正文预览

第3章 即视感

　　'Aire? Bah! I cannot say it. Well, our ship stopped in the morning,before it was quite daylight, at a great city- a huge city, withvery dark houses and all smoky; not at all like the pretty cleantown I came from; and Mr. Rochester carried me in his arms over aplank to the land, and Sophie came after, and we all got into a coach,which took us to a beautiful large house, larger than this andfiner, called an hotel. We stayed there nearly a week: I and Sophieused to walk every day in a great green place full of trees, calledthe Park; and there were many children there besides me, and a pondwith beautiful birds in it, that I fed with crumbs.'

　　'No crowding,' said Mr. Rochester: 'take the drawings from myhand as I finish with them; but don't push your faces up to mine.'

　　'Miss Temple, Miss Temple, what- what is that girl with curledhair? Red hair, ma'am, curled- curled all over?' And extending hiscane he pointed to the awful object, his hand shaking as he did so.

　　'How dare you affirm that, Jane Eyre?'

　　'Oh, no.'

　　'As you do, Bessie?'

　　A singular notion dawned upon me. I doubted not- never doubted-that if Mr. Reed had been alive he would have treated me kindly; andnow, as I sat looking at the white bed and overshadowed walls-occasionally also turning a fascinated eye towards the dimlygleaming mirror- I began to recall what I had heard of dead men,troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes,revisiting the earth to punish the perjured and avenge theoppressed; and I thought Mr. Reed's spirit, harassed by the wrongsof his sister's child, might quit its abode- whether in the churchvault or in the unknown world of the departed- and rise before me inthis chamber. I wiped my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest anysign of violent grief might waken a preternatural voice to comfort me,or elicit from the gloom some haloed face, bending over me withstrange pity. This idea, consolatory in theory, I felt would beterrible if realised: with all my might I endeavoured to stifle it-I endeavoured to be firm. Shaking my hair from my eyes

　　Heaven is a home, and a rest will not fail me;

　　Sitting on a low stool, a few yards from her arm-chair, Iexamined her figure; I perused her features. In my hand I held thetract containing the sudden death of the Liar, to which narrative myattention had been pointed as to an appropriate warning. What had justpassed; what Mrs. Reed had said concerning me to Mr. Brocklehurst; thewhole tenor of their conversation, was recent, raw, and stinging in mymind; I had felt every word as acutely as I had heard it plainly,and a passion of resentment fomented now within me.