He came back to where I stood, and again held out both his hands. Not knowing what to do,--for, in my astonishment I had lost my self-possession,--I reluctantly gave him my hands. He grasped them heartily, raised them to his lips, kissed them, and still held them.

     "You acted noble, my boy," said he. "Noble, Pip! And I have never forgot it!"

     At a change in his manner as if he were even going to embrace me, I laid a hand upon his breast and put him away.

     "Stay!" said I. "Keep off! If you are grateful to me for what I did when I was a little child, I hope you have shown your gratitude by mending your way of life. If you have come here to thank me, it was not necessary. Still, however you have found me out, there must be something good in the feeling that has brought you here, and I will not repulse you; but surely you must understand that--I--"

     My attention was so attracted by the singularity of his fixed look at me, that the words died away on my tongue.

     "You was a saying," he observed, when we had confronted one another in silence, "that surely I must understand. What, surely must I understand?"