Джейн Эйр / Jane Eyre

’

�Oh! I daresay she is crying because she could not go out with Missis in the carriage,’ interposed Bessie.

�Surely not! why, she is too old for such pettishness.’

I thought so too; and my self-esteem being wounded by the false charge, I answered promptly, �I never cried for such a thing in my life: I hate going out in the carriage. I cry because I am miserable.’

�Oh fie, Miss!’ said Bessie.

The good apothecary appeared a little puzzled. I was standing before him; he fixed his eyes on me very steadily: his eyes were small and grey; not very bright, but I dare say I should think them shrewd now; he had a hard-featured yet good-natured looking face.

Having considered me at leisure, he said – ’What made you ill yesterday?’

�She had a fall,’ said Bessie, again putting in her word.

�Fall! why, that is like a baby again! Can’t she manage to walk at her age? She must be eight or nine years old.

’

�I was knocked down,’ was the blunt explanation, jerked out of me by another pang of mortified pride; �but that did not make me ill,’ I added; while Mr. Lloyd helped himself to a pinch of snuff.

As he was returning the box to his waistcoat pocket, a loud bell rang for the servant’s dinner; he knew what it was. �That’s for you, nurse,’ said he; �you can go down; I’ll give Miss Jane a lecture till you come back.’

Bessie would rather have stayed, but she was obliged to go, because punctuality at meals was rigidly enforced at Gateshead Hall.

�The fall did not make you ill; what did, then?’ pursued Mr. Lloyd, when Bessie was gone.

�I was shut up in a room where there is a ghost, till after dark.’

I saw Mr. Lloyd smile and frown at the same time:

�Ghost! What, you are a baby after all! You are afraid of ghosts?’

�Of Mr. Reed’s ghost I am: he died in that room, and was laid out there.

Neither Bessie nor any one else will go into it at night, if they can help it; and it was cruel to shut me up alone without a candle – so cruel that I think I shall never forget it.’

�Nonsense! And is it that makes you so miserable? Are you afraid now in daylight?’

�No: but night will come again before long: and besides – I am unhappy – very unhappy, for other things.