Summary
Silas Wegg has become more entitled and arrogant due to his lofty new position. He buys his leg back from Venus, and Venus comes to the Bower to deliver it. Wegg complains to Venus that he feels Rokesmith has been unfairly favored by Boffin in being given the role of secretary. He also questions Venus about what he knew of old Harmon’s practice concerning the dust heaps, and whether he might have hidden anything there. Venus suggests that it is possible Harmon might have hidden documents there, and also wonders whether there might be multiple wills. Wegg explains that he wants to see justice done, and suggests that he and Venus work together to search through the dust heaps and split the profits from anything they might find. He needs Venus’s delicate touch and physical adeptness to help with the search process.
Venus hesitates, but since having been rejected by the woman he loves, he feels he has no reason not to pursue the project. The two men agree to work on the search in utmost secrecy, but no sooner have they reached this agreement then they are surprised by the arrival of Rokesmith, who has come to deliver a message from Boffin. After he leaves, Wegg shares his bitterness at seeing the house he was so attached to fallen into the hands of Boffin and Rokesmith. He is even suspicious of the fact that Boffin has profited from a convenient murder.
Over time, Boffin notes how Rokesmith avoids everyone except Bella. Bella had indeed noticed that he always seems to find ways to encounter her, and that she is often flustered by his presence. After one such conversation, Bella finds that she has unexpectedly committed to going home to visit her family. The visit does not go well, since Mrs. Wilfer speaks ill of the Boffins, and Bella defends them. As Bella is on her way out, Rokesmith arrives with a purse of money from Boffin, and Bella decides to take it directly to her father.
She goes to meet Mr. Wilfer at his office, encourages him to take the rest of the day off, and the two of them go off to spend the day together. As they enjoy the rare chance to be alone together, Bella confides to her father that she is obsessed with the idea of getting money. This troubles her father, and after they part at the end of their outing, Bella is saddened by the strange twists of her fate. The next day, Sloppy comes to the Boffin mansion to meet with Rokesmith. Sloppy explains that Johnny is ill, and being nursed by himself and Betty Higden as best as they can. Rokesmith shares this news with Bella and Mrs. Boffin. All of them go to Mrs. Higden’s house, where Johnny admires Bella, and she is very gentle and kind with him. When they mention taking Johnny away for medical treatment, Mrs. Higden initially reacts with great violence but is persuaded to let Johnny be taken for treatment. Once there, it becomes clear that Johnny’s illness has already progressed too far, and he dies that night.
Everyone is grief-stricken by Johnny’s death, except Silas Wegg, who secretly gloats. Mrs. Boffin gathers together her husband, Bella, and Rokesmith to share that she has decided two things: she will not try to bestow the name John on any other child, since it seems to be ill-fated, and she does not want to try to find an orphan simply because the child is attractive and lovable. Sloppy arrives at the house, and Mrs. Boffin asks if he would like to stay there permanently. Sloppy hesitates because he is reluctant to abandon Mrs. Higden, but agrees that if she can be persuaded, he would love to spend time at the Boffin mansion.
Miss Peecher has noticed Bradley Headstone’s strange behavior and correctly suspects that he is in love with Lizzie Hexam. On one evening, he is greeted by Jenny Wren when he comes to visit. When Lizzie arrives, he tells her that he is aware she has ignored the plan set up by him and Charley for her to learn to read, and has instead been pursuing an education with Wrayburn’s teacher. He explains that both he and Charley are displeased with this turn of events, and have confronted Wrayburn about it. Now, he has come to ask Lizzie directly to stop studying with the teacher Wrayburn is funding.
Lizzie politely says that she is satisfied with her teacher, and has no intention of changing her course of action. Before he leaves, Headstone alludes to there being additional reasons for his concern, which he will speak of more in the future, and then hurries away, leaving Lizzie confused and distressed. Jenny gently raises the subject of Eugene Wrayburn, prompting Lizzie to explain that she knows she is below Wrayburn in social rank. She also suspects he would be expected to marry someone wealthy, which is a criteria she obviously does not meet.
