by--her veil was but half arranged; her watch
and chain were not put on; and there were lace, trinkets, handkerchief,
gloves, some flowers, and a Prayer-book in a heap before the
looking-glass. Then she spoke, "Who is it?"

"Pip, ma'am."

"Pip?"

"Mr. Pumblechook's boy, ma'am. Come--to play."

"Come nearer; let me look at you. Come close."

When I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, I took in all the details of
the room and saw that her watch and clock had both stopped.

"Look at me," said Miss Havisham. "You are not afraid of a woman who has
not seen the sun since you were born?"

I regret to say that I was not afraid of telling the enormous lie
comprehended in the answer, "No."

"Do you know what I touch here?" she said, laying her hands on her left
side.

"Yes, ma'am."

"What do I touch?"

"Your heart."

"Broken."

She said the word eagerly, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast
in it.

"I am tired," said Miss Havisham. "I have a sick fancy that I want to see
some play. I want diversion, and I have done with men and women. There,
there," with an impatient movement of the fingers of her right hand,
"play, play, play!"

For a moment, with the fear of my sister "working me" before my eyes, I
had a desperate idea of starting round the room in the assumed character
of Mr. Pumblechook's chaise cart. But I felt so unequal to the performance
that I gave it up, and stood looking at Miss Havisham in what I suppose
she took for a dogged manner, and presently she said:

"Are you sullen and obstinate?"

"No, ma'am," I said. "I am very sorry for you and very sorry I can't play
just now. If you complain of me, I shall get into trouble with my sister,
so I would do it, if I could, but it's new here, and so strange and so
fine, and--melancholy." I stopped, fearing I might have said too much, and
we took another look at each other. Before she spoke again, she looked at
herself in the glass, then she turned, and flashing a look at me, said,
"Call Estella. You can do that. Call Estella. At the door."

To stand in the dark in the mysterious passage of an unknown house,
bawling "Estella" to a scornful young lady neither visible nor responsive,
and feeling it a dreadful liberty to roar out her name, was almost as bad
as playing to order. But she answered at last, and her light came
trembling along the dark passage, like a star. Miss Havisham beckoned her
to come close to her, took up a jewel, and tried