and dropped so much more than he ate, and pretended that he hadn't dropped it; that I was heartily glad when Herbert left us for the city.

I had neither the good sense nor the good feeling to know that this was all my fault, and that if I had been easier with Joe, Joe would have been easier with me. I felt impatient of him and out of temper with him; in which condition he heaped coals of fire on my head.

`Us two being now alone, Sir,' - began Joe.

`Joe,' I interrupted, pettishly, `how can you call me, Sir?'

Joe looked at me for a single instant with something faintly like reproach. Utterly preposterous as his cravat was, and as his collars were, I was conscious of a sort of dignity in the look.

`Us two being now alone,' resumed Joe, `and me having the intentions and abilities to stay not many minutes more, I will now conclude - leastways begin - to mention what have led to my having had the present honour. For was it not,' said Joe, with his old air of lucid exposition, `that my only wish were to be useful to you, I should not have had the honour of breaking wittles in the company and abode of gentlemen.'

I was so unwilling to see the look again, that I made no remonstrance against this tone.

`Well, Sir,' pursued Joe, `this is how it were. I were at the Bargemen t'other night, Pip;' whenever he subsided into affection, he called me Pip, and whenever he relapsed into politeness he called me Sir; `when there come up in his shay-cart, Pumblechook. Which that same identical,' said Joe, going down a new track, `do comb my 'air the wrong way sometimes, awful, by giving out up and down town as it were him which ever had your infant companionation and were looked upon as a playfellow by yourself.'

`Nonsense. It was you, Joe.'

`Which I fully believed it were, Pip,' said Joe, slightly tossing his head, `though it signify little now, Sir. Well, Pip; this same identical, which his manners is given to blusterous, come to me at the Bargemen (wot a pipe and a pint of beer do give refreshment to the working-man, Sir, and do not over stimilate), and his word were, "Joseph, Miss Havisham she wish to speak to you."'

`Miss Havisham, Joe?'

`"She wish," were Pumblechook's word, "to speak to you."' Joe sat and rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

`Yes, Joe? Go on, please.'

`Next day, Sir,' said Joe, looking at me as if I were a long way off, `having cleaned myself, I go and I see Miss A.'

`Miss A., Joe? Miss Havisham?'

`Which I say, Sir,' replied Joe, with an air of legal formality, as if he were making his will, `Miss A., or otherways Havisham. Her expression air then as follering: "Mr Gargery. You air in correspondence with Mr Pip?" Having had a letter from you, I were able to say "I am." (When I married your sister, Sir, I said "I will;" and when I answered your friend, Pip, I said "I am.") "Would you tell him, then," said she, "that which Estella has come home and would be glad to see him."'

I felt my face fire up as I looked at Joe. I hope one remote cause of its firing, may have been my consciousness that if I had known his errand, I should have given him more encouragement.