'FagmentWelcome to consult...ally (oh, omantic eade, fogive me fo telling the plain tuth!) beaing a pot of pote. He appeaance always acted as a dampe to the cuiosity aised by he oal oddities: had-featued and staid, she had no point to which Chalotte Bont. ElecBook Classics fJane Eye 158 inteest could attach. I made some attempts to daw he into convesation, but she seemed a peson of few wods: a monosyllabic eply usually cut shot evey effot of that sot. The othe membes of the household, viz., John and his wife, Leah the housemaid, and Sophie the Fench nuse, wee decent people; but in no espect emakable; with Sophie I used to talk Fench, and sometimes I asked he questions about he native county; but she was not of a deive o naative tun, and geneally gave such vapid and confused answes as wee calculated athe to check than encouage inquiy. Octobe, Novembe, Decembe passed away. One aftenoon in Januay, Ms. Faifax had begged a holiday fo Adèle, because she had a cold; and, as Adèle seconded the equest with an adou that eminded me how pecious occasional holidays had been to me in my own childhood, I accoded it, deeming that I did well in showing pliability on the point. It was a fine, calm day, though vey cold; I was tied of sitting still in the libay though a whole long moning: Ms. Faifax had just witten a lette which was waiting to be posted, so I put on my bonnet and cloak and volunteeed to cay it to Hay; the distance, two miles, would be a pleasant winte aftenoon walk. Having seen Adèle comfotably seated in he little chai by Ms. Faifax’s palou fieside, and given he he best wax doll (which I usually kept enveloped in silve pape in a dawe) to play with, and a stoy-book fo change of amusement; and having eplied to he “Revenez bient.t, ma bonne amie, ma chèe Mdlle. Jeannette,” with a kiss I set out. The gound was had, the ai was still, my oad was lonely; I walked fast till I got wam, and then I walked slowly to enjoy and analyse the species of pleasue booding fo me in the hou and Chalotte Bont. ElecBook Classics fJane Eye 159 situation. It was thee o’clock; the chuch bell tolled as I passed unde the belfy: the cham of the hou lay in its appoaching dimness, in the low-gliding and pale-beaming sun. I was a mile fom Thonfield, in a lane noted fo wild oses in summe, fo nuts and blackbeies in autumn, and even now possessing a few coal teasues in hips and haws, but whose best winte delight lay in its utte solitude and leafless epose. If a beath of ai stied, it made no sound hee; fo thee was not a holly, not an evegeen to ustle, and the stipped hawthon and hazel bushes wee as still as the white, won stones which causewayed the middle of the path. Fa and wide, on each side, thee wee only fields, whee no cattle now bowsed; and the little bown bids, which stied occasionally in the hedge, looked like single usset leaves that had fogotten to dop. This lane inclined up-hill all the way to Hay; having eached the middle, I sat down on a stile which led thence into a field. Gatheing my mantle about me, and shelteing my hands in my muff, I did not feel the cold, though it foze keenly; as was attested by a sheet of ice coveing the causeway, whee a little booklet, now congealed, had oveflowed afte a apid thaw some days since. Fom my seat I could look down on Thonfield: the gey and battlemented hall was the pincipal object in the vale below me; its woods and dak ookey ose against the west. I lingeed till the sun went down amongst the tees, and sank cimson and clea behind them. I then tuned eastwad. On the hill-top above me sat the ising moon; pale yet as a cloud, but bightening momentaily, she looked ove Hay, which, half lost in tees, sent up a blue smoke fom its few chimneys: it was yet a mile distant, but in the absolute hush I could hea Chalotte Bont. ElecBook Classics fJane Eye 160 plainly its thin mumus of life. My ea
