Pip arrives at Jaggers' office, located in a rundown business area of London. The lawyer is not there, so Pip waits in his office, a dark, dismal, airless room accented with odd things like an old rusty pistol, a sword in a scabbard, and two casts of swollen faces. Jaggers chair reminds Pip of a coffin. Unable to take the oppressiveness, Pip walks around the area, passing through the filth, fat, and foam of the Smithfield markets. He walks near Newgate Prison where a drunk minister of justice shows him the gallows, and into Bartholomew Close where many people are anxiously waiting for Jaggers. They hope to hire him or hear news of relatives' cases. Jaggers arrives and is condescending to all of them, dealing only with those who have paid their bills. Speaking to witnesses in his office he is careful not to hear, do, or say anything illegal, staying just within the law in all his dealings.
Pip learns from Jaggers that he will be staying at Barnard Inn with Mr. Pocket's son until Monday, when they will go to Mr. Pocket's house. Pip is given an allowance and Jaggers tells him frankly that he will track Pip's spending to know when Pip is running up debts. He fully expects Pip will do this. His clerk, Wemmick, a dry man who wears many mourning rings from dead clients, takes him to Barnard Inn. The inn is dismal and dreary, and because of his surroundings, Pip feels that London is overrated. He meets Herbert Pocket, whom Pip realizes is the pale young gentlemanfrom Miss Havisham's. The two become good friends and Herbert nicknames Pip, Handel, after a piece of Handel's music, the Harmonious Blacksmith. Over dinner, in between gently correcting Pip's table manners, Herbert tells Pip about Jaggers, Miss Havisham, Estella, Herbert's father, and himself.
