the days that followed were one long agony to pip. when herbert returned he told him the whole story. herbert was shocked and surprised, but he was true to his friendship and together they planned what to do.[pg 153]
it was clear to pip that he could not spend any more of magwitch's money; indeed, recoiling from him as he did, he would gladly have repaid every penny if it had been possible. to make the matter worse, it seemed that magwitch had brought a great deal of money with him and was determined that pip should move into a fashionable house, buy fast horses, keep servants and live most expensively.
pip hesitated to tell magwitch his decision, however, for what the convict now planned showed how much he had thought of him and loved him in his rough way during all his years in australia.
meanwhile he and herbert kept magwitch hidden as much as possible, and gave out that the old man was pip's uncle, on a visit from the country.
unluckily, however, magwitch's presence in london had been seen. he had been recognized in the street and followed to pip's rooms. and the man who saw him was his bitterest enemy—compeyson, the breaker of miss havisham's heart, who had first made magwitch a criminal, and whom the convict so hated. compeyson had served out his term, and was now free. he saw his chance to pay the old grudge with magwitch's life. in order, however, to make sure of his capture he decided to entice pip away and bring the police upon magwitch when he would have no one to warn him.
meanwhile, unconscious of this plot, pip made a last visit to miss havisham. he felt now that he[pg 154] was again poor and without prospects, and with small hope of winning estella.
but finding her there, in miss havisham's presence, he told her how dearly he had always loved her since the first day they had met. she seemed moved by his distress, but her heart had not yet awakened. she told him that she was about to marry one whom he knew for a coarse, brutal man, in every way beneath her. and then pip knew for certain that miss havisham's bitter teaching had borne its fruit at last, and that estella was to marry this man, not because she loved him, but merely as a final stab to all the other worthier ones.
in spite of her years of self-torture and revengeful thoughts, miss havisham had still a spark of real pity. as pip reminded her of the wreck she had made of him, through estella, and through allowing him falsely to believe her his benefactor, his agony struck her with remorse. she put her hand to her heart as he ended, and as he left them he saw through his own tears her hand still pressed to her side and her faded face ghastly in the candlelight.
sick with despair, pip went back to london, to learn from wemmick, mr. jaggers's friendly clerk, that the rooms were being watched, and that he and herbert (who in the absence of pip had confided in him) had removed magwitch to another lodging—a room overlooking the river, from which it would be easier, if worst came to worst, to get him on a ship and so out of the country.[pg 155]
to do this it was necessary to wait for a favorable chance. so pip, providing for magwitch's comfort meantime, bought a boat, and he and herbert rowed daily up and down the river, so that when the time came to row the convict to some sea-going ship they would know the turns of the stream.
pip soon learned that compeyson was their spy. wopsle, who in pip's boyhood had been the clerk in the village church, had turned actor (he made, to be sure, a very poor one!), and was now playing in london. in the theater one night he recognized in the audience the pale-faced convict whom he had once, with joe, the blacksmith, and little pip, seen dragged back to capture by his more powerful fellow. pip had long ago learned from magwitch that this man was compeyson, and when wopsle said he had seen him sitting directly back of pip at the play, the latter realized that they had this bitter enemy to reckon with, and that magwitch was in terrible danger.
only once was this time of waiting interrupted, and that was by a letter from miss havisham begging pip to come to see her. he went, and she told him she realized now too late how wicked her plans had been, and begged him with tears to try to forgive her. pip, sore as his own heart was, forgave her freely, and he was glad ever afterward that he had done so, for that same evening, while he was standing near her, her yellowed wedding veil, sweeping too near the hearth, caught fire and in[pg 156] an instant her whole dress burst into flame. pip worked desperately to put out the fire, but she was so frightfully burned that it was plain she could not live long. his own hands and arms were painfully injured, so that he returned to london with one arm, for the time being, almost useless.
compeyson, meanwhile, made friends with orlick, and between them they wrote pip a letter, decoying him to a lonely hut in the marshes. when he came there orlick threw a noose over his head, tied him to the wall and would have killed him with a great stone-hammer but for herbert, who broke down the door and rushed in just in time to put orlick to flight and to save pip's life. herbert had picked up the letter pip had thrown down, read it, seen in it something suspicious, and had followed from london.
pip saw now there was no time to lose if he would save magwitch. they made haste to london, and when night fell, took the convict in the rowboat and rowing a few miles down the river, waited to board a steamer bound for germany.
what happened next happened very speedily. they were about to board the steamer when a boat containing compeyson and some police shot out from the bank, compeyson calling on magwitch to surrender. the two boats clashed together, and the steamer, unable to stop, ran them both down. at the same moment magwitch seized compeyson and they went into the water together.[pg 157]
when pip came to himself the steamer had gone, his own boat had sunk and he and herbert had been dragged aboard the other. a few minutes later magwitch was picked up, badly injured in the chest, and was handcuffed. but they did not find compeyson—the other had killed him in that fearful struggle under water.
that night magwitch was lodged in jail. before many days he was tried for returning to england and was sentenced to be hanged. but it was clear before the trial ended that his injury would never let him live to suffer this penalty.
and now, as he saw the convict lying day by day drawing nearer to death, calling him "dear boy" and watching for his face, all the loathing and repugnance pip had felt for him vanished away. he had sat beside the sick man at his trial; now he sat beside his cot each day in his cell, holding his hand. he knew there could be no longer any possibility of his taking the fortune the convict would leave, for, being condemned to death, all magwitch's property went to the crown. but he did not tell this to magwitch.
one thing he discovered, however, which he told the dying man. this concerned estella. as the film of death came over the convict's face pip said:
"dear magwitch, you had a child once, whom you loved and lost. she is living still. she is a lady and very beautiful. and i love her!" and hearing this last glad news, magwitch died.[pg 158]
before this happened herbert had left england for egypt where his business took him. left alone, after the strain, pip fell sick of a fever and in the midst of this found himself arrested for debt.
that was the last he knew for many weeks. when he came to himself he found joe, the true-hearted blacksmith, nursing him. he had paid pip's debts. miss havisham was dead and orlick had been sent to jail for robbing uncle pumblechook's house.
joe's faithfulness smote pip with a sense of his own ingratitude. after a visit to the old forge with joe and biddy, now joe's wife, pip felt how true were the old friends. he buried for ever the past false pride and folly and knew himself for all his trials a nobler man.
he sailed to egypt, where he became a clerk in herbert's business house, and finally a partner, and it was eleven years before he was in england again.
then, one day he went down to the old ruined house where miss havisham had lived.
he entered the weed-grown garden, and there on a bench, a sad, beautiful widow, sat estella. her husband had treated her brutally till he died, and she had learned through suffering to know that she had a heart and had thrown away the one thing that could have made her happy—pip's love.
when pip and she left the old house that day it was hand in hand, never to part again.
