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  • CHAPTER THREE of Jane Eyre This is a Librivox recording.

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  • Recording by Elizabeth Klett Jane Eyre by Charlotte BRONTË Chapter Three

  • The next thing I remember is, waking up with a feeling as if I had had a

  • frightful nightmare, and seeing before me a terrible red glare, crossed

  • with thick black bars.

  • I heard voices, too, speaking with a hollow sound, and as if muffled by a rush of wind

  • or water: agitation, uncertainty, and an all-predominating sense

  • of terror confused my faculties.

  • Ere long, I became aware that some one was handling me;

  • lifting me up and supporting me in a sitting posture, and that more

  • tenderly than I had ever been raised or upheld before.

  • I rested my head against a pillow or an arm, and felt easy.

  • In five minutes more the cloud of bewilderment dissolved: I knew quite

  • well that I was in my own bed, and that the red glare was the nursery

  • fire.

  • It was night: a candle burnt on the table; Bessie stood at the bed-

  • foot with a basin in her hand, and a gentleman sat in a chair near my

  • pillow, leaning over me.

  • I felt an inexpressible relief, a soothing conviction of protection and

  • security, when I knew that there was a stranger in the room, an

  • individual not belonging to Gateshead, and not related to Mrs. Reed.

  • Turning from Bessie (though her presence was far less obnoxious to me

  • than that of Abbot, for instance, would have been), I scrutinised the

  • face of the gentleman: I knew him; it was Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary,

  • sometimes called in by Mrs. Reed when the servants were ailing: for

  • herself and the children she employed a physician.

  • "Well, who am I?" he asked.

  • I pronounced his name, offering him at the same time my hand: he took it,

  • smiling and saying, "We shall do very well by-and-by."

  • Then he laid me down, and addressing Bessie, charged her to

  • be very careful that I was not disturbed during the night.

  • Having given some further directions, and intimates that he should call again the

  • next day, he departed; to my grief: I felt so sheltered and befriended

  • while he sat in the chair near my pillow; and as he closed the door after

  • him, all the room darkened and my heart again sank: inexpressible sadness

  • weighed it down.

  • "Do you feel as if you should sleep, Miss?" asked Bessie, rather softly.

  • Scarcely dared I answer her; for I feared the next sentence might be

  • rough.

  • "I will try."

  • "Would you like to drink, or could you eat anything?"

  • "No, thank you, Bessie."

  • "Then I think I shall go to bed, for it is past twelve o'clock; but you

  • may call me if you want anything in the night."

  • Wonderful civility this!

  • It emboldened me to ask a question.

  • "Bessie, what is the matter with me?

  • Am I ill?"

  • "You fell sick, I suppose, in the red-room with crying; you'll be better

  • soon, no doubt."

  • Bessie went into the housemaid's apartment, which was near.

  • I heard her say--

  • "Sarah, come and sleep with me in the nursery; I daren't for my life be

  • alone with that poor child to-night: she might die; it's such a strange

  • thing she should have that fit: I wonder if she saw anything.

  • Missis was rather too hard."

  • Sarah came back with her; they both went to bed; they were whispering

  • together for half-an-hour before they fell asleep.

  • I caught scraps of their conversation, from which I was able

  • only too distinctly to infer the main subject discussed.

  • "Something passed her, all dressed in white, and vanished"--"A great

  • black dog behind him"--"Three loud raps on the chamber door"--"A light in

  • the churchyard just over his grave," etc., etc.

  • At last both slept: the fire and the candle went out.

  • For me, the watches of that long night passed in ghastly

  • wakefulness; strained by dread: such dread as children only can feel.

  • No severe or prolonged bodily illness followed this incident of the red-

  • room; it only gave my nerves a shock of which I feel the reverberation to

  • this day.

  • Yes, Mrs. Reed, to you I owe some fearful pangs of mental

  • suffering, but I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did:

  • while rending my heart-strings, you thought you were only uprooting my

  • bad propensities.

  • Next day, by noon, I was up and dressed, and sat wrapped in a shawl by

  • the nursery hearth.

  • I felt physically weak and broken down: but my worse

  • ailment was an unutterable wretchedness of mind: a wretchedness which

  • kept drawing from me silent tears; no sooner had I wiped one salt drop

  • from my cheek than another followed.

