Books: Jane Eyre

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"It would be past the power of magic, sir;" and, in thought, I added,
"A loving eye is all the charm needed: to such you are handsome
enough; or rather your sternness has a power beyond beauty."

Mr. Rochester had sometimes read my unspoken thoughts with an acumen
to me incomprehensible: in the present instance he took no notice
of my abrupt vocal response; but he smiled at me with a certain
smile he had of his own, and which he used but on rare occasions.
He seemed to think it too good for common purposes: it was the
real sunshine of feeling -- he shed it over me now.

"Pass, Janet," said he, making room for me to cross the stile: "go
up home, and stay your weary little wandering feet at a friend's
threshold."

All I had now to do was to obey him in silence: no need for me
to colloquise further. I got over the stile without a word, and
meant to leave him calmly. An impulse held me fast -- a force turned
me round. I said -- or something in me said for me, and in spite of me -

"Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I am strangely
glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home --
my only home."

I walked on so fast that even he could hardly have overtaken me
had he tried. Little Adele was half wild with delight when she saw
me. Mrs. Fairfax received me with her usual plain friendliness.
Leah smiled, and even Sophie bid me "bon soir" with glee. This
was very pleasant; there is no happiness like that of being loved
by your fellow-creatures, and feeling that your presence is an
addition to their comfort.

I that evening shut my eyes resolutely against the future: I stopped
my cars against the voice that kept warning me of near separation
and coming grief. When tea was over and Mrs. Fairfax had taken
her knitting, and I had assumed a low seat near her, and Adele,
kneeling on the carpet, had nestled close up to me, and a sense of
mutual affection seemed to surround us with a ring of golden peace,
I uttered a silent prayer that we might not be parted far or soon;
but when, as we thus sat, Mr. Rochester entered, unannounced, and
looking at us, seemed to take pleasure in the spectacle of a group
so amicable -- when he said he supposed the old lady was all right
now that she had got her adopted daughter back again, and added
that he saw Adele was "prete e croquer sa petite maman Anglaise"
-- I half ventured to hope that he would, even after his marriage,
keep us together somewhere under the shelter of his protection,
and not quite exiled from the sunshine of his presence.

A fortnight of dubious calm succeeded my return to Thornfield Hall.
Nothing was said of the master's marriage, and I saw no preparation
going on for such an event. Almost every day I asked Mrs. Fairfax
if she had yet heard anything decided: her answer was always in
the negative. Once she said she had actually put the question to
Mr. Rochester as to when he was going to bring his bride home; but
he had answered her only by a joke and one of his queer looks, and
she could not tell what to make of him.

One thing specially surprised me, and that was, there were no
journeyings backward and forward, no visits to Ingram Park: to
be sure it was twenty miles off, on the borders of another county;
but what was that distance to an ardent lover? To so practised
and indefatigable a horseman as Mr. Rochester, it would be but a
morning's ride. I began to cherish hopes I had no right to conceive:
that the match was broken off; that rumour had been mistaken; that
one or both parties had changed their minds. I used to look at
my master's face to see if it were sad or fierce; but I could not
remember the time when it had been so uniformly clear of clouds or
evil feelings. If, in the moments I and my pupil spent with him, I
lacked spirits and sank into inevitable dejection, he became even
gay. Never had he called me more frequently to his presence; never
been kinder to me when there -- and, alas! never had I loved him
so well.

CHAPTER XXIII

A splendid Midsummer shone over England: skies so pure, suns so
radiant as were then seen in long succession, seldom favour even
singly, our wave-girt land. It was as if a band of Italian days
had come from the South, like a flock of glorious passenger birds,
and lighted to rest them on the cliffs of Albion. The hay was
all got in; the fields round Thornfield were green and shorn; the
roads white and baked; the trees were in their dark prime; hedge
and wood, full-leaved and deeply tinted, contrasted well with the
sunny hue of the cleared meadows between.

On Midsummer-eve, Adele, weary with gathering wild strawberries
in Hay Lane half the day, had gone to bed with the sun. I watched
her drop asleep, and when I left her, I sought the garden.

