear of ' em before dusk . Anybody here seen anything of any
such game? ”
Everybody, myself excepted , said no, with confidence .
Nobody thought of me.
Well,” said the sergeant, “ they'll find themselves trapped
in a circle, I expect, sooner than they count on. Now, black
smith ! If you're ready, his Majesty the King is .”
Joe had got his coat and waistcoat and cravat off, and his
leather apron on, and passed into the forge. One of the soldiers
opened its wooden windows, another lighted the fire, another
turned to at the bellows, the rest stood round the blaze, which
was soon roaring. Then Joe began to hammer and clink,
hammer and clink, and we all looked on.
The interest of the impeuding pursuit not only absorbed the
general attention, but even made my sister liberal. She drew a
pitcher of beer from the cask , for the soldiers, and invited the
sergeant to take a glass of brandy. But Mr. Pumblechook said
sharply, “ Give him wine, Mum. I'll engage there's no Tar in
that : so, the sergeant thanked him and said that, as he pre
ferred his drink without tar, he would take wine, if it was
equally convenient. When it was given him, he drank his
Majesty's health and compliments of the season , and took it all
at a mouthful and smacked his lips.
“ Good stuff, eh , sergeant ? ” said Mr. Pumblechook .
>

“I'll tell you something,” returned the sergeant; “ I suspect

>
that stuff's of your providing. "
Mr. Pumblechook , with a fat sort of laugh, said, “Ay, ay ?
Why ? "
“ Because," returned the sergeant, clapping him on the
shoulder, “ you're a man that knows what's what.”
“ D'ye think so ? ” said Mr. Pumblechook , with his former
laugh . “ Have another glass ! ”
30 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
6
“ With you. Hob and nob," returned the sergeant. “ The
top of mine to the foot of yours—the foot of yours to the top
of mine-Ring once, ring twice - the best tune on the Musical
Glasses ! Your health. May you live a thousand years, and
never be a worse judge of the right sort than you are at the
present moment of your life ! "
The sergeant tossed off his glass again and seemed quite ready
for another glass. I noticed that Mr. Pumblechook in his
hospitality appeared to forget that he had made a present of
the wine, but took the bottle from Mrs. Joe and had all the
credit of handing it about in a gush of joviality. Even I got
some . And he was so very free of the wine that he even called
for the other bottle, and handed that about with the same
liberality, when the first was gone.
As I watched them while they all stood clustering about the
forge, enjoying themselves so much, I thought what terrible
good sauce for a dinner my fugitive friend on the marshes was.
They had not enjoyed themselves a quarter so much, before
the entertainment was brightened with the excitement he
furnished. And now, when they were all in lively anticipation
of “the two villains " being taken , and when the bellows seemed
to roar for the fugitives, the fire to flare for them , the smoke to
hurry away in pursuit of them , Joe to hammer and clink for
them , and all the murky shadows on the wall to shake at them
in menace as the blaze rose and sank and the red-hot sparks
dropped and died, the pale afternoon outside almost seemed in
my pitying young fancy to have turned pale on their account,
poor wretches.
At last, Joe's job was done, and the ringing and roaring
stopped . As Joe got on his coat, he mustered courage to pro
pose that some of us should go down with the soldiers and see
what came of the hunt. Mr. Pumblechook and Mr. Hubble
declined, on the plea of a pipe and ladies' society ; but Mr.
Wopsle said he would go, if Joe would , Joe said he was
agreeable, and would take me, if Mrs. Joe approved. We
never should have got leave to go, I am sure, but for Mrs.
Joe's curiosity to know all about it and how it ended. As it
was, she merely stipulated, “ If you bring the boy back with
his head blown to bits by a musket, don't look to me to put it
together again."
The sergeant took a polite leave of the ladies, and parted
 ON THE HUNT. 31

from Mr. Pumblechook as from a comrade ; though I doubt if

he were quite as fully sensible of that gentleman's merits under
arid conditions, as when something moist was going. His men
resumed their muskets and fell in . Mr. Wopsle, Joe, and I
received strict charge to keep in the rear, and to speak no word
after we reached the marshes. When we were all out in the
raw air and were steadily moving towards our business, I
treasonably whispered to Joe, “ I hope, Joe, we shan't find
them.” And Joe whispered to me, “ I'd give a shilling if they
had cut and run, Pip ."
We were joined by no stragglers from the village, for the
weather was cold and threatening, the way dreary, the footing
bad , darkness coming on, and the people had good fires in
doors and were keeping the day. A few faces hurried to
glowing windows and looked after us, but none came out. We
passed the finger -post, and held straight on to the churchyard.
There, we were stopped a few minutes by a signal from the
sergeant's hand, while two or three of his men dispersed
themselves among the graves, and also examined the porch.
They came in again without finding anything, and then we
struck out on the open marshes, through the gate at the side
of the churchyard . A bitter sleet came rattling against us
here on the east wind, and Joe took me on his back.
Now that we were out upon the dismal wilderness where
they little thought I had been within eight or nine hours,
and had seen both men hiding, I considered for the first time,
with great dread, if we should come upon them , would my
particular convict suppose that it was I who had brought the
soldiers there ? He had asked me if I was a deceiving imp, and
he said I should be a fierce young hound if I joined the hunt
against him . Would he believe that I was both imp and
hound in treacherous earnest, and had betrayed him ?
It was of no use asking myself this question now. There
was, on Joe's back, and there was Joe beneath me, charging at
the ditches like a hunter, and stimulating Mr. Wopsle not to
tumble on his Roman nose, and to keep up with us. The
soldiers were in front of us, extending into a pretty wide line
with an interval between man and man . We were taking the
course I had begun with, and from which I had diverged into
the mist. Either the mist was not out again yet, or the wind
had dispelled it. Under the low red glare of sunset, the beacon,
32 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

and the gibbet, and the mound of the Battery, and the oppo
site shore of the river, were plain , though all of a watery lead
colour.
With my heart thumping like a blacksmith at Joe's broad
shoulder, I looked all about for any sign of the convicts. I
could see none, I could hear none. Mr. Wopsle had greatly
alarmed me more than once, by his blowing and hard breath
ing ; but I knew the sounds by this time, and could dissociate
them from the object of pursuit. I got a dreadful start, when
I thought I heard the file still going ; but it was only a sheep
bell. The sheep stopped in their eating and looked timidly at
us ; and the cattle, their heads turned from the wind and
sleet, stared angrily as if they held us responsible for both
annoyances ; but, except these things, and the shudder of the
dying day in every blade of grass , there was no break in the
bleak stillness of the marshes.
The soldiers were moving on in the direction of the old
Battery, and we were moving on a little way behind them,
when, all of a sudden, we all stopped. For, there had reached
us, on the wings of the wind and rain, a long shout. It was
repeated. It was at a distance towards the east, but it was
long and loud. Nay, there seemed to be two or more shouts
raised together -if one might judge from a confusion in the
sound .
To this effect the sergeant and the nearest men were speak
ing under their breath, when Joe and I came up. After another
moment's listening, Joe (who was a good judge) agreed, and
Mr. Wopsle (who was a bad judge) agreed. The sergeant, a
decisive man , ordered that the sound should not be answered,
but that the course should be changed , and that his men should
make towards it " at the double .” So we started to the right
(where the East was), and Joe pounded away so wonderfully,
that I had to hold on tight to keep my seat.
It was a run indeed now, and what Joe called, in the only
two words he spoke all the time, “ a Winder." Down banks
and up banks, and over gates, and splashing into dykes, and
breaking among coarse rushes : no man cared where he went.
As we came nearer to the shouting, it became more and more
apparent that it was made by more than one voice. Some
times, it seemed to stop altogether, and then the soldiers
stopped. When it broke out again , the soldiers made for it
 CAUGHT. 33

at a greater rate than ever, and we after them . After a

wbile , we had so run it down , that we could hear one voice
calling “ Murder ! ” and another voice , “ Convicts ! Runaways!
Guard ! This way for the runaway convicts ! ” Then both
voices would seem to be stifled in a struggle , and then would
break out again . And when it had come to this, the soldiers
ran like deer , and Joe too.
The sergeant ran in first, when we had run the noise quite
down, and two of his men ran in close upon him . Their
pieces were cocked and levelled when we all ran in.
“ Here are both men !” panted the sergeant, struggling at
the bottom of a ditch. “ Surrender, you two ! and confound
you for two wild beasts ! Come asunder ! ”
Water was splashing, and mud was flying, and oaths were
being sworn , and blows were being struck , when some more
men went down into the ditch to help the sergeant, and
dragged out, separately, my convict and the other one. Both
were bleeding and panting and execrating and struggling ; but
of course I knew them both directly .
“ Mind !” said my convict, wiping blood from his face with
his ragged sleeves, and shaking torn hair from his fingers ; “ I
took him ! I give him up to you ! Mind that ! ”
“ It's not much to be particular about,” said the sergeant;
“ it'll do you small good, my man , being in the same plight
yourself. Handcuffs there ! ”
“ I don't expect it to do me any good. I don't want it to
do me more good than it does now ," said my convict, with a
greedy laugh. “ I took him. He knows it. That's enough
for me."
The other convict was livid to look at, and, in addition to
the old bruised left side of his face, seemed to be bruised and
torn all over. He could not so much as get his breath to
speak, until they were both separately handcuffed, but leaned
upon a soldier to keep himself from falling.
“Take notice, guard -- he tried to murder me,” were his
first words.
>
“ Tried to murder him ? ” said my convict, disdainfully.
“ Try, and not do it ? I took him, and giv him up ; that's
what I done. I not only prevented him getting off the
marshes, but I dragged him here - dragged him this far on
>

his way back . He's a gentleman , if you please, this villain .

D
34 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

Now, the Hulks has got its gentleman again , through me.
Murder him ? Worth my while , too, to murder him , when I
could do worse and drag him back !”
The other one still gasped, “ He tried- he tried - to -murder
me . Bear - bear witness ."
“ Lookee here !” said my convict to the sergeant. Single
handed I got clear of the prison -ship ; I made a dash and I
done it. I could ha' got clear of these death -cold flats like
wise-look at my leg : you won't find much iron on it -- if I
hadn't made discovery that he was here. Let him go free ?
Let him profit by the means as I found out ? Let him make a
tool of me afresh and again ? Once more ? No, no, no. If I
>
bad died at the bottom there ;” and he made an emphatic
swing at the ditch with his manacled hands ; “ I'd have held to
him with that grip, that you should have been safe to find him
in my hold .”
The other fugitive, who was evidently in extreme horror of
his companion , repeated, “ He tried to murder me. I should
have been a dead man if you had not come up . "
“ He lies ! ” said my convict, with fierce energy. “ He's a
liar born , and he die a liar. Look at his face ‫ ;و‬ain't it written
there ? Let him turn those eyes of his on me. I defy him to
do it.”
The other, with an effort at a scornful smile — which could
not, however, collect the nervous working of his mouth into
any set expression, looked at the soldiers, and looked about at
the marshes and at the sky, but certainly did not look at the
speaker.
“ Do you see him ? ” pursued my convict. “ Do you see what
Do you see those grovelling and wandering
a villain he is ?
eyes ? That's how he looked when we were tried together.
He never looked at me."
The other, always working and working his dry lips and
turning his eyes restlessly about him far and near , did at last
turn them for a moment on the speaker, with the words, “ You
are not much to look at," and with a half-taunting glance at
the bound hands. At that point, my convict became so franti
cally exasperated , that he would have rushed upon him but
for the interposition of the soldiers. “ Didn't I tell you ,” said
the other convict then, " that he would murder me, if he
could ? " And any one could see that he shook with fear, and
 ON THE WAY BACK . 35

that there broke out upon his lips curious white flakes, like thin
Snow.
Enough of this parley, ” said the sergeant. “ Light those
torches.”
As one of the soldiers, who carried a basket in lieu of a gun,
went down on his knee to open it, my convict looked round
him for the first time, and saw me. I had alighted from Joe's
back on the brink of the ditch when we came up, and had not
moved since. I looked at him eagerly when he looked at me,
and slightly moved my hands and shook my head. I had been
waiting for him to see me, that I might try to assure him of
my innocence. It was not at all expressed to me that he even
comprehended my intention, for he gave me a look that I did
not understand, and it all passed in a moment. But if he had
looked at me for a hour or for a day, I could not have
remembered his face ever afterwards, as having been more
attentive.
The soldier with the basket soon got a light, and lighted
three or four torches, and took one himself and distributed the
others. It had been almost dark before, but now it seemed
quite dark, and soon afterwards very dark . Before we departed
from that spot, four soldiers standing in a ring fired twice into the
air. Presently we saw other torches kindled at some distance
behind us, and others on the marshes on the opposite bank of
“ All right,” said the sergeant. “ March.”
the river .
We had not gone far when three cannon were fired ahead of
us with a sound that seemed to burst something inside my ear.
“ You are expected on board,” said the sergeant to my con
vict ; " they know you are coming. Don't straggle, my man.
Close up here .”
The two were kept apart, and each walked surrounded by a
separate guard. I had hold of Joe's hand now, and Joe carried
one of the torches . Mr. Wopsle had been for going back, but
Joe was resolved to see it out, so we went on with the party.
There was a reasonably good path now, mostly on the edge of
the river, with a divergence here and there where a dyke came,
with a miniature windmill on it and a muddy sluice-gate.
When I looked round , I could see the other lights coming in
after us. The torches we carried, dropped great blotches of
fre upon the track, and I could see those, too, lying smoking
and flaring. I could see nothing else but black darkness. Our
D 2
36 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

lights warmed the air about us with their pitchy blaze, and
the two prisoners seemed rather to like that, as they limped
along in the midst of the muskets. We could not go fast,
because of their lameness ; and they were so spent, that two
or three times we had to halt while they rested.
After an hour or so of this travelling, we came to a rough
wooden hut and a landing -place. There was a guard in the
hut, and they challenged, and the sergeant answered. Then,
we went into the hut, where there was a smell of tobacco and
whitewash, and a bright fire, and a lamp, and a stand of
muskets, and a drum , and a low wooden bedstead, like an
overgrown mangle without the machinery, capable of holding
about a dozen soldiers all at once. Three or four soldiers who
lay upon it in their great coats, were not much interested in
us, but just lifted their heads and took a sleepy stare, and then
lay down again . The sergeant made some kind of report,
and some entry in a book, and then the convict, whom I call the
other convict, was drafted off with his guard, to go on board
first.
My convict never looked at me, except that once . While
we stood in the hut, he stood before the fire looking thought
fully at it, or putting up his feet by turns upon the hob, and
looking thoughtfully at them as if he pitied them for their
recent adventures. Suddenly, he turned to the sergeant, and
remarked :
“ I wish to say something respecting this escape. It
may prevent some persous laying under suspicion alonger
me.”
“ You can say what you like, " returned the sergeant, stand
ing coolly looking at him with his arms folded, “ but you
have no call to say it here. You ’ll have opportunity enough
to say about it, and hear about it, before it's done with, you
know . "
“ I know , but this is another pint, a separate matter. A man
can't starve ; at least I can't. I took some wittles, up at
the willage over youder -where the church stands aʼmost out
on the marshes.”
“ You mean stole ," said the sergeant.
“ And I'll tell you where from . From the blacksmith’s.”
“ Halloa ! ” said the sergeant , staring at Joe.
64 "
• Halloa, Pip ! ” said Joe, staring at me.
 THE PRISON SHIP. 27

“ It was some broken wittles — that's what it was—and a

dram of liquor, and a pie .”
“ Have you happened to miss such an article as a pie, black
smith ? ” asked the sergeant, confidentially.
My wife did, at the very moment when you came in. Don't
you know , Pip ? "
“ So , ” said my convict, turning his eyes on Joe, in a m
moody
manner , and without the least glance at me ; “ so you're the
blacksmith, are you ? Then I'm sorry to say, I've eat your
pie .”
“ God knows you're welcome to it -- so far as it was ever
mine," returned Joe, with a saving remembrance of Mrs. Joe .
6 We don't know what you have done, but we wouldn't have
you starved to death for it, poor miserable fellow - creatur.--.
Would us, Pip ? ”
The something that I had noticed before clicked in the man's
throat again, and he turned his back. The boat had returned ,
and his guard were ready, so we followed him to the landing
place made of rough stakes and stones, and saw him put into
the boat, which was rowed by a crew of convicts like himself.
No one seemed surprised to see him , or interested in seeing
bim, or glad to see him, or sorry to see him , or spoke a word ,
except that somebody in the boat growled as if to dogs, “ Give
way you ! ” which was the signal for the dip of the oars. By
the light of the torches, we saw the black Hulk lying out a
little way from the mud of the shore, like a wicked Noah's
ark . Cribbed and barred and moored by massive rusty chains ,
the prison -ship seemed in my young eyes to be ironed like the
prisoners. We saw the boat go alongside, and we saw him
taken up the side and disappear. Then, the ends of the torches.
were flung hissing into the water, and went out, as if it were all
over with him .
38 GREAT EXPECTATIONS ,

CHAPTER VI ,

My state of mind regarding the pilfering from which I had been

so unexpectedly exonerated, did not impel me to frank dis
closure ; but I hope it had some dregs of good at the bottom
of it.
I do not recall that I felt any tenderness of conscience in
reference to Mrs. Joe, when the fear of being found out was
lifted off me. But I loved Joe - perhaps for no better reason
in those early days than because the dear fellow let me love
him-and, as to him, my inner self was not so easily composed.
It was much upon my mind ( particularly when I first saw him
looking about for his file) that I ought to tell Joe the whole
truth . Yet I did not, and for the reason that I mistrusted that
if I did , he would think me worse than I was. The fear of
losing Joe's confidence, and of thenceforth sitting in the
chimney-corner at night staring drearily at my for ever lost
companion and friend, tied up my tongue . I morbidly repre
sented to myself that if Joe knew it, I never afterwards could
see him at the fireside feeling his fair whisker, without thinking
that he was meditating on it. That, if Joe knew it, I never
afterwards could see him glance, however casually, at yester
day's meat or pudding when it came on to-day's table, without
thinking that he was debating whether I had been in the
pantry. That, if Joe knew it, and at any subsequent period of
our joint domestic life remarked that his beer was flat or thick ,
the conviction that he suspected Tar in it, would bring a rush
of blood to my face . In a word, I was too cowardly to do what
I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing
what I knew to be wrong. I had had no intercourse with the
world at that time, and I imitated none of its many inhabitants
who act in this manner. Quite an untaught genius , I made the
discovery of the line of action for myself.
As I was sleepy before we were far away from the prison
ship, Joe took me on his back again and carried me home. He
must have had a tiresome journey of it, for Mr. Wopsle, being
knocked up, was in such a very bad temper that if the Church
had been thrown open, he would probably have excommuni
cated the whole expedition, beginning with Joe and myself.
In his lay capacity he persisted in sitting down in the damp to
 THE END OF THE MATTER . 39

such an insane extent, that when his coat was taken off to be
dried at the kitchen fire, the circumstantial evidence on his
trousers would have hanged him if it had been a capital
offence.
By that time, I was staggering on the kitchen floor like a
little drunkard, through having been newly set upon my feet,
and through having been fast asleep, and through waking in
the heat and lights and noise of tongues. As I came to myself
(with the aid of a heavy thump between the shoulders, and the
restorative exclamation “ Yah ! Was there ever such a boy as
this ! ” from my sister), I found Joe telling them about the
convict's confession , and all the visitors suggesting different
ways by which he had got into the pantry . Mr Pumblechook
made out, after carefully surveying the premises, that he had
first got upon the roof of the forge, and had then got upon the
roof of the house, and had then let himself down the kitchen
chimney by a rope made of his bedding cut into strips ; and as
Mr. Pumblechook was very positive and drove his own chaise
cart-over everybody - it was agreed that it must be so. Mr.
Wopsle, indeed, wildly cried out “ No ! " with the feeble malice
of a tired man ; but, as he had no theory, and no coat on, he
was unanimously set at nought - not to mention his smoking
hard behind, as he stood with his back to the kitchen fire to
draw the damp out : which was not calculated to inspire con
fidence.
This was all I heard that night before my sister clutched me,
as a slumberous offence to the company's eyesight, and assisted
me up to bed with such a strong hand that I seemed to have
fifty boots on , and to be dangling them all against the edges of
the stairs. My state of mind, as I have described it, began
before I was up in the morning, and lasted long after the
subject had died out, and had ceased to be mentioned saving on
exceptional occasions.
40 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

CHAPTER VII .

At the time when I stood in the churchyard, reading the family

tombstones, I had just enough learning to beable to spell them
out. My construction even of their simple meaning was not
6
very correct, for I read “ wife of the Above as a compli.
mentary reference to my father's exaltation to a better world ;
and if any one of my deceased relations had been referred
to as “ Below , " I have no doubt I should have formed the
worst opinions of that member of the family. Neither were
my notions of the theological positions to which my Catechism
bound me, at all accurate ; for, I have a lively remembrance
that I supposed my declaration that I was to " walk in the
same all the days of my life, ” laid me under an obligation
always to go through the village from our house in one parti
cular direction, and never to vary it by turning down by the
w.heelwright's or up by the mill.
When I was old enough, I was to be apprenticed to Joe, and
until I could assume that dignity I was not to be what Mrs. Joe
called “ Pompeyed, ” or (as I render it) pampered. Therefore,
I was not only odd boy about the forge, but if any neighbour
happened to want an extra boy to frighten birds, or pick
up stones, or do any such job, I was favoured with the employ
ment . In order, however, that our superior position might not
be compromised thereby, a money -box was kept on the kitchen
mantel-shelf, into which it was publicly made known that all
>

my earnings were dropped . I have an impression that they

were to be contributed eventually towards the liquidation of
the National Debt, but I know I had no hope of any personal
participation in the treasure.
Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt kept an evening school in the
llage ; that is to say, she was a ridiculous old woman of
limited means and unlimited infirmity, who used to go to sleep
from six to seven every evening, in the society of youth who
paid twopence per week each , for the improving opportunity of
seeing her do it. She rented a small cottage, and Mr. Wopsle
had the room up stairs, where we students used to overhear
hi: reading aloud in a most dignified and terrific manner ,
and occasionally bumping on the ceiling. There was a fiction
that Mr. Wopsle “examined ” the scholars, once a quarter.
 MY FIRST LETTER. 41

What he did on those occasions was to turn up his cuffs, stick

up his hair, and give us Mark Antony's oration over the body
of Cæsar. This was always followed by Collins's “ Ode on the
Passions," wherein I particularly venerated Mr. Wopsle as
Revenge, throwing his blood -stained sword in thunder down,
and taking the War-denouncing trumpet with a withering look.
It was not with me then, as it was in later life, when I fell into
the society of the Passions, and compared them with Collins
and Wopsle, rather to the disadvantage of both gentlemen.
Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt, besides keeping this Educational
Institution, kept in the same room-a little general shop. She
had no idea what stock she had, or what the price of anything
10 it was ; but there was a little greasy memorandum-book kept
in a drawer, which served as a Catalogue of Prices, and by this
oracle Biddy arranged all the shop transactions. Biddy was
Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt's granddaughter ; I confess myself
quite unequal to the working out of the problem , what relation
she was to Mr. Wopsle. She was an orphan like myself ; like
me, too, had been brought up by hand. She was most notice
able, I thought, in respect of her extremities ; for, her hair
always wanted brushing, her hands always wanted washing,
and her shoes always wanted mending and pulling up at heel.
This description must be received with a week -day limitation.
On Sundays she went to church elaborated.
Much of my unassisted self, and more by the help of Biddy
than of Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt, I struggled through the
alphabet as if it had been a bramble-bush ; getting consider
ably worried and scratched by every letter. After that, I fell
among those thieves, the nine figures, who seemed every
evening to do something new to disguise themselves and baffle
recognition. But, at last I began, in a purblind groping way,
to read, write, and cipher, on the very smallest scale .
One night, I was sitting in the chimney-corner with my
slate, expending great efforts on the production of a letter to
Joe. I think it must have been a full year after our hunt upon
the marshes, for it was a long time after, and it was winter and
a hard frost. With an alphabet on the hearth at my feet for
reference, I contrived in an hour or two to print and smear this
epistle :
" MI DEER JO I OPE U R KRWITE WELL | OPE i SHAL
SON B HABELL 4 2 TEEDGE U JO AN THEN WE SHORL B
42 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
SO GLODD AN WEN i M PRENGTD 2 U JO woT LARX AN
BLEVE ME INF XN PIP .”
There was no indispensable necessity for my communicating
with Joe by letter, inasmuch as he sat beside me and we were
alone. But, I delivered this written communication ( slate and
all) with my own hand, and Joe received it, as a miracle of
erudition .
“ I say, Pip, old chap !” cried Joe, opening his blue eyes
wide, “6 what a scholar you are ! Ain't you ? ”
“ I should like to be,” said I, glancing at the slate as he held
it : with a misgiving that the writing was rather hilly.
Why, here's a J , ” said Joe, “ and a O equal to anythink !
Here's a J and a 0, Pip, and a J-0, Joe.”
I had never heard Joe read aloud to any greater extent than
this monosyllable, and I had observed at church last Sunday,
when I accidentally held our Prayer-Book upside down, that it
seemed to suit his convenience quite as well as if it had been
all right. Wishing to embrace the present occasion of finding
out whether in teaching Joe, I should have to begin quite at
>
the beginning, I said, “ Ah ! But read the rest, Joe . ”
“ The rest, eh, Pip ? ” said Joe, looking at it with a slowly
searching eye , One, two, three. Why, here's three Js, and
three Os, and three J-O, Joes, in it, Pip !”
I leaned over Joe, and , with the aid of my forefinger, read
him the whole letter.
66
Astonishing ! ”” said Joe, when I had finished , “ YOU ARE A
scholar."
“ How do you spell Gargery, Joe ? ” I asked him , with a
modest patronage .
" I don't spell it at all,” said Joe.
“ But supposing you did ? ”
“ It can't be supposed ,” said Joe. “ Tho' I'm oncommon
fond of reading, too . "
“Are you , Joe ?”
« On - common. Give me,” said Joe, “ a good book, or a good
newspaper, and sit me down afore a good fire, and I ask no
better. Lord !” he continued, after rubbing his knees a little,
“ when you do come to a J and a 0, and says you, ' Here, at
last, is a J - 0 , Joe,' how interesting reading is ! ”
I derived from this last, that Joe's education, like Steam , was
yet in its infancy. Pursuing the subject, I inquired :
 WHY JOE NEVER WENT TO SCHOOL. 43

“ Didn't you ever go to school, Joe, when you were as little

as me ? "
“ No, Pip .”
“Why didn't you ever go to school, Joe, when you were as
little as me ? "
“Well, Pip ,” said Joè, taking up the poker, and settling
himself to his usual occupation when he was thoughtful, of
slowly raking the fire between the lower bars : “I'll tell you.
My father, Pip, he were given to drink , and when he were
overtook with drink , he hammered away at my mother most
onmerciful. It were aʼmost the only hammering he did, indeed,
'xcepting at myself. And he hammered at me with a wigour
only to be equalled by the wigour with which he didn't hammer
at his anwil. - You’re a -listening and understanding, Pip ? ”
“ Yes, Joe."
“ Consequence, my mother and me we ran away from my
father several times ; and then my mother she'd go out to
6
work , and she'd say, ' Joe,' she'd say, ' now, please God, you
shall have some schooling, child,' and she'd put me to school .
But my father were that good in his bart that he couldn't abear
to be without us. So, he'd comewith a most tremenjous crowd
and make such a row at the doors of the houses where we was,
that they used to be obligated to have no more to do with us
and to give us up to him. And then he took us home and
hammered us. Which , you see, Pip,” said Joe, pausing in his
meditative raking of the fire, and looking at me , were a draw
back on my learning."
“ Certainly, poor Joe !”
“ Though mind you, Pip,” said Joe, with a judicial touch or
two of the poker on the top bar, “ rendering unto all their doo,
and mạintaining equal justice betwixt man and man , ny father
were that good in his hart, don't you see ? ”
I didn't see ; but I didn't say so .
“ Well !” Joe pursued , “ somebody must keep the pot a -biling,
Pip, or the pot won't bile, don't you know ? ”
I saw that, and said so.
“' Consequence, my father didn't make objections to my going
to work ; so I went to work at my present calling, which were
his too , if he would have followed it, and I worked tolerable
hard, I assure you , Pip. In time I were able to keep him , and
I kep him till he went off in a purple leptic fit . Aud it were
 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

my intentions to have had put upon his tombstone that What

sume'er the failings on his part, Remember reader he were that
good in his hart.”
Joe recited this couplet with such manifest pride and careful
perspicuity, that I asked him if he had made it himself.
• I made it ,” said Joe ,“ my own self. I made it in a moment.
It was like striking out a horseshoe complete , in a single blow.
I never was so much surprised in all my life - couldn't credit
my own ed-to tell you the truth , hardly believed it were my
own ed. As I was saying, Pip, it were my intentions to have
had it cut over him ; but poetry costs money, cut it how you
will , small or large, and it were not done. Not to mention
bearers, all the money that could be spared were wanted for
my mother. She were in poor elth, and quite broke. She
waren't long of following, poor soul , and her share of peace
come round at last .”
Joe's blue eyes turned a little watery ; he rubbed , first one of
them, and then the other, in a most uncongenial and uncom
fortable manner, with the round knob on the top of the
poker.
“ It were but lonesome then,” said Joe , “ living here alone,
and I got acquainted with your sister. Now, Pip ;” Joe looked
firmly at me, as if he knew I was not going to agree with him ;
6
“ your sister is a fine figure of a woman .”
I could not help looking at the fire, in an obvious state of
doubt .
“ Whatever family opinions, or whatever the world's opinions,
on that subject may be, Pip, your sister is, ” Joe tapped the
top bar with the poker after every word following, “ a - fine
figure -of-a-woman !"
I could think of nothing better to say than “ I am glad you
think so, Joe.”
" So am I,” returned Joe, catching me up. " I am glad I
think so, Pip. A little redness , or a little matter of Bone, here
or there, what does it siguify to Me ? ”
I sagaciously observed, if it didn't signify to him, to whom
did it signify ?
6
Certainly ! ” assented Joe. “ That's it. You 're right, old
chap ! When I got acquainted with your sister, it were the
talk how she was bringing you up by hand . Very kind of her
too, all the folks said, and I said, along with all the folks. As
 JOE'S BETTER HALF “ A BUSTER.” 45

to you,” Joe pursued, with a countenance expressive of seeing

something very nasty indeed : “if you could have been aware
how small and flabby and mean you was, dear me, you 'd have
formed the most contemptible opinions of yourself ! ”
Not exactly relishing this, I said, “ Never mind me, Joe.”
“But I did mind you, Pip ,” he returned, with tender sim
plicity. “When I offered to your sister to keep company, and
to be asked in church, at such times as she was willing and
ready to come to the forge, I said to her, ' And bring the poor
little child. God bless the poor little child , I said to your
sister, there's room for him at the forge !» »
I broke out crying and begging pardon, and hugged Joe round
the neck : who dropped the poker to hug me, and to say,
“ Ever the best of friends ; ain't us, Pip ? Don't cry, old
chap !”
When this little interruption was over, Joe resumed :
“ Well, you see, Pip, and here we are ! That's about where
it lights : here we are ! Now, when you take me in hand in
my learning, Pip (and I tell you beforehand I am awful dull,
most awful dull ), Mrs. Joe mustn't see too much of what we're
up to. It must be done, as I may say, on the sly. And why
on the sly f I'll tell you why, Pip.”
He had taken up the poker again ; without which, I doubt if
he could have proceeded in his demonstration .
“Your sister is given to government.”
“ Given to government, Joe ? ” I was startled, for I had some
shadowy idea (and I am afraid I must add, hope) that Joe had
divorced her in favour of the Lords of the Admiralty, or
Treasury .
“ Given to government,” said Joe. Which I meantersay
the government of you and myself.”
Oh ! ”
“ And she ain't over partial to having scholars on the pre
mises,” Joe continued, “ and in partickler would not be over
partial to my being a scholar, for fear as I might rise. Like a
sort of rebel, don't you see ? "
I was going to retort with an inquiry, and had got as far as
" Why- _” when Joe stopped me.
"Stay a bit. I know what you ’re a-going to say , Pip ; stay
a bit ! I don't deny that your sister comes the Mo-gul over us,
now and again. I don't deny that she do throw us back -falls,
46 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

and that she do drop down upon us heavy. At such times as

when your sister is on the Ram -page, Pip,” Joe sank his voice
to a whisper and glanced at the door, “ candour compels fur to
admit that she is a Buster .”
Joe pronounced this word, as if it began with at least twelve
capital Bs.
Why don't I rise ? That were your observatioy when I
broke it off , Pip ? ”
66
Yes, Joe.”
“ Well, ” said Joe, passing the poker into his left hand, that
he might feel bis whisker ; and I had no hope of him whenever
he took to that piacid occupation ; “ your sister's a master
mind. A master-mind . "
“What's that ? ” I asked , in some hope of bringing him to
a stand. But, Joe was readier with his definition than I had
expected , and completely stopped me by arguing circularly,
and answering with a fixed look, “ Her .”
“And I ain't a masier -mind , ” Joe resumed , when he had
unfixed his look, and got back to his whisker. “ And last of
all, Pip — and this I want to say very serous to you , old chap
—I see so much in my poor mother, of a wopian drudging and
slaving and breaking her honest hart and never getting no
peace in her mortal days, that I'm dead afeerd of going wrong
in the way of not doing what's right by a woman , and I'd fur
rather of the two go wrong the t'other way, and be a little ill
conwenienced myself. I wish it was only me that got put out,
Pip ; I wish there warn't no Tickler for you, old chap ; I wish
I could take it all on myself ; but this is the up-and -down -and
straight on it, Pip, and I hope you ' ll overlook shortcomings.”
Young as I was, I believe that I dated a new admiration of
Joe from that night. We were equals afterwards, as we had
been before ; but, afterwards at quiet times when I sat looking
at Joe andthinking about him, I had a new sensation of feeling
conscious
66
that I was looking up to Joe in my heart.
However,” said Joe, rising to replenish the fire ; "here's
the Dutch-clock a -working himself up to being equal to strike
Eight of 'em, and she's not come home yet ! I hope Uncle
Pumblechook's mare mayn't have set a fore-foot on a piece o'
>
ice, and gone down .”
Mrs. Joe made occasional trips with Uncle Pumblecbook on
market-days, to assist him in buying such household stuffs and
 NEWS. 47
goods as required a woman's judgment; Uncle Pumblechook
being a bachelor and reposing no confidences in his domestic
servant. This was market- day, and Mrs. Joe was out on one
of these expeditions.
Joe made the fire and swept the hearth , and then we went
to the door to listen for the chaise -cart. It was a dry cold
night, and the wind blew keenly, and the frost was white and
hard . A man would die to -night of lying out on the marshes,
I thought. And then I looked at the stars, and considered how
awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he
froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering
multitude.
“ Here comes the mare,” said Joe, “ ringing like a peal of
bells ! ”
The sound of her iron shoes upon the hard road was quite
musical, as she came along at aa much brisker trot than usual. We
got a chair out, ready for Mrs. Joe's alighting, and stirred up the
fire that they might see a bright window, and took a final
survey of the kitchen that nothing might be out of its place.
When we had completed these preparations, they drove up,
wrapped to the eyes. Mrs. Joe was soon landed, and Uncle
Pumblechook was soon down too, covering the mare with a
cloth, and we were soon all in the kitchen , carrying so much
cold air with us that it seemed to drive all the heat out of the
fire .
.6

“ Now," said Mrs. Joe, unwrapping herself with haste and

excitement, and throwing her bonnet back on her shoulders
where it hung by the strings: “ if this boy ain't grateful this
night, be never will be !"
I looked as grateful as any boy possibly could , who was
wholly uninformed why he ought to assume that expression .
" It's only to be hoped,” said my sister, “ that he won't be
Pompeyed . But I have my fears."
“ She ain't in that line, Mum , " said Mr. Pumblechook . “ She
knows better ."
She ? I looked at Joe, making the motion with my lips and
eyebrows, “ Sbe ? ” Joe looked at me, making the motion with
his lips and eyebrows, “ She ? " My sister catching him in the
act, he drew the back of his hand across his nose with
his usual conciliatory air on such occasions, and looked at
her.
48 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
“ Well ? ” said my sister, in her spappish way. “What are
you staring at ? Is the house a - fire ? "
“ – Which some individual,” Joe politely hinted, “ mentioned
she.”
“And she is a she, I suppose ? ” said my sister. “ Unless you
call Miss Havisham a he. And I doubt if even you 'll go so far
as that.”
60

Miss Havisham up town ? ” said Joe.

“ Is there any Miss Havisham down town ? " returned my
sister. “ She wants this boy.to go and play there. And of
>
course he's going. And he had better play there,” said my
sister, shaking her head at me as an encouragement to be
extremely light and sportive, “ or I'll work him .”
I had heard of Miss Havisham up town -everybody for
miles round , had heard of Miss Havisham up town as an
immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and
dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of
seclusion .
“ Well to be sure ! ” said Joe, astounded. “ I wonder how
she comes to know Pip ! ” »
“ Noodle ! ” cried my sister. “ Who said she knew him ? "
“Which some individual, ” Joe again politely hinted, “ men
tioned that she wanted him to go and play there . "
“And couldn't she ask Uncle Pumblechook if he knew of a
boy to go and play there ? Isn't it just barely possible that
Uncle Pumblechook may be a tenant of hers, and that he may
sometimes — we won't say quarterly or half-yearly, for that
would be requiring too much of you—but sometimes-go there
to pay his rent ? And couldn't she then ask Uncle Pumble
chook if he knew of a boy to go and play there ? And couldn't
Uncle Pumblechook , being always considerate and thoughtful
for us —though you may not think it, Joseph , ” in a tone of the
deepest reproach, as if he were the most callous of nephews,
“ then mention this boy, standing Prancing here ” —which I
solemnly declare I was not doing— “ that I have for ever been
a willing slave to ? ”
“ Good again ! ” cried Uncle Pumblechook . “ Well put!
Prettily pointed ! Good indeed ! Now, Joseph , you know the
case ."
66
No, Joseph ,” said my sister, still in a reproachful manner,
while Joe apologetically drew the back of his hand across and
 PARTING WITH JOE . 49

across his nose , “ you do not yet — though you may not think
it - know the case . You may consider that you do, but you do
not, Joseph. For you do not know that Uncle Pumblechook,
being sensible that for anything we can tell, this boy's fortune
may be made by his going to Miss Havisham's, has offered to
take him into town to- night in his own chaise -cart, and to keep
him to -night, and to take him with his own hands to Miss
Havisham's to-morrow morning. And Lor-a-mussy me!” cried
my sister, casting off her bonnet in sudden desperation, “ here
I stand talking to mere Mooncalfs, with Uncle Pumblechook
waiting, and the mare catching cold at the door, and the boy
grimed with crock and dirt from the hair of his head to the sole
of his foot ! ”
With that, she pounced on me, like an eagle on a lamb, and
my face was squeezed into wooden bowls in sinks, and my head
was put under taps of water -butts, and I was soaped, and
kneaded, and towelled, and thumped, and harrowed, and rasped,
until I really was quite beside myself. (I may here remark that
I suppose myself to be better acquainted than any living
authority, with the ridgy effect of a wedding -ring, passing
unsympathetically over the human countenance.)
When my ablutions were completed, I was put into clean
linen of the stiffest character, like a young penitent into sack
cloth, and was trussed up in my tightest and fearfullest suit.
I was then delivered over to Mr. Pumblechook, who formally
received me as if he were the Sheriff, and who let off upon me
the speech that I knew he had been dying to make all along :
“ Boy, be for ever grateful to all friends, but especially unto
them which brought you up by hand ! ”
Good -bye, Joe ! ”
6 God bless you, Pip, old chap ! ”
I had never parted from him before, and what with my feel
ings and what with soap -suds, I could at first see no stars from
the chaise cart. But they twinkled out one by one, without
throwing any light on the questions why on earth I was going
to play at Miss Havisham's, and what on earth I was expected
to play at .

E
50 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

CHAPTER VIII .

MR. PUMBLECHOOK's premises in the High -street of the market

town , were of a peppercorny and farinaceous character, as the
premises of a corn-chandler and seedsman should be, It ap
peared to me that he must be a very happy man indeed , to
have so many little drawers in his shop : and I wondered when
I peeped into one or two on the lower tiers, and saw the tied.
up brown paper packets inside , whether the flower -seeds and
bulbs ever wanted of a fine day to break out of those jails, and
bloom .
It was in the early morning after my arrival that I enter.
tained this speculation . On the previous night, I had been
sent straight to bed in an attic with a sloping roof, which was
so low in the corner where the bedstead was, that I calculated
the tiles as being within a foot of my eyebrows. In the same
early morning, I discovered a singular affinity between seeds
and corduroys. Mr. Pumblechook wore corduroys, and so did
his shopman ; and somehow, there was a general air and
flavour about the cord ys, much in the nature of seeds,
and a general air and flavour about the seeds, so much in the
nature of corduroys, that I hardly knew which was which . The
same opportunity served me for noticing that Mr. Pumblechook
appeared to conduct his business by looking across the street
at the saddler, who appeared to transact his business by keeping
his eye on the coach-maker, who appeared to get on in life by
putting his hands in his pockets and contemplating the baker,
who in his turn folded his arms and stared at the grocer, who
stood at his door and yawned at the chemist. The watch
maker, always poring over a little desk with a magnifying
glass at his eye, and always inspected by a group in smock
frocks poring over him through the glass of his shop -window ,
seemed to be about the only person in the High -street whose
trade engaged his attention .
Mr. Pumblechook and I breakfasted at eight o'clock in the
parlour behind the shop, while the shopman took his mug
of tea and hunch of bread-and-butter on a sack of peas
in the front premises. I considered Mr. Pumblechook wretched
company. Besides being possessed by my sister's idea that a
mortifying and penitential character ought to be imparted to
 MISS HAVISHAM'S HOUSE . 51

my diet - besides giving me as much crumb as possible in

combination with as little butter, and putting such a quantity
of warm water into my milk that it would have been more
candid to have left the milk out altogether — his conversation
consisted of nothing but arithmetic. On my politely bidding
him Good morning, he said, pompously , “ Seven times nine,
boy ? " And how should I be able to answer, dodged in that
way , in a strange place, on an empty stomach ! I was hungry,
but before I had swallowed a morsel, he began a running sum
that lasted all through the breakfast . “ Seven ? ” 66 And
four ? " “ And eight ? ” “ And six ? ? " And two ? ” 66 And
ten ? ” And so on . And after each figure was disposed of, it
was as much as I could do to get a bite or a sup, before the
next came ; while he sat at his ease guessing nothing, and
eating bacon and hot roll, in (if I may be allowed the ex
pression ) a gcrging and gormandising manner.
For such reasons I was very glad when ten o'clock came and
we started for Miss Havisham's ; though I was not at all at my
ease regarding the manner in which I should acquit myself
under that lady's roof. Within a quarter of an hour we came
to Miss Havisham's house, which was of old brick, and dismal ,
and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows
had been walled up ; of those that remained, all the lower
were rustily barred. There was a court -yard in front, and that
was barred ; so, we had to wait, after ringing the bell , until
some one should come to open it. While we waited at the gate,
I peeped in (even then Mr. Pumblechook said ,“ And fourteen ?”
but I pretended not to hear him ), and saw that at the side of
the house there was a large brewery. No brewing was going
on in it, and none seemed to have gone on for a long time.
A window was raised, and a clear voice demanded “ What
name ? " To which my conductor replied, “ Pumblechook .”
The voice returned, “ Quite right,” and the window was shut
again , and a young lady came across the court- yard, with keys
in her hand .
CC
* This," said Mr. Pumblechook , “ is Pip."
“ This is Pip, is it ? ” returned the young lady, who was very
pretty and seemed very proud ; "come in , Pip.”
Mr. Pumblechook was coming in also, when she stopped him
with the gate.
“ Oh !” she said . “ Did you wish to see Miss Havisham ? !
E 2
52 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
“ If Miss Havisham wished to see me, " returned Mr. Pum
blechook , discomfited.
“ Ah ! ” said the girl ; “ but you see she don't.” .
She said it so finally, and in such an undiscussible way , that
Mr. Pumblechook , though in a condition of ruffled dignity,
could not protest. But he eyed me severelymas if I had done
anything to him !-and departed with the words reproachfully
delivered : “ Boy ! Let your behaviour here be a credit unto
them which brought you up by hand ! ” I was not free from
apprehension that he would come back to propound through
the gate, “ And sixteen ?? But he didn't.
My young conductress locked the gate, and we went across
the court -yard. It was paved and clean , but grass was growing
in every crevice. The brewery buildings had a little lane of
communication with it ; and the wooden gates of that lane
stood open , and all the brewery beyond stood open, away to the
high enclosing wall ; and all was empty and disused. The cold
wind seemed to blow colder there, than outside the gate ; and
it made a shrill noise in howling in and out at the open sides
of the brewery, like the noise of wind in the rigging of a ship
at sea.
She saw me looking at it, and she said , “ You could drink
without
"
hurt all the strong beer that's brewed there now,
boy."
"
“ I should think I could, miss," said I, in a shy way.
“ Better not try to brew beer there now , or it would turn out
sour, boy ; don't you think so ? ”
“ It looks like it, miss .”
<3

"Not that anybody means to try, ” she added, “ for that's all
done with, and the place will stand as idle as it is, till it falls.
As to strong beer, there's enough of it in the cellars already,
to drown the Manor House . "
“ Is that the name of this house, miss ? ”
“ One of its names , boy."
"
“ It has more than one, then, miss ?
“ One more. Its other name was Satis ; which is Greek, or
Latin , or Hebrew , or all three—or all one to me-for enough ."
Enough House !” said I : “ that's a curious name ,
miss.”
“ Yes,” she replied ; "but it meant more than it said . It
meant, when it was given, that whoever had this house, could
 A STRANGE LADY . 53

want nothing else. They must have been easily satisfied in

those days, I should think. But don't loiter, boy .”
Though she called me “ boy ” so often, and with a carelessness
that was far from complimentary, she was of about my own
age. She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl,
and beautiful and self -possessed ; and she was as scornful of
me as if she had been one-and -twenty, and a queen.
We went into the house by a side door-the great front
entrance had two chains across it outside and the first thing
I noticed was, that the passages were all dark, and that she
had left a candle burning there. She took it up, and we went
through more passages and up a staircase, and still it was all
dark , and only the candle lighted us.
At last we came to the door of a room, and she said, “ Go
in ."
«
I answered, more in shyness than politeness, “ After you,
miss."
To this, she returned: “ Don't be ridiculous, boy ; I am not
going in .” And scornfully walked away , and — what was worse
-took the candle with her.
This was very uncomfortable, and I was half afraid . How
ever , the only thing to be done being to knock at the door, I
knocked, and was told from within to enter. I entered, there
fore, and found myself in a pretty large room, well lighted with
wax candles. No glimpse of daylight was to be seen in it. It
was a dressing -room , as I supposed from the furniture, though
much of it was of forms and uses then quite unknown to me.
But prominent in it was a draped table with a gilded looking
glass, and that I made out at first sight to be a fine lady's
dressing -table.
Whether I should have made out this object so soon, if there
had been no fine lady sitting at it, I cannot say. In an arm
chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning
on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall
ever see .

She was dressed in rich materials - satins, and lace, and silks
-all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long
white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers
in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels
sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels
lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the
54 GREAT EXPECTATIO .
NS
dress she wore, and half-packed trunks, were scattered about.
She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe
on—the other was on the table near her hand-her veil was but
half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on , and some
lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her hand
kerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a Prayer- book , all
confusedly heaped about the looking-glass.
It was not in the first few moments that I saw all these
things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than
might be supposed. But, I saw that everything within my
view which ought to be white, had been wbite long ago , and
had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow . I saw that the
bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and
like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness
of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon
the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon
which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once,
I had been taken to see some ghastly waxwork at the Fair,
representing I know not what impossible personage lying in
state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh
churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress, that had
beeu dug out of a vault under the church pavement. Now,
waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved
and looked at me. I should have cried out, if I could.
“ Who is it ? " said the lady at the table.
“Pip, ma'am .”
Pip ? ”
Mr. Pumblechook's boy, ma'am . Come- to play."
" Come nearer; let me look at you. Come close." "
It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I
took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that
her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a
clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.
“Look at me," said Miss Havisham . “ You are not afraid
22

of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born ? '
I regret to state that I was not afraid of telling the enormous
lie comprehended in the answer “ No. "
“ Do you know what I touch here ? " she said, laying her
hands, one upon the other, on her left side.
“ Yes, ma'am . ” (It made me think of the young man.)
“ What do I touch ? ”
 A BROKEN HEART . 55
" Your heart.”
a “ Broken !”
She uttered the word with an eager look , and with strong
emphasis, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it .
Afterwards, she kept her hands there for a little while, and
siowly took them away as if they were heavy .
“ I am tired ,” said Miss Havisham. “ I want diversion, and
I have done with men and women . Play."
I think it will be conceded by my most disputatious reader,
that she could hardly have directed an unfortunate boy to do
anything in the wide world more difficult to be done under the
circumstances.
“ I sometimes have sick fancies,” she went on, " and I have
a sick fancy that I want to see some play. There, there !
with an impatient movement of the fingers of her right hand ;
play, play, play !”.
For a moment, with the fear of my sister's working me
before my eyes, I had a desperate idea of starting round the
room in the assumed character of Mr. Pumblechook's chaise
cart. But, I felt myself so unequal to the performance that I
gave it up, and stood looking at Miss Havisham in what I
suppose she took for a dogged manner, inasmuch as she said,
when we had taken a good look at each other :
“Are you sullen and obstinate ? "
“ No, ma'am , I am very sorry for you, and very sorry I can't
>

play just now. If you complain of me I shall get into trouble

with my sister, so I would do it if I could ; but it's so new
here, and so strange, and so fine - and melancholy - _ " I
stopped, fearing I might say too much, or had already said it,
and we took another look at each other .
Before she spoke again , she turned her eyes from me, and
looked at the dress she wore, and at the dressing -table, and
finally at herself in the looking •glass.
“ So new to him ," she muttered, “ so old to me ; so strange
to him , so familiar to me ; so melancholy to both of us ! Call
Estella . "
As she was still looking at the reflection of herself, I thought
she was still talking to herself, and kept quiet.
“ Call Estella ," she repeated , flashing a look at me. 6. You
can do that. Call Estella. At the door. "
To stand in the dark in a mysterious passage of an unknown
56 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
house, bawling Estella to a scornful young lady neither visi
ble nor responsive, and feeling it a dreadful liberty so to roar
out her name, was almost as bad as playing to order . But, she
answered at last, and her light came along the dark passage
like a star .
Miss Havisham beckoned her to come close, and took up a
jewel from the table, and tried its effect upon her fair young
bosom and against her pretty brown hair . “Your own, one
day, my dear, and you will use it well. Let me see you play
cards with this boy .”
“ With this boy ! Why, he is a common labouring -boy ! ”
I thought I overheard Miss Havisham answer - only it
seemed so unlikely— “ Well ? You can break his heart.”
“ What do you play, boy ? ” asked Estella of myself, with
the greatest disdain.
Nothing but beggar my neighbour, Miss.”
Beggar him ," said Miss Havisham to Estella. So we sat
down to cards .
It was then I began to understand that everything in the
room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time
ago. I noticed that Miss Havisham put down the jewel ex
actly on the spot from which she had taken it up. As Estella
dealt the cards, I glanced at the dressing -table again , and saw
that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow , had never been
worn . I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was
absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now
yellow, had been trodden ragged. Without this arrest of
everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, not
even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have
looked so like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like aa shroud.
So she sat, corpse-like, as we played at cards ; the frillings
and trimmings on her bridal dress, looking like earthy paper.
I knew nothing then of the discoveries that are occasionally
made of bodies buried in ancient times, which fall to powder
in the moment of being distinctly seen ; but, I have often
thought since, that she must have looked as if the admission
of the natural light of day would have struck her to dust.
“ He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy ! ” said Estella with
disdain, before our first game was out. “ And what coarse
hands he has ! And what thick boots ! ”
I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before ;
 BEGGARED BY A GIRL. 57

but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her

contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and
caught it.
She won the game, and I dealt. I misdealt, as was only
natural, when I knew she was lying in wait for me to do wrong ;
and she denounced me for a stupid , clumsy labouring -boy.
“ You say nothing of her,” remarked Miss Havisham to me,
as she looked on . “ She says many hard things of you, yet
you say nothing of her. What do you think of her ? "
“ I don't like to say,” I stammered .
“ Tell me in my ear,” said Miss Havisham , bending down.
“ I think she is very proud , ” I replied in a whisper.
CC
Anything else ? "
“ I think she is very pretty.”
" Anything else ? ”
“ I think she is very insulting. ” (She was looking at me
then with a look of supreme aversion.)
“ Anything else ? "
“ I think I should like to go bome.”
“And never see her again , though she is so pretty ? ”
“ I am not sure that I shouldn't like to see her again , but I
should like to go home now ."
“ You shall go soon ,” said Miss Havisham aloud. " Play the
game out. "
Saving for the one weird smile at first, I should have felt
almost sure that Miss Havisham's face could not smile. It had
dropped into a watchful and brooding expression - most likely
when all the things about her had become transfixed -and it
looked as if nothing could ever lift it up again . Her chest had
dropped, so that she stooped ; and her voice had dropped , so
that she spoke low, and with aa dead lull upon her ; altogether,
she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul,
within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow.
I played the game to an end with Estella, and she beggared
me , She threwthe cards down on the table when she had won
them all, as if she despised them for having been won of me.
“When shall I have you here again ? ” said Miss Havisham .
“Let me think.”
I was beginning to remind her that to -day was Wednesday,
when she checked me with her former impatient movement of
the fingers of her right hand.
58 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
There, there ! I know nothing of days of the week ; I know
hothing of weeks of the year. Come again after six days.
You hear ? 77
Yes, ma'am .”
“Estella, take him down. Let him have something to eat,
and let him roam and look about him while he eats . Go, Pip.”
I followed the candle down, as I had followed the candle up,
and she stood it in the place where we had found it . Until she
opened the side entrance, I had fancied, without thinking about
it, that it must necessarily be night-time. The rush of the
daylight quite confounded me, and made me feel as if I had
been in the candlelight of the strange room many hours.
“ You are to wait here, you boy,” said Estella ; and disap
peared and closed the door.
I took the opportunity of being alone in the court -yard , to
look at my coarse hands and my common boots. My opinion
of those accessories was not favourable . They bad never
troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar ap
pendages. I determined to ask Joe why he had ever taught
me to call those picture -cards, Jacks, which ought to be called
kvaves. I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought
up , and then I should have been so too.
She came back, with some bread and meat and a little mug
of beer. She put the mug down on the stones of the yard ,
and gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as
insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace. I was so humiliated,
hurt, spurned , offended , angry, sorry—I cannot hit upon the
right name for the smart - God knows what its name was -- that
tears started to my eyes. The moment they sprang there, the
girl looked at me with a quick delight in baving been the cause
of them . This gave me power to keep them back and to look
at her : so, she gave a contemptuous toss — but with a sense, I
thought, of having made too sure that I was so wounded - and
left me.
But, when she was gone, I looked about me for a place to
hide my face in, and got behind one of the gatesin the brewery,
lane, and leaned my sleeve against the wall there, and leaned
my forehead on it and cried . As I cried, I kicked the wall, and
took a hard twist at my hair ; so bitter were my feelings, and
so sharp was the smart without a name, that needed counter
action ,
 DESOLATION . 59

My sister's bringing up had made me sensitive. In the little

world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings
them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt,
as injustice. It may be only small injustice that the child can
be exposed to ; but the child is small, and its world is small,
and its rocking-horse stands as many hands high, according to
scale, as a big -boned Irish hunter. Within myself, I had sus
tained, from my babyhood, a perpetual conflict with injustice .
I had known, from the time when I could speak, that my sister,
in her capricious and violent coercion, was unjust to me. I had
cherished a profound conviction that her bringing me up by
hand, gave her no right to bring me up by jerks . Through all
my punishments, disgraces, fasts and vigils, and other peni
tential performances, I had nursed this assurance ; and to my
communing so much with it, in a solitary and unprotected way ,
I in great part refer the fact that I was morally timid and very
sensitive.
I got rid of my injured feelings for the time, by kicking them
into the brewery-wall, and twisting them out of my hair, and
then I smoothed my face with my sleeve, and came from behind
the gate. The bread and meat were acceptable, and the beer
was warming and tingling, and I was soon in spirits to look
about me.
To be sure, it was a deserted place, down to the pigeon-house
in the brewery -yard, which had been blown crooked on its pole
by some high wind, and would have made the pigeons think
themselves at sea, if there had been any pigeons there to be
rocked by it. But, there were no pigeons in the dove- cot, no
horses in the stable, no pigs in the sty, no malt in the store .
house, no smells of grains and beer in the copper or the vat.
. All the uses and scents of the brewery might have evaporated
with its last reek of smoke. In a by - yard, there was a wilder
ness of empty casks, which had a certain sour remembrance of
better days lingering about them ; but it was too sour to be ac
cepted as a sample of the beer that was gone-and in this respect
I remember those recluses as being like most others.
Behind the furthest end of the brewery, was a rank garden
with an old wall : not so high but that I could struggle up and
hold on long enough to look over it, and see that the rank
garden was the garden of the house, and that it was overgrown
with tangled weeds, but that there was a track upon the green
60 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

and yellow paths, as if some one sometimes walked there, and

that Estella was walking away from me even then . But she
seemed to be everywhere. For, when I yielded to the tempta
tion presented by the casks, and began to walk on them, I saw
her walking on them at the end of the yard of casks. She had
her back towards me, and held her pretty brown hair spread out
in her two hands, and never looked round , and passed out of
my view directly. So, in the brewery itself — by which I mean
the large paved lofty place in which they used to make the
beer, and where the brewing utensils still were. When I first
went into it, and, rather oppressed by its gloom, stood near the
door looking about me, I saw her pass among the extinguished
fires, and ascend some light iron stairs, and go out by a gallery
high overhead , as if she were going out into the sky.
It was in this place, and at this moment, that a strange
thing happened to my fancy. I thought it a strange thing then ,
and I thought it a stranger thing long afterwards. I turned my
eyes — a little dimmed by looking up at the frosty light
towards a great wooden beam in a low nook of the building
near me on my right hand, and I saw a figure hanging there by
the neck . A figure all in yellow white, with but one shoe to
the feet ; and it hung so, that I could see that the faded trim
mings of the dress were like earthy paper, and that the face
was Miss Havisham's, with a movement going over the whole
countenance as if she were trying to call to me . In the terror
of seeing the figure, and in the terror of being certain that it
had not been there a moment before, I at first ran from it,
and then ran towards it. And my terror was greatest of all
when I found no figure there.
Nothing less than the frosty light of the cheerful sky, the
>

sight of people passing beyond the bars of the court-yard gate,

and the reviving influence of the rest of the bread and meat
and beer, could have brought me round. Even with those aids,
I might not have come to myself as soon as I did, but that
I saw Estella approaching with the keys to let me out. She
would have some fair reason for looking down upon me, I
thought, if she saw me frightened ; and she should have no
fair reason .
She gave me a triumphant glance in passing me, as if she
rejoiced that my hands were so coarse and my boots were so
thick, and she opened the gate, and stood holding it. I was
 HOW I AM TREATED AT HOME. 61

passing out without looking at her, when she touched me with

a taunting hand .
“ Why don't you cry ? ”
“ Because I don't want to .”
“ You do ,” said she. “ You have been crying till you are half
blind, and you are near crying again now."
She laughed contemptuously , pushed me out, and locked
the gate upon me. I went straight to Mr. Pumblechook's, and
was immensely relieved to find him not at home. So, leaving
word with the shopman on what day I was wanted at Miss
Havisham's again , I set off on the four -mile walk to our
forge; pondering, as I went along , on all I had seen, and deeply
revolving that I was a common labouring -boy ; that my hands
were coarse ; that my boots were thick ; that I had fallen into
a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much
more ignorant than I had considered myself last night, and
generally that I was in a low - lived bad way.

CHAPTER IX .

WHEN I reached home, my sister was very curious to know all

about Miss Havisham's, and asked a number of questions. And
I soon found myself getting heavily bumped from behind in
the nape of the neck and the small of the back, and having
my face ignominiously shoved against the kitchen wall, because
I did not answer those questions at sufficient length .
If a dread of not being understood be hidden in the breasts
of other young people to anything like the extent to which it
used to be hidden in mine -- which I consider probable, as I
have no particular reason to suspect myself of having been a
monstrosity - it is the key to many reservations. I felt con
vinced that if I described Miss Havisham's as my eyes had
seen it, I should not be understood . Not only that, but I felt
convinced that Miss Havisham too would not be understood ;
and although she was perfectly incomprehensible to me, I en
tertained an impression that there would be something coarse
and treacherous in my dragging her as she really was (to say
62 GREAT EXPECTATIONS,

nothing of Miss Estella) before the contemplation of Mrs. Joe,

Consequently, I said as little as I could , and had my face shoved
against the kitchen wall.
The worst of it was that that bullying old Pumblechook,
preyed upon by a devouring curiosity. to be informed of all I
had seen and heard, came gaping over in his chaise-cart at tea .
time, to have the details divulged to him. And the mere sight
of the torment, with his fishy eyes and mouth open , his sandy
hair inquisitively on end, and his waistcoat heaving with windy
arithmetic, made me vicious in my reticence.
“ Well, boy ,” Uncle Pumblechook began , as soon as he was
seated in the chair of honour by the tire. “ How did you get
on up town ? ”
I answered, “Pretty well, sir," and my sister shook her fist
at me.
K
“ Pretty well ? ” Mr. Pumblechook repeated . “ Pretty well is
no answer. Tell us what you mean by pretty well, boy ? "
Whitewash on the forehead hardens the brain into aa state of
obstinacy perhaps. Anyhow, with whitewash from the wall on
my forehead, my obstinacy was adamantine. I reflected for some
time, and then answered as if I had discovered a new idea , “ I
mean pretty well."
My sister with an exclamation of impatience was going to fly
at me-I had no shadow of defence, for Joe was busy in the
forge - when Mr. Pumblechook interposed with “No ! Don't
lose your temper. Leave this lad to me, ma’am ; leave this
lad to me.” Mr. Pumblechook then turned me towards him, as
if he were going to cut my hair, and said :
“ First (to get our thoughts in order) : Forty -three
pence ? "
I calculated the consequences of replying “Four Hundred
Pound, " and finding them against me, went as near the answer
as I could — which was somewhere about eightpence off. Mr.
Pumblechook then put me through my pence-table from
“ twelve pence make one shilling, ” up to “ forty pence make
three and fourpence," and then triumphantly demanded, as if he??
had done for me , Now ! How much is forty -three pence ?
To which I replied, after a long interval of reflection , “ I don't
know." And I was so aggravated that I almost doubt if I did
know .
Mr. Pumblechook worked his head like a screw to screw it
 A BLACK VELVET COACH. 63

out of me, and said , " Is forty -three pence seven and sixpence
three fardens, for instance ? "
“ Yes !” said I. And although my sister instantly boxed my
ears, it was highly gratifying to me to see that the answer
spoilt his joke, and brought him to a dead stop.
“ Boy ! What like is Miss Havisham ? ” Mr. Pumblechook
began again when he had recovered ; folding his arms tight on
his chest and applying the screw.
“Very tall and "dark, ” I told him .
“ Is she, uncle ? ” asked my sister.
Mr. Pumblechook winked assent ; from which I at once in
ferred that he had never seen Miss Havisham , for she was
nothing of the kind.
“ Good ! ” said Mr. Pumblechook, conceitedly. (“ This is the
way to have him ! We are beginning to hold our own, I think,
Mum ? ” ).
“ I am sure, uncle, ” returned Mrs. Joe, “ I wish you had him
always : you know so well how to deal with him .”
“ Now, boy ! What was she a doing of, when you went in
to-day ?" asked Mr. Pumblechook.
“ She was sitting, " I answered, " in a black velvet coach ."
Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another - as
they well might - and both repeated, “ In a black velvet
coach ? "
2
“ Yes," said I. “And Miss Estella — that's her niece, I think
-handed her in cake and wine at the coach -window , on a gold
plate. And we all had cake and wine on gold plates. And
I got up behind the coach to eat mine, because she told
me to ."
“Was anybody else there ? ” asked Mr. Pumblechook.
“ Four dogs," said I,
66
Large or small ? "
“ Immense,” said I. “ And they fought for veal cutlets out
of a silver basket."
Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another again ,
in utter amazement . I was perfectly frantic — a reckless witness
under the torture — and would have told them anything.
“ Where was this coach, in the name of gracious? ” asked
my sister .
« In Miss Havisham's room ." They stared again . < But
there weren't any horses to it.” I added this saving clause , in
64 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

the moment of rejecting four richly caparisoned coursers, which

I had had wild thoughts of harnessing.
“ Can this be possible, uncle ? ” asked Mrs. Joe. “ What can
>
the boy mean ?
“ I'll tell you, Mum , " said Mr. Punablechook . “ My opinion
is, it's a sedan -chair. She's flighty, you know - very flighty
quite flighty enough to pass her days in a sedan - chair . ”
“ Did you ever see her in it, uncle ? ” asked Mrs. Joe.
How could I, ” he returned, forced to the admission, “ when
I never see her in my life ? Never clapped eyes upon her ! ”
“Goodness, uncle ! And yet you have spoken to her ? ” .
“ Why, don't you know ," said Mr. Pumblechook , testily,
“ that when I have been there, I have been took up to the
outside of her door, and the door has stood ajar, and she has
spoken to me that way. Don't say you don't know that, Mum .
Howsever, the boy went there to play. What did you play at,
boy ? ”
“We played with flags,” I said . (I beg to observe that I
think of myself with amazement, when I recall the lies I told
on this occasion .)
66

60
Flags!” echoed my sister .
Yes,” said I. “ Estella waved a blue flag, and I waved a
red one, and Miss Havisham waved one sprinkled all over with
little gold stars, out at the coach -window . And then we all
waved our swords and hurrahed .” .
“ Swords !” repeated my sister. “ Where did you get swords
from ? "
“ Out of a cupboard,” said I. “ And I saw pistols in it and
jam - and pills. And there was no daylight in the room, but
it was all lighted up with candles.”
“ That's true, Mum ," said Mr. Pumblechook , with a grave
nod. “ That's the state of the case, for that much I've seen
myself.” And then they both stared at me, and I, with an
obtrusive show of artlessness on my countenance, stared at
them , and plaited the right leg of my trousers with my right
hand .
If they had asked me any more questions I should un
doubtedly have betrayed myself, for I was even then on the
point of mentioning that there was a balloon in the yard, and
should have hazarded the statement but for my invention being
divided between that phenomenon and a bear in the brewery.
 A CONFESSION . 65

They were so much occupied , however, in discussing the marvels

I had already presented for their consideration, that I escaped .
The subject still held them when Joe came in from his work to
have a cup of tea. To whom my sister, more for the relief of
her own mind than for the gratification of his, related my
pretended experiences.
Now , when I saw Joe open his blue eyes and roll them all
round the kitchen in helpless amazement, I was overtaken by
penitence ; but only as regarded him - not in the least as re
garded the other two. Towards Joe, and Joe only , I considered
myself a young monster, while they sat debating what results
would come to me from Miss Havisham's acquaintance and
favour. They had no doubt that Miss Havisham would “ do
something ” for me ; their doubts related to the form that
something would take. My sister stood out for “ property.”
Mr. Pumblechook was in favour of a handsome premium for
binding me apprentice to some genteel trade - say, the corn
and seed trade, for instance. Joe fell into the deepest disgrace
with both, for offering the bright suggestion that I might only
be presented with one of the dogs who had fought for the veal
cutlets. “ If a fool's head can't express better opinions than
that,” said my sister, “ and you have got any work to do, you
had better go and do it. ” So he went.
After Mr. Pumblechook had driven off, and when my sister
was washing up, I stole into the forge to Joe, and remained by
him until he had done for the night. Then I said, “ Before the
fire goes out, Joe, I should like to tell you something."
Should you , Pip ? ” said Joe, drawing his shoeing-stool near
the forge. “ Then tell us. What is it, Pip ? ”
“ Joe,” said I, taking hold of his rolled -up shirt sleeve, and
twisting it between my finger and thumb, “ you remember all
that about Miss Havisham's ? ”
“ Remember ? ” said Joe. “ I believe you ! Wonderful ! "
“ It's a terrible thing, Joe ; it ain't true .”
“ What are you telling of, Pip ? ” cried Joe, falling back in
the greatest amazement. “ You don't mean to say it's
"

“Yes, I do ; it's lies, Joe.”

“ But not all of it ? Why sure you don't mean to say, Pip,
that there was no black welwet co---ch ? ” For, I stood
shaking my head. “ But at least there was dogs, Pip ? Come,
F
66 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

Pip , ” said Joe, persuasively, “ if there warn't no weal- cutlets,

at least there was dogs ? ”
66
' No, Joe.”
")
“ A dog ? ” said Joe. A puppy ? Come ! "
“ No, Joe, there was nothing at all of the kind . ”
As I fixed my eyes hopelessly on Joe, Joe contemplated me
in dismay. “ Pip, old chap ! This won't do, old fellow ! I say !
Where do you expect to go to ? ”
G
“ It's terrible, Joe ; ain't it ? ”
“ Terrible ? ” cried Joe . “ Awful! What possessed you ? ”
“ I don't know what possessed me, Joe," I replied , letting his
shirt sleeve go, and sitting down in the ashes at his feet, hang
ing my head ; “ but I wish you hadn't taught me to call Knaves
at cards, Jacks; and I wish my boots weren't so thick nor my
hands so coarse .'"
And then told Joe that I felt very miserable, and that I
hadn't been able to explain myself to Mrs. Joe and Pumble
chook, who were so rude to me, and that there had been a
beautiful young lady at Miss Havisham's who was dreadfully
proud, and that she had said I was common, and that I knew I
was common , and that I wished I was not common , and that
the lies had come of it somehow, though I didn't know how.
This was a case of metaphysics, at least as difficult for Joe to
deal with, as for me. But Joe took the case altogether out of
the region of metaphysics, and by that means vanquished it.
“ There's one thing you may be sure of, Pip ,” said Joe, after
some rumination , “ namely, that lies is lies. Howsever they
come, they didn't ought to come, and they come from the
father of lies, and work round to the same. Don't you tell
no more of 'em, Pip. That ain't the way to get out of being
common, old chap. And as to being common, I don't make it
out at all clear. You are oncommon in some things. You're
oncommon small. Likewise you ’re a oncommon scholar. ”
“ No, I am ignorant and backward, Joe. ”
Why, see what a letter you wrote last night ! Wrote in
print even ! I've seen letters -- Ah ! and from gentlefolks !
that I'll swear weren't wrote in print,” said Joe.
“ I have learnt next to nothing, Joe. You think much of
me. It's only that.”
“ Well, Pip,” said Joe, “ be it so, or be it son't, you must be
a common scholar afore you can be a oncommon one, I should
 JOE'S RECOMMENDATION . 67
hope ! The king upon his throne, with his crown upon his ’ed ,
can't sit and write his acts of Parliament in print, without
having begun , when he were a unpromoted Prince, with the
alphabet - Ah ! ” added Joe, with a shake of the head that was
full of meaning, “and begun at A too, and worked his way to
2. And I know what that is to do, though I can't say I've
exactly done it.”
There was some hope in this piece of wisdom , and it rather
encouraged me.
>
“ Whether common ones as to callings and earnings,” pursued
Joe, reflectively , “ mightn't be the better of continuing for to
keep company with common ones, instead of going out to play.
with oncommon ones — which reminds me to hope that there
were a flag, perhaps ? ”
66
No, Joe. ”
“ ( I'm sorry there weren't a flag, Pip .) Whether that might
be, or mightn't be, is a thing as can't be looked into now, with
out putting your sister on the Rampage ; and that's a thing
not to be thought of, as being done intentional . Lookee here,
Pip, at what is said to you by a true friend . Which this to
you the true friend say. If you can't get to be oncommon
through going straight , you'll never get to do it through going
crooked . So don't tell no more on 'em, Pip, and live well and
die happy .”
“ You are not angry with me, Joe ? ”
“ No, old chap . But bearing in mind that them were which
I meantersay of a stunning and outdacious sort — alluding to
them which bordered on weal- cutlets and dog - fighting -- -aa sincere
well -wisher would adwise, Pip, their being dropped into your
meditations, when you go up stairs to bed. That's all, old chap,
and don't never do it no more.”
When I got up to my little room and said my prayers, did
not forget Joe's recommendation, and yet my young mind was
in that disturbed and unthankful state, that I thought long
after I laid me down, how common Estella would consider Joe ,
a mere blacksmith : how thick his boots, and how coarse his
hands. I thought how Joe and my sister were then sitting in
the kitchen, and how I had come up to bed from the kitchen ,
and how Miss Havisham and Estella never sat in a kitchen, but
were far above the level of such common doings. I fell asleep
recalling what I " used to do ” when I was at Miss Havisham's;
F 2
68 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

as though I had been there weeks or months, instead of hours : !

and as though it were quite an old subject of remembrance,

instead of one that had risen only that day.
That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes
ip me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected
day struck out of it, and think how different its course would
have been . Pause you who read this, and think for a moment
of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that
would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first
link on one memorable day.

CHAPTER X.

THE felicitous idea occurred to me a morning or two later when

I woke, that the best step I could take towards making myself
uucommon was to get out of Biddy everything she knew. In
pursuance of this luminous conception, I mentioned to Biddy
when I went to Mr. Wopsle's great -aunt's at night, that I had
a particular reason for wishing to get on in life, and that I
should feel very much obliged to her if she would impart all
her learning to me. Biddy, who was the most obliging of girls,
immediately said she would, and indeed began to carry out her
promise within five minutes.
The Educational scheme or Course established by Mr. Wopsle's
great-aunt may be resolved into the following synopsis. The
pupils ate apples and put straws down one another's backs, until
Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt collected her energies, and made an
indiscriminate totter at them with a birch -rod. After receiving
the charge with every mark of derision , the pupils formed in line
and buzzingly passed a ragged book from hand to hand . The
book had an alphabet in it, some figures and tables, and a
little spelling,that is to say, it had had once. As soon as
this volume began to circulate, Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt fell
into a state of coma, arising either from sleep or a rheumatic
paroxysm . The pupils then entered among themselves upon a
competitive examination on the subject of Boots, with the view
of ascertaining who could tread the hardest upon whose toes.
 AT THE THREE JOLLY BARGEMEN. 69

This mental exercise lasted untilBiddy made a rush at them and

distributed three defaced Bibles ( shaped as if they had been
unskilfully cut off the chump-end of something ), more illegibly
printed at the best than any curiosities of literature I have
since met with, speckled all over with ironmould , and having
various specimens of the insect world smashed between their
leaves. This part of the Course was usually lightened by
several single combats between Biddy and refractory students.
When the fights were over, Biddy gave out the number of a page,
and then we all read aloud what we could -or what we couldn't
-in a frightful chorus ; Biddy leading with a high shrill mono
tonous voice, and none of us having the least notion of, or
reverence for, what we were reading about. When this horrible
din had lasted a certain time, it mechanically awoke Mr.
Wopsle's great-aunt, who staggered at a boy fortuitously, and
pulled his ears. This was understood to terminate the Course
for the evening, and we emerged into the air with shrieks of
intellectual victory. It is fair to remark that there was no
prohibition against any pupil's entertaining himself with a
slate or even with the ink (when there was any ), but that it
was not easy to pursue that branch of udy in the winter
season , on account of the little general shop in which the classes
were holden — and which was also Mr. Wopsle's great -aunt's
sitting -room and bed -chamber — being but faintly illuminated
through the agency of one low -spirited dip -candle, and no
snuffers.
It appeared to me that it would take time to become un
common under these circumstances : nevertheless, I resolved
to try it, and that very evening Biddy entered on our special
agreement, by imparting some information from her little
catalogue of Prices, under the head of moist sugar, and lending
me, to copy at home, a large old English D which she had
imitated from the heading of some newspaper, and which I
supposed, until she told me what it was, to be a design for a
buckle .
Of course there was a public-house in the village, and of
course Joe liked sometimes to smoke his pipe there. I had
received strict orders from my sister to call for him at the
Three Jolly Bargemen, that evening, on my way from school,
and bring him home at my peril. To the Three Jolly Barge
men , therefore, I directed my steps.
70 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
There was a bar at the Jolly Bargemen, with some alarm-.
ingly long chalk scores in it on the wall at the side of the door ,
which seemed to me to be never paid off. They had beeu there
ever since I could remember, and had grown more than I had .
But there was a quantity of chalk about our country, and
perhaps the people neglected no opportunity of turning it to
account.
It being Saturday night, I found the landlord looking rather
grimly at these records, but as my business was with Joe and
not with him , I merely wished him good evening, and passed
into the common room at the end of the passage, where there
was a bright large kitchen fire, and where Joe was smoking his
pipe in company with Mr. Wopsle and a stranger. Joe greeted
me as usual with “ Halloa, Pip, old chap ! ” and the moment he
said that, the stranger turned his head and looked at me.
He was a secret -looking man whom I had never seen before.
His head was all on one side, and one of his eyes was half shut
up, as if he were taking aim at something with an invisible gun .
He had a pipe in his mouth , and he took it out, and , after slowly
blowing all his smoke away and looking hard at me all the time,
nodded. So, I nodded, and then he nodded again , and made
room on the settle beside him that I might sit dowu
there.
But, as I was used to sit beside Joe whenever I entered that
place of resort, I said “ No thank you, sir," and fell into the
space Joe made for me on the opposite settle. The strange
man , after glancing at Joe , and seeing that his attention was
otherwise engaged , nodded to me again when I had taken my
seat, and then rubbed his leg - in a very odd way, as it struck
me .

“You was saying ," said the strange man, turning to Joe,
“ that you was a blacksmith .”
“ Yes. I said it, you know ,” said Joe .
“What'll you drink, Mr. ? You didn't mention your
name, by the by.”
Joe mentioned it now, and the strange man called him by it.
“ What 'll you drink , Mr. Gargery ? At my expense ? To
top up with ? ”
«
" Well,” said Joe, “ to tell you the truth, I ain't much in
the habit of drinking at anybody's expense but my own .”
“ Habit ? No," returned the stranger, “ but once and away,
 A LIKELY YOUNG PARCEL OF BONES . 71
and on a Saturday night too. Come ! Put a name to it, Mr.
Gargery.”
“ I wouldn't wish to be stiff company,” said Joe. " Rum . ”
“ Rum ," repeated the stranger. 46And will the other
gentleman originate a sentiment."
“ Rum ," said Mr. Wopsle.
“ Three Rums! ” cried the stranger, calling to the landlord .
“ Glasses round ! ”
« This other gentleman ," observed Joe, by way of introduc
ing Mr. Wopsle, “ is a gentleman that you would like to hear
6

give it out. Our clerk at church .”

56 Aha !” said the stranger, quickly, and cocking his eye at
me . “ The lonely church, right out on the marshes, with the
graves round it ! »
“That's it,” said Joe .
The stranger, with a comfortable kind of grunt over his
pipe, put his legs up on the settle that he had to himself. He
wore a flapping broad -brimmed traveller's hat, and under it
a handkerchief tied over his head in the manner of a cap : so
that he showed no hair . As he looked at the fire, I thought
I saw a cunning expression, followed by a half-laugh, come
into his face .
“ I am not acquainted with this country, gentlemen, but it
seems a solitary country towards the river ."
“ Most marshes is solitary,” said Joe.
« No doubt, no doubt. Do you find any gipsies, now, or
tramps, or vagrants of any sort, out there ? :)
66
No, ” said Joe ; none but a runaway convict now and
66

then. And we don't find them , easy . Eh, Mr. Wopsle ? ”

Mr. Wopsle, with a majestic remembrance of old discom
fiture, assented ; but not warmly.
“ Seems you have been out after such ? " asked the stranger.
“ Once , " returned Joe . Not that we wanted to take them,
you understand ; we went out as lookers on ; me and Mr.
Wopsle, and Pip . Didn't us, Pip ? ”
“ Yes, Joe . ”
The stranger looked at me again - still cocking his eye, as if
he were expressly taking aim at me with his invisible gun
and said, “ He's a likely young parcel of bones that. What
is it you call him ? "
Pip ,” said Joe.
 72 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
“ Christened Pip ? ”
No, not christened Pip .”
Surname Pip ? ”
“ No,” said Joe ; " it's a kind of a family name what he
gave himself when a infant, and is called by.”
" Son of yours ? ”
“ Well ,” said Joe, meditatively — not, of course , that it could
be in anywise necessary to consider about it, but because it
was the way at the Jolly Bargemen to seem to consider deeply
about everything tha was discussed over pipes ; “ well - no .
6
No, he ain't .”
“ Nevvy ? ” said the strange man .
“ Well,” said Joe, with the same appearance of profound
cogitation, " he is not -Do, not to deceive you , he is not-my
nevvy ."
“ What the Blue Blazes is he ? " asked the stranger . Which
appeared to me to be an inquiry of unnecessary strength .
Mr. Wopsle struck in upon that ; as one who knew all
about relationships, having professional occasion to bear in
mind what female relations a man might not marry ; and ex
pounded the ties between me and Joe . Having his hand in,
Mr. Wopsle finished off with a most terrifically snarling passage
a
from Richard the Third , and seemed to think he had done
quite enough to account for it when he added, " as the poet
says.”
And here I may remark that when Mr. Wopsle referred to
me , he considered it a necessary part of such reference to
rumple my hair and poke it into my eyes. I cannot conceive
why everybody of his standing who visited at our house
should always have put me through the same inflammatory
process under similar circumstances. Yet I do not call to
mind that I was ever in my earlier youth the subject of
remark in our social family circle, but some large -handed
person took some such ophthalmic steps to patronise me .
All this while, the strange man looked at nobody but me,
and looked at me as if he were determined to have a shot at
me at last, and bring me down. But he said nothing after
offering his Blue Blazes observation , until the glasses of rum
and -water were brought : and then he made his shot, and a
most extraordinary shot it was .
It was not a verbal remark , but a proceeding in dumb
 A BRIGHT NEW SHILLING . 73
show , and was pointedly addressed to me. He stirred his
rum -and -water pointedly at me and he tasted his rum -and
water pointedly at me. And he stirred it and he tasted it :
not with a spoon that was brought to him, but with a file.
He did this so that nobody but I saw the file ; and when he
had done it, he wiped the file and put it in a breast-pocket.
I knew it to be Joe's file, and I knew that he knew my con
vict, the moment I saw the instrument. I sat gazing at him ,
spell -bound. But he now reclined on his settle, taking very
little notice of me, and talking principally about turnips.
There was a delicious sense of cleaning -up and making a
quiet pause before going on in life afresh , in our village on
Saturday nights, which stimulated Joe to dare to stay out
half an hour longer on Saturdays than at other times . The
half hour and the rum -and -water running out together, Joe
got up to go, and took me by the hand .
“ Stop half a moment, Mr. Gargery,” said the strange man .
“ I think I've got a bright new shilling somewhere in my
pocket, and if I have, the boy shall have it."
He looked it out from a handful of small change, folded it
in some crumpled paper, and gave it to me. " Yours ! ” said
he . “ Mind ! Your own."
I thanked him , staring at him far beyond the bounds of good
manners, and holding tight to Joe. He gave Joe good-night,
and he gave Mr. Wopsle good-night (who went out with us) ,
and he gave me only a look with his aiming eye -- no, not a
look, for he shut it up, but wonders may be done with an eye
by hiding it.
On the way home, if I had been in a humour for talking, the
talk must have been all on my side, for Mr. Wopsle parted
from us at the door of the Jolly Bargemen , and Joe weut all
the way home with his mouth wide open, to rinse the rum out
with as much air as possible. But I was in a manner stupefied
by this turning up of my old misdeed and old acquaintance,
and could think of nothing else.
My sister was not in a very bad temper when we presented
ourselves in the kitchen , and Joe was encouraged by that
unusual circumstance to tell her about the bright shilling.
“ A bad un , I'll be bound,” said Mrs. Joe, triumphantly, “C or
>
he wouldn't have given it to the boy ? Let's look at it.” .
I took it out of the paper, and it proved to be a good one.
74 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ But what's this ? ” said Mrs. Joe, throwing down the shilling
and catching up the paper. “ Two One - Pound notes ? ”
Nothing less than two fat sweltering one-pound notes that
seemed to have been on terms of the warmest intimacy with
all the cattle markets in the county. Joe caught up his hat
again , and ran with them to the Jolly Bargemen to restore
them to their owner. While he was gone I sat down on my
usual stool and looked vacantly at my sister, feeling pretty sure
that the man would not be there .
Presently, Joe came back, saying that the man was gone, but
that he, Joe, had left word at the Three Jolly Bargemen con
cerning the notes. Then mysister sealed them up in a piece
of paper, and put them under some dried rose -leaves in an
ornamental tea-pot on the top of a press in the state parlour.
There they remained a nightmare to me many and many a
night and day.
I had sadly broken sleep when I got to bed, through thinking
of the strange man taking aim at me with his invisible gun,
and of the guiltily coarse and common thing it was, to be on
secret terms of conspiracy with convicts—a feature in my low
career that I had previously forgotten. I was haunted by the
file too . A dread possessed me that when I least expected it,
the file would reappear. I coaxed myself to sleep by thinking
of Miss Havisham's next Wednesday ; and in my sleep I saw
the file coming at me out of a door, without seeing who held it,
and I screamed myself awake.

CHAPTER XI.

Ar the appointed time I returned to Miss Havisham's, and my

hesitating ring at the gate brought out Estella. She locked it
after admitting me, as she had done before, and again preceded
me into the dark passage where her candle stood. She took
no notice of me until she had the candle in her hand, when she
looked over her shoulder, superciliously saying, “ You are to
come this way to -day," and took me to quite another part of
the house.
 A LOT OF TOADIES AND HUMBUGS. 75

The passage was a long one, and seemed to pervade the

whole square basement of the Manor House . We traversed
but one side of the square, however, and at the end of it she
stopped and put her candle down and opened a door. Here, the
daylight reappeared, and I found myself in a small paved
court-yard , the opposite side of which was formed by a de
tached dwelling -house, that looked as if it had once belonged
to the manager or head clerk of the extinct brewery. There
was a clock in the outer wall of this house. Like the clock in
Miss Havisham's room, and like Miss Havishani's watch, it had
stopped at twenty minutes to nine.
We went in at the door, which stood open , and into a gloomy
room with a low ceiling, on the ground floor at the back. There
was some company in the room, and Estella said to me as she
joined it, “ You are to go and stand there, boy , till you are
wanted .” “ There ” being the window, I crossed to it, and
stood " there,” in a very uncomfortable state of mind, looking
out.
It opened to the ground, and looked into a most miserable
corner of the neglected garden , upon a rank ruin of cabbage
stalks, and one box-tree that had been clipped round long ago,
like a pudding, and had a new growth at the top of it, out of
shape and of a different colour, as if that part of the pudding
had stuck to the saucepan and got burnt. This was my homely
thought, as I contemplated the box -tree. There had been some
light snow , overnight, and it lay nowhere else to my know
ledge ; but, it had not quite melted from the cold shadow of
this bit of garden , and the wind caught it up in little eddies
and threw it at the window , as if it pelted me for coming there.
I divined that my coming had stopped conversation in the
room , and that its other occupants were looking at me. I could
see nothing of the room except the shining of the fire in the
window glass, but I stiffened in all my joints with the
consciousness that I was under close inspection .
There were three ladies in the room and one gentleman .
Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they
somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and
humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that
the others were toadies and humbugs :: because the admission
that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to
be a toady and humbug.
76 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
They all had a listless and dreary air of waiting somebody's
pleasure, and the most talkative of the ladies had to speak
quite rigidly to suppress a yawn. This lady, whose name was
Camilla, very much reminded me of my sister, with the
difference that she was older, and (as I found when I caught
sight of her ) of a blunter cast of features. Indeed, when I
knew her better I began to think it was a Mercy she had any
features at all, so very blank and high was the dead wall of
her face .
“ Poor dear soul ! ” said this lady, with an abruptness of
manner quite my sister's. “Nobody's enemy but his own ! '
“ It would be much more commendable to be somebody else's
enemy,” said the gentleman ; “far more natural.”
“ Cousin Raymond , ” observed another lady, “ we are to love
our neighbour.”
“ Sarah Pocket,” returned Cousin Raymond , “ if a man is
not his own neighbour, who is ? "
Miss Pocket laughed, and Camilla laughed and said ( checking
a yawn ), “ The idea ! ” But I thought they seemed to think it
rather a good idea too. The other lady, who had not spoken
yet, said gravely and emphatically , “ Very true ! ”
“Poor soul ! ” Camilla presently went on (I knew they had
all been looking at me in the mean time), “ he is so very
strange ! Would any one believe that when Tom's wife died,
he actually could not be induced to see the importance of the
children's having the deepest of trimmings to their mourning ?
“ Good Lord ! ' says he, ‘ Camilla, what can it signify so long as
the poor bereaved little things are in black ? ' So like Matthew !
The idea ! ”
“ Good points in him, good points in him ," said Cousin
Raymond ; “ Heaven forbid I should deny good points in him ;
but he never had, and he never will have, any sense of the
proprieties.”
“ You know I was obliged,” said Camilla, “ I was obliged to be
firm . I said, It WILL NOT DO, for the credit of the family.' I
told him that, without deep trimmings, the family was dis
graced. I cried about it from breakfast till dinner. I injured
my digestion . And at last he flung out in his violent way, and
said, with a D, “ Then do as you like. Thank Goodness it will
always be a consolation to me to know that I instantly went
out in a pouring rain and bought the things.”
 SLAPPED IN THE FACE . 77

“ He paid for them , did he not? ” asked Estella.

“ It's not the question , my dear child, who paid for them,”
returned Cainilla . “ I bought them. And I shall ofteu think
of that with peace, when I wake up in the night."
The ringing of a distant bell, combined with the echoing of
some cry or call along the passage by which I had come, inter
rupted the conversation and caused Estella to say to me, “ Now ,
boy ! ” On my turning round, they all looked at me with the
utmost contempt, and, as I went out, I heard Sarah Pocket
say, “Well I am sure ! What next ! ” and Camilla add,
with indignation , “ Was there ever such a fancy ! The
i -de - a ! "
As we were going with our candle along the dark passage,
Estella stopped all of a sudden, and , facing round, said in her
taunting manner , with her face quite close to mine :
66 Well ? "
“ Well, miss," I answered, almost falling over her and
checking myself.
She stood looking at me, and of course I stood looking
at her.
“ Am I pretty ?” "
“ Yes ; I think you are very pretty ."
“Am I insulting ? "
“ Not so much so as you were last time," said I.
“ Not so much so ? ”
66 No."
She fired when she asked the last question , and she slapped
my face with such force as she had, when I answered it.
“ Now ? ” said she. “ You little coarse monster, what do you
think of me now ? "
“ I shall not tell you ."
“Because you are going to tell up stairs. Is that it ? ”
CC
No ," said I, “ that's not it.”
“ Why don't you cry again , you little wretch ? ”
“ Because I'll never cry for you again ,” said I. Which was,
I suppose, as false a declaration as ever was made ; for I was
inwardly crying for her then, and I know what I know of the
pain she cost me afterwards.
We went on our way up stairs after this episode ; and ,
as we were going up, we met a gentleman groping his way
down .
78 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ Whom have we here ? ” asked the gentleman , stopping and

looking at me.
“ A boy,” said Estella .
He was a burly man of an exceedingly dark complexion,
with an exceedingly large head and a corresponding large hand .
He took my chin in his large hand and turned up my face to
have a look at me by the light of the candle . He was pre
maturely bald on the top of his head, and had bushy black
eyebrows that wouldn't lie down , but stood up brist ing. His
eyes were set very deep in his head, and were disagreeably
sharp and suspicious. He had a large watch -chain , and
strong black dots where his beard and whiskers would have
been if he had let them , He was nothing to me, and I could
have had no foresight then, that he ever would be anything to
me, but it happened that I had this opportunity of observing
him well .
" Boy of the neighbourhood ? Hey ? ” said he.
Yes, sir,” said I.
“ How do you come here ? ”
“ Miss Havisham sent for me, sir," I explained .
“ Well ! Behave yourself. I have a pretty large experience
of boys, and you ’re a bad set of fellows. Now mind !” said
he, biting the side of his great forefinger as he frowned at me,
66
you behave yourself !”
With these words he released me — which I was glad of, for
his hand smelt of scented soap -- and went his way down stairs.
I wondered whether he could be a doctor ; but no, I thought;
he couldn't be a doctor, or he would have a quieter and more
persuasive manner . There was not much time to consider the
subject, for we were soon in Miss Havisham's room , where she
and everything else were just as I had left them. Estella left
me standing near the door, and I stood there until Miss
Havisham cast her eyes upon me from the dressing -table.
“ So ! ” she said, without being startled or surprised ; "the
days have worn away , have they ? ”
CC
Yes, ma'am . To- day is
CC "
There, there, there ! ” with the impatient movement of
her fingers. “ I don't want to know . Are you ready to
play ? "
I was obliged to answer in some confusion, “ I don't think I
am, ma'am .”
 ANOTHER ROOM. 79

“ Not at cards again ? ” she demanded, with a searching

look .
“ Yes, ma'am ; I could do that, if I was wanted . ”
“ Since this house strikes you old and grave, boy,” said Miss
Havisham , impatiently, “ and you are unwilling to play, are
you willing to work ? »
I could answer this inquiry with a better heart than I had
been able to find for the other question, and I said I was
quite willing.
“ Then go into that opposite room , ” said she, pointing at
the door behind me with her withered hand, “ and wait there
till I come.”
I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she
indicated. From that room, too, the daylight was completely
excluded, and it had an airless smell that was oppressive. A
fire had been lately kindled in the damp old - fashioned grate,
and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up, and the
reluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than
the clearer air-like our own marsh mist . Certain wintry
branches of candles on the high chimney-piece faintly lighted
the chamber ; or, it would be more expressive to say, faintly
troubled its darkness. It was spacious, and I dare say had once
been handsome, but every discernible thing in it was covered
with dust and mould, and dropping to pieces. The most pro
minent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it,
as if a feast had been in preparation when the house and the
clocks all stopped together. An épergne or centre -piece of
some kind was in the middle of this cloth ; it was so heavily
overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguish
able ; and, as I looked along the yellow expanse out of which
I remember its seeming to grow , like a black fungus, I saw
speckled -legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to
it, and running out from it, as if some circumstance of the
greatest public importance had just transpired in the spider
community.
I heard the mice, too, rattling behind the panels, as if
the same occurrence were important to their interests. But,
the blackbeetles took no notice of the agitation , and groped
about the hearth in a ponderous elderly way , as if they were
short-sighted and hard of hearing, and not on terms with one
another.
80 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

These crawling things had fascinated my attention , and I

was watching them from a distance, when Miss Havisham laid
a hand upon my shoulder. In her other hand she had a crutch
headed stick on which she leaned, and she looked like the
Witch of the place.
• This,” said she, pointing to the long table with her stick,
“ is where I will be laid when I am dead. They shall come
aud look at me here."
With some vague misgiving that she might get upon the
table then and there and die at once, the complete realisation
of the ghastly waxwork at the Fair , I shrank under her
touch .
What do you think that is ? ” she asked me, again
pointing with her stick ; that, where those cobwebs
are ? ”
“ I can't guess what it is, ma'am .”
It's a great cake. A bride -cake. Mine ! ”
She looked all round the room in a glaring manner , and
then said, leaning on me while her hand twitched my shoulder,
“ Come, come, come ! Walk me, walk me ! ”
I made out from this, that the work I had to do, was to walk
Miss Havisham round and round the room. Accordingly, I
started at once, and she leaned upon my shoulder, and we
went away at a pace that might have been an imitation
( founded on my first impulse under that roof) of Mr.
Pumblechook's chaise -cart.
She was not physically strong, and after aa little time said ,
“ Slower ! ” Still, we went at an impatient fitful speed, and as
we went, she twitched the hand upon my shoulder, and worked
her mouth , and led me to believe that we were going fast
because her thoughts went fast. After a while she said,
“ Call Estella ! ” so I went out on the landing and roared that
name as I had done on the previous occasion . When her light
appeared, I returned to Miss Havisham , and we started away
again round and round the room .
If only Estella had come to be a spectator of our pro
ceedings, I should have felt sufficiently discontented ; but, as
she brought with her the three ladies and the gentleman
whom I had seen below , I didn't know what to do. In my
politeness I would have stopped >; but, Miss Havisham
twitched my shoulder , and we posted on — with a shame
 CAMILLA'S GRIEF. 81

faced consciousness on my part that they would think it was

all my doing
“ Dear Miss Havisham ,” said Miss Sarah Pocket. “ How well
you look ! ”
C
“ I do not, ” returned Miss Havisham . “ I am yellow skin
and bone."
Camilla brightened when Miss Pocket met with this rebuff ;
and she murmured, as she plaintively contemplated Miss
Havisham , “Poor dear soul! Certainly not to be expected to
• look well, poor thing. The idea !”
7
“ And how are you ? " said Miss Havisham to Camilla. As
we were close to Camilla then, I would have stopped as a
matter of course, only Miss Havisham wouldn't stop. We
swept on, and I felt that I was highly obnoxious to Camilla.
“ Thank you, Miss Havisham ,” she returned , “ I am as well
as can be expected.”
"
" Why, what's the matter with you ? ” asked Miss Havisham ,
with exceeding sharpness.
66
Nothing worth mentioning ,” replied Camilla . “ I don't
wish to make a display of my feelings, but I have habitually
thought of you more in the night than I am quite equal
to."
Then don't think of me ," retorted Miss Havisham .
" Very easily said !” remarked Camilla, amiably repressing
a sob, while a hitch came into her upper lip, and her tears over
flowed . Raymond is a witness what ginger and sal volatile I
am obliged to take in the night. Raymond is a witness what
nervous jerkings I have in my legs. Chokings and nervous
jerkings, however, are nothing new to me when I think with
anxiety of those I love. If I could be less affectionate and
sensitive, I should have a better digestion and an iron set of
nerves. I am sure I wish it could be so . But as to not
thinking of you in the night - the idea !” Here, a burst of
tears .
The Raymond referred to, I understood to be the gentleman
present, and him I understood to be Mr. Camilla. He came
to the rescue at this point, and said in a consolatory and compli
mentary voice, “ Camilla, my dear, it is well known that your
family feelings are gradually undermining you to the extent of
making one of your legs shorter than the other ."
“ I am not aware ,” observed the grave lady whose voice I had
G
82 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

heard but once, “ that to think of any person is to make a

great claim upon that person , my dear.”
Miss Sarah Pocket, whom I now saw to be a little dry browu
corrugated old woman , with a small face that might have
been made of walnut shells, and a large mouth like a cat's
without the whiskers, supported this position by saying, “ No,
indeed , my dear. Hem ! ”
Thinking is easy enough ,” said the grave lady.
“ What is easier, you know ? " assented Miss Sarah Pocket.
“ Oh, yes, yes ! ” cried Camilla, whose fermenting feelings
appeared to rise from her legs to her bosom. “It's all very
true ! It's a weakness to be so affectionate, but I can't
help it. No doubt my health would be much better if it
was otherwise, still I wouldn't change my disposition if I
could. It's the cause of much suffering, but it's a consolation
to know I possess it, when I wake up in the night." Here
another burst of feeling.
Miss Harisham and I had never stopped all this time, but
kept going round and round the room : now, brushing against
the skirts of the visitors : now, giving them the whole levgth
of the dismal chamber.
“ There's Matthew ! ” said Camilla. “ Never mixing with
any natural ties, never coming here to see how Miss
Havisham is ! I have taken to the sofa with my staylace
cut, and have lain there hours, insensible, with my head
over the side, and my hair all down, and my feet, I don't
know where-- "
(“Much higher than your head, my love," said . Mr.
Camilla .)
“ I have gone off into that state hours and hours, on ac
count of Matthew's strange and inexplicable conduct, and
nobody has thanked me. "
Really I must say I should think not! ” interposed the
grave lady.
“ You see, my dear,” added Miss Sarah Pocket ( a blandly
vicious personage), “ the question to put to yourself is, Who did
you expect to thank you,my love ? ”
“ Without expecting any thanks, or anything of the sort,"
resumed Camilla, “ I have remained in that state hours and
hours, and Raymond is a witness of the extent to which I have
choked , and what the total inefficacy of ginger has been, and
 THE COMPANY DEPART. 83
I have been heard at the pianoforte-tuner's across the street,
where the poor mistaken children have even supposed it to be
pigeons cooing at a distance - and now to be told -_- " Here
Camilla put her hand to her throat, and began to be quite
chemical as to the formation of new combinations there.
When this same Matthew was mentioned , Miss Havisham
stopped me and herself, and stood looking at the speaker. This
change had a great influence in bringing Camilla's chemistry
to a sudden end .
“ Matthew will come and see me at last, ” said Miss Havisham ,
sternly, “ when I am laid on that table . That will be his
>
place - there,” striking the table with her stick, " at my head !
and yours will be there ! And your husband's there ! And
Sarah Pocket's there ! And Georgiana's there ! Now you will
know where to take your stations when you come to feast upon
me. And now go !”
At the mention of each name, she had struck the table with
her stick in a new place. She now said, “ Walk me , walk me ! ”
and we went on again .
“ I suppose there's nothing to be done,” exclaimed Camilla ,
“ but comply and depart. It's something to have seen the
object of one's love and duty, even for so short a time. I shall
think of it with a melancholy satisfaction when I wake up in
the night. I wish Matthew could have that comfort, but he
sets it at defiance . I am determined not to make a display
of my feelings, but it's very hard to be told one wants to
feast on one's relations - as if one was a Giant - and to be
told to go. The bare idea ! ”
Mr. Camilla interposing, as Mrs. Camilla laid her hand upon
her heaving bosom, that lady assumed an unnatural fortitude
of manner which I supposed to be expressive of an intention
to drop and choke when out of view, and kissing her hand to
Miss Havisham , was escorted forth . Sarah Pocket and
Georgiana contended who should remain last ; but, Sarah was
too knowing to be outdone , and ambled round Georgiana with
that artful slipperiness, that the latter was obliged to take pre.
cedence. Sarah Pocket then made her separate effect of
departing with “ Bless you, Miss Havisham dear !” and with a
smile of forgiving pity on her walnut- shell countenance for the
weaknesses of the rest .
While Estella was away lighting them down, Miss Havisham
G 2
84 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

still walked with her hand on my shoulder, but more and

more slowly. At last she stopped before the fire, and said ,
after muttering and looking at it some seconds :
“ This is my birthday, Pip.”
I was going to wish her many happy returns, when she
lifted her stick .
“ I don't suffer it to be spoken of. I don't suffer those
who were here just now, or any one, to speak of it. They
cone here on the day, but they dare not refer to it.”
Of course made no further effort to refer to it.
“ On this day of the year, long before you were born, this
heap of decay, ” stabbing with her crutched stick at the pile
66
of cobwebs on the table but not touching it, was brought
here. It and I have worn away together. The mice have
gnawed at it, and sharper teeth than teeth of mice have
gnawed at me.”
She held the head of her stick against her heart as
she stood looking at the table ; she in her once white
dress, all yellow and withered ; the once white cloth all
yellow and withered ; everything around, in a state to crumble
under a touch .
“ When the ruin is complete,” said she, with a ghastly look,
“ and when they lay me dead, in my bride's dress on the
bride's table - which shall be done, and which will be the
finished curse upon him -- so much the better if it is done on
this day ! ”
She stood looking at the table as if she stood looking at
her own figure lying there. I remained quiet. Estella returned,
and she too remained quiet. It seemed to me that we con
tinued thus a long time. In the heavy air of the room, and
the heavy darkness that brooded in its remoter corners, I
even had an alarming fancy that Estella and I might presently
begin to decay.
At length, not coming out of her distraught state by
degrees, but in an instant, Miss Havisham said, “ Let me see
you two play at cards; why have you not begun ? ” . With
that, we returned to her room, and sat down as before ; I was
beggared, as before ; and again, as before, Miss Havisham
watched us all the time, directed my attention to Estella's
beauty , and made me notice it the more by trying her
jewels on Estella's breast and hair.
 - COME AND FIGHT.” 85

Estella , for her part, likewise treated me as before ; except

that she did not condescend to speak . When we had played
some half-dozen games, a day was appointed for my return , and
I was taken down into the yard to be fed in the former dog - like
manner . There, too, I was again left to wander about as I
liked .
It is not much to the purpose whether a gate in that
garden wall which I had scrambled up to peep over on the last
occasion was, on that last occasion, open or shut. Enough that
I saw no gate then, and that I saw one new. As it stood open,
and as I knew that Estella had let the visitors out - for, she had
returned with the keys in her hand - I strolled into the garden ,
and strolled all over it. It was quite a wilderness, and there
were old melon -frames and cucumber frames in it, which seemed
in their decline to have produced a spontaneous growth of
weak attempts at pieces of old hats and boots, with now and
then a weedy offshoot into the likeness of a battered
saucepan .
When I had exhausted the garden and a greenhouse with
nothing in it but a fallen - down grape -vine and some bottles, I
found myself in the dismal corner upon which I had looked
out of window . Never questioning for a moment that the
house was now empty , I looked in at another window, and
found myself, to my great surprise, exchanging a broad stare
with a pale young gentleman with red eyelids and light
hair .
This pale young gentleman quickly disappeared, and re
appeared beside me. He had been at his books when I had
found myself staring at him, and I now saw that he was
inky.
“ Halloa !” said he, “ young fellow !"
Halloa being a general observation which I had usually
observed to be best answered by itself, I said “ Halloa ! "
politely omitting young fellow .
“ Who let you in ? ” said he.
" Miss Estella.”
“Who gave you leave to prowl about ? ”
“ Miss Estella .”
“ Come and fight,” said the pale young gentleman .
What could I do but follow him ? I have often asked myself
the question since : but, what else could I do ? His manner was
 86 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

so final and I was so astonished, that I followed where he led,

as if I had been under a spell.
“ Stop a minute, though ,” he said, wheeling round before we
had gone many paces . “ I ought to give you a reason for
fighting, too. There it is !” In a most irritating manner he
instantly slapped his hands against one another, daintily
flung one of his legs up, behind him, pulled my hair, slapped
his hands again , dipped his head, and butted it into my
stomach .
The bull -like proceeding last mentioned, besides that it was
unquestionably to be regarded in the light of a liberty, was
particularly disagreeable just after bread and meat. I there
fore hit out at him , and was going to hit out again , when
he said, “ Aha ! Would you ? ” and began dancing backwards
and forwards in a manner quite unparalleled within my limited
experience.
“ Laws of the game ! ” said he. Here he skipped from his
left leg on to his right. “ Regular rules !” Here, he skipped
from his right leg on to his left. “ Come to the ground, and
go through the preliminaries !” Here , he dodged backwards
and forwards, and did all sorts of things while I looked
helplessly at him.
I was secretly afraid of him when I saw him so dexterous ;
but I felt morally and physically convinced that his light head
of hair could have had no business in the pit of my stomach ,
and that I had a right to consider it irrelevant when so ob
truded on my attention. Therefore, I followed him without a
word, to a retired nook of the garden , formed by the junction
of two walls and screened by some rubbish . On his asking me
if I was satisfied with the ground, and on my replying Yes, he
begged my leave to absent himself for a moment, and quickly
returned with a bottle of water and a sponge dipped in vinegar.
Available for both , ” he said , placing these against the wall.
And then fell to pulling off, not only his jacket and waistcoat,
but his shirt too, in a manner at once light-hearted , business
like, and bloodthirsty.
Although he did not look very healthy - having pimples on
his face, and a breaking out on his mouth-these dreadful pre
parations quite appalled me. I judged him to be about my
own age, but he was much taller, and he had a way of
spinning himself about that was full of appearance. For
y
u

Pratite

HEC
SAID !WND
AHA
?”A
YOU
OULD
BACKWARDS
DANCING
,BEGAN
FORWARDS
AND
 THE FIGHT. 87

the rest, he was a young gentleman in a grey suit (when

not denuded for battle ), with his elbows, knees, wrists,
and heels considerably in advance of the rest of him as to
development.
My heart failed me when I saw him squaring at me with
every demonstration of mechanical nicety, and eyeing my
anatomy as if he were minutely choosing his bone. I never
bave been so surprised in my life, as I was when I let out the
first blow , and saw him lying on his back, looking up at me with
bloody nose and his face exceedingly fore -shortened.
But, he was on his feet directly, and after sponging himself
with a great show of dexterity began squaring again . The
second greatest surprise I have ever had in my life was seeing
him on his back again, looking up at me out of a black eye.
His spirit inspired me with great respect. He seemed to
bave no strength, and he never once hit me hard , and he was
always knocked down ; but, he would be up again in a moment,
sponging himself or drinking out of the water-bottle, with the
greatest satisfaction in seconding himself according to form , and
then came at me with an air and aa show that made me believe
he really was going to do for me at last. He got heavily
bruised , for I am sorry to record that the more I hit him , the
harder I hit him ; but, he came up again and again and again ,
until at last he got a bad fall with the back of his head against
the wall. Even after that crisis in our affairs, he got up and
turned round and round confusedly a few times, not knowing
where I was ; but finally went on his knees to his sponge and
threw it up
"
: at the same time panting out, “ That means you
have won .
He seemed so brave and innocent, that although I had not
proposed the contest, I felt but a gloomy satisfaction in my
victory. Indeed, I go so far as to hope that I regarded myself
while dressing, as a species of savage young wolf, or other wild
beast . However, I got dressed , darkly wiping my sanguinary
face at intervals, and I said , “ Can I help you ? ” and he said,
“ No thankee," and I said, “ Good afternoon , " and he said ,
“ Same to you .'
When I got into the court- yard, I found Estella waiting with
the keys. But, she neither asked me where I had been , nor
why I had kept her waiting ; and there was a bright flush upon
her face, as though something had happened to delight her.
88 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Instead of going straight to the gate, too, she stepped back into
the passage, and beckoned me .
“ Come here ! You may kiss me if you like."
I kissed her cheek as she turned it to me . I think I would
have gone through a great deal to kiss her cheek . But, I felt
that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece
of money might have been , and that it was worth nothing.
What with the birthday visitors, and what with the cards,
and what with the figbt, my stay had lasted so long, that when
I neared home the light on the spit of sand off the point on the
marshes was gleaming against a black night-sky, and Joe's
furnace was flinging a path of fire across the road .

