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第4章 自己调整，必须收敛

　　'I know something of Mr. Lloyd; I shall write to him; if hisreply agrees with your statement, you shall be publicly cleared fromevery imputation; to me, Jane, you are clear now.'

　　'Go out of the room; return to the nursery,' was her mandate. Mylook or something else must have struck her as offensive, for shespoke with extreme though suppressed irritation. I got up, I went tothe door; I came back again; I walked to the window, across theroom, then close up to her.

　　Now came a pause of ten minutes, during which I, by this time inperfect possession of my wits, observed all the female Brocklehurstsproduce their pocket-handkerchiefs and apply them to their optics,while the elderly lady swayed herself to and fro, and the twoyounger ones whispered, 'How shocking!'

　　'I hope so; but nobody can be sure of the future.'

　　The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marinephantoms.

　　Adele and I had now to vacate the library: it would be in dailyrequisition as a reception-room for callers. A fire was lit in anapartment upstairs, and there I carried our books, and arranged it forthe future schoolroom. I discerned in the course of the morning thatThornfield Hall was a changed place: no longer silent as a church,it echoed every hour or two to a knock at the door, or a clang ofthe bell: steps, too, often traversed the hall, and new voices spokein different keys below; a rill from the outer world was flowingthrough it; it had a master: for my part, I liked it better.

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

　　'Only such books as came in my way; and they have not been numerousor very learned.'