Riderhood’s daughter, Pleasant, operates a kind of informal pawn shop, and also has lodgings available for sailors. One evening, a man approaches the shop and asks whether her father is at home. He explains that he has been there before, although not as a lodger or to make use of the pawn services. He explains that he once waited outside while a shipmate spoke with Riderhood inside. As he enquires about her father, he refers to Riderhood’s “old business” which makes Pleasant nervous. The man then asks if it is a common occurrence for sailors to be robbed or murdered in the neighborhood, which Pleasant denies. The man goes on to explain that he himself was attacked in the area, but is vague about what happened afterwards.
Before the conversation can continue, Riderhood returns to the house. He does not know who the man is, but as the two of them drink together, Riderhood recognizes the knife the man is using to open the bottle. He indicates that the knife belonged to a sailor named George Radfoot, which the man agrees with. The stranger also explains that Radfoot was killed. Surprised, Riderhood notices that the man is wearing a coat he recognizes as also belonging to Radfoot, and wonders whether the man is about to confess to the murder. The stranger responds by accusing Riderhood of being a liar and inventing the story he told to the lawyer. He hints that the man to whom the knife and coat belonged was more likely to have been guilty of the crime he accused Hexam of.
Riderhood demands to know how Radfoot died, why the stranger now has his possessions, and whether the stranger believes Radfoot is responsible for the Harmon murder. The stranger refuses to answer any of these questions, stating that he came to tell Riderhood that he knows Riderhood’s story about Hexam having committed the murder is false. The stranger declines to explain why he hasn’t taken this information to Lightwood or claimed the reward. He tells Riderhood that he knows Riderhood conspired with Radfoot to commit a crime in pursuit of money. Riderhood asks what the man wants him to do, pointing out that since Hexam is dead, it can hardly matter that his name is tainted.
The stranger points out that Hexam has two children, whose reputations are damaged by the rumor. He asks where Lizzie is now living, and Pleasant says she can find out if he will come back the next day for the news. Riderhood admits that he may have been mistaken in his claims, and the man says that he will bring a statement for Riderhood to sign, retracting his accusation. He refuses to give his name before leaving.
After he leaves, the man wanders about, trying to retrace his steps from the previous time he visited the shop. The narrator makes it clear that this man is also the man who has gone by the name John Rokesmith and also Julius Handford is actually John Harmon. Harmon now reflects to himself, clarifying the sequence of events. After his father’s death, he made his way back to England but was doubtful about the marriage that lay ahead for him and what the effects of wealth would be. George Radfoot was a sailor on board the ship that Harmon took back to England, and the two men had a slight resemblance to each other. They became friends on board the ship, and Harmon admitted that he wanted a chance to get to know his future wife a bit before committing to the marriage. They agreed that once they landed Radfoot would help Harmon to disguise himself, and then they would spend some time in the Wilfer’s neighborhood to see what they can learn about Bella.
Since many people were anxiously awaiting for the arrival of John Harmon, in order for their plan to work, Harmon had to slip away once he got off the boat. Therefore, after he disembarked quietly and went to Limehouse Church to meet Radfoot, the two of them went to Riderhood’s house, where Harmon believed Radfoot was asking for information about lodgings. He noted that Riderhood and Radfoot seemed to know each other and now believes that Riderhood gave him some sort of drug, especially since Riderhood had previously been accused of drugging a sailor in order to rob him.
After they left Riderhood’s, they went to a small room where Radfoot encouraged him to exchange clothes, and then provided him with coffee, after which he fell into a dazed state. He and Radfoot struggled, and he collapsed. He has vague memories of being passive in the room, being struck and then finding himself flailing in water. He managed to catch a hold of a moored boat and drag himself out, where the cold revived him enough to crawl into a nearby pub. They assumed he was drunk and fell into the river, especially since he had no idea where he was, and had lost most of his memories of the previous twenty-four hours.
