i had forgotten to draw my curtain, which i usually did, and also to let down my window-blind. the consequence was, that when the moon, which was full and bright (for the night was fine), came in her course to that space in the sky opposite my 1, and looked in at me through the unveiled 2, her glorious gaze roused me. awaking in the dead of night, i opened my eyes on her disk--silver- white and crystal clear. it was beautiful, but too solemn; i half rose, and stretched my arm to draw the curtain.
good god! what a cry!
the night--its silence--its rest, was rent in twain by a 4, a sharp, a 5 sound that ran from end to end of thornfield hall.
my pulse stopped: my heart stood still; my stretched arm was paralysed. the cry died, and was not renewed. indeed, whatever being uttered that fearful 6 could not soon repeat it: not the widest-winged 7 on the andes could, twice in succession, send out such a yell from the cloud 8 his eyrie. the thing delivering such 9 must rest ere it could repeat the effort.
it came out of the third storey; for it passed overhead. and overhead--yes, in the room just above my 10-ceiling--i now heard a struggle: a deadly one it seemed from the noise; and a half-11 voice shouted -
"help! help! help!" three times rapidly.
"will no one come?" it cried; and then, while the staggering and stamping went on wildly, i 12 through 13 and plaster:-
"rochester! rochester! for god's sake, come!"
a chamber-door opened: some one ran, or rushed, along the gallery. another step stamped on the flooring above and something fell; and there was silence.
i had put on some clothes, though horror shook all my limbs; i issued from my apartment. the 14 were all aroused: ejaculations, terrified 17 sounded in every room; door after door unclosed; one looked out and another looked out; the gallery filled. gentlemen and ladies alike had quitted their beds; and "oh! what is it?"--"who is hurt?"--"what has happened?"--"fetch a light!"--"is it fire?"--"are there robbers?"--"where shall we run?" was demanded confusedly on all hands. but for the moonlight they would have been in complete darkness. they ran to and fro; they crowded together: some 18, some stumbled: the confusion was inextricable.
"where the devil is rochester?" cried colonel 20. "i cannot find him in his bed."
"here! here!" was shouted in return. "be composed, all of you: i'm coming."
and the door at the end of the gallery opened, and mr. rochester advanced with a candle: he had just 21 from the upper storey. one of the ladies ran to him directly; she seized his arm: it was miss ingram.
"what awful event has taken place?" said she. "speak! let us know the worst at once!"
"but don't pull me down or strangle me," he replied: for the misses eshton were clinging about him now; and the two dowagers, in vast white wrappers, were bearing down on him like ships in full sail.
"all's right!--all's right!" he cried. "it's a 22 23 of much ado about nothing. ladies, keep off, or i shall wax dangerous."
and dangerous he looked: his black eyes 24 sparks. calming himself by an effort, he added -
"a servant has had the nightmare; that is all. she's an excitable, nervous person: she 25 her dream into an 26, or something of that sort, no doubt; and has taken a fit with fright. now, then, i must see you all back into your rooms; for, till the house is settled, she cannot be looked after. gentlemen, have the goodness to set the ladies the example. miss ingram, i am sure you will not fail in evincing superiority to idle terrors. amy and louisa, return to your nests like a pair of doves, as you are. mesdames" (to the dowagers), "you will take cold to a dead certainty, if you stay in this chill gallery any longer."
and so, by 28 of alternate 29 and commanding, he 30 to get them all once more enclosed in their separate dormitories. i did not wait to be ordered back to mine, but retreated unnoticed, as unnoticed i had left it.
not, however, to go to bed: on the contrary, i began and dressed myself carefully. the sounds i had heard after the scream, and the words that had been uttered, had probably been heard only by me; for they had proceeded from the room above mine: but they assured me that it was not a servant's dream which had thus struck horror through the house; and that the explanation mr. rochester had given was merely an invention framed to 32 his guests. i dressed, then, to be ready for emergencies. when dressed, i sat a long time by the window looking out over the silent grounds and silvered fields and waiting for i knew not what. it seemed to me that some event must follow the strange cry, struggle, and call.
no: stillness returned: each 16 and movement ceased gradually, and in about an hour thornfield hall was again as hushed as a desert. it seemed that sleep and night had resumed their empire. meantime the moon declined: she was about to set. not 33 to sit in the cold and darkness, i thought i would lie down on my bed, dressed as i was. i left the window, and moved with little noise across the carpet; as i stooped to take off my shoes, a cautious hand tapped low at the door.
