IT was a trial to my feelings, on the next day but one, to see
Joe arraying himself in his Sunday clothes to accompany me to Miss Havisham's.
However, as he thought his court-suit necessary to the occasion, it was not for
me tell him that he looked far better in his working dress; the rather, because
I knew he made himself so dreadfully uncomfortable, entirely on my account, and
that it was for me he pulled up his shirt-collar so very high behind, that it
made the hair on the crown of his head stand up like a tuft of feathers.
At breakfast time my sister declared her intention of going to town with us,
and being left at Uncle Pumblechook's and called for `when we had done with our
fine ladies' - a way of putting the case, from which Joe appeared inclined to
augur the worst. The forge was shut up for the day, and Joe inscribed in chalk
upon the door (as it was his custom to do on the very rare occasions when he was
not at work) the monosyllable HOUT, accompanied by a sketch of an arrow supposed
to be flying in the direction he had taken.
We walked to town, my sister leading the way in a very large beaver bonnet,
and carrying a basket like the Great Seal of England in plaited straw, a pair of
pattens, a spare shawl, and an umbrella, though it was a fine bright day. I am
not quite clear whether these articles were carried penitentially or
ostentatiously; but, I rather think they were displayed as articles of property
- much as Cleopatra or any other sovereign lady on the Rampage might exhibit her
wealth in a pageant or procession.
When we came to Pumblechook's, my sister bounced in and left us. As it was
almost noon, Joe and I held straight on to Miss Havisham's house. Estella opened
the gate as usual, and, the moment she appeared, Joe took his hat off and stood
weighing it by the brim in both his hands: as if he had some urgent reason in
his mind for being particular to half a quarter of an ounce.
Estella took no notice of either of us, but led us the way that I knew so
well. I followed next to her, and Joe came last. When I looked back at Joe in
the long passage, he was still weighing his hat with the greatest care, and was
coming after us in long strides on the tips of his toes.
Estella told me we were both to go in, so I took Joe by the coat-cuff and
conducted him into Miss Havisham's presence. She was seated at her
dressing-table, and looked round at us immediately.
`Oh!' said she to Joe. `You are the husband of the sister of this boy?'
I could hardly have imagined dear old Joe looking so unlike himself or so
like some extraordinary bird; standing, as he did, speechless, with his tuft of
feathers ruffled, and his mouth open, as if he wanted a worm.
`You are the husband,' repeated Miss Havisham, `of the sister of this boy?'
It was very aggravating; but, throughout the interview Joe persisted in
addressing Me instead of Miss Havisham.
`Which I meantersay, Pip,' Joe now observed in a manner that was at once
expressive of forcible argumentation, strict confidence, and great politeness,
`as I hup and married your sister, and I were at the time what you might call
(if you was anyways inclined) a single man.'
`Well!' said Miss Havisham. `And you have reared the boy, with the intention
of taking him for your apprentice; is that so, Mr Gargery?'
`You know, Pip,' replied Joe, `as you and me were ever friends, and it were
looked for'ard to betwixt us, as being calc'lated to lead to larks. Not but
what, Pip, if you had ever made objections to the business - such as its being
open to black and sut, or such-like - not but what they would have been attended
to, don't you see?'
`Has the boy,' said Miss Havisham, `ever made any objection? Does he like the
trade?'
`Which it is well beknown to yourself, Pip,' returned Joe, strengthening his
former mixture of argumentation, confidence, and politeness, `that it were the
wish of your own hart.' (I saw the idea suddenly break upon him that he would
adapt his epitaph to the occasion, before he went on to say) `And there weren't
no objection on your part, and Pip it were the great wish of your hart!'
It was quite in vain for me to endeavour to make him sensible that he ought
to speak to Miss Havisham. The more I made faces and gestures to him to do it,
the more confidential, argumentative, and polite, he persisted in being to Me.
`Have you brought his indentures with you?' asked Miss Havisham.
`Well, Pip, you know,' replied Joe, as if that were a little unreasonable,
`you yourself see me put 'em in my 'at, and therefore you know as they are
here.' With which he took them out, and gave them, not to Miss Havisham, but to
me. I am afraid I was ashamed of the dear good fellow - I know I was ashamed of
him - when I saw that Estella stood at the back of Miss Havisham's chair, and
that her eyes laughed mischievously. I took the indentures out of his hand and
gave them to Miss Havisham.
`You expected,' said Miss Havisham, as she looked them over, `no premium with
the boy?'
`Joe!' I remonstrated; for he made no reply at all. `Why don't you answer--'
`Pip,' returned Joe, cutting me short as if he were hurt, `which I meantersay
that were not a question requiring a answer betwixt yourself and me, and which
you know the answer to be full well No. You know it to be No, Pip, and wherefore
should I say it?'
