No More Learning

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.

Before I left my bed in the morning, little Adele came running in to tell
me that the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been
struck by lightning in the night, and half of it split away.




CHAPTER XXIV


As I rose and dressed, I thought over what had happened, and wondered if
it were a dream. I could not be certain of the reality till I had seen
Mr. Rochester again, and heard him renew his words of love and promise.

While arranging my hair, I looked at my face in the glass, and felt it
was no longer plain: there was hope in its aspect and life in its colour;
and my eyes seemed as if they had beheld the fount of fruition, and
borrowed beams from the lustrous ripple. I had often been unwilling to
look at my master, because I feared he could not be pleased at my look;
but I was sure I might lift my face to his now, and not cool his
affection by its expression. I took a plain but clean and light summer
dress from my drawer and put it on: it seemed no attire had ever so well
become me, because none had I ever worn in so blissful a mood.

I was not surprised, when I ran down into the hall, to see that a
brilliant June morning had succeeded to the tempest of the night; and to
feel, through the open glass door, the breathing of a fresh and fragrant
breeze. Nature must be gladsome when I was so happy. A beggar-woman and
her little boy--pale, ragged objects both--were coming up the walk, and I
ran down and gave them all the money I happened to have in my purse--some
three or four shillings: good or bad, they must partake of my jubilee.
The rooks cawed, and blither birds sang; but nothing was so merry or so
musical as my own rejoicing heart.

Mrs. Fairfax surprised me by looking out of the window with a sad
countenance, and saying gravely--"Miss Eyre, will you come to breakfast? "
During the meal she was quiet and cool: but I could not undeceive her
then. I must wait for my master to give explanations; and so must she. I
ate what I could, and then I hastened upstairs. I met Adele leaving the
schoolroom.

"Where are you going? It is time for lessons. "

"Mr. Rochester has sent me away to the nursery. "

"Where is he? "

"In there," pointing to the apartment she had left; and I went in, and
there he stood.

"Come and bid me good-morning," said he. I gladly advanced; and it was
not merely a cold word now, or even a shake of the hand that I received,
but an embrace and a kiss. It seemed natural: it seemed genial to be so
well loved, so caressed by him.

"Jane, you look blooming, and smiling, and pretty," said he: "truly
pretty this morning. Is this my pale, little elf? Is this my mustard-
seed? This little sunny-faced girl with the dimpled cheek and rosy lips;
the satin-smooth hazel hair, and the radiant hazel eyes? " (I had green
eyes, reader; but you must excuse the mistake: for him they were
new-dyed, I suppose. )

"It is Jane Eyre, sir. "

"Soon to be Jane Rochester," he added: "in four weeks, Janet; not a day
more. Do you hear that? "

I did, and I could not quite comprehend it: it made me giddy. The
feeling, the announcement sent through me, was something stronger than
was consistent with joy--something that smote and stunned. It was, I
think almost fear.

"You blushed, and now you are white, Jane: what is that for? "

"Because you gave me a new name--Jane Rochester; and it seems so
strange. "

"Yes, Mrs. Rochester," said he; "young Mrs. Rochester--Fairfax
Rochester's girl-bride. "

"It can never be, sir; it does not sound likely. Human beings never
enjoy complete happiness in this world. I was not born for a different
destiny to the rest of my species: to imagine such a lot befalling me is
a fairy tale--a day-dream. "

"Which I can and will realise. I shall begin to-day. This morning I
wrote to my banker in London to send me certain jewels he has in his
keeping,--heirlooms for the ladies of Thornfield. In a day or two I hope
to pour them into your lap: for every privilege, every attention shall be
yours that I would accord a peer's daughter, if about to marry her. "

"Oh, sir! --never rain jewels! I don't like to hear them spoken of.
Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds unnatural and strange: I would rather not
have them. "

"I will myself put the diamond chain round your neck, and the circlet on
your forehead,--which it will become: for nature, at least, has stamped
her patent of nobility on this brow, Jane; and I will clasp the bracelets
on these fine wrists, and load these fairy-like fingers with rings. "

"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. You are dreaming, sir,--or you are
sneering. For God's sake don't be ironical! "

"I will make the world acknowledge you a beauty, too," he went on, while
I really became uneasy at the strain he had adopted, because I felt he
was either deluding himself or trying to delude me. "I will attire my
Jane in satin and lace, and she shall have roses in her hair; and I will
cover the head I love best with a priceless veil. "