"am i wanted?" i asked.
"are you up?" asked the voice i expected to hear, viz., my master's.
"yes, sir."
"and dressed?"
"yes."
"come out, then, quietly."
i obeyed. mr. rochester stood in the gallery holding a light.
"i want you," he said: "come this way: take your time, and make no noise."
my 34 were thin: i could walk the matted floor as softly as a cat. he 35 up the gallery and up the stairs, and stopped in the dark, low corridor of the fateful third storey: i had followed and stood at his side.
"have you a sponge in your room?" he asked in a whisper.
"yes, sir."
"have you any salts--volatile salts? yes."
"go back and fetch both."
i returned, sought the sponge on the washstand, the salts in my drawer, and once more 36 my steps. he still waited; he held a key in his hand: approaching one of the small, black doors, he put it in the lock; he paused, and addressed me again.
"you don't turn sick at the sight of blood?"
"i think i shall not: i have never been tried yet."
i felt a thrill while i answered him; but no coldness, and no faintness.
"just give me your hand," he said: "it will not do to risk a fainting fit."
i put my fingers into his. "warm and steady," was his remark: he turned the key and opened the door.
i saw a room i remembered to have seen before, the day mrs. fairfax showed me over the house: it was hung with 37; but the tapestry was now looped up in one part, and there was a door apparent, which had then been 38. this door was open; a light shone out of the room within: i heard thence a 39, snatching sound, almost like a dog quarrelling. mr. rochester, putting down his candle, said to me, "wait a minute," and he went forward to the inner apartment. a shout of laughter greeted his entrance; noisy at first, and terminating in grace poole's own goblin ha! ha! she then was there. he made some sort of arrangement without speaking, though i heard a low voice address him: he came out and closed the door behind him.
"here, jane!" he said; and i walked round to the other side of a large bed, which with its 40 curtains concealed a considerable portion of the chamber. an easy-chair was near the bed-head: a man sat in it, dressed with the exception of his coat; he was still; his head leant back; his eyes were closed. mr. rochester held the candle over him; i recognised in his pale and seemingly lifeless face--the stranger, mason: i saw too that his 41 on one side, and one arm, was almost soaked in blood.
"hold the candle," said mr. rochester, and i took it: he fetched a basin of water from the washstand: "hold that," said he. i obeyed. he took the sponge, dipped it in, and moistened the corpse-like face; he asked for my smelling-bottle, and 42 it to the 43. mr. mason shortly unclosed his eyes; he 45. mr. rochester opened the shirt of the wounded man, whose arm and shoulder were bandaged: he sponged away blood, 46 fast down.
"is there 47 danger?" murmured mr. mason.
"pooh! no--a mere scratch. don't be so overcome, man: bear up! i'll fetch a surgeon for you now, myself: you'll be able to be removed by morning, i hope. jane," he continued.
"sir?"
"i shall have to leave you in this room with this gentleman, for an hour, or perhaps two hours: you will sponge the blood as i do when it returns: if he feels faint, you will put the glass of water on that stand to his lips, and your salts to his nose. you will not speak to him on any pretext--and--richard, it will be at the 48 of your life if you speak to her: open your lips--agitate yourself- -and i'll not answer for the consequences."
again the poor man groaned; he looked as if he dared not move; fear, either of death or of something else, appeared almost to paralyse him. mr. rochester put the now 49 sponge into my hand, and i proceeded to use it as he had done. he watched me a second, then saying, "remember!--no conversation," he left the room. i experienced a strange feeling as the key grated in the lock, and the sound of his retreating step ceased to be heard.
here then i was in the third storey, fastened into one of its mystic cells; night around me; a pale and bloody spectacle under my eyes and hands; a murderess hardly separated from me by a single door: yes--that was appalling--the rest i could bear; but i 51 at the thought of grace poole bursting out upon me.
i must keep to my post, however. i must watch this ghastly 52--these blue, still lips forbidden to unclose--these eyes now shut, now opening, now wandering through the room, now fixing on me, and ever 53 with the dulness of horror. i must dip my hand again and again in the basin of blood and water, and wipe away the trickling 54. i must see the light of the unsnuffed candle 55 on my employment; the shadows darken on the 56, antique tapestry round me, and grow black under the hangings of the vast old bed, and quiver strangely over the doors of a great cabinet opposite--whose front, divided into twelve panels, bore, in grim design, the heads of the twelve apostles, each enclosed in its separate panel as in a frame; while above them at the top rose an ebon crucifix and a dying christ.
