Speaker 1: Chapter fifty two of Great Expectations. This is the LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Great
Speaker 1: Expectations by Charles Dickens, Chapter fifty two from Little Britain.
Speaker 1: I went with my check in my pocket to Miss
Speaker 1: Skiffins's brother, the accountant, and Miss Skiffins's brother the accountant,
Speaker 1: going straight to Clerker's and bringing Clerker to me. I
Speaker 1: had the great satisfaction of concluding that arrangement. It was
Speaker 1: the only good thing I had done, and the only
Speaker 1: completed thing I had done since I was first apprized
Speaker 1: of my Great Expectations. Clerker informing me on that occasion
Speaker 1: that the affairs of the house were steadily progressing, that
Speaker 1: he would now be able to establish a small branch
Speaker 1: house in the east, which was much wanted for the
Speaker 1: extension of the business, and that Herbert, in his new
Speaker 1: partnership capacity, would go out and take charge of it.
Speaker 1: I found that I must have prepared for a separation
Speaker 1: from my friend, even though my own affairs had been
Speaker 1: more settled, and now indeed I felt as if my
Speaker 1: last anchor were loosening its hold, and I should soon
Speaker 1: be driving with the winds and waves. But there was
Speaker 1: recompense in the joy with which Herbert would come home
Speaker 1: of a night and tell me of these changes, little
Speaker 1: imagining that he told me no news, and would sketch
Speaker 1: airy pictures of himself conducting Clara Barley to the land
Speaker 1: of the Arabian Nights, and of me going out to
Speaker 1: join them with a caravan of camels, I believe, and
Speaker 1: of our all going up the nile and seeing wonders.
Speaker 1: Without being sanguine as to my own part in these
Speaker 1: bright plans, I felt that Herbert's way was clearing fast,
Speaker 1: and that old Bill Barley had but to stick to
Speaker 1: his pepper and rum, and his daughter would soon be
Speaker 1: happily provided for. We had now got into the month
Speaker 1: of March. My left arm, though it presented no bad symptoms,
Speaker 1: took in the natural course so long to heal that
Speaker 1: I was still unable to get a coat on. My
Speaker 1: right arm was tolerably restored, disfigured, but fairly serviceable. On
Speaker 1: a Monday morning, when Herbert and I were at breakfast,
Speaker 1: I received the following letter from Wemmick by the post Whalworth.
Speaker 1: Burn this as soon as read early in the week,
Speaker 1: or say Wednesday. You might do what you know of
Speaker 1: if you felt disposed to try it now burn. When
Speaker 1: I had shown this to Herbert and had put it
Speaker 1: in the fire, but not before we had both got
Speaker 1: it by heart, we considered what to do, for of
Speaker 1: course my being disabled could now be no longer kept
Speaker 1: out of it. I have thought it over again and again,
Speaker 1: said Herbert, and I think I know a better course
Speaker 1: than taking a Thames waterman. Take Startop, a good fellow,
Speaker 1: a skilled hand, fond of us, and enthusiastic and honorable.
Speaker 1: I had thought of him more than once. But how
Speaker 1: much would you tell him, Herbert? It is necessary to
Speaker 1: tell him very little. Let him suppose it a mere freak,
Speaker 1: but a secret one until the morning comes. Then let
Speaker 1: him know that there is urgent reason for your getting
Speaker 1: provis aboard. In a way, you go with him, no doubt.
Speaker 1: Where it had seemed to me in the many anxious considerations,
Speaker 1: I had given the point almost indifferent what port we
Speaker 1: made for Hamburg, rotterdam Antwerp, The place signified little, so
Speaker 1: that he was out of England. Any foreign steamer that
Speaker 1: fell on our way and would take us up would do.
Speaker 1: I had always proposed myself to getting well down the
Speaker 1: river in the boat, certainly well beyond Gravesend, which was
Speaker 1: a critical place for search or inquiry if suspicion were afoot.
Speaker 1: As foreign steamers would leave London about the time of
Speaker 1: high water, our plan would be to get down the
Speaker 1: river by a previous ebb tide and lie by in
Speaker 1: some quiet spot until we could pull off to one
Speaker 1: the time when one would be due. Where we lay
Speaker 1: wherever that might be, could be calculated pretty nearly if
Speaker 1: we made inquiries beforehand. Herbert assented to all this, and
Speaker 1: we went out immediately after breakfast to pursue our investigations.