  • Yet, I thought, I ought to have been happy, for none of the Reeds were there,

  • they were all gone out in the carriage with their mama.

  • Abbot, too, was sewing in another room, and Bessie, as she moved hither and thither,

  • putting away toys and arranging drawers, addressed to me every now

  • and then a word of unwonted kindness.

  • This state of things should have been to me a paradise of

  • peace, accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thankless

  • fagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no

  • calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably.

  • Bessie had been down into the kitchen, and she brought up with her a tart

  • on a certain brightly painted china plate, whose bird of paradise,

  • nestling in a wreath of convolvuli and rosebuds, had been wont to stir in

  • me a most enthusiastic sense of admiration; and which plate I had often

  • petitioned to be allowed to take in my hand in order to examine it more

  • closely, but had always hitherto been deemed unworthy of such a

  • privilege.

  • This precious vessel was now placed on my knee, and I was

  • cordially invited to eat the circlet of delicate pastry upon it.

  • Vain favour!

  • coming, like most other favours long deferred and often wished

  • for, too late!

  • I could not eat the tart; and the plumage of the bird,

  • the tints of the flowers, seemed strangely faded: I put both plate and

  • tart away.

  • Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word _book_ acted as

  • a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver's Travels from

  • the library.

  • This book I had again and again perused with delight.

  • I considered it a narrative of facts, and discovered

  • in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy

  • tales: for as to the elves, having sought them in vain among foxglove

  • leaves and bells, under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling

  • old wall-nooks, I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that

  • they were all gone out of England to some savage country where the woods

  • were wilder and thicker, and the population more scant; whereas, Lilliput

  • and Brobdignag being, in my creed, solid parts of the earth's surface,

  • I doubted not that I might one day, by taking a long voyage, see with

  • my own eyes the little fields, houses, and trees, the diminutive people,

  • the tiny cows, sheep, and birds of the one realm; and the corn-fields forest-high,

  • the mighty mastiffs, the monster cats, the tower-like men and women,

  • of the other.

  • Yet, when this cherished volume was now placed in my

  • hand--when I turned over its leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures

  • the charm I had, till now, never failed to find--all was eerie and dreary;

  • the giants were gaunt goblins, the pigmies malevolent and fearful

  • imps, Gulliver a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous

  • regions.

  • I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and

  • put it on the table, beside the untasted tart.

  • Bessie had now finished dusting and tidying the room, and having washed

  • her hands, she opened a certain little drawer, full of splendid shreds of

  • silk and satin, and began making a new bonnet for Georgiana's doll.

  • Meantime she sang: her song was--

  • "In the days when we went gipsying, A long time ago."

  • I had often heard the song before, and always with lively delight; for

  • Bessie had a sweet voice,--at least, I thought so.

  • But now, though her voice was still sweet, I found in its melody

  • an indescribable sadness.

  • Sometimes, preoccupied with her work, she sang the refrain very low, very

  • lingeringly; "A long time ago" came out like the saddest cadence of a

  • funeral hymn.

  • She passed into another ballad, this time a really doleful

  • one.

  • "My feet they are sore, and my limbs they are weary;

  • Long is the way, and the mountains are wild; Soon will the twilight close moonless and

  • dreary Over the path of the poor orphan child.

  • Why did they send me so far and so lonely, Up where the moors spread and grey rocks are

  • piled?

  • Men are hard-hearted, and kind angels only Watch o'er the steps of a poor orphan child.

  • Yet distant and soft the night breeze is blowing, Clouds there are none, and clear stars beam

  • mild, God, in His mercy, protection is showing,

  • Comfort and hope to the poor orphan child.

  • Ev'n should I fall o'er the broken bridge passing,

  • Or stray in the marshes, by false lights beguiled, Still will my Father, with promise and blessing,

  • Take to His bosom the poor orphan child.

  • There is a thought that for strength should avail me,

  • Though both of shelter and kindred despoiled; Heaven is a home, and a rest will not fail

  • me; God is a friend to the poor orphan child."

  • "Come, Miss Jane, don't cry," said Bessie as she finished.

  • She might as well have said to the fire, "don't burn!"

