Джейн Эйр / Jane Eyre

Can I not get so much of my own will? Is not the thing feasible? Yes – yes – the end is not so difficult; if I had only a brain active enough to ferret out the means of attaining it.’

I sat up in bed by way of arousing this said brain; it was a chilly night; I covered my shoulders with a shawl, and then I proceeded to think again with all my might.

�What do I want? a new place, in a new house, amongst new faces, under new circumstances; I want this because it is of no use wanting anything better.

How do people do to get a new place? They apply to friends, I suppose; I have no friends. There are many others who have no friends, who must look about for themselves and be their own helpers; and what is their resource?’

I could not tell; nothing answered me; I then ordered my brain to find a response, and quickly. It worked and worked faster; I felt the pulses throb in my head and temples; but for nearly an hour it worked in chaos; and no result came of its efforts.

Feverish with vain labour, I got up and took a turn in the room; undrew the curtain, noted a star or two, shivered with cold, and again crept to bed.

A kind fairy, in my absence, had surely dropped the required suggestion on my pillow; for as I lay down, it came quietly and naturally to my mind. – ’Those who want situations advertise; you must advertise in the – shire Herald.’

�How? I know nothing about advertising.’

Replies rose smooth and prompt now:

�You must enclose the advertisement and the money to pay for it under a cover directed to the editor of the Herald; you must put it, the first opportunity you have, into the post at Lowton; answers must be addressed to J.

E., at the post-office there; you can go and inquire in about a week after you send your letter, if any are come, and act accordingly.’

This scheme I went over twice, thrice; it was then digested in my mind; I had it in a clear practical form; I felt satisfied, and fell asleep.

With earliest day, I was up. I had my advertisement written, enclosed, and directed before the bell rang to rouse the school; it ran thus: —

�A young lady accustomed to tuition’ (had I not been a teacher two years?) �is desirous of meeting with a situation in a private family where the children are under fourteen (I thought that as I was barely eighteen, it would not do to undertake the guidance of pupils nearer my own age).