CHAPTER XII.

My mind grew very uneasy on the subject of the pale young

gentleman . The more I thought of the fight, and recalled the
pale young gentleman on his back in various stages of puffy and
incrimsoned countenance, the more certain it appeared that
something would be done to me. I felt that the pale young
gentleman's blood was on my head, and that the Law would
avenge it. Without having any definite idea of the penalties I
had incurred, it was clear to me that village boys could not
go stalking about the country, ravaging the houses of gentle .
folks and pitching into the studious youth of England, without
laying themselves open to severe punishment. For some days,
I even kept close at home, and looked out at the kitchen door
with the greatest caution and trepidation before going on an
errand, lest the officers of the County Jail should pounce upon
me. The pale young gentleman's nose had stained my trousers,
and I tried to wash out that evidence of my guilt in the dead of
night. I had cut my knuckles against the pale young gentle
man's teeth, and I twisted my imagination into a thousand
tangles, as I devised incredible ways of accounting for that
damnatory circumstance when I should be haled before the
Judges.
When the day came round for my return to the scene of the
 A NEW EMPLOYMENT. 89

deed of violence, my terrors reached their height. Whether

inyrmidons of Justice, specially sent down from London, would
be lying in ambush behind the gate ? Whether Miss Havisham ,
preferring to take personal vengeance for an outrage done to
her house, might rise in those grave -clothes of hers, draw a
pistol, and shoot me dead ? Whether suborned boys a

numerous band of mercenaries - might be engaged to fall upon

me in the brewery, and cuff me until I was no more. It was
high testimony to iny confidence in the spirit of the pale young
gentleman, that I never imagined him accessory to these re
taliations ; they always came into my mind as the acts of in
judicious relatives of his, goaded on by the state of his visage
aud an indignant sympathy with the family features.
However, go to Miss Havisham's I must, and go I did . And
behold ! nothing came of the late struggle. It was not alluded
to in any way, and no pale young gentleman was to be dis
covered on the premises. I found the same gate open, and I
explored the garden , and even looked in at the windows of the
detached house ; but, my view was suddenly stopped by the
closed shutters within, and all was lifeless. Only in the corner
where the combat had taken place, could I detect any evidence
of the young geutleman's existence. There were traces of his
gore in that spot, and I covered them with garden-mould from
the eye of man .
On the broad landing between Miss Havisham's own room and
that other room in which the long table was laid out, I saw a
garden -chair - a light chair on wheels, that you pushed from
behind. It had been placed there since my last visit, and I
entered, that same day, on a regular occupation of pushing
Miss Havisham in this chair ( when she was tired of walking
with her hand upon my shoulder) round her own room, and
across the landing, and round the other room. Over and over
and over again , we would make these journeys, and sometimes
they would last as long as three hours at a stretch. I in
sensibly fall into a general mention of these journeys as
numerous, because it was at once settled that I should return
every alternate day at noon for these purposes, and because
I am now going to sum up a period of at least eight or ten
months.
As we began to be more used to one another, Miss Havisham
talked more to me, and asked me such questions as what had I
90 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
learnt and what was I going to be ? I told her I was going to
be apprenticed to Joe , I believed ; and I enlarged upon my
knowing nothing and wanting to know everything, in the hope
that she might offer some help towards that desirable end.
But, she did not ; on the contrary, she seemed to prefer my
being ignorant. Neither did she ever give me any money or
anything but my daily dinner - nor even stipulate that I
should be paid for my services.
Estella was always about, and always let me in and out, but
never told me I might kiss her again . Sometimes, she would
coldly tolerate me ; sometimes, she would condescend to me ;
sometimes, she would be quite familiar with me ; sometimes,she
would tell me energetically that she hated me. Miss Havisham
would often ask me in a whisper, or when we were alone,
“ Does she grow prettier and prettier, Pip ? ” And when I said
Yes (for indeed she did ) , would seem to enjoy it greedily.
Also, when we played at cards Miss Havisham would look on,
with a miserly relish of Estella's moods, whatever they were.
And sometimes, when her moods were so many and so contra
dictory of oue another that I was puzzled what to say or do,
Miss Havisham would embrace her with lavish fondness, mur
muring something in her ear that sounded like " Break their
hearts, my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no
mercy ! ”
There was a song Joe used to hum fragments of at the forge,
of which the burden was Old Clem. This was not a very
ceremonious way of rendering homage to a patron saint; but I
believe Old Clem stood in that relation towards smiths. It was
a song that imitated the measure of beating upon iron, and was
a mere lyrical excuse for the introduction of Old Clem's
respected name. Thus, you were to hammer boys round - Old
Clem ! With a thump and a sound - Old Clem ! Beat it out,
beat it out - Old Clem ! With a clink for the stout - Old Clem !
Blow the fire, blow the fire - Old Clem ! Roaring dryer, soaring
higher-Old Clem ! One day soon after the appearance of the
chair, Miss Havisham suddenly saying to me, with the im
patient movement of her fingers, “ There,there, there ! Sing !
I was surprised into crooning this ditty as I pushed her over
the floor. It happened so to catch her fancy that she took it
up in a low brooding voice as if she were singing in her sleep.
After that, it became customary with us to have it as we moved
 MY PROSPECTS DISCUSSED . 91

about, and Estella would often join in ; though the whole strain
was so subdued, even when there were three of us, that it made
less noise in the grim old house than the lightest breath of
wind .
What could I become with these surroundings ? How could
my character fail to be influenced by them ? Is it to be
wondered at if my thougbts were dazed, as my eyes were,
when I came out into the natural light from the misty yellow
rooms ?
Perhaps I might have told Joe about the pale young gentle
man, if I had not previously been betrayed into those enormous
inventions to which I had confessed. Under the circumstances,
I felt that Joe could hardly fail to discern in the pale young
gentleman, an appropriate passenger to be put into the black
velvet coach ; therefore, I said nothing of him . Besides : that
:

shrinking from having Miss Havisham and Estella discussed,

which had come upon me in the beginning, grew much more
- potent as time went on. I reposed complete confidence in no
one but Biddy ; but, I told poor Biddy everything, Why it
came natural for me to do so, and why Biddy had a deep con
cern in everything I told her, I did not know then, though I
think I know now,
Meanwhile, councils went on in the kitchen at home, fraught
with almost insupportable aggravation to my exasperated
spirit. That ass, Pumblechook, used often to come over of a
night for the purpose of discussing my prospects with my sister ;
and I really do believe (to this hour with less penitence than I
ought to feel) , that if these hands could have taken a linchpin
out of his chaise -cart, they would have done it. The miserable
man was a man of that confirmed stolidity of mind, that he
could not discuss my prospects without having me before him
as it were, to operate upon - and he would drag me up from
my stool (usually by the collar) where I was quiet in a corner,
and , putting me before the fire as if I were going to be cooked
would begin by saying, “ Now, Mum, here is this boy ! Here
is this boy which you brought up by hand. Hold up your
head, boy, and be for ever grateful unto them which so did do.
Now ., Mum, with respections to this boy ! ” And then he would
rumple my hair the wrong way – which from my earliest remen
brance, as already hinted, I have in my soul denied the right of
any fellow -creature to do and would hold me before him by
 92 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
the sleeve : a spectacle of imbecility only to be equalled by
bimself .
Then, he and my sister would pair off in such nonsensical
speculations about Miss Havisham , and about what she would
do with me and for me, that I used to want- quite painfully
to burst into spiteful tears, fly at Pumblechook, and pummel
him all over. In these dialogues, my sister spoke to me as if she
were morally wrenching one of my teeth out at every reference ;
while Puniblechook himself, self - constituted my patron, would
sit supervising me with a depreciatory eye, like the architect of
my fortunes who thought himself engaged in a very unre
munerative job.
In these discussions, Joe bore no part. But he was often
talked at, while they were in progress , by reason of Mrs. Joe's
perceiving that he was not favourable to my being taken from
the forge. I was fully old enough now, to be apprenticed to
Joe ; and when Joe sat with the poker on his knees thought
fully raking out the ashes between the lower bars, my sister
would so distinctly construe that innocent action into opposi
tion on his part, that she would dive at him, take the poker
out of his bands, shake him, and put it away . There was a
most irritating end to every one of these debates. All in a
moment , with nothing to lead up to it, my sister would stop
herself in a yawn, and catching sight of me as it were inciden
tally, would swoop upon me with “ Come! there's enough of
you ! You get along to bed ; you've given trouble enough for
one night, I hope !” As if I had besought them as a favour
to bother my life out.
We went on in this way for a long time, and it seemed likely
that we should continue to go on in this way for a long time,
when , one day, Miss Havisham stopped short as she and I were
walking, she leaning on my shoulder ; and said with some
displeasure :
“ You are growing tall, Pip ! ”
I thought it best to hint, through the medium of a medi
tative look, that this might be occasioned by circumstances
over which I had no control .
She said no more at the time; but, she presently stopped
and looked at me again ; and presently again ; and after that,
looked frowning and moody. On the next day of my attend
ance , when our usual exercise was over, and I had landed her
 ON THE RAMPAGE. 93

at her dressing -table, she stayed me with a movement of her

impatient fingers :
“ Tell me the name again of that blacksmith of yours.”
“ Joe Gargery, ma'am .”
66
Meaning the master you were to be apprenticed to ? ”
“ Yes, Miss Havisham ."
“ You had better be apprenticed at once. Would Gargery
come here with you, and bring your indentures, do you think ?
I signified that I had no doubt he would take it as an honour
to be asked.
« Then let him come.”
“ At any particular time, Miss Havisham ? "
“ There, there ! I know nothing about times. Let him come
soon , and come alone with you . "
When I got home at night, and delivered this message for
Joe, my sister “ went on the Rampage, ” in a more alarming
degree than at any previous period. She asked me and Joe
whether we supposed she was door-mats under our feet, and
how we dared to use her so, and what company we graciously
thought she was fit for ? When she had exhausted a torrent
of such inquiries, she threw a candlestick at Joe, burst into a
loud sobbing, got out the dustpan - which was always a very
bad sign - put on her coarse apron , and began cleaning up to a
terrible extent. Not satisfied with a dry cleaning, she took to
a pail and scrubbing -brush , and cleaned us out of house and
home, so that we stood shivering in the back - yard, It was
ten o'clock at night before we ventured to creep in again , and
then she asked Joe why he had not married a Negress Slave at
once ? Joe offered no answer, poor fellow, but stood feeling
his whiskers and looking dejectedly at me, as if he thought it
really might have been a better speculation.
94 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

CHAPTER XIII .

It was a trial to my feelings, on the next day but one, to see

Joe arraying himself in his Sunday clothes to accompany me
to Miss Havisham's. However, as he thought his court-suit
necessary to the occasion, it was not for me to tell him that he
looked far better in his working dress ; the rather, because I
knew he made himself so dreadfully uncomfortable, entirely
on my account, and that it was for me he pulled up his shirt
collar so very high behind, that it made the hair on the crown
of his head stand up like a tuft of feathers.
At breakfast-time, my sister declared her intention of going
to town with us, and being left at Uncle Pumblechook's, and
called for “ when we had done with our fine ladies ” -a way of
putting the case, from which Joe appeared inclined to augur
the worst. The forge was shut up for the day, and Joe in
scribed in chalk on the door (as it was his custom to do on the
very rare occasions when he was not at work) the monosyllable
HOUT, accompanied by a sketch of an arrow supposed to be
flying in the direction he had taken .
We walked to town, my sister leading the way in a very large
beaver bonnet, and carrying a basket like the Great Seal of
England in plaited straw, a pair of pattens, å spare shawl, and
an umbrella, though it was a fine bright day. I am not quite
clear whether these articles were carried penitentially or
ostentatiously ; but, I rather think they were displayed as
articles of property — much as Cleopatra or any other sovereign
lady on the Rampage might exhibit her wealth in a pageant or
procession .
When we came to Pumblechook's, my sister bounced in and
left u As it was almost noon, Joe and I held straight on to
Miss Havisham's house. Estella opened the gate as usual, and,
the moment she appeared, Joe took his hat off and stood
weighing it by the brim in both his hands : as if he had some
urgent reason in his mind for being particular to half a quarter
of an ounce .
Estella took no notice of either of us, but led us the way
that I knew so well, I followed next to her, and Joe came last.
When I looked back at Joe in the long passage, he was still
 JOE AT MISS HAVISHAM'S. 95

weighing his hat with the greatest care, and was coming after
us in -long strides on the tips of his toes.
Estella told me we were both to go in, so I took Joe by the
coat -cuff and conducted him into Miss Havisham's presence.
She was seated at her dressing -table, and looked round at us
immediately.
“ Oh ! ” said she to Joe. “You are the husband of the sister
of this boy ? "
I could hardly have imagined dear old Joe looking so unlike
himself or so like some extraordinary bird ; standing, as he
did, speechless, with his tuft of feathers ruffled, and his mouth
open as if he wanted a worm.
“ You are the husband,” repeated Miss Havisham, “ of the
sister of this boy ? ”
It was very aggravating ; but, throughout the interview , Joe
persisted in addressing Me instead of Miss Havisham.
“ Which I meantersay, Pip ,” Joe now observed, in a manner
that was at once expressive of forcible argumentation , strict
confidence, and great politeness, “ as I up and married your
sister, and I were at the time what you might call (if you was
any ways inclined) a single man . ”
“ Well ! ” said Miss Havisham . “ And you have reared the
boy, with the intention of taking him for your apprentice ; is
that so, Mr. Gargery ? ”
“ You know, Pip,” replied Joe, “ as you and me were ever
friends, and it were looked for’ard to betwixt us, as being
calc’lated to lead to larks. Not but what, Pip , if you had ever
made objections to the business — such as its being open to
black and sut, or such -like - not but what they would have been
attended to, don't you see ? ”
* Has the boy," said Miss Havisham , “ ever made any ob
jection ? Does he like the trade ? "
Which it is well be own to yourself, Pip,” returned Joe,
strengthening his former mixture of argumentation, confidence,
and politeness, “ that it were the wish of your own hart.” (I
saw the idea suddenly break upon him that he would adapt his
epitaph to the occasion, before he went on to say) “ And there
weren't no objection on your part, and Pip it were the great
wish of your hart !”
It was quite in vain for me to endeavour to make him
sensible that he ought to speak to Miss Havisham. The more
96 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
I made faces and gestures to him to do it, the more con
fidential, argumentative, and polite, he persisted in being to
Me .
“ Have you brought his indentures with you ? ” asked Miss
Havisham .
“Well, Pip, you know,” replied Joe, as if that were a little
unreasonable, “ you yourself see me put 'em in my’at, and
therefore you know as they are here.” With which he took
them out, and gave them, not to Miss Havisham , but to me.
I am afraid I was ashamed of the dear good fellow ,I know I
was ashamed of him-when I saw that Estella stood at the
back of Miss Havisham's chair, and that her eyes laughed
mischievously. I took the indentures out of his hand and
gave them to Miss Havisham .
“ You
CC
expected ,” said Miss Havisham , as she looked them
over, no premium with the boy ? "
“ Joe ! ” I remonstrated ; for he made no reply at all. “ Why
don't you answer — _ ”
66
Pip ,” returned Joe, cutting me short as if he were hurt,
“ which I meantersay that were not a question requiring
a answer betwixt yourself and me, and which you know the
answer to be full well No. You know it to be No, Pip, and
wherefore should I say it ? ”
Miss Havisham glanced at him as if she understood what
he really was, better than I had thought possible, seeing what
he was there ; and took up a little bag from the table beside
her.
>
“ Pip has earned a premium here,” she said, “and here it
is. There are five- and -twenty guineas in this bag. Give it to
your master, Pip ? ”
As if he were absolutely out of his mind with the wonder
awakened in him by her strange figure and the strange room,
Joe, even at this pass, persisted in addressing me. CG
“ This is very liberal on your part, Pip ,” said Joe, and it is
as such received and grateful welcome, though never looked
for, far nor near nor nowheres. And now, old chap," said
Joe, conveying to me a sensation, first of burning and then
o : freezing, for I felt as if that familiar expression were applied
to Miss Havisham ; “and now, old chap, may we do our duty !
May you and me do our duty, both on us by one and another,
and by them which your liberal present- have - conveyed - tó
 ASTONISHING ! 97

be — for the satisfaction of mind - of - them as never _” here

Joe showed that he felt he had fallen into frightful diffi
culties, until he triumphantly rescued himself with the words,
“and from myself far be it ! ” These words had such a round
and convincing sound for him that he said them twice .
“ Good-bye , Pip ! ” said Miss Havisham . “ Let them out,
Estella . ”
“ Am I to come again , Miss Havisham ? ” I asked.
“ No. Gargery is your master now. Gargery ! One word ! ”
Thus calling him back as I went out of the door, I heard her
say to Joe, in a distinct emphatic voice, “ The boy has been
a good boy here, and that is his reward. Of course , as an
honest man , you will expect no other and no more. "
How Joe got out of the room, I have never been able to
determine ; but, I know that when he did get out he was
steadily proceeding up stairs instead of coming down, and
was deaf to all remonstrances until I went after him and laid
hold of him . In another minute we were outside the gate,
and it was locked and Estella was gone. When we stood in
the daylight alone again, Joe backed up against a wall, and
said to me, “ Astonishing ! " And there he remained so long,
saying “ Astonishing ” at intervals, so often, that I began to
think his senses were never coming back . At length , he
prolonged his remark into “ Pip, I do assure you this is as
Ton -ishing !” and so, by degrees, became conversational and
able to walk away.
I have reason to think that Joe's intellects were brightened
by the encounter they had passed through , and that on our way
to Pumblechook's, he invented a subtle and deep design. My
reason is to be found in what took place in Mr. Pumblechook's
parlour : where, on our presenting ourselves, my sister sat in
conference with that detested seedsman .
“ Well ! ” cried my sister, addressing us both at once. « And
what's happened to you ? I wonder you condescend to come
back to such poor society as this, I am sure I do ! ”
“ Miss Havisham ,” said Joe, with a fixed look at me, like an
) effort of remembrance, " made it wery partickler that we should
give her — were it compliments or respects, Pip ? ” .
Compliments,” I said .
Which that were my own belief, " answered Joe— “ her com
0 pliments to Mrs. J. Gargery ??
H
98 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

“ Much good they ' ll do me! ” observed my sister : but rather

gratified too.
“And wishing,” pursued Joe, with another fixed look at
me, like another effort of remembrance, " that the state of
Miss Havisham's elth were sitch as would have - allowed , were
it, Pip ? ”
“ Of her having the pleasure, ” I added .
“ Of ladies' company,” said Joe. And drew a long breath .
“ Well ! ” cried my sister, with a mollified glance at Mr.
Pumblechook. “ She might have had the politeness to send
that message at first, but it's better late than never. And what
did she give young Rantipole here ?”
She giv' him,” said Joe, “ nothing.”
Mrs. Joe was going to break out, but Joe went on .
“ What she giv , ” said Joe, “she giv' to his friends. And
by his friends,' were her explanation, ' I mean into the hands
6
of his sister, Mrs. J. Gargery.' Them were her words ; Mrs.
J. Gargery . She mayn't have know'd ,” added Joe, with
an appearance of reflection , “ whether it were Joe or
Jorge."
My sister looked at Pumblechook : who smoothed the
elbows of his wooden armchair, and nodded at her and at the
fire, as if he had known all about it beforehand.
“ And how much have you got ? ” asked my sister, laughing.
Positively, laughing !
“ What would present company say to ten pound ? " de
manded Joe.
“ They'd say," returned my sister curtly , “ pretty well. Not
too much, but pretty well. ”
" It's more than that then,” said Joe.
That fearful impostor, Pumblechook, immediately nodded,
and said, as he rubbed the arms of his chair : “ It's more than
that, Mum .”
Why, you don't mean to say- -” began my sister,
“ Yes I do, Mum ," said Pumblechook ; “ but wait a bit. Go
on, Joseph. Good in you ! Go on ! ”
“What would present company say," proceeded Joe, “to
twenty pound ? " >
“ Handsome would be the word ,” returned my sister.
“ Well then ,” said Joe, “ It's more than twenty pound.”
That abject hypocrite, Pumblechook , nodded again , and said
 BEFORE THE JUSTICES . 99
with a patronising laugh, “ It's more than that, Mum . Good
again ! Follow her up, Joseph !”
“ Then to make an end of it,” said Joe, delightedly handing
the bag to my sister ; “it's five -and -twenty pound .”
"
“ It's five -and-twenty pound , Mum ," echoed that basest of
swindlers, Pumblechook , rising to shake hands with her ; “ and
it's no more than your merits (as I said when my opinion was
asked ), and I wish you joy of the money ! ”
If the villain had stopped here , his case would have been
sufficiently awful, but he blackened his guilt by proceeding to
take me into custody, with a right of patronage that left all
his former criminality far behind.
“ Now you see, Joseph and wife," said Mr. Pumblechook , as
G
he took me by the arm above the elbow, am one of them
that always go right through with what they've begun . This
boy must be bound out of hand. That's my way. Bound out
of hand.”
“Goodness knows, Uncle Pumblechook , " said my sister
( grasping the money), “ we ’re deeply beholden to you ."
“ Never mind me, Mum , " returned that diabolical corn
chandler. “ A pleasure's a pleasure all the world over. But
this boy, you know ; we must have him bound. I said I'd see
to it — to tell you the truth.”
The Justices were sitting in the Town Hall near at hand,
and we at once went over to have me bound apprentice to Joe
in the Magisterial presence. I say , we went over, but I was
pushed over by Pumblechook , exactly as if I had that moment
picked a pocket or fired a rick ; indeed, it was the general im .
pression in Court that I had been taken red-handed >; for, as
Pumblechook shoved me before him through the crowd, I heard
some people say, “What's he done ? ” and others, “ He's a
young ’un , too, but looks bad, don't he ? " One person of mild
and benevolent aspect even gave me a tract ornamented with a
woodcut of a malevolent young man fitted up with a perfect
sausage-shop of fetters, and entitled, TO BE READ IN MY
CELL .
The Hall was a queer place, I thought, with higher pews in
it than a church and with people hanging over the pews look
ing on -- and with mighty Justices (one with a powdered head)
leaning back in chairs, with folded arms, or taking snuff, or
going to sleep, or writing, or reading the newspapers --and with
H2
100 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

some shining black portraits on the walls, which my unartistic

eye regarded as a composition of hardbake and sticking -plaister.
Here, in a corner, my indentures were duly signed and attested ,
and I was “ bound ;” Mr. Pumblechook holding me all the
while as if we had looked in on our way to the scaffold, to have
those little preliminaries disposed of.
When we had come out again , and had got rid of the boys
who had been put into great spirits by the expectation of seeing
me publicly tortured, and who were much disappointed to find
that my friends were merely rallying round me, we went back
to Pumblechook's. And there my sister became so excited by
the twenty - five guineas, that nothing would serve her but we
must have a dinner out of that windfall, at the Blue Boar, and
that Mr. Pumblechook must go over in his chaise -cart, and bring
the Hubbles and Mr. Wopsle.
It was agreed to be done ; and a most melancholy day I
passed. For, it inscrutably appeared to stand to reason, in
the minds of the whole company, that I was an excrescence
on the entertainment. And to make it worse, they all asked
me from time to time -in short, whenever they had nothing
else to do—why I didn't enjoy myself ? And what could
I possibly do then, but say that I was enjoying myself --
when I wasn't !
However, they were grown up and had their own way, and
made the most of it .That swindling Pumblechook , exalted
into the beneficent contriver of the whole occasion, actually
took the top of the table ; and when he addressed them ou
the subject of my being bound, and had fiendishly congratulated
them on my being liable to imprisonment if I played at cards,
drank strong liquors, kept late hours or bad company, or in
dulged in other vagaries which the form of my indentures
appeared to contemplate as next to inevitable, he placed me
standing on a chair beside him to illustrate his remarks.
My only other remembrances of the great festival are, That
they wouldn't let me go to sleep, but whenever they saw me
dropping off, woke me up and told me to enjoy myself. - That,
rather late in the evening Mr. Wopsle gave us Collins's ode,
and threw his blood-stain'd sword in thunder down, with such
effect that a waiter came in and said , “ The Commercials
underneath sent up their compliments, and it wasn't the
Tumbler's Arms." That they were all in excellent spirits on
 ASHAMED OF HOME . 101

the road home, and sang O Lady Fair ! Mr.Wopsle taking the
bass, and asserting with a tremendously strong voice (in reply
to the inquisitive bore who leads that piece of music in a most
impertinent manner , by wanting to know all about every
body's private affairs) that he was the man with his white
locks flowing, and that he was upon the whole the weakest
pilgrim going.
Finally, I remember that when I got into my little bed
room , I was truly wretched , and had a strong conviction on me
that I should never like Joe's trade. I had liked it once, but
once was not now ,

CHAPTER XIV.
It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There
may be black ingratitude in the thing, and the punishment may
be retributive and well deserved ; but, that it is a miserable
thing, I can testify.
Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because
of my sister's temper. But, Joe had sanctified it, and I believed
in it. I had believed in the best parlour as a most elegant
saloon ; had believed in the front door, as a mysterious portal
of the Temple of State whose solemu opening was attended
with a sacrifice of roast fowls ; I had believed in the kitchen as
a chaste though not magnificent apartment ; I had believed in
the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence.
Within a single year all this was changed. Now, it was all
coarse and common, and I would not have had Miss Havisham
and Estella see it on any account.
How much of my ungracious condition of mind may have
been my own fault, how much Miss Havisham's, how much my
sister's, is now of no moment to me or to any one. The change
was made in me ; the thing was done . Well or ill done,
excusably or inexcusably, it was done .
Once, it had seemed to me that when I should at last roll
up my shirt- sleeves and go into the forge, Joe's 'prentice, I
should be distinguished and happy. Now the reality was in
102 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
my hold, I only felt that I was dusty with the dust of the small
coal, and that I had a weight upon my daily remembrance to
which the anvil was a feather. There have been occasions in
my later life (I suppose as in most lives) when I have felt for
a time as if a thick curtain had fallen on all its interest and
romance , to shut me out from anything save dull endurance
any more. Never has that curtain dropped so heavy and blank,
as when my way in life lay stretched out straight before me
through the newly entered road of apprenticeship to Joe.
I remember that at a later period of my “ time,” I used to
stand about the churchyard on Sunday evenings, when night
was falling, comparing my own perspective with the windy
marsh view , and making out some likeness between them by
thinking how flat and low both were, and how on both there
came an unknown way and a dark mist and then the sea. I
was quite as dejected on the first working -day of my appren
ticeship as in that after-time; but I am glad to know that I
never breathed a murmur to Joe while my indentures lasted.
It is about the only thing I am glad to know of myself m that
connexion .
For though it includes what I proceed add, all the merit
of what I proceed to add was Joe's. It was not because I was
faithful, but because Joe was faithful, that I never ran away
and went for a soldier or a sailor. It was not because I had
a strong sense of the virtue of industry, but because Joe had
a strong sense of the virtue of industry, that I worked with
tolerable zeal against the grain . It is not possible to know how
far the influence of any amiable honest-hearted duty -doing
man flies out into the world ; but it is very possible to know
how it has touched one's self in going by, and I know right
well that any good that intermixed itself with my apprentice
ship came of plain contented Joe, and not of restless aspiring
discontented me.
What I wanted , who can say ? How can I say , when I never
knew ? What I dreaded was, that in some unlucky hour I,
being at my grimiest and commonest, should lift up my eyes
and see Estella looking in at one of the wooden windows of
the forge. I was haunted by the fear that she would , sooner
or later, find me out, with a black face and hands, doing the
coarsest part of my work , and would exult over me and despise
me , Often after dark, when I was pulling the bellows for
 A COMIC SONG. 103

Joe, and we were singing Old Clem , and when the thought how
we used to sing it at Miss Havisham's would seem to show me
Estella's face in the fire, with her pretty hair fluttering in the
wind and her eyes scorning me,-often at such a time I would
look towards those panels of black night in the wall which the
wooden windows then were, and would fancy that I saw her
just drawing her face away , and would believe that she had
come at last.
After that, when we went in to supper, the place and the
meal would have a more homely look than ever, and I would
feel more ashamed of home than ever , in my own ungracious
breast.

CHAPTER XV .

As I was getting too big for Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt's room,

my education under that preposterous female terminated . Not,
however, until Biddy had imparted to me everything she
knew , from the little catalogue of prices, to a comic song she
had once bought for a half-penny. Although the only coherent
part of the latter piece of literature were the opening lines,
" When I went to Lunnon town sirs,
Too rul loo rul
Too rul loo rul
Wasn't I done very brown sirs ?
Too rul loo rul
Too rul loo rul, ”

-still, in my desire to be wiser, I got this composition by

heart with the utmost gravity ; nor do I recollect that I ques
tioned its merit, except that I thought (as I still do) the amount
of Too rul somewhat in excess of the poetry. In my hunger
for information, I made proposals to Mr. Wopsle to bestow
some intellectual crumbs upon me ; with which he kindly com
plied. As it turned out, however, that he only wanted me for
a dramatic lay - figure , to be contradicted and embraced and
wept over and bullied and clutched and stabbed and knocked
104 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

about in a variety of ways, I soon declined that course of

instruction ; though not until Mr. Wopsle in his poetic fury
had severely mauled me.
Whatever I acquired, I tried to impart to Joe. This state
ment sounds so well , that I cannot in my conscience let it pass
unexplained . I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common ,
that he might be worthier of my society and less open to
Estella's reproach.
The old Battery out on the marshes was our place of study,
and a broken slate and a short piece of slate pencil were our
educational implements: to which Joe always added a pipe of
tobacco . I never knew Joe to remember anything from one
Sunday to another, or to acquire, under my tuition, any piece
of information whatever. Yet he would smoke his pipe at the
Battery with a far more sagacious air than anywhere else
even with a learned air-as if he considered himself to be
advancing immensely. Dear fellow , I hope he did.
It was pleasant and quiet, out there with the sails on the
river passing beyond the earthwork, and sometimes, when the
tide was low, looking as if they belonged to sunken ships that
were still sailing on at the bottom of the water. Whenever I
watched the vessels standing out to sea with their white sails
spread, I somehow thought of Miss Havisham and Estella ; and
whenever the light struck aslant, afar off, upon a cloud or sail
or green hill-side or water line, it was just the same. - Miss
Havisham and Estella and the strange house and the strange
life appeared to have something to do with everything that was
picturesque.
One Sunday when Joe, greatly enjoying his pipe, had so
plumed himself on being “ most awful dull, ” that I had given
him up for the day, I lay on the earthwork for some time with
my chin on my hand, descrying traces of Miss Havisham and
Estella all over the prospect, in the sky and in the water, until
at last I resolved to mention a thought concerning them that
had been much in my head .
“ Joe,” said I ; “ don't you think I ought to pay Miss
Havisham a visit ? "
“ Well, Pip ,” returned Joe, slowly considering. “What
for ? ”
“ What for, Joe ? What is any visit made for ? "
>
“ There is some wisits p'r’aps,” said Joe, “ as for ever
 A CONVERSATION WITH JOE. 105

remains open to the question, Pip . But in regard of wisiting

Miss Havisham . She might think you wanted something
expected something of her.”
“ Don't you think I might say that I did not, Joe ? ”
“ You might, old chap,” said Joe. " And she might credit it.
Similarly, she mightn't.”
Joe felt, as I did, that he had made a point there, and he
pulled hard at his pipe to keep himself from weakening it by
repetition.
You see, Pip ,” Joe pursued , as soon as he was past that
danger, 6“ Miss Havisham done the handsome thing by you.
When Miss Havisham done the handsome thing by you, she
called me back to say to me as that were all .”
CG
Yes, Joe. I heard her.”
66
ALL, " Joe repeated, very emphatically .
“ Yes, Joe. I tell you, I heard her.”
“Which I meantersay, Pip, it might be that her meaning
were-Make a end on it !-As you was !—Me to the North , and
you to the South !-Keep in sunders ? ”
I had thought of that too, and it was very far from com
forting to me to find that he had thought of it ; for it seemed
to render it more probable.
“But, Joe.”
“ Yes, old chap.”
“Here am I, getting on in the first year of my time, and,
since the day of my being bound I have never thanked Miss
Havisham , or asked after her, or shown that I remember her. ”
“That's true, Pip ; and unless you was to turn her out a set
of shoes all four round - and which I meantersay as even a set
of shoes all four round might not act acceptable as a present in
a total wacancy of hoofs
' I don't mean that sort of remembrance, Joe ; I don't mean
a present.”
But Joe had got the idea of a present in his head and must
harp upon it . " Or even ,” said he, “ if you was helped to
knocking her up a new chain for the front door-or say a gross
or two of shark-headed screws for general use-or some light
fancy article, such as a toasting-fork when she took her muffins
-or a gridiron when she took a sprat or such like - _ "
“ I don't mean any present at all, Joe,” I interposed.
“ Well,” said Joe, still harping on it as though I had particu
106 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

larly pressed it, “ if I was yourself, Pip , I wouldn't. No, I

would not. For what's a door-chain when she's got one always
up ? And shark-headers is open to misrepresentations. And
if it was a toasting-fork, you'd go into brass and do yourself no
credit. And the oncommonest workman can't show himself
oncommon in a gridiron-for a gridiron is a gridiron , ” said Joe,
steadfastly impressing it upon me, as if he were endeavouring
to rouse me from a fixed delusion , “ and you may haim at
what you like, but a gridiron it will come out, either by ‫ל‬your
‫ל‬
leave or again your leave, and you can't help yourself
My dear Joe,” I cried in desperation , taking hold of his
coat, “ don't go on in that way. I never thought of making
Miss Havisham any present.”
“ No, Pip,” Joe assented, as if he had been contending for
that all along ; “ and what I say to you is, you are right,
Pip."
“ Yes, Joe ; but what I wanted to say, was, that as we are
rather slack just now, if you would give me a half-holiday to
morrow , I think I would go up town and make a call on Miss
Est - Havisham ."
“ Which her name,” said Joe, gravely, “ ain't Estavisham ,
Pip, unless she have been rechris'ened .”
“ I know, Joe, I know. It was a slip of mine. What do you
think of it, Joe ?”
In brief, Joe thought that if I thought well of it, he thought
well of it. But, he was particular in stipulating that if I were
not received with cordiality, or if I were not encouraged to
repeat my visit as a visit which had no ulterior object, but was
simply one of gratitude for a favour received, then this experi
mental trip should have no successor. By these conditions I
promised to abide.
Now, Joe kept a journeyman at weekly wages whose name
was Orlick. He pretended that his christian name was Dolge-
a clear impossibility - but he was a fellow of that obstinate
disposition that I believe him to have been the prey of no
delusion in this particular, but wilfully to have imposed that
name upon the village as an affront to its understanding. He
was a broad - shouldered loose-limbed swarthy fellow of great
strength , never in a hurry , and always slouching. He never
even seemed to come to his work on purpose , but would slouch
in as if by mere accident ; and when he went to the Jolly
 DOLGE ORLICK'S HALF HOLIDAY . 107

Bargemen to eat his dinner, or went away at night, he would

slouch out, like Caip or the Wandering Jew, as if he had no
idea where he was going, and no intention of ever coming back.
He lodged at a sluice -keeper's out on the marshes, and on
working days would come slouching from his hermitage, with
his hands in his pockets and his dinner loosely tied in a bundle
round his neck and dangling on his back . On Sundays he
mostly lay all day on sluice-gates, or stood against ricks and
barns. He always slouched, locomotively, with his eyes on the
ground ; and, when accosted or otherwise required to raise
them , he looked up in a half resentful, half puzzled way, as
though the only thought he ever had, was, that it was rather
an odd and injurious fact that he should never be thinking.
This morose journeyman had no liking for me. When I was
very small and timid, he gave me to understand that the Devil
lived in a black corner of the forge, and that he knew the fiend
very well : also that it was necessary to make up the fire, once
in seven years, with a live boy, and that I might consider
myself fuel. When I became Joe's ' prentice, Orlick was
perhaps confirmed in some suspicion that I should displace
him ; howbeit, he liked me still less . Not that he ever said
anything, or did anything, openly importing hostility ; I only
noticed that he always beat his sparks in my direction, and
that whenever I sang Old Clem, he came in out of time.
Dolge Orlick was at work and present, next day, when I
reminded Joe of my half-holiday. He said nothing at the
moment, for he and Joe had just got a piece of hot iron
between them , and I was at the bellows ; but by -and -by he
said , leaning on his hammer :
“ Now , master ! Sure you're not a going to favour only one
of us. If Young Pip has a half-holiday, do as much for Old
Orlick ." I suppose he was about five-and -twenty , but he
usually spoke of himself as an ancient person .
“ Why, what'll you do with a half -holiday, if you get it ? ”
said Joe.
“ What'll I do with it ? What'll he do with it ? I'll do as
much with it as him , ” said Orlick.
"
“ As to Pip, he's going up town, ” said Joe.
“Well then, as to Old Orlick, he's a going up town,” retorted
that worthy. “ Two can go up town. Tain't only one wot can
go up town ."
108 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
" Don't lose your temper ,” said Joe.
“ Shall if I like," growled Orlick. “Some and their up
towning ! Now, master ! Come. No favouring in this shop.
Be a man ! "”
The master refusing to entertain the subject until the
journeyman was in a better temper, Orlick plunged at the
furnace, drew out a red -hot bar, made at me with it as if he
were going to run it through my body, whisked it round my
head, laid it on the anvil, hammered it out-- as if it were I,
I thought, and the sparks were my spirting blood—and finally
said , when he had hammered himself hot and the iron cold,
and he again leaned on his hammer :
66
Now , master ! ”
“ Are you all right now ? ” demanded Joe.
“ Ah ! I am all right,” said gruff Old Orlick .
“ Then , as in general you stick to your work " as well as most
men,” said Joe, “ let it be a half-holiday for all.”
а

My sister had been standing silent in the yard, within hearing

- she was a most unscrupulous spy and listener -- and she
instantly looked in at one of the windows.
“ Like you, you fool !” said she to Joe, “ giving holidays to
great idle hulkers like that. You are a rich man, upon my life,
to waste wages in that way. I wish I was his master ! ”
“ You'd be everybody's master if you durst,” retorted Orlick,
with an ill -favoured grin.
( " Let her alone,” said Joe. ) 7
Hi I'd be a match for all noodles and all rogues,” returned my
sister, beginning to work herself into a mighty rage. “ And I
couldn't be a match for the noodles, without being a match for
your master, who's the dunder - headed king of the noodles.
And I couldn't be a match for the rogues, without being a
match for you, who are the blackest-looking and the worst
rogue between this and France. Now ! ”
“ You're a foul shrew, Mother Gargery, ” growled the journey
man . “ If that makes a judge of rogues, you ought to be a
good 'up ." "
( “ Let her alone, will you ? ” said Joe .)
“ What did you say ? ” cried my sister, beginning to scream .
“What did you say ? What did that fellow Orlick say to me,
Pip ? What did he call me, with my husband standing by ?
O ! O ! O ! ” Each of these exclamations was a shriek ; and
 JOE PUNISHES ORLICK. 109

I must remark of my sister, what is equally true of all the

violent women I have ever seen , that passion was no excuse
for her, because it is undeniable that instead of lapsing into
passion, she consciously and deliberately took extraordinary
pains to force herself into it, and became blindly furious by
regular stages ; “ what was the name that he gave me before
the base man who swore to defend me ? 0! Hold
me ! O ! ”
“ Ah- h- h ! ” growled the journeyman , between his teeth, “ I'd
hold you, if you was my wife. I'd hold you under the pump,
and choke it out of you .”
( “ I tell you, let her alone,” said Joe. )
“ Oh ! To hear him !” cried my sister, with a clap of her
hands and a scream together — which was her next stage. “ To
hear the names he's giving me ! That Orlick ! In my own
house ! Me, a married woman ! With my husband standing
by ! 0 ! 0 ! ” Here my sister, after a fit of clappings and
screamings, beat her hands upon her bosom and upon her
knees, and threw her cap off, and pulled her hair down - which
were the last stages on her road to frenzy . Being by this time
a perfect Fury and a complete success, she made a dash at the
door, which I had fortunately locked.
What could the wretched Joe do now, after his disregarded
parenthetical interruptions, but stand up to his journeyman,
and ask him what he meant by interfering betwixt himself and
Mrs. Joe ; and further whether he was man enough to come on ?
Old Orlick felt that the situation admitted of nothing less than
coming on, and was on his defence straightway ; so, without so
much as pulling off their singed and burnt aprons, they went at
one another, like two giants. But, if any man in that neigh
bourhood could stand up long against Joe, I never saw the man .
Orlick, as if he had been of no more account than the pale
young gentleman, was very soon among the coal-dust, and in
no hurry to come out of it. Then, Joe unlocked the door and
picked up my sister, who had dropped insensible at the window
( but who had seen the fight first I think ), and who was carried
into the house and laid down , and who was recommended to
revive, and would do nothing but struggle and clench her hands
in Joe's hair. Then came that singular calm and silence which
succeed all uproars ; and then with the vague sensation which I
have always connected with such a lull - namely , that it was
110 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Sunday, and somebody was dead — I went up stairs to dress
myself.
When I came down again , I found Joe and Orlick sweeping
up, without any other traces of discomposure than a slit in one
of Orlick’s nostrils, which was neither expressive nor orna
mental. A pot of beer had appeared from the Jolly Barge
men, and they were sharing it by turns in a peaceable manner .
The lull had a sedative and philosophical influence on Joe, who
followed me out into the road to say, as a parting observation
that might do me good, “ On the Rampage, Pip, and off the
Rampage, Pip ;-such is Life ! ”
With what absurd emotions ( for, we think the feelings that
are very serious in a man quite comical in a boy) I found myself
again going to Miss Havisham's, matters little here. Nor, how
I passed and repassed the gate many times before I could make
up my mind to ring. Nor, how I debated whether I should go
away without ringing ; nor , how I should undoubtedly have
gone, if my time had been my own, to come back.
Miss Sarah Pocket came to the gate. No Estella.
“ How , then ? You here again ? ” said Miss Pocket. " What
do you want ? "
When I said that I only came to see how Miss Havisham was,
Sarah evidently deliberated whether or no she should send me
about my business. But, unwilling to hazard the responsibility,
she let me in, and presently brought the sharp message that I
"
was to " come up.”
Everything was unchanged, and Miss Havisham was alone.
6
“ Well !” said she, fixing her eyes upon me. “ I hope you want
nothing ? You ' ll get nothing .""
“ No indeed , Miss Havisham. I only wanted you to know
that I am doing very well in my apprenticeship , and am always
much obliged to you .”
“ There, there ! ” with the old restless fingers. “ Come now
and then ; come on your birthday. — Ay ! ” she cried suddenly ,
turning herself and her chair towards me, “ You are looking
round for Estella ? Hey ? ”
I had been looking round - in fact, for Estella -- and I
-

stammered that I hoped she was well.

“ Abroad,” said Miss Havisham ; “ educating for a lady ; far
out of reach ; prettier than ever ; admired by all who see her.
Do you feel that you have lost her ? ”
 THE TRAGEDY OF GEORGE BARNWELL. 111

There was such a malignant enjoyment in her utterance of

the last words, and she broke into such a disagreeable laugh,
that I was at a loss what to say. She spared me the trouble of
considering, by dismissing me. When the gate was closed upon
me by Sarah of the walnut-shell countenance, I felt more than
ever dissatisfied with my home and with my trade and with
everything ; and that was all I took by that motion.
As I was loitering along the High - street, looking in discon
solately at the shop windows, and thinking what I would buy if
I were a gentleman, who should come out of the bookshop but
Mr. Wopsle. Mr. Wopsle had in his hand the affecting tragedy
of George Barnwell, in which he had that moment invested
sixpence, with the view of beaping every word of it on the head
of Pumblechook, with whom he was going to drink tea. No
sooner did he see me , than he appeared to consider that a
special Providence had put a'prentice in his way to be read at ;
and he laid hold of me, and insisted on my accompanying him
to the Pumblechookian parlour. As I knew it would be miser
able at home, and as the nights were dark and the way was
dreary, and almost any companionship on the road was better
than none, I made no great resistance, consequently, we turned
into Pumblechook's just as the street and the shops were
lighting up.
As I never assisted at any other representation of George
Barnwell, I don't know how long it may usually take ; but I
know very well that it took until half -past nine o'clock that
night, and that when Mr. Wopsle got into Newgate, I thought
he never would go to the scaffold , he became so much slower
than at any former period of his disgraceful career. I thought
it a little too much that he should complain of being cut short
in his flower after all, as if he had not been running to seed,
leaf after leaf, ever since his course began. This, however, was
a mere question of leugth and wearisomeness. What stung me,
was the identification of the whole affair with my unoffending
self. When Barnwell began to go wrong, I declare I felt
positively apologetic, Pumblechook's indignant stare so taxed
me with it. Wopsle, too, took pains to present me in the worst
light. At once ferocious and maudlin, I was made to murder
my uncle with no extenuating circumstances whatever; Mill
wood put me down in argument, on every occasion ;. it became
sheer monomania in my master's daughter to care a button for
112 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

me ; and all I can say for my gasping and procrastinating

conduct on the fatal morning, is, that it was worthy of the
general feebleness of my character. Even after I was happily
hanged and Wopsle had closed the book, Pumblechook sat
staring at me, and shaking his head, and saying, “ Take warn
ing, boy, take warning ! ” as if it were a well-known fact that I
contemplated murdering a near relation , provided I could only
induce one to have the weakness to become my benefactor.
It was a very dark night when it was all over, and when I
set out with Mr. Wopsle on the walk home. Beyond town , we
found a heavy mist out, and it fell wet and thick . The turn
pike lamp was a blur, quite out of the lamp's usual place ap
parently, and its rays looked solid substance on the fog. We
were noticing this, and saying how that the mist rose with a
change of wind from a certain quarter of our marshes, when
we came upon a man , slouching under the lee of the turnpike
house .
“ Halloa ! " we said, stopping. “ Orlick theree ? ”
“ Ah ! ” he answered, slouching out. “ I was standing by, a
minute, on the chance of company."
“ You are late," I remarked .
Orlick not unnaturally answered , “ Well ? And you ’re
late .”
“ We have been,” said Mr. Wopsle, exalted with his late
performance , we have been indulging, Mr. Orlick , in an
intellectual evening."
Old Orlick growled, as if he had nothing to say about that,
and we all went on together. I asked him presently whether
he had been spending his half-holiday up and down town ?
6
“ Yes, ” said he, “ all of it. I come in behind yourself. I
didn't see you, but I must have been pretty close bebind you.
By -the-bye, the guns is going again .”
>
“ At the Hulks ? ” said I.
CC
Ay ! There's some of the birds flown from the cages.
The guns have been going since dark, about. You'll hear one
presently .”
In effect, we had not walked many yards further, when the
well-remembered boom came towards us, deadened by the mist,
and heavily rolled away along the low grounds by the river, as
if it were pursuing and threatening the fugitives.
“ A good night for cutting off in,” said Orlick . “ We'd
 A MURDEROUS ATTACK. 113

be puzzled how to bring down a jail-bird on the wing, to

night ."
The subject was a suggestive one to me, and I thought about
it in silence. Mr. Wopsle, as the ill -requited unclo of the
evening's tragedy, fell to meditating aloud in his garden at
Camberwell. Orlick , with his hands in his pockets, slouched
heavily at my side. It was very dark , very wet, very muddy,
and so we splashed along. Now and then, the sound of the
signal cannon broke pon us again, and again rolled sulkily
along the course of the river . I kept myself to myself and my
thoughts. Mr. Wopsle died amiably at Camberwell, and ex
ceedingly game on Bosworth Field, and in the greatest agonies
at Glastonbury . Orlick sometimes growled, “ Beat it out, beat
it out -- old Clem ! With a clink for the stout- old Clem ! ” I
thought he had been drinking, but he was not drunk .
Thus, we came to the village. The way by which we ap
proached it, took us past the Three Jolly. Bargemen , which we
were surprised to find — it being eleven o'clock - in a state of
commotion , with the door wide open, and unwonted lights that
had been hastily caught up and put down , scattered about.
Mr. Wopsle dropped in to ask what was the matter (surmising
that a convict had been taken ), but came running out in a great
hurry.
“There's something wrong," said he, without stopping,“ up
at your place, Pip. Run all ! ”
“ What is it ? ” I asked, keeping up with him . So did Orlick,
at my side.
“ I can't quite understand. The house seems to have been
violently entered when Joe Gargery was out. Supposed by
convicts. Somebody has been attacked and hurt.”
We were running too fast to admit of more being said , and
we made no stop until we got into our kitchen. It was full of
people ; the whole village was there, or in the yard ; and there
was a surgeon , and there was Joe, and there was a group of
women, all on the floor in the midst of the kitchen . The un
employed bystanders drew back when they saw me, and so I
became aware of my sisterlying without sense or movement
on the bare boards where she had been knocked down by a tre
mendous blow on the back of the head , dealt by some unknown
hand when her face was turned towards the fire - destined never
to be on the Rampage again, while she was the wife of Joe.
I
114 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

CHAPTER XVI,

With my head full of George Barnwell, I wasat first disposed

to believe that I must have had some hand in the attack
upon my sister, or at all events that as her near relation ,
popularly known to be under obligations to her, I was a more
legitimate object of suspicion than any one else. But when,
in the clearer light of next morning, I began to reconsider the
matter and to hear it discussed around me on all sides, I took
another view of the case, which was more reasonable.
Joe had been at the Three Jolly Bargemen, smoking his pipe,
from a quarter after eight o'clock to a quarter before ten .
While he was there my sister had been seen standing at the
kitchen door and had exchanged Good Night with a farm
labourer going home. The man could not be more particular
as to the time at which he saw her (he got into dense con
fusion when he tried to be) than that it must have been
before nine. When Joe went home at five minutes before
ten he found her struck down on the floor, and promptly
called in assistance. The fire had not then burnt unusually
low, nor was the snuff of the candle very long ; the candle ,
bowever, had been blown out.
Nothing had been taken away from any part of the house.
Neither, beyond the blowing out of the candle - which stood
on a table between the door and my sister, and was behind
her when she stood facing the fire and was struck-was there
any disarrangement of the kitchen , excepting such as she her
self had made, in falling and bleeding. But, there was one
remarkable piece of evidence on the spot. She had been struck
with something blunt and heavy, on the head and spine; after
the blows were dealt, something heavy had been thrown down
at her with cousiderable violence, as she lay on her face. And
on the ground beside her, when Joe picked her up, was a
convict's leg-iron which had been filed asunder.
Now, Joe, examining this iron with a smith's eye, declared it
to have been filed asunder some time ago. The hue and cry
going off to the Hulks, and people coming thence to examine
the iron, Joe's opinion was corroborated . They did not under
take to say when it had left the prison-ships to which it un
 THE SECRET. 115
doubtedly had once belonged ; but they claimed to know for
certain that that particular manacle had not been worn by
either of two convicts who had escaped last night. Further ,
one of those two was already re-taken , and had not freed binn
self of his iron .
Knowing what I knew, I set up an inference of my own
here. I believed the iron to be my convict's iron — the iron I
had seen and heard him filing at, on the marshes - but my mind
did not accuse him of having put it to its latest use. For, I
believed one of two other persons to have become possessed of
it, and to have turned it to this cruel account. Either Orlick,
or the strange mau who had shown me the file .
Now, as to Orlick ; he had gone to town exactly as he told
us when we picked him up at the turnpike, he had been seen
about town all the evening, he had been in divers companies in
several public -houses, and he had come back with myself and
Mr. Wopsle. There was nothing against him , save the quarrel ;
and my sister had quarrelled with him , and with everybody else
about her, ten thousand times. As to the strange man ; if he
had come back for his two bank notes there could have been no
dispute about them , because my sister was fully prepared to
restore them. Besides, there had been no altercation ; the
assailant had come in so silently and suddenly, that she had
been felled before she could look round .
It was horrible to think that I had provided the weapon,
however undesignedly, but I could hardly think otherwise. I
suffered unspeakable trouble while I considered and reconsidered
whether I should at last dissolve that spell of my childhood
and tell Joe all the story. For months afterwards, I every day
settled the question finally in the negative, and reopened and
reargued it next morning. The contention came, after all, to
this ;--the secret was such an old one now, had so grown into
me and become a part of myself, that I could not tear it away.
In addition to the dread that, having led up to so much mis
chief, it would be now more likely than ever to alienate Joe
from me if he believed it, I had a further restraining dread
that he would not believe it, but would assert it with the fabulous
dogs and veal-cutlets as a monstrous invention . However, I
temporized with myself, of course — for, was I not wavering
between right and wrong, when the thing is always done ? -and
resolved to make a full disclosure if I should see anyI such
2
new
 116 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
occasion as a new chance of helping in the discovery of the
assailant.
The Constables, and the Bow Street men from London - for,
this happened in the days of the extinct red -waistcoated police
—were about the house for aa week or two, and did pretty much
what I have beard and read of like authorities doing in other
such cases. They took up several obviously wrong people, and
they ran their heads very hard against wrong ideas, and per
sisted in trying to fit the circumstances to the ideas, instead
of trying to extract ideas from the circumstances. Also, they
I stood about the door of the Jolly Bargemen , with knowing and
reserved looks that filled the whole neighbourhood with admira
tion ; and they had a mysterious manner of taking their drink ,
that was almost as good as taking the culprit. But not quite,
for they never did it.
Long after these constitutional powers had dispersed, my
sister lay very ill in bed. Her sight was disturbed, so that
she saw objects multiplied, and grasped at visionary teacups
and wine-glasses instead of the realities ; her hearing was greatly
impaired ; her memory also ; and her speech was unintelligible.
When , at last, she came round so far as to be helped down
stairs, it was still necessary to keep my slate always by her,
that she might indicate in writing what she could not indicate
in speech. As she was (very bad handwriting apart ) a more
than indifferent speller, and as Joe was a more than indifferent
reader, extraordinary complications arose between them , which
I was always called in to solve. The administration of mutton
instead of medicine, the substitution of Tea for Joe, and the
baker for bacon, were among the mildest of my own mistakes.
However, her temper was greatly improved, and she was
patient. A tremulous uncertainty of the action of all her limbs
soon became a part of her regular state, and afterwards, at in
tervals of two or three months, she would often put her hands
to her head, and would then remain for about a week at a time
in some gloomy aberration of mind. We were at a loss to find
a suitable attendant for her, until a circumstance happened
conveniently to relieve us. Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt conquered
a confirmed habit of living into which she had fallen, and Biddy
became a part of our establishment.
It may have been about a month after my sister's reappear
anco in the kitchen , when Biddy came to us with a small
 BIDDY'S PENETRATION . 117

speckled box containing thewhole of her worldly effects, and be

came a blessing to the household. Above all she was a blessing to
Joe, for the dear old fellow was sadly cut up by the constant con
templation of the wreck of his wife, and had been accustomed,
while attending on her of an evening, to turn to me every now and
then and say , with his blue eyes moistened, “ Such a fine figure
of a woman as she once were, Pip ! ” Biddy instantly taking
the cleverest charge of her as though she had studied her from
infancy , Joe became able in some sort to appreciate the greater
quiet of his life, and to get down to the Jolly Bargemen now
and then for a change that did him good. It was characteristic
of the police people that they had all more or less suspected
poor Joe (though he never knew it), and that they had to a
man concurred in regarding him as one of the deepest spirits
they had ever encountered .
Biddy's first triumph in her new office, was to solve a diffi
culty that had completely vanquished me. I had tried hard
at it, but had made nothing of it. Thus it was :
Again and again and again, my sister had traced upon the slate,
a character that looked like a curious T, and then with the utmost
eagerness bad called our attention to it as something she par
ticularly wanted. I had in vain tried everything producible
that began with a T, from tar to toast and tub. At length it
had come into my head that the sign looked like a hammer,
and on my lustily calling that word in my sister's ear, she had
begun to hammer on the table and had expressed a qualified
assent. Thereupon , I had brought in all our hammers, one after
another, but without avail. Then I bethought me of a crutch,
the shape being much the same, and I borrowed one in the
village, and displayed it to my sister with considerable confi
dence. But she shook her head to that extent when she was
showu it, that we were terrified lest in her weak and shattered
state she should dislocate her neck .
When my sister found that Biddy was very quick to under
stand her, this mysterious sign reappeared on the slate. Biddy
looked thoughtfully at it, heard my explanation, looked thought
fully at my sister, looked thoughtfully at Joe ( who was always
represented on the slate by his initial letter), and ran into the
forge, followed by Joe and me.
“ Why, of course ! ” cried Biddy, with an exultant face .
“ Dov't you see ? It's him ! ”
118 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

Orlick , without a doubt ! She had lost his name, and could
only signify him by his hammer. We told him why we wanted
him to come into the kitchen, and he slowly laid down his
hammer, wiped his brow with his arm , took another wipe at it
with his apron , and came slouching out, with a curious loose
vagabond bend in the knees that strongly distinguished him .
I confess that I expected to see my sister denounce him , and
that I was disappointed by the different result. She manifested
the greatest anxiety to be on good terms with him, was evidently
much pleased by his being at length produced , and motioned
that she would have him given something to drink . She
watched his countenance as if she were particularly wishful to
be assured that he took kindly to his reception, she showed
every possible desire to conciliate him, and there was an air of
humble propitiation iv all she did, such as I have seen pervade
the bearing of a child towards aa hard master. After that day
a day rarely passed without her drawing the hammer on her
slate, and without Orlick’s slouching in and standing doggedly
before her, as if he knew no more than I did what to make
of it.

CHAPTER XVII .

I Now fell into a regular routine of apprenticeship life,

which was varied, beyond the limits of the village and the
marshes, by no more remarkable circumstance than the arrival
of my birthday and my paying another visit to Miss Havisham .
I found Miss Sarah Pocket still on duty at the gate, I found
Miss Havisham just as I had left her, and she spoke of Estella
in the very same way, if not in the very same words. The
interview lasted but a few minutes, and she gave me a guinea
when I was going, and told me to come again on my next birth
day. I may mention at once that this became an annual custom .
I tried to decline taking the guinea on the first occasion , but
with no better effect than causing her to ask me very angrily,
if I expected more ? Then, and after that, I took it,
 HOW BIDDY MANAGED . 119

So unchanging was the dull old house , the yellow light in

the darkened room , the faded spectre in the chair by the dress
ing -table glass, that I felt as if the stopping of the clocks had
stopped Time in that mysterious place, and , while I and every
thing else outside it grew older, it stood still. Daylight never
entered the house, as to my thoughts and remembrances of it,
any more than as to the actual fact. It bewildered me, and
under its influence I continued at heart to hate my trade and to
be ashamed of home .
Imperceptibly I became conscious of a change in Biddy, how
ever. Her shoes came up at the heel, her hair grew bright and
neat, her hands were always clean . She was not beautiful - she
was common, and could not be like Estella—but she was
pleasant and wholesome and sweet-tempered . She had not
been with us more than a year (I remember her being newly
out of mourning at the time it struck me) , when I observed to
myself one evening that she had curiously thoughtful and
attentive eyes ; eyes that were very pretty and very good .
It came of my lifting up my own eyes from a task I was
poring at - writing some passages from a book , to improve my
self in two ways at once by a sort of stratagem-and seeing
Biddy observant of what I was about. I laid down my pen ,
and Biddy stopped in her needlework without laying it down .
«
“ Biddy,” said I , “ how do you manage it ? Either I am very
stupid , or you are very clever. ”
“ What is it that I manage ? I don't know ,” returned Biddy,
smiling.
She managed her whole domestic life, and wonderfully too ;
but I did not mean that, though that made what I did mean
more surprising.
“ How do you manage, Biddy,” said I, " to learn everything
that I learn, and always to keep up with me ? " I was begin
ning to be rather vain of my knowledge, for I spent my birth
day guineas on it, and set aside the greater part of my pocket
money for similar investment ; though I have no doubt, now,
that the little I knew was extremely dear at the price.
7
“ I might as well ask you ,” said Biddy “ how you
manage ? "
“ No ; because when I come in from the forge of a night,
any one can see me turning to at it. But you never turn to at
>)
it, Biddy."
 120 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
»
“ I suppose I must catch it like a cough ," said Biddy,
quietly ; and went on with her sewing.
Pursuing my idea as I leaned back in my wooden chair and
looked at Biddy sewing away with her head on one side, I
began to think her rather an extraordinary girl. For, I called
to mind now ,that she was equally accomplished in the terms of
our trade, and the names of our different sorts of work, and
our various tools. In short, whatever I knew , Biddy knew.
Theoretically, she was already as good a blacksmith as I, or
better .
“ You are one of those, Biddy, ” said I, “ who make the most
of every chance. You never had a chance before you came
here, and see how improved you are !”
Biddy looked at me for an instant, and went on with her
sewing “ I was your first teacher though ; wasn't I ? ” said
she, as she sewed.
66
“ Biddy ! "” I exclaimed, in amazement. Why, you are
crying ! ”
No I am not , ” said Biddy , looking up and laughing . “ What
put that in your head ? ”
What could have put it in my head , but the glistening of a
tear as it dropped on her work ? I sat silent, recalling what a
drudge she had been until Mr. Wopsle’s great-aunt successfully
overcame that bad habit of living, so highly desirable to be got
rid of by some people. I recalled the hopeless circumstances
by which she had been surrounded in the miserable little shop,
and the miserable little noisy evening school, with that miser
able old bundle of incompetence always to be dragged and
shouldered . I reflected that even in those untoward times
there must have been latent in Biddy what was now developing,
5
for, in my first uneasiness and discontent I had turned to her
for help, as a matter of course . Biddy sat quietly sewing,
shedding no more tears, and while I looked at her and thought
about it all , it occurred to me that perhaps I had not been
sufficiently grateful to Biddy. I might have been too reserved,
and should have patronised her more ( though I did not use
that precise word in my meditations ), with my confidence.
“ Yes, Biddy, ” I observed, when I had done turning it over,
' you were my first teacher, and that at a time when we little
thought of ever being together like this, in this kitchen .”
“ Ah , poor thing ! ” replied Biddy. It was like her self
 PIP DESIRES TO BE A GENTLEMAN . 121

forgetfulness, to transfer the remark to my sister, and to get

up and be busy about her, making her more comfortable :
“ that's sadly true ! ”
66 $6
* Well," said I, we must talk together a little more, as we
used to do. And I must consult you a little more, as I used to
do. Let us have a quiet walk on the marshes next Sunday,
Biddy, and a long chat.”
My sister was never left alone now ;‫ ܪ‬but Joe more than
readily undertook the care of her on that Sunday afternoon ,
and Biddy and I went out together. It was summer-time and
lovely weather . When we had passed the village and the
church and the churchyard, and were out on the marshes, and
began to see the sails of the ships as they sailed on , I began to
combine Miss Havisham and Estella with the prospect, in my
usual way. When we came to the river- side and sat down on
the bank , with the water rippling at our feet, making it all
more quiet than it would have been without that sound, I re
solved that it was a good time and place for the admission of
Biddy into my inner confidence.
Biddy, ” said I, after binding her to secrecy, 6“ I want to be
a gentleman . "
“ Oh, I wouldn't, if I was you ! ” she returned . ' I don't
think it would answer.”
* Biddy,” said I, with some severity, “ I have particular
reasons for wanting to be a gentleman .”
“ You know best, Pip ; but don't you think you are happier
as you are ? "
Biddy,'' I exclaimed , impatiently, “ I am not at all happy
as I am . I am disgusted with my calling and with my life. I
have never taken to either since I was bound. Don't be
absurd.”
“ Was I absurd ? ” said Biddy, quietly raising her eyebrows;
“ I am sorry for that ; I didn't mean to be. I only want you to
do well, and be comfortable.”
“Well, then, understand once for all that I never shall or
can be comfortable — or anything but miserable — there, Biddy !
-unless I can lead a very different sort of life from the life I
lead now . ”
“ That's a pity !” said Biddy, shaking her head with a
sorrowful air.
Now, I too had so often thought it a pity, that, in the singular
122 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
kind of quarrel with myself which I was always carrying on, I
was half inclined to shed tears of vexation and distress when
Biddy gave utterance to her sentiment and my own . I told her
she was right, and I knew it was much to be regretted, but still
it was not to be helped.
“ If I could have settled down,” I said to Biddy, plucking up
the short grass within reach, much as I had once upon a time
pulled my feelings out of my hair and kicked them into the
brewery well : “ if I could have settled down and been but half
as fond of the forge as I was when I was little, I know it would
have been much better for me . You and I and Joe would have
wanted nothing then, and Joe and I would perhaps have gone
partners when I was out of my time, and I might even have
grown up to keep company with you, and we might have sat on
this very bank on a fine Sunday, quite different people. I
should have been good enough for you ; shouldn't I, Biddy ? "
Biddy sighed as she looked at the ships sailing on , and re
turned for answer, “ Yes ; I am not over-particular.” It scarcely
sounded flattering, but I knew she meant well.
“ Instead of that,” said I, plucking up more grass and chewing
a blade or two, “ see how I am going on. Dissatisfied and un
comfortable, and — what would it signify to me, being coarse
and common , if nobody had told me so ! ”
Biddy turned her face suddenly towards mine, and looked
far more attentively at me than she had looked at the sailing
ships.
“ It was neither a very true nor a very polite thing to say,"
she remarked, directing her eyes to the ships again. “Who
said it ? "
I was disconcerted, for I had broken away without quite
seeing where I was going to. It was not to be shuffled off, now,
however, and I answered, “ The beautiful young lady at Miss
Havisham's , and she's more beautiful that anybody ever was,
and I admire her dreadfully, and I want to be a gentleman on
her account.” Having made this lunatic confession, I began to
throw my torn -up grass into the river, as if I had some thoughts
of following it.
“ Do you want to be a gentleman, to spite her or to gain her
over ? ” Biddy quietly asked me, after a pause .
“ I don't know ," I moodily answered
“ Because, if it is to spite her," Biddy pursued , “ I should
Fidzemes

THEN
SHE
SOFTLY
PATTED
MY
IN
S SHOULDE
WAYOOTHINGR
."A
 BIDDY'S ADVICE. 123

think - but you know best -- that might be better and more in
dependently done by caring nothing for her words. And if it is
to gain her over, I should think - but you know best- she was
not worth gaining over."
Exactly what I myself had thought, many times. Exactly
what was perfectly manifest to me at the moment. But how
could I, a poor dazed village lad, avoid that wonderful incon
sistency into which the best and wisest of men fall every
day ?
“ It may be all quite true,” said I to Biddy , “ but I admire
2

her dreadfully .”
In short, I turned over on my face when I came to that, and
got a good grasp on the hair, on each side of my head, and
wrenched it well. All the while knowing the madness of my
heart to be so very mad and misplaced, that I was quite
conscious it would have served my face right, if I had lifted it
up by my hair, and knocked it against the pebbles as a punish
ment for belonging to such an idiot.
Biddy was the wisest of girls and she tried to reason no
more with me. She put her hand, which was a comfortable
hand though roughened by work , upon my hands, one after
another, and gently took them out of my hair . Then she softly
patted my shoulder in a soothing way, while with my face
upon my sleeve I cried a little - exactly as I had done in the
brewery yard - and felt vaguely convinced that I was very
much ill-used by somebody, or by everybody ; I can't say
which .
“ I am glad of one thing," said Biddy, " and that is, that you
have felt you could give me your confidence, Pip. And I am
glad of another thing , and that is, that of course you know you
may depend upon my keeping it and always so far deserving
it. If your first teacher (dear ! such a poor one, and so much
in need of being taught herself ! ) had been your teacher at the
present time, she thinks she knows what lesson she would set.
But it would be a hard one to learn , and you have got beyond
her, and it's of no use now .” So, with a quiet sigh for me,
Biddy rose from the bank , and said, with a fresh and pleasant
change of voice, “Shall we walk a little further, or go home »
“ Biddy,” I cried , getting up, putting my arm round her
neck, and giving her a kiss, " I shall always tell you every ..
thing."
 124 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

“Till you're a gentleman,” said Biddy.

“ You know I never shall be, so that's always. Not that
I have any occasion to tell you anything, for you know every
thing I know - as I told you at home the other night.”
“ Ab ! ” said Biddy, quite in a whisper, as she looked away at
the ships. And then repeated, with her former pleasant
«
change ; "shall we walk a little further, or go home ? ”
I said to Biddy we would walk a little further, and we did
so, and the summer afternoon toned down into the summer
evening, and it was very beautiful. I began to consider
whether I was not more naturally and wholesomely situated,
after all, in these circumstances, than playing beggar my
neighbour by candlelight in the room with the stopped clocks,
and being despised by Estella. I thought it would be very
good for me if I could get her out of my head with all the
rest of those remembrances and fancies, and could go to work
determined to relish what I had to do, and stick to it, and
make the best of it . I asked myself the question whether
I did not surely know that if Estella were beside me at that
moment instead of Biddy, she would make me miserable ?
I was obliged to admit that I did kno it for a certainty , and
I said to myself, “ Pip, what a fool you are ! ”
We talked a good deal as we walked , and all that Biddy
said seemed right. Biddy was never insulting, or capricious,
or Biddy to -day and somebody else to-morrow ; she would have
derived only pain , and no pleasure, from giving me pain ; she
would far rather have wounded her own breast than mine.
How could it be, then, that I did not like her much the better
of the two ?
66
· Biddy,” said I, when we were walking homeward , “ I wish
you could put me right."
“ I wish I could !” said Biddy.
“ If I could only get myself to fall in love with you - you
don't mind my speaking so openly to such an old acquaint
ance ? "
“ Oh dear, not at all ! ” said Biddy. “ Don't mind me.”
“ If I could only get myself to do it, that would be the thing
for me."
“ But you never will, you see,” said Biddy.
It did not appear quite so unlikely to me that evening, as
it would have done if we had discussed it a few hours before .
 OLD ORLICK AND BIDDY. 125

I therefore observed I was not quite sure of that. But Biddy

said she was, and she said it decisively. In my heart I believed
her to be right ; and yet I took it rather ill, too, that she
should be so positive on the point.
When we came near the churchyard, we had to cross an
embankment, and get over a stile near a sluice gate . There
started up, from the gate, or from the rushes, or from the
ooze (which was quite in his stagnant way ), Old Orlick .
“ Halloa ! ” he growled ," where are you two going ?”
“ Where should we be going, but home? ”
“ Well, then ,” said he, “I'm jiggered if I don't see you
home ! ”
This penalty of being jiggered was a favourite supposititious
case of his. He attached no definite meaning to the word that
I am aware of, but used it, like his own pretended Christian
name, to affront mankind, and convey an idea of something
savagely damaging. When I was younger, I had had a general
belief that if he had jiggered me personally, he would have
done it with a sharp and twisted hook.
Biddy was much against his going with us, and said to me
in a whisper, “Don't let him come ; I don't like him.” As I
did not like him either, I took the liberty of saying that we
thanked him , but we didn't want seeing home. He received
that piece of information with a yell of laughter, and dropped
back , but came slouching after us at a little distance.
Curious to know whether Biddy suspected him of having
had a hand in that murderous attack of which my sister had
never been able to give any account, I asked her why she did
not like him .
“ Oh ! ” she replied, glancing over her shoulder as he
slouched after us, "" because I-I am afraid he likes me.”
>
“ Did he ever tell you he liked you ? ” I asked , indignantly.
6.
No, ” said Biddy, glancing over her shoulder again , “ he
never told me so ; but he dances at me, whenever he can catch
my eye.”
However novel and peculiar this testimony of attachment, I
did not doubt the accuracy of the interpretation. I was very
hot indeed upon Old Orlick’s daring to admire her ; as hot as
if it were an outrage on myself.
“But it makesno difference to you, you know,” said Biddy,
calmly.
126 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

" No, Biddy, makes no difference to me ; only I don't like

it ; I don't approve of it ."
* Nor I neither," said Biddy. “ Though that makes no
difference to you .”
66
Exactly ,” said I ; “ but I must tell you I should have no
opinion of you, Biddy, if he danced at you with your own
consent."
I kept an eye on Orlick after that night, and whenever
circumstances were favourable to his dancing at Biddy, got
before him , to obscure that demonstration . He had struck
root in Joe's establishment, by reason of my sister's sudden
fancy for him, or I should have tried to get him dismissed.
He quite understood and reciprocated my good intentions, as
I had reason to know thereafter.
And now, because my mind was not confused enough be
fore, I complicated this confusion fifty thousand -fold , by
having states and seasons when I was clear that Biddy was
immeasurably better than Estella, and that the plain honest
working life to which I was born had nothing in it to be
ashamed of, but offered me sufficient means of self-respect
and happiness. At those times, I would decide conclusively
that my disaffection to dear old Joe and the forge, was
gone, and that I was growing up in a fair way to be partners
with Joe and to keep company with Biddy - when all in a
moment some confounding remembrance of the Havisham
days would fall upon me, like a destructive missile, and scatter
my wits again . Scattered wits take a long time picking up ;
and often , before I had got them well together, they would
be dispersed in all directions by one stray thought, that
perhaps after all Miss Havisham was going to make my
fortune when my time was out.
If my time had run out, it would have left me still at the
height of my perplexities, I dare say . It never did run out,
however, but was brought to a premature end , as I proceed
to relate .
 GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY . 127

CHAPTER XVIII.

It was in the fourth year of my apprenticeship to Joe, and it

was a Saturday night. There was agroup assembled round the
fire at the Three Jolly Bargemen, attentive to Mr. Wopsle as
he read the newspaper aloud. Of that group I was one.
A highly popular murder had been committed, and Mr.
Wopsle was imbrued in blood to the eyebrows. He gloated
over every abhorrent adjective in the description, and identified
himself with every witness at the Inquest. He faintly moaned,
“ I am done for," as the victim , and he barbarously bellowed,
“I'll serve you out," as the murderer. He gave the medical
testimony, in pointed imitation of our local practitioner ; and
he piped and shook, as the aged turnpike-keeper who had
heard blows, to an extent so very paralytic as to suggest a
doubt regarding the mental competency of that witness. The
coroner , in Mr. Wopsle’s hands, became Timon of Athens; the
beadle, Coriolanus. He enjoyed himself thoroughly, and we
all enjoyed ourselves, and were delightfully comfortable. In
this cozy state of mind we came to the verdict of Wilful
Murder.
Then, and not sooner, I became aware of a strange gentleman
leaning over the back of the settle opposite me, looking on .
There was an expression of contempt on his face, and he bit
the side of a great forefinger as he watched the group of
faces .
“ Well ! ” said the stranger to Mr. Wopsle, when the reading
was done, “ you have settled it all to your own satisfaction, I
have no doubt ? "
Everybody started and looked up, as if it were the murderer.
He looked at everybody coldly and sarcastically.
CC
' Guilty, of course ? " said he. " Out with it. Come! ”
“ Sir , " returned Mr. Wopsle, “ without having the honour of
your acquaintance, I do say Guilty . " Upon this we all took
courage to unite in a confirmatory murmur .
“ I know you do," said the stranger ; “ I kuew you would . I
told you so . But now I ' ll ask you a question, Do you know ,
or do you not know , that the law of England supposes every
man to be innocent, until he is proved - proved -- to be
guilty ? "
 128 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ Sir ," Mr. Wopsle began to reply, “as an Englishman my

self, I
“ Come! ” said the stranger, biting his forefinger at him .
“ Don't evade the question. Either you know it, or you don't
know it. Which is it to be ? "
He stood with his head on one side and himself on one
side, in a bullying interrogative manner , and he threw his
forefinger at Mr. Wopsle — as it were to mark him out - before
biting it again .
“ Now ! ” said he . “ Do you know it,or don't you know it ? "
“ Certainly I know it," replied Mr. Wopsle.
26
Certainly you know it. Then why didn't you say so at
first ? Now, I'll ask you another question ; " taking possession
of Mr. Wopsle, as if he had a right to him . " Do you know
that none of these witnesses have yet been cross- examined ? ”
6
Mr. Wopsle was beginning, “ I can only say -_- " when the
stranger stopped him.
“ What ? You won't answer the question, yes or no ? Now ,
I'll try you again .” Throwing his finger at him again . 6 At
tend to me. Are you aware, or are you not aware, that none
of these wi esses have yet been cross-examined Come, I
only want one word from you. Yes, or no ? ”
Mr. Wopsle hesitated, and we all began to conceive rather a
poor opinion of him .
Come! ” said the stranger, “ I'll help you . You don't
deserve help, but I'll help you. Look at that paper you hold
in your hand. What is it ? "
“ What is it ? " repeated Mr.Wopsle , eyeing it much at a
loss.
“ Is it,” pursued the stranger in his most sarcastic and
suspicious manner, “the printed paper you have just been
reading from ? "
"
“ Undoubtedly .”
6
me
Undoubtedly. Now, turn to that paper , and tell
whether it distinctly states that the prisoner expressly said
that his legal advisers instructed him altogether to reserve his
defence ? "
“ I read that just now ," Mr. Wopsle pleaded.
“ Never mind what you read just now, sir ; I don't ask you
what you read just now . You may read the Lord's Prayer
backwards, if you like -- and, perhaps, have done it before to
 MR. WOPSLE PUT OUT. 129

day. Turn to the paper. No, no, no, my friend ; not to the
top of the column ; you know better than that ; to the bottom ,
to the bottom .” (We all began to think Mr. Wopsle full of
subterfuge.) “ Well ? Have you found it ? ”
“ Here it is,” said Mr. Wopsle .
“Now, follow that passage with your eye, and tell me
whether it distinctly states that the prisoner expressly said that
he was instructed by his legal advisers wholly to reserve his
defence Come ! Do you make that of it ? "
6
Mr. Wopsle answered, “ Those are not the exact words. "
“ Not the exact words ! ” repeated the gentleman , bitterly.
“ Is that the exact substance ? "
“ Yes,” said Mr. Wopsle.
“ Yes, " repeated the stranger, looking round at the rest of
the company with his right hand extended towards the witness,
Wopsle. And now I ask you what you say to the conscience
of that man who, with that passage before his eyes, can lay
his bead upon his pillow after having pronounced a fellow
creature guilty, unbeard ? ”
5
We all began to suspect that Mr. Wopsle was not the man
we had thought him, and that he was beginning to be found
out.
..
And that same man , remember,” pursued the gentleman ,
throwing his finger at Mr. Vopsle heavily ; "that same man
might be summoned as a juryman upon this very trial, and
having thus deeply committed himself, might return to the
bosom of his family and lay his head upon his pillow, after
deliberately swearing that hewould well and truly try the issue
joined between Our Sovereign Lord the King and the prisoner
at the bar, and would a true verdict give according to the
evidence, so help him God ! ”
.
We were all deeply persuaded that the unfortunate Wopsle
had gone too far, and had better stop in his reckless career
while there was yet time.
The strange gentleman , with an air of authority not to be
disputed, and with a manner expressive of knowing something
secret about every one of us that would effectually do for each
individual if he chose to disclose it, left the back of the settle,
and came into the space between the two settles, in front of
the fire, where he remained standing : his left hand in his
pocket, and he biting the forefinger of his right.
к
 130 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
"
“ From information I have received,” said he, looking round
at us as we all quailed before him , " I have reason to believe
there is a blacksmith among you, by name Joseph-or Joe
Gargery. Which is the man ? "
“ Here is the man ,” said Joe .
The strange gentleman beckoned him out of his place, and
Joe went .
“ You have an apprentice,” pursued the stranger , “ commonly
known as Pip ? Is he here ? ”
I am here ! " I cried.
The stranger did not recognise me, but I recognised him as
the gentleman I had met on the stairs, on the occasion of my
second visit to Miss Havisham . had known him the
moment I saw him looking over the settle, and now that I
stood confronting him with his hand upon my shoulder, I
checked off again in detail , his large head, his dark complexion,
his deep -set eyes, his bushy black eyebrows, his large watch
chain , his strong black dots of beard and whisker, and even
the smell of scented soap on his great hand.
“ I wish to have a private conference with you two, " said he,
when he had surveyed me at his leisure. “ It will take a little
time. Perhaps we had better go to your place of residence.
I prefer not to anticipate my communication here ; you will
impart as much or as little of it as you please to your friends
afterwards ; I have nothing to do with that.”
Amidst a wondering silence, we three walked out of the
Jolly Bargemen , and in a wondering silence walked home.
While going along, the strange gentleman occasionally looked
at me, and occasionally bit the side of his finger. As we
neared home, Joe vaguely acknowledging the occasion as an
impressive and ceremonious one, went on ahead to open the
front door. Our conference was held in the state parlour,
which was feebly lighted by one candle.
It began with the strange gentleman's sitting down at the
table, drawing the candle to him , and looking over some entries
in his pocket- book . He then put up the pocket-book and set
the candle a little aside : after peering round it into the dark
ness at Joe and me , to ascertain which was which .
“ My name," he said, “ is Jaggers, and I am a lawyer in
London. I am pretty well known . I have unusual business
to transact with you, and I commence by explaining that it is

2
 ASTOUNDING INTELLIGENCE. 121

not of my originating: If my advice had been asked, I should

not have been here . It was not asked, and you see me.
here. What I have to do as the confidential agent of another,
I do. No less, no more.”
Finding that he could not see us very well from where he.
sat, he got up, and threw one leg over the back of a chair
and leaned upon it ; thus having one foot on the seat of a
chair, and one foot on the ground.
“Now, Joseph Gargery, I am the bearer of an offer to
relieve you of this young fellow, your apprentice. You would
not object to cancel his indentures at his request and for his
good ? You would want nothing for so doing ?
“ Lord forbid that I should want anything for not standing
in Pip's way , ” said Joe, staring.
“ Lord forbidding is pious, but not to the purpose, " returned
Mr. Jaggers. “ The question
>
is, Would you want anything ?
Do you want anything ? "
“The answer is, ” returned Joe, sternly, “ No."
I thought Mr. Jaggers glanced at Joe, as if he considered
him a fool for his disinterestedness. But I was too much be
wildered between breathless curiosity and surprise, to be sure
of it .
6
“ Very well,” said Mr. Jaggers. “Recollect the admissiou
you have made, and don't try to go from it presently ."
“ Who’s a-going to try ? ” retorted Joe.
“ I don't say anybody is. Do you keep a dog ? ”
>
“ Yes, I do keep a dog ."
“ Bear in mind then , that Brag is a good dog, but that
Holdfast is a better. Bear that in mind , will you ? ” repeated
Mr. Jaggers, shutting his eyes and nodding his head at Joe,
as if he were forgiving him something. “ Now I return to
this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make
is, that he has Great Expectations.”
Joe and I gasped, and looked at one another.
“ I am instructed to communicate to him ," said Mr. Jaggers,
throwing his finger at me sideways, “ that he will come into a
handsome property. Further, that it is the desire of the pre
sent possessor of that property, that he be immediately
removed from his present sphere of life and from this place,
and be brought up as a gentleman - in a word, as a young
fellow of great expectations."
K2
 132 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
My dream was out ; my wild fancy was surpassed by sober
reality ; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a
grand scale.
“ Now , Mr. Pip , ” pursued the lawyer, “ I address the rest of
what I have to say, to you. You are to understand, first,
that it is the request of the person from whom I take my in
structions, that you always bear the name of Pip. You will
have no objection, I dare say, to your great expectations being
encumbered with that easy condition. But if you have any
objection, this is the time to mention it . "
My heart was beating so fast, and there was such a sing
ing in my ears, that I could scarcely stammer I had no
objection.
“ I should think not ! Now you are to understand, secondly,
Mr. Pip, that the name of the person who is your liberal
benefactor remains a profound secret, until the person chooses
to reveal it. I am empowered to mention that it is the inten
tion of the person to reveal it at first hand by word of mouth
to yourself. When or where that intention may be carried
out, I cannot say ; no one can say. It may be years hence.
Now, you are distinctly to understand that you are most posi
tively prohibited from making any inquiry on this head, or
any allusion or reference, however distant, to any individual
whomsoever as the individual, in all the communications you
may have with me. If you have a suspicion in your own
breast, keep that suspicion in your own breast. It is not the
least to the purpose what the reasons of this prohibition are ;
they may be the strongest and gravest reasons, or they may
be a mere whim. This is not for you to inquire into. The
condition is laid down . Your acceptance of it, and your observ
ance of it as binding, is the only remaining condition that I am
charged with, by the person from whom I take my instructions,
and for whom I am not otherwise responsible . That person
is the person from whom you derive your expectations, and
the secret is solely held by that person and by me. Again , not
a very difficult condition with which to encumber such a rise
in fortune ; but if you have any objection to it, this is the
time to mention it. Speak out.”
Once more, I stammered with difficulty that I had no
objection .
“ I should think not ! Now , Mr, Pip , I have done with
 A TUTOR SUGGESTED FOR ME. 133

stipulations.". Though he called me Mr. Pip, and began

rather to make up to me, he still could not get rid of a cer
tain air of bullying suspicion ; and even now heoccasionally
şhut his eyes and threw his finger at me while he spoke, as
much as to express that he knew all kinds of things to my
disparagement, if he only chose to mention them. “We come
next, to mere details of arrangement. You must know that
although I use the term ' expectations' more than once, you
are not endowed with expectations only. There is already
lodged in my hands, a sum of money amply sufficient for
your suitable education and maintenance. You will please
consider me your guardian. Oh ! ” for I was going to thank
him, “ I tell you at once, I am paid for my services, or I
shouldn't render them. It is considered that you must be
better educated, in accordance with your altered position ,
and that you will be alive to the importance and necessity
of at once entering on that advantage.”
I said I had always longed for it.
66 Never mind what you have always longed for, Mr. Pip ,”
he retorted, “ keep to the record. If you long for it now,
that's enough. Am I answered that you are ready to be
placed at once, under some proper tutor ? Is that it ? "
I stammered yes, that was it.
“ Good . Now, your inclinations are to be consulted. I
don't think that wise, mind, but it's my trust. Have you
ever heard of any tutor whom you would prefer to another ? ”
I had never heard of any tutor but Biddy, and Mr. Wopsle's
great-aunt ; so, I replied in the negative.
“ There is a certain tutor, of whom I have some knowledge,
who I think might suit the purpose , ” said Mr. Jaggers. “ I
don't recommend him , observe ; because I never recommend
anybody. The gentleman I speak of is one Mr. Matthew
Pocket.”
Ah ! I caught at the name directly. Miss Havisham's re
lation . The Matthew whom Mr. and Mrs. Camilla had spoken
of. The Matthew whose place was to be at Miss Havisham's
head, when she lay dead, in her bride's dress on the bride's
table.
>
“You know the name ? " sail Mr. Jaggers, looking shrewdly
at me, an.1 then shutting up his eyes while he waited for my
answer ,
134 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
My answer was, that I had heard of the name.
“ Oh ! ” said he. “ You have heard of the name ! But the
question is, what do you say of it ? ”
I said , or tried to say, that I was much obliged to him for his
recommendation
6
No, my young friend ! ” be interrupted, shaking his great
hcad very slowly. Recollect yourself !”
Not recollecting myself, I began again that I was much
obliged to him for his recommendation
“No, my young friend,” he interrupted, shaking his head
and frowning and smiling both at once ; “ no, no, no ; it.'s very
well done, but it won't do ; you are too young to fix me with
it . Recommendation is not the word, Mr. Pip . Try another. "
Correcting myself, I said that I was much obliged to him for
bis mention of Mr. Matthew Pocket
“ That's more like it ! ” cried Mr. Jaggers.
-And (I added ) I would gladly try that gentleman .
“ Good. You had better try him in his own house. The
way shall be prepared for you, and you can see bis son first,
who is in London . When will you come to London ? ”
( I said ( glancing at Joe, who stood looking on, motionless),
that I supposed I could come directly .
7
“ First,” said Mr. Jaggers, “ you should have some new
clothes to come in, and they should not be working clothes.
Say this day week. You'll want some money. Shall I leave
you twenty guineas ? ”
He produced a long purse, with the greatest coolness, and
counted them cut on the table and pushed them over to me.
This was the first time he had taken his leg from the chair.
He sat astride of the chair when he had pushed the money
over, and sat swingiug his purse and eyeing Joe.
6
1. “ Well, Joseph Gargery ? You look dumbfoundered ? "
«
“ I am ! ” said Joe, in a very decided manner.
· It was understood that you wanted nothing for yourself,
remember ?
; “ It were understood,” said Joe. “ And it are understood .
And it ever will be similar according. "
“ But what,” said Mr. Jaggers, swinging his purse, "what if
it was in my instructions to make you a present, as compen .
sation ? "
“ As compensation what for ? " Joe demanded .
 .BULL -BAITING AND BADGERING . 135

* For the loss of his services."

