第20章

I looked as grateful as any boy possibly could, who was wholly uninformed why he ought to assume that expression.

`It's only to be hoped,' said my sister, `that he won't be Pomp-eyed.

But I have my fears.'

`She an't in that line, Mum,' said Mr Pumblechook. `She knows better.'

She? I looked at Joe, making the motion with my lips and eyebrows, `She?'

Joe looked at me, making the motion with his lips and eyebrows, `She?' My sister catching him in the act, he drew the back of his hand across his nose with his usual conciliatory air on such occasions, and looked at her.

`Well?' said my sister, in her snappish way. `What are you staring at?

Is the house a-fire?'

` - Which some individual,' Joe politely hinted, `mentioned - she.'

`And she is a she, I suppose?' said my sister. `Unless you call Miss Havisham a he. And I doubt if even you'll go so far as that.'

`Miss Havisham, up town?' said Joe.

`Is there any Miss Havisham down town?' returned my sister.

`She wants this boy to go and play there. And of course he's going.

And he had better play there,' said my sister, shaking her head at me as an encouragement to be extremely light and sportive, `or I'll work him.'

I had heard of Miss Havisham up town - everybody for miles round, had heard of Miss Havisham up town - as an immensely rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion.

`Well to be sure!' said Joe, astounded. `I wonder how she come to know Pip!'

`Noodle!' cried my sister. `Who said she knew him?'

` - Which some individual,' Joe again politely hinted, `mentioned that she wanted him to go and play there.'

`And couldn't she ask Uncle Pumblechook if he knew of a boy to go and play there? Isn't it just barely possible that Uncle Pumblechook may be a tenant of hers, and that he may sometimes - we won't say quarterly or half-yearly, for that would be requiring too much of you - but sometimes - go there to pay his rent? And couldn't she then ask Uncle Pumblechook if he knew of a boy to go and play there? And couldn't Uncle Pumblechook, being always considerate and thoughtful for us - though you may not think it, Joseph,' in a tone of the deepest reproach, as if he were the most callous of nephews, `then mention this boy, standing Prancing here' - which I solemnly declare I was not doing - `that I have for ever been a willing slave to?'

`Good again!' cried Uncle Pumblechook. `Well put! Prettily pointed!

Good indeed! Now Joseph, you know the case.'

`No, Joseph,' said my sister, still in a reproachful manner, while Joe apologetically drew the back of his hand across and across his nose, `you do not yet - though you may not think it - know the case. You may consider that you do, but you do not , Joseph. For you do not know that Uncle Pumblechook, being sensible that for anything we can tell, this boy's fortune may be made by his going to Miss Havisham's, has offered to take him into town to-night in his own chaise-cart, and to keep him to-night, and to take him with his own hands to Miss Havisham's to-morrow morning. And Lor-a-mussy me!' cried my sister, casting off her bonnet in sudden desperation, `here I stand talking to mere Mooncalfs, with Uncle Pumblechook waiting, and the mare catching cold at the door, and the boy grimed with crock and dirt from the hair of his head to the sole of his foot!'

With that, she pounced upon me, like an eagle on a lamb, and my face was squeezed into wooden bowls in sinks, and my head was put under taps of water-butts, and I was soaped, and kneaded, and towelled, and thumped, and harrowed, and rasped, until I really was quite beside myself. (I may here remark that I suppose myself to be better acquainted than any living authority, with the ridgy effect of a wedding-ring, passing unsympathetically over the human countenance.)When my ablutions were completed, I was put into clean linen of the stiffest character, like a young penitent into sackcloth, and was trussed up in my tightest and fearfullest suit. I was then delivered over to Mr Pumblechook, who formally received me as if he were the Sheriff, and who let off upon me the speech that I knew he had been dying to make all along:

`Boy, be for ever grateful to all friends, but especially unto them which brought you up by hand!'

`Good-bye, Joe!'

`God bless you, Pip, old chap!'

I had never parted from his before, and what with my feelings and what with soap-suds, I could at first see no stars from the chaise-cart. But they twinkled out one by one, without throwing any light on the questions why on earth I was going to play at Miss Havisham's, and what on earth I was expected to play at.