33 Jane Eyre Read By Stephanie Poppins

Jane Eyre is a woman with a difficult past. Her childhood was at Gateshead Hall, where she was emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins. Her education was at Lowood School, where she gained few friends and role models and suffered privations and oppression. Then she arrives at Thornfield and meets the inimitable Mr Rochester...

In this episode:
Jane considers her future, as she is given some welcome news.

Transcript

This is S.

D.

Hudson Magic.

Jane Eyre Chapter 33 When Mr.

St.

John went,

It was beginning to snow.

The whirling storm continued all night.

The next day a keen wind brought fresh and blinding falls.

By twilight,

The valley was drifted up and almost impassable.

I had closed my shutter,

Laid a mat at the door to prevent the snow from blowing in under it,

Trimmed my fire,

And after sitting nearly an hour and a half listening to the muffled fury of the tempest,

I lit a candle,

Talked down Marmion,

And beginning,

Day set on Norham's castle steep,

And Tweed's fair river broad and deep,

And Cheviot Mountain's lone,

The massive towers the dungeon keep,

The flanking walls that round them sweep,

In yellow lustre sharp.

I soon forgot storm in music.

I heard a noise.

The wind,

I thought,

Shook the door.

No,

It was St.

John Rivers,

Who,

Lifting the latch,

Came in out of the frozen hurricane,

The howling darkness,

And stood before me,

The cloak that covered his tall figure all white as a glacier.

I was almost in consternation,

So little had I expected any guess from the blocked-up veil that night.

"'Any news?

' I demanded.

"'Has anything happened?

' "'No.

How very easily alarmed you are,

' he answered,

Removing his cloak and hanging it up against the door,

Towards which he again coolly pushed the mat which his entrance had deranged.

He stamped the snow from his boots.

"'I shall sully the purity of your floor,

' said he,

"'but you must excuse me for once.

' Then he approached the fire.

"'I have had hard work to get here,

I assure you,

' he observed,

As he warmed his hands over the flame.

"'One drift took me up to the waist.

Happily the snow's quite soft yet.

' "'But why are you come?

' I could not forbear saying.

"'Rather an inhospitable question to put to a visitor,

' he said.

"'But since you ask it,

I answer,

To have a little talk with you.

"'I got tired of my mute books and empty rooms.

"'Besides,

Since yesterday I've experienced the excitement of a person who has a tale half told "'and who's impatient to hear the sequel.

' "'He sat down,

And I recalled his singular conduct of yesterday,

"'and I really began to fear his wits were touched.

"'If he were insane,

However,

This was a very cool and collected insanity.

"'I had never seen that handsome-featured face of his look more chiselled like marble than it did just now.

"'As he put aside his snow-wet hair from his forehead "'and let the firelight shine free on his pale brow,

"'where it grieved me to discover the hollow trace of care or sorrow now so plainly graved.

"'I waited,

Expecting he would say something I could at least comprehend,

"'but his hand was now at his chin,

His finger on his lip,

He was thinking.

"'It struck me his hand looked wasted like his face.

"'Perhaps uncalled for,

A gush of pity came over my heart "'and I was moved to say,

"'I wish Diana or Mary would come and live with you.

"'It's too bad you should be quite alone,

And you are acting rashly about your own health.

' "'Not at all,

' said he.

"'I care for myself when necessary,

And I am well now.

"'What do you see amiss in me?

' "'This was said with a careless,

Abstracted indifference,

"'which showed my solicitude was,

At least in his opinion,

Wholly superfluous.

"'I was silenced.

"'He still moved his finger over his upper lip,

"'and still his eye dwelt dreamily on the glowing grate.

"'Thinking it urgent to say something,

"'I asked him presently if he felt any cold draught from the door which was behind him.

"'No,

' he responded,

Shortly and somewhat testily.

"'Well,

' I reflected,

"'if you won't talk you may be still.

"'I'll let you alone now and return to my book.

' "'So I snuffed the candle and resumed the perusal of Marmion.

"'He soon stirred.

"'My eye was instantly drawn to his movements.

"'He only took out a Morocco pocket-book,

"'thence produced a letter which he read in silence,

"'folded it,

Put it back,

And relapsed into meditation.

"'Have you heard from Diana and Mary lately?

' "'Not since the letter I showed you a week ago.

' "'There has not been any change made about your own arrangements?

"'You will not be summoned to leave England sooner than you expected?

' "'I asked.

"'I fear not,

Indeed.

"'Such chance is too good to befall me.

' "'Baffled so,

I changed my ground "'and bethought myself to talk about the school and my scholars.

"'Mary Garrett's mother's better,

"'and Mary came to the school this morning,

"'and shall have four new girls next week from the foundry close.

"'They would have come today,

But for the snow.

' "'Indeed.

"'Mr Oliver pays for two of them.

' "'Does he?

"'He means to give the whole school a treat at Christmas.

' "'Was it your suggestion?

' "'No.

' "'Whose,

Then?

' "'His daughter's,

I think.

' "'It is like her.

She is so good-natured.

' "'Yes.

' "'Again came the blank of a pause.

"'The clock struck eight strokes.

