Chapter 28

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    Two days are passed. It is a summer evening; the an has set me down at a place called Whitcross; he could take me no farther for the sum I had given, and I was not possessed of another shilling in the world. The coach is a mile off by this time; I am alo this moment I discover that I fot to take my parcel out of the pocket of the coach, where I had placed it for safety; there it remains, there it must remain; and now, I am absolutely destitute.

    Whitcross is no town, nor even a hamlet; it is but a stone pillar set up where four roads meet: whitewashed, I suppose, to be more obvious at a distand in darkness. Four arms spring from its summit: the own to which these point is, acc to the inscription, distant ten miles; the farthest, above twenty. From the well-known names of these towns I learn in what ty I have lighted; a north-midland shire, dusk with moorland, ridged with mountain: this I see. There are great moors behind and on each hand of me; there are waves of mountains far beyond that deep valley at my feet. The population here must be thin, and I see no passengers on these roads: they stretch out east, west, north, and south—white, broad, lonely; they are all cut in the moor, and the heather grows deep and wild to their very verge. Yet a ce traveller might pass by; and I wish o see me now: strangers would wonder what I am doing, lingering here at the sign-post, evidently objectless and lost. I might be questioned: I could give no answer but what would sound incredible ae suspi. Not a tie holds me to human society at this moment—not a charm or hope calls me where my fellow-creatures are—hat saw me would have a kind thought ood wish for me. I have ive but the universal mother, Nature: I will seek her breast and ask repose.

    I struck straight into the heath; I held on to a hollow I saw deeply furrowing the brown moorside; I waded knee-deep in its dark growth; I turned with its turnings, and finding a moss-blaed granite crag in a hidden angle, I sat down u. High banks of moor were about me; the crag protected my head: the sky was over that.

    Some time passed before I felt tranquil even here: I had a vague dread that wild cattle might be near, or that some sportsman or poacher might discover me. If a gust of wind swept the waste, I looked up, fearing it was the rush of a bull; if a plover whistled, I imagi a man. Finding my apprehensions unfounded, however, and calmed by the deep silehat reigned as evening deed at nightfall, I took fidence. As yet I had not thought; I had only listened, watched, dreaded; now I regaihe faculty of refle.

    What was I to do? Where to go? Oh, intolerable questions, when I could do nothing and go nowhere!—when a long way must yet be measured by my weary, trembling limbs before I could reach human habitation—when cold charity must be eed before I could get a lodging: relut sympathy importuned, almost certain repulse incurred, before my tale could be listeo, or one of my wants relieved!

    I touched the heath, it was dry, a warm with the beat of the summer day. I looked at the sky; it ure: a kindly star twinkled just above the chasm ridge. The dew fell, but with propitious softness; no breeze whispered. Nature seemed to me benign and good; I thought she loved me, outcast as I was; and I, who from man could anticipate only mistrust, reje, insult, g to her with filial fondness. To-night, at least, I would be her guest, as I was her child: my mother would lodge me without money and without price. I had one morsel of bread yet: the remnant of a roll I had bought in a town we passed through at noon with a stray penny—my last . I saw ripe bilberries gleaming here and there, like jet beads in the heath: I gathered a handful and ate them with the bread. My hunger, sharp before, was, if not satisfied, appeased by this hermit’s meal. I said my evening prayers at its clusion, and then y couch.

    Beside the crag the heath was very deep: when I lay down my feet were buried in it; rising high on each side, it left only a narrow space for the night-air to invade. I folded my shawl double, and spread it over me for a coverlet; a low, mossy swell was my pillow. Thus lodged, I was not, at least—at the e of the night, cold.

    My rest might have been blissful enough, only a sad heart broke it. It plained of its gaping wounds, its inward bleeding, its riven chords. It trembled for Mr. Rochester and his doom; it bemoaned him with bitter pity; it demanded him with ceaseless longing; and, impotent as a bird with both wings broken, it still quivered its shattered pinions in vain attempts to seek him.

