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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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230 green eyes, reader; but you must excuse the mistake: for him they were new-dyed, I suppose.) ‘It is Jane Eyre, sir.’ ‘Soon to be Jane Rochester,’ he added: ‘in four weeks, Janet; not a day more. Do you hear that?’ I did, and I could not quite comprehend it: it made me giddy. The feeling, the announcement sent through me, was something stronger than was consistent with joy-something that smote and stunned: it was, I think, almost fear. ‘You blushed, and now you are white, Jane: what is that for?’ ‘Because you gave me a new name-Jane Rochester; and it seems so strange.’ ‘Yes, Mrs. Rochester,’ said he; ‘young Mrs. Rochester- Fairfax Rochester’s girl-bride.’ ‘It can never be, sir; it does not sound likely. Human beings never enjoy complete happiness in this world. I was not born for a different destiny to the rest of my species: to imagine such a lot befalling me is a fairy tale-a day- dream.’ ‘Which I can and will realise. I shall begin to-day. This morning I wrote to my banker in London to send me certain jewels he has in his keeping,- heirlooms for the ladies of Thornfield. In a day or two I hope to pour them into your lap: for every privilege, every attention shall be yours that I would accord a peer’s daughter, if about to marry her.’ ‘Oh, sir!- never mind jewels! I don’t like to hear them spoken of. Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds unnatural and strange: I would rather not have them.’ ‘I will myself put the diamond chain round your neck, and the circlet on your forehead,- which it will become: for nature, at least, has stamped her patent of nobility on this brow, Jane; and I will clasp the bracelets on these fine wrists, and load these fairy-like fingers with rings.’ ‘No, no, sir! think of other subjects, and speak of other things, and in another strain. Don’t address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain, Quakerish governess.’ ‘You are a beauty in my eyes, and a beauty just after the desire of my heart,delicate and aerial.’ ‘Puny and insignificant, you mean. You are dreaming, sir,- or you are sneering. For God’s sake, don’t be ironical!’ ‘I will make the world acknowledge you a beauty, too,’ he went on, while I really became uneasy at the strain he had adopted, because I felt he was either deluding himself or trying to delude me. ‘I will attire my Jane in satin and lace, and she shall have roses in her hair; and I will cover the head I love best with a priceless veil.’ ‘And then you won’t know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any longer, but an ape in a harlequin’s jacket-a jay in borrowed plumes. I would as soon see you, Mr. Rochester, tricked out in stage- trappings, as myself clad in a court-lady’s robe; and I don’t call you handsome, sir, though I love you most dearly: far too dearly to flatter you. Don’t flatter me.’ He pursued his theme, however, without noticing my deprecation. ‘This very day I shall take you in |
