Pip receives a message from Estella that she will arrive on the mid-day coach the day after tomorrow. Pip loses his tranquility in anticipation. He arrives at the coach office even before the coach leaves the town it is departing from.
He runs into Mr. Wemmick, who is going to Newgate prison to speak with a client. The client is accused of robbing a bank’s coach. Wemmick says the man is innocent, and anyone can wind up with false charges. He invites Pip to accompany him, and Pip accepts.
They come to the prison at visiting hours. It is dirty and depressing. Wemmick is on intimate terms with many of the prisoners. He is popular.
Wemmick tells Pip to notice the man he is going to shake hands with. He tells the man the evidence was too strong. He tells Pip that the man was a soldier. Wemmick asks the soldier for some pigeons he has. The prisoner agrees to leave him them, as he is due to be executed on Monday.
Wemmick tells Pip the turnkeys often ask him for information on Mr. Jaggers’ cases because he is the underling. They know Jaggers won’t tell them anything. Wemmick says that Jaggers is able to own people by being unapproachable. Pip is impressed by this.
Pip thinks about how he has always been surrounded by prisons and crime. When he thinks of Estella, he wishes he hadn’t gone with Wemmick—fearing the prison is on his clothes. He tries to dust himself off. He is fretting, and it seems her coach arrives extra quickly because of it.