My convict looked round him for the first time, and saw me…I looked at him eagerly when he looked at me, and slightly moved my hands and shook my head. I had been waiting for him to see me that I might try to assure him of my innocence. It was not at all expressed to me that he even comprehended my intention, for he gave me a look that I did not understand, and it all passed in a moment. But if he had looked at me for an hour or for a day, I could not have remembered his face ever afterwards, as having been more attentive.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 5. After Magwitch is apprehended by the authorities, the convict gives Pip a look that he doesn’t understand. The boy is anxious to assure Magwitch that he wasn’t the person who turned him in. But Magwitch’s gaze is described by Pip as the most “attentive” look he has ever experienced. In that moment of connection between them, there is important foreshadowing of what will happen in the rest of the story. The first glimpses of the convict’s gratitude for Pip’s kindness are seen here, hinting at their future relationship.