“If I could only get myself to fall in love with you, – you don’t mind my speaking so openly to such an old acquaintance?” “Oh dear, not at all!” said Biddy. “Don’t mind me.” “If I could only get myself to do it, that would be the thing for me.” “But you never will, you see,” said Biddy.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 17. Blinded by Estella’s beauty and his obsession with her, Pip has told Biddy that he wants to be a gentleman so that he can win her heart. In this exchange he rather conceitedly tells Biddy that he wishes he could make himself love her, because he knows deep down that she is better for him. When Biddy says that will never happen, she is foreshadowing that they will indeed not end up together. She marries Pip’s father figure Joe.