"And then you won't know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any
longer, but an ape in a harlequin's jacket--a jay in borrowed plumes. I
would as soon see you, Mr. Rochester, tricked out in stage-trappings, as
myself clad in a court-lady's robe; and I don't call you handsome, sir,
though I love you most dearly: far too dearly to flatter you. Don't
flatter me. "

He pursued his theme, however, without noticing my deprecation. "This
very day I shall take you in the carriage to Millcote, and you must
choose some dresses for yourself. I told you we shall be married in four
weeks. The wedding is to take place quietly, in the church down below
yonder; and then I shall waft you away at once to town. After a brief
stay there, I shall bear my treasure to regions nearer the sun: to French
vineyards and Italian plains; and she shall see whatever is famous in old
story and in modern record: she shall taste, too, of the life of cities;
and she shall learn to value herself by just comparison with others. "

"Shall I travel? --and with you, sir? "

"You shall sojourn at Paris, Rome, and Naples: at Florence, Venice, and
Vienna: all the ground I have wandered over shall be re-trodden by you:
wherever I stamped my hoof, your sylph's foot shall step also. Ten years
since, I flew through Europe half mad; with disgust, hate, and rage as my
companions: now I shall revisit it healed and cleansed, with a very angel
as my comforter. "

I laughed at him as he said this. "I am not an angel," I asserted; "and
I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must
neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me--for you will not get
it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all
anticipate. "

"What do you anticipate of me? "

"For a little while you will perhaps be as you are now,--a very little
while; and then you will turn cool; and then you will be capricious; and
then you will be stern, and I shall have much ado to please you: but when
you get well used to me, you will perhaps like me again,--_like_ me, I
say, not _love_ me. I suppose your love will effervesce in six months,
or less. I have observed in books written by men, that period assigned
as the farthest to which a husband's ardour extends. Yet, after all, as
a friend and companion, I hope never to become quite distasteful to my
dear master. "

"Distasteful! and like you again! I think I shall like you again, and
yet again: and I will make you confess I do not only _like_, but _love_
you--with truth, fervour, constancy. "

"Yet are you not capricious, sir? "

"To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I
find out they have neither souls nor hearts--when they open to me a
perspective of flatness, triviality, and perhaps imbecility, coarseness,
and ill-temper: but to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul
made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break--at once
supple and stable, tractable and consistent--I am ever tender and true. "

"Had you ever experience of such a character, sir? Did you ever love
such an one? "

"I love it now. "

"But before me: if I, indeed, in any respect come up to your difficult
standard? "

"I never met your likeness. Jane, you please me, and you master me--you
seem to submit, and I like the sense of pliancy you impart; and while I
am twining the soft, silken skein round my finger, it sends a thrill up
my arm to my heart. I am influenced--conquered; and the influence is
sweeter than I can express; and the conquest I undergo has a witchery
beyond any triumph I can win. Why do you smile, Jane? What does that
inexplicable, that uncanny turn of countenance mean? "

"I was thinking, sir (you will excuse the idea; it was involuntary), I
was thinking of Hercules and Samson with their charmers--"

"You were, you little elfish--"

"Hush, sir! You don't talk very wisely just now; any more than those
gentlemen acted very wisely. However, had they been married, they would
no doubt by their severity as husbands have made up for their softness as
suitors; and so will you, I fear. I wonder how you will answer me a year
hence, should I ask a favour it does not suit your convenience or
pleasure to grant. "

"Ask me something now, Jane,--the least thing: I desire to be entreated--"

"Indeed I will, sir; I have my petition all ready. "

"Speak! But if you look up and smile with that countenance, I shall
swear concession before I know to what, and that will make a fool of me. "

"Not at all, sir; I ask only this: don't send for the jewels, and don't
crown me with roses: you might as well put a border of gold lace round
that plain pocket handkerchief you have there. "

"I might as well 'gild refined gold. ' I know it: your request is granted
then--for the time. I will remand the order I despatched to my banker.
But you have not yet asked for anything; you have prayed a gift to be
withdrawn: try again. "

"Well then, sir, have the goodness to gratify my curiosity, which is much
piqued on one point. "

He looked disturbed. "What? what? " he said hastily. "Curiosity is a
dangerous petition: it is well I have not taken a vow to accord every
request--"

