Great Expectations

We sat down on a bench that was near, and I said, "After so many years,

it is strange that we should thus meet again, Estella, here where our

first meeting was! Do you often come back?"

"I have never been here since."

"Nor I."

The moon began to rise, and I thought of the placid look at the white

ceiling, which had passed away. The moon began to rise, and I thought of

the pressure on my hand when I had spoken the last words he had heard on

earth.

Estella was the next to break the silence that ensued between us.

"I have very often hoped and intended to come back, but have been

prevented by many circumstances. Poor, poor old place!"

The silvery mist was touched with the first rays of the moonlight, and

the same rays touched the tears that dropped from her eyes. Not knowing

that I saw them, and setting herself to get the better of them, she said

quietly,-"Were you wondering, as you walked along, how it came to be left in this

condition?"

"Yes, Estella."

"The ground belongs to me. It is the only possession I have not

relinquished. Everything else has gone from me, little by little, but I

have kept this. It was the subject of the only determined resistance I

made in all the wretched years."

"Is it to be built on?"

"At last, it is. I came here to take leave of it before its change. And

you," she said, in a voice of touching interest to a wanderer,--"you

live abroad still?"

"Still."

"And do well, I am sure?"

"I work pretty hard for a sufficient living, and therefore--yes, I do

well."

"I have often thought of you," said Estella.

"Have you?"

"Of late, very often. There was a long hard time when I kept far from me

the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant

of its worth. But since my duty has not been incompatible with the

admission of that remembrance, I have given it a place in my heart."

"You have always held your place in my heart," I answered.

And we were silent again until she spoke.

"I little thought," said Estella, "that I should take leave of you in

taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to do so."

"Glad to part again, Estella? To me, parting is a painful thing. To me,

the remembrance of our last parting has been ever mournful and painful."