I was the only inside

passenger, jolting away knee-deep in straw, when I came to myself.

For, I really had not been myself since the receipt of the letter;

it had so bewildered me ensuing on the hurry of the morning. The

morning hurry and flutter had been great, for, long and anxiously

as I had waited for Wemmick, his hint had come like a surprise at

last. And now, I began to wonder at myself for being in the coach,

and to doubt whether I had sufficient reason for being there, and

to consider whether I should get out presently and go back, and to

argue against ever heeding an anonymous communication, and, in

short, to pass through all those phases of contradiction and

indecision to which I suppose very few hurried people are

strangers. Still, the reference to Provis by name, mastered

everything. I reasoned as I had reasoned already without knowing it

- if that be reasoning - in case any harm should befall him through

my not going, how could I ever forgive myself!

It was dark before we got down, and the journey seemed long and

dreary to me who could see little of it inside, and who could not

go outside in my disabled state. Avoiding the Blue Boar, I put up

at an inn of minor reputation down the town, and ordered some

dinner. While it was preparing, I went to Satis House and inquired

for Miss Havisham; she was still very ill, though considered

something better.

My inn had once been a part of an ancient ecclesiastical house, and

I dined in a little octagonal common-room, like a font. As I was

not able to cut my dinner, the old landlord with a shining bald

head did it for me. This bringing us into conversation, he was so

good as to entertain me with my own story - of course with the

popular feature that Pumblechook was my earliest benefactor and the

founder of my fortunes.

"Do you know the young man?" said I.

"Know him!" repeated the landlord. "Ever since he was - no height

at all."

"Does he ever come back to this neighbourhood?"

"Ay, he comes back," said the landlord, "to his great friends, now

and again, and gives the cold shoulder to the man that made him."

"What man is that?"

"Him that I speak of," said the landlord. "Mr. Pumblechook."

"Is he ungrateful to no one else?"

"No doubt he would be, if he could," returned the landlord, "but he

can't. And why? Because Pumblechook done everything for him."

"Does Pumblechook say so?"

"Say so!" replied the landlord. "He han't no call to say so."

"But does he say so?"

"It would turn a man's blood to white wine winegar to hear him tell

of it, sir," said the landlord.

I thought, "Yet Joe, dear Joe, you never tell of it. Long-suffering

and loving Joe, you never complain. Nor you, sweet-tempered Biddy!"

"Your appetite's been touched like, by your accident," said the

landlord, glancing at the bandaged arm under my coat. "Try a

tenderer bit."

"No thank you," I replied, turning from the table to brood over the

fire. "I can eat no more. Please take it away."

I had never been struck at so keenly, for my thanklessness to Joe,

as through the brazen impostor Pumblechook. The falser he, the

truer Joe; the meaner he, the nobler Joe.

My heart was deeply and most deservedly humbled as I mused over the

fire for an hour or more. The striking of the clock aroused me, but

not from my dejection or remorse, and I got up and had my coat

fastened round my neck, and went out. I had previously sought in my

pockets for the letter, that I might refer to it again, but I could

not find it, and was uneasy to think that it must have been dropped

in the straw of the coach. I knew very well, however, that the

appointed place was the little sluice-house by the limekiln on the

marshes, and the hour nine. Towards the marshes I now went

straight, having no time to spare.

Chapter 53

It was a dark night, though the full moon rose as I left the

enclosed lands, and passed out upon the marshes.