It was now the sweetest hour of the twenty-four:- "Day its fervid
fires had wasted," and dew fell cool on panting plain and scorched
summit. Where the sun had gone down in simple state -- pure of the
pomp of clouds -- spread a solemn purple, burning with the light
of red jewel and furnace flame at one point, on one hill-peak, and
extending high and wide, soft and still softer, over half heaven.
The east had its own charm or fine deep blue, and its own modest
gem, a casino and solitary star: soon it would boast the moon;
but she was yet beneath the horizon.

I walked a while on the pavement; but a subtle, well-known scent
-- that of a cigar -- stole from some window; I saw the library
casement open a handbreadth; I knew I might be watched thence; so
I went apart into the orchard. No nook in the grounds more sheltered
and more Eden-like; it was full of trees, it bloomed with flowers:
a very high wall shut it out from the court, on one side; on the
other, a beech avenue screened it from the lawn. At the bottom was
a sunk fence; its sole separation from lonely fields: a winding
walk, bordered with laurels and terminating in a giant horse-chestnut,
circled at the base by a seat, led down to the fence. Here one could
wander unseen. While such honey-dew fell, such silence reigned,
such gloaming gathered, I felt as if I could haunt such shade for
ever; but in threading the flower and fruit parterres at the upper
part of the enclosure, enticed there by the light the now rising
moon cast on this more open quarter, my step is stayed -- not by
sound, not by sight, but once more by a warning fragrance.

Sweet-briar and southernwood, jasmine, pink, and rose have long
been yielding their evening sacrifice of incense: this new scent
is neither of shrub nor flower; it is -- I know it well -- it is
Mr. Rochester's cigar. I look round and I listen. I see trees
laden with ripening fruit. I hear a nightingale warbling in a wood
half a mile off; no moving form is visible, no coming step audible;
but that perfume increases: I must flee. I make for the wicket
leading to the shrubbery, and I see Mr. Rochester entering. I step
aside into the ivy recess; he will not stay long: he will soon
return whence he came, and if I sit still he will never see me.

But no -- eventide is as pleasant to him as to me, and this antique
garden as attractive; and he strolls on, now lifting the gooseberry-
tree branches to look at the fruit, large as plums, with which they
are laden; now taking a ripe cherry from the wall; now stooping
towards a knot of flowers, either to inhale their fragrance or to
admire the dew-beads on their petals. A great moth goes humming
by me; it alights on a plant at Mr. Rochester's foot: he sees it,
and bends to examine it.

"Now, he has his back towards me," thought I, "and he is occupied
too; perhaps, if I walk softly, I can slip away unnoticed."

I trode on an edging of turf that the crackle of the pebbly gravel
might not betray me: he was standing among the beds at a yard or
two distant from where I had to pass; the moth apparently engaged
him. "I shall get by very well," I meditated. As I crossed his
shadow, thrown long over the garden by the moon, not yet
risen high, he said quietly, without turning -

"Jane, come and look at this fellow."

I had made no noise: he had not eyes behind -- could his shadow
feel? I started at first, and then I approached him.

"Look at his wings," said he, "he reminds me rather of a West Indian
insect; one does not often see so large and gay a night-rover in
England; there! he is flown."

The moth roamed away. I was sheepishly retreating also; but Mr.
Rochester followed me, and when we reached the wicket, he said -

"Turn back: on so lovely a night it is a shame to sit in the house;
and surely no one can wish to go to bed while sunset is thus at
meeting with moonrise."

It is one of my faults, that though my tongue is sometimes prompt
enough at an answer, there are times when it sadly fails me in
framing an excuse; and always the lapse occurs at some crisis, when
a facile word or plausible pretext is specially wanted to get me
out of painful embarrassment. I did not like to walk at this hour
alone with Mr. Rochester in the shadowy orchard; but I could not
find a reason to allege for leaving him. I followed with lagging
step, and thoughts busily bent on discovering a means of extrication;
but he himself looked so composed and so grave also, I became
ashamed of feeling any confusion: the evil -- if evil existent or
prospective there was -- seemed to lie with me only; his mind was
unconscious and quiet.

"Jane," he recommenced, as we entered the laurel walk, and slowly
strayed down in the direction of the sunk fence and the horse-chestnut,
"Thornfield is a pleasant place in summer, is it not?"

"Yes, sir."

"You must have become in some degree attached to the house, --
you, who have an eye for natural beauties, and a good deal of the
organ of Adhesiveness?"

"I am attached to it, indeed."

"And though I don't comprehend how it is, I perceive you have
acquired a degree of regard for that foolish little child Adele,
too; and even for simple dame Fairfax?"

