LITMIR.BIZ

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Joe into Miss Havisham’s presence. She was seated at her dressing-table, and looked round at us immediately.

      “Oh!” said she to Joe. “You are the husband of the sister of this boy?”

      Dear old Joe was looking like some extraordinary bird; standing speechless, with his mouth open as if he wanted a worm.

      “You are the husband,” repeated Miss Havisham, “of the sister of this boy?”

      It was very aggravating; but, throughout the interview, Joe was addressing me instead of Miss Havisham.

      “Yes, you see, Pip, as I married your sister.”

      “Well!” said Miss Havisham. “And you have reared the boy, with the intention of taking him for your apprentice; is that so, Mr. Gargery?”

      “You know, Pip,” replied Joe, “as you and me were friends… But, Pip, if you had ever made objections to that, nobody would force you, don’t you see?”

      “Has the boy,” said Miss Havisham, “ever made any objection? Does he like the trade?”

      “Pip,” returned Joe, “I think, there were not any objection on your part, right?”

      It was quite in vain for me to make him understand that he ought to speak to Miss Havisham.

      “Have you brought his indentures with you?” asked Miss Havisham.

      “Well, Pip, you know,” replied Joe, “you saw me put them in my bag, and therefore you know as they are here.” With which he took them out, and gave them, not to Miss Havisham, but to me. I am afraid I was ashamed of the dear good fellow – I know I was ashamed of him – when I saw that Estella stood at the back of Miss Havisham’s chair, and that her eyes laughed.

      “You expected,” said Miss Havisham, as she looked them over, “no premium with the boy?”

      “Joe!” I cried, for he made no reply at all. “Why don’t you answer – ”

      “Pip,” returned Joe, “that is not a question requiring a answer between yourself and me. Should I say it?”Miss Havisham glanced at him and took up a little bag from the table beside her.

      “Pip has earned a premium here,” she said, “and here it is. There are five-and-twenty guineas in this bag. Give it to your master, Pip.”

      “This is very liberal on your part,[66] Pip,” said Joe, “ And now, old chap,” may we do our duty![67]

      “Goodbye, Pip!” said Miss Havisham. “Let them out, Estella.”

      “Am I to come again, Miss Havisham?” I asked.

      “No. Gargery is your master now.”

      We got out of the room. In another minute we were outside the gate, and it was locked, and Estella was gone. When we stood in the daylight alone again, Joe backed up against a wall, and said to me, “Astonishing!”

      When I got into my little bedroom, I was truly wretched, and had a strong conviction on me that I should never like Joe’s trade. I had liked it once, but once was not now.[68]

      Chapter 14

      It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister’s temper. But, Joe had sanctified it, and I had believed in it. I had believed in the forge as the glowing road to independence. Within a single year all this was changed. Now it was all coarse and common, and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it on any account.[69]

      Once, it had seemed to me that when I should be very proud and happy when I enter the forge. Now the reality was quite different, I only felt that I was dusty with the dust of small-coal.

      It was not because I was faithful, but because Joe was faithful, that I never ran away and went for a soldier or a sailor. It was not because I had a strong sense of the virtue of industry,[70] but because Joe had a strong sense of the virtue of industry, that I worked very hard.

      What I wanted, who can say? How can I say, when I never knew? What I dreaded was, that in some unlucky hour I should lift up my eyes and see Estella looking in at one of the wooden windows of the forge. I was haunted by the fear that she would, sooner or later, find me out, with a black face and hands, doing the coarsest part of my work, and would despise me. Often after dark, when I was pulling the bellows for Joe, I would look towards those panels of black night in the wall which the wooden windows then were, and would believe that she had come at last.

      After that, when we went in to supper, the place and the meal would have a more homely look than ever, and I would feel more ashamed of home than ever.

      Chapter 15

      “Joe,” said I one day; “don’t you think I ought to make Miss Havisham a visit?”

      “Well, Pip,” returned Joe, slowly considering. “What for?”

      “What for, Joe? What is any visit made for?[71]”

      “Pip,” said Joe, “Miss Havisham might think you wanted something – expected something of her.”

      “Don’t you think I might say that I did not, Joe?”

      “You might, old chap,” said Joe. “And she might believe it. Or she might not.”

      Joe pulled hard at his pipe.

      “You see, Pip,” Joe pursued, “Miss Havisham said “goodbye” to you, That’s all.”

      “Yes, Joe. I heard her.”

      “ALL,” Joe repeated, very emphatically.

      “Yes, Joe. I tell you, I heard her.”

      “Me to the North, and you to the South!”

      “But, Joe.”

      “Yes, old chap.”

      “I have never thanked Miss Havisham, or asked after her, or shown that I remember her. My dear Joe, if you would give me a half-holiday tomorrow, I think I would go to the town and make a call on Miss Est – Havisham.”

      “Her name,” said Joe, gravely, “isn’t Estavisham, Pip.”

      So, tomorrow I found myself again going to Miss Havisham’s. Miss Sarah Pocket came to the gate. No Estella.

      “How, then? You here again?” said Miss Pocket. “What do you want?”

      When I said that I only came to see how Miss Havisham was, Sarah began to think if I was the right person to let me in. Finally, she let me in, and presently brought the sharp message that I was to “come up.”

      Everything was unchanged, and Miss Havisham was alone.

      “Well?” said she, fixing her eyes upon me. “I hope you want nothing? You’ll get nothing.”

      “No indeed, Miss Havisham. I only wanted you to know that I am doing very well in my apprenticeship, and am always much obliged to you.”

      “There, there!” with the old restless fingers. “Come now and then; come on your birthday. – Ay!” she cried suddenly, turning herself and her chair towards me, “You are looking round for Estella? Hey?”

      I had been looking round – in fact, for Estella – and I stammered that I hoped she was well.

      “Abroad,” said Miss Havisham; “educating for a lady; far out of reach; prettier than ever; admired by all who see her. Do you feel that you have lost her?”

      There was such a malignant enjoyment in her last words, and she broke into such a disagreeable laugh, that I was at a loss what to say. When the gate was closed upon me by Sarah, I felt more than ever dissatisfied with my home and with my trade and with everything.

      As

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