"But there can be no danger in complying with this, sir. "

"Utter it, Jane: but I wish that instead of a mere inquiry into, perhaps,
a secret, it was a wish for half my estate. "

"Now, King Ahasuerus! What do I want with half your estate? Do you
think I am a Jew-usurer, seeking good investment in land? I would much
rather have all your confidence. You will not exclude me from your
confidence if you admit me to your heart? "

"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 you. Don't you think I
had better take advantage of the confession, and begin and coax and
entreat--even cry and be sulky if necessary--for the sake of a mere essay
of my power? "

"I dare you to any such experiment. Encroach, presume, and the game is
up. "

"Is it, sir? You soon give in. How stern you look now! Your eyebrows
have become as thick as my finger, and your forehead resembles what, in
some very astonishing poetry, I once saw styled, 'a blue-piled
thunderloft. ' That will be your married look, sir, I suppose? "

"If that will be _your_ married look, I, as a Christian, will soon give
up the notion of consorting with a mere sprite or salamander. But what
had you to ask, thing,--out with it? "

"There, you are less than civil now; and I like rudeness a great deal
better than flattery. I had rather be a _thing_ than an angel. This is
what I have to ask,--Why did you take such pains to make me believe you
wished to marry Miss Ingram? "

"Is that all? Thank God it is no worse! " And now he unknit his black
brows; looked down, smiling at me, and stroked my hair, as if well
pleased at seeing a danger averted. "I think I may confess," he
continued, "even although I should make you a little indignant, Jane--and
I have seen what a fire-spirit you can be when you are indignant. You
glowed in the cool moonlight last night, when you mutinied against fate,
and claimed your rank as my equal. Janet, by-the-bye, it was you who
made me the offer. "

"Of course I did. But to the point if you please, sir--Miss Ingram? "

"Well, I feigned courtship of Miss Ingram, because I wished to render you
as madly in love with me as I was with you; and I knew jealousy would be
the best ally I could call in for the furtherance of that end. "

"Excellent! Now you are small--not one whit bigger than the end of my
little finger. It was a burning shame and a scandalous disgrace to act
in that way. Did you think nothing of Miss Ingram's feelings, sir? "

"Her feelings are concentrated in one--pride; and that needs humbling.
Were you jealous, Jane? "

"Never mind, Mr. Rochester: it is in no way interesting to you to know
that. Answer me truly once more. Do you think Miss Ingram will not
suffer from your dishonest coquetry? Won't she feel forsaken and
deserted? "

"Impossible! --when I told you how she, on the contrary, deserted me: the
idea of my insolvency cooled, or rather extinguished, her flame in a
moment. "

"You have a curious, designing mind, Mr. Rochester. I am afraid your
principles on some points are eccentric. "

"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 girl: there is not another being in the
world has the same pure love for me as yourself--for I lay that pleasant
unction to my soul, Jane, a belief in your affection. "

I turned my lips to the hand that lay on my shoulder. I loved him very
much--more than I could trust myself to say--more than words had power to
express.

"Ask something more," he said presently; "it is my delight to be
entreated, and to yield. "

I was again ready with my request. "Communicate your intentions to Mrs.
Fairfax, sir: she saw me with you last night in the hall, and she was
shocked. Give her some explanation before I see her again. It pains me
to be misjudged by so good a woman. "

"Go to your room, and put on your bonnet," he replied. "I mean you to
accompany me to Millcote this morning; and while you prepare for the
drive, I will enlighten the old lady's understanding. Did she think,
Janet, you had given the world for love, and considered it well lost?
"

"I believe she thought I had forgotten my station, and yours, sir. "

"Station! station! --your station is in my heart, and on the necks of
those who would insult you, now or hereafter. --Go. "

I was soon dressed; and when I heard Mr. Rochester quit Mrs. Fairfax's
parlour, I hurried down to it. The old lady, had been reading her
morning portion of Scripture--the Lesson for the day; her Bible lay open
before her, and her spectacles were upon it. Her occupation, suspended
by Mr. Rochester's announcement, seemed now forgotten: her eyes, fixed on
the blank wall opposite, expressed the surprise of a quiet mind stirred
by unwonted tidings. Seeing me, she roused herself: she made a sort of
effort to smile, and framed a few words of congratulation; but the smile
expired, and the sentence was abandoned unfinished. She put up her
spectacles, shut the Bible, and pushed her chair back from the table.

