Glad was I to get him out of the silk warehouse, and then out of a jewellers shop: the more he bought me, the more my cheek burned with a sense of annoyance and degradation. As we re-entered the carriage, and I sat back feverish and fagged, I remembered what, in the hurry of events, […]
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‘Adele, look at that field.’ We were now outside Thornfield gates, and bowling lightly along the smooth road to Millcote, where the dust was well laid by the thunderstorm, and, where the low hedges and lofty timber trees on each side glistened green and rain- refreshed. ‘In that field, Adele, I was walking late one […]
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He was quite peremptory, both in look and voice. The chill of Mrs. Fairfax’s warnings, and the damp of her doubts were upon me: something of unsubstantiality and uncertainty had beset my hopes. I half lost the sense of power over him. I was about mechanically to obey him, without further remonstrance; but as he […]
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She looked at me bewildered. ‘I could never have thought it. He is a proud man: all the Rochesters were proud: and his father, at least, liked money. He, too, has always been called careful. He means to marry you?’ ‘He tells me so. She surveyed my whole person: in her eyes I read that […]
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‘My principles were never trained, Jane: they may have grown a little awry for want of attention.’ ‘Once again, seriously; may I enjoy the great good that has been vouchsafed to me, without fearing that any one else is suffering the bitter pain I myself felt a while ago?’ ‘That you may, my good little […]
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‘You are welcome to all my confidence that is worth having, Jane; but for God’s sake, don’t desire a useless burden! Don’t long for poison—don’t turn out a downright Eve on my hands!’ ‘Why not, sir? You have just been telling me how much you liked to be conquered, and how pleasant over-persuasion is to […]
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‘No, no, sir! think of other subjects, and speak of other things, and in another strain. Don’t address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain, Quakerish governess.’ ‘You are a beauty in my eyes, and a beauty just after the desire of my heart,—delicate and aerial.’ ‘Puny and insignificant, you mean. […]
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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 […]
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‘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 […]
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‘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 […]
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