Chapter XXXVII

Size: 42 x 42 cm

In this chapter, Pip is invited by the law firm clerk Mr. Wemmick to partake at his Sunday evening at his house in Walworth, London. There he meets Mr. Wemmick's father and Mr. Wemmick's lady friend Miss Skiffins. After dinner and tea, Mr. Wemmick asks his father to read out loud the newspaper whilst the other take a seat around him and listen closely.

Then, the picture captures following moment:

„As Wemmick and Miss Skiffins sat side by side, and as I sat in a shadowy corner, I observed a slow and gradual elongation of Mr. Wemmick’s mouth, powerfully suggestive of his slowly and gradually stealing his arm round Miss Skiffins’s waist. In course of time I saw his hand appear on the other side of Miss Skiffins; but at that moment Miss Skiffins neatly stopped him with the green glove, unwound his arm again as if it were an article of dress, and with the greatest deliberation laid it on the table before her. Miss Skiffins’s composure while she did this was one of the most remarkable sights I have ever seen, and if I could have thought the act consistent with abstraction of mind, I should have deemed that Miss Skiffins performed it mechanically.“

While the book focuses on describing the castle from the outside, having a stinger gun, and resembling indeed a little castle made out of wood, I tried to envision how the parlour would have looked like. The banner on top, the castle on the chimney piece, as well as the crown like chandeliers, and the weapons on the left wall hint at Mr Wemmick's partiality towards the medieval times.