Speaker 1: Chapter fifty of Great Expectations. This is a 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. My hands had been
Speaker 1: dressed twice or thrice in the night, and again in
Speaker 1: the morning. My left arm was a good deal burned
Speaker 1: to the elbow and less severely as high as the shoulder.
Speaker 1: It was very painful, but the flames had set in
Speaker 1: that direction, and I felt, thankfully it was no worse.
Speaker 1: My right hand was not so badly burnt, but that
Speaker 1: I could move the fingers. It was bandaged, of course,
Speaker 1: but much less inconveniently than my left hand and arm.
Speaker 1: Those I carried in a slip, and I could only
Speaker 1: wear my coat like a cloak, loose over my shoulders
Speaker 1: and fastened at the neck. My hair had been caught
Speaker 1: by the fire, but not my head or face. When
Speaker 1: 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, 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 become parable 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 it? How did she murder?
Speaker 1: Whom did she murder? Why? The deed may not have
Speaker 1: merrit it quite so terrible a name, said Herbert. But
Speaker 1: she was tried for it, and mister Jaggers defended her,
Speaker 1: and the reputation of that defense first made his name
Speaker 1: known to Provis. It was another and a stronger woman
Speaker 1: who was the victim, and there had been a struggle
Speaker 1: in a barn. Who began it, or how fair it
Speaker 1: was or how unfair, may be doubtful, but how it
Speaker 1: ended is certainly not doubtful. For the victim was found throttled.
Speaker 1: Was the woman brought in guilty? No, she was acquitted.
Speaker 1: My poor handel I hurt you? It is impossible to
Speaker 1: be gentler, Herbert? Yes, what else? The acquitted young woman
Speaker 1: in ProBiS had a little child, a little child of
Speaker 1: whom Provis was exceedingly fond. On the evening of the
Speaker 1: very night when the object of her jealousy was strangled,
Speaker 1: as I tell you, the young woman presented herself before
Speaker 1: Provis for one moment and swore that she would destroy
Speaker 1: the child which was in her possession, and he should
Speaker 1: never see it again. Then she vanished. There's the worst
Speaker 1: arm comfortably in the sling once more, And now there
Speaker 1: remains but the right hand, which is a far easier job.
Speaker 1: I can do it better by this light than by
Speaker 1: a stronger for my hand is steadiest when I don't
Speaker 1: see the poor blistered patches too distinctly. You don't think
Speaker 1: your breathing is effected, my dear boy. You seem to
Speaker 1: breathe quickly. Perhaps I do, Herbert. Did the woman keep
Speaker 1: her oath? There comes the darkest part of Provis's life.
Speaker 1: She did, that is, he says she did. Why, of course,
Speaker 1: my dear boy, returned Herbert in a tone of surprise,
Speaker 1: and again bending forward to get a nearer look at me,
Speaker 1: he says it all. I have no other information. No
Speaker 1: to be sure now, whether pursued Herbert he had used
Speaker 1: the child's mother ill, or whether he had used the
Speaker 1: child's mother, well, Provis doesn't say. But she had shared
Speaker 1: some four or five years of the wretched life he
Speaker 1: described to us at this fireside, and he seems to
Speaker 1: have felt pity for her and forbearance towards her. Therefore,
Speaker 1: fearing he should be called upon to depose about this
Speaker 1: destroyed che child and so be the cause of her death,
Speaker 1: he hid himself much as he grieved for the child,
Speaker 1: kept himself dark, as he says, out of the way
Speaker 1: and out of the trial, and was only vaguely talked
Speaker 1: of as a certain man called Abel, out of whom
Speaker 1: the jealousy arose. After the acquittal, she disappeared, and thus
Speaker 1: he lost the child and the child's mother. I want
Speaker 1: to ask a moment, my dear boy, and I have
Speaker 1: done that evil genius Compisoon, the worst of scoundrels among
Speaker 1: many scoundrels, knowing of his keeping out of the way
Speaker 1: at that time and of his reasons for doing so,
Speaker 1: of course afterwards held the knowledge over his head as
Speaker 1: a means of keeping him poorer and working him harder.
Speaker 1: It was clear last night that this barbed the point
Speaker 1: of Probus's animosity. I want to know, said I, and
Speaker 1: particularly Herbert, whether he told you when this happened. Particularly,
Speaker 1: let me remember then what he said as to that
Speaker 1: his impression was a round score a year ago, and
Speaker 1: almost directly after I took up with Compusoen. How old
Speaker 1: were you when you came upon him in the little churchyard?
Speaker 1: I think in my seventh year. Ay, it had happened
Speaker 1: some three or four years. Then, he said, and you
Speaker 1: brought into his mind the little girl so tragically lost,
Speaker 1: who would have been about your age, Herbert said I,
Speaker 1: after a short silence, in a hurried way. Can you
Speaker 1: see me best by the light of the window or
Speaker 1: the light of the fire. By the firelight, answered Herbert,
Speaker 1: coming close again, Look at me, I do. Look at you,
Speaker 1: my dear boy. Touch me, I do touch you, my
Speaker 1: dear boy. You are not afraid that I am in
Speaker 1: any fever, or that my head is much disordered by
Speaker 1: the accident of last night, No, my dear boy, said Herbert,
Speaker 1: after taking time to examine me. You are rather excited,
Speaker 1: but you are quite yourself. I know I am quite myself.
Speaker 1: And the man we have in hiding down the river
Speaker 1: is Estella's father. End of chapter