Joe laid his hand upon my shoulder with the touch of a
W man . I have often thought him since, like the steam
hammer, that can crush a man or pat an egg -shell, in his com
bination of strength with gentleness. “ Pip is that hearty
welcome,” said Joe,“ to go free with his services, to honour and
fortun', as no words can tell him. But if you think as Money
can make compensation to me for the loss of the little child
—what come to the forge -- ar ever the best of friends ! "
O dear good Joe, whom I was so ready to leave and so un
thankful to, I see you again , with your muscular blacksmith's
arm before your eyes, and your broad chest heaving, and your
voice dying away. O dear good faithful tender Joe, I feel the
loviog tremble of your hand upon my arm , as solemnly this
day as if it had been the rustle of an angel's wing !
But I encouraged Joe at the time. I was lost in the mazes
of my future fortunes, and could not retrace the by -paths we
had trodden together. I begged Joe to be comforted, for (as
he said ) we had ever been the best of friends, and ( as I said)
we ever would be so . Joe scooped his eyes with his disengaged
wrist, as if he were bent on gouging himself, but said not
another word,
.
Mr. Jaggers had looked on at this, as one who recognised in
Joe the village idiot, and in me his keeper. When it was over ,
he said, weighing in his hand the purse he had ceased to swing:
66
Now, Joseph Gargery, I warn you this is your last chance .
No half measures with me. If you mean to take a present
that I have it in charge to make you , speak out, and you shall
7
have it. If on the contrary you mean to say Here, to
his great amazement, he was stopped by Joe's suddenly working
round him with every demonstration of a fell pugilistic pur
pose .
" Which I meantersay,” cried Joe, “ that if you come into
my place bull-baiting and badgering me, come out ! Which I
meantersay as sech if you're a man , come on ! Which I
meantersay that what I say, II meantersay and stand or fall
by ! ”
I drew Joe away , and he immediately became placable :
merely stating to me, in an obliging manner and as a polite
expostulatory notice to any one whom it might happen to con
cern, that he were not a-going to be bull -baited and badgered in
136 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
his own place. Mr. Jaggers had risen when Joe demonstrated,
and had backed near the door. Without evincing any ineli
nation to come in again , he there delivered his valedictory
remarks. They were these :
“ Well, Mr. Pip, I think the sooner you leave here—as you
are to be a gentleman — the better . Let it stand for this day
week, and you shall receive my printed address in the mean
time. You can take a hackney - coach at the stage-coach office
in London, and come str to me . Understand that I ex
press no opinion , one way or other, on the trust I undertake.
I am paid for undertaking it, and I do so. Now, understand
that finally. Understand that ! ”
He was throwing his finger at both of us, and I think would
have gone on, but for his seeming to think Joe dangerous, and
going off.
Something came into my head which induced me to run after
him as he was going down to the Jolly Bargemen , where he
had left a hired carriage.
“ I beg your pardon, Mr. Jaggers.”
G
“ Halloa ! ” said he, facing round, (“what's the matter ?"
“ I wish to be quite right, Mr. Jaggers, and keep to your
directions; so I thought I had better ask. Would there be any
objection to my taking leave of any one I know, about here,
before I go away ? ”
“ No , " said he , looking as if he hardly understood me.
“ I don't mean in the village only, but up town ? ” .
“ No," said he. 6“ No objection . "
I thanked him and ran home again , and there I found that
Joe had already locked the front door and vacated the state
parlour, and was seated by the kitchen fire with a hand on each
knee, gazing intently at the burning coals. I too sat down
before the fire and gazed at the coals, and nothing was said for
a long time.
\ My sister was in her cushioned chair in her corner, and Biddy
sat at her needlework before the fire, and Joe sat next Biddy ,
and I sat next Joe in the corner opposite my sister. The more
I looked into the glowing coals, the more incapable I became of
looking at Joe ; the longer the silence lasted , the more unable
I felt to speak .
At length I got out, “ Joe, have you told Biddy ? >"
6

“ No, Pip ,"" returned Joe, still looking at the fire, and holding
 PIP A GENTLEMAN OF FORTUNE. 137

his knees tight, as if he had private information that they

intended to make off somewhere, “ which I left it to yourself,
Pip . ”
“ I would rather you told, Joe.”
* Pip's a gentleman of fortun ' then," said Joe, “and God
bless him in it ! "
Biddy dropped her work, and looked at me. Joe held his
knees and looked at me. I looked at both of them . After a
pause they both heartily congratulated me ; but there was a
certain touch of sadness in their congratulations that I rather
resented .
I took it upon myself to impress Biddy (and through Biddy,
Joe) with the grave obligation I considered my friends under,
to know nothing and say nothing about the maker of my
fortune. It would all come out in good time, I observed, and
in the meanwhile nothing was to be said, save that I had come
into great expectations from a mysterious patron. Biddy
nodded her head thoughtfully at the fire as she took up her
work again, and said she would be very particular ; and Joe ,
6
still detaining his knees, said, “Ay, ay, I'll be ekervally parti
tickler, Pip ;” and then they congratulated me again , and we
on to express so much wonder at the notion of my being a
gentleman, that I didn't half like it.
Infinite pains were then taken by Biddy to convey to my
sister some idea of what had happened. To the best of my
belief, those efforts entirely failed . She laughed and nodded
her bead a great many times, and" even repeated after Biddy,
the words “ Pip ” and “Property.” But I doubt if they had
more meaning in them than an election cry, and I cannot suggest
a darker picture of her state of mind.
I never could have believed it without experience, but as Joe
and Biddy became more at their cheerful ease again , I became
quite gloomy. Dissatisfied with my fortune, of course I could
not be ; but it is possible that I may have been, without quite
knowing it, dissatisfied with myself.
Anyhow, I sat with my elbow on my knee and my face upon
my hand, looking into the fire, as those two talked about my
going away , and about what they should do without me and
all that. And whenever I caught one of them looking at me,
though never so pleasantly (and they often looked at me
particularly Biddy), I felt offended : as if they were expressing
138 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
some mistrust of me. Though Heaven knows they never did
by word or sign.
At those times I would get up and look out at the door ; for
our kitchen door opened at once upon the night, and stood open
on summer evenings to air the room . The very stars to which
I then raised my eyes, I am afraid I took to be but poor and
humble stars for glittering on the rustic objects among which
I had passed my life.
Saturday night," ” said I, when we sat at our supper of bread
and- cheese and beer. “Five more days, and then the day before
the day ! They'll soon go.”.
“ Yes, Pip ,"" observed Joe, whose voice sounded hollow in his
beer mug . “ They 'll soon go. ”
Soon , soon go," said Biddy.
“ I have been thinking, Joe, that when I go down town on
Monday, and order my new clothes, I shall tell the tailor that
I'll come and put them on there, or that I'll have them sent to
Mr. Pumblechook's. It would be very disagreeable to be stared
at by all the people here.”
“ Mr. and Mrs. Hubble might like to see you in your new
gen-teel figure too, Pip,” said Joe, industriously cutting his
bread with his cheese on it, in the palm of his left hand, and
glancing at my untasted supper as if he thought of the time
when we used to compare slices. “ So might Wopsle. And
tie Jolly Bargemen might take it as a compliment .”
“ That's just what I don't want, Joe. They would make
such a business of it—such a coarse and common business - that
I couldn't bear myself.”
“ Ah, that indeed, Pip !” said Joe. 36 If you couldn't abear
yourself
Biddy asked me here, as she sat holding my sister's plate,
“ Have you thought about when you'll show yourself to Mr,
Gargery, and your sister, and me? You will show yourself to
27
tis ; won't you ?
“ Biddy," I returned with some resentment, “ you are so "
exceedingly quick that it's difficult to keep up with you . ”
(“ She always were quick," observed Joe.)
“ If you had waited another moment, Biddy,you would have
heard me say that I shall bring my clothes here in aa bundle one
evening - most likely on the evening before I go away.”
Biddy said no more. Handsomely forgiving her, I soon exe
 JOE AND BIDDY. 138
changed an affectionate good -night with her and Joe, and went
up to bed. When I got into my little room, I sat down and
took a long look at it, as a mean little room that I should soon
be parted from and raised above, for ever. It was furnished with
fresh young remembrances too, and even at the same moment
I fell into much the same confused division of mind between it
and the better rooms to which I was going, as I had been in so
often between the forge and Miss Havisham's, and Biddy and
Estella.
The sun had been shining brightly all day on the roof of my
attic, and the room was warm . As I put the window open and
stood looking out, I saw Joe come slowly forth at the dark door
below, and take a turn or two in the air ; and then I saw Biddy
come and bring him a pipe and light it for him. He never
smoked so late, and it seemed to hint to me that he wanted
comforting, for some reason or other.
He presently stood at the door immediately beneath me ,
smoking his pipe, and Biddy stood there too, quietly talking to
him , and I knew that they talked of me, for I heard my name
mentioned in an endearing tone by both of them more than
once. I would not have listened for more, if I could have heard
more ; so, I drew away from the window, and sat down in my
one chair by the bedside, feeling it very sorrowful and strange
that this first night of my bright fortunes should be the
Ioneliest I had ever known .
Looking towards the open window, I saw light wreaths from
Joe's pipe floating there, and I fancied it was like a blessing
from Joe-not obtruded on me or paraded before me, but per
vading the air we shared together. I put my light out, and
crept into bed ; and it was an uneasy bed now, and I never
slept the old sound sleep in it any more.
140 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

CHAPTER XIX .
MORNING made a considerable difference in my general prospect
of Life, and brightened it so much that it scarcely seemed the
same . What lay heaviest on my mind, was, the consideration
that six days intervened between me and the day of departure ;
for I could not divest myself of a misgiving that something
might happen to London in the meanwhile, and that, when I
got there, it might be either greatly deteriorated or clean
gone .
Joe and Biddy were very sympathetic and pleasant when I
spoke of our approaching separation ; but they only referred
to it when I did. After breakfast, Joe brought out my
indentures from the press in the best parlour, and we put
them in the fire, and I felt that I was free. With all the
novelty of my emancipation on me, I went to church with Joe,
and thought, perhaps the clergyman wouldn't have read that
about the rich man and the kingdom of Heaven, if he had
known all.
After our early dinner, I strolled cut alone, proposing to finish
off the marshes at once, and get them done with. As I passed
the church, I felt (as I had felt during service in the morning)
a sublime compassion for the poor creatures who were destined
to go there, Sunday after Sunday, all their lives through , and
to lie obscurely at -last among the low green mounds. I pro
mised myself that I would do something for them one of these
days, and formed a plan in outline for bestowing a dinner of
roast-beef and plum -pudding, a pint of ale, and a gallon of
condescension , upon everybody in the village.
If I had often thought before, with something allied to
shame, of my companionship with the fugitive whom I had
once seen limping among those graves, what were my thoughts
on this Sunday, when the place recalled the wretch, ragged and
shivering, with his felon iron and badge ! My comfort was,
that it happened a long time ago, and that he had doubtless
been transported a long way off, and that he was dead to me,
and might be veritably dead into the bargain .
No more low wet grounds, no more dykes and sluices, no
more of these grazing cattle — though they seemed, in their dull
manner, to wear a more respectful air now, and to face round ,
 JOE AWFUL DULL . 141
in order that they might stare as long as possible at the posses
sor of such great expectations — farewell, monotonous acquaint
ances of my childhood, henceforth I was for London and great
ness : not for smith's work in general and for you ! I made my
exultant way to the old Battery , and, lying down there to con
sider the question whether Miss Havisham intended me for
Estella, fell asleep.
When I awoke, I was much surprised to find Joe sitting
beside me, smoking his pipe. He greeted me with a cheerful
smile on my opening my eyes, and said : .

“ As being the last time, Pip , I thought I'd foller."

6 And Joe, I am very glad you did so .”
“Thankee, Pip.”
“ You may be sure, dear Joe." I went on, after we had shaken
hands, “ that I shall never forget you .”
6
“ No, no, Pip ! ” said Joe, in a comfortable tone, “ I'm sure
of that. Ay, ay, old chap ! Bless you, it were only necessary
to get it well round in a man's mind, to be certain on it . But
it took a bit of time to get it well round, the change come so
oncommon plump ; didn't it ? "
Somehow, I was not best pleased with Joe's being so mightily
secure of me. I should have liked him to have betrayed emo
tion, or to have said, “ It does you credit, Pip," or something
of that sort. Therefore, I made no remark on Joe's first head :
merely saying as to his second, that the tidings had indeed
come suddenly, but that I had always wanted to be a gentleman,
and had often and often speculated on what I would do, if I
were one .
:
“Have you though ? " said Joe. “ Astonishing ! ”
“ It's a pity now, Joe,” said I, “ that you did not get on a
little more, when we had our lessons here ; isn't it ? "
“ Well, I don't know , " returned Joe. “I'm so awful dull.
I'm only master of my own trade. It were always a pity as I
was so awful dull; but it's no more of a pity now, than it was
--this day twelvemonth - don't you see !"
What I had meant was, that when I came into my property
and was able to do something for Joe, it would have been
much more agreeable if he had been better qualified for a
rise in station . He was so perfectly innocent of my meaning,
however, that I thought I would mention it to Biddy in pre
ference .
142 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
So, when we had walked home and had had tea, I took
Biddy into our little garden by the side of the lane, and, after
throwing out in a general way for the elevation of her spirits,
that I should never forget her, said I had a favour to ask of
her.
“ And it is, Biddy,” said I, " that you will not omit any
opportunity of helping Joe on , a little."
" Howhelpinghimon ? ” asked Biddy, with a steady sort of
glance.
“ Well ! Joe is a dear good fellow - in fact, I think he is the
dearest fellow that ever lived — but he is rather backward in
some things. For instance, Biddy, in his learning and his
manners."
Although I was looking at Biddy as I spoke, and although
she opened her eyes verywide when I had spoken , she did not
look at me.
66
Oh , his manners ! won't his manners do, then ? " asked
Biddy, plucking a black currant leaf.
“ My dear Biddy, they do very well here
“ Oh ! they do very well here ? ” interrupted Biddy, looking
closely at the leaf in her hand .
“ Hear me out - but if I were to remove Joe into a higher
sphere, as I shall hope to remove him when I fully come into
my property, they would hardly do him justice .”
“ And don't you think he knows that,” asked Biddy.
It was such a provoking question (for it had never in the
most distant manner occurred to me), that I said , spappishly,
“ Biddy, what do you mean ?”
Biddy having rubbed the leaf to pieces between her hands
—and the smell of a black currant bush has ever since
recalled to me that evening in the little garden by the side
of the lane - said, “ Have you never considered that he may
be proud ? ”
“ Proud ? ” I repeated, with disdainful emphasis.
“ Oh ! there are many kinds of pride,” said Biddy, looking
G
full at me and shaking her head ; “ pride is not al of one
7
kind
“ Well ? What are you stopping for ? ” said I.
“ Not all of one kind ,” resumed Biddy. “ He may be too
proud to let any one take him out of a place that he is com
petent to fill, and fills well and with respect. To tell you the
 MR. TRABB . 143
truth, I think he is : though it sounds bold in me to say so, for
you must know him far better than I do."
“ Now , Biddy, ” said I , “ I am very sorry to see this in you.
I did not expect to see this in you. You are envious, Biddy,
and grudging. You are dissatisfied on account of my rise in
fortune, and you can't help showing it."
“ If you have the heart to think so,” returned Biddy, " say
so . Say so over and over again , if you have the heart to
think so.”
“ If you have the heart to be so, you mean , Biddy,” said I, in
a virtuous and superior tone ; “ don't put it off upon me. I
am very sorry to see it, and it's a—it's a bad side of human
nature. I did intend to ask you to use any little opportunities
you might have after I was gone, of improving dear Joe. But
after this, I ask
.
you nothing. I am extremely sorry to see this
in you, Biddy," I repeated. “ It's a-it's a bad side of human
6

nature ."
“ Whether you scold me or approve of me, " returned poor
Biddy, “ you may equally depend upon my trying to do all that
lies in my power, here, at all times. And whatever opinion you
take away of me, shall make no difference in my remembrance
of you. Yet a gentleman should not be unjust neither," said
Biddy, turning away her head .
I again warmly repeated that it was a bad side of human
nature (in which sentiment, waiving its application , I have since
seen reason to think I was right ), and I walked down the little
path away from Biddy, and Biddy went into the house, and I
went out at the garden gate and took a dejected stroll until
supper-time ; again feeling it very sorrowful and strange that
this, the second night of my bright fortunes, should be as
lonely and unsatisfactory as the first .
But, morning once more brightened my view, and I extended
my clemency to Biddy, and we dropped the subject. Putting
on the best clothes I had, I went into town as early as I could
hope to find the shops open, and presented myself before Mr.
Trabb, the tailor ; who was having his breakfast in the parlour
behind his shop , and who did not think it worth his while to
come out to me, but called me in to him .
“ Well ! ” said Mr. Trabb, in a hail-fellow -well-met kind of
way . “ How are you, and what can I do for you ? "
Mr. Trabb had sliced his hot roll into three feather beds, and
 144 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

was slipping butter in between the blankets, and covering it

up. He was a prosperous old bachelor, and his open window
looked into a prosperous little garden and orchard, and there
was a prosperous iron safe let into the wall at the side of his
fireplace, and I did not doubt that heaps of his prosperity
were put away in it in bags .
“Mr. Trabb ," said I, “it's an unpleasant thing to have to
mention, because it looks like boasting ; but I have come into
a handsome property.”
:
A change passed over Mr. Trabb . He forgot the butter in
bed, got up from the bedside,
«
and wiped his fingers on the
table- cloth , exclaiming, “ Lord bless my soul ! "
>
“ I am going up to my guardian in London," said I casually
drawing some guineas out of my pocket and looking at them ;
" and I want aa fashionable suit of clothes to go in . I wish to
pay for them ,” I added - otherwise I thought he might only
6
pretend to make them— “ with ready money."
“ My dear sir , " said Mr. Trabb, as he respectfully bent his
body, opened his arms, and took the liberty of touching me on
the outside of each elbow , “ don't hurt me by mentioning that.
May I venture to congratulate you ? Would you do me the
favour of stepping into the shop ? "
Mr. Trabb's boy was the most audacious boy in all that
country -side. When I had entered he was sweeping the shop,
and he had sweetened his labours by sweeping over me. He
was still sweeping when I came out into the shop with Mr.
Trabb, and he knocked the broom against all possible corners
and obstacles, to express (as I understood it) equality with any
blacksmith , alive or dead.
“Hold that noise ,” said Mr. Trabb, with the greatest stern
ness, “ or I'll kuock your head off ! Do me the favour to be
seated, sir. Now, this,” said Mr. Trabb, taking down a roll of
cloth, and tiding it out in a flowing manner over the counter,
preparatory to getting his hand under it to show the gloss, “ is
a very sweet article . I can recommend it for your purpose,
sir, because it really is extra super. But you shall see some
others. Give me Number Four, you ! ” (To the boy, and with
a dreadfully severe stare ; foreseeing the danger of that mis
creant's brushing me with it, or making some other sign of
familiarity .)
Mr. Trabb never removed his stern eye from the boy until he
 THE FATE OF TRABB'S BOY. 145

had deposited number four on the counter and was at a safe

distance again . Then, he commanded him to bring number five,
and number eight. “And let me have none of your tricks here,”
said Mr. Trabb, “ or you shall repent it, you young scoundrel,
the longest day you have to live. ”
Mr. Trabb then bent over number four, and in a sort of
deferential confidence recommended it to me as a light article
forsummer wear, an article much in vogue among the nobility
and gentry, an article that it would ever be an honour to him
to reflect upou a distinguished fellow -townsman's (if he might
claim me for a fellow -townsman ) having worn. 66 Are you
bringing numbers five and eight, you vagabond, ” said Mr.
Trabb to the boy after that, “ or shall I kick you out of the
shop and bring them myself ? "
I selected the materials for a suit, with the assistance of Mr.
Trabb's judgment, and re-entered the parlour to be measured.
For, although Mr. Trabb had my measure already, and had pre
viously been quite contented with it, he said apologetically
that it “ wouldn't do under existing circumstances, sir
wouldn't do at all.” So Mr. Trabb measured and calculated
me in the parlour, as if I were an estate and he the finest
species of surveyor, and gave himself such a world of trouble
that I felt that no suit of clothes could possibly remunerate him
for his pains. When he had at last done and had appointed to
send the articles to Mr.Pumblechook's on the Thursday evening,
he said , with his hand upon the parlour lock, “ I know , sir, that
London gentlemen cannot be expected to patronise local work ,
as a rule; but if you would give me a turn now and then in
the quality of a townsman , I should greatly esteem it. Good
morning, sir, much obliged. - Door ! ”
The last word was flung at the boy, who had not the least
notion what it meant. But I saw him collapse as his master
rubbed me out with his hands, and my first decided experience
of the stupendous power of money, was, that it had morally
laid upon his back, Trabb's boy.
After this memorable event, I went to the hatter's, and the
bootmaker's, and the hosier's, and felt rather like Mother Hub
bard's dog whose outfit required the services of so many trades.
I also went to the coach - office and took my place for seven
o'clock on Saturday morning. It wasnot necessary to explain
everywhere that I had come into a handsome property;
L
but
146 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

whenever I said anything to that effect, it followed that the

officiating tradesman ceased to have his attention diverted
through the window by the High -street, and concentrated his
mind upon me. When I had ordered everything I wanted, I
directed my steps towards Pumblechook's, and, as I ap
proached that gentleman's place of business, I saw him standing
at his door.
He was waiting for me with great impatience. He had been
out early with the chaise -cart, and had called at the forge and
heard the news . He had prepared a collation for me in the
Barnwell parlour, and he too ordered his shopman to “ come
out of the gangway ” as my sacred person passed.
“ My dear friend,” said Mr. Pumblechook, taking me by
both hands, when he and I and the collation were alone, “ I give
>
you joy of your good fortune. Well deserved, well deserved ! ”
This was coming to the point, and I thought it aa sensible way
of expressing himself.
>

“To think , ” said Mr. Pumblechook, after snorting admiration

at me for some moments, “ that I should have been the humble
instrument of leading up to this, is a proud reward ."
I begged Mr. Pumblechook to remember that nothing was to
be ever said or hinted, on that point.
“ My dear young friend ,” said
- "
Mr. Pumblechook ; “ if you
will allow me to call you so
I murmured “ Certainly,” and Mr. Pumblechook took me by
both hands again, and communicated a movement to his waist
coat, which had an emotional appearance, though it was rather
low down, “ My dear young friend, rely upon my doing my
little all in your absence, by keeping the fact before the mind
of Joseph . - Joseph ! ” said Mr. Pumblechook in the way of a
compassionate adjuration . “ Joseph !! Joseph !!!” There
upon he shook his head and tapped it, expressing his sense of
deficiency in Joseph . "
“ But my dear young friend ,” said Mr. Pumblechook, “ you
must be hungry, you must be exhausted. Be seated . Here is
a chicken had round from the Boar, here is a tongue had round
from the Boar, here's one or two little things had round
from the Boar, that I hope you may not despise. But do I ,”
said Mr. Pumblechook, getting up again the moment after he
had sat down, “ see afore me, him as I ever sported with in his
times of happy infancy ? And may I - may I- ?”
 MR. PUMBLEÇHOOK ELATED . 147

This May I, meant might be shake hands ? I consented, and

he was 'fervent, and then sat down again .
“Here is wine," said Mr. Pumblechook. “ Let us drink,
Thanks to Fortune, and may she ever pick out her favourites
with equal judgment ! And yet I cannot,” said Mr. Pumble
chook, getting up again , “ seeafore me One — and likewise drink
to One — without again expressing - May I – may I- - ? ”
I said he might, and he shook hands with me again , and
emptied his glass and turned it upside down. I did the same ;
and if I had turned myself upside down before drinking, the
wine could not have gone more direct to my head.
Mr. Pumblechook helped me to the liver wing, and to the
best slice of tongue (none of those out-of-the- way No Thorough
fares of Pork now ), and took, comparatively speaking, no care
of himself at all. “ Ah ! poultry , poultry ! You little thought,
said Mr. Pumblechook, apostrophising the fowl in the dish ,
6 when you was a young fledgling, what was in store for you .
You little thought you was to be refreshment beneath this
humble roof for one as - Call it a weakness, if you will, " said
Mr. Pumblechook, getting up again , “ but may I ? may I- ? "
It began to be unnecessary to repeat the form of saying he
might, so he did it at once . How he ever did it so often without
wounding himself with my knife, I don't know.
“ And your sister ,” he resumed, after a little steady eating,
“ which had the honour of bringing you up by hand ! It's a
sad picter, to reflect that she's no longer equal to fully under
standing the honour. May - _ ”
I saw he was about to come at me again , and I stopped him .
“ We'll drink her health," said I.
“ Ah ! ” cried Mr. Pumblechook , leaning back in his chair,
quite flaccid with admiration , " that's the way you know 'em,
»
sir ! ” (I don't know who Sir was, but he certainly was not I,
and there was no third person present) ; 6“ that's the way you
know the noble-minded, sir ! Ever forgiving and ever affable .
It might,” said the servile Pumblechook , putting down his un
tasted glass in a hurry and getting up again , “ to a common
person, have the appearance of repeating — but may I - ? "
When he had done it, he resume: his seat and drank to my
sister. “ Let us never be blind,” said Mr. Pumblechook, “ to
her faults of temper, but it is to be hoped she meant well.”
At about this time, I began to observe that he was getting
L2
148 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
flushed in the face ; as to myself, I felt all face, steeped in
wine and smarting .
I mentioned to Mr. Pumblechook that I wished to have my
new clothes sent to his house, and he was ecstatic on my so
distinguishing him. I mentioned my reason for desiring to
avoid observation in the village, and he lauded it to the skies.
There was nobody but himself, he intimated, worthy of my
confidence, and in short , might he ? Then he asked me
tenderly if I remembered our boyish games at sums, and how
we had gone together to have me bound apprentice, and, in
effect, how he had ever been my favourite fancy and my chosen
friend ? If I had taken ten times as many glasses of wine as I
had, I should have known that he never had stood in that re
lation towards me, and should in my heart of hearts have re
pudiated the idea. Yet for all that, I remember feeling con
vinced that I had been much mistaken in him, and that he was
a sensible practical good -hearted prime fellow .
By degrees he fell to reposing such great confidence in me,
as to ask my advice in reference to his own affairs. He
mentioned that there was an opportunity for a great amalga
mation and monopoly of the corn and seed trade on those
premises, if enlarged, such as had never occurred before in
that, or any other neighbourhood. What alone was wanting
to the realisation of a vast fortune, he considered to be More
Capital. Those were the two little words, more capital. Now,
it appeared to him (Pumblechnok ) that if that capital were got
into the business, through a sleeping partner, sir — which sleep
ing partner would have nothing to do but walk in, by self or
deputy, whenever he pleased, and examine the books — and
walk in twice a year and take his profits away in his pocket, to
the tune of fifty per cent.-- it appeared to him that that might
be an opening for a young gentleman of spirit combined with
property , which would be worthy of his attention . But what
did I think ? He had great confidence in my opinion , and
what did I think ? I gave it as my opinion , “ Wait a bit ! ”
The united vastness, and distinctness of this view so struck
him, that he no longer asked me if he might shake hands with
me, but said he really must - and did.
We drank all the wine, and Mr. Pumblechook pledged him
self over and over again to keep Joseph up to the mark (I
don't know what mark ), and to render me efficient and constant
 IN MY NEW CLOTHES . 149

service (I don't know what service) . He also made known to

me for the first time in my life, and certainly after having kept
his secret wonderfully well, that he had always said of me,
« That boy is no common boy, and mark me, his fortun ’ will be
no common fortun '." He said with a tearful smile that it was
a singular thing to think of now, and I said so too. Finally, I
went out into the air, with a dim perception that there was
something unwonted in the conduct of the sunshine, and found
that I had slumberously got to the turnpike without having
taken any account of the road .
There, I was roused by Mr. Pumblechook's hailing me. He
was a long way down the sunny street, and was making ex
pressive gestures for me to stop. I stopped, and he came up
breathless.
“ No, my dear friend, ” said he, when he had recovered wind
for speech. “ Not if I can help it. This occasion shall not
entirely pass without that affability on your part.-May I, as
an old friend and well -wisher ? May 1 ? ”
We shook hands for the hundredth time at least, and he
ordered a young carter out of my way with the greatest in
dignation . Then , he blessed me, and stood waving his hand to
me until I had passed the crook in the road ; and then I turned
into aa field and had a long nap under a hedge before I pursued
my way home.
I had scant luggage to take with me to London , for little of
the little I possessed was adapted to my new station . But, I
began packing that same afternoon, and wildly packed up things
that I knew I should want next morning, in a fiction that there
was not a moment to be lost.
So, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, passed ; and on
Friday morning I went to Mr. Pumblechook's, to put on my
new clothes and pay my visit to Miss Havisham . Mr. Pumble
chook's own room was given up to me to dress in, and was
decorated with clean towels expressly for the event. My clothes
were rather a disappointment, of course. Probably every new
and eagerly expected garment ever put on since clothes came
in , fell a trifle short of the wearer's expectation . But after I
had had my new suit on, some half an hour, and had gone
through an immensity of posturing with Mr. Pumblechook's
very limited dressing -glass, in the futile endeavour to see my
legs, it seemed to fit me better. It being market morning at a
150 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
neighbouring town some ten miles off, Mr. Pumblechook was
not at home. I had not told him exactly when I meant to
leave, and was not likely to shake hands with him again before
departing. This was all as it should be, and I went out in
my new array : fearfully ashamed of having to pass the shop
man , and suspicious after all that I was at a personal disad
vantage, something like Joe's in his Sunday suit.
I went circuitously to Miss Havisham's by all the back ways,
and rang at the bell constrainedly, on account of the stiff long
fingers of my gloves. Sarah Pocket came to the gate, and
positively reeled back when she saw me so changed ; her
walnut-shell countenance likewise, turned from brown to green
and yellow.
“ You ? ” said she. “ You ? Good gracious. What do you
want ? ”
“ I am going to London, Miss Pocket,” said I, " and want to
say good-bye to Miss Havisham.”
I was not expected, for she left me locked in the yard,
while she went to ask if I were to be admitted . After a
very short delay, she returned and took me up, staring at
me all the way.
Miss Havisham was taking exercise in the room with the
long spread table, leaning on her crutch stick . The room was
lighted as of yore, and at the sound of our entrance, she
stopped and turned. She was then just abreast of the rotted
bride -cake.
“ Don't go, Sarah , ” she said . “Well, Pip ? ”
“ I start for London , Miss Havisham , to-morrow ," I was
exceedingly careful what I said , " and I thought you would
kindly not mind my taking leave of you."
“ This is a gay figure, Pip , ” said she, making her crutch stick
play round me as if she, the fairy godmother who had changed
me, were bestowing the finishing gift.
“ I have come into such good fortune since I saw you last,
Miss Havisham ," I murmured. “ And I am so grateful for it,
Miss Havisham ! ”
CG
Ay, ay !” said she, looking at the discomfited and envious
>

Sarah, with delight. “ I have seen Mr. Jaggers. I have heard

about it, Pip. So you go to -morrow ?
66
“ Yes, Miss Havisham .”
“ And you are adopted by a rich person ? "
 THE LAST NIGHT AT HOME. 151

“ Yes, Miss Havisham .”

« Not named ? "
No, Miss Havisham ." . "
“ And Mr. Jaggers is made your guardian ?
“ Yes, Miss Havisham."
She quite gloated on these questions and answers, so keen
was her enjoyment of Sarah Pocket's jealous dismay . “ Well ! ”
she went on, " you have a promising career before you. Be
good-deserve it — and abide by Mr. Jagger's instructions.”3
She looked at me, and looked at Sarah, and Sarah's countenance
wrung out of her watchful face a cruel smile. “ Good -bye, Pip !
-you will always keep the nameof Pip, you know .”
>
66
Yes, Miss Havisham .”
“ Good -bye, Pip !”
She stretched out her hand, and I went down on my knee
and put it to my lips. I had not considered how I should take
leave of her ; it came naturally to me at the moment, to do this,
She looked at Sarah Pocket with triumph in her weird eyes,
and so I left my fairy godmother, with both her hands on her
crutch stick, standing in the midst of the dimly lighted room
beside the rotten de-cake that was hidden in cobwebs.
Sarah Pocket conducted me down, as if I were a ghost who
must be seen out. She could not get over my appearance ,
and was in the last degree confounded. I said “ Good -bye,
Miss Pocket ; ” but she merely stared, and did not seem col
lected enough to know that I had spoken , Clear of the house, I
made the best of my way back to Pumblechook's, took off my
new clothes, made them into a bundle, and went back home in
my older dress, carrying it-to speak the truth - much more at
my ease too, though I had the bundle to carry.
And now, those six days which were to have run out so slowly,
had run out fast and were gone, and to -morrow looked me in
the face more steadily than I could look at it. As the six
evenings had dwindled away to five, to four, to three, to two, I
had become more and more appreciative of the society of Joe
and Biddy. On this last evening, I dressed myself out in my
new clothes, for their delight, and sat in my splendour until
bedtime. We had aa hot supper on the occasion, graced by the
inevitable roast fowl, and we had some flip to finish with . We
were all very low, and none the higher for pretending to be in
spirits.
152 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
I was to leave our village at five in the morning, carrying my
little hand - portmanteau, and I had told Joe that I wished to
walk away all alone. I am afraid sore afraid - that this pur
pose originated in my sense of the contrast there would be
between me and Joe, if we went to the coach together. I
had pretended with myself that there was nothing of this
taint in the arrangement; but when I went up to my little
room on this last night, I felt compelled to admit that it
might be done so, and had an impulse upon me to go down
again and entreat Joe to walk with me in the morning. I
did not.
All night there were coaches in my broken sleep, going to
wrong places instead of to London, and having in the traces
now dogs, now cats, now pigs, now men-never horses. Fan
tastic failures of journeys occupied me until the day dawned
and the birds were singing. Then, I got up , and partly
dressed, and sat at the window to take a last look out, and
in taking it fell asleep .
Biddy was astir so early to get my breakfast, that, although
I did not sleep at the window an hour, I smelt the smoke of
the kitchen fire when I started up with a terrible idea that it
must be late in the afternoon . But long after that, and long
after I heard the clinking of the teacups and was quite ready,
I wanted the resolution to go down stairs. After all, I remained
up there, repeatedly unlocking and unstrapping my small port
manteau and locking and strapping it up again , until Biddy
called to me that I was late.
It was a hurried breakfast with no taste in it. I got up from
the meal, saying with a sort of briskness, as if it had only just
occurred to me, " Well ! I suppose I must be off ! ” and then I
kissed my sister, who was laughing and nodding and shaking
in her usual chair, and kissed Biddy, and throw my arms around
Joe's neck. Then I took up my little portmanteau and walked
out. The last I saw of them was, when I presently heard a
scuffle behind me, and looking back, saw Joe throwing an old
shoe after me and Biddy throwing another old shoe. I stopped
then , to wave my hat, and dear old Joe waved his strong right
arm above his head, crying huskily, “ Hooroar ! ” aud Biddy
put her apron to her face.
I walked away at a good pace , thinking it was easier to go
than I had supposed it would be, and reflecting that it would
 THE WORLD ALL BEFORE PIP. 153

never have done to have an old shoe thrown after the coach , in
sight of all the High- street. I whistled and made nothing of
going. But the village was very peaceful and quiet, and the
light mists were solemnly rising, as if to show me the world,
and I had been so innocent and little there, and all beyond was
so unknown and great, that in a moment with a strong heave
and sob I broke into tears. It was by the finger- post at the end
of the village, and I laid my hand upon it, and said, “ Good
bye, O my dear, dear friend ! ”
'Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for
they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth , overlying our
hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before - more
sorry , more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle. If I
had cried before, I should have had Joe with me then .
So subdued I was by those tears, and by their breaking out
again in the course of the quiet walk , that when I was on the
coach, and it was clear of the town, I deliberated with an aching
heart whether I would not get down when we changed horses
and walk back , and have another evening at home, and a better
parting. We changed, and I had not made up my mind, and
still reflected for my comfort that it would be quite practicable
to get down and walk back , when we changed again. And while
I was occupied with those deliberations, I would fancy an exact
resemblance to Joe iu some man coming along the road towards
us, and my heart would beat high . - As if he could possibly be
there !
We changed again , and yet again , and it was now too late
and too far to go back , and I went on. And the mists had all
solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.
THIS IS THE END OF THE FIRST STAGE OF PIP's
EXPECTATIONS .
154 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

CHAPTER XX .

The journey from our town to the metropolis, was à journey

of about five hours. It was a little past mid -day when the
four -horse stage -coach by which I was a passenger , got into the
ravel of traffic frayed out about the Cross Keys, Wood -street,
Cheapside, London.
We Britons had at that time particularly settled that it was
treasonable to doubt our having and our being the best of
everything : otherwise, while I was scared by the immensity of
London, I think I might have had some faint doubts whether
it was not rather ugly, crooked, narrow , and dirty.
Mr. Jaggers had duly sent me his address; it was Little
Britain , and he had written after it on his card , “ just out of
Smithfield , and close by the coach -office. ” Nevertheless, a
hackney -coachman , who seemed to have as many capes to his
greasy great- coat as he was years old, packed me up in his
coach and hemmed me in with a folding and jingling barrier of
steps, as if he were going to take me fifty miles. His getting
on his box, which I remember to have been decorated with an
old weather -stained pea - green hammercloth, moth -eaten into
rags, was quite a work of time. It was a wonderful equipage,
with six great coronets outside, and ragged things behind for I
don't know how many footmen to hold on by, and a harrow
below them, to prevent amateur footmen from yielding to the
temptation .
I had scarcely had time to enjoy the coach and to think how
like a straw -yard it was, and yet how like a rag -shop, and to
wonder why the horses' nose -bags were kept inside, when I
observed the coachman beginning to get down , as if we were
going to stop presently. And stop we presently did, in a
gloomy street, at certain offices with an open door, whereon was
painted Mr. JAGGERS.
“ How much ? ” I asked the coachman .
The coachman answered, “ A shilling - unless you wish to
make it more . "
I naturally said I had no wish to make it more.
" Then it must be a shilling ," observed the coachman . “ I
dou't want to get into trouble. I know him ! ” He darkly
closed an eye at Mr. Jaggers's name, and shook his head .
 AT MR. JAGGERS'S. 155

When he had got his shilling, and had in course of time

completed the ascent to his box, and had got away (which
appeared to relieve his mind ), I went into the front office with
my little portmanteau in my hand, and asked, was Mr. Jaggers
at home ?
>
“ He is not," returned the clerk . " He is in · Court at
present. Am I addressing Mr. Pip ? "
I signified that he was addressing Mr. Pip.
“ Mr. Jaggers left word would you wait iu his room ? He
couldn't say how long he might be, having a case on. But it
stands to reason, his time being valuable, that he won't be
longer than he can help.”
With those words, the clerk opened a door, and ushered me
into an inner chamber at the back. Here we found a gentleman
with one eye, in a velveteen suit and knee-breeches, who wiped
his nose with his sleeve on being interrupted in the perusal of
the newspaper.
"
“ Go and wait outside, Mike , " said the clerk .
I began to say that I hoped I was not interrupting- -when
the clerk shoved this gentleman out with as little ceremony as
I ever saw used, and tossing his fur cap out after him, left me
alone .
Mr. Jaggers's room was lighted by a skylight only, and was
a most dismal place ; the skylight, eccentrically patched like a
broken head, and the distorted adjoining houses looking as if
they had twisted themselves to peep down at me through it.
There were not so many papers about, as I should have expected
to see ; and there were some odd objects about, that I should
not have expected to see— such as an old rusty pistol , a sword
in a scabbard, several strange- looking boxes and packages, and
two dreadful casts on a shelf, of faces peculiarly swollen, and
twitchy about the nose. Mr. Jaggers's own high -backed chair
was of deadly black horse-hair, with rows of brass nails round
it, like a coffin ; and I fancied I could see how he leaned back
in it, and bit his forefinger at the clients. The room was but
small, and the clients seemed to have had a habit of backing
up against the wall: the wall, especially opposite to Mr. Jaggers's
chair, being greasy with shoulders. I recalled, too, that the one
eyed gentleman had shuffled forth against the wall when I was
the innocent cause of his being turned out.
I sat down in the cliental chair placed over against Mr.
156 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Jaggers's chair, and became fascinated by the dismal atmosphere
of the place. I called to mind that the clerk had the same air
of knowing something to everybody else's disadvantage, as his
master had. I wondered how many other clerks there were
up stairs, and whether they all claimed to have the same
detrimental mastery of their fellow - creatures. I wondered
what was the history of all the odd litter about the room , and
how it came there. I wondered whether the two swollen faces
were of Mr. Jaggers’s family, and, if he were so unfortunate
as to have had a pair of such ill-looking relations, why he
stuck them on that dusty perch for the blacks and flies to settle
on, instead of giving them a plaoe at home. Of course I had
no experience of a London summer day, and my spirits may
have been oppressed by the hot exhausted air, and by the dust
and grit that lay thick on everything. But I sat wondering and
waiting in Mr. Jaggers’s close room , until I really could not
bear the two casts on the shelf above Mr. Jaggers's chair, and
got up and went out.
When I told the elerk that I would take a turn in the air
while I waited, he advised me to go round the corner and I
should come into Smithfield . So, came into Smithfield ; and
the shameful place, being all asmear with filth and fat and
blood and foam , seemed to stick to me. So I rubbed it off with
all possible speed by turning into a street where I saw the
great black dome Saint Paul's bulging at me from behind a
grim stone building which a bystander said was Newgate
Prison . Following the wall of the jail, I found the roadway
covered with straw to deaden the noise of passing vehicles;
and from this, and from the quantity of people standing about,
smelling strongly of spirits and beer, I inferred that the trials
were on .
While I looked about me here, an exceedingly dirty and
partially drunk minister of justice asked me if I would like to
step in and hear a trial or so : informing me that he could give
me a front place for half-a -crown, whence I should command a
full view of the Lord Chief Justice in his wig and robes
mentioning that awful personage like waxwork, and presently
offering him at the reduced price of eighteenpence. As I
declined the proposal on the pleaof an appointment, he was
50 good as to take me into a yard and show me where the
gallows was kept, and also where people were publicly whipped,
 POPULARITY OF JAGGERS. 157

anil then he showed me the Debtors' Door, out of which cul

prits came to be hanged ‫ ;ܝ‬heightening the interest of that
dreadful portal by giving me to understand that “ four on 'em ”
would come out at that door the day after to -morrow at eight
in the morning to be killed in a row. This was horrible, and
gave me a sickening idea of London : the more so as the Lord
Chief Justice's proprietor wore (from his hat down to his boots
and up again to his pocket -handkerchief inclusive) mildewed
clothes, which had evidently not belonged to him originally,
and which, I took it into my head , he had bought cheap of the
executioner. Under these circumstances I thought myself well
rid of him for a shilling.
I dropped into the office to ask if Mr. Jaggers had come in
yet, and I found he had not, and I strolled out again . This
time, I made the tour of Little Britain, and turned into
Bartholomew Close ; and now I became aware that other
people were waiting about for Mr. Jaggers, as well as I. There
were two men of secret appearance lounging in Bartholomew .
Close, and thoughtfully fitting their feet into the cracks of the
pavement as they talked together, one of whom said to the
other when they first passed me, that “ Jaggers would do it if
it was to be done. " There was a knot of three men and two
women standing at a corner, and one of the women was crying
on her dirty shawl, and the other comforted her by saying, as
she pulled her own shawl over her shoulders, “ Jaggers is for
him , 'Melia, and what more could you have ? ” There was a
red -eyed little Jew who came into the Close while I was loiter
ing there, in company with a second little Jew whom he sent
upon an errand ; and while the messenger was gone, I remarked
this Jew , who was of a highly excitable temperament, perform
ing a jig of anxiety under a lamp-post, and accompanying
himself, in a kind of frenzy, with the words, " Oh Jaggerth,
Jaggerth , Jaggerth ! all otherth ith Cag-Maggerth, give me
Jaggerth ! ” These testimonies to the popularity of my
guardian made a deep impression on me, and I admired and
wondered more than ever.
At length, as I was looking out at the iron gate of Bartho
lomew Close into Little Britain , I saw Mr. Jaggers coming
across the road towards me. All the others who were waiting,
saw him at the same time, and there was quite a rush at him.
Mr. Jaggers, putting a hand on my shoulder and walking me
158 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

on at his side without saying anything to me, addressed himself

to his followers ,
First, he took the two secret men.
“Now, I have nothing to say to you ,” said Mr. Jaggers,
throwing his finger at them. “ I want to know no more than
I know. As to the result, it's a toss -up. I told you from the
first it was a toss-up. Have you paid Wemmick ? "
“ We made the money up this morning, sir,” said one of
the men, submissively, while the other perused Mr. Jaggers's
face.
6
“ I don't ask you when you made it up, or where, or whether
you made it up at all. Has Wemmick got it ? ”
“ Yes, sir ,” said both the men together.
“Very well ; then you may go. Now, I won't have it ! ”
said Mr. Jaggers, waving his hand at them to put them behind
him . “ If you say a word to me, I'll throw up the case.”
“ We thought, Mr. Jaggers_- " one of the men began,
pulling off his hat.
« That's what I told you not to do," said Mr. Jaggers. “ You
thought ! I think for you ; that's enough for you. If I waut
you , I know where to find you ; I don't want you to find me,
Now I won't have it. I won't hear a word .”
The two men looked at one another as Mr. Jaggers waved
them behind again, and humbly fell back and were heard no
more .
“ And now you ! ” said Mr. Jaggers, suddenly stopping, and
turning on the two women with the shawls, from whom the.
three men had meekly separated- “ Oh ! Amelia, is it ? ”
66
Yes, Mr. Jaggers.”
“And do you remember,' retorted Mr. Jaggers, " that but
for me you wouldn't be here and couldn't be here ? "
“ Oh yes, sir !” exclaimed both women together. “ Lord
bless you, sir, well we knows that !”
" Then why,” said Mr. Jaggers, “ do you come here ??‫”ܙ‬
“ My Bill, sir !" the crying woman pleaded.
“ Now , I tell you what !” said Mr. Jaggers. « Once for all.
If you don't know that your Bill 's in good hands, I kuow it.
And if you come here, bothering about your Bill, I'll make an
example of both your Billand you, and let him slip through
my fingers. Have you paid Wemmick ? "
“ Oh yes, sir ! Every farden,"
 MR . JAGGERS'S CLIENTS 159
“ Very well. Then you have done all you have got to
do. Say another word—one single word - and Wemmick shall
give you your money back .”
This terrible threat caused the two women to fall off imme
diately. No one remained now but the excitable Jew , who had
already raised the skirts of Mr. Jaggers's coat to his lips several
times.
“ I don't know this man ? ” said Mr. Jaggers, in the most
devastating strain. “ What does this fellow want ? ”
“ Ma thear Mithter Jaggerth. Hown brother to Habraham
Latharuth ? "”
“ Who's he ? ” said Mr. Jaggers. " Let go of my coat.”
The suitor, kissing the hem of the garment again before
relinquishing it, replied, “Habraham Latharuth, on thuth
pithion of plate .”
“ You 're too late,” said Mr. Jaggers. “ I am over the way .”
“ Holy father, Mithter Jaggerth ! ” cried my excitable ac
quaintance, turning white, “ don't thay you're again Habraham
Latharuth ! ”
(6
“ I am , ” said Mr. Jaggers, “ and there's an end of it. Get
out of the way . ”
“Mithter Jaggerth ! Half a moment ! My hown cuthen 'th
gone to Mithter Wemmick at thith prethenth minute to hoffer
him hany termth. Mithter Jaggerth ! Half a quarter of a
moment ! If you'd have the condethenthun to be bought off
from the t' other thide — at any thuperior prithe !-money no
object !-Mithter Jaggerth - Mithter- - ! ”
My guardian threw his supplicant off with supreme indiffer
ence , and left him dancing on the pavement as if it were red
hot. Without further interruption, we reached the front office,
where we found the clerk and the man in velveteen with the
fur cap .
“ Here's Mike," said the clerk , getting down from his stool,
and approaching Mr. Jaggers confidentially.
“ Oh ! ” said Mr. Jaggers, turning to the man , who was pulling
a lock of hair in the middle of his forehead, like the Bull in
Cock Robin pulling at the bell -rope ; “your man comes on this
afternoon . Well ? ”
“ Well , Masʼr Jaggers, " returned Mike, in the voice of a
sufferer from aa constitutional cold ; “arter a deal o’trouble , I've
found one, sir, as might do,"
160 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
»
“What is he prepared to swear ?
"
“ Well, Mas'r Jaggers, " said Mike, wiping his nose on his
fur cap, this time; “in a general way, anythink ."”
Mr. Jaggers suddenly became most irate . “ Now, I warned
you before,” said he, throwing his forefinger at the terrified
client, “ that if ever you presumed to talk in that way here,
I'd make an example of you. You infernal scoundrel, how
dare you tell me that ? ”
The client looked scared , but bewildered too, as if he were
unconscious what he had done.
60 »
Spooney ! ” said the clerk, in a low voice, giving him a
stir with his elbow. “ Soft Head ! Need you say it face to
face ? ”
“ Now , I ask
C
you, you blundering booby , ” said my guardian,
very sternly, once more and for the last time, what the man
you have brought here is prepared to swear ? ”
Mike looked hard at my guardian , as if he were trying to
learn a lesson from his face, and slowly replied , “Ayther to
character, or to having been in his company and never left him
all the night in question.”
66
Now , be careful. In what station of life is this
man ? "
Mike looked at his cap , and looked at the floor, and looked
at the ceiling, and looked at the clerk , and even looked
at me, before beginning to reply in a nervous manner, We've
dressed him up like- -” when my guardian blustered out :
“ What ? You WILL, will you ? ” .
(“ Spooney !”" 7 added the clerk again, with another stir. )
After some helpless casting about, Mike brightened and
began again :
“ He is dressed like a 'spectable pieman . A sort of a
pastry -cook . ”
“ Is he here ? ” asked my guardian.
6
I left him ," said Mike, “ a -setting on some doorsteps round
the corner . ”
“ Take him past that window, and let me see him .”
The window indicated, was the office window. We all three
went to it, behind the wire blind, and presently saw the client
go by in an accidental manner , with a murderous- looking tall
individual, in a short suit of white linen and a paper cap.
This guileless confectioner was not by any means sober, and
 WEMMICK , 161

had a black eye in the green stage of recovery , which was

painted over.
“ Tell him to take his witness away directly,” said my
guardian to the clerk , in extreme disgust , "6 and ask him what
he means by bringing such a fellow as that. ”
My guardian then took me into his own room , and while he
lunched , standing, from a sandwich -box and a pocket flask of
sherry (he seemed to bully his very sandwich as he ate it),
informed me what arrangements he had made for me. I was
to go to “ Barnard's Inn,” to young Mr. Pocket's rooms, where
a bed had been sentin for my accommodation ; I was to remain
with young Mr. Pocket until Monday ; on Monday I was to go
with him to his father's house on a visit, that I might try how
I liked it. Also, I was told what my allowance was to be-it
was a very liberal one - and had handed to me from one of my
guardian's drawers, the cards of certain tradesmen with whom
I was to deal for all kinds of clothes, and such other things as
I could in reason want . “ You will find your credit good , Mr.
Pip , ” said my guardian , whose flask of sherry smelt like a whole
cask -full, as he hastily refreshed himself, “ but I shall by this
means be able to check your bills, and to pull you up if I find
you outrunning the constable. Of course you'll go wrong
"
somehow , but that's no fault of mine."
After I had pondered a little over this encouraging sentiment,
I asked Mr. Jaggers if I could send for a coach ? He said it
was not worth while, I was so near my destination ; Wemmick
should walk round with me, if I pleased.
I then found that Wemmick was the clerk in the next room .
Another clerk was rung down from up stairs to take his place
while he was out, and I accompanied him into the street, after
shaking hands with my guardian. We found a new set of
people lingering outside, but Wemmick made a way among
them by saying coolly yet decisively, “ I tell you it's no use ;
he won't have a word to say to one of you ; ” and we soon got
clear of them, and went on side by side .

M
162 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

CHAPTER XXI.

CASTING my eyes on Mr. Wemmick as we went along, to see

what he was like in the light of day, I found him to be a dry
man , rather short in stature, with a square wooden face, whose
expression seemed to have been imperfectly chipped out with
a dull-edged chisel. There were some marks in it that might
have been dimples, if the material had been softer and the
instrument finer, but which, as it was, were only dints. The
chisel had made three or four of these attempts at embellish
ment over his nose, but had given them up without an effort
to smooth them off. I judged him to be a bachelor from the
frayed condition of his linen, and he appeared to have sustained
a good many bereavements ; for he wore at least four mourning
rings, besides a brooch representing a lady and a weeping
willow at a tomb with an urn on it . I noticed, too, that several
rings and seals hung at his watch chain , as if he were quite
laden with remembrances of departed friends. He had glitter
ing eyes - small, keen, and black — and thin wide mottled lips.
He had had them , to the best of my belief, from forty to fifty
years.
“ So you were never in London before ? " said Mr. Wemmick
to me.
66
No," said I.
“ I was new here once," said Mr. Wemmick , “ Rum to think
of now !
“ You are well acquainted with it now ? "
“ Why, yes, " said Mr. Wemmick . “ I know the moves of
it.”
" Is it a very wicked place ? "” I asked, more for the sake of
saying something than for information .
“ You may get cheated, robbed, and murdered , in London .
But there are plenty of people anywhere, who 'll do that for
you . "
“ If there is bad blood between you and them ,” said I, to
soften it off a little .
“ Oh ! I don't know about bad blood ,” returned Mr. Wemmick .
“ There's not much bad blood about. They'll do it, if there's
anything to be got by it.”
“ Tbat makes it worse.”
 BARNARD'S INN. 163
• You think so ? " returned Mr. Wemmick . “ Much about
the same, I should say.” 1

He wore his hat on the back of his head, and looked straight
before him : walking in a self -contained way as if there were
nothing in the streets to claim his attention . His mouth was
such a post-office of a mouth that he had a mechanical appear
ance of smiling. We had got to the top of Holborn Hill before
I knew that it was merely a mechanical appearance , and that
he was not smiling at all .
“ Do you know where Mr. Matthew Pocket lives ? " I asked
Mr. Wemmick .
“ Yes , ” said he, uodding in the direction . “ At Hammersmith ,
west of London ."
66
Is that far ? >”
“ Well ! Say five miles.”
" Do you know him ?
“ Why, you are a regular cross-examiner ! ” said Mr. Wem
6
mick, looking at me with an approving air . “ Yes, I know him.
I know him ! ”
There was an air of toleration or depreciation about his utter
ance of these words, that rather depressed me ;; and I was still
looking sideways at his block of a face in search of any en
couraging note to the text, when he said here we were at
Barnard's Inn. My depression was not alleviated by the
announcement, for, I had supposed that establishment to be an
hotel kept by Mr. Barnard, to which the Blue Boar in our town
was a mere public-house. Whereas I now found Barnard to be
a disembodied spirit, or a fiction, and his inn the dingiest col
lection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together in a rank
corner as a club for Tom-cats.
We entered this haven through a wicket-gate, and were dis
gorged by an introductory passage into a melancholy little
square that looked to me like a flat burying- ground. I thought
it had the most dismal trees in it, and the most dismal
sparrows, and the most dismal cats , and the most dismal
houses (in number half a dozen or so), that I had ever seen . I
thougbt the windows of the sets of chambers into which those
houses were divided, were in every stage of dilapidated blind
and curtain , crippled flower - pot, cracked glass, dusty decay ,
and miserable makeshift ; while To Let To Let To Let, glared
at me from empty rooms, as if no new wretches ever came
M 2
164 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
there, and the vengeance of the soul of Barnard were being
slowly appeased by the gradual suicide of the present occupants
and their unholy interment under the gravel. A frouzy mourn
ing of soot and smoke attired this forlorn creation of Barnard ,
and it had strewed ashes on its head, and was undergoing penance
and humiliation as a mere dust-hole. Thus far my sense of
sight ; while dry rot and wet rot and all the silent rots that
rot in neglected roof and cellar - rot of rat and mouse and bug
and coaching -stables near at hand besides - addressed them
selves faintly to my sense of smell, and moaned, “ Try Barnard's
Mixture."
So imperfect was this realisation of the first of my great
expectations, that I looked in dismay at Mr. Wemmick .
“ Ah ! ” said he, mistaking me ; 66 the retirement reminds you
of the country. So it does me. "
He led me into a corner and conducted me up a flight of
stairs --which appeared to me to be slowly collapsing into
sawdust, so that one of those days the upper lodgers would look
out at their doors and find themselves without the means of
coming down-to a set of chambers on the top floor. MR.
POCKET, JUN., was painted on the door, and there was a label
on the letter-box, “ Return shortly ."
“ He hardly thought you'd come so soon ,”> Mr. Wemmick
explained. “ You don't want me any more ? "
“ No, thank you," said I.
“ As I keep the cash,” Mr. Wemmick observed, “ we shall
most likely meet pretty often . Good day.”
Good day .”
I put out my hand, and Mr. Wemmick at first looked at it
as if he thought I wanted something. Then he looked at me,
and said, correcting himself,
“ To be sure ! Yes. You're in the habit of shaking hands ? ”
I was rather confused , thinking it must be out of the London
fashion , but said yes.
" I have got so out of it !" said Mr. Wemmick—" except at
last . Very glad, I'm sure to make your acquaintance. Good
day !‫יין‬
When we had shaken hands and he was gone, I opened the
staircase window and had nearly beheaded myself, for, the
lines had rotted away , and it came down like the guillotine.
Happily it was so quick that I had not put my head out.
 MR. POCKET, JUNIOR. 165
After this escape, I was content to take a foggy view of the
Inn through the window's encrusting dirt, and to stand dole
fully looking out, saying to myself that London was decidedly
overrated .
Mr. Pocket, Junior's, idea of Shortly was not mine, for I had
nearly maddened myself with looking out for half an hour,
and had written my name with my finger several times in the
dirt of every pane in the window , before I heard footsteps on
the stairs. Gradually there arose before me the hat, head,
neckcloth, waistcoat, trousers, boots, of a member of society of
about my own standing. He had a paper bag under each arm
and a pottle of strawberries in one hand, and was out of
breath .
Mr. Pip ? ” said he.
“ Mr. Pocket ? " said I.
“Dear me ! ” he exclaimed . “ I am extremely sorry ; but I
knew there was a coach from your part of the country at
midday, and I thought you would come by that one. The fact
is, I have been out on your account-not that that is any
excuse — for I thought, coming from the country, you might
like a little fruit after dinner, and I went to Covent Garden
Market to get it good.”
For a reason that I had, I felt as if my eyes would start out
of my head. I acknowledged his attention incoherently, and
began to think this was a dream .
“Dear me ! ” said Mr.Pocket, Junior. “ This door sticks so ! ”
As he was fast making jam of his fruit by wrestling with the
door while the paper bags were under his arms, I begged him
to allow me to hold them. He relinquished them with an
agreeable smile, and combated with the door as if it were a
wild beast. It yielded so suddenly at last, that he staggered
back upon me, and I staggered back upon the opposite door,
and we both laughed. But still I felt as if my eyes must start
out of my head, and as if this must be a dream.
“ Pray come in ,” said Mr. Pocket, Junior . “ Allow me to leaçi
the way. I am rather bare here, but I hope you'll be able to
make out tolerably well till Monday. My father thought you
would get on more agreeably through to-morrow with me than
with him, and might like to take a walk about London, I am
sure I shall be very happy to show London to you . As to our
table, you won't find that bad, I bope, for it will be supplied
166 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

from our coffee -house here, and ( it is only right I should add )
at your expense, such being Mr. Jaggers's directions. As to
our lodging, it's not by any means splendid , because I have my
own bread to earn, and my father hasn't anything to give me,
and I shouldn't be willing to take it, if he had. This is our
sitting -room - just such chairs and tables and carpet and so
forth , you see, as they could spare from home. You mustn't
give me credit for the tablecloth and spoons and castors,
because they come for you from the coffee -house. This is my
little bedroom ; rather musty, but Barnard's is musty. This is
your bedroom ; the furniture's hired for the occasion , but I
trust it will answer the purpose ; if you should want anything,
I'll go and fetch it. The chambers are retired ,and we shall be
alone together, but we shan't fight, I dare say. But, dear me.
I beg your pardon, you ’ re holding the fruit all this time.
Pray let me take these bags from you. I am quite ashamed.”
As I stood opposite to Mr. Pocket, Junior, delivering him the
bags, One, Two, I saw the starting appearance come into his
own eyes that I knew to be in mine, and he said, falling back :
“ Lord bless me, you're the prowling boy ! ”
“ And you ,” said I, “ are the pale young gentleman ! ”

CHAPTER XXII.

THE pale young gentleman and I stood contemplating one

another in Barnard's Inn , until we both burst out laughing.
6. The idea of its being you ! ” said he. “ The idea of its
being you ! ” said I. And then we contemplated one another
afresh, and laughed again . “ Well!” said the pale young
gentleman , reaching out his hand good-humouredly. “It's all
over now, II hope, and it will be magnanimous in you if you'll
forgive me for having knocked you about so .”
I derived from this speech that Mr. Herbert Pocket (for
Herbert was the pale young gentleman's name) still rather con
founded his intention with his execution. But I made a
modest reply, and we shook hauds warmly.
 MUTUAL RECOLLECTIONS. 167

“ You hadn't come into your good fortune at that time ?"
said Herbert Pocket.
“ No, " said I.
“ No, ” he acquiesced : “ I heard it had happened very lately.
I was rather on the look - out for good-fortune then .”
“ Indeed ? ”
5 Yes. Miss Havisham had sent for me, to see if she could
take a fancy to me. But she couldn't - at all events, she
didn't ."
I thought it polite to remark that I was surprised to bear
that.
“ Bad taste,” said Herbert, laughing, “ but aa fact. Yes, she
had sent for me on a trial visit, and if I had come out of it
successfully, I suppose I should have been provided for ;
perhaps I should have been what-you -may -called it to Estella .”
“What's that? " I asked, with sudden gravity.
He was arranging his fruit in plates while we talked , which
divided his attention , and was the cause of his having made
this lapse of a word. “ Affianced ,” he exclaimed, still busy
with the fruit. “ Betrothed . Engaged . What's - his -name.
Any word of that scrt."
“ How did you tear your disappointment ? ” I asked.
“ Pooh !” said he, " I didn't care much for it . She's a Tartar." .
“ Miss Havisham ? ”
“ I don't say no to that, but I meant Estella. That girl's
hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree, and has
been brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak revenge on all
the male sex .”
“ What relation is she to Miss Havisham ? "
“ None," said he. 66Only adopted ."
Why should she wreak revenge on all the male sx ?
What revenge ? ” .
“ Lord, Mr. Pip ! ” said he. " Don't you know ? "
“ No, " said I.
“ Dear me ! It's quite a story, and shall be saved till
dinner-time. And now let me take the liberty of asking you
a question. How did you come there, that day ?
I told him, and he was attentive until I had finished, aad
then burst out laughing again, and asked me if I was sore
afterwards ? I didn't ask him if he was, for my conviction on
that point was perfectly established.
168 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ Mr. Jaggers is your guardian, I understand ? ” he went
on .
“ Yes.”
“ You know he is Miss Havisham's man of business and
solicitor, and has her confidence when nobody else has ? ”
This was bringing me (I felt) towards dangerous ground.
I answered with a constraiut I made no attempt to disguise,
that I had seen Mr. Jaggers in Miss Havisham's house, on
the very day of our combat, but never at any other time, and
that I believed he had no recollection of having ever seen me
there .
“ He was so obliging as to suggest my father for your tutor,
and he called on my father to propose it. Of course he knew
about my father from his connexion with Miss Havisham .
My father is Miss Havisham's cousin ; not that that implies
familiar intercourse between them, for he is a bad courtier
and will not propitiate her.”
Herbert Pocket had a frank and easy way with him that
was very taking. I had never seen any one then , and I have
never seen any one since, who more strongly expressed to
me, in every look and tone, a natural incapacity to do anything
secret and mean . There was something wonderfully hopeful
about his general air, and something that at the same time
whispered to me he would never be very successful or rich ,
I don't know how this was. I became imbued with the notion
on that first occasion before we sat down to dinner, but I
cannot define by what means.
He was still a pale young gentleman, and had aa certain con
quered languor about him in the midst of his spirits and
briskness, that did not seem indicative of natural strength .
He had not a handsome face, but it was better than hand
some : being extremely amiable and cheerful. His figure was
a little ungainly, as in the days when my knuckles had taken
such liberties with it, but it looked as if it would always be
light and young. Whether Mr. Trabb's local work would
have sat more gracefully on him than on me, may be a
question ; but I am conscious that he carried off his rather old
clothes, much better than I carried off my new suit.
As he was so communicative, I felt that reserve on my part
would be a bad return unsuited to our years. I therefore
told him my small story, and laid stress on my being for,
 A NICE LITTLE DINNER . 169

bidden to inquire who my benefactor was. I further mentioned

that as I had been brought up a blacksmith in a country
place, and knew very little of the ways of politeness, I would
take it as a great kindness in him if he would give me a hint
whenever he saw me at a loss or going wrong.
“With pleasure," said he, “ though I venture to prophesy
that you ' ll want very few hints. I dare say we shall be often
together, and I should like to banish any needless restraint
between us. Will you do me the favour to begin at once to
* call me by my christian name, Herbert ? ” .
I thanked him, and said I would . I informed him in ex
change that my christian name was Philip.
“ I don't take to Philip,” said he, smiling, “for it sounds like
a moral boy out of the spelling-book ,who was so lazy that he
fell into a pond, or so fat that he couldn't see out of his eyes,
or so avaricious that he locked up his cake till the mice ate
it, or so determined to go a bird's-nesting that he got himself
eaten by bears who lived handy in the neighbourhood. I tell
you what I should like. We are so harmonious, and you have
been a blacksmith - would you mind it ? ” >
“ I shouldn't mind anything that you propose," I answered,
6 but I don't understand you."
“ Would you mind Handel for a familiar name ? There's a
charming piece of music by Handel, called the Harmonious
Blacksmith .”
“ I should like it very much."
“ Then, my dear Handel,” said he, turning round as the
door opened , " here is the dinner, and I must beg of you to
take the top of the table, because the dinner is of your
providing."
This I would not hear of, so he took the top, and I faced
him . It was a nice little dinner - seemed to me then, a very
Lord Mayor's Feast - and it acquired additional relish from
being eaten under those independent circumstances, with no
old people by, and with London all around us. This again was
heightened by a certain gipsy character that set the banquet
off ; for, while the table was, as Mr. Pumblechook might have
said , the lap of luxury - being entirely furnished forth from
the coffee -house - the circumjacent region of sitting -room was
of a comparatively pastureless and shifty character: imposing
on the waiter the wandering habits of putting the covers on
170 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

the floor (where he fell over them), the melted butter in the
armchair, the bread on the bookshelves, the cheese in the coal
scuttle, and the boiled fowl into my bed in the next room
where I found much of its parsley and butter in a state of
congelation when I retired for the night. All this made the
feast delightful, and when the waiter was not there to watch
me, my pleasure was without alloy.
We had made some progress in the dinner, when I re
minded Herbert of his promise to tell me about Miss
Havisham .
True,” he replied. “I'll redeem it at once. Let me intro
duce the topic, Handel, by mentioning that in London it is not
the custom to put the knife in the mouth - for fear of accidents
—and that while the fork is reserved for that use, it is not put
further in than necessary. It is scarcely worth mentioning,
only it's as well to do as other people do. Also, the spoon is
not generally used over -hand, but under. This has two ad
vantages. You get at your mouth better (which after all is the
object), and you save a good deal of the attitude of opening
oysters, on the part of the right elbow ."
He offered these friendly suggestions in such a lively way,
that we both laughed and I scarcely blushed .
“ Now , ” he pursued, “concerning Miss Havisham . Miss
Havisham, you must know, was a spoilt child. Her mother
died when she was a baby, and her father denied her nothing.
Her father was a country gentleman down in your part of the
world, and was a brewer . I don't know why it should be a
crack thing to be a brewer ; but it is indisputable that while you
cannot possibly be genteel and bake, you may ‫גי‬
be as genteel as
never was and brew. You see it every day.”
“ Yet a gentleman may not keep a public -house ; may he ?!
said I.
“ Not on any account,” returned Herbert ; “ but a public
house may keep a gentleman. Well ! Mr. Havisham was very
rich and very proud. So was his daughter.”
“ Miss Havisham was an only child ? ” I hazarded.
“ Stop a moment, I am coming to that. No, she was not an
only child ; she had a half-brother. Her father privately
married again - his cook, I rather think .”
“ I thought he was proud,” said I.
My good Handel, so he was. He married his second wife
 STORY OF MISS HAVISHAM . 171

privately, because he was proud, and in course of time she died .

When she was dead, I apprehend he first told his daughter what
he had done, and then the son became a part of the family, re
siding in the house you are acquainted with. As the son grew
a young man, he turned out riotous, extravagant, undutiful
altogether bad. At last his father disinherited him ; but he
softened when he was dying, and left him well off, though not
nearly so well off as Miss Havisham.-Take another glass of
wine, and excuse my mentioning that society as a body does
not expect one to be so strictly conscientious in emptying
one's glass, as to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on one's
nose. "
I had beeu doing this, in an excess of attention to his recital.
I thanked him and apologised. He said, “ Not at all," and
resumed.
“ Miss Havisham was now an heiress, and you may suppose
was looked after as a great match . Her half -brother had now
ample means again , but what with debts and what with new
madness wasted them most fearfully again. There were
stronger differences between him and her, than there had
been between him and his father, and it is suspected that he
cherished a deep and mortal grudge against her as having in
fluenced the father's anger. Now, I come to the cruel part of
the story -merely breaking off, my dear Handel, to remark
that a dinner-napkin will not go into a tumbler.”
Why I was trying to pack mine into my tumbler, I am wholly
unable to say . I only know that I found myself, with a perse
verance worthy of a much better cause , making the most
strenuous exertions to compress it within those limits. Again
I thanked him and apologised, and again he said in the
cheerfullest manner, “ Not at all, I am sure ! ” and resumed.
“ There appeared upon the scene-- say at the races, or the
public balls, or anywhere else you like-a certain man , who
made love to Miss Havisham . I never saw him (for this hap
pened five -and -twenty years ago, before you and I were,
Handel), but I have heard my father mention that he was a
showy man , and the kiud of man for the purpose . But that he
was not to be, without ignorance or prejudice, mistaken for a
gentleman, my father most strongly asseverates ; because it is a
principle of his that no man who was not a true gentleman at
heart, ever was, since the world began, a true gentleman in
172 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood ;
and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will
express itself. Well ! This man pursued Miss Havisham closely,
and professed to be devoted to her. I believe she had not shown
much susceptibility up to that time ; but all the susceptibility
she possessed, certainly came out then , and she passionately
loved him . There is no doubt that she perfectly idolised him .
He practised on her affection in that systematic way, that he got
great sums of money from her, and he induced her to buy her
brother out of a share in the brewery (which had been weakly
left him by his father ), at an immense price, on the plea that
when he was her husband he must hold and manage it all.
Your guardian was not at that time in Miss Havisham's
councils, and she was too haughty and too much in love, to be
advised by any one. Her relations were poor and scheming,
with the exception of my father ; he was poor enough , but not
time-serving or jealous. The only independent one among
them, he warned her that she was doing too much for this man,
and was placing herself too upreservedly in his power. She
took the first opportunity of angrily ordering my father out of
the house, in his presence, and my father has never seen her
since."
I thought of her having said , “ Matthew will come and see me
at last when I am laid dead upon that table ;” and I asked
Herbert whether his father was SO inveterate against
her ?
“ It's not that,” said he, “ but she charged him, in the
presence of her intended husband, with being disappointed in
the hope of fawning upon her for his own advancement, and, if
he were to go to her now , it would look true — even to him - and
even to her. To return to the man and inake an end of him.
The marriage day was fixed , the wedding dresses were bought,
the wedding tour was planned out, the wedding guests were
invited . The day came, but not the bridegroom. He wrote a
letter-
“ Which she received , " I struck in , “ when she was dressing
for her marriage ? At twenty minutes to nine ? ”
“At the hour and minute,” said Herbert, nodding, " at which
she afterwards stopped all the clocks. What was in it, further
than it most heartlessly broke the marriage off, I can't tell you,
because I don't know. When she recovered from a bad illness
 END OF THE STORY. 173
that she had, she laid the whole place waste, as you have seen
it, and she has never since looked upon the light of day. ”
“ Is that all the story ?” I asked , after considering it.
“All I know of it ; and indeed I only know so much, through
piecing it out for myself ; for my father always avoids it, and ,
even when Miss Havisham invited me to go there, told me no
more of it than it was absolutely requisite I should understand.
But I have forgotten one thing. It has been supposed that the
man to whom she gave her misplaced confidence, acted through
out in concert with her half -brother ; that it was a conspiracy
between them ; and that they shared the profits.”
“ I wonder he didn't marry her and get all the property, ”
said I.
6

' He may have been married already, and her cruel mortifi
»
cation may have been a part of her half-brother's scheme,” said
Herbert. “ Mind ! I don't know that."
“What became of the two men ? " I asked, after again
consic'ering the subject.
“ They fell into deeper shame and degradation - if there can
be deeper - and ruin .”
“ Are they alive now ? "
" I don't know ."
“ You said just now that Estella was not related to Miss
Havisham , but adopted. When adopted ? ”
Herbert shrugged his shoulders. “ There has always been an
Estella , since I have heard of a Miss Havisham . I know no
more,
And now, Handel ,” said he, finally throwing off the
story as it were, there is a perfectly open understanding
between us. All I know about Miss Havisham , you know .”
6. And all I know , " I retorted, “ you know.”
“ I fully believe it. So there can be no competition or per
plexity between you and me. And as to the condition on which
jou hold your advancement in life-namely, that you are not
to inquire or discuss to whom you owe it-you may be very
sure that it will never be encroached upon, or even approached,
by me, or by any one belonging to me."
In truth , he said this with so much delicacy, that I felt the
subject done with , even though I should be under his father's
roof for years and years to come. Yet he said it with so much
meaning too, thatI felt he as perfectly understood Miss Havisham
to be my benefactress, as I understood the fact myself.
174 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

It had not occurred to me before, that he had led up to the

theme for the purpose of clearing it out of our way ; but we
were so much the lighter and easier for having broached it,
that I now perceived this to be the case. We were very gay
and sociable, and I asked him in the course of conversation,
what he was ? He replied, “ A capitalist - an Insurer of Ships.'
I suppose he saw me glancing about the room in search of
some tokens of Shipping, or capital, for he added, “ In the
City.”
I had grand ideas of the wealth and importance of Insurers
of Ships in the City, and I began to think with awe, of having
laid a young Insurer on his back, blackened his enterprising eye,
and cut his responsible head open. But, again , there came upou
me, for my relief, that odd impression that Herbert Pocket
would never be very successful or rich.
“ I shall not rest satisfied with merely employing my capital
in insuring ships. I shall buy up some good Life Assurance
shares, and cut into the Direction. I shall also do aа . little in
the mining way. None of these thiugs will interfere with
my chartering a few thousand tons on my own account. I think
>
I shall trade, ” said he, leaning back in his chair, “ to the East
Indies, for silks, shawls, spices, dyes, drugs, and precious woods.
It 's an interesting trade.”
“ And the profits are large ? " said I.
" Tremendous ! ” said be.
I wavered again , and began to think here were greater
expectations than my own .
66 I think I shall trade, also ," said he, putting his thumbs in
his waistcoat pockets, " to the West Indies, for sugar, tobacco,
and rum . Also to Ceylon, especially for elephants' tusks.”
“ You will want a good many ships," said I.
“ A perfect fleet,” said he.
Quite overpowered by the magnificence of these transactions,
I asked him where the ships he insured mostly traded to at
present ?
“ I haven't begun insuring yet,” he replied. “ I am looking
about me.”
Somehow ,that pursuit seemed more in keeping with Barnard's
Iun. I said (in a tone of conviction), “ Ah -h ! "
“ Yes. I am in a counting-house, and looking about me."
“ Is a couuting-house profitable ? ” I asked .
 TO THEATRE AND CHURCH. 175
66 To -do you mean to the young fellow who's in it ? ” he
1 asked, in reply.
Yes ; to you .”
“ Why, n-no ; not to me.” He said this with the air of one
carefully reckoning up and striking a balance. “ Not directly
profitable. That is, it doesn't pay me anything, and I have
to --- keep myself.”
This certainly had not a profitable appearance, and I shook
my head as if I would imply that it would be difficult to lay by
much accumulative capital from such a source of income.
“ But the thing is ,” said Herbert Pocket, “ that you look
about you. That's the grand thing. You are in a counting
house, you know , and you look about you."
It struck me as a singular implication that you couldn't be
out of a counting - house, you know, and look about you ; but I
silently deferred to his experience.
“ Then the time comes,” said Herbert, “ when you see your
opening. And you go in, and you swoop upon it and you
make your capital, and then there you are ! When you have
once made your capital, you have nothing to do but employ
it .”
This was very like his way of conducting that encounter in
the garden ; very like. His manner of bearing his poverty, too,
exactly corresponded to his manner of bearing that defeat. It
seemed to me that he took all blows and buffets now with just
the same air as he had taken mine then . It was evident that
he had nothing around him but the simplest necessaries, for
everything that I remarked upon turned out to have been sent
in on my account from the coffee -house or somewhere else .
Yet, having already made his fortune in his own mind, he was
so unassuming with it that I felt quite grateful to him for not
being puffed up . It was a pleasant addition to his naturally
pleasant ways, and we got on famously. In the evening we
went out for a walk in the streets, and went half-price to the
Theatre ; and next day we weat to church at Westminster
Abbey, and in the afternoon we walked in the Parks ; and I
wondered who shod all the horses there, and wished Joe did .
On a moderate computation, it was many months, that
Sunday, since I had left Joe and Biddy. The space interposed
between myself and them, partook of that expansion , and our
marshes were any distance off. That I could have been at our
176 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
old church in my old church -going clothes, on the very last
Sunday that ever was, seemed a combination of impossibilities,
geographical and social, solar and lunar. Yet in the London
streets, so crowded with people and so brilliantly lighted in the
dusk of evening, there were depressing hints of reproaches for
that I had put the poor old kitchen at home so far away ; and
in the dead of night, the footsteps of some incapable impostor
of a porter mooning about Barnard's Inn, under pretence of
watching it, fell hollow on my heart.
On the Monday morning at a quarter before nine, Herbert
went to the counting-house to report himself — to look about
him too, I suppose -- and I bore him company. He was to
come away in an hour or two to attend me to Hammersmith,
and I was to wait about for him. It appeared to me that the
eggs from which young Insurers were hatched, were incubated in
dust and heat, like the eggs of ostriches, judging from the places
to which those incipient giants repaired on a Monday morn
ing. Nor did the counting-house where Herbert assisted, show
in my eyes as at all a good Observatory ; being a back second
floor up a yard, of a grimy presence in all particulars, and with
a look into another back second floor, rather than a look out.
I waited about until it was noon, and I went upon ' Change,
and I saw fluey men sitting there under the bills about ship
ping, whom I took to be great merchants, though I couldn't
understand why they should all be out of spirits . When
Herbert came, we went and had lunch at a celebrated house
which I then quite venerated, but now believe to have been the
most abject superstition in Europe, and where I could not help
noticing, even then, that there was much more gravy on the
tablecloths and knives and waiters' clothes, than in the steaks.
This collation disposed of at a moderate price ( considering the
grease , which was not charged for), we went back to Barnard's
Inn and got my little portmanteau, and then took coach for
Hammersmith . We arrived there at two or three o'clock in
the afternoon, and had very little way to walk to Mr. Pocket's
house. Lifting the latch of a gate, we passed direct into a
little garden overlooking the river, where Mr. Pocket's children
were playing about. And, unless I deceive myself on a point,
where myinterests or prepossessions are certainly not concerned,
I saw that Mr. and Mrs. Pocket's children were not growing up
or being brought up, but were tumbling up .
 AT MR. POCKET, SENIOR'S. 177
Mrs. Pocket was sitting on a garden chair under a tree,
reading, with her legs upon another garden chair ; and Mrs.
Pocket's two nursemaids were looking about them while the
children played. “Mamma," said Herbert, “this is young Mr.
Pip ." Upon which Mrs. Pocket received me with an appearance
of amiable dignity.
“ Master Alick and Miss Jane ,” cried one of the nurses to two
of the children, “if you go a - bouncing up against them bushes
you ' ll fall over into the river and be drownded , and what'll
your pa say then ? "
At the same time this nurse picked up Mrs. Pocket's hand
kerchief, and said , “ If that don't make six times you've
dropped it, Mum ! ” Upon which Mrs. Pocket laughed and
said , “ Thank you, Flopson , " and settling herself in one chair
only, resumed her book. Her countenance immediately as
sumed a knitted and intent expression as if she had been
reading for a week, but before she could have read half a dozen
lines, she fixed her eyes upon me, and said, “ I hope your
mamma is quite well ? ” This unexpected inquiry put me into
such a difficulty that I began saying in the absurdest way that
if there had been any such person I had no doubt she would
have been quite well and would have been very much obliged
and would have sent her compliments, when the nurse came
to niy rescue.
“ Well!” she cried, picking up the pocket handkerchief, “ if
that don't make seven times ! What ARE you a-doing of this
afternoon , Mum !” Mrs. Pocket received her property, at first
with a look of unutterable surprise as if she had never seen it
«
before, and then with a laugh of recognition , and said, “Thank
you, Flopson , " and forgot me, and went on reading.
I found, now I had leisure to count them, that there were no
fewer than six little Pockets present, in various stages of
tumbling up. I had scarcely arrived at the total when a
seventh was heard, as in the region of air, wailing dolefully.
“ If there ain't Baby !” said Flopson , appearing to think it
most surprising. “ Make haste up, Millers ! ”
Millers, who was the other nurse, retired into the house, and
by degrees the child's wailing was hushed and stopped, as if it
were a young ventriloquist with something in its mouth. Mrs.
Pocket read all the time, and I was curious to know what the
book could be.
N
178 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Wewere waiting, I suppose, for Mr. Pocket to come out to
us ; at any rate we waited there, and so I had an opportunity
of observing the remarkable family phenomenon, that when
ever any of the children strayed near Mrs. Pocket in their
play, they always tripped themselves up and tumbled over
her - always very much to her momentary astonishment, and
their own more enduring lamentation . I was at a loss to
account for this surprising circumstance , and could not help
giving my mind to speculations about it, until by -and -by Millers
came down with the baby, which Baby was handed to Flopson ,
which Flopson was handing it to Mrs. Pocket, when she too
went fairly head foremost over Mrs. Pocket, baby and all, and
was caught by Herbert and myself.
“Gracious me, Flopson ! ” said Mrs. Pocket, looking off her
book for a moment,“ everybody ' s tumbling ! ”
“ Gracious you, indeed, Mum ! " returned Flopson, very red in
the face ; " what have you got there ? ”
“ I got here, Flopson ? ” asked Mrs. Pocket .
66
Why, if it ain't your footstool ! ” cried Flopson. “And if
you keep it under your skirts like that,who's to help tumbling ?
Here ! Take the baby, Mum, and give me your book.”
Mrs. Pocket acted on the advice, and inexpertly danced the
infant a little in her lap, while the other children played about
it. This had lasted but a very short time, when Mrs. Pocket
issued summary orders that they were all to be taken into the
house for a nap. Thus I made the second discovery on that
first occasion, that the nurture of the little Pockets consisted
of alternately tumbling up and lying down.
Under these circumstances, when Flopson and Millers had
got the children into the house, like a little flock of sheep, and
Mr. Pocket came out of it to make my acquaintance, I was not
much surprised to find that Mr. Pocket was a gentleman with a
rather perplexed expression of face, and with his very grey hair
disordered on his head, as if he didn't quite see his way to
putting anything straight.
 A DAUGHTER OF A DECEASED KNIGHT. 179

CHAPTER XXIII .
MR. POCKET said he was glad to see me, and he hoped I was
not sorry to see him. “ For, I really am not,” he added, with
his son's smile, " an alarming personage.” He was a young
looking man, in spite of his perplexities, and his very grey hair,
and his manner seemed quite natural. I use the word natural,
in the sense of its being unaffected ; there was something
comic in his distraught way, as though it would have been
downright ludicrous but for his own perception that it was very
near being so. When he had talked with me a little, he said
to Mrs. Pocket, with a rather anxious contraction of his eye
brows, which were black and handsome, “ Belinda, I hope you
have welcomed Mr. Pip ? ' And she looked up from her book,
and said , “ Yes.” She then smiled upon me in an absent state .

of mind, and asked me if I liked the taste of orange- flower

water ? Asthe question had no bearing, near or remote, on any
foregone or subsequent transactions, I considered it to have
been thrown out, like her previous approaches, in general
conversational condescension ,
I found out within a few hours, and may mention at once,
that Mrs. Pocket was the only daughter of a certain quite
accidental deceased Knight, who had invented for himself a
conviction that his deceased father would have been made a
Baronet but for somebody's determined opposition arising out
of entirely personal motives—I forget whose, if I ever knew
the Sovereign's, the Prime Minister's, the Lord Chancellor's,
the Archbishop of Canterbury's, anybody's — and had tacked
himself on to the nobles of the earth in right of this quite
supposititious fact. I believe he had been knighted himself for
storming the English grammar at the point of the pen, in a
desperate address engrossed on vellum, on the occasion of the
laying of the first stone of some building or other, and for
handing some Royal Personage either the trowel or the mortar.
Be that as it may, he had directed Mrs. Pocket to be brought
up from her cradlo as one who in the nature of things must
marry a title, and who was to be guarded from the acquisition
of plebeian domestic knowledge.
So successful a watch and ward had been established over the
young lady by this judicious parent, that she had grown up
N2
180 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
highly ornamental, but perfectly helpless and useless. With her
character thus happily formed, in the first bloom of her youth
she had encountered Mr. Pocket : who was also in the first
bloom of youth , and not quite decided whether to mount to
the Woolsack , or to roof himself in with a Mitre. As his
doing the one or the other was a mere question of time, he
and Mrs. Pocket had taken Time by the forelock (when, to
judge from its length, it would seem to have wanted cutting),
and had married without the knowledge of the judicious
parent. The judicious parent, having nothing to bestow or
withhold but his blessing, had handsomely settled that dower
upon them after a short struggle, and had informed Mr. Pocket
that his wife was “ a treasure for a Prince.” Mr. Pocket had
invested the Prince's treasure in the ways of the world ever
since, and it was supposed to have brought him in but indiffer
ent interest. Still, Mrs. Pocket was in general the object of a
queer sort of respectful pity , because she had not married a
title ; while Mr. Pocket was the object of a queer sort of
forgiving reproach , because he had never got one.
Mr. Pocket took me into the house and showed me my room ;
which was a pleasant one, and so furnished as that I could use
it with comfort for my own private sitting-room . He theu
knocked at the doors of two other similar rooms, and intro
duced me to their occupants, by name Drummle and Startop.
Drummle, an old -looking young man of a heavy order of
architecture, was whistling. Startop; younger in years and
appearance, was reading and holding his head, as if he thought
himself in danger of exploding it with too strong a charge of
knowledge.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Pocket had such a noticeable air of being
in somebody else's hands, that I wondered who really was in
possession of the house and let them live there, until I found
this unknown power to be the servants. It was a smooth way of
going on, perhaps, in respect of saving trouble ; but it had the
appearance of being expensive, for the servants felt it a duty
they owed to themselves to be nice in their eating and drinking,
and to keep a deal of company down stairs. They allowed a
very liberal table to Mr. and Mrs. Pocket, yet it always
appeared to me that by far the best part of the house to have
boarded in, would have been the kitchen - always supposing
the boarder capable of self-defence, for, before I had been
 A FEMALE TOADY. 181

there a week , a neighbouring lady with whom the family were

personally unacquainted, wrote in to say that she had seen
Millers slapping the baby. This greatly distressed Mrs. Pocket,
who burst into tears on receiving the note, and said that it was
an extraordinary thing that the neighbours couldn't mind their
own business.
By degrees I learnt, and chiefly from Herbert, that Mr.
Pocket had been educated at Harrow and at Cambridge, where
he had distinguished himself ; but that when he had had the
happiness of marrying Mrs. Pocket very early in life, he had
impaired his prospects and taken up the calling of a Grinder.
After grinding a number of dull blades --of whom it was re
markable that their fathers, when influential, were always
going to help him to preferment, but always forgot to do it
when the blades had left the Grindstone- he had wearied of
that poor work and had come to London . Here, after gradually
failing in loftier hopes, he had “ read ” with divers who had
lacked opportunities or neglected them, and had refurbished
divers others for special occasions, and had turned his acquire
ments to the account of literary compilation and correction ,
and on such means, added to some very moderate private
resources, still maintained the house I saw.
Mr. and Mrs. Pocket had a toady neighbour ; a widow lady
of that highly sympathetic nature that she agreed with every
body, blessed everybody, and shed smiles and tears on everybody,
according to circumstances. This lady's name was Mrs. Coiler,
and I had the honour of taking her down to dinner on the day
of my installation . She gave me to understand on the stairs,
that it was a blow to dear Mrs. Pocket that dear Mr. Pocket
should be under the necessity of receiving gentlemen to read
with him . That did not extend to me, she told me in a gush
of love and confidence (at that time, I had known her some
thing less than five minutes) ; if they were all like Me, it
would be quite another thing.
“ But dear Mrs. Pocket," said Mrs. Coiler, “ after her early
disappointment (not that dear Mr. Pocket was to blame in that)
"
requires so much luxury and elegance
“ Yes, ma'am," I said, to stop her , for I was afraid she was
going to cry.
“ And she is of so aristocratic a disposition
6 "
“ Yes, ma'am,” I said again , with the same object as before,
182 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

6 --- that it is hard, ” said Mrs. Coiler, “ to have dear Mr.

Pocket's time and attention diverted from dear Mrs. Pocket."
. I could not help thinking that it might be harder iſ the
butcher's time and attention were diverted from dear Mrs.
Pocket ; but I said nothing, and indeed had enough to do in
keeping a bashful watch upon my company -manners.
• It came to my knowledge, through what passed between
Mrs. Pocket and Drummle, while I was attentive to my knife
and fork, spoon, glasses, and other instruments of self-destruc
tion, that Drummle, whose christian name was Bentley, was
actually the next heir but one to a baronetcy. It further
appeared that the book I had seen Mrs. Pocket reading in the
garden , was all about titles, and that she knew the exact date
at which her grandpapa would have come into the book, if he
ever had come at all. Drummle didn't say much , but in his
limited way (he struck me as a salky kind of fellow) he spoke
as one of the elect, and recognised Mr. Pocket as a womau
and a sister. No one but themselves and Mrs. Coiler the toady
neighbour showed any interest in this part of the conversation,
and it appeared to me that it was painful to Herbert ; but it
promised to last a long time, when the page came in with the
announcement of a domestic affliction . It was, in effect, that
the cook had mislaid the beef. To my unutterable amazement,
I now, for the first time, saw Mr. Pocket relieve his mind by.
going through a performance that struck me as very extraordi
nary, but which made no impression on anybody else, and with
which I soon became as familiar as the rest. He laid down
the carving -knife and fork -- being engaged in carving at the
moment - put his two hands into his disturbed hair, and
appeared to make an extraordinary effort to lift himself up by
it. When he had done this, and had not lifted himself up at
all, he quietly went on with what he was about.
Mrs. Coiler then changed the subject and began to flatter
me. I liked it for a few moments, but she flattered me so very
grossly that the pleasure was soon over. She had a serpentine
way of coming close at me when she pretended to be vitally
interested in the friends and localities I had left, which was
altogether snaky and fork -tongued ; and when she made an
occasional bounce upon Startop (who said very little to her), or
upon Drummle (who said less) , I rather envied them for being
on the opposite side of the table .
 AT DINNER. 183

After dinner the children were introduced , and Mrs. Coiler

made admiring comments on their eyes, noses, and legsma
sagacious way of improving their minds. There were four
little girls, and two little boys, besides the baby who might
have been either, and the baby's next successor who was as yet
neither. They were brought in by Flopson and Millers, much
as though those two non-commissioned officers had been re
cruiting somewhere for children and had enlisted these : while
Mrs. Pocket looked at the young Nobles that ought to have
been, as if she rather thought she had had the pleasure of
inspecting them before, but didn't quite know what to make
of them .
“ Here ! Give me your fork , Mum , and take the baby,” said
Flopson. “ Don't take it that way , or you'll get its head under
the table.”
Thus advised, Mrs. Pocket took it the other way, and got its
head upon the table ; which was announced to all present by a
prodigious concussion.
“ Dear, dear ! give it me back , Mum , " said Flopson ; " and
"

Miss Jane, come and dance the baby , do ! ” .

One of the little girls, a mere mite who seemed to have pre
maturely taken upon herself some charge of the others, stepped
out of her place by me, and danced to and from the baby until
it left off crying, and laughed. Then all the children laughed,
and Mr. Pocket (who in the meantime had twice endeavoured
to lift himself up by the hair ) laughed, and we all laughed and
were glad .
Flopson, by dint of doubling the baby at the joints like a
Dutch doll, then got it safely into Mrs. Pocket's lap , and gave
it the nutcrackers to play with : at the same time recommend
ing Mrs. Pocket to take notice that the handles of that instru
ment were not likely to agree with its eyes, and sharply charging
Miss Jane to look after the same. Then, the two nurses left
the room , and had a lively scufile on the staircase with a dis
sipated page who had waited at dinuer, and who had clearly
lost half his buttons at the gaming- table.
I was made very uneasy in my mind by Mrs. Pocket’s falling
into a discussion with Drummle respecting two baronetcies
while she ate a sliced orange steeped in sugar and wine, and
forgetting all about the baby on her lap : who did most appalling
things with the nutcrackers. At length little Jane perceived
184 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

its young brains to be imperilled, softly left her place, and with
many small artifices coaxed the dangerous weapon away. Mrs.
Pocket finishing her orange at about the same time, and not
approving of this, said to Jane :
“You naughty child how dare you ? Go and sit down this
instant ! ”
“ Mamma, dear," lisped the little girl, " baby ood have put
hith eyeth out."
“ How dare you tell me so ! ” retorted Mrs. Pocket. “ Go and
sit down in your chair this moment ! ”
Mrs. Pocket's dignity was so crushing, that I felt quite
abashed : as if I myself had done something to rouse it.
“ Belinda, " remonstrated Mr. Pocket, from the other end of
the table, “ how can you be so unreasonable ? Jane only
interfered for the protection of baby.”
“ I will not allow anybody to interfere, ” said Mrs. Pocket. “ I
am surprised, Matthew , that you should expose me to the
affront of interference .”
“ Good God !” cried Mr. Pocket, in an ontbreak of desolate
desperation. “Are infants to benutcrackered into their tombs,
and is nobody to save them ? ”
“ I will not be interfered with by Jane, " said Mrs. Pocket, with
a majestic glance at that innocent little offender. “ I hope I
know my poor grandpapa's position. Jane, indeed ! ”
Mr. Pocket got his hands in his hair again , and this time
really did lift himself some inches out of his chair. “Hear
this ! ” he helplessly exclaimed to the elements. “ Babies are
to be nutcrackered dead , for people's poor grandpapa's
positions !” Then he let himself down again , and became
silent.
We all looked awkwardly at the table-cloth while this was
going on . A pause succeeded, during which the honest and
irrepressible baby made a series of leaps and crows at little
Jane, who appeared to me to be the only member the family
( irrespective of the servants) with whom it had any decided
acquaintance.
“ Mr. Drummle, " said Mrs. Pocket, “ will you ring for Flop
son ? Jane, you undutiful little thing, go and lie down. Now,
baby darling, come with ma!”
The baby was the soul of honour and protested with all its
might. It doubled itself up the wrong way over Mrs. Pocket's
 THE ARM OF A BLACKSMITH, 185

arm , exhibited a pair of knitted shoes and dimpled ankles to

the company in lieu of its soft face, and was carried out in the
highest state of mutiny. And it gained its point after all for
I saw it through the window within a few minutes, being
nursed by little Jane.
It happened that the other five children were left behind at
the dinner-table, through Flopson's having some private
engagement, and their not being anybody else's business. I
thus became aware of the mutual relations between them and
Mr. Pocket, which were exemplified in the following manner .
Mr. Pocket, with the normal perplexity of his face heightened,
and his hair rumpled , looked at them for some minutes, as if he
couldn't make out how they came to be boarding and lodging in
that establishment, and why they hadn't been billeted by Nature
on somebody else. Then , in a distant, Missionary way he asked
them certain questions - as why little Joe had that hole in his
frill : who said , Pa, Flopson was going to mend it when she
had time — and how little Fanny came by that whitlow : who
said , Pa, Millers was going to poultice it when she didn't forget.
Then he melted into parental tenderness, and gave them a
shilling a piece and told them to go and play ; and then as they
went out, with one very strong effort to lift himself up by the
hair he dismissed the hopeless subject.
In the evening there was rowing on the river . As Drummle
and Startop had each a boat, I resolved to set up mine, and to
cut them both out. I was pretty good at most exercises in
which country -boys are adepts, but, as I was conscious of want
ing elegance of style for the Thames -- not to say for other waters
-I at once engaged to place myself under the tuition of the
winner of a prize-wherry who plied at our stairs, and to whom
I was introduced by my new allies. This practical authority
confused me very much , by saying I had the arm of a black
smith. If he could have known how nearly the compliment
had lost him his pupil, I doubt if he would have paid it:
There was a supper-tray after we got home at night, and I
think we should all have enjoyed ourselves, but for a rather
disagreeable domestic occurrence. Mr. Pocket was in good spirits,
when a housemaid came in, and said , “ If you please, sir, I should
wish to speak to you.”
“Speak to your master ? ” said Mrs. Pocket, whose dignity
was roused again . “ How can you think of such a thing ? Go
186 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

and speak to Flopson . Or speak to me at some other

time."
"
“ Begging your pardon , ma'am , ” returned the housemaid, “ I
should wish to speak at once, and to speak to master. ”
Hereupon Mr. Pocket went out of the room, and we made
the best of ourselves until he came back .
“ This is a pretty thing, Belinda ! ” said Mr. Pocket, returning
with a countenance expressive of grief and despair. “ Here's
the cook lying insensibly drunk on the kitchen floor, with a
large bundle of fresh butter made up in the cupboard ready to
sell for grease !”
Mrs. Pocket instantly showed much amiable emotion , and
said, “ This is that odious Sophia's doing !”
“ What do you mean, Belinda ? ” demanded Mr. Pocket.
“Sophia has told you ," said Mrs. Pocket. “ Did I not see
her, with my own eyes, and hear her with my own ears, come
into the room just now and ask to speak to you ? ".
“ But has she not taken me down stairs, Belinda, ” returned
Mr. Pocket, “ and shown me the woman , and the bundle
too ? "
“ And do you defend her, Matthew," said Mrs. Pocket, " for
making mischief ? ”
Mr. Pocket uttered a dismal groan .
“ Am I, grandpapa's granddaughter, to be nothing in the
house ? ” said Mrs. Pocket . “ Besides, the cook has always
been a very nice respectful woman , and said in the most natural
manner when she came to look after the situation, that she felt
I was born to be a Duchess .”
There was a sofa where Mr. Pocket stood, and he dropped
upon it in the attitude of a Dying Gladiator. Still in that atti
tude he said , with a hollow voice, “ Good night, Mr. Pip ,” wher
I deemed it advisable to go to bed and leave him.
 A PROPOSAL . 187

CHAPTER XXIV.

AFTER two or three days, when I had established myself in my

room and had gone backwards and forwards to London several
times, and had ordered all I wanted of my tradesmen, Mr.
Pocket and I had a long talk together. He knew more of my
intended career thau I knew myseli, for he referred to his
having been told by Mr. Jaggers that I was not designed for
any profession , and that I should be well enough educated for
my destiny if I could “ hold my own » with the average of
young men in prosperous circumstances. I acquiesced, of
course , kuowing nothing to the contrary .
He advised my attending certain places in London , for the
acquisition of such mere rudiments as I wanted, and my in
vesting him with the functions of explainer and director of all
my studies. He hoped that with intelligent assistance I should
meet with little to discourage me, and should soon be able to
dispense with any aid but his. Through his way of saying
this, and much more to similar purpose, he placed himself on
confidential terms with me in an admirable manner : and I may
state at once that he was always so zealous and honourable in
fulfilling his compact with me, that he made me zealous and
honourable in fulfilling mine with him . If he had shown
indifference as a master, I have no doubt I should have returned
the compliment as a pupil ; he gave me no such excuse, and each
of us did the other justice. Nor, did I ever regard him as having
anything ludicrous about him -- or anything but what was serious,
honest, and good - in his tutor communication with me.
When these points were settled, and so far carried out as
that I had begun to work in earnest, it occurred to me that if I
could retain my bedroom in Barnard's Inn, my life would be
agreeably varied, while my manners would be none the worse
for Herbert's society. Mr. Pocket did not object to this ar
rangement, but urged that before any step could possibly be
taken in it, it must be submitted to my guardian . I felt that
his delicacy arose out of the consideration that the plan would
save Herbert some expense, so I went off to Little Britain and
imparted my wish to Mr. Jaggers. C
“ If I could buy the furniture now hired for me, ” said I, " and
one or two other little things, I should be quite at home there, ”
188 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ Go it ! ” said Mr. Jaggers, with a short laugh. “ I told you
you'd get on. Well! How much do you want ? "
I said I didn't know how much .
“ Come ! ” retorted Mr. Jaggers. “How much ? Fifty
pounds ?
Oh, not nearly so much ."
“ Five pounds? ” said Mr. Jaggers.
This was such a great fall, that I said in discomfiture, “ Oh !
more than that .”
“ More than that, eh !" retorted Mr. Jaggers, lying in wait
for me, with his hands in his pockets, his head on one side,
and his eyes on the wall behind me ; “ how much more ? "
* It is so difficult to fix a sum ,” said I, hesitating.
“ Come ! ” said Mr. Jaggers. “ Let's get at it. Twice five ;
will that do ? Three times five ; will that do ? Four times
five ; will that do ? ”
I said I thought that would do handsomely.
“ Four times five will do handsomely, will it ? ” said Mr.
Jaggers, knitting his brows. “Now, what do you make of
>
four times five ? "
>>
“ What do I make of it !
“ Ah ! " said Mr. Jaggers ; “ how niuch ? ”
“ I suppose you make it twenty pounds,” said I, smiling.
“ Never mind what I make it, my friend ,” observed Mr.
Jaggers, with a knowing and contradictory toss of the head.
“ I want to know what you make it ? ”
“Twenty pounds, of course .”
“ Wemmick ! ” said Mr. Jaggers, opening his office door.
“ Take Mr. Pip's written order, and pay him twenty pounds.”
This strongly marked way of doing business made a strongly
marked impression on me, and that not of an agreeable kind .
Mr. Jaggers never laughed ; but he wore great bright creaking
boots ; and, in poising himself on those boots, with his large
head bent down and his eyebrows joined together, awaitingan
answer , he sometimes caused the boots to creak, as if they
laughed in a dry and suspicious way. As he happened to go
out now, and as Wemmick was brisk and talkative, I said to
Wemmick that I hardly knew what to make of Mr. Jaggers's
manner.
Tell himC that, and he'll take it as a compliment,” answered
Wemmick ; "he don't mean that you should know what to
 CLERKS AND CLIENTS . 189
make of it. - Oh !” for I looked surprised, “it's not personal;
it's professional : only professional.”
Wemmick was at his desk, lunching and crunching - on a
dry hard biscuit ; pieces of which he threw from time to time
into his slit of a mouth, as if he were posting them .
“Always seems to me,” said Wemmick, “ as if he had set a
man -trap and was watching it. Suddenly - click - you're
caught! ”
Without remarking that man-traps were not among the
amenities of life, I said I supposed he was very skilful ?
Deep,” said Wemmick , “ as Australia .” Pointing with his
pen at the office floor, to express that Australia was understood,
for the purposes of the figure, to be symmetrically on the oppo
site spot of the globe. “ If therewas anything deeper,” added
Wemmick, bringing his pen to paper, “he'd be it.”
Then, I said I supposed he had a fine business, and Wemmick
said , “ Ca -pi-tal ! " Then I asked if there were many clerks ?
to which he replied :
“ We don't run much into clerks, because there's only one
Jaggers, and people won't have him at second -hand . There are
only four of us. Would you like to see 'em ? You are one of
us, as I may say."
I accepted the offer. When Mr. Wemmick had put all the
biscuit into the post, and had paid me my money from a cash
box in a safe, the key of which safe he kept somewhere down
his back , and produced from his coat -collar like an iron pigtail,
we went up stairs. The house was dark and shabby, and the
greasy shoulders that had left their mark in Mr. Jaggers's room
seemed to have been shuffling up and down the staircase for
years. In the front first floor, a clerk who looked something
between a publican and a rat-catcher - a large pale puffed
swollen man — was attentively engaged with three or four people
of shabby appearance , whom he treated as unceremoniously as
everybody seemed to be treated who contributed to Mr. Jaggers's
coffers. “ Getting evidence together," said Mr. Wemmick , as
we came out, “ for the Bailey. ” In the room over that, a
little flabby terrier of a clerk with dangling hair (his cropping
seemed to have been forgotten when he was a puppy) was
similarly engaged with a man with weak eyes, whom Mr. Wema
mick presented to me as a smelter who kept his pot always
boiling, and who would melt me anything I pleased - and who
190 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
was in an excessive white perspiration, as if he had been trying
his art on himself. In a back room, a high- shouldered man
with a face -ache tied up in dirty flannel, who was dressed in old
black clothes that bore the appearance of having been waxed
was stooping over his work of making fair copies of the notes
of the other two gentlemen, for Mr. Jaggers's own use.
This was all the establishment. When we went down stairs
again , Wemmick led me into my guardian's room, and said,
“ This you've seen already."
“ Pray , ” said I, as the two odious casts with the twitchy leer
upon them caught my sight again , whose likenesses are those ? ”
“ These ? ” said Wemmick, getting upon a chair, and blowing
the dust off the horrible heads before bringing them down .
“ These are two celebrated ones. Famous clients of ours that
got us a world of credit. This chap (why you must have come
down in the night and been peeping into the inkstand, to get
this blot upon your eyebrow , you old rascal !) murdered his
master, and, considering that he wasn't brought up to evidence ,
didn't plan it badly. "
“ Is it like him ? " I asked, recoiling from the brute, as
Wemmick spat upon his eyebrow , and gave it a rub with his
sleeve .
“ Like him ? It's himself, you know . The cast was made in
Newgate, directly after he was taken down. You had a par
ticular fancy for me, hadn't you, Old Artful ? " said Wemmick.
He then explained this affectionate apostrophe, by touching
his brooch representing the lady and the weeping willow at the
tomb with the urn upon it, and said, “Had it made for me
express ! ”
“ Is the lady anybody ? ” said I.
6 No," returned Wemmick. “ Only his game. (You liked
your bit of game, didn't you ? ) No ; deuce a bit of a lady in
the case, Mr. Pip, except one-and she wasn't of this slender
ladylike sort, and you wouldn't have caught her looking after
this urn-unless there was something to drink in it." Wem
mick's attention being thus directed to his brooch, he put down
the cast, and polished the brooch with his pocket-handkerchief.
“ Did that other creature come to the same end ? " I asked .
" He has the same look ."
“You're right, ” said Wemmick ; “ it's the genuine look.
Much as if one nostril was caught up with a horsehair and a
 MR. WEMMICK'S INVITATION . 191

little Ash - hook . Yes, he came to the same end ; quite the
natural end here, I assure you . He forged wills, this blade did ,
if he didn't also put the supposed testators to sleep too. You
were a gentlemanly Cove, though” (Mr. Wemmick was again
apostrophising ), “and you said you could write Greek. Yah,
Bounceable ! What a liar you were ! I never met such a liar
as you ! ” Before putting his late friend on his shelf again ,
Wemmick touched the largest of his mourning rings, and said,
“ Sent out to buy it for me, only the day before.”
While he was putting up the other cast and coming down
from the chair, the thought crossed my mind that all bis
personal jewellery was derived from like sources. As he had
shown no diffidence on the subject, I ventured on the liberty
of asking him the question, when he stood before me, dusting
his hands.
“ Oh yes,” he returned , " these are all gifts of that kind .
One brings another, you see ; that's the way of it. I always
take’em . They're curiosities. And they're property. They
may not be worth much, but, after all, they're property and
portable. It don't signify to you with your brilliantlook -out,
but as to myself, my guiding-star always is, Get hold of port
"
able property."
When I had rendered homage to this light, he went on to
say in a friendly manner :
" If at any odd time when you have nothing better to do, you
wouldn't mind coming over to see me at Walworth , I could
offer you a bed, and I should consider it an honour. I have not
much to show you ; but such two or three curiosities as I have
got, you might like to look over ; and I am fond of a bit of
garden and a summer-house."
I said I should be delighted to accept his hospitality.
“ Thankee,” said he : “then we'll consider that it's to come
off, when convenient to you. Have you dined with Mr. Jaggers
2
yet ? ”
“ Not yet.”
"Well,” said Wemmick , “he'll give you wine, and good
wine. I'll give you punch, and not bad punch . And now I'll
tell you something. When you go to dine with Mr. Jaggers,
lookat his housekeeper.”
“Shall I see something very uncommon ? "
>
“ Well ,” said Wemmick , " you 'll see a wild beast tamed .
192 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Not so very uncommon, you'll tell me. I reply, that depends
on the original wildness of the beast, and the amount of taming.
It won't lower your opinion of Mr. Jaggers's powers. Keep
your eye on it .”
I told him I would do so, with all the interest and curiosity
that his preparation awakened . As I was taking my departure,
he asked me if I would like to devote five minutes to seeing
Mr. Jaggers “ at it ? "
For several reasons, and not least because I didn't clearly
know what Mr. Jaggers would be found to be “ at," I replied in
the affirınative. We dived into the City, and came up in a
crowded police-court, where a blood -relation (in the murderous
sense) of the deceased with the fanciful taste in brooches, was
standing at the bar, uncomfortably chewing something ; while
my guardian had a woman under examination or cross-exami
nation — I don't know which - and was striking her, and the
bench, and everybody with awe. If anybody of whatsoever
degree, said a word that he didn't approve of, he instantly re
quired to have it “ taken down." If anybody wouldn't make
an admission, he said , “ I'll have it out of you !” and if any
body made an admission, he said, “Now I have got you ! ""
The magistrates shivered under a single bite of his finger.
Thieves and thieftakers hung in dread rapture on his words, and
shrank when a hair of his eyebrows turned in their direction .
Which side he was on, I couldn't make out, for he seemed to
me to be grinding the whole place in a mill ; I only know that
when I stole out on tiptoe, he was not on the side of the
bench ; for, he was making the legs of the old gentleman who
presided, quite convulsive under the table, by his denunciations
of his conduct as the representative of British law and justice
in that chair that day.
 PIP'S COMPANIONS . 193

CHAPTER XXV .

