“Next thing to it,” returned Wemmick,“I am going to Newgate.We are in a banker’s-parcel case just at present,and I have been down the road taking a squint at the scene of action,and thereupon must have a word or two with our client.”
“Did your client commit the robbery?” I asked.
“Bless your soul and body, no,” answered Wemmick,very drily. “But he is accused of it.So might you or I be.Either of us might be accused of it, you know.”
“Only neither of us is,” I remarked.
“Yah!” said Wemmick, touching me on the breast with his forefinger;“you’re a deep one, Mr. Pip!Would you like to have a look at Newgate?Have you time to spare?”
I had so much time to spare,that the proposal came as a relief,notwithstanding its irreconcilability with my latent desire to keep my eye on the coach-office. Muttering that I would make the inquiry whether I had time to walk with him, I went into the office, and ascertained from the clerk with the nicest precision and much to the trying of his temper, the earliest moment at which the coach could be expected,—which I knew beforehand, quite as well as he. I then rejoined Mr. Wemmick, and affecting to consult my watch, and to be surprised by the information I had received, accepted his offer.
We were at Newgate in a few minutes,and we passed through the lodge where some fetters were hanging up on the bare walls among the prison rules, into the interior of the jail. At that time jails were much neglected, and the period of exaggerated reaction consequent on all public wrongdoing—and which is always its heaviest and longest punishment—was still far off. So, felons were not lodged and fed better than soldiers (to say nothing of paupers), and seldom set fire to their prisons with the excusable object of improving the flavour of their soup. It was visiting time when Wemmick took me in, and a potman was going his rounds with beer; and the prisoners, behind bars in yards, were buying beer, and talking to friends; and a frowzy, ugly, disorderly, depressing scene it was.
It struck me that Wemmick walked among the prisoners much as a gardener might walk among his plants. This was first put into my head by his seeing a shoot that had come up in the night, and saying, “What, Captain Tom?Are _you_ there?Ah, indeed!” and also, “Is that Black Bill behind the cistern?Why I didn’t look for you these two months;how do you find yourself?” Equally in his stopping at the bars and attending to anxious whisperers,—always singly,—Wemmick with his post-office in an immovable state,looked at them while in conference,as if he were taking particular notice of the advance they had made,since last observed,towards coming out in full blow at their trial.
He was highly popular,and I found that he took the familiar department of Mr.Jaggers’s business;though something of the state of Mr.Jaggers hung about him too,forbidding approach beyond certain limits.His personal recognition of each successive client was comprised in a nod,and in his settling his hat a little easier on his head with both hands,and then tightening the post-office,and putting his hands in his pockets.In one or two instances there was a difficulty respecting the raising of fees,and then Mr. Wemmick,backing as far as possible from the insufficient money produced,said, “it’s no use, my boy. I’m only a subordinate.I can’t take it. Don’t go on in that way with a subordinate.If you are unable to make up your quantum, my boy,you had better address yourself to a principal;there are plenty of principals in the profession,you know, and what is not worth the while of one,may be worth the while of another;that’s my recommendation to you,speaking as a subordinate.Don’t try on useless measures. Why should you?Now, who’s next?”
Thus, we walked through Wemmick’s greenhouse,until he turned to me and said,“Notice the man I shall shake hands with.” I should have done so, without the preparation,as he had shaken hands with no one yet.
Almost as soon as he had spoken,a portly upright man (whom I can see now,as I write) in a well-worn olive-coloured frock-coat,with a peculiar pallor overspreading the red in his complexion,and eyes that went wandering about when he tried to fix them,came up to a corner of the bars,and put his hand to his hat—which had a greasy and fatty surface like cold broth—with a half-serious and half-jocose military salute.
“Colonel, to you!” said Wemmick; “how are you, Colonel?”
“All right, Mr. Wemmick.”
“Everything was done that could be done,but the evidence was too strong for us, Colonel.”
“Yes, it was too strong, sir,—but _I_ don’t care.”
“No, no,” said Wemmick, coolly, “_you_ don’t care.” Then, turning to me, “Served His Majesty this man.Was a soldier in the line and bought his discharge.”
I said, “Indeed?” and the man’s eyes looked at me,and then looked over my head,and then looked all round me,and then he drew his hand across his lips and laughed.
“I think I shall be out of this on Monday, sir,” he said to Wemmick.
“Perhaps,” returned my friend, “but there’s no knowing.”
“I am glad to have the chance of bidding you good-bye,Mr. Wemmick,” said the man,stretching out his hand between two bars.
“Thankye,” said Wemmick, shaking hands with him.“Same to you, Colonel.”
“If what I had upon me when taken had been real, Mr.Wemmick,” said the man, unwilling to let his hand go,“I should have asked the favour of your wearing another ring—in acknowledgment of your attentions.”
“I’ll accept the will for the deed,” said Wemmick.“By the by; you were quite a pigeon-fancier.” The man looked up at the sky.“I am told you had a remarkable breed of tumblers._Could_ you commission any friend of yours to bring me a pair,if you’ve no further use for ’em?”
“It shall be done, sir.”
“All right,” said Wemmick, “they shall be taken care of.Good-afternoon, Colonel. Good-bye!” They shook hands again,and as we walked away Wemmick said to me, “A Coiner,a very good workman.The Recorder’s report is made to-day,and he is sure to be executed on Monday. Still you see,as far as it goes, a pair of pigeons are portable property all the same.” With that, he looked back,and nodded at this dead plant,and then cast his eyes about him in walking out of the yard,as if he were considering what other pot would go best in its place.