"I feel so astonished," she began, "I hardly know what to say to you,
Miss Eyre. I have surely not been dreaming, have I? Sometimes I half
fall asleep when I am sitting alone and fancy things that have never
happened. It has seemed to me more than once when I have been in a doze,
that my dear husband, who died fifteen years since, has come in and sat
down beside me; and that I have even heard him call me by my name, Alice,
as he used to do. Now, can you tell me whether it is actually true that
Mr. Rochester has asked you to marry him? Don't laugh at me. But I
really thought he came in here five minutes ago, and said that in a month
you would be his wife. "

"He has said the same thing to me," I replied.

"He has! Do you believe him? Have you accepted him? "

"Yes. "

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 they had there
found no charm powerful enough to solve the enigma.

"It passes me! " she continued; "but no doubt, it is true since you say
so. How it will answer, I cannot tell: I really don't know. Equality of
position and fortune is often advisable in such cases; and there are
twenty years of difference in your ages. He might almost be your
father. "

"No, indeed, Mrs. Fairfax! " exclaimed I, nettled; "he is nothing like my
father! No one, who saw us together, would suppose it for an instant.
Mr. Rochester looks as young, and is as young, as some men at five-and-
twenty. "

"Is it really for love he is going to marry you? " she asked.

I was so hurt by her coldness and scepticism, that the tears rose to my
eyes.

"I am sorry to grieve you," pursued the widow; "but you are so young, and
so little acquainted with men, I wished to put you on your guard. It is
an old saying that 'all is not gold that glitters;' and in this case I do
fear there will be something found to be different to what either you or
I expect. "

"Why? --am I a monster? " I said: "is it impossible that Mr. Rochester
should have a sincere affection for me? "

"No: you are very well; and much improved of late; and Mr. Rochester, I
daresay, is fond of you. I have always noticed that you were a sort of
pet of his. There are times when, for your sake, I have been a little
uneasy at his marked preference, and have wished to put you on your
guard: but I did not like to suggest even the possibility of wrong. I
knew such an idea would shock, perhaps offend you; and you were so
discreet, and so thoroughly modest and sensible, I hoped you might be
trusted to protect yourself. Last night I cannot tell you what I
suffered when I sought all over the house, and could find you nowhere,
nor the master either; and then, at twelve o'clock, saw you come in with
him. "

"Well, never mind that now," I interrupted impatiently; "it is enough
that all was right. "

"I hope all will be right in the end," she said: "but believe me, you
cannot be too careful. Try and keep Mr. Rochester at a distance:
distrust yourself as well as him. Gentlemen in his station are not
accustomed to marry their governesses. "

I was growing truly irritated: happily, Adele ran in.

"Let me go,--let me go to Millcote too! " she cried. "Mr. Rochester
won't: though there is so much room in the new carriage. Beg him to let
me go mademoiselle. "

"That I will, Adele;" and I hastened away with her, glad to quit my
gloomy monitress. The carriage was ready: they were bringing it round to
the front, and my master was pacing the pavement, Pilot following him
backwards and forwards.

"Adele may accompany us, may she not, sir? "

"I told her no. I'll have no brats! --I'll have only you. "

"Do let her go, Mr. Rochester, if you please: it would be better. "

"Not it: she will be a restraint. "

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 helped me into the carriage, he looked at
my face.

"What is the matter? " he asked; "all the sunshine is gone. Do you really
wish the bairn to go? Will it annoy you if she is left behind? "

"I would far rather she went, sir. "

"Then off for your bonnet, and back like a flash of lightning! " cried he
to Adele.

She obeyed him with what speed she might.

"After all, a single morning's interruption will not matter much," said
he, "when I mean shortly to claim you--your thoughts, conversation, and
company--for life. "

Adele, when lifted in, commenced kissing me, by way of expressing her
gratitude for my intercession: she was instantly stowed away into a
corner on the other side of him. She then peeped round to where I sat;
so stern a neighbour was too restrictive to him, in his present fractious
mood, she dared whisper no observations, nor ask of him any information.

"Let her come to me," I entreated: "she will, perhaps, trouble you, sir:
there is plenty of room on this side. "

He handed her over as if she had been a lapdog. "I'll send her to school
yet," he said, but now he was smiling.

