Great Expectations

"Did you send that note of Miss Havisham's to Mr. Pip, Wemmick?" Mr.

Jaggers asked, soon after we began dinner.

"No, sir," returned Wemmick; "it was going by post, when you brought Mr.

Pip into the office. Here it is." He handed it to his principal instead

of to me.

"It's a note of two lines, Pip," said Mr. Jaggers, handing it on, "sent

up to me by Miss Havisham on account of her not being sure of your

address. She tells me that she wants to see you on a little matter of

business you mentioned to her. You'll go down?"

"Yes," said I, casting my eyes over the note, which was exactly in those

terms.

"When do you think of going down?"

"I have an impending engagement," said I, glancing at Wemmick, who was

putting fish into the post-office, "that renders me rather uncertain of

my time. At once, I think."

"If Mr. Pip has the intention of going at once," said Wemmick to Mr.

Jaggers, "he needn't write an answer, you know."

Receiving this as an intimation that it was best not to delay, I settled

that I would go to-morrow, and said so. Wemmick drank a glass of wine,

and looked with a grimly satisfied air at Mr. Jaggers, but not at me.

"So, Pip! Our friend the Spider," said Mr. Jaggers, "has played his

cards. He has won the pool."

It was as much as I could do to assent.

"Hah! He is a promising fellow--in his way--but he may not have it all

his own way. The stronger will win in the end, but the stronger has to

be found out first. If he should turn to, and beat her--"

"Surely," I interrupted, with a burning face and heart, "you do not

seriously think that he is scoundrel enough for that, Mr. Jaggers?"

"I didn't say so, Pip. I am putting a case. If he should turn to and

beat her, he may possibly get the strength on his side; if it should be

a question of intellect, he certainly will not. It would be chance

work to give an opinion how a fellow of that sort will turn out in such

circumstances, because it's a toss-up between two results."

"May I ask what they are?"

"A fellow like our friend the Spider," answered Mr. Jaggers, "either

beats or cringes. He may cringe and growl, or cringe and not growl; but

he either beats or cringes. Ask Wemmick his opinion."