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第7章 还有什么要求？

　　A NEW chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play;and when I draw up the curtain this time, reader, you must fancy yousee a room in the George Inn at Millcote, with such large figuredpapering on the walls as inn rooms have; such a carpet, suchfurniture, such ornaments on the mantel-piece, such prints,including a portrait of George the Third, and another of the Prince ofWales, and a representation of the death of Wolfe. All this is visibleto you by the light of an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling, and bythat of an excellent fire, near which I sit in my cloak and bonnet; mymuff and umbrella lie on the table, and I am warming away the numbnessand chill contracted by sixteen hours' exposure to the rawness of anOctober day: I left Lowton at four o'clock A.M., and the Millcote townclock is now just striking eight.

　　CHAPTER VII--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

　　Mr. Rochester must have been aware of the entrance of Mrs.Fairfax and myself; but it appeared he was not in the mood to noticeus, for he never lifted his head as we approached.

　　'But has he no peculiarities? What, in short, is his character?'

　　'Good morning, Miss Adela,' said Mrs. Fairfax. 'Come and speak tothe lady who is to teach you, and to make you a clever woman someday.' She approached.

　　'But that teacher, Miss Scatcherd, is so cruel to you?'

　　'What?' said Mrs. Reed under her breath: her usually coldcomposed grey eye became troubled with a look like fear; she tookher hand from my arm, and gazed at me as if she really did not knowwhether I were child or fiend. I was now in for it.

　　'The carrier, no doubt,' I thought, and ran downstairs withoutinquiry. I was passing the back-parlour or teachers' sitting-room, thedoor of which was half open, to go to the kitchen, when some one ranout-

　　I lingered at the gates; I lingered on the lawn; I pacedbackwards and forwards on the pavement; the shutters of the glass doorwere closed; I could not see into the interior; and both my eyes andspirit seemed drawn from the gloomy house- from the grey hollow filledwith rayless cells, as it appeared to me- to that sky expandedbefore me,- a blue sea absolved from taint of cloud; the moonascending it in solemn march; her orb seeming to look up as she leftthe hill-tops, from behind which she had come, far and farther belowher, and aspired to the zenith, midnight dark in its fathomlessdepth and measureless distance; and for those trembling stars thatfollowed her course; they made my heart tremble, my veins glow whenI viewed them. Little things recall us to earth; the clock struck inthe hall; that sufficed; I turned from moon and stars, opened aside-door, and went in.