said the oid man, in his chirping way, while he
warmed his hands at the blaze, "at his office, I
expect?"  I nodded. " Hah! I have heerd
that my son is a wonderful hand at his business,
sir?" I nodded hard. " Yes; so they tell me.
His business is the Law?" I nodded harder.
" Which makes it more surprising in my son,"
said the old man, " for he was not brought up
to the Law, but to the Wine-Coopering.'

Curious to know how the old gentleman
stood informed concerning the reputation of
Mr. Jaggers, I roared that name at him. He
threw me into the greatest confusion by laughing
heartily and replying in a very sprightly
manner, " No, to be sure; you're right." And
to this hour I have not the faintest notion
what he meant, or what joke he thought I had
made.

As I could not sit there nodding at him
perpetually, without making some other attempt to
interest him, I shouted an inquiry whether his
own calling in life had been "the Wine-Coopering."
By dint of straining that term out of
myself several times and tapping the old gentleman
on the chest to associate it with him, I at
last succeeded in making my meaning
understood.

"No," said the old gentleman; " the warehousing,
the warehousing. First, over yonder;"
he appeared to mean up the chimney, but I
believe he intended to refer me to Liverpool;
"and then in the City of London here. However,
having an infirmity—for I am hard of
hearing, sir—"

I expressed in pantomime the greatest
astonishment.

"Yes, hard of hearing; having that infirmity
coming upon me, my son he went into the
Law, and he took charge of me, and he by little
and little made out this elegant and beautiful
property. But returning to what you said, you
know," pursued the old man, again laughing
heartily, "what I say is, No to be sure; you're
right."

I was modestly wondering whether my
utmost ingenuity would have enabled me to say
anything that would have amused him half as
much as this imaginary pleasantry, when I was
startled by a sudden click in the wall on one
side of the chimney, and the ghostly tumbling
open of a little wooden flap with " JOHN" upon
it. The old man, following my eyes, cried with
great triumph " My son's come home!" and we
both went out to the drawbridge.

It was worth any money to see Wemmick waving
a remote salute to me from the other side of
the moat, when we might have shaken hands
across it with the greatest ease. The Aged was
so delighted to work the drawbridge, that I
made no offer to assist him, but stood quiet
until Wemmick had come across, and had
presented me to Miss Skiffins: a lady by whom he
was accompanied.

Miss Skiffins was of a wooden appearance,
and was, like her escort, in the post-office branch
of the service. She might have been some two or
three years younger than Wemmick, and I judged
her to stand possessed of portable property. The
cut of her dress from the waist upward, both
before and behind, made her flgure very like
a boy's kite; and I might have pronounced
her gown a little too decidedly orange, and
her gloves a little too intensely green. But
she seemed to be a good sort of fellow, and
showed a high regard for the Aged. I was not
long in discovering that she was a frequent
visitor at the Castle; for, on our going in, and
my complimenting Wemmick on his ingenious
contrivance for announcing himself to the Aged,
he begged me to give my attention for a moment
to the other side of the chimney, and disappeared.
Presently another click came, and another little
door tumbled open with "Miss Skiffins" on it;
then Miss Skiffins shut up, and John tumbled
open; then Miss Skiffins and John both tumbled
open together, and finally shut up together. On
Wemmick's return from working these mechanical
appliances I expressed the great admiration
with which I regarded them, and he said, "Well
you know, they're both pleasant and useful to
the Aged. And by George, sir, it's a thing
worth mentioning, that of all the people who
come to this gate, the secret of those pulls is
only known to the Aged, Miss Skiffins, and
me!"

"And Mr. Wemmick made them," added
Miss Skiffins, "with his own hands out of his
own head."

While Miss Skiffins was taking off her bonnet
(she retained her green gloves during the evening
as an outward and visible sign that there
was company), Wemmick invited me to take a
walk with him round the property, and see how
the island looked in winter-time. Thinking
that he did this to give me an opportunity
of taking his Walworth sentiments, I seized
the opportunity as soon as we were out of the
Castle.

Having thought of the matter with care, I
approached my subject as if I had never hinted
at it before. I informed Wemmick that I was
anxious in behalf of Herbert Pocket, and I
told him how we had first met, and how we had
fought. I glanced at Herbert's home, and at
his character, and at his having no means but
such as he was dependent on his father for:
those, uncertain and unpunctual. I alluded to
the advantages I had derived in my first
rawness and ignorance from his society, and I
confessed that I feared I had but ill repaid them,
and that he might have done better without me
and my expectations. Keeping Miss Havisham
in the background at a great distance, I still
hinted at the possibility of my having competed
with him in his prospects, and at the certainty
of his possessing a generous soul, and being far
above any mean distrusts, retaliations, or designs.
For all these reasons (I told Wemmick), and
because he was my young companion and friend,
and I had a great affection for him, I wished my
own good fortune to reflect some rays upon him,
and therefore I sought advice from Wemmick's
experience and knowledge of men and affairs, how
I could best try with my resources to help