s the table. So suddenly and smartly did he do
this, that we all stopped in our foolish contention.

"If you talk of strength," said Mr. Jaggers, "I'll show you a wrist.
Molly, let them see your wrist."

Her entrapped hand was on the table, but she had already put her other
hand behind her waist. "Master," she said, in a low voice, with her eyes
attentively and entreatingly fixed upon him. "Don't."

"I'll show you a wrist," repeated Mr. Jaggers, with an immovable
determination to show it. "Molly, let them see your wrist."

"Master," she again murmured. "Please!"

"Molly," said Mr. Jaggers, not looking at her, but obstinately looking
at the opposite side of the room, "let them see both your wrists. Show
them. Come!"

He took his hand from hers, and turned that wrist up on the table. She
brought her other hand from behind her, and held the two out side by
side. The last wrist was much disfigured,--deeply scarred and scarred
across and across. When she held her hands out she took her eyes from
Mr. Jaggers, and turned them watchfully on every one of the rest of us
in succession.

"There's power here," said Mr. Jaggers, coolly tracing out the sinews
with his forefinger. "Very few men have the power of wrist that this
woman has. It's remarkable what mere force of grip there is in these
hands. I have had occasion to notice many hands; but I never saw
stronger in that respect, man's or woman's, than these."

While he said these words in a leisurely, critical style, she continued
to look at every one of us in regular succession as we sat. The moment
he ceased, she looked at him again. "That'll do, Molly," said Mr.
Jaggers, giving her a slight nod; "you have been admired, and can
go." She withdrew her hands and went out of the room, and Mr. Jaggers,
putting the decanters on from his dumb-waiter, filled his glass and
passed round the wine.

"At half-past nine, gentlemen," said he, "we must break up. Pray make
the best use of your time. I am glad to see you all. Mr. Drummle, I
drink to you."

If his object in singling out Drummle were to bring him out still more,
it perfectly succeeded. In a sulky triumph, Drummle showed his morose
depreciation of the rest of us, in a more and more offensive degree,
until he became downright intolerable. Through all his stages, Mr.
Jaggers followed him with the same strange interest. He actually seemed
to serve as a zest to Mr. Jaggers's wine.

In our boyish want of discretion I dare