He took out of his pocket a great thick pocket-book, bursting withpapers, 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 beafeerd on it. There's more where that come from. I've come to theold country fur to see my gentleman spend his money like agentleman. That'll be my pleasure. My pleasure 'ull be fur to seehim do it. And blast you all!" he wound up, looking round the roomand snapping his fingers once with a loud snap, "blast you everyone, from the judge in his wig, to the colonist a stirring up thedust, I'll show a better gentleman than the whole kit on you puttogether!"

"Stop!" said I, almost in a frenzy of fear and dislike, "I want tospeak to you. I want to know what is to be done. I want to know howyou 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 asuddenly altered and subdued manner; "first of all, look'ee here. Iforgot myself half a minute ago. What I said was low; that's whatit was; low. Look'ee here, Pip. Look over it. I ain't a-going to below."

"First," I resumed, half-groaning, "what precautions can be takenagainst your being recognized and seized?"

"No, dear boy," he said, in the same tone as before, "that don't gofirst. Lowness goes first. I ain't took so many years to make agentleman, 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, asI replied, "I have looked over it. In Heaven's name, don't harpupon it!"

"Yes, but look'ee here," he persisted. "Dear boy, I ain't come sofur, 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?"

"Well, dear boy, the danger ain't so great. Without I was informedagen, the danger ain't so much to signify. There's Jaggers, andthere'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 toadvertise myself in the newspapers by the name of A. M. come backfrom Botany Bay; and years have rolled away, and who's to gain byit? Still, look'ee here, Pip. If the danger had been fifty times asgreat, 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, anddropping his jaw as he stared at me. "I'm not a-going back. I'vecome 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 bought formoney, and there's hair powder, and spectacles, and black clothes -shorts and what not. Others has done it safe afore, and what othershas done afore, others can do agen. As to the where and how ofliving, dear boy, give me your own opinions on it."

"You take it smoothly now," said I, "but you were very serious lastnight, when you swore it was Death."

"And so I swear it is Death," said he, putting his pipe back in hismouth, "and Death by the rope, in the open street not fur fromthis, and it's serious that you should fully understand it to beso. What then, when that's once 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 hewas fledged, and I'm not afeerd to perch upon a scarecrow. Ifthere's Death hid inside of it, there is, and let him come out, andI'll face him, and then I'll believe in him and not afore. And nowlet me have a look at my gentleman agen."

Once more, he took me by both hands and surveyed me with an air ofadmiring proprietorship: smoking with great complacency all thewhile.

It appeared to me that I could do no better than secure him somequiet lodging hard by, of which he might take possession whenHerbert returned: whom I expected in two or three days. That thesecret must be confided to Herbert as a matter of unavoidablenecessity, even if I could have put the immense relief I shouldderive from sharing it with him out of the question, was plain tome. But it was by no means so plain to Mr. Provis (I resolved tocall him by that name), who reserved his consent to Herbert'sparticipation until he should have seen him and formed a favourablejudgment 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 bookabout the world solely to swear people on in cases of emergency,would be to state what I never quite established - but this I cansay, that I never knew him put it to any other use. The book itselfhad the appearance of having been stolen from some court ofjustice, and perhaps his knowledge of its antecedents, combinedwith his own experience in that wise, gave him a reliance on itspowers as a sort of legal spell or charm. On this first occasion ofhis producing it, I recalled how he had made me swear fidelity inthe churchyard long ago, and how he had described himself lastnight as always swearing to his resolutions in his solitude.

As he was at present dressed in a seafaring slop suit, in which helooked as if he had some parrots and cigars to dispose of, I nextdiscussed with him what dress he should wear. He cherished anextraordinary belief in the virtues of "shorts" as a disguise, andhad in his own mind sketched a dress for himself that would havemade him something between a dean and a dentist. It was withconsiderable difficulty that I won him over to the assumption of adress more like a prosperous farmer's; and we arranged that heshould cut his hair close, and wear a little powder. Lastly, as hehad not yet been seen by the laundress or her niece, he was to keephimself out of their view until his change of dress was made.

It would seem a simple matter to decide on these precautions; butin my dazed, not to say distracted, state, it took so long, that Idid not get out to further them, until two or three in theafternoon. He was to remain shut up in the chambers while I wasgone, and was on no account to open the door.

There being to my knowledge a respectable lodging-house inEssex-street, the back of which looked into the Temple, and wasalmost within hail of my windows, I first of all repaired to thathouse, and was so fortunate as to secure the second floor for myuncle, Mr. Provis. I then went from shop to shop, making suchpurchases as were necessary to the change in his appearance. Thisbusiness transacted, I turned my face, on my own account, to LittleBritain. Mr. Jaggers was at his desk, but, seeing me enter, got upimmediately and stood before his fire.

"Now, Pip," said he, "be careful."

"I will, sir," I returned. For, coming along I had thought well ofwhat I was going to say.

