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 ostler not

forgotten, and the chambermaid taken into consideration - in a

word, the whole house bribed into a state of contempt and

animosity, and Estella's purse much lightened - we got into our

post-coach and drove away. Turning into Cheapside and rattling up

Newgate-street, we were soon under the walls of which I was so

ashamed.

"What place is that?" Estella asked me.

I made a foolish pretence of not at first recognizing it, and then

told her. As she looked at it, and drew in her head again,

murmuring "Wretches!" I would not have confessed to my visit for

any consideration.

"Mr. Jaggers," said I, by way of putting it neatly on somebody else,

"has the reputation of being more in the secrets of that dismal

place than any man in London."

"He is more in the secrets of every place, I think," said Estella,

in a low voice.

"You have been accustomed to see him often, I suppose?"

"I have been accustomed to see him at uncertain intervals, ever

since I can remember. But I know him no better now, than I did

before I could speak plainly. What is your own experience of him?

Do you advance with him?"

"Once habituated to his distrustful manner," said I, "I have done

very well."

"Are you intimate?"

"I have dined with him at his private house."

"I fancy," said Estella, shrinking "that must be a curious place."

"It is a curious place."

I should have been chary of discussing my guardian too freely even

with her; but I should have gone on with the subject so far as to

describe the dinner in Gerrard-street, if we had not then come into

a sudden glare of gas. It seemed, while it lasted, to be all alight

and alive with that inexplicable feeling I had had before; and when

we were out of it, I was as much dazed for a few moments as if I

had been in Lightning.

So, we fell into other talk, and it was principally about the way

by which we were travelling, and about what parts of London lay on

this side of it, and what on that. The great city was almost new to

her, she told me, for she had never left Miss Havisham's

neighbourhood until she had gone to France, and she had merely

passed through London then in going and returning. I asked her if

my guardian had any charge of her while she remained here? To that

she emphatically said "God forbid!" and no more.

It was impossible for me to avoid seeing that she cared to attract

me; that she made herself winning; and would have won me even if

the task had needed pains. Yet this made me none the happier, for,

even if she had not taken that tone of our being disposed of by

others, I should have felt that she held my heart in her hand

because she wilfully chose to do it, and not because it would have

wrung any tenderness in her, to crush it and throw it away.

When we passed through Hammersmith, I showed her where Mr. Matthew

Pocket lived, and said it was no great way from Richmond, and that

I hoped I should see her sometimes.

"Oh yes, you are to see me; you are to come when you think proper;

you are to be mentioned to the family; indeed you are already

mentioned."

I inquired was it a large household she was going to be a member

of?

"No; there are only two; mother and daughter. The mother is a lady

of some station, though not averse to increasing her income."

"I wonder Miss Havisham could part with you again so soon."

"It is a part of Miss Havisham's plans for me, Pip," said Estella,

with a sigh, as if she were tired; "I am to write to her constantly

and see her regularly and report how I go on - I and the jewels -

for they are nearly all mine now."

It was the first time she had ever called me by my name. Of course

she did so, purposely, and knew that I should treasure it up.