Miss Havisham glanced at him as if she understood what he really was, better
than I had thought possible, seeing what he was there; and took up a little bag
from the table beside her.
`Pip has earned a premium here,' she said, `and here it is. There are
five-and-twenty guineas in this bag. Give it to your master, Pip.'
As if he were absolutely out of his mind with the wonder awakened in him by
her strange figure and the strange room, Joe, even at this pass, persisted in
addressing me.
`This is wery liberal on your part, Pip,' said Joe, `and it is as such
received and grateful welcome, though never looked for, far nor near nor
nowheres. And now, old chap,' said Joe, conveying to me a sensation, first of
burning and then of freezing, for I felt as if that familiar expression were
applied to Miss Havisham; `and now, old chap, may we do our duty! May you and me
do our duty, both on us by one and another, and by them which your liberal
present - have - conweyed - to be - for the satisfaction of mind - of - them as
never--' here Joe showed that he felt he had fallen into frightful difficulties,
until he triumphantly rescued himself with the words, `and from myself far be
it!' These words had such a round and convincing sound for him that he said them
twice.
`Good-bye, Pip!' said Miss Havisham. `Let them out, Estella.'
`Am I to come again, Miss Havisham?' I asked.
`No. Gargery is your master now. Gargery! One word!'
Thus calling him back as I went out of the door, I heard her say to Joe, in a
distinct emphatic voice, `The boy has been a good boy here, and that is his
reward. Of course, as an honest man, you will expect no other and no more.'
How Joe got out of the room, I have never been able to determine; but, I know
that when he did get out he was steadily proceeding up-stairs instead of coming
down, and was deaf to all remonstrances until I went after him and laid hold of
him. In another minute we were outside the gate, and it was locked, and Estella
was gone.
When we stood in the daylight alone again, Joe backed up against a wall, and
said to me, `Astonishing!' And there he remained so long, saying `Astonishing'
at intervals, so often, that I began to think his senses were never coming back.
At length he prolonged his remark into `Pip, I do assure you this is
as-TONishing!' and so, by degrees, became conversational and able to walk away.
I have reason to think that Joe's intellects were brightened by the encounter
they had passed through, and that on our way to Pumblechook's he invented a
subtle and deep design. My reason is to be found in what took place in Mr
Pumblechook's parlour: where, on our presenting ourselves, my sister sat in
conference with that detested seedsman.
`Well?' cried my sister, addressing us both at once. `And what's happened to
you? I wonder you condescend to come back to such poor society as this, I am
sure I do!'
`Miss Havisham,' said Joe, with a fixed look at me, like an effort of
remembrance, `made it wery partick'ler that we should give her - were it
compliments or respects, Pip?'
`Compliments,' I said.
`Which that were my own belief,' answered Joe - `her compliments to Mrs J.
Gargery--'
`Much good they'll do me!' observed my sister; but rather gratified too.
`And wishing,' pursued Joe, with another fixed look at me, like another
effort to remembrance, `that the state of Miss Havisham's elth were sitch as
would have - allowed, were it, Pip?'
`Of her having the pleasure,' I added.
`Of ladies' company,' said Joe. And drew a long breath.
`Well!' cried my sister, with a mollified glance at Mr Pumblechook. `She
might have had the politeness to send that message at first, but it's better
late than never. And what did she give young Rantipole here?'
`She giv' him,' said Joe, `nothing.'
Mrs Joe was going to break out, but Joe went on.
`What she giv',' said Joe, `she giv' to his friends. "And by his friends,"
were her explanation, "I mean into the hands of his sister Mrs J. Gargery." Them
were her words; "Mrs J. Gargery." She mayn't have know'd,' added Joe, with an
appearance of reflection, `whether it were Joe, or Jorge.'
My sister looked at Pumblechook: who smoothed the elbows of his wooden
armchair, and nodded at her and at the fire, as if he had known all about it
beforehand.
`And how much have you got?' asked my sister, laughing. Positively, laughing!
`What would present company say to ten pound?' demanded Joe.
`They'd say,' returned my sister, curtly, `pretty well. Not too much, but
pretty well.'
`It's more than that, then,' said Joe.
That fearful Impostor, Pumblechook, immediately nodded, and said, as he
rubbed the arms of his chair: `It's more than that, Mum.'
`Why, you don't mean to say--' began my sister.
`Yes I do, Mum,' said Pumblechook; `but wait a bit. Go on, Joseph. Good in
you! Go on!'
`What would present company say,' proceeded Joe, `to twenty pound?'
`Handsome would be the word,' returned my sister.
