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Doctors and servants came running . Miss Havisham was badly burned , though she was still alive . My own hands were burned too , though I did not feel it until afterwards . They laid her on the great table , and towards midnight she began to speak . She said the same words again and again : “ What have I done ! ” Then , “ When she first came , I meant to save her from misery like mine . ” And then , “ Take the pencil and write under my name , ‘ I forgive her ! ’ ” Back in London , while Herbert was dressing my burns , he told me something more which Magwitch had told him by the fire . Long ago Magwitch had lived with a young woman who was very jealous . She had killed another woman , and she had threatened to kill their little daughter , so that he would never see the child again . Then she had disappeared with the child , and he had never found them . He believed the child was dead . “ When was this ? ” I asked , with my heart beating fast . “ About twenty years ago . If the child had lived , she would be about your age , Handel , or a little older . ” So Magwitch was Estella’s father . The proud lady whom I loved was the daughter of the convict from the marshes and of Mr Jaggers’s housekeeper . The next day , with my hands in bandages , I went to Mr Jaggers with Miss Havisham’s note . When he asked me about Estella , I told him that I knew who her mother was , and who her father was . Mr Jaggers was surprised for once in his life . He then told me a story , which he called only an imaginary case . A lawyer had saved a woman from the gallows , and had saved her little daughter as well , by taking the child to a rich lady who wanted to adopt a girl . Why should the secret be told now , he asked , when it could only hurt the father , the mother and the daughter herself ? I agreed with him , and I promised to keep it . XIII . The Sluice House While my hands were healing , I received a strange letter without a name . It said : “ If you are not afraid to come to the old marshes tonight or tomorrow night at nine , and to come to the little sluice house by the lime kiln , you had better come . If you want information about your uncle Provis , you had much better come and tell no one , and lose no time . You must come alone . ” I was frightened , but I was afraid for Magwitch too , and I did not stop to think . I took the coach at once and left a note for Herbert , though I dropped the letter itself in my rooms in my hurry . When I reached the marshes it was a dark night , and a cold wind was blowing . I found the sluice house near the lime kiln and knocked at the door . There was no answer , so I went in . A candle was burning on the table , and nobody was there .
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