according as the shifting obscurity and 57 gleam 58 here or glanced there, it was now the bearded physician, luke, that 59 his brow; now st. john's long hair that waved; and anon the devilish face of judas, that grew out of the panel, and seemed 60 life and threatening a revelation of the arch-traitor--of satan himself--in his subordinate's form.
amidst all this, i had to listen as well as watch: to listen for the movements of the wild beast or the fiend in yonder side 19. but since mr. rochester's visit it seemed spellbound: all the night i heard but three sounds at three long intervals,--a step creak, a 61 62 of the snarling, 63 noise, and a deep human 44.
then my own thoughts worried me. what crime was this that lived 64 in this 65 66, and could neither be expelled nor 67 by the owner?--what mystery, that broke out now in fire and now in blood, at the deadest hours of night? what creature was it, that, masked in an ordinary woman's face and shape, uttered the voice, now of a mocking 68, and anon of a carrion-seeking bird of 69?
and this man i bent over--this commonplace, quiet stranger--how had he become involved in the web of horror? and why had the fury flown at him? what made him seek this quarter of the house at an untimely season, when he should have been asleep in bed? i had heard mr. rochester assign him an apartment below--what brought him here! and why, now, was he so tame under the violence or treachery done him? why did he so quietly submit to the 70 mr. rochester enforced? why did mr. rochester enforce this concealment? his guest had been 71, his own life on a former occasion had been 72 plotted against; and both attempts he smothered in 73 and sank in oblivion! lastly, i saw mr. mason was submissive to mr. rochester; that the impetuous will of the latter held complete sway over the 74 of the former: the few words which had passed between them assured me of this. it was evident that in their former 75, the passive 76 of the one had been 77 influenced by the active energy of the other: whence then had arisen mr. rochester's dismay when he heard of mr. mason's arrival? why had the mere name of this unresisting individual--whom his word now sufficed to control like a child--fallen on him, a few hours since, as a thunderbolt might fall on an oak?
oh! i could not forget his look and his paleness when he whispered: "jane, i have got a blow--i have got a blow, jane." i could not forget how the arm had trembled which he rested on my shoulder: and it was no light matter which could thus bow the 78 spirit and thrill the vigorous frame of fairfax rochester.
"when will he come? when will he come?" i cried inwardly, as the night lingered and lingered--as my bleeding patient 79, moaned, sickened: and neither day nor aid arrived. i had, again and again, held the water to mason's white lips; again and again offered him the 80 salts: my efforts seemed ineffectual: either bodily or mental suffering, or loss of blood, or all three combined, were fast 81 his strength. he moaned so, and looked so weak, wild, and lost, i feared he was dying; ant i might not even speak to him.
the candle, wasted at last, went out; as it expired, i perceived 82 of grey light edging the window curtains: dawn was then approaching. presently i heard pilot bark far below, out of his distant 83 in the courtyard: hope revived. nor was it unwarranted: in five minutes more the grating key, the yielding lock, warned me my watch was relieved. it could not have lasted more than two hours: many a week has seemed shorter.
mr. rochester entered, and with him the surgeon he had been to fetch.
"now, carter, be on the alert," he said to this last: "i give you but half-an-hour for 84 the wound, fastening the bandages, getting the patient downstairs and all."
"but is he fit to move, sir?"
"no doubt of it; it is nothing serious; he is nervous, his spirits must be kept up. come, set to work."
mr. rochester drew back the thick curtain, drew up the holland blind, let in all the daylight he could; and i was surprised and cheered to see how far dawn was advanced: what 85 streaks were beginning to brighten the east. then he approached mason, whom the surgeon was already handling.
"now, my good fellow, how are you?" he asked.
"she's done for me, i fear," was the faint reply.
"not a 3!--courage! this day fortnight you'll hardly be a pin the worse of it: you've lost a little blood; that's all carter, assure him there's no danger."
"i can do that conscientiously," said carter, who had now 86 the bandages; "only i wish i could have got here sooner: he would not have bled so much--but how is this? the flesh on the shoulder is torn as well as cut. this wound was not done with a knife: there have been teeth here!"
"she bit me," he murmured. "she worried me like a tigress, when rochester got the knife from her."
"you should not have yielded: you should have grappled with her at once," said mr. rochester.