"Yes, sir; in different ways, I have an affection for both."

"And would be sorry to part with them?"

"Yes."

"Pity!" he said, and sighed and paused. "It is always the way
of events in this life," he continued presently: "no sooner have
you got settled in a pleasant resting-place, than a voice calls
out to you to rise and move on, for the hour of repose is expired."

"Must I move on, sir?" I asked. "Must I leave Thornfield?"

"I believe you must, Jane. I am sorry, Janet, but I believe indeed
you must."

This was a blow: but I did not let it prostrate me.

"Well, sir, I shall be ready when the order to march comes."

"It is come now -- I must give it to-night."

"Then you ARE going to be married, sir?"

"Ex-act-ly -- pre-cise-ly: with your usual acuteness, you have
hit the nail straight on the head."

"Soon, sir?"

"Very soon, my -- that is, Miss Eyre: and you'll remember, Jane,
the first time I, or Rumour, plainly intimated to you that it was
my intention to put my old bachelor's neck into the sacred noose,
to enter into the holy estate of matrimony -- to take Miss Ingram
to my bosom, in short (she's an extensive armful: but that's not
to the point -- one can't have too much of such a very excellent
thing as my beautiful Blanche): well, as I was saying -- listen to
me, Jane! You're not turning your head to look after more moths,
are you? That was only a lady-clock, child, 'flying away home.'
I wish to remind you that it was you who first said to me, with
that discretion I respect in you -- with that foresight, prudence,
and humility which befit your responsible and dependent position
-- that in case I married Miss Ingram, both you and little Adele
had better trot forthwith. I pass over the sort of slur conveyed
in this suggestion on the character of my beloved; indeed, when
you are far away, Janet, I'll try to forget it: I shall notice
only its wisdom; which is such that I have made it my law of
action. Adele must go to school; and you, Miss Eyre, must get a
new situation."

"Yes, sir, I will advertise immediately: and meantime, I suppose
-- " I was going to say, "I suppose I may stay here, till I find
another shelter to betake myself to:" but I stopped, feeling it
would not do to risk a long sentence, for my voice was not quite
under command.

"In about a month I hope to be a bridegroom," continued Mr. Rochester;
"and in the interim, I shall myself look out for employment and an
asylum for you."

"Thank you, sir; I am sorry to give -- "

"Oh, no need to apologise! I consider that when a dependent does
her duty as well as you have done yours, she has a sort of claim
upon her employer for any little assistance he can conveniently
render her; indeed I have already, through my future mother-in-law,
heard of a place that I think will suit: it is to undertake the
education of the five daughters of Mrs. Dionysius O'Gall of Bitternutt
Lodge, Connaught, Ireland. You'll like Ireland, I think: they're
such warm-hearted people there, they say."

"It is a long way off, sir."

"No matter -- a girl of your sense will not object to the voyage
or the distance."

"Not the voyage, but the distance: and then the sea is a barrier -- "

"From what, Jane?"

"From England and from Thornfield: and -- "

"Well?"

"From YOU, sir."

I said this almost involuntarily, and, with as little sanction of
free will, my tears gushed out. I did not cry so as to be heard,
however; I avoided sobbing. The thought of Mrs. O'Gall and Bitternutt
Lodge struck cold to my heart; and colder the thought of all the
brine and foam, destined, as it seemed, to rush between me and the
master at whose side I now walked, and coldest the remembrance of
the wider ocean -- wealth, caste, custom intervened between me and
what I naturally and inevitably loved.

"It is a long way," I again said.

"It is, to be sure; and when you get to Bitternutt Lodge, Connaught,
Ireland, I shall never see you again, Jane: that's morally certain.
I never go over to Ireland, not having myself much of a fancy for
the country. We have been good friends, Jane; have we not?"

"Yes, sir."

"And when friends are on the eve of separation, they like to spend
the little time that remains to them close to each other. Come!
we'll talk over the voyage and the parting quietly half-an-hour
or so, while the stars enter into their shining life up in heaven
yonder: here is the chestnut tree: here is the bench at its old
roots. Come, we will sit there in peace to-night, though we should
never more be destined to sit there together." He seated me and
himself.

"It is a long way to Ireland, Janet, and I am sorry to send my
little friend on such weary travels: but if I can't do better,
how is it to be helped? Are you anything akin to me, do you think,
Jane?"

