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-",Yes,‘I am“-to v rest-hernia little,‘ and I 'am to drink
some tea, and you are to take care of me the while."
“She drew her arm through mine, as if it must be done,
and I requested a waiter who had been staring at 'the
couclz like a man who had never seen such a thing in his
lifo,.to show us a private sitting-room; ‘Upon that, he
pulledout a .napkin,. as if it were a magic cluo without
wl1ich.he couldn’t.find. the wa upstairs, and led us to
tho black hole of the establis iment: fitted up with a
diminishing mirror (quite a superfluous articlo consider-
ing. tl1e:holo’s proportions), an anchovy sauce-cruet, and
someboLly’s pattcns. . On my objecting to this retreat, he
took us into another room with a dinner-table for-thirty,
and in the grate a scorched leaf of a copv-book under a
bushel of coal-dust. Having looked at t IIS extinct con-
flagration. and shaken his head, he took in order:
which, proving to be merely “ Some tea for t 1e lady,”
sent him outof the room in a very low state of mind. ‘
I was, ‘and I am, sensible that the air of this chamber,
in its strong combination of stable with soup-stock, might
have led one to infer that the coaching department was
not doing well, and that the enterprising proprietor was
boiling down the horses for the refreshment department.
Yet the room.was all in all to me. Estella being in it. I
thought that: with her I could have been happy there
for life.'w(I was not at all happy there at the time,‘ob-
serve, and I knew it well.)
D’ 5‘ VVhere are you -going’ to,Iat < Richmond ‘2 " I asked
'stella. 2:
."‘.I amgoing to lIive,’? said she, “at a great expense,
with a lady there, who has the power-or says she has
-.-of taking me about, and introducinrr me, and showing
people. to me and showing me to peop e.” ' I
“I suppose you will be glad of variety and admira-
tion?.".... ’ . - ‘
i “Yes, I suppose so." - i . I 1 t '
. She answered so carelessly, that I said; “ You speak of
yourself. as if you were some one else.” i
‘.f.W'here did you learn howl speak of others? Come,
come,’j said Estella, smiling delightfully, “ you must not
expect me to go to school to you ,' I must talk in my own
way. ‘ How do you thrive with Mr. Pocket?" .
,- ‘.‘ I. live. quite pleasantly there ; at "least-” It ap-
peared to me that I was losing a chance. -
‘.‘ At least ‘l ”. repeated Estella. I
“ As pleasantly as I could anywhere from you.” ,
. “.You silly boy,” said Estella, quite composedly, “ how
can you talk such nonsense? Your friend Mr. Matthew,
I believe,.is superior to the rest of his family?”
;f‘Very.superior indeed. He is nobody’s enemy-” .
‘.f-I-Don’t add but'his own,” interposed Estella, “ for
I hate that class of man. But he 'really is disinterested,
and above small jealousy andspite, I have heard?”
V-“ I am sure I have every reason to say so.”
“ You have not every reason to say so of the rest of his
people,” said Estella, nodding at me with an expression
of face that was at once grave and rallying, “ for they
beset Miss Havisham with reports and insinuations to
your disadvantage. They watch you, misrepresent you,
writ0;letters about you (anonymous sometimes), and you
are the,torment and occu ation of their lives. You can
scm-.cely’.,rcaliIze to yourse f the hatred those people feel
for on. .; ..; .. -
“3’I‘hey do me no harm, I hope?” I
Instead of answering, Estella burst out laughing.
This was very. singular to me, and I looked at her in con-
siderableperplexity. VVhen she left off-and she had
not laughed languidly. but with real enjoyments-I said,
in my diftident way with her :
.‘.‘ I hope I may suppose that you would not be amused
if they‘did.me any harm?” .
.“ No, no, you may be sure of that," said Estella.
"You may, be "certain that I laugh because they fail.
Oh,’ those people-.with Miss Havisham, and the tortures
‘ they undergo!” She laughed again, and even now,
when she liadtold me why, her laughter was very singu-
lar tome, for I could not doubt its bein enuine, and
yet it seemed too much for the occasion. t ioughtthere
mustircally be something more here than I knew; she
saw the thought in my mind, and answered it.