    Worn out with this torture of thought, I rose to my knees. Night was e, and her plas were risen: a safe, still night: too serene for the panionship of fear. We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the gra scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. I had risen to my ko pray for Mr. Rochester. Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty Milky-way. Remembering what it was—what tless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light—I felt the might and strength of God. Sure was I of His efficy to save what He had made: vinced I grew that her earth should perish, nor one of the souls it treasured. I turned my prayer to thanksgiving: the Source of Life was also the Saviour of spirits. Mr. Rochester was safe; he was God’s, and by God would he be guarded. I agailed to the breast of the hill; and ere long in sleep fot sorrow.

    But  day, Want came to me pale and bare. Long after the little birds had left their s; long after bees had e in the sweet prime of day to gather the heath honey before the dew was dried— when the long m shadows were curtailed, and the sun filled earth and sky—I got up, and I looked round me.

    What a still, hot, perfect day! What a golde this spreading moor! Everywhere sunshine. I wished I could live in it and on it. I saw a lizard ruhe crag; I saw a bee busy among the sweet bilberries. I would fain at the moment have bee bee or lizard, that I might have found fitting nutriment, perma shelter here. But I was a human being, and had a human being’s wants: I must not linger where there was nothing to supply them. I rose; I looked back at the bed I had left. Hopeless of the future, I wished but this—that my Maker had that night thought good to require my soul of me while I slept; and that this weary frame, absolved by death from further flict with fate, had now but to decay quietly, and mingle in peace with the soil of this wilderness. Life, however, was yet in my possession, with all its requirements, and pains, and responsibilities. The burden must be carried; the rovided for; the suffering ehe responsibility fulfilled. I set out.

    Whitcrained, I followed a road which led from the sun, now fervent and high. By no other circumstance had I will to decide my choice. I walked a long time, and when I thought I had nearly done enough, and might stiously yield to the fatigue that almost overpowered me—might relax this forced a, and, sitting down on a stone I saw near, submit resistlessly to the apathy that clogged heart and limb—I heard a bell chime—a church bell.

    I turned in the dire of the sound, and there, amongst the romantic hills, whose ges and aspect I had ceased to note an ho, I saw a hamlet and a spire. All the valley at my right hand was full of pasture-fields, and fields, and wood; and a glittering stream ran zig-zag through the varied shades of green, the mellowing grain, the sombre woodland, the clear and sunny lea. Recalled by the rumbling of wheels to the road before me, I saw a heavily-laden waggon lab up the hill, and not far beyowo cows and their drover. Human life and human labour were near. I must struggle on: strive to live ao toil like the rest.

    About two o’clock p.m. I ehe village. At the bottom of its oreet there was a little shop with some cakes of bread in the window. I coveted a cake of bread. With that refreshment I could perhaps regain a degree of energy: without it, it would be difficult to proceed. The wish to have some strength and some vigour returo me as soon as I was amongst my fellow-beings. I felt it would be degrading to faint with hunger on the causeway of a hamlet. Had I nothing about me I could offer in exge for one of these rolls? I sidered. I had a small silk handkerchief tied round my throat; I had my gloves. I could hardly tell how men and women iremities of destitution proceeded. I did not know whether either of these articles would be accepted: probably they would not; but I must try.

    I ehe shop: a woman was there. Seeing a respectably- dressed person, a lady as she supposed, she came forward with civility. How could she serve me? I was seized with shame: my tongue would not utter the request I had prepared. I dared not offer her the half-wloves, the creased handkerchief: besides, I felt it would be absurd. I only begged permission to sit down a moment, as I was tired. Disappointed in the expectation of a er, she coolly acceded to my request. She poio a seat; I sank into it. I felt sorely urged to weep; but scious how unseasonable such a maion would be, I restrai. Soon I asked her “if there were any dressmaker or plain-workwoman in the village?”

