,« said I.
    »Ecod,« replied Wemmick, shaking his head, »that's not my trade.«
    »Nor is this your trading-place,« said I.
    »You are right,« he returned. »You hit the nail on the head. Mr. Pip, I'll
put on my considering cap, and I think all you want to do may be done by
degrees. Skiffins (that's her brother) is an accountant and agent. I'll look him
up and go to work for you.«
    »I thank you ten thousand times.«
    »On the contrary,« said he, »I thank you, for though we are strictly in our
private and personal capacity, still it may be mentioned that there are Newgate
cobwebs about, and it brushes them away.«
    After a little further conversation to the same effect, we returned into the
Castle, where we found Miss Skiffins preparing tea. The responsible duty of
making the toast was delegated to the Aged, and that excellent old gentleman was
so intent upon it that he seemed to be in some danger of melting his eyes. It
was no nominal meal that we were going to make, but a vigorous reality. The Aged
prepared such a haystack of buttered toast, that I could scarcely see him over
it as it simmered on an iron stand hooked on to the top-bar; while Miss Skiffins
brewed such a jorum of tea, that the pig in the back premises became strongly
excited, and repeatedly expressed his desire to participate in the
entertainment.
    The flag had been struck, and the gun had been fired, at the right moment of
time, and I felt as snugly cut off from the rest of Walworth as if the moat were
thirty feet wide by as many deep. Nothing disturbed the tranquillity of the
Castle, but the occasional tumbling open of John and Miss Skiffins: which little
doors were a prey to some spasmodic infirmity that made me sympathetically
uncomfortable until I got used to it. I inferred from the methodical nature of
Miss Skiffins's arrangements that she made tea there every Sunday night; and I
rather suspected that a classic brooch she wore, representing the profile of an
undesirable female with a very straight nose and a very new moon, was a piece of
portable property that had been given her by Wemmick.
    We ate the whole of the toast, and drank tea in proportion, and it was
delightful to see how warm and greasy we all got after it. The Aged, especially,
might have passed for some clean old chief
