"Great Expectations"
by Charles Dickens

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     "Then to make an end of it," said Joe, delightedly handing the bag to my sister; "it's five-and-twenty pound."

     "It's five-and-twenty pound, Mum," echoed that basest of swindlers, Pumblechook, rising to shake hands with her; "and it's no more than your merits (as I said when my opinion was asked), and I wish you joy of the money!"

     If the villain had stopped here, his case would have been sufficiently awful, but he blackened his guilt by proceeding to take me into custody, with a right of patronage that left all his former criminality far behind.

 

     "Now you see, Joseph and wife," said Pumblechook, as he took me by the arm above the elbow, "I am one of them that always go right through with what they've begun. This boy must be bound, out of hand. That's my way. Bound out of hand."

     "Goodness knows, Uncle Pumblechook," said my sister (grasping the money), "we're deeply beholden to you."

     "Never mind me, Mum," returned that diabolical cornchandler. "A pleasure's a pleasure all the world over. But this boy, you know; we must have him bound. I said I'd see to it--to tell you the truth."

 
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