BENTLEY DRUMMLE, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took

up a book as if its writer had done him an injury, did not take
up an acquaintance in a more agreeable spirit. Heavy in figure,
movement, and comprehension - in the sluggish complexion of
his face, and in the large awkward tongue that seemed to loll
about in his mouth as he himself lolled about in a room - he
was idle, proud, niggardly , reserved, and suspicious. He came
of rich people down in Somersetshire, who had nursed this com
bination of qualities until they made the discovery that it was
just of age and a blockhead . Thus, Bentley Drummle had
come to Mr. Pocket when he was a head taller than that
gentleman , and half a dozen heads thicker than most
gentlemen .
Startop had been spoiled by a weak mother, and kept at
home when he ought to have been at school, but he was de
votedly attached to her, and admired her beyond measure . He
had a woman's delicacy of feature, and was— “ as you may see,
though you never saw her, ” said Herbert to me—“C exactly like
his mother." It was but natural that I should take to him much
more kindly than to Drummle, and that, even in the earliest
evenings of our boating, he and I should pull homeward abreast
of one another, conversing from boat to boat, while Bentley
Drummle came up in our wake alone, under the overhanging
banks and among the rushes. He would always creep in -shore
like some uncomfortable amphibious creature, even when the
tide would have sent him fast upon his way ; and I always think
of him as coming after us in the dark or by the back -water,
when our own two boats were breaking the sunset or the moon
light in mid - stream .
Herbert was my intimate companion and friend . I presented
him with a half share in my boat, which was the occasion of
his often coming down to Hammersmith ; and my possession of
a half - share in his chambers often took me up to London . We
used to walk between the two places at all hours. I have an
affection for the road yet ( though it is not so pleasant a road
as it was then ), formed in the impressibility of untried youth
and hope.
When I had been in Mr. Pocket's family a month or two,
0
194 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

Mr. and Mrs. Camilla turned up. Camilla was Mr. Pocket's
sister. Georgiana, whom I had seen at Miss Havisham's on the
same occasion, also turned up. She was a cousin - an indiges
tive single woman , who called her rigidity religion , and her
liver love. These people hated me with the hatred of cupidity
and disappointment. As a matter of course, they fawned upon
me in my prosperity with the basest meanness . Towards Mr.
Pocket, as a grown -up infant with no notion of his own in
terests, they showed the complacent forbearance I had heard
them express. Mrs. Pocket they held in contempt ; but they
allowed the poor soul to have been heavily disappointed in life,
because that shed a feeble reflected light upon themselves.
These were the surroundings among which I settled down,
and applied myself to my education . I soon contracted ex
pensive habits, and began to spend an amount of money that
within a few short months I should have thought almost
fabulous ; but through good and evil I stuck to my books.
There was no other merit in this, than my having sense enough
to feel my deficiencies. Between Mr. Pocket and Herbert I got
on fast ; and, with one or the other always at my elbow to give
me the start I wanted, and clear obstructions out of my road,
I must have been as great a dolt as Drummle if I had done
less.
I had not seen Mr. Wemmick for some weeks, when I thought
I would write him .a note and propose to go home with him on
a certain evening. He replied that it would give him much
pleasure, and that he would expect me at the office at six
o'clock. Thither I went, and there I found him, putting the
key of his safe down his back as the clock struck .
“ Did you think of walking down to Walworth ? ” said he.
«
Certainly ,” said I, “ if you approve."
“ Very much,” was Wemmick's reply , " for I have had my
legs under the desk all day, and shall be glad to stretch
them . Now I'll tell you what I've got for supper , Mr. Pip.
I have got a stewed steak-which is of home preparation - and
a cold roast fowl - which is from the cook's-shop . I think it's
tender, because the master of the shop was a Juryman in some
cases of ours the other day, and we let him down easy .
reminded him of it when I bought the fowl, and I said, ' Pick
us out a good one, old Briton, because if we had chosen to keep
you in the box another day or two, we could have done it.' He
 THE TERROR OF CRACKSMEN. 195
said to that, ' Let me make you a present of the best fowl in
the shop.' I let him of course. As far as it goes, it's property
and portable. You don't object to an aged parent, I hope ? ”
I really thought he was still speaking of the fowl, until he
added, “ Because I have got an aged parent at my place.” I
then said what politeness required.
“ So you haven't dined with Mr. Jaggers yet ? ” he pursued ,
as we walked along.
“ Not yet."
“ He told me so this afternoon when he heard you were
coming. I expect you 'll have an invitation to -morrow . He's
going to ask your pals, too. Three of 'em ; ain't there ? "
Although I was not in the habit of counting Drummle as
one of my intimate associates I answered, “ Yes."
“ Well, he's going to ask the whole gang ;” I hardly felt
complimented by the word ; “and whatever he gives you, he'll
give you good. Don't look forward to variety, but you ' ll have
excellence. And there's another rum thing in his house,”
proceeded Wemmick after a moment's pause, as if the remark
followed on the housekeeper understood ; “ he never lets a door
or window be fastened at night. ”
“ Is he never robbed ? "
“That's it !” returned Wemmick . “ He says, and gives it
out publicly, ' I want to see the man who 'll rob me. Lord
bless you , I have heard him , a hundred times if I have heard
ouce, say to regular cracksmen in our front office, “ You know
where I live; now no bolt is ever drawn there ; why don't you
do a stroke of business with me ? Come ; can't I tempt you ? '
Not a man of them , sir, would be bold enough to try it on, for
love or money .""
" They dread him so much ? " said I.
“ Dread him ," said Wemmick. “ I believe you they dread
him . Not but what he's artful, even in his defiance of them .
No silver , sir. Britannia metal, every spoon ."
“ So they wouldn't have much," I observed ,
>>
even if
they
“Ah ! But he would have much," said Wemmick , cutting
me short," and they know it. He'd have their lives, and the
lives of scores of 'em. He'd have all he could get. And it's
impossible to say what he couldn't get, if he gave his mind
to it."
o 2
196 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
I was falling into meditation on my guardian's greatness ,
when Wemmick remarked :
“ As to the absence of plate, that's only his natural depth ,
you know . A river's its natural depth, and he's his natural
depth. Look at his watch -chain . That's real enough."
“ It's very massive,” said I.
“ Massive ? ” repeated Wemmick . “ I think so. And his
watch is a gold repeater, and worth a hundred pound if it's
worth a penny. Mr. Pip, there are about seven hundred thieves
in this town who know all aboutthat watch ; there's not a man ,
a woman , or a child among them , who wouldn't identify the
smallest link in that chain, and drop it as if it was red -hot,
if inveigled into touching it.”
At first with such discourse, and afterwards with conversa
tion of a more general nature, did Mr. Wemmick and I beguile
the time and the road, until he gave me to understand that we
had arrived in the district of Walworth .
It appeared to be a collection of black lanes, ditches, and
little gardens, and to present the aspect of a rather dull retire
ment. Wemmick's house was a little wooden cottage in the
midst of plots of garden, and the top of it was cut out and
painted like aa battery mounted with guns.
“My own doing," said Wemmick. “ Looks pretty ; don't
it ? "
I highly commended it. I think it was the smallest house I
ever saw ; with the queerest gothic windows (by far the
greater part of them sham ), and a gothic door, almost too
small to get in at. >
“ That's a real flagstaff, you see,” said Wemmick , " and on
Sundays I run up a real flag. Then look here. After I have
crossed this bridge, I hoist it up-s0—and cut off the com
munication .”
The bridge was a plank, and it crossed a chasm about four
feet wide and two deep. But it was very pleasant to see the
pride with which he hoisted it up, and made it fast ; smiling
as he did so, with a relish , and not merely mechanically.
“At nine o'clock every night, Greenwich time, ” said Wem
mick, " the gun fires. There he is, you - see ! And when you
hear him go, I think you 'll sayhe's a Stinger.”
The piece of ordnance referred to, wasmounted in a separate
fortress, constructed of lattice work . It was protected from
 AT MR . WEMMICK'S . 197

the weather by an ingenious little tarpaulin contrivance in the

nature of an umbrella.
6
“ Then, at the back ,” said Wemmick , “ out of sight, so as not
to impede the idea of fortifications — for it's a principle with
me, if you have an idea, carry it out and keep it up — I don't
know whether that's your opinion-- "
I said , decidedly.
" -At the back, there's a pig , and there are fowls and
rabbits ; then I knock together my own little frame, you see,
and grow cucumbers ; and "you 'll judge at supper what sort of a
salad I can raise. So, sir," said Wemmick , smiling again , but
seriously, too, as he shook his head , " if you can suppose the
little place besieged, it would hold out a devil of a time in
point of provisions.”
Then, he conducted me to a bower about a dozen yards off,
but which was approached by such ingenious twists of path that
it took quite a long time to get at ; and in this retreat our
glasses were already set forth. Our punch was cooling in an
ornamental lake, on whose margin the bower was raised . This
piece of water ( with an island in the middle which might have
been the salad for supper) was of a circular form , and he had
constructed a fountain in it, which, when you set a little mill
going and took a cork out of a pipe , played to that powerful
extent that it made the back of your hand quite wet.
“ I am my own engineer, and my own carpenter, and my own
plumber, and my own gardener, and my own Jack of all Trades,"
said Wemmick , in acknowledging my compliments. “Well,
it's a good thing, you know . It brushes the Newgate cobwebs
away , and pleases the Aged . You wouldn't mind being at
once introduced to the Aged , would you ? It wouldn't put you
out ? "
I expressed the readiness I felt, and we went into the castle.
There, we found , sitting by a fire, a very old man in a flannel
coat : clean , cheerful, comfortable, and well cared for, but
intensely deaf.
“ Well, aged parent,” said Wemmick, shaking hands with him
in a cordial and jocose way, “ how am you ? "
“ All right, John ; all right ! ” replied the old man.
«
* “ Here's Mr. Pip, aged parent,” said Wemmick, “and I wish
you could hear his name. Nod away at him, Mr. Pip ; that's"
what he likes. Nod away at him , if you please, like winking ! ”
198 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
“ This is a fine place of my son's, sir, ” cried the old man,
while I nodded as hard as I possibly could . “ This is a pretty
pleasure -ground, sir. This spot and these beautiful works upon
it ought to be kept together by the Nation, after my son's time,
for the people's enjoyment . ”
“ Your ’ re as proud of it as Punch ; ain't you, Aged ? ” said
Wemmick, contemplating the old man , with his hard face really
softened ; “there's a nod for you ; ' giving him a tremendous
C
one ; “ there's another for you,” giving him a still more tre
mendous one ; 6 you like that, don't you ? If you're not tired,
Mr. Pip , though I know it's tiring to strangers — will you tip
him one more ? You can't think how it pleases him .”
I tipped him several more , and he was in great spirits. We
left him bestirring himself to feed the fowls, and we sat down
to our punch in the arbour ; where Wemmick told me as he
smoked a pipe, that it had taken him a good many years to
bring the property up to its present pitch of perfection .
“ Is it your own, Mr, Wemmick ? "
“ O yes,” said Wemmick, “ I have got hold of it, a bit at a
time. It's aa freehold, by George !”
' Is it, indeed ? I hope Mr. Jaggers admires it ? "
“ Never seen it, ” said Wemmick . “ Never heard of it.
Never seen the Aged. Never heard of him. No ; the office is
one thing, and private life is another. When I go into the
office, I leave the Castle behind me ; and when I come into the
Castle, I leave the office behind me. If it's not in any way dis
agreeable to you you 'll oblige me by doing the same. I don't
wish it professionally spoken about."
Of course I felt my good faith involved in the observance of
his request. The punch being very nice, we sat there drinking
it and talking, until it was almost nine o'clock . “ Getting near
gun -fire,” said Wemmick then , as he laid down his pipe ; " it's
the Aged's treat."
Proceedinginto the Castle again , we found the Aged heating
the poker, with expectant eyes, as a preliminary to the perfor
mance of this great nightly ceremony. Wemmick stood with
his watch in his hand until the moment was come for him to
take the red-hot poker from the Aged , and repair to the battery.
He took it, and went out, and presently the Stinger went off
with a bang that shook the crazy little box of a cottage as if it
must fall to pieces, and made every glass and teacup in it ring.
 IN LITTLE BRITAIN. 199
Upon this the Aged -- who I believe would have been blown out
of his arm - chair but for holding on by the elbows- cried out ex
ultingly , “ He's fired ! I heerd him ! ” and I nodded at the old
gentleman until it is no figure of speech to declare that I
absolutely could not see him .
The interval between that time and supper, Wemmick de
voted to showing me his collection of curiosities. They were
mostly of a felonious character ; comprising the pen with which
a celebrated forgery had been committed, a distinguished razor
or two, some locks of hair, and several manuscript confessions
written under condemnation -upon which Mr. Wemmick set
particular value as being, to use his own words, “ every one of
'em Lies, sir." These were agreeably dispersed among small
specimens of china and glass, various neat trifles madeby the
proprietor of the museum , and some tobacco-stoppers carved by
the Aged. They were all displayed in that Chamber of the
Castle into which had been first inducted, and which served ,
not only as the general sitting -room , but as the kitchen too, if I
might judge from a saucepan on the hob, and a brazen bijou
over the fireplace designed for the suspension of a roasting-jark.
There was a neat little girl in attendance, who looked after
the Aged in the day. When she had laid the supper-cloth,
the bridge was lowered to give her the means of egress, and
she withdrew for the night. The supper was excellent ; and
though the Castle was rather subject to dry-rot, insomuch that
it tasted like a bad nut, and though the pig might have been
farther off, I was heartily pleased with my whole entertainment.
Nor was there any drawback on my little turret bed -room ,
beyond there being such a very thin ceiling between me and
the flagstaff, that when I lay down on my back in bed , it
seemed as if I had to balance that pole on my forehead all
night.
Wemmick was up early in the morning, and I am afraid I
heard him cleaning my boots. After that, he fell to gardening,
and I saw him from my gothic window pretending to employ
the Aged, and nodding at him in a most devoted manner. Our
breakfast was as good as the supper, and at half-past eight
precisely we started for Little Britain . By degrees, Wemmick
got dryer and harder as we went along, and his mouth tightened
into a post-office again. At last, when we got to his place of
business and he pulled out his key from his coat- collar, he looked
 200 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
as unconscious of his Walworth property as if the Castle and
the drawbridge and the arbour and the lake and the fountain
and the Aged, had all been blown into space together by the
last discharge of the Stinger.

CHAPTER XXVI.

It fell out as Wemmick had told me it would, that I had an

early opportunity of comparing my guardian's establishment
with that of his cashier and clerk . My guardian was in his
room , washing his hands with his scented soap , when I went into
the office from Walworth ; and he called me to him , and gave me
the invitation for myself and friends which Wemmick had
prepared me to receive. “No ceremony,” he stipulated, " and
no dinner dress, and say to-morrow.” I asked him where we
should come to ( for I had no idea where he lived ), and I believe
it was in his general objection to make anything like an ad
mission , that he replied , “ Come here, and I'll take you home
with me .” I embrace this opportunity of remarking that he
washed his clients off, as if it were a surgeon or a dentist. He
had a closet in his room, fitted up for the purpose , which smelt
of the scented soap like a perfumer's shop. It had an unusually
large jack -towel on a roller inside the door, and he would wash
his hands, and wipe them and dry them all over this towel,
whenever he came in from a police - court or dismissed a client
from his room . When I and my friends repaired to him at six
o'clock next day, he seemed to have been engaged on a case of
a darker complexion than usual, for, we found him with his
head butted into this closet, not only washing his hands, but
laving his face and gargling his throat. And even when he had
done all that, and had gone all round the jack - towel, he took
out his penknife and scraped the case out of his nails before he
put his coat on .
There were some people slinking about as usual when we
passed out into the street, who were evidently anxious to speak
with him ; but there was something so conclusive in the halo
of scented soap which encircled his presence , that they gave it
 GERRARD -STREET, SOHO. 201

up for that day. As we walked along westward, he was

recognised ever and again by some face in the crowd of the
streets, and whenever that happened he talked louder to me ;
but he never otherwise recognised anybody, or took notice that
anybody recognised him .
He conducted us to Gerrard - street, Soho, to a house on the
south side of that street, rather a stately house of its kind, but
dolefully in want of painting, and with dirty windows. He
took out his key and opened the door, and we all went into a
stone hall, bare, gloomy, and little used. So, up a dark brown
staircase into a series of three dark brown rooms on the first
floor. There were carved garlands on the panelled walls, and
as he stood among them giving us welcome, I know what kind
of loops I thought they looked like.
Dinner was laid in the best of these rooms ; the second was
his dressing -room ; the third , his bedroom . He told us that he
held the whole house, but rarely used more of it than we saw .
The table was comfortably laid -- no silver in the service, of
course — and at the side of his chair was a capacious dumb
waiter, with a variety of bottles and decanters on it, and four
dishes of fruit for dessert. I noticed throughout, that he kept
everything under his own hand, and distributed everything
himself .
There was a bookcase in the room2 ; I saw from the backs of
the books, that they were about evidence , criminal law, criminal
biography, trials, acts of parliament, and such things. The
furniture was all very solid and good, like his watch -chain . It
had an official look, however, and there was nothing merely
ornamental to be seen . In a corner, was a little table of papers
with a shaded lamp ; so that he seemed to bring the office home
with him in that respect too, and to wheel it out of an evening
and fall to work .
As he had scarcely seen my three companions until now - for,
he and I had walked together — he stood on the hearth -rug , after
ringing the bell, and took a searching look at them . To my
surprise, he seemed at once to be principally, if not solely,
interested in Drummle .
“ Pip ,” said he, putting his large hand on my shoulder and
moving me to the window ,“ I don't know one from the other .
Who's the Spider ? ”
“ The Spider ? " said I.
202 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ The blotchy, sprawly, sulky fellow .”
“ That’s Bentley Drummle,” I replied ; " the one with the
delicate face is Startop."
Not making the least account of “ the one with the delicate
face,” he returned, “ Bentley Drummle is his name, is it ? I
like the look of that fellow ."
He immediately began to talk to Drummle : not at all deterred
by his replying in his heavy reticent way, but apparently led on
by it to screw discourse out of him. I was looking at the two,
when there came between me and them, the housekeeper, with
the first dish for the table.
She was a woman of about forty, I supposed — but I may have
thought her younger than she was. Rather tall, of a lithe
nimble figure, extremely pale, with large faded eyes, and a
quantity of streaming hair. I cannot say whether any diseased
affection of the heart caused her lips to be parted as if she were
panting, and her face to bear aa curious expression of suddenness
and flutter ; but I know that I had been to see Macbeth at the
theatre, a night or two before, and that her face looked to me as
if it were all disturbed by fiery air, like the faces I had seen rise
out of the Witches' caldron .
She set the dish on, touched my guardian quietly on the arm
with a finger to notify that dinner was ready, and vanished . We
took our seats at the round table, and my guardian kept
Drummle on one side of him, while Startop sat on the other.
It was a noble dish of fish that the housekeeper had put on
table, and we had a joint of equally choice mutton afterwards,
and then an equally choice bird . Sauces, wines, all the ac
cessories we wanted, and all of the best, were given out by
our host from his dumb-waiter ; and when they had made
the circuit of the table, he always put them back again .
Similarly, he dealt us clean plates and knives and forks, for
>

each course, and dropped those just disused into two baskets
on the ground by his chair. No other attendant than the
housekeeper appeared. She set on every dish ; and I always
saw in her face, a face rising out of the caldron. Years
afterwards, I made a dreadful likeness of that woman, by
causing a face that had no other natural resemblance to it
than it derived from flowing hair, to pass behind a bowl of
flaming spirits in a dark room.
Induced to take particular notice of the housekeeper, both
 MOLLY STARTLED . 203

by her own striking appearance and by Wemmick’s prepara

tion, I observed that whenever she was in the room , she kept
her eyes attentively on my guardian , and that she would
remove her hands from any dish she put before him, hesi
tatingly, as if she dreaded his calling her back , and wanted
him to speak when she was nigh, if he had anything to say . I
fancied that I could detect in his manner a consciousness of
this, and a purpose of always holdingher in suspense.
Dinner went off gaily, and, although my guardian seemed to
follow rather than originate subjects, I knew that he wrenched
the weakest part of our dispositions out of us. For myself, I
found that I was expressing my tendency to lavish expenditure,
and to patronise Herbert, and to boast of my great prospects,
before I quite knew that I had opened my lips. It was so with
all of us, but with no one more than Drummle : the develop
ment of whose inclination to gird in a grudging and suspicious
way at the rest, was screwed out of him before the fish was
taken off.
It was not then , but when we had got to the cheese, that our
conversation turned upon our rowing feats, and that Drummle
was rallied for coming up behind of a night in th: slow
amphibious way of his. Drummle upon this, informed our
host that he much preferred our room to our company, and
that as to skill he was more than our master, and that as to
strength he could scatter us like chaff. By some invisible
agency, my guardian wound him up to a pitch little short of
ferocity about this trifle ; and he fell to baring and spanning
his arm to show how muscular it was, and we all fell to baring
and spanning our arms in aa ridiculous manner .
Now, the housekeeper was at that time clearing the table ;
my guardian, taking no heed of her, but with the side of his
face turned from her, was leaning back in his chair biting the
side of his ager and showing an interest in Drummle, that,
to me, was quite inexplicable. Suddenly, he clapped his large
hand on the housekeeper's, like a trap, as she stretched it
across the table. So suddenly and smartly did he do this, that
we all stopped in our foolish contention .
66
If you talk of strength ," said Mr. Jaggers, “ I'll show you
a wrist. Molly, let them see your wrist."
Her entrapped hand was on the table, but she had already
put her other hand behind her waist . “ Master, ” she said , in a
204 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

low voice, with her eyes attentively and entreatingly fixed

upon him , “ Don't.""
“ I'll show you a wrist, ” repeated Mr. Jaggers, with an
immovable determination to show it. Molly, let them see
your wrist.”
“ Master ,” she again murmured . “ Please !!”
"
“ Molly,” said Mr. Jaggers, not looking at her, but obstinately
looking at the opposite side of the room , “ let them see both
your wrists. Show them. Come ! ”
He took his hand from hers, and turned that wrist up on the
table. She brought her other hand from behind her, and held
the two out side by side. The last wrist was much disfigured
deeply scarred and scarred across and across . When she held
her hands out, she took her eyes from Mr. Jaggers, and turned
them watchfully on every one of the rest of us in succession .
“ There's power here,” said Mr. Jaggers, coolly tracing out
the sinews with his forefinger. “Very few men have the power
of wrist that this woman has. It's remarkable what mere
force of grip there is in these hands. I have had occasion to
notice many hands ; but I never saw stronger in that respect,
man's or woman's, than these.”
While he said these words in a leisurely critical style, she
continued to look at every one of us in regular succession as
we sat. The moment he ceased, she looked at him again.
“ That'll do, Molly,” said Mr. Jaggers, giving her a slight nod ;
“ you have been admired, and can go.” She withdrew her hands
and went out of the room, and Mr. Jaggers, putting the
decanters on from his dumb-waiter, filled his glass and passed
round the wine.
“At half- past nine, gentlemen ,” said he, “ we must break up.
Pray make the best use of your time. I am glad to see you
all. Mr. Drummle, I drink to you.”
If his object in singling out Drummle were to bring him
out still more, it perfectly succeeded. In a sulky triumph,
Drummle showed his morose depreciation of the rest of us, in
a more and more offensive degree, until be became downright
intolerable. Through all his stages, Mr. Jaggers followed him
with the same strange interest. He actually seemed to serve
as a zest to Mr. Jaggers's wine,
In our boyish want of discretion I dare say we took too much
to drink, and I know we talked too much . We became parti
 DRUMMLE CHAFFED . 205

cularly hot upon some boorish sneer of Drummle’s, to the effect

that we were too free with our money. It led to my remark
ing, with more zeal than discretion, that it came with a bad
grace from him , to whom Startop had lent money in my
presence but a week or so before.
66
Well,” retorted Drummle , " he 'll be paid ."
" I don't mean to imply that he won't,” said I, “ but it might
make you hold your tongue about us and our money , I should
think .”
“ You should think ! " retorted Drummle . “ Oh Lord ! ”
“ I dare say,” I went on, meaning to be very severe, “ that
you wouldn't lend money to any of us if we wanted it ."
“ You are right,” said Drummle. “ I wouldn't lend one of
you a sixpence. I wouldn't lend anybody a sixpence.”
“ Rather mean to borrow under those circumstances, I should
say .”
“ You should say ,” repeated Drummle. “ Oh Lord !”
This was so very aggravating - the more especially as I found
myself making no way against his surly obtuseness — that I said,
disregarding Herbert's efforts to check me :
“ Come, Mr. Drummle, since we are on the subject, I'll tell
you what passed between Herbert here and me, when you
borrowed that money.”
“ I don't want to know what passed between Herbert there
and you,” growled Drummle. And I think he added in a lower
growl, that we might both go to the devil and shake ourselves.
“ I'll tell you , however,” said I , “ whether you want to know
or not. We said that as you put it into your pocket very glad
to get it, you seemed to be immensely amused at his being so
weak as to lend it .”
Drummle laughed outright, and sat laughing in our faces,
with his hands in his pockets and his round shoulders raised ;
plainly signifying that it was quite true, and that he despised
us as asses all .
Hereupon Startop took him in hand, though with a much
better grace than I had shown, and exhorted him to be a little
more agreeable. Startop, being a lively bright young fellow ,
and Drummle being the exact opposite, the latter was always
disposed to resent him as a direct personal affront. He now
retorted in a coarse lumpish way , and Startop tried to turn the
discussion aside with some small pleasantry that made us all
206 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

laugh . Resenting this little success more than anything,

Drummle, without any threat or warning, pulled his hands out
of his pockets, dropped his round shoulders, swore, took up a
large glass, and would have flung it at his adversary's head,
but for our entertainer's dexterously seizing it at the instant
when it was raised for that purpose.
Gentlemen,” said Mr. Jaggers, deliberately putting down
the glass, and hauling out his gold repeater by its massive
chain, “ I am exceedingly sorry to announce that it's half- past
nine."
be this
street
hint we all rose to depart. Before we got to the
door, Startop was cheerily calling Drummle “old boy,"
as if nothing had happened . But the old boy was so far from
responding, that he would not even walk to Hammersmith
on the same side of the way ; so, Herbert and I, who re
mained in town, saw them going down the street on opposite
sides ; Startop leading, and Drummle lagging behind in the
shadow of the houses, much as he was wont to follow in his
boat.
As the door was not yet shut, I thought I would leave Her
bert there for a moment, and run up stairs again to say a word
to my guardian. I found him in his dressing-room surrounded
by his stock of boots, already hard at it, washing his hands
of us .
I told him I had come up agai,a to say how sorry I was that
anything disagreeable should have occurred, and that I hoped
he would not blame me much .
Pooh ! " said he, sluicing his face, and speaking through
the water-drops ; “ it's nothing, Pip. I like that Spider
though ."
He had turned towards me now , and was shaking his head,
and blowing, and towelling himself.
“ I am glad you like him , Sir,” said I— " but I don't .”
“ No, no , " my guardian assented ; “ don't have too much to
do with him . Keep as clear of him as you can . But I like the
fellow , Pip ; he is one of the true sort. Why, if I was a fortune
2
teller
Looking out of the towel, he caught my eye.
“ But I am not a fortune teller,” he said, letting his head
drop into a festoon of towel, and towelling away at his two
ears . " You know what I am , don't you ? Good -night, Pip ."
 LETTER FROM BIDDY. 207
>
Good -night, sir. ”
In about a month after that, the Spider's time with Mr.
Pocket was up for good, and, to the great relief of all the
house but Mrs. Pocket, he went home to the family hole.

CHAPTER XXVII .

“ MY DEAR MR. PIP,

“ I write this by request of Mr. Gargery , for to let you know
that he is going to London in company with Mr. Wopsle and would be
glad if agreeable to be allowed to see you. He would call at Barnard's
Hotel Tuesday morning at nine o'clock, when if not agreeable please
leave word . Your poor sister is much the same as when you left. We
talk of you in the kitchen every night,and wonder what you are saying
and doing. If now considered in the light of a liberty, excuse it for the
love of poor old days. No more, dear Mr. Pip , from
Your ever obliged , and affectionate servant,
BIDDY."

“ P.8. He wishes me most particular to write what larks. He says

you will understand . I hope and do not doubt it will be agreeable to
see him even though a gentleman , for you had ever a good heart, and he
is a worthy worthy man . I have read him all excepting only the last
little sentence, and he wishes me most particular to write again what
larks.'

I received this letter by post on Monday morning, and there

fore its appointment was for next day. Let me confess
exactly, with what feelings I looked forward to Joe's
coming .
Not with pleasure, though I was bound to him by so many
ties; no ; with considerable disturbance, some mortification,
and a keen sense of incongruity. If I could have kept him
away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.
My greatest reassurance was, that he was coming to Barnard's
Inn , not to Hammersmith , and consequently would not fall in
Bentley Drummle's way. I had little objection to his being
seen by Herbert or his father, for both of whom I had a re
spect ; but I had the sharpest sensitiveness as to his being seen
by Drummle, whom I held in contempt. So, throughout life,
208 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed
for the sake of the people whom we most despise.
I had begun to be always decorating the chambers in some
quite unnecessary and inappropriate way or other, and very
expensive those wrestles with Barnard proved to be. By this
time, the rooms were vastly different from what I had found
them, and I enjoyed the honour of occupying a few prominent
pages in the books of a neighbouring upholsterer. I had got on
so fast of late, that I had even started a boy in boots — top
boots - in bondage and slavery to whom I might be said to pass
my days. For, after I had made this monster (out of the
refuse of my washerwoman's family ) and had clothed him with
a blue coat, canary waistcoat, white cravat, creamy breeches,
and the boots alreadymentioned, I had tofind him a little to
do and a great deal to eat ; and with both of these horrible
requirements he haunted my existence .
This avenging phantom was ordered to be on duty at eight
on Tuesday morning in the hall (it was two feet square, as
charged for floorcloth ), and Herbert suggested certain things
for breakfast that he thought Joe would like. While I felt
sincerely obliged to him for being so interested and considerate,
I had an oddhalf-provoked sense of suspicion upon me, that if
Joe had been coming to see him , he wouldn't have been quite so
brisk about it.
However , I came into town on the Monday night to be ready
for Joe, and I got up early in the morning, and caused the
sitting -room and breakfast -table to assume their most splendid
appearance. Unfortunately the morning was drizzly, and an
angel could not have concealed the fact that Barnard was shed
ding sooty tears outside the window , like some weak giant of a
Sweep.
As the time approached I should have liked to run away,
but the Avenger pursuant to orders was in the hall, and pre
sently I heard Joe, on the staircase. I knew it was Joe, by
his clumsy manner of coming up stairs — his state boots being
always too big for him — and by the time it took him to read
the names on the other floors in the course of his ascent. When
at last he stopped outside our door, I could hear his finger
tracing over the painted letters of my name, and I afterwards
distinctly heard him breathing in at the keyhole. Finally he
gave a faint single rap, and Pepper - such was the compro
 JOE GARGERY IN LONDON. 209

mising name of the avenging boy - announced “ Mr.Gargery ! "

I thought he never would have done wiping his feet, and that I
must have gone out to lift him off the mat, but at last he
came in .
Joe, how are you, Joe ? '
“ Pip , how air you , Pip ? ”
With his good honest face all glowing and shining, and his
hat put down on the floor between us, he caught both my
hands and worked them straight up and down, as if I had been
the last patented Pump.
“ I am glad to see you , Joe. Give me your hat.”
But Joe, taking it up carefully with both hands, like a bird's
nest with eggs in it, wouldn't hear of parting with that piece of
property, and persisted in standing talking over it in a most
uncomfortable way.
“ Which you have that growed,” said Joe, " and that swelled
and that gentlefolked
66
;" Joe considered a little before he dis
covered this word ; as to besure you are a honour to your king
and country ."
“ And you, Joe, look wonderfully well.”
“Thank God,” said Joe, “ I'm ekerval to most. And your
sister, she's no worse than she were. And Biddy, she's ever
right and ready. And all friends is no backerder, if not no
forarder . 'Ceptin' Wopsle : he's had a drop ."
All this time ( still with both hands taking great care of the
bird's-nest ), Joe was rolling his eyes round and round the
room , and round and round the flowered pattern of my
dressing- gown.
Had a drop, Joe ? "
“Why yes,” said Joe, lowering his voice, “ he's left the
Church and went into the playacting. Which the playacting
have likewise brought him to London along with me . And his
wish were,” said Joe, getting the bird's-nest under his left
arm for the moment, and groping in it for an egg with his
right; “ if no offence, as I would ’and you that."
I took what Joe gave me, and found it to be the crumpled
playbill of a small metropolitan theatre, announcing the first
appearance, in that very week, of “ the celebrated Provincial
Amateur of Roscian renown, whose unique performance in the
highest tragic walk of our National Bard has lately occasioned
so great a sensation in local dramatic circles.”
P
210 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ Were you at his performance , Joe ? ” I inquired .

“ I were, ” said Joe, with emphasis and solemnity .
“ Was there a great sensation ? ”
- Why, ” said Joe, “ yes, there certainly were a peck of
orange peel. Partickler when he see the ghost. Though I
put it to yourself, sir, whether it were calc'lated to keep a man
up to his work with a good hart, to be continiwally cutting in
betwixt him and the Ghost with Amen ! A man may have
had a misfortun' and been in the Church,” said Joe, lowering
his voice to an argumentative and feeling tone , “ but that is
no reason why you should put him out at such a time. Which I
meantersay, if the ghost of a man's own father cannot be allowed
to claim his attention , what can , sir ? Still more, when his
mourning 'at is unfortunately made so small as that the weight
of the black feathers brings it off, try to keep it on how you
may .”
A ghost- seeing effect in Joe's own countenance informed me
that Herbert had entered the room . So, I presented Joe to
Herbert, who held out his hand ; but Joe backed from it, and
held on by the bird's -nest.
“ Your servant, Sir,” said Joe, “ which I hope as you and
Pip ” -here his eye fell on the Avenger, who was putting
some toast on table, and so plainly denoted an intention to
make that young gentleman one of the family, that I frowned
it down and confused him more_ “ I meantersay, you two
gentlemen — which I hope as you gets your elths in this close
spot ? For the present may be a wery good inn, according to
London opinions,” said Joe, confidentially, " and I believe it's
character do stand i ; but I wouldn't keep a pig in it myself
not in the case that I wished him to fatten wholesome and to
eat with a meller flavour on him . »”
Having borne this flattering testimony to the merits of our
dwelling -place, and having incidentally shown this tendency to
7

call me “ sir,” Joe, being invited to sit down to table, looked

all round the room for aa suitable spot on which to deposit his hat
-as if it were only on some few very rare substances in nature
that it could find a resting place—and ultimately stood it on
an extreme corner of the chimney - piece, from which it ever
afterwards fell off at intervals.
C6
Do you take tea, or coffee, Mr. Gargery ? " asked Herbert,
who always presided of a morning.
 JOE ILL AT EASE . 211
“ Thankee, Sir,” said Joe, stiff from head to foot, “ I'll take
whichever is most agreeable to yourself . ”
“What do you say to coffee ? ”
“Thankee, Sir, " returned Joe, evidently dispirited by the
proposal, “ since you are so kind as make chice of coffee, I will
not run contrary to your own opinions. But don't you never
find it a little 'eating ? ”
“ Say tea, then,” said Herbert, pouring it out.
Here Joe's hat tumbled off the mantel-piece, and he started
out of his chair and picked it up, and fitted it to the same exact
spot. As if it were an absolute point of good breeding that
it should tumble off again soon.
“ When did you come to town , Mr. Gargery ? "
“ Were it yesterday afternoon ? said Joe, after coughing
behind his hand as if he had had time to catch the whooping
cough since he came. i No it were not. Yes it were . Yes.
"
It were yesterday afternoon ” (with an appearance of mingled
wisdom , relief, and strict impartiality ).
" Have you seen anything of London, yet ? ”
6
“Why, yes, Sir, ” said Joe, “ me and Wopsle went off
straight to look at the Blacking Ware’us. But we didn't find
that it come up to its likeness in the red bills at the shop
doors, which I meantersay,” added Joe, in an explanatory
manner, as it is there drawd too architectooralooral.”
I really believe Joe would have prolonged this word (mightily
expressive to my mind of some architecture that I know ) into a
perfect Chorus, but for his attention being providentially
attracted by his hat, which was toppiing. Indeed , it demanded
from him a constant attention, and a quickness of eye and
hand : very like that exacted by wicket -keeping. He made
extraordinary play with it, and showed the greatest skill ;
now, rushing at it and catching it neatly as it dropped ; now,
merely stopping it midway, beating it up, and humouring it
in various parts of the room and against a good deal of the
pattern of the paper on the wall, before he felt it safe to
close with it ; finally splashing it into the slop -basin , where I
took the liberty of laying hands upon it.
As to his shirt-collar, and his coat-collar, they were perplex
ing to reflect upon--insoluble mysteries both . Why should a
man scrape himself to that extent, before he could consider
himself full dressed ? Why should he suppose it necessary to
P 2
212 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
be purified by suffering for his holiday clothes ? Then he fell
into such unaccountable fits of meditation, with his fork mid
way between his plate and his mouth ; had his eyes attracted
in such strange directions; was afflicted with such remarkable
coughs ; sat so far from the table, and dropped so much more
than he ate, and pretended that he hadn't dropped it ; that I
was heartily glad when Herbert left us for the city,
I had neither the good sense nor the good feeling to know
that this was all my fault, and that if I had been easier with
Joe, Joe would have been easier with me. I felt impatient of
him and out of temper with hima ; in which condition he heaped
coals of fire on my head.
“ Us two being now alone, Sir ” —began Joe.
C
Joe," I interrupted, pettishly, “how can you call me
Sir ? "
Joe looked at me for a single instant with something faintly
like reproach . Utterly preposterous as his cravat was, and as
his collars were, I was conscious of a sort of dignity in the
look .
“ Us two being now alone,” resumed Joe, “and me having
the intentions and abilities to stay not many minutes more, I
will now conclude - leastways begin - to mention what have
9
led to my having had the present honour. For was it not, "
said Joe, with his old air of lucid exposition, “ that my only
wish were to be useful to you, I should not have had the
honour of breaking wittles in the company and abode of
gentlemen ."
I was so unwilling to see the look again , that I made no re
monstrance against this tone.
“ Well, Sir ,” pursued Joe, “ this is how it were. I were at the
Bargemen t'other night, Pip ; ” whenever he subsided into
affection he called me Pip, and whenever he relapsed into
politeness he called me Sir ; “ when there come up in his shay
cart Pumblechook . Which that same identical,” said Joe,
going down a new track, “ do comb my ’ air the wrong way
sometimes, awful, by giving out up and down town as it were
him which ever had your infant companionation and were
looked upon as a playfellow by yourself.”
“ Nonsense. It was you , Joe.”
“Which I fully believed it were, Pip,” said Joe, slightly
tossing his head , " though it signify little now, Sir. Well, Pip ;
 JOE DEPARTS. 213
this same identical, which his manners is given to blusterous,
come to be at the Bargemen (wot a pipe and a pint of beer do
give refreshment to the working-man , Sir, and do not over
stimulate ), and his word were , Joseph, Miss Havisham she
77
wish to speak to you.'
“ Miss Havisham , Joe ? ”
56. She wished ,' were Pumblechook's word, ' to speak to you.””
Joe sat and rolled his eyes at the ceiling.
<<
Yes, Joe ? Go on, please .”
Next day, Sir,” said Joe, looking at me as if I were a long
way off ,“ having cleaned myself, I go and I see Miss A.”'
“ Miss A., Joe ? Miss Havisham ? "
6 Which I say , Sir," replied Joe with an air of legal formality ,
as if he were making his will, “ Miss A., or otherwise Havisham.
Her expression air then as follering : " Mr. Gargery. You air
in correspondence with Mr. Pip ? ' Having had a letter from
you , I were able to say ' I am . (When I married your sister,
Sir , I said ' I will ; ' and when I answered your friend, Pip, I
said “ I am .') Would you tell him, then,' said she, that which
Estella has come home, and would be glad to see him . ” ?

I felt my face fire up as I looked at Joe. I hope one remote

cause of its firing, may have been my consciousness that if I
had known his errand, I should have given him more en
couragement.
“ Biddy,” pursued Joe , “ when I got home and asked her fur
to write the message to you, a little hung back. Biddy says,
I know he will be very glad to have it by word of mouth, it is
2

holiday - time, you want to see him, go ! ' I have now con
cluded, Sir,” said Joe rising from his chair, “ and, Pip, I wish
you ever well and ever prospering to a greater and greater
height.”
“ But you are not going now, Joe ? ” .
“ Yes I am , ” said Joe.
“ But you are coming back to dinner, Joe ? ”
“ No, I am not,” said Joe .
Our eyes met, and all the “ Sir ” melted out of that manly
heart as he gave me his hand.
' Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings
welded together, as I may say, and one man 's a blacksmith , and
one's a whitesmith , and one's a goldsmith, and one's a copper
smith . Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as
214 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
they come. If there's been any fault at all to - day, it's mine.
You and me is not two figures to be together in London ; nor
yet anywheres else but what is private, and beknown, and
understood among friends. It ain't that I am proud, but that
I want to be right, as you shall never see me no more in these
clothes. I'm wrong in these clothes . I'm wrong out of the
forge, the kitchen, or off th' meshes. You won't find half so
much fault in me if you think of me in my forge dress, with
my hammer in my hand, or even my pipe. You won't find
half so much fault in me if, supposing as you should ever wish
to see me, you come and put your head in at the forge window
and see Joe the blacksmith, there, at the old anvil, in the old
burnt apron , sticking to the old work. I'm awful dull, but I
hope I've beat out something nigh the rights of this at last.
And so God bless you, dear old Pip, old chap, God bless you !”
I had not been mistaken in my fancy that there was a simple
dignity in him. The fashion of his dress could no'more come
in its way when he spoke these words, than it could come in its
way in Heaven. He touched me gently on the forehead and
went out. As soon as I could recover myself sufficiently , I
hurried out after him and looked for him in the neighbouring
streets ; but he was gone.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

It was clear that I must repair to our town next day, and in
the first flow of my repentance it was equally clear that I must
stay at Joe's. But, when I had secured my box - place by to
morrow's coach , and had been down to Mr. Pocket’s and back,
I was not by any means convinced on the last point, and began
to invent reasons and make excuses for putting up at the Blue
Boar. I should be an inconvenience at Joe's ; I was not ex
pected , and my bed would not be ready ; I should be too far
from Miss Havisham's, and she was exacting and mightn't like
it. All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self
swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself. Surely
 AT THE CROSS KEYS . 215

a curious thing. That I should innocently take a bad half

crown of somebody else's manufacture, is reasonable enough ;
but that I should knowingly reckon the spurious coin of my
own make, as good money ! An obliging stranger, under
pretence of compactly folding up my bank -notes for security's
sake, abstracts the notes and gives me nutshells ; but what is his
sleight of hand to mine, when I fold up my own nutshells and
pass them on myself as notes !
Having settled that I must go to the Blue Boar, my mind
was much disturbed by indecision whether or no to take the
Avenger. It was tempting to think of that expensive Mer
cenary publicly airing his boots in the archway of the Blue
Boar’s posting-yard : it was almost solemn to imagine him
casually produced in the tailor's shop and confounding the dis
respectful senses of Trabb's boy. On the other hand, Trabb's
boy might worm himself into his intimacy and tell him things ;
or, reckless and desperate wretch as I knew he could be, might
hoot him in the High -street. My patroness, too, might bear
of him, and not approve. On the whole, I resolved to leave the
Avenger behind.
It was the afternoon coach by which I had taken my place,
and, as winter had now come round, I should not arrive at my
destination until two or three hours after dark . Our time of
starting from the Cross Keys was two o'clock. I arrived on the
ground with a quarter of an hour to spare, attended by the
Avenger — if I may connect that expression with one who never
attended on me if he could possibly help it.
At that time it was customary to carry convicts down to the
dockyards by stage-coach. As I had often heard of them in
the capacity of outside passengers, and had more than once
seen them on the high road dangling their ironed legs over the
coach roof, I had no cause to be surprised when Herbert,
meeting me in the yard, came up and told me there were two
convicts going down with me. But I had a reason that was an
old reason now, for constitutionally faltering whenever I heard
the word convict.
“ You don't mind them , Handel ? " said Herbert .
6 Oh no ! "
“ I thought you seemed as if you didn't like them ? "
" I can't pretend that I do like them, and I suppose you
don't particularly. But I don't mind them . ”
216 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
“ See ! There they are," said Herbert, “ coming out of the
Tap. What a degraded and vile sight it is !”
They had been treating their guard, I suppose, for they had
a gaoler with them, and all three came out wiping their mouths
on their hands. The two convicts were handcuffed together,
and had irons on their legs - irons of a pattern that I knew
well. They wore the dress that I likewise knew well. Their
keeper had a brace of pistols, and carried a thick -knobbed
bludgeon under his arm ; but he was on terms of good under.
standing with them, and stood, with them beside him , looking
on at the putting -to of the horses, rather with an air as if the
convicts were an interesting Exhibition not formally open at
the moment, and he the Curator. One was a taller and stouter
man than the other, and appeared as a matter of course,
according to the mysterious ways of the world both convict
and free, to have had allotted to him the smaller suit of
clothes. His arms and legs were like great pincushions of
those shapes, and his attire disguised him absurdly ; but I
knew his half-closed eye at one glance. There stood the man
whom I had seen on the settle at the Three Jolly Bargemen on
a Saturday night, and who had brought me down with his
invisible gun !
It was easy to make sure that as yet he knew me no more
than if he had never seen me in his life. He looked across at
me, and his eye appraised my watchchain , and then he inci
dentally spat and said something to the other convict, and
they laughed and slued themselves round with a clink of their
coupling manacle, and looked at something else. The great
numbers on their backs, as if they were street doors ; their
coarse mangy ungainly outer surface, as if they were lower
animals ; their ironed legs, apologetically garlanded with
pocket -haudkerchiefs ; andthe way in which all present looked
at them and kept from them ; made them (as Herbert had
said ) a most disagreeable and degraded spectacle .
But this was not the worst of it. It came out that the
whole of the back of the coach had been taken by a family re
moving from London, and that there were no places for the two
prisoners but on the seat in front, behind the coachman. Here
upon, a choleric gentleman , who had taken the fourth place on
that seat, flew into a most violent passion , and said that it was
a breach of contract to mix him up with such villainous
 IN THE COMPANY OF CONVICTS. 217

company , and that it was poisonous and pernicious and in

famous and shameful, and I don't know what else. At this
time the coach was ready and the coachman impatient, and we
were all preparing to get up, and the prisoners had come over
with their keeper - bringing with them that curious flavour of
bread poultice, baize, rope - yarn , and hearthstone, which attends
the convict presence.
“ Don't take it so much amiss, sir,” pleaded the keeper to
the angry passenger ; “ I'll sit next you myself . I'll put 'em
on the outside of the row. They won't interfere with you, sir.
You needn't know they're there. "
" And don't blame me," growled the convict I had recognised .
" I don't want to go . I am quite ready to stay behind. As
fur as I am concerned any one's welcome to my place .”
“ Or mine," said the other, gruffly. “ I wouldn't have in
"
commoded none of you, if I'd a had my way." Then, they
both laughed, and began cracking nuts, and spitting the shells
about. - As I really think I should have liked to do myself, if
I had been in their place and so despised .
At length , it was voted that there was no help for the angry
gentleman, and that he must either go in his chance company
or remain behind. So, he got into his place, still making
complaints, and the keeper got into the place next him, and
the convicts hauled themselves up as well as they could , and
the convict I had recognised sat behind me with his breath on
the hair of my head.
“ Good-bye, Handel !” Herbert called out as we started . I
thought what a blessed fortune it was, that he had found
another name for me than Pip.
It is impossible to express with what acuteness I felt the
convict's breathing, not only on the back of my head, but all
along my spine. The sensation was like being touched in the
marrow with some pungent and searching acid , and it set my
very teeth on edge . He seemed to have more breathing busi
ness to do than another man , and to make more noise in doing
it ; and I was conscious of growing high-shouldered on one
side, in my shrinking endeavours to fend him off.
The weather was miserably raw, and the two cursed the
cold. It made us all lethargic before we had gone far, and
when we had left the Half-way House behind, we habitually
dozed and shivered and were silent. I dozed off , myself, in
218 GREAT EXPECTATIONS,
considering the question whether I ought to restore a couple of
pounds sterling to this creature before losing sight of him , and
how it could best be done. In the act of dipping forward as if
I were going to bathe among the horses, I woke in a fright and
took the question up again .
But I must have lost it longer than I had thought, since,
although I could recognise nothing in the darkness and the
fitful lights and shadows of our lamps, I traced marsh country
in the cold damp wind that blew at us. Cowering forward for
warmth and to make me a screen against the wind, the convicts
were closer to me than before. The very first words I heard
them interchange as I became conscious, were the words of my
own thought, “ Two One Pound notes."
“ How did he get 'em ? ” said the convict I had never
seen .
“ How should I know ? »" returned the other . “ He had 'em
stowed away somehows. Giv him by friends, I expect . "
“ I wish,” said the other, with a bitter curse upon the cold ,
,66 that I had 'em here."
“Two one pound notes, or friends ? ”
“ Two one pound notes. I'd sell all the friends I ever had,
for one, and think it a blessed good bargain. Well ? So he
says -? ”
“So he says,” resumed the convict I had recognised— “ it
was all said and done in half a minute, behind a pile of timber
in the Dockyard — You're a going to be discharged !' Yes, I
was . Would I find out that boy that had fed him and kep his
secret, and give him them two one pound notes ? Yes, I would .
And I did .”
“ More fool you ,” growled the other. “ I'd have spent 'em
on a Man , in wittles and drink . He must have been a green
one . Mean to say he knowed nothing of you ? ”
“ Not a ha’porth . Different gangs and different ships.
He was tried again for prison breaking, and got made a
Lifer. "
“And was that — Honour !—the only time you worked out, in
this part of the country ?”
“ The only time.”
“ What might have been your opinion of the place ? ”
A most beastly place. Mudbank, mist, swamp, and work ;
work, swamp, mist, and mudbank .”
 AT THE BLUE BOAR. 219

They both execrated the place in very strong language, and

gradually growled themselves out, and had nothing left to
say .
After overhearing this dialogue, I should assuredly have
got down and been left in the solitude and darkness of the
highway, but for feeling certain that the man had no sus
picion of my identity. Indeed , I was not only so changed in the
course of nature, but so differently dressed and so differently
circumstanced, that it was not at all likely he could have known
me without accidental help. Still, the coincidence of our being
together on the coach , was sufficiently strange to fill me with
a dread that some other coincidence might at any moment con
nect me, in his hearing, with my name. For this reason, I 19

resolved to alight as soon as we touched the town, and put

myself out of his hearing. This device I executed successfully.
My little portmanteau was in the boot under my feet ; I had
but to turn a hinge to get it out ; threw it down before me ,
got down after it, and was left at the first lamp on the first
stones of the town pavement. As to the convicts, they went
their way with the coach, and I knew at what point they
would be spirited off to the river. In my fancy, I saw the
boat with its convict crew waiting for them at the slime-washed
stairs, -again heard the gruff “ Give way, you !” like an order
to dogs - again saw the wicked Noah's Ark lying out on the
black water .
I could not bave said what I was afraid of, for my fear was
altogether undefined and vague, but there was great fear upon
me . As I walked on to the hotel, I felt that a dread , much ex
ceeding the mere apprehension of a painful or disagreeable
recognition , made me tremble . I am confident that it took no
distinctness of shape, and that it was the revival for a few
minutes of the terror of childhood .
The coffee- room at the Blue Boar was empty, and I had not
only ordered my dinner there, but had sat down to it, before
the waiter knew me . As soon as he had apologised for the
remissness of his memory , he asked me if he should send
Boots for Mr. Pumblechook ?
“ No," said I, " certainly not .”
The waiter ( it was he who had brought up the Great Re
monstrance from the Commercials on the day when I was
bound) appeared surprised, and took the earliest opportunity
220 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

of putting a dirty old copy of a local newspaper so directly in

my way , that I took it up and read this paragraph :
“Our readers will "learn, not altogether without interest, in
reference to the recent romantic rise in fortune of a young
artificer in iron of this neighbourhood (what a theme, by the
way, for the magic pen of our as yet not universally acknow
ledged townsman Tooby, the poet of our columns ! ) that the
youth's earliest patron, companion, and friend, was a highly
respected individual not entirely unconnected with the corn
and seed trade, and whose eminently convenient and commo
dious business premises are situate within a hundred miles of
the High -street. It is not wholly irrespective of our personal
feelings that we record Him as the Mentor of our young
Telemachus, for it is good to know that our town produced the
founder of the latter's fortunes. Does the thought -contracted
brow of the local Sage or the lustrous eye of local Beauty
inquire whose fortunes ? We believe that Quintin Matsys was
the BLACKSMITH of Antwerp . VERB. SAP.”

I entertain a conviction, based upon large experience, that if

in the days of my prosperity, I had gone to the North Pole,
I should have met somebody there, wandering Esquimaux or
civilised man, who would have told me that Pumblechook was
my earliest patron and the founder of my fortunes.

CHAPTER XXIX .

BETIMES in the morning I was up and out. It was too early

yet to go to Miss Havisham's, so I loitered into the country on
Miss Havisham's side of town - which was not Joe's side ; I
could go there to -morrow — thinking about my patroness, and
painting brilliant pictures of her plans for me.
She had adopted Estella, she had as good as adopted me, and
it could not fail to be her intention to bring us together. She
reserved it for me to restore the desolate house, admit the sun
shine into the dark rooms, set the clocks a - going and the cold
 ORLICK AT MISS HAVISHAM'S. 221

hearths a-blazing, tear down the cobwebs, destroy the vermin

-in short, do all the shining deeds of the young Knight of
romance , and marry the Princess . I had stopped to look at the
house as I passed ; and its seared red brick walls, blocked win
dows, and strong green ivy clasping even the stacks of chimneys
with its twigs and tendons, as if with sinewy old arms, had
made up a rich attractive mystery, of which I was the hero.
Estella was the inspiration of it, and the heart of it, of course .
But, though she had taken such strong possession of me, though
my fancy and my hope were so set upon her, though her in
fluence on my boyish life and character had been all - powerful,
I did not, even that romantic morning, invest her with any
attributes save those she possessed. I mention this in this
place, of a fixed purpose, because it is the clue by which I am
to be followed into my poor labyrinth. According to my ex
perience, the conventional notion of a lover cannot be always
true . The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with
the love of a man , I loved her simply because I found her
irresistible. Once for all ; I knew to my sorrow, often and
often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against
promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against
all discouragement that could be. Once for all ; I loved her
none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence
in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be
human perfection .
I so shaped out my walk as to arrive at the gate at my old
time. When I had rung at the bell with an unsteady hand, I
turned my back upon the gate, while I tried to get my breath
and keep the beating of my heart moderately quiet. I heard
the side door open, and steps come across the court-yard ; but
I pretended not to hear, even when the gate swung on its
rusty hinges.
Being at last touched on the shoulder, I started and turned.
I started much more naturally then, to find myself confronted
by a man in a sober grey dress. The last man I should have
expected to see in that place of porter at Miss Havisham's
door.
" Orlick !”
“Ah, young master, there's more changes than yours. But
come in, come in . It's opposed to my orders to hold the gate
open .”
222 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
I entered and he swung it, and locked it, and took the key
out. “ Yes ! ” said he facing round, after doggedly preceding
me a few steps towards the house. “ Here I am ! ”
“How did you come here ? ”
“ I come here," he retorted, “ on my legs. I had my box
brought alongside me in a barrow .”
66
Are you here for good ? "
“ I ain't here for harm , young master, I suppose.”
I was not so sure of that. I had leisure to entertain the
retort in my mind, while he slowly lifted his heavy glance from
the pavement, up my legs and arms to my face.
“ Then you have left the forge ? ” I said.
“ Do this look like a forge ? ” replied Orlick, sending his
glance all round him with an air of injury. “ Now , do it
look like it ? ”
I asked him how long he had left Gargery's forge ?
“ One day is so like another here ,” he replied, " that I don't
know without casting it up . However, I come here some time
since you left.”
«C
I could have told you that, Orlick .” "
Ah !” said he, drily. “ But then you 've got to be aa scholar."
By this time we had come to the house, where I found his
room to be one just within the side door, with aa little window
in it looking on the court-yard. In its small proportions, it was
notunlike the kind of place usually assigned to a gate - porter
in Paris. Certain keys were hanging on the wall, to which he
now added the gate-key ; and his patch -work covered bed
was in a little inner division or recess . The whole had a
slovenly, confined and sleepy look, like a cage for a human
dormouse : while he, looming dark and heavy in the shadow of
a corner by the window, looked like the human dormouse for
whom it was fitted up -- as indeed he was.
“ I never saw this room before," I remarked ; "but there
used to be no Porter here."
" No," said he ; “ not till it got about that there was no
protection on the premises, and it come to be considered
dangerous, with convicts and Tag and Rag and Bobtail going
up and down. And then I was recommended to the place
as a man who could give another man as good as he brought,
and I took it. It's easier than bellowsing and hammering.
That's loaded , that is."
 ÎN MISS HAVISÉAM'S ROOM. 223

My eye had been caught by a gun with a brass -bound stock

over the chimneypiece, and his eye had followed mine.
“ Well,” said I, not desirous of more conversation, “ shall I
go up to Miss Havisham ? "
“ Burn me, if I know !” he retorted, first stretching him
self and then shaking himself ; “ my orders ends here, young
master. I give this here bell a rap with this here hammer,
and you go on along the passage till you meet somebody."
CG
I am expected, I believe ?
“ Burn me twice over, if I can say ! ” said he.
Upon that I turned down the long passage which I had first
trodden in my thick boots, and he made his bell sound . At the
end of the passage, while the bell was still reverberating, I
found Sarah Pocket : who appeared to have now become con
stitutionally green and yellow by reason of me.
“ Oh ! ” said she. “ You , is it, Mr. Pip ? ”
“ It is, Miss Pocket. I am glad to tell you that Mr. Pocket
and family are all well.”
“ Are they any wiser ? ” said Sarah, with a dismal shake of
the head ; " they had better be wiser than well. Ah, Matthew ,
Matthew ! You know your way , sir "
Tolerably, for I had gone up the staircase in the dark, many
a time. I ascended it now, in lighter boots than of yore, and
tapped in my old way at the door of Miss Havisham's
room . “Pip's rap, " I heard her say, immediately ; come in,
Pip."
She was in her chair near the old table, in the old dress,
with her two hands crossed on her stick, her chin resting on
them, and her eyes on the fire. Sitting near her, with the
white shoe, that had never been worn, in her hand, and her
head bent as she looked at it, was an elegant lady whom I had
never seen .

“ Come in, Pip , " Miss Havisham continued to mutter, without

looking round or up ; come in , Pip ; how do you do, Pip ? so
you kiss my hand as if I were a queen , eh ? — Well ? "
She looked up at me suddenly, only moving her eyes, and
repeated in a grimly playful manner,
“ Well ? ”
" I heard, Miss Havisham ," said I, rather at a loss, “that
you were so kind as to wish me to come and see you, and I came
directly ."
224 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
66 Well ? "
The lady whom I had never seen before, lifted up her eyes and
looked archly at me, and then I saw that the eyes were
Estella's eyes. But she was so much changed , was so much
more beautiful, so much more womanly , in all things winning
admiration had made such wonderful advance , that I seemed
to have made none. I fancied, as I looked at her, that I
slipped hopelessly back into the coarse and common boy
again. O the sense of distance and disparity that came upon
me, and the inaccessibility that came about her !
She gave me her hand. I stammered something about the
pleasure I felt in seeing her again , and about my having looked
forward to it for a long, long time.
“ Do you find her much changed, Pip ? ” asked Miss
Havisham , with her greedy look, and striking her stick upon
a chair that stood between them, as a sign to me to sit down
there .
“ When I came in, Miss Havisham , I thought there was
nothing of Estella in the face or figure ; but now it all settles
down so curiously into the old >
“What ? You are not going to say into the old Estella ? ” Miss
Havisham interrupted . “ She was proud and insulting, and you
wanted to go away from her . Don't you remember ? ”
I said confusedly that that was long ago, and that I knew
no better then, and the like. Estella smiled with perfect com
posure, and said she had no doubt of my having been quite
right, and of her having been very disagreeable.
“ Is he changed ? ” Miss Havisham asked her.
Very much," said Estella , looking at me.
“ Less coarse ,and common ? ” said Miss Havisham , playing
with Estella's hair.
Estella laughed , and looked at the shoe in her hand, and
laughed again, and looked atme, and put the shoe down. She
treated me as a boy still, but she lured me on .
We sate in the dreamy room among the old strange in
fluences which had so wrought upon me, and I learnt that she
had but just come home from France, and that she was going
to London . Proud and wilful as of old, she had brought those
qualities into such subjection to her beauty that it was impos
sible and out of nature — or I thought so-to separate them
from her beauty. Truly it was impossible to dissociate her
 ESTELLA IN THE GARDEN. 225

presence from all those wretched hankerings aftermoney and

gentility that had disturbed my boyhood --from all those ill
regulated aspirations that had first made me ashamed of home
and Joe - from all those visions that had raised her face in the
glowing fire, struck it out of the iron on the anvil, extracted it
from the darkness of night to look in at the wooden window
of the forge and fit away . In a word, it was impossible for me
to separate her, in the past or in the present, from the innermost
life of my life.
It was settled that I should stay there all the rest of the day,
and return to the hotel at night, and to London to -morrow .
When we had conversed for a while, Miss Havisham sent us
two out to walk in the neglected garden : on our coming in
by -and -by, she said I should wheel her about a little, as in times
of yore .
So, Estella and I went out into the garden by the gate
through which I had strayed to my encounter with the pale
young gentleman, now Herbert ; I, trembling in spirit, and
worshipping the very hem of her dress ; she, quite composed
and most decidedly not worshipping the hem of mine . As we
drew near to the place of encounter, she stopped and said :
“ I must have been a singular little creature to hide and see
that fight that day : but I did, and I enjoyed it very much .”
“ You rewarded me very much ." "
“ Did I ? " she replied, in an incidental and forgetful way . “ I
remember I entertained a great objection to your adversary,
because I took it ill that he should be brought here to pester
me with his company.""
“ He and I are great friends now . ”
“ Are you ? I think I recollect though , that you read with
his father ?”
Yes ."
I made the admission with reluctance, for it seemed to have
a boyish look, and she already treated me more than enough
like a boy.
“ Since your change of fortune and prospects, you have
changed your companions,” said Estella.
· Naturally,” said I.
“ And necessarily ,” she added, in a haughty tone ; " whatwas
fit company for you once , would be quite unfit company for you
now .”
Q
226 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
In my conscience, I doubt very much whether I had any
lingering intention left of going to see Joe ; but if I had, this
observation put it to flight.
66
You had no idea of your impending good fortune, in those
times ? ” said Estella, with a slight wave of her hand, signifying
the fighting times.
“ Not the least ."
The air of completeness and superiority with which she
walked at my side, and the air of youthfulness and submission
with which I walked at hers, made a contrast that I strongly
felt. It would have rankled in me more than it did , if I had
not regarded myself as eliciting it by being so set apart for her
and assigned to her.
The garden was too overgrown and rank for walking in with
ease, and after we had made the round of it twice or thrice, we
came out again into the brewery yard. I showed her to a nicety
where I had seen her walking on the casks, that first old day,
and she said with a cold and careless look in that direction,
“ Did I ? ” I reminded her where she had come out of the
house and given me my meat and drink , and she said , “ I don't
remember."
66
“ Not remember that you made me cry ? " said I.
No, ” said she, and shook her head and looked about her. I
verily believe that her not remembering and not minding in the
least, made me cry again , inwardly — and that is the sharpest
crying of all.
“ You must know ," said Estella, condescending to me as a
brilliant and beautiful woman might, " that I have no heart
if that has anything to do with my memory.”
I got through some jargon to the effect that I took the
liberty of doubting that. That I knew better. That there
could be no such beauty without it.
“ Oh ! I have a heart to be stabbed in or shot in , I have no
doubt,” said Estella, “and of course if it ceased to beat I should
cease to be. But you know what I mean . I have no softness
there, no - sympathy - sentiment - nonsense.”
What was it that was borne in upon my mind when she stood
still and looked attentively at me? Anything that I had seen
in Miss Havisham ? No. In some of her looks and gestures
there was that tinge of resemblance to Miss Havisham which
may often be noticed to have been acquired by children, from
grown persons with whom they have been much associated and
 À FRANK CONFESSION. 227

secluded , and which,when childhood is passed, will produce a

remarkable occasional likeness of expression between faces that
are otherwise quite different. And yet I could not trace this to
Miss Havisham. I looked again, and though she was still
looking at me, the suggestion was gone.
What was it ?
“ I am serious," said Estella, not so much with a frown ( for
her brow was smooth ) as with a darkening of her face ; “ if we
are to be thrown much together, you had better believe it at
once. No !” imperiously stopping me as I opened my lips. “ I
have not bestowed my tenderness anywhere. I have never had
any such thing."
In another moment we were in the brewery so long disused,
and she pointed to thehigh gallery where I had seen her going
out on that same first day, and told me she remembered to have
been up there, and to have seen me standing scared below. As
my eyes followed her white hand, again the same dim sugges
tion that I could not possibly grasp, crossed me. My involun.
tary start occasioned her to lay her hand upon my arm.
Instantly the ghost passed once more and was gone.
What was it ?
“ What is the matter ? " asked Estella. “Are you scared
again ? "
“ I should be if I believed what you said just now ," I replied,
to turn it off.
“ Then you don't ? Very well. It is said , at any rate . Miss
Havisham will soon be expecting you at your old post, though
I think that might be laid aside now, with other old belongings.
Let us make one more round of the garden, and then go in .
Come ! You shall not shed tears for my cruelty to-day ; you
shall be my Page, and give me your shoulder.”
Her handsome dress had trailed upon the ground. She held
it in one hand now, and with the other lightly touched my
shoulder as we walked. We walked round the ruined garden
twice or thrice more, and it was all in bloom for me . If the
green and yellow growth of weed in the chinks of the old
wall had been the most precious flowers that ever blew , it could
not have been more cherished in my remembrance.
There was no discrepancy of years between us, to remove her
far from me ; we were of nearly the same age, though of course
the age told for more in her case than in mine ; but the air of
Q2
228 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
inaccessibility which her beauty and her manner gave her tor
mented me in the midst of my delight, and at the height of the
assurance I felt that our patroness had chosen us for one
another . Wretched boy !
At last we went back into the house, and there I heard, with
surprise, that my guardian had come down to see Miss Havi
sham on business, and would come back to dinner . The old
wintry branches of chandeliers in the room where the moulder
ing table was spread, had been lighted while we were out, and
Miss Havisham was in her chair and waiting for me.
It was like pushing the chair itself back into the past, when
we began the old slow circuit round about the ashes of the bridal
feast. But, in the funereal room , with that figure of the grave
fallen back in the chair fixing its eyes upon her, Estella looked
more bright and beautiful than before, and I was under stronger
enchantment.
The time so melted away , that our early dinner -hour drew
close at hand, and Estella left us to prepare herself. We had
stopped near the centre of the long table, and Miss Havisham ,
with one of her withered arms stretched out of the chair, rested
that clenched hand upon the yellow cloth . As Estella looked
back over her shoulder before going out at the door, Miss
Havisham kissed that hand to her, with a ravenous intensity
that was of its kind quite dreadful.
Then, Estella being gone and we two left alone, she turned to
me and said in a whisper :
“ Is she beautiful, graceful, well-grown ? Do you admire
her ? ”
‘ Everybody must who sees her, Miss Havisham.”
She drew an arm round my neck, and drew my head close
down to hers as she sat in the chair . “ Love her, love her, love
her ! How does she use you ? "
Before I could answer (if I could have answered so difficult a
question at all ), she repeated, “ Love her, love her, love her ! If
she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If
she tears your heart to pieces-and as it gets older and stronger
it will tear deeper - love her, love her, love her ! ”
Never had I seen such passionate eagerness as was joined to
her utterance of these words. I could feel the muscles of the
thin arm round my neck , swell with the vehemence that
possessed her.
 SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF MR . JAGGERS . 229
“ Hear me, Pip ! I adopted her to be loved . I bred her and
educated her, to be loved . I developed her into what she is,
that she might be loved. Love her ! ”
She said the word often enough , and there could be no
doubt that she meant to say it ; but if the often repeated word
had been hate instead of love — despair - revenge -- dire death
-it could not have sounded from her lips more like a curse.
“ I'll tell you,” said she, in the same hurried passionate
whisper, “ what real love is. It is blind devotion, unquestion
ing self -humiliation , utter submission, trust and belief against
yourself and against the whole world, giving up your whole
heart and soul to the smiter-- as I did ! ”
When she came to that, and to a wild cry that followed that,
I caught her round the waist. For she rose up in the chair, in
her shroud of a dress, and struck at the air as if she would as
soon have struck herself against the wall and fallen dead .
All this passed in a few seconds. As I drew her down into
her chair, I was conscious of a scent that I knew , and turning,
saw my guardian in the room .
He always carried ( I have not yet mentioned it, I think ) a
pocket-handkerchief of rich silk and of imposing proportions,
which was of great value to him in his profession . I have seen
him so terrify a client or a witness by ceremoniously unfolding
this pocket-handkerchief as if he were immediately going to
blow his nose, and then pausing, as if he knew he should not
have time to do it, before such client or witness committed
himself, that the self -committal bas followed directly, quite as
a matter of course . When I saw him in the room he had this
expressive pocket-handkerchief in both hands, and was looking
at us. On meeting my eye, he said plainly , by a momentary
and silent pause in that attitude, “ Indeed ? Singular ! ” and
then put the handkerchief to its right use with wonderful
effect.
Miss Havisham had seen him as soon as I, and was (like
everybody else) afraid of him . She made a strong attempt to
compose herself, and stammered that he was as punctual as
ever
“As punctual as ever, " he repeated, coming up to us. “ ( How
do you do, Pip ? Shall I give you a ride, Miss Havisham ?
Once round ? ) And so you are here, Pip ? "
I told him when I had arrived, and how Miss Havisham
230 GREAT EXPEOTATIONS ,

wished me to come and see Estella. To which he replied,

“Ah ! Very fine young lady ! ” Then he pushed Miss Havi
sham in her chair before him , with one of his large bands, and
put the other in his trousers-pocket as if the pocket were full
of secrets.
66
Well, Pip ! How often have you seen Miss Estella before? ”
said he when he came to a stop.
“ How often ? "
“Ah ! How many times ? Ten thousand times ?
“ Oh ! Certainly not so many .""7
" Twice ? "
Jaggers,” interposed Miss Havisham, much to my relief ;
“ leave my Pip alone, and go with him to your dinner.”
He complied, and we groped our way down the dark stairs
together. While we were still on our way to those detached
apartments across the paved yard at the back , he asked me
how often I had seen Miss Havisham eat and drink ; offering
me a breadth of choice, as usual, between a hundred times and
once,
I considered , and said, " Never."
“ And never will, Pip,” he retorted with a frowning smile.
“ She has never allowed herself to be seen doing either, since
she lived this present life of hers. She wanders about in the
pight, and then lays hands on such food as she takes."
“Pray, sir," said I, " may I ask you a question ? ”
66
You may,” said he, " and I may decline to answer it. Put
your question.”
“ Estella's name, is it Havisham or " I had nothing to
add.
" Or what ? " said he .
“ Is it Havisham ? ”
“ It is Havisham .”
This brought us to the dinner -table, where she and Sarah
Pocket awaited us. Mr. Jaggers presided, Estella sat opposite
to him, I faced my green and yellow friend. We dined very
well, and were waited on by a maid -servant whom I had never
seen in all my comings and goings , but who, for anything I
know , had been in that mysterious house the whole time.
After dinner a bottle of choice old port was placed before my
guardian (he was evidently well acquainted with the vintage),
and the two ladies left us,
 PLAYING AT WHIST. 231
Anything to equal the determined reticence of Mr. Jaggers
under that roof I never saw elsewhere, even in him. He kept
his very looks to himself, and scarcely directed bis eyes to
Estella's face once during dinner. When she spoke to him, he
listened, and in due course, answered , but never looked at her
that I could see. On the other hand, she often looked at him,
with interest and curiosity, if not distrust, but his face never
showed the least consciousness. Throughout dinner he took a
dry delight in making Sarah Pocket greener and yellower, by
often referring in conversation with me to my expectations: but
here, again , he showed no consciousness, and even made it
appear that he extorted—and even did extort, though I don't
know how - those references out of my innocent self.
And when he and I were left alone together , he sat with an
air upon him of general lying by in consequence of information
he possessed, that really was too much for me. He cross
examined his very wine when he had nothing else in hand. He
held it between himself and the candle, tasted the port, rolled
it in his mouth , swallowed it, looked at his glass again, smelt
the port, tried it, drank it, filled again , and cross -examined the
glass again , until I was as nervous as if I had known the wine
to be telling him something to my disadvantage. Three or
four times I feebly thought I would start conversation ; but
whenever he saw me going to ask him anything, he looked at
me with his glass in his hand, and rolling his wine about in his
mouth, as if requesting me to take notice that it was of no use,
for he couldn't answer .
Į think Miss Pocket was conscious that the sight of me in
volved her in the danger of being goaded to madness, and
perhaps tearing off her cap — which was a very hideous one, in
the nature of a muslin mop — and strewing the ground with
her hair-which assuredly had never grown on her head . She
did not appear when we afterwards went up to Miss Havisham's
room , and we four played at whist. In the interval, Miss
Havisham , in a fantastic way, had put some of the most beau
tiful jewels from her dressing table into Estella's hair, and
about her bosom and arms ; and I saw even my guardian look
at her from under his thick eyebrows, and raise them a little
when her loveliness was before him, with those rich flushes of
glitter and colour in it.
Qf the manner and extent to which he took our trumps into
232 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
custody, and came out with mean little cards at the ends of
hands, before which the glory of our Kings and Queens was
utterly abased, I say nothing ; nor of thefeeling that I had,
respecting his looking upon us personally in the light of three
very obvious and poor riddles that he had found out long ago.
What I suffered from , was the incompatibility between his cold
presence and my feelings towards Estella . It was not that I
knew I could never bear to speak to him about her, that I knew
I could never bear to hear him creak his boots at her ; that I
knew I could never bear to see him wash his hands of her ; it
was, that my admiration should be within a foot or two of him
- it was, that my feelings should be in the same place with
him - that, was the agonising circumstance.
We played until nine o'clock, and then it was arranged that
when Estella came to London I should be forewarned of her
coming and should meet her at the coach ; and then I took
leave of her, and touched her and left her.
My guardian lay at the Boar in the next room to mine. Far
into the night, Miss Havisham's words, “Love her, love her,
»
love her ! ” sounded in my ears. I adapted them for my own
repetition , and said to my pillow , “ I love her, I love her, I love
her ! ” hundreds of times. Then , a burst of gratitude came
upon me, that she should be destined for me, once the black
smith's boy. Then, I thought if she were, as I feared, by no
means rapturously grateful for that destiny yet, when would
she begin to be interested in me ? When should I awaken the
heart within her, that was mute and sleeping now ?
Ah me ! I thought those were high and great emotions. But
I never tbought there was anything low and small in my keep
ing away from Joe, because I knew she would be contemptuous
of him . It was but a day gone, and Joe had brought the tears
into my eyes ; they had soon dried, God forgive me soon
dried .
OURIOSITY OF THE TOWNSPEOPLE TO SEE ME. 233

CHAPTER XXX.

AFTER Well considering the matter while I was dressing at the

Blue Boar in the morning, I resolved to tell my guardian that
I doubted Orlick's being the right sort of man to fill a post of
trust at Miss Havisham's . “ Why, of course he is not the right
sort of man , Pip, ” said my guardian, comfortably satisfied before
hand on the general head ," because the man who fills the post
of trust never is the right sort of man .” It seemed quite to
put him in spirits, to find that this particular post was not
exceptionally held by the right sort of man , and he listened
in a satisfied manner while I told him what knowledge I had of
Orlick . “ Very good, Pip ,” he observed ,when I had concluded ,
“ I'll go round presently, and pay our friend off.” Rather
alarmed by this summary action, I was for a little delay, and
even hinted that our friend himself might be difficult to deal
with. “ Oh no, he won't,”" said my guardian, making his pocket
handkerchief-point, with perfect confidence ; “ I should like to
see him argue the question with me. "
As we were going back together to London by the mid -day
coach, and as I breakfasted under such terrors ofPumblechook
that I could scarcely hold my cup, this gave me an opportunity
of saying that I wanted a walk , and that I would go on along
the London -road while Mr. Jaggers was occupied, if he would
let the coachman know that I would get into my place when
overtaken. I was thus enabled to fly from the Blue Boar
immediately after breakfast. By then making a loop of
about a couple of miles into the open country at the back
of Pumblechook's premises, I got round into the High -street
again, a little beyond that pitfall, and felt myself in compara
tive security.
It was interesting to be in the quiet old town once more, and
it was not disagreeable to be here and there suddenly recognised
and stared after. One or two of the tradespeople even darted
out of their shops, and went a little way down the street before
me, that they might turn, as if they had forgotten something,
and pass me face to face - on which occasions I don't know
whether they or I made the worse pretence ; they of not doing
it, or I of not seeing it. Still my position was a distinguished
234 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
one, and I was not at all dissatisfied with it, until Fate threw me
in the way of that unlimited miscreant, Trabb's boy.
Casting my eyes along the street at a certain point of my
progress , I beheld Trabb's boy approaching, lashing himself
with an empty blue bag. Deeming that a serene and uncon
scious contemplation of him would best beseem me, and would
be most likely to quell his evil mind, I advanced with that ex.
pression of countenance, and was rather congratulating myself
on my success, when suddenly the knees of Trabb's boy smote
together, his hair uprose, his cap fell off, he trembled violently
in every limb, staggered out into the road , and crying to the
populace, “ Hold me ! I'm so frightened ! ” feigned to be in a
paroxysm of terror and contrition, occasioned by the dignity of
my appearance. As I passed him, his teeth loudly chattered in
his head, and with every mark of extreme humiliation , he
prostrated himself in the dust.
This was a hard thing to bear, but this was nothing. I had
not advanced another two hundred yards, when to my inex
pressible terror, amazement, and indignation , I again beheld
Trabb’s boy approaching. He was coming round a narrow
corner. His blue bag was slung over his shoulder, honest in
dustry beamed in his eyes, a determination to proceed to Trabb's
with cheerful briskness was indicated in his gait. With a
shock he became aware of me, and was severely visited as
before ; but this time his motion was rotatory, and he staggered
round and round me with knees more afflicted, and with uplifted
hand as if beseeching for mercy . His sufferings were hailed
with the greatest joy by a knot of spectators, and I felt utterly
confounded.
I had not got as much further down the street as the post
office, when I again beheld Trabb's boy shooting round by a
back way . This time, he was entirely changed . He wore the
blue bag in the manner of my great coat, and was strutting
along the pavement towards me on the opposite side of the
street, attended by a company of delighted young friends to
whom he from time to time exclaimed , with a wave of his hand,
"
“ Don't know yah ! ” Words cannot state the amount of aggra
vation and injury wreaked upon me by Trabb's boy, when ,
passing abreast of me, he pulled up his shirt-collar, twined his
side- hair, stuck an arm akimbo, and smirked extravagantly by,
wriggling his elbows and body, and drawling to his attendants,
 CL
1
)
6
!!
YAH
KNOWON'T
ON'T
DATTENDANTS
,"TO
HIS
DRAWLING
 TRABB'S BOY, 235

“Don't know yah, don't know yah , pon my soul don't know
|
yah !” The disgrace attendant on his immediately afterwards
taking to crowing and pursuing me across the bridge with
crows, as from an exceedingly dejected fowl who had known
me when I was a blacksmith, culminated the disgrace with
which I left the town, and was, so to speak, ejected by it into
the open country.
But unless I had taken the life of Trabb's boy on that occa
sion , I really do not even now see what I could have done save
endure. To have struggled with him in the street, or to have
exacted any lower recompense from him than his heart's best
blood, would have been futile and degrading. Moreover, he
was a boy whom no man could hurt ; an invulnerable and
dodging serpent who, when chased into a corner, flew out again
between his captor's legs, scornfully yelping. I wrote , how
ever, to Mr. Trabb by next day's post, to say that Mr. Pip
must decline to deal further with one who could so far
forget what he owed to the best interests of society, as
to employ a boy who excited Loathing in every respectable
mind.
The coach, with Mr. Jaggers inside, came up in due time,
and I took my box -seat again , and arrived in London safe—but
not sound, for my heart was gone. As soon as I arrived, I
sent a penitential codfish and barrel of oysters to Joe (as
reparation for not having gone myself) , and then went on to
Barnard's Inn .
I found Herbert dining on cold meat, and delighted to wel
come me back. Having despatched the Avenger to the coffee
house for an addition to the dinner, I felt that I must open my
breast that very evening to my friend and chum. As confi
dence was out of the question with the Avenger in the hall ,
which could merely be regarded in the light of an ante-chamber
to the keyhole, I sent him to the Play. A better proof of the
severity of my bondage to that taskmaster could scarcely be
afforded, than the degrading shifts to which I was constantly
driven to find him employment. So mean is extremity, that I
sometimes sent him to Hyde Park Corner to see what o'clock
it was.
Dinner done and we sitting with our feet upon the fender, I
said to Herbert, “My dear Herbert, I have something very
particular to tell you."
236 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“My dear Handel,” he returned , “ I shall esteem and respect

your confidence.”
“ It concerns myself, Herbert,” said I, “ and one other per
son .”
Herbert crossed his feet, looked at the fire with his head on
one side, and having looked at it in vain for some time, looked
at me because"
I didn't go on.
“ Herbert,” said I, laying my hand upon his knee, “ I love
I adore - Estella .”
Instead of being transfixed, Herbert replied in an easy
matter -of- course way, “Exactly. Well ? ”
' Well , Herbert. Is that all you say ? Well ? "
“ What next, I mean ?” said Herbert. “Of course I know
thut.”
“ How do you know it ? ” said I.
“ How do I know it, Handel ? Why, from you."
“ I never told you .”
“ Told me ! You have never told me when you have got
your hair cut, but I have had senses to perceive it. You have
always adored her, ever since I have known you. You brought
your adoration and your portmanteau here, together. Told
me ! Why, you have always told me all day long. When you
told me your own story, you told me plainly that you began
adoring her the first time you saw her, when you were very
young indeed. ”
“Very well, then, ” said I, to whom this was a new and not
unwelcome light, “ I have never left off adoring her. And she
has come back, a most beautiful and most elegant creature.
And I saw her yesterday. And if I adored her before, I now
doubly adore her. "
CC
• Lucky for you then , Handel,” said Herbert, “ that you are
picked out for her and allotted to her. Without encroaching on
forbidden ground, we may venture to say, that there can be no
doubt between ourselves of that fact . Have you any idea yet,
of Estella's views on the adoration question ? ”
CC
I shook my head gloomily. Oh ! She is thousands of miles
away, from me,” said I.
' Patience,my dear Handel : time enough , time enough . But
you have something more to say ? ”
" I am ashamed to say it,” I returned , " and yet it's no worse
to say it than to think it. You call me a lucky fellow . Of
 A STRONG POINT. 237

course, I am. I was a blacksmith's boy but yesterday ; I am

what shall I say I am - to -day ? ”
“Say, a good fellow , if you want a phrase," returned Her
bert, smiling, and clapping his hand on the back of mine : “ a
good fellow, with impetuosity and hesitation, boldness and
diffidence, action and dreaming, curiously mixed in him . "
I stopped for a moment to consider whether there really was
this mixture in my character. On the whole, I by no means
recognised the analysis, but thought not worth disputing.
“When6 I ask what I am to call myself to - day, Herbert,” I
went on, “ I suggest what I have in my thoughts. You say I
am lucky. I know I have done nothing to raise myself in life,
and that Fortune alone has raised me ; that is being very
lucky. And yet, when I think of Estella - _ "
( " And when don't you, you know ! ” Herbert threw in ,
with his eyes on the fire ; which I thought kind and sympa
thetic of him. )
“ --Then, my dear Herbert, I cannot tell you how dependent
and uncertain I feel, and how exposed to hundreds of chances.
Avoiding forbidden ground, as you did just now, I may still
say that on the constancy of one person (naming no person)
all my expectations depend. And at the best, how indefinite
and unsatisfactory, only to know so vaguely what they are ! ”
In saying this, I relieved my mind of what had always been
there, more or less, though no doubt most since yesterday.
66
Now , Handel, ” Herbert replied , in his gay hopeful way , “ it
seems to me that in the despondency of the tender passion, we
are looking into our gift-horse's mouth with a maguifying
glass. Likewise, it seems to me that, concentrating our atten
tion on the examination, we altogether overlook one of the best
points of the animal. Didn't you tell me that your guardian ,
Mr. Jaggers, told you in the beginning, that you were not
endowed with expectations only ? And even if he had not
told you so — though that is a very large If, I grant - could you
believe that of all men in London, Mr. Jaggers is the man to
hold his present relations towards you unless he were sure of
his ground ? ”
I said I could not deny that this was a strong point. I said
it (people often do so in such cases) like a rather reluctant con
cession to truth and justice ;—as if I wanted to deny it !
“ I should think it was a strong point,” said Herbert, “ and I
238 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

should think you would be puzzled to imagine a stronger ; as to

the rest,you must bide your guardian's time, and he must bide
his client's time. You'll be one-and -twenty before you know
where you are , and then perhaps you ' ll get some further en
lightenment. At all events, you'll be nearer getting it, for it
must come at last.”
" What a hopeful disposition you have !” said I, gratefully
admiring his cheery ways.
“ I ought to bave," said Herbert, “ for I have not much else.
I must acknowledge, by the bye, that the good sense of what
I have just said is not my own, but my father's. The only
remark I ever heard him make on your story, was the final
one : " The thing is settled and done , or Mr. Jaggers would not
be in it. And now, before I say anything more about my
father, or my father's son, and repay confidence with confi.
dence, I want to make myself seriously disagreeable to you for
a moment-positively repulsive."
“ You won't succeed , ” said I.
CC
“ Oh yes I shall !” said he . ' One, two, three, and now I am
in for it. Handel, my good fellow : ” though he spoke in this
light tone, he was very much in earnest : “ I have been think
ing since we have been talking with our feet on this fender,
that Estella cannot surely be a condition of your inheritance,
if she was never referred to by your guardian. Am I right in
so understanding what you have told me, as that he never
referred to her, directly or indirectly, in any way ? Never even
hinted, for instance, that your patron might have views as to
your marriage ultimately ? ”
“ Never.”
Now , Handel, I am quite free from the flavour of sour
grapes, upon my soul and honour ! Not being bound to her,
can you not detach yourself from her ?—I toldyou I should be
disagreeable .”
I turned my head aside, for, with a rush and a sweep, like
the old marsh winds coming up from the sea, a feeling like that
which had subdued me on the morning when I left the forge,
when the mists were solemnly rising, and when I laid my hand
upon the village finger -post, smote upon my heart again. There
was silence between us for a little while.
Yes ; but my dear Handel,” Herbert went on, as if we had
peen talking instead of silent, “ its having been so strongly
 HERBERT MAKES HIMSELF AGREEABLE . 239
rooted in the breast of a boy whom nature and circumstances
made so romantic, renders it very serious. Think of her
bringing up, and think of Miss Havisham . Think of what she
is herself (now I am repulsive and you abominate me) . This
may lead to miserable things.”
“ I know it, Herbert, ” said I, with my head still turned away,
7
“ but I can't help it . "
“ You can't detach yourself? ”
“ No. Impossible ! ”
“ You can't try , Handel ? ”
“ No. Impossible ! ”
“ Well ! ” said Herbert, getting up with a lively shake as if
he had been asleep, and stirring the fire ; “ now I'll endeavour
to make myself agreeable again ! ”
So, he went round the room and shook the curtains out, put
the chairs in their places, tidied the books and so forth that
were lying about, looked into the hall, peeped into the letter
box, shut the door, and came back to his chair by the fire ;
when he sat down, nursing his left leg in both arms.
“ I was going to say a word or two, Handel, concerning my
father andmy father's son. I am afraid it is scarcely necessary
for my father's son to remark that my father's establishment is
not particularly brilliant in its housekeeping."”
“There is always plenty , Herbert,” said I, to say something
encouraging.
“ Oh yes ! and so the dustman says, I believe, with the
strongest approval, and so does the marine-store shop in the
back street. Gravely, Handel, for the subject is grave enough ,
you know how it is, as well as I do. I suppose there was a time
once, when my father had not given matters up ; but if ever
there was, the time is gone. May I ask you if you have ever
had an opportunity of remarking, down in your part of the
country, that the children of not exactly suitable marriages,
are always most particularly anxious to be married ? "
This was such a singular question, that I asked him, in re
turn, “ Is it so ? ”
“ I don't know ," said Herbert ; “ that's what I want to know .
Because it is decidedly the case with us. My poor sister Char
lotte, who was next me and died before she was fourteen, was
a striking example. Little Jane is the same. In her desire to
be matrimonially established, you might suppose her to have
240 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

passed her short existence in the perpetual contemplation of

domestic bliss. Little Alick in aa frock has already made ar
rangements for his union with a suitable young person at Kew.
And, indeed, I think we are all engaged , except the baby.”
“ Then you are ? ” said I.
“ I am ,” said Herbert ; “ but it's a secret.”
I assured him of my keeping the secret, and begged to be
favoured with further particulars. He had spoken so sensibly
and feelingly of my weakness, that I wanted to know something
about his strength .
May I ask the name? ” I said .
“ Name of Clara," said Herbert.
" Live in London ? "
“ Yes. Perhaps I ought to mention,” said Herbert, who had
become curiously crestfallen and meek, since we entered on the
interesting theme, “ that she is rather below my mother's non
sensical family notions. Her father had to do with the victual
ling of passenger -ships. I think he was a species of purser.”
“ What is he now ? ” said I.
“ He's an invalid now ,” replied Herbert.
“ Living on ? "
“ On the first floor,” said Herbert. Which was not at all
what I meant, for I had intended my question to apply to his
means. “ I have never seen him, for he has always kept his
room overhead, since I have known Clara. But I have heard
bim constantly. He makes tremendous rows - roars, and pegs
at the floor with some frightful instrument. ” In looking at me
and then laughing heartily, Herbert for the time recovered bis
usual lively manner .
“Don't you expect to see him ? ” said I.
“Oh yes, I constantly expect to see him," returned Herbert,
“ because I never hear him, without expecting him to come
tumbling through the ceiling. But I don't know how long the
rafters may hold .”
When he had once more laughed heartily, he became meek
again , and told me that the moment he began to realise Capital,
it was his intention to marry this young lady. He added as a
self- evident proposition, engendering low spirits, “ But you
can't marry, you know, while you're looking about you."
As we contemplated the fire, and as I thought what a diffi
cult vision to realise this same Capital sometimes was, I put
 IN DENMARK. 241

my hands in my pockets. A folded piece of paper in one of

them attracting my attention , I opened it and found it to be
the playbill I had received from Joe, relative to the celebrated
provincial amateur of Roscian renown. “ And bless my heart,"
"
I involuntarily added aloud, “ it's to night ! ”
This changed the subject in aninstant, and made us hurriedly
resolve to go to the play. So, when I had pledged myself to
comfort and abet Herbert in the affair of his heart by all prac
ticable and impracticable means, and when Herbert had told
me that his affianced already knew me by reputation, and that
I should be presented to her, and when we had warmly shaken
hands upon our mutual confidence, we blew out our candles,
made up our fire, locked our door, and issued forth in quest of
Mr. Wopsle and Denmark .

CHAPTER XXXI.

On our arrival in Denmark, we found the king and queen of

that country elevated in two arm -chairs on a kitchen -table ,
holding a Court. The whole of the Danish nobility were in
attendance ; consisting of a noble boy in the wash -leather boots
of a gigantic ancestor , a venerable Peer with a dirty face, who
seemed to have risen from the people late in life, and the
Danish chivalry with a comb in its hair and a pair of white silk
legs, and presenting on the whole a feminine appearance . My
gifted townsman stood gloomily apart, with folded arms, and I
could have wished that his curls and forehead had been more
probable.
Several curious little circumstances transpired as the action
proceeded. The late king of the country not only appeared to
have been troubled with a cough at the time of his decease,
but to have taken it with him to the tomb, and to have brought
it back . The royal phantom also carried a ghostly manuscript
round its truncheon, to which it had the appearance of oc
casionally referring, and that, too, with an air of anxiety and a
tendency to lose the place of reference which were suggestive
of a state of mortality. It was this, I conceive, which led to
the Shade's being advised by the gallery to “ turn over ! ” - a
R
242 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

recommendation which it took extreniely ill. It was likewise

to be noted of this majestic spirit that whereas it always ap
peared with an air of having been out a long time and walked
an immense distance, it perceptibly came from a closely -con
tiguous wall. This occasioned its terrors to be received
derisively. The Queen of Denmark , a very buxom lady,
though no doubt historically brazen , was considered by the
public to have too much brass about her ; her chin being
attached to her diadem by a broad band of that metal (as
if she had a gorgeous toothache),her waist being encircled by
another, and each of her arms by another, so that she was
«
openly mentioned as “the kettledrum .” The noble boy in the
ancestral boats, was inconsistent ; representing himself, as it
were iu one breath as an able seaman , a strolling actor, a grave.
digger, a clergyman , and a person of the utmost importance at
a Court fencing -match, on the authority of whose practised eye
and nice discrimination the finest strokes were judged. This
gradually led to a want of toleration for him, and even-on his
being detected in holy orders, and declining to perform the
funeral service - to the general indignation taking the form of
puts. Lastly, Ophelia was a prey to such slow musical mad
ness, that when , in course of time, she had taken off her white
muslin scarf, folded it up, and buried it, a sulky man who had
been long cooling his impatient nose against an iron bar in the
front row of the gallery, growled, “Now the baby 's put to
bed , let's have supper ! ” Which , to say the least of it, was
out of keeping.
Upon my unfortunate townsman all these incidents accumu
lated with playful effect. Whenever that undecided Prince had
to ask a question or state a doubt, the public helped him out
with it. As for example ; on the question whether’twasnobler
in the mind to suffer, some roared yes, and some no, and some
inclining to bot opinions said “ toss up for it ; ” and quite a
Debating Society arose . When he asked what should such
fellows as he do crawling between earth and heaven, he was en
couraged with loud cries of “ Hear,hear ! ”. When he appeared
with his stocking disordered (its disorder expressed, according
to usage, by one very neat fold in the top, which I suppose to
be always got up with a flat iron ), a conversation took place in
the gallery respecting the paleness of his leg, and whether it
was occasioned by the turn the ghost had given him . On his
 END OF THE PLAY . 243
taking the recorders — very like a little black flute that had just
been played in the orchestra and handed out at the door-he was
called upon unanimously for Rule Britannia . When he recom
mended the player not to saw the air thus, the sulky man said ,
“ And don't you do it, neither ; you ’re a deal worse than him ! ”
And I grieve to add that peals of laughter greeted Mr. Wopsle
on every one of these occasions.
But his greatest trials were in the churchyard : which had the
appearance of a primeval forest, with a kind of small eccle
siastical wash - house on one side, and a turnpike gate on the
other. Mr. Wopsle, in a comprehensive black cloak, being
descried entering at the turnpike, the gravedigger was ad
monished in a friendly way, “ Look out ! Here's the under
taker a coming, to see how you're getting on with your work !"
I believe it is well known in a constitutional country that Mr.
Wopsle could not possibly have returned the skull , after moral
ising over it, without dusting his fingers on a white napkin taken
from his breast ; but even that innocent and indispensable
action did not pass without the comment “ Wai-ter ! ” The
arrival of the body for interment (in an empty black box with
the lid tumbling open) , was the signal for a general joy which
was much enhanced by the discovery, among the bearers, of an
individual obnoxious to identification . The joy attended Mr.
Wopsle through his struggle with Laertes on the brink of the
orchestra and the grave, and slackened no more until he had
tumbled the king off the kitchen -table, and had died by inches
from the ankles upward.
We had made some pale efforts in the beginning to applaud
Mr. Wopsle ; but they were too hopeless to be persisted in .
Therefore we had sat, feeling keenly for him , but laughing,
nevertheless, from ear to ear. I laughed in spite of myself all
the time, the whole thing was so droll; and yet I had a latent
impression that there was something decidedly fine in Mr.
Wopsle's elocution—not for old associations' sake, I am afraid,
because it was very slow, very dreary, very up-hill and
but
down -hill, and very unlikeany way in which any man in any
natural circumstances of life or death ever expressed himself
about anything. When the tragedy was over, and he had been
called for and hooted, I said to Herbert, “ Let us go at once, or
perhaps we shall meet him .”
We made all the baste we could down stairs, but we were not
R 2
244 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
quick enough either. Standing at the door was a Jewish man
with an unnatural heavy smear of eyebrow , who caught my
eyes as we advanced, and said, when we came up with him :
“ Mr. Pip and friend ? ”
Identity of Mr. Pip and friend confessed .
“Mr. Waldengarver," said the man, “ would be glad to have
the honour."
>
<< Waldengarver? ” I repeated — when
Herbert murmured in
my ear, “ Probably Wopsle.”
“ Oh ! " said I. “ Yes. Shall we follow you ? ”
6 A few steps, please.” When we were in a side alley, he
turned and asked,“ How do you think he looked ?-1 dressed
him .”
I don't know what he had looked like, except a funeral ; with
the addition of .a large Danish sun or star hanging round his neck
by a blue ribbon, that had given him the appearance of being
insured in some extraordinary Fire Office. But I said he had
looked very nice.
“When he come to the grave ,” said our conductor, “ he
showed his cloak beautiful. But, judging from the wing, it
looked to me that when he see the ghost in the queen's
>
apartment, he might have made more of his stockings.”
I modestly assented, and we all fell through a little dirty
swing door, into a sort of hot- packing - case immediately behind
it. Here Mr. Wopsle was divesting himself of his Danish gar
ments, and here there was just room for us to look at him over
one another's shoulders, by keeping the packing -case door, or
lid, wide open.
“ Gentlemen ,” said Mr. Wopsle, “ I am proud to see you. I
hope, Mr. Pip, you will excuse my sending round. I had the
happiness to know you in former times, and the Drama has ever
had a claim which has ever been acknowledged, on the noble
and the affluent."
Meanwhile, Mr. Waldengarver, in a frightful perspiration,
was trying to get himself out of his princely sables.
“Skin the stockings off, Mr. Waldengarver,” said the owner
of that property, or you ' ll bust 'em. Bust 'em, and you'll
bust five -and-thirty shillings. Shakspeare never was compli
mented with a finer pair. Keep quiet in your chair now, and
leave 'em to me .'
With that, he went upon his knees, and began to flay his
 BEHIND THE SCENES. 245

victim ; who, on the first stocking coming off, would certainly

have fallen over backward with his chair, but for there being no
room to fall anyhow .
I had been afraid until then to say a word about the play.
But then, Mr. Waldengarver looked up at us complacently, and
said :
“ Gentlemen , how did it seem to you, to go, in front ? ”
66
Herbert said from behind (at the same time poking me),
capitally.” So I said “ capitally ."
“ How did you like my reading of the character, gentle
men ? ” said Mr. Waldengarver, almost, if not quite, with
patronage.
Herbert said from behind (again poking me), “ massive and
concrete.” So I said boldly, as if I had originated it, and must
beg to insist upon it, “ massive and concrete.”
“ I am glad to have your approbation, gentlemen ,” said Mr.
Waldengarver, with an air of dignity, in spite of his being
ground against the wall at the time, and holding on by the seat
of the chair.
“But I'll tell you one thing, Mr. Waldengarver,” said the man
who was on his knees, “in wh you're out in your reading. Now
mind ! I don't care who says.contrary ; I tell you so . You 're
out in your reading of Hamlet when you get your legs in profile.
The last Hamlet as I dressed, made the same mistakes in his
reading at rehearsal, till I got him to put a large red wafer on
each of his shins, and then at that rehearsal ( which was the last)
I went in front, sir, to the back of the pit, and whenever his
reading brought him into profile, I called out ' I don't see no
"
wafers !' And at night his reading was lovely. "
Mr. Waldengarver smiled at me, as much as to say CC a faith
ful dependent -- I overlook his folly ; ” and then said aloud , “ My
view is a little classic and thoughtful for them here ; but they
will improve , they will improve .”
Herbert and I said together, Ob , no doubt they would
improve.
“ Did you observe, gentlemen," said Mr. Waldengarver,
" that there was a man in the gallery who endeavoured to cast
derision on the service-I mean, the representation ? "
We basely replied that we rather thought we had noticed
such a man. I added, “ He was drunk, no doubt.” .
“ Oh dear no, sir ,”" said Mr. Wopsle, “ not drunk. His em
246 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
ployer would see to that, sir. His employer would not allow
him to be drunk.”
“You know his employer ? ” said I.
Mr. Wopsle shut his eyes, and opened them again ; per
forming both ceremonies very slowly. “ You must have
observed, gentlemen ," ” said he, “ an ignorant and a blatant ass,
with a rasping throat and a countenance expressive of low
malignity, who went through-I will not say sustained-the
rôle (if I may use a French expression ) of Claudius King of
Denmark . That is his employer, gentlemen. Such is the
profession ! ”
Without distinctly knowing whether I should have been
more sorry for Mr. Wopsle if he had been in despair, I was so
sorry for him as it was, that I took the opportunity of his
turning round to have his braces put on - which jostled us out
at the doorway - to ask Herbert what he thought of having
him home to supper ? Herbert said he thought it would be
kind to do so ; therefore I invited him, and he went to Bar
nard's with us, wrapped up to the eyes, and we did our best for
him, and he sat until two o'clock in the morning, reviewing his
success and developing his plans. I forget in detail what they
were, but I have a general recollection that he was to begin
with reviving the Drama, and to end with crushing it ; inas
much as his decease would leave it utterly bereft and without
a chance or hope.
Miserably I went to bed after all, and miserably thought of
Estella, and miserably dreamed that my expectations were all
cancelled, and that I had to give my hand in marriage to Her
bert's Clara, or play Harnlet to Miss Havisham's Ghost, before
twenty thousand people, without knowing twenty words of it.