    “Yes; two or three. Quite as many as there was employment for.”

    I reflected. I was driven to the point now. I was brought face to face with y. I stood in the position of ohout a resource, without a friend, without a . I must do something. What? I must apply somewhere. Where?

    “Did she know of any pla the neighbourhood where a servant was wanted?”

    “Nay; she couldn’t say.”

    “What was the chief trade in this place? What did most of the people do?”

    “Some were farm labourers; a good deal worked at Mr. Oliver’s needle-factory, and at the foundry.”

    “Did Mr. Oliver employ women?”

    “Nay; it was men’s work.”

    “And what do the women do?”

    “I knawn’t,” was the answer. “Some does ohing, and some another. Poor folk mu on as they .”

    She seemed to be tired of my questions: and, indeed, what claim had I to importune her? A neighbour or two came in; my chair was evidently wanted. I took leave.

    I passed up the street, looking as I went at all the houses to the right hand and to the left; but I could discover no pretext, nor see an i to enter any. I rambled round the hamlet, going sometimes to a little distand returning again, for an hour or more. Much exhausted, and suffering greatly now for want of food, I turned aside into a lane and sat down uhe hedge. Ere many minutes had elapsed, I was again on my feet, however, and again searg something—a resource, or at least an informant. A pretty little house stood at the top of the lane, with a garden before it, exquisitely  and brilliantly blooming. I stopped at it. What business had I to approach the white door or touch the glittering knocker? In what way could it possibly be the i of the inhabitants of that dwelling to serve me? Yet I drew near and knocked. A mild-looking, ly-attired young ehe door. In such a voice as might be expected from a hopeless heart and fainting frame—a voice wretchedly low and faltering—I asked if a servant was wanted here?

    “No,” said she; “we do not keep a servant.”

    “ you tell me where I could get employment of any kind?” I tinued. “I am a stranger, without acquaintan this place. I want some work: no matter what.”

    But it was not her busio think for me, or to seek a plae: besides, in her eyes, how doubtful must have appeared my character, position, tale. She shook her head, she “was sorry she could give me no information,” and the white door closed, quite gently and civilly: but it shut me out. If she had held it open a little longer, I believe I should have begged a piece of bread; for I was nht low.

    I could not bear to return to the sordid village, where, besides, no prospect of aid was visible. I should have longed rather to deviate to a wood I saw not far off, which appeared in its thick shade to offer inviting shelter; but I was so sick, so weak, so gnawed with nature’s cravings, instinct kept me roaming round abodes where there was a ce of food. Solitude would be no solitude—rest — while the vulture, huhus sank beak and talons in my side.

    I drew near houses; I left them, and came back again, and again I wandered away: always repelled by the sciousness of having no claim to ask—nht to expeterest in my isolated lot. Meahe afternoon advanced, while I thus wandered about like a lost and starving dog. In crossing a field, I saw the church spire before me: I hasteowards it. he churchyard, and in the middle of a garden, stood a well-built though small house, which I had no doubt was the parsonage. I remembered that strangers who arrive at a place where they have no friends, and who want employment, sometimes apply to the clergyman for introdu and aid. It is the clergyman’s fun to help—at least with advice— those who wished to help themselves. I seemed to have something like a right to seek sel here. Renewing then my ce, and gathering my feeble remains of strength, I pushed on. I reached the house, and k the kit-door. An old ened: I asked was this the parsonage?

    “Yes.”

    “Was the clergyman in?”

    “No.”

    “Would he be in soon?”

    “No, he was gone from home.”

    “To a distance?”

    “Not so far—happen three mile. He had been called away by the suddeh of his father: he was at Marsh End now, and would very likely stay there a fht longer.”

    “Was there any lady of the house?”

    “Nay, there was naught but her, and she was housekeeper;” and of her, reader, I could not bear to ask the relief for want of which I was sinking; I could not yet beg; and again I crawled away.

