"I mustn't see my gentleman a footing it in the mire of the streets;

there mustn't be no mud on his boots. My gentleman must have horses,

Pip! Horses to ride, and horses to drive, and horses for his servant

to ride and drive as well. Shall colonists have their horses (and blood

'uns, if you please, good Lord!) and not my London gentleman? No, no.

We'll show 'em another pair of shoes than that, Pip; won't us?"

He took out of his pocket a great thick pocket-book, bursting with

papers, and tossed it on the table.

"There's something worth spending in that there book, dear boy. It's

yourn. All I've got ain't mine; it's yourn. Don't you be afeerd on it.

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There's more where that come from. I've come to the old country fur

to see my gentleman spend his money like a gentleman. That'll be my

pleasure. My pleasure 'ull be fur to see him do it. And blast you all!"

he wound up, looking round the room and snapping his fingers once with

a loud snap, "blast you every one, from the judge in his wig, to the

colonist a stirring up the dust, I'll show a better gentleman than the

whole kit on you put together!"

"Stop!" said I, almost in a frenzy of fear and dislike, "I want to speak

to you. I want to know what is to be done. I want to know how you are to

be kept out of danger, how long you are going to stay, what projects you

have."

"Look'ee here, Pip," said he, laying his hand on my arm in a suddenly

altered and subdued manner; "first of all, look'ee here. I forgot myself

half a minute ago. What I said was low; that's what it was; low. Look'ee

here, Pip. Look over it. I ain't a going to be low."

"First," I resumed, half groaning, "what precautions can be taken

against your being recognized and seized?"

"No, dear boy," he said, in the same tone as before, "that don't

go first. Lowness goes first. I ain't took so many year to make a

gentleman, not without knowing what's due to him. Look'ee here, Pip. I

was low; that's what I was; low. Look over it, dear boy."

Some sense of the grimly-ludicrous moved me to a fretful laugh, as I

replied, "I have looked over it. In Heaven's name, don't harp upon it!"

"Yes, but look'ee here," he persisted. "Dear boy, I ain't come so fur,

not fur to be low. Now, go on, dear boy. You was a saying--"




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