Great Expectations

It was the first time she had ever called me by my name. Of course she

did so purposely, and knew that I should treasure it up.

We came to Richmond all too soon, and our destination there was a house

by the green,--a staid old house, where hoops and powder and patches,

embroidered coats, rolled stockings, ruffles and swords, had had their

court days many a time. Some ancient trees before the house were still

cut into fashions as formal and unnatural as the hoops and wigs and

stiff skirts; but their own allotted places in the great procession of

the dead were not far off, and they would soon drop into them and go the

silent way of the rest.

A bell with an old voice--which I dare say in its time had often said

to the house, Here is the green farthingale, Here is the diamond-hilted

sword, Here are the shoes with red heels and the blue solitaire--sounded

gravely in the moonlight, and two cherry-colored maids came fluttering

out to receive Estella. The doorway soon absorbed her boxes, and she

gave me her hand and a smile, and said good night, and was absorbed

likewise. And still I stood looking at the house, thinking how happy I

should be if I lived there with her, and knowing that I never was happy

with her, but always miserable.

I got into the carriage to be taken back to Hammersmith, and I got in

with a bad heart-ache, and I got out with a worse heart-ache. At our

own door, I found little Jane Pocket coming home from a little party

escorted by her little lover; and I envied her little lover, in spite of

his being subject to Flopson.

Mr. Pocket was out lecturing; for, he was a most delightful lecturer on

domestic economy, and his treatises on the management of children and

servants were considered the very best text-books on those themes. But

Mrs. Pocket was at home, and was in a little difficulty, on account of

the baby's having been accommodated with a needle-case to keep him quiet

during the unaccountable absence (with a relative in the Foot Guards)

of Millers. And more needles were missing than it could be regarded

as quite wholesome for a patient of such tender years either to apply

externally or to take as a tonic.

Mr. Pocket being justly celebrated for giving most excellent practical

advice, and for having a clear and sound perception of things and a

highly judicious mind, I had some notion in my heart-ache of begging him

to accept my confidence. But happening to look up at Mrs. Pocket as she

sat reading her book of dignities after prescribing Bed as a sovereign

remedy for baby, I thought--Well--No, I wouldn't.