"Indeed, it would be hard to say too much for him," said I; "and Biddy,
we must often speak of these things, for of course I shall be often down
here now. I am not going to leave poor Joe alone."
Biddy said never a single word.
"Biddy, don't you hear me?"
"Yes, Mr. Pip."
"Not to mention your calling me Mr. Pip,--which appears to me to be in
bad taste, Biddy,--what do you mean?"
"What do I mean?" asked Biddy, timidly.
"Biddy," said I, in a virtuously self-asserting manner, "I must request
to know what you mean by this?"
"By this?" said Biddy.
"Now, don't echo," I retorted. "You used not to echo, Biddy."
"Used not!" said Biddy. "O Mr. Pip! Used!"
Well! I rather thought I would give up that point too. After another
silent turn in the garden, I fell back on the main position.
"Biddy," said I, "I made a remark respecting my coming down here often,
to see Joe, which you received with a marked silence. Have the goodness,
Biddy, to tell me why."
"Are you quite sure, then, that you WILL come to see him often?" asked
Biddy, stopping in the narrow garden walk, and looking at me under the
stars with a clear and honest eye.
"O dear me!" said I, as if I found myself compelled to give up Biddy in
despair. "This really is a very bad side of human nature! Don't say any
more, if you please, Biddy. This shocks me very much."
For which cogent reason I kept Biddy at a distance during supper, and
when I went up to my own old little room, took as stately a leave of her
as I could, in my murmuring soul, deem reconcilable with the churchyard
and the event of the day. As often as I was restless in the night, and
that was every quarter of an hour, I reflected what an unkindness, what
an injury, what an injustice, Biddy had done me.
Early in the morning I was to go. Early in the morning I was out, and
looking in, unseen, at one of the wooden windows of the forge. There
I stood, for minutes, looking at Joe, already at work with a glow of
health and strength upon his face that made it show as if the bright sun
of the life in store for him were shining on it.