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Ere the half-hour ended, fie o’clock struck; school was disssed, and all were goo the refectory to tea. I now eo desd: it was deep dusk; I retired into a er and sat down on the floor. The spell by which I had been so far supported began to dissole; rea took pce, and soon, so oerwhelng was the grief that seized , I sank prostrate with face to the ground. Now I wept: Helen Burns was not here; nothing sustained ; left to self I abandoned self, and tears watered the boards. I had ant to be so good, and to do so ch at Lowood: to ke so ny friends, to earn resped win affe. Already I had de isible progress: that ery I had reached the head of css; Miss Miller had praised wary; Miss Tele had sled approbation; she had prosed to teabsp; drawing, and to let learn French, if I tio ke sir iroent two nths longer: and then I was well receied by fellow-pupils; treated as an equal by those of own age, and not lested by any; now, here I y again crushed and trodden on; anuld I eer rise re?
“Neer,” I thought; and ardently I wished to die. While sobbing out this wish in broken ats, so one approached: I started up— again Helen Burns was near ; the fading fires just showed her ing up the long, at roo she brought fee and bread.
“e, eat sothing,” she said; but I put both away fro, feeling as if a drop or a cru would hae choked in  resent dition. Helen regarded , probably with surprise: uld not now abate agitation, though I tried hard; I tio weep aloud. She sat down on the ground near , eraced her knees with her ar, aed her head upon the in that attitude she reined silent as an Indian. I was the first who spoke—
“Helen, why do you stay with a girl whoeerybody beliees to be a liar?”
“Eerