"You said just now that Estella was not related to Miss Havisham, but adopted. When adopted?"

     Herbert shrugged his shoulders. "There has always been an Estella, since I have heard of a Miss Havisham. I know no more. And now, Handel," said he, finally throwing off the story as it were, "there is a perfectly open understanding between us. All that I know about Miss Havisham, you know."

     "And all that I know," I retorted, "you know."

     "I fully believe it. So there can be no competition or perplexity between you and me. And as to the condition on which you hold your advancement in life,--namely, that you are not to inquire or discuss to whom you owe it,--you may be very sure that it will never be encroached upon, or even approached, by me, or by any one belonging to me."

     In truth, he said this with so much delicacy, that I felt the subject done with, even though I should be under his father's roof for years and years to come. Yet he said it with so much meaning, too, that I felt he as perfectly understood Miss Havisham to be my benefactress, as I understood the fact myself.