"but under such circumstances, what could one do?" returned mason. "oh, it was 87!" he added, 88. "and i did not expect it: she looked so quiet at first."
"i warned you," was his friend's answer; "i said--be on your guard when you go near her. besides, you might have waited till to- morrow, and had me with you: it was mere 89 to attempt the interview to-night, and alone."
"i thought i could have done some good."
"you thought! you thought! yes, it makes me impatient to hear you: but, however, you have suffered, and are likely to suffer enough for not taking my advice; so i'll say no more. carter--hurry!--hurry! the sun will soon rise, and i must have him off."
"directly, sir; the shoulder is just bandaged. i must look to this other wound in the arm: she has had her teeth here too, i think."
"she sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart," said mason.
i saw mr. rochester 50: a singularly marked expression of disgust, horror, 90, 91 his countenance almost to distortion; but he only said -
"come, be silent, richard, and never mind her gibberish: don't repeat it."
"i wish i could forget it," was the answer.
"you will when you are out of the country: when you get back to spanish town, you may think of her as dead and buried--or rather, you need not think of her at all."
"impossible to forget this night!"
"it is not impossible: have some energy, man. you thought you were as dead as a herring two hours since, and you are all alive and talking now. there!--carter has done with you or nearly so; i'll make you decent in a trice. jane" (he turned to me for the first time since his re-entrance), "take this key: go down into my bedroom, and walk straight forward into my dressing-room: open the top drawer of the wardrobe and take out a clean shirt and neck- handkerchief: bring them here; and be nimble."
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 92 as directed.
"was anybody stirring below when you went down, jane?" inquired mr. rochester presently.
"no, sir; all was very still."
"we shall get you off 93, dick: and it will be better, both for your sake, and for that of the poor creature in yonder. i have striven long to avoid exposure, and i should not like it to come at last. here, carter, help him on with his waist-coat. where did you leave your furred cloak? you can't travel a mile without that, i know, in this damned cold climate. in your room?--jane, run down to mr. mason's room,--the one next mine,--and fetch a cloak you will see there."
again i ran, and again returned, bearing an immense 94 lined and edged with fur.
"now, i've another errand for you," said my untiring master; "you must away to my room again. what a mercy you are shod with 95, jane!--a clod-hopping messenger would never do at this 96. you must open the middle drawer of my toilet-table and take out a little phial and a little glass you will find there,--quick!"
i flew 97 and back, bringing the desired 98.
"that's well! now, doctor, i shall take the liberty of administering a dose myself, on my own responsibility. i got this cordial at rome, of an italian charlatan--a fellow you would have kicked, carter. it is not a thing to be used indiscriminately, but it is good upon occasion: as now, for instance. jane, a little water."
he held out the tiny glass, and i half filled it from the water- bottle on the washstand.
"that will do;--now wet the lip of the phial."
i did so; he measured twelve drops of a 99 liquid, and presented it to mason.
"drink, richard: it will give you the heart you lack, for an hour or so."
"but will it hurt me?--is it inflammatory?"
"drink! drink! drink!"
mr. mason obeyed, because it was evidently useless to resist. he was dressed now: he still looked pale, but he was no longer 100 and sullied. mr. rochester let him sit three minutes after he had swallowed the liquid; he then took his arm -
"now i am sure you can get on your feet," he said--"try."
the patient rose.
"carter, take him under the other shoulder. be of good cheer, richard; step out--that's it!"
"i do feel better," remarked mr. mason.
"i am sure you do. now, jane, trip on before us away to the backstairs; unbolt the side-passage door, and tell the driver of the post-chaise you will see in the yard--or just outside, for i told him not to drive his 101 wheels over the pavement--to be ready; we are coming: and, jane, if any one is about, come to the foot of the stairs and 31."
it was by this time half-past five, and the sun was on the point of rising; but i found the kitchen still dark and silent. the side- passage door was fastened; i opened it with as little noise as possible: all the yard was quiet; but the gates stood wide open, and there was a post-chaise, with horses ready harnessed, and driver seated on the box, stationed outside. i approached him, and said the gentlemen were coming; he nodded: then i looked carefully round and listened. the stillness of early morning 102 everywhere; the curtains were yet drawn over the servants' chamber windows; little birds were just twittering in the blossom-blanched 103 trees, whose 104 drooped like white garlands over the wall enclosing one side of the yard; the carriage horses stamped from time to time in their closed stables: all else was still.
the gentlemen now appeared. mason, supported by mr. rochester and the surgeon, seemed to walk with tolerable ease: they assisted him into the chaise; carter followed.