"Don't commit yourself," said Mr. Jaggers, "and don't commit anyone. You understand - any one. Don't tell me anything: I don't wantto 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 that what Ihave been told, is true. I have no hope of its being untrue, but atleast I may verify it."

Mr. Jaggers nodded. "But did you say 'told' or 'informed'?" he askedme, with his head on one side, and not looking at me, but lookingin a listening way at the floor. "Told would seem to imply verbalcommunication. You can't have verbal communication with a man inNew South Wales, you know."

"I will say, informed, Mr. Jaggers."

"Good."

"I have been informed by a person named Abel Magwitch, that he isthe benefactor so long unknown to me."

"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 responsiblefor my mistakes and wrong conclusions; but I always supposed it wasMiss Havisham."

"As you say, Pip," returned Mr. Jaggers, turning his eyes upon mecoolly, and taking a bite at his forefinger, "I am not at allresponsible for that."

"And yet it looked so like it, sir," I pleaded with a downcastheart.

"Not a particle of evidence, Pip," said Mr. Jaggers, shaking hishead and gathering up his skirts. "Take nothing on its looks; takeeverything on evidence. There's no better rule."

"I have no more to say," said I, with a sigh, after standing silentfor a little while. "I have verified my information, and there's anend."

"And Magwitch - in New South Wales - having at last disclosedhimself," said Mr. Jaggers, "you will comprehend, Pip, how rigidlythroughout my communication with you, I have always adhered to thestrict line of fact. There has never been the least departure fromthe strict line of fact. You are quite aware of that?"

"Quite, sir."

"I communicated to Magwitch - in New South Wales - when he firstwrote to me - from New South Wales - the caution that he must notexpect me ever to deviate from the strict line of fact. I alsocommunicated to him another caution. He appeared to me to haveobscurely hinted in his letter at some distant idea he had ofseeing you in England here. I cautioned him that I must hear nomore 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 thathis presenting himself in this country would be an act of felony,rendering him liable to the extreme penalty of the law. I gaveMagwitch that caution," said Mr. Jaggers, looking hard at me; "Iwrote it to New South Wales. He guided himself by it, no doubt."

"No doubt," said I.

"I have been informed by Wemmick," pursued Mr. Jaggers, stilllooking hard at me, "that he has received a letter, under datePortsmouth, from a colonist of the name of Purvis, or--"

"Or Provis," I suggested.

"Or Provis - thank you, Pip. Perhaps it is Provis? Perhaps you knowit's Provis?"

"Yes," said I.

"You know it's Provis. A letter, under date Portsmouth, from acolonist of the name of Provis, asking for the particulars of youraddress, on behalf of Magwitch. Wemmick sent him the particulars, Iunderstand, by return of post. Probably it is through Provis thatyou have received the explanation of Magwitch - in New SouthWales?"

"It came through Provis," I replied.

"Good day, Pip," said Mr. Jaggers, offering his hand; "glad to haveseen you. In writing by post to Magwitch - in New South Wales - orin communicating with him through Provis, have the goodness tomention that the particulars and vouchers of our long account shallbe sent to you, together with the balance; for there is still abalance remaining. Good day, Pip!"

We shook hands, and he looked hard at me as long as he could seeme. 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 gettheir eyelids open, and to force out of their swollen throats, "O,what a man he is!"

Wemmick was out, and though he had been at his desk he could havedone nothing for me. I went straight back to the Temple, where Ifound the terrible Provis drinking rum-and-water and smokingnegro-head, in safety.

Next day the clothes I had ordered, all came home, and he put themon. Whatever he put on, became him less (it dismally seemed to me)than what he had worn before. To my thinking, there was somethingin him that made it hopeless to attempt to disguise him. The more Idressed him and the better I dressed him, the more he looked likethe slouching fugitive on the marshes. This effect on my anxiousfancy was partly referable, no doubt, to his old face and mannergrowing more familiar to me; but I believe too that he dragged oneof his legs as if there were still a weight of iron on it, and thatfrom head to foot there was Convict in the very grain of the man.

The influences of his solitary hut-life were upon him besides, andgave 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 takingout his great horn-handled jack-knife and wiping it on his legs andcutting his food - of lifting light glasses and cups to his lips,as if they were clumsy pannikins - of chopping a wedge off hisbread, and soaking up with it the last fragments of gravy round andround his plate, as if to make the most of an allowance, and thendrying his finger-ends on it, and then swallowing it - in theseways and a thousand other small nameless instances arising everyminute in the day, there was Prisoner, Felon, Bondsman, plain asplain could be.

It had been his own idea to wear that touch of powder, and I hadconceded the powder after overcoming the shorts. But I can comparethe effect of it, when on, to nothing but the probable effect ofrouge upon the dead; so awful was the manner in which everything inhim that it was most desirable to repress, started through thatthin layer of pretence, and seemed to come blazing out at the crownof his head. It was abandoned as soon as tried, and he wore hisgrizzled hair cut short.

Title: Great Expectations
Author: Charles Dickens
Viewed 221119 times

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