Harmon then spent the next two days recovering in the pub, and the idea occurred to him that he could use the strange experience to help him understand more about Bella. He had some money on him, which allowed him to stay at a hotel for twelve nights. He had been monitoring the newspapers for word of the disappearance of John Harmon, but found instead word that he had been murdered. He went to the police station where he realized that the body that had been identified as John Harmon was actually Radfoot, since Radfoot was wearing his clothes with his identifying papers in the pockets. He assumes that while Radfoot was trying to murder him in order to get his money, someone tricked Radfoot and both he and Radfoot were thrown in the river, leading to the confusion about the body.
He initially planned to identify himself, but hesitated, and as time passed, the death was quickly legitimized. He is now torn about whether or not to reveal his true identity, especially since he has fallen in love with Bella. He decides it is better not to reveal himself, but in order to know for sure whether or not Bella would consider him without his fortune, he will propose to her as the humble secretary, John Rokesmith. He goes to the Boffin mansion to speak with Bella, who tells him to stop pursuing her. He says he cares for her, but she rejects him and tells him to never speak of this again. She also tells him not to let the Boffins see his feelings for her. Harmon agrees, and leaves with great sadness.
Analysis
The major impact of this section is the reveal that John Harmon is still alive, having assumed new identities as both John Rokesmith and Julius Handford. By this point, the reader has been amply primed to expect this connection, with the narrator having dropped many hints. The full reveal of how Harmon came to be believed to be dead is nonetheless still a striking and dramatic story. It offers perhaps the most explicit and violent betrayal that has appeared so far in the novel: he trusted Radfoot to help him and yet he was drugged, beaten, and left for dead by a man he considered to be a friend. To add another sinister layer, Radfoot was also betrayed, presumably by Riderhood, confirming the idea that no one can ever truly feel safe, especially when there is money on the line.
While John Rokesmith/Harmon did not deliberately create the conditions that led to him being presumed dead, he also did not draw attention to the error when he clearly could have. His motive both for the initial delay which led to all of these events (slipping away and switching clothes with Riderhood) and then for continuing to hide his identity is a desire to observe Bella. John is very anxious about what sort of woman she is, which is reasonable considering he knows nothing about her, and that in an era when divorce was still virtually impossible, his marriage will be a life long commitment.
However, the intensity of how far he goes in order to be able to observe her implies that he is quite suspicious and potentially paranoid about her intentions, and whether she is a social climber intent on using the marriage only for profit. Perhaps because of what he observed in his family growing up, John is highly critical and skeptical of the motives of others. This makes him more astute than many characters, and able to protect the Boffins from their own innocence, but also highly deceptive in his own right.
John's punishment for lying and concealing his identity may be said to come in the form of the feelings he develops for Bella. Able to get to know her in a natural and organic way, John falls in love with her. He is aware, however, of her character flaws: she can be shallow, selfish, and preoccupied with money. His instincts that she would not be willing to marry a man who is not wealthy are confirmed when she turns down his proposal. However, even in this section of the novel, where Bella seems to be at her worst, there are hints that she is genuinely good and kind at heart. She behaves in a gentle and tender way with Johnny during his illness, and is caring and tender towards her father. This behavior foreshadows the moral development that Bella will undergo over the course of the novel.
Riderhood's retraction seems to offer a solution to one of the schemes, and might help to provide some measure of security to Lizzie, but the threatening presence of Headstone is becoming ever darker. Especially because he is allied with her brother, the two of them represent a force of patriarchal power that would traditionally determine Lizzie's life and choice. Likewise, as Silas Wegg becomes more committed to his plan by enlisting the help of Mr. Venus, threats to Boffin begin to creep closer and closer. Even as the novel resolves one mystery, the various plot lines continue to hint at dangers and betrayals that still lie ahead.