Adele heard him, and asked if she was to go to school "sans
mademoiselle? "

"Yes," he replied, "absolutely sans mademoiselle; for I am to take
mademoiselle to the moon, and there I shall seek a cave in one of the
white valleys among the volcano-tops, and mademoiselle shall live with me
there, and only me. "

"She will have nothing to eat: you will starve her," observed Adele.

"I shall gather manna for her morning and night: the plains and hillsides
in the moon are bleached with manna, Adele. "

"She will want to warm herself: what will she do for a fire? "

"Fire rises out of the lunar mountains: when she is cold, I'll carry her
up to a peak, and lay her down on the edge of a crater. "

"Oh, qu' elle y sera mal--peu comfortable! And her clothes, they will
wear out: how can she get new ones? "

Mr. Rochester professed to be puzzled. "Hem! " said he. "What would you
do, Adele? Cudgel your brains for an expedient. How would a white or a
pink cloud answer for a gown, do you think? And one could cut a pretty
enough scarf out of a rainbow. "

"She is far better as she is," concluded Adele, after musing some time:
"besides, she would get tired of living with only you in the moon. If I
were mademoiselle, I would never consent to go with you. "

"She has consented: she has pledged her word. "

"But you can't get her there; there is no road to the moon: it is all
air; and neither you nor she can fly. "

"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 evening about a fortnight
since--the evening of the day you helped me to make hay in the orchard
meadows; and, as I was tired with raking swaths, I sat down to rest me on
a stile; and there I took out a little book and a pencil, and began to
write about a misfortune that befell me long ago, and a wish I had for
happy days to come: I was writing away very fast, though daylight was
fading from the leaf, when something came up the path and stopped two
yards off me. I looked at it. It was a little thing with a veil of
gossamer on its head. I beckoned it to come near me; it stood soon at my
knee. I never spoke to it, and it never spoke to me, in words; but I
read its eyes, and it read mine; and our speechless colloquy was to this
effect--

"It was a fairy, and come from Elf-land, it said; and its errand was to
make me happy: I must go with it out of the common world to a lonely
place--such as the moon, for instance--and it nodded its head towards her
horn, rising over Hay-hill: it told me of the alabaster cave and silver
vale where we might live. I said I should like to go; but reminded it,
as you did me, that I had no wings to fly.

"'Oh,' returned the fairy, 'that does not signify! Here is a talisman
will remove all difficulties;' and she held out a pretty gold ring. 'Put
it,' she said, 'on the fourth finger of my left hand, and I am yours, and
you are mine; and we shall leave earth, and make our own heaven yonder. '
She nodded again at the moon. The ring, Adele, is in my breeches-pocket,
under the disguise of a sovereign: but I mean soon to change it to a ring
again. "

"But what has mademoiselle to do with it? I don't care for the fairy:
you said it was mademoiselle you would take to the moon? "

"Mademoiselle is a fairy," he said, whispering mysteriously. Whereupon I
told her not to mind his badinage; and she, on her part, evinced a fund
of genuine French scepticism: denominating Mr. Rochester "un vrai
menteur," and assuring him that she made no account whatever of his
"contes de fee," and that "du reste, il n'y avait pas de fees, et quand
meme il y en avait:" she was sure they would never appear to him, nor
ever give him rings, or offer to live with him in the moon.

The hour spent at Millcote was a somewhat harassing one to me. Mr.
Rochester obliged me to go to a certain silk warehouse: there I was
ordered to choose half-a-dozen dresses. I hated the business, I begged
leave to defer it: no--it should be gone through with now. By dint of
entreaties expressed in energetic whispers, I reduced the half-dozen to
two: these however, he vowed he would select himself. With anxiety I
watched his eye rove over the gay stores: he fixed on a rich silk of the
most brilliant amethyst dye, and a superb pink satin. I told him in a
new series of whispers, that he might as well buy me a gold gown and a
silver bonnet at once: I should certainly never venture to wear his
choice. With infinite difficulty, for he was stubborn as a stone, I
persuaded him to make an exchange in favour of a sober black satin and
pearl-grey silk. "It might pass for the present," he said; "but he would
yet see me glittering like a parterre. "

