When Pip is recalled to Satis house, he notices some
people who immediately stop talking when he enters the room. Pip notices that they are
"toadies and humbugs," flatterers and people who are not what they pretend to be.
Shortly, Miss Havisham tells Pip to wait for her in another room where he can work for
her. In this room, every "discernible thing in it was covered with dust and mold, and
dropping to pieces. There is a table on which a centerpiece sits., a decaying cake.
Spiders and mice abound. Miss Havisham lays a hand upon Pip's shoulder and with the
help of her cane, she walks around the table, telling Pip she will be laid upon this
very table after she dies.
After a short period, the
relatives, the Pockets, enter, flattering Miss Havisham by saying that she looks well.
When Camilla Pocket says,
"There's Matthew!...Never mixing with any natural
ties, never coming here to see how Miss Havisham
is!"
Miss Havisham stops and
stares at Camilla. She sternly replies to this remark about Matthew's never coming on
her birthday,
Matthew will come and see me at last...when I am
laid on that table. That will be his place--there...at my
head!...."
She points out the
others' places, then she dismisses them. After she leaves, Miss Havisham informs Pip
that it is her birthday. Much later in Dicken's narrative, it is revealed that Matthew
Pocket had tried to warn Miss Havisham about the man she planned to marry, but she would
not hear him; instead, she forbade him to ever come to her house. This injunction
against Matthew is why he does not visit Miss Havisham. Realizing now that he was right
in his judgment of the groom, Miss Havisham now reserves a place at the head of the
table for her cousin.
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