"How could I do otherwise!"
"Ah! But answer the question," said Mr. Jaggers.
"Undoubtedly."
"You consider it, undoubtedly, a handsome sum of money. Now, that
handsome sum of money, Pip, is your own. It is a present to you on this
day, in earnest of your expectations. And at the rate of that handsome
sum of money per annum, and at no higher rate, you are to live until the
donor of the whole appears. That is to say, you will now take your money
affairs entirely into your own hands, and you will draw from Wemmick
one hundred and twenty-five pounds per quarter, until you are in
communication with the fountain-head, and no longer with the mere
agent. As I have told you before, I am the mere agent. I execute my
instructions, and I am paid for doing so. I think them injudicious, but
I am not paid for giving any opinion on their merits."
I was beginning to express my gratitude to my benefactor for the great
liberality with which I was treated, when Mr. Jaggers stopped me. "I am
not paid, Pip," said he, coolly, "to carry your words to any one;" and
then gathered up his coat-tails, as he had gathered up the subject, and
stood frowning at his boots as if he suspected them of designs against
him.
After a pause, I hinted,-"There was a question just now, Mr. Jaggers, which you desired me to
waive for a moment. I hope I am doing nothing wrong in asking it again?"
"What is it?" said he.
I might have known that he would never help me out; but it took me aback
to have to shape the question afresh, as if it were quite new. "Is it
likely," I said, after hesitating, "that my patron, the fountain-head
you have spoken of, Mr. Jaggers, will soon--" there I delicately
stopped.
"Will soon what?" asked Mr. Jaggers. "That's no question as it stands,
you know."
"Will soon come to London," said I, after casting about for a precise
form of words, "or summon me anywhere else?"
"Now, here," replied Mr. Jaggers, fixing me for the first time with
his dark deep-set eyes, "we must revert to the evening when we first
encountered one another in your village. What did I tell you then, Pip?"
"You told me, Mr. Jaggers, that it might be years hence when that person
appeared."
"Just so," said Mr. Jaggers, "that's my answer."