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第9章 你永远是我聂王朝的王妃

　　'Was it your mama who taught you that piece?' I asked.

　　My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received:no one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I hadturned against him to avert farther irrational violence, I wasloaded with general opprobrium.

　　It was the fifteenth of January, about nine o'clock in the morning:Bessie was gone down to breakfast; my cousins had not yet beensummoned to their mama; Eliza was putting on her bonnet and warmgarden-coat to go and feed her poultry, an occupation of which she wasfond: and not less so of selling the eggs to the housekeeper andhoarding up the money she thus obtained. She had a turn for traffic,and a marked propensity for saving; shown not only in the vending ofeggs and chickens, but also in driving hard bargains with the gardenerabout flower-roots, seeds, and slips of plants; that functionaryhaving orders from Mrs. Reed to buy of his young lady all the productsof her parterre she wished to sell: and Eliza would have sold the hairoff her head if she could have made a handsome profit thereby. As toher money, she first secreted it in odd corners, wrapped in a rag oran old curl-paper; but some of these hoards having been discoveredby the housemaid, Eliza, fearful of one day losing her valuedtreasure, consented to

　　'You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations toMrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you wouldhave to go to the poorhouse.'

　　'You see she is yet young; you observe she possesses the ordinaryform of childhood; God has graciously given her the shape that Hehas given to all of us; no signal deformity points her out as a markedcharacter. Who would think that the Evil One had already found aservant and agent in her? Yet such, I grieve to say, is the case.'

　　'Not a great deal, to be sure,' agreed Bessie: 'at any rate, abeauty like Miss Georgiana would be more moving in the samecondition.'

　　'Is there a little girl called Jane Eyre here?' she asked. Ianswered 'Yes', and was then lifted out; my trunk was handed down, andthe coach instantly drove away.

　　I was yet enjoying the calm prospect and pleasant fresh air, yetlistening with delight to the cawing of the rooks, yet surveying thewide, hoary front of the hall, and thinking what a great place itwas for one lonely little dame like Mrs. Fairfax to inhabit, when thatlady appeared at the door.

　　'Silence! This violence is all most repulsive:' and so, no doubt,she felt it. I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely.looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, anddangerous duplicity.