dreams; you know more about such things than
I, having much fresher experience of that kind.
But about this other matter. I'll put a case to
you. Mind! I admit nothing."

He waited for me to declare that I quite
understood that he expressly said that he
admitted nothing.

"Now, Pip," said Mr. Jaggers, "put this
case. Put the case that a woman, under such
circumstances as you have mentioned, held her
child concealed, and was obliged to
communicate the fact to her legal adviser, on his
representing to her that he must know, with an
eye to the latitude of his defence, how the fact
stood about that child. Put the case that at
the same time he held a trust to find a child for
an eccentric rich lady to adopt and bring up."

"I follow you, sir."

"Put the case that he lived in an atmosphere
of evil, and that all he saw of children, was, their
being generated in great numbers for certain
destruction. I'm the case that he often saw
children solemnly tried at a criminal bar, where
they were held up to be seen; put the case that
he habitually knew of their being imprisoned,
whipped, transported, neglected, cast out, qualified
in all ways for the hangman, and growing
up to be hanged. Put the case that pretty nigh
all the children he saw in his daily business life,
he had reason to look upon as so much spawn,
to develop into the fish that were to come to
his net—to be prosecuted, defended, forsworn,
made orphans, be-devilled somehow."

"I follow you, sir."

"Put, the case, Pip, that here was one pretty
little child out of the heap, who could be saved;
whom the father believed dead, and dared make
no stir about; as to whom, over the mother,
the legal adviser had this power: 'I know what
you did, and how you did it. You came so and
so, this was your manner of attack and this the
manner of resistance, you went so and so,
you did such and such things to divert
suspicion. I have tracked you through it all,
and I tell it you all. Part with the child,
unless it should be necessary to produce it to
clear you, and then it shall be produced. Give
the child into my hands, and I will do my best
to bring you off. If you are saved, your child
is saved too; if you are lost, your child is still
saved.' Put the case that this was done, and
that the woman was cleared.''

"I understand you perfectly."

"But that I make no admissions?"

"That you make no admissions." And
Wemmick repeated, "No admissions."

"Put the case, Pip, that passion and the
terror of death had a little shaken the woman's
intellects, and that when she was set at liberty,
she was scared out of the ways of the world
and went to him to be sheltered. Put the case
that he took her in, and that he kept down the old
wild violent nature whenever he saw an inkling
of its breaking out, by asserting his power
her in the old way. Do you comprehend the
imaginary case?"

"Quite."

"Put the case that the child grew up, and
was married for money. That the mother was
still living. That the father was still living.
That the mother and father unknown to one
another, were dwelling within so many miles,
furlongs, yards if you like, of one another. That
the secret was still a secret, except that you
had got wind of it. Put that last case to yourself
very carefully."

"I do."

"I ask Wemmick to put it to himself very
carefully."

And Wemmick said, "I do."

"For whose sake would you reveal the
secret? For the father's? I think he would not
be much the better for the mother. For the
mother's? I think if she had done such a deed
she would be safer where she was. For the
daughter's? I think it would hardly serve her,
to establish her parentage for the information of
her husband, and to drag her back to disgrace
after an escape of twenty years, pretty secure to
last for life. But add the case that you had
loved her, Pip, and had made her the subject of
those 'poor dreams' which have, at one time or
another, been in the heads of more men than
you think likely, then I tell you that you had
better—and would much sooner when you had
thought well of it—chop off that bandaged left
hand of yours with your bandaged right hand,
and then pass the chopper on to Wemmick there,
to cut that off, too."

I looked at Wemmick, whose face was very
grave. He gravely touched his lips with
his forefinger. I did the same. Mr. Jaggers
did the same. "Now, Wemmick," said the
latter then, resuming his usual manner, "what
item was it you were at, when Mr. Pip came in?"

Standing by for a little, while they were at
work, I observed that the odd looks they had
cast at one another were repeated several times:
with this difference now, that each of them
seemed suspicious, not to say conscious, of
having shown, himself in a weak and unprofessional
light to the other. For this reason, I
suppose, they were now inflexible with one
another; Mr. Jaggers being highly dictatorial,
and Wemmick obstinately justifying himself
whenever there was the smallest point in
abeyance for a moment. I had never seen them on
such ill terms; for generally they got on very
well indeed together.

But they were both happily relieved by the
opportune appearance of Mike, the client with
the fur cap and the habit of wiping his nose on
his sleeve, whom I had seen on the very first
day of my appearance within those walls. This
individual, who, either in his own person or in
that of some member of his family, seemed to
be always in trouble (which in that place meant
Newgate), called to announce that his eldest
daughter was taken up on suspicion of shop-
lifting. As he imparted this melancholy
circumstance to Wemmick, Mr. Jaggers standing
magisterially before the fire and taking no share
in the proceedings, Mike's eye happened to
twinkle with a tear.