    Once more I took off my handkerchief—once more I thought of the cakes of bread itle shop. Oh, for but a crust! for but one mouthful to allay the pang of famine! Instinctively I turned my face again to the village; I found the shop again, and I went in; and though others were there besides the woman I vehe request—“Would she give me a roll for this handkerchief?”

    She looked at me with evident suspi: “Nay, she never sold stuff i’ that way.”

    Almost desperate, I asked for half a cake; she again refused. “How could she tell where I had got the handkerchief?” she said.

    “Would she take my gloves?”

    “No! what could she do with them?”

    Reader, it is not pleasant to dwell on these details. Some say there is enjoyment in looking back to painful experience past; but at this day I  scarcely bear to review the times to which I allude: the moral degradation, blent with the physical suffering, form too distressing a recolle ever to be willingly dwelt on. I blamed none of those who repulsed me. I felt it was what was to be expected, and what could not be helped: an ordinary beggar is frequently an object of suspi; a well-dressed beggar iably so. To be sure, what I begged was employment; but whose business was it to provide me with employment? Not, certainly, that of persons who saw me then for the first time, and who knew nothing about my character. And as to the woman who would not take my handkerchief in exge for her bread, why, she was right, if the offer appeared to her sinister or the exge unprofitable. Let me dense now. I am sick of the subject.

    A little before dark I passed a farm-house, at the open door of which the farmer was sittiing his supper of bread and cheese. I stopped and said—

    “Will you give me a piece of bread? for I am very hungry.” He cast on me a glance of surprise; but without answering, he cut a thick slice from his loaf, and gave it to me. I imagine he did not think I was a beggar, but only an etric sort of lady, who had taken a fancy to his brown loaf. As soon as I was out of sight of his house, I sat down and ate it.

    I could not hope to get a lodging under a roof, and sought it in the wood I have before alluded to. But my night was wretched, my rest broken: the ground was damp, the air cold: besides, intruders passed near me more than once, and I had again and again to ge my quarters; no sense of safety or tranquillity befriended me. Towards m it raihe whole of the following day was wet. Do not ask me, reader, to give a minute at of that day; as before, I sought work; as before, I was repulsed; as before, I starved; but once did food pass my lips. At the door of a cottage I saw a little girl about to throw a mess of cold pe into a pig trough. “Will you give me that?” I asked.

    She stared at me. “Mother!” she exclaimed, “there is a woman wants me to give her these pe.”

    “Well lass,” replied a voice within, “give it her if she’s a beggar. T pig doesn’t want it.”

    The girl emptied the stiffened mould into my hand, and I devoured it ravenously.

    As the wet twilight deepened, I stopped in a solitary bridle-path, which I had been pursuing an hour or more.

    “My strength is quite failing me,” I said in a soliloquy. “I feel I ot go much farther. Shall I be an outcast again this night? While the rain desds so, must I lay my head on the cold, drenched ground? I fear I ot do otherwise: for who will receive me? But it will be very dreadful, with this feeling of hunger, faintness, chill, and this sense of desolation—this total prostration of hope. In all likelihood, though, I should die before m. And why ot I recile myself to the prospect of death? Why do I struggle to retain a valueless life? Because I know, or believe, Mr. Rochester is living: and then, to die of want and cold is a fate to whiature ot submit passively. Oh, Providence! sustain me a little longer! Aid!—direct me!”

    My glazed eye wandered over the dim and misty landscape. I saw I had strayed far from the village: it was quite out of sight. The very cultivation surrounding it had disappeared. I had, by cross- ways and by-paths, once more drawhe traoorland; and now, only a few fields, almost as wild and unproductive as the heath from which they were scarcely reclaimed, lay between me and the dusky hill.

    “Well, I would rather die yohan in a street or on a frequented road,” I reflected. “And far better that crows and ravens—if any ravens there be in these regions—should pick my flesh from my bohan that they should be prisoned in a workhouse coffin and moulder in a pauper’s grave.”

