mr. jaggers, the lawyer in whose care pip found himself in london, was sharp and secret, and was so feared by criminals that they would never go near his house, though he never locked his door, even at night.
he had a crusty clerk named wemmick, as secret as he and a deal queerer. wemmick lived in a little wooden cottage that he called the castle, and which had its top cut out like a fort. it had a ditch all around it with a plank drawbridge. when he got home from the office in the evening he pulled up the drawbridge and ran up a flag on a flagstaff planted there. and exactly at nine every night he fired off a brass cannon that he kept in a latticework fortress beside it.
wemmick was the first one pip met in london, and the clerk took him to the rooms where mr. jaggers had arranged for pip to live, with the son of a gentleman who was to be his teacher. this gentleman was a mr. pocket, a relative (as pip discovered) of miss havisham, which fact made him all the more certain that she was his unknown friend. mr. pocket's son was named herbert, and the minute he and pip first saw each other they burst out laughing. for herbert was none other than the pale young gentleman who, years before[pg 148] in miss havisham's garden, pip had last seen looking up at him out of a very black eye.
they were excellent friends from that hour. they occupied the rooms together when they were in london, and pip also had a room of his own at mr. pocket's house in the country.
mr. pocket was a helpless scholarly man who depended on mrs. pocket to manage everything, and she depended on the servants. there were seven little pockets of various ages tumbling about the house, and mrs. pocket's only idea of management seemed to be to send them all to bed when any one of them was troublesome. at such times mr. pocket would groan, put his hands in his hair, lift himself several inches out of his chair and then let himself down again.
in spite of his oddities, however, mr. pocket was an excellent teacher, and pip in some ways made progress. but his great expectations taught him bad habits. he found it so easy to spend money that he soon overstepped the allowance mr. jaggers had told him was his, and not only had got into debt himself, but had led herbert, who was far poorer, into debt also.
joe came to see him only once, and then pip's spoiled eyes overlooked his true, rugged manliness and noted more clearly his awkward manners and halting speech. joe was quick to see this difference in the pip he had known and he did not stay long—only long enough to leave a message from miss[pg 149] havisham: that estella had returned from abroad and would be glad to see him if he came.
pip lost no time in making this visit, and started the very next day. the old house looked just the same, but a new servant opened the gate for him: it was orlick, as low-browed and sullen and surly as ever, and pip saw at the first glance that his old hatred was still smoldering.
miss havisham was in her room, dressed in the same worn wedding dress, and beside her, with diamonds on her neck and hair, sat estella. pip hardly knew her, she had grown so beautiful. but she was proud and wilful as of old, and though he felt the old love growing stronger every moment, he felt no nearer to her than in those past wretched days of his boyhood. before he left, miss havisham asked him eagerly if estella was not more lovely, and, as he sat by her alone, she drew his head close to her lips and whispered fiercely:
"love her, love her, love her! if she favors you, love her! if she tears your heart to pieces, love her, love her, love her!"
though this visit took him so near the old forge, pip did not go to see joe and biddy. indeed, only once in the months that followed did he see them—when he went to attend the funeral of mrs. joe.
after that he had no need to leave the city to see estella, for miss havisham soon sent her to live in london. from there she required her to write letters weekly, telling how many men she had fascinated[pg 150] and made wretched. pip saw her constantly and tortured himself with the growing belief that miss havisham's training (the purpose of which he had begun to guess) was really succeeding in crushing her heart, and was leaving her with no power to love any one.
thus, between hope and despair, pip became of age. mr. jaggers now told him that a certain large sum was his to spend each year. he was deeply in debt and a great part of his first year's portion went to pay his creditors. but with the remainder he did a good and unselfish deed: he bought secretly a share in a good business for herbert, so that his comrade became a partner in it.
a great blow was now to fall upon pip without warning—something that changed the whole course of his life. one rainy night, when herbert was away from london, as he sat alone in their rooms, a heavy step stumbled up the stair and a man entered. he was coarse and rough-looking and tanned with exposure, with a furrowed bald head, tufted at the sides with gray hair.
there was something strangely familiar to pip in his face, but at first he did not recognize him. seeing this, the stranger threw down his hat, twisted a handkerchief around his head, took a file from his pocket and walked across the room with a curious shivering gait that brought back to pip's mind, like a lightning flash, the scene in the churchyard so many years ago, when he had sat perched[pg 151] on a tombstone looking in terror at that same man's face. and he knew all at once that the man was the escaped convict of that day!
it was a strange tale the new-comer told then, one that pip's heart sank to hear. miss havisham had not been his benefactor after all. the one whose money had educated him, had set him there in london to live the life of a gentleman, the one to whom he was indebted for every penny he owned, was abel magwitch, a criminal—the convict for whom he had once stolen food years before!
pip sank into a chair trembling as magwitch, in a hoarse voice, told his story. he told how the man compeyson had led him into crime and then deserted him. how he had hated the other so fiercely that after they both had escaped from the prison-hulks he had dragged compeyson back to imprisonment even at the loss of his own liberty. how for that attempt to escape he had been sentenced to transportation for life, and had been sent to botany bay in australia, where in time he became in a measure free, though forbidden under penalty of death to return to england. how he had never forgotten the little pip who had tried to aid him, and how he had sworn that he would repay him many times over. how he had taken to sheep-raising and prospered, and became a rich man. how he had written to mr. jaggers, the lawyer who had defended him, and paid him to find pip and educate[pg 152] him. and how at last he had dared even the death penalty to come to england to see how he fared.
his voice shook as he told how he had slaved through all the years, looking forward only to this moment when he should come back to see the little pip whom he had made into a gentleman.
poor pip! it was an end to all his dreams of miss havisham and of estella. he shrank from magwitch, horrified at the bare thought of what he owed to him. he forced himself to utter some trembling words and set food before the convict, watching him as he ate like a ravenous old dog. his heart was like lead, all his plans knocked askew. even while he pitied the old man, he shrank from him as if from a wild beast, with all his childish dread increased a hundredfold.
at length pip put magwitch in herbert's room to sleep, but all that night he himself lay tossing and sleepless, staring into the darkness and listening to the rain outside.
