‘Now, Jane, why don’t you say ‘Well, sir?’ I have not done. You are looking grave. You disapprove of me still, I see. But let me come to the point. Last January, rid of all mistresses—in a harsh, bitter frame of mind, the result…

‘Yet I could not live alone; so I tried the companionship of mistresses. The first I chose was Celine Varens—another of those steps which make a man spurn himself when he recalls them. You already know what she was, and how my liaison with…

‘And what, sir,’ I asked, while he paused, ‘did you do when you had settled her here? Where did you go?’ ‘What did I do, Jane? I transformed myself into a will-o’the-wisp. Where did I go? I pursued wanderings as wild as those of…

‘A wind fresh from Europe blew over the ocean and rushed through the open casement: the storm broke, streamed, thundered, blazed, and the air grew pure. I then framed and fixed a resolution. While I walked under the dripping orange-trees of my wet garden,…

‘Now, sir, proceed; what did you do when you found she was mad?’ ‘Jane, I approached the verge of despair; a remnant of selfrespect was all that intervened between me and the gulf. In the eyes of the world, I was doubtless covered with…

‘My bride’s mother I had never seen: I understood she was dead. The honeymoon over, I learned my mistake; she was only mad, and shut up in a lunatic asylum. There was a younger brother, too—a complete dumb idiot. The elder one, whom you…

‘I must leave Adele and Thornfield. I must part with you for my whole life: I must begin a new existence among strange faces and strange scenes.’ ‘Of course: I told you you should. I pass over the madness about parting from me. You…

I see you can say nothing in the first place, you are faint still, and have enough to do to draw your breath; in the second place, you cannot yet accustom yourself to accuse and revile me, and besides, the flood-gates of tears are…