Speaker 1: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, chapter fifty. My hands had
Speaker 1: been dressed twice or thrice in the night, and again
Speaker 1: in the morning. My left arm was a good deal
Speaker 1: burned to the elbow and less severely as high as
Speaker 1: the shoulder. It was very painful, but the flames had
Speaker 1: set in that direction, and I felt thankful it was
Speaker 1: no worse. My right hand was not so badly burnt,
Speaker 1: but that I could move the fingers. It was bandaged,
Speaker 1: of course, but much less inconveniently than my left hand
Speaker 1: and arm. Those I carried in a sling, and I
Speaker 1: could only wear my coat like a cloak, loose over
Speaker 1: my shoulders and fastened at the neck. My hair had
Speaker 1: been caught by the fire, but not my head or face.
Speaker 1: When Herbert had been down to Hammersmith and seen his father,
Speaker 1: he came back to me at our chambers and devoted
Speaker 1: the day to attending on me. He was the kindness
Speaker 1: of nurses, and at stated times took off the bandages
Speaker 1: and steeped them in the cooling liquid that was kept ready,
Speaker 1: and put them on again with a patient tenderness that
Speaker 1: I was deeply grateful for. At first, as I lay
Speaker 1: quiet on the sofa. I found it painfully difficult, I
Speaker 1: might say impossible, to get rid of the impression of
Speaker 1: the glare of the flames, their hurry and noise, and
Speaker 1: the fierce burning smell. If I dozed for a minute,
Speaker 1: I was awakened by Miss Havisham's cries, and by her
Speaker 1: running at me with all that height of fire above
Speaker 1: her head. This pain of the mind was much harder
Speaker 1: to strive against than any bodily pain I suffered, And Herbert,
Speaker 1: seeing that, did his utmost to hold my attention engaged.
Speaker 1: Neither of us spoke of the boat, but we both
Speaker 1: thought of it. That was made apparent by our avoidance
Speaker 1: of the subject, and by our agreeing without agreement, to
Speaker 1: make my recovery of the use of my hands a
Speaker 1: question of so many hours, not of so many weeks.
Speaker 1: My first question when I saw Herbert had been, of course,
Speaker 1: whether all was well down the river, As he replied
Speaker 1: in the affirmative with perfect confidence and cheerfulness. We did
Speaker 1: not resume the subject until the day was wearing away.
Speaker 1: But then, as Herbert changed the bandages, more by the
Speaker 1: light of the fire than by the outer light, he
Speaker 1: went back to it spontaneously I sat with Probus last night, Handel,
Speaker 1: two good hours. Where was Clara, dear little thing? Said Herbert.
Speaker 1: She was up and down with gruff and grim all
Speaker 1: the evening. He was perpetually pegging at the floor the
Speaker 1: moment she left his sight. I doubt if he can
Speaker 1: hold out long, though, what with rum and pepper and
Speaker 1: pepper and rum. I should think his pegging must be
Speaker 1: nearly over, and then you will be married, Herbert, How
Speaker 1: can I take care of the dear child? Otherwise? Lay
Speaker 1: your arm out upon the back of the sofa, my
Speaker 1: dear boy, and I'll sit down here and get the
Speaker 1: bandage off so gradually that you shall not know when
Speaker 1: it comes. I was speaking of provis. Do you know, Handel,
Speaker 1: he improves, I said to you. I thought he was
Speaker 1: softened when I last saw him. So you did, and
Speaker 1: so he is. He was very communicative last night and
Speaker 1: told me more of his life. You remember his breaking
Speaker 1: off here about some woman that he had had great
Speaker 1: trouble with? Did I hurt you? I had started, but
Speaker 1: not under his touch. His words had given me a start.
Speaker 1: I had forgotten that, Herbert, but I remember it now
Speaker 1: you speak of it. Well. He went into that part
Speaker 1: of his life, and a dark, wild part it is.
Speaker 1: Shall I tell you? Or would it were you? Just
Speaker 1: now tell me? By all means every word. Herbert bent
Speaker 1: forward to look at me more nearly as if my
Speaker 1: reply had been rather more hurried or more eager than
Speaker 1: he could quite account for. Your head is cool, he said,
Speaker 1: touching it quite said, I tell me what promise, said
Speaker 1: my dear Herbert. It seems, said Herbert, there's a bandage off,
Speaker 1: most charmingly, and now comes the cool one. Makes you
Speaker 1: shrink at first, my poor dear fellow, don't it, but
Speaker 1: it will be comfortable presently. It seems that the woman
Speaker 1: was a young woman, and a jealous woman, and a
Speaker 1: revengeful woman. Revengeful handle to the last degree, to what
Speaker 1: last degree? Murder? Does it strike too cold on that
Speaker 1: sensitive place? I don't feel. How did she murder? Whom
Speaker 1: did she murder? Why? The deed may not have merited
Speaker 1: quite so terrible a name, said Herbert, But she was
Speaker 1: tried for it, and mister Jaggers defended her, and the
Speaker 1: reputation of that defense first made his name known. To
Speaker 1: provis It was another and a stronger woman who was
Speaker 1: the victim, and there had been a struggle in a barn.