    To the hill, then, I turned. I reached it. It remained now only to find a hollow where I could lie down, and feel at least hidden, if not secure. But all the surface of the waste looked level. It showed no variation but of tint: green, where rush and moss rew the marshes; black, where the dry soil bore only heath. Dark as it was getting, I could still see these ges, though but as mere alternations of light and shade; for colour had faded with the daylight.

    My eye still roved over the sullen swell and along the me, vanishing amidst the wildest sery, when at one dim point, far in among the marshes and the ridges, a light sprang up. “That is an ignis fatuus,” was my first thought; and I expected it would soon vanish. It burnt on, however, quite steadily, her reg nor advang. “Is it, then, a bonfire just kindled?” I questioned. I watched to see whether it would spread: but no; as it did not diminish, so it did not enlarge. “It may be a dle in a house,” I then jectured; “but if so, I ever reach it. It is much too far away: and were it within a yard of me, what would it avail? I should but knock at the door to have it shut in my face.”

    And I sank down where I stood, and hid my face against the ground. I lay still a while: the night-wind swept over the hill and over me, and died moaning in the distahe rain fell fast, wetting me afresh to the skin. Could I but have stiffeo the still frost— the friendly numbness of death—it might have pelted on; I should not have felt it; but my yet living flesh shuddered at its chilling influence. I rose ere long.

    The light was yet there, shining dim but stant through the rain. I tried to walk again: I dragged my exhausted limbs slowly towards it. It led me aslant over the hill, through a wide bog, which would have been impassable in winter, and lashy and shaking even now, in the height of summer. Here I fell twice; but as often I rose and rallied my faculties. This light was my forlorn hope: I must gain it.

    Having crossed the marsh, I saw a trace of white over the moor. I approached it; it was a road or a track: it led straight up to the light, whiow beamed from a sort of knoll, amidst a clump of trees—firs, apparently, from what I could distinguish of the character of their forms and foliage through the gloom. My star vanished as I drew near: some obstacle had intervened between me and it. I put out my hand to feel the dark mass before me: I discrimihe rough stones of a low wall—above it, something like palisades, and within, a high and prickly hedge. I groped on. Again a whitish object gleamed before me: it was a gate—a wicket; it moved on its hinges as I touched it. On each side stood a sable bush-holly or yew.

    Entering the gate and passing the shrubs, the silhouette of a house rose to view, black, low, and rather long; but the guiding light shone nowhere. All was obscurity. Were the inmates retired to rest? I feared it must be so. In seeking the door, I turned an ahere shot out the friendly gleam again, from the lozenged panes of a very small latticed window, within a foot of the ground, made still smaller by the growth of ivy or some other creeping plant, whose leaves clustered thick over the portion of the house wall in which it was set. The aperture was so sed and narrow, that curtain or shutter had been deemed unnecessary; and when I stooped dout aside the spray of foliage shooting over it, I could see all within. I could see clearly a room with a sanded floor,  scoured; a dresser of walnut, with pewter plates ranged in rows, refleg the redness and radiance of a glowi-fire. I could see a clock, a white deal table, some chairs. The dle, whose ray had been my bea, burnt oable; and by its light an elderly woman, somewhat rough-looking, but scrupulously , like all about her, was knitting a stog.

    I noticed these objects cursorily only—ihere was nothiraordinary. A group of more i appeared he hearth, sitting still amidst the rosy pead warmth suffusing it. Two young, graceful women—ladies in every point—sat, one in a low rog-chair, the other on a lower stool; both wore deep m of crape and bombazeen, whibre garb singularly set off very fair necks and faces: a large old pointer dog rested its massive head on the knee of one girl—in the lap of the other was cushioned a black cat.