CHAPTER XXXII.

ONE day when I was busy with my books and Mr. Pocket, I
received a note by the post, the mere outside of which threw
me into a great flutter ; for, though I had never seen the hand
writing in which it was addressed, I divined whose hand it
was. It had no set beginning, as Dear Mr. Pip, or Dear Pip,
or Dear Sir, or Dear Anything, but ran thus :
 AT THE COACH OFFICE IN WOOD-STREET. 247
“ I am to come to London the day after to -morrow by the mid -day
coach . I believe it was settled you should meet me ? At all events
Miss Havisham has that impression, and I write in obedience to it.
She sends you her regard . - Yours, ESTELLA ."
If there had been time, I should probably have ordered
several suits of clothes for this occasion ; but as there was not, I
was fain to be content with those I had. My appetite vanished
instantly, and I knew no peace or rest until the day arrived .
Not that its arrival brought me either ; for, then I was worse
than ever, and began haunting the coach -office in Wood -street,
Cheapside, before the coach had left the Blue Boar in our
town . For all that I knew this perfectly well, I still felt as if
it were not safe to let the coach -office be out of my sight
longer than five minutes at a time; and in this condition of
unreason I had performed the first half- hour of a watch of
four or five hours, when Wemmick ran against me.
Halloa, Mr. Pip , ” said he, “ how do you do ? I should
hardly have thought this was your beat."
I explained that I was waiting to meet somebody who was
coming up by coach , and I enquired after the Castle and the Aged.
“ Both flourishing, thankee ,” said Wemmick, "and particu
larly the Aged. He's in wonderful feather. He'll be eighty
two next birthday. I have aa notion of firing eighty-two times,
if the neighbourhood shouldn't complain , and that cannon of
mine should prove equal to the pressure. However, this is not
London talk. Where do you think I am going to ? ”
66

To the office," said I, for he was tending in that direction .

“Next thing to it, " returned Wemmick , “ I am going to
Newgate. We are in a banker's- parcel case just at present,
and I have been down the road taking a squint at the scene of
action , and thereupon must have a word or two with our client."
“ Did your client commit the robbery ?" I asked .
“ Bless your soul and body, no ,” answered Wemmick , very
drily. “ But he is accused of it. So might you or I be.
Either of us might be accused of it, you know .”
Only neither of us is,” I remarked .
“ Yah ! ” said Wemmick , touching me on the breast with his
6
forefinger ; "you're a deep one, Mr. Pip ! Would you like to
have a look at Newgate ? Have you time to spare ? ”
I had so much time to spare that the proposal came as arelief,
notwithstanding its irreconcilability with my latent desire to
248 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
keep my eye on the coach - office. Muttering that I would make
the inquiry whether I had time to walk with him, I went into
the office, and ascertained from the clerk with the nicest pre
cision and much to the trying of his temper, the earliest moment
at which the coach could be expected — which I knew beforehand,
quite as well as he. I then rejoined Mr. Wemmick , and affecting
to consult my watch and to be surprised by the information I
had received, accepted his offer.
We were at Newgate in a few minutes, and we passed through
the lodge where some fetters were hanging up on the bare walls
among the prison rules, into the interior of the jail. At that
time, jails were much neglected, and the period of exaggerated
reaction consequent on all public wrong -doing - and which is
always its heaviest and longest punishment—was still far off.
So, felons were not lodged and fed better than soldiers (to say
nothing of paupers) , and seldom set fire to their prisons with
the excusable object of improving the flavour of their soup.
It was visiting time when Wemmick took me in ; and a potman
was going his rounds with beer ; and the prisoners, behind bars
in yards, were buying beer, and talking to friends; and a frouzy ,
ugly, disorderly, depressing scene itwas.
It struck me that Wemmick walked among the prisoners,
much as a gardener might walk among his plants. This was
first put into my head by his seeing a shoot that had come up
in the night,and saying, “ What, Captain Tom ? Are you there ?
>
Ah , indeed ?” and also, “ Is that Black Bill behind the cistern ?
Why I didn't look for you these two months ; how do you find
yourself ? ” Equally in his stopping at the bars and attending
to anxious whisperers - always singly - Wemmick , with his
post -office in an immovable state, looked at them while in con
ference, as if he were taking particular notice of the advance
they had made, since last observed, towards coming out in full
blow at their trial.
He was highly popular, and I found that he took the familiar
department of Mr. Jaggers's business : though something of
the state of Mr. Jaggers hung about him too, forbidding
approach beyond certain limits. His personal recognition of
each successive client was comprised in a nod, and in his
settling his hat a little easier on his head with both hands, and
then tightening the post- office, and putting his hands in his
pockets. In one or two instances, there was a difficulty re
 IN NEWGATE . 249

specting the raising of fees, and then Mr. Wemmick , backing

as far as possible from the insufficient money produced, said ,
“ It's no use , my boy. I am only a subordinate. I can't take
it. Don't go on in that way with a subordinate. If you are
unable to make up your quantum , my boy, you had better
address yourself to a principal ; there are plenty of principals
in the profession, you know , and what is not worth the while of
one, may be worth the while of another ; that's my recom
mendation to you, speaking as a subordinate . Don't try on
useless measures. Why should you ? Now who's next ? ”
Thus, we walked through Wemmick’s greenhouse , until he
turned to me and said, “ Notice the man I shall shake hands
with .” I should have done so, without the preparation, as he
had shaken hands with no one yet.
Almost as soon as he had spoken , a portly upright man
(whom I can see now, as I write) in a well-worn olive - coloured
frock -coat, with a peculiar pallor overspreading the red in his
complexion, and eyes that went wandering about when he tried
to fix them, came up to a corner of the bars, and put his hand
to his hat — which had a greasy and fatty surface like cold broth
—with a half - serious and half -jocose military salute .
66
Colonel, to you ! ” said Wemmick ; “ how are you, Colonel ? "
“ All right, Mr. Wemmick.”
CG
Everything was done that could be done, but the evidence
was too strong for us, Colonel.”
“ Yes, it was too strong, sir - but I6don't care . ”
No, no, ” said Wemmick , coolly, “ you don't care.” Then,
turning to me, “Served His Majesty, this man . Was a soldier
>
in the line and bought his discharge. "
I said, “ Indeed ?” and the man's eyes looked at me, and
then looked over my head, and then looked all round me, and
then he drew his hand across his lips and laughed .
“ I think I shall be out of this on Monday, sir,” he said to
Wemnick .
"
“ Perhaps," returned my friend , “ but there's no knowing ."
“ I am glad to have the chance of bidding you good -bye,
Mr. Wemmick ," said the man , stretching out his hand between
two bars.
66
Thankee,” said Wemmick , shaking hands with him. “Same
to you , Colonel.”
“ If what I had upon me when taken , had been real, Mr.
 250 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

Wemmick ," said the man , unwilling to let his hand go, “ I
should have asked the favour of your wearing another ring - in
acknowledgment of your attentions.""
“I'll accept the will for the deed," said Wemmick . “« By -the
bye ; you were quite a pigeon - fancier. ” The man looked up at
the sky. “ I am told you had a remarkable breed of tumblers.
Could you commission any friend of yours to bring me a pair,
if you've no further use for 'em ? "
“ It shall be done, sir.”
“ All right,” said Wemmick, “ they shall be taken care of.
Good afternoon, Colonel. Good -bye ! ” They shook hands
again , and as we walked away Wemmick said to me, “ A
Coiner, a very good workman . The Recorder's report is made
to-day, and he is sure to be executed on Monday. Still you
see, as far as it goes, a pair of pigeons are portable property, all the
.” With that he looked back, and nodded at his dead plant,
same.'
and then cast his eyes about him in walking out of the yard, as
if he were considering what other pot would go best in its place.
As we came out of the prison through the lodge, I found
that the great importance of my guardian was appreciated by
the turnkeys, no less than by those whom they held in charge.
“ Well, Mr. Wemmick , " said the turnkey, who kept us between
the two studded and spiked lodge gates, and who carefully
locked one before he unlocked the other, “What's Mr. Jaggers
going to do with that Waterside murder ? Is he going to make
it manslaughter, or what is he going to make of it ? "
Why don't you ask him ? " returned Wemmick .
“ Oh, yes, I dare say ! ” said the turnkey.
“ Now , that's the way with them here, Mr. Pip, " remarked
Wemmick , turning to mewith his post-office elongated. “They
don't mind what they ask of me, the subordinate ; but you'll
never catch 'em asking any questions of my principal.”
“ Is this young gentleman one of the ' prentices or articled
ones of your office ? ” asked the turnkey, with a grin at Mr.
Wemmick's humour .
There he goes again, you see !” cried Wemmick , " I told
you so ! Asks another question of the subordinate before the
first is dry ! Well, supposing Mr. Pip is one of them ? ”
Why then ," said the turnkey , grinning again , “ he knows
what Mr. Jaggers is.”
“ Yah ! ” cried Wemmick, suddenly hitting out at the turnkey
 WAITING FOR ESTELLA. 251

in аa. facetious way, " you're as dumb as one of your own keys
when you have to do with my principal, you know you are .
Let us out, you old fox, or I'll get him to bring an action
against you for false imprisonment."
The turnkey laughed, and gave us good day, and stood
laughing at us over the spikes of the wicket when we descended
the steps into the street.
>
“ Mind you, Mr. Pip,” said Wemmick, gravely in my ear, as
he took my arm to be more confidential; “ I don't know that
Mr. Jaggers does a better thing than the way in which he keeps
himself so high. He's always so high. His constant height is
of a piece with his immense abilities. That Colonel durst no
more take leave of him , than that turnkey durst ask him his
intentions respecting a case. Then, between his height and
them , he slips in his subordinate - don't you see ?-and so he
»
has 'em, soul and body ."
I was very much impressed, and not for the first time, by
my guardian's subtlety . To confess the truth, I very heartily
wished , and not for the first time, that I had had some other
guardian of minor abilities,
Mr. Wemmick and I parted at the office in Little Britain ,
where suppliants for Mr. Jaggers's notice were lingering about
as usual, and I returned to my watch in the street of the coach
office, with some three hours on hand . I consumed the whole
time in thinking how strange it was that I should be encom
passed by all this taint of prison and crime ; that, in my child
hood out on our lonely marshes on a winter evening I should
have first encountered it ; that, it should have reappeared on
two occasions, starting out like a stain that was faded but not
gone ; that, it should in this new way pervade my fortune and
advancement. While my mind was thus engaged, I thought of
the beautiful young Estella, proud and refined , coming towards
me, and I thought with absolute abhorrence of the contrast
between the jail and her. I wished that Wemmick had not
met me, or that I had not yielded to him and gone with him,
so that, of all days in the year on this day, I might not have
had Newgate in my breath and on my clothes. I beat the
prison dust off my feet as I sauntered to and fro, and I shook
it out of my dress, and I exhaled its air from my lungs. So
contaminated did I feel, remembering who was coming, that
the coach came quickly after all, and I was not yet free from
252 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

the soiling consciousness of Mr. Wemmick’s conservatory, when

I saw her face at the coach window and her hand waving to me.
What was the nameless shadow which again in that one
instant had passed ?

CHAPTER XXXIII.

IN her furred travelling-dress, Estella seemed more deli

cately beautiful than she had ever seemed yet, even in
my eyes. Her manner was more winning than she had cared
to let it be to me before, and I thought I saw Miss Havisham's
influence in the change.
We stood in the Inn Yard while she pointed out her luggage
to me, and when it was all collected I remembered - having
forgotten everything but herself in the meanwhile — that I
knew nothing of her destination.
“ I am going to Richmond,” she told me. “ Our lesson is,
that there are two Richmonds, one in Surrey and one in York
shire, and that mine is the Surrey Richmond . The distance
is ten miles. I am to have a carriage, and you are to take
me, This is my purse , and you are to pay my charges out
of it . Oh, you must take the purse ! We have no choice ,
you and I, but to obey our instructions. We are not free to
follow our own devices, you and I.”
As she looked at me in giving me the purse, I hoped there
was an inner meaning in her words. She said them slight
ingly, but not with displeasure.
“ A carriage will have to be sent for, Estella. Will you rest
here a little ? "
“Yes, I am to rest here a little, and I am to drink some
tea, and you are to take care of me the while.” ,
She drew her arm through mine, as if it must be done, and
I requested a waiter who had been staring at the coach like
a man who had never seen such a thing in his life, to show
us a private sitting -room . Upon that, he pulled out a napkin,
as if it were a magic clue without which he couldn't find the
 CONVERSATION WITH ESTELLA . 253

way up stairs, and led us to the black hole of the establish

ment : fitted up with aa diminishing mirror (quite a superfluous
article considering the hole’s proportions), an anchovy sauce
cruet, and somebody's pattens. On my objecting to this re
treat, he took us into another room with a dinner -table for
thirty, and in the grate a scorched leaf of a copy -book under a
bushel of coal-dust. Having looked at this extinct conflagra
tion and shaken his head, he took my order : which , proving to
be merely “ Some tea for the lady ,” sent him out of the room
in a very low state of mind.
I was, and I am, sensible that the air of this chamber, in its
strong combination of stable with soup -stock , might have led
one to infer that the coaching-department was not doing well,
and that the enterprising proprietor was boiling down the
horses for the refreshment department. Yet the room was
all in all to me, Estella being in it . I thought that with her
I could have been happy there for life. (I was not at all
happy there at the time, observe, and I knew it well.)
“ Where are you going to, at Richmond ? »” I asked
Estella .
“ I am going to live, ” said she, “ at a great expense , with a
lady there, who has the power - or says she has - of taking me
about, and introducing me, and showing people to me and
showing me to people."
“ I suppose you will be glad of variety and admiration ? "
“Yes, I suppose so .”
She answered so carelessly, that I said , "You speak of your
self as if you were some one else .”
“ Where did you learn how I speak of others ? Come,
come, ” said Estella, smiling delightfully, “ you must not ex
pect me to go to school to you ; I must talk in my own way.
How do you thrive with Mr. Pocket? ”
" I live quite pleasantly there ; at least- It appeared
to me that I was losing a chance.
“ At least ? ”" repeated Estella.
“ As pleasantly as I could anywhere, away from you.”
60You silly boy, ” said Estella,
quite composedly, “ how can
you talk such nonsense ? Your friend Mr. Matthew , I believe,
is superior to the rest of his family ? ” 9
“Very superior indeed. He is nobody's enemy
“ Don't add but his own, " interposed Estella , “ for I hate
254 GREAT EXPECTATIONS,
that class of man . But he really is disinterested, and above
small jealousy and spite, I have heard ? ”
“ I am sure I have every reason to say so . "
“ You have not every reason to say so of the rest of his
people,” said Estella, nodding at me with an expression of face
that was at once grave and rallying, " for they beset Miss
Havisham with reports and insinuations to your disadvantage.
They watch you, misrepresent you, write letters about you
( anonymous sometimes), and you are the torment and occupa
tion of their lives . You can scarcely realise to yourself the
hatred those people feel for you . ”
66
* They do me no harm , I hope ?
Instead of answering, Estella burst out laughing. This was
very singular to me, and I looked at her in considerable per
plexity. When she left off -- and she had not laughed
languidly, but with real enjoyment - I said, in my diffident way
with her :
“ I hope II may suppose that you would not be amused if they
did me any harm ? ”
“ No, no, you may be sure of that,” said Estella. " You may
be certain that I laugh because they fail. Oh, those people
with Miss Havisham , and the tortures they undergo ! ” She
laughed again , and even now, when she had told me why,
her laughter was very singular to me, for I could not doubt
its being genuine, and yet it seemed too much for the occa
sion. I thought there must really be something more here
than I knew ; she saw the thought in my mind and answered
it.
“ It is not easy for even you ," said Estella, “ to know what
satisfaction it gives me to see those people thwarted, or what
an enjoyable sense of the ridiculous I have when they are
made ridiculous. For you were not brought up in that
strange house from a mere baby. — I was. You had not
your little wits sharpened by their intriguing against you ,
suppressed and defenceless, under the mask of sympathy and
pity and what not, that is soft and soothing. I had. You did
not gradually open your round childish eyes wider and wider
to the discovery of that impostor of a woman who calculates
her stores of peace of mind for when she wakes up in the
night.I did.”
It was no laughing matter with Estella now, nor was she
 A FACE LIKE A STATUE'S . 255

summoning these remembrances from any shallow place. I

would not have been the cause of that look of hers, for all my
expectations in a heap.
“ Two things I can tell you ,” said Estella . “First, notwith
standing the proverb, that constant dropping will wear away
a stone, you may set your mind at rest that these people never
will never would in a hundred years — impair your ground
with Miss Havisham , in any particular, great or small. Second,
I am beholden to you as the cause of their being so busy and
so mean in vain , and there is my hand upon it.”
As she gave it me playfully - for her darker mood had been
but momentary — I held it and put it to my lips. “ You ridicu
lous boy,” said Estella ,“ will you never take warning ? Or do
you kiss my hand in the same spirit in which I once let you
kiss my cheek ? "
“ What spirit was that ? ” said I.
“ I must think a moment. A spirit of contempt for the
fawners and plotters.”
>
“ If I say yes, may I kiss the cheek again ?
“ You should have asked before you touched the hand. But,
yes, if you like.”
G
I leaned down, and her calm face was like a statue's. “ Now ,"
said Estella, gliding away the instant I touched her cheek,
" you are to take care that I have some tea, and you are to
take me to Richmond .”
Her reverting to this tone as if our association were forced
upon us and we were mere puppets, gave me pain ; but every
thing in our intercourse did give me pain . Whatever her tone
with me happened to be, I could put no trust in it, and build
no hope on it ; and yet I went on against trust and against
hope. Why repeat it a thousand times ? So it always was.
I rang for the tea, and the waiter, reappearing with his magic
clue, brought in by degrees some fifty adjuncts to that refresh
ment, but of tea not a glimpse. A teaboard , cups and saucers,
plates, knives and forks ( including carvers), spoons (various),
salt-cellars, a meek little muffin confined with the utmost pre
caution under a strong iron cover, Moses in the bullrushes
typified by a soft bit of butter in a quantity of parsley, a pale
loaf with a powdered head, two proof impressions of the bars
of the kitchen fire -place on triangular bits of bread, and ulti
mately a fat family urn : which the waiter staggered in with,
256 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

expressing in his countenance burden and suffering. After a

prolonged absence at this stage of the entertainment, he at
length came back with a casket of precious appearance con
taining twigs. These I steeped in hot water, and so from the
whole of these appliances extracted one cup of I don't know
what, for Estella.
The bill paid , and the waiter remembered, and the ostler not
forgotten, and the chambermaid taken into consideration - in a
word, the whole house bribed into a state of contempt and
animosity, and Estella's purse much lightened — we got into our
post-coach and drove away. Turning into Cheapside and
rattling up Newgate -street, we were soon under the walls of
which I was so ashamed .
“What place is that ?” Estella asked me.
I made a foolish pretence of not at first recognising it, and
then told her. As she looked at it, and drew in her head
again , murmuring “ Wretches ! ” I would not have confessed
to my visit for any consideration ,
“ Mr. Jaggers," said I, by way of putting it neatly on some
body else, “ has the reputation of being more in the secrets of
that dismal place than any man in London ."
“ He is more in the secrets of every place, I think,” said
Estella, in a low voice.
“ You have been accustomed to see him often , I sup
pose ? "
“ I have been accustomed to see him at uncertain intervals,
ever since I can remember. But I know him no better now,
than did before I could speak plainly. What is you own
experience of him ? Do you advance with him ? " .
“ Once habituated to his distrustful manner," said I, “ I have
done very well.”
“Are you intimate ? "
“ I have dined with him at his private house."
“ I fancy ,” said Estella, shrinking, “ that must be a curious
place .”
“ It is a curious place .”
I should have been chary of discussing my guardian too freely
even with her ; but I should have gone on with the subject so
far as to describe the dinner in Gerrard -street, if we had not
then come into a sudden glare of gas. It seemed, while it
lasted , to be all alight and alive with that inexplicable feeling
 AT RICHMOND . 207
I had had before ; and when we were out of it, I was as much
dazed for a few moments as if I had been in Lightning.
So we fell into other talk , and it was principally about the
way by which we were travelling, and about what parts of
Londoa lay on this side of it, and what on that. The great
city was almost new to her, she told me, for she had never left
Miss Havisham's neighbourhood until she had gone to France ,
and she had merely passed through London then in going and
returning. I asked her if my guardian had any charge of her
while she remained here ? To that she emphatically said ,
“ God forbid ! ” and no more .
It was impossible for me to avoid seeing that she cared to
attract me ; that she made herself winning ; and would have
won me even if the task had needed pains. Yet this made me
none the happier, for, even if she had not taken that tone of
our being disposed of by others, I should have felt that she
held my heart in her hand because she wilfully chose to do it,
and not because it would have wrung any tenderness in her,
to crush it and throw it away .
When we passed through Hammersmith, I showed her where
Mr. Matthew Pocket lived, and said it was no great way from
Richmond, and that I hoped I should see her sometimes.
“Oh, yes, you are to see me ; you are to come when you
think proper; you are to be mentioned to the family ; indeed
you are already mentioned .”
I inquired was it a large household she was going to be a
member of ?
“ No ; there are only two ; mother and daughter. The
mother is a lady of some station , though not averse to increas
ing her income.”
I wonder Miss Havisham could part with you again so
soon."
“ It is a part of Miss Havisham's plans for me, Pip ,” said Estella,
with a sigh , as if she were tired ; “ I am to write to her con
stantly and see her regularly , and report how I go on-I and
"
the jewels — for they are nearly all mine now .” .
It was the first time she had ever called me by my name.
Of course she did so purposely, and knew that I should treasure
it up.
We came to Richmond all too soon, and our destination there,
was a house by the Green : a staid old house, where hoops and
S
258 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

powder and patches, embroidered coats, rolled stockings, ruffles,

and swords, had had their court days many a time. Some
ancient trees before the house were still cut into fashions as
formal and unnatural as the hoops and wigs and stiff skirts;
but their own allotted places in the great procession of the
dead were not far off, and they would soon drop into them and
go the silent way of the rest.
A bell with an old voice - which I dare say its time had
often said to the house, Here is the green farthingale, Here is
the diamond -hilted sword, Here are the shoes with red heels
and the blue solitaire,-sounded gravely in the moonlight, and
two cherry - coloured maids came fluttering out to receive
Estella. The doorway soon absorbed her boxes, and she gave
me her hand and a smile, and said good night, and was absorbed
likewise. And still I stood looking at the house, thinking how
happy I should be if I lived there with her, and knowing that
I never was happy with her, but always miserable.
I got into the carriage to be taken back to Hammersmith ,
and I got in with a bad heart-ache, and I got out with a worse
heart-ache. At our own door I found little Jane Pocket coming
home from a little party, escorted by her little lover ; and I
envied her little lover, in spite of his being subject to Flopson.
Mr. Pocket was out lecturing ; for he was a most delightful
lecturer on domestic economy, and his treatises on the manage
ment of children and servants were considered the very best
text -books on those themes. But Mrs. Pocket was at home,
and was in a little difficulty, on account of the baby's having
been accommodated with a needle-case to keep him quiet during
the unaccountable absence (with a relative in the Foot Guards)
of Millers. And more needles were missing than it could be
regarded as quite wholesome for a patient of such tender years
either to apply externally or to take as a tonic .
Mr. Pocket being justly celebrated for giving most excellent
practical advice, and for having a clear and sound perception of
things and a highly judicious mind, I had some notion in my
heart -ache of begging him to accept my confidence. But hap
pening to look up at Mrs. Pocket as she sat reading her book of
dignities after prescribing Bed as a sovereign remedy for baby,
I thought - Well--No, Iwouldn't.
 INFLUENCE OF MY FORTUNE ON MY LIFE . 259

CHAPTER XXXIV .

As I had grown accustomed to my expectations, I had insensibly

begun to notice their effect upon myself and those around me.
Their influence on my own character I disguised from my re
cognition as much as possible, but I knew very well that it was
not all good. I lived in a state of chronic uneasiness respecting
my behaviour to Joe. My conscience was not by any means
comfortable about Biddy. When I woke up in the night-like
Camilla - I used to think, with a weariness on my spirits, that
I should have been happier and better if I had never seen Miss
Havishani's face, and had risen to manhood content to be
partners with Joe in the honest old forge. Many a time of an
evening, when I sat alone looking at the fire, I thought, after
all, there was no fire like the forge fire and the kitchen fire at
home .
Yet Estella was so inseparable from all my restlessness and
disquiet of mind, that I really fell into confusion as to the
limits of my own part in its production. That is to say, sup
posing I had had no expectations, and yet had had Estella to
think of, I could not make out to my satisfaction that I should
have done much better. Now , concerning the influence of my
position on others, I was in no such difficulty, and so I perceived
--though dimly enough perhaps — that it was not beneficial to
anybody, and, above all, that it was not beneficial to Herbert.
My lavish habits led his easy nature into expenses that he
could not afford, corrupted the simplicity of his life, and dis
turbed his peace with anxieties and regrets. I was not at all
remorseful for having unwittingly set those other branches of
the Pocket family to the poor arts they practised : because
such littlenesses were their natural bent, and would have been
evoked by anybody else, if I had left them slumbering. But
Herbert's was a very different case , and it often caused me a
twinge to think that I had done him evil service in crowding
his sparely -furnished chambers with incongruous upholstery
work , and placing the canary - breasted Avenger at his disposal.
So now, as an infallible way of making little ease great ease,
I began to contract a quantity of debt. I could hardly begin
but Herbert must begin too, so he soon followed . At Startop's
suggestion, we put ourselves down for election into a club
8 2
260 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

called the Finches of the Grove : the object of which institu

tion I have never divined, if it were not that the members
should dine expensively once a fortnight, to quarrel among
themselves as much as possible after dinner, and to cause six
waiters to get drunk on the stairs. I know that these gratify
ing social ends were so invariably accomplished, that Herbert
and I understood nothing else to be referred to in the first
standing toast of the society : which ran , “Gentlemen, may the
present promotion of good feeling ever reign predominant
among the Finches of the Grove."
The Finches spent their money foolishly ( the Hotel we dined
at was in Covent Garden ), and the first Finch I saw when I
had the honour of joining the Grove was Bentley Drummle ::
at that time floundering about town in a cab of his own, and
doing a great deal of damage to the posts at the street corners.
Occasionally, he shot bimself out of his equipage head -foremost
over the apron ; and I saw him on one occasion deliver himself
at the door of the Grove in this unintentional way - like coals.
But here I anticipate a little, for I was not a Finch, and could
CU
not be, according to the sacred laws of the society, until I came
of age.
In my confidence in my own resources, I would willingly
have taken Herbert's expenses on myself ; but Herbert was
proud, and I could make no such proposal to him. So he got
into difficulties in every direction ,and continued to look about
him . When we gradually fell into keeping late hours and late
company , I noticed that he looked about him with a despond
ing eye at breakfast- time; that he began to look about him
more hopefully about mid-day; that he drooped when he came
into dinner ; that he seemed to descry Capital in the distance,
rather clearly, after dinner : that he all but realised Capital
towards midnight; and that about two o'clock in the morning,
he became so deeply despondent again as to talk of buying, a
rifle and going toAmerica, with ageneral purpose of compelling
buffaloes to make his fortune.
I was usually at Hammersmithabout half the week, and
when I was at Hammersmith I haunted Richmond'; whereof
separately by -and -by. Herbert would often come to Hammer
smith when I was there, and I think at those seasons his father
would occasionally have some passing perception that the
opening he was looking for had not appeared yet. But in the
 DESPONDENCY OF HERBERT. 261

general tumbling up of the family, his tumbling out in life

somewhere, was a thing to transact itself somehow . In the
meantime Mr. Pocket grew greyer, and tried oftener to lift
himself out ofhis perplexities by the hair. While Mrs. Pocket
tripped up the family with her footstool, read her book of
dignities, lost her pocket-handkerchief, told us about her
grandpapà, and taught the young idea how to shoot, by shooting
it into bed whenever it attracted her notice .
Is I am now generalising a period of my life with the object
of clearing my way before me, I can scarcely do so better than
by at once completing the description of our usual manners and
customs at Barnard's Inn .
We spent as much money as we could , and got as little for it
We were
as people could make up their minds to give us.
always more or less miserable , and most of our acquaintance
were in the samecondition . There was a gay fiction among us
that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton
truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was
in the last aspect a rather common one .
Every morning, with an air ever new, Herbert went into the
City to about m. I often paid him a visit in the dark
back -room in which he consorted with an ink -jar, a hat-peg, a
coal-box, a string -box, an almanack , a desk and stool, and a
ruler ; and I do not remember that I ever saw him do anything
else but look about him . If we all did what we undertake to
do, as faithfully as Herbert did , we might live in a Republic of
the Virtues. He had nothing else to do, poor fellow , except at a
certain hour of every afternoon to “ go to Lloyd's ”-in observ
ance of a ceremonyof seeing his principal, I think. He never
did anything else in connection with Lloyd's that I could find
not except come back again. When he felt his case unusually
serious, and that he positively must find an opening, he would
go on 'Change at a busy time, and walk in and out, in a kind of
gloomy country dance figure, among the assembled magnates.
CG
For," says Herbert to me, coming home to dinner on one of
those special occasions, “ I find the truth to be, Handel, that
an opening won't come to one, but one must go to it-so I
have been .”
If we had been less attached to one another, I think we
must have hated one another regularly every morning. I
detested the chambers beyond expression at that period of
262 GREAT EXPECTATIONS,

repentance, and could not endure the sight of the Avenger's

livery : which had a more expensive and a less remunerative
appearance then, than at any other time in the four-and -twenty
hours. As we got more and more into debt, breakfast became
a hollower and hollower form , and being on one occasion at
breakfast-time threatened (by letter) with legal proceedings,
“ not wholly unconnected , ” as my local paper might put it,
>
" with jewellery,” I went so far as to seize the Avenger by his
blue collar and shake him off his feet - so tha was actually
in the air, like a booted Cupid—for presuming to suppose that
we wanted a roll.
At certain times — meaning at uncertain times, for they de
pended on our humour - I would say to Herbert, as if it were
a remarkable discovery :
“ My dear Herbert, we are getting on badly ."
My dear Handel,” Herbert would say to me, in all sincerity,
“ if you will believe me, those very words were on my lips, by
a strange coincidence.”
CG
“ Then , Herbert," I would respond, let us look into our
affairs . "
We always derived profound satisfaction from making au
appointment for this purpose. I always thought this was
business, this was the way to confront the thing, this was the
way to take the foe by the throat. And I know Herbert
thought so too.
We ordered something rather special for dinner, with a
bottle of something similarly out of the common way, in order
that our minds might be fortified for the occasion, and we
might come well up to the mark. Dinner over, we produced a
bundle of pens, a copious supply of ink, and a goodly show of
writing and blotting paper. For, there was something very
comfortable in having plenty of stationery.
I would then take aa sheet of paper, and write across the top
of it, in a neat land, the heading, “ Memorandum of Pip's
debts ; ” with Barnard's Inn and the date very carefully added .
Herbert would also take a sheet of paper, and write across it
with similar formalities, " Memorandum of Herbert's debts."
Each of us would then refer to a confused heap of papers at
his side, which had been thrown into drawers, worn into holes
in pockets, half -burnt in lighting candles, stuck for weeks into
the looking -glass, and otherwise damaged. The sound of our
 STATE OF MY AFFAIRS . 263

pens going refreshed us exceedingly , insomuch that I some

times found it difficult to distinguish between this edifying
business proceeding and actually paying the money. In point
of meritorious character, the two things seemed about equal.
When we had written a little while, I would ask Herbert
how he got on ? Herbert probably would have been scratching
his head in a most rueful manner at the sight of his accu
mulating figures.
“ They are mounting up, Handel,” Herbert would say ;
“ upon my life they are mounting up .”
« Be firm , Herbert,” I would retort, plying my own pen with
great assiduity. “ Look the thing in the face. Look into
your affairs. Stare them out of countenance ."
“ So I would , Handel, only they are staring me out of
countenance ."
However, my determined manner would have its effect, and
Herbert would fall to work again. After a time he would give
up once more , on the plea that he had not got Cobbs's bill, or
Lobbs's, or Nobbs's, as the case might be.
Then, Herbert, estimate ; estimate it in round numbers,
and put it down.”
“ What a fellow of resource you are ! ” my friend would
reply, with admiration . “ Really your business powers are
very remarkable.”
I thought so too . I established with myself, on these occa
sions, the reputation of a first - rate man of business - prompt,
decisive, energetic, clear, cool-headed . When I had got all my
responsibilities down upon my list, I compared each with the
bill, and ticked it off. My self-approval when I ticked an entry
was quite a luxurious sensation . When I had no more ticks to
make, I folded all my bills up uniformly, docketed each on the
back, and tied the whole into a symmetrical bundle . Then I
did the same for Herbert (who modestly said he had not my
administrative genius), and felt that I had brought his affairs
into a focus for him .
My business habits had one other bright feature, which I
called " leaving a Margin.” For example ; supposing Herbert's
debts to be one hundred and sixty -four pounds four-and -two
pence, I would say, “ Leave a margin , and put them down at
two hundred .” Or, supposing my own to be four times as
much, I would leave a margin , and put them down at seven
264 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
hundred . I had the highest opinion of the wisdom of this
same Margin, but I am bound to acknowledge that on looking
back, I deem it to have been an expensive device . For, we
always ran into new debt immediately, to the full extent of
the margin , and sometimes, in the sense of freedom and
solvency it imparted, got pretty far on into another margin .
But there was a calm , a rest, a virtuous hush, consequent on
these examinations of our affairs, that gave me, for the time,
an admirable opinion of myself. Soothed by my exertions,
my method, and Herbert's compliments, I would sit with his
symmetrical bundle and my own on the table before me among
the stationery, and feel like a Bank of some sort, rather than
a private individual.
We shut our outer door on these solemn occasions in order
that we might not be interrupted. I had fallen into my serene
state one evening, when we heard a letter dropped through the
(C
slit in the said door, and fall on the ground. “ It's for you,
Handel, ” said Herbert, going out and coming back with it,
“ and I hope there is nothing the matter." This was in allu
sion to its heavy black seal and border.
The letter was signed TRABB & Co., and its contents were
simply, that I was an honoured sir, and that they begged
inform me that Mrs. J. Gargery had departed this life on
Monday last at twenty minutes past six in the evening, and
that my attendance was requested at the interment on Monday
next at three o'clock in the afternoon .

CHAPTER XXXV .

It was the first time that a grave had opened in my road of

life, and the gap it made in the smooth ground was wonderful.
The figure of my sister in her chair by the kitchen fire, haunted
me night and day. That the place could possibly be, without
her, was something my mind seemed unable to compass ; and
whereas she had seldom or never been in my thoughts of late,
I had now the strangest idea that she was coming towards me
in the street, or that she would presently knock at the door .
 DEATH OF MRS . GARGERY . 265

Call
In my rooms too, with which she had never been at asso
ciated, there was at once the blankness of death and a perpetual
suggestion of the sound of her voice or the turn of her face or
figure, as if she were still alive and had been often there.
Whatever my fortunes might have been, I could scarcely
have recalled my sister with much tenderness. But I suppose
there is a shock of regret which may exist without much
tenderness. Under its influence (and perhaps to make up for
the want of the softer feeling) I was seized with a violent in
dignation against the assailant from whom she had suffered so
much ; and I felt that on sufficient proof I could have revenge
fully pursued Orlick , or anyone else, to the last extremity.
Having written to Joe, to offer him consolation, and to assure
him that I would come to the funeral, I passed the intermediate
days in the curious state of mind I have glanced at. I went
down early in the morning, and alighted at the Blue Boar, in
good time to walk over to the forge.
It was fine summer weather again , and, as I walked along,
the times when I was a little helpless creature, and my sister
did not spare me, vividly returned . But they returned with a
gentle tone upon them , that softened even the edge of Tickler.
For now , the very breath of the beans and clover whispered to
my heart that the day must come when it would be well for
my memory that others walking in the sunshine should be
softened as they thought of me.
At last I came within sight of the house, and saw that Trabb
and Co. had put in a funereal execution and taken possession .
Two dismally absurd persons, each ostentatiously exhibiting a
crutch done up in a black bandage -- as if that instrument could
possibly communicate any comfort to anybody - were posted at
the front door ; and in one of them I recognised a postboy
discharged from the Boar for turning a young couple into a
sawpit on their bridal morning, in consequence of intoxication
rendering it necessary for him to ride his horse clasped round
the neck with both arms. All the children of the village, and
most of the women, were admiring these sable warders and the
closed windows of the house and forge ; and as I came up, one
of the two warders ( the postboy ) knocked at the door - implying
that I was far too much exhausted by grief, to have strength
remaining to knock for myself.
Another sable warder (a carpenter, who had once eaten two
266 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
geese for a wager) opened the door, and showed me into the
best parlour. Here, Mr. Trabb had taken unto himself the
best table, and had got all the leaves up, and was holding a
kind of black Bazaar, with the aid of a quantity of black pins.
At the moment of my arrival, he had just finished putting
somebody's hat into black long -clothes, like an African baby , so
he held out his hand for mine . But I, misled by the action ,
and confused by the occasion, shook hands with him with every
testimony of warm affection .
Poor dear Joe, entangled in a little black cloak tied in a
large bow under bis chin , was seated apart at the upper end of
the room ; where, as chief mourner, he had evidently been
stationed by Trabb. When I bent down and said to him , “Dear
Joe, how are you ? ” he said, “ Pip , old chap, you know'd her
when she were a fine figure of a---" and clasped my hand and
said no more .
Biddy, looking very neat and modest in her black dress, went
quietly here and there, and was very helpful. When I had
spoken to Biddy, as I thought it not a time for talking, I went
and sat down near Joe, and there began to wonder in what
part of the house it - she - my sister-was. The air of the
parlour being faint with the smell of sweet cake, I looked about
for the table of refreshments ; it was scarcely visible until one
had got accustomed to the gloom , but there was a cut-up plum
cake upon it, and there were cut -up oranges, and sandwiches,
and biscuits, and two decanters that I knew very well as orna
ments, but had never seen used in all my life : one full of port,
and one of sherry. Standing at this table, I became conscious
of the servile Pumblechook in a black cloak and several yards
of hatband, who was alternately stuffing himself, and making
obsequious movements to catch my attention . The moment
he succeeded, he came over to me (breathing sherry and crumbs ),
and said in a subdued voice, “ May I, deär-sir ? " and did. I
then descried Mr. and Mrs. Hubble ; the last -named in a decent
speechless paroxysm in a corner. We were all going to " follow ,"
and were all in course of being tied up separately (by Trabb )
into ridiculous bundles.
“ Which I meantersay, Pip ,” Joe whispered me, as we were
being what Mr. Trabb called “ formed ” in the parlour, two and
two - and it was dreadfully like a preparation for some grim
kind of dance ; " which I meantersay, sir, as I would in pre
 THE FUNERAL . 267
ference have carried her to the church myself, along with
three or four friendly ones wot come to it with willing hearts
and arms, but it were considered wot the neighbours would
look down on such and would be of opinions as it were wanting
in respect."
“ Pocket-handkerchiefs out, all ! ” cried Mr. Trabb at this
point, in a depressed business-like voice— “ Pocket-handkerchiefs
out ! We are ready ! ”
So, we all put our pocket-handkerchiefs to our faces, as if
our noses were bleeding, and filed out two and two ; Joe and I ;
Biddy and Pumblechook ; Mr. and Mrs. Hubble. The remains
of my poor sister had been brought round by the kitchen
door, and, it being a point of Undertaking ceremony that the
six bearers must be stifled and blinded under a horrible black
velvet housing with a white border, the whole looked like a
blind monster with twelve human legs, shufiling and blunder
ing along under the guidance of two keepers —the postboy and
his comrade.
The neighbourhood, however, highly approved of these ar
rangements, and we were much admired as we went through
the village ; the more youthful and vigorous part of the com
munity making dashes now and then to cut us off, and lying
in wait to intercept us at points of vantage. At such times
the more exuberant among them called out in an excited man
ner on our emergence round some corner of expectancy, “ Here:
they come ! " “ Here they are !” and we were all but cheered.
In this progress I was much annoyed by the abject Pumble
chook , who, being behind me, persisted all the way, as a delicate:
attention, in arranging my streaming hatband, and smoothing
my cloak. My thoughts were further distracted by the ex
cessive pride of Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, who were surpașsingly
conceited and vainglorious in being members of so distinguished
a procession .
And now the range of marshes lay clear before us, with the
sails of the ships on the river growing out of it ; and we went
into the church -yard, close to the graves of my unknown
parents, Philip Pirrip, late of this parish , and Also Georgiana,
Wife of the Above. And there, my sister was laid quietly in
the earth while the larks sang high above it, and the light wind .
strewed it with beautiful shadows of clouds and trees.
Of the conduct of the worldly-minded Pumblechook whi!
268 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

this was doing, I desire to say no more than it was all ad

dressed to me ; and that even when those noble passages were
read which reminded humanity how it brought nothing into the
world and can take nothing out, and how it fleeth like a shadow
and never continueth long in one stay, I heard him cough a
reservation of the case of a young gentleman who came unex
pectedly into large property. When we got back ,hehad the
hardihood to tell me that hewished my sister could have known
I had done her so much honour, an to hint that she would
have considered it reasonably purchased at the price of her
death . After that he drank all the rest of the sherry, and Mr.
Hubble drank the port, and the two talked (which I have since
observed to be customary in such cases) as if they were of quite
another race from the deceased, and were notoriously immortal.
Finally, he went away with Mr. and Mrs. Hubble - to make an
evening of it, I felt sure, and to tell the Jolly Bargemen that
he was the founder of my fortunes and my earliest bene
factor.
When they were all gone, and when Trabb and his men - but
not his boy: I looked for him--had crammed their mummery
into bags, and were gone too, the house felt wholesomer. Soon
afterwards, Biddy, Joe, and I, had a cold dinner together ; but
we dined in the best parlour, not in the old kitchen, and Joe
was so exceedingly particular what he did with his knife and
fork and the salt -cellar and what not, that there was great
restraint upon us. But after dinner when I made him take
his pipe, and when I had loitered with him about the forge, and
when we sat down together on the great block of stone outside ,
it, we got on better. I noticed that after the funeral Joe .
changed his clothes so far, as to make a compromise between
his Sunday dress and working dress : in which the dear fellow
looked natural, and like the Man he was.
He was very much pleased by my asking if I might sleep in
my own little room , and I was pleased too ; for, I felt that I
had done rather a great thing in making the request. When
the shadows of evening were closing in , I took an opportunity
of getting into the garden with Biddy for a little talk . Tri
“ Biddy,” said I, “ I think you might have written to me
about these sad matters."
6 Do you , Mr. Pip ? ” said Biddy. “ I should bave written if
I had thought that.”
 WHAT BIDDY INTENDS TO DO. 269

“ Don't suppose that I mean to be unkind, Biddy, when I

say I consider that you ought to have thought that.”
“ Do you, Mr. Pip ? ”.
She was so quiet, and had such an orderly, good, and pretty
way with her, that I did not like the thought of making her cry
again. After looking a little at her downcast eyes as she
walked beside me, I gave up that point.
“ I suppose it will be difficult for you to remain here now,
Biddy, dear ? ”
“ Oh ! I can't do so, Mr. Pip ,” said Biddy, in a tone of regret,
but still of quiet conviction . “ I have been speaking to Mrs.
Hubble, and I am going to her to-morrow. I hope we shall be
able to take some care of Mr. Gargery, together, until he
settles down.”
“How are you going to live, Biddy ? stIf you want any
mo

“ How am I going to live ?” repeated Biddy, striking in, with

a momentary flush upon her face . “ I'll tell you, Mr. Pip.
I am going to try to get the place of mistress in the new
school nearly finished here. I can be well recommended by all
the neighbours, and I hope I can be industrious and patient,
and teach myself while I teach others. You know, Mr. Pip ,”
pursued Biddy, with a smile, as she raised her eyes to my face,
“ the new schools are not like the old, but I learnt a good
deal from you after that time, and have had time since then to
7
improve .”
" I think you would always improve, Biddy, under any
circumstances.”
>
“ Ah ! Except in my bad side of human nature,” murmured
Biddy.
It was not so much a reproach, as an irresistible thinking
aloud . Well ! I thought I would give up that point too. So,
I walked a little further with Biddy , looking silently at her
downcast eyes .
“ I have not heard the particulars of my sister's death,
Biddy. "
“ They are very slight, poor thing. She had been in one of
her bad states — though they had got better of late, rather
than worse—for four days, when she came out of it in the
evening, just at tea- time, and said quite plainly , ' Joe. As she
had never said any word for a long while, I ran and fetched in
270 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Mr. Gargery from the forge. She made signs to me that she
wanted him to sit down close to her, and wanted me to put her
arms round his neck. So I put them round his neck, and she
laid her head down on his shoulder quite content and satisfied.
And 6so she presently said ' Joe ' again, and once Pardon ,' and
once ' Pip.' And so she never lifted her head up any more,
and it was just an hour later when we laid it down on her own
bed, because we found she was gone."
Biddy cried ;> the darkening garden , and the lane, and the
stars that were coming out, were blurred in my own sight.
“ Nothing was ever discovered, Biddy ? "
" Nothing."
>
“ Do you know what is become of Orlick ? "
** I should think from the colour of his clothes that he is
working in the quarries."
“ Of course you have seen him then ?-Why are you looking
at that dark tree in the lane ? "

" I saw him there, on the night she died."

“ That was not the last time either, Biddy ? ”
“ No ; I have seen him there since we have been walking
here. It is of no use," said Biddy, laying her hand upon my
arm , as I was for running out, “ you know I would not deceive
you ; he was not there a minute, and he is gone.""
It revived my utmost indignation to find that she was still
pursued by this fellow, and I felt inveterate against him . I
told her so, and told her that I would spend any money or take
any pains to drive him out of that country. By degrees she
led me into more temperate talk , and she told me how Jue
loved me, and how Joe never complained of anything - she
of me ; she had no need ; I knew what she meant
didn't say ,
but ever did his duty in his way of life, with a strong hand, a
quiet tongue, and a gentle heart.
“ Indeed, it would be hard to say too much for him , " said I ;
“and, Biddy, we must often speak of these things, for of
course I shall be often down here now. I am not going to
leave poor Joe alone.”
Biddy said never a single word.
LG
Biddy, don't you hear me ? ”
“ Yes, Mr. Pip. "
“ Not to mention your calling me Mr. Pip — which appears to
me to be in bad taste, Biddy-what do you mean ? ” .
 PARTING WITH BIDDY . 271

" What do I mean ? ” asked Biddy, timidly.

Biddy,”
," said I, in a virtuously self-asserting manner, " I
must request to know what you mean by this ? ”
“ By this ? " said Biddy.
“Now, don't echo," I retorted. You used not to echo,
Biddy.”
“ Used not ! ” said Biddy. “ O Mr. Pip ! Used ! ”
Well ! I rather thought I would give up that point too.
After another silent turn in the garden, I fell back on the
main position .
“Biddy,” said I, “ I made a remark respecting my coming
down here often, to see Joe, which you received with a marked
silence. Have the goodness, Biddy, to tell me why."
“ Are you quite sure, then, that you will come to see him
often ? ” asked Biddy, stopping in the narrow garden walk ,
and looking at me under the stars with a clear and honest
eye .
“ Oh dear me! ” said I, as I found myself compelled to give
up Biddy in despair. “ This really is a very bad side of human
nature ! Don't say any more, if you please, Biddy. This
shocks me very much.”
For which cogent reason I kept Biddy at a distance during
supper, and when I went up to my own old little room, took as
stätely a leave of her as I could , in my murmuring soul, deem
reconcilable with the churchyard and the event of the day.
As often as I was restless in the night, and that was every
quarter of an hour, I reflected what an unkindness, what an
injury, what an injustice, Biddy had done me.
Early in the morning, I was to go. Early in the morning, I
was out, and looking in, unseen, at one of the wooden windows
of the forge. There I stood, for minutes, looking at Joe,
already at work with a glow of health and strength upon his
face that made it show as if the bright sun of the life in store
for him were shining on it.
“ Good -bye, dear Joe !-No, don'twipe it off - for God's sake,
give me your blackened hand !—I shall be down soon and
often .""
“Never too soon, sir,” said Joe, “ and never too often, Pip ! ”
Biddy was waiting for me at the kitchen door, with a mug of
new milk and a crust of bread . " Biddy,” said I, when I gave
her my hand at parting, “ I am not angry, but I am hurt ."
 272 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ No, don't be hurt,” she pleaded quite pathetically ; “ let
2 only me be hurt, if I have been ungenerous. "
Once more, the mists were rising as I walked away . If they
disclosed to me, as I suspect they did , that I should not come
back, and that Biddy was quite right, all I can say is — they
were quite right too.

CHAPTER XXXVI.
ID
HERBERT and I went on from bad to worse , in the way of in
creasing our debts, looking into our affairs, leaving Margins, and
the like exemplary transactions; and Time went on, whether or
no, as he has a way of doing ; and I came of age — in fulfil
ment of Herbert's prediction, that I should do so before I
knew where I was.
Herbert himself had come of age, eight months before me.
As he had nothing else than his majority to come into the
event did not make a profound sensation in Barnard's Inn .
But we had looked forward to my one-and -twentieth birthday,
with a crowd of speculations and anticipations, for we had both
considered that my guardian could hardly help saying some
thing definite on that occasion .
I had taken care to have it well understood in Little Britain
when my birthday was. On the day before it, I received an
official note from Wemmick, informing me that Mr. Jaggers
would be glad if I would call upon him , at five in the afternoon
of the auspicious day. This convinced us that something great
was to happen, and threw me into an unusual flutter when I
repaired to my guardian's office, a model of punctuality.
** In the outer office Wemmick offered me his congratulations,
and incidentally rubbed the side of his nose with aa folded piece
of tissue -paper that I liked the look of. But he said nothing
respecting it, and motioned me with a nod into my guardian's
room . It was November, and my guardian was standing before
his fire leaning his back against the chimney -piece, with his
hands under his coat - tails.
MR. JAGGERS HAS SOMETHING TO SAY TO ME. 273
“ Well, Pip ,” said he, “ I must call you Mr , Pip to -day.
Congratulations, Mr. Pip."
We shook hands—he was always a remarkably short shaker
—and I thanked him .
“ Take a chair, Mr. Pip ,” said my guardian.
As I sat down, and he preserved his attitude and bent his
brows at his boots, I felt at a disadvantage, which reminded me
of that old time when I had been put upon a tombstone. The
two ghastly casts on the shelf were not far from him , and
their expression was as if they were making a stupid apo
plectic attempt to attend to the conversation .
“ Now , my young friend," my guardian began , as if I were a
witness in the box, “ I am going to have a word or two with
you."
“ If you please, sir.”
“ What do you suppose ,” said Mr. Jaggers, bending forward
to look at the ground, and then throwing his head back to look
at the ceiling, “ what do you suppose you are living at the rate
of ? ”
“ At the rate of, sir ? ”
6 the
“ At,” repeated Mr. Jaggers, still looking at the ceiling,
--rate - of ? ” And then looked all round the room , and
paused with his pocket -handkerchief in his hand, half way to
his nose .
I had looked into my affairs so often, that I had thoroughly
destroyed any slight notion I might ever have had of their
bearings. Reluctantly, I confessed myself quite unable to
answer the question. This reply seemed agreeable to Mr.
Jaggers, who said , “ I thought so ! ” and blew his nose with an
air of satisfaction .
“ Now , I« have asked you a question, my friend , ” said Mr.
Jaggers. Have you anything to ask me? ”
“ Of course it would be a great relief to me to ask you
several questions, sir ; but I remember your prohibition.”
“Ask one,” said Mr. Jaggers.
“ Is my benefactor to be made known to me to -day ? ”
“ No. Ask another.”
“ Is that confidence to be imparted to me soon ? ”
“ Waive that, a moment,” said Mr. Jaggers, “and ask
another ."
I looked about me, but there appeared to be now no possible
T
274 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
<C
escape from the inquiry, “ Have - 1 - anything to receive, sir ?"
On that, Mr. Jaggers said, triumphantly, “ I thought we should
come to it !” and called to Wemmick to give him that piece of
paper. Wemmick appeared, handed it in , and disappeared .
Now , Mr. Pip,” said Mr. Jaggers, " attend if you please.
You have been drawing pretty freely here ; your name occurs
pretty often in Wemmick's cashbook : but you are in debt, of
course ? "
“ I am afraid I must say yes, sir.”
“ You know you must say yes ; don't you ? ” said Mr. Jaggers.
16
“Yes, sir. ”
“ I don't ask you what you owe, because you don't know ;
and if you did know, you wouldn't tell me ; you would say less.
Yes, yes, my friend,” cried Mr. Jaggers, waving his forefinger
to stop me, as I made a show of protesting : " it's likely enough
that you think you wouldn't, but you would. You'll excuse
me, but I know better than you. Now, take this piece of paper
in your hand. You have got it ? Very good. Now, unfold
it and tell me what it is ."
<
“ This is a bank-note," said I, “ for five hundred pounds."
“That is a bank-note," repeated Mr. Jaggers, “ for five
hundred pounds. And a very handsome sum of money too, I
think. You consider it so ? ”
“ How could I do otherwise ! "
“Ah ! But answer the question,” said Mr. Jaggers.
“ Undoubtedly .”
“ You consider it, undoubtedly, a handsome sum of money.
Now, that handsome sum of money, Pip, is your own . It is a
present to you on this day, in earnest of your expectations.
And at the rate of that handsome sum of money per annum ,
and at no higher rate, you are to live until the donor of the
whole appears. That is to say, you will now take your money
affairs entirely into your own hands, and you will draw from
Wemmick one hundred and twenty - five pounds per quarter,
until you are in communication with the fountain -bead , and no
longer with the mere agent. As I have told you before, I am
the mere agent. I execute my instructions, and I am paid for
doing so . I think them injudicious, but I am not paid for
giving any opinion on their merits."
I was beginning to express my gratitude to my benefactor
for the great liberality with which I was treated, when Mr.
 MR. JAGGERS NÔT TO BE QUESTIONED. 275
Jaggers stopped me. “ I am not paid, Pip,” said he, coolly,
“ to carry your words to any one ; ” and then gathered up his
coat- tails, as he had gathered up the subject, and stood frowning
at his boots as if he suspected them of designs against him .
After a pause , I hinted :
“ There was a question just now, Mr. Jaggers, which you
desired me to waive for a moment. I hope I am doing nothing
wrong in asking it again ? "
“ What is it ? ” said he .
I might have known that he would never help me out ; but
it took me aback to have to shape the question afresh , as if it
were quite new. “ Is it likely, " I said, after hesitating, “ that
my patron, the fountain -head you have spoken of, Mr. Jaggers,
will soon _” there I delicately stopped.
“ Will soon what ? ” asked Mr. Jaggers. “ That's no question
as it stands, you know."
"
“Will soon come to London ," said I, after casting about for
a precise form of words, “ or summon me anywhere else ? "
“ Now here,” replied Mr. Jaggers, fixing me for the first time
with his dark deep-set eyes, “ we must revert to the evening
wb we first encountered one another in your village. What
did I tell you then, Pip ? ”
“ You told me , Mr. Jaggers, that it might be years hence
when that person appeared .”
“ Just so," said Mr. Jaggers; " that's my answer."
As we looked full at one another, I felt my breath come
quicker in my strong desire to get something out of him. And
as I felt that it came quicker, and as I felt that he saw that it
came quicker, I felt that I had less chance than ever of getting
anything out of him.
“ Do you suppose it will still be years hence, Mr. Jaggers ? "
Mr. Jaggers shook his head — not in negativing the question ,
but in altogether negativing the notion that he could anyhow
be got to answer it — and the two horrible casts of the twitched
faces looked, when my eyes strayed up to them , as if they had
come to a crisis in their suspended attention , and were going to
sneeze .
“ Come ! ” said Mr. Jaggers, warming the backs of his legs
with the backs of his warmed hands, "I'll be plain with you,
my friend Pip . That’s -a question I must not be asked. You'll
understand that, better, when I tell you it's a question that
T 2
276 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

might compromise me. Come ! I'll go a little further with

you ; I'll say something more .'"
He bent down so low to frown at his boots, that he was able
to rub the calves of his legs in the pause he made.
“When that person discloses," said Mr. Jaggers, straightening
himself, “ you and that person will settle your own affairs.
When that person discloses, my part in this business will cease
and determine. When that person discloses, it will not be
necessary for me to know anything about it. And that's all I
have got to say.”
We looked at one another until I withdrew my eyes, and
looked thoughtfully at the floor. From this last speech I
derived the notion that Miss Havisham , for some reason or no
reason , had not taken him into her confidence as to her de
signing me for Estella ; that he resented this, and felt a jealousy
about it ; or that he really did object to that scheme, and would
have nothing 'to do with it. When I raised my eyes again , I
found that he had been sbrewdly looking at me all the time,
and was doing so still.
«
“ If that is all you have to say, sir," I remarked , " there can
be nothing left for me to say."
He nodded assent, and pulled out his thief-dreaded watch,
and asked me where I was going to dine ? I replied at my own
chambers,with Herbert. As a necessary sequence, I asked him
if he would favour us with his company, and he promptly
accepted the invitation . But he insisted on walking home with
me, in order that I might make no extra preparation for him,
and first he had a letter or two to write, and (of course) had his
hands to wash. So, I said I would go into the outer office and
talk to Wemmick .
The fact was, that when the five hundred pounds had come
into my pocket, a thought had come into my head which had
been often there before ; and it appeared to me that Wemmick
was a good person to advise with, concerning such thought.
He had already locked up his safe , and made preparations for
going home. He had left his desk , brought out his two greasy
office candlesticks and stood them in line with the snuffers on a
slab near the door, ready to be extinguished ; he had raked his
fire low , put his hat and great-coat ready, and was beating him
self all over the chest with his safe -key as an athletic exercise
after business.
 MR . WEMMICK'S ADVICE. 277
« Mr. Wemmick , ” said I , “ I want to ask your opinion. I am
very desirous to serve a friend ."
Wemmick tightened his post -office and shook his head, as if
his opinion were dead against any fatal weakness of that
sort.
“ This friend,” I pursued , “ is trying to get on in commercial
life, but has no money, and finds it difficult anddisheartening
to make a beginning. Now , I want somehow to help him to a
beginning.”
“ With money down ? ” said Wemmick , in a tone drier than
any sawdust.
>
“With some money down, " I replied, for an uneasy remem
brance shot across me of that symmetrical bundle of papers at
home ; “ with some money down, and perhaps some anticipation
of my expectations."
“ Mr. Pip ,” said Wemmick , “ I should like just to run over
with you on my fingers, if you please, the names of the various
bridges up as high as Chelsea Reach . Let's see ; there's London ,
one ; Southwark , two ; Blackfriars, three ; Waterloo, four ;
Westminster, five ; Vauxhall, six.” He had checked off each
bridge in its turn , with the handle of safe -key on the palm
of his hand . “ There's as many as six, you see, to choose
from . ”
“ I don't understand you , ” said I.
“ Choose your bridge, Mr. Pip,” returned Wemmick , “and
take a walk upon your bridge, and pitch your money into the
Thames over the centre arch of your bridge, and you know the
end of it. Serve a friend with it, and you may know the end
of it too -- but it's a less pleasant and profitable end.”
I could have posted a newspaper in his mouth , he made it so
wide after saying this .
“ This is very discouraging ,” said I.
“ Meant to be so," said Wemmick .
“ Then is« it your opinion," I inquired, with some little in
dignation , " that a man should never
66
“ -Invest portable property in a friend ? ” said Wemmick .
Certainly he should not. Unless he wants to get rid of the
friend -- and then it becomes a question how much portable
property it may be worth to get rid of him .”
“ And that,” said I, “ is your deliberate opinion, Mr.
Wemmick ? "
278 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ That," he returned, “ is my deliberate opinion in this

office.”
“ Ah ! ” said I, pressing him, for I thought I saw him near
a loophole here; “ but would that be your opinion at Wal
worth ? "
“ Mr. Pip,” he replied with gravity , " Walworth is one place ,
and this office is another. Much as the Aged is one person ,
and Mr. Jaggers is another. They must not be confounded
together. My Walworth sentiments must be taken at Wal
worth ; none but my official sentiments can be taken in this
office .”
“Very well ,” said I, much relieved, " then I shall look you
up at Walworth , you may depend upon it.”
“ Mr. Pip,” he returned, " you will be welcome there in a
private and personal capacity."
We had held this conversation in a low voice , well knowing
my guardian's ears to be the sharpest of the sharp. As he now
appeared in his doorway, towelling his hands, Wemmick got on
his great- coat and stood by to snuff out the candles. We all
three went into the street together, and from the door -step
Wemmick turned his way, and Mr. Jaggers and I turned
ours ,
I could not help wishing more than once that evening, that
Mr. Jaggers had had an Aged in Gerrard -street, or a Stinger, or a
Something, or a Somebody, to unbend his brows a little. It
was an uncomfortable consideration on a twenty -first birthday,
that coming of age at all seemed hardly worth while in such a
guarded and suspicious world as he made of it. He was a
thousand times better informed and cleverer than Wemmick ,
and yet I would a thousand times rather have had Wemmick
to dinner . And Mr. Jaggers made not me alone intensely me
lancholy , because , after he was gone, Herbert said of himself ,
with his eyes fixed on the fire, that he thought he must have
committed a felony and forgotten the details of it, he felt
so dejected and guilty.
 WINE -COOPERING , 279

CHAPTER XXXVII.

DEEMING Sunday the best day for taking Mr. Wemmick's Wal
worth sentiments, Idevoted the next ensuing Sunday afternoon
to a pilgrimage to the Castle. On arriving before the battle
meuts, I found the Union Jack flying and the drawbridge up, but
undeterred by this show of defiance and resistance, I rang at
the gate , and was admitted in a most pacific manner by the
Aged .
66
My son, sir ," said the old man , after securing the drawbridge,
“ rather had it in his mind that you might happen to drop in ,
and he left word that he would soon be home from his after
noon's walk. He is very regular in his walks, is my son .
Very regular in everything, is my son.”
I nodded at the old gentleman as Wemmick himself might
have nodded , and we went in and sat down by the fireside .
“ You made acquaintance with my son, sir, " said the old man,
in his chirping way, while he warmed his hands at the blaze,
" at his office, I expect? ” I nodded. “ Hah ! I have heerd
that my son is a wonderful hand at his business, sir ? " I
nodded hard. “ Yes ; so they tell me. His business is the
Law ? " I nodded harder . “ Which makes it more surprising
in my son , " said the old man , “for he was not brought up to
the Law, but to the Wine-Coopering."
Curious to kňow how the old gentleman stood informed con
cerning the reputation of Mr. Jaggers, I roared that name at him .
He threw me into the greatest confusion by laughing heartily
and replying in a very sprightly manner, “ No, to be sure you're
"
right.” And to this hour I have not the faintest notion of what
he meant, or what joke he thought I had made.
As I could not sit there nodding at him perpetually, with
out making some other attempt to interest him , I shouted an
inquiry whether his own calling in life had been “ the Wine
Coopering. ” By dint of straining that term out of myself
several times and tapping the old gentleman on the chest to
associate it with him , I at last succeeded in making my meaning
understood .
“ No," said the old gentleman ; “ the warehousing, the ware
housing. First over yonder ; " he appeared to mean up the
chimney, but I believe he intended to refer me to Liverpool ;
280 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ and then in the City of London here. However, having an
"
infirmity - for I am hard of hearing, sir
I expressed in pantomime the greatest astonishment.
“ —Yes, hard of hearing ; having that infirmity coming upon
me, my son he went into the Law, and he took charge of me,
and he by little and little made out this elegant and beautiful
property. But returning to what you said , you know,” pursued
the old man , again laughing heartily, “ what I say is No, to be
sure ; you're right.”
I was modestly wondering whether my utmost ingenuity
would have enabled me to say anything that would have amused
him half as much as this imaginary pleasantry, when I was
startled by a sudden click in the wall on one side of the chimney,
and the ghostly tumbling open of a little wooden flap with
“ John ” upon it. The old man , following my eyes , cried with
great triumph, “ My son 's come home! ” and we both went out
to the drawbridge.
It was worth any money to see Wemmick waving a salute to
me from the other side of the moat, when we might have shaken
hands across it with the greatest ease. The Aged was so
delighted to work the drawbridge, that I made no offer to assist
him , but stood quiet until Wemmick had come across, and
had presented me to Miss Skiffins: a lady by whom he was
accompanied.
Miss Skiffins was of a wooden appearance, and was, like her
escort, in the post-office branch of the service. She might have
been some two or three years younger than Wemmick , and I
judged her to stand possessed of portable property. The cut
of her dress from the waist upward, both before and behind ,
made her figure very like a boy's kite ; and I might have pro
nounced her gown a little too decidedly orange , and her gloves
a little too intensely green. But she seemed to be a good sort
of fellow, and showed a high regard for the Aged . I was not
long in discovering that she was a frequentvisitor at the Castle ;
for, ou our going in, and my complimenting Wemmick on his
ingenious contrivance for announcing himself to the Aged , he
begged me to give my attention for a moment to the other side
of the chimney, and disappeared. Presently another click
came, and another little door tumbled open with “ Miss
Skiffins ” on it ; then Miss Skiffins shut up and John tumbled
open ; then Miss Skiffins and John both tumbled open
 I DISCLOSE MY INTENTIONS TO WEMMICK. 281

together, and finally shut up together. On Wemmick’s return

from working these mechanical appliances, I expressed the
great admiration with which I regarded them, and he said,
“ Well, you know , they ’re both pleasant and useful to the Aged .
And by George, sir, it's a thing worth mentioning, that of all
the people who come to this gate, the secret of those pulls is
only known to the Aged,Miss Skiffins, and me !”
" AndMr. Wemmick made them , ” added Miss Skiffins, “ with
his own ands out of his own head .”
While Miss Skiffins was taking off her bonnet (she retained
her green gloves during the evening as an outward and visible
sign that there was company ), Wemmick invited me to take a
walk with him round the property , and see how the island looked
in winter-time. Thinking that he did this to give me an oppor
tunity of taking his Walworth sentiments, I seized the
opportunity as soon as we were out of the Castle .
Having thought of the matter with care, I approached my
subject as if I had never hinted at it before. I informed
Wemmick that I was anxious in behalf of Herbert Pocket, and
I told him how we had first met, and how we had fought.
I glanced at Herbert's home, and at his character, and at
his having no means but such as he was dependent on his
father for : those, uncertain and unpunctual. I alluded to the
advantages I had derived in my first rawness and ignorance from
his society , and I confessed that I feared I had but ill repaid
them , and that he might have done better without me
and my expectations. Keeping Miss Havisham in the back
ground at a great distance, I still hinted at the possibility of
my having competed with him in his prospects, and at the cer
tainty of his possessing a generous soul, and being far above
any mean distrusts, retaliations, or designs. For all these reasons
(I told Wemmick), and because he was my young companion
and friend, and I had a great affection for him, I wished my own
good fortune to reflect some rays upon him, and therefore I
sought advice from Wemmick’s experience and knowledge of
men and affairs, how I could best try with my resources to help
Herbert to some present income- sayof a hundred a year, to keep
him in good hope and heart — and gradually to buy him on to
some small partnership. I begged Wemmick, in conclusion,to
understand that my help must always be rendered without
Herbert's knowledge or suspicion, and that there was no one
282 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
else in the world with whom I could advise. I wound up by
laying my hand upon his shoulder, and saying " I can't help
confiding in you ; though I know it must be troublesome to you ;
but that is your fault; in having ever brought me here ."
Wemmick was silent for a little while, and then said with a
kind of start, “ Well, you know, Mr. Pip, I must tell you one
thing. This is devilish good of you ."
“ So you 'll help me to be good then ," said I.
6C
' Ecod,” replied Wemmick, shaking his head , " that's notmy
trade . "
>
“ Nor is this your trading -place," said I.
»
“ You are right,” he returned. “ You hit the nail on the
head. Mr. Pip , I'll put on my considering cap , and I think all
you want to do may be done by degrees. Skiffins (that's her
brother) is an accountant and agent. I'll look him up and go
to work for you.”
“ I thank you ten thousand times.”
6
“ On the contrary,” said he, “ I thank you, for though weare
strictly in our private and personal capacity, still it may be
mentioned that there"
are Newgate cobwebs about, and it
brushes them away.”
After a little further conversation to the same effect, we re
turned into the Castle, where we found Miss Skiffins preparing
tea. The responsible duty of making the toast was delegated
to the Aged, and that excellent old gentleman was so intent
upon it that he seemed to be in some danger of melting his eyes.
It was no nominal meal that we were going to make, but a vigor
ous reality. The Aged prepared such a haystackof buttered toast,
that I could scarcely see him over it as it simmered on an iron
stand hooked on to the top -bar ; while Miss Skiffins brewed such
a jorum of tea, that the pig in the back premises became
strongly excited, and repeatedly expressed his desire to
participate in the entertainment.
The flag had been struck , and the gun had been fired , at the
right moment of time, and I felt as snugly cut off from the rest
of Walworth as if the moat were thirty feet wide by as many
deep . Nothing disturbed the tranquillity of the Castle, but the
occasional tumbling open of John and Miss Skiffins: which little
doors were a prey to some spasmodic infirmity that made me
sympathetically uncomfortable until I got used to it. I inferred
from the methodical nature of Miss Skiffins's arrangements that
 THE AGED ONE READS. 283

she made tea there every Sunday night; and I rather suspected
that a classic brooch she wore, representing the profile of an un
desirable female with a very straight nose and a very new moon,
was a piece of portable property that had been given her by
Wemmick ,
We ate the weole uf the toast, and drank tea in proportion ,
and it was delightful to see how warm and greasy we all got
after it. The Aged especially, might have passed for some clean
old chief of a savage tribe, just oiled. After a short pause of
repose, Miss Skiffins — in the absence of the little servant, who,
it seemed, retired to the bosom of her family on Sunday after
noons - washed up the tea -things, in a trifling lady -like amateur
manner that compromised none of us. Then, she put on her
gloves again , and we drew round the fire, and Wemmick said,
“Now, Aged Parent, tip us the paper.”
Wemmick cxplained to me while the Aged got his spectacles
out, that this was according to custom, and that it gave the old
6
gentleman infinite satisfaction to read the news aloud. “ I
won't offer an apology, ” said Wemmick , “for he isn't capable of
many pleasures-
--are you, Aged P.? "
“ All right, John, all right, " returned the old man , seeing
himself spoken to.
66
Only tip him aa nod every now and then when he looks off
his paper," said Wenımick, “and he'll be as happy as a king.
We are all attention, Aged One ."
“ All right, John, all right !” returned the cheerful old man :
so busy and so pleased, that it really was quite charming.
The Aged's reading reminded me of the classes at Mr.
Wopsle's great-aunt's, with the pleasanter peculiarity that it
seemed to come through a key -hole. As he wanted the candles
close to him, and as he was always on the verge of putting either
his head or the newspaper into them, he required as much watch
ing as a powder-mill. But Wemmick was equally untiring and
gentle in his vigilance, and the Aged read on, quite unconscious
of his many rescues. Whenever he looked at us, we all ex
pressed the greatest interest and amazement, and nodded until
he resumed again .
As Wemmick and Miss Skiffins sat side by side, and as I sat
in a shadowy corner, I observed a slow and gradual elongation
of Mr. Wemmick's mouth , powerfully suggestive of his slowly
and gradually stealing his arm round Miss Skiffins's waist. In
284 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
course of time I saw his hand appear on the other side of Miss
Skiffins ; but at that moment Miss Skiffins neatly stopped him
with the green glove, unwound his arm again as if it were an
article of dress, and with the greatest deliberation laid it on the
table before her. Miss Skiffins's composure while she did this
was one of the most remarkable sights I have ever seen, and if
I could have thought the act consistent with abstraction of
mind , I should have deemed that Miss Skiffins performed it
mechanically.
By -and -by, I noticed Wemmick's arm beginning to disappear
again , and gradually fading out of view. Shortly afterwards,
his mouth began to widen again . After an interval of suspense
on my part that was quite enthralling and almost painful, Isaw
his hand appear on the other side of Miss Skiffins. Instantly
Miss Skiffius stopped it with the neatness of a placid boxer,
took off that girdle or cestus as before, and laid it on the table .
Taking the table to represent the path of virtue, I am justified
in stating that during the whole time of the Aged’s reading,
'Wemmick's arm was straying from the path of virtue and being
recalled to it by Miss Skiffins.
At last the Aged read himself into a light slumber . This
was the time for Wemmick to produce a little kettle, a tray of
glasses, and a black bottle with a porcelain -topped cork, repre
senting some clerical dignitary of a rubicund and social aspect.
With the aid of these appliances we all had something warm to
drink : including the Aged, who was soon awake again Miss
Skiffins mixed , and I observed that she and Wemmick drank out
of one glass. Of course I knew better than to offer to see Miss
Skiffins home, and under the circumstances I thought I had best
go first : which I did , taking a cordial leave of the Aged, and
having passed a pleasant evening.
Before a week was out, I received a note from Wemmick ,
dated Walworth, stating that he hoped he had made some
advance in that matter appertaining to our private and per
sonal capacities, and that he would be glad if I could come
and see him again upon it. So, I went out to Walworth again ,
and yet again ,and yet again, and I saw him by appointment in
the City several times, but never held any communication with
him on the subject in or near Little Britain . The upshot was,
that we found a worthy young merchant or shipping -broker,
not long established in business, who wanted intelligent
 HERBERT'S HAPPINESS . 285

help, and who wanted capital, and who in due course of time
and receipt would want a partner. Between him and me,
secret articles were signed of which Herbert was the subject,
and I paid him half of my five hundred pounds down, and
engaged for sundry other payments : some, to fall due at
certain dates out of my income : some contingent on my
coming into my property. Miss Skiffins's brother conducted
the negotiation. Wemmick pervaded it throughout, but never
appeared in it.
The whole business was so cleverly managed, that Herbert
had not the least suspicion of my hand being in it. I never
shall forget the radiant face with which he came home one
afternoon, and told me as a mighty piece of news, of his having
fallen in with one Clarriker ( the young merchant's name ) , and
of Clarriker's having shown an extraordinary inclination towards
him , and of his belief that the opening had come at last. Day
by day as his hopes grew stronger and his face brighter, he
must have thought me a more and more affectionate friend, for
I had the greatest difficulty in restraining my tears of triumph
when I saw him so happy .
At length, the thing being done, and he having that day
entered Clarriker's House, and he having talked to me for a
whole evening in a flush of pleasure and success,I did really
cry in good earnest when I went to bed, to think that my
expectations had done some good to somebody.
A great event in my life, the turning point of my life, now
opens on my view. But, before I proceed to narrate it, and
before I pass on to all the changes it involved, I must give one
chapter to Estella . It is not much to give to the theme that so
long filled my heart.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
IF that staid old house near the Green at Richmond should
ever come to be haunted when I am dead, it will be haunted,
surely, by my ghost. O the many, many nights and days
through which the unquiet spirit within me haunted that house
286 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

when Estella lived there ! Let my body be where it would , my

spirit was always wandering, wandering , wandering about that
house .
The lady with whom Estella was placed, Mrs. Brandley by
name, was a widow, with one daughter several years older than
Estella. The mother looked young and the daughter looked
old ; the mother's complexion was pink, and the daughter's
was yellow ; the mother set up for frivolity, and the daughter
for theology. They were in what is called a good position, and
visited, and were visited by, numbers of people. Little, if any ,
community of feeling subsisted between them and Estella, but
the understanding was established thatthey were necessary
to her, and that she was necessary to them . Mrs. Brandley
had been a friend of Miss Håvisham's before the time of her
seclusion .
In Mrs. Brandley's house and out of Mrs. Brandley's house,
I suffered every kind and degree of torture that Estella could
cause me . The nature of my relations with her, which placed
me on terms of familiarity without placing me on terms of
favour, conduced to my distraction . She made use of me to
tease other admirers, and she turned the very familiarity
between herself and me, to the account of putting a constant
slight on my devotion to her. If I had been her secretary,
steward, half-brother, poor relation - if I had been a younger
brother of her appointed husband — I could not have seemedto
myself, further from my hopes when I was nearest to her.
The privilege of calling her by her name and hearing her call
me by mine, became under the circumstances au aggravation of
my trials ; and while I think it likely that it almost maddened
her other lovers, I knew too certainly that it almost mad
dened me.
She had admirers without end. No doubt my jealousy made
an admirer of every one who went near her ; but there were
more than enough of them without that.
I saw her often at Richmond, I heard of her often in town,
and I used often to take her and the Brandleys on the water ;
there were pic -nics, fête days, plays, operas, concerts, parties,
all sorts of pleasures, through which I pursued her - and they
were all miseries to me. I never had one hour's happiness in her
society, and yet my mind all round the four -and -twenty hours was
harping on the happiness of having her with me unto death .
 A TRIP WITH ESTELLA. 287

Throughout this part of our intercourse — and it lasted, as

will presently be seen , for what I then thought a long time
she habitually reverted to that tone which expressed that our
association was forced upon us. There were other times when
she would come to a sudden check in this tone and in all her
many tones, and would seem to pity me.
Pip, Pip ,” she said one evening, coming to such a check,
when we sat apart at a darkening window of the house in
Richmond ; “ will you never take warning ? "”
“ Of what ? "
“ Of me.”
“ Warning not to be attracted by you, do you mean ,
Estella ? ”
“ Do I mean ! If you don't know what I mean , you are
blind.”
I should have replied that Love was commonly reputed
blind , but for the reason that I always was restrained - and
this was not the least of my miseries - by a feeling that it was
ungenerous to press myself upon her, when she knew that she
could not choose but obey Miss Havisham . My dread always
was, that this knowledge on her part laid me under a heavy
disadvantage with her pride, and made me the subject of a
rebellious struggle in her bosom.
“ At any rate," said I, “ I have no warning given me just
now, for you wrote to me to come to you, this time.”
“That's true," said Estella, with a cold careless smile that
always chilled me.
After looking at the twilight without, for a little while, she
went on to say :
“ The time has come round when Miss Havisham wishes to
have me for a day at Satis. You are to take me there, and
bring me back, if you will. She would rather I did not travel
alone, and objects to receiving my maid, for she has a sensitive"
horror of being talked of by such people. Can you take me ? .”
“ Can I take you, Estella !
“ You can then ? The day after to-morrow, if you please.
You are to pay all charges out of my purse. You hear the
condition of your going ? ”
“ And must obey, ” said I.
This was all the preparation I received for that visit, or for
others like it : Miss Havisham never wrote to me, nor had I
288 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
ever so much as seen her handwriting. We went down on the
next day but one, and we found her in the room where I had
first beheld her, and it is needless to add that there was no
change in Satis House.
She was even more dreadfully fond of Estella than she had
been when I last saw them together ; I repeat the word ad
visedly, for there was something positively dreadful in the
energy of her looks and embraces. She hung upon Estella's
beauty, hung upon her words, hung upon her gestures, and sat
mumbling her own trembling fingers while she looked at her,
as though she were devouring the beautiful creature she had
reared .
From Estella she looked at me, with a searching glance that
seemed to pry into my heart and probe its wounds. “ How does
she use you, Pip , how does she use you ? ” she asked me again,
with her witch -like eagerness, even in Estella's hearing. But,
when we sat by her flickering fire at night, she was most weird ;
for tben, keeping Estella's hand drawn through her arm and
clutched in her own hand, she extorted from her by dint of
referring back to what Estella had told her in her regular
letters, the names and conditions of the men whom she had
fascinated ; and as Miss Havisham dwelt upon this roll, with
the intensity of a mind mortally hurt and diseased, she sat
with her other hand on her crutch stick, and her chin on that,
and her wan bright eyes glaring at me, a very spectre.
I saw in this, wretched though it made me, and bitter the
sense of dependence, even of degradation, that it awakened - I
saw in this, that Estella was set to wreak Miss Havisham's re
venge on men, and that she was not to be given to me until
she had gratified it for a term . I saw in this, a reason for her
being beforehand assigned to me. Sending her out to attract
and torment and do mischief, Miss Havisham sent her with
the malicious assurance that she was beyond the reach of all
admirers, and that all who staked upon that cast were secured
to lose. I saw in this, that I, too, was tormented by a perver
sion of ingenuity, even while the prize was reserved for me. I
saw in this, the reason for my being staved off so long, and the
reason for my late guardian's declining to commit himself to
the formal knowledge of such a scheme. In aa word, I saw in
this, Miss Havisham as I had her then and there before my
eyes,and always had had her before my eyes ; and I saw in this,
 MISS HAVISHAM'S WRATH . 289

the distinct shadow of the darkened and unhealthy house in

which her life was hidden from the sun .
The candles that lighted that room of hers were placed in
sconces on the wall. They were high from the ground , and they
burnt with the steady dulness of artificial light in air that is
seldom renewed . As I looked round at them, and at the pale
gloom they made, and at the stopped clock , and at the withered
articles of bridal dress upon the table and the ground, and at
her own awful figure with its ghostly reflection thrown large
by the fire upon the ceiling andthe wall, I saw in everything
the construction that my mind had come to, repeated and
thrown back to me. My thoughts passed into the great room
across the landing where the table was spread, and I saw it
written, as it were , in the falls of the cobwebs from the centre
piece, in the crawlings of the spiders on the cloth, in the tracks
of the mice as they betook their little quickened hearts behind
the panels, and in the gropings and pausings of the beetles on
the floor.
It happened on the occasion of this visit that some sharp
words arose between Estella and Miss Havisham . It was the
first time I had ever seen them opposed.
We were seated by the fire, as just now described, and Miss
Havisham still had Estella's arm drawn through her own, and
still clutched Estella's hand in hers, when Estella gradually
began to detach herself. She had shown a proud impatience
more than once before, and had rather endured that fierce
affection than accepted or returned it.
“ What ! ” said Miss Havisham , flashing her eyes upon her,
“ are you tired of me ? ”
Only a little tired of myself," replied Estella, disengaging
her arm , and moving to the great chimney -piece, where she
stood looking down at the fire.
“ Speak the truth, you ingrate ! ” cried Miss Havisham ,
passionately striking her stick upon the floor ; "you are tired
of me.”
Estella looked at her with perfect composure, and again
looked down at the fire. Her graceful figure and her beautiful
face expressed a self-possessedindifference to the wild heat of
the other, that was almost cruel.
“ You stock and stone ! ” exclaimed Miss Havisham . “ You
cold , cold heart ! ”
V
290 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
6 What ! ” said Estella, preserving her attitude of indiffer
ence as she leaned against the great chimney -piece and only
moving her eyes ; “ do you reproach me for being cold ?
You ? "
“Are you not ? " was the fierce retort .
“ You should know,” said Estella. “ I am what you have
made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the
success, take all the failure ; in short, take me.”
C
" O , look at her, look at her ! ” cried Miss Havisham , bitterly ;
“ Look at her, so hard and thankless, on the hearth where she
was reared ! Where I took her into this wretched breast when
it was first bleeding from its stabs, and where I have lavished
years of tenderness upon her ! ”
“At least I was no party to the compact," said Estella , “ for
if I could walk and speak , when it was made, it was as much
as I could do. But what would you have ? You have been
very good to me, and I owe everything to you . What would
you have ?
“ Love, ” replied the other .
“ You have it . "
“ I have not,” said Miss Havisham .
“ Mother by adoption ," retorted Estella, never departing from
the easy grace of her attitude, never raising her voice as the
other did, never yielding either to anger or tenderness,
“ Mother by adoption, I have said that I owe everything to
you. All I possess is freely yours. All that you have given
me, is at your command to have again. Beyond that, I have
nothing. And if you ask me to give you what you never gave
me, my gratitudeand duty cannot doimpossibilities.”"
“ Did I never give her, love ! ” cried Miss Havisham , turning
wildly to me. “ Did I never give her a burning love, insepa
rable from jealousy at all times, and from sharp pain, while
she speaks thus to me ! Let her call me mad, let her call me 1
mad ! "
“Why should I call you mad , ” returned Estella, “ I, of all
people ? Does any one live, who knows what set purposes you
have, half as well as I do ? Does any one live, who knows
what a steady memory you have, half as well as I do ? I who
have sat on this same hearth on the little stool that is even
now beside you there, learning your lessons and looking up
into your face, when your face was strange and frightened me !”
 MISS HAVISHAM’S GRIEF . 291

“ Soon forgotten !” moaned Miss Havisham . 66 Times soon

forgotten ! ”
“ No, not forgotten,” retorted Estella . “ Not forgotten , but
treasured up in my memory . When have you found me false
to your teaching ? When have you found me unmindful of
your lessons ? When have you found me giving admission
here, ” she touched her bosom with her hand , “ to anything that
you excluded ? Be just to me.”
“ So proud, so proud ! ” moaned Miss Havisham, pushing away
her grey hair with both her hands.
“ Who taught me to be proud ? ” returned Estella . “Who
praised mewhen I learnt my lesson ? ”
“ So hard , so hard ! ” moaned Miss Havisham , with her former
action .
“ Who taught me to be hard ? ” returned Estella. “ Who CG

praised me when I learnt my lesson ? ”

“ But to be proud and hard to me! ” Miss Havisham quite
shrieked , as she stretched out her arms. “ Estella, Estella ,
Estella, to be proud and hard to me! ”
Estella looked at her for a moment with a kind of calm
wonder, but was not otherwise disturbed ; when the moment
was past, she looked down at the fire again.
“ I cannot think," said Estella, raising her eyes after a silence,
' why you should be so unreasonable when I come to see you
after a separation. I have never forgotten your wrongs and
their causes. I have never been unfaithful to you or your
schooling. I have never shown any weakness that I can charge
myself with . ”
“ Would it be weakness to return my love ? " exclaimed Miss
Havisham . “ But yes, yes, she would call it so ! ”
“ I begin to think ,” said Estella, in a musing way , after
another moment of calm wonder, “ that I almost understand
how this comes about. If you had brought up your adopted
daughter wholly in the dark confinement of these rooms, and
had never let her know that there was such a thing as the day
light by which she has never once seen your face - if you had
done that, and then, for a purpose, had wanted her to under
derstand the daylight and know all about it, you would have
been disappointed and angry ? ”
Miss Havisham , with her head in her hands sat making a low
moaning, and swaying herself on her chair, but gave no answer.
U 2
292 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ Or, ” said Estella, “ ---which is a nearer case-Lif you had
taught her, from the dawn of her intelligence, with your utmost
energy and might, that there was such a thing as daylight, but
that it was made to be her enemy and destroyer, and she must
always turn against it, for it had blighted you and would else
blight her ;—if you had done this, and then , for a purpose, had
wanted her to take naturally to the daylight and she could not
do it, you would have been disappointed and angry ? ” .
Miss Havisham sat listening (or it seemed so, for I could not
see her face) , but still made no answer .
“ So, ” said Estella, “ I must be taken as I have been made.
The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two
"
together make me. ”
Miss Havisham had settled down, I hardly knew how, upon
the floor, among the faded bridal relics with which it was
strewn . I took advantage of the moment I had sought one
from the first ~ to leave the room, after beseeching Estella's
attention to her with a movement of my hand . When I left,
Estella was yet standing by the great chimney - piece, just as
she had stood throughout. Miss Havisham's grey hair was all
adrift upon the ground, among the other bridal wrecks, and
was a miserable sight to see.
It was with a depressed heart that I walked in the starlight
for an hour and more, about the court-yard, and about the
brewery, and about the ruined garden . When I at last took
courage to return to the room, I found Estella sitting at Miss
Havisham's knee, taking up some stitches in one of those old
articles of dress that were dropping to pieces, and of which I
have often been reminded since by the faded tatters of old
banners that I have seen hanging up in cathedrals. Afterwards,
Estella and I played at cards, as of yore-only we were skilful
now, and played French games -- and so the evening wore away ,
and I went to bed .
I lay in that separate building across the court -yard. It was
the first time I had ever lain down to rest in Satis House, and
sleep refused to come near me. A thousand Miss Havishams
haunted me. She was on this side of my pillow, on that, at
the head of the bed, at the foot, behind the half-opened door
of the dressing-room, in the dressing -room , in the room over
head, in the room beneath - everywhere. At last, when the
night was slow to creep on towards two o'clock, I felt that I
 A TOAST. 293

absolutely could no longer bear the place as a place to lie down

in, and that I must get up. I therefore got up and put on my
clothes, and went out across the yard into the long stone
passage, designing to gain the outer court-yard and walk there
for the relief of my mind. But, I was no sooner in the
passage than I extinguished my candle ; for, I saw Miss
Havisham going along it in a ghostly manner , making a low
cry . I followed her at a distance, and saw her go up the stair
case , She carried a bare candle in her hand, which she had
probably taken from one of the sconces in her own room, and
was a most unearthly object by its light. Standing at the
bottom of the staircase, I felt the mildewed air of the feast
chamber, without seeing her open the door, and I heard her
walking there, and so across into her own room , and so across
again into that, never ceasing the low cry . After a time, I
tried in the dark both to get out and to go back, but I could
do neither until some streaks of day strayed in and showed me
where to lay my hands. During the whole interval, whenever
I went to the bottom of the staircase, I heard her footstep,
saw her candle pass above, and heard her ceaseless low
cry.
Before we left next day, there was no revival of the differ
ence between her and Estella, nor was it ever revived on any
similar occasion ; and there were four similar occasions, to the
best of my remembrance. Nor, did Miss Havisham's manner
towards Estella in anywise change, except that I believed
it to have something like fear infused among its former
characteristics.
It is impossible to turn this leaf of my life without putting
Bentley Drummle's name upon it ; or I would, very gladly.
On a certain occasion when the Finches were assembled in
force, and when good feeling was being promoted in the usual
manner by nobody's agreeing with anybody else, the pre iding
Finch called the Grove to order, forasmuch as Mr. Drummle
had not yet toasted a lady ; which , according to the solemn
constitution of the society, it was the brute's turn to do that
day. I thought I saw him leer in an ugly way at me while
the decanters were going round , but as there was no love lost
between us, that might easily be. What was my indignant
surprise when he called upon the company to pledge him to
“ Estella ! ”
294 GREAT EXPECTATIONS
“ Estella who ? ” said I.
“ Never you mind ,” retorted Drummle .
“ Estella of where ? ” said I. “ You are bound to say of
where.” Which he was, as a Finch.
“ Of Richmond, gentlemen,” said Drummle, putting me out
of the question , " and a peerless beauty."
Much he knew about peerless beauties, a mean miserable
idiot ! I whispered Herbert .
“ I know that lady,” said Herbert, across the table, when the
toast had been honoured .
“ Do you ? ” said Drummle.
“ And so do I, ” I added with a scarlet face.
“ Do you ? ” said Drummle. “ Oh, Lord ! ”
This was the only retort - except glass or crockery — that the
heavy creature was capable of making ; but I became as highly
incensed by it as if it had been barbed with wit, and I imme
diately rose in my place and said that I could not but regard it
as being like the honourable Finch's impudence to come down
to that Grove-we always talked about coming down to that
Grove, as a neat Parliamentary turn of expression - down to
that Grove, proposing a lady of whom he knew nothing. Mr.
Drummle upon this, starting up, demanded what I meant by
that ? Whereupon, made him the extreme reply that I
believed he knew where I was to be found .
Whether it was possible in a Christian country to get on
without blood, after this, was a question on which the Finches
were divided. The debate upon it grew so lively, indeed, that
at least six more honourable members told six more, during
the discussion , that they believed they knew where they were
to be found. However, it was decided at last (the Grove being a
Court of Honour) that if Mr. Drummle would bring never so
slight a certificate from the lady, importing that he had the
honour of her acquaintance , Mr. Pip must express his re
gret, as a gentleman and a Finch , for “ having been betrayed
into a warmth which .” Next day was appointed for the pro
duction (lest our honour should take cold from delay ), and
next day Drummle appeared with a polite little avowal in
Estella's hand, that she had had the honour of dancing with
him several times. This left me no course but to regret that
I had been “ betrayed into a warmth which , " and on the
whole to repudiate, as untenable, the idea that I was to
 DRUMMLE'S PERSISTENCY. 295

be found anywhere. Drummle and I then sat sporting at

one another for an hour, while the Grove engaged in indis
criminate contradiction , and finally the promotion of good
feeling was declared to have gone ahead at an amazing
rate .
I tell this lightly, but it was no light thing to me. For, I
cannot adequately express what pain it gave me to think that
Estella should show any favour to a contemptible, clumsy ,
sulky booby, so very far below the average. To the present,
moment, I believe it to have been referable to some pure fire
of generosity and disinterestedness in my love for her, that I
could not endure the thought of her stooping to that hound.
No doubt I should have been miserable whomsoever she had
favoured ; but a worthier object would have caused me a
different kind and degree of distress.
It was easy for me to find out, and I did soon find out, that
Drummle had begun to follow her closely, and that she allowed
him to do it. A little while, and he was always in pursuit of
her, and he and I crossed one another every day. He held
on, in a dull persistent way, and Estella held him on ; now
with encouragement, now with discouragement, now almost
flattering him , now openly despising him , now knowing him
very well, now scarcely remembering who he was.
The Spider, as Mr. Jaggers had called him, was used to lying
in wait, however, and had the patience of his tribe. Added to
that, he had a blockhead confidence in his money and in his
family greatness, which sometimes did him good service
almost taking the place of concentration and determined
purpose. So, the Spider, doggedly watching Estella, out
watched many brighter insects, and would often uncoil him
self and drop at the right nick of time.
At a certain Assembly Ball at Richmond ( there used to be
Assembly Balls at most places then ), where Estella had out
shone all other beauties, this blundering Drummle so hung
about her, and with so much toleration on her part, that I re
solved to speak to her concerning him. I took the next
opportunity : which was when she was waiting for Mrs.
Brandley to take her home, and was sitting apart among some
flowers, ready to go. I was with her, for I almost always
accompanied them to and from such places.
“ Are you tired, Estella ? ”
296 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“Rather, Pip . " TV
“ You should be . ”
“Say, rather, I should not be ; for I have my letter to Satis
House to write, before I go to sleep."
“ Recounting to -night's triumph ? ” said I. “ Surely a very
poor one, Estella.”
6 What do you mean ? I didn't know there had been
any."
>
“ Estella, " said I, “ do look at that fellow in the corner
yonder, who is looking over here at us."
“ Why should I look at him ?” returned Estella, with her
eyes on me instead . “ What is there in that fellow in the
corner yonder — to use your words — that I need look at ? ”
“ Indeed, that is the very question I want to ask you,” said
I. For he has been hovering about you all night.”
“ Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures," replied Estella ,
with a glance towards him , " hover about a lighted candle.
Can the candle help it ? ” .
“ No," I returned : “ but cannot the Estella help it ? ” .. TE
“ Well ! ” said she, laughing after a moment, “ Perhaps.
Yes. Anything you like."
“ But, Estella, do hear me speak. It makes me wretched
that you should encourage a man so generally despised as
Drummle. You know he is despised.”
« Well ? "” said she.
“ You know he is as ungainly within as without. A de
ficient, ill -tempered, lowering, stupid fellow .".
“ Well ? ” said she. 1743
“You know he has nothing to recommend him but money,
and a" ridiculous roll of addle -headed predecessors ; now, don't
you ? ”
“ Well ? ” said she again ; and each time she said it, she
opened her lovely eyes the wider .
To overcome the difficulty of getting past that monosyllable,
I took it from her, and said, repeating it with emphasis,
“ Well! Then, that is why it makes me wretched .”
Now, if I could have believed that she favoured Drummle
with any idea of making me-me-wretched, I should have
been in better heart about it ; but in that habitual way of hers,
she put me so entirely out of the question, that I could believe
nothing of the kind.
 ESTELLA'S FRANK CONFESSION. 297

“ Pip ,” said Estella, casting her glance over the room , “ don't
3

be foolish about its effect on you. It may have its effect on

others, and may be meant to have. It's not worth dis
cussing.”
“ Yes it is, ” said I, “ because I cannot bear that people should
say, ' she throws away her graces and attractions on a mere
boor, the lowest in the crowd.' ”
“ I can bear it," said Estella .
“ Oh ! don't be so proud, Estella, and so inflexible.”
“ Calls me proud and inflexible in this breath ! ” said Estella,
opening her hands. “ And in his last breath reproached me
for stooping to a boor ! ”
>
" Thero is no doubt you do, " said I , something hurriedly ,
“ for I have seen you give him looks and smiles this very
night, such as you never give to - me. "
“ Do you want me then , " said Estella , turning suddenly
«
with a fixed and serious, if not angry look, “ to deceive and
entrap you ? ”
Do you deceive and entrap him ,Estella ? ”
“ Yes, and many others — all of them but you. Here is Mrs.
66

Brandley. I'll say no more. "

And now that I have given the one chapter to the theme
that so filled my heart, and so often made it ache and ache
again , I pass on, unhindered, to the event that had impended
over me longer yet ; the event that had begun to be prepared
for, before I knew that the world held Estella, and in the days
when her baby intelligence was receiving its first distortions
from Miss Havisham's wasting hands .
In the Eastern story, the heavy slab that was to fall on
the bed of state in the flush of conquest was slowly wrought
out of the quarry, the tunnel for the rope to hold it in its
place was slowly carried through the leagues of rock, the slab
was slowly raised and fitted in the roof, the rope was rove to
it and slowly taken through the miles of hollow to the great
iron ring. All being made ready with much labour, and the
hour come, the sultan was aroused in the dead of the night,
and the sharpened axe that was to sever the rope from the
great iron ring was put into his hand, and he struck with it,
and the rope parted and rushed away , and the ceiling fell.
298 GREAT EXPECTATIONŞ.
So, in my case ; all the work , near and afar, that tended to the
end, had been accomplished ; and in an instant the blow
was struck , and the roof of my stronghold dropped upon me.

CHAPTER XXXIX .