Speaker 1: Who began it, or how fair it was or how unfair,
Speaker 1: may be doubtful, but how it ended is certainly not doubtful.
Speaker 1: For the victim was found throttled. Was the woman brought
Speaker 1: in guilty? No, she was acquitted. My poor handel I
Speaker 1: hurt you. It is impossible to be gentler, Herbert, Yes,
Speaker 1: what else? The acquitted young woman in ProBiS had a
Speaker 1: little child, a little child of whom Provis was exceedingly fond.
Speaker 1: On the evening of the very night, when the object
Speaker 1: of her jealousy was strangled, as I tell you, the
Speaker 1: young woman presented herself before Provis for one moment and
Speaker 1: swore that she would destroy the child which was in
Speaker 1: her possession, and he should never see it again. Then
Speaker 1: she vanished. There's the worst arm comfortably in the sling
Speaker 1: once more, And now there remains but the right hand,
Speaker 1: which is a far easier job. I can do it
Speaker 1: better by this light than by us stronger, for my
Speaker 1: hand is steadiest when I don't see the poor blistered
Speaker 1: patches too distinctly. You don't think your breathing is effected,
Speaker 1: my dear boy. You seem to breathe quickly, Perhaps I do, Herbert,
Speaker 1: did the woman keep her oath? There comes the darkest
Speaker 1: part of Provis's life. She did, that is, he says
Speaker 1: she did. Why of course, my dear boy, returned Herbert,
Speaker 1: in a tone of surprise, and again bending forward to
Speaker 1: get a nearer look at me, He says it all.
Speaker 1: I have no other information, No to be sure now,
Speaker 1: whether pursued Herbert he had used the child's mother ill,
Speaker 1: or whether he had used the child's mother, well, Provis
Speaker 1: doesn't say. But she had shared some four or five
Speaker 1: years of the wretched life he described to us at
Speaker 1: this fireside, and he seems to have felt pity for
Speaker 1: her and forbearance towards her. Therefore, fearing he should be
Speaker 1: called upon to depose about this destroyed child and so
Speaker 1: be the cause of her death, he hid himself, much
Speaker 1: as he grieved for the child, kept himself dark, as
Speaker 1: he says, out of the way and out of the trial,
Speaker 1: and was only vaguely talked of as a certain man
Speaker 1: called Abel, out of whom the jealousy arose. After the acquittal,
Speaker 1: she disappeared, and thus he lost the child and the
Speaker 1: child's mother. I want to ask a moment my dear boy,
Speaker 1: and I have done that evil genius compysoon the worst
Speaker 1: of scoundrels among many scoundrels, knowing of his keeping out
Speaker 1: of the way at that time and of his reasons
Speaker 1: for doing so, of course, afterwards held the knowledge over
Speaker 1: his head as a means of keeping him poorer and
Speaker 1: working him harder. It was clear last night that this
Speaker 1: barbed the point of Probus's animosity. I want to know,
Speaker 1: said I, and particularly Herbert, whether he told you when
Speaker 1: this happened. Particularly, let me remember then what he said
Speaker 1: as to that his impression was a round score a
Speaker 1: year ago, and almost directly after I took up with Compusoin.
Speaker 1: How old were you when you came upon him in
Speaker 1: the little churchyard? I think in my seventh year. Ay,
Speaker 1: it had happened some three or four years, then, he said,
Speaker 1: and you brought into his mind the little girl so
Speaker 1: tragically lost, who would have been about your age. Herbert
Speaker 1: said I, after a short silence, in a hurried way.
Speaker 1: Can you see me best by the light of the
Speaker 1: window or the light of the fire. By the firelight,
Speaker 1: answered Herbert, coming close again, look at me, I do,
Speaker 1: look at you, my dear boy, touch me. I do
Speaker 1: touch you, my dear boy, You are not afraid that
Speaker 1: I am in any fever, or that my head is
Speaker 1: much disordered by the accident of last night. No, my
Speaker 1: dear boy, said Herbert, after taking time to examine me.
Speaker 1: You are rather excited, but you are quite yourself. I
Speaker 1: know I am quite myself, and the man we have
Speaker 1: in hiding down the river is Estella's father. End of
Speaker 1: chapter