“You won’t succeed,” said I.

“Oh yes I shall!” said he.  “One, two, three, and now I am in for it.  Handel, my good fellow;” though he spoke in this light tone, he was very much in earnest:  “I have been thinking since we have been talking with our feet on this fender, that Estella surely cannot be a condition of your inheritance, if she was never referred to by your guardian.  Am I right in so understanding what you have told me, as that he never referred to her, directly or indirectly, in any way?  Never even hinted, for instance, that your patron might have views as to your marriage ultimately?”

“Never.”

“Now, Handel, I am quite free from the flavour of sour grapes, upon my soul and honour!  Not being bound to her, can you not detach yourself from her? — I told you I should be disagreeable.”

I turned my head aside, for, with a rush and a sweep, like the old marsh winds coming up from the sea, a feeling like that which had subdued me on the morning when I left the forge, when the mists were solemnly rising, and when I laid my hand upon the village finger-post, smote upon my heart again.  There was silence between us for a little while.

“Yes; but my dear Handel,” Herbert went on, as if we had been talking instead of silent, “its having been so strongly rooted in the breast of a boy whom nature and circumstances made so romantic, renders it very serious.  Think of her bringing-up, and think of Miss Havisham.  Think of what she is herself (now I am repulsive and you abominate me).  This may lead to miserable things.”

“I know it, Herbert,” said I, with my head still turned away, “but I can’t help it.”

“You can’t detach yourself?”

“No.  Impossible!”

“You can’t try, Handel?”

“No.  Impossible!”

“Well!” said Herbert, getting up with a lively shake as if he had been asleep, and stirring the fire; “now I’ll endeavour to make myself agreeable again!”

So he went round the room and shook the curtains out, put the chairs in their places, tidied the books and so forth that were lying about, looked into the hall, peeped into the letter-box, shut the door, and came back to his chair by the fire:  where he sat down, nursing his left leg in both arms.

“I was going to say a word or two, Handel, concerning my father and my father’s son.  I am afraid it is scarcely necessary for my father’s son to remark that my father’s establishment is not particularly brilliant in its housekeeping.”

“There is always plenty, Herbert,” said I:  to say something encouraging.

“Oh yes! and so the dustman says, I believe, with the strongest approval, and so does the marine-store shop in the back street.  Gravely, Handel, for the subject is grave enough, you know how it is, as well as I do.  I suppose there was a time once when my father had not given matters up; but if ever there was, the time is gone.  May I ask you if you have ever had an opportunity of remarking, down in your part of the country, that the children of not exactly suitable marriages, are always most particularly anxious to be married?”