At first, I meant no more." "Well, well!" said I."I hope so." "But as she grew, and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings, and with this figure of myself always before her, a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away, and put ice in its place." "Better," I could not help saying, "to have left her a natural heart, even to be bruised or broken." With that, Miss Havisham looked distractedly at me for a while, and then burst out again, What had she done! "If you knew all my story," she pleaded, "you would have some compassion for me and a better understanding of me." "Miss Havisham," I answered, as delicately as I could, "I believe I may say that I do know your story, and have known it ever since I first left this neighborhood.

It has inspired me with great commiseration, and I hope I understand it and its influences.

Does what has passed between us give me any excuse for asking you a question relative to Estella?
Not as she is, but as she was when she first came here ?" She was seated on the ground, with her arms on the ragged chair, and her head leaning on them.

She looked full at me when I said this, and replied, "Go on." "Whose child was Estella ?" She shook her head.
"You don't know ?" She shook her head again.
"But Mr.Jaggers brought her here, or sent her here ?" "Brought her here." "Will you tell me how that came about ?" She answered in a low whisper and with caution: "I had been shut up in these rooms a long time (I don't know how long; you know what time the clocks keep here), when I told him that I wanted a little girl to rear and love, and save from my fate.

I had first seen him when I sent for him to lay this place waste for me; having read of him in the newspapers, before I and the world parted.