PAGE 10
Pip
by
“Stop half a minute, Mr. Gargery,” he said; “I think I’ve got a bright shilling somewhere in my pocket; if I have, the boy shall have it.” He took it out, folded it in some crumpled paper and gave it to me. “Yours,” said he. “Mind–your own!” I thanked him, staring at him beyond the bounds of good manners, and holding tight to Joe, and then we went towards home, I in a manner stupefied, and thinking only of this turning up of my old misdeed and old acquaintance.
We found my sister was not in a very bad temper, and Joe was encouraged to tell her about the shilling. I took it out of the paper to show her. “But what’s this?” she said, catching up the paper. It was nothing less than two one-pound notes! Joe caught up his hat and ran with them to the Public House to restore them to their owner, only to find that he had gone. Then my sister sealed them up in a piece of paper, and put them on the top of a press in the state parlour, and there they remained.
On the appointed day I returned to Miss Havisham, and as before, was admitted by Estella. As we went up stairs we met a gentleman groping his way down. He was bald, with a large head and bushy black eyebrows. His eyes were deep set and disagreeably keen. He was nothing to me, but I observed him well as he passed.
Estella led me this time into another part of the house, and into a gloomy room where there were some other people, saying,—-
“You are to go and stand there, boy, till you are wanted.”
“There” being the window, I crossed to it and stood looking out, at a deserted house and old garden, in a very uncomfortable state of mind. There were three ladies and one gentleman in the room, who all stopped talking and looked at me. Later I found out that they were particular friends of Miss Havisham. The ringing of a distant bell caused Estella to say, “Now, boy!” and to conduct me to Miss Havisham’s room, leaving me near the door, where I stood until Miss Havisham cast her eyes upon me.
“Are you ready to play?” she asked.
I answered, in some confusion, “I don’t think I am, ma’am, except at cards; I could do that if I was wanted.”
She looked searchingly at me and then asked, “If you are unwilling to play, boy, are you willing to work?”
As I answered this in the affirmative, she presently laid a hand on my shoulder. In the other she had a stick on which she leaned, and she looked like the witch of the place. She looked all round the room in a glaring manner, and then said, “Come, come, come! walk me, walk me!”
From this I made out that my work was to walk Miss Havisham round and round the room. Accordingly I started at once and she leaned on my shoulder. She was not strong, and soon she said, “Slower!” Still she went at a fitful, impatient speed, and the hand on my shoulder twitched. After a while she bade me call Estella, and on we started again round the room. If she had been alone I should have been sufficiently embarrassed, but as she brought with her the visitors, I didn’t know what to do. I would have stopped, but Miss Havisham twitched my shoulder, and we posted on,–I feeling shamefaced embarrassment. The visitors remained for some time, and after they left Miss Havisham directed us to play cards as before, and as before, Estella treated me with cold scorn. After half a dozen games, a day was set for my return, and I was taken into the yard to be fed in the former dog-like manner. Prowling about, I scrambled over the wall into the deserted garden that I had seen from the window. I supposed the house belonging to it was empty, and to my surprise I was confronted by the vision of a pale young gentleman with red eyelids and light hair, in a window, who speedily came down and stood beside me.