‘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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‘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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‘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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‘Jane, you offered me your shoulder once before; let me have it now.’ ‘Yes, sir, yes; and my arm.’ He sat down, and made me sit beside him. Holding my hand in both his own, he chafed it; gazing on me, at the same time, with the most troubled and dreary look. ‘My little friend!’ […]
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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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