"'It aroused him and he uncrossed his legs,

"'sat erect and turned to me.

"'Leave your book a moment and come near the fire,

' he said.

"'Wondering,

And of my wonder finding no end,

I complied.

"'Half an hour ago,

' he pursued,

"'I spoke of my impatience to hear the sequel of a tale I'd heard.

"'On reflection,

I find the matter will be better managed "'by my assuming the narrator's part and converting you into a listener.

"'But before commencing,

It's fair to warn you "'the story will sound somewhat hackneyed in your ears.

"'But stale details often regain a degree of freshness "'when they pass through new lips.

"'Twenty years ago,

A poor curate,

"'never mind his name at this moment,

"'fell in love with a rich man's daughter,

"'and she fell in love with him and married him,

"'against the advice of all her friends.

"'Before two years passed,

The rash pair were both dead "'and laid quietly side by side under one slab.

"'They left a daughter which at its very birth "'Charity received in her lap.

"'Charity carried the friendliest thing "'to the house of its rich maternal relations "'and was reared by an aunt-in-law "'called Mrs.

Reed of Gateshead.

"'You start,

Jane.

Did you hear a noise?

"'I dare say it's only a rat scrambling among the rafters.

"'To proceed,

Mrs.

Reed kept the orphan ten years.

"'Whether it was happy or not with her,

I cannot say,

"'never having been told.

"'But at the end of that time,

"'she transferred it to a place you know,

"'Lowood School.

"'Where you so long resided yourself.

"'It seems her career there was a very honourable one.

"'She left to be a governess "'and she undertook the education of the ward of a certain "'Mr.

Rochester.

"'Mr.

Rivers,

' I interrupted.

"'I can guess your feelings,

' he said,

"'but restrain them for a while.

"'I've nearly finished.

Hear me to the end.

"'Of Mr.

Rochester's character I know nothing,

"'but the one fact he professed to offer honourable marriage "'to this young girl,

"'and at the very alter she discovered he had a wife yet alive,

"'though a lunatic.

"'What his subsequent conduct and proposals were "'is a matter of pure conjecture.

"'But when an event transpired "'which rendered inquiry after the governess necessary,

"'it was discovered she was gone.

"'No one could tell where,

When or how.

"'She had left Thornfield in the night.

"'Every research after her course had been in vain.

"'The country had been scoured far and wide.

"'No vestige of information could be gathered respecting her.

"'Yet that she should be found "'has become a matter of serious urgency.

"'Advertisements have been put in the papers.

"'I myself have received a letter of Mr.

Briggs,

"'a solicitor communicating the details I've just imparted.

"'Is this not an odd tale,

Jay?

' "'Just tell me this,

' said I,

"'and since you know so much,

You surely can tell me.

"'What of Mr.

Rochester?

"'How and where is he?

"'What is he doing?

"'Is he well?

' "'I am ignorant of all concerning Mr.

Rochester.

"'The letter never mentions him,

"'but to narrate the fraudulent and illegal attempt I have adverted to,

"'you should rather ask the name of the governess.

' "'Did no one go to Thornfield Hall then?

"'Did no one see Mr.

Rochester?

' "'I suppose not.

' "'But they wrote to him?

' "'Of course.

' "'And what did he say?

"'Who has his letters?

' "'Mr.

Briggs intimates the answer to his application "'was not from Mr.

Rochester,

"'but from a lady.

"'It is signed Alice Fairfax.

' "'I felt cold and dismayed.

"'My worst fears were then probably true.

"'He had in all probability left England "'and rushed in reckless desperation "'to some former haunt on the continent.

"'And what opiate for his severe sufferings,

"'what object for his strong passions had he sought there?

"'I dared not answer the question.

"'Oh,

My poor master!

"'Once almost my husband,

"'whom I had often called my dear Edward.

' "'He must have been a bad man,

' observed Mr.

Rivers.

"'You don't know him,

"'don't pronounce an opinion upon him,

' "'I said with warmth.

"'Very well,

' he answered quietly.

"'And indeed my head is otherwise occupied than with him.

"'I have my tale to finish.

"'Since you won't answer the governess's name,

"'I must tell it of my own accord.

"'The pocket-book was again deliberately produced,

"'opened,

"'sought through from one of his compartments,

"'and he extracted a shabby slip of paper,

"'hastily torn off.

"'I recognised its texture and its stains of ultramarine.

"'He got up,

Held it close to my eyes,

"'and I read and traced in Indian ink "'in my own handwriting the words,

"'Jane Eyre.

' "'These were the words I had signed to the portrait.

"'Briggs wrote to me of a Jane Eyre,

' he said.

"'I knew a Jane Elliot.

"'I confess I had my suspicions,

"'but it was only yesterday when you signed your portrait "'I knew that you owned the name.

"'You renounce the alias?

' "'Yes,

But where is Mr Briggs?

"'He perhaps knows more of Mr Rochester than you do.

"'Briggs is in London.

"'I should doubt his knowing anything at all about Mr Rochester.

"'It is not in Mr Rochester.

"'But he is interested.

'"

Reviews

Oh my… interesting turn, can’t wait for the next! Thank you Steph!!❤️🙏🏼