 business,« said Mr. Jaggers. And I saw
Wemmick's lips form the words portable property.
    »I should not have told her No, if I had been you,« said Mr. Jaggers; »but
every man ought to know his own business best.«
    »Every man's business,« said Wemmick, rather reproachfully towards me, »is
portable property. «
    As I thought the time was now come for pursuing the theme I had at heart, I
said, turning on Mr. Jaggers:
    »I did ask something of Miss Havisham, however, sir. I asked her to give me
some information relative to her adopted daughter, and she gave me all she
possessed.«
    »Did she?« said Mr. Jaggers, bending forward to look at his boots and then
straightening himself. »Hah! I don't think I should have done so, if I had been
Miss Havisham. But she ought to know her own business best.«
    »I know more of the history of Miss Havisham's adopted child, than Miss
Havisham herself does, sir. I know her mother.«
    Mr. Jaggers looked at me inquiringly, and repeated »Mother?«
    »I have seen her mother within these three days.«
    »Yes?« said Mr. Jaggers.
    »And so have you, sir. And you have seen her still more recently.«
    »Yes?« said Mr. Jaggers.
    »Perhaps I know more of Estella's history, than even you do,« said I. »I
know her father, too.«
    A certain stop that Mr. Jaggers came to in his manner - he was too
self-possessed to change his manner, but he could not help its being brought to
an indefinably attentive stop - assured me that he did not know who her father
was. This I had strongly suspected from Provis's account (as Herbert had
repeated it) of his having kept himself dark; which I pieced on to the fact that
he himself was not Mr. Jaggers's client until some four years later, and when he
could have no reason for claiming his identity. But, I could not be sure of this
unconsciousness on Mr. Jaggers's part before, though I was quite sure of it now.
    »So! You know the young lady's father, Pip?« said Mr. Jaggers.
    »Yes,« I replied, »and his name is Provis - from New South Wales.«
    Even Mr. Jaggers started when I said those
