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1It was a dull evening, for Wemmick drew his wine, when it came round, quite as a matter of business,--just as he might
2have drawn his salary when that came round,--and with his eyes on his chief, sat in a state of perpetual readiness for
3cross-examination. As to the quantity of wine, his post-office was as indifferent and ready as any other post-office for
4its quantity of letters. From my point of view, he was the wrong twin all the time, and only externally like the Wemmick
5of Walworth. We took our leave early, and left together. Even when we were groping among Mr. Jaggers's stock of boots
6for our hats, I felt that the right twin was on his way back; and we had not gone half a dozen yards down Gerrard Street
7in the Walworth direction, before I found that I was walking arm in arm with the right twin, and that the wrong twin had
8evaporated into the evening air. "Well!" said Wemmick, "that's over! He's a wonderful man, without his living likeness;
9but I feel that I have to screw myself up when I dine with him,--and I dine more comfortably unscrewed." I felt that
10this was a good statement of the case, and told him so. "Wouldn't say it to anybody but yourself," he answered. "I know
11that what is said between you and me goes no further." I asked him if he had ever seen Miss Havisham's adopted daughter,
12Mrs. Bentley Drummle. He said no. To avoid being too abrupt, I then spoke of the Aged and of Miss Skiffins. He looked
13rather sly when I mentioned Miss Skiffins, and stopped in the street to blow his nose, with a roll of the head, and a
14flourish not quite free from latent boastfulness. "Wemmick," said I, "do you remember telling me, before I first went to
15Mr. Jaggers's private house, to notice that housekeeper?" "Did I?" he replied. "Ah, I dare say I did. Deuce take me," he
16added, suddenly, "I know I did. I find I am not quite unscrewed yet." "A wild beast tamed, you called her." "And what do
17you call her?" "The same. How did Mr. Jaggers tame her, Wemmick?" "That's his secret. She has been with him many a long
18year." "I wish you would tell me her story. I feel a particular interest in being acquainted with it. You know that what
19is said between you and me goes no further." "Well!" Wemmick replied, "I don't know her story,--that is, I don't know
20all of it. But what I do know I'll tell you. We are in our private and personal capacities, of course." "Of course." "A
21score or so of years ago, that woman was tried at the Old Bailey for murder, and was acquitted. She was a very handsome
22young woman, and I believe had some gypsy blood in her. Anyhow, it was hot enough when it was up, as you may suppose."
23"But she was acquitted." "Mr. Jaggers was for her," pursued Wemmick, with a look full of meaning, "and worked the case
24in a way quite astonishing. It was a desperate case, and it was comparatively early days with him then, and he worked it
25to general admiration; in fact, it may almost be said to have made him. He worked it himself at the police-office, day
26after day for many days, contending against even a committal; and at the trial where he couldn't work it himself, sat
27under counsel, and--every one knew--put in all the salt and pepper. The murdered person was a woman,--a woman a good ten
28years older, very much larger, and very much stronger. It was a case of jealousy. They both led tramping lives, and this
29woman in Gerrard Street here had been married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping man, and was a
30perfect fury in point of jealousy. The murdered woman,--more a match for the man, certainly, in point of years--was
31found dead in a barn near Hounslow Heath. There had been a violent struggle, perhaps a fight. She was bruised and
32scratched and torn, and had been held by the throat, at last, and choked. Now, there was no reasonable evidence to
33implicate any person but this woman, and on the improbabilities of her having been able to do it Mr. Jaggers principally
34rested his case. You may be sure," said Wemmick, touching me on the sleeve, "that he never dwelt upon the strength of
35her hands then, though he sometimes does now." I had told Wemmick of his showing us her wrists, that day of the dinner
36party. "Well, sir!" Wemmick went on; "it happened--happened, don't you see?--that this woman was so very artfully
37dressed from the time of her apprehension, that she looked much slighter than she really was; in particular, her sleeves
38are always remembered to have been so skilfully contrived that her arms had quite a delicate look. She had only a bruise
39or two about her,--nothing for a tramp,--but the backs of her hands were lacerated, and the question was, Was it with
40finger-nails? Now, Mr. Jaggers showed that she had struggled through a great lot of brambles which were not as high as
41her face; but which she could not have got through and kept her hands out of; and bits of those brambles were actually
42found in her skin and put in evidence, as well as the fact that the brambles in question were found on examination to
43have been broken through, and to have little shreds of her dress and little spots of blood upon them here and there. But
44the boldest point he made was this: it was attempted to be set up, in proof of her jealousy, that she was under strong
45suspicion of having, at about the time of the murder, frantically destroyed her child by this man--some three years
46old--to revenge herself upon him. Mr. Jaggers worked that in this way: "We say these are not marks of finger-nails, but
47marks of brambles, and we show you the brambles. You say they are marks of finger-nails, and you set up the hypothesis
48that she destroyed her child. You must accept all consequences of that hypothesis. For anything we know, she may have
49destroyed her child, and the child in clinging to her may have scratched her hands. What then? You are not trying her
50for the murder of her child; why don't you? As to this case, if you will have scratches, we say that, for anything we
51know, you may have accounted for them, assuming for the sake of argument that you have not invented them?" "To sum up,
52sir," said Wemmick, "Mr. Jaggers was altogether too many for the jury, and they gave in." "Has she been in his service
53ever since?" "Yes; but not only that," said Wemmick, "she went into his service immediately after her acquittal, tamed
54as she is now. She has since been taught one thing and another in the way of her duties, but she was tamed from the
55beginning." "Do you remember the sex of the child?" "Said to have been a girl." "You have nothing more to say to me
56to-night?" "Nothing. I got your letter and destroyed it. Nothing." We exchanged a cordial good-night, and I went home,
57with new matter for my thoughts, though with no relief from the old.
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