What was in it, further than

that it most heartlessly broke the marriage off, I can't tell you,

because I don't know. When she recovered from a bad illness that

she had, she laid the whole place waste, as you have seen it, and

she has never since looked upon the light of day."

"Is that all the story?" I asked, after considering it.

"All I know of it; and indeed I only know so much, through piecing

it out for myself; for my father always avoids it, and, even when

Miss Havisham invited me to go there, told me no more of it than it

was absolutely requisite I should understand. But I have forgotten

one thing. It has been supposed that the man to whom she gave her

misplaced confidence, acted throughout in concert with her

half-brother; that it was a conspiracy between them; and that they

shared the profits."

"I wonder he didn't marry her and get all the property," said I.

"He may have been married already, and her cruel mortification may

have been a part of her half-brother's scheme," said Herbert.

"Mind! I don't know that."

"What became of the two men?" I asked, after again considering the

subject.

"They fell into deeper shame and degradation - if there can be

deeper - and ruin."

"Are they alive now?"

"I don't know."

"You said just now, that Estella was not related to Miss Havisham,

but adopted. When adopted?"

Herbert shrugged his shoulders. "There has always been an Estella,

since I have heard of a Miss Havisham. I know no more. And now,

Handel," said he, finally throwing off the story as it were, "there

is a perfectly open understanding between us. All that I know about

Miss Havisham, you know."

"And all that I know," I retorted, "you know."

"I fully believe it. So there can be no competition or perplexity

between you and me. And as to the condition on which you hold your

advancement in life - namely, that you are not to inquire or

discuss to whom you owe it - you may be very sure that it will

never be encroached upon, or even approached, by me, or by any one

belonging to me."

In truth, he said this with so much delicacy, that I felt the

subject done with, even though I should be under his father's roof

for years and years to come. Yet he said it with so much meaning,

too, that I felt he as perfectly understood Miss Havisham to be my

benefactress, as I understood the fact myself.

It had not occurred to me before, that he had led up to the theme

for the purpose of clearing it out of our way; but we were so much

the lighter and easier for having broached it, that I now perceived

this to be the case. We were very gay and sociable, and I asked

him, in the course of conversation, what he was? He replied, "A

capitalist - an Insurer of Ships." I suppose he saw me glancing

about the room in search of some tokens of Shipping, or capital,

for he added, "In the City."

I had grand ideas of the wealth and importance of Insurers of Ships

in the City, and I began to think with awe, of having laid a young

Insurer on his back, blackened his enterprising eye, and cut his

responsible head open. But, again, there came upon me, for my

relief, that odd impression that Herbert Pocket would never be very

successful or rich.

"I shall not rest satisfied with merely employing my capital in

insuring ships. I shall buy up some good Life Assurance shares, and

cut into the Direction. I shall also do a little in the mining way.

None of these things will interfere with my chartering a few

thousand tons on my own account. I think I shall trade," said he,

leaning back in his chair, "to the East Indies, for silks, shawls,

spices, dyes, drugs, and precious woods. It's an interesting

trade."

"And the profits are large?" said I.

"Tremendous!" said he.

I wavered again, and began to think here were greater expectations

than my own.

"I think I shall trade, also," said he, putting his thumbs in his

waistcoat pockets, "to the West Indies, for sugar, tobacco, and

rum.