‘1 It is not easy for even you,” said Estella, “to know
what satisfaction it gives me to see those people thwart-
‘ UREA T ‘.E"YPE'0TAT10JVS. '- . 657
ed, or what an en'oyable sense of the ridiculous I have
when they are ma a ridiculous. For you were not brought
up in that strange house from a mere baby.--I was. I .You
had not your litt1e.witsI sharpened by tl1eirIintriguing
against you, suppressed and defenceless, under the mask
of 'sympath ' and‘ pit I and. what -not, that is soft’ and
soothin j- had. Ybu did not "gradually open ” your
round c iildisheyes wider and widerto the‘ discovery of
that impostor of a woman who calculates her stores of
of mind for when she wakes up in the night.-I
It was no laughing matter with Estella now, nor was
she summoning these remeznbrances‘ from any shallow
place. I would not have been the cause of that look of
iers, for all my expectations in a heap. ' ’ , I
“Two things I can tell you,” said Estella. “First,
notwithstanding the proverb, that constant dropping will
wear away a stone, you may set your mind at rest that
these people never will-never .would, in a hundred
years--impair your ground with Miss Ilavisham, in any
particular, great or small. Second, I am beholden to
you as the cause of their being so busy and so mean in
vain, and there is my hand upon it.” ‘
And she, gave it me playfully-for her darker, mood -
had been but momentary-I held it and put it to my
lips. “ You ridiculous boy,” said Estella, “ will you
never take warning‘? Or do you kiss my’ hand in the
same s iii-it in which I once let you kiss my check ?I’’ I
“ wlm spirit was that?” said I. ‘
“ I must think a moment.
the fawners and plotters.” I
“If I say yes, may I kiss the cheek again?" . , -
'5 You should have asked before you touched the hand.
But, yes, if you like." I ‘
I leaned down, and her calm face was‘ like a statue’s.
“ Now," said Estella, gliding away the instant Itouched
her check, “you are to take care that I have some Itea;
and you are to take me to Richmond.”
IIcr reverting to this tone as if our associations were
forced upon us and I we were more puppets, gave me
pain; but everything in our intercourse did ‘give me
pain. Whatever her tone with me happened to be, I
could put no trust in it, and build'no hope on it; and
yet I went on against trust and against hope. ‘Why re-
peat it a thousand times? So it always was. -
I rang for the tea, and the waiter, reappearin with his
magic clue, brought in by degrees some fifty adjuncts to
that refreshment, but of tea not a glimpse. A teaboard,
cups and saucers, plates, knives and forks (including
carvers), spoons (various), salt-cellars, a meek litt1e.muf-
tin confined with the utmost precaution under a strong
irou cover, Moses in the bullrushes typified by a soft bit
of butter in a quantity of parsley, a pale loaf with a
powdered head, two proof impressions of the bars of the
kitchen fire-place on triangular bits of bread, and ulti-
mately a fat family um : which the waiter stag ered in
with, expressing in his countenance burden an sufIer-
ing.‘ After a prolonged absence at this stage of theIeInI-
tertaimnent, he at length came back with a casket of
precious appearance containing twigs. These I steeped
in hot water, and so from the whole of these appliances
extracted one cup of I don’t know what, for Estella.
The bill paid, and the waiter remembered, and the
ostlez‘ not‘ forgotten, and the chambermaid taken into
consideration-in a word, the whole house bribed into a
state ‘of contempt and animosity, and Estella’; urse
much lightened-we got into our post-coach and rove
away. Turning into Cheapside and rattling up New-
gate-street, we were soon under the walls of which I
was so ashamed. I ‘ ‘
- " VVhat place is that?” Estella asked.
I made a foolish pretence of not at first recognising it,
and then told her. As she looked at it, and drew in her
head again, murmuring “ VVretches I ” I would not have
confessed to my visit for any consideration. -I
“ Mr. Jaggers,” said I, by way of putting it neatly on
somebody else, “has the reputation of bein more in the
secrets of that dismal place than any man in London.”
“lie is more in the secrets of every place, Ithink,"
said Estella, in a low voice. ' v
A spirit of cointeinptxfor
“ You have been accustomed to see him of tea,‘ I sup.
pose‘! "
F