"It would have been cruel in Miss Havisham, horribly cruel, to practise on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me through all these years with a vain hope and an idle pursuit, if she had reflected on the gravity of what she did. But I think she did not. I think that, in the endurance of her own trial, she forgot mine, Estella."

     I saw Miss Havisham put her hand to her heart and hold it there, as she sat looking by turns at Estella and at me.

     "It seems," said Estella, very calmly, "that there are sentiments, fancies,--I don't know how to call them,--which I am not able to comprehend. When you say you love me, I know what you mean, as a form of words; but nothing more. You address nothing in my breast, you touch nothing there. I don't care for what you say at all. I have tried to warn you of this; now, have I not?"

     I said in a miserable manner, "Yes."

     "Yes. But you would not be warned, for you thought I did not mean it. Now, did you not think so?"