    A strange place was this humble kit for such octs! Who were they? They could not be the daughters of the elderly person at the table; for she looked like a rustid they were all delicad cultivation. I had nowhere seen such faces as theirs: a, as I gazed on them, I seemed intimate with every li. I ot call them handsome—they were too pale and grave for the word: as they each bent over a book, they looked thoughtful almost to severity. A staween them supported a sed dle and two great volumes, to which they frequently referred, paring them, seemingly, with the smaller books they held in their hands, like people sulting a diary to aid them iask of translation. This se was as silent as if all the figures had been shadows and the firelit apartment a picture: so hushed was it, I could hear the ders fall from the grate, the clock ti its obscure er; and I even fancied I could distinguish the click- click of the woman’s knitting-needles. When, therefore, a voice broke the straillness at last, it was audible enough to me.

    “Listen, Diana,” said one of the absorbed students; “Franz and old Daniel are together in the night-time, and Franz is telling a dream from which he has awakened in terror—listen!” And in a low voice she read something, of whiot one word was intelligible to me; for it was in an unknown tongue—her Frenor Latin. Whether it were Greek erman I could not tell.

    “That is strong,” she said, when she had finished: “I relish it.” The irl, who had lifted her head to listen to her sister, repeated, while she gazed at the fire, a line of what had been read. At a later day, I khe language and the book; therefore, I will here quote the lihough, when I first heard it, it was only like a stroke on sounding brass to me—veying no meaning:—

    “‘Da trat hervor Einer, anzusehen wie die Sternen Nacht.’ Good! good!” she exclaimed, while her dark and deep eye sparkled. “There you have a dim and mighty argel fitly set before you! The line is worth a hundred pages of fustian. ‘Ich wage die Gedanken in der Schale meines Zornes und die Werke mit dem Gewichte meines Grimms.’ I like it!”

    Both were again silent.

    “Is there ony try where they talk i’ that way?” asked the old woman, looking up from her knitting.

    “Yes, Hannah—a far larger try than England, where they talk in no other way.”

    “Well, for sure case, I knawn’t how they  uand t’ o’other: and if either o’ ye went there, ye could tell what they said, I guess?”

    “We could probably tell something of what they said, but not all— for we are not as clever as you think us, Hannah. We don’t speak German, and we ot read it without a diary to help us.”

    “And what g>..</a>ood does it do you?”

    “We mean to teach it some time—or at least the elements, as they say; and then we shall get more mohan we do now.”

    “Varry like: but give ower studying; ye’ve done enough for to- night.”

    “I think we have: at least I’m tired. Mary, are you?”

    “Mortally: a<dfn></dfn>fter all, it’s tough work fagging away at a language with no master but a lexi.”

    “It is, especially such a language as this crabbed but glorious Deutsch. I wonder when St. John will e home.”

    “Surely he will not be long now: it is just ten (looking at a little gold watch she drew from her girdle). It rains fast, Hannah: will you have the goodo look at the fire in the parlour?”

    The woman rose: she opened a door, through which I dimly saassage: soon I heard her stir a fire in an inner room; she presently came back.

    “Ah, childer!” said she, “it fair troubles me to go into yond’ room now: it looks so lonesome wi’ the chair empty a ba a er.”

    She wiped her eyes with her apron: the two girls, grave before, looked sad now.

    “But he is in a better place,” tinued Hannah: “we shouldn’t wish him here again. And then, nobody o have a quieter death nor he had.”

    “You say he never mentioned us?” inquired one of the ladies.

    “He hadn’t time, bairn: he was gone in a minute, was your father. He had been a bit ailing like the day before, but naught to signify; and when Mr. St. John asked if he would like either o’ ye to be sent for, he fair laughed at him. He began again with a bit of a heaviness in his head the  day—that is, a fht sin’—and he went to sleep and niver wakened: he wor a’most stark when your brother went into t’ chamber and fand him. Ah, childer! that’s t’ last o’ t’ old stock—for ye and Mr. St. John is like of different soart to them ‘at’s gone; for all your mother wor mich i’ your way, and a’most as book-learned. She wor the pictur’ o’ ye, Mary: Diana is more like your father.”