"take care of him," said mr. rochester to the latter, "and keep him at your house till he is quite well: i shall ride over in a day or two to see how he gets on. richard, how is it with you?"
"the fresh air revives me, fairfax."
"leave the window open on his side, carter; there is no wind--good- bye, dick."
"fairfax--"
"well what is it?"
"let her be taken care of; let her be treated as tenderly as may be: let her--" he stopped and burst into tears.
"i do my best; and have done it, and will do it," was the answer: he shut up the chaise door, and the vehicle drove away.
"yet would to god there was an end of all this!" added mr. rochester, as he closed and barred the heavy yard-gates.
this done, he moved with slow step and abstracted air towards a door in the wall bordering the orchard. i, supposing he had done with me, prepared to return to the house; again, however, i heard him call "jane!" he had opened feel portal and stood at it, waiting for me.
"come where there is some freshness, for a few moments," he said; "that house is a mere 105: don't you feel it so?"
"it seems to me a splendid mansion, sir."
"the 106 of inexperience is over your eyes," he answered; "and you see it through a charmed medium: you cannot discern that the 107 is slime and the silk draperies cobwebs; that the marble is 108 109, and the polished woods mere refuse chips and 110 bark. now here" (he 111 to the leafy enclosure we had entered) "all is real, sweet, and pure."
he strayed down a walk edged with box, with apple trees, pear trees, and cherry trees on one side, and a border on the other full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, stocks, sweet-williams, 112, pansies, 113 with southernwood, sweet-briar, and various 114 herbs. they were fresh now as a succession of april showers and gleams, followed by a lovely spring morning, could make them: the sun was just entering the dappled east, and his light illumined the wreathed and dewy orchard trees and shone down the quiet walks under them.
"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 115 and balmly atmosphere?"
"i do, very much."
"you have passed a strange night, jane."
"yes, sir."
"and it has made you look pale--were you afraid when i left you alone with mason?"
"i was afraid of some one coming out of the inner room."
"but i had fastened the door--i had the key in my pocket: i should have been a careless shepherd if i had left a lamb--my pet lamb--so near a wolf's den, unguarded: you were safe."
"will grace poole live here still, sir?"
"oh yes! don't trouble your head about her--put the thing out of your thoughts."
"yet it seems to me your life is hardly secure while she stays."
"never fear--i will take care of myself."
"is the danger you 116 last night gone by now, sir?"
"i cannot 117 for that till mason is out of england: nor even then. to live, for me, jane, is to stand on a crater-crust which may crack and spue fire any day."
"but mr. mason seems a man easily led. your influence, sir, is evidently 118 with him: he will never set you at 119 or 120 injure you."
"oh, no! mason will not defy me; nor, knowing it, will he hurt me-- but, unintentionally, he might in a moment, by one careless word, deprive me, if not of life, yet for ever of happiness."
"tell him to be cautious, sir: let him know what you fear, and show him how to 121 the danger."
he laughed 122, hastily took my hand, and as hastily threw it from him.
"if i could do that, simpleton, where would the danger be? 123 in a moment. ever since i have known mason, i have only had to say to him 'do that,' and the thing has been done. but i cannot give him orders in this case: i cannot say 'beware of harming me, richard;' for it is 124 that i should keep him ignorant that harm to me is possible. now you look puzzled; and i will puzzle you further. you are my little friend, are you not?"
"i like to serve you, sir, and to obey you in all that is right."
"125: i see you do. i see genuine contentment in your gait and 126, your eye and face, when you are 127 me and pleasing me--working for me, and with me, in, as you characteristically say, 'all that is right:' for if i bid you do what you thought wrong, there would be no light-footed running, no neat-handed 128, no lively glance and 129 130. my friend would then turn to me, quiet and pale, and would say, 'no, sir; that is impossible: i cannot do it, because it is wrong;' and would become 131 as a 132 star. well, you too have power over me, and may injure me: yet i dare not show you where i am vulnerable, lest, faithful and friendly as you are, you should transfix me at once."
"if you have no more to fear from mr. mason than you have from me, sir, you are very safe."
"god grant it may be so! here, jane, is an arbour; sit down."
the arbour was an arch in the wall, lined with 133; it contained a 134 seat. mr. rochester took it, leaving room, however, for me: but i stood before him.