  • but how could she divine the morbid suffering to which I was a prey?

  • In the course of the morning Mr. Lloyd came again.

  • "What, already up!" said he, as he entered the nursery.

  • "Well, nurse, how is she?"

  • Bessie answered that I was doing very well.

  • "Then she ought to look more cheerful.

  • Come here, Miss Jane: your name is Jane, is it not?"

  • "Yes, sir, Jane Eyre."

  • "Well, you have been crying, Miss Jane Eyre; can you tell me what about?

  • Have you any pain?"

  • "No, sir."

  • "Oh!

  • I daresay she is crying because she could not go out with Missis in

  • the carriage," interposed Bessie.

  • "Surely not!

  • why, she is too old for such pettishness."

  • I thought so too; and my self-esteem being wounded by the false charge, I

  • answered promptly, "I never cried for such a thing in my life: I hate

  • going out in the carriage.

  • I cry because I am miserable."

  • "Oh fie, Miss!" said Bessie.

  • The good apothecary appeared a little puzzled.

  • I was standing before him; he fixed his eyes on me very steadily:

  • his eyes were small and grey; not very bright, but I dare say I should think

  • them shrewd now: he had a hard-featured yet good-natured looking face.

  • Having considered me at leisure, he said--

  • "What made you ill yesterday?"

  • "She had a fall," said Bessie, again putting in her word.

  • "Fall!

  • why, that is like a baby again!

  • Can't she manage to walk at her age?

  • She must be eight or nine years old."

  • "I was knocked down," was the blunt explanation, jerked out of me by

  • another pang of mortified pride; "but that did not make me ill," I added;

  • while Mr. Lloyd helped himself to a pinch of snuff.

  • As he was returning the box to his waistcoat pocket, a loud bell rang for

  • the servants' dinner; he knew what it was.

  • "That's for you, nurse," said he; "you can go down; I'll give Miss Jane

  • a lecture till you come back."

  • Bessie would rather have stayed, but she was obliged to go, because

  • punctuality at meals was rigidly enforced at Gateshead Hall.

  • "The fall did not make you ill; what did, then?"

  • pursued Mr. Lloyd when Bessie was gone.

  • "I was shut up in a room where there is a ghost till after dark."

  • I saw Mr. Lloyd smile and frown at the same time.

  • "Ghost!

  • What, you are a baby after all!

  • You are afraid of ghosts?"

  • "Of Mr. Reed's ghost I am: he died in that room, and was laid out there.

  • Neither Bessie nor any one else will go into it at night, if they can

  • help it; and it was cruel to shut me up alone without a candle,--so cruel

  • that I think I shall never forget it."

  • "Nonsense!

  • And is it that makes you so miserable?

  • Are you afraid now in daylight?"

  • "No: but night will come again before long: and besides,--I am

  • unhappy,--very unhappy, for other things."

  • "What other things?

  • Can you tell me some of them?"

  • How much I wished to reply fully to this question!

  • How difficult it was to frame any answer!

  • Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their

  • feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know

  • not how to express the result of the process in words.

  • Fearful, however, of losing this first and only opportunity

  • of relieving my grief by imparting it, I, after a disturbed pause,

  • contrived to frame a meagre, though, as far as it went, true response.

  • "For one thing, I have no father or mother, brothers or sisters."

  • "You have a kind aunt and cousins."

  • Again I paused; then bunglingly enounced--

  • "But John Reed knocked me down, and my aunt shut me up in the red-room."

  • Mr. Lloyd a second time produced his snuff-box.

  • "Don't you think Gateshead Hall a very beautiful house?" asked he.

  • "Are you not very thankful to have such a fine

  • place to live at?"

  • "It is not my house, sir; and Abbot says I have less right to be here

  • than a servant."

  • "Pooh!

  • you can't be silly enough to wish to leave such a splendid place?"

  • "If I had anywhere else to go, I should be glad to leave it; but I can

  • never get away from Gateshead till I am a woman."

  • "Perhaps you may--who knows?

  • Have you any relations besides Mrs. Reed?"

  • "I think not, sir."

  • "None belonging to your father?"

  • "I don't know.

  • I asked Aunt Reed once, and she said possibly I might

  • have some poor, low relations called Eyre, but she knew nothing about

  • them."

