[Great Expectations by Charles Dickens]@TWC D-Link bookGreat Expectations ChapterXI
22/23
He got heavily bruised, for I am sorry to record that the more I hit him, the harder I hit him; but he came up again and again and again, until at last he got a bad fall with the back of his head against the wall.
Even after that crisis in our affairs, he got up and turned round and round confusedly a few times, not knowing where I was; but finally went on his knees to his sponge and threw it up: at the same time panting out, "That means you have won." He seemed so brave and innocent, that although I had not proposed the contest, I felt but a gloomy satisfaction in my victory.
Indeed, I go so far as to hope that I regarded myself while dressing as a species of savage young wolf or other wild beast.
However, I got dressed, darkly wiping my sanguinary face at intervals, and I said, "Can I help you ?" and he said "No thankee," and I said "Good afternoon," and he said "Same to you." When I got into the courtyard, I found Estella waiting with the keys. But she neither asked me where I had been, nor why I had kept her waiting; and there was a bright flush upon her face, as though something had happened to delight her.
Instead of going straight to the gate, too, she stepped back into the passage, and beckoned me. "Come here! You may kiss me, if you like." I kissed her cheek as she turned it to me.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|