At this point Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook return from a shopping trip with good news — Pip is to be sent to Miss Havisham's to play with her daughter. Miss Havisham is a reclusive but wealthy woman and Mrs. Joe and Pumblechook hope there will be a financial gain from this arrangement. He will spend the night at Pumblechook's and see Miss Havisham in the morning. Breakfast with Pumblechook is an unpleasant experience: The merchant barely feeds Pip while he stuffs his own face and fires math questions at Pip.
Miss Havisham is a strange woman who is dressed in an old wedding gown and tells Pip how her heart was broken and how she has not seen the sun since before he was born. Her house is the same as it was on her wedding day and all the clocks show the time her wedding was canceled. He meets Estella, Miss Havisham's proud and haughty adopted daughter, who humiliates Pip by saying he is a common laboring boy with coarse hands and thick boots. Miss Havisham tells her to break his heart, and then taunts Pip with Estella's beauty. Pip is told to return in six days, and is then brought outside to be fed like a dog. Pip is hurt and vents his fury by kicking a wall and pulling at his hair. As he wanders through a brewery on the grounds, Pip imagines he sees Miss Havisham hanging from a beam and runs in terror. Estella shoves him out the gate and sends him on his way.
His sister wants to know everything that happened and when he does not answer, pounds him on the head and shoves his face into the wall. Pumblechook comes by and adds to the pressure. Pip does not feel they will understand even if he tells them what he saw, and he does not want to expose Miss Havisham to their criticisms. Finally, he makes up lies about black coaches, cake and wine on gold plates, and waving flags and swords. Later, Pip tells Joe the story was all lies and that he feels coarse and common. Joe tells Pip lies just do not work and to think about that during his night prayers. Instead, Pip thinks about Joe's commonness and on what a memorable day it has been for him.
