Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another--as they well Might--and both repeated, "In a black velvet coach?"

     "Yes," said I. "And Miss Estella--that's her niece, I think--handed her in cake and wine at the coach-window, on a gold plate. And we all had cake and wine on gold plates. And I got up behind the coach to eat mine, because she told me to."

     "Was anybody else there?" asked Mr. Pumblechook.

     "Four dogs," said I.

     "Large or small?"

     "Immense," said I. "And they fought for veal-cutlets out of a silver basket."

     Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another again, in utter amazement. I was perfectly frantic,--a reckless witness under the torture,--and would have told them anything.

     "Where was this coach, in the name of gracious?" asked my sister.

     "In Miss Havisham's room." They stared again. "But there weren't any horses to it." I added this saving clause, in the moment of rejecting four richly caparisoned coursers which I had had wild thoughts of harnessing.