(in Pip's point of view)
I returned to my watch in the street of the coach-office, with some three hours on hand. … I wished that Wemmick had not met me, or that I had not yielded to him and gone with him, so that, of all days in the year on this day, I might not have had Newgate in my breath and on my clothes. I beat the prison dust off my feet and I sauntered to and fro, and I shook it out of my dress, and I exhaled its air from my lungs…
“Why are you walking back and forth?”
I startled and turned around and saw a man looking straight back at me. He was not a well-groomed, and could not have been more than five feet in height. His eyes seemed to be fused together at the top of his forehand. He had on a brown little suit, and brown little shoes. His question was so unexpected that I was stunned for quite a few moments. Even when my senses had returned to me, I did not know what I should say. It being rude not to answer, I finally decided upon telling him the truth, as singular as it was.
“I am trying to rid myself of all remnants of my visit to Newgate”
“Ah, what’s the lady’s name?”
If I had been taken aback, I was now doubly taken about.
“E – Estella.
“Ah”, he said, and twitched his left nostril. “This lady of yours really causes you a lot of trouble”.
“I wouldn’t say trouble”, I responded defensively, for I would obligingly wait for the admirable and lovely Estella any day.
“Oh I am sorry, Estella is a very admirable and lovely person, and you wouldn’t mind waiting for her every single day”.
I backed off a little, disturbed by how accurately he read me and my thoughts. I pretended to have forgotten about him, turned aside and looked at him warily from the side of my eye. He was still staring at me and twitching his left nostril.
“You can call me Mr. Knoll”, he said.
I closed my eyes and prayed for the coach to come.
By: Melody Guan
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