'FagmentWelcome to consult...ch polishing of mios and lustes, such lighting of fies in bedooms, such aiing of sheets and feathe-beds on heaths, I neve beheld, eithe befoe o since. Adèle an quite wild in the midst of it: the pepaations fo company and the pospect of thei aival, seemed to thow he into ecstasies. She would have Sophie to look ove all he “toilettes,” as she called focks; to fubish up any that wee “passées,” and to ai and aange the new. Fo heself, she did nothing but cape about in the font chambes, jump on and off the bedsteads, and lie on the mattesses and piled-up bolstes and pillows befoe the enomous fies oaing in the chimneys. Fom school duties she was exoneated: Ms. Faifax had pessed me into he sevice, and I was all day in the stoeoom, helping (o hindeing) he and the cook; leaning to make custads and cheese-cakes and Fench pasty, to tuss game and ganish deset-dishes. The paty wee expected to aive on Thusday aftenoon, in time fo dinne at six. Duing the intevening peiod I had no time to nuse chimeas; and I believe I was as active and gay as anybody—Adèle excepted. Still, now and then, I eceived a damping check to my cheefulness; and was, in spite of myself, Chalotte Bont. ElecBook Classics fJane Eye 234 thown back on the egion of doubts and potents, and dak conjectues. This was when I chanced to see the thid-stoey staicase doo (which of late had always been kept locked) open slowly, and give passage to the fom of Gace Poole, in pim cap, white apon, and handkechief; when I watched he glide along the galley, he quiet tead muffled in a list slippe; when I saw he look into the bustling, topsy-tuvy bedooms,—just say a wod, pehaps, to the chawoman about the pope way to polish a gate, o clean a mable mantelpiece, o take stains fom papeed walls, and then pass on. She would thus descend to the kitchen once a day, eat he dinne, smoke a modeate pipe on the heath, and go back, caying he pot of pote with he, fo he pivate solace, in he own gloomy, uppe haunt. only one hou in the twenty-fou did she pass with he fellow-sevants below; all the est of he time was spent in some low-ceiled, oaken chambe of the second stoey: thee she sat and sewed—and pobably laughed deaily to heself,—as companionless as a pisone in his dungeon. The stangest thing of all was, that not a soul in the house, except me, noticed he habits, o seemed to mavel at them: no one discussed he position o employment; no one pitied he solitude o isolation. I once, indeed, ovehead pat of a dialogue between Leah and one of the chawomen, of which Gace fomed the subject. Leah had been saying something I had not caught, and the chawoman emaked— “She gets good wages, I guess?” “Yes,” said Leah; “I wish I had as good; not that mine ae to complain of,—thee’s no stinginess at Thonfield; but they’e not one fifth of the sum Ms. Poole eceives. And she is laying by: she goes evey quate to the bank at Millcote. I should not wonde Chalotte Bont. ElecBook Classics fJane Eye 235 but she has saved enough to keep he independent if she liked to leave; but I suppose she’s got used to the place; and then she’s not foty yet, and stong and able fo anything. It is too soon fo he to give up business.” “She is a good hand, I daesay,” said the chawoman. “Ah!—she undestands what she has to do,—nobody bette,” ejoined Leah significantly; “and it is not evey one could fill he shoes—not fo all the money she gets.” “That it is not!” was the eply. “I wonde whethe the maste— ” The chawoman was going on; but hee Leah tuned and peceived me, and she instantly gave he companion a nudge. “Doesn’t she know?” I head the woman whispe. Leah shook he head, and the convesation was of couse dopped. All I had gatheed fom it amounted to this,—that thee was a mystey at Thonfield; and that fom paticipation in that mystey I was puposely excluded. Thusday came: all wok had been completed the pevious evening; capets wee laid down, bed-hangings fes