I was three-and -twenty years of age. Not another word had I

heard to enlighten me on the subject of my expectations, and
my twenty -third birthday was a week gone. We had left
Barnard's Inn more than a year, and lived in the Temple. Our
chambers were in Garden -court, down by the river.
Mr. Pocket and I had for some time parted company as to our
original relations, though we continued on the best terms.
Notwithstanding my inability to settle to anything - which I
hope arose out of the restless and incomplete tenure on which I
held my means -I had a taste for reading, and read regularly
so many hours a day. That matter of Herbert's was still pro
gressing, and everything with me was as I have brought it
down to the close of the last preceding chapter.
Business had taken Herbert on a journey to Marseilles. I
was alone, and had aa dull sense of being alone. Dispirited and
anxious, long hoping that to -morrow or next week would clear
my way , and long disappointed, I sadly missed the cheerful face
and ready response of my friend .
It was wretched weather ; stormy and wet, stormy and wet ;
mud, mud, mud, deep in all the streets. Day after day, a vast
heavy veil had been driving over London from the East, and it
drove still, as if in the East there were an eternity of cloud and
wind. So furious had been the gusts, that high buildings in
town had had the lead stripped off their roofs ; and in the
country, trees had been torn up , and sails of windmills carried
away ; and gloomy accounts had come in from the coast, of
shipwreck and death. Violent blasts of rain had accompanied
these rages of wind, and the day just closed as I sat down to
read had been the worst of all .
Alterations have been made in that part of the Temple since
that time, and it has not now so lonely a character as it had
 AN UNTIMELY VISITOR, 299

then, nor is it so exposed to the river. We lived at the top of

the last house, and the wind rushing up the river shook the
house that night, like discharges of cannon, or breakings of a
sea . When the rain came with it and dashed against the
windows, I thought, raising my eyes to them as they rocked ,
that I might have fancied myself in a storm -beaten light- house.
Occasionally, the smoke came rolling down the chimney as
though it could not bear to go out into such a night; and when
I set the doors open and looked down the staircase, the stair
case lamps were blown out ; and when I shaded my face with
my hands and looked through the black windows (opening them
ever so little, was out of the question in the teeth of such wind
and rain ) I saw that the lamps in the court were blown out,
and that the lamps on the bridges and the shore were shudder
ing, and that the coal fires in barges on the river were being
carried away before the wind like red-hot splashes in the rain .
I read with my watch upon the table, purposing to close my
book at eleven o'clock . As I shut it, Saint Paul's, and all the
many church-clocks in the City - some leading, some accom
panying, some following - struck that hour. The sound was
curiously flawed by the wind; and I was listening, and thinking
how the wind assailed and tore it, when I heard a footstep on
the stair.
What nervous folly made me start, and awfully connect it
with the footstep of my dead sister, matters not. It was past
in a moment, and I listened again , and heard the footstep
stumble in coming on. Remembering then , tbat the staircase
lights were blown out, I took up my reading -lamp and went
out to the stair -head . Whoever was below had stopped on
seeing my lamp, for all was quiet.
“There is some one down there, is there not ? ” I called out,
looking down .
2

“Yes,” said a voice from the darkness beneath .

“ What floor do you want ?."
“ The top. Mr. Pip .”
“ That is my name. There is nothing the matter ? ”
“ Nothing the matter," returned the voice. And the man
came on .
I stood with my lamp held out over the stair -rail, and he
came slowly within its light. It was a shaded lamp to shine
upon a book, and its circle of light was very contracted ; so that
300 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
he was in it for a mere instant, and then out of it. In the
instant I had seen a face that was strange to me, looking up
with an incomprehensible air of being touched and pleased by
the sight of me.
Moving the lamp as the man moved, I made out that he was
substantially dressed, but roughly ; like a voyager by sea . That
he had long iron -grey hair. That his age was about sixty. 1 That
.
he was a muscular man , strong on his legs, and that he was
browned and hardened by exposure to weather. As he ascended
the last stair or two, and the light of my lamp included us both ,
I saw, with a stupid kind of amazement, that he was holding
out both his hands to me .
Pray what is your business ? ” I asked him.
“My business ? ” he repeated, pausing. “Ah ! Yes. I will
explain my business, by your leave.”
“ Do you wish to come in ? "
“ Yes,” he replied ; “ I wish to come in, Master."
I had asked him the question inhospitably enough , for I
resented the sort of bright and gratified recognition that still
shone in his face . I resented it, because it seemed to imply
that he expected me to respond to it. But, I took him into the
room I haå just left, and, having set the lamp on the table,
asked him as civilly as I could to explain himself.
He looked about him with the strangest air --- an air of won
dering pleasure, as if he had some part in the things he admired
-and he pulled off a rough outer coat, and his hat. Then, I
saw that his head was furrowed and bald, and that the long
iron - grey hair grew only on its sides . But, I saw nothing that
in the least explained him . On the contrary , I saw him next
moment, once more holding out both his hands to me .
“ What do you mean ? " said I, half suspecting him to be mad.
He stopped in his looking at me, and slowly rubbed his right
hand over his head . “It's disappointing to a man,” he said , in
a coarse broken voice, “ arter having looked for’ard so distant,
and come so fur ; but you're not to blame for that - neither on
us is to blame for that. I'll speak in half a minute. Give me
half a minute, please.”
He sat down on a chair that stood before the fire, and covered
his forehead with his large brown veinoús hands. I looked at
him attentively then, and recoiled a little from him ;i but I did
not know him .
 A RECOGNITION. 301

“ There's no one nigh ,” said he, looking over his shoulder ;

“ is there ? ”
“ Why do you, a stranger coming into my rooms at this time
C

of the night, ask that question ? ” said I.

“ You're a game one,” he returned , shaking his head at me
with a deliberate affection , at once most unintelligible and most
exasperating ; “ I'm glad you've grow'd up a game one ! But
don't catch hold of me. You'd be sorry arterwards to have
done it."
I relinquished the intention he had detected, for I knew
him ! Even yet I could not recall a single feature, but I knew
him ! If the wind and the rain had driven away the inter
vening years, had scattered all the intervening objects, had
swept us to the churchyard where we first stood face to face
on such different levels, I could not have known my convict
more distinctly than I knew him now, as he sat in the chair
before the fire. No need to take aa file from his pocket and show
it to me ; no need to take the handkerchief from his neck
and twist it round his head ; no need to hug himself with
both his arms, and take a shivering turn across the room,
looking back at me for recognition . I knew him before he
gave me one of those aids, though, a moment before, I had not
been conscious of remotely suspecting his identity.
He came back to where I stood, and again held out both his
hands. Not knowing what to do — for, in my astonishment I
had lost my self-possession - I reluctantly gave him my hands.
He grasped them heartily, raised them to his lips, kissed them ,
and still held them.
“ You acted nobly , my boy ,” said he. “ Noble Pip ! And
I have never forgot it ! ” .
At a change in his manner as if he were even going to
embrace me, I laid a hand upon his breast and put him away.
CC
“ Stay ! ” said I. Keep off ! If you are grateful to me for
what I did when I was a little child , I hope you have shown
your gratitude by mending your way of life. If you have come
here to thank me, it was not necessary . Still, however , you
have found me out, there must be something good in the
feeling that has brought you here, and I will not repulse
"
you ; but surely you must understand - I
My attention was so attracted by the singularity of his fixed
look at me, that the words died away on my tongue.
 302 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ You was a saying,” he observed, when we had confronted

one another in silence, “that surely I must understand . What,
surely must I understand ? ”
1 « That I cannot wish to renew that chance intercourse with
you of long ago, under these different circumstances. I am
1
glad to believe you have repented and recovered yourself. I
am glad to tell you so. I am glad that, thinking I deserve to
be thanked, you have come to thank me. But our ways are
different ways, none the less. You are wet, and you look weary.
Will you drink something before you go ? ”
He had replaced his neckerchief loosely and had stood,
keenly observant of me, biting a long end of it. “ I think,"
he answered, still with the end at his mouth and still observant
of me, “ that I will drink (I thank you) afore I go."
There was a tray ready on a side-table. I brought it to the
table near the fire, and asked him what he would have ? He
touched one of the bottles without looking at it or speaking,
and I made him some hot rum -and -water. I tried to keep my
hand steady while I did so, but his look at me as he leaned
back in his chair with the long draggled end of his neckerchief
between his teeth - evidently forgotten --made my hand very
difficult to master. When at last I put the glass to him, I saw
with amazement that his eyes were full of tears.
Up to this time I had remained standing, not to disguise that
I wished him gone. But I was softened by the softened aspect
of the man, and felt a touch of reproach. “ I hope,” said I,
hurriedly putting something into a glass for myself, and
drawing a chair to the table, “that you will not think I
spoke harshly to you just now. I had no intention of doing
it, and I am sorry for it if I did. I wish you well, and happy !"
As I put my glass to my lips, he glanced with surprise at
the end of his neckerchief, dropping from his mouth when he
opened it, and stretched out his hand . I gave him mine,
and then he drank, and drew his sleeve across his eyes and
forehead .
“ How are you living ? ” I asked him.
“ I've been a sheep -farmer, stock -breeder, other trades be
sides, away in the new world,” said he : “ many a thousand mile
of stormy water off from this."
66
I hope you have done well ? "
“ I've done wonderful well. There's others went out alonger
 A “ MERE WARMÎNT'S QUESTION .” 303

me às has done well too , but no man has done nigh as well as
me , I'm famous for it.”
“ I am glad to hear it.”
I hope to hear you say so, my dear boy .""
Without stopping to try to understand those words or the
tone in which they were spoken, I turned off to a point that
had just come into my mind .
“Have you ever seen a messenger you once sent to me,” I
inquired, " since he undertook that trust ? ”
“ Never set eyes upon him . I warn't likely to it.”
“ He came faithfully, and he brought me the two one
pound notes. I was a poor boy then , as you know, and
to a poor boy they were a little fortune. But, like you, I have
done well since, and you must let me pay them back . You
can put them to some other poor boy's use.” I took out my
purse .
He watched me as I laid my purse upon the table and
opened it, and he watched me as I separated two one- pound
notes from its contents. They were clean and new, and I
spread them out and handed them over to him , Still watch
ing me, he laid them one upon the other, folded them long -wise,
gave them a twist, set fire to them at the lamp, and dropped
the ashes into the tray.
“May I make so bold ,” he said then, with a smile that was
7
CC
like a frown, and with a frown that was like a smile, as ask
you how you have done well, since you and me was out on them
lone shivering marshes ? "
“ How ? "
66
“ Ah ! ”
He emptied his glass, got up, and stood at the side of the fire,
with his heavy brown hand on the mantelshelf. He put a foot
up to the bars, to dry and warm it, and the wet boot began to
steam ; but, he neither looked at it, nor at the fire, but
steadily looked at me. It was only now that I began to
tremble
When my lips had parted , and had shaped some words
that were without sound, I forced myself to tell him (though
I could not do it distinctly ), that I had been chosen to
succeed to some property .
“ Might a mere warmint ask what property ? ” said he.
66
I faltered . " I don't know ."
304 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

“ Might a mere warmint ask whose property ? ” said he.

I faltered again. “ I don't know .”
“ Could I make a guess, I wonder,” said the Convict, “ at
your income since you come of age ! As to the first figure, now.
Five ? "
With my heart beating like a heavy hammer of disordered
action, I rose out of my chair, and stood with my hand upon
the back of it, looking wildly at him .
2)
Concerning a guardian,” he went on. “ There ought to
have been some guardian or such -like, whiles you was a minor.
Some lawyer, maybe. As to the first letter of that lawyer's
>
name, now. Would it be J ? "
All the truth of my position came flashing on me ; and its
disappointments, dangers, disgraces, consequences of all kinds,
rushed in in such a multitude that I was borne down by them
and had to struggle for every breath I drew. “ Put it,” he
resumed, “ as the employer of that lawyer whose name begun
with a J, and might be Jaggers --- put it as he had come over sea
to Portsmouth, and had landed there, and had wantedto come
on to you . However, you have found me out, you says just
now. Well! however did I find you out ? Why, I wrote from
Portsmouth to a person in London, for particulars of your
address. That person's name ? Why, Wemmick .”
I could not have spoken one word, though it had been to
save my life . I stood, with a hand on the chair-back and a
hand on my breast, where I seemed to be suffocating — I stood
so, looking wildly at him, until I grasped at the chair, when
the room began to surge and turn . He caught me, drew me
to the sofa, put me up against the cushions, and bent on one
knee before me : bringing the face that I now wellremembered ,
and that I shuddered at, very near to mine.
Yes, Pip, dear boy, I've made a gentleman on you ! It's
me wot has done it ! I swore that time, sure as ever I earned
a guinea, that guinea should go to you. I swore arterwards,
sure as ever I spec'lated and got rich , you should get rich . I
lived rough , that you should live smooth ; I worked hard that
you should be above work . What odds, dear boy ? Do I tell
it fur you to feel a obligation ? Not a bit. I tell it, fur you
to know as that there hunted dunghill dog wot you kep life
in , got his head so high that he could make a gentleman-and,
Pip, you're him ! ”
 A CONVICT'S GRATITUDE , 305

The abhorrence in which I held the man, the dread I

had of him , the repugnance with which I shrank from him,
could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible
beast .
“ Look 'ee here, Pip . I'm your second father. You're my
son - more to me nor any son. I've put away money, only for
you to spend. When I was a hired -out shepherd in a solitary
hut, not seeing no faces but faces of sheep till I half forgot
wot men's and women's faces wos like, I see yourn. I drops
my knife many a time in that hut when I was a eating my
dinner or my supper, and I says, “ Here's the boy again a
looking at me whiles I eats and drinks ! ? I see you there a
many times as plain as ever I see you on them misty marshes .
• Lord strike me dead ! ' I says each time— and I goes out in the
open air to say it under the open heavens — but wot, if I gets
liberty and money, I'll make that boy a gentleman ! ' And I
done it. Why, look at you, dear boy ! Look at these here
lodgings of yourn , fit for a lord ! A lord ? Ah ! You shall
show money with lords for wagers, and beat 'em ! ”
In his heat and triumph, and in his knowledge that I had
been nearly fainting, he did not remark on my reception of all
this. It was the one grain of relief I had .
“ Look'ee here ! ” he went on , taking my watch out of my
pocket, and turning towards him a ring on my finger, while I
recoiled from his touch as if he had been a snake, “ a gold ’un
and a beauty : that's a gentleman's, I hope ! A diamond all
set round with rubies :: that's a gentleman's, I hope ! Look at
your linen ; fine and beautiful ! Look at your clothes ; better.
ain't to be got ! And your books too , ” turning his eyes round
the room , “ mounting up, on their shelves, by hundreds ! And
you read 'em ; don't you ? I see you 'd been a reading of 'em
when I come in . Ha, ha, ha ! You shall read 'em to me, dear
boy ! And if they're in foreign languages wot I don't
understand, I shall be just as proud as if I did .”
Again he took both my hands and put them to his lips,
while my blood ran cold within me.
“ Don't you mind talking, Pip ,” said he, after again drawing
his sleeve over his eyes and forehead, as the click came in his
throat which I well remembered — and he was all the more
horrible to me that he was so much in earnest ; " you can't do
better ņor keep quiet, dear boy . You ain't looked slowly
X
306 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
forward to this as I have ; you wosn't prepared for this, as I
wos. But didn't you never think it might be me ? "
“ O no, no, no," I returned . “ Never, never ! '
“ Well, you see it wos me, and single-handed. Never a soul
in it but my own self and Mr. Jaggers. "
“ Was there no one else ? " I asked.
“ No ," said he, with a glance of surprise : “ who else should
there be ? And, dear boy, how good -looking you have growed !
There's bright eyes somewheres - eh ? Isn't there bright eyes
somewheres, wot you love the thoughts on ? "
O Estella, Estella !
" They shall be yourn, dear boy, if money can buy 'em. Not
that a gentleman like you, so well set up as you, can't win
'em off of his own game ; but money shall back you ! Let
me finish wot I was a telling you, dear boy. From that there
hut and that there hiring-out, I got money left me by my
master (which died, and had been the same as me), and got my
liberty and went for myself. In every single thing I went for,
I went for you. ' Lord strike a blight upon it,' I says, wotever
it was I went for, ' if it ain't for him !' It all prospered
wonderful. As I giv' you to understand just now, I'm famous
for it. It was the money left me, and the gains of the first
few year, wot I sent home to Mr. Jaggers --all for you-when
he first come arter you, agreeable to my letter.”
O, that he had never come ! That he had left me at the
forge - far from contented , yet, by comparison , happy !
“And then, dear boy, it was a recompense to me, look 'ee
here, to know in secret that I was making a gentlemen . The
blood horses of them colonists might fling up the dust over me
as I was walking ; what do I say ? I says to myself, ' I'm
making a better gentleman nor ever you ' ll be ! ' When one of
'em says to another, ' He was a convict, a few years ago , and is
a ignorant common fellow now, for all he's lucky ,' what do I
4
>

say ? I says to myself, “ If I ain't a gentleman , nor yet ain't

got no learning, I'm the owner of such . All on you owns
stock and land ; which on you owns a brought-up London
gentleman ? ' This way I kep myself a going. And this way
I held steady afore my mind that I would for certain come one
day and see my boy, and make myself known to him, on his
own ground."
He laid his hand on my shoulder. I shuddered at the
 DEATH, IF FOUND. 307

thought that for anything I knew , his hand might be stained

with blood.
56
" It warn't easy, Pip, for me to leave them parts, nor yet it
warn't safe, But I held to it, and the harder it was, the
stronger I held, for I was determined , and my mind firm made
up . At last I doue it. Dear boy, I done it ! ”
I tried to collect my thoughts, but I was stunned . Through
out, I had seemed to myself to attend more to the wind and
the rain than to him ; even now , I could not separate his voice
from those voices, though those were loud and his was
silent.
“ Where will you put me ? ” he asked, presently. “ I must
be put somewheres, dear boy .”
“To sleep ? ” said I.
“ Yes. And to sleep long and sound,” he answered ; " for
I've been sea - tossed and sea -washed, months and months.”
“ My friend and companion , ” said I, rising from the sofa , “ is
absent ; you must have his room."
“ He won't come back to-morrow ; will he ? "
“ No,” said I, answering almost mechanically, in spite of my
utmost efforts ; “ not to -morrow . "
“ Because, look ’ee here, dear boy,” he said, dropping his
voice, and laying a long finger on my breast in an impressive
manner , “ caution is necessary.”
“ How do you mean ? Caution ? ” .
$6
“By G-, it's Death ! ”
6. What's death ? ”
“ I was sent for life. It's death to come back . There's
been overmuch coming back of late years, and I should of a
certainty be hanged if took . ”
Nothing was needed but this ; the wretched man , after load
ing me with his wretched gold and silver chains for years,
had risked his life to come to me, and I held it there in my
keeping ! If I had loved him instead of abhorring him ; if I.
had been attracted to him by the strongest admiration and
affection , instead of shrinking from him with the strongest
repugnance ; it could have been no worse. On the contrary ,
it would have been better, for his preservation would then have
naturally and tenderly addressed my heart.
My first care was to close the shutters, so that no light
might be seen from without, and then to close and make fast
X 2
308 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

the doors. While I did so, he stood at the table drinking rum
and eating biscuit ; and when I saw him thus engaged , I saw
my convict on the marshes at his meal again . It almost
seemed to me as if he must stoop down presently , to file at
his leg.
When I had gone into Herbert's room , and had shut off any
other communication between it and the staircase than through
the room in which our conversation had been held, I asked him
if he would go to bed ? He said yes, but asked me for some
of my gentleman's linen ” to put on in the morning. I
brought it out, and laid it ready for him, and my blood again
ran cold when he again took me by both hands to give me good
night.
I got away from him, without knowing how I did it, and
mended the fire in the room where we had been together, and
sat down by it, afraid to go to bed. For an hour or more, I
remained too stunned to think ; and it was not until I began to
think, that I began fully to know how wrecked I was, and how
the ship in which I had sailed was gone to pieces.
Miss Havisham's intentions towards me, all a mere dream ;
Estella not designed for me ; I only suffered in Satis House as
a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a
mechanical heart to practise on when no other practice was at
hand ; those were the first smarts I had. But, sharpest and
deepest pain of all — it was for the convict, guilty of I knew
not what crimes, and liable to be taken out of those rooms
where I sat thinking, and hanged at the Old Bailey door, that
I had deserted Joe.
I would not have gone back to Joe now, I would not have
gone back to Biddy now, for any consideration : simply, I
suppose, because my sense of my own worthless conduct to
them was greater than every consideration . No wisdom on
earth could have given me the comfort that I should have
derived from their simplicity and fidelity ; but I could never,
never , never, undo what I had done.
In every rage of wind and rush of rain , I heard pursuers.
Twice, I could have sworn there was a knocking and whisper
ing at the outer door. With these fears upon me, I began
either to imagine or recall that I had had mysterious warnings
of this man's approach . That, for weeks gone by, I had
passed faces in the streets which I had thought like his. That
FLOOR
LAY
THE,A
CHAIR
FROM
G."ON ND
IS“ LIPPED
RADUALLY
 HE SLEEPS IN PEACE . 309
these likenesses had grown more numerous, as he, coming over
the sea, had drawn nearer . That, his wicked spirit had some
how sent these messengers to mine, and that now on this
stormy night he was as good as his word, and with me.
Crowding up with these reflections came the reflection that I
had seen him with my childish eyes to be a desperately violent
man ; that I had heard that other convict reiterate that he had
tried to murder him ; that I had seen him down in the ditch,
tearing and fighting like a wild beast. Out of such re
membrances I brought into the light of the fire, a half -formed
terror that it might not be safe to be shut up there with him
in the dead of the wild solitary night. This dilated until it
filled the room, and impelled me to take a candle and go in
and look at my dreadful burden.
He had rolled a handkerchief round his head , and his face
was set and lowering in his sleep. But he was asleep, and
quietly too, though he had a pistol lying on the pillow .
Assured of this, I softly removed the key to the outside of
bis door, and turned it on him before I again sat down by the
fire. Gradually I slipped from the chair and lay on the floor.
When I awoke without having parted in my sleep with the per
ception of my wretchedness, the clocks of the Eastward
churches were striking five, the candles were wasted out, the
fire was dead , and the wind and rain intensified the thick black
darkness.

THIS IS THE END OF THE SECOND STAGE OF PIP'S

EXPECTATIONS.

CHAPTER XL .

It was fortunate for me that I had to take precautions to insure

( so far as I could ) the safety of my dreaded visitor ; for, this
thought pressing on me when I awoke, held other thoughts in
a confused concourse at a distance .
The impossibility of keeping him concealed in the chambers
310 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
was self- evident. It could not be done, and the attempt to do
it would inevitably engender suspicion. True, I had no
Avenger in my service now, but I was looked after by an in
flammatory old female, assisted by an animated rag-bag whom
she called her niece ; and to keep a room secret from them
would be to invite curiosity and exaggeration . They both had
weak eyes, which I had long attributed to their chronically
looking in at keyholes, and they were always at hand when not
wanted ; indeed that was their only reliable quality besides
larceny. Not to get up a mystery with these people, I resolved
to announce in the morning that my uncle had unexpectedly
come from the country.
This course I decided on while I was yet groping about in the
darkness for the means of getting a light. Not stumbling on
the means after all, I was fain to go out to the adjacent Lodge
and get the watchman there to come with his lantern . Now,
in groping my way down the black staircase I fell over some
thing, and that something was a man crouching in a corner.
As the man made no answer when I asked him what he did
there, but eluded my touch in silence, I ran to the Lodge and
urged the watchman to come quickly : telling him of the
incident on the way back . The wind being as fierce as ever,
we did not care to endanger the light in the lantern by rekind
ling the extinguished lamps on the staircase, but we examined
the staircase from the bottom to the top and found no one
there. It then occurred to me as possible that the man might
have slipped into my rooms ; so, lighting my candle at the
watchman's, and leaving him standing at the door, I examined
them carefully, including the room in which my dreaded guest
lay asleep. All was quiet, and assuredly no other man was in
those chambers.
It troubled me that there should have been a lurker on the
stairs, on that night of all nights in the year, and I asked the
watchman , on the chance of eliciting some hopeful explanation
as I handed him аa. dram at the door, whether he had admitted
at his gate any gentleman who had perceptibly been dining
out ? Yes, he said ; at different times of the night, three.
One lived in Fountain Court, and the other two lived in the
Lane, and he had seen them all go home. Again , the only
other man who dwelt in the house of which my chambers
formed a part, had been in the country for some weeks ; and
 THE PERSON WITH HIM ! 311

21 he certainly had not returned in the night, because we had

1 seen his door with his seal on it as we came up stairs.
“ The night being so bad, sir , " said the watchman , as he
gave me back my glass, “ uncommon few have come in at my
gate. Besides them three gentlemen that I have named, I
don't call to mind another since about eleven o'clock , when
a stranger asked for you.”
“ My uncle, " I muttered . “ Yes. "
“ You saw him, sir ? "
“ Yes. Oh yes."
“Likewise the person with him ? ”
“ Person with him ! ” I repeated.
“ I judged the person to be with him," returned the watch
inan . “ The person stopped, when he stopped to make inquiry
of me, and the person took this way when he took this way. ”
“ What sort of person ? ”
The watchman had not particularly noticed ; he should say
a working person ; to the best of his belief, he had a dust
coloured kind of clothes on, under a dark coat. The watchman
made more light of the matter than I did, and naturally ; not
having my reason for attaching weight to it.
When I had got rid of him , which I thought it well to do
without prolonging explanations, my mind was much troubled
by these two circumstances takeu together. Whereas they
were easy of innocent solution apart - as, for instance,
some diner -out or diner-at-home, who had not gone near this
watchman's gate, might have strayed to my staircase and
dropped asleep there — and my nameless visitor might have
brought some one with him to show him the way - still, joined,
they had an ugly look to one as prone to distrust and fear as
the changes of a few hours had made me.
I lighted my fire, which burnt with a raw pale flare at that
time of the morning, and fell into a doze before it. I seemed
to have been dozing a whole night when the clocks struck six.
As there was full an hour and a half between me and daylight,
I dozed again ; now, waking up uneasily, with prolix conver
sations about nothing, in my ears ; now, making thunder of the
wind in the chimney ; at length, falling off into a profound
sleep from which the daylight woke me with a start.
All this time I had never been able to consider my own
situation , nor could I do so yet. I had not the power to attend
312 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

to it. I was greatly dejected and distressed, but in an inco

herent wholesale sort of way. As to forming any plan for the
future, I could as soon have formed an elephant. When I
opened the shutters and looked out at the wet wild morning,
all of a leaden hue ; when I walked from room to room ; when
I sat down again shivering, before the fire, waiting for my
laundress to appear ; I thought how miserable I was, but
hardly knew why, or how long I had been so; or on what day
of the week I made the reflection , or even who I was that
made it.
At last the old woman and the niece came in the latter
with aa head not easily distinguishable from her dusty broom
and testified surprise at sight of me and the fire. To whom I
imparted how my uncle had come in the night and was then
asleep, and how the breakfast preparations were to be modified
accordingly. Then , I washed and dressed while they knocked
the furniture about and made aa dust ; and so, in a sort of dream
or sleep-waking, I found myself sitting by the fire again ,
waiting for - Him to come to breakfast.
By-and-by, his door opened and he came out. I could not
bring myself to bear the sight of him, and I thought he had a
worse look by daylight.
“ I do not even know ," said I, speaking low as he took his
seat at the table, “ by what name to call you. I have given
>
out that you are my uncle .”
“ That's it, dear boy ! Call me uncle ."
“ You assumed some name, I suppose, on board ship ? ”
· Yes, dear boy. I took the name of Provis.”
“ Do you mean to keep that name? "
“Why, yes, dear boy, it's as good as another — unless you'd
like another.”
“ What is your real name ? ” I asked him in a whisper.
“ Magwitch , " he answered in the same tone ; “ christen'd
Abel."
“ What were you brought up to be ? "
7
“ A warmint, dear boy.”
He answered quite seriously, and used the word as if it
denoted some profession.
“ When you came into the Temple last night__ ” said I,
pausing to wonder whether that could really have been last
night, which seemed so long ago.
 WORK DONE AND PAID FOR. 313
»
“ Yes, dear boy ? "
“ When you came in at the gate and asked the watchman
"
the way here, had you any one with you ? ”
“ With me ? No, dear boy . "
“ But there was some one there ?
“ I didn't take particular notice,” he said, dubiously, “ not
knowing the ways of the place. But I think there was a
person, too, come in alonger me. "
46
Are you known in London ? "
“ I hope not ! ” said he, giving his neck a jerk with his fore
finger that made me turn hot and sick.
7
“ Were you known in London , once ? ”
“ Not over and above, dear boy. I was in the provinces
"
mostly ."
«
" Were you - tried - in London. ? ”
“ Which time ? ” said he, with a sharp look.
“ The last time.”
He nodded. “ First knowed Mr. Jaggers that way. Jaggers
was for me."
It was on my lips to ask him what he was tried for, but he
took up a knife, gave it a flourish , and with the words, “ And
what I done is worked out and paid for ! ” fell to at his
breakfast.
He ate in a ravenous way that was very disagreeable, and
all his actions were uncouth, noisy, and greedy. Some of his
teeth had failed him since I saw him eat on the marshes, and
as he turned his food in his mouth, and turned his head side
ways to bring his strongest fangs to bear upon it, he looked
terribly like a hungry old dog.
If I had begun with any appetite, he would have taken it
and I should have sat much as I did—repelled from him
away ,
by an insurmountable aversion, and gloomily looking at the
cloth .
“ I'm a heavy grubber, dear boy, ” he said, as a polite kind
of apology when he had made an end of his meal, “ but I
always was. If it had been in my constitution to be a lighter
grubber, I might ha' got into lighter trouble . Similarly, I must
have my smoke. When I was first hired out as shepherd
ť other side the world, it's my belief I should ha’ turned
into a molloncolly -mad sheep myself, if I hadn't had my
smoke.”
314 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
As he said so he got up from table, and putting his band
into the breast of the pea - coat he wore; brought out a short
black pipe, and a handful of loose tobacco of the kind that
is called negro -head. Having filled his pipe, he put the
surplus tobacco back again, as if his pocket were a drawer .
Then, he took aa live coal from the fire with the tongs, and lighted
his pipe at it, and then turned round on the hearth-rug with
his back to the fire, and went through his favourite action of
holding out both his hands for mine.
" And this,” said he, dandling my hands up and down in his,
as he puffed at his pipe ; " and this is the gentleman what I
made ! The real genuine One ! It does me good fur to look
at you, Pip. All I stip’late, is, to stand by and look at you,
2
dear boy !
I released my hands as soon as I could, and found that I
was beginning slowly to settle down to the contemplation of
my condition. What I was chained to, and how heavily ,
became intelligible to me, as I heard his hoarse voice, and sat
looking up at his furrowed bald head with its iron - grey hair
at the sides .
“ I mustn't see my gentleman a footing it in the mire of
the streets ; there mustn't be no mud on his boots. My gentle
man must have horses, Pip ! Horses to ride, and horses to
drive, and horses for his servant to ride and drive as well .
Shall colonists have their horses (and blood -'uns, if you please,
good Lord !) and not my London gentleman ? No, no. We'll
show 'em another pair of shoes than that, Pip ; won't us ? ”
He took out of his pocket a greatthick pocket-book , bursting
with papers, and tossed it on the table.
“ There's something worth spending in that there book, dear
boy. It's yourn. All I've got ain't mine ; it's yourn, Don't
you be afeerd on it. There's more where that come from .
I've come to the old country fur to see my gentleman spend
his money like a gentleman. That'll be my pleasure. My
pleasure 'ull be fur to see him do it. And blast you all ! ” he
wound up, looking round the room and snapping his fingers
once with aa loud snap, " blast you every one, from the judge
in his wig, to the colonist a stirring up the dust, I'll show a
better gentleman than the whole kit on you put together ! ”
«
“ Stop ! ” said I, almost in a frenzy of fear and dislike, “ I
want to speak to you. I want to know what is to be done, I
 COME TO REMAIN FOR GOOD . 315

want to know how you are to be kept out of danger, how long
you are going to stay, what projects you have."
“ Look’ee here, Pip ,” said he, laying his hand on my arm in a
suddenly altered and subdued manner ; “ first of all, look 'ee
here. I forgot myself half a minute ago. What I said was
low ; that's what it was ; low. Look 'ee here, Pip. Look over
it. I ain't a going to be low . "
7
“ First, ” I resumed , half-groaning, “ what precautions can be
taken against your" being recognised and seized ? "
' No, dear boy,” he said in the same tone as before, “ that
don't go first. Lowness goes first . I ain't took so many year
to make a gentleman , not without knowing what's due to him .
Look 'ee here, Pip. I was low ; that's what I was ; low. Look
over it, dear boy."
Some sense of the grimly -ludicrous moved me to a fretful
laugh , as I replied, “ I have looked over it. In Heaven's name,
don't harp upon it ! ”
“ Yes, but look 'ee here, " he persisted. “ Dear boy, I ain't
come so fur, not fur to be low. Now , go on, dear boy. You
was a saying—- "
“ How are you to be guarded from the danger you have
incurred ? "
«G
“Well, dear boy, the dauger ain't so great. Without I was
informed agen , the danger ain't so much to signify. There's
Jaggers, and there's Wemmick , and there's you. Who else is
there to inform ? "
“ Is there no chance person who might identify you in the
street ? " said I.
“ Well,” he returned, “ there ain't many. Nor yet I don't
intend to advertise myself in the newspapers by the name of
A. M. come back from Botany Bay ; and years have rolled
away, and who's to gain by it ? Still, look’ee here, Pip . If
the danger had been fifty times as great, I should ha' come to
see you, mind you, just the same." "
“And how long do you remain ? "
“ How long ?" said he, taking his black pipe from his mouth,
and dropping his jaw as he stared at me. “ I'm not a going
back. I've come for good . ”
“ Where are you to live ? ” said I. “What is to be done with
you ? Where will you be safe ? "
“ Dear boy ," he returned , “ there's disguising wigs can be
316 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

bought for money, and there's hair powder, and spectacles,

and black clothes - shorts and what not. Others has done it
safe afore, and what others has done afore, others can do agen .
As to the where and how of living , dear boy, give me your
own opinions on it.”
“ You take it smoothly now , " said I, “ but you were very
serious last night, when you swore it was Death ."
“And so I swear it is Death,” said he, putting his pipe back
in his mouth , “and Death by the rope, in the open street not
fur from this, and it's serious that you should fully under
stand it to be so . What then , when that'sonce done ? Here
I am . To go back now, 'ud be as bad as to stand ground
worse. Besides, Pip, I'm here, because I've meant it by you,
years and years. As to what I dare, I'm a old bird now, as has
dared all manner of traps since first he was fledged , and I'm
not afeerd to perch upon a scarecrow . If there's Death hid
inside of it, there is, and let him come out, and I'll face him ,
and then I'll believe in him and not afore . And now let me
have a look at my gentleman agen.”
Once more he took me by both hands and surveyed me with
an air of admiring proprietorship, smoking with great com
placency all the wbile.
It appeared to me that I could do no better than secure him
some quiet lodging hard by, of which he might take possession
when Herbert returned : whom I expected in two or three days.
:

That the secret must be confided to Herbert as a matter of

unavoidable necessity, even if I could have put the immense
relief I should derive from sharing it with him out of the
question , was plain to me. But it was by no means so plain
to Mr. Provis (I resolved to call him by that name), who
reserved bis consent to Herbert's participation until he should
have seen him and formed a favourable judgment of his
physiognomy. “ And even then, dear boy," said he pulling a
greasy little clasped black Testament out of his pocket, “ we'll
have him on his oath ."
To state that my terrible patron carried this little black book
about the world solely to swear people on in cases of emergency,
would be to state what I never quite established — but this I
can say, that I never knew him put it to any other use. The
book itself had the appearance of having been stolen from some
court of justice, and perhaps his knowledge of its antecedents,
 A CONSULTATION WITH MR . JAGGERS . 317

combined with his own experience in that wise, gave him a

reliance on its powers as a sort of legal spell or charm . On
this first occasion of his producing it, I recalled how he had
made me swear fidelity in the churchyard long ago, and how he
had described himself last night as always swearing to his
resolutions in his solitude .
As he was at present dressed in a seafaring slop suit, in which
he looked as if he had some parrots and cigars to dispose of,
I next discussed with him what dress he should wear . He
cherished an extraordinary belief in the virtues of " shorts ” as
a disguise, and had in his own mind sketched a dress for him
self that would have made him something between a dean and
a dentist. It was with considerable difficulty that I won him
over to the assumption of a dress more like a prosperous
farmer's ; and we arranged that he should cut his hair close,
and wear a little powder. Lastly, as he had not yet been seen
by the laundress or her niece, he was to keep himself out of
their view until his change of dress was made.
It would seem a simple matter to decide on these precautions ;
but in my dazed , not to say distracted , state, it took so long,
that I did not get out to further them until two or three in the
afternoon . He was to remain shut up in the chambers while I
was gone, and was on no account to open the door.
There being to my knowledge a respectable lodging- house in
Essex-street, the back of which looked into the Temple, and
was almost within hail of my windows, I first of all repaired to
that house, and was so fortunate as to secure the second floor
for my uncle, Mr. Provis. I then went from shop to shop,
making such purchases as were necessary to the change in
his appearance. This business transacted, I turned my face,
on my own account, to Little Britain . Mr. Jaggers was at his
desk, but, seeing me enter, got up immediately and stood before
his fire .
2
“ Now , Pip,” said he, " be careful. "
>
“ I will, sir,” I returned. For, coming along I had thought
well of what I was going to say.
"
“Don't commit yourself,” said Mr. Jaggers, “and don't
commit any one . You understand — any one . Don't tell me
anything : I don't want to know anything : I am not curious. ”
Of course I saw that he knew the man was come .
“ I merely want, Mr. Jaggers,” said I, “ to assure myself
318 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

what I have been told, is true. I have no hope of its being

untrue, but at least I may verify it .”
Mr. Jaggers nodded. “ But did you say told ' or ' in
formed ' ? ” he asked me, with his head on one side, and not
looking at me, but looking in a listening way at the floor .
“ Told would seem to imply verbal communication . You can't
have verbal communication with a man in New South Wales,
you know ."
“ I will say, informed, Mr. Jaggers."
“ Good .”
“ I have been informed by a person named Abel Magwitch,
that he is the benefactor so long unknown to me.”
66
That is the man,” said Mr. Jaggers, “ -in New South
Wales .”
“ And only he ? ” said I.
“And only he,” said Mr. Jaggers.
" I am not so unreasonable, sir, as to think you at all
responsible for my mistakes and wrong conclusions ; but I
always supposed it was Miss Havisham . "
"

“As you say, Pip,” returned Mr. Jaggers, turning his eyes
upon me coolly, and taking a bite at his forefinger, “ I am not
>
at all responsible for that. "
“And yet it looked so like it, sir,” I pleaded with a downcast
heart.
“ Not a particle of evidence, Pip,” said Mr. Jaggers, shaking
his head and gathering up his skirts. “ Take nothing on its "
looks ; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule .”
“ I have no more to say,” said I, with a sigh, after standing
silent for a little while , “ I have verified my information, and
there's an end . "
“ And Magwitch - in New South Wales — having at last dis
closed himself,” said Mr. Jaggers, “ you will comprehend, Pip,
how rigidly throughout my communication with you, I have
always adhered to the strict line of fact. There has never
been the least departure from the strict line of fact. You are
»
quite aware of that ? "
“ Quite , sir .”
“ I communicated to Magwitch - in New South Wales — when
he first wrote to me -- from New South Wales --the caution that
he must not expect me ever to deviate from the strict line of
fact. I also communicated to him another caution. He ap
 UNSATISFACTORY . 319

peared to me to have obscurely hinted in his letter at some

distant idea of seeing you in England here. I cautioned him
that I must hear no more of that ; that he was not at all likely
to obtain a pardon ; that he was expatriated for the term of his
natural life ; and that his presenting himself in this country
would be an act of felony, rendering him liable to the extreme
penalty of the law . I gave Magwitch that caution ,” said Mr.
C
Jaggers, looking hard at me ; “ I wrote it to New South Wales,
He guided himself by it, no doubt. ”
“ No doubt, " said I.
CC
I have been informed by Wemmick ,” pursued Mr. Jaggers,
still looking hard at me, " that he has received a letter, under
date Portsmouth,
"
from a colonist of the name of Purvis,
or
“ Or Provis,” I suggested.
“ Or Provis - thank you, Pip. Perhaps it is Provis ? Perhaps
you know it's Provis ? ”
“ Yes,” said I.
“You know it's Provis. A letter, under date Portsmouth ,
from a colonist of the name of Provis, asking for the particulars
of your address, on behalf of Magwitch. Wemmick sent him
the particulars, I understand, by return of post. Probably it
is through Provis that you have received the explanation of
Magwitch - in New South Wales ? ”
“It came through Provis,” I replied.
“ Good day, Pip, ” said Mr. Jaggers, offering his hand ; “ glad
to have seen you. In writing by post to Magwitch - in New
South Wales - or in communicating with him through Provis,
have the goodness to mention that the particulars and vouchers
of our long account shall be sent to you , together with the
balance ; for there is still a balance remaining. Good day,
Pip !”
We shook hands, and he looked hard at me as long as he
could see me. I turned at the door, and he was still looking
hard at me, while the two vile casts on the shelf seemed to be
trying to get their eyelids open , and to force out of their
swollen throats, “ 0 , what a man he is ! ”
Wemmick was out,and though he had been at his desk he
could have done nothing for me. I went straight back to the
Temple, where I found the terrible Provis drinking rum -and
water, and smoking negro -head, in safety.
320 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Next day the clothes I had ordered all came home, and he
put them on. Whatever be put on, became him less (it dismally
seemed to me) than what he had worn before. To my thinking
there was something in him that made it hopeless to attempt
to disguise him . The more I dressed him , and the better I
dressed him, the more he looked like the slouching fugitive on
the marshes. This effect on my anxious fancy was partly
referable, no doubt, to his old face and manner growing more
familiar to me : but I believed too that he dragged one of his
legs as if there were still a weight of iron on it, and that from
head to foot there was Convict in the very grain of the map .
The influences of his solitary hut-life were upon him besides,
and gave him a savage air that no dress could tame; added to
these were the influences of his subsequent branded life among
men , and, crowning all, his consciousness that he was dodging
and hiding now. In all his ways of sitting and standing, and
eating and drinking - of brooding about, in a high -shouldered
reluctant style - of taking out his great horn -handled jack -knife
and wiping it on his legs and cutting his food—of lifting light
glasses and cups to his lips, as if they were clumsy pannikins
of chopping a wedge off his bread , and soaking up with it the
last fragments of gravy round and round his plate, as if to
make the most of an allowance, and then drying his fingers on
it, and then swallowing it – in these ways and aa thousand other.
small nameless instances arising every minute in the day,
there was Prisoner, Felon, Bondsman, plain as plain could be.
It had been his own idea to wear that touch of powder , and
I conceded the powder after overcoming the shorts. But I can
compare the effect of it, when on, to nothing but the probable
effect of rouge upon the dead ; so awful was the manner in
which everything in him that it was most desirable to repress,
started through that thin layer of pretence, and seemed to
come blazing out at the crown of his head. It was abandoned
as soon as tried, and he wore his grizzled hair cut short .
Words cannot tell what a sense I had, at the same time, of
the dreadful mystery that he was to me. When he fell asleep
of an evening, with his knotted hands clenching the sides of
the easy -chair, and his bald head tattooed with deep wrinkles
falling forward on his breast, I would sit and look at him ,
wondering what he had done, and loading him with all the
crimes in the Calendar, until the impulse was powerful on me
 HAUNTED BY A MONSTER . 321

to start up and fly from him . Every hour so increased my

abhorrence of liim, that I even think I might have yielded to
this impulse in the first agonies of being so haunted, notwith
standing all he had done for me and the risk he ran , but for the
knowledge that Herbert must soon come back. Once, I actually
did start out of bed in the night, and begin to dress myself in
my worst clothes, hurriedly intending to leave him there with
everything else I possessed, and enlist for India, as a private
soldier .
I doubt if a ghost could have been more terrible to me, up in
those lonely rooms in the long evenings and long nights, with
the wind and the rain always rushing by. A ghost could not
have been taken and hanged on my account, and the consider
ation that he could be, and the dread that he would be, were no
small addition to my horrors. When he was not asleep, or
playing a complicated kind of Patience with a ragged pack of
cards of his own - a game that I never saw before or since, and
in which he recorded his winnings by sticking his jack -knife
into the table-when he was not engaged in either of these pur
suits, he would ask me to read to him—“ Foreign language,
dear boy ! ” While I complied ,he, not comprehending a single
word, would stand before the fire surveying me with the air of
an Exhibitor, and I would see him , between the fingers of the
hand with which I shaded my face, appealing in dumb show to
the furniture to take notice of my proficiency. The imaginary
student pursued by the misshapen creature he had impiously
made, was not more wretched than I, pursued by the creature
who had made me, and recoiling from him with a stronger re
pulsion, the more he admired me and the fonder he was of me .
This is written of, I am sensible, as if it had lasted a year. It
lasted about five days. Expecting Herbert all the time, I dared
not go out, except when I took Provis for an airing after dark .
At length , one evening when dinner was over and I had dropped
into a slumber quite worn out-for my nights had been agitated
and my rest broken by fearful dreams- I was ronised by the
welcome footstep on the staircase . Provis , who had been
asleep too, staggered up at the noise I made, and in an instant I
saw his jack-knife shining in his hand.
“ Quiet ! It's Herbert ! ” I said ; and Herbert came bursting
in, with the airy freshness of six hundred miles of France upon
him .
Y
322 GREAT EXPECTATIONS,

“ Handel, my dear fellow , how are you, and again how are you ,
and again how are you ? I seem to have been gone a twelve
month ! Why, so I must have been , for you have grown quite
thin and pale ! Handel, my-Halloa ! I beg your pardon.”
He was stopped in his running on and in his shaking hands
with me, by seeing Provis. Provis, regarding him with a fixed
attention, was slowly putting up his jack -knife, and groping in
another pocket for something else.
“ Herbert, my dear friend,” said I, shutting the double doors,
while Herbert stood staring and wondering, “ something very
strange has happened. This is—a visitor of mine."
“ It's all right, dear boy ! "” said Provis, coming forward , with
his little clasped black book, and then addressing himself to
Herbert. “ Take it in your right hand. Lord strike you dead
on the spot, if ever you split in any way sumever. Kiss it ! ”
>

“ Do so, as he wishes it,” I said to Herbert. So Herbert, look

ing at me with a friendly uneasiness and amazement, complied ,
and Provis immediately shaking hands with him, said, “ Now ,
you're on your oath , you know . And never believe me on
mine, if Pip shan'tmake a gentleman on you ! ”

CHAPTER XLI .

In vain should I attempt to describe the astonishment and dis

quiet of Herbert, when he and I and Provis sat down before the
fire, and I recounted the whole of the secret. Enough that I saw
my own feelings reflected in Herbert's face, and, not least among
them , my repugnance towards the man who had done so much
for me .
What would alone have set a division between that man and
us, if there had been no other dividing circumstance, was his
triumph in my story. Saving his troublesome sense of having
been " low " on one occasion since his return - on which point he
began to hold forth to Herbert, the moment my revelation was
finished - he had no perception of the possibility of my finding
any fault with my good fortune. His boast that he had made
me a gentleman , and that he had come to see me support the
 “ MUZZLED >” FOR GOOD. 323
character on his ample resources, was made for me quite as
much as for himself. And that it was a highly agreeable boast
to both of us, and that we must both be very proud of it, was a
conclusion quite established in his own mind.
“ Though, look 'ee here, Pip's comrade,” he said to Herbert,
after having discoursed for some time, “ I know very well that
once since I come back -- for half a minute-I've been low. I
said to Pip, I knowed as I had been low. But don't you fret
yourself on that score. I ain't made Pip a gentleman, and Pip
ain't a - goin to make you a gentleman , not fur me not to know
what's due to ye both . Dear boy, and Pip's comrade, you two
may count upon me always having a genteel muzzle on.
Muzzled I have been since that half a minute when I was
betrayed into lowness, muzzled I am at the present time,
muzzled I ever will be."
6
Herbert said, “ Certainly," but looked as if there were no
specific consolation in this, and remained perplexed and dis
mayed. We were anxious for the time when he would go to his
lodging, and leave us together, but he was evidently jealous of
leaving us together, and sat late. It was midnight before I
took him round to Essex -street, and saw him safely in at his
own dark door. When it closed upon him, I experienced the
first moment of relief I had known since the night of his
arrival.
Never quite free from an uneasy remembrance of the man on
the stairs, I had always looked about me in taking my guest out
after dark, and in bringing him back ; and I looked about me
now. Difficult as it is in a large city to avoid the suspicion of
being watched when the mind is conscious of danger in that
regard , I could not persuade myself that any of the people
within sight cared about my movements. The few who were
passing, passed on their several ways, and the street was empty
when I turned back into the Temple . Nobody had come out
at the gate with us, nobody went in at the gate with me . As I
crossed by the fountain , I saw his lighted back windows looking
bright and quiet, and, when I stood for a few moments in the
doorway of the building where I lived, before going up the
stairs, Garden - court was as still and lifeless as the staircase was
when I ascended it.
Herbert received me with open arms, and I had never felt
before so blessedly, what it is to have a friend. When he had
Y 2
324 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

spoken some sound words of sympathy and encouragement,

we sat down to consider the question, What was to be
done ?
The chair that Provis had occupied still remaining where it
had stood - for he had a barrack way with him of hauging
about one spot, in one unsettled manner , and going through one
round of observances with his pipe and his negro -head and bis
jack -knife and his pack of cards, and what not, as if it were all
put down for him on a slate - I say, his chair remaining where
it had stood, Herbert unconsciously took it, but next moment
started out of it, pushed it away, and took another . He had no
occasion to say, after that, that he had conceived an aversion
for my patron, neither had I occasion to confess my own . We
interchanged that confidence without shaping a syllable.
CG
· What, ” said I to Herbert, when he was safe in another chair,
“ what is to be done ? "
“ My poor dear Handel,” be replied, holding his head, “ I am
too stunned to think ."
“ So was I, Herbert,when the blow first fell. Still, something
must be done. He is intent upon various new expenses—horses,
carriages, and lavish appearances of all kinds. He must be
stopped somehow ."
"
“ You mean that you cau't accept
“ How can I ? ” I interposed, as Herbert paused. “ Think of
him ! Look at him ! ”
An involuntary shudder passed over both of us.
“ Yet I am afraid the dreadful truth is, Herbert, that he is
attached to me, strongly attached to me. Was there ever such
a fate !”
“ My poor dear Handel,” Herbert repeated.
C
“ Then ,” said I, “ after all, stopping short here, never taking
another penny from him, think what I owe him already !
Then again : I am heavily in debt - very heavily for me, who
have now no expectations — and I have been bred to no calling,
and I am fit for nothing.”
66

' Well, well , well ! ” Herbert remonstrated . “ Don't say fit

for nothing.”
“ What am I fit for ? I know only one thing that I am fit
for, and that is, to go for a soldier. And I might have gone,
my dear Herbert, but for the prospect of taking counselwith
your friendship and affection ."
 DOUBT AND PERPLEXITY , 325

Of course I broke down there ; and of course Herbert, beyond

seizing a warm grip of my hand, pretended not to know it.
Anyhow, my dear Handel, ” said he presently , " soldiering
won't do . If you were to renounce this patronage and these
favours, I suppose you would do so with some faint hope of one
day repaying what you have already had . Not very strong,
that hope, if you went soldiering. Besides, it's absurd . You
would be infinitely better in Clarriker's house, small as it is. I
am working up towards a partnership, you know .”
Poor fellow ! He little suspected with whose money.
“ But there is another question ,” said Herbert. “ This is an
ignorant determined man, who has long had one fixed idea.
More than that, he seems to me (I may misjudge him) to be a
man of a desperate and fierce character. ”
“ I know he is," I returned . “ Let me tell you what evidence
I have seen of it.” · And I told him what I had not mentioned
.

in my narrative ; of that encounter with the other convict.

“ See, then,”> said Herbert ; “ think of this ! He comes here
at the peril of his life, for the realisation of his fixed idea. In
the moment of realisation, after all his toil and waiting, you
.

cut the ground from under his feet, destroy his idea, and make
his gains worthless to him . Do you see nothing that he might
do under the disappointment ? ”
“ I have seen it, Herbert, and dreamed of it ever since
the fatal night of his arrival. Nothing has been in my
thoughts so distinctly as his putting himself in the way of being
taken ."
“ Then you may rely upon it, ” said Herbert, “ that there
would be great danger of his doing it. That is his power over
you as long as he remains in England, and that would be his
reckless course if you forsook him . "
I was so struck by the horror of this idea, which had weighed
upon me from the first, and the working out of which would
make me regard myself, in some sort, as his murderer, that I
could not rest in my chair, but began pacing to and fro. I said
to Herbert, meanwhile, that even if Provis were recognised and
taken, in spite of himself, I should be wretched as the cause,
however innocently. Yes ; even though I was so wretched in
having him at large and near me, and even though I would far
rather have worked at the forge all the days of my life than I
would ever have come to this !
326 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

But there was no staving off the question, What was to be

done ?
>
" The first and the maiu thing to be done,” said Herbert, “is
to get him out of England. You will have to go with him , and
then he may be induced to go.”
“ But get him where I will, could I prevent his coming
back ? "
C6
‘ My good Handel, is it not obvious that with Newgate in the
next street, there must be far greater hazard in your breaking
your mind to him and making him reckless, here, than elsewhere.
If a pretext to get him away could be made out of that other
convict, or out of anything else in his life, now ."
“ There again ! ” said I, stopping before Herbert, with my
open hands held out, as if they contained the desperation of
the case .“ I know nothing of his life. It has almost made
me mad to sit here of a night and see him before me, so bound
up with my fortunes and misfortunes, and yet so unknown to
me, except as the miserable wretch who terrified me two days
in my childhood ! ”
Herbert got up, and linked his arm in mine, and we slowly
walked to and fro together, studying the carpet.
“ Handel,” said Herbert, stopping, “ you feel convinced that
you can take no further benefits from him ; do you ? ”
“ Fully. Surely you would , too, if you were in my place ? "
“ And you feel convinced that you must break with him ? "
“ Herbert, can you ask me ? ”
“And you have, and are bound to have, that tenderness for
the life he has risked on your account, that you must save him ,
if possible, from throwing it away. Then you must get him
out of England before you stir a finger to extricate yourself.
That done, extricate yourself, in Heaven's name, and we'll see
it out together, dear old boy."
It was a comfort to shake hands upon it, and walk up and
down again, with only that done.
“ Now , Herbert,” said I, “with reference to gaining some
knowledge of his history. There is but one way that I know
of. I must ask him point-blank."
“ Yes. Ask him ," said Herbert, “ when we sit at breakfast
in the morning.” For, he had said, on taking leave of Herbert,
that he would come to breakfast with us.
With this project formed, we went to bed. I had the wildest
 SOMETHING MORE TO BE KNOWN. 321

dreams concerning him , and woke unrefreshed ; I woke, too, to

recover the fear which I had lost in the night, of his being
found out as a returned transport. Waking, I never lost that
fear .
He came round at the appointed time, took out his jack
knife, and sat down to his meal. He was full of plans “for
his gentleman's coming out strong, and like a gentleman ,” and
urged me to begin speedily upon the pocket-book , which he
had left in my possession . He considered the chambers and
his own lodgings as temporary residences, and advised me to
look out at once for a “ fashionable crib ” near Hyde Park , in
which he could have “ a shake-down." When he had made
an end of his breakfast, and was wiping his knife on his leg, I
said to him , without a word of preface :
“ After you were gone last night, I told my friend of the
struggle that the soldiers found you engaged in ou the marshes,
when we came up. You remember ? ”
“ Remember ! ” said he. “ I think so ! ”
“ We want to know something about that man — and about
you . It is strange to know no more about either, and particu
larly you, than I was able to tell last night. Is not this as good
a time as another for our knowing more ? ”
“ Well !” he said , after consideration. “ You ' re on your
oath, you know , Pip's comrade ? "
"
Assuredly, ” replied Herbert.
“As to anything IΙ say, you know," he insisted . “ The oath
applies to all.”
66
I understand it to do so ."
“And look 'ee here ! Wotever I done, is worked out and
paid for,” he insisted again .
“ So be it. "
He took out his black pipe and was going to fill it with
negro -head , when, looking at the tangle of tobacco in his hand ,
he seemed to think it might perplex the thread of his narra
tive. He put it back again, stuck his pipe in a button -hole of
his coat, spread a hand on each knee, and after turning an
angry eye on the fire for a few silent moments, looked around
at us and said what follows.
328 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

CHAPTER XLII .

" DEAR boy and Pip's comrade. I am not a going fur to tell
you my life like a song or a story -book . But to give it you
short and handy, I'll put it at once into a mouthful of English .
In jail and out of jail , in jail and out of jail , in jail and out of
jail. There, you've got it. That's my life pretty much ,
down to such times as I got shipped off, arter Pip stood my
friend .
“ I've been done everything to, pretty well - except hanged .
I've been locked up as much as a silver tea-kittle. I've been
carted here and carted there, and put out of this town and put
out of that town, and stuck in the stocks, and whipped and
worried and drove. I've no more notion where I was born ,
than you have -if so much. I first become aware of myself,
down in Essex, a thieving turnips for my living. Summun had
run away from mema man - a tinker - and he'd took the fire
with him, and left me wery cold.
“ I know'd my name to be Magwitch , chrisen'd Abel. How
did I know it ? Much as I know'd the birds' names in the
hedges to be chaffinch , sparrer, thrush . I might thought
it was all lies together, only as the birds' names come out true,
I suppose mine did .
So fur as I could find, there warn't a soul that see young
Abel Magwitch, with as little on him as in him , but wot caught
fright at him , and either drove bim off or took him up. I was
took up, took up, took up, to that extent that I reg'larly grow'd
up took up.
“ This is the way it was, that when I was a ragged little
creetur as much to be pitied as ever I see (not that I looked in
the glass, for there warn’t many insides of furnished houses
known to me ) , I got the name of being hardened . This is a
terrible hardened one,' they says to prison wisitors, picking out
me. May be said to live in jails, this boy . Then they looked
at me, and I looked at them, and they measured my head, some
on ’em—they had better a measured my stomach — and others
on 'em giv me tracts what I couldn't read, and made me
speeches what I couldn't understand . They always went on
agen me about the Devil . But what the devil was I to do ?
I must put something into my stomach , mustn't I ?-Howsum
 LUCK CHANGES . 329

ever ,I'm a getting low, and I know what's due. Dear boy
and Pip's comrade, don't you be afeerd of me being low.
“ Tramping, begging, thieving, working sometimes when I
could -- though that warn’t as often as you may think, till you
put the question whether you would ha' been over-ready to
give me work yourselves — a bit of a poacher, a bit of a labourer,
a bit of a waggoner, a bit of a haymaker, a bit of a hawker,
a bit of most things that don't pay and lead to trouble, I got
to be a man . A deserting soldier in a Traveller's Rest, what
lay hid up to the chin under a lot of taturs, learnt me to read ;
and a Travelling Giant what signed his name at a penny a time
learnt me to write. I warn't locked up as often now as
formerly , but I wore out my good share of key-metal still .
“ At Epsom races, a matter of over twenty year ago, I got
acquainted wi' a man whose skull I'd crack wi' this poker, like
the claw of a lobster, if I'd got it on this hob. His right name
was Compeyson ; and that's the man, dear boy, what you see
me a pounding in the ditch, according to what you truly told
your comrade arter I was gone last night.
“ He set up fur a gentleman , this Compeyson, and he'd been
to a public boarding-school and had learning. He was a smooth
one to talk, and was a dab at the ways of gentlefolks. He
was good-looking too. It was the night afore the great race,
when I found him on the heath, in a booth that I know'd on.
Him and some more was a sitting among the tables when I
went in , and the landlord (which had a knowledge of me, and
was a sporting one ) called him out, and said, “ I think this is a
man that might suit you ’ - meaning I was.
CC
Compeyson , he looks at me very noticing, and I look at
him. He has a watch and a chain and a ring and a breast-pin
and a handsome suit of clothes.
“ “ To judge from appearances, you're out of luck ,' says
Compeysou to me.
66
“ Yes, master, and I've never been in it much . (I had
come out of Kingston Jail last on a vagrancy committal. Not
but what it might have been for something else ; but it
warn’t.)
666
· Luck changes,' says Compeyson ; ' perhaps yours is going
to change
says, “ I hope it may be so. There's room.'
“ I
“ What can you do ? ' says Compeyson .
330 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ Eat and drink ,' I says ; ' if you ll find the materials .'
66
Compeyson laughed , looked at me again very noticing, giv
me five shillings, and appointed me for next night. Same
place.
64
I went to Compeyson next night, same place , and Compey
son took me on to be his man and pardner. And what was
Compeyson's business in which we was to go pardners ? Com
peyson'sbusiness was the swindling, handwriting forging, stolen
bank-note passing, and such -like. All sorts of traps as
Compeyson could set with his head, and keep his own legs out
of and get the profits from and let another man in for, was
Compeyson's business. He'd no more heart than a iron file,
he was as cold as death, and he had the head of the Devil afore
mentioned.
“ There was another in with Compeyson , as was called
Arthur — not as being so chrisen'd , but as a surname. He was
in a Decline , and was a shadow to look at. Him and Compey.
son had been in a bad thing with a rich lady some years afore,
and they'd made a po ? money by it ; but Compeyson betted
and games , and he'd have run through the king's taxes . So,
Arthur was a dying and a dying poor and with the horrors on
him, and Compeyson's wife (which Compeyson kicked mostly )
was a having pity on him when she could , and Compeyson was
a having pity on nothing and nobody .
“ I might a took warning by Arthur, but I didn't ; and I
won't pretend I was partick'ler -- for where 'ud be the good on
it, dear boy and comrade ? So I begun wi' Compeyson, and a
poor tool I was in his hands. Arthur lived at the top of
Compeyson's house (over nigh Brentford it was) , and Compey
son kept a careful account agen him for board and lodging, in
case he should ever get better to work it out. But Arthur
soon settled the account. The second or third time as ever I
see him, he come a tearing down into Compeyson's parlour late
at night, in only a flannel gown, with his hair all in a sweat,
and he says to Compeyson's wife, ‘ Sally, she really is up stairs
alonger me, now, and I can't get rid of her. She's all in
white,' he says, ' wi' white flowers in her hair, and she's awful
mad, and she's got a shroud hanging over her arm, and she
says she ' ll put it on me at five in the morning.'
“Says Compeyson : Why, you fool, don't you know she's
got a living boly ? And how should she be up there, without
 A MISERABLE DEATHBED . 331

coming through the door, or in at the window , and up the

stairs ? '
666 I don't know how she's there,' says Arthur, shivering
dreadful with the horrors, ' but she's standing in the corner
at the foot of the bed, awful mad. And over where her heart's
broke - you broke it there's drops of blood .'
Compeyson spoke hardy, but he was always a coward . .Go
7
up alonger this drivelling sick man,' he says to his wife, ' and,
Magwitch, lend her a hand, will you ? ' But he never come
nigh himself.
Compeyson's wife and me took him up to bed again, and
6
he raved most dreadful. Why look at her !' he cries out.
6
' She's shaking the shroud at me ! Don't you see her ? Look
at her eyes ! Ain't it awful to see her so mad ? ' Next, he
cries, ' She'll put it on me, and then I'm done for ! Take it
away from her, take it away !! And then he catched hold of
us, and kep on a talking to her, and answering of her, till I
half -believed I see her myself.
66
Compeyson's wife, being used to him , give him some liquor
to get the horrors off, and by -and -by he quieted. Ob ,
she's gone ! Has her keeper been for her ? ' he says. " Yes,
says Compeyson's wife. “ Did you tell him to lock and bar her
in ? ' ' Yes.' ‘ And to take that ugly thing away from 6her ? '
6
• Yes, yes, all right.' ' You're a good creetur,' he says, ' don't
leave me, whatever you do, and thank you ! '
“ He rested pretty quiet till it might want a few minutes of
five, and then he starts up with a scream , and screams out,
. Here she is ! She's got the shroud again . She's unfolding
it. She's coming out of the corner. She's coming to the
bed. Hold me, both on you-one of each side - don't let her
touch me with it. Hah ! She missed me that time. Don't
let her throw it over my shoulders. Don't let her lift me up
to get it round me , She's lifting me up. Keep me down !!
Then he lifted himself up hard, and was dead.
« Compeyson took it easy as a good riddance for both sides.
Him and me was soon busy, and first he swore me ( being ever
artful) on my own book — this here little black book, dear boy,
what I swore your comrade on.
“ Not to go into the things that Compeyson planned, and I
done - which 'ud take a week - I'll simply say to you, dear
boy, and Pip's comrade, that that man got me into such nets
332 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

as made me his black slave. I was always in debt to him,

always under his thumb, always a working, always a getting
into danger. He was younger than me, but he'd got craft, and
he'd got learning, and he overmatched me five hundred times
told and no mercy. My Missis as I had the hard time wi'
Stop though ! I ain't brought her in--"
He looked about him in a confused way , as if he had lost
his place in the book of his remembrance ; and he turned his
face to the fire, and spread his hands broader on his knees,
and lifted them off and put them on again .
“ There ain't no need to go into it, ” he said , looking round
once more . “The time wi' Compeyson was aʼmost as hard
a time as ever I had ; that said , all's said . Did I tell you as I
was tried, alone, for misdemeanour, while with Compeyson ? ”
I answered, no.
“ Well !” he said, “ I was, and got convicted. As to took
up on suspicion, that was twice or three times in the four or
five years that it lasted ; but evidence was wanting. At last,
me and Compeyson was both committed for felony — on a
charge of putting stolen notes in circulation-and there was
other charges behind. Compeyson says to me, Separate de
fences, no communication , and that was all . And I was so
miserable poor, that I sold all the clothes I had, except what
hung on my back, afore I could get Jaggers.
“When we was put in the dock, I noticed first of all what
a gentleman Compeyson looked, wi' his curly hair and his black
clothes and his white pocket- handkercher, and what a common
sort of a wretch I looked. When the prosecution opened and
the evidence was put short, aforehand, I noticed how heavy it
all bore on me, and how light on him . When the evidence
was giv in the box, I noticed how it was always me that had
come for’ard, and could be swore to, how it was always me
that the money had been paid to, how it was always me that had
seemed to work the thing and get the profit. But, when the
defence come on, then I see the plan plainer ; for, says the
counsellor for Compeyson , ‘ My lord and gentlemen, here you
has afore you, side by side, two persons as your eyes can
separate wide ; one, the younger , well brought up, who will
be spoke to as such ; one, the elder, ill brought up, who will be
spoke to as such ; one, the younger, seldom if ever seen in
these here transactions, and only suspected ; t other, the elder,
 REVENGE. 333
always seen in 'em and always wi' his guilt brought home.
Can you doubt, if there is but one in it, which is the one,
and if there is two in it, which is much the worse one ?? And
such -like. And when it come to character, warn't it Compey
son as had been to school, and warn't it his school- fellows as
was in this position and in that, and warn't it him as had been
know'd by witnesses in such clubs and societies, and nowt to
bis disadvantage ? And warn't it me as had been tried
afore, and as had been know'd up hill and down dale in
Bridewells and Lock -Ups ? And when it come to speech
making, warn’t it Compeyson as could speak to 'em wi' his
face dropping every now and then into his white pocket
handkercher - ah ! and wi' verses in his speech, too-and
warn't it me as could only say, 'Gentlemen , this man at my
side is a most precious rascal ' ? And when the verdict come,
warn't it Compeyson as was recommended to mercy on account
of good character and bad company, and giving up all the in
formation he could agen me, and warn’t it me as got never
a word but Guiity ? And when I says to Compeyson, ‘ Once
out of this court, I'll smash that face of yourn ! ' ain't it
Compeyson as prays the Judge to be protected, and gets two
turnkeys stood betwixt us ? And when we're sentenced , ain't
it him as gets seven years, and me fourteen, and ain't it him as
the Judge is sorry for, because he might a done so well, and
ain't it me as the Judge perceives to be a old offender of
wiolent passion, likely to come to worse ? ”
He had worked himself into a state of great excitement,
but he checked it, took two or three short breaths, swallowed
as often, and stretching out his hand towards me, said, in a
reassuring manner, “ I ain't a going to be low, dear boy !"
He had so heated himself that he took out his handkerchief
and wiped his face and head and neck and hands, before he
could go on.
“ I had said to Compeyson that I'd smash that face of his,
and I swore Lord smash mine ! to do it. We was in the same
prison -ship, but I couldn't get at him for long, though I tried.
At last I come behind him and hit him on the cheek to turn
him round and get a smashing one at him , when I was seen
and seized. The black -hole of that ship warn't a strong one,
to a judge of black -holes that could swim and dive. I escaped
to the shore, and I was a hiding among the graves there,
334 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

envying them as was in ’em and all over, when I first see my
boy !
He regarded me with a look of affection that made him
almost abhorrent to me again, though I had felt great pity for
him .
By my boy, I was giv to understand as Compeyson was out
on them marshes too. Upon my soul, I half believe he escaped
in his terror, to get quit of me, not knowing it was me as had
got ashore. I hunted him down. I smashed his face . · And
6
now ,' says I, as the worst thing I can do, caring nothing for
myself, I'll drag you back.' And I'd have swum off, towing
him by the hair, if it had come to that, and I'd a got him
aboard without the soldiers .
“ Of course he'd much the best of it to the last - his character
was so good. He had escaped when he was made half wild by
me and my murderous intentions ; and his punishment was
light. I was put in irons, brought to trial again, and sent for
life. I didn't stop for life, dear boy and Pip's comrade, being
here."
He wiped himself again, as he had done before, and then
slowly took his tangle of tobacco from his pocket, and plucked
his pipe from his button - hole, and slowly filled it, and began to
smoke .
“ Is he dead ? " I asked , after a silence.
“ Is who dead, dear boy ? "
“ Compeyson.”
“ He hopes I am , if he's alive, you may be sure,” with a
fierce look. “ I never heard no more of him ."
Herbert had been writing with his pencil in the cover of a
book. He softly pushed the book over to me, as Provis stood
smoking with his eyes on the fire, and I read in it ::
Young Havisham's name was Arthur. Compeyson is the man who
1
professed to be Miss Havisham's lover .''

I shut the book and nodded slightly to Herbert, and put the
book by ; but we neither of us said anything, and both looked
at Provis as he stood smoking by the fire.
 IN SEARCH OF ESTELLA. 335

CHAPTER XLIII .

Why should I pause to ask how much of my shrinking from

Provis might be traced to Estella ? Why should I loiter on my
road , to compare the state of mind in which I had tried to rid
myself of the stain of the prison before meeting her at the
coach -office, with the state of mind in which I now reflected on
the abyss between Estella in her pride and beauty, and the
returned transport whom I harboured ? The road would be
none the smoother for it, the end would be none the better for
it ; he would not be helped, nor I extenuated .
A new fear had been engendered in my mind by his narra
tive ; or rather, his narrative had given form and purpose to
the fear that was already there. If Compeyson were alive
and should discover his retum , I could hardly doubt the conse
quence. That Compeyson stood in mortal fear of him, neither
of the two could know much better than I ; and that any
such man as that man had been described to be, would
hesitate to release himself for good from a dreaded enemy by
the safe means of becoming an informer, was scarcely to be
imagined .
Never had I breathed and never would I breathe - or so I re
solved a word of Estella to Provis. But I said to Herbert that
before I could go abroad , I must see both Estella and Miss
Havisham . This was when we were left alone on the night of
the day when Provis told us his story. I resolved to go out to
Richmond next day, and I went.
On my presenting myself at Mrs. Brandley's, Estella's maid
was called to tell me that Estella had gone into the country .
Where ? To Satis House, as usual. Not as usual, I said, for
she had never get gone there without me ; when was she coming
back ? There was an air of reservation in the answer which
increased my perplexity, and the answer was that her maid
believed she was only coming back at all for a little while.
I could make nothing of this, except that it was meant that I
should make nothing of it, and I went home again in complete
discomfiture .
Another night consultation with Herbert after Provis was
gone home (I always took him home, and always looked well
about me), led us to the conclusion that nothing should be said
336 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

about going abroad until I came back from Miss Havishani's.

In the meantime Herbert and I were to consider separately
what it would be best to say ; whether we should devise any
pretence of being afraid that he was under suspicious observa
tion ; or whether I, who had never yet been abroad , should
propose an expedition. We both knew that I had but to pro
pose anything, and he would consent. We agreed that luis
remaining many days in his present hazard was not to be
thought of.
Next day, I had the meanness to feign that I was under a
binding promise to go down to Joe; but I was capable of almost
any meanness towards Joe or his name. Provis was to be strictly
careful while I was gone, and Herbert was to take the charge of
him that I had taken . I was to be absent only one night, and,
on my return, the gratification of his impatience for my starting
as a gentleman on a greater scale, was to be begun. It occurred
to me then, and as I afterwards found to Herbert also, that he
might be best got away across the water, on that pretence -as
to make purchases, or the like.
Having thus cleared the way for my expedition to Miss
Havisham's I set off by the early morning coach before it was
yet light, and was ont in the open country-road when the day
came creeping on, halting and whimpering and shivering, and
wrapped in patches of cloud and rags of mist like a beggar.
When we drove up to the Blue Boar after a drizzly ride, whom
should I see come out under the gateway , toothpick in hand ,
to look at the coach, but Bentley Drummle !
As he pretended not to see me, I pretended not to see him .
It was a very lame pretence on both sides ; the lamer, because we
both went into the coffee -room , where he had just finished his
breakfast, and where I had ordered mine. It was poisonous to
me to see him in the town, for I very well knew why he had
come there .
Pretending to read a smeary newspaper long out of date,
which had nothing half so legible in its local news, as the
foreign matter of coffee, pickles, fish -sauces, gravy, melted
butter, and wine, with which it was sprinkled all over, as if it
had taken the measles in a highly irregular form , I sat at my
table while he stood before the fire. By degrees it became an
enormous injury to me that he stood before the fire. And I
got up, determined to have my share of it. I had to put my
 MR . DRUMMLE. 337

hands behind his legs for the poker when I went up to the
fire- place to stir the fire, but still pretended not to know him.
“ Is this a cut ? ” said Mr. Drummle .
“ Oh ? ” said I, poker in hand ; “ it's you is it ? How do
you do ? I was wondering who it was, who kept the fire
off .”
With that I poked tremendously, and having done so, planted
myself side by side with Mr. Drummle, my shoulders squared ,
and my back to the fire .
“ You have just come down ? ” said Mr. Drummle edging me
a little away with his shoulder.
Yes,” said I, edging him a little away with my shoulder.
Beastly place,” said Drummle— “ Your part of the country,
I think ? ”
“ Yes," I assented . “ I am told it's very like your Shrop
shire.”
“ Not in the least like it,” said Drummle .
Here Mr. Drummle looked at his boots and I looked at mine,
and then Mr. Drummle looked at my boots and I looked at
his .
“ Have you been here long ? ” I asked, determined not to
yield an inch of the fire .
‘ Long enough to be tired of it,” returned Drummle, pretend
ing to yawu, but equally determined.
“ Do you stay here long ? ”
Can't say,” answered Mr. Drummle . “ Do you ? ”
“ Can't say, ” said I.
I felt here, through a tingling in my blood, that if Mr.
Drummle's shoulder had claimed another hair's breadth of
room, I should have jerked him into the window ; equally, that
if my shoulder had urged a similar claim , Mr. Drummle would
have jerked me into the nearest box . He whistled a little .
So did I.
“ Large tract of marshes about here, I believe ? ” said
Drummle .
“ Yes. What of that ? "” said I.
Mr. Drummle looked at me, and then at my boots, and then
said , “ Oh !” and laughed .
“ Are you amused , Mr. Drummle ? ”
No," said he, “ not particularly. I am going out for ride
66

in the saddle. I mean to explore those marshes for amuse

Z
338 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
ment. Out-of-the -way villages there, they tell me. Curious
little public -houses-- and smithies — and that. Waiter ! ”
Yes, sir. ” >
“ Is that horse of mine ready ? "
“ Brought round to the door, sir."
" I say. Look here,you sir. The lady won't ride to - day ;
.

the weather won't do ."

Very good , sir. ”
“And I don't dine, because I am going to dine at the
lady's. "
"
“ Very good, sir. ”
Then , Drummle glanced at me, with an insolent triumph on
his great- jowled face that cut me to the heart, dull as he was,
and so exasperated me, that I felt inclined to take him in my
arms (as the robber in the story -book is said to have taken the
old lady) and seat him on the fire.
One thing was manifest to both of us, and that was , that
until relief came, neither of us could relinquish the fire.
There we stood, well squared up before it, shoulder to shoulder
and foot to foot, with our hands behind us, not budging an
inch. The horse was visible outside in the drizzle at the door,
my breakfast was put on table, Drummle’s was cleared away ,
the waiter invited me to begin , I nodded, we both stood our
ground.
“ Have you been to the Grove since ? ” said Drummle.
66 G
· No, ” said I, “ I had quite enough of the Finches the last
time I was there."
“ Was that when we had a difference of opinion ? "
>
“ Yes,” I replied , very shortly .
“ Come, come! they let you off easily enough,” sneered
Drummle . “You shouldn't have lost your temper .”
“ Mr. Drummle , " said I, " you are not competent to give
advice on that subject. When I lose my temper (not that I
admit having done so on that occasion ), I don't throw glasses."
“ I do,” said Drummle .
After glancing at him once or twice, in an increased state
of smouldering ferocity , I said :
“ Mr. Drummle, I did not seek this conversation , and I don't
think it's an agreeable one. "
“ I am sure it's not,” said he, superciliously over his shoulder,
“ I don't think anything about it."
 ORLICK AND DRUMMLE. 339

“ And therefore, ” I went on , “ with your leave, I will suggest

that we hold no kind of communication in future.”
Quite my opinion ,” said Drummle ,“G and what I should have
suggested myself, or done-more likely - without suggesting.
But don't lose your temper. Haven't you lost enough without
that ? ”
“What do you mean, sir ? ”
“ Waiter,” said Drummle, by way of answering me.
The waiter reappeared.
“ Look here, you sir. You quite understand that the young
lady don't ride to -day, and that I dine at the young
lady's ? ”
“ Quite so , sir ! >
When the waiter had felt my fast cooling tea -pot with the
palm of his hand, and had looked imploringly at me, and had
gone out, Drummle , careful not to move the shoulder next
me, took a cigar from his pocket and bit the end off, but
showed no sign of stirring . Choking and boiling as I was, I
felt that we could not go a word further , without introduc
ing Estella's name, which I could not endure to hear him
utter ; and therefore I looked stonily at the opposite wall, as
if there were no one present, and forced myself to silence.
How long we might have remained in this ridiculous position
it is impossible to say, but for the incursion of three thriv
>

ing farmers — laid on by the waiter, I think — who came into

the coffee-room unbuttoning their great-coats and rubbing their
hands, and before whom, as they charged at the fire, we were
obliged to give way .
I saw him through the window, seizing his horse's mane, and
mounting in his blundering brutal manner, and sidling and
backing away. I thought he was gone, when he came back,
calling for a light for the cigar in his mouth , which he had
forgotten. A man in a dust - coloured dress appeared with nat
was wanted — I could not have said from where : whether from
the inn yard, or the street, or where not — and as Drummle
leaned down from the saddle and lighted his cigar and laughed,
with a jerk of his head towards the coffee -room windows, the
slouching shoulders, and ragged hair, of this man , whose back
was towards me, reminded me of Orlick .
Too heavily out of sorts to care much at the time whether
it were he or no, or after all to touch the breakfast, I washed the
2 2
340 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

weather and the journey from my face and hands, and went
out to the memorable old house that it would have been so much
the better for me never to have entered, never to have seen.

CHAPTER XLIV.

In the room where the dressing-table stood, and where the

wax candles burnt on the wall, I found Miss Havisham and
Estella ; Miss Havisham seated on a settee near the fire, and
Estella on a cushion at her feet. Estella was knitting, and
Miss Havisham was looking on. They both raised their eyes
as I went in, and both saw an alteration in me. I derived that,
from the look they interchanged .
* And what wind,” said Miss Havisham , “blows you here,
Pip ? ”
Though she looked steadily at me, I saw that she was rather
confused. Estella, pausing a moment in her knitting with her
eyes upon me, and then going on, I fancied that I read in the
action of her fingers, as plainly as if she had told me in the
dumb alphabet, that she perceived I had discovered my real
benefactor.
“ Miss Havisham ,” said J, “ I went to Richmond yesterday,
to speak to Estella ; and finding that some wind had blown her
here, I followed .”
Miss Havisham motioning to me for the third or fourth time
to sit down, I took the chair by the dressing -table, which I had
often seen her occupy . With all that ruin at my feet and
about me, it seemed a natural place for me, that day.
“ What I had to say to Estella, Miss Havisham , I will say
before you, presently-in a few moments. It will not surprise
you, it will not displease you. I am as unhappy as you can
ever have meant me to be.”
Miss Havisham continued to look steadily at me. I could
see in the action of Estella’s fingers as they worked , that she
attended to what I said .: but she did not look up.
“ I have found out who my patron is. It is not aa fortunate
 I INFORM MISS HAVISHAM . 341

discovery, and is not likely ever to enrich me in reputation ,

station , fortune, anything. There are reasons why I must say
no more of that. It is not my secret, but another's.”
As I was silent for a while, looking at Estella and considering
how to go on, Miss Havisham repeated, “ It is not your secret,
but another's. Well ? ”
“ When you first caused me to be brought here, Miss
Hlavisham ; when I belonged to the village over yonder, that
wish I had never left ; I suppose I did really come here, as
any other chance boy might have come-as a kind of servant,
to gratiry a want or a whim , and to be paid for it ? ”
Ay, Pip,” replied Miss Havisham , steadily nodding her
CC

head ; " you did .”

4 And that Mr. Jaggers-
“ Mr. Jaggers," said Miss Havisham , taking me up in a firm
tone, “ had nothing to do with it, and knew nothing of it. His
being my lawyer, and his being the lawyer of your patron, is a
coincidence. He holds the same relation towards numbers of
people, and it might easily arise. Be that as it may, it did
>
arise, and was not brought about by any one. "
Any one might have seen in her haggard face that there was
no suppression or evasion so far.
“ But when I fell into the mistake I have so long remained
in , at least you led me on ? ” said I.
“ Yes," she returned, again nodding steadily, “ I let you
go on ."
“ Was that kind ? "
“Who am I,” cried Miss Havisham , striking her stick upon
the floor and flashing into wrath so suddenly that Estella
glanced up at her in surprise, “ who am I, for God's sake, that
I should be kind ? ”
It was a weak complaint to have made, and I had not meant
to make it. I told her so , as she sat brooding over this outburst .
“ Well, well, well !” she said . 6 What else ? ”
“ I was liberally paid for my old attendance here," I said , to
soothe her, “in being apprenticed, and I have asked these
questions only for my own information . What follows has
another (and I hope more disinterested ) purpose. In humour
ing my mistake, Miss Havisham , you punished - practised on
perbaps you will supply whatever term expresses your inten
tion, without offence -- your self-seeking relations ?”
312 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

“ I did. Why, they would have it so ! So would you. What

has been my history, that I should be at the pains of entreating
either them or you not to have it so ! You made your own
snares , I never made them ."
Waiting until she was quiet again — for this, too, flashed out
of her in a wild and sudden way I went on .
" I have been thrown among one family of your relations,
Miss Havisham , and have been constantly among them since I
went to London. I know them to have been as honestly under
my delusion as I myself. And I should be false and base if I
did not tell you, whether it is acceptable to you or no, and
whether you are inclined to give credence to it or no, that you
deeply wrong both Mr. Matthew Pocket and his son Herbert, if
you suppose them to be otherwise than generous, upright, open ,
and incapable of anything designing or mean .”
“ They are your friends," said Miss Havisham .
“ They made themselves my friends," said I, “ when they
supposed me to bave superseded them ; and when Sarah
Pocket, Miss Georgiana, and Mistress Camilla, were not my
friends, I think .”
This contrasting of them with the rest seemed, I was glad to
see, to do them good with her. She looked at me keenly for a
little while, and then said quietly :
“ What do you want for them ? ” .
CC >
' Only,” said I, “ that you would not confound them with the
others. They may be of the same blood, but, believe me, they
are not of the same nature."
Still looking at me keenly, Miss Havisham repeated :
“ What do you want for them ? "
“ I am not so cunning, you see," I said in answer, conscious
that I reddened a little, “ as that I could hide from you , even
if I desired, that I do want something. Miss Havisham , if you
could spare the money to do my friend Herbert a lasting
service in life, but which from the nature of the case must be
done without his knowledge, I could show you how ."
“ Why must it be done without his knowledge ? ” she asked ,
settling her hands upon her stick, that she might regard me
the more attentively .
“ Because," said I, “ I began the service myself, more than
two years ago, without his knowledge, and I don't want to be
betrayed. Why I fail in my ability to finish it, I cannot
 I CONFESS MY LOVE FOR ESTELLA . 343

explain . It is a part of the secret which is another person's

and not mine. "
She gradually withdrew her eyes from me, and turned them
on the fire. After watching it for what appeared in the silence
and by the light of the slowly wasting candles to be a long
time, she was roused by the collapse of some of the red coals,
and looked towards me again - at first, vacantly - then , with a
gradually concentrating attention . All this time, Estella
knitted on. When Miss Havisham had fised her attention
on me, she said, speaking as if there had been no lapse in
our dialogue :
66 What else ? "
“Estella,” said I, turning to her now , and trying to com
mand my trembling voice, “ you know I love you . You know
that I have loved you long and dearly. ”
She raised her eyes to my face, on being thus addressed, and
her fingers plied their work , and she looked at me with an un
moved countenance . I saw that Miss Havisham glanced from
me to her, and from her to me .
“ I should have said this sooner, but for my long mistake. It
induced me to hope that Miss Havisham meant us for one
another. While I thought you could not help yourself, as it
were, I refrained from saying it. But I must say it now .”
Preserving her unmoved countenance, and with her fingers
still going, Estella shook her head.
“ I know , " said I, in answer to that action ; “ I know. I have
no hope that I shall ever call you mine, Estella. I am ignorant
what may become of me very soon, how poor I may be, or
where I may go. Still, I love you. I have loved you ever
since I first saw you in this house."
Looking at me perfectly unmoved and with her fingers busy,
she shook her head again .
“It would have been cruel in Miss Havisham , horribly cruel,
to practise on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me
through all these years with a vain hope and an idle pursuit, if
she had reflected on the gravity of what she did . But I think
she did not. I think that in the endurance of her own trial
she forgot mine, Estella."
I saw Miss Havisham put her hand to her heart and hold it
there ,as she sat looking by turns at Estella and at me.
“ It seems,” said Estella, very calmly, “ that there are senti
344 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
ments, fancies — I don't know how to call them — which I am
not able to comprehend. When you say you love me, I know
what you mean , as a form of words ; but nothing more. You
address nothing in my breast, you touch nothing there. I don't
care for what you say at all. I have tried to warn you of this ;
now , have I not ? ”
I said in a miserable manner , “ Yes. ”
“ Yes. But you would not be warned, for you thought I did
not mean it. Now , did you not think so ? ”
“ I thought and hoped you could not mean it. You , so
young, untried , and beautiful, Estella ! Surely it is not in
Nature .”
6
“ It is in my nature," she returned. And then she added ,
with a stress upon the words, “ It is in the nature formed
within me. I make a great difference between you and all
other people when I say so much . I can do no more.”
“ Is it not true,”" said I, “ that Bentley Drummle is in town
here, and pursuing you ? ”
“ It is quite true," she replied, referring to him with the in
difference of utter contempt.
“ That you encourage him , and ride out with him, and that
he dines with you this very day ? ”
She seemed a little surprised that I should know it, but again
replied, “Quite true.”
“ You cannot love him, Estella ? ”
Her fingers stopped for the first time, as she retorted rather
angrily, “What have I told you ? Do you still think, in spite
of it, that I do not mean what I say ? ” "
“ You would never marry him , Estella ?
She looked towards Miss Havisham , and considered for a
moment with her work in her hands. Then she said, “Why
not tell you the truth ? I am going to be married to him .”
I dropped my face into my hands, but was able to control my
self better than I could have expected, considering what agony
it gave me to hear her say those words. When I raised my face
again , there was such a ghastly look upon Miss Havisham's, that
it impressed me, even in my passionate hurry and grief.
“ Estella, dearest, dearest Estella, do not let Miss Havisham
lead you into this fatal step. Put me aside for ever-you have
done so, I well know — but bestow yourself on some worthier
person than Drummle. Miss Havisham gives you to him , as
 MY GRIEF AT ESTELLA'S DESERTION. 345

the greatest slight and injury that could be done to the many
far better men who admire you, and to the few who truly love
you. Among those few , there may be one who loves you even
as dearly, though he has not loved you as long, as I. Take
him, and I can bear it better for your sake!”
My earnestness awoke a wonder in her that seemed as if it
would have been touched with compassion , if she could have
rendered me at all intelligible to her own mind .
“ I am going,” she said again, in a gentler voice, “ to be
married to him. The preparations for my marriage are making,
and I shall be married soon. Why do you injuriously introduce
the name of my mother by adoption ? It is my own act.”
“ Your own act, Estella, to fling yourself away upon a
brute ? ”
“ On whom should I flingmyself away ? ” she retorted, with a
smile. “ Should I fling myself away upon the man who would
the soonest feel (if people do feel such things) that I took
nothing to him ? There ! It is done. I shall do well enough,
and so will my husband . As to leading me into what you call
this fatal step, Miss Havisham would have had me wait, and
not marry yet ; but I am tired of the life I have led, which
has very few charms for me, and I am willing enough to change
it. Say no more. We shall never understand each other .”
“Such a mean brute, such a stupid brute ! ” I urged in
despair.
“ Don't be afraid of my being a blessing to him," said Estella ;
“ I shall not be that. Come ! Here is my hand. Do we part
on this, you visionary boy -or man ? "
“ O Estella !” I answered, as my bitter tears fell fast on her
hand, do what I would to restrain them ; “ even if I remained
in England and could hold my head up with the rest, how
could I see you Drummle's wife ? ”
“ Nonsense,” she returned, “ nonsense . This will pass in no
time.”
66
Never, Estella !”
“You will get me out of your thoughts in a week .”
“Out of my thoughts ! You are part of my existence, part
of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read,
since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor
heart you wounded even then . You have been in every
prospect I have ever seen since - on the river, on the sails of
346 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the
darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets.
You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that
my mind has ever become acquainted with . The stones of
which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more
real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than
your presence and influence have been to me, there and every
where, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you
cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the
little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation
associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you
to that always, for you must have done me far more good than
harm , let me feel now what sharp distress I may . O God bless
you, God forgive you ! ”
In what ecstasy of unhappiness I got these broken words out
of myself, I don't know. The rhapsody welled up within me,
like blood from an inward wound, and gushed out. I held her
hand to my lips some lingering moments, and so I left her.
But ever afterwards, I remembered — and soon afterwards with
stronger reason — that while Estella looked at me merely with
' incredulous wonder, the spectral figure of Miss Havisham , her
hand still covering her heart, seemed all resolved into a ghastly
stare of pity and remorse.
All done, all gone ! So much was done and gone, that when
I went out at the gate, the light of day seemed of a darker
colour than when I went in. For a while, I hid myself among
some lanes and by-paths, and then struck off to walk all the
way to London. For, I had by that time come to myself so
far, as to consider that I could not go back to the inn and see
Drummle there ; that I could not bear to sit upon the coach
and be spoken to ; that I could do nothing half so good for
myself as tire myself out.
It was past midnight when I crossed London Bridge. Pursuing
the narrow intricacies of the streets which at that time tended
westward near the Middlesex shore of the river, my readiest
access to the Temple was close by the river-side, through White
friars. I was not expected till to -morrow , but I had my keys,
and, if Herbert were gone to bed, could get to bed myself
without disturbing him.
As it seldom happened that I came in at that Whitefriars
gate after the Temple was closed , and as I was very muddy and
 “ DON'T GO HOME ! ” 347

weary , I did not take it ill that the night-porter examined me

with much attention as he held the gate a little way open for
me to pass in . To help his memory I mentioned my name.
“ I was not quite sure, sir, but I thought so. Here's a note,
sir. The messenger that brought it, said would you be so good
as read it by my lantern ? ”
Much surprised by the request, I took the note. It was
directed to Philip Pip, Esquire, and on the top of the super
scription were the words ,“ PLEASE READ THIS HERE . ” I opened
it, the watchman holding up his light, and read inside, in
Wemmick's writing :
“ DON'T GO HOME."

CHAPTER XLV .

TURNING from the Temple gate as soon as I had read the

warning, I made the best of my way to Fleet-street, and there
got a late hackney chariot and drove to the Hummums in
Covent Garden . In those times a bed was always to be got
there at any hour of the night, and the chamberlain, letting me
in at his ready wicket, lighted the candle next in order on his
shelf, and showed me straight into the bedroom next in order
on his list. It was a sort of vault on the ground floor at the
back, with a despotic monster of a four-post bedstead in it,
straddling over the whole place, putting one of his arbitrary
legs into the fire- place, and another into the doorway, and
squeezing the wretched little washing -stand in quite a Divinely
Righteous manner .
As I had asked for a night-light, the chamberlain had brought
me in , before he left me, the good old constitutional rush - light
of those virtuous days — an object like the ghost of a walking
cane, which instantly broke its back if it were touched , which
nothing could ever be lighted at, and which was placed in
solitary confinement at the bottom of a high tin tower, per
forated with round holes that made a staringly wide -awake
pattern on the walls. When I had got into bed, and lay there,
 348 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

footsore, weary, and wretched , I found that I could no more

close my own eyes than I could close the eyes of this foolish
Argus. And thus, in the gloom and death of the night, we
stared at one another.
What a doleful night ! How anxious,how dismal, how long !
There was an inhospitable smell in the room, of cold soot and
hot dust ; and as I looked up into the corners of the tester
over my head , I thought what a number of blue -bottle flies
from the butcher's, and earwigs from the market, and grubs
from the country, must be holding on up there, lying by for
next summer. This led me to speculate whether any of them
ever tumbled down, and then I fancied that I felt light falls on
my face - a disagreeable turu of thought, suggesting other and
more objectionable approaches up my back . When I had lain
awake a little while, those extraordinary voices with which
silence teems, began to make themselves audible . The closet
whispered, the fireplace sighed , the little washing -stand ticked,
and one guitar-string played occasionally in the chest of
drawers. At about the same time, the eyes on the wall acquired
a new expression , and in every one of those staring rounds I
saw written , DON'T GO HOME.
Whatever night-fancies and night-noises crowded on me,
they never warded off this Don't GO HOME. It plaited itself
into whatever I thought of, as a bodily pain would have done.
Not long before, I had read in the newspapers how a gentleman
unknown had come to the Hummums in the night, and had
gone to bed, and had destroyed himself, and had been found in
the morning weltering in blood . It came into my head that
he must have occupied this very vault of mine, and I got out
of bed to assure myself that there were no red marks about ;
1 then opened the door to look out into the passages, and cheer
myself with the companionship of a distant light, near which
I knew the chamberlain to be dozing. But all this time, why I
was not to go home, and what had happened at home, and
when I should go home, and whether Provis was safe at home,
were questions occupying my mind so busily, that one might
have supposed there could be no more room in it for any other
theme. Even when I thought of Estella, and how we bad
parted that day for over, and when I recalled all the circum
stances of our parting, and all her looks and tones, and the
action of her fingers while she knitted -- even then I was
 I VISIT THE CASTLE . 349

3 pursuing, here and there and everywhere, the caution Don't

go home. When at last I dozed, in sheer exhaustion of mind
and body, it became a vast shadowy verb which I had to con
jugate, Imperative mood, present tense : Do not thou go home,
1 let him not go home, let us not go home, do not ye or you go
81 home, let not them go home. Then , potentially : I may not
8 and I cannot go home ; and I might not, could not, would not,
and should not go home ; until I felt that I was going dis
tracted, and rolled over on the pillow , and looked at the staring
rounds upon the wall again.
I had left directions that I was to be called at seven ; for it
was plain that I must see Wemmick before seeing any one else,
1 and equally plain that this was a case in which his Walworth
sentiments, only, could be taken . It was a relief to get out
of the room where the night had been so miserable, and I
3 needed no second knocking at the door to startle me from my
uneasy bed .
The Castle battlements arose upon my view at eight o'clock .
The little servant happening to be entering the fortress with
two hot rolls, I passed through the postern and crossed the
drawbridge in her company, and so came without announce
ment into the presence of Wemmick as he was making tea for
himself and the Aged. An open door afforded a perspective
view of the Aged in bed.
“Halloa, Mr. Pip ! ” said Wemmick. “ You did come home,
then ? "
“ Yes,” I returned ; “ but I didn't go home.”
That's all right, ” said he, rubbing his hands. “ I left a
note for you at each of the Temple gates on the chance . Which
gate did you come to ? ”
I told him .
“I'll go round to the others in the course of the day and
destroy the notes,” said Wemmick ; " it's a good rule never to
leave documentary evidence if you can help it, because you
don't know when it may be put in . I'm going to take a liberty
with you Would you mind toasting this sausage for the Aged
P.? "
I said I should be delighted to do it .
“ Then you can go about your work , Mary Anne, ” said Wem
"
mick to the little servant; “which leaves us to ourselves, don't
you see, Mr. Pip ? ” he added, winking as she disappeared .
350 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
I thanked him for his friendship and caution , and our
discourse proceeded in a low tone, while I toasted the Aged's
sausage and he buttered the crumb of the Aged's roll.
Now, Mr. Pip, you know ," said Wemmick , “ you and I
understand one another. We are in our private and personal
capacities, and we have been engaged in a confidential trans
action before to-day. Official sentiments are one thing. We
are extra official.”
I cordially assented. I was so very nervous, that I had
already lighted the Aged's sausage like a torch , and been
obliged to blow it out.
“ I accidentally heard, yesterday morning,” said Wemmick ,
“ being in a certain place where I once took you-even between
you and me,‫ כל‬it's as well not to mention names when
avoidable
“Much better not,»” said I. “ I understand you ."
“ I heard there by chance, yesterday morning,” said Wemmick ,
“ that a certain person not altogether of uncolonial pursuits,
and not unpossessed of portable property — I don't know who it
may really be-we won't name this person "
“ Not necessary," said I.
“ _had made some little stir in a certain part of the world
where a good many people go, not always in gratification of
their own inclinations, and not quite irrespective of the govern
ment expense
In watching his face, I made quite a firework of the Aged's
sausage, and greatly discomposed both my own attention and
Wemmick's ; for which I apologised.
“ -by disappearing from such place, and being nomore heard
of thereabouts. From which , " said Wemmick, “ conjectures
had been raised and theories formed . I also heard that you at
your chambers in Garden -court, Temple, had been watched,
and might be watched again .” .
“ By whom ? ” said I.
“ I wouldn't go into that,” said Wemmick , evasively , “ it
might clashwith official responsibilities. I heard it, as I have
in my time heard other curious things in the same place. I
don't tell it you on information received. I heard it.”
He took the toasting-fork and sausage from me as he spoke,
and set forth the Aged's breakfast neatly on a little tray . Pre
vious to placing it before him, he went into the Aged's room
 I QUESTION WEMMICK . 351

with a clean white cloth, and tied the same under the old
gentleman's chin , and propped him up, and put his nightcap on
one side, and gave him quite a rakish air. Then , he placed his
breakfast before him with great care, and said, “All right, ain't
you, Aged P.? ” To which the cheerful Aged replied, “ All
right, John, my boy, all right !”" As there seemed to be a tacit
understanding that the Aged was not in a presentable state
and was therefore to be considered invisible, I made a pretence
of being in complete ignorance of these proceedings.
“ This watching of me at my chambers (which I have once
had reason to suspect),” I said to Wemmick when he came
back , “ is inseparable from the person to whom you have
adverted ; is it ? ”
Wemmick looked very serious. “ I couldn't undertake to
say that, of my own knowledge. I mean, I couldn't undertake
to say it was at first . But it either is, or it will be, or it's in
great danger of being."
As I saw that he was restrained by fealty to Little Britain
froni saying as much as he could, and as I knew with thankful
ness to him how far out of his way he went to say what he
did , I could not press him . But I told him, after a little medi
tation over the fire, that I would like to ask him a question,
subject to his answering or not answering, as he deemed right,
and sure that his course would be right. He paused in his
breakfast, and crossing his arms, and pinching his shirt- sleeves
( his notion of indoor comfort was to sit without any coat), he
nodded to me once, to put my question.
6 You have heard of a man of bad character, whose true
name is Compeyson ? ”
*He answered with one other nod.
“ Is he living ? ”
One other nod.
“ Is he in London ? "
He gave me one other nod, compressed the post-office
exceedingly, gave me one last nod, and went on with his
breakfast.
“ Now , ” said Wemmick , “ questioning being over ; ” which
he emphasised and repeated for my guidance ; “ I come to what
did, after hearing what I heard . I went to Garden-court to
find you ; not finding you, I went to Clarriker's to find Mr.
Herbert.”
352 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“And him you found ? ” said I, with great anxiety.
“ And him I found. Without mentioning any names or going
into any details, I gave him to understand that if he was aware
of anybody-Tom, Jack, or Richard — being about the chambers,
or about the immediate neighbourhood, he had better get Tom,
Jack, or Richard, out of the way while you were out of the
way.”
66
He would be greatly puzzled what to do ? ”
“ He was puzzled what to do ; not the less, because gave
him my opinion that it was not safe to try to get Tom , Jack , or
Richard, too far out of the way at present. Mr. Pip, I'll tell
you something. Under existing circumstances there is no place
like a great city when you are once in it. Don't break cover
too soon . Lie close . Wait till things slacken, before you try
the open , even for foreign air.”
I thanked him for his valuable advice, and asked him what
Herbert had done ?
“ Mr. Herbert,” said Wemmick , “ after being all of a heap
for half an hour, struck out a plan . He mentioned to me as a
secret, that he is courting a young lady who has, as no doubt
you are aware, a bedridden Pa. Which Pa, having been in the
Purser line of life, lies a -bed in a bow-window where he can see
the ships sail up and down the river. You are acquainted with
the young lady, most probably ? ”
“ Not personally,” said I.
The truth was, that she had objected to me as an expensive
companion who did Herbert no good, and that, when Herbert
had first proposed to present meto her, she had received the
proposal with such very moderate warmth, that Herbert had
felt himself obliged to confide the state of the case to me, with
a view to the lapse of aa little time before I made her acquaint
ance. When I had begun to advance Herbert's prospects by
stealth , I had been able to bear this with cheerful philosophy ;
he and his affianced, for their part, had naturally not been very
anxious to introduce a third person into their interviews; and
thus, although was assured that I had risen in Clara's esteem,
and although the young lady and I had long regularly inter
changed messages and remembrances by Herbert, I had never
seen her. However, I did not trouble Wemmick with those
particulars.
“ The house with the bow -window , " said Wemmick, “ being
 WEMMICK'S ADVICE , 353

by the river side, down the Pool there between Limehouse and
Greenwich , and being kept, it seems, by a very respectable
widow, who has a furnished upper floor to let, Mr. Herbert put
it to me, what did I think of that as a temporary tenement for
Tom , Jack , or Richard ? Now, I thought very well of it, for
three reasons I'll give you. That is to say . Firstly. It's
altogether out of all your beats, and is well away from the usual
heap of streets great and small. Secondly. Without going
near it yourself, you could always hear of the safety of Tom,
Jack , or Richard, through Mr. Herbert. Thirdly . After a
while and when it might be prudent, if you should want to slip
Tom, Jack , or Richard , on board a foreign packet -boat, there be
is - ready.”
Much comforted by these considerations, I thanked Wemmick
again and again , and begged him to proceed.
66
Well, sir ! Mr. Herbert threw himself into the business
with a will, and by nine o'clock last night he housed Tom , Jack,
or Richard - whichever it may be-you and I don't want to
know- quite successfully. At the old lodgings it was under
stood that he was summoned to Dover, and in fact he was taken
down the Dover road and cornered out of it. Now, another
great advantage of all this is, that it was done without you,
and when, if any one was concerning himself about your move
ments, you must be known to be ever so many miles off, and
quite otherwise engaged. This diverts suspicion and confuses
it ; and for the same reason I recommended that even if you
came back last night, you should not go home. It brings in
more confusion, and you want confusion .""
Wemmick, having finished his breakfast, here looked at his
watch , and began to get his coat on.
" And now , Mr. Pip , ” said he, with his hands still in the
sleeves, “ I have probably done the most I can do ; but if I can
ever do more -- from a Walworth point of view, and in a strictly
private and personal capacity -I shall be glad to do it.
Here's the address. There can be no harm in your going there
to -night and seeing for yourself that all is well with Tom,
Jack , or Richard , before you go home - which is another reason
for your not going home last night. But after you have gone
home, don't go back there. You are very welcome, I am sure,
Mr. Pip ; ” his hands were now out of his sleeves, and I was
shaking them ; “ and let me finally impress one important point
AA
354 GREAT EXPÊCTATIONS.
upon you.” He laid his hands upon my shoulders, and added
in a solemn whisper : “ Avail yourself of this evening to lay
hold of his portable property. You don't know what may
happen to him . Don't let anything happen to the portable
"
Quitetydespai
proper .' ring of making my mind clear to Wemmick on
this point, I forbor e to try.
“ Time's up , ” said Wemmick, " and I must be off. If you
had nothing more pressing to do than to keep here till dark ,
that's what I should advise. You look very much worried, and
it would do you good to have a perfectly quiet day with the
Aged - he'll be up presently — and a little bit of you
remember the pig ? "
“ Of course," said I.
“ Well; and a little bit of him . That sausage you toasted
was his, and he was in all respects a first- rater. Do try him , if
it is only for old acquaintance sake. Good -bye, Aged Parent ! ”
in a cheery shout.
“ All right, John ‫ ;ܪ‬all right, my boy ! ” piped the old man
from within .
I soon fell asleep before Wemmick's fire, and the Aged and
I enjoyed one another's society by falling asleep before it more
or less all day. We had loin of pork for dinner, and greens
grown on the estate, and I nodded at the Aged with a good
intention whenever I failed to do it drowsily . When it was
quite dark, I left the Aged preparing the fire for toast ; and I
inferred from the number of tea -cups, as well as from his
glances at the two little doors in the wall, that Miss Skiffins
was expected.

