Great Expectations

"Did I?" he replied. "Ah, I dare say I did. Deuce take me," he added,

suddenly, "I know I did. I find I am not quite unscrewed yet."

"A wild beast tamed, you called her."

"And what do you call her?"

"The same. How did Mr. Jaggers tame her, Wemmick?"

"That's his secret. She has been with him many a long year."

"I wish you would tell me her story. I feel a particular interest in

being acquainted with it. You know that what is said between you and me

goes no further."

"Well!" Wemmick replied, "I don't know her story,--that is, I don't know

all of it. But what I do know I'll tell you. We are in our private and

personal capacities, of course."

"Of course."

"A score or so of years ago, that woman was tried at the Old Bailey for

murder, and was acquitted. She was a very handsome young woman, and I

believe had some gypsy blood in her. Anyhow, it was hot enough when it

was up, as you may suppose."

"But she was acquitted."

"Mr. Jaggers was for her," pursued Wemmick, with a look full of meaning,

"and worked the case in a way quite astonishing. It was a desperate

case, and it was comparatively early days with him then, and he worked

it to general admiration; in fact, it may almost be said to have made

him. He worked it himself at the police-office, day after day for many

days, contending against even a committal; and at the trial where he

couldn't work it himself, sat under counsel, and--every one knew--put

in all the salt and pepper. The murdered person was a woman,--a woman a

good ten years older, very much larger, and very much stronger. It was

a case of jealousy. They both led tramping lives, and this woman in

Gerrard Street here had been married very young, over the broomstick (as

we say), to a tramping man, and was a perfect fury in point of jealousy.

The murdered woman,--more a match for the man, certainly, in point of

years--was found dead in a barn near Hounslow Heath. There had been a

violent struggle, perhaps a fight. She was bruised and scratched and

torn, and had been held by the throat, at last, and choked. Now, there

was no reasonable evidence to implicate any person but this woman, and

on the improbabilities of her having been able to do it Mr. Jaggers

principally rested his case. You may be sure," said Wemmick, touching me

on the sleeve, "that he never dwelt upon the strength of her hands then,

though he sometimes does now."