Great Expectations Chapter 29: Orlick Installed as Porter...

Pip is certain that Miss Havisham's intention, as the presumed patroness of both himself and Estella, is to eventually bring the two together in marriage. Older Pip explains the love he felt for Estella at this time as helpless: "I loved her simply because I found her irresistible" (270). So it is with much anticipation that he knocks on Miss Havisham's door, an anticipation hitched for a moment when Orlick answers that door. Apparently, Joe's gruff journeyman has been hired as a sort of butler for Manor House.

Topic Tracking: Love 7

After a quick run-in with Sarah Pocket, Pip goes upstairs to find Miss Havisham and her dusty room unchanged, though the other woman in the room is so changed that Pip doesn't even recognize her as Estella at first. Estella, more beautiful than ever, has a way of making Pip feel a little common boy again. But Pip, devoted as a puppy dog, walks beside her in the overgrown garden and nearly cries when Estella, decidedly more aloof and stiff than before, cannot even remember the old times when she fed him out in this same yard, times that are burned in Pip's memory. There is something else, however, that Estella sets off in Pip; she reminds him of someone, though he can't figure out whom.

Topic Tracking: Identity 7

After the walk, the two return to Miss Havisham's, and Pip gives the old woman a few pushes around the feast-room in her chair. Miss Havisham has some odd things to say about Pip and Estella--she tells Pip to "Love her! Love her!" but also seems fascinated to know whether Estella is using or hurting him. Ever the woman scorned by love, the idea that Estella will wreck Pip seems perversely delightful to old Miss Havisham.

Topic Tracking: Love 8

Jaggers comes by for dinner, and he, Pip, Estella and Sarah Pocket have an awkward and quiet dinner together, then play an equally stiff game of cards. Pip thinks that Jaggers' cold presence is simply a bad mix with the warm feelings he has for Estella. It's decided that when Estella arrives in London (she has just returned from study in France and is about to move to London), Pip will be sent to meet her. Pip heads off to his hotel and falls into bed, all torn-up with the notion of how ready he is to love Estella and how uninterested she, in return, seems to be.