we stood in the daylight alone, Joe
backed up against a wall, breathless with amazement, and repeated at
intervals, "Astonishing! Pip, I do assure you this is as-ton-ishing!" Then
we walked away, back to Mr. Pumblechook's, where we found my sister, and
told her the great news of my earnings, and she was as much pleased as was
possible for her to be.

It is a miserable thing to feel ashamed of home, I assure you. To me home
had never been a very pleasant place on account of sister's temper, but
Joe had sanctified it, and I believed in it. I had believed in the Best
Parlour, as a most elegant place, I had believed in the Front Door as a
mysterious portal of the Temple of State, I had believed in the kitchen as
a chaste though not magnificent apartment; I had believed in the forge, as
the glowing road to manhood and independence. Within a single year all
this was changed. Now it was all coarse and common to me, and I would not
have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it for the world. Once it had
seemed to me that as Joe's apprentice I should be distinguished and happy.
Now I regret to say that I was as dejected and miserable as was possible
to be, and in my ungracious breast there was a shame of all that
surrounded me.

Toward the end of my first year as Joe's apprentice I suggested that I go
and call on Miss Havisham. He thought well of it, and so I went.

Everything was unchanged, except that a strange young woman came to the
door, and I found that Estella was abroad being educated, and Miss
Havisham was alone.

"Well," said she. "I hope you want nothing; you'll get nothing!"

"No, indeed," I replied, "I only want you to know that I am doing very
well and am always much obliged to you." We had little other conversation,
and soon she dismissed me, and as the gate closed on me, I felt more than
ever dissatisfied with my home, and my trade, and with everything!

When I reached home, some one hastened out to tell me that the house had
been entered during my absence, and that my sister had been attacked and
badly injured. Nothing had been taken from the house, but my sister had
been struck a terrible blow, and lay very ill in bed for months, and when
at last she could come down stairs again her mind was never quite clear,
and she was unable to speak. So it was necessary to have Biddy come and
take up the house-keeping, and meanwhile I kept up the routine of my
apprenticeship-life, varied only by the arrival of my several