11 Part Three Jane Eyre - Stephanie Poppins

Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative from the perspective of the title character. Its setting is somewhere in the north of England, late in the reign of George III (1760–1820).

Jane's childhood is at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins. Her education is at Lowood School, where she gains friends and role models but suffers privations and oppression. In this episode, she hears a strange sound...

Read by English author and vocal artist Stephanie Poppins.

Transcript

This is S.

D.

Hudson Magic.

Jane Eyre.

Chapter 11.

Continued.

In this room too there was a cabinet piano,

Quite new and of superior tone.

Also an easel for painting and a pair of gloves.

I found my pupil sufficiently docile,

Though disinclined to apply.

She had not been used to regular occupation of any kind.

I felt it would be injudicious to confine her to too much at first.

So when I talked to her a great deal,

And got her to learn a little,

And when the morning had advanced to noon,

I allowed her to return to her nurse.

I then proposed to occupy myself till dinner time in drawing some little sketches for her use.

As I was going up the stairs to fetch my portfolio and pencils,

Mrs.

Fairfax called to me.

Your morning school hours are over now,

I suppose,

Said she.

She was in a room,

The folding doors of which stood open.

I went in when she addressed me.

It was a large stately apartment,

With purple chairs and curtains,

A turquoise carpet,

Walnut panelled walls,

One vast window rich in stained glass,

And a lofty ceiling,

Nobly moulded.

Mrs.

Fairfax was dusting some vases of fine purple spar,

Which stood on a sideboard.

What a beautiful room,

I exclaimed as I looked around,

For I had never before seen anything half so imposing.

Yes,

This is the dining room.

I've just opened the window to let in a little air and sunshine,

For everything gets so damp in apartments that are seldom inhabited.

The drawing room yonder feels like a vault.

She pointed to a wide arch corresponding to the window,

And hung like it with a Tyrian dyed curtain,

Now looped up.

Mounting to it by two broad steps and looking through,

I thought I caught a glimpse of a fairy place,

So bright to my novice eyes appeared the view beyond.

Yet it was merely a very pretty drawing room,

And within it a boudoir,

Both spread with white carpets,

On which seemed laid brilliant garlands of flowers,

Both sealed with snowy mouldings of white grapes and fine leaves,

Beneath which glowed in rich contrast crimson couches and ottomans,

And between the windows large mirrors repeated the general blending of snow and fire.

In what order do you keep these rooms,

Mrs Fairfax?

Said I.

No dust,

No canvas coverings,

Except that the air feels chilly,

One would think they were inhabited daily.

Why,

Miss Eyre,

Though Mr Rochester's visits here are rare,

They are always sudden and unexpected,

And as I observed it put him out to find everything swayed up and to have a bustle of arrangement on his arrival,

I thought it best to keep the rooms in readiness.

Is Mr Rochester an exacting,

Fastidious sort of man?

Not particularly,

No,

But he has a gentleman's tastes and habits and he expects to have things managed in conformity to them.

Do you like him?

Is he generally liked?

Oh yes,

The family have always been respected here.

Almost all the land in this neighbourhood,

As far as you can see,

Has belonged to the Rochesters time out of mind.

Well,

But leaving his land out of the question,

Do you like him?

Is he liked for himself?

I have no cause to do otherwise than like him,

And I believe he's considered a just and liberal landlord by his tenants,

But he's never lived much amongst them.

But he has no peculiarities?

What in short is his character?

Oh,

His character is unimpeachable,

I suppose.

He's rather peculiar,

Perhaps.

He's travelled a great deal and seen a great deal of the world,

I should think.

I dare say he's clever,

But I've never had much conversation with him.

In what way is he peculiar?

I don't know.

It's not easy to describe.

Nothing striking.

But you feel it when he speaks to you.

You cannot always be sure whether he's in jest or earnest,

Whether he's pleased or the contrary.

You don't thoroughly understand him in short.

At least I don't,

But it's of no consequence.

He's a very good master.

This was all the account I got from Mrs Fairfax of her employer and mine.

There are people who seem to have no notion of sketching a character or observing and describing salient points,

Either in persons or things.

The good lady evidently belonged to this class.

My queries puzzled,

But did not draw her out.

Mr Rochester was Mr Rochester in her eyes.

A gentleman,

A landed proprietor,

Nothing more.

She enquired and searched no further and evidently wondered at my wish to gain a more definite notion of his identity.

When we left the dining room,

She proposed to show me over the rest of the house and I followed her upstairs and downstairs,

Admiring as I went,

For all was well arranged and handsome.

The large front chambers I thought especially grand and some of the third-storey rooms,

Though dark and low,

Were interesting from the air of antiquity.

The furniture once appropriated to the lower apartments had from time to time been removed here as fashions changed and the imperfect light entering by their narrow casements showed bedsteads of a hundred years old,

Chests in oak or walnut looking,

With their strange carvings of palm branches and cherub's heads,

Like types of the Hebrew ark.

