第51页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第51页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over, and death is
so certain an entrance to happiness- to glory?'
I was silent; Helen had calmed me; but in the tranquillity she
imparted there was an alloy of inexpressible sadness. I felt the
impression of woe as she spoke, but I could not tell whence it came;
and when, having done speaking, she breathed a little fast and coughed
a short cough, I momentarily forgot my own sorrows to yield to a vague
concern for her.
Resting my head on Helen's shoulder, I put my arms round her waist;
she drew me to her, and we reposed in silence. We had not sat long
thus, when another person came in. Some heavy clouds, swept from the
sky by a rising wind, had left the moon bare; and her light, streaming
in through a window near, shone full both on us and on the approaching
figure, which we at once recognised as Miss Temple.
'I came on purpose to find you, Jane Eyre,' said she; 'I want you
in my room; and as Helen Burns is with you, she may come too.'
We went; following the superintendent's guidance, we had to
thread some intricate passages, and mount a staircase before we
reached her apartment; it contained a good fire, and looked
cheerful. Miss Temple told Helen Burns to be seated in a low arm-chair
on one side of the hearth, and herself taking another, she called me
to her side.
'Is it all over?' she asked, looking down at my face. 'Have you
cried your grief away?'
'I am afraid I never shall do that.'
'Why?'
'Because I have been wrongly accused; and you, ma'am, and everybody
else, will now think me wicked.'
'We shall think you what you prove yourself to be, my child.
Continue to act as a good girl, and you will satisfy us.'
'Shall I, Miss Temple?'
'You will,' said she, passing her arm round me. 'And now tell me
who is the lady whom Mr. Brocklehurst called your benefactress?'
'Mrs. Reed, my uncle's wife. My uncle is dead, and he left me to
her care.'
'Did she not, then, adopt you of her own accord?'
'No, ma'am; she was sorry to have to do it: but my uncle, as I have
often heard the servants say, got her to promise before he died that
she would always keep me.'
'Well now, Jane, you know, or at least I will tell you, that when a
criminal is accused, he is always allowed to speak in his own defence.
You have been charged with falsehood; defend yourself to me as well as
you can. Say whatever your memory suggests as true; but add nothing
and exaggerate nothing.'
I resolved, in the depth of my heart, that I would be most
moderate- most correct; and, having reflected a few minutes in order
to arrange coherently what I had to say, I told her all the story of
my sad childhood. Exhausted by emotion, my language was more subdued
than it generally was when it developed that sad theme; and mindful of
Helen's warnings against the indulgence of resentment, I infused
into the narrative far less of gall and wormwood than ordinary. Thus