1 I acknowledged his attention incoherently, and began to think this was a dream.
2 I have seen it, Herbert, and dreamed of it, ever since the fatal night of his arrival.
3 But still I felt as if my eyes must start out of my head, and as if this must be a dream.
4 I had never dreamed of Joe's having paid the money; but Joe had paid it, and the receipt was in his name.
5 My dream was out; my wild fancy was surpassed by sober reality; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale.
6 Pip," said he, "we won't talk about 'poor dreams;' you know more about such things than I, having much fresher experience of that kind.
7 I had the wildest dreams concerning him, and woke unrefreshed; I woke, too, to recover the fear which I had lost in the night, of his being found out as a returned transport.
8 But I had as sound a sleep in that lodging as in the most superior accommodation the Boar could have given me, and the quality of my dreams was about the same as in the best bedroom.
9 Miss Havisham's intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practise on when no other practice was at hand; those were the first smarts I had.
10 Miserably I went to bed after all, and miserably thought of Estella, and miserably dreamed that my expectations were all cancelled, and that I had to give my hand in marriage to Herbert's Clara, or play Hamlet to Miss Havisham's Ghost, before twenty thousand people, without knowing twenty words of it.
11 And if he asked me why I wanted it, and why I thought I had any right to it, I would tell him, little as he cared for such poor dreams, that I had loved Estella dearly and long, and that although I had lost her, and must live a bereaved life, whatever concerned her was still nearer and dearer to me than anything else in the world.