I thought of her having said, "Matthew will come and see me at last when

I am laid dead upon that table;" and I asked Herbert whether his father

was so inveterate against her?

"It's not that," said he, "but she charged him, in the presence of her

intended husband, with being disappointed in the hope of fawning upon

her for his own advancement, and, if he were to go to her now, it would

look true--even to him--and even to her. To return to the man and make

an end of him. The marriage day was fixed, the wedding dresses were

bought, the wedding tour was planned out, the wedding guests were

invited. The day came, but not the bridegroom. He wrote her a letter--"

"Which she received," I struck in, "when she was dressing for her

marriage? At twenty minutes to nine?"

"At the hour and minute," said Herbert, nodding, "at which she

afterwards stopped all the clocks. 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."




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