    I thought them so similar I could not tell where the old servant (for such I now cluded her to be) saw the difference. Both were fair plexioned and slenderly made; both possessed faces full of distin and intelligence. Oo be sure, had hair a shade darker thaher, and there was a differen their style of wearing it; Mary’s pale brown locks were parted and braided smooth: Diana’s duskier tresses covered her neck with thick curls. The clock struck ten.

    “Ye’ll want your supper, I am sure,” observed Hannah; “and so will Mr. St. John when he es in.”

    And she proceeded to prepare the meal. The ladies rose; they seemed about to withdraw to the parlour. Till this moment, I had been so i on watg them, their appearand versation had excited in me so keen an i, I had half-fotten my owched position: now it recurred to me. More desolate, more desperate than ever, it seemed from trast. And how impossible did it appear to touch the inmates of this house with  on my behalf; to make them believe iruth of my wants and woes—to ihem to vouchsafe a rest for my wanderings! As I groped out the door, and k it hesitatingly, I felt that last idea to be a mere chimera. Hannah opened.

    “What do you want?” she inquired, in a voice of surprise, as she surveyed me by the light of the dle she held.

    “May I speak to your mistresses?” I said.

    “You had better tell me what you have to say to them. Where do you e from?”

    “I am a stranger.”

    “What is your business here at this hour?”

    “I want a night’s shelter in an out-house or anywhere, and a morsel of bread to eat.”

    Distrust, the very feeling I dreaded, appeared in Hannah’s face. “I’ll give you a piece of bread,” she said, after a pause; “but we ’t take in a vagrant to lodge. It isn’t likely.”

    “Do let me speak to your mistresses.”

    “No, not I. What  they do for you? You should not be roving about now; it looks very ill.”

    “But where shall I go if you drive me away? What shall I do?”

    “Oh, I’ll warrant you know where to go and what to do. Mind you don’t d, that’s all. Here is a penny; now go—”

    “A penny ot feed me, and I have nth to go farther. Don’t shut the door:- oh, don’t, fod’s sake!”

    “I must; the rain is driving in—”

    “Tell the young ladies. Let me see them- ”

    “Indeed, I will not. You are not what you ought to be, or you wouldn’t make such a noise. Move off.”

    “But I must die if I am turned away.”

    “Not you. I’m fear’d you have some ill plans agate, that bring you about folk’s houses at this time o’ night. If you’ve any followers—housebreakers or such like—anywhere near, you may tell them we are not by ourselves in the house; we have a gentleman, and dogs, and guns.” Here the ho but inflexible servant clapped the door to and bolted it within.

    This was the climax. A pang of exquisite suffering—a throe of true despair—ren<bdi></bdi>t and heaved my heart. Worn out, indeed, I was; not aep could I stir. I sank o doorstep: I groaned— I wrung my hands—I wept in utter anguish. Oh, this spectre of death! Oh, this last hour, approag in such horror! Alas, this isolation—this banishment from my kind! Not only the anchor of hope, but the footing of fortitude was go least for a moment; but the last I soon endeavoured tain.

    “I  but die,” I said, “and I believe in God. Let me try to wait His will in silence.”

    These words I not only thought, but uttered; and thrusting back all my misery into my heart, I made an effort to pel it to remain there—dumb and still.

    “All men must die,” said a voice quite close at hand; “but all are not o meet a lingering and premature doom, such as yours would be if you perished here of want.”

    “Who or eaks?” I asked, terrified at the ued sound, and incapable now of deriving from any occurrence a hope of aid. A form was near—what form, the pitch-dark night and my enfeebled visioed me from distinguishing. With a loud long knock, the new-er appealed to the door.

    “Is it you, Mr. St. John?” cried Hannah.

    “Yes—yes; open quickly.”

    “Well, how wet and cold you must be, such a wild night as it is! e in—your sisters are quite uneasy about you, and I believe there are bad folks about. There has been a beggar-woman—I declare she is not go!—laid down there. Get up! for shame! Move off, I say!”

