38 Final Chapter: 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, the best news awaits.

Transcript

This is S.

D.

Hudson Magic Jane Eyre Chapter 38 Conclusion Reader,

I married him A quiet wedding we had,

He and I Mary,

The parson and clerk,

Were alone present.

When we got back from church I went into the kitchen of the manor house,

Where Mary was cooking the dinner and John cleaning the knives,

And I said,

Mary,

I have been married to Mr.

Rochester this morning.

The housekeeper and her husband were both of that decent,

Phlegmatic order of people,

To which one may at any time safely communicate a remarkable piece of news,

Without incurring the danger of having one's ears pierced by some shrill ejaculation,

And subsequently stunned by a torrent of worldly wonderment.

Mary did look up,

And she did stare at me.

The ladle with which she was basting a pair of chickens roasting at the fire did for some three minutes hang suspended in the air,

And for the same space of time John's knives also had rest from the polishing process.

But Mary,

Bending over the roost,

Said only,

Have you,

Miss?

Well,

For sure.

A short time after she pursued,

I said you'd go out with the master,

But I didn't know you was gone to church to be wed.

Then she basted away.

John when I turned to him was grinning from ear to ear.

I'd told Mary how it would be.

He said I knew what Mr.

Edward,

John was an old servant and had known his master when he was cadet of the house,

Therefore he often gave him his Christian name.

I knew what Mr.

Edward would do,

And I was certain he would not wait long either,

And he's done right,

For out I know.

I wish you joy,

Miss.

Then he politely pulled his forelock.

Thank you,

John,

I said.

Mr.

Rochester told me to give you and Mary this.

I put into his hand a five-pound note.

Without waiting to hear more,

I left the kitchen.

In passing the door of that sanctum some time after,

I caught the words,

Cheer up and do better for him,

Nor any other two grandladies.

And again,

Is she bent aren't one of the handsomest.

She's known foul and very good-natured,

And in his age he's fair beautiful.

Anybody may see that.

I wrote to Moor House and to Cambridge immediately to say what I had done,

Fully explaining also why I had thus acted.

Diana and Mary approved the step unreservedly.

Diana announced she would just give me time to set over the happy honeymoon,

And then she would come to see me.

She better not wait till then,

Jane,

Said Mr.

Rochester when I read her letter to him.

If she does,

She'll be too late,

For our honeymoon will shine our life long.

Its beams will only fade over your grave or mine.

How St.

John received the news I don't know.

He never answered the letter with which I communicated,

Yet six months after he wrote to me without,

However,

Mentioning Mr.

Rochester's name or alluding to any marriage.

His letter was then calm,

And though very serious,

It was kind.

He has maintained a regular though not frequent correspondence ever since.

He hopes I am happy,

And trusts I am not of those who live without God in the world and only mind earthly things.

You have not quite forgotten little Adele,

Have you,

Reader?

I had not.

I soon asked and obtained leave of Mr.

Rochester to go and see her at the school where he placed her.

Her frantic joy at beholding me again moved me much.

She looked pale and thin and said she was not happy.

I found the rules of the establishment were too strict,

Its course of study too severe for a child of her age,

So I took her home with me.

I meant to become her governess once more,

But I soon found this impracticable.

My time and cares were now required by another.

My husband needed them all.

So I sought out a school conducted on a more indulgent system,

And near enough to permit,

Of my visiting her often and bringing her home sometimes.

I took care she should never want for anything that could contribute to her comfort,

And she soon settled in her new abode,

And became very happy there,

Making fair progress in her studies.

As she grew up,

A sound English education corrected in a great measure her French defects,

And when she left school,

I found her a pleasing and obliging companion,

Docile,

Good-tempered,

And well-principled.

By her grateful attention to me and mine,

She has long since well repaid any little kindness I ever had it in my power to offer her.

My tale now draws to a close,

One word respecting my experience of married life,

And one brief glance at the fortunes of those whose names have most frequently recurred in this narrative,

And I have done.

I have now been married for ten years.

I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth.

I hold myself supremely blessed,

Blessed beyond what language can express,

Because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine.

No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am,

Ever more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.

I know no weariness of my Edward society,

He knows none of mine,

Any more than we do of the pulsation of the heart that beats in our separate bosoms,

Consequently we are ever together.

To be together is for us to be forever as free as in solitude,

As gay as in company.

