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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First, there was Mrs. Eshton and two of her daughters. She had evidently been a handsome woman, and was well preserved still. Of her daughters, the eldest, Amy, was rather little: naive, and child-like in face and manner, and piquant in form; her white muslin dress and blue sash became her well. The second, Louisa, […]
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Fortunately there was another entrance to the drawing-room than that through the saloon where they were all seated at dinner. We found the apartment vacant; a large fire burning silently on the marble hearth, and wax candles shining in bright solitude, amid the exquisite flowers with which the tables were adorned. The crimson curtain hung […]
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‘She gets good wages, I guess?’‘Yes,’ said Leah; ‘I wish I had as good; not that mine are to complain of,—there’s no stinginess at Thornfield; but they’re not one fifth of the sum Mrs. Poole receives. And she is laying by: she goes every quarter to the bank at Millcote. I should not wonder but […]
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‘Indeed he is—in three days, he says: that will be next Thursday; and not alone either. I don’t know how many of the fine people at the Leas are coming with him: he sends directions for all the best bedrooms to be prepared; and the library and drawing-rooms are to be cleaned out; I am […]
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I well remembered all; language, glance, and tone seemed at the moment vividly renewed. I was now in the schoolroom; Adele was drawing; I bent over her and directed her pencil. She looked up with a sort of start. ‘Qu’ avez-vous, mademoiselle?’ said she. ‘Vos doigts tremblent comme la feuille, et vos joues sont rouges: […]
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I still stood absolutely dumfoundered at what appeared to me her miraculous self-possession and most inscrutable hypocrisy, when the cook entered. ‘Mrs. Poole,’ said she, addressing Grace, ‘the servants’ dinner will soon be ready: will you come down?’ ‘No; just put my pint of porter and bit of pudding on a tray, and I’ll carry […]
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‘A strange affair!’ I said, in a low voice: then, looking at her fixedly—‘Did Mr. Rochester wake nobody? Did no one hear him move?’ She again raised her eyes to me, and this time there was something of consciousness in their expression. She seemed to examine me warily; then she answered— ‘The servants sleep so […]
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I both wished and feared to see Mr. Rochester on the day which followed this sleepless night: I wanted to hear his voice again, yet feared to meet his eye. During the early part of the morning, I momentarily expected his coming; he was not in the frequent habit of entering the schoolroom, but he […]
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He held out his hand; I gave him mine: he took it first in one, them in both his own. ‘You have saved my life: I have a pleasure in owing you so immense a debt. I cannot say more. Nothing else that has being would have been tolerable to me in the character of […]
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