Rows of venerable chairs,

High-backed and narrow,

Stalls still more antiquated,

On whose cushioned tops were yet apparent traces of half-effaced embroideries,

Wrought by fingers that for two generations had been coffin dust.

All these relics gave to the third-storey of Thornfield Hall the aspect of a home of the past,

A shrine of memory.

I liked the hush,

The gloom,

The quaintness of these retreats in the day,

But I by no means coveted a night's repose on one of those wide and heavy beds,

Shut in some of them with doors of oak,

Shaded,

Others with wrought old English hangings,

Crusted with thick work,

Portraying effigies of strange flowers and stranger birds,

And strangest human beings,

All of which would have looked strange indeed by the pallid gleam of moonlight.

Do the servants sleep in these rooms?

I asked.

No,

They occupy a range of smaller apartments to the back.

No one ever sleeps here.

One would almost say that if there were a ghost at Thornfield Hall,

This would be its haunt.

So I think you have no ghost then?

None that I've ever heard of,

Returned Mrs Fairfax smiling.

Nor any traditions of one,

No legends or ghost stories?

I believe not.

It is said the Rochesters have been rather violent than a quiet race in their time.

Perhaps,

Though,

That is the reason they rest tranquilly in their graves now.

Yes,

After life's fitful fever they sleep well,

I muttered.

Where were you going now,

Mrs Fairfax?

For she was moving away.

On to the Leeds.

Will you come and see a view from thence?

I followed still,

Up a very narrow staircase to the attics,

And thence by a ladder and through a trapdoor to the roof of the hall.

I was now on a level with the crow colony,

And could see into their nests.

Leaning over the battlements and looking far down,

I surveyed the grounds,

Laid out like a map.

The bright and velvet lawn closely girdling the grey base of the mansion.

The field,

Wide as a park,

Dotted with its ancient timber.

The wood,

Dun and seer,

Divided by a path visibly overgrown,

Greener with moss than the trees were with foliage.

The church at the gates.

The road,

The tranquil hills all reposing in the autumn's day sun.

The horizon bounded by a propitious sky,

Azure marbled with pearly white.

No feature in the scene was extraordinary,

But all was pleasing.

When I turned from it and repassed the trapdoor,

I could scarcely see my way down the ladder.

The attic seemed black as a vault compared with that arch of blue air to which I had been looking up,

And to that sunlit scene of grove,

Pasture and green hill,

Of which the hall was the centre,

And over which I had been gazing with delight.

Mrs Fairfax stayed behind a moment to fasten the trapdoor.

I,

By dint of groping,

Found the outlet from the attic and proceeded to descend the narrow garret staircase.

I lingered in the long passage to which this led,

Separating the front and the back rooms of the third storey.

Narrow,

Low and dim,

With only one little window at the far end,

And looking,

With its two rows of small black doors all shut,

Like a corridor in some bluebeard's castle.

While I paced softly on,

The last sound I expected to hear in so still a region,

A laugh,

Struck my ear.

It was a curious laugh,

Distinct,

Formal,

Mirthless.

I stopped.

The sound ceased,

Only for an instant,

Then it began again,

Louder.

For at first,

Though distinct,

It was very low.

It passed off in a clamorous peal that seemed to wake an echo in every lonely chamber,

Though it originated but in one,

And I could have pointed out the door whence the accents issued.

Mrs Fairfax,

I called out,

For I now heard her descending the great stairs.

Did you hear that loud laugh?

Who is it?

Some of the servants,

Very likely,

She answered.

Perhaps Grace Poole.

Did you hear it?

I again inquired.

Yes,

Plainly,

I often hear her.

She sews in one of these rooms.

Sometimes leeries with her,

They're frequently noisy together.

The laugh was repeated in its low,

Syllabic tone,

And terminated in an odd murmur.

Grace!

Exclaimed Mrs Fairfax.

I really did not expect any grace to answer,

For the laugh was as tragic,

As preternatural,

A laugh,

As ever I heard.

I should have been superstitiously afraid.

However,

The event showed me I was a fool for entertaining a sense,

Even of surprise.

The door nearest me opened,

And a servant came out.

A woman of between thirty and forty.

A set,

Square-made figure,

Red-haired,

And with a hard,

Plain face.

Any apparition less romantic or less ghostly could scarcely be conceived.

Too much noise,

Grace,

Said Mrs Fairfax.

Remember directions.

Grace curtsied silently and went in.

She is a person we have to sew,

And assists Lear in her housemaid's work,

Continued the widow.

Not altogether unobjectionable in some points,

But she does well enough.

By the by,

How have you got along with your new pupil this morning?

The conversation thus turned on Adèle,

Continued till we reached the light and cheerful region below.

Adèle came running to meet us in the hall,

Exclaiming.

Mesdames,

Vous êtes servis?

Adding,

J'ai bien faim,

Moi.

We found dinner ready,

And waiting for us in Mrs Fairfax's room.

Reviews

Interesting that in both Jane and P&P this week we’re meeting “the master” through the eyes of domestics 😉 awesome as always!