a week or more: when these fine, fashionable people get together, they

are so surrounded by elegance and gaiety, so well provided with all

that can please and entertain, they are in no hurry to separate.

Gentlemen especially are often in request on such occasions; and Mr.

Rochester is so talented and so lively in society, that I believe he

is a general favourite: the ladies are very fond of him; though you

would not think his appearance calculated to recommend him

particularly in their eyes: but I suppose his acquirements and

abilities, perhaps his wealth and good blood, make amends for any

little fault of look.'

'Are there ladies at the Leas?'

'There are Mrs. Eshton and her three daughters- very elegant

young ladies indeed; and there are the Honourable Blanche and Mary

Ingram, most beautiful women, I suppose: indeed I have seen Blanche,

six or seven years since, when she was a girl of eighteen. She came

here to a Christmas ball and party Mr. Rochester gave. You should have

seen the dining-room that day- how richly it was decorated, how

brilliantly lit up! I should think there were fifty ladies and

gentlemen present- all of the first county families; and Miss Ingram

was considered the belle of the evening.'

'You saw her, you say, Mrs. Fairfax: what was she like?'

'Yes, I saw her. The dining-room doors were thrown open; and, as it

was Christmas-time, the servants were allowed to assemble in the hall,

to hear some of the ladies sing and play. Mr. Rochester would have

me to come in, and I sat down in a quiet corner and watched them. I

never saw a more splendid scene: the ladies were magnificently

dressed; most of them- at least most of the younger ones- looked

handsome; but Miss Ingram was certainly the queen.'

'And what was she like?'

'Tall, fine bust, sloping shoulders; long, graceful neck: olive

complexion, dark and clear; noble features; eyes rather like Mr.

Rochester's: large and black, and as brilliant as her jewels. And then

she had such a fine head of hair; raven-black and so becomingly

arranged: a crown of thick plaits behind, and in front the longest,

the glossiest curls I ever saw. She was dressed in pure white; an

amber-coloured scarf was passed over her shoulder and across her

breast, tied at the side, and descending in long, fringed ends below

her knee. She wore an amber-coloured flower, too, in her hair: it

contrasted well with the jetty mass of her curls.'

'She was greatly admired, of course?'

'Yes, indeed: and not only for her beauty, but for her

accomplishments. She was one of the ladies who sang: a gentleman

accompanied her on the piano. She and Mr. Rochester sang a duet.'

'Mr. Rochester? I was not aware he could sing.'

'Oh! he has a fine bass voice, and an excellent taste for music.'

'And Miss Ingram: what sort of a voice had she?'

'A very rich and powerful one: she sang delightfully; it was a

treat to listen to her;- and she played afterwards. I am no judge of

music, but Mr. Rochester is; and I heard him say her execution was

remarkably good.'

'And this beautiful and accomplished lady, she is not yet married.'

'It appears not: I fancy neither she nor her sister have very large

fortunes. Old Lord Ingram's estates were chiefly entailed, and the

eldest son came in for everything almost.'

'But I wonder no wealthy nobleman or gentleman has taken a fancy to

her: Mr. Rochester, for instance. He is rich, is he not?'

'Oh! yes. But you see there is a considerable difference in age:

Mr. Rochester is nearly forty; she is but twenty-five.'

'What of that? More unequal matches are made every day.'

'True: yet I should scarcely fancy Mr. Rochester would entertain an

idea of the sort. But you eat nothing: you have scarcely tasted

since you began tea.'

'No: I am too thirsty to eat. Will you let me have another cup?'

I was about again to revert to the probability of a union between

Mr. Rochester and the beautiful Blanche; but Adele came in, and the

conversation was turned into another channel.

When once more alone, I reviewed the information I had got;

looked into my heart, examined its thoughts and feelings, and

endeavoured to bring back with a strict hand such as had been straying

through imagination's boundless and trackless waste, into the safe

fold of common sense.

Arraigned at my own bar, Memory having given her evidence of the

hopes, wishes, sentiments I had been cherishing since last night- of

the general state of mind in which I had indulged for nearly a

fortnight past; Reason having come forward and told, in her own

quiet way, a plain, unvarnished tale, showing how I had rejected the

real, and rabidly devoured the ideal;- I pronounced judgment to this

effect:-

That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of

life; that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet

lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar.

'You,' I said, 'a favourite with Mr. Rochester? You gifted with the

power of pleasing him? You of importance to him in any way? Go! your

folly sickens me. And you have derived pleasure from occasional tokens

of preference- equivocal tokens shown by a gentleman of family and a

man of the world to a dependant and a novice. How dared you? Poor

stupid dupe!- Could not even self-interest make you wiser? You

repeated to yourself this morning the brief scene of last night?-

Cover your face and be ashamed! He said something in praise of your

eyes, did he? Blind puppy! Open their bleared lids and look on your

own accursed senselessness! It does good to no woman to be flattered

by her superior, who cannot possibly intend to marry her; and it is

madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which,

if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if

discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry

wilds whence there is no extrication.

'Listen, then, Jane Eyre, to your sentence: to-morrow, place the

glass before you, and draw in chalk your own picture, faithfully,

without softening one defect; omit no harsh line, smooth away no

displeasing irregularity; write under it, "Portrait of a Governess,

disconnected, poor, and plain."

'Afterwards, take a piece of smooth ivory- you have one prepared in

your drawing-box: take your palette, mix your freshest, finest,

clearest tints; choose your most delicate camel-hair pencils;

delineate carefully the loveliest face you can imagine; paint it in

your softest shades and sweetest hues, according to the description

given by Mrs. Fairfax of Blanche Ingram; remember the raven

ringlets, the oriental eye;- What! you revert to Mr. Rochester as a

model! Order! No snivel!- no sentiment!- no regret! I will endure only

sense and resolution. Recall the august yet harmonious lineaments, the

Grecian neck and bust; let the round and dazzling arm be visible,

and the delicate hand; omit neither diamond ring nor gold bracelet;

portrayfaithfully the attire, aerial lace and glistening satin,

graceful scarf and golden rose; call it "Blanche, an accomplished lady

of rank."

'Whenever, in future, you should chance to fancy Mr. Rochester

thinks well of you, take out these two pictures and compare them: say,

"Mr. Rochester might probably win that noble lady's love, if he

chose to strive for it; is it likely he would waste a serious

thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?"'

'I'll do it,' I resolved: and having framed this determination, I

grew calm, and fell asleep.

I kept my word. An hour or two sufficed to sketch my own portrait

in crayons; and in less than a fortnight I had completed an ivory

miniature of an imaginary Blanche Ingram. It looked a lovely face

enough, and when compared with the real head in chalk, the contrast

was as great as self-control could desire. I derived benefit from

the task: it had kept my head and hands employed, and had given

force and fixedness to the new impressions I wished to stamp indelibly

on my heart.

Ere long, I had reason to congratulate myself on the course of

wholesome discipline to which I had thus forced my feelings to submit.

Thanks to it, I was able to meet subsequent occurrences with a

decent calm, which, had they found me unprepared, I should probably

have been unequal to maintain, even externally.