‘Surely, colonel,’ cried Lady Ingram, ‘you would not encourage such a low impostor? Dismiss her, by all means, at once!’ ‘But I cannot persuade her to go away, my lady,’ said the footman; ‘nor can any of the servants: Mrs. Fairfax is with her just now, entreating her to be gone; but she has taken […]
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He had spoken of Mr. Rochester as an old friend. A curious friendship theirs must have been: a pointed illustration, indeed, of the old adage that ‘extremes meet.’ Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make […]
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‘It appears I come at an inopportune time, madam,’ said he, ‘when my friend, Mr. Rochester, is from home; but I arrive from a very long journey, and I think I may presume so far on old and intimate acquaintance as to instal myself here till he returns.’ His manner was polite; his accent, in […]
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Meantime, while I thought only of my master and his future bride— saw only them, heard only their discourse, and considered only their movements of importance—the rest of the party were occupied with their own separate interests and pleasures. The Ladies Lynn and Ingram continued to consort in solemn conferences, where they nodded their two […]
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Because, when she failed, I saw how she might have succeeded. Arrows that continually glanced off from Mr. Rochester’s breast and fell harmless at his feet, might, I knew, if shot by a surer hand, have quivered keen in his proud heart—have called love into his stern eye, and softness into his sardonic face; or, […]
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There was nothing to cool or banish love in these circumstances, though much to create despair. Much too, you will think, reader, to engender jealousy: if a woman, in my position, could presume to be jealous of a woman in Miss Ingram’s. But I was not jealous: or very rarely;—the nature of the pain I […]
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On its third rising only a portion of the drawing-room was disclosed; the rest being concealed by a screen, hung with some sort of dark and coarse drapery. The marble basin was removed; in its place, stood a deal table and a kitchen chair: these objects were visible by a very dim light proceeding from […]
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‘Bride!’ Mr. Rochester bowed, and the curtain fell A considerable interval elapsed before it again rose. Its second rising displayed a more elaborately prepared scene than the last. The drawing-room, as I have before observed, was raised two steps above the dining-room, and on the top of the upper step, placed a yard or two […]
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Merry days were these at Thornfield Hall; and busy days too: how different from the first three months of stillness, monotony, and solitude I had passed beneath its roof! All sad feelings seemed now driven from the house, all gloomy associations forgotten: there was life everywhere, movement all day long. You could not now traverse […]
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‘Commands from Miss Ingram’s lips would put spirit into a mug of milk and water.’ ‘Take care, then: if you don’t please me, I will shame you by showing how such things SHOULD be done.’ ‘That is offering a premium on incapacity: I shall now endeavour to fail.’ ‘Gardez-vous en bien! If you err wilfully, […]
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