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 […]
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‘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. […]
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It was not a bright or splendid summer evening, though fair and soft: the haymakers were at work all along the road; and the sky, though far from cloudless, was such as promised well for the future: its blue—where blue was visible—was mild and settled, and its cloud strata high and thin. The west, too, […]
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‘You are in the right,’ said she; and with these words we each went our separate way. As I shall not have occasion to refer either to her or her sister again, I may as well mention here, that Georgiana made an advantageous match with a wealthy worn-out man of fashion, and that Eliza actually […]
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Eliza still spoke little: she had evidently no time to talk. I never saw a busier person than she seemed to be; yet it was difficult to say what she did: or rather, to discover any result of her diligence. She had an alarm to call her up early. I know not how she occupied […]
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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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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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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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‘Break it, sir.’ ‘There, then—‘Off, ye lendings!’’ And Mr. Rochester stepped out of his disguise. ‘Now, sir, what a strange idea!’ ‘But well carried out, eh? Don’t you think so?’ ‘With the ladies you must have managed well.’ ‘But not with you?’ ‘You did not act the character of a gipsy with me.’ What character […]
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