CHAPTER XLVI.

Eight o'clock had struck before I got into the air that was
scented, not disagreeably, by the chips and shavings of the long
shore boat -builders, and mast, oar, and block makers. All that
water-side region of the upper and lower Pool below Bridge,
 MILL POND BANK. 355

was unknown ground to me, and when I struck down by the

river, I found that the spot I wanted was not where I had
supposed it to be, and was anything but easy to find. It was
called Mill Pond Bank, Chinks's Basin ; and I had no other
guide to Chinks's Basin than the Old Green Copper Rope
Walk .
It matters not what stranded ships repairing in dry docks I
lost myself among, what old hulls of ships in course of being
knocked to pieces, what ooze and slime and other dregs of tide,
what yards of ship-builders and ship -breakers, what rusty
anchors blindly biting into the ground though for years off
duty, what mountainous country of accumulated casks and
timber, how many rope-walks that were not the Old Green
Copper. After several times falling short of my destination and
as often over-shooting it, I came unexpectedly round a corner,
upon Mill Pond Bank. It was a fresh kind of place, all cir
cumstances considered, where the wind from the river had
room to turn itself round ; and there were two or three trees
in it, and there was the stump of a ruined windmill, and there
was the Old Green Copper Rope -Walk -- whose long and narrow
vista I could trace in the moonlight, along a series of wooden
frames set in the ground, that looked like superannuated
haymaking -rakes which had grown old and lost most of their
teeth .
Selecting from the few queer houses upon Mill Pond Bank,
a house with a wooden front and three stories of bow-window
(not bay-window , which is another thing), I looked at the plate
upon the door, and read there Mrs. Whimple. That being
the name I wanted , I knocked, and an elderly woman of a
pleasant and thriving appearance responded. She was imme
diately deposed, however, by Herbert, who silently led me
into the parlour and shut the door. It was an odd sensation
to see his very familiar face established quite at home in that
very unfamiliar room and region ; and I found myself looking
at him, much as I looked at the corner cupboard with the
glass and china, the shells upon the chimney-piece, and the
coloured engravings on the wall, representing the death of
Captain Cook, a ship -launch , and his Majesty King George the
Third in aa state coachman's wig, leather breeches, and top-boots,
on the terrace at Windsor.
“ All is well, Handel,” said Herbert, " and he is quite satisfied,
Α Α 2
356 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

though eager to see you. My dear girl is with her father ; anci
if you'll wait till she comes down, I'll make you known to
her, and then we'll go up stairs.- -That's her father . ”
I had become aware of an alarming growling overhead, and
had probably expressed the fact in my countenance.
“ I am afraid he is a sad old rascal,” said Herbert, smiling,
“ but I have never seen him . Don't you smell rum ? He is
always at it.”
“ At rum ? " said I.
“ Yes," returned Herbert, “and you may suppose how mild
it makes his gout. He persists, too , in keeping all the pro
visions up stairs in his room , and serving them out. He keeps
them on shelves over his head, and will weigh them all. His ,
room must be like a chandler's shop .”
While he thus spoke, the growling noise became a prolonged
then died away
roar, and .
“What else can be the consequence," said Herbert, in ex
planation , “ if he will cut the cheese ? A man with the gout
in his right hand — and everywhere else - can't expect to get
through a Double Gloucester without hurting himself.”
He seemed to have hurt himself very much, for he gave
another furious roar .
** To have Provis for an upper lodger is quite a godsend to
Mrs. Whimple,” said Herbert, “ for of course people in general
won't stand that noise. A curious place, Handel, isn't
it ? ”
It was a curious place, indeed ; but remarkably well kept and
clean .
“ Mrs. Whimple," said Herbert, when I told him so , “ is the
>

best of housewives, and I really do not know what my Clara

would do without her motherly help. For, Clara has no mother
of her own , Handel, and no relation in the world but old
Gruffandgrim .”
“ Surely that's not his name, Herbert ? ”
(6
“ No, no,” said Herbert, “ that's my name for him. His
name is Mr. Barley. But what a blessing it is for the son of
my father and mother, to love a girl who has no relations, and
who can never bother herself, or anybody else, about her
family ? ”
Herbert had told me on former occasions, and now reminded
me, that he first knew Miss Clara Barley when sbe was com
 OLD BARLEY. 357

pleting her education at an establishment at Hammersmith ,

and that on her being recalled home to nurse her father, he
and she had confided their affection to the motherly Mrs.
Whimple, by whom it had been fostered and regulated with
equal kindness and discretion ever since. It was understood
that nothing of a tender nature could possibly be confided to
Old Barley, by reason of his being totally unequal to the con
sideration of any subject more psychological than Gout, Rum ,
and Purser's stores.
As we were thus conversing in a low tone while Old Barley's
sustained growl vibrated in the beam that crossed the ceiling,
the room door opened, and a very pretty, slight, dark -eyed girl
of twenty or so, came in with a basket in her hand : whom
Herbert tenderly relieved of the basket, aud presented blushing,
as “ Clara .” She really was a most charming girl, and might

have passed for a captive fairy, whom that truculent Ogre, Old
Barley, had pressed into his service.
“ Look here,” said Herbert, showing me the basket, with a
compassionate and tender smile after we had talked a little ;
“ here's poor Clara's supper , served out every night. Here's
her allowance of bread, and here's her slice of cheese, and
here's her rum -- which I drink. This is Mr. Barley's breakfast
for to-morrow, served out to be cooked. Two mutton chops,
three potatoes, some split peas, a little flour, two ounces of
butter, a pinch of salt, and all this black pepper. It's stewed
up together, and taken hot, and it's a nice thing for the gout, I
should think ! "
There was something so natural and winning in Clara's
resigned way of looking at these stores in detail, as Herbert
pointed them out, and something so confiding, loving and
innocent, in her modest manner of yielding herself to Herbert's
embracing arm — and something so gentle in her, so much
needing protection on Mill Pond Bank, by Chinks's Basin , and
the Old Green Copper Rope -Walk , with Old Barley growling
in the beam - that I would not have undone the engagement
between her and Herbert, for all the money in the pocket-book
I had never opened.
I was looking at her with pleasure and admiration , when
suddenly the growl swelled into a roar again, and a frightful
bumping noise was heard above , as if a giant with a wooden
leg were trying to bore it through the ceiling to come at us.
358 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

Upon this Clara said to Herbert, “ Papa wants me, darling ! ”

and ran away.
“ There is an unconscionable old shark for you ! ” said
Herbert. “What do you suppose he wants now, Handel ? ”
“ I don't know ," said I. “ Something to drink ? "
“ That's it !” cried Herbert, as if I had made a guess of
extraordinary merit. “ He keeps his grog ready-mixed in a
little tub on the table . Wait a moment, and you'll hear Clara
lift him up to take some. - There he goes ! ” nother roar ,
with a prolonged shake at the end. “ Now ," said Herbert, as
it was succeeded by silence, “ he's drinking. Now , " said
Herbert, as the growl resounded in the beam once more “ he's
down again on his back ! ”
Clara returned soon afterwards, and Herbert accompanied
me up stairs to see our charge. As we passed Mr, Barley's
door, he was heard hoarsely muttering within, in a strain that
rose and fell like wind, the following Refrain ; in which I
substitute good wishes for something quite the reverse.
“ Ahoy ! Bless your eyes, here's old Bill Barley. Here's
old Bill Barley, bless your eyes. Here's old Bill Barley on the
flat of his back, by the Lord. Lyin on the flat of his back,
like a drifting old dead flounder, here's your old Bill Barley ,
bless your eyes. Ahoy ! Bless you.”
In this strain of consolation, Herbert informed me the in
visible Barley would commune with himself by the day and
night together ; often while it was light, having, at the same
time, one eye at a telescope which was fitted on his bed for the
convenience of sweeping the river.
In his two cabin rooms at the top of the house, which were
fresh and airy, and in which Mr. Barley was less audible than
below, I found Provis comfortably settled. He expressed no
alarm , and seemed to feel none that was worth mentioning ;
but it struck me that he was softened - indefinably, for I could
not have said how, and could never afterwards recall how when
I tried ; but certainly.
The opportunity that the day's rest had given me for re
flection had resulted in my fully determining to say nothing to
him respecting Compeyson. For anything I knew ,his animosity
towards the man might otherwise lead to his seeking him out
and rushing on his own destruction. Therefore, when Herbert
and I sat down with him by his fire, I asked him first of all
 HERBERTS SCHEME . 359

whether he relied on Wemmick's judgment and sources of

information ?
“ Ay, ay, dear boy !” he answered, with a grave nod ,
' Jaggers knows."
6
“ Then , I have talked with Wemmick ," said I, “ and have
come to tell you what caution he gave me and what advice .”
This I did accurately, with the reservation just mentioned ;
and I told him how Wemmick had heard, in Newgate prison
( w! ether from officers or prisoners I could not say ), that he
was under some suspicion, and that my chambers had been
watched ; how Wemmick had recommended his keeping close
for a time, and my keeping away from him ; and what Wemmick
had said about getting him abroad. I added, that of course,
when the time came, I should go with him, or should follow
close upon him , as might be safest in Wemmick's judgment.
What was to follow that, I did not touch upon ; neither indeed
was I at all clear or comfortable about it in my own mind , now
that I saw him in that softer condition , and in declared peril
for my sake. As to altering my way of living, by enlarging
my expenses, I put it to him whether in our present unsettled
and difficult circumstances, it would not be simply ridiculous, if
it were no worse ?
He could not deny this, and indeed was very reasonable
throughout. His coming back was a venture, he said , and he
had always known it to be a venture. He would do nothing to
make it a desperate venture, and he had very little fear of his
safety with such good help.
Herbert, who had been looking at the fire and pondering,
here said that something had come into his thoughts arising
out of Wemmick's suggestion, which it might be worth while
to pursue . “ We are both good watermen , Handel, and could
take him down the river ourselves when the right time comes.
No boat would then be hired for the purpose, and no boatmen ;
that would save at least a chance of suspicion, and any chance
is worth saving. Never mind the season ; don't you think it
might be a good thing if you began at once to keep a boat at
the Temple stairs, and were in the habit of rowing up and down
the river ? You fall into that habit, and then who notices or
minds ? Do it twenty or fifty times, and there is nothing
>
special in your doing it the twenty - first or fifty - first."
I liked this scheme,and Provis was quite elated by it. We
 360 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
agreed that it should be carried into execution, and that Provis
should never recognise us if we came below Bridge and rowed
past Mill Pond Bank . But, we further agreed that he should
pull down the blind in that part of his window which gave upon
the east, whenever he saw us and all was right.
Our conference being now ended, and everything arranged ,
I rose to go ; remarking to Herbert that he and I had better
not go home together, and that I would take half an hour's
start of him. “ I don't like to leave you here,” I said to Provis,
though I cannot doubt your being safer here than near me.
Good -bye !”
“ Dear boy , ” he answered, clasping my hands, “ I don't know
when we may meet again , and I don't like Good -bye. Say
Good Night !”
" Good night! Herbert will go regularly between us, and
when the time comes you may be certain I shall be ready. Good
night, Good night !”
We thought it best that he should stay in his own rooms, and
we left him on the landing outside his door, holding a light over
the stair -rail to light us down stairs. Looking back at him , I
thought of the first night of his return when our positions were
reversed, and when I little supposed my heart could ever be
as heavy and anxious at parting from him as it was now.
Old Barley was growling and swearing when we repassed his
door, with no appearance of having ceased or of meaning to
cease. When we got to the foot of the stairs, I asked Herbert
whether he had preserved the name of Provis ? He replied ,
certainly not, and that the lodger was Mr. Campbell. He also
explained that the utmost known of Mr. Campbell there, was ,
that he (Herbert) had Mr. Campbell consigned to him, and felt
a strong personal interest in his being well cared for, and living
a secluded life . So, when we went into the parlour where
Mrs. Whimple and Clara were seated at work, I said nothing
of my own interest in Mr. Campbell, but kept it to my
self.
When I had taken leave of the pretty gentle dark -eyed girl,
and of the motherly woman who had not outlived her honest
sympathy with a little affair of true love, I felt as if the Old
Green Copper Rope-Walk had grown quite a different place.
Old Barley might be as old as the hills, and might swear like a
whole field of troopers , but there were redeeming youth and
 I BEGIN TO GET A BOAT READY. 361

trust and hope enough in Chinks's Basin to fill it to overflowing.

And then I thought of Estella , and of our parting, and went
home very sadly.
All things were as quiet in the Temple as ever I had seen them.
The windows of the rooms of that side, lately occupied by
Provis, were dark and still, and there was no lounger in Garden
court. I walked past the fountain twice or thrice before I
descended the steps that were between me and my rooms, but
I was quite alone. Herbert coming to my bedside when he
came in - for I went straight to bed, dispirited and fatigued
made the same report. Opening one of the windows after that,
he looked out into the moonlight, and told me that the pave
ment was as solemnly empty as the pavement of any Cathedral
at that same hour.
Next day, I set myself to get the boat. It was soon done, and
the boat was brought round to the Temple stairs, and lay where
I could reach her within a minute or two. Then , I began to go
out as for training and practice : sometimes alone, sometimes
with Herbert. I was often out in cold, rain , and sleet, but no.
body took much note of me after I had been out a few times.
At first, I pt above Blackfriars Bridge ; but as the hours of
the tide changed , I took towards London Bridge. It was Old
London Bridge in those days, and at certain states of the tide
there was a race and a fall of water there which gave it aa bad
reputation. But I knew well enough how to “ shoot ” the
bridge after seeing it done, and so began to row about among the
shipping in the Pool, and down to Erith . The first time I
passed Mill Pond Bank, Herbert and I were pulling a pair of
oars ; and, both in going and returning, we saw the blind to
wards the east come down . Herbert was rarely there less fre
quently than three times in a week, and he never brought me a
single word of intelligence that was at all alarming. Still, I
knew that there was cause for alarm, and I could not get rid of
the notion of being watched. Once received, it is a haunting
idea ; how many undesigning persons I suspected of watching
me, it would be hard to calculate.
In short, I was always full of fears for the rash man who was
in hiding. Herbert had sometimes said to me that he found it
pleasant to stand at one of our windows after dark, when the j
tide was running down, and to think that it was flowing, with
everything it bore, towards Clara. But I thought with dread
362 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

that it was flowing towards Magwitch , and that any black mark
on its surface might be his pursuers, going swiftly, silently, and
surely, to take him .

CHAPTER XLVII.

SOME weeks passed without bringing any change. We waited

for Wemmick , and he made no sign. If I had never known him
out of Little Britain , and had never enjoyed the privilege of
being on a familiar footing at the Castle, I might have doubted
him ; not so for a moment, knowing him as I did ,
My worldly affairs began to wear a gloomy appearance, and I
was pressed for money by more than one creditor. Even I my
self began to know the want of money (I mean of ready money
in my own pocket), and to relieve it by converting some easily
spared articles of jewellery into cash. But I had quite deter
mined that it would be a heartless fraud to take more money
from my patron in the existing state of my uncertain thoughts
and plans. Therefore, I had sent him the unopened pocket -book
by Herbert, to hold in his own keeping, and I felt a kind of satis
faction - wheth er it was a false kind or a true, I hardly know
in not having profited by his generosity since his revelation of
himself.
As the time wore on, an impression settled heavily upon me
that Estella was married. Fearful of having it confirmed ,
though it was all but a conviction , I avoided the newspapers,
and begged Herbert (to whom I had confided the circumstances
of our last interview) never to speak of her to me. Why I
hoarded up this last wretched little rag of the robe of hope that
was rent and given to the winds, how do I know ! Why did you
who read this, commit that not dissimilar inconsistency of your
own, last year, last month, last week ?
It was an unhappy life that I lived , and its one dominant
anxiety, towering over all its other anxieties like a high moun
tain above a range of mountains, never disappeared from my
view. Still, no new cause for fear arose . Let me start from
my bed as I would , with the terror fresh upon me that he was
H“I AD
HAD
FEEL
TO
WAY
MY
BACK
AMONG
SHIPPING
.THE
 A GEOGRAPHICAL CHOP-HOUSE. 363

discovered ; let me sit listening as I would , with dread for

Herbert's returning step at night, lest it should be fleeter than
ordinary, and winged with evil news; for all that, and much
more to like purpose, the round of things went on. Condemned
to inaction and a state of constant restlessness and suspense , I
rowed about in my boat, and waited, waited, waited, as I best
could .
There were states of the tide when, having been down the
river, I could not get back through the eddy -chafed arches and
starlings of Old London Bridge ; then, I left my boat at a
wharf near the Custom House, to be brought up afterwards to
the Temple stairs. I was not averse to doing this, as it served
to make me and my boat a commoner incident among the water
side people there. From this slight occasion, sprang two
meetings that I have now to tell of.
One afternoon , late in the month of February, I came ashore
at the wharf at dusk . I had pulled down as far as Greenwich
with the ebb tide, and had turned with the tide. It had been
a fine bright day, but had become foggy as the sun dropped,
and I had had to feel my way back among the shipping pretty
carefully. Both in going and returning, I had seen the signal
in his window , All well.
As it was a raw evening and I was cold, I thought I would
comfort myself with dinner at once ; and as I had hours of de
jection and solitude before me if I went home to the Temple,
I thought I would afterwards go to the play. The theatre
where Mr. Wopsle had achieved his questionable triumph, was
in that waterside neighbourhood (it is nowhere now), and to
that theatre I resolved to go. I was aware that Mr. Wopsle had
not succeeded in reviving the Drama, but, on the contrary, had
rather partaken of its decline. He had been ominously heard
of, through the playbills, as a faithful Black, in connexion with
a little girl of noble birth, and a monkey. And Herbert had
seen him as a predatory Tartar, of comic propensities, with a
face like a red brick , and an outrageous hat all over bells.
I dined at what Herbert and I used to call a Geographical
chop -house - where there were maps of the world in porter-pot
rims on every half-yard of the table-cloths, and charts of gravy
on every one of the knives — to this day there is scarcely a
single chop - house within the Lord Mayor's dominions which is
not Geographical — and wore out the time in dozing over
364 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
crumbs, staring at gas, and baking in a hot blast of dinners.
By -and -by, I roused myself and went to the play.
There, I found a virtuous boatswain in his Majesty's service
-a most excellent man, though I could have wished his
trousers not quite so tight in some places and not quite so loose
in others — who knocked all the little men's hats ver their eyes,
though he was very generous and brave, and who wouldn't hear
of anybody's paying taxes, though he was very patriotic. He
had a bag of money in his pocket, like a pudding in the cloth ,
and on that property married a young person in bed -furniture,
with great rejoicings; the whole population of Portsmouth
(nine in number at the last Census) turning out on the beach to
rub their own hands and shake everybody else's, and sing, “ Fill,
fill ! ” A certain dark -complexioned Swab, however, who
wouldn't fill, or do anything else that was proposed to him , and
whose heart was openly stated ( by the boatswain ) to be as black
as his figurehead, proposed to two other Swabs to get all man
kind into difficulties; which was so effectually done (the Swab
family having considerable political influence that it took half
the evening to set things right, and then it was only brought
about through an honest little grocer with a white hat, black
gaiters, and red nose, getting into aclock, with a gridiron , and
listening, and coming out, and knocking everybody down from
behind with the gridiron whom he couldn't confute with what
he had overheard. This led to Mr. Wopsle's (who had never
been heard of before) coming in with a star and garter on, as
a plenipotentiary of great power direct from the Admiralty, to
say that the Swabs were all to go to prison on the spot, and that
he had brought the boatswain down the Union Jack, as a slight
acknowledgment of his public services. The boatswain , un
manned for the first time, respectfully dried his eyes on the
Jack , and then cheering up and addressing Mr. Wopsle as Your
Honour, solicited permission to take him by the fin . Mr.
Wopsle conceding his fin with a gracious dignity, was imme
diately shoved into a dusty corner while everybody danced a
hornpipe ; and from that corner , surveying the public with a
discontented eye, became aware of me.
The second piece was the last new grand comic Christmas
pantomime, in the first scene of which , it pained me to suspect
that I detected Mr. Wopsle with red worsted legs under a
highly magnified phosphoric countenance and a shock of red
 MR . WOPSLE ALARMS ME. 365

curtain -fringe for his hair, engaged in the manufacture of

thunderbolts in a mine, and displaying great cowardice when
his gigantic master came home (very hoarse ) to dinner. But
he presently presented himself under worthier circumstances ;
for, the Genius of Youthful Love being in want of assistance-
on account of the parental brutality of an ignorant farmer who
opposed the choice of his daughter's heart, by purposely falling
upon the object in a flour sack, out of the first- floor window
summoned a sententious Enchanter ; and he, coming up from
the antipodes rather unsteadily, after an apparently violent
journey, proved to be Mr. Wopsle in a high-crowned hat, with
a necromantic work in one volume under his arm. The busi
ness of this enchanter on earth, being principally to be talked
at, sung at, butted at, danced at, and flashed at with fires of
various colours, he had a good deal of time on his hands. And
I observed with great surprise, that he devoted it to staring in
my direction as if he were lost in amazement.
There was something so remarkable in the increasing glare
of Mr. Wopsle's eye, and he seemed to be turning so many
things over in his mind and to grow so confused, that I could
not make it out. I sat thinking of it, long after hc had ascended
to the clouds in a large watch-case, and still I could not make
it out. I was still thinking of it when I came out of the theatre
an hour afterwards, and found him waiting for me near the
door.
“How do you do ? ” said I, shaking hands with him as we
turned down the street together. “ I saw that you saw
me.”
“ Saw you, Mr. Pip ! ” he returned. “ Yes, of course I saw
you. But who else was there ? ”
“ Who else ? ”
“ It is the strangest thing ," said Mr. Wopsle, drifting into his
lost look again ; "and yet I could swear to him .”
Becoming alarmed , I entreated Mr. Wopsle to explain his
meaning.
" Whether I should bave noticed him at first but for your
being there, " said Mr. Wopsle, going on in the same lost way ,
“ I can't be positive ; yet I think I should.”
Involuntarily I looked round me, as I was accustomed to look
round me when I went home ; for these mysterious words gave
me a chill.
366 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ Oh ! He can't be in sight,” said Mr. Wopsle. “ He went
out, before I went off; I saw him go .”
Having the reason that I had for being suspicious, I even
suspected this poor actor. I mistrusted a design to entrap me
into some admission . Therefore, I glanced at him as we
walked on together, but said nothing.
“ I had a ridiculous fancy that he must be with you, Mr. Pip,
till I saw that you were quite unconscious of him, sitting behind
you there like a ghost.”
My former chill crept over me again , but I was resolved not
to speak yet, for it was quite consistent with his words that he
might be set on to induce me to connect these references with
Provis. Of course, I was perfectly sure and safe that Provis
had not been there .
“ I dare say you wonder at me, Mr.Pip ; indeed , I see you do.
But it is so very strange ! You'll hardly believe what I am
going to tell you. I could hardly believe it myself, if you told
me. "
“ Indeed ? ” said I.
“No, indeed. Mr. Pip, you remember in old times a certain
Christmas Day, when you were quite a child, and I dined at
Gargery's, and some soldiers came to the door to get a pair of
handcuffs mended ? "
“ I remember it very well.”
“ And you remember that there was a chase after two con.
victs, and that we joined in it, and that Gargery took you on
his back, and that I took the lead and you kept up with me as
well as you could ? ”
“ I remember it all very well. ” Better than he thought
except the last clause .
“ And you remember that we came up with the two in a
ditch , and that there was a scuffle between them , and that one
of them had been severely handled and much mauled about the
face, by the other ? ”
" I see it all before me.”
“ And that the soldiers lighted torches, and put the two in
the centre, and that we went on to see the last of them , over
the black marshes, with the torchlight shining on their faces
I am particular about that ; with the torchlight shining on their
faces, when there was an outer ring of dark night all about
Us
 NEWS OF COMPEYSON . 367

“ Yes,” said I. “ I remember all that. ”

Then , Mr. Pip, one of those two prisoners sat behind you
to - night. I saw him over your shoulder."
“ Steady !” I thought. I asked him then, “ Which of the
»
two do you suppose you saw ? "
“The one who had been mauled,” he answered readily, 66 and
I'll swear I saw him ! The more I think of him , the more
certain I am of him .”
“ This is very curious ! ” said I, with the best assumption I
could put on, of its being nothing more to me. “ Very curious
indeed ! ”
I cannot exaggerate the enhanced disquiet into which this con
versation threw me, or the special and peculiar terror I felt at
Compeyson's having been behind me “ like a ghost.” For, if he
had ever been out of my thoughts for a few moments together
since the hiding had begun , it was in those very moments when
he was closest to me ; and to think that I should be so uncon
scious and off my guard after all my care, was as if I had shut
an avenue of a hundred doors to keep him out, and then had
found him at my elbow . I could not doubt either that he was
there, because I was there, and that however slight an appear
ance of danger there might be about us, danger was always
near and active.
I put such questions to Mr. Wopsle as, When did the man
come in ? He could not tell me that ; he saw me, and over my
shoulder he saw the man. It was not until he had seen him
for some time that he began to identify him ; but he had from
the first vaguely associated him with me, and known him as
somehow belonging to me in the old village time. How was he
dressed ? Prosperously, but not noticeably otherwise ; he
thought, in black. Was his face at all disfigured ? No, he
believed not. I believed not, too, for although in my brooding
state I had taken no especial notice of the people behind me,
I thought it likely that a face at all disfigured would have
attracted my attention .
When Mr. Wopsle had imparted to me all that he could recall
or I extract, and when I had treated him to a little appropriate
refreshment after the fatigues of the evening, we parted. It
was between twelve and one o'clock when I reached the Temple,
and the gates were shut. No one was near me when I went
in and went home.
368 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

Herbert had come in, and we held a very serious council by

the fire . But there was nothing to be done, saving to com
municate to Wemmick what I had that night found out, and
to remind him that we waited for his hint. As I thought that
I might compromise him if I went too often to the Castle,
made this communication by letter. I wrote it before I went
to bed and went out and posted it ; and again no one was near
me. Herbert and I agreed that we could do nothing else but
be very cautious. And we were very cautious indeed-more
cautious than before, if that were possible — and I for my part
never went near Chinks's Basin, except when I rowed by, and
then I only looked at Mill Pond Bank as I looked at any
thing else.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE second of the two meetings referred to in the last chapter,

occurred about a week after the first. I had again left my boat
at the wharf below Bridge ; the time was an hour earlier in the
afternoon ; and, undecided where to dine, I had strolled up into
Cheapside, and was strolling along it, surely the most unsettled
person in all the busy concourse, when a large hand was laid
upon my shoulder, by some one overtaking me. It was Mr.
Jaggers's hand, and he passed it through my arm .
“ As we are going in the same direction, Pip , we may walk
together. Where are you bound for ? ”
“For the Temple, I think,” said I.
“ Don't you know ? " said Mr. Jaggers.
66
Well,” I returned glad for once to get the better of him
in cross -examination, “ I do not know, for I have not made up
my mind .”
“ You are going to dine ? "” said Mr. Jaggers. “ You don't
mind admitting that, I suppose ? ”
66
' No," I returned, “ I don't mind admitting that.”
“ And are not engaged ? ”
I don't mind admitting also , that I am not engaged .”
 I DINE WITH MR . JAGGERS. 369
C
“ Then,” said Mr. Jaggers, “ come and dine with me. "G
I was going to excuse myself, when he added , “ Wemmick 's
coming." So I changed my excuse into an acceptance — the few
words I had uttered serving for the beginning of either - and
we went along Cheapside and slanted off to Little Britain,
while the lights were springing up brilliantly in the shop win
dows, and the street lamp-lighters, scarcely finding ground
enough to plant their ladders on in the midst of the afternoon's
bustle, were skipping up and down and running in and out,
opening more red eyes in the gathering fog than my rushlight
tower at the Hummums had opened white eyes in the ghostly
wall.
At the office in Little Britain there was the usual letter
writing, hand -washing, candle -snuffing, and safe- locking, that
closed the business of the day. As I stood idle by Mr. Jaggers's
fire, its rising and falling flame made the two casts on the shelf
look as if they were playing a diabolical game at bo-peep with
me ; while the pair of coarse fat office candles that dimly
lighted Mr. Jaggers as he wrote in a corner, were decorated
with dirty winding -sheets, as if in remembrance of a host of
hanged clients.
We went to Gerrard-street, all three together, in a hackney
coach : and as soon as we got there, dinner was served.
Although I should not have thought of making in that place,
the most distant reference by so much as a look to Wemmick's
Walworth sentiments, yet I should have had no objection to
catching his eye now and then in a friendly way . But it was
not to be done. He turned his eyes on Mr, Jaggers whenever
be raised them from the table, and was as dry and distant
to me as if there were twin Wemmicks, and this was the wrong
one .
“ Did you send that note of Miss Havisham's to Mr. Pip ,
Wemmick ? " Mr. Jaggers asked, soon after we began dinner.
66
No, sir," returned Wemmick ; " it was going by post, when
you brought Mr. Pip into the office . Here it is.” He handed
it to his principal, instead of to me.
“ It's a note of two lines, Pip ,” said Mr. Jaggers, handing it
on, " sent up to me by Miss Havisham , on account of her not
being sure of your address. She tells me that she wants to see
you on a little matter of business you mentioned to her.
You'll go down ? ”
в в
370 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

“ Yes ," said I, casting my eyes over the note, which was
exactly in those terms.
“When do you think of going down ? " >
“ I have an impending engagement,” said I, glancing at
Wemmick , who was putting fish into the post-office, “that
renders me rather uncertain of my time. At once , I think .”
“ If Mr. Pip has the intention of going at once ," said
Wemmick to Mr. Jaggers, " he needn't write an answer, you
know ."
Receiving this as an intimation that it was best not to delay,
I settled that I would go to -morrow , and said so. Wemmick
drank a glass of wine and looked with a grimly satisfied air , at
Mr. Jaggers, but not at me.
“ So, Pip ! Our friend the Spider," said Mr. Jaggers,“ has
played his cards. He has won the pool.”
It was as much as I could do to assent.
“ Hah ! He is a promising fellow -- in his way — but he may
not have it all his own way. The stronger will win in the end,
but the stronger has to be found out first. If he should turn
to, and beat her
“Surely,"" I interrupted ,with a burning face and heart, “you
do not seriously think that he is scoundrel enough for that,
Mr. Jaggers ? ”
“ I didn't say so, Pip. I am putting a case. If he should
turn to and beat her, he may possibly get the strength on his
side ; if it should be a question of intellect, he certainly will
not. It would be chance work to give an opinion how a fellow
of that sort will turn out in such circumstances, because it's a
toss-up between two results ."
“May I ask what they are ? ”
“ A fellow like our friend the Spider ," answered Mr. Jaggers,
“ either beats, or cringes. He may cringe and growl, or cringe
and not growl; but he either beats or cringes. Ask Wemmick
his opinion . ”
“ Either beats or cringes ,” said Wemmick, not at all address
ing himself to me .
“ So, here's to Mrs. Bentley Drummle,” said Mr. Jaggers,
taking a decanter of choicer wine from his dumb -waiter, and
C
filling for each of us and for himself, “ and may the question
of supremacy be settled to the lady's satisfaction ! To the
satisfaction of the lady and the gentleman, it never will
I KNOW NOW OF WHOM ESTELLA REMINDED ME . 371

be . Now, Molly, Molly, Molly, Molly, how slow you are

to -day ! ”
She was at his elbow when he addressed her, putting a dish
upon the table . As she withdrew her hands from it, she fell
back a step or two, nervously muttering some excuse . And a
certain action of her fingers as she spoke arrested my attention .
“ What's the matter ? ” said Mr. Jaggers.
“ Nothing. Only the subject we were speaking of,” said I,
was rather painful to me. ”
The action of her fingers was like the action of knitting.
She stood looking at her master, not understanding whether she
was free to go, or whether he bad more to say to her and would
call her back if she did go. Her look was very intent. Surely ,
I had seen exactly such eyes and such hands, on a memorable
occasion very lately !
He dismissed her, and she glided out of the room. But she
remained before me, as plainly as if she were still there. I
looked at those hands, I looked at those eyes, I looked at that
flowing hair ; and I compared them with other hands, other
eyes, other hair, that I knew of, and with what those might be
after twenty years of a brutal husband and a stormy life. I
looked again at those hands and eyes of the housekeeper, and
thought of the inexplicable feeling that had come over me
when I last walked — not alone - in the ruined garden, and
through the deserted brewery. I thought how the same feel
ing had come back when I saw a face looking at me, and a
hand waving to me from a stage-coach window ; and how it
had come back again and had flashed about me like Lightning,
when I had passed in a carriage - not alone-through a sudden
glare of light in a dark street. I thought how one link of
association had helped that identification in the theatre, and
how such a link, wanting before, had been riveted for me now,
when I had passed by a chance swift from Estella's name to
the fingers with their knitting action , and the attentive eyes.
And I felt absolutely certain that this woman was Estella's
mother.
Mr. Jaggers had seen me with Estella, and was not likely to
have missed the sentiments I had been at no pains to conceal.
He nodded when I said the subject was painful to me, clapped
me on the back, put round the wine again, and went on with
his dinner.
BB 2
372 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

Only twice more did the housekeeper reappear, and then

her stay in the room was very short, and Mr. Jaggers was sharp
with her. But her hands were Estella's hands, and her eyes
were Estella's eyes, and if she had reappeared a hundred
times I could have been neither more sure nor less sure that
my conviction was the truth .
It was a dull evening, for Wemmick drew his wine when it
came round, quite as a matter of business — just as he might
have drawn his salary when that came round - and with his
eyes on his chief, sat in a state of perpetual readiness for
cross-examination . As to the quantity of wine, his post-office
was as indifferent and ready as any other post -office for its
quantity of letters. From my point of view , he was the wrong
twin all the time, and only externally like the Wemmick of
Walworth .
We took our leave early, and left together. Even when we
were groping among Mr. Jaggers's stock of boots for our hats,
I felt that the right twin was on his way back ; and we had
not gone half a dozen yards down Gerrard -street in the Wal
worth direction before I found that I was walking arm-in-arm
the right twin, and that the wrong twin had evaporated
into the evening air .
“ Well ! ” said Wemmick, “ that's over ! He's a wonderful
man, without his living likeness; but I feel that I have to
screw myself up when I dine with him - and I dine more
comfortably unscrewed .”.
I felt that this was a good statement of the case , and told
him so .
“ Wouldn't say it to anybody but yourself, ” he answered .
“ I know that what is said between you and me, goes no
further."
I asked him if he had ever seen Miss Havisham's adopted
daughter, Mrs. ntley Drummle ? He said no . To avoid
being too abrupt, I then spoke of the Aged, and of Miss
Skiffius. He looked rather sly when I mentioned Miss Skiffins ,
and stopped in the street to blow his nose, with a roll of the
head and a flourish not quite free from latent boastfulness.
66
* Wemmick ," said I , “ do you remember telling me, before I
first went to Mr. Jaggers's private house, to notice that
housekeeper ? "
“ Did I ? ” he replied. “Ah, I dare say I did . Deuce take
 WEMMICK TELLS ME MOLLY'S STORY. 373

me,” he added sullenly, “ I know I did. I find I am not quite

unscrewed yet .”
“ A wild beast tamed , you called her ? ”
“ And what did you call her ? ” "
66 The same. How did Mr. Jaggers tame her, Wemmick ? ”
“That's his secret. She has been with him many a long
year.”
“ I wish you would tell me her story. I feel a particular
interest in being acquainted with it. You know that what is
said between you and me goes no further . ”
“ Well ! ” Wemmick replied , “ I don't know her story — that
is, I don't know all of it. But what I do know , I'll tell you.
We are in our private and personal capacities, of course.”
“ Of course .”
“ A score or so of years ago , that woman was tried at the Old
Bailey for murder and was acquitted. She was a very handsome
young woman , and I believe had some gipsy blood in her .
Anyhow , it was hot enough when it was up, as you may
suppose .”
“ But she was acquitted.”
“ Mr. Jaggers was for her, ” pursued Wemmick, with a look
full of meaning, “ and worked the case in a way quite astonish
ing. It was a desperate case, and it was comparatively early
days with him then, and he worked it to general admiration ;
in fact, it may almost be said to have made him. He worked
it himself at the police office, day after day for many days,
contending against even a committal; and at the trial
where he couldn't work it himself, sat under counsel,
and — every one knew - put in all the salt and pepper. The
murdered person was a woman ; a woman , a good ten years
older, very much larger, and very much stronger. It was a case
of jealousy. They both led tramping lives, and this woman in
Gerrard -street here, had been married very young, over the
broomstick (as we say ), to a tramping man, and was a perfect
fury in point of jealousy. The murdered woman-more a match
for the man , certainly , in point of years — was found dead in a
barn near Hounslow Heath. There had been a violent struggle,
perhaps a fight. She was bruised and scratched and torn , and
had been held by the throat at last and choked. Now , there
was no reasonable evidence to implicate any person but this
woman, and, on the improbabilities of her having been able to
374 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
do it, Mr. Jaggers principally rested his case . You may be
sure," said Wemmick, touching me on the sleeve, “that he
never dwelt upon the strength of her hands then , though he
"
sometimes does now ."
I had told Wemmick of his showing us her wrists, that day
of the dinner party.
“ Well, sir ! ” Wemmick went on ; " it happened - happened,
don't you see ? -that this woman was so very artfully dressed
from the time of her apprehension , that she looked much
slighter than she really was ; in particular, her sleeves are
always remembered to have been so skilfully contrived that her
arms had quite a delicate look. She had only a bruise or two
about her-nothing for a tramp - but the backs of her hands
were lacerated, and the question was, was it with finger-nails ?
Now, Mr. Jaggers showed that she had struggled through a
great lot of brambles which were not as high as her face ; but
which she could not have gone through and kept her hands out
of ; and bits of those brambles were actually found in her skin
and put in evidence, as well as the fact that the brambles in
question were found on examination to have been broken
through, and to have little shreds of her dress and little spots
of blood upon them here and there. But the boldest point he
made, was this. It was attempted to be set up in proof of her
jealousy, that she was under strong suspicion of having, at
about the time of the murder, frantically destroyed her child
by this man — some three years old — to revenge herself upon
him . Mr. Jaggers worked that in this way. We say these
are not marks of finger-nails, but marks of brambles, and we
show you the brambles. You say they are marks of finger -nails,
and you set up the hypothesis that she destroyed her child.
You must accept all consequences of that hypothesis. For
anything we know, she may have destroyed her child, and the
child in clinging to her may have scratched her hands. What
then ? You are not trying her for the murder of her child ;
why don't you ? As to this case, if you will have scratches,
we say that, for anything we know , you may have accounted
for them, assuming for the sake of argument that you have not
invented them ? ' To sum up, sir,” said Wemmick , “ Mr. Jaggers
was altogether too many for the Jury, and they gave in .”
“ Has she been in his service ever since ? ”
“ Yes ; but not only that,” said Wemmick ,“ she went into
 I ĠO DOWN TO SATIS HOUSE. 375

his service immediately after her acquittal , tamed as she is

now. She has since been taught one thing and another in the
way of her duties, but she was tamed from the beginning .”
“ Do you remember the sex of the child ? ”
“ Said to have been a girl.”
“ You have nothing more to say to me to - night ? "
Nothing. I got your letter and destroyed it. Nothing. "
We exchanged a cordial Good Night, and went home, with
new matter for my thoughts, though with no relief from the old.

CHAPTER XLIX .

PUTTING Miss Havisham's note in my pocket, that it might

serve as my credentials for so soon reappearing at Satis House,
in case her waywardness should lead her to express any surprise
at seeing me, I went down again by the coach next day. But,
I alighted at the Halfway House and breakfasted there, and
walked the rest of the distance ; for, I sought to get into the
town quietly by the unfrequented ways, and to leave it in the
same manner .

The best light of the day was gone when I passed along the
quiet echoing courts behind the High -street. The nooks of
ruin where the old monks had once had their refectories and
gardens, and where the strong walls were now pressed into the
service of humble sheds and stables, were almost as silent as
the old monks in their graves. The cathedral chimes had at
once a sadder and a more remote sound to me, as I hurried on
avoiding observation , than they had ever had before ; so, the
swell of the old organ was borne to my ears like funeral music ;
and the rooks, as they hovered about the grey tower and swung
in the bare high trees of the priory garden , seemed to call to
me that the place was changed, and that Estella was gone out
of it for ever.
An elderly woman whom I had seen before as one of the
servants who lived in the supplementary house across the back
court- yard , opened the gate. The lighted candle stood in the
376 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
dark passage within , as of old, and I took it up and ascended
the staircase alone. Miss Havisham was not in her own room ,
but was in the larger room across the landing. Looking in at
the door, after knocking in vain , II saw her sitting on the hearth
in a ragged chair, close before, and lost in the contemplation of,
the ashy fire.
Doing as I had often done, I went in , and stood, touching
the oldchimney -piece, where she could see me when she raised
her eyes. There was an air of utter loneliness upon her, that
would have moved me to pity though she had wilfully done
me a deeper injury than I could charge her with . As I stood
compassionating her, and thinking how in the progress of time
I too had come to be a part of the wrecked fortunes of that
house, her eyes rested on me. She stared, and said in a low
voice, “ Is it real ? "
“ It is I, Pip. Mr. Jaggers gave me your note yesterday, and
I have lost no time. ”
“ Thank you. Thank you .""
As I brought another of the ragged chairs to the hearth and
sat down, I remarked a new expression on her face, as if she
were afraid of me.
“ I want,” she said, “ to pursue that subject you mentioned
to me when you were last here, and to show you that I am not
all stone. But perhaps you can never believe, now, that there
is anything human in my heart ? ”
When I said some reassuring words, she stretched out her
tremulous right hand, as though she was going to touch me ;
but she recalled it again before I understood the action, or
knew how to receive it.
“ You said , speaking for your friend, that you could tell me
how to do something useful and good. Something that you
would like done, is it not ? ”
“ Something that I would like done very very much .”
" What is it ? "
I began explaining to her that secret history of the partner
ship. I had not got far into it, when I judged from her looks
that she was thinking in a discursive way of me, rather than of
what I said . It seemed to be so, for, when I stopped speaking,
many moments passed before she showed that she was con
scious of the fact .
“ Do you break off,” she asked then , with her former air of
 A LOAN FROM MISS HAVISHAM . 377

being afraid of me, “ because you hate me too much to bear

to speak to me ? ”
“ No, no , " I answered . “ How can you think so, Miss
Havisham ! I stopped because I thought you were not

following what I said.”

“Perhaps I was not,” she answered. putting a hand to her
head. “ Begin again , and let me look at something else.
Stay ! Now tell me.”
She set her hand upon her stick , in the resolute way that
sometimes was habitual to her, and looked at the fire with a
strong expression of forcing herself to attend . I went on
with my explanation, and told her how I had hoped to com
plete the transaction out of my means, but how in this I
was disappointed. That part of the subject ( I reminded her)
involved matters which could form no part of my explanation ,
for they were the weighty secrets of another .
“ So ! ” said she, assenting with her head, but not looking
at me . “ And how much money is wanting to complete the
"
purchase ? ”
I was rather afraid of stating it, for it sounded a large
sum . “ Nine hundred pounds."
“ If I give you the money for this purpose, will you keep
my secret as you have kept your own ? "
“Quite as faithfully . "
“And your mind will be more at rest ? ” .
“ Much more at rest ."
“ Are you very unhappy now ? ”
She asked this question , still without looking at me, but in
an unwonted tone of sympathy. I could not reply at the
moment, for my voice failed me. She put her left arm
across the head of her stick , and softly laid her forehead
on it.
“ I am far from happy, Miss Havisham ; but I have other
causes of disquiet than any you know of. They are the secrets
I have mentioned."
After aa little while, she raised her head, and looked at the
fire again.
“ Tis noble in you to tell me that you have other causes of
unhappiness. Is it true ? ”
" Too true."
“Can I only serve you, Pip, by serving your friend ?
378 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

Regarding that as done, is there nothing I can do for you

yourself ? ”
“Nothing. I thank you for the question . I thank you2even
more for the tone of the question. But, there is nothing.”
She presently rose from her seat, and looked about the
blighted room for the means of writing. There were none
there, and she took from her pocket a yellow set of ivory
tablets, mounted in tarnished gold, and wrote upon them with
a pencil in a case of tarnished gold that hung from her neck .
“ You are still on friendly terms with Mr. Jaggers ? ”
“ Quite. I dined with him yesterday.”
“ This is an authority to him to pay you that money, to lay out
at your irresponsible discretion for your friend. I keep
no money here ; but if you would rather Mr. Jaggers knew
nothing of the matter, I will send it to you."
“ Thank you, Miss Havisham ; I have not the least objection
to receiving it from him .”
She read me what she had written , and it was direot and
clear, and evidently intended to absolve me from any suspicion
of profiting by the receipt of the money. I took the tablets
from her hand, and it trembled again , and it trembled more as
she took off the chain to which the pencil was attached, and
put it in mine. All this she did , without looking at me.
66
My name is on the first leaf. If you can ever write under
my name, ' I forgive her,' though ever so long after my broken
heart is dust - pray do it ! "
“ O Miss Havisham ,” said I, “ I can do it now. There have
been sore mistakes ; and my life has been a blind and thankless
one ; and I want forgiveness and direction far too much , to be
bitter with you.”
She turned her face to me for the first time since she had
averted it, and to my amazement, ΙI may even add to my terror,
dropped on her knees at my feet ; with her folded hands raised
to me in the manner in which , when her poor heart was young
and fresh and whole, they must often have been raised to
Heaven from her mother's side .
To see her with her white hair and her worn face, kneeling at
my feet, gave me a shock through all my frame. I entreated
her to rise, and got my arms about her to help her up ; but she
only pressed that hand of mine which was nearest to her
grasp, and hung her head over it and wept. I had never seen
 MISS HAVISHAM'S REMORSE . 379
1 her shed a tear before, and in the hope that the relief might do
her good, I bent over her without speaking. She was not
kneeling now, but was down upon the ground .
“ O ! ” she cried, despairingly. " What have I done ! What
have I done ! ”
31
“ If you mean, Miss Havisham , what have you done to injure
me, let me answer. Very little. I should have loved her under
any circumstances . - Is she married ? "
66
Yes !| ‫לי‬
It was a needless question, for a new desolation in the
desolate house had told me so.
6 What have I done ! What have I done ! ” She wrung
her hands, and crushed her white hair, and returned to this cry
over and over again . “ What have I done ! ”
I knew not how to answer, or how to comfort her. That she
had done a grievous thing in taking an impressionable child to
mould into the form that her wild resentment, spurned affec
tion, and wounded pride, found vengeance in, I knew full well.
But that, in shutting out the light of day, she had shut out
infinitely more ; that, in seclusion, she had secluded herself
from a thousand natural and healing influences ; that, her
mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased, as all minds do
and must' and will that reverse the appointed order of their
Maker ; I knew equally well. And could I look upon her
without compassion , seeing her punishment in the ruin she
was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was
placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master
mania , like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the
vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that
have been curses in this world ?
Until you spoke to her the other day, and until I saw in
you a looking-glass that showed me what I once felt myself, I
did not know what I had done. What have I done ! What
have I done !” And so again, twenty, fifty times over, What
had she done !
“ Miss Havisham ," I said , when her cry had died away,
" you may dismiss me from your mind and conscience. But
Estella is a different case, and if you can ever undo any scrap
of what you have done amiss in keeping a part of her right
nature away from her, it will be better to do that, than to
bemoan the past through a hundred years."
380 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“Yes, yes, I know it. But, Pip - my Dear ! ” There was
an earnest womanly compassion for me in her new affection .
My dear ! Believe this : when she first came to me, I
meant to save her from misery like my own. At first I meant
no more."
“ Well, well ! ” said I. “ I hope so .”
“But as she grew , and promised to be very beautiful, I
gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels,
and with my teachings, and with this figure of myself always
before her, a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole
her heart away and put ice in its place.”
46
Better," I could not help saying, “ to have left her a
natural heart, even to be bruised or broken .”
With that, Miss Havisham looked distractedly at me for a
while, and then burst out again , What had she done !
" If you knew all my story," she pleaded, “ you would have
some compassion for me and aa better understanding of me.”
“ Miss Havisham , " I answered, as delicately as I could, “ I
believe I may say that I do know your story, and have known
it ever since I first left this neighbourhood. It has inspired me
with great commiseration , and I hope I understand it and its
influences. Does what has passed between us give me any
excuse for asking you a question relative to Estella ? Not as
she is, but as she was when she first came here ? ”
She was seated on the ground, with her arms on the ragged
chair, and her head leaning on them. She looked full at me
when I said this , and replied , “ Go on . ”
“ Whose child was Estella ? ”
She shook her head .
“ You don't know ? "
She shook her head again .
“ But Mr. Jaggers brought her here, or sent her here ? "
“ Brought her here."
“ Will you tell me how that came about ? ”
She answered in a low whisper and with caution : " I had
been shut up in these rooms a long time (I don't know how
long ; you know what time the clocks keep here) , when I told
him that I wanted a little girl to rear and love, and save from
my fate. I had first seen him when I sent for him to lay this
place waste for me ; having read of him in the newspapers
before I and the world parted. He told me that he would look
 TAKING LEAVE OF SATIS HOUSE. 381

about him for such an orphan child . One night he brought her
here asleep, and I called her Estella .”
“ Might I ask her age then ? ”
“ Two or three. She herself knows nothing, but that she
was left an orphan and I adopted her.”
So convinced I was of that woman's being her mother, that
I wanted no evidence to establish the fact in my mind. But,
to any mind, I thought the connection here was clear and
straight.
What more could I hope to do by prolonging the inter
view ? I had succeeded on behalf of Herbert, Miss Havisham
had told me all she knew of Estella , I had said and done
what I could to ease her mind . No matter with what other
words we parted ; we parted .
Twilight was closing in when I went down stairs into the
natural air . I called to the woman who had opened the gate
when I entered , that I would not trouble her just yet, but
would walk round the place before leaving. For, I had a
presentiment that I should never be there again , and I felt
that the dying light was suited to my last view of it.
By the wilderness of casks that I had walked on long ago,
and on which the rain of years had fallen since, rotting them
in many places, and leaving miniature swamps and pools of
water upon those that stood on end, I made my way to the
ruined garden . I went all round it ; round by the corner where
Herbert and I had fought our battle ; round by the paths
where Estella and I had walked. So cold , so lonely, so dreary
all !
Taking the brewery on my way back , I raised the rusty latch
of a little door at the garden end of it, and walked through. I
was going out at the opposite door - not easy to open now, for
the damp wood had started and swelled, and the hinges were
yielding, and the threshold was encumbered with a growth of
fungus — when I turned my head to look back . A childish
association revived with wonderful force in the moment of the
slight action , and I fancied that I saw Miss Havisham hanging
to the beam . So strong was the impression, that I stood under
the beam shuddering from head to foot before I knew it was a
fancy_though to be sure I was there in an instant.
The mournfulness of the place and time, and the great terror
of this illusion, though it was but momentary , caused me to
382 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
feel an indescribable awe as I came out between the open
wooden gates where I had once wrung my hair after Estella
had wrung my heart. Passing on into the front court- yard, I
hesitated whether to call the woman to let me out at the
locked gate, of which she had the key, or first to go up stairs
and assure myself that Miss Havisham was as safe and well as
I had left her. I took the latter course and went up.
I looked into the room where I had left her, and I saw her
seated in the ragged chair upon the hearth close to the fire,
with her back towards me. In the moment when I was with
drawing my head to go quietly away, I saw a great flaming
light spring up. In the same moment I saw her running at
me, shrieking, with a whirl of fire blazing all about her, and
soaring at least as many feet above her head as she was high .
I had a double-caped great coat on, and over my arm another
thick coat. That I got them off, closed with her, threw her
down, and got them over her ; that I dragged the great cloth
from the table for the same purpose, and with it dragged down
the heap of rottenness in the midst, and all the ugly things
that sheltered there ; that we were on the ground struggling
like desperate enemies, and that the closer I covered her, the
more wildly she shrieked and tried to free herself;‫ ܝ‬that this
occurred I knew through the result, but not through any
thing, I felt, or thought, or knew I did. I knew nothing
until I knew that we were on the floor by the great table,
and that patches of tinder yet alight were floating in the
smoky air, which a moment ago had been her faded bridal
dress .
Then, I looked round and saw the disturbed beetles and
spiders running away over the floor, and the servants coming
in with breathless cries at the door. I still held her forcibly
down with all my strength , like a prisoner who might escape ;
and I doubt if I even knew who she was, or why we had
struggled, or that she had been in flames, or that the flames
were out, until I saw the patches of tinder that had been
her garments, no longer alight, but falling in a black shower
around us.
She was insensible, and I was afraid to have her moved, or
even touched. Assistance was sent for, and I held her until it
came, as if I unreasonably fancied (i think I did ) that if I let
her go, the fire would break out again and consume her. When
 “WHAT HAVE I DONE ! ” 383
I got up, on the surgeon's coming to her with other aid, I was
astonished to see that both my hands were burnt ; for, I had no
knowledge of it through the sense of feeling.
On examination it was pronounced that she had received
serious burts,but that they of themselves were far from hopeless ;
the danger lay mainly in the nervous shock . By the surgeon's
directions, ber bed was carried into that room and laid upon the
great table : which happened to be well suited to the dressing
:

of her injuries. When I saw her again, an hour afterwards,

she lay indeed where I had seen her strike her stick, and had
heard her say she would lie one day.
Though every vestige of her dress was burnt, as they told
me, she still had something of her old ghastly bridal appear
ance ; for, they had covered her to the throat with white
cotton wool, and as she lay with a white sheet loosely overlying
that, the phantom air of something that had been and was
changed was still upon her .
I found, on questioning the servants, that Estella was in
Paris, and I got a promise from the surgeon that he would
write by the next post. Miss Havisham's familyI took upon
myself ; intending to communicate with Matthew Pocket only,
and leave him to do as he liked about informing the rest.
This I did next day, through Herbert, as soon as I returned
to town .
There was a stage, that evening, when she spoke collectedly
of what had happened, though with a certain terrible vivacity.
Towards midnight she began to wander in her speech, and
after that it gradually set in that she said innumerable times
in a low solemn voice, “ What have I done ! ” And then,
“ When she first came, I meant to save her from misery like
mine.” And then, “ Take the pencil and write under my name,
' I forgive her ! ' " " Shenever changed the order of these three
sentences, but she sometimes left out a word in one or other
of them ; never putting in another word, but always leaving
a blank and going on to the next word.
As I could do no service there, and as I had, nearer home,
that pressing reason for anxiety and fear which even her wander
ings could not drive out of my mind, I decided in the course
of the night that I would return by the early morning coach :
walking on a mile or so, and being taken up clear of the town.
At about six o'clock of the morning, therefore, I leaned over
384 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
lor and touched her lips with mine, just as they said, not
stopping for being touched , “ Take the pencil and write under
my name, ' I forgive her ."

CHAPTER L.

My hands had been dressed twice or thrice in the night, and

again in the morning. My left arm was a good deal burned
to the elbow, and, less severely, as high as the shoulder ; it was
very painful, but the flames had set in that direction, and I
felt thankful it was no worse. My right hand was not so
badly burnt but thatI could movethefingers. It was bandaged ,
of course, but much less inconveniently than my left hand and
arm ; those I carried in a sling ; and I could only wear my
coat like a cloak, loose over my shoulders and fastened at the
neck . My hair had been caught by the fire, but not my head
or face.
When Herbert had been down to Hammersmith and had
seen his father, he came back to me at our chambers, and de
voted the day to attending on me. He was the kindest of
nurses, and at stated times took off the bandages, and steeped
them in the cooling liquid that was kept ready, and put them
on again , with a patient tenderness that I was deeply grateful
for.
At first, as I lay quiet on the sofa, I found it painfully
difficult, I might say impossible, to get rid of the impression
of the glare of the flames, their hurry and noise, and the fierce
burning smell. If I dozed for a minute, I was awakened by
Miss Havisham's cries, and by her running at me with all that
height of fire above her head. This pain of the mind was
much harder to strive against than any bodily pain I suffered ;
and Herbert, seeing that, did his utmost to hold my attention
engaged.
Neither of us spoke of the boat, but we both thought of it .
That was made apparent by our avoidance of the subject, and
by our agreeing-- without agreement - to make my recovery
 HERBERT TELLS ME MORE ABOUT PROVIS. 385
of the use of my hands, a question of so many hours, not of
so many weeks.
My first question when I saw Herbert had been, of course ,
whether all was well down the river ? As he replied in the
affirmative, with perfect confidence and cheerfulness, we did
not resume the subject until the day was wearing away. But
then, as Herbert changed the bandages, more by the light of
the fire than by the outer light, he went back to it spontane
ously.
“ I sat with Provis last night, Handel, two good hours.”
“ Where was Clara ? ”
“ Dear little thing ! ” said Herbert. “She was up and down
with Gruffandgrim all the evening. He was perpetually pegging
at the floor, the moment she left his sight. I doubt if he can
hold out long, though . What with rum and pepper - and
pepper and rum - I should think his pegging must be nearly
over .”
“ And then you will be married, Herbert ? ”
“ How can I take care of the dear child otherwise ? -- Lay
your arm out upon the back of the sofa , my dear boy, and
I'll sit down here, and get the bandage off so gradually that
you shall not know when it comes. I was speaking of Provis.
Do you know Handel, he improves ? "
“ I said to you I thought he was softened when I last saw
him .”"
“ So you did. And so he is. He was very communicative
last night, and told me more of his life. You remember his
breaking off here about some woman that he had had great
trouble with.--Did I hurt you ? ”
I had started, but not under his touch . His words had given
me a start.
“ I had forgotten that, Herbert, but I remember it now you
speak of it.”
“ Well! He went into that part of his life, and a dark
wild part it is. Shall I tell you ? Or would it worry you just
now ? "
“ Tell me by all means. Every word . ”
Herbert bent forward to look at me more nearly, as if my
reply had been rather more hurried or more eager than he
could quite account for. “ Your head is cool ? ” he said,
touching it.
со
386 GREAT EXPECTATIONS ,
CC
Quite," said I. “ Tell me what Provis said , my dear Her
bert .”
“ It seems," said Herbert, “ _there's a bandage off most
charmingly, and now comes the cool one - makes you shrink
at first, my poor dear fellow , don't it ? but it will be com
fortable presently — it seems that the woman was a young
woman , and a jealous woman , and a revengeful woman ; re
vengeful, Handel, to the last degree.”
“ To what last degree ? ”
“ Murder. - Does it strike too cold on that sensitive place ? "
“ I don't feel it. How did she murder ? Whom did she
murder ? ”
“Why, the deed may not have merited quite so terrible a
name," said Herbert, “but she was tried for it, and Mr.
Jaggers defended her, and the reputation of that defence first
made his name known to Provis . It was another and a
stronger woman who was the victim , and there had been a
struggle — in a barn . Who began it, or how fair was it, or how
unfair, may be doubtful; but how it ended is certainly not
doubtful, for the victim was found throttled.”
“ Was the woman brought guilty ? "
“ No ; she was acquitted . - My poor Handel, I hurt you ! ”
“ It is impossible to be gentler, Herbert. Yes ? What
else ? "
“ This acquitted young woman and Provis had a little child :
a little child of whom Provis was exceedingly fond . On the
evening of the very night when the object of her jealousy was
strangled as I tell you, the young woman presented herself
before Provis for one moment, and swore that she would
destroy the child (which was in her possession ), and he should
never see it again ; then , she vanished . — There's the worst
arm comfortably in the sling once more, and now there re
mains but the right hand, which is a far easier job. can do
it better by this light than by a stronger , for my hand is
steadiest when I don't see the poor blistered patches too dis
tinctly . — You don't think your breathing is affected, my dear
boy ? You seem to breathe quickly . "
“ Perhaps I do, Herbert. Did the woman keep her oath ? "
“ There comes the darkest part of Provis's life. She did .”
“That is, he says she did . ”
* Why, of course, my dear boy," returned Herbert, in a tone
 THE LAST LINK IN THE CHAIN. 387
of surprise, and again bending forward to get a nearer look at
me. “ He says it all. I have no other information . ”
“No, to be sure.”
“ Now , whether, ” pursued Herbert, “ he had used the child's
mother ill, or whether he had used the child's mother well,
Provis doesn't say ; but, she had shared some four or five years
of the wretched life he described to us at this fireside, and he
seems to have felt pity for her, and forbearance towards her.
Therefore, fearing he should be called upon to depose about
this destroyed child , and so be the cause of her death, he hid
himself (much as he grieved for the child) , kept himself dark,
as he says, out of the way and out of the trial, and was only
vaguely talked of as a certain man called Abel , out of whom
the jealousy arose . After the acquittal she disappeared, and
thus he lost the child and the child's mother ."
“ I want to ask
“ A moment, my dear boy, and I have done. That evil genius,
Compeyson, the worst of scoundrels among many scoundrels,
knowing of his keeping out of the way at that time, and of
his reasons for doing so, of course afterwards held the know
ledge over his head as a means of keeping him poorer, and
working him harder . It was clear last night that this barbed
the point of Provis's animosity .”
“ I want to know," said I , " and particularly,
"
Herbert, whether
he told you when this happened ?
“ Particularly ? Let me remember, then, what he said as to
that . His expression was, ' a round score o' year ago , and
a’most directly after I took up wi' Compeyson. How old were
you when you came upon him in the little churchyard ? ”
“ I think in my seventh year.”
<
Ay. It had happened some three or four years then , he
said , and you broughtinto his mind the little girl so tragically
lost, who would have been about your age.”
>

6
“ Herbert, ” said I, after a short silence, in a hurried way,
can you see me best by the light of the window , or the light
of the fire ?
«
“By the firelight," answered Herbert, coming close again.
“ Look at me. "
“ I do look at you,my dear boy."
« Touch me.”
“ I do touch you, my dear boy.”
cc 2
388 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“You are not afraid that I am in any fever, or that my head
is much disordered by the accident of last night ? ”
“ N -no, my dear boy,” said Herbert, after taking time to
G
examine me . “You are rather excited, but you are quite your
self.”
“ I know I am quite myself. And the man we have in hiding
down the river, is Estella's Father."

CHAPTER LI .

What purpose I had iu view when I was hot on tracing out

and proving Estella's parentage, I cannot say. It will presently
be seen that the question was not before me in a distinct shape,
until it was put before me by a wiser head than my own .
But, when Herbert and I had held our momentous conversa
tion, I was seized with a feverish conviction that I ought to
hunt the matter down—that I ought not to let it rest, but
that I ought to see Mr. Jaggers, and come at the bare truth .
I really do not know whether I felt that I did this for Estella's
sake, or whether I was glad to transfer to the man in whose
preservation I was so much concerned , some rays of the ro
mantic interest that had so long surrounded me. Perhaps
the latter possibility may be the nearer to the truth .
Any way, I could scarcely be withheld from going out to
Gerrard -street that night. Herbert's representations that if I
did, I should probably be laid up and stricken useless, when our
fugitive's safety would depend upon me, alone restrained my
impatience. On the understanding, again and again reiterated ,
that come what would, I was to go to Mr. Jaggers to-morrow,
I at length submitted to keep quiet, and to have my hurts
looked after, and to stay at home. Early next morning we
went out together, and at the corner of Giltspur-street by
Smithfield, I left Herbert to go his way into the City , and
took my way to Little Britain.
There were periodical occasions when Mr. Jaggers and Mr.
Wemmick went over the office accounts, and checked off the
 IN MR. JAGGERS'S OFFICE AGAIN. 389

vouchers, and put all things straight. On these occasions Wem

mick took his books and papers into Mr. Jaggers's room , and
one of the up stairs clerks came down into the outer office.
Finding such clerk on Wemmick’s post that morning, I knew
what was going on ; but I was not sorry to have Mr. Jaggers
and Wemmick together, as Wemnick would then hear for
himself that I said nothing to compromise him.
My appearance with my arm bandaged and my coat loose
over my shoulders, favoured my object. Although I had sent
Mr. Jaggers a brief account of the accident as soon as I had
arrived in town, yet I had to give him all the details now ; and
the specialty of the occasion caused our talk to be less dry
and hard , and less strictly regulated by the rules of evidence,
than it had been before. While I described the disaster, Mr.
Jaggers stood, according to his wont, before the fire. Wemmick
leaned back in his chair, staring at me, with his hands in the
pockets of his trousers, and his pen put horizontally into the
post. The two brutal casts, always inseparable in my mind
from the official proceedings, seemed to be congestively con
sidering whether they didn't smell fire at the present
moment.
My narrative finished , and their questions exhausted, I
then produced Miss Havisham's authority to receive the nine
hundred pounds for Herbert. Mr. Jaggers's eyes retired a
little deeper into his head when I handed him the tablets, but
he presently handed them over to Wemmick, with instructions
to draw the cheque for his signature. While that was in course
of being done, Ilooked on at Wemmick as he wrote, and Mr.
Jaggers, poising and swaying himself on his well -polished boots,
looked on at me. “ I am sorry , Pip ,” said he, as I put the
cheque in my pocket, when he had signed it, “ that we do
nothing for you .”
“ Miss Havisham was good enough to ask me,” I returned ,
“ whether she could do nothing for me, and I told her No.”
“ Everybody should know his own business,” said Mr. Jaggers.
And I saw Wemmick's lips form the words “ portable property.”
“ I should not have told her No, if I had been you ," said Mr.
Jaggers ; “but every man ought to know his own business
best .”
Every man's business, ” said Wemmick , rather reproachfully
towards me, " is portable property .' ” .
390 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
As I thought the time was now come for pursuing the theme
I had at heart, I said, turning on Mr. Jaggers .:
“ I did ask something of Miss Havisham , however, sir. I
asked her to give me some information relative to her adopted
daughter, and she gave me all she possessed.”
“ Did she ? " said Mr. Jaggers, bending forward to look at his
boots and then straightening himself. “Hah ! I don't think I
should have done so, if I had been Miss Havisham . But she
ought to know her own business best . ”
" I know more of the history of Miss Havisham's adopted
child , than Miss Havisham herself does, sir. I know her
mother."
Mr. Jaggers looked at me inquiringly, and repeated
“ Mother ? "
“ I have seen her mother within these three days.”
>
“ Yes ? ” said Mr. Jaggers.
“And so have you, sir. And you have seen her still more
recently ."
“ Yes ? ” said Mr. Jaggers.
“Perhaps I know more of Estella's history, than even you
do ,” said I. “ I know her father, too. "
A certain stop that Mr. Jaggers came to in his manner - he
was too self-possessed to change his manner, but he could not
help its being brought to an indefinably attentive stop - assured
me that he did not know who her father was. This I had
strongly suspected from Provis's account (as Herbert had
repeated it) of his having kept himself dark ; which I pieced
on to the fact that he himself was not Mr. Jaggers's client
until some four years later, and when he could have no reason
for claiming his identity. But, I could not be sure of this
unconsciousness on Mr. Jaggers's part before, though I was
quite sure of it now.
“ So ! You know the young lady's father, Pip ? ” said Mr.
Jaggers.
“ Yes ," I replied, “ and his name is Provis — from New South
Wales. ”
Even Mr. Jaggers started when I said those words. It was
the slightest start that could escape a man , the most carefully
repressed and the sooner checked, but he did start, though
he made it a part of the action of taking out his pocket
handkerchief. How Wemmick received the announcement I am
 MR. JAGGERS STARTLED . 351

unable to say, for I was afraid to look at him just then, lest
Mr. Jaggers's sharpness should detect that there had been some
communication unknown to him between us .
“ And on what evidence , Pip,” asked Mr. Jaggers, very coolly,
as he paused with his handkerchief half way to his nose , “ does
Provis make this claim ? "
“ He does not make it,” said I , " and has never made it, and
has no knowledge or belief that his daughter is in existence.”
For once , the powerful pocket-handkerchief failed. My reply
was so unexpected that Mr. Jaggers put the handkerchief back
into his pocket without completing the usual performance,
folded his arms, and looked with stern attention at me, though
with an immovable face.
Then I told him all I knew , and how I knew it ; with the one
reservation that I left him to infer that I knew from Miss
Havisham what I in fact knew from Wemmick . I was very
careful indeed as to that. Nor, did I look towards Wemmick
until I had finished all I had to tell, and had been for some
time silently meeting Mr. Jaggers's look. When I did at last
turn my eyes in Wemmick's direction, I found that he had un
posted his pen, and was intent upon the table before him .
“Hah !” said Mr. Jaggers at last, as he moved towards the
papers on the table . “ – What item was it you were at, Wem
mick , when Mr. Pip came in ? ”
But I could not submit to be thrown off in that way, and I
made a passionate, almost an indignant appeal to him to be
more frank and manly with me. I reminded him of the false
hopes into which I had lapsed, the length of time they had
lasted, and the discovery I had made : and I hinted the
danger that weighed upon my spirits. I represented myself as
being surely worthy of some little confidence from him , in
return for the confidence I had just now imparted. I said that
I did not blame him, or suspect him, or mistrust him , but I
wantd assurance of the truth from him . And if he asked me
why I wanted it and why I thought I had any right to it, I would
tell him , little as he cared for such poor dreams, that I had
loved Estella dearly and long, and that, although I had lost her
and must live aa bereaved life, whatever concerned her was still
nearer and dearer to me than anything else in the world. And
seeing that Mr. Jaggers stood quite still and silent, and appa
rently quite obdurate, under this appeal, I turned to Wemmick ,
392 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

and said , “ Wemmick, I know you to be a man with a gentle

heart. I bave seen your pleasant home, and your old father,
and all the innocent cheerful playful ways with which you
refresh your business life . And I entreat you to say a word for
me to Mr. Jaggers, and to represent to him that, all circum
stances considered, he ought to be more open with me ! ”
I have never seen two men look more oddly at one another
than Mr. Jaggers and Wemmick did after this apostrophe. At
first, a misgiving crossed me that Wemmick would be instantly
dismissed from his employment ; but, it melted as I saw Mr.
Jaggers relax into something like a smile, and Wemmick
become bolder .
“What's all this ?” said Mr. Jaggers. “ You with an old
father, and you with pleasant and playful ways ? ”
“ Well! ” returned Wemmick. “ If I don't bring ' em here,
what does it matter ? "
“ Pip ,” said Mr. Jaggers, laying his hand upon my arm , and
smiling openly, “ this man must be the most cunning impostor
in all London ."
“ Not a bit of it,” returned Wemmick , growing bolder and
bolder . “ I think you 're another.”
Again they exchanged their former odd looks, each appa
rently still distrustful that the other was taking him in .
“You with a pleasant home ? " said Mr. Jaggers.
“ Since it don't interfere with business,” returned Wemmick,
“let it be so. Now , I look at you , sir, I shouldn't wonder if
you might be planning and contriving to have a pleasant home
of your own , one of these days, when you 're tired of all this
work .”
Mr. Jaggers nodded his head retrospectively two or three
times, and actually drew a sigh. “ Pip ,” said he, we won't
talk about ' poor dreams ; ' you know more about such things
than I, having much fresher experience of that kind. But now ,
about this other matter . I'll put a case to you. Mind ! I
admit nothing '
He waited for me to declare that I quite understood that he
expressly said that he admitted nothing.
CG
Now , Pip ,” said Mr. Jaggers, "put this case . Put the case
that a woman, under such circumstances as you have mentioned ,
held her child concealed, and was obliged to communicate the
fact to her legal adviser, on his representing to her that he
 MR. JAGGERS PUTS A CASE . 393

must know , with an eye to the latitude of his defence, how the
fact stood about that child . Put the case that at the same time
he held a trust to find a child for an eccentric rich lady to adopt
and bring up ."
“ I follow you, sir . ”
“ Put the case that he lived in an atmosphere of evil, and
that all he saw of children was, their being generated in great
numbers for certain destruction . Put the case that he often
saw children solemnly tried at a criminal bar, where they were
held up to be seen ; put the case that he habitually knew of
their being imprisoned, whipped, transported, neglected , cast
out, qualified in all ways for the hangman , and growing up to
he hanged. Put the case that pretty nigh all the children he
saw in his daily business life, he had reason to look upon as so
much spawn , to develop into the fish that were to come to his
net — to be prosecuted, defended , forsworn , made orphans,
bedevilled somehow .”
“ I follow you, sir.”
“Put the case , Pip, that here was one pretty little child out
of the heap who could be saved ; whom the father believed
dead, and dared make no stir about; as to whom , over the
mother, the legal adviser had this power : ' I know what you
did, and how you did it. You came so and so , you did such and
such things to divert suspicion. I have tracked you through it
all, and I tell it you all. Part with the child, unless it should
be necessary to produce it to clear you, and then it shall be
produced . Give the child into my hands, and I will do my
best to bring you off. If you are saved, your child will be
saved too ; if you are lost, your child is still saved .' Put
the case that this was done , and that the woman was
cleared .”
“ I understand you perfectly. ”
“But that I make no admissions ? ”
“ That you make no admissions.” And Wemmick repeated,
“ No admissions. "
“ Put the case, Pip, that passion and the terror of death had
a little shaken the woman's intellects, and that when she was
set at liberty, she was scared out of the ways of the world
and went to him to be sheltered . Put the case that he took
her in, and that he kept down the old wild violent nature,
whenever he saw an inkling of its breaking out, by asserting his
 394 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
power over her in the old way . Do you comprehend the
imaginary case ? ""
66
“ Quite ."
“Put the case that the child grew up, and was married for
money . That the mother was still living. That the father
was still living. That the mother and father, unknown to one
another, were dwelling within so many miles, furlongs, yards if
you like, of one another . That the secret was still a secret,
except that you had got wind of it. Put that last case to
yourself very carefully ."
“ I do . ”
66
I ask Wemmick to put it to himself very carefully."
And Wemmick said, “ I do. "
“ For whose sake would you reveal the secret ? For the
father's ? I think he would not be much the better for the
mother . For the mother's ? I think if she had done such a
deed she would be safer where she was. For the daughter's ?
I think it would hardly serve her, to establish her parentage
for the information of her husband, and to drag her back to
disgrace, after an escape of twenty years, pretty secure to last
for life . But, add the case that you had loved her, Pip, and
had made her the subject of those ' poor dreams' which have,
at one time or another, been in the heads of more men than
you think likely, then I tell you that you had better - and
would much sooner when you had thought well of it - chop off
that bandaged left hand of yours with your bandaged right
hand, and then pass the chopper on to Wemmick there, to cut
that off, too .”
I looked at Wemmick , whose face was very grave. He
gravely touched his lips with his forefinger. I did the same.
Mr. Jaggers did the same. “ Now , Wemmick ," said the latter
then , resuming his usual manner, “ what item was it you were
at, when Mr. Pip came in ? ”
Standing by for a little, while they were at work , I observed
that the odd looks they had cast at one another were repeated
several times : with this difference now, that each of them
seemed suspicious, not to say conscious, of having shown him
self in a weak and unprofessional light to the other . For this
reason, I suppose, they were now inflexible with one another ;
Mr. Jaggers being highly dictatorial, and Wemmick obstinately
justifying himself whenever there was the smallest point in
 MR . JAGGERS IS HIMSELF AGAIN. 395

abeyance for a moment. I had never seen them on such ill

terms; for generally they got on very well indeed together.
But, they were both happily relieved by the opportune
appearance of Mike, the client with the fur cap, and the habit
of wiping his nose on his sleeve, whom I had seen on the very
first day of my appearance within those walls . This indi
vidual, who, either in his own person or in that of some
member of his family, seemed to be always in trouble (which
in that place meant Newgate ), called to announce that his
eldest daughter was taken up on suspicion of shoplifting. As
· he imparted this melancholy circumstance to Wemmick , Mr.
Jaggers standing magisterially before the fire and taking no
share in the proceedings, Mike's eye happened to twinkle with
a tear.
“ What are you about ? " demanded Wemmick, with the
utmost indignation. “ What do you come snivelling here
for ? ”
“ I didn't go to do it, Mr. Wemmick ."
“ You did ,” said Wemmick . “ How dare you ? You 're not
in a fit state to come here, if you can't come here without
spluttering like a bad pen. What do you mean by it ? "
“ A man can't help his feelings, Mr. Wemmick , ” pleaded
Mike.
“ His what ? " demanded Wemmick, quite savagely. “Say
that again !”
“ Now look here, my man ,” said Mr. Jaggers, advancing a
step, and pointing to the door. “ Get out of this office. I'll
have no feelings here. Get out. "
“ It serves you right,” said Wemmick . “ Get out.”
So the unfortunate Mike very humbly withdrew , and Mr.
Jaggers and Wemmick appeared to have re-established their
good understanding, and went to work again with an air of
refreshment upon them as if they had just had lunch .
 396 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

CHAPTER LII .

FROM Little Britain, I went, with my cheque in my pocket, to

Miss Skiffins's brother, the accountant ; and Miss Skiffins's
brother, the accountant, going straight to Clarriker's and
bringing Clarriker to me, I had the great satisfaction of con
cluding that arrangement. It was the only good thing I had
done, and the only completed thing I had done, since I was
first apprised of my great expectations.
Clarriker informing me on that occasion that the affairs of
the House were steadily progressing, that he would now be
able to establish a small branch -house in the East which was
much wanted for the extension of the business, and that
Herbert in his new partnership capacity would go out and take
charge of it, I found that I must have prepared for a separation
from my friend, even though my own affairs had been more
settled . And now indeed I felt as if my last anchor were
loosening its hold, and I should soon be driving with the winds
and waves .
But, there was recompense in the joy with which Herbert
would come home of a night and tell me of these changes,
little imagining that he told me no news, and would sketch
airy pictures of himself conducting Clara Barley to the land of
the Arabian Nights, and of me going out to join them (with
a caravan of camels, I believe ), and of our all going up the
Nile and seeing wonders. Without being sanguine as to my
own part in those bright plans, I felt that Herbert's way was
clearing fast, and that old Bill Barley had but to stick to his
pepper and rum, and his daughter would soon be happily
provided for.
We had now got into the month of March . My left arm ,
though it presented no bad symptoms, took in the natural
course so long to heal that I was still unable to get a coat
on .
My right arm was tolerably restored ; -disfigured, but
fairly serviceable.
On a Monday morning, when Herbert and I were at break
fast, I received the following letter from Wemmick by the post .
“ Walworth . Burn this as soon as read. Early in the week, or say
Wednesday , you might do what you know of, if you felt disposed to try
it. Now burn ."
 PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT. 397
When I had shown this to Herbert and had put it in the fire
but not before we had both got it by heart-- we considered what
to do. For, of course, my being disabled could now be no
longer kept out of view.
“ I have thought it over, again and again ,' said Herbert,
" and I think I know a better course than taking a Thames
waterman . Take Startop. A good fellow, a skilled hand, fond
of us, and enthusiastic and honourable.”
I had thought of him , more than once.
“But how much would you tell him , Herbert ? ”
“ It is necessary to tell him very little . Let him suppose it
a mere freak , but a secret one, until the morning comes : then
let him know that there is urgent reason for your getting Provis
aboard and away . You go with him ?
“ No doubt.”
" Where ? 2"
It had seemed to me, in the many anxious considerations I
had given the point, almost indifferent what port we made for
-Hamburg, Rotterdam , Antwerp—the place signified little ,
so that he was out of England. Any foreign steamer that fell
in our way and would take us up would do. I had always pro
posed to myself to get him well down the river in the boat ;
certainly well beyond Gravesend, which was a critical place
for search or inquiry if suspicion were afoot. As foreign
steamers would leave London at about the time of high -water,
our plan would be to get down the river by a previous ebb
tide, and lie by in some quiet spot until we could pull off to
one . The time when one would be due where we lay, wher
ever that might be, could be calculated pretty nearly, if we
made inquiries beforehand.
Herbert assented to all this, and we went out immediately
after breakfast to pursue our investigations. We found that a
steamer for Hamburg was likely to suit our purpose best, and
we directed our thoughts chiefly to that vessel. But we noted
down what other foreign steamers would leave London with
the same tide, and we satisfied ourselves that we knew the
build and colour of each. We then separated for a few hours ;
I to get at once such passports as were necessary ; Herbert, to
see Startop at his lodgings. We both did what we had to do
without any hindrance, and when we met again at one o'clock
reported it done. I, for my part, was prepared with passports ;
 398 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

Herbert had seen Startop, and he was more than ready to

join .
Those two would pull a pair of oars, we settled, and I would
steer : our charge would be sitter, and keep quiet; as speed
was not our object, we should make way enough. We arranged
that Herbert should not come home to dinner before going to
Mill Pond Bank that evening ; that he should not go there at
all to-morrow evening, Tuesday ; that he should prepare Provis
to come down to some Stairs hard by the house, on Wednes
day, when he saw us approach, and not sooner ; that all the
arrangements with him should be concluded that Monday night ;
and that he should be communicated with no more in any way ,
until we took him on board .
These precautions well understood by both of us, I went
home.
On opening the outer door of our chambers with my key, I
found a letter in the box, directed to me ; a very dirty letter,
though not ill-written. It had been delivered by hand (of course
since I left home), and its contents were these :
" If you are not afraid to come to the old marshes to -night or to
morrow night at Nine, and to come to the little sluice -house by the
limekiln , you had better come. If you want information regarding
your uncle Provis, you had much better come and tell no one and lose
no time. You must come alone. Bring this with you. "
I had had load enough upon my mind before the receipt of
this strange letter. What to do now, I could not tell. And the
worst was, that I must decide quickly, or I should miss the
afternoon coach, which would take me down in time for to
night. To -morrow night could not think of going, for it
would be too close upon the time of the flight. And again ,
for anything I knew, the proffered information might have
some important bearing on the flight itself.
If I had had ample time for consideration , I believe I should
still have gone. Having hardly any time for consideration
my watch showing me that the coach started within half an
I should certainly not have gone, but
hour - I resolved to go .
for the reference to my Uncle Provis. That, coming on
JE
Wemmick's letter and the morning's busy preparation, turned
the scale .
It is so difficult to become clearly possessed of the contents
of almost any letter, in aa violent hurry, that I had to read this
 A DREARY JOURNEY . 399

mysterious epistle again, twice, before its injunction to me to

be secret got mechanically into mymind. Yielding to it in
the same mechanical kind of way, I left a note in pencil for
Herbert, telling him that as I should be so soon going away, I
knew not for how long, I had decided to hurry down and back ,
to ascertain for myself how Miss Havisham was faring. I had
then barely time to get my great- coat, lock up the chambers,
and make for the coach -office by the short by -ways. If I had
taken a hackney - chariot and gone by the streets, I should have
missed my aim ; going as I did, I caught the coach just as it
came out of the yard. I was the only inside passenger, jolting
away knee-deep in straw , when I came to myself.
For I really had not been myself since the receipt of the
letter ; it had so bewildered me, ensuing on the hurry of the
morning. The morning hurry and flutter had been great, for,
long and anxiously as I had waited for Wemmick , his hint had
come like a surprise at last. And now, I began to wonder at
>

myself for being in the coach, and to doubt whether I had suffi
cient reason for being there, and to consider whether I should
get out presently and go back , and to argue against ever heeding
an anonymous communication, and, in short, to pass through all
those pbases of contradiction and indecision to which I suppose
very few hurried people are strangers. Still, the reference to
Provis by name, mastered everything. I reasoned as I had
reasoned already without knowing it — if that be reasoning - in
case any harm should befal him through my not going, how
could I ever forgive myself !
It was dark before we got down, and the journey seemed long
and dreary to me who could see little of it inside, and who could
not go outside in my disabled state. Avoiding the Blue Boar,
I put up at an inn of minor reputation down the town, and
ordered some dinner . While it was preparing, I went to Satis
House and inquired for Miss Havisham ; shewas still very ill,
though considered something better.
My inn had once been a part of an ancient ecclesiastical house,
and I dined in a little octagonal common -room , like a font. As
I was not able to cut my dinner, the old landlord with a shining
bald head did it for me. This bringing us into conversation , he
was so good as to entertain me with my own story - of course
with the popular feature that Pumblechook was my earliest
benefactor and the founder of my fortunes.
400 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

“ Do you know the young man ? ” said I.

“ Know him ? " repeated the landlord. “ Ever since he was
-no height at all.”
“ Does he ever come back to this neighbourhood ? ”
6
“ Ay, he comes back," said the landlord, “ to his great friends,
now and again, and gives the cold shoulder to the man that
made him ."
“ What man is that ? "
“Him that I speak of,” said the landlord . “ Mr. Pumble
chook .”
“ Is he ungrateful to no one else ? "
“ No doubt he would be, if he could ,” returned the landlord,
“ but he can't. And why ? Because Pumblechook done every
thing for him.”
“ Does Pumblechook say so ? ”
"Say so ! ” replied the landlord. “ He han't no call to
say so."
“But does he say so ? ”
It would turn a man's blood to white wine winegar, to hear
him tell of it, sir ," said the landlord .
I thought, “ Yet Joe, dear Joe, you never tell of it. Long
suffering and loving Joe, you never complain . Nor you, sweet
tempered Biddy !”
“ Your appetite's been touched like, by your accident," said
the landlord , glancing at the bandaged arm under my coat. Try
a tenderer bit ."
“No thank you , " I replied, turning from the table to brood
over the fire. “ I can eat no more . Please take it
away.”
I had never been struck at so keenly, for my thank
lessness to Joe, as through the brazen impostor Pumblechook .
The falser he, the truer Joe ; the meaner he, the nobler
Joe .
My heart was deeply and most deservedly humbled as I
mused over the fire for an hour or more . The striking of the
clock aroused me, but not from my dejection or remorse, and I
got up and had my coat fastened round my neck, and went out.
I had previously sought in my pockets for the letter, that I
might refer to it again , but I could not find it, and was uneasy
to think that it must have been dropped in the straw of the
coach. I knew very well, however, that the appointed place
 OUT ON THE MARSHES . 401

was the little sluice -house by the limekiln on the marshes, and
the hour nine. Towards the marshes I now went straight,
having no time to spare.

CHAPTER LIII.

It was a dark night, though the full moon rose as I left the
enclosed lands, and passed out upon the marshes. Beyond
their dark line there was a ribbon of clear sky, hardly broad
enough to hold the red large moon . In aa few minutes she had
ascended out of that clear field, in among the piled mountains
of cloud .
There was a melancholy wind, and the marshes were very
dismal. A stranger would have found them insupportable, and
even to me they were so oppressive that I hesitated, half in
clined to go back . But, I knew them , and could have found
my way on a far darker night,and had no excuse for returning,
being there. So, having come there against my inclination , I
went on against it.
The direction that I took, was not that in which my old home
lay, nor that in which we had pursued the convicts. My back
was turned towards the distant Hulks as I walked on, and,
though I could see the old lights away on the spits of sand, I
saw them over my shoulder . I knew the limekiln as well as I
knew the old Battery, but they were miles apart; so that if a
light had been burning at each point that night, there would
have been a long strip of the blank horizon between the two
bright specks.
At first, I had to shut some gates after me, and now and
then to stand still while the cattle that were lying in the
banked -up pathway, arose and blundered down amongthe grass
and reeds. But after a little while, I seemed to have the whole
flats to myself.
It was another half-hour before I drew near to the kiln .
The lime was burning with a sluggish stifling smell, but the
fires were made up and left, and no workmen were visible.
D D
402 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
Hard by was a small stone quarry. It lay directly in my
way, and had been worked that day, as I saw by the tools
and barrows that were lying about.
Coming up again to themarsh level out of this excavation
for the rude path lay through it - I saw a light in the
I quickened my pace, and knocked at the
old sluice -house .
door with my hand. Waiting for some reply, I looked about
me, noticing how the sluice was abandoned and broken , and
how the house - of wo with .a tiled roof - would not be proof
against the weather much longer, if it were so even now , and
how the mud and ooze were coated with lime, and how the
choking vapour of the kiln crept in a ghostly way towards me.
Still there was no answer , and I knocked again . No answer
still, and I tried the latch .
It rose under my hand, and the door yielded. Looking in, I
saw a lighted candle on a table, a bench , and a mattress on a
truckle bedstead. As there was a loft above, I called, “ Is there
any one here ? ” but no voice answered . Then I looked at my
watch, and, finding that it was past nine, called again ,“ Is there
any one here ? ” There being still no answer, I went out at
the door, irresolute what to do.
It was beginning to rain fast. Seeing nothing save what I
had seen already, I turned back into the house , and stood just
within the shelter of the doorway, looking out into the night.
While I was considering that some one must have been there
lately and must soon be coming back , or the candle would not
be burning, it came into my head to look if the wick were long.
I turned round to do so, and had taken up the candle in my
hand, when it was extinguished by some violent shock , and the
next thing I comprehend was, that I had been caught in a
strong running noose, thrown over my head from behind.
“ Now," said a suppressed voice with an oath , “I've got
you ! ”
“What is this ? " I cried struggling. “Who is it ? Help,
help, help !”
Not only were my arms pulled close to my sides, but the
pressure on my bad arm caused me exquisite pain. Sometimes
a strong man's hand, sometimes a strong man's breast, was set
against my mouth to deaden my cries, and with a hot breath
always close to me, I struggled ineffectually in the dark, while
I was fastened tight to the wall. “ And now , ” said the sup
 I AM ENTRAPPED. 403

pressed voice with another oath, “ call out again, and I'll make
short work of you ! ”
Faint and sick with the pain of my injured arm , bewildered
by the surprise, and yet conscious how easily this threat could
be put in execution, I desisted, and tried to ease my arm
were it ever so little. But it was bound too tight for that.
I felt as if, having been burnt before, it were now being
boiled .
The sudden exclusion of the night and the substitution of
black darkness in its place, warned me that the man had
closed a shutter. After groping about for a little, he found
the flint and steel he wanted , and began to strike a light.
I strained my sight upon the sparks that fell among the tinder,
and upon which he breathed and breathed, match in hand,
but I could only see his lips, and the blue point of the
match ; even those but fitfully. The tinder was damp - no
wonder there - and one after another the sparks died
out.
The man was in no hurry, and struck again with the flint and
steel . As the sparks fell thick and bright about him, I could
see his hands and touches of his face, and could make out that
he was seated and bending over the table ; but nothing more .
Presently I saw his blue lips again, breathing on the tinder, and
then a flare of light flashed up , and showed me Orlick .
Whom I had looked for, I don't know. I had not looked for
him . Seeing him , I felt that I was in a dangerous strait indeed,
and I kept my eyes upon him .
He lighted the candle from the flaring match with great
deliberation, and dropped the match, and trod it out. Then,
he put the candle away from him on the table, so that he could
see me, and sat with his arms folded on the table and looked at
me. I made out that I was fastened to a stout perpendicular
ladder a few inches from the wall - a fixture there -- the means
of ascent to the loft above .
“Now," said he, when we had surveyed one another for some
time, “ I've got you .” "
6 Unbind me. Let me go ! ”
6
“ Ah ! ” he returned, “ I'lllet you go. I'll let you go to the
moon , I'll let you go to the stars. All in good time.”
“ Why have you lured me here ? ”
Don't you know ? ” said he, with a deadly look.
DD 2
401 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“Why have you set upon me in the dark ? "

“Because I mean to do it all myself. One keeps a secret
better than two. Oh you enemy, you enemy ! ”
His enjoyment of the spectacle I furnished, as he sat with
his arms folded on the table, shaking his head at me and hugging
himself, had a malignity in it that made me tremble . As I
watched him in silence, he put his hand into the corner at his
side, and took up a gun with a brass-bound stock.
“ Do you know this ? ” said he, making as if he would take
aim at me .“ Do you know where you saw it afore ? Speak ,
wolf ! ”
2
“ Yes,” I answered .
“You cost me that place. You did. Speak ! ”
“ What else could I do ? "
“ You did that, and that would be enough, without more.
How dared you come betwixt me and a young woman I
liked ? ”
“ When did I ? ”
“ When didn't you ?. It was you as always give Old Orlick å
bad name to her.”
“You gave it to yourself; you gained it for yourself. I
could have done you no harm , if you had done yourself
none. "
“ You're a liar. And you'll take any pains, and spend any
money, to drive me out of this country, will you ? ” said he,
repeating my words to Biddy, in the last interview I had with
66
her. Now , I'll tell you a piece of information. It was never
so worth your while to get me out of this country, as it is to
night. Ah ! If it was all your money twenty times told , to
the last brass farden ! As he shook his heavy hand at me,
with his mouth snarling like a tiger's, I felt that it was true.
“ What are you going to do to me ? ”
" I'm a going,” said he, bringing his fist down upon the table
with a heavy blow, and rising as the blow fell, to give it greater
force, “ I'm a going to have your life ! ”
He leaned forward staring at me; slowly unclenched his hand
and drew it across his mouth as if his mouth watered for me,
and sat down again.
“ You was always in Old Orlick's way since ever you was a
child . You goes out of his way this present night. He 'll
have no more on you. You're dead.”
/EL
3447
YOU
“DO
THIS
?”KNOW HE
SAID
*
 A TERRIBLE REFLECTION. 405

I felt that I had come to the brink of my grave. For a

moment I looked wildly round my trap for any chance of
escape ; but there was none.
“ More than that, ” said he, folding his arms on the table
again , “ I won't have a rag of you, I won't have a bone of you,
left on earth . I'll put your body in the kiln - I'd carry two
such to it, on my shoulders - and, let people suppose what they
may of you, they shall never know nothing.”
My mind, with inconceivable rapidity, followed out all the
consequences of such a death . Estella's father would believe
I had deserted him , would be taken , would die accusing me ;
even Herbert would doubt me, when he compared the letter I
had left for him , with the fact that I had called at Miss
Havisham's gate for only a moment ; Joe and Biddy would
never know how sorry I had been that night, none would ever
know what I had suffered, how true I had meant to be, what
an agony I had passed through. The death close before me
was terrible, but far more terrible than death was the dread of
being misremembered after death . And so quick were my
thoughts, that I saw myself despised by unborn generations
Estella's children, and their children - while the wretch's words
were yet on his lips.
“ Now , wolf,” said he, “ afore I kill you like any other beast
-which is wot I mean to do and wot I have tied you up for
I'll have a good look at you and a good goad at you. Oh , you
enemy !
It had passed through my thoughts to cry out for help again ;
though few could know better than I, the solitary nature of
the spot, and the hopelessness of aid. But as he sat gloating
over me, I was supported by a scornful detestation of him that
sealed my lips. Above all things, I resolved that I would not
entreat him, and that I would die making some last poor
resistance to him . Softened as my thoughts of all the rest of
men were in that dire extremity ; humbly beseeching pardon,
as I did, of Heaven ; melted at heart, as I was, by the thought
that I had taken no farewell, and never now could take farewell,
of those who were dear to me, or could explain myself to them,
or ask for their compassion on my miserable errors ; still, if I
could have killed him, even in dying, I would have done it.
He had been drinking, and his eyes were red and bloodshot.
Around his neck was ;lung a tin bottle, as I had often seen his
406 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
meat and drink slung about him in other days. He brought
the bottle to his lips, and took a fiery drink from it ; aud I
smelt the strong spirits that I saw flash into his face.
“ Wolf ! ” said he, folding his arms again , “ Old Orlick 's a
going to tell you somethink . It was you as did for your shrew
sister."
Again my mind, with its former inconceivable rapidity, had
exhausted the whole subject of the attack upon my sister, her
illness, and her death, before his slow and hesitating speech
had formed these words.
“ It was you, villain ,” said I.
“ I tell you it was your doing — I tell you it was done through
you," he retorted, catching up the gun , and making a blow with
the stock at the vacant air between us. “ I come upon her
from behind, as I come upon you to -night. I giv' it her ! I
left her for dead, and if there had been a lime-kiln as nigh her
as there is now nigh you, she shouldn't have come to life again .
But it waru't Old Orlick as did it ; it was you. You was
favoured , and he was bullied and beat, Old Orlick bullied and
beat, eh ? Now you pays for it. You done it ; now you pays
for it .”
He drank again , and became more ferocious. I saw by his
tilting of the bottle that there was no great quantity left in it .
I distinctly understood that he was working himself up with its
contents, to make an end of me. I knew that every drop it
held, was a drop of my life . I knew that when I was changed
into a part of the vapour that had crept towards me but a
little while before, like my own warning ghost, he would do as
he had done in my sister's case — make all haste to the town,
and be seen slouching about there, drinking at the ale -houses.
My rapid mind pursued him to the town, made a picture of the
street with him in it, and contrasted its lights and life with the
lonely marsh and the white vapour creeping over it, into which
I should have dissolved .
It was not only that I could have summed up years and
years and years while he said a dozen words, but that what he
did say, presented pictures to me, and not mere words. In
the excited and exalted state of my brain , I could not think of
a place without seeing it, or of persons without seeing them.
It is impossible to over-state the vividness of these images,
and yet I was so intent, all the time, upon him himself - who
 I STAND FACE TO FACE WITH DEATH . 407

would not be intent on the tiger crouching to spring !—that I

knew of the slightest action of his fingers.
When he had drunk this second time, he rose from the bench
on which he sat, and pushed the table aside. Then , he took
up the candle, and shading it with his murderous hand so as to
throw its light on me, stood before me, looking at me and
enjoying the sight.
“ Wolf, I'll tell you something more. It was Old Orlick as
you tumbled over on your stairs that night.”
I saw the staircase with its extinguished lamps. I saw the
shadows of the heavy stair -rails, thrown by the watchman's
lantern on the wall. I saw the rooms that I was never to see
again ; here, a door half open ; there, a door closed ; all the
articles of furniture around .
“ And why was Old Orlick there ? I'll tell you something
more, wolf. You and her have pretty well hunted me out of this
country , so far as getting a easy living in it goes, and I've took
up with new companions and new masters. Some of 'em
writes my letters when I wants 'em wrote - do you mind ? --
writes my letters, wolf ! They writes fifty hands ; they're not
like sneaking you, as writes but one. I've had a firm mind and
a firm will to have your life, since you was down here at your
sister's burying. I han't seen a way to get you safe, and I've
looked arter you to know your ins and outs. For, says Old
Orlick to himself, “ Somehow or another, I'll have him ! '
What ! When I looks for you, I finds your uncle Provis,
eh ?”
Mill Pond Bank, and Chinks's Basin, and the Old Green
Copper Rope-Walk, all so clear and plain ! Provis in his
rooms, the signal whose use was over, pretty Clara, the good
motherly woman , old Bill Barley on his back, all drifting by,
as on the swift stream of my life fast running out to sea !
“ You with a uncle too ! Why, I knowed you at Gargery's
when you was so small a wolf that I could have took your
weazen betwixt this finger and thumb and chucked you away
dead (as I'd thoughts o’ doing, odd times, when I saw you
a loitering among the pollards on a Sunday ), and you hadn't
found no uncles then . No, not you ! But when Old Orlick
come for to hear that your uncle Provis had mostlike wore the
leg -iron wot Old Orlick had picked up, filed asunder, on these
meshes ever so many year ago , and wot he kep by him till he
408 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

dropped your sister with it, like a bullock , as he means to drop

you - hey ? —when he come for to hear that — hey ? "
In his savage taunting, he flared the candle so close at me,
that I turned my face aside to save it from the flame.
“ Ah ! ” he cried , laughing, after doing it again , " the burnt
child dreads the fire ! Old Orlick knowed you was burnt, Old
Orlick knowed you was a smuggling your uncle Provis away,
Old Orlick 's a match for you and know'd you'd come to-night !
Now I'll tell you something more, wolf, and this ends it.
There's them that's as good a match for your uncle Provis as
Old Orlick has been for you. Let him 'ware them when he's
lost his nevvy. Let him 'ware them , when no man can't find a
rag of his dear relation's clothes, nor yet a bone of his body.
There's them that can't and that won't have Magwitch - yes, I
know the name !-alive in the same land with them, and that's
had such sure information of him when he was alive in another
land, as that he couldn't and shouldn't leave it unbeknown and
put them in danger. P’raps it's them that writes fifty hands,
and that's not like sneaking you as writes but one. 'Ware
Compeyson, Magwitch, and the gallows ! " >

He flared the candle at me again, smoking my face and

bair, and for an instant blinding me, and turned his powerful
back as he replaced the light on the table. I had thought a
prayer , and had been with Joe and Biddy and Herbert, before
he turned towards me again.
There was a clear space of a few feet between the table and
the opposite wall. Within this space, he now slouched back
wards and forwards. His great strength seemed to sit stronger
upon him than ever before, as he did this with his hands
hanging loose and heavy at his sides, and with his eyes scowl
ing at me. I had no grain of hope left. Wild as my inward
hurry was, and wonderful the force of the pictures that rushed
by me ins ad of thoughts, I could get clearly understand
that unless he had resolved that I was within a few moments of
surely perishing out of all human knowledge, he would never
have told me what he had told.
Of a sudden he stopped, took the cork out of his bottle, and
tossed it away. Light as it was, I heard it fall like a plummet.
He swallowed slowly, tilting up the bottle by little and little,
and now he looked at me no more . The last few drops of
liquor he poured into the palm of his hand , and licked up.
 RESCUED. 40

Then with a sudden hurry of violence and swearing horribly,

he threw the bottle from him, and stooped ; and I saw in his
hand aa stone -hammer with a long heavy handle .
The resolution I had made did not desert me, for, without
uttering one vain word of appeal to him, I shouted out with
all my might, and struggled with all my might. It was only
my head and my legs that I could move, but to that extent
I struggled with all the force, until then unknown, that was
within me. In the same instant I heard responsive shouts,
saw figures and a gleam of light dash in at the door, heard
voices and tumult, and saw Orlick emerge from a struggle of
men,as if it were tumbling water, clear the table at a leap,
and fly out into the night !
After a blank, I found that I was lying unbound, on the
floor, in the same place, with my head on some one's knee.
My eyes were fixed on the ladder against the wall, when I came
to myself — had opened on it before my mind saw it -- and thus
as I recovered consciousness, I knew that I was in the place
where I had lost it.
Too indifferent at first, even to look round and ascertain who
supported me, I was lying looking at the ladder, when there
came between me and it, a face. The face of Trabb's boy !
“ I think he's all right !” said Trabb’s boy, in a sober voice ;
“ but ain't he just pale though !”
At these words, the face of him who supported me looked
over into mine, and I saw my supporter to be-
“ Herbert ! Great Heaven ! ”
“ Softly ,” said Herbert. “Gently, Handel. Don't be too
eager.”
“ And our old comrade, Startop !" ” I cried , as he too bent
over me.

