Great Expectations

For such reasons, I was very glad when ten o'clock came and we started

for Miss Havisham's; though I was not at all at my ease regarding the

manner in which I should acquit myself under that lady's roof. Within

a quarter of an hour we came to Miss Havisham's house, which was of old

brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the

windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were

rustily barred. There was a courtyard in front, and that was barred; so

we had to wait, after ringing the bell, until some one should come

to open it. While we waited at the gate, I peeped in (even then Mr.

Pumblechook said, "And fourteen?" but I pretended not to hear him), and

saw that at the side of the house there was a large brewery. No brewing

was going on in it, and none seemed to have gone on for a long long

time.

A window was raised, and a clear voice demanded "What name?" To which my

conductor replied, "Pumblechook." The voice returned, "Quite right," and

the window was shut again, and a young lady came across the court-yard,

with keys in her hand.

"This," said Mr. Pumblechook, "is Pip."

"This is Pip, is it?" returned the young lady, who was very pretty and

seemed very proud; "come in, Pip."

Mr. Pumblechook was coming in also, when she stopped him with the gate.

"Oh!" she said. "Did you wish to see Miss Havisham?"

"If Miss Havisham wished to see me," returned Mr. Pumblechook,

discomfited.

"Ah!" said the girl; "but you see she don't."

She said it so finally, and in such an undiscussible way, that Mr.

Pumblechook, though in a condition of ruffled dignity, could not

protest. But he eyed me severely,--as if I had done anything to

him!--and departed with the words reproachfully delivered: "Boy! Let

your behavior here be a credit unto them which brought you up by hand!"

I was not free from apprehension that he would come back to propound

through the gate, "And sixteen?" But he didn't.

My young conductress locked the gate, and we went across the courtyard.

It was paved and clean, but grass was growing in every crevice. The

brewery buildings had a little lane of communication with it, and the

wooden gates of that lane stood open, and all the brewery beyond stood

open, away to the high enclosing wall; and all was empty and disused.

The cold wind seemed to blow colder there than outside the gate; and

it made a shrill noise in howling in and out at the open sides of the

brewery, like the noise of wind in the rigging of a ship at sea.