I could risk no sort of answer by this time: my heart was still.

"Because," he said, "I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard
to you -- especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I
had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably
knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter
of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two
hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that
cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I
should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, -- you'd forget me."

"That I NEVER should, sir: You know -- " Impossible to proceed.

"Jane, do you hear that nightingale singing in the wood? Listen!"

In listening, I sobbed convulsively; for I could repress what I
endured no longer; I was obliged to yield, and I was shaken from
head to foot with acute distress. When I did speak, it was only
to express an impetuous wish that I had never been born, or never
come to Thornfield.

"Because you are sorry to leave it?"

The vehemence of emotion, stirred by grief and love within me,
was claiming mastery, and struggling for full sway, and asserting
a right to predominate, to overcome, to live, rise, and reign at
last: yes, -- and to speak.

"I grieve to leave Thornfield: I love Thornfield:- I love it, because
I have lived in it a full and delightful life, -- momentarily at
least. I have not been trampled on. I have not been petrified. I
have not been buried with inferior minds, and excluded from every
glimpse of communion with what is bright and energetic and high.
I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence, with what I
delight in, -- with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind. I
have known you, Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and
anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever. I see
the necessity of departure; and it is like looking on the necessity
of death."

"Where do you see the necessity?" he asked suddenly.

"Where? You, sir, have placed it before me."

"In what shape?"

"In the shape of Miss Ingram; a noble and beautiful woman, -- your
bride."

"My bride! What bride? I have no bride!"

"But you will have."

"Yes; -- I will! -- I will!" He set his teeth.

"Then I must go:- you have said it yourself."

"No: you must stay! I swear it -- and the oath shall be kept."

"I tell you I must go!" I retorted, roused to something like
passion. "Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do
you think I am an automaton? -- a machine without feelings? and
can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my
drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I
am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?
You think wrong! -- I have as much soul as you, -- and full as much
heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth,
I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for
me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium
of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; -- it is
my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed
through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal, -- as we
are!"

"As we are!" repeated Mr. Rochester -- "so," he added, enclosing
me in his arms. Gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on
my lips: "so, Jane!"

"Yes, so, sir," I rejoined: "and yet not so; for you are a married
man -- or as good as a married man, and wed to one inferior to you
-- to one with whom you have no sympathy -- whom I do not believe
you truly love; for I have seen and heard you sneer at her. I would
scorn such a union: therefore I am better than you -- let me go!"

"Where, Jane? To Ireland?"

"Yes -- to Ireland. I have spoken my mind, and can go anywhere
now."

"Jane, be still; don't struggle so, like a wild frantic bird that
is rending its own plumage in its desperation."

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with
an independent will, which I now exert to leave you."

Another effort set me at liberty, and I stood erect before him.

"And your will shall decide your destiny," he said: "I offer you
my hand, my heart, and a share of all my possessions."

"You play a farce, which I merely laugh at."

"I ask you to pass through life at my side -- to be my second self,
and best earthly companion."

"For that fate you have already made your choice, and must abide
by it."

"Jane, be still a few moments: you are over-excited: I will be
still too."

A waft of wind came sweeping down the laurel-walk, and trembled
through the boughs of the chestnut: it wandered away -- away --
to an indefinite distance -- it died. The nightingale's song was
then the only voice of the hour: in listening to it, I again wept.
Mr. Rochester sat quiet, looking at me gently and seriously.
Some time passed before he spoke; he at last said -

"Come to my side, Jane, and let us explain and understand one
another."

"I will never again come to your side: I am torn away now, and
cannot return."

"But, Jane, I summon you as my wife: it is you only I intend to
marry."

I was silent: I thought he mocked me.

"Come, Jane -- come hither."

"Your bride stands between us."

He rose, and with a stride reached me.

"My bride is here," he said, again drawing me to him, "because my
equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?"

Still I did not answer, and still I writhed myself from his grasp:
for I was still incredulous.

"Do you doubt me, Jane?"

"Entirely."

"You have no faith in me?"

"Not a whit."

