who are the blackest-looking and the worst
rogue between this and France. Now !"

" You're a foul shrew, Mother Gargery,"
growled the journeyman. "If that makes a
judge of rogues, you ought to be a good'un."

("Let her alone, will you?" said Joe.)

"What did you say?" cried my sister,
beginning to scream. " What did you say? What
did that fellow Orlick say to me, Pip? What
did he call me, with my husband standing by?
O! O! O!" Each of these exclamations was a
shriek; and I must remark of my sister, what
is equally true of all the violent women I have
ever seen, that passion was no excuse for her,
because it is undeniable that instead of lapsing
into passion, she consciously and deliberately
took extraordinary pains to force herself into it,
and became blindly furious by regular stages;
"what was the name he gave me before the
base man who swore to defend me? O! Hold
me! O!"

"Ah-h-h!" growled the journeyman, between
his teeth, " I'd hold you, if you was my wife.
I'd hold you under the pump, and choke it out
of you."

(" I tell you, let, her alone," said Joe.)

" O! To hear him!" cried my sister, with a
clap of her hands and a scream together—"which
was her next stage. " To hear the names he's
giving me ! That Orlick ! In my own house !
Me, a married woman ! With my husband
standing by ! O ! O !" Here my sister, after
a fit of clappings and screamings, beat her hands
upon her bosom and upon her knees, and threw
her cap off and pulled her hair down— which
were the last stages on her road to frenzy.
Being by this time a perfect Fury and a complete
success, she made a dash at the door, which I
had fortunately locked.

What could the wretched Joe do now, after
his disregarded parenthetical interruptions, but
stand up to his journeyman, and ask him what
he meant by interfering betwixt himself and
Mrs. Joe; and further whether he was man
enough to come on? Old Orlick felt that the
situation admitted of nothing less than coming
on, and was on his defence straightway; so,
without so much as pulling off their singed
and burnt aprons, they went at one another
like two giants. But, if any man in that
neighbourhood could stand up long against Joe, I
never saw the man. Orlick, as if he had been
of no more account than the pale young gentleman,
was very soon among the coal-dust and in no
hurry to come out of it. Then, Joe unlocked the
door and picked up my sister, who had dropped
insensible at the window (but who had seen the
fight first, I think), and who was carried into the
house and laid down, and who was recommended
to revive, and would do nothing but struggle
and clench her hands in Joe's hair. Then, came
that singular calm and silence which succeed ali
uproars; and then, with the vague sensation
which I have always connected with such a lull—
namely, that it was Sunday, and somebody was
dead—I went up-stairs to dress myself.

When I came down again, I found Joe and
Orlick sweeping up, without any other traces of
discomposure than a slit in one of Orlick's
nostrils, which was neither expressive nor
ornamental. A pot of beer had appeared from the
Jolly Bargemen, and they were sharing it by
turns in a peaceable manner. The lull had a
sedative and philosophic influence on Joe, who
followed me out into the road to say, as a parting
observation that might do me good, " On
the Rampage, Pip, and off the Rampage, Pip—
such is Life!"

With what absurd emotions (for we think the
feelings that are very serious in a man quite
comical in a boy), I found myself again going to
Miss Havisham's, matters little here. Nor how
I passed and repassed the gate many times
before I could make up my mind to ring. Nor,
how I debated whether I should go away without
ringing; nor, how I should undoubtedly
have gone, if my time had been my own, to
come back.

Miss Sarah Pocket came to the gate. No
Estella.

"How, then? You here again?" said Miss
Pocket. " What do you want?"

When I said that I only came to see how
Miss Havisham was, Sarah evidently deliberated
whether or no she should send me about my
business. But, unwilling to hazard the
responsibility, she let me in, and presently brought
the sharp message that I was to "come up."

Everything was unchanged, and Miss Havisham
was alone. " Well?" said she, fixing her
eyes upon me. "I hope you want nothing?
You'll get nothing."

"No indeed, Miss Havisham. I only wanted
you to know that I am doing very well in my
apprenticeship, and am always much obliged to
you."

"There, there!" with the old restless fingers.
"Come now and then; come on your birthday.
—Ay!" she cried suddenly, turning herself and
her chair towards me, " you are looking round
for Estella? Hey?"

I had been looking round — in fact, for Estella
—and I stammered that I hoped she was well.

"Abroad," said Miss Havisham; " educating
for a lady; far out of reach; prettier than ever;
admired by all who see her. Do you feel that
you have lost her ?"

There was such a malignant enjoyment in her
utterance of the last words, and she broke into
such a disagreeable laugh, that I was at a loss
what to say. She spared me the trouble of
considering, by dismissing me. When the gate
was closed upon me by Sarah of the walnut-
shell countenance, I felt more than ever
dissatisfied with my home and with my trade and
with everything; and that was all I took by that
motion.

As I was loitering along the High-street, looking
in disconsolately at the shop-windows, and
thinking what I should buy if I were a gentleman,
who should come out of the bookshop but
Mr. Wopsle. Mr. Wopsle had in his hand
the affecting tragedy of George Barnwell, in
which he had that moment invested sixpence,