    “Hush, Hannah! I have a word to say to the woman. You have done your duty in excluding, now let me do mine in admitting her. I was near, and listeo both you and her. I think this is a peculiar case—I must at least examio it. Young woman, rise, and pass before me into the house.”

    With difficulty I obeyed him. Presently I stood within that , bright kit—on the very hearth—trembling, siing; scious of an aspe the last degree ghastly, wild, aher-beaten. The two ladies, their brother, Mr. St. John, the old servant, were all gazing at me.

    “St. John, who is it?” I heard one ask.

    “I ot tell: I fou the door,” was the reply.

    “She does look white,” said Hannah.

    “As white as clay or death,” was responded. “She will fall: let her sit.”

    And indeed my head swam: I dropped, but a chair received me. I still possessed my sehough just now I could not speak.

    “Perhaps a little water would restore her. Hannah, fete. But she is worn to nothing. How very thin, and how very bloodless!”

    “A mere spectre!”

    “Is she ill, or only famished?”

    “Famished, I think. Hannah, is that milk? Give it me, and a piece of bread.”

    Diana (I knew her by the long curls which I saw droopiween me and the fire as she bent over me) broke some bread, dipped it in milk, and put it to my lips. Her face was near mine: I saw there ity in it, and I felt sympathy in her hurried breathing. In her simple words, too, the same balm-like emotion spoke: “Try to eat.”

    “Yes—try,” repeated Mary gently; and Mary’s hand removed my sodden bo and lifted my head. I tasted what they offered me: feebly at first, eagerly soon.

    “Not too much at first—restrain her,” said the brother; <bdo>..</bdo>“she has had enough.” Ahdrew the ilk and the plate of bread.

    “A little more, St. John—look at the avidity in her eyes.”

    “No more at present, sister. Try if she  speak now—ask her her name.”

    I felt I could speak, and I answered—“My name is Jane Elliott.” Anxious as ever to avoid discovery, I had before resolved to assume an alias.

    “And where do you live? Where are your friends?”

    I was silent.

    “ we send for any one you know?”

    I shook my head.

    “What at  you give of yourself?”

    Somehow, now that I had once crossed the threshold of this house, and once was brought face to face with its owners, I felt no longer outcast, vagrant, and disowned by the wide world. I dared to put off the mendit—to resume my natural manner and character. I began once more to know myself; and when Mr. St. John demanded an at—which at present I was far too weak to render—<bdo>藏书网</bdo>I said after a brief pause—

    “Sir, I  give you ails to-night.”

    “But what, then,” said he, “do you expect me to do for you?”

    “Nothing,” I replied. My strength sufficed for but short answers. Diana took the word—

    “Do you mean,” she asked, “that we have now given you what aid you require? and that we may dismiss you to the moor and the rainy night?”

    I looked at her. She had, I thought, a remarkable tenance, instinct both with power and goodness. I took sudden ce. Answering her passioe with a smile, I said—“I will trust you. If I were a masterless and stray dog, I know that you would not turn me from your hearth to-night: as it is, I really have no fear. Do with me and for me as you like; but excuse me from much discourse—my breath is short—I feel a spasm when I speak.” All three surveyed me, and all three were silent.

    “Hannah,” said Mr. St. John, at last, “let her sit there at present, and ask her no questions; in ten minutes mive her the remainder of that milk and bread. Mary and Diana, let us go into the parlour and talk the matter over.”

    They withdrew. Very soon one of the ladies returned—I could not tell which. A kind of pleasant stupor was stealing over me as I sat by the genial fire. In an uone she gave some dires to Hannah. Ere long, with the servant’s aid, I trived to mount a staircase; my dripping clothes were removed; soon a warm, dry bed received me. I thanked God—experienced amidst unutterable exhaustion a glow of grateful joy—and slept.

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