Большие надежды. Уровень 2 / Great Expectations. Чарльз Диккенс

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to Estella.

      So we sat down to cards. The lady was corpse-like, as we played.

      “What coarse hands he has, this boy!” said Estella with disdain. “And what thick boots!”

      Her contempt for me was very strong. She won the game, and I dealt. I misdealt, and she called me a stupid, clumsy laboring-boy.

      “You say nothing of her,” remarked Miss Havisham to me. “She says many hard things of you, but you say nothing of her. What do you think of her?”

      “I don’t like to say,” I stammered.

      “Tell me in my ear,” said Miss Havisham.

      “I think she is very proud,” I replied, in a whisper.

      “Anything else?”

      “I think she is very pretty.”

      “Anything else?”

      “I think she is very insulting.”

      “Anything else?”

      “I want to go home.”

      “And never see her again, though she is so pretty?”

      “I am not sure. But I want to go home now.”

      “You will go soon,” said Miss Havisham, aloud. “Play.”

      I played the game to an end with Estella, and she beggared me. She threw the cards down on the table.

      “When shall I have you here again?” said Miss Havisham. “Let me think. Come again after six days. You hear?”

      “Yes, ma’am.”

      “Estella, take him down. Let him have something to eat. Go, Pip.”

      I followed the candle down. Estella opened the side entrance.

      “Wait here, you boy,” said Estella.

      She disappeared and closed the door.

      She came back, with some bread and meat and a little mug of beer. She put the mug down on the stones of the yard, and gave me the bread and meat. She did not look at me. I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry. Tears started to my eyes. The girl looked at me with a quick delight, then she left me.

      I looked about me for a place to hide my face in and cried. As I cried, I kicked the wall.

      Then I noticed Estella. She laughed contemptuously, pushed me out, and locked the gate upon me. I went straight to Mr. Pumblechook’s. Then I walked to our forge. I remembered that I was a common laboring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick.

      Chapter 8

      When I reached home, my sister was very curious to know all about Miss Havisham’s. She asked many questions. Then old Pumblechook came over at tea-time.

      “Well, boy,” Uncle Pumblechook began, as soon as he was seated in the chair of honor[23] by the fire. “How did you get on up town?[24]”

      I answered, “Pretty well, sir,” and my sister shook her fist at me.

      “Pretty well?” Mr. Pumblechook repeated. “Pretty well is no answer. Tell us what you mean by pretty well, boy?”

      “I mean pretty well,” I answered.

      My sister was ready to hit me. I had no defence, for Joe was busy in the forge. Mr. Pumblechook interposed,

      “No! Don’t lose your temper. Leave this lad to me, ma’am; leave this lad to me.”

      Then Mr. Pumblechook turned me towards him and said,

      “Boy! Tell me about Miss Havisham.”

      “She is very tall and dark,” I told him.

      “Good!” said Mr. Pumblechook conceitedly. “Now, boy! What was she doing, when you went in today?”

      “She was sitting,” I answered, “in a black velvet coach.”

      Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another and both repeated,

      “In a black velvet coach?”

      “Yes,” said I. “And Miss Estella – that’s her niece, I think – brought her some cake and wine.”

      “Was anybody else there?” asked Mr. Pumblechook.

      “Four dogs,” said I.

      “Large or small?”

      “Immense,” said I.

      Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe stared at one another again, in utter amazement.

      “Can this be possible, uncle?” asked Mrs. Joe. “What can the boy mean?”

      “I’ll tell you, Mum,” said Mr. Pumblechook. “My opinion is, it’s a sedan-chair[25]. She passes her days in a sedan-chair. But the boy went there to play. What did you play at, boy?”

      “We played with flags,” I said.

      “Flags!” echoed my sister.

      “Yes,” said I. “Estella waved a blue flag, and I waved a red one, and Miss Havisham waved one sprinkled all over with little gold stars, out at the coach-window. And then we all waved our swords and hurrahed.”

      “Swords!” repeated my sister. “Where did you get swords from?”

      “Out of a cupboard,” said I. “And I saw pistols in it – and jam – and pills. And there was no daylight in the room, but it was all lighted up with candles.”

      “That’s true, Mum,” said Mr. Pumblechook, with a grave nod. “I think that Miss Havisham will “do something” for the boy. Maybe a handsome premium[26] for schooling.”

      Chapter 9

      Of course there was a public-house[27] in the village, and of course Joe liked sometimes to smoke his pipe there. I received strict orders from my sister to call for him at the Three Jolly Bargemen[28], that evening, on my way from school, and bring him home. To the Three Jolly Bargemen, therefore, I directed my steps.

      It was Saturday night. I merely wished the landlord good evening, and passed into the common room at the end of the passage, where there was a bright large kitchen fire. Joe was smoking his pipe in company with Mr. Wopsle and a stranger. Joe greeted me as usual with “Halloa, Pip, old chap!” The stranger turned his head and looked at me.

      His head was all on one side, and one of his eyes was half shut up. He had a pipe in his mouth. He took it out and nodded. So, I nodded, and then he nodded again.

      “You

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