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第1章 那年的冬天有你

　　'Well, I will; but mind you are a very good girl, and don't beafraid of me. Don't start when I chance to speak rather sharply;it's so provoking.'

　　'I have no brothers or sisters.'

　　Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber hebreathed his last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne bythe undertaker's men; and, since that day, a sense of drearyconsecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion.

　　Meantime, Mr. Brocklehurst, standing on the hearth with his handsbehind his back, majestically surveyed the whole school. Suddenlyhis eye gave a blink, as if it had met something that either dazzledor shocked its pupil; turning, he said in more rapid accents than hehad hitherto used-

　　'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.

　　Long did the hours seem while I waited the departure of thecompany, and listened for the sound of Bessie's step on the stairs:sometimes she would come up in the interval to seek her thimble or herscissors, or perhaps to bring me something by way of supper- a bunor a cheese-cake- then she would sit on the bed while I ate it, andwhen I had finished, she would tuck the clothes round me, and twiceshe kissed me, and said, 'Good night, Miss Jane.' When thus gentle,Bessie seemed to me the best, prettiest, kindest being in the world;and I wished most intensely that she would always be so pleasant andamiable, and never push me about, or scold, or task me unreasonably,as she was too often wont to do. Bessie, Lee must, I think, havebeen a girl of good natural capacity, for she was smart in all shedid, and had a remarkable knack of narrative; so, at least, I judgefrom the impression made on me by her nursery tales. She was prettytoo, if my recollections of her face and person are correct. Iremember her as a slim young

on. Many a time I have shared betweentwo claimants the precious morsel of brown bread distributed atteatime; and after relinquishing to a third half the contents of mymug of coffee, I have swallowed the remainder with an accompaniment ofsecret tears, forced from me by the exigency of hunger.

　　'I did them in the last two vacations I spent at Lowood, when I hadno other occupation.'

　　'Aire? Bah! I cannot say it. Well, our ship stopped in the morning,before it was quite daylight, at a great city- a huge city, withvery dark houses and all smoky; not at all like the pretty cleantown I came from; and Mr. Rochester carried me in his arms over aplank to the land, and Sophie came after, and we all got into a coach,which took us to a beautiful large house, larger than this andfiner, called an hotel. We stayed there nearly a week: I and Sophieused to walk every day in a great green place full of trees, calledthe Park; and there were many children there besides me, and a pondwith beautiful birds in it, that I fed with crumbs.'