that be would adapt his epitaph to the
occasion, before he went on to say) " And there
weren't no objection on your part, and Pip it
were the great wish of your hart!"

It was quite in vain for me to endeavour to
make him sensible that he ought to speak to
Miss Havisham. The more I made faces and
gestures to him to do it, the more confidential,
argumentative, and polite, he persisted in being to Me.

"Have you brought his indentures with you?"
asked Miss Havisham.

"Well, Pip, you know," replied Joe, as if
that were a little unreasonable, " you yourself
see me put 'em in my 'at, 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 mischievously. I took the indentures
out of his hand and gave them to Miss Havisham.

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

"Joe!" I remonstrated; for he made no
reply at all. " Why don't you answer——"

"Pip," returned Joe, cutting me short as if
he were hurt, " which I meantersay that were
not a question requiring a answer betwixt
yourself and me, and which you know the
answer to be full well No. You know it to be
No, Pip, and wherefore should I say it?"

Miss Havisham glanced at him as if she
understood what he really was, better than I had
thought possible, seeing what he was there;
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."

As if he were absolutely out of his mind
with the wonder awakened in him by her strange
figure and the strange room, Joe, even at this
pass, persisted in addressing me.

"This is wery liberal on your part, Pip," said
Joe, " and it is as such received and grateful
welcome, though never looked for, far nor near
nor nowheres. And now, old chap," said Joe,
conveying to me a sensation, first of burning and
then of freezing, for I felt as if that familiar
expression were applied to Miss Havisham;
"and now, old chap, may we do our duty! May
you and me do our duty, both on us by one
and another, and by them which your liberal
present—- have—- conweyed—to be—for the
satisfaction of mind—of— them as never—" here
Joe showed that he felt he had fallen into
frightful difficulties, until he triumphantly
rescued himself with the words, " and from
myself far be it!" These words had such a round
and convincing sound for him that he said them
twice.

"Good-by, Pip!" said Miss Havisham. "Let
them out, Estella."

"Am I to come again, Miss Havisham?" I
asked.

"No. Gargery is your master now.
Gargery! One word!"

Thus calling him back as I went out of the
door, I heard her say to Joe, in a distinct
emphatic voice, " The boy has been a good boy here,
and that is his reward. Of course, as an honest
man, you will expect no other and no more."

How Joe got out of the room, I have never
been able to determine; but, I know that when
he did get out he was steadily proceeding
upstairs instead of coming down, and was deaf to
all remonstrances until I went after him and laid
hold of him. 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!" And there he remained so
long, saying "Astonishing!" at intervals, so
often, that I began to think his senses were
never coming back. At length he prolonged
his remark into "Pip, I do assure you that this
is as-TON-ishing!" and so, by degrees, became
conversational and able to walk away.

I have reason to think that Joe's intellects
were brightened by the encounter they had
passed through, and that on our way to
Pumblechook's he invented a subtle and deep design.
My reason is to be found in what took place in
Mr. Pumblechook's parlour: where, on our
presenting ourselves, my sister sat in conference
with that detested seedsman.

"Well?" cried my sister, addressing us both
at once. " And what's happened to you? I
wonder you condescend to come back to such
poor society as this, I am sure I do!"

"Miss Havisham," said Joe, with a fixed look
at me, like an effort of remembrance, " made it
wery partick'ler that we should give her— were
it compliments or respects, Pip?"

"Compliments," I said.

"Which that were my own belief," answered
Joe— "her compliments to Mrs. J. Gargery—— "

"Much good they'll do me!" observed my
sister; but rather gratified too.

"And wishing," pursued Joe, with another
fixed look at me, like another effort of
remembrance, "that the state of Miss Havisham's
elth were sitch as would have— allowed, were
it, Pip?"

"Of her having the pleasure," I added.

"Of ladies' company," said Joe. And drew
a long breath.

"Well!" cried my sister, with a mollified
glance at Mr. Pumblechook. " She might have
had the politeness to send that message at first,
but it's better late than never. And what did
she give young Rantipole here?"

"She giv' him," said Joe, " nothing."

Mrs. Joe was going to break out, but Joe
went on.

"What she giv'," said Joe, " she giv' to his
friends. ' And by his friends,' were her explanation,
' I mean into the hands of his sister Mrs.
J. Gargery.' Them were her words; ' Mrs. J.
Gargery.' She mayn't have know'd," added
Joe, with an appearance of reflection, " whether
it were Joe, or Jorge."

My sister looked at Pumblechook: who
smoothed the elbows of his wooden arm-chair,