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1Herbert and I went on from bad to worse, in the way of increasing our debts, looking into our affairs, leaving Margins,
2and the like exemplary transactions; and Time went on, whether or no, as he has a way of doing; and I came of age,--in
3fulfilment of Herbert's prediction, that I should do so before I knew where I was. Herbert himself had come of age eight
4months before me. As he had nothing else than his majority to come into, the event did not make a profound sensation in
5Barnard's Inn. But we had looked forward to my one-and-twentieth birthday, with a crowd of speculations and
6anticipations, for we had both considered that my guardian could hardly help saying something definite on that occasion.
7I had taken care to have it well understood in Little Britain when my birthday was. On the day before it, I received an
8official note from Wemmick, informing me that Mr. Jaggers would be glad if I would call upon him at five in the
9afternoon of the auspicious day. This convinced us that something great was to happen, and threw me into an unusual
10flutter when I repaired to my guardian's office, a model of punctuality. In the outer office Wemmick offered me his
11congratulations, and incidentally rubbed the side of his nose with a folded piece of tissue-paper that I liked the look
12of. But he said nothing respecting it, and motioned me with a nod into my guardian's room. It was November, and my
13guardian was standing before his fire leaning his back against the chimney-piece, with his hands under his coattails.
14"Well, Pip," said he, "I must call you Mr. Pip to-day. Congratulations, Mr. Pip." We shook hands,--he was always a
15remarkably short shaker,--and I thanked him. "Take a chair, Mr. Pip," said my guardian. As I sat down, and he preserved
16his attitude and bent his brows at his boots, I felt at a disadvantage, which reminded me of that old time when I had
17been put upon a tombstone. The two ghastly casts on the shelf were not far from him, and their expression was as if they
18were making a stupid apoplectic attempt to attend to the conversation. "Now my young friend," my guardian began, as if I
19were a witness in the box, "I am going to have a word or two with you." "If you please, sir." "What do you suppose,"
20said Mr. Jaggers, bending forward to look at the ground, and then throwing his head back to look at the ceiling,--"what
21do you suppose you are living at the rate of?" "At the rate of, sir?" "At," repeated Mr. Jaggers, still looking at the
22ceiling, "the--rate--of?" And then looked all round the room, and paused with his pocket-handkerchief in his hand,
23half-way to his nose. I had looked into my affairs so often, that I had thoroughly destroyed any slight notion I might
24ever have had of their bearings. Reluctantly, I confessed myself quite unable to answer the question. This reply seemed
25agreeable to Mr. Jaggers, who said, "I thought so!" and blew his nose with an air of satisfaction. "Now, I have asked
26you a question, my friend," said Mr. Jaggers. "Have you anything to ask me?" "Of course it would be a great relief to me
27to ask you several questions, sir; but I remember your prohibition." "Ask one," said Mr. Jaggers. "Is my benefactor to
28be made known to me to-day?" "No. Ask another." "Is that confidence to be imparted to me soon?" "Waive that, a moment,"
29said Mr. Jaggers, "and ask another." I looked about me, but there appeared to be now no possible escape from the
30inquiry, "Have-I--anything to receive, sir?" On that, Mr. Jaggers said, triumphantly, "I thought we should come to it!"
31and called to Wemmick to give him that piece of paper. Wemmick appeared, handed it in, and disappeared. "Now, Mr. Pip,"
32said Mr. Jaggers, "attend, if you please. You have been drawing pretty freely here; your name occurs pretty often in
33Wemmick's cash-book; but you are in debt, of course?" "I am afraid I must say yes, sir." "You know you must say yes;
34don't you?" said Mr. Jaggers. "Yes, sir." "I don't ask you what you owe, because you don't know; and if you did know,
35you wouldn't tell me; you would say less. Yes, yes, my friend," cried Mr. Jaggers, waving his forefinger to stop me as I
36made a show of protesting: "it's likely enough that you think you wouldn't, but you would. You'll excuse me, but I know
37better than you. Now, take this piece of paper in your hand. You have got it? Very good. Now, unfold it and tell me what
38it is." "This is a bank-note," said I, "for five hundred pounds." "That is a bank-note," repeated Mr. Jaggers, "for five
39hundred pounds. And a very handsome sum of money too, I think. You consider it so?" "How could I do otherwise!" "Ah! But
40answer the question," said Mr. Jaggers. "Undoubtedly." "You consider it, undoubtedly, a handsome sum of money. Now, that
41handsome sum of money, Pip, is your own. It is a present to you on this day, in earnest of your expectations. And at the
42rate of that handsome sum of money per annum, and at no higher rate, you are to live until the donor of the whole
43appears. That is to say, you will now take your money affairs entirely into your own hands, and you will draw from
44Wemmick one hundred and twenty-five pounds per quarter, until you are in communication with the fountain-head, and no
45longer with the mere agent. As I have told you before, I am the mere agent. I execute my instructions, and I am paid for
46doing so. I think them injudicious, but I am not paid for giving any opinion on their merits." I was beginning to
47express my gratitude to my benefactor for the great liberality with which I was treated, when Mr. Jaggers stopped me. "I
48am not paid, Pip," said he, coolly, "to carry your words to any one;" and then gathered up his coat-tails, as he had
49gathered up the subject, and stood frowning at his boots as if he suspected them of designs against him. After a pause,
50I hinted,-- "There was a question just now, Mr. Jaggers, which you desired me to waive for a moment. I hope I am doing
51nothing wrong in asking it again?" "What is it?" said he. I might have known that he would never help me out; but it
52took me aback to have to shape the question afresh, as if it were quite new. "Is it likely," I said, after hesitating,
53"that my patron, the fountain-head you have spoken of, Mr. Jaggers, will soon--" there I delicately stopped. "Will soon
54what?" asked Mr. Jaggers. "That's no question as it stands, you know." "Will soon come to London," said I, after casting
55about for a precise form of words, "or summon me anywhere else?" "Now, here," replied Mr. Jaggers, fixing me for the
56first time with his dark deep-set eyes, "we must revert to the evening when we first encountered one another in your
57village. What did I tell you then, Pip?" "You told me, Mr. Jaggers, that it might be years hence when that person
58appeared." "Just so," said Mr. Jaggers, "that's my answer." As we looked full at one another, I felt my breath come
59quicker in my strong desire to get something out of him. And as I felt that it came quicker, and as I felt that he saw
60that it came quicker, I felt that I had less chance than ever of getting anything out of him. "Do you suppose it will
61still be years hence, Mr. Jaggers?" Mr. Jaggers shook his head,--not in negativing the question, but in altogether
62negativing the notion that he could anyhow be got to answer it,--and the two horrible casts of the twitched faces
63looked, when my eyes strayed up to them, as if they had come to a crisis in their suspended attention, and were going to
64sneeze. "Come!" said Mr. Jaggers, warming the backs of his legs with the backs of his warmed hands, "I'll be plain with
65you, my friend Pip. That's a question I must not be asked. You'll understand that better, when I tell you it's a
66question that might compromise me. Come! I'll go a little further with you; I'll say something more." He bent down so
67low to frown at his boots, that he was able to rub the calves of his legs in the pause he made.
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