We had made some progress in the dinner, when I reminded Herbert of his promise to tell me about Miss Havisham.

`True,' he replied. `I'll redeem it at once. Let me introduce the topic, Handel, by mentioning that in London it is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth -- for fear of accidents -- and that while the fork is reserved for that use, it is not put further in than neces- sary. It is scarcely worth mentioning, only it's as well to do as other people do. Also, the spoon is not generally used over-hand, but under. This has two advantages. You get at your mouth better (which after all is the object), and you save a good deal of the attitude of opening oysters, on the part of the right elbow.'

He offered these friendly suggestions in such a lively way, that we both laughed and I scarcely blushed.

`Now,' he pursued, `concerning Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham, you must know, was a spoilt child. Her mother died when she was a baby, and her father denied her nothing. Her father was a country gentleman down in your part of the world, and was a brewer. I don't know why it should be a crack thing to be a brewer; but it is indisputable that while you cannot possibly be genteel and bake, you may be as genteel as never was and brew. You see it every day.'

`Yet a gentleman may not keep a public-house; may he?' said I.

`Not on any account,' returned Herbert; `but a public-house may keep a gentleman. Well! Mr Havisham was very rich and very proud. So was his daughter.'

`Miss Havisham was an only child ?' I hazarded.

`Stop a moment, I am coming to that. No, she was not an only child; she had a half-brother. Her father privately married again -- his cook, I rather think.'

`I thought he was proud,' said I.

`My good Handel, so he was. He married his second wife privately, because he was proud, and in course of time she died. When she was dead, I apprehend he first told his daughter what he had done, and then the son became a part of the family, residing in the house you are acquainted with. As the son grew a young man, he turned out riotous, extravagant, undutiful -- altogether bad. At last his father disinherited him; but he softened when he was dying, and left him well off, though not nearly so well off as Miss Havisham. -- Take another glass of wine, and excuse my mentioning that society as a body does not expect one to be so strictly con- scientious in emptying one's glass, as to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on one's nose.'

I had been doing this, in an excess of attention to his recital. I thanked him, and apologized. He said, `Not at all,' and resumed.

`Miss Havisham was now an heiress, and you may suppose was looked after as a great match. Her half-brother had now ample means again, but what with debts and what with new madness wasted them most fearfully again. There were stronger differences between him and her, than there had been between him and his father, and it is suspected that he cherished a deep and mortal grudge against her, as having influenced the father's anger. Now, I come to the cruel part of the story -- merely breaking off, my dear Handel, to remark that a dinner-napkin will not go into a tumbler.'

Why I was trying to pack mine into my tumbler, I am wholly unable to say. I only know that I found myself, with a perseverance worthy of a much better cause, making the most strenuous exertions to compress it within those limits. Again I thanked him and apologized, and again he said in the cheerfullest manner, `Not at all, I am sure!' and resumed.

The passage below is one of my favorites from the novel. Actually, I grew fond of Herbert just cause of this scene. Sorry it's kinda long but I didn't want to break its flow.