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Last time, Pip arrived in London, and went to
Mr. Jaggers' office to await the instructions of his guardian. He
met Mr. Jaggers' clerk, Wemmick, and received word that he was to
lodge temporarily with a Mr. Herbert Pocket. Wemmick and Pip walked
to Pocket's residence at Barnard's Inn, and Pip discovered that
Herbert Pocket was the "pale young gentleman" he had once fought
in Miss Havisham's ruined garden.
Pip and Herbert got to know one another (Herbert
is a clerk, but aims to be an Insurer of Ships, and is "looking
about him"; he is the son of Mr. Matthew Pocket -- Pip's future
tutor -- and a relation of Miss Havisham's); and Herbert told Pip
Miss Havisham's story: She was left at the altar by a man who, in
concert with her half-brother, engaged her affections with the object
of swindling her (he extorted moneys, and got her to buy her brother
out of his share in the brewery for an immense sum, "on the plea
that when he was her husband he must hold and manage it all"); he
did not marry her -- perhaps because he was married already -- but
robbed her and broke her heart. Afterwards, she laid waste to her
house, and stopped the clocks at the hour of her disappointment.
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