"sit," he said; "the bench is long enough for two. you don't hesitate to take a place at my side, do you? is that wrong, jane?"
i answered him by assuming it: to refuse would, i felt, have been unwise.
"now, my little friend, while the sun drinks the dew--while all the flowers in this old garden awake and expand, and the birds fetch their young ones' breakfast out of the thornfield, and the early bees do their first spell of work--i'll put a case to you, which you must endeavour to suppose your own: but first, look at me, and tell me you are at ease, and not fearing that i 15 in detaining you, or that you err in staying."
"no, sir; i am content."
"well then, jane, call to aid your fancy:- suppose you were no longer a girl well reared and disciplined, but a wild boy indulged from childhood 135; imagine yourself in a remote foreign land; conceive that you there commit a capital error, no matter of what nature or from what 136, but one whose consequences must follow you through life and 27 all your existence. mind, i don't say a crime; i am not speaking of shedding of blood or any other guilty act, which might make the perpetrator 137 to the law: my word is error. the results of what you have done become in time to you 138 insupportable; you take measures to obtain relief: unusual measures, but neither unlawful nor 139. still you are 140; for hope has quitted you on the very confines of life: your sun at noon darkens in an eclipse, which you feel will not leave it till the time of setting. bitter and base associations have become the sole food of your memory: you wander here and there, seeking rest in exile: happiness in pleasure--i mean in heartless, sensual pleasure--such as dulls intellect and 141 feeling. heart-weary and soul-withered, you come home after years of voluntary 142: you make a new acquaintance--how or where no matter: you find in this stranger much of the good and bright qualities which you have sought for twenty years, and never before encountered; and they are all fresh, healthy, without soil and without taint. such society revives, 144: you feel better days come back--higher wishes, purer feelings; you desire to recommence your life, and to spend what 145 to you of days in a way more 146 of an 147 being. to 148 this end, are you 149 in overleaping an obstacle of custom--a mere conventional impediment which neither your conscience sanctifies nor your 150 approves?"
he paused for an answer: and what was i to say? oh, for some good spirit to suggest a 151 and satisfactory response! vain 152! 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, however sweet, was inarticulate.
again mr. rochester 153 his 154:
"is the wandering and sinful, but now rest-seeking and 155, man justified in daring the world's opinion, in order to attach to him for ever this gentle, gracious, 156 stranger, 157 securing his own peace of mind and regeneration of life?"
"sir," i answered, "a wanderer's 158 or a sinner's reformation should never depend on a fellow-creature. men and women die; philosophers 159 in wisdom, and 160 in goodness: if any one you know has suffered and 161, let him look higher than his equals for strength to 162 and 163 to heal."
"but the instrument--the instrument! god, who does the work, 164 the instrument. i have myself--i tell it you without parable--been a worldly, dissipated, restless man; and i believe i have found the instrument for my cure in--"
he paused: the birds went on carolling, the leaves lightly 165. i almost wondered they did not check their songs and whispers to catch the suspended revelation; but they would have had to wait many minutes--so long was the silence 166. at last i looked up at the 167 speaker: he was looking eagerly at me.
"little friend," said he, in quite a changed tone--while his face changed too, losing all its softness and gravity, and becoming harsh and sarcastic--"you have noticed my tender 168 for miss ingram: don't you think if i married her she would 143 me with a 169?"
he got up instantly, went quite to the other end of the walk, and when he came back he was humming a 170.
"jane, jane," said he, stopping before me, "you are quite pale with your vigils: don't you curse me for disturbing your rest?"
"curse you? no, sir."
"shake hands in 171 of the word. what cold fingers! they were warmer last night when i touched them at the door of the mysterious chamber. jane, when will you watch with me again?"
"whenever i can be useful, sir."
"for instance, the night before i am married! i am sure i shall not be able to sleep. will you promise to sit up with me to bear me company? to you i can talk of my lovely one: for now you have seen her and know her."
"yes, sir."
"she's a rare one, is she not, jane?"
"yes, sir."
"a strapper--a real strapper, jane: big, brown, and 172; with hair just such as the ladies of carthage must have had. bless me! there's dent and lynn in the stables! go in by the shrubbery, through that wicket."
as i went one way, he went another, and i heard him in the yard, saying cheerfully -
"mason got the start of you all this morning; he was gone before sunrise: i rose at four to see him off."
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