“ Remember what he is going to assist us in,” said Herbert,

" and be calm .”
The allusion made me spring up ; though I dropped again
from the pain in my arm . « The time has not gone by,
Herbert, has it ? What night is to -night ? How long have I
been here ? ” For, I had a strange and strong misgiving that
I had been lying there a long time—a day and a night-two
days and nights - more.
“ The time has not gone by. It is still Monday night.”
“ Thank God ! "
410 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ And you have all to -morrow , Tuesday, to rest in ,” said

Herbert. “ But you can't help groaning, my dear Handel.
What hurt have you got ? Can you stand ? ”
“Yes, yes,” said I, “ I can walk. I have no hurt but in this
throbbing arm .”
They laid it bare, and did what they could. It was violently
swollen and inflamed, and I could scarcely endure to have it
touched . But, they tore up their handkerchiefs to make fresh
bandages, and carefully replaced it in the sling, until we could
get to the town and obtain some cooling lotion to put upon it.
In a little while we had shut the door of the dark and empty
sluice -house, and were passing through the quarry on our way
back . Trabb's boy - Trabb's overgrown young man now - went
before us with a lantern , which was the light I had seen come
in at the door. But, the moon was a good two hours higher
than when I had last seen the sky, and the night though rainy
was much lighter. The white vapour of the kiln was passing
from us as we went by, and, as I had thought a prayer before,
I thought a thanksgiving now.
Entreating Herbert to tell me how he had come to my
rescue — which at first he had flatly refused to do, but had in
sisted on my remaining quiet - I learnt that I had in my hurry
dropped the letter, open , in our chambers, where he, coming
home to bring with him Startop, whom he had met in the
street on his way to me, found it, very soon after I was gone.
Its tone made him uneasy , and the more so because of the
inconsistency between it and the hasty letter I had left for him,
His uneasiness increasing instead of subsiding after a quarter
of an hour's consideration , he set off for the coach - office, with
Startop, who volunteered his company, to make inquiry when
the next coach went down. Finding that the afternoon coach
was gone, and finding that his uneasiness grew into positive
alarm , as obstacles came in his way, he resolved to follow in a
post-chaise. So, he and Startop arrived at the Blue Boar, fully
expecting there to find me, or tidings of me ; but, finding
neither, went on to Miss Havisham's, where they lost me.
Hereupon they went back to the hotel (doubtless at about the
time when I was hearing the popular local version of my own
story ), to refresh themselves and to get some one to guide
them out upon the marshes. Among the loungers under the
Boar's archway, happened to be Trabb's boy - true to his ancient
 I RETURN TO LONDON . 411

habit of happening to be everywhere where he had no business

and Trabb's boy had seen me passing from Miss Havisham's,
in the direction of my dining -place. Thus, Trabb’s boy became
their guide, and with him they went out to the sluice-house :
though by the town way to the marshes, which I had avoided .
Now , as they went along, Herbert reflected, that I might, after
all, have been brought there on some genuine and serviceable
errand tending to Provis's safety, and bethinking himself that
in that case interruption might be mischievous, left his guide
and Startop on the edge of the quarry , and went on by him
self, and stole round the house two or three times, endeavour
ing to ascertain whether all was right within . As he could hear
nothing but indistinct sounds of one deep rough voice (this
was while my mind was so busy ), he even at last began to
doubt whether I was there, when suddenly I cried out loudly,
and he answered the cries, and rushed in , closely followed by
the other two.
When I told Herbert what had passed within the house, he
was for our immediately going before a magistrate in the town,
late at night as it was, and getting out a warrant. But, I had
already considered that such a course, by detaining us there, or
• binding us to come back, might be fatal to Provis. There was
no gainsaying this difficulty, and we relinquished all thoughts
of pursuing Orlick at that time. For the present, under the
circumstances, we deemed it prudent to make rather light of
the matter to Trabb's boy ; who I am convinced would have
been much affected by disappointment, if he had known that
his intervention saved me from the limekiln . Not that Trabb's
boy was of a malignant nature, but that he had too much spare
vivacity, and that it was in his constitution to want variety and
excitement at anybody's expense. When we parted, I pre
sented him with two guineas (which seemed to meet his
views), and told him that I was sorry ever to have had an
ill opinion of him (which made no impression on him at
all).
Wednesday being so close upon us, we determined to go back
to London, that night, three in the post-chaise ; the rather, as
we should then be clear away , before the night's adventure
began to be talked of. Herbert got a large bottle of stuff for
my arm , and by dint of having this stuff dropped over it all
the night through, I was just able to bear its pain on the
412 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
journey. It was daylight when we reached the Temple, and I
went at once to bed, and lay in bed all day.
My terror, as I lay there, of falling ill and being unfitted for
to -morrow , was so besetting, that I wonder it did not disable
me of itself. It would have done so , pretty surely, in conjunc
tion with the mental wear and tear I had suffered , but for the
unnatural strain upon me that to -morrow was. So anxiously
looked forward to, charged with such consequences, its results so
impenetrably hidden though so near.
No precaution could have been more obvious than our
refraining from communication with him that day ; yet this
again increased my restlessness. I started at every footstep
and every sound, believing that he was discovered and taken ,
and this was the messenger to tell me so. I persuaded
myself that I knew he was taken ; that there was something
more upon my mind than a fear or a presentiment; that the
fact had occurred, and I had a mysterious knowledge of it.
As the day wore on and no ill news came, as the day closed
in and darkness fell, my overshadowing dread of being disabled
by illness before to-morrow morning, altogether mastered me.
My burning arm throbbed, and my burning head throbbed, and
I fancied I was beginning to wander. I counted up to high
numbers, to make sure of myself, and repeated passages that I
knew in prose and verse. It happened sometimes that in the
mere escape of a fatigued mind, I dozed for some moments or
forgot ; then I would say to myself with a start, “ Now it has
come, and I am turning delirious ! ”
They kept me very quiet all day, and kept my arm con
stantly dressed, and gave me cooling drinks. Whenever I fell
asleep, I awoke with the notion I had had in the sluice-house,
that a long time had elapsed and the opportunity to save him
was gone. About midnight got out of bed and went to
Herbert, with the conviction that I had been asleep for four
and -twenty hours, and that Wednesday was past. It was the
last self-exhausting effort of my fretfulness, for after that, I
slept soundly.
Wednesday morning was dawning when I looked out of
window. The winking lights upon the bridges were already
pale, the coming sun was like a marsh of fire on the horizon.
The river, still dark and mysterious, was spanned by bridges
that were turning coldly grey, with here and there at top a
 THE ESCAPE . 413

warm touch from the burning in the sky. As I looked

along the clustered roofs, with church towers and spires shoot
ing into the unusually clear air, the sun rose up, and a veil
seemed to be drawu from the river, and millions of sparkles
burst out upon its waters. From me, too, a veil seemed to
be drawn, and I felt strong and well.
Herbert lay asleep in his bed , and our old fellow -student
lay asleep on the sofa . I could not dress myself without help,
but I made up the fire which was still burning, and got some
coffee ready for them . In good time they too started up strong
and well, and we admitted the sharp morning air at the windows,
and looked at the tide that was still flowing towards us.
“When it turns at nine o'clock ," said Herbert, cheerfully,
“ look out for us, and stand ready, you over there at Mill Pond
Bank ! ”

CHAPTER LIV .

Jt was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and
the wind blows cold : when it is summer in the light, and winter
in the shade. We had our pea -coats with us, and I took a bag.
Of all my worldly possessions I took no more than the few
necessaries that filled the bag. Where I might go, what I
might do, or when I might return , were questions utterly
unknown to me ; nor did I vex my mind with them , for it was
wholly set on Provis's safety. I only wondered for the passing
moment, as I stopped at the door and looked back, under what
altered circumstances I should next see those rooms, if ever.
We loitered down to the Temple stairs, and stood loitering
there, as if we were not quite decided to go upon the water at
all. Of course I had taken care that the boat should be ready,
and everything in order. After a little show of indecision , which
there were none to see but the two or three amphibious
creatures belonging to our Temple stairs, we went on board and
cast off ; Herbert in the bow, I steering. It was then about
high -water - half -past eight.
414 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Our plan was this. The tide, beginning to run down at nine,
and being with us until three, we intended still to creep on after
it had turned and row against it until dark . We should then
be well in those long reaches below Gravesend, between Kent
and Essex, where the river is broad and solitary, where the
waterside inhabitants are very few , and where lone public
houses are scattered here and there, of which we could choose
one for a resting-place. There, we meant to lie by, all night.
The steamer for Hamburg, and the steamer for Rotterdam ,
would start from London at about nine on Thursday morning.
We should know at what time to expect them, according to
where we were, and would hail the first ; so that if by any
accident we were not taken aboard, we should have another
chance . We knew the distinguishing marks of each vessel.
The relief of being at last engaged in the execution of the
purpose, was so great to me that I felt it difficult to realise the
condition in which I had been in a few hours before. The crisp
air, the sunlight, the movement on the river, and the moving
river itself-the road that ran with us, seeming to sympathise
with us, animate us, and encourage us on - freshened me with
new hope. I felt mortified to be of so little use in the boat ;
but there were few better oarsmen than my two friends, and
they rowed with a steady stroke that was to last all day.
At that time, the steam - traffic on the Thames was far below
its present extent, and watermen's boats were far more numer
ous .
Of barges, sailing colliers, and coasting traders, there
were perhaps as many as now ; but, of steam -ships, great and
small, not a tithe or a twentieth part so many. Early as it was,
there were plenty of scullers going here and there that morning,
and plenty of barges dropping down with the tide ; the naviga
tion of the river, between bridges, in an open boat was a much
easier and commoner matter in those days than it is in these ;
and we went ahead among many skiffs and wherries, briskly.
Old London Bridge was soon passed, and old Billingsgate
market with its oyster -boats and Dutchmen, and the White
Tower and Traitor's Gate, and we were in among the tiers of
shipping. Here, were the Leith, Aberdeen, and Glasgow
steamers, loading and unloading goods, and looking immensely
high out of the water as we passed alongside ; here, were col
liers by the score and score, with the coal-whippers plunging
off stages on deck, as counterweights to measures of coal
 WE TAKE HIM ON BOARD . 415

swinging up, which were then rattled over the side into barges ;
here, at her moorings, was to -morrow's steamer for Rotterdam ,
of which we took good notice ; and here to -morrow's for Ham
burg, under whose bowsprit we crossed. And now, I sitting in
the stern , could see with a faster beating heart, Mill Pond Bank
and Mill Pond stairs.
“ Is he there ? ” said Herbert.
“ Not yet.” »

66
Right ! He wasnot to come down till be saw us . Can you
see his signal ? ”
“ Not well from here ; but I think I see it . - Now I see him !
Pull both . Easy, Herbert. Oars ! ”
We touched the stairs lightly for a single moment, and he
was on board and we were off again . He had a boat-cloak with
him , and a black canvas bag, and he looked as like a river-pilot
as my heart could have wished.
“ Dear boy !” he said, putting his arm on my shoulder, as he
took his seat. “ Faithful dear boy , well done. Thankye,
thankye ! ”
Again among the tiers of shipping, in and out, avoiding rusty
chain -cables, frayed hempen hawsers, and bobbing buoys, siņk
ing for the moment floating broken baskets, scattering floating
chips of wood and shaving, cleaving floating scum of coal, in
and out, under the figure- head of the John of Sunderland
making a speech to the winds (as is done by many Johns), and
the Betsy of Yarmouth with a firm formality of bosom and her
nobby eyes starting two inches out of her head ; in and out,
hammers going in ship -builders' yards, saws going at timber,
clashing engines going at things unknown, pumps going in leaky
ships, capstans going, ships going out to sea, and unintelligible
sea -creatures roaring curses over the bulwarks at respondent
lightermen ; in and out-out at last upon the clearer river,
where the ships' boys might take their fenders in , no longer
fishing in troubled waters with them over the side, and where
the festooned sails might fly out to the wind .
At the stairs where we had taken him aboard, and ever since,
I had looked warily for any token of our being suspected. I
had seen none . We certainly had not been, and at that time
as certainly we were not, either attended or followed by any
boat . If we had been waited on by any boat, I should have
run in to shore, and have obliged her to go on or to make her
416 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

purpose evident. But, we held our own, without any appear

ance of molestation .
He had his boat-cloak on him , and looked, as I have said,
a natural part of the scene. It was remarkable (but perhaps
the wretched life he had led accounted for it) , that he was the
least anxious of any of us. He was not indifferent, for he told
me that he hoped to live to see his gentleman one of the best
of gentlemen in a foreign country ; he was not disposed to be
passive or resigned, as I understood it ; but he had no notion
of meeting danger half way. When it came upon him , he
confronted it, but it must come before he troubled himself.
“If you knowed, dear boy,” he said to me, “what it is to sit
here alonger my dear boy and have my smoke, arter having
been day by day betwixt four walls, you'd envy me. But you
don't know what it is .”
“ I think I know the delights of freedom ," I answered.
· Ah,”> said he, shaking his head gravely. “ But you don't
66

know it equal to me. You must have been under lock and key,
dear boy, to know it equal to me --but I ain't a going to be
low .”
It occurred to me as inconsistent, that for any mastering
idea, he should have endangered his freedom and even his life.
But I reflected that perhaps freedom without danger was too
much apart from all the habit of his existence to be to him
what it would be to another man . I was not far out, since he
said , after smoking a little :
“ You see, dear boy, when I was over yonder, t other side
the world, I was always a looking to this side ; and it come flat
to be there, for all I was a growing rich. Everybody knowed
Magwitch, and Magwitch could come, and Magwitch could go,
and nobody's head would be troubled about him . They ain't
so easy concernivg me here, dear boy - wouldn't be, leastwise,
if they knowed where I was. "
“ If all goes well,” said I, “ you will be perfectly free and
safe again, within a few hours."
“ Well,” he returned , drawing a long breath , “ I hope so.”
" And think so ? ”
He dipped his hand in the water over the boat's gunwale,
and said, smiling with that softened air upon him which was
not new to me :
66
Ay, I s'pose I think so, dear boy. We'd be puzzled to be
 DROPPING DOWN THE RIVER . 417

more quiet and easy -going than we are at present. But - it's
a flowing so soft and pleasant through the water, p’raps, as
makes me think it-I was a thinking through my smoke just
then, that we can no more see to the bottom of the next few
hours, than we can see to the bottom of this river what I
catches hold of. Nor yet we can't no more hold their tide than
I can hold this. And it's run through my fingers and gone, you
see ! ” holding up his dripping hand .
“ But for your face, I should think you were a little de
spondent,” said I.
“ Not a bit on it, dear boy ! It comes of flowing on so quiet,
and of that there rippling at the boat's head making a sort of
a Sunday tune. Maybe, I'm a growing a trifle old besides. ”
He put his pipe back in his mouth with an undisturbed expres
sion of face, and sat as composed and contented as if we were
already out of England. Yet he was as submissive to a word
of advice as if he had been in constant terror, for, when we
ran ashore to get some bottles of beer into the boat, and he
was stepping out, I hinted that I thought he would be safest
where he was, and he said, “ Do you, dear boy ? ” and quietly
sat down again .
The air felt cold upon the river, but it was a bright day, and
the sunshine was very cheering. The tide ran strong, I took
care to lose none of it, and our steady stroke carried us on
thoroughly well. By imperceptible degrees, as the tide ran
out, we lost more and more of the nearer woods and hills, and
dropped lower and lower between the muddy banks, but the
tide was yet with us when we were off Gravesend. As our
charge was wrapped in his cloak , I purposely passed within a
boat or two's length of the floating Custom House, and so out
to catch the stream , alongside of two emigrant ships, and under
the bows of a large transport with troops on the forecastle
looking down at us. And soon the tide began to slacken , and
the craft lying at anchor to swing, and presently they had all
swung round, and the ships that were taking advantage of the
new tide to get up to the Pool, began to crowd upon us in a
fleet, and we kept under the shore, as much out of the strength
of the tide now as we could, standing carefully off from low
shallows and mud -banks.
Our oarsmen were so fresh , by dint of having occasionally
let her drive with the tide for a minute or two, that a quarter
E4
Е Е
418 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
of an hour's rest proved full as much as they wanted . We got
ashore among some slippery stones while we ate and drank
what we had with us, and looked about. It was like my own
marsh country , flat and monotonous, and with a dim horizon ;
while the winding river turned and turned, and the great float
ing buoys upon it turned and turned, and everything else
seemed stranded and still. For, now, the last of the fleet of
ships was round the last low point we had headed ; and the last
green barge, straw -laden , with a brown sail, had followed ; and
some ballast-lighters, shaped like a child's first rude imitation of
a boat, lay low in the mud ; and a little squat shoal-lighthouse
on open piles, stood crippled in the mud on stilts and crutches ;
and slimy stakes stuck out of the mud , and slimy stones stuck
out of the mud, and red landmarks and tidemarks stuck out of
the mud, and an old landing -stage and an old roofless building
slipped into the mud, and all about us was stagnation and
mud .
We pushed off again , and made what way we could . It was
much harder work now, but Herbert and Startop persevered,
and rowed, and rowed, and rowed, until the sun went down. By
that time the river had lifted us a little, so that we could see
above the bank . There was the red sun, on the low level of
the shore, in a purple haze, fast deepening into black ; and
there was the solitary flat marsh ; and far away there were the
rising grounds, between which and us there seemed to be no
life, save here and there in the foreground a melancholy
gull.
As the night was fast falling, and as the moon being past the
full, would not rise early, we held aa little council : a short one,
:

for clearly our course was to lie by at the first lonely tavern we
could find. So, they plied their oars once more , and I looked
out for anything like a house. Thus we held on, speaking
little, for four or five dull miles. It was very cold , and a collier
coming by us, with her galley -fire smoking and flaring, looked
like a comfortable home. The night was dark by this time as
it would be until morning ; what light we had, seemed to come
more from the river than the sky, as the oars in their dipping
struck at a few reflected stars .
At this dismal time we were evidently all possessed by the
idea that we were followed. As the tide made, it flapped
heavily at irregular intervals against the shore ; and whenever
 WE REST AT A RIVERSIDE PUBLIC-HOUSE. 419
such a sound came, one or other of us was sure to start and
look in that direction . Here and there, the set of the current
had worn down the bank into a little creek , and we were all
suspicious of such places, and eyed them nervously. Some
times, “ What was that ripple ? ” one of us would say in a low
voice. Or another, “ Is that a boat yonder ? ” And afterwards,
we would fall into a dead silence , and I would sit impatiently
thinking with what an unusual amount of noise the oars worked
in the throwels.
At length we descried a light and a roof, and presently after
wards ran alougside a little causeway made of stones that bad
been picked up hard by. Leaving the rest in the boat, I stepped
ashore and found the light to be in the window of a public
house. It was a dirty place enough , and I dare say not unknown
to smuggling adventurers ; but there was a good fire in the
kitchen, and there were eggs and bacon to eat, and various
liquors to drink. Also, there were two double-bedded rooms ,
“ such as they were,” the landlord said . No other company
was in the house than the landlord, his wife, and a grizzled
male creature, the “ Jack ” of the little causeway , who was as
slimy and smeary as if he had been low water-mark too.
With this assistant I went down to the boat again, and we all
came ashore, and brought out the oars, and rudder, and boat
hook, and all else, and hauled her up for the night. We made
a very good meal by the kitchen fire, and then apportioned the
bedrooms : Herbert and Startop were to occupy one ; I and our
charge the other. We found the air as carefully excluded
from both as if air were fatal to life ; and there were more
dirty clothes and bandboxes under the beds, than I should have
thought the family possessed. But, we considered ourselves
well off, notwithstanding, for a more solitary place we could
not have found.
While we were comforting ourselves by the fire after our
meal, the Jack - who was sitting in a corner , and who had a
bloated pair of shoes on , which he had exhibited while we were
eating our eggs and bacon , as interesting relics that he had
taken a few days ago from the feet of a drowned seaman
washed ashore - asked me if we had seen a four-oared galley
going up with the tide ? When I told him No, he said she
must have gone down then, and yet she “ took up too,” when
she left there .
EE 2
420 GREAT EXPECTATIONS ,

“ They must ha' thought better on't for some reason or

another," said the Jack ,“ and gone down.”
“ A four-oared galley did " you say ? ” said I.
“ A four ," said the Jack , " and two sitters."
“ Did they come ashore here ? ”
They put in with a stone two-gallon jar, for some beer. I'd
ha'been glad to poison the beer myself,” said the Jack ,“ or put
some rattling physic in it .”
66

Why ?” "
“ I know why,” said the Jack . He spoke in a slushy voice, as
if much mud had washed into his throat.
“ He thinks," said the landlord : a weakly meditative man
with a pale eye, who seemed to rely greatly on his Jack : “ he
"
thinks they was, what they wasn't.” .
“ I knows what I thinks,” observed the Jack .
“ You thinks Custom 'Us, Jack ? ” said the landlord ."
I do,” said the Jack .
“ Then you 're wrong, Jack .”
“ AM I ! ”
In the infinite meaning of his reply and his boundless confi
dence in his views, the Jack took one of his bloated shoes off,
looked into it, knocked a few stones out of it on the kitchen floor,
and put it on again . He did this with the air of a Jack who
was so right that he could afford to do anything.
“ Why, what do you make out that they done with their
buttons, then, Jack ? ” asked the landlord, vacillating weakly.
“ Done with their buttons ? " returned the Jack . “ Chucked
'em overboard. Swallered 'em. Sowed 'em, to come up small
salad. Done with their buttons ! ”
“Don't be cheeky, Jack ,” remonstrated the landlord, in a
melancholy and pathetic way.
“ A Custom 'Us officer knows what to do with his Buttons,"
said the Jack, repeating the obnoxious word with the greatest
contempt, "“ when they comes betwixt him and his own light.
A Four and two sitters don't go hanging and hovering, up with
one tide and down with another, and both with and against
another, without there being Custom 'Us at the bottom of it .”
Saying which he went out in disdain ; and the landlord, hav
ing no one to rely upon, found it impracticable to pursue the
subject.
This dialogue made us all uneasy, and me very uneasy. The
 A FOUR-OARED GALLEY ABOUT. 421

dismal wind was muttering round the house, the tide was
flapping at the shore, and I had a feeling that we were caged
and threatened . A four -oared galley hovering about in so un
usual à way as to attract this notice, was an ugly circumstance
that I could not get rid of. When I had induced Provis to go
up to bed, I went outside with my two companions ( Startop by
this time knew the state of the case), and held another council.
Whether we should remain at the house until near the steamer's
time, which would be about one in the afternoon ; or whether
we should put off early in the morning ; was the question we
discussed . On the whole we deemed it the better course to lie
where we were, until within an hour or so of the steamer's time,
and then to get out in her track , and drift easily with the tide.
Having settled to do this, we returned into the house and went
to bed .
I lay down with the greater part of my clothes on, and slept
well for a few hours. When I awoke, the wind had risen , and
the sign of the house ( the Ship ) was creaking and banging
about, with noises that startled me. Rising softly, for my
charge lay fast asleep, I looked out of the window. It com
manded the causeway where we had hauled up our boat, and, as
my eyes adapted themselves to the light of the clouded moon ,
I saw two men looking into her. They passed by under the
window , looking at nothing else, and they did not go down to
the landing -place which I could discern to be empty, but struck
across the marsh in the direction of the Nore.
My first impulse was to call up Herbert, and show him the
two men going away. But, reflecting before I got into his
room , which was at the back of the house and adjoined mine,
that he and Startop had had a harder day than I, and were
fatigued, I forbore. Going back to my window I could see the
two men moving over the marsh. In that light, however, I soon
lost them , and feeling very cold, lay down to think of the
matter, and fell asleep again .
We were up early. As we walked to and fro, all four to
gether, before breakfast, I deemed it right to recount what I had
seen . Again our charge was the least anxious of the party. It
was very likely that the men belonged to the Custom House, he
said quietly, and that they had no thought of us. I tried to
persuade myself that it was so—as, indeed, it might easily be.
However, I proposed that he and I should walk away together
422 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
to a distant point we could see, and that the boat should take us
aboard there, or as near there as might prove feasible, at about
noon. This being considered a good precaution, soon after
breakfast he and I set forth, without saying anything at the
tavern .
He smoked his pipe as we went along, and sometimes stopped
to clap me on the shoulder. One would have supposed that it
was I who was in danger, not he, and that he was reassuring me.
We spoke very little. As we approached the point, I begged
him to remain in a sheltered place, while I went on to recon
noitre ; for it was towards it that the men had passed in the
night. He complied , and I went on alone. There was no boat
off the point, nor any boat drawn up anywhere near it, nor were
there any signs of the men having embarked there. But, to be
sure the tide was high, and there might have been some
footprints under water.
When he looked out from his shelter in the distance, and saw
that I waved my hat to him to come up, he rejoined me, and
there we waited ; sometimes lying on the bank wrapped in our
coats, and sometimes moving about to warm ourselves : until we
saw our boat ming round . We got aboard easily, and rowed
out into the track of the steamer. By that time it wanted but
ten minutes of one o'clock, and we began to look out for her
smoke.
But, it was half-past one before we saw her smoke, and soon
after we saw behind it the smoke of another steamer. As they
were coming on at full speed, we got the two bags ready, and
took that opportunity of saying good -bye to Herbert and
Startop. We had all shaken hands cordially, and neither
Herbert's eyes nor mine were quite dry, when I saw a four
oared galley shoot out from under the bank but a little way
ahead of us, and row out into the same track .
A stretch of shore had been as yet between us and the
steamer's smoke, by reason of the bend and wind of the river ;
but now she was visible coming head on . I called to Herbert
and Startop to keep before the tide, that she might see us lying
by for her, and adjured Provis to sit quite still, wrapped in his
cloak. He answered cheerily, “ Trust to me, dear boy," and sat
like a statue . Meantime the galley, which was skilfully
handled, had crossed us, let us come up with her, and fallen
alongside. Leaving just room enough for the play of the oars,
 THE GALLEY BOARDS US. 423

she kept alongside, drifting when we drifted , and pulling a

stroke or two when we pulled. Of the two sitters, one held the
rudder lines, and looked at us attentively - as did all the rowers ;
the other sitter was wrapped up, much as Provis was, and seemed
to shrink , and whisper some instruction to the steerer as he
looked at us. Not a word was spoken in either boat.
Startop, could make out, after a few minutes, which steamer
was first, and gave me the word “ Hamburg ,” in aa low voice as
we sat face to face. She was nearing us very fast, and the
beating of her paddles grew louder and louder. I felt as if
her shadow were absolutely upon us, when the galley hailed us.
I answered .
“ You have a returned transport there,” said the man who
held the lines. “ That's the man , wrapped in the cloak .
His name is Abel Magwitch, otherwise Provis. I apprehend
that man, and call upon him to surrender, and you to assist. "
At the same moment, without giving any audible direction to
his crew, he ran the galley aboard of us. They had pulled one
sudden stroke ahead , had got their oars in, had run athwart us,
and were holding on to our gunwale, before we knew what
they were doing. This caused great confusion on board of the
steamer, and I heard them calling to us, and heard the order
given to stop the paddles, and heard them stop, but felt her driv
ing down upon us irresistibly. In the same moment, I saw the
steersman of the galley lay his hand on his prisoner's shoulder,
and saw that both boats were swinging round with the force
of the tide, and saw that all hands on board the steamer were
running forward quite frantically. Still in the same moment,
I saw the prisoner start up, lean across his captor, and pull the
cloak from the neck of the shrinking sitter in the galley. Still
in the same moment, I saw that the face disclosed , was the face
of the other convict of long ago. Still in the same moment, I
saw the face tilt backward with a white terror on it that I
shall never forget, and heard a great cry on board the steamer
and a loud splash in the water, and felt the boat sink from
under me.
It was but for an instant that I seemed to struggle with a
thousand mill-weirs and a thousand flashes of light ; that in
stant past, I was taken on board the galley. Herbert was there,
and Startop was there ; but our boat was gone, and the two
convicts were gone,
424 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
What with the cries aboard the steamer, and the furious
blowing off of her steam , and her driving on, and our driving
on, I could not at first distinguish sky from water or shore
from shore ; but the crew of the galley righted her with great
speed, and, pulling certain swift strong strokes ahead , lay upon
their oars, every man looking silently and eagerly at the water
astern. Presently a dark object was seen in it, bearing towards
us on the tide. No man spoke, but the steersman held up his
hand, and all softly backed water, and kept the boat straight
and true before it. As it came nearer, I saw it to be Magwitch ,
swimming, but not swimming freely.. He was taken on board,
and instantly manacled at the wrists and ankles.
The galley was kept steady, and the silent eager look -out
at the water was resumed . But the Rotterdam steamer now
came up, and apparently not understanding what had happened ,
came on at speed. By the time she had been hailed and stopped ,
both steamers were drifting away from us, and we were rising
and falling in a troubled wake of water. The look-out was
kept, long after all was still again and the two steamers were
gone ; but everybody knew that it was hopeless now.
At length we gave it up and pulled under the shore towards
the tavern we had lately left, where we were received with no
little surprise. Here, I was able to get some comforts for
Magwitch - Provis no longer-who had received some very
severe injury in the chest and a deep cut in the head.
He told me that he believed himself to have gone under the
keel of the steamer, and to have been struck on the head in
rising. The injury to his chest (which rendered his breathing
extremely painful) he thought he had received against the
side of the galley. He added that he did not pretend to say
what he might or might not have done to Compeyson, but, that
in the moment of his laying his hand on his cloak to identify
him, that villain had staggered up and staggered back, and they
had both gone overboard together ; when the sudden wrenching
of bim (Magwitch) out of our boat, and the endeavour of his
captor to keep him in it, had , capsized us. He told me in a
whisper that they had gone down, fiercely locked in each
other's arms, and that there had been a struggle under water,
and that he had disengaged himself, struck out, and swam
away .
I never had any reason to doubt the exact truth of what he
 I ACCOMPANY THE PRISONER . 425

had told me. The officer who steered the galley gave the same
account of their going overboard.
When I asked this officer's permission to change the prisoner's
wet clothes by purchasing any spare garments I could get at
the public -house, he gave it readily : merely observing that he
must take charge of everything his prisoner had about him.
So the pocket- book which had once been in my hands, passed
into the officer's. He further gave me leave to accompany the
prisoner London ; but, declined to accord that grace to my
two friends.
The Jack at the Ship was instructed where the drowned man
had gone down , and undertook to search for the body in the
places where it was likeliest to come ashore. His interest in its
recovery seemed to me to be much heightened when he heard
that it had stockings on. Probably, it took about a dozen
drowned men to fit him out completely ; and that may have
been the reason why the different articles of his dress were in
various stages of decay.
We remained at the public-house until the tide turned, and
then Magwitch was carried down to the galley and put on board .
Herbert and Startop were to get to London by land, as soon
as they could. We had a doleful parting, and when I took my
place by Magwitch's side, I felt that that was my place hence
forth while he lived .
For now my repugnance to him had all melted away , and in
the hunted wounded shackled creature who held my hand in
his, I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and
who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards
me with great constancy through a series of years. I only saw
in him a much better man than I had been to Joe.
His breathing became more difficult and painful as the night
drew on, and often he could not repress a groan . I tried to
rest bim on tbe arm I could use, in any easy position ; but it
was dreadful to think that I could not be sorry at heart for
his being badly hurt, since it was unquestionably best that he
should die . That there were, still living, people enough who
were able and willing to identify him , I could not doubt. That
he would be leniently treated, I could not hope. He who
had been presented in the worst light at his trial, who had
since broken prison and been tried again, who had returned
from transportation under a life sentence, and who had
426 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
occasioned the death of the man who was the cause of his
arrest.
As we returned towards the setting sun we had yesterday
left behind us, and as the stream of our hopes seemed all run .
ning back, I told him how grieved I was to think he had come
home for my sake.
“ Dear boy,” he answered , “ I'm quite content to take my
chance . I've seen my boy, and he can be a gentleman without
me.”
No. I had thought about that while we had been there
side by side. No. Apart from any inclinations of my own , I
understand Wemmick's hint now. I foresaw that, being con .
victed, his possessions would be forfeited to the Crown.
“Look’ee here, dear boy," said he. “It's best as a gentle
man should not be knowed to belong to me now. Only come to
see me as if you come by chance alonger Wemmick. Sit where
I can see you when I am swore to , for the last o' many times,
and I don't ask no more .”
“ I will never stir from your side, " said I, “when I am
suffered to be near you. Please God, I will be as true to you
as you have been to me ! ”
I felt his hand tremble as it held mine, and he turned his
face away as he lay in the bottom of the boat, and I heard
that old sound in his throat - softened now , like all the rest
of him . It was a good thing that he had touched this point,
for it put into my mind what I might not otherwise have
thought of until too late : that he need never know how his
hopes of enriching me had perished .

CHAPTER LV .

He was taken to the Police Court next day, and would have
been immediately committed for trial, but that itwas necessary
to send down for an old Officer of the prison -ship from which
he had once escaped, to speak to his identity. Nobody doubted
it ; but, Compeyson, who had meant to depose to it, was
 COMMITTED FOR TRIAL . 427

tumbling on the tides, dead, and it happened that there was

not at that time any prison officer in London who could give
the required evidence . I had gone direct to Mr. Jaggers at
his private house, on my arrival over night, to retain his
assistance, and Mr. Jaggers on the prisoner's behalf would
admit nothing. It was the sole resource, for he told me that
the case must be over in five minutes when the witness was
there, and that no power on earth could prevent its going
against us.
I imparted to Mr. Jaggers my design of keeping him in
ignorance of the fate of his wealth . Mr. Jaggers was querul
ous and angry with me for having let it slip through my
fingers,” and said we must memorialise by -and -by, and try at
all events for some of it. But he did not conceal from me
that although there might be many cases in which forfeiture
would not be exacted , there were no circumstances in this
case to make it one of them . I understood that very well. I
was not related to the outlaw , or connected with him by any
recognisable tie ; he had put his hand to no writing or settle
ment in my favour before his apprehension, and to do so now
would be idle. I had no claim , and I finally resolved , and ever
afterwards abided by the resolution , that my heart should never
be sickened with the hopeless task of attempting to establish
one .

There appeared to be reason for supposing that the drowned

informer had hoped for a reward out of this forfeiture, and had
obtained some accurate knowledge of Magwitch's affairs. When
his body was found, many miles from the scene of his death,
and so horribly disfigured that he was only recognisable by
the contents of his pockets, notes were still legible, folded in
a case be carried. Among these were the name of a banking
house in New South Wales where a sum of money was, and
the designation of certain lands of considerable value. Both
those heads of information were in a list that Magwitch , while
in prison, gave to Mr. Jaggers, of the possessions he supposed
I should inherit. His ignorance, poor fellow , at last served
him ; he never mistrusted but that my inheritance was quite
safe, with Mr. Jaggers's aid .
After three days' delay, during which the crown prosecution
stood over for the production of the witness from the prison
ship, the witness came, and completed the easy case. He was
428 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

committed to take his trial at the next Session , which would

come on in a month .
It was at this dark time of my life that Herbert returned
home one evening a good deal cast down, and said :
“ My dear Handel, I fear I shall soon have to leave you ."
Hispartner having prepared me for that, I was less surprised
than he thought.
“ We shall lose a fine opportunity if I put off going to Cairo,
and I am very much afraid I must go, Handel, when you most
need me. ”
“Herbert, I shall always need you, because I shall always
love you ; but my need is no greater now, than at another
time."
“ You will be so lonely .”
“ I have not leisure to think of that, ” said I. “ You know
that I am always with him to the full extent of the time
allowed , and that I should be with him all day long, if I
could . And when I come away from him, you know that my
thoughts are with him . "
The dreadful condition to which he was brought, was so
appalling to both of us, that we could not refer to it in plainer
words.
6
“ My dear fellow ," said Herbert, “ let the near prospect of
our separation - for, it is very near — be my justification for
troubling you about yourself. Have you thought of your
future ? ”
“ No, for I have been afraid to think of any future.”
But yours cannot be dismissed ; indeed, my dear, dear
Handel, it must not be dismissed. I wish you would enter
on it now, as far as a few friendly words go, with me.”
“ I will,” said I.
“ In this branch house of ours, Handel, we must have
"
a

I saw that his delicacy was avoiding the right word , so I

said , “« a clerk .”
“ A clerk . And I hope it is not at all unlikely that he may
expand (as a clerk of your acquaintance has expanded) into
a partner. Now, Handel--in short, my dear boy, will you
come to me ? "
There was something charmingly cordial and engaging in
the manner in which after saying, “ Now, Handel,” as if it
 HERBERT LEAVES ME FOR THE EAST. 429

were the grave beginning of a portentous business exordium ,

he had suddenly given up that tone, stretched out his honest
hand, and spoken like a schoolboy.
“ Clara and I have talked about it again and again , ” Herbert
pursued, " and the dear little thing begged me only this even
ing, with tears in her eyes, to say to you that if you will live
with us when we come together, she will do her best to make
you happy, and to convince her husband's friend that he is her
friend too . We should get on so well, Handel ! ”
I thanked her heartily, and I thanked him heartily, but said
I could not yet make sure of joining him as he so kindly
offered. Firstly, my mind was too preoccupied to be able to
take in the subject clearly. Secondly —— Yes ! Secondly, there
was a vague something lingering in my thoughts that will
come out very near the end of this slight narrative.
“ But if you thought, Herbert, that you could, without doing
any injury to your business, leave the question open for a
little while-- "
"
“ For any while, ” cried Herbert. “Six months, a year ! ”
“ Not so long as that, ” said I. “ Two or three months at
most .”
Herbert was highly delighted when we shook hands on this
arrangement, and said he could now take courage to tell me
that he believed he must go away at the end of the week .
“ And Clara ? ” said I.
“The dear little thing,” returned Herbert, «“ holds dutifully
to her father as long as he lasts ; but he won't last long.
Mrs. Whimple confides to me that he is certainly going.”
“ Not to say an unfeeling thing,” said I, “ he cannot do
better than go .”
“ I am afraid that must be admitted ,” said Herbert : “ and
then I shall come back for the dear little thing, and the dear
little thing and I will walk quietly into the nearest church .
Remember ! The blessed darling comes of no family, my dear
Handel, and never looked into the red book, and hasn't a
notion about her grandpapa. What a fortune for the son of
my mother ! ”
On the Saturday in that same week , I took my leave of
Herbert - full of bright hope, but sad and sorry to leave me
as he sat on one of the seaport mail coaches. I went into a
coffee -house to write a little note to Clara, telling her he had
430 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
gone off, sending his love to her over and over again , and then
went to my lonely home - if it deserved the name, for it was
now no home to me, and I had no home anywhere.
On the stairs I encountered Wemmick , who was coming
down, after an unsuccessful application of his knuckles to my
door. I had not seen him alone, since the disastrous issue of
the attempted flight ; and he had come, in his private and per
sonal capacity, to say a few words of explanation in reference to
that failure .
“The late Compeyson," said Wemmick, "had by little and
little got at the bottom of half of the regular business now
transacted, and it was from the talk of some of his people in
trouble (some of his people being always in trouble) that I heard
what I did. I kept my ears open, seeming to have them shut,
until I heard that he was absent, and I thought that would be
the best time for making the attempt. I can only suppose now ,
that it was a part of his policy, as a very clever man , habitually
to deceive his own instruments . You don't blame me, I hope,
Mr. Pip ? I'm sure I tried to serve you with all my heart.”
“ I am as sure of that, Wemmick, as you can be, and I thank
you most earnestly for all your interest and friendship .”
“Thank you , thank you very much. It's a bad job , ” said
Wemmick, scratching his head, “and I assure you I haven't
been so cut up for a long time. What I look at is, the sacrifice
of so much portable property. Dear me ! ”
“ What I think of, Wemmick, is the poor owner of the
property.”
“ Yes, to be sure," said Wemmick. “ Of course there can be
no objection to your being sorry for him, and I'd put down a five
pound note myself to get him out of it. But what I look at is
this. The late Compeyson having been beforehand with him in
intelligence of his return, and being so determined to bring
him to book, I do not think he could have been saved . Whereas,
the portable property certainly could have been saved . That's
the difference between the property and the owner, don't you
see ? "
I invited Wemmick to come up stairs, and refresh himself
with a glass of grog before walking to Walworth. He accepted
the invitation . While he was drinking his moderate allowance,
he said , with nothing to lead up to it, and after having
appeared rather fidgety :
 I TAKE A WALK WITH WEMMICK . 431

“ What do you think of my meaning to take a holiday on

Monday, Mr. Pip ? ”
' Why, I suppose you have not done such a thing these
twelve months."
These twelve years, more likely ,” said Wemmick . “ Yes .
I'm going to take a holiday. More than that ; I'm going to
take a walk. More than that ; I'm going to ask you to take
a walk with me.”
I was about to excuse myself, as being but a bad companion
just then, when Wemmick anticipated me.
“ I know your engagements,” said he, “ and I know you are
out of sorts, Mr. Pip. But if you could oblige me, I should take
it as a kindness. It ain't long walk, and it's an early one.
Say it might occupy you ( including breakfast on the walk ) from
eight to twelve. Couldn't you stretch a point and manage it ? ”
He had done so much for me at various times, that this was
very little to do for him. I said I could manage it - would
manage it — and he was so very much pleased by my acquies
cence, that I was pleased too. At his particular request, I
appointed to call for him at the Castle at half- past eight on
Monday morning, and so we parted for the time.
Punctual to my appointment, I rang at the Castle gate on the
Monday morning, and was received by Wemmick himself ; who
struck me as looking tigbter than usual , and having a sleeker
hat on. Within , there were two glasses of rum -and -milk pre
pared, and two biscuits. The Aged must have been stirring
with the lark, for, glancing into the perspective of his bedroom ,
I observed that his bed was empty.
When we had fortified ourselves with the rum -and -milk and
biscuits, and were going out for the walk with that training
preparation on us , I was considerably surprised to see Wem
mick take up a fishing -rod, and put it over his shoulder.
66
Why, we are not going fishing ! ” said I. " No," returned
Wemmick , “ but I like to walk with one.”
I thought this odd ; however, I said nothing, and we set off .
We went towards Camberwell Green, and when we were
thereabouts, Wemmick said suddenly :
« Halloa ! Here's a church ! ”
There was nothing very surprising in that ; but again, I was
rather surprised , when he said , as if he were animated by a
brilliant idea :
432 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

“ Let's go in ! ”
We went in , Wemmick leaving his fishing-rod in the porch,
and looked all round. In the meantime, Wemmick was diving
into his coat- pockets, and getting something out of paper
there.
“ Halloa ! ” said he. “ Here's a couple of pairs of gloves !
Let's put 'em on ! ”
As the gloves were white kid gloves, and as the post -office
was widened to its utmost extent, I now began to have my
strong suspicions. They were strengthened into certainty
when I beheld the Aged enter at a side door, escorting a
lady.
“Halloa ! ” said Wemmick . “ Here's Miss Skiffins ! Let's
have a wedding. "
That discreet damsel was attired as usual, except that she was
now engaged in substituting for her green kid gloves, a pair of
white. The Aged was likewise occupied in preparing a similar
sacrifice for the altar of Hymen. The old gentleman , however,
experienced so much difficulty in getting his gloves on, that
Wemmick found it necessary to put him with his back against
a pillar, and then to get behind the pillar himself and pull away
at them , while I for my part held the old gentleman round the
waist, that he might present an equal and safe resistance . By
dint of this ingenious scheme, his gloves were got on to
perfection .
The clerk and clergyman then appearing, we were ranged in
order at those fatal rails. True to his notion of seeming to do it
all without preparation, I heard Wemmick say to himself as he
took something out of his waistcoat- pocket before the service
began , " Halloa ! Here's a ring !
I acted in the capacity of backer, or best-man to the bride
groom ; while a little limp pew-opener in a soft bonnet like a
baby's, made a feint of being the bosom friend of Miss Skiffins.
The responsibility of giving the lady away , devolved upon the
Aged, which led to the clergyman's being unintentionally
scandalised, and it happened thus. When he said , “ Who giveth
this woman to be married to this man ? ” the old gentleman ,
not in the least knowing what point of the ceremony we had
arrived at, stood most amiably beaming at the ten command
ments. Upon which , the clergyman said again , “ Who giveth
this woman to be married to this man ? " ” The old gentleman
 A WEDDING PARTY. 433

being still in a state of most estimable unconsciousness, the

bridegroom cried out in his accustomed voice, “ Now Aged P.
you know ; who giveth ? ” To which the Aged replied with
great briskness, before saying that he gave, “ All right John, all
right, my boy !” And the clergyman came to so gloomy a
pause upon it, that I had doubts for the moment whether we
should get completely married that day.
It was completely done, however, and when we were going
out of church, Wemmick took the cover off the font, and put
his white gloves in it, and put the cover on again . Mrs. Wem
mick, more heedful of the future, put her white gloves in her
pocket and assumed her green. “ Now , Mr. Pip,” said Wemmick,
triumphantly shouldering the fishing -rod as we came out, “ let
me ask you whether anybody would suppose this to be a
wedding- party !”
Breakfast had been ordered at a pleasant little tavern , a mile
or so away upon the rising ground beyond the green ; and there
was a bagatelle board in the room, in case we should desire to
unbend our minds after the solemnity. It was pleasant to
observe that Mrs. Wemmick no longer unwound Wemnick's
arm when it adapted itself to her figure, but sat in a high
backed chair against the wall, like a violoncello in its case, and
submitted to be embraced as that melodious instrument might
have done.
We had an excellent breakfast, and when any one declined
anything on table, Wemmick said, “Provided by contract, you
know ; don't be afraid of it ! ” I drank to the new couple,
drank to the Aged, drank to the Castle, saluted the bride at
parting, and made myself as agreeable as I could.
Wemmick came down to the door with me , and I again
shook hands with him , and wished him joy.
“ Thankee ! ” said Wemmick , rubbing his hands. “ She 's
such a manager of fowls, you have no idea. You shall have
some eggs and judge for yourself. I say, Mr. Pip ! ” calling me
back and speaking low . “This is altogether a Walworth senti
ment, please .”
“ I understand. Not to be mentioned in Little Britain ,"
said I.
Wemmick nodded. “ After what you let out the other day,
Mr. Jaggers may as well not know of it. He might think my
brain was softening, or something of the kind . ”
F F
434 GREAT EXPECTATIONS ,

CHAPTER LVI.

He lay in prison very ill, during the whole interval between his
committalfor trial, and the coming round of theSessions. He
had broken two ribs, they had wounded one of his lungs, and
he breathed with great pain and difficulty, which increased
daily. It was a consequence of his hurt that he spoke so low
as to be scarcely audible ; therefore, he spoke very little. But,
he was ever ready to listen to me, and it became the first duty
of my life to say to him , and read to him , what I knew he
ought to hear.
Being far too ill to remain in the common prison, he was
removed, after the first day or so, into the infirmary. This
gave me opportunities of being with him that I could not
otherwise have had. And but for his illness he would have
been put in irons, for he was regarded as a determined prison
breaker, and I know not what else.
Although I saw him every day, it was for only a short time;
hence the regularly recurring spaces of our separation were
long enough to record on his face any slight changes that
occurred in his physical state. I do not recollect that I once
saw any change in it for the better ; he wasted, and became
slowly weaker and worse, day by day from the day when the
prison door closed upon him .
The kind of submission or resignation that he showed, was
that of a man who was tired out. I sometimes derived an
impression, from his manner or from a whispered word or
two which escaped him , that he pondered over the question
whether he might have been a better man under better circum
stances. But, he never justified himself by a hint tending that
way, or tried to bend the past out of its eternal shape.
It happened on two or three occasions in my presence, that
his desperate reputation was alluded to by one or other of the
people in attendance on him. A smile crossed his face then,
and he turned his eyes on me with a trustful look, as if he
were confident that I had seen some small redeeming touch in
him , even so long ago as when I was a little child . As to all
the rest, he was humble and contrite, and I never knew him
complain .
When the Sessions came round , Mr. Jaggers caused an appli
 THE TRIAL . 435

cation to be made for the postponement of his trial until the

following Sessions. It was obviously made with the assurance
that he could not live so long, and was refused. The trial came
on at once, and when he was put to the bar, he was seated in a
chair. No objection was made to my getting close to the dock ,
on the outside of it, and holding the hand that he stretched
forth to me .
The trial was very short and very clear. Such things as could
be said for him, were said - how he had taken to industrious
habits, and had thriven lawfully and reputably . But, nothing
could unsay the fact that he had returned, and was there in
presence of the Judge and Jury . It was impossible to try him
for that, and do otherwise than find him guilty.
At that time it was the custom (as I learnt from my terrible
experience of that Sessions) to devote a concluding day to the
passing of Sentences, and to make a finishing effect with the
Sentence of Death. But for the indelible picture that my
remembrance now holds before me, I could scarcely believe,
even as I write these words, that I saw two -and -thirty men
and women put before the Judge to receive that sentence
together. Foremost among the two -and -thirty was he ; seated ,
that he might get breath eno to keep life in him .
The whole scene starts out again in the vivid colours of the
moment, down to the drops of April rain on the windows of
the court, glittering in the rays of April sun . Penned in the
dock, as I again stood outside it at the corner with his hand in
mine, were the two -and -thirty men and women ; some defiant,
some stricken with terror, some sobbing and weeping, some
covering their faces, some staring gloomily about. There had
been shrieks from among the women convicts, but they had
been stilled, and a hush had succeeded . The sheriffs with their
great chains and nosegays, other civic gewgaws and monsters,
criers, ushers, a great gallery full of people -a
a large theatrical

audience - looked on, as the two-and -thirty and the Judge

were solemnly confronted . Then , the Judge addressed them.
Among the wretched creatures before him whom he must
single out for special address, was one who almost from his
infancy had been an offender against the laws ; who, after
repeated imprisonments and punishments, had been at length
sentenced to exile for a term of years ; and who, under circum
stances of great violence and daring, had made his escape and
FF 2
436 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
been re - sentenced to exile for life. That miserable man would
seem for a time to have become convinced of his errors, when
far removed from the scenes of his old offences, and to have
lived a peaceable and honest life. But in a fatal moment,
yielding to those propensities and passions, the indulgence of
which had so long rendered him a scourge to society, he had
quitted his haven of rest and repentance , and had come back
to the country where he was proscribed. Being here presently
denounced, he had for a time succeeded in evading the officers
of Justice, but being at length seized while in the act of flight,
he had resisted them, and had—he best knew whether by
express design, or in the blindness of his hardihood - caused
the death of his denouncer, to whom his whole career was
known. The appointed punishment for his return to the land
that had cast him out being Death , and his case being this
aggravated case, he must prepare himself to Die.
The sun was striking in at the great windows of the court,
through the glittering drops of rain upon the glass, and it
made a broad shaft of light between the two -and -thirty and
the Judge, linking both together, and perhaps reminding some
among the audience, how both were passing on, with absolute
equality, to the greater Judgment that knoweth all things and
cannot err. Rising for a moment, a distinct speck of face in
this way of light, the prisoner said , “ My Lord, I have received
my sentence of Death from the Almighty , but I bow to yours, "
and sat down again. There was some hushing, and the Judge
went on with what he had to say to the rest. Then, they were
all formally doomed, and some of them were supported out,
and some of them sauntered out with a haggard look of
bravery, and a few nodded to the gallery, and two or three
shook hands, and others went out chewing the fragments of
herb they had taken from the sweet herbs lying about. He
went last of all, because of having to be helped from his chair
and to go very slowly ; and he held my hand while all the
others were removed, and while the audience got up (putting
their dresses right, as they might at church or elsewhere) and
pointed down at this criminal or at that, and most of all at
him and me.
I earnestly hoped and prayed that he might die before the
Recorder's Report was made, but, in the dread of his lingering
on, I began that night to write out a petition to the Home
 I PETITION FOR THE PRISONER . 437

Secretary of State, setting forth my knowledge of him, and

how it was that he had come back for my sake. I wrote it as
fervently and pathetically as I could, and when I had finished
it and sent it in , I wrote out other petitions to such men in
authority as I hoped were the most merciful, and drew up
one to the Crown itself. For several days and nights after he
was sentenced I took no rest, except when I fell asleep in my
chair, but was wholly absorbed in these appeals. And after I
had sent them in, I could not keep away from the places
where they were, but felt as if they were more hopeful and
less desperate when I was near them. In this unreasonable
restlessness and pain of mind, I would roam the streets of an
evening, wandering by those offices and houses where I had
left the petitions. To the present hour, the weary western
streets of London on a cold dusty spring night, with their
ranges of stern shut-up mansions and their long rows of lamps,
are melancholy to me from this association .
The daily visits I could make him were shortened now, and
he was more strictly kept. Seeing, or fancying, that I was
suspected of an intention of carrying poison to him , I asked to
be searched before I sat down at his bedside, and told the
officer who was always there, that I was willing to do anything
that would assure him of the singleness of my designs.
Nobody was hard with him or with me. There was duty to
be done, and it was done, but not harshly. The officer always
gave me the assurance that he was worse, and some other sick
prisoners in the room , and some other prisoners who attended
on them as sick nurses (malefactors, but not incapable of
kindness, God be thanked ! ), always joined in the same
report.
As the days went on, I noticed more and more that he would
lie placidly looking at the white ceiling, with an absence of
light in his face, until some word of mine brightened it for an
instant, and then it would subside again . Sometimes he was
almost, or quite, unable to speak ; then, he would answer me
with slight pressures on my hand, and I grew to understand his
meaning very well.
The number of the days had risen to ten, when I saw a
greater change in him than I had seen yet. His eyes were
turned towards the door, and lighted up as I entered .
“ Dear boy, ” he said as I sat down by his bed : “ I
438 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
thought you was late : But I knowed you couldn't be
that.”"
“ It is just the time," said I. “ I waited for it at the
gate.”
“ You always waits at the gate ; don't you , dear boy ? ” .
“ Yes. Not to lose a moment of the time."
“ Thank 'ee, dear boy, thank 'ee. God bless you ! You've
never deserted me, dear boy ."
I pressed his hand in silence, for I could not forget that I
had once meant to desert him .
“ And what's the best of all, ” he said , “ you've been more
comfortable alonger me, since I was under a dark cloud, than
when the sun shone. That's best of all. "
p . He lay on his back, breathing with great difficulty. Do
what he would, and love me though he did, the light left his
face everand again , and a film came over the placidlook at the
white ceiling.
“Are you in much pain to -day ? "
“ I don't complain of none, dear boy."
“You never do complain .”
He had spoken his last words. He smiled, and I understood
his touch to mean that he wished to lift my hand, and lay it on
his breast. I laid it there, and he smiled again, and put both
his hands upon it.
The allotted time ran out, while we were thus ; but, looking
round, I found the governor of the prison standing near me,
and he whispered, “ You needn't go yet.” I thanked him
gratefully, and asked, “Might I speak to him, if he can hear
me ? "
The governor stepped aside, and beckoned the officer away.
The change, though it was made without noise, drew back the
film from the placid look at the white ceiling, and he looked
most affectionately at me.
“Dear Magwitch, I must tell you, now at last. You under
stand what I say ? "
A gentle pressure on my hand .
“ You had a child once, whom you loved and lost."
A stronger pressure on my hand.
" She lived and found powerful friends. She is living now.
She is a lady and very beautiful. And I love her ! ”
With a last faint effort, which woud have been powerless
 THE PRISONER IS SET FREE . 439

but for my yielding to it, and assisting it, he raised my hand to

his lips. Then he gently let it sink upon his breast again, with
his own hands lying on it. The placid look at the white
ceiling came back, and passed away, and his head dropped
quietly on his breast.
Mindful, then, of what we had read together, I thought of
the two men who went up into the Temple to pray, and I knew
there were no better words that I could say beside his bed,
than “ O Lord, be merciful to him a sinner !”

CHAPTER LVII .

Now that I was left wholly to myself I gave notice of my

intention to quit the chambers in the Temple as soon as my
tenancy could legally determine, and in the meanwhile to
underlet them. At once I put bills up in the windows ; for, I
was in debt, and had scarcely any money, and began to be
seriously alarmed by the state of my affairs. I ought rather
to write that I should have been alarmed if I had had energy
and concentration enough to help me to the clear perception of
any truth beyond the fact that I was falling very ill. The late
stress upon me had enabled me to put off illness, but not to
put it away ; I knew that it was coming on me now, and I knew
very little else, and was even careless as to that.
For a day or two, I lay on the sofa, or on the floor - any
where, according as I happened to sink down — with a heavy
head and aching limbs, and no purpose, and no power. Then
there came one night which appeared of great duration, and
which teemed with anxiety and horror ; and when in the
morning I tried to sit up in my bed and think of it, I found I
could not do so.
Whether I really had been down in Garden - court in the dead
of the night, groping about for the boat that I supposed to be
there ; whether I had two or three times come to myself on
the staircase with great terror, not knowing how I had got out
of bed ; whether I had found myself lighting the lamp, pos
sessed by the idea that he was coming up the stairs, and that
440 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

the lights were blown out ; whether I had been inexpressibly

harassed by the distracted talking, laughing, and groaning, of
some one, and had half suspected those sounds to be of my
own making ; whether there had been a closed iron furnace in
a dark corner of the room , and a voice had called out over and
over again that Miss Havisham was consuming within it ; these
were things that I tried to settle with myself and get into some
order, as I lay that morning on my bed. But the vapour of
a limekiln would come between me and them , disordering
them all, and it was through the vapour at last that I saw two
men looking at me.
“ What do you want ? ” I asked , starting, “ I don't know
you .”
“ Well, sir," returned one of them , bending down and touch
ing me on the shoulder, “this is a matter that you'll soon
arrange I dare say , but you're arrested.”
“What is the debt ? "
“Hundred and twenty -three pound, fifteen, six. Jeweller's
account, I think.”
“ What is to be done ? ”
“ You had better come to my house, ” said the man. “ I
keep a very nice house."
I made some attempt to get up and dress myself. When I
next attended to them, they were standing a little off from the
bed, looking at me. I still lay there.
“ You see my state, " said I. “ I would come with you if I
could ; but indeed I am quite unable. If you take me from
here, I think I shall die by the way .”
Perhaps they replied, or argued the point, or tried to en
courage me to believe that I was better than I thought. For
asmuch as they hang in my memory by only this one slender
thread, I don't know what they did, except that they forbore to
remove me .
That I had a fever and was avoided, that I suffered greatly ,
that I often lost my reason, that the time seemed interminable,
that I confounded impossible existences with my own identity ;
that I was a brick in the house wall, and yet entreating to be
released from the giddy place where the builders had set me ;
that I was a steel beam of a vast engine, clashing and whirling
over a gulf, and yet that I implored in my own person to have
the engine stopped, and my part in it hammered off ; that I
 JOE TENDS ME IN MY SICKNESS. 411

passed through these phases of disease, I know of my own

remembrance, and did in some sort know at the time. That I
sometimes struggled with real people, in the belief that they
were murderers, and that I would all at once comprehend that
they meant to do me good, and would then sink exhausted in
their arms, and suffer them to lay me down , I also knew at
the time. But, above all, I knew that there was a constant
tendencyin all these people—who, when I was very ill, would
present all kinds of extraordinary transformations of the human
face, and would be much dilated in size - above all , I say , I
knew that there was an extraordinary tendency in all these
people, sooner or later, to settle down into the likeness of Joe.
After I had turned the worst point of my illness I began
to notice that while all its other features changed , this one con
sistent feature did not change. Whoever came about me, still
settled down into Joe. I opened my eyes in the night, and I
saw in the great chair at the bedside, Joe. I opened my eyes
in the day, and, sitting on the window -seat, smoking his pipe
in the shaded open window, still I saw Joe. I askedfor cooling
drink, and the dear hand that gave it me was Joe's. I sank
back on my pillow after drinking, and the face that looked so
hopefully and tenderly upon me was the face of Joe.
At last, one day, I took courage, and said, “ Is it Joe ? ”
And the dear old home-voice answered, “Which it air, old
chap.”
“ O Joe, you break my heart ! Look angry at me, Joe.
Strike me, Joe. Tell me of my ingratitude. Don't be so good
to me ! ”
For, Joe had actually laid his head down on the pillow at
my side, and put his arm round my neck, in his joy that I
knew him .
“Which dear old Pip, old chap,” said Joe , “ you and me
was ever friends. And when you 're well enough to go out
for a ride - what larks ! ”
After which, Joe withdrew to the window , and stood with
his back towards me, wiping his eyes. And as my extreme
weakness prevented me from getting up and going to him, I
lay there, penitently whispering, “ O God bless him ! O God
bless this gentle Christian man ! ”
Joe's eyes were red when I next found him beside me ; but,
I was holding his hand and we both felt happy.
442 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“ How long, dear Joe ? ”

.. “ Which you meantersay, Pip, how long have your illness
»
lasted, dear old chap ? ”
“ Yes, Joe.”
“ It's the end of May, Pip. To-morrow is the first of
June.”
!
“ And have you been here all the time, dear Joe ? ”
“ Pretty nigh, old chap. For, as I says to Biddy when the
news of your being ill were brought by letter, which it were
brought by the post, and being formerly single he is now
married though underpaid for a deal of walking and shoe
leather, but wealth were not a object on his part, and marriage
were the great wish of his heart
“ It is so delightful to hear you, Joe ! But I interrupt you
in what you said to Biddy."
“ Which it were,” said Joe, “ that how you might be amongst
strangers, and that how you and me having been ever friends,
a wisit at such a moment might not prove unacceptabobble.
And Biddy, her word were, ' Go to him, without loss of time.'
That, ” said Joe, summing up with his judicial air, were the
word of Biddy . " Go to him,' Biddy say, without loss of
time.' In short , I shouldn't greatly deceive you ,"> Joe added ,
after a little grave reflection, “ if I represented to you that
the word of that young woman were, without a minute's loss
of time.' "
There Joe cut himself short, and informed me that I was to
be talked to in great moderation, and that I was to take a
little nourishment at stated frequent times, whether I felt in
clined for it or not, and that I was to submit myself to all his
orders. So, I kissed his hand, and lay quiet, while he pro
ceeded to indite a note to Biddy, with my love in it.
Evidently Biddy had taught Joe to write. As I lay in bed
looking at him, it made me, in my weak state, cry again with
pleasure to see the pride with which he set about his letter.
My bedstead, divested of its curtains, had been removed, with
me upon it, into the sitting room, as the airiest and largest, and
the carpet had been taken away, and the room kept always
fresh and wholesome night and day. At my own writing -table,
pushed into a corner and cumbered with little bottles, Joe now
sat down to his great work, first choosing a pen from the pen
tray as if it were a chest of large tools, and tucking up his
 JOE TELLS ME ABOUT MISS HAVISHAM. 443
sleeves as if he were going to wield a crowbar or sledge
hammer. It was necessary for Joe to hold on heavily to the
table with his left elbow , and to get his right leg well out
behind him , before he could begin , and when he did begin he
made every down -stroke so slowly that it might have been six
feet long, while at every up -stroke I could hear his pen splut.
tering extensively. He had a curious idea that the inkstand
was on the side of him where it was not, and constantly dipped
his pen into space, and seemed quite satisfied with the result.
Occasionally, he was tripped up by some orthographical stumb
ling -block, but on the whole he got on very well indeed, and
when he had signed his name, and had removed a finishing
blot from the paper to the crown of his head with his two
forefingers, he got up and hovered about the table , trying the
effect of his performance from various points of view as it lay
there, with unbounded satisfaction .
Not to make Joe uneasy by talking too much, even if I had
been able to talk much , I deferred asking him about Miss
Havisham until next day. He shook his head when I then
asked him if she had recovered ?
“ Is she dead, Joe ? ”
6
“Why, you see, old chap," said Joe, in a tone of remon
strance, and by way of getting at it by degrees, “ I wouldn't go
so far as" to say that, for that's a deal to say ; but she
ain't
“ Living, Joe ? ""
“ That's nigher where it is,” said Joe ; " she ain't living."
“ Did she linger long, Joe ? ”
“ Arter you was took ill, pretty much about what you might
call (if you was put to it) a week ,” said Joe ; still determined,
on my account, to come at everything by degrees.
“Dear" Joe, have you heard what becomes of her pro
perty ?
“ Well, old chap ,” said Joe, “it do appear that she had
settled the most of it, which I meantersay tied it up, on Miss
Estella. But she had wrote out a little coddleshell in her own
hand a day or two afore the accident, leaving a cool four
thousand to Mr. Matthew Pocket. And why, do you suppose,
above all things, Pip , she left that cool four thousand unto
him ? ' Because of Pip's account of him the said Matthew .'
I am told by Biddy, that air the writing ,” said Joe, repeating
444 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

the legal turn as if it did him infinite good, “ . account of him

the said Matthew . And a cool four thousand, Pip ! ” .
I never discovered from whom Joe derived the conventional
temperature of the four thousand pounds, but it appeared to
make the sum of money more to him, and he had a manifest
relish in insisting on its being cool.
This account gave me great joy, as it perfected the only
good thing I had done. I asked Joe whether he had heard if
any of the other relations had any legacies ?
“ Miss Sarah,” said Joe, “ she have twenty -five pound per
annium fur to buy pills, on account of being bilious. Miss
Georgiana, she have twenty pound down. Mrs. what's
the name of them wild beasts with humps, old chap ? ”
“ Camels ? " said I, wondering why he could possibly want to
know .
Joe nodded. “ Mrs. Camels," by which I presently under
stood he meant Camilla, “ she have five pound fur to buy
rushlights to put her in spirits when she wake up in the
night."
The accuracy of these recitals was sufficiently obvious to me,
to give me great confidence in Joe's information. “And now , "
said Joe, “ you ain't that strong yet, old chap, that you can
take in more nor one additional shovel-full to -day. Old Orlick
he's been a bustin' open a dwelling-ouse.”
“ Whose ? ” said I.
66
Not, I grant you, but what his manners is given to blus
terous,” said Joe , apologetically ; “ still, a Englishman's ouse is
his Castle, and castles must not be busted ' cept when done in
war time. And wotsume'er the failings on his part, he were a
corn and seedsman in his hart .""
“ Is it Pumblechook's house that has been broken into,
then ? )”
“ That's it, Pip ,” said Joe ; " and they took his till, and they
took his cash -box, and they drinked his wine, and they partook
of his wittles, and they slapped his face, and they pulled his
nose, and they tied him up to his bedpust, and they giv him a
dozen, and they stuffed his mouth full of flowering annuals to
perwent his crying out. But he knowed Orlick , and Orlick ' s
in the county jail."
By these approaches we arrived at unrestricted conversation .
I was slow to gain strength , but I did slowly and surely become
 MY CONVALESCENCE . 445

less weak, and Joe stayed with me, and I fancied I was little
Pip again.
For, the tenderness of Joe was so beautifully proportioned
to my need, that I was like aa child in his hands. He would sit
and talk to me in the old confidence, and with the old simplicity,
and in the old unassertive protecting way, so that I would half
believe that all my life since the days of the old kitchen was
one of the mental troubles of the fever that was gone. He
did everything for me except the household work, for which he
had engaged a very decent woman, after paying off the laun
dress on his first arrival. “Which I do assure you, Pip ,” he
would often say, in explanation of that liberty ; “ I found her
a tapping the spare bed, like a cask of beer, and drawing off
the feathers in a bucket, for sale. Which she would have
tapped yourn next, and draw'd it off with you a laying on it,
and was then a carrying away the coals gradiwally in the soup
tureen and wegetable-dishes, and the wine and spirits in your
Wellington boots.”
We looked forward to the day when I should go out for a
ride, as we had once looked forward to the day of my apprén
ticeship. And when the day came, and an open carriage was
got into the Lane, Joe wrapped me up, took me in his arms,
carried me down to it, and put me in , as if I were still the
small helpless creature to whom he had so abundantly given of
the wealth of his great nature .
And Joe got in beside me, and we drove away together into
the country, where the rich summer growth was already on the
trees and on the grass, and sweet summer scents filled all the
air . The day happened to be Sunday, and when I looked on
the loveliness around me, and thought how it had grown and
changed, and how the little wild flowers had been forming, and
the voices of the birds had been strengthening, by day and by
night, under the sun and under the stars, while poor I lay
burning and tossing on my bed, the mere remembrance of
having burned and tossed there, came like a check upon my
peace. But, when I heard the Sunday bells, and looked around
a little more upon the outspread beauty, I felt that I was not
nearly thankful enough — that I was too weak yet, to be even
that - and I laid my head on Joe's shoulder, as I had laid it
long ago when he had taken me to the Fair or where not, and
it was too much for my young senses.
446 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
More composure came to me after a while, and we talked as
we used to talk , lying on the grass at the old Battery. There
was no change whatever in Joe. Exactly what he had been in
my eyes then, he was in my eyes still ; just as simply faithful,
just as simply right.
When we got back again and he lifted me out, and carried
me-s0 easily !-across the court and up the stairs, I thought
of that eventful Christmas Day when he had carried me over
the marshes. We had not yet made any allusion to my change
of fortune, nor did I know how much of my late history he
was acquainted with . I was so doubtful of myself now, and
put so much trust in him, that I could not satisfy myself
whether I ought to refer to it when he did not.
“ Have you heard, Joe, " I asked him that evening, upon
further consideration , as he smoked his pipe at the window ,
“ who my patron was ? ”
“ I heerd,” returned Joe, " as it were not Miss Havisham , old
chap.” "
Did you hear who it was, Joe ? "
“ Well ! I heerd as it were a person what sent the person
what giv' you the bank -notes at the Jolly Bargemen , Pip .”
“ So it was.”
“ Astonishing ! ” said Joe, in the placidest way.
“Did you hear that he was dead, Joe ? ” I presently asked,
with increasing diffidence .
“ Which ? Him as sent the bank -notes, Pip ? "
“ Yes. "
“ I think , ” said Joe, after meditating a long time,and looking
6 a

rather evasively at the window -seat, “as I did hear tell that
how he were something or another in a general way in that
direction ."
“Did you hear anything of his circumstances , Joe ?"
“ Not partickler, Pip. "
“" If you would like to hear, Joe- "" I was beginning, when
Joe got up and came to my sofa.
“ Lookee here, old chap ,” said Joe, bending over me. « Ever
the best of friends ; ain't us, Pip ? "
I was ashamed to answer him .
Werry good, then , ” said Joe, as if I had answered ; “ that's
all right ; that's agreed upon. Then why go into subjects, old
chap , which as betwixt two sech must be for ever onnecessary ?
 JOE MORALIZES. 447

There's subjects enough as betwixt two sech, without on

necessary ones. Lord ! To think of your poor sister and her
Rampages! And don't you remember Tickler ? "
“ I do indeed, Joe.”
“ Lookee here, old chap ,” said Joe . “ I done what I could
to keep you and Tickler in sunders, but my power were not
always fully equal to my inclinations. For when your poor
sister had a mind to drop into you , it were not so much , ” said
>

Joe, in his favourite argumentative way,“ that she dropped

into me too, if I put myself in opposition to her, but that she
dropped into you always heavier for it. I noticed that. It
ain't a grab at a man's whisker, nor yet a shake or two of a
man ( to which your sister was quite welcome ) , that ’ud put a
man off from getting a little child out of punishment. But
when that little child is dropped into, heavier, for that grab of
whisker or shaking, then that man naterally up and says to
himself, Where is the good as you are a doing ? I grant you
I see the 'arm ,' says the man, “ but I don't see the good. I
call upon you, sir, therefore, to pint out the good.” ”
“ The man says ? ” I observed, as Joe waited for me to
speak .
“ The man says,” Joe assented. “ Is he right, that man ? ”
“ Dear Joe, he is always right.”
“Well, old chap ," said Joe, “ then abide by your words. If
he's always right (which in general he's more likely wrong ),
he's right when he says this :-Supposing ever you kep any
little matter to yourself, when you was a little child, you kep
it mostly because you know'd as J. Gargery's power to part
you and Tickler in sunders, were not fully equal to his incli
nations. Theerfore, think no more of it as betwixt two sech ,
and do not let us pass remarks upon onnecessary subjects.
Biddy giv' herself a deal o' trouble with me afore I left ( for I
am most awful dull), as I should view it in this light, and,
viewing it in this light, as I should ser put it. Both of which,”
said Joe, quite charmed with his logical arrangement, “ being
done, now this to you a true friend, say. Namely. You
mustn't go a over-doing on it, but you must have your supper
and your wine-and -water and you must be put betwixt the
sheets."
The delicacy with which Joe dismissed this theme, and the
sweet tact and kindness with which Biddy_who with her
448 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

woman's wit had found me out so soon - had prepared him

for it, made a deep impression on my mind. But whether
Joe knew how poor was, and how my great expectations had
all dissolved, like our own marsh mists before the sun , I
could not understand.
Another thing in Joe that I could not understand when it
first began to develop itself, but which I soon arrived at a
sorrowful comprehension of, was this : As I became stronger
and better, Joe became a little less easy with me. In my
weakness and entire dependence on him , the dear fellow had
fallen into the old tone, and called me by the old names, the
dear “old Pip , old chap ,” that now were music in my ears.
I too had fallen into the old ways, only happy and thankful
that he let me. But, imperceptibly, though I held by them
fast, Joe's hold upon them began to slacken ; and whereas I
wondered at this, at first, I soon began to understand that
the cause of it was in me, and that the fault of it was all
mine.
Ah ! Had I given Joe no reason to doubt my constancy ,
and to think that in prosperity I should grow cold to him and
cast him off ? Had I given Joe's innocent heart no cause to
feel instinctively that as I got stronger, his hold upon me
would be weaker, and that he had better loosen it in time,
and let me go, before I plucked myself away ?
It was on the third or fourth occasion of my going out
walking in the Temple Gardens, leaning on Joe's arm , that I
saw this change in him very plainly. We had been sitting in
the bright warm sunlight, looking at the river, and I chanced to
say as we got up :
60
See, Joe ! I can walk quite strongly. Now, you shall see
me walk back by myself.”
“ Which do not over -do it, Pip ,” said Joe ; " but I shall be
happy fur to see you able , sir.”
The last word grated on me ; but how could I remonstrate !
I walked no further than the gate of the gardens, and then
pretended to be weaker than I was, and asked Joe for his
arm . Joe gave it me, but was thoughtful.
I, for my part, was thoughtful too ; for how best to check
this growing change in Joe, was a great perplexity to my
remorseful thoughts. That I was ashamed to tell him exactly
how I was placed , and what I had come down to , I do not
 MY PLANS FOR THE FUTURE . 449

seek to conceal ; but I hope my reluctance was not quite an

unworthy one. He would want to help me out of his little
savings, I knew, and I knew that he ought not to help me, and
that I must not suffer him to do it.
It was a thoughtful evening with both of us. But, before
we went to bed, I had resolved that I would wait over to
morrow, to -morrow being Sunday, and would begin my new
course with the new week. On Monday morning I would
speak to Joe about this change, I would lay aside this last
vestige of reserve, I would tell him what I had in my thoughts
(that Secondly, not yet arrived at), and why I had not de
cided to go out to Herbert , and then the change would be
.conquered for ever. As I cleared , Joe cleared , and it seemed
as though he had sympathetically arrived at a resolution
too .
We had a quiet day on the Sunday, and we rode out into
the country, and then walked in the fields.
“ I feel thankful that I have been ill, Joe,” I said .
“ Dear old Pip, old chap, you ’re a’most come round,
sir . ”
“ It has been a memorable time for me, Joe .”
“ Likewise for myself, sir , " Joe returned .
“We have had a time together, Joe, that I can never forget.
There were days once, I know, that I did for a while forget,
but I never shall forget these ."
“ Pip,” said Joe, appearing a little hurried and troubled,
“there has been larks. And , dear sir, what have been betwixt
us - have been . "
At night, when I had gone to bed, Joe came into my room , as
he had done all through my recovery. He asked me if I felt
sure that I was as well as in the morning ?
“ Yes, dear Joe, quite."
6 And are always a getting stronger, old chap ? "
“ Yes, dear Joe, steadily .”
Joe patted the coverlet on my shoulder with his great good
hand, and said , in what I thought a husky voice, “ Good
night ! ”
When I got up in the morning, refreshed and stronger yet, I
was full of my resolution to tell Joe all, without delay. I
would tell him before breakfast . I would dress at once and go
to his room and surprise him ; for, it was the first day I had
G G
450 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
been up early. I went to his room , and he was not there.
Not only was he not there, but his box was gone.
I hurried then to the breakfast-table, and on it found a
letter . These were its brief contents.

“ Not wishful to intrude I have departured fur you are well again
dear Pip, and will do better without Jo ."
“ P.S. Ever the best of friends. "

Enclosed in the letter, was a receipt for the debt and costs
on which I had been arrested . Down to that moment I had
vainly supposed that my creditor had withdrawn or suspended
proceedings until I should be quite recovered. I had never
dreamed of Joe's having paid the money ; but, Joe had paid it,
and the receipt was in his name.
What remained for me now, but to follow him to the dear
old forge, and there to have out my disclosure to him, and my
penitent remonstrance with him, and there to relieve my mind
and heart of that reserved Secondly, which had begun as a
vague something lingering in my thoughts, and had formed
into a settled purpose?
The purpose was, that I would go to Biddy, that I would
show her how humbled and repentant I came back , that I
would tell her how I had lost all I once hoped for, that I
would remind her of our old confidences in my first unhappy
time. Then, I would say to her, “ Biddy, I think you once
liked me very well, when my errant heart, even while it strayed
away from you, was quieter and better with you than it ever
has been since. If you can like me only half as well once
more, if you can take me with all my faults and disappoint
ments on my head, if you can receive me like a forgiven child
( and indeed I am as sorry, Biddy, and have as much need of
a hushing voice and a soothing hand ) I hope I am a little
worthier of you than I was - not much, but a little. And,
Biddy, it shall rest with you to say whether I shall work at the
forge with Joe, or whether I shall try for any different occu
pation down in this country, or whether we shall go away
to a distant place where an opportunity awaits me which I set
aside when it was offered , until I knew your answer. And
now, dear Biddy, if you can tell me that you will go through
the world with me, you will surely make it a better world for
 SATIS HOUSE FOR SALE . 451

me, and me a better man for it, and I will try hard to make
it a better world for you."
Such was my purpose . After three days more of recovery,
I went down to the old place, to put it in execution . And
how I sped in it, is all I have left to tell.

CHAPTER LVIII .

The tidings of my high fortunes having had a heavy fall, had

got down to my native place and its neighbourhood , before I
got there . I found the Blue Boar in possession of the intelli
gence, and I found that it made a great change in the Boar's
demeanour. Whereas the Boar had cultivated my good
opinion with warm assiduity when I was coming into property,
the Boar was exceedingly cool on the subject now that I was
going out of property.
It was evening when I arrived , much fatigued by the journey
I had so often made so easily. The Boar could not put me
into my usual bedroom , which was engaged (probably by some
one who had expectations), and could only assign me a very
indifferent chamber among the pigeons and post-chaises up the
yard. But, I had as sound a sleep in that lodging as in the
most superior accommodation the Boar could have given me,
and the quality of my dreams was about the same as in the
best bedroom .
Early in the morning while my breakfast was getting ready,
I strolled round by Satis House. There were printed bills on
the gate and on bits of carpet hanging out of the windows,
announcing a sale by auction of the Household Furniture and
Effects, next week . I'ne house itself was to be sold as old
building materials, and pulled down. Lot 1 was marked in
whitewashed knock -knee letters on the brewhouse ; Lot 2 on
that part of the main building which had been so long shut
up. Other lots were marked off on other parts of the struc
ture, and the ivy had been torn down to make room for the
inscriptions, and much of it trailed low in the dust and was
withered already. Stepping in for a moment at the open gate
G G 2
452 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
and looking around me with the uncomfortable air of a
stranger who had no business there, I saw the auctioneer's
clerk walking on the casks and telling them off for the in
formation of a catalogue compiler, pen in band, who made a
temporary desk of the wheeled chair I had so often pushed
along to the tune of Old Clem.
When I got back to my breakfast in the Boar's coffee -room ,
I found Mr. Pumblechook conversing with the landlord. Mr.
Pumblechook (uot improved in appearance by his late nocturnal
adventure ) was waiting for me, and addressed me in the
following terms.
Young man , I am sorry to see you brought low . But what
CG

else could be expected ! what else could be expected ! ”

As he extended his hand with a magnificently forgiving air,
and as I was broken by illness and unfit to quarrel, I took it.
“ William ,” said Mr. Pumblechook to the waiter, " put a
muffin on table . And has it come to this ! Has it come to
this ! ”
I frowningly sat down to my breakfast, Mr. Pumblechook
stood over me and poured out my tea - before I could touch
the teapot - with the air of a benefactor who was resolved to
be true to the last.
66
William ,” said Mr. Pumblechook, mournfully , "put the
salt on. In happier times, " addressing me, “ I think you took
sugar ? And did you take milk ? You did . Sugar and milk ,
William , bring a wartercress.”
“ Thank you,” said I, shortly ," but I don't eat watercresses."
“ You don't eat ' em ," returned Mr. Pumblechook , sighing
and nodding his head several times, as if he might have ex
pected that, and as if abstinence from watercresses were
consistent with my downfall. “ True. The simple fruits of
the earth . No. You needn't bring any, William .”
I went on with my breakfast, and Mr. Pumblechook con
tinued to stand over me, staring fishily and breathing noisily,
as he always did.
“ Little more than skin and bone ! ” mused Mr. Pumblechook ,
aloud.“ And yet when he went away from here (I may say
with my blessing ), and I spread afore him myhumble store,
like the Bee, he was as plump as a Peach !”
This reminded me of the wonderful difference between the
servile manner in which he had offered his hand in my new
THE FOUNDER OF MY FORTUNES HOLDS FORTH . 453
prosperity, saying, “ May I ? ” and the ostentatious clemency
with which he had just now exhibited the same fat five
fingers.
“Hah ! ” he went on, handing me the bread -and -butter.
“ And air you a going to Joseph ? ”
“In Heaven's name,” said I, firing in spite of myself, “ what
does it matter to you where I am going ? Leave that teapot
alone.”
It was the worst course I could have taken , because it gave
Pumblechook the opportunity he wanted .
“ Yes, young man ,” said he, releasing the haudle of the
article in question , retiring a step or two from my table, and
speaking for the behoof of the landlord and waiter at the door,
“ I will leave that teapot alone. You are right, young man .
For once, you are right. I forgit myself when I take such an
interest in your breakfast, as to wish your frame, exhausted by
the debilitating effects of prodigygality, to be stimulated by the
' olesome nourishment of your forefathers. And yet,” said
Pumblechook , turning to the landlord and waiter, and pointing
me out at arm's length, “ this is him as I ever sported with in
his days of happy infancy ! Tell me not it cannot be ; I tell
you this is him ! ”
A low murmur from the two replied. The waiter appeared
to be particularly affected .
“ This is him ,” said Pumblechook , “ as I have rode in my
shay -cart. This is him as I have seen brought up by hand .
This is him untoe the sister of which I was uncle by marriage,
as her name was Georgiana M’ria from her own mother, let
him deny it if he can !”
The waiter seemed convinced that I could not deny it, and
that it gave the case a black look.
“Young man,” said Pumblechook, screwing his head at me
in the old fashion , “ you air a going to Joseph . What does it
matter to me, you ask me, where you air a going ? I say to you,
Sir, you air a going to Joseph . "
The waiter coughed , as if he modestly invited me to get over
that.
“Now," said Pumblechook, and all this with a most exas
perating air of saying in the cause of virtue what was perfectly
convincing, and conclusive, “ I will tell you what to say to
Joseph, Here is Squires of the Boar present, known and re
454 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
spected in this town, and here is William , which his father's
name was Potkins if I do not deceive myself.”
“ You do not, sir ,” said William .
66
In their presence,” pursued Pumblechook , “ I will tell you,
young man , what to say to Joseph . Says you, 6' Joseph , I have
this day seen my earliest benefactor and the founder of my
fortun’s. I will name no names, Joseph , but so they are pleased
to call him up town, and I have seen that man . ”
“ I swear I don't see him here, " said I.
“Say that likewise," retorted Pumblechook . « Say you said
that, and even Joseph will probably betray surprise.”
“ There you quite mistake him ," said I. “ I know better."
>
Says you ,” Pumblechook went on. “ Joseph , I have seen
that man, and that man bears you no malice and bears me no
malice . He knows your character, Joseph , and is well ac
quainted with your pig -headedness and ignorance ; and he
knows my character, Joseph, and he knows my want of grati
toode. Yes, Joseph ,' says you," here Pumblechook shook his
head and hand at me, “ he knows my total deficiency of
common human gratitoode. He knows it, Joseph, as none can.
You do not know it, Joseph, having no call to know it, but
that man do . "
Windy donkey as he was, it really amazed me that he could
have the face to talk thus to mine .
<<
Says you, Joseph , he gave me a little message, which I
6

will now repeat. It was, that in my being brought low he saw

the finger of Providence . He knowed that finger when he saw
it, Joseph, and he saw it plain . It pinted out this writing,
Joseph. Reward of ingratitoode to earliest benefactor, and founder
of fortun's. But that man said that he did not repent of what
he had done, Joseph. Not at all. It was right to do it, it was
kind to>
do it, it was benevolent to do it, and he would do it
again .'
“ It's a pity,” said I, scornfully, as I finished my interrupted
breakfast, “ that the man did not say what he had done and
would do again .”
“ Squires of the Boar !” Pumblechook was now addressing
the landlord, “and William ! I have no objections to your
mentioning either up town or down town, if such should be
your wishes, that it was right to do it, kind to do it, benevolent
to do it, and that I would do it again . "
 I GO TO THE OLD FORGE. 455

With those words the Impostor shook them both by the

hand, with an air, and left the house ; leaving me much more
astonished than delighted by the virtues of that same indefinite
“ it . " " I was not long after him in leaving the house too, and
when I went down the High-street I saw him holding forth
(no doubt to the same effect) at his shop door to a select group,
who honoured me with very unfavourable glances as I passed
on the opposite side of the way.
But, it was only the pleasanter to turn to Biddy and to Joe,
whose great forbearance shone more brightly than before, if
that could be, contrasted with this brazen pretender. I went
towards them slowly, for my limbs were weak, but with a sense
of increasing relief as I drew nearer tothem, and a sense of leav
ing arrogance and untruthfulness further and further behind.
The June weather was delicious. The sky was blue, the larks
were soaring high over the green corn , I thought all that
countryside more beautiful and peaceful by far than I had ever
known it to be yet. Many pleasant pictures of the life that I
would lead there, and of the change for the better that would
come over my character when I had a guiding spirit at my side
whose simple faith and clear home -wisdom I had proved, be
guiled my way. They awakened a tender emotion in me ; for,
my heart was softeued by my return, and such a change had
come to pass, that I felt like one who was toiling home bare
foot from distant travel, and whose wanderings had lasted many
years .
The schoolhouse where Biddy was mistress, I had never seen ;
but, the little roundabout lave by which I entered the village
for quietness' sake, took me past it. I was disappointed to find
that the day was a holiday ; no children were there, and Biddy's
house was closed . Some hopeful notion of seeing her, busily
engaged in her daily duties,before she saw me, had been in
my mind and was defeated .
But, the forge was a very short distance off, and I went
towards it under the sweet green limes, listening for the clink
of Joe's hammer. Long after I ought to have heard it, and
long after I had fancied I heard it and found it but a fancy, all
was still. The limes were there, and the white thorns were
there, and the chestnut- trees were there, and their leaves
rustled harmoniously when I stopped to listen ; but, the clink of
Joe's hammer was not in the midsummer wind .
 456 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .
Almost fearing, without knowing why, to come in view of
the forge, I saw it at last, and saw that it was closed . No
gleam of fire, no glittering shower of sparks, no roar of
bellows ;'all shut up, and still.
But, the house was not deserted, and the best parlour seemed
to be in use, for there were white curtains fluttering in its
window, and the window was open and gay with flowers . I
went softly towards it, meaning to peep over the flowers, when
Joe and Biddy stood before me, arm in arm .
At first Biddy gave a cry, as if she thought it was my
apparition , but in another moment she was in my embrace. I
wept to see her, and she wept to see me ; I, because she looked
so fresh and pleasant ; she, because , I looked so worn and
white .
»
But, dear Biddy, how smart you are !”
“ Yes, dear Pip . "
>
“ And Joe, how smart you are !”
Yes, dear old Pip, old chap ."
I looked at both of them , from one to the other, and
then
“It's my wedding-day,” cried Biddy, in a burst of happiness,
6 and I am married to Joe ! ”

* * * * *

They had taken me into the kitchen, and I had laid my head
down on the old deal table . Biddy held one of my hands to
her lips, and Joe's restoring touch was on my shoulder.
“ Which he warn't strong enough , my dear, fur to be sur
prised, ” said Joe. And Biddy said, “ I ought to have thought
of it, dear Joe, but I was too happy.” They were both so
overjoyed to see me, so proud to see me, so touched by my
coming to them, so delighted that I should have come by
accident to make their day complete !
My first thought was one of great thankfulness that I had
never breathed this last baffled hope to Joe. How often, while
he was with me in my illness, had it risen to my lips. How
irrevocable would have been his knowledge of it, if he had
remained with me but another hour !
“Dear Biddy,” said I, 6“ you have the best husband in the
whole world, and if you could have seen him by my bed you
 I AM TOO LATE, AND BECOME PENITENT. 457
would have--But no, you couldn't love him better than
you do.”
"
“ No, I couldn't indeed , ” said Biddy.
And, dear Joe, you have the best wife in the whole world,
and she will make you as happy as even you deserve to be, you
»
dear, good, noble Joe ! ”
Joe looked at me with a quivering lip, and fairly put his
sleeve before his eyes.
“ And Joe and Biddy both , as you have been to church to
day, and are in charity and love with all mankind, receive my
humble thanks for all you have done for me, and all I have so
ill repaid ! And when I say that I am going away within the
hour, for I am soon going abroad, and that I shall never rest
until I have worked for the money with which you have kept
me out of prison, and have sent it to you, don't think, dear
Joe and Biddy, that if I could repay it a thousand times over,
I suppose I could cancel a farthing of the debt I owe you , or
that I would do so if I could ! ”
They were both melted by these words, and both entreated
me to say no more .
“ But I must say more. Dear Joe, I hope you will have
children to love, and that some little fellow will sit in this
chimney corner of a winter night, who may remind you of
another little fellow gone out of it for ever. Don't tell him ,
Joe, that I was thankless ; don't tell him, Biddy, that I was
ungenerous and unjust; only tell him that I honoured you
both, because you were both so good and true, and that, as
your child , I said it would be natural to him to grow up a much
better man than I did.”
“ I ain't a going,” said Joe, from behind his sleeve, “ to tell
him nothink o' that natur, Pip. Nor Biddy ain't. Nor yet no
one ain't.”
“ And now, though I know you have already done it in your
own kind hearts, pray tell me, both, that you forgive me !
Pray let me hear you say the words, that I may carry the
sound of them away with me, and then I shall be able to be
lieve that you can trust me, and think better of me in the time
to come ! "
“ O dear old Pip, old chap," said Joe. “ God knows as I
forgive you, if I have anythink to forgive ! ”
“ Amen ! And God knows I do !” echoed Biddy.
458 GREAT EXPECTATIONS .

“Now let me go up and look at my old little room , and rest

there a few minutes by myself. And then when I have eaten
and drunk with you, go with me as far as the finger -post, dear
Joe and Biddy, before we say good-bye !"

I sold all I had, and put aside as much as I could , for a com
position with my creditors - who gave me ample time to pay
them in full — and I went out and joined Herbert. Within a
month, I had quitted England, and within two months I was
clerk to Clarriker and Co., aud within four months I assumed
my first undivided responsibility. For, the beam across the
parlour ceiling at Mill Pond Bank, had then ceased to tremble
under old Bill Barley's growls and was at peace, and Herbert
had gone away to marry Clara, and I was left in sole charge of
the Eastern Branch until he brought her back ,
Many a year went round, before I was a partner in the house ;
but, I lived happily with Herbert and his wife, and lived
frugally, and paid my debts, and maintained a constant corre
spondence with Biddy and Joe. It was not until I became
third in the Firm, that Clarriker betrayed me to Herbert ; but,
he then declared that the secret of Herbert's partnership had
been long enough upon his conscience, and he must tell it . So,
he told it, and Herbert was as much moved as amazed, and the
dear fellow and I were not the worse friends for the long con
cealment. I must not leave it to be supposed that we were
ever a great House, or that we made mints of money. We
were not in a grand way of business , but we had a good name,
and worked for our profits, and did very well. We owed so
much to Herbert's ever cheerful industry and readiness, that I
often wondered how I had conceived that old idea of his inap
titude, until I was one day enlightened by the reflection , that
perhaps the inaptitude had never been iņ him at all, but had
been in me .
 I VISIT JOE AND BIDDY ONCE MORE. 459

CHAPTER LIX.

For eleven years I had not seen Joe nor Biddy with my bodily
eyes--though they had both been often before my fancy in the
East-when, upon an evening in December, an hour or two
after dark , I laid my hand softly on the latch of the old kitchen
door. I touched it so softly that I was not heard, and I looked
in unseen . There, smok his pipe in the old place by the
kitchen firelight, as hale and as strong as ever , though a little
grey, sat Joe ; and there, fenced into the corner with Joe's leg,
and sitting on my own little stool looking at the fire, was-- I.
again !
“ We giv' him the name of Pip for your sake, dear old chap,"
said Joe, delighted when I took another stool by the child's
side (but I did not rumple bis hair ), " and we hoped he might
grow a little bit like you, and we think he do. ”
I thought so too, and I took him out for аa walk next morn
ing, and we talked immensely, understanding one another to
perfection. AndI took him down to the churchyard, and set
him on a certain tombstone there, and he ved me from that
elevation which stone was sacred to the memory of Philip
Pirrip , late of this Parish , and Also Georgiana, Wife of the
Above.
Biddy,” said I, when I talked with her after dinner, as her
little girl lay sleeping in her lap, “ you must give Pip to me,
one of these days ; or lend him, at all events.”
"
“ No, no,” said Biddy, gently. “ You must marry."
“ So Herbert and Clara say, but I don't think I shall, Biddy.
I have so settled down their home, that it's not at all likely.
I am already quite an old bachelor.”
Biddy looked down at her child , and put its little hand to her
lips, and then put the matronly hand with which she had
touched it into mine. There was something in the action and
in the light pressure of Biddy's wedding -ring, that had a very
pretty eloquence in it.
“Dear Pip," said Biddy, “ you are sure you don't fret for
her ? "
“ O no-I think not, Biddy."
“ Tell me as an old friend . Have you quite forgotten
her ? ”
460 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ My dear Biddy, I have forgotten nothing in my life that
ever had a foremost place there, and little that ever had any
place there. But that poor dream , as I once used to call it, has
all gone by, Biddy, all gone by ! ”
Nevertheless, I knew while I said those words, that I secretly
intended to revisit the site of the old house that evening, alone ,
for her sake. Yes, even so. For Estella's sake.
I had heard of her as leading a most unhappy life, and as
being separated from her husband, who had used her with
great cruelty, and who had become quite renowned as a com
pound of pride, avarice, brutality, and meanness. And I had
heard of the death of her husband, from an accident consequent
on his ill- treatment of a horse . This release had befallen her
some two years before ; for anything I knew , she was married
again .
The early dinner -hour at Joe's left me abundance of time,
without hurrying my talk with Biddy, to walk over to the old
spotbefore dark . But, what with loitering on the way , to look
at old objects and to think of old times, the day had quite
declined when I came to the place.
There was no house now, no brewery, no building whatever
left, but thewall of the old garden. The cleared space bad
been enclosed with a rough fence, and looking over it, I saw
that some of the old ivy had struck root anew , and was growing
green on low quiet mounds of ruin . A gate in the fence stand
ing ajar, I pushed it open, and went in .
A cold silvery mist had veiled the afternoon , and the moon
was not yet up to scatter it. But, the stars were shining beyond
the mist, and the moon was coming, and the evening was not
dark. I could trace out where every part of the old house had
been, and where the brewery had been, and where the gates,
and where the casks. I had done so, and was looking along
the desolate garden walk , when I beheld a solitary figure
in it .
The figure showed itself aware of me as I advanced. It had
heen moving towards me, but it stood still. As I drew nearer
I saw it to be the figure of a woman . As I drew nearer yet, it
was about to turn away, when it stopped, and let me come up
with it. Then, it faltered as if much surprised , and uttered
my name, and I cried out :
“ Estella ! ”
CC ON
DOWN
SAT
WE
BENCH
THAT
.A
NEAR
WAS
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING . 461

“ I am greatly changed . I wonder you know me."

The freshness of her beauty was indeed gone, but its inde
scribable majesty and its indescribable charm remained. Those
attractions in it, I had seen before ; what I had never seen
before, was the saddened softened light of the once proud eyes ;
what I had never felt before, was the friendly touch of the
once insensible hand .
We sat down on a bench that was near, and I said, “ After
so many years, it is strange that we should thus meet again ,
Estella, here where our first meeting was ! Do you often come
back ? "
“ I have never been here since . "
66 Nor I.”
The moon began to rise, and I thought of the placid look at
the white ceiling, which had passed away. The moon began
to rise, and I thought of the pressure on my hand when I had
spoken the last words he had heard on earth .
Estella was the next to break the silence that ensued between
us .
“ I have very often hoped and intended to come back , but
have been prevented by many circumstances. Poor, poor old
place ! ”
The silvery mist was touched with the first rays of the moon.
light, and the same rays touched the tears that dropped from
her eyes. Not knowing that I saw them , and setting herself to
get the better of them , she said quietly :
“ Were you wondering, as you walked along, how it came
to be left in this condition ? "
“Yes, Estella .”
“ The ground belongs to me. It is the only possession I have
not relinquished . Everything else has gone from me, little by
little, but I have kept this. It was the subject of the only
determined resistance I made in all the wretched years .”
" Is it to be built on ? "
“At last it is. I came here to take leave of it before its
change. And you,” she said , in a voice of touching interest to
a wanderer, “ you live abroad still."
" Still.”
“ And do well, I am sure ? "
“ I work pretty hard for a sufficient living, and therefore-
Yes, I do well ! "
462 GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
“ I have often thought of you ," said Estella.
“ Have you ? ”
“ Of late, very often. There was a long hard time when I
kept far from me, the remembrance of what I had thrown away
when I was quite ignorant of its worth . But, since my duty
has not been incompatible with the admission of that remem
brance , I have given it a place in my heart.”
6 You have always held your place in my heart," I an
swered .
And we were silent again until she spoke.
“ I little thought,” said Estella, “ that I should take leave
of you in taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to
do so .”
“ Glad to part again , Estella ? To me, parting is a painful
thing. To me, the remembrance of our last parting has been
ever mournful and painful.”
“ But you said to me,” returned Estella, very earnestly,
«66 God bless you , God forgive you ! ' And if you could say
that to me then, you will not hesitate to say that to me now ,
now, when suffering has been stronger than all other teaching,
and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be.
I have been bent and broken, but I hope - into a better shape.
Be as considerate and good to me as you were, and tell me we
are friends. "
66
We are friends," said I, rising and bending over her, as she
rose from the bench .
“ And will continue friends apart,” said Estella.
I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined
place ; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I
first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and
in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I
saw no shadow of another parting from her.

THE END ,

C 128358
R. CLAY AND SONS, LONDON AND BUNGAY.
1
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