 CHAPTER XXXIII In her furred traveling dress, Estela seemed more delicately beautiful than she had ever seen 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 richmans, one in Surrey and one in Yorkshire, 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, to obey our instructions. We are not free to follow our own devices, you and I. As she looked at me and giving me the purse, I hoped there wasn't inner meaning in her words. She said them slidingly, but not with displeasure. A carriage will have to be sent for, Estela. 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 way upstairs, and led us to the black hole of the establishment, fitted up with a diminishing mirror, quite a superfluous article, considering the hole's proportions, an anchovy sauce-crew it, and somebody's patents. On my objecting to this retreat he took us into another room with a dinner-table for thirty, and in the greatest scorched leaf of a copy-book under a bushel of coal dust. Having looked at this extinct conflagration and shaking his head, he took my order, which, proving to be merely some tea for the lady, set 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 yourself as if you were someone else. Where did you learn how I speak of others? Come, come, said Estella, smiling delightfully. You must not expect me to go to school with 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. You 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. Very superior indeed. He is nobody's enemy. Don't add but his own, interposed Estella, for I hate that class of man, but he really is disinterested in 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 aface, 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 the occupation of their lives. You can scarcely realize to yourself the hatred those people feel for you. 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 inconsiderable perplexity. When she left off, and she had not laughed languidly but with real enjoyment, I said, in my diffident way with her, I hope I may suppose that you would not be amused if they did me any harm. No, you may be sure of that, said Estella. You may be certain that I laughed 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 occasion. 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 these 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 have 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 imposter 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 summoning these remembrances from any shallow place. I would not have been the cause of that look of hers for all my expectations and a heap. Two things I can tell you, said Estella. First, notwithstanding 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 greater 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 to me playfully, for her darker mood had been but momentary, I held it and put it to my lips. You ridiculous 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. 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 everything 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 refreshment, but of tea not a glimpse. A teaboard, cups and saucers, plates, knives and forks, including carvers, spoons, various, salt-sellers, a meek little muffin confined with the utmost precaution under a strong iron cover, Moses in the bulrushes 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 fireplace on triangular bits of bread, and ultimately a fat family urn which the waiter staggered in with, 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 containing 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 osler not forgotten, and the chamber made 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 Cheepside 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 pretense of not at first recognizing 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 somebody 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 suppose? I have been accustomed to see him at uncertain intervals ever since I can remember, but I know him no better now than I did before I could speak plainly. What is your 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 cherry 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 Gerard 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 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 enlightening. So we fell into other talk, and it was principally about the way by which we were travelling, and about what parts of London 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 Habisham's neighborhood 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 willfully chose to do it, and not because it would have rung 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 increasing her income. I wonder Ms. Havisham could part with you again so soon. It is a part of Ms. Havisham's plans for me, Pip, said Estella, with a sigh, as if she were tired. I am to write to her constantly, 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 I 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 stade old house where hoops and 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 in its time it 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-colored 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 heartache, and I got out with a worse heartache. At her 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 management of children and servants were considered the very best textbooks on those themes. But Mrs. Pocket was at home, and was in a little difficulty on account of the babies 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 a sectonic. 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 heartache of begging him to accept my confidence. But happening 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 I wouldn't. CHAPTER 34 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 recognition 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 behavior to Joe. My conscience was not by any means comfortable about bitty. 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 Havisham'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, supposing 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, so 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 disturbed 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 sparsely 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 start-top's suggestion we put ourselves down for election into a club called The Finches of the Grove, the object of which institution 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 gratifying 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 Drummel, 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 himself 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 anticipated a little, for I was not a Finch, and could 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 difficulty 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 desponding eye at breakfast time, that he began to look about him more hopefully about midday, that he drooped when he came into dinner, that he seemed to describe capital in the distance, rather clearly after dinner, that he all but realized capital towards midnight, and that at about two o'clock in the morning he became so deeply despondent again as to talk of buying a rifle and going to America, with the general purpose of compelling buffaloes to make his fortune. I was usually at Hammersmith about half the week, and when I was at Hammersmith I haunted Richmond. We were out separately by and by. Herbert would often come to Hammersmith 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 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 of his perplexities by the hair. While Mrs. Pocket tripped up the family with her footstool, read her book of dignities, lost her pocket-hankerchief, told us about her grandpa, and taught the young idea how to shoot by shooting it into bed whenever it attracted her notice. As I am now generalizing 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 as people could make up their minds to give us. