Great Expectations Chapter 52: Maturing My Plans...

Jaggers has given Pip nine-hundred pounds as he's been directed by a note from Miss Havisham, and Pip gives the money to Clarriker, Herbert's business partner, as the last donation on the part of his friend. Clarriker says business is going well, and that a new branch is opening in the East, which Herbert will be sent to manage.

Pip knows that soon he'll have to part from his closest friend, and when a note arrives from Wemmick one morning at breakfast, it looks like Pip will be the first to leave. The note, which says it should be burnt after it's read, suggests that Pip and Magwitch make their escape early that week.

Pip's wounds from the fire are serious enough so that he can't row the boat, so Herbert and he decide that they'll enlist Startop, Pip's friend from his days as a student in Hammersmith, as their getaway rower. The two hatch out the details and are set to go in two days, but when Pip returns home he finds another note, this one cryptic and anonymous, requesting he come to the marshes that night if he wants information on his Uncle Provis. The note scares him, and he sets off by the next coach to the marshes.

Back in his hometown, Pip deliberately avoids the Blue Boar, and decides to stay at a lesser known inn. While Pip is dining at the inn, the old landlord and pip start a discussion. It's still believed that Pumblechook is his benefactor, and Pip calls Biddy and Joe to mind: "I had never been struck at so keenly, for my thanklessness to Joe, as through the brazen impostor Pumblechook. The falser he, the truer Joe; the meaner he, the nobler Joe" (491).

After the meal, Pip searches his pockets and is a little disturbed to discover that he's lost the anonymous letter. But he knows its words by heart, and sets off for the designated meeting spot in the marshes.