Then, one day he went down to the old ruined house where Miss Havisham had lived.
He entered the weed-grown garden, and there on a bench, a sad, beautiful widow, sat Estella. Her husband had treated her brutally till he died, and she had learned through suffering to know that she had a heart and had thrown away the one thing that could have made her happy—Pip's love.
When Pip and she left the old house that day it was hand in hand, never to part again.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
Published 1839
| Scene: | London, Portsmouth and the Country |
| Time: | About 1830 |
CHARACTERS
| Nicholas Nickleby | A young gentleman |
| Mrs. Nickleby | His mother |
| Kate | His sister |
| Ralph Nickleby | His uncle |
| A miserly money-lender | |
| Noggs | Ralph Nickleby's clerk |
| Squeers | The proprietor of Dotheboys Hall, a country school for boys |
| Mrs. Squeers | His wife |
| Fanny | Their daughter |
| Wackford | Their son |
| Smike | A poor drudge at Dotheboys Hall |
| Befriended by Nicholas. In reality Ralph Nickleby's son | |
| Madame Mantalini | A London dressmaker |
| Kate's first employer | |
| Mr. Mantalini | Her husband |
| Miss Knag | Her forewoman |
| Sir Mulberry Hawk | A dissolute man of the world |
| Lord Frederick Verisopht | A young nobleman |
| Hawk's friend | |
| Mr. Vincent Crummles | Manager of a theater in Portsmouth |
| Mrs. Crummles | His wife |
| Ninetta | Their daughter |
| Known as "The Infant Phenomenon" | |
| Mrs. Wititterly | A would-be fashionable lady |
| Kate's second employer | |
| The Cheeryble Brothers | Twin merchants |
| Nicholas's benefactors | |
| Bray | A spendthrift and invalid |
| Madeline | His daughter |
| Gride | A miser |