 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.«
    As we looked full at one another, I felt my breath come quicker in my strong
desire to get something out of him. And as I felt that it came quicker, and as I
felt that he saw that it came quicker, I felt that I had less chance than ever
of getting anything out of him.
    »Do you suppose it will still be years hence, Mr. Jaggers?«
    Mr. Jaggers shook his head - not in negativing the question, but in
altogether negativing the notion that he could anyhow be got to answer it - and
the two horrible casts of the twitched faces looked, when my eyes strayed up to
them, as if they had come to a crisis in their suspended attention, and were
going to sneeze.
    »Come!« said Mr. Jaggers, warming the backs of his legs with the backs of
his warmed hands, »I'll be plain with you, my friend Pip. That's a question I
must not be asked. You'll understand that, better, when I tell you it's a
question that might compromise me. Come! I'll go a little further with you; I