`Well, then,' said Joe, `It's more than twenty pound.'
That abject hypocrite, Pumblechook, nodded again, and said, with a
patronizing laugh, `It's more than that, Mum. Good again!Follow her up, Joseph!'
`Then to make an end of it,' said Joe, delightedly handing the bag to my
sister; `it's five-and-twenty pound.'
`It's five-and-twenty pound, Mum,' echoed that basest of swindlers,
Pumblechook, rising to shake hands with her; `and it's no more than your merits
(as I said when my opinion was asked), and I wish you joy of the money!'
If the villain had stopped here, his case would have been sufficiently awful,
but he blackened his guilt by proceeding to take me into custody, with a right
of patronage that left all his former criminality far behind.
`Now you see, Joseph and wife,' said Pumblechook, as he took me by the arm
above the elbow, `I am one of them that always go right through with what
they've begun. This boy must be bound, out of hand. That's my way. Bound out of
hand.'
`Goodness knows, Uncle Pumblechook,' said my sister (grasping the money),
`we're deeply beholden to you.'
`Never mind me, Mum, returned that diabolical corn-chandler. `A pleasure's a
pleasure, all the world over. But this boy, you know; we must have him bound. I
said I'd see to it - to tell you the truth.'
The Justices were sitting in the Town Hall near at hand, and we at once went
over to have me bound apprentice to Joe in the Magisterial presence. I say, we
went over, but I was pushed over by Pumblechook, exactly as if I had that moment
picked a pocket or fired a rick; indeed, it was the general impression in Court
that I had been taken red-handed, for, as Pumblechook shoved me before him
through the crowd, I heard some people say, `What's he done?' and others, `He's
a young 'un, too, but looks bad, don't he? One person of mild and benevolent
aspect even gave me a tract ornamented with a woodcut of a malevolent young man
fitted up with a perfect sausage-shop of fetters, and entitled, TO BE READ IN MY
CELL.
The Hall was a queer place, I thought, with higher pews in it than a church -
and with people hanging over the pews looking on - and with mighty Justices (one
with a powdered head) leaning back in chairs, with folded arms, or taking snuff,
or going to sleep, or writing, or reading the newspapers - and with some shining
black portraits on the walls, which my unartistic eye regarded as a composition
of hardbake and sticking-plaister. Here, in a corner, my indentures were duly
signed and attested, and I was `bound;' Mr Pumblechook holding me all the while
as if we had looked in on our way to the scaffold, to have those little
preliminaries disposed of.
When we had come out again, and had got rid of the boys who had been put into
great spirits by the expectation of seeing me publicly tortured, and who were
much disappointed to find that my friends were merely rallying round me, we went
back to Pumblechook's. And there my sister became so excited by the twenty-five
guineas, that nothing would serve her but we must have a dinner out of that
windfall, at the Blue Boar, and that Pumblechook must go over in his
chaise-cart, and bring the Hubbles and Mr Wopsle.
It was agreed to be done; and a most melancholy day I passed. For, it
inscrutably appeared to stand to reason, in the minds of the whole company, that
I was an excrescence on the entertainment. And to make it worse, they all asked
me from time to time - in short, whenever they had nothing else to do - why I
didn't enjoy myself. And what could I possibly do then, but say I was enjoying
myself - when I wasn't?
However, they were grown up and had their own way, and they made the most of
it. That swindling Pumblechook, exalted into the beneficent contriver of the
whole occasion, actually took the top of the table; and, when he addressed them
on the subject of my being bound, and had fiendishly congratulated them on my
being liable to imprisonment if I played at cards, drank strong liquors, kept
late hours or bad company, or indulged in other vagaries which the form of my
indentures appeared to contemplate as next to inevitable, he placed me standing
on a chair beside him, to illustrate his remarks.
My only other remembrances of the great festival are, That they wouldn't let
me go to sleep, but whenever they saw me dropping off, woke me up and told me to
enjoy myself. That, rather late in the evening Mr Wopsle gave us Collins's ode,
and threw his bloodstain'd sword in thunder down, with such effect, that a
waiter came in and said, `The Commercials underneath sent up their compliments,
and it wasn't the Tumblers' Arms.' That, they were all in excellent spirits on
the road home, and sang O Lady Fair! Mr Wopsle taking the bass, and asserting
with a tremendously strong voice (in reply to the inquisitive bore who leads
that piece of music in a most impertinent manner, by wanting to know all about
everybody's private affairs) that he was the man with his white locks flowing,
and that he was upon the whole the weakest pilgrim going.
Finally, I remember that when I got into my little bedroom I was truly
wretched, and had a strong conviction on me that I should never like Joe's
trade. I had liked it once, but once was not now.
|