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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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391 ‘Yes, of friends,’ I answered rather hesitatingly: for I knew I meant more than friends, but could not tell what other word to employ. He helped me. ‘Ah! Jane. But I want a wife.’ ‘Do you, sir?’ ‘Yes: is it news to you?’ ‘Of course: you said nothing about it before.’ ‘Is it unwelcome news?’ ‘That depends on circumstances, sir-on your choice.’ ‘Which you shall make for me, Jane. I will abide by your decision.’ ‘Choose then, sir-her who loves you best.’ ‘I will at least choose- her I love best. Jane, will you marry me?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘A poor blind man, whom you will have to lead about by the hand?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘A crippled man, twenty years older than you, whom you will have to wait on?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Truly, Jane?’ ‘Most truly, sir.’ ‘Oh! my darling! God bless you and reward you!’ ‘Mr. Rochester, if ever I did a good deed in my life-if ever I thought a good thought-if ever I prayed a sincere and blameless prayer-if ever I wished a righteous wish,- I am rewarded now. To be your wife is, for me, to be as happy as I can be on earth.’ ‘Because you delight in sacrifice.’ ‘Sacrifice! What do I sacrifice? Famine for food, expectation for content. To be privileged to put my arms round what I value-to press my lips to what I loveto repose on what I trust: is that to make a sacrifice? If so, then certainly I delight in sacrifice.’ ‘And to bear with my infirmities, Jane: to overlook my deficiencies.’ ‘Which are none, sir, to me. I love you better now, when I can really be useful to you, than I did in your state of proud independence, when you disdained every part but that of the giver and protector.’ ‘Hitherto I have hated to be helped-to be led: henceforth, I feel I shall hate it no more. I did not like to put my hand into a hireling’s, but it is pleasant to feel it circled by Jane’s little fingers. I preferred utter loneliness to the constant attendance of servants; but Jane’s soft ministry will be a perpetual joy. Jane suits me: do I suit her?’ ‘To the finest fibre of my nature, sir.’ ‘The case being so, we have nothing in the world to wait for: we must be married instantly.’ He looked and spoke with eagerness: his old impetuosity was rising. ‘We must become one flesh without any delay, Jane: there is but the licence to get-then we marry.’ ‘Mr. Rochester, I have just discovered the sun is far declined from its meridian, and Pilot is actually gone home to his dinner. Let me look at your watch.’ ‘Fasten it into your girdle, Janet, and keep it henceforward: I have no use for it.’ ‘It is nearly four o’clock in the afternoon, sir. Don’t you feel hungry?’ ‘The third day from this must be our wedding- day, Jane. Never mind fine clothes and jewels, now: all that is not worth a fillip.’ ‘The sun has dried up all the rain-drops, sir. The breeze is still: it is quite hot.’ ‘Do you know, Jane, I have your little pearl necklace at this moment fastened round my bronze scrag |