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acquaintance were in the same condition. 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 look about him. I often paid him a visit in the dark back room in which he consorted with an ink-jar, a hat-peg, a co-box, a string-box, an almanac, 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 observance of a ceremony of seeing his principal, I think. He never did anything else in connection with Lloyd's that I could find out, 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 magnets. For, said Herbert to me, coming home to dinner on one of those special occasions, I find the truth to be handled that an opening won't come to one, but one must go to it. So I have been. If we have 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 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 unholy and unconnected, as my local paper might put it, with jewelry, I went so far as to seize the avenger by his blue collar and shake him off his feet, so that he was actually in the air like a booted cupid for presuming to suppose that we wanted a role. At certain times, meaning at uncertain times, for they depended on our humor, 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. Then, Herbert, I would respond, let us look into our affairs. We always derived profound satisfaction from making an 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. After 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 a sheet of paper, and write across the top of it in a neat hand, the heading, Memorandum of Pip's Dets, with Barnard's Inns and the date very carefully added. It would also take a sheet of paper, and write across it with similar formalities, Memorandum of Herbert's Dets. 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 pens going refreshed us exceedingly, in so much that I sometimes 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 the most rueful manner at the sight of his accumulating 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 assiguity. 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 Cobbsville, or Lobs, or Nobs, 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 occasions 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. Myself 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 have 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 tuppence, 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 hundred. I had the highest opinion of the wisdom of the 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 arrest, 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 drop through the 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 an allusion to its heavy black seal and border. The letter was signed, Trav and Company, and its contents were simply that I was an honoured sir, and that they begged to inform me that Mrs. J. Gargary had departed this life on Monday last, at twenty minutes past six in the evening, at that my attendance was requested at the interment on Monday next, at three o'clock in the afternoon. CHAPTER 35 It was the first time that a grave had opened in my road of life, and the gap it made in this 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 ideas that she was coming towards me in the street, or that she would presently knock at the door. In my rooms, too, with which she had never been at all associated, 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 I 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 indignation against the assailant from whom she had suffered so much, and I felt that, on sufficient proof, I could have revengefully pursued Orlik or any one 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 bore 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 Trab and Company had put in a funeral 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 recognized a post-boy discharged from the bore for turning a young couple into a saw-pit on their bridal morning, and 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 forage, and as I came up one of the two warders, the post-boy, 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 geese for a wager, opened the door and showed me into the best parlor. Here Mr. Trabbe had taken unto himself the best table and it 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 his chin, was seated apart at the upper end of the room, where, as chief mourner, he had evidently been stationed by Trabbe. When I bent down and said to him, Dear Joe, how are you? He said, Pip-old chap, you knowed her when she was 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 parlor being faint with the smell of sweet cake I looked about for the table of refreshment. 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 ornaments, but had never been used in all my life, one full of port and one of sherry. Standing at this table I became conscious of the servile pubble-chook in a black cloak and several yards of hat-band 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, dear sir? and did. I then described Mr. and Mrs. Hubbell, 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 Trabbe into ridiculous bundles. Which I mean to say, Pip, Joe whispered me, as we were being what Mr. Trabbe called formed in the parlor, two and two, and it was dreadfully like a preparation for some grim kind of dance. Which I mean to say, sir, as I would in preference have carried her to the church myself, along with three or four friendly ones what come to it with swillin' hearts and arms, but it were considered what the neighbors would look down on such, and would be of opinions as it were, wanting in respect. Pocket handkerchiefs out, all! cried Mr. Trabbe 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. Hubbell. The remains of my poor sister had been brought round by the kitchen door, and at 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, shuffling and blundering along under the guidance of two keepers, the post-boy and his comrade. The neighborhood, however, highly approved of these arrangements, and we were much admired as we went through the village, the more youthful and vigorous part of the community 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 