The wonderful difference between the servile manner in which he had offered his hand in my new prosperity, saying, “May I?” and the ostentatious clemency with which he had just now exhibited the same fat five fingers.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 58. When Pip returns to his home village after his fall from fortune he finds that his reputation among the villagers has suffered a reversal. People like Pumblechook no longer fawn over him like they did when Pip was a wealthy man. Instead Pumblechook puts on a show of pity and disdain when he offers Pip a handshake. By contrast back in Chapter 19 Pumblechook breathlessly ran after Pip to congratulate him and ask permission to repeatedly shake his hand: “‘May I?’ We shook hands for the hundredth time at least, and he ordered a young carter out of my way with the greatest indignation. Then, he blessed me and stood waving his hand to me until I had passed the crook in the road.”