  • "If you had such, would you like to go to them?"

  • I reflected.

  • Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to

  • children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable

  • poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes,

  • scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing vices: poverty

  • for me was synonymous with degradation.

  • "No; I should not like to belong to poor people," was my reply.

  • "Not even if they were kind to you?"

  • I shook my head: I could not see how poor people had the means of being

  • kind; and then to learn to speak like them, to adopt their manners, to be

  • uneducated, to grow up like one of the poor women I saw sometimes nursing

  • their children or washing their clothes at the cottage doors of the

  • village of Gateshead: no, I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at

  • the price of caste.

  • "But are your relatives so very poor?

  • Are they working people?"

  • "I cannot tell; Aunt Reed says if I have any, they must be a beggarly

  • set: I should not like to go a begging."

  • "Would you like to go to school?"

  • Again I reflected: I scarcely knew what school was: Bessie sometimes

  • spoke of it as a place where young ladies sat in the stocks, wore

  • backboards, and were expected to be exceedingly genteel and precise: John

  • Reed hated his school, and abused his master; but John Reed's tastes were

  • no rule for mine, and if Bessie's accounts of school-discipline (gathered

  • from the young ladies of a family where she had lived before coming to

  • Gateshead) were somewhat appalling, her details of certain

  • accomplishments attained by these same young ladies were, I thought,

  • equally attractive.

  • She boasted of beautiful paintings of landscapes and

  • flowers by them executed; of songs they could sing and pieces they could

  • play, of purses they could net, of French books they could translate;

  • till my spirit was moved to emulation as I listened.

  • Besides, school would be a complete change: it implied a long

  • journey, an entire separation from Gateshead, an entrance into

  • a new life.

  • "I should indeed like to go to school," was the audible conclusion of my

  • musings.

  • "Well, well!

  • who knows what may happen?" said Mr. Lloyd, as he got up.

  • "The child ought to have change of air and scene," he added, speaking to

  • himself; "nerves not in a good state."

  • Bessie now returned; at the same moment the carriage was heard rolling up

  • the gravel-walk.

  • "Is that your mistress, nurse?" asked Mr. Lloyd.

  • "I should like to speak to her before I go."

  • Bessie invited him to walk into the breakfast-room, and led the way out.

  • In the interview which followed between him and Mrs. Reed, I presume,

  • from after-occurrences, that the apothecary ventured to recommend my

  • being sent to school; and the recommendation was no doubt readily enough

  • adopted; for as Abbot said, in discussing the subject with Bessie when

  • both sat sewing in the nursery one night, after I was in bed, and, as

  • they thought, asleep, "Missis was, she dared say, glad enough to get rid

  • of such a tiresome, ill-conditioned child, who always looked as if she

  • were watching everybody, and scheming plots underhand."

  • Abbot, I think, gave me credit for being a sort of infantine

  • Guy Fawkes.

  • On that same occasion I learned, for the first time, from Miss Abbot's

  • communications to Bessie, that my father had been a poor clergyman; that

  • my mother had married him against the wishes of her friends, who

  • considered the match beneath her; that my grandfather Reed was so

  • irritated at her disobedience, he cut her off without a shilling; that

  • after my mother and father had been married a year, the latter caught the

  • typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town

  • where his curacy was situated, and where that disease was then prevalent:

  • that my mother took the infection from him, and both died within a month

  • of each other.

  • Bessie, when she heard this narrative, sighed and said, "Poor Miss Jane

  • is to be pitied, too, Abbot."

  • "Yes," responded Abbot; "if she were a nice, pretty child, one might

  • compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a

  • little toad as that."

  • "Not a great deal, to be sure," agreed Bessie: "at any rate, a beauty

  • like Miss Georgiana would be more moving in the same condition."

  • "Yes, I doat on Miss Georgiana!"

  • cried the fervent Abbot. "Little darling!--with her long curls and her blue

  • eyes, and such a sweet colour as she has; just as if she were painted!--Bessie,

  • I could fancy a Welsh rabbit for supper."

  • "So could I--with a roast onion.

  • Come, we'll go down."

  • They went.

  • End of Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE of Jane Eyre This is a Librivox recording.

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