manner 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 Pumblechook, who, being behind me, persisted all the way as a delicate attention in arranging my streaming hat-band and smoothing my cloak. My thoughts were further distracted by the excessive pride of Mr. and Mrs. Hubbell, who were surpassingly conceited and vain-glorious in being members of so distinguished a procession. And now the range of marshes lay clear before us, were the sails of the ships on the river growing out of it, and we went into the churchyard close to the graves of my unknown parents, Philip Pirip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana, wife of the above. And there my sister was laid quietly in the earth, while the lark sang high above it, and the light wind strewed it with beautiful shadows of clouds and trees. By the conduct of the worldly-minded Pumblechook while this was doing, I desired to say no more than it was all addressed to me, and that even when those noble passages were read which remind humanity how it brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out, and how it fleeth like a shadow and never continueeth long in one stay, I heard him cough a reservation of the case of a young gentleman who came unexpectedly into large property. When we got back he had the hardy-hood to tell me that he wished my sister could have known I had done her so much honour, and 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. Hubbell 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. Hubbell to make an evening of it, I felt sure, and to tell the jolly bargeman that he was the founder of my fortunes and my earliest benefactor. When they were all gone and when Trab and his men, but not his boy, I looked for him, had crammed their mummary 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 parlor, not in the old kitchen, and Joe was so exceedingly particular what he did with his knife and fork and the salt-seller 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 forage, 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. Biddy, said I, I think you might have written to me about these sad matters. Do you, Mr. Pip? said Biddy. I should have written if I had thought that. 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. Hubbell, and I am going to her to-morrow. I hope we shall be able to take some care of Mr. Gargory together until he settles down. How are you going to live, Biddy? If you want any mo—how am I going to live? repeated Biddy, striking in with the 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 neighbors, 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, and she raised her eyes to my face. The new schools are not like the old, but I learned a good deal from you after that time, and have had time since then to 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 Mr. Gargary 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 so 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 has become of Orlick? I should think from the color 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. He revived my utmost indignation to find 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 had led me into more temperate talk, and she told me how Joe loved me, and how Joe never complained of anything. She didn't say of me. She had no need. I knew what she meant. But ever did his duty and 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. Biddy, didn't you hear me? Yes, Mr. Pip. Not to mention you're calling me Mr. Pip, which appears to me to be in bad taste, Biddy. What do you mean? 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. Oh, 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 if 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 stately a leave of her as I could in my murmuring soul deemed 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't wipe 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. No, don't be hurt, she pleaded quite pathetically. Let 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 36 Herbert and I went on from bad to worse in the way of increasing 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 fulfillment 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 something 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 a folding 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 coattails. "'Well, Pip,' said he, "'I must call you Mr. Pip today. 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 castes on the shelf were not far from him, and their expression was as if they were making a stupid, apoplectic 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?' "'At,' repeated Mr. Jaggers, still looking at the ceiling, the rate of. And then looked all round the room, and paused with his pocket-handkerchief in his hand, halfway 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 today?' "'No. Ask another.' "'Is that confidence to be imparted to me soon?' "'Wave that a moment,' said Mr. Jaggers, and ask another. "'I looked about me, but there appeared to be now no possible escape from the inquiry. "'Have I 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. "'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 fountainhead, "'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. Jaggers stopped me. "'I am not paid, Pip,' said he, coolly, "'to carry your words to any one.' "'And then gathered up his coattails, 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 wave 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 when 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 motion that "'he could anyhow be got to answer it. "'And the two horrible casts of the twitch-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 playing 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 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 paws 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 designing 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 shrewdly 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 himself all over the chest "'with his safe-key as an athletic exercise "'after business.' "'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 and disheartening "'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 saw-dust. "'With some money down,' I replied, "'for an uneasy remembrance 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 name of the various bridges "'up as high as Chelsea Reach. "'Let's see. "'There's London, one. "'Southwork, two. "'Blackfriars, three. "'Waterloo, four. "'Westminster, five. "'Vokeshall, six.' "'He had checked off each bridge in its turn "'with the handle of his 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 center 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, unprofitable 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 it is your opinion,' I inquired "'with some little indignation, "'that a man should never 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. "'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 how would that be your opinion at Walworth?' "'Mr. Pip,' he replied with gravity, "'Walworth is one place, and