`As you say, Pip,' returned Mr Jaggers, turning his eyes upon me coolly, and taking a bite at his forefinger, `I am not at all responsible for that.'
`And yet it looked so like it, sir,' I pleaded with a downcast heart.
`Not a particle of evidence, Pip,' said Mr Jaggers, shaking his head and gathering up his skirts. `Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.'
`I have no more to say,' said I, with a sigh, after standing silent for a little while. `I have verified my information, and there's an end.'
`And Magwitch - in New South Wales - having at last disclosed himself,'
said Mr Jaggers, `you will comprehend, Pip, how rigidly throughout my communication with you, I have always adhered to the strict line of fact. There has never been the least departure from the strict line of fact. You are quite aware of that?'
`Quite, sir.'
`I communicated to Magwitch - in New South Wales - when he first wrote to me - from New South Wales - the caution that he must not expect me ever to deviate from the strict line of fact. I also communicated to him another caution. He appeared to me to have obscurely hinted in his letter at some distant idea he had of seeing you in England here. I cautioned him that I must hear no more of that; that he was not at all likely to obtain a pardon; that he was expatriated for the term of his natural life; and that his presenting himself in this country would be an act of felony, rendering him liable to the extreme penalty of the law. I gave Magwitch that caution,'
said Mr Jaggers, looking hard at me; `I wrote it to New South Wales. He guided himself by it, no doubt.'
`No doubt,' said I.
`I have been informed by Wemmick,' pursued Mr Jaggers, still looking hard at me, `that he has received a letter, under date Portsmouth, from a colonist of the name of Purvis, or--'
`Or Provis,' I suggested.
`Or Provis - thank you, Pip. Perhaps it is Provis? Perhaps you know it's Provis?'
`Yes,' said I.
`You know it's Provis. A letter, under date Portsmouth, from a colonist of the name of Provis, asking for the particulars of your address, on behalf of Magwitch. Wemmick sent him the particulars, I understand, by return of post. Probably it is through Provis that you have received the explanation of Magwitch - in New South Wales?'
`It came through Provis,' I replied.
`Good day, Pip,' said Mr Jaggers, offering his hand; `glad to have seen you. In writing by post to Magwitch - in New South Wales - or in communicating with him through Provis, have the goodness to mention that the particulars and vouchers of our long account shall be sent to you, together with the balance; for there is still a balance remaining. Good day, Pip!'
We shook hands, and he looked hard at me as long as he could see me.
I turned at the door, and he was still looking hard at me, while the two vile casts on the shelf seemed to be trying to get their eyelids open, and to force out of their swollen throats, `O, what a man he is!'
Wemmick was out, and though he had been at his desk he could have done nothing for me. I went straight back to the Temple, where I found the terrible Provis drinking rum-and-water and smoking negro-head, in safety.
Next day the clothes I had ordered, all came home, and he put them on.
Whatever he put on, became him less (it dismally seemed to me) than what he had worn before. To my thinking, there was something in him that made it hopeless to attempt to disguise him. The more I dressed him and the better I dressed him, the more he looked like the slouching fugitive on the marshes. This effect on my anxious fancy was partly referable, no doubt, to his old face and manner growing more familiar to me; but I believe too that he dragged one of his legs as if there were still a weight of iron on it, and that from head to foot there was Convict in the very grain of the man.