‘You shall walk up the pyramids of Egypt!’ he growled. ‘At your peril you advertise! I wish I had only offered you a sovereign instead of ten pounds. Give me back nine pounds, Jane; I’ve a use for it.’ ‘And so have I, sir,’ I returned, putting my hands and my purse behind me. ‘I […]
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‘How long will you stay?’ ‘As short a time as possible, sir.’ ‘Promise me only to stay a week—‘ ‘I had better not pass my word: I might be obliged to break it.’ ‘At all events you WILL come back: you will not be induced under any pretext to take up a permanent residence with […]
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‘Does that person want you?’ she inquired of Mr. Rochester; and Mr. Rochester turned to see who the ‘person’ was. He made a curious grimace—one of his strange and equivocal demonstrations—threw down his cue and followed me from the room. ‘Well, Jane?’ he said, as he rested his back against the schoolroom door, which he […]
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‘Mr. John died yesterday was a week, at his chambers in London.’ ‘Mr. John?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And how does his mother bear it?’ ‘Why, you see, Miss Eyre, it is not a common mishap: his life has been very wild: these last three years he gave himself up to strange ways, and his death was shocking.’ […]
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Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the key. I never laughed at presentiments in my life, because I have had strange ones of my own. Sympathies, I believe, exist (for instance, between far-distant, long-absent, wholly […]
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He paused for an answer: and what was I to say? Oh, for some good spirit to suggest a judicious and satisfactory response! Vain aspiration! The west wind whispered in the ivy round me; but no gentle Ariel borrowed its breath as a medium of speech: the birds sang in the tree-tops; but their song, […]
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‘If you have no more to fear from Mr. Mason than you have from me, sir, you are very safe.’ ‘God grant it may be so! Here, Jane, is an arbour; sit down.’ The arbour was an arch in the wall, lined with ivy; it contained a rustic seat. Mr. Rochester took it, leaving room, […]
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‘Jane, will you have a flower?’ He gathered a half-blown rose, the first on the bush, and offered it to me. ‘Thank you, sir.’ ‘Do you like this sunrise, Jane? That sky with its high and light clouds which are sure to melt away as the day waxes warm—this placid and balmly atmosphere?’ ‘I do, […]
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It was by this time half-past five, and the sun was on the point of rising; but I found the kitchen still dark and silent. T he side- passage door was fastened; I opened it with as little noise as possible: all the yard was quiet; but the gates stood wide open, and there was […]
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I went; sought the repository he had mentioned, found the articles named, and returned with them. ‘Now,’ said he, ‘go to the other side of the bed while I order his toilet; but don’t leave the room: you may be wanted again.’ I retired as directed. ‘Was anybody stirring below when you went down, Jane?’ […]
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