"Am I a liar in your eyes?" he asked passionately. "Little sceptic,
you SHALL be convinced. What love have I for Miss Ingram? None:
and that you know. What love has she for me? None: as I have
taken pains to prove: I caused a rumour to reach her that my fortune
was not a third of what was supposed, and after that I presented
myself to see the result; it was coldness both from her and her
mother. I would not -- I could not -- marry Miss Ingram. You --
you strange, you almost unearthly thing! -- I love as my own flesh.
You -- poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are -- I entreat
to accept me as a husband."

"What, me!" I ejaculated, beginning in his earnestness -- and
especially in his incivility -- to credit his sincerity: "me who
have not a friend in the world but you -- if you are my friend:
not a shilling but what you have given me?"

"You, Jane, I must have you for my own -- entirely my own. Will
you be mine? Say yes, quickly."

"Mr. Rochester, let me look at your face: turn to the moonlight."

"Why?"

"Because I want to read your countenance -- turn!"

"There! you will find it scarcely more legible than a crumpled,
scratched page. Read on: only make haste, for I suffer."

His face was very much agitated and very much flushed, and there
were strong workings in the features, and strange gleams in the
eyes

"Oh, Jane, you torture me!" he exclaimed. "With that searching
and yet faithful and generous look, you torture me!"

"How can I do that? If you are true, and your offer real, my
only feelings to you must be gratitude and devotion -- they cannot
torture."

"Gratitude!" he ejaculated; and added wildly -- "Jane accept me
quickly. Say, Edward -- give me my name -- Edward -- I will marry
you."

"Are you in earnest? Do you truly love me? Do you sincerely wish
me to be your wife?"

"I do; and if an oath is necessary to satisfy you, I swear it."

"Then, sir, I will marry you."

"Edward -- my little wife!"

"Dear Edward!"

"Come to me -- come to me entirely now," said he; and added, in
his deepest tone, speaking in my ear as his cheek was laid on mine,
"Make my happiness -- I will make yours."

"God pardon me!" he subjoined ere long; "and man meddle not with
me: I have her, and will hold her."

"There is no one to meddle, sir. I have no kindred to interfere."

"No -- that is the best of it," he said. And if I had loved
him less I should have thought his accent and look of exultation
savage; but, sitting by him, roused from the nightmare of parting
-- called to the paradise of union -- I thought only of the bliss
given me to drink in so abundant a flow. Again and again he said,
"Are you happy, Jane?" And again and again I answered, "Yes."
After which he murmured, "It will atone -- it will atone. Have I
not found her friendless, and cold, and comfortless? Will I not
guard, and cherish, and solace her? Is there not love in my heart,
and constancy in my resolves? It will expiate at God's tribunal.
I know my Maker sanctions what I do. For the world's judgment --
I wash my hands thereof. For man's opinion -- I defy it."

But what had befallen the night? The moon was not yet set, and we
were all in shadow: I could scarcely see my master's face, near as
I was. And what ailed the chestnut tree? it writhed and groaned;
while wind roared in the laurel walk, and came sweeping over us.

"We must go in," said Mr. Rochester: "the weather changes. I
could have sat with thee till morning, Jane."

"And so," thought I, "could I with you." I should have said so,
perhaps, but a livid, vivid spark leapt out of a cloud at which I
was looking, and there was a crack, a crash, and a close rattling
peal; and I thought only of hiding my dazzled eyes against Mr.
Rochester's shoulder.

The rain rushed down. He hurried me up the walk, through the grounds,
and into the house; but we were quite wet before we could pass the
threshold. He was taking off my shawl in the hall, and shaking
the water out of my loosened hair, when Mrs. Fairfax emerged from
her room. I did not observe her at first, nor did Mr. Rochester.
The lamp was lit. The clock was on the stroke of twelve.

"Hasten to take off your wet things," said he; "and before you go,
good-night -- good-night, my darling!"

He kissed me repeatedly. When I looked up, on leaving his arms,
there stood the widow, pale, grave, and amazed. I only smiled at
her, and ran upstairs. "Explanation will do for another time,"
thought I. Still, when I reached my chamber, I felt a pang at the
idea she should even temporarily misconstrue what she had seen. But
joy soon effaced every other feeling; and loud as the wind blew,
near and deep as the thunder crashed, fierce and frequent as the
lightning gleamed, cataract-like as the rain fell during a storm
of two hours' duration, I experienced no fear and little awe. Mr.
Rochester came thrice to my door in the course of it, to ask if
I was safe and tranquil: and that was comfort, that was strength
for anything.