Great Expectations

On examination it was pronounced that she had received serious hurts,

but that they of themselves were far from hopeless; the danger lay

mainly in the nervous shock. By the surgeon's directions, her bed was

carried into that room and laid upon the great table, which happened to

be well suited to the dressing of her injuries. When I saw her again, an

hour afterwards, she lay, indeed, where I had seen her strike her stick,

and had heard her say that she would lie one day.

Though every vestige of her dress was burnt, as they told me, she

still had something of her old ghastly bridal appearance; for, they had

covered her to the throat with white cotton-wool, and as she lay with

a white sheet loosely overlying that, the phantom air of something that

had been and was changed was still upon her.

I found, on questioning the servants, that Estella was in Paris, and I

got a promise from the surgeon that he would write to her by the

next post. Miss Havisham's family I took upon myself; intending to

communicate with Mr. Matthew Pocket only, and leave him to do as he

liked about informing the rest. This I did next day, through Herbert, as

soon as I returned to town.

There was a stage, that evening, when she spoke collectedly of what had

happened, though with a certain terrible vivacity. Towards midnight she

began to wander in her speech; and after that it gradually set in that

she said innumerable times in a low solemn voice, "What have I done!"

And then, "When she first came, I meant to save her from misery like

mine." And then, "Take the pencil and write under my name, 'I forgive

her!'" She never changed the order of these three sentences, but she

sometimes left out a word in one or other of them; never putting in

another word, but always leaving a blank and going on to the next word.

As I could do no service there, and as I had, nearer home, that pressing

reason for anxiety and fear which even her wanderings could not drive

out of my mind, I decided, in the course of the night that I would

return by the early morning coach, walking on a mile or so, and being

taken up clear of the town. At about six o'clock of the morning,

therefore, I leaned over her and touched her lips with mine, just as

they said, not stopping for being touched, "Take the pencil and write

under my name, 'I forgive her.'"