Speaker 1: We found that a steamer for Hamburg was likely to
Speaker 1: suit our purpose best, and we directed our thoughts chiefly
Speaker 1: to that vessel. But we noted down what other foreign
Speaker 1: steamers would leave London with the same tide, and we
Speaker 1: satisfied ourselves that we knew the build and color of each.
Speaker 1: We then separated for a few hours. I to get
Speaker 1: at once such passports as were necessary. Herbert de seized
Speaker 1: star Top at his lodgings. We both did what we
Speaker 1: had to do without any hindrance, and when we met
Speaker 1: again at one o'clock reported it done. I, for my part,
Speaker 1: was prepared with passports. Herbert had seen star Top and
Speaker 1: he was more than ready to join. Those two should
Speaker 1: pull a pair of oars. We settled, and I would steer.
Speaker 1: Our charge would be sitter and keep quiet. As speed
Speaker 1: was not our object, we should make way enough. We
Speaker 1: arranged that Herbert should not come home to dinner before
Speaker 1: going to mill Pond Bank that evening, that he should
Speaker 1: not go there at all tomorrow evening Tuesday. That he
Speaker 1: should prepare provis to come down to some stairs hard
Speaker 1: by the house on Wednesday when he saw us approach,
Speaker 1: and not sooner. That all the arrangements with him should
Speaker 1: be concluded that Monday night, and he should be commune
Speaker 1: udicated with no more in any way until we took
Speaker 1: him on board. These precautions well understood by both of us.
Speaker 1: I went home. On opening the outer door of our
Speaker 1: chambers with my key, I found a letter in the
Speaker 1: box directed to me, A very dirty letter. Though not
Speaker 1: ill written. It had been delivered by hand, of course,
Speaker 1: since I left home, and its contents were these, If
Speaker 1: you are not afraid to come to the old marshes
Speaker 1: to night or tomorrow night at nine, and to come
Speaker 1: to the little sluice house by the lime kiln, you
Speaker 1: had better come. If you want information regarding your uncle
Speaker 1: provis you had much better come and tell no one
Speaker 1: and lose no time. You must come alone bring this
Speaker 1: with you. I had had load enough upon my mind
Speaker 1: before the receipt of this strange letter. What to do
Speaker 1: now I could not tell, And the worst was that
Speaker 1: I must decide quickly or I should I missed the
Speaker 1: afternoon coach which would take me down in time for
Speaker 1: tonight tomorrow night. I could not think of going, for
Speaker 1: it would be too close upon the time of the flight.
Speaker 1: And again for anything, I knew the proffered information might
Speaker 1: have some important bearing on the flight itself. If I
Speaker 1: had had ample time for consideration, I believe I should
Speaker 1: still have gone. Having hardly any time for consideration, my
Speaker 1: watch showing me that the coach started within half an hour,
Speaker 1: I resolved to go. I should certainly not have gone,
Speaker 1: but for the reference to my uncle provis that coming
Speaker 1: on Wemmick's letter and the morning's busy preparation turned the scale.
Speaker 1: It is so difficult to become clearly possessed of the
Speaker 1: contents of almost any letter in a violent hurry, that
Speaker 1: I had to read this mysterious epistle again twice before
Speaker 1: its injunction to me to be secret got mechanically into
Speaker 1: my mind, Yielding to it the same mechanical kind of way,
Speaker 1: I left a note in pencil for Herbert, telling him
Speaker 1: that as I should be so soon going away, I
Speaker 1: knew not for how long I had decided to hurry
Speaker 1: down and back to ascertain for myself how Miss Havisham
Speaker 1: was faring. I had then barely time to get my greatcoat,
Speaker 1: lock up the chambers, and make for the coach office
Speaker 1: by the short byways. If I had taken a hackney
Speaker 1: chariot and gone by the streets, I should have missed
Speaker 1: my aim. Going as I did, I caught the coach
Speaker 1: just as it came out of the yard. I was
Speaker 1: the only inside passenger, jolding away, knee deep in straw,
Speaker 1: when I came to myself, For I really had not
Speaker 1: been myself since the receipt of the letter. It had
Speaker 1: so bewildered me ensuing on the hurry of the morning.
