"They are very slight, poor thing. She had been in one of her bad states--though they had got better of late, rather than worse--for four days, when she came out of it in the evening, just at tea-time, and said quite plainly, 'Joe.' As she had never said any word for a long while, I ran and fetched in Mr. Gargery from the forge. She made signs to me that she wanted him to sit down close to her, and wanted me to put her arms round his neck. So I put them round his neck, and she laid her head down on his shoulder quite content and satisfied. And so she presently said 'Joe' again, and once 'Pardon,' and once 'Pip.' And so she never lifted her head up any more, and it was just an hour later when we laid it down on her own bed, because we found she was gone."

     Biddy cried; the darkening garden, and the lane, and the stars that were coming out, were blurred in my own sight.

     "Nothing was ever discovered, Biddy?"

     "Nothing."

     "Do you know what is become of Orlick?"

     "I should think from the color of his clothes that he is working in the quarries."

     "Of course you have seen him then?--Why are you looking at that dark tree in the lane?"