We talk,

I believe,

All day long.

To talk to each other is but a more animated and audible thinking.

All my confidence is bestowed on him,

And all his confidence is devoted to me.

We are precisely suited in character.

Perfect concord is the result.

Mr.

Rochester continued blind the first two years of our union.

Perhaps it was that circumstance that drew us so very near,

That knit us so very close.

For I was then his vision,

As I am still his right hand.

Literally I was,

What he often called me,

The apple of his eye.

He saw nature,

He saw books through me,

And never did I weary of gazing for his behalf,

And of putting into words the effect of field,

Tree,

Town,

River,

Cloud,

Sunbeam,

Of the landscape before us,

Of the weather round us,

And impressing by sound on his ear what light could no longer stamp on his eye.

Never did I weary of reading to him,

Never did I weary of conducting him where he would wish to go,

Of doing for him what he wished to be done.

And there was a pleasure in my services,

Most full,

Most exquisite,

Even though sad,

Because he claimed these services without painful shame or damping humiliation.

He loved me so truly,

That he knew no reluctance in profiting by my attendance.

He felt I loved him so fondly,

That to yield that attendance was to indulge my sweetest wishes.

One morning at the end of the two years,

As I was writing a letter to his dictation,

He came and bent over me and said,

Jane,

Have you a glittering ornament round your neck?

I had a gold watch chain.

I answered yes.

And have you a pale blue dress on?

I had.

He informed me then that for some time he had fancied the obscurity clouding one eye was becoming less dense,

And that now he was sure of it.

He and I went up to London.

He had the advice of an eminent oculist,

And he eventually recovered the sight of that one eye.

He cannot now see very distinctly,

He cannot read or write much,

But he can find his way without being led by the hand.

The sky is no longer a blank to him,

The earth no longer a void.

When his firstborn was put into his arms,

He could see that the boy had inherited his own eyes as they once were,

Large,

Brilliant and black.

On that occasion he again,

With a full heart,

Acknowledged that God had tempered judgment with mercy.

My Edward and I then are happy,

And the more so because those we love are happy likewise.

Diana and Mary Rivers are both married.

Alternately,

Once every year they come to see us,

And we go to see them.

Diana's husband is a captain in the navy,

A gallant officer and a good man.

Mary's is a clergyman,

A college friend of her brother's,

And from his attainments and principles worthy of the connection.

Both Captain Fitzjames and Mr.

Walton love their wives and are loved by them.

As to St.

John Rivers,

He left England and went to India.

He entered on the path he'd marked for himself.

He pursues it still.

A more resolute,

Indefatigable pioneer,

Never wrought amidst rocks and dangers.

Firm,

Faithful and devoted,

Full of energy and zeal and truth.

He labours for his race.

He clears their painful way to improvement.

He hoses down,

Like a giant,

The prejudices of creed and caste that encumber it.

He may be stern.

He may be exacting.

He may be ambitious yet.

But his is the sternness of the warrior Great Heart,

Who guards his pilgrim convoy from the onslaught of Apollyon.

He is the exaction of the apostle who speaks but for Christ when he says,

Whosoever will come after me,

Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

He is the ambition of the High Master Spirit,

Which aims to fill a place in the first rank of those who are redeemed from the earth,

Who stand without fault before the throne of God,

Who share the last mighty victories of the Lamb,

Who are called and chosen and faithful.

St John remains unmarried.

He will never marry now.

Himself has hitherto sufficed to the toil,

And the toil draws near its close.

His glorious son hastens to its setting.

The last letter I received from him drew from my eyes human tears and yet filled my heart with divine joy.

He anticipated his sure reward,

His incorruptible crown.

I know that a stranger's hand will write to me next to say the good and faithful servant has been called at length into the joy of his Lord.

And why weep for this?

No fear of death will darken St John's last hour.

His mind will be unclouded,

His heart will be undaunted,

His hope will be sure,

His faith steadfast.

His own words are a pledge of this.

My master,

He says,

Has forewarned me.

Daily he announces more distinctly,

Surely I come quickly,

And hourly I more eagerly respond,

Amen.

Even so come,

Lord Jesus.

The End

Reviews

Ah, dear Jane, finally she got her life with Mr Rochester 🥹 interesting that she ended it with John and the religious zealotry, but of the day, I suppose. Thank you thank you, faithful reader! You are wonderful ❤️🙏🏼🙏🏼