‘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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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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I did his behest. The company all stared at me as I passed straight among them. I sought Mr. Mason, delivered the message, and preceded him from the room: I ushered him into the library, and then I went upstairs At a late hour, after I had been in bed some time, I heard the […]
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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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‘Eagerness of a listener!’ repeated she: ‘yes; Mr. Rochester has sat by the hour, his ear inclined to the fascinating lips that took such delight in their task of communicating; and Mr. Rochester was so willing to receive and looked so grateful for the pastime given him; you have noticed this?’ ‘Grateful! I cannot remember […]
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I started to my feet when I heard the name. ‘You have—have you?’ thought I; ‘there is diablerie in the business after all, then!’ ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ continued the strange being; ‘she’s a safe hand is Mrs. Poole: close and quiet; any one may repose confidence in her. But, as I was saying: sitting in […]
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‘You might say all that to almost any one who you knew lived as a solitary dependent in a great house.’ ‘I might say it to almost any one: but would it be true of almost any one?’ ‘In my circumstances.’ ‘Yes; just so, in YOUR circumstances: but find me another precisely placed as you […]
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‘Well, Blanche?’ said Lord Ingram. ‘What did she say, sister?’ asked Mary. ‘What did you think? How do you feel?—Is she a real fortune- teller?’ demanded the Misses Eshton. ‘Now, now, good people,’ returned Miss Ingram, ‘don’t press upon me. Really your organs of wonder and credulity are easily excited: you seem, by the importance […]
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Coffee is handed. The ladies, since the gentlemen entered, have become lively as larks; conversation waxes briskmand merry. Colonel Dent and Mr. Eshton argue on politics; their wives listen. The two proud dowagers, Lady Lynn and Lady Ingram, confabulate together. Sir George—whom, bythe-bye, I have forgotten to describe,—a very big, and very fresh-looking country gentleman, […]
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Genius is said to be self-conscious. I cannot tell whether Miss Ingram was a genius, but she was self-conscious—remarkably self- conscious indeed. She entered into a discourse on botany with the gentle Mrs. Dent. It seemed Mrs. Dent had not studied that science: though, as she said, she liked flowers, ‘especially wild ones;’ Miss Ingram […]
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