this office is another. "'Much as the agent is one person, "'and Mr. Jaggers is another. "'They must not be confounded together. "'My Walworth sentiments must be taken at Walworth. "'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 welcomed 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, "'toweling 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 doorstep, "'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 an agent in Gerard 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 worthwhile "'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, Melancholy, "'because, after he was gone, "'Hurbert 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.' End of chapter. Chapter 37 of Great Expectations This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Great Expectations By Charles Dickens Chapter 37 Deeming Sunday the best day for taking Mr. Wemmick's Walworth sentiments, I devoted the next ensuing Sunday afternoon to a pilgrimage to the castle. On arriving before the battlements, 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 specific manner by the agent. "'My son, sir,' said the old man, after securing the drawbridge, rather had it in his mind that you might happen to drop in. He left word that he would soon be home from his afternoon'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. "'Ha! I have heard 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-coupering.' Curious to know how the old gentleman stood informed concerning 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 what he meant, or what jokie thought I had made. As I could not sit there nodding at him perpetually without making some other attempt to interest him, I shouted and inquire whether his own calling in life had been the wine-coupering, 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 warehousing! First, over yonder!' He appeared to mean up the chimney, but I believe he intended to refer me to Liverpool. 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 straddled 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 it presented me to Miss Skiffins, a lady by whom he was acquainted. 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 pronounced 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 frequent visitor at the castle, for, on our going in, am I 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 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 pools is only known to the aged, Miss Skiffins and me. And Mr. Wemmick made them, added Miss Skiffins, with his own hands out of his own head. While Miss Skiffins was taking off her bonnet, she retained her green gloves during the evening as an outward invisible sign that there was company. Wemmick invited me to take a walk with him round the property, and see how the island looked in wintertime. Thinking that he did this to give me an opportunity 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 confess that I feared I had but ill repaid them, and that he might have done better without me in my expectations. Keeping Miss Havisham in the background at a great distance, I still hinted at the possibility of my having competed with him in his prospects, and at the certainty 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—say, of 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 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. Say, you'll help me to be good, then, said I. He cod, replied Wemmick, shaking his head. That's not my trade. Nor is this your trading place, said I. You are right, he returned. You hit the nail on a 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—he is an accountant and agent. I'll look him up and go to work for you. I thank you ten thousand times. On the contrary, said he, I thank you, for though we are 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 returned 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 me in some danger of melting his eyes. It was no nominal meal that we were going to make, but a vigorous reality. The aged prepared such a haystack of 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 joram of tea that the pig in the back premises became strongly excited and repeatedly expressed his desires 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 tranquility of the castle, but the occasional tumbling open of John and Miss Skiffins, which little doors were a prey to some spasmodic infirmity that may be sympathetically uncomfortable until I got used to it. I inferred from the methodical nature of Miss Skiffins' arrangements that she made tea there every Sunday night, and I rather suspected that a classic brooch she wore, representing the profile of an undesirable 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 whole of the toast, and drank tea in proportion, and it was delightful to see how warm and greasy we all got after it. The Asian especially might have passed for some clean old chief of a savage tribe just oiled. After a short pause of her pose, Miss Skiffins, in the absence of the little servant who, it seemed, retired to the bosom of her family on Sunday afternoons, 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 parrot, dip us the paper. Wemmick explained to me, while the age had got his spectacles out, that this was according to custom, and that it gave the old 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. Only tip him a nod every now and then, when he looks off his paper, said Wemmick, 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 a pleasanter peculiarity that it seemed to come through a keyhole. 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 watching 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 expressed the greatest interest in amazement, and nodded until he resumed again. As Wemmick and Miss Skiffin sat side by side, and as I sat in his 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 Skiffin's waist. In course of time I saw his hand appear on the other side of Miss Skiffin's. But at that moment Miss Skiffin's 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 Skiffin'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 Skiffin's 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, I saw his hand appear on the other side of Miss Skiffin's. Instantly Miss Skiffin 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 Skiffin's. 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, representing 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 Skiffin's mixed, and I observed that she and Wemmick drank out of one glass. Of course I knew better than to offer to see Miss Skiffin's 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 personal 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 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 contention on my coming into my property. Miss Skiffin'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 shall never 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 cleriker, the young merchant's name, and of clerikers 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 cleriker'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