Speaker 1: The morning hurry and flutter had been great for long
Speaker 1: and anxiously as I had waited for Wemmick. His hint
Speaker 1: had come like a surprise at last. And now I
Speaker 1: began to wonder at myself for being in the coach,
Speaker 1: and to doubt whether I had sufficient reason for being there,
Speaker 1: and to consider whether I should get out presently and
Speaker 1: go back, and to argue against ever heating an anonymous communication,
Speaker 1: and in short, to pass through all those phases of
Speaker 1: contradiction and indecision, to which I suppose very few hurried
Speaker 1: people are strangers. Still, the reference to provis by name
Speaker 1: mastered everything I reasoned, as I had reasoned already without
Speaker 1: knowing it. If that be reasoning in case any harm
Speaker 1: should befall him through my not going, how could I
Speaker 1: ever forgive myself. It was dark before we got down,
Speaker 1: and the journey seemed long and dreary to me, who
Speaker 1: could see little of it inside, and who could not
Speaker 1: go outside in my disabled state. Avoiding the blue boar,
Speaker 1: I put up at an inn of minor reputation down
Speaker 1: the town and ordered some dinner. While it was I
Speaker 1: was preparing, I went to set his house and inquired
Speaker 1: for miss Havisham. She was still very ill, though considered
Speaker 1: something better. My inn had once been a part of
Speaker 1: an ancient ecclesiastical house, and I dined in a little
Speaker 1: octagonal common room like a font. As I was not
Speaker 1: able to cut my dinner, the old landlord, with a
Speaker 1: shining bald head, did it for me, this bringing us
Speaker 1: into conversation. He was so good as to entertain me
Speaker 1: with my own story, of course, with a popular feature
Speaker 1: that Pumblechuk was my earliest benefactor and the founder of
Speaker 1: my fortunes. Do you know the young man, said? I
Speaker 1: know him, repeated the landlord. Ever since he was and
Speaker 1: no height at all? Does he ever come back to
Speaker 1: this neighborhood? Ay, he comes back, said the landlord, to
Speaker 1: his great friends now and again, and gives the cold
Speaker 1: shoulder to the man that made him. What man is
Speaker 1: that him that I speak of, said the landlord, Mister Pumblechuk.
Speaker 1: Is he ungrateful to no one else? No doubt he
Speaker 1: would be if he could returned the Landlord. But he can't.
Speaker 1: And why because Pumblechuk done everything for him? Does Pumblechuk
Speaker 1: say so? Say so? Replied the Landlord. He hain't no
Speaker 1: call to say so. But does he say so? It
Speaker 1: would turn a man's blood to white wine vinigar to
Speaker 1: hear him tell of it, Sir, said the landlord. I thought, Yet, Joe,
Speaker 1: dear Joe, you never tell of it. Long suffering and
Speaker 1: loving Joe, you never complain, nor you sweet tempered biddy.
Speaker 1: Your appetite's been touched like by your accident, said the Landlord,
Speaker 1: glancing at the bandage arm under my coat. Try a
Speaker 1: tenderer beat. No thank you, I replied, turning from the
Speaker 1: table to brood over the fire. I can eat no more.
Speaker 1: Please take it away. I had never been struck at
Speaker 1: so keenly for my thanklessness to Joe as through the
Speaker 1: brazen impostor Pumblechook, the falser He, the truer Joe, the
Speaker 1: meaner he, the nobler Joe. My heart was deeply and
Speaker 1: most deservedly humbled. As I mused over the fire for
Speaker 1: an hour or more, the striking of the clock aroused me,
Speaker 1: but not from my dejection or remorse, and I got
Speaker 1: up and had my coat fastened round my neck, and
Speaker 1: went out. I had previously sought in my pockets for
Speaker 1: the letter, that I might refer to it again, but
Speaker 1: I could not find it, and was uneasy to think
Speaker 1: that it must have been dropped in the straw of
Speaker 1: the coach. I knew very well, however, that the appointed
Speaker 1: place was the little sluice house by the lime kiln
Speaker 1: on the marshes. And the hour nine towards the marshes.
Speaker 1: I now went straight, having no time to spare. End
Speaker 1: of chapter