Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (best ereader under 100 TXT) đź“–
- Author: Charles Dickens
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“Dear boy,” he answered, “I’m quite content to take my chance. I’ve
seen my boy, and he can be a gentleman without me.”
No. I had thought about that, while we had been there side by side.
No. Apart from any inclinations of my own, I understood Wemmick’s
hint now. I foresaw that, being convicted, his possessions would be
forfeited to the Crown.
“Lookee here, dear boy,” said he “It’s best as a gentleman should
not be knowed to belong to me now. Only come to see me as if you
come by chance alonger Wemmick. Sit where I can see you when I am
swore to, for the last o’ many times, and I don’t ask no more.”
“I will never stir from your side,” said I, “when I am suffered to
be near you. Please God, I will be as true to you as you have been
to me!”
I felt his hand tremble as it held mine, and he turned his face
away as he lay in the bottom of the boat, and I heard that old
sound in his throat,—softened now, like all the rest of him. It
was a good thing that he had touched this point, for it put into my
mind what I might not otherwise have thought of until too late,—
that he need never know how his hopes of enriching me had perished.
He was taken to the Police Court next day, and would have been
immediately committed for trial, but that it was necessary to send
down for an old officer of the prison-ship from which he had once
escaped, to speak to his identity. Nobody doubted it; but
Compeyson, who had meant to depose to it, was tumbling on the
tides, dead, and it happened that there was not at that time any
prison officer in London who could give the required evidence. I
had gone direct to Mr. Jaggers at his private house, on my arrival
over night, to retain his assistance, and Mr. Jaggers on the
prisoner’s behalf would admit nothing. It was the sole resource;
for he told me that the case must be over in five minutes when the
witness was there, and that no power on earth could prevent its
going against us.
I imparted to Mr. Jaggers my design of keeping him in ignorance of
the fate of his wealth. Mr. Jaggers was querulous and angry with me
for having “let it slip through my fingers,” and said we must
memorialize by and by, and try at all events for some of it. But
he did not conceal from me that, although there might be many cases
in which the forfeiture would not be exacted, there were no
circumstances in this case to make it one of them. I understood
that very well. I was not related to the outlaw, or connected with
him by any recognizable tie; he had put his hand to no writing or
settlement in my favor before his apprehension, and to do so now
would be idle. I had no claim, and I finally resolved, and ever
afterwards abided by the resolution, that my heart should never be
sickened with the hopeless task of attempting to establish one.
There appeared to be reason for supposing that the drowned informer
had hoped for a reward out of this forfeiture, and had obtained
some accurate knowledge of Magwitch’s affairs. When his body was
found, many miles from the scene of his death, and so horribly
disfigured that he was only recognizable by the contents of his
pockets, notes were still legible, folded in a case he carried.
Among these were the name of a banking-house in New South Wales,
where a sum of money was, and the designation of certain lands of
considerable value. Both these heads of information were in a list
that Magwitch, while in prison, gave to Mr. Jaggers, of the
possessions he supposed I should inherit. His ignorance, poor
fellow, at last served him; he never mistrusted but that my
inheritance was quite safe, with Mr. Jaggers’s aid.
After three days’ delay, during which the crown prosecution stood
over for the production of the witness from the prison-ship, the
witness came, and completed the easy case. He was committed to take
his trial at the next Sessions, which would come on in a month.
It was at this dark time of my life that Herbert returned home one
evening, a good deal cast down, and said,—
“My dear Handel, I fear I shall soon have to leave you.”
His partner having prepared me for that, I was less surprised than
he thought.
“We shall lose a fine opportunity if I put off going to Cairo, and
I am very much afraid I must go, Handel, when you most need me.”
“Herbert, I shall always need you, because I shall always love you;
but my need is no greater now than at another time.”
“You will be so lonely.”
“I have not leisure to think of that,” said I. “You know that I am
always with him to the full extent of the time allowed, and that I
should be with him all day long, if I could. And when I come away
from him, you know that my thoughts are with him.”
The dreadful condition to which he was brought, was so appalling to
both of us, that we could not refer to it in plainer words.
“My dear fellow,” said Herbert, “let the near prospect of our
separation—for, it is very near—be my justification for
troubling you about yourself. Have you thought of your future?”
“No, for I have been afraid to think of any future.”
“But yours cannot be dismissed; indeed, my dear dear Handel, it
must not be dismissed. I wish you would enter on it now, as far as
a few friendly words go, with me.”
“I will,” said I.
“In this branch house of ours, Handel, we must have a—”
I saw that his delicacy was avoiding the right word, so I said, “A
clerk.”
