At the agreed time, I returned to Miss Havisham’s house. Estella unlocked the gate and led me down a dark passage, just as she had done before. But this time, she took me to a completely different part of the house.
We entered a dark, gloomy room with a low ceiling. "Stand by the window until you are wanted," Estella said, and then she left. I stood there, feeling very uncomfortable. Outside the window, I could see a miserable, ruined corner of the garden.
There were three ladies and one gentleman in the room with me. I soon found out that they were Miss Havisham’s relatives. They all looked bored, but they were pretending to be very worried about her. One lady, whose name was Camilla, talked constantly about how much she suffered because she loved Miss Havisham so much. They also spoke unkindly about another relative named Matthew. I could easily tell that they were greedy people who did not really care about Miss Havisham. They only wanted her money. Soon, a bell rang. Estella returned and called me away. The relatives looked at me with great anger and jealousy as I left.
As we walked along the dark passage, Estella suddenly stopped and looked closely at me.
"Am I pretty?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "I think you are very pretty."
"Am I insulting?"
"Not as much as you were last time," I answered.
She was furious. She slapped my face as hard as she could. "Now?" she cried. "You little monster, what do you think of me now?"
"I will not tell you."
"Why don't you cry again, you little wretch?" she asked.
"Because I will never cry for you again," I said. It was a lie, because my heart was hurting, but I refused to show it.
We continued upstairs. On the way, we met a large, heavy man coming down in the dark. He had a huge head, dark clothes, and very suspicious eyes. He stopped and held my chin with his large hand to look at my face.
"Who is this?" he asked.
"A boy," said Estella.
"Well, behave yourself," the man told me, looking at me sharply. "I know a lot about boys, and you are a bad group. Be careful!" Then he went downstairs. I noticed that his hands smelled strongly of scented soap.
Soon, we were in Miss Havisham’s room. She looked at me from her dressing table.
"So, are you ready to play?" she asked impatiently.
"I don't think I am, ma'am," I answered nervously.
"If you are unwilling to play, are you willing to work?"
I said I was quite willing. She pointed to a door across the hall and told me to wait there.
I went in and found another large, dark room. It smelled damp and airless. In the middle of the room was a long table with a tablecloth on it. It looked like a grand dinner had been prepared many years ago, when all the clocks in the house had stopped. On the table was a large centerpiece, completely covered in thick cobwebs. Spiders with spotted bodies were running in and out of it. I could also hear mice moving behind the wooden walls.
Miss Havisham came in behind me. She was leaning on a walking stick and looked like a ghost.
"This," she said, pointing to the long table, "is where I will be laid when I am dead. They will all come and look at me here."
She pointed her stick at the cobwebs. "What do you think that is?" she asked.
"I cannot guess, ma'am."
"It is a great cake. A wedding cake. Mine!" she said. Then she rested her hand on my shoulder. "Come! Walk me, walk me!"
I started to walk, and she leaned heavily on me. We went round and round the room. We walked for a long time until she told me to call Estella. When Estella came, she brought the greedy relatives with her. They smiled falsely and told Miss Havisham how wonderful she looked. Camilla even started to cry fake tears to show how much she cared.
Miss Havisham stopped and stared at them. She hit the long table with her stick. "Matthew will come and see me when I am dead on that table!" she told them angrily. "And you will all stand around me. You can take your places when you come to feast on my money. Now go!"
The relatives looked shocked, but they quickly left the room. Miss Havisham stood by the fire and told me that it was her birthday. She said that the cake was brought into the room long before I was born. "It has decayed together with me," she whispered.
After a long silence, we returned to her room. Estella and I played cards again, and Miss Havisham watched us. Estella was very quiet. When we finished, I was taken down to the yard and given meat and bread, just like a dog.
I decided to go for a walk and went into the ruined, empty garden. Suddenly, I found myself face to face with a pale young boy with light hair and red eyelids.
"Hello, young fellow!" he said. "Who gave you permission to walk around here? Come and fight!"
I was very surprised, but I followed him to a quiet corner of the garden. He took off his jacket and got a bottle of water and a sponge. He looked very professional, dancing backward and forward on his toes. However, he was not a good fighter at all. When I hit him, he immediately fell on his back. I was shocked.
But he quickly got up, used his sponge, and came back for more. He was very brave, but he had no strength. I knocked him down again and again. Finally, he fell hard against the wall and stayed on the ground. He threw his sponge in the air and panted, "That means you have won."
"Can I help you?" I asked.
"No, thank you," he replied politely.
I washed my face, got dressed, and went back to the courtyard. Estella was waiting for me with the keys. Her face was red, and she looked extremely happy about something. Instead of opening the gate, she stepped back and called me towards her.
"Come here!" she said. "You may kiss me, if you like."
I kissed her on the cheek. I would have done a great deal to kiss her, but it did not feel right. I felt that she gave the kiss to a common boy as a reward, like a cheap coin, and that it meant nothing to her.
I finally walked home. It was late, and the night sky over the marshes was completely black.