Now that I was alone, I decided to leave my rooms in the Temple. I was in debt, I had almost no money, and I was becoming very worried about my future. However, I didn’t have the energy to think clearly because I was falling very ill. The stress of the last few weeks was finally too much for me.
For a few days, I lay on the sofa or the floor, unable to move. I had terrible fevers and frightening dreams. One morning, two men came to my room to arrest me because I owed a jeweler over a hundred pounds.
"You see my state," I told them. "I would come with you if I could, but I think I will die if you move me."
The men stayed for a while, but they didn't take me away. My fever got worse, and I lost my sense of time. I had hallucinations; I thought I was part of a machine or a brick in a wall. I struggled with people I thought were murderers, only to realize they were trying to help me. But through all the confusion and the strange faces, one face began to appear more and more. It was the face of Joe.
Finally, one day, I opened my eyes and saw him sitting by my bed. "Is it Joe?" I whispered.
"It is, old chap," the dear, familiar voice answered.
"Oh Joe!" I cried. "You are so good to me. Please, be angry at me. Tell me how ungrateful I have been!"
But Joe only put his arm around my neck. He was so happy that I recognized him. He told me it was the end of May and that he had been nursing me for weeks. As soon as Biddy heard I was sick, she had told Joe, "Go to him without losing a minute."
As I slowly got better, Joe took care of everything. He had even learned to write! Biddy had been teaching him, and I watched with joy as he proudly wrote a letter to her. He tucked up his sleeves as if he were working at the forge and moved the pen slowly across the paper.
Joe told me the news from home. Miss Havisham had died a week after my accident. She left most of her money to Estella, but she left four thousand pounds to Matthew Pocket. She did this because of the good things I had said about him. This made me very happy; it was the only good thing I had managed to do with my fortune.
He also told me that Orlick was in jail. Orlick had broken into Mr. Pumblechook’s house, tied him to a bed, and robbed him.
As I grew stronger, Joe became a little more formal with me. He started calling me "sir" again. This hurt my heart. I realized that Joe remembered how cold I had been to him when I was a "gentleman." He expected me to walk away from him again as soon as I was healthy.
I resolved to tell Joe everything on Monday morning. I wanted to tell him that I was poor now and that I was deeply sorry. I also had a secret plan: I decided I would go back to the forge, ask Biddy for her forgiveness, and ask her to marry me.
But when I woke up on Monday morning, Joe was gone. He had left a short note: "I have gone because you are well again, dear Pip. You will do better without me. Ever the best of friends, Joe."
Inside the note was a receipt. Joe had used his own savings to pay off my debt of over a hundred pounds. He had saved me from prison.
I knew what I had to do. I would follow him home, thank him, and ask Biddy to be my wife.