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,
dark and bright, I had wholly forgotten--the letter of my uncle, John
Eyre, to Mrs. Reed: his intention to adopt me and make me his legatee.
"It would, indeed, be a relief," I thought, "if I had ever so small an
independency; I never can bear being dressed like a doll by Mr.
Rochester, or sitting like a second Danae with the golden shower falling
daily round me. I will write to Madeira the moment I get home, and tell
my uncle John I am going to be married, and to whom: if I had but a
prospect of one day bringing Mr. Rochester an accession of fortune, I
could better endure to be kept by him now. " And somewhat relieved by
this idea (which I failed not to execute that day), I ventured once more
to meet my master's and lover's eye, which most pertinaciously sought
mine, though I averted both face and gaze. He smiled; and I thought his
smile was such as a sultan might, in a blissful and fond moment, bestow
on a slave his gold and gems had enriched: I crushed his hand, which was
ever hunting mine, vigorously, and thrust it back to him red with the
passionate pressure.

"You need not look in that way," I said; "if you do, I'll wear nothing
but my old Lowood frocks to the end of the chapter. I'll be married in
this lilac gingham: you may make a dressing-gown for yourself out of the
pearl-grey silk, and an infinite series of waistcoats out of the black
satin. "

He chuckled; he rubbed his hands. "Oh, it is rich to see and hear her? "
he exclaimed. "Is she original? Is she piquant? I would not exchange
this one little English girl for the Grand Turk's whole seraglio, gazelle-
eyes, houri forms, and all! "

The Eastern allusion bit me again. "I'll not stand you an inch in the
stead of a seraglio," I said; "so don't consider me an equivalent for
one. If you have a fancy for anything in that line, away with you, sir,
to the bazaars of Stamboul without delay, and lay out in extensive slave-
purchases some of that spare cash you seem at a loss to spend
satisfactorily here. "

"And what will you do, Janet, while I am bargaining for so many tons of
flesh and such an assortment of black eyes? "

"I'll be preparing myself to go out as a missionary to preach liberty to
them that are enslaved--your harem inmates amongst the rest. I'll get
admitted there, and I'll stir up mutiny; and you, three-tailed bashaw as
you are, sir, shall in a trice find yourself fettered amongst our hands:
nor will I, for one, consent to cut your bonds till you have signed a
charter, the most liberal that despot ever yet conferred. "

"I would consent to be at your mercy, Jane. "

"I would have no mercy, Mr. Rochester, if you supplicated for it with an
eye like that. While you looked so, I should be certain that whatever
charter you might grant under coercion, your first act, when released,
would be to violate its conditions. "

"Why, Jane, what would you have? I fear you will compel me to go through
a private marriage ceremony, besides that performed at the altar. You
will stipulate, I see, for peculiar terms--what will they be? "

"I only want an easy mind, sir; not crushed by crowded obligations. Do
you remember what you said of Celine Varens? --of the diamonds, the
cashmeres you gave her? I will not be your English Celine Varens. I
shall continue to act as Adele's governess; by that I shall earn my board
and lodging, and thirty pounds a year besides. I'll furnish my own
wardrobe out of that money, and you shall give me nothing but--"

"Well, but what? "

"Your regard; and if I give you mine in return, that debt will be quit. "

"Well, for cool native impudence and pure innate pride, you haven't your
equal," said he. We were now approaching Thornfield. "Will it please
you to dine with me to-day? " he asked, as we re-entered the gates.

"No, thank you, sir. "

"And what for, 'no, thank you? ' if one may inquire. "

"I never have dined with you, sir: and I see no reason why I should now:
till--"

"Till what? You delight in half-phrases. "

"Till I can't help it. "

"Do you suppose I eat like an ogre or a ghoul, that you dread being the
companion of my repast? "

"I have formed no supposition on the subject, sir; but I want to go on as
usual for another month. "

"You will give up your governessing slavery at once. "

"Indeed, begging your pardon, sir, I shall not. I shall just go on with
it as usual. I shall keep out of your way all day, as I have been
accustomed to do: you may send for me in the evening, when you feel
disposed to see me, and I'll come then; but at no other time. "

"I want a smoke, Jane, or a pinch of snuff, to comfort me under all this,
'pour me donner une contenance,' as Adele would say; and unfortunately I
have neither my cigar-case, nor my snuff-box. But listen--whisper. It
is your time now, little tyrant, but it will be mine presently; and when
once I have fairly seized you, to have and to hold, I'll
just--figuratively speaking--attach you to a chain like this" (touching
his watch-guard).