"Yes, yes, I know it. But, Pip--my dear!" There was an earnest womanly compassion for me in her new affection. "My dear! Believe this: when she first came to me, I meant to save her from misery like my own. At first, I meant no more."

     "Well, well!" said I. "I hope so."

     "But as she grew, and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings, and with this figure of myself always before her, a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away, and put ice in its place."

     "Better," I could not help saying, "to have left her a natural heart, even to be bruised or broken."

     With that, Miss Havisham looked distractedly at me for a while, and then burst out again, What had she done!

     "If you knew all my story," she pleaded, "you would have some compassion for me and a better understanding of me."