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第2章 梦花园

　　'Is it all over?' she asked, looking down at my face. 'Have youcried your grief away?'

　　About a week subsequently to the incidents above narrated, MissTemple, who had written to Mr. Lloyd, received his answer: it appearedthat what he said went to corroborate my account. Miss Temple,having assembled the whole school, announced that inquiry had beenmade into the charges alleged against Jane Eyre, and that she was mosthappy to be able to pronounce her completely cleared from everyimputation. The teachers then shook hands with me and kissed me, and amurmur of pleasure ran through the ranks of my companions.

　　He scrutinised the reverse of these living medals some fiveminutes, then pronounced sentence. These words fell like the knellof doom-

　　I went to my window, opened it, and looked out. There were thetwo wings of the building; there was the garden; there were the skirtsof Lowood; there was the hilly horizon. My eye passed all otherobjects to rest on those most remote, the blue peaks; it was those Ilonged to surmount; all within their boundary of rock and heath seemedprison-ground, exile limits. I traced the white road winding round thebase of one mountain, and vanishing in a gorge between two; how Ilonged to follow it farther! I recalled the time when I hadtravelled that very road in a coach; I remembered descending that hillat twilight; an age seemed to have elapsed since the day which broughtme first to Lowood, and I had never quitted it since. My vacations hadall been spent at school: Mrs. Reed had never sent for me toGateshead; neither she nor any of her family had ever been to visitme. I had had no communication by letter or message with the outerworld: school-rules, school-duties, school-habits and notions, andvoices, and faces, and phr

　　'Madam,' he pursued, 'I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is notof this world: my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts ofthe flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shame-facedness andsobriety, not with braided hair and costly apparel; and each of theyoung persons before us has a string of hair twisted in plaits whichvanity itself might have woven; these, I repeat, must be cut off;think of the time wasted, of-'

　　Bessie had been down into the kitchen, and she brought up withher a tart on a certain brightly painted china plate, whose bird ofparadise, nestling in a wreath of convolvuli and rosebuds, had beenwont to stir in me a most enthusiastic sense of admiration; andwhich plate I had often petitioned to be allowed to take in my hand inorder to examine it more closely, but had always hitherto beendeemed unworthy of such a privilege. This precious vessel was nowplaced on my knee, and I was cordially invited to eat the circlet ofdelicate pastry upon it. Vain favour! coming, like most otherfavours long deferred and often wished for, too late! I could noteat the tart; and the plumage of the bird, the tints of the flowers,seemed strangely faded: I put both plate and tart away. Bessie askedif 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. Thisbook I had again and again perused with delight. I considered it anarrative of facts, and discovered

　　But at that moment the summons sounded for dinner; all re-enteredthe house. The odour which now filled the refectory was scarcelymore appetising than that which had regaled our nostrils at breakfast:the dinner was served in two huge tin-plated vessels, whence rose astrong steam redolent of rancid fat. I found the mess to consist ofindifferent potatoes and strange shreds of rusty meat, mixed andcooked together. Of this preparation a tolerably abundant plateful wasapportioned to each pupil. I ate what I could, and wondered withinmyself whether every day's fare would be like this.

　　Have I not described a pleasant site for a dwelling, when I speakof it as bosomed in hill and wood, and rising from the verge of astream? Assuredly, pleasant enough: but whether healthy or not isanother question.

　　'Because I have been wrongly accused; and you, ma'am, and everybodyelse, will now think me wicked.'