“A clerk. And I hope it is not at all unlikely that he may expand
(as a clerk of your acquaintance has expanded) into a partner. Now,
Handel,—in short, my dear boy, will you come to me?”
There was something charmingly cordial and engaging in the manner
in which after saying “Now, Handel,” as if it were the grave
beginning of a portentous business exordium, he had suddenly given
up that tone, stretched out his honest hand, and spoken like a
schoolboy.
“Clara and I have talked about it again and again,” Herbert
pursued, “and the dear little thing begged me only this evening,
with tears in her eyes, to say to you that, if you will live with us
when we come together, she will do her best to make you happy, and
to convince her husband’s friend that he is her friend too. We
should get on so well, Handel!”
I thanked her heartily, and I thanked him heartily, but said I
could not yet make sure of joining him as he so kindly offered.
Firstly, my mind was too preoccupied to be able to take in the
subject clearly. Secondly,—Yes! Secondly, there was a vague
something lingering in my thoughts that will come out very near the
end of this slight narrative.
“But if you thought, Herbert, that you could, without doing any
injury to your business, leave the question open for a little
while—”
“For any while,” cried Herbert. “Six months, a year!”
“Not so long as that,” said I. “Two or three months at most.”
Herbert was highly delighted when we shook hands on this
arrangement, and said he could now take courage to tell me that he
believed he must go away at the end of the week.
“And Clara?” said I.
“The dear little thing,” returned Herbert, “holds dutifully to her
father as long as he lasts; but he won’t last long. Mrs. Whimple
confides to me that he is certainly going.”
“Not to say an unfeeling thing,” said I, “he cannot do better than
go.”
“I am afraid that must be admitted,” said Herbert; “and then I
shall come back for the dear little thing, and the dear little
thing and I will walk quietly into the nearest church. Remember!
The blessed darling comes of no family, my dear Handel, and never
looked into the red book, and hasn’t a notion about her grandpapa.
What a fortune for the son of my mother!”
On the Saturday in that same week, I took my leave of Herbert,—
full of bright hope, but sad and sorry to leave me,—as he sat on
one of the seaport mail coaches. I went into a coffee-house to
write a little note to Clara, telling her he had gone off, sending
his love to her over and over again, and then went to my lonely
home,—if it deserved the name; for it was now no home to me, and I
had no home anywhere.
On the stairs I encountered Wemmick, who was coming down, after an
unsuccessful application of his knuckles to my door. I had not seen
him alone since the disastrous issue of the attempted flight; and
he had come, in his private and personal capacity, to say a few
words of explanation in reference to that failure.
“The late Compeyson,” said Wemmick, “had by little and little got
at the bottom of half of the regular business now transacted; and
it was from the talk of some of his people in trouble (some of his
people being always in trouble) that I heard what I did. I kept my
ears open, seeming to have them shut, until I heard that he was
absent, and I thought that would be the best time for making the
attempt. I can only suppose now, that it was a part of his policy,
as a very clever man, habitually to deceive his own instruments.
You don’t blame me, I hope, Mr. Pip? I am sure I tried to serve you,
with all my heart.”
“I am as sure of that, Wemmick, as you can be, and I thank you most
earnestly for all your interest and friendship.”
“Thank you, thank you very much. It’s a bad job,” said Wemmick,
scratching his head, “and I assure you I haven’t been so cut up for
a long time. What I look at is the sacrifice of so much portable
property. Dear me!”
“What I think of, Wemmick, is the poor owner of the property.”
“Yes, to be sure,” said Wemmick. “Of course, there can be no
objection to your being sorry for him, and I’d put down a
five-pound note myself to get him out of it. But what I look at is
this. The late Compeyson having been beforehand with him in
intelligence of his return, and being so determined to bring him to
book, I do not think he could have been saved. Whereas, the
portable property certainly could have been saved. That’s the
difference between the property and the owner, don’t you see?”
I invited Wemmick to come up stairs, and refresh himself with a
glass of grog before walking to Walworth. He accepted the
invitation. While he was drinking his moderate allowance, he said,
with nothing to lead up to it, and after having appeared rather
fidgety,—
“What do you think of my meaning to take a holiday on Monday, Mr.
Pip?”
“Why, I suppose you have not done such a thing these twelve
months.”
“These twelve years, more likely,” said Wemmick. “Yes. I’m going to
take a holiday. More than that; I’m going to take a walk. More than
that; I’m going to ask you to take a walk with me.”
I was about to excuse myself, as being but a bad companion
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