"Great Expectations"
by Charles Dickens

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     I had scarcely had time to enjoy the coach and to think how like a straw-yard it was, and yet how like a rag-shop, and to wonder why the horses' nose-bags were kept inside, when I observed the coachman beginning to get down, as if we were going to stop presently. And stop we presently did, in a gloomy street, at certain offices with an open door, whereon was painted MR. JAGGERS.

     "How much?" I asked the coachman.

     The coachman answered, "A shilling--unless you wish to make it more."

     I naturally said I had no wish to make it more.

 

     "Then it must be a shilling," observed the coachman. "I don't want to get into trouble. I know him!" He darkly closed an eye at Mr. Jaggers's name, and shook his head.

     When he had got his shilling, and had in course of time completed the ascent to his box, and had got away (which appeared to relieve his mind), I went into the front office with my little portmanteau in my hand and asked, Was Mr. Jaggers at home?

     "He is not," returned the clerk. "He is in Court at present. Am I addressing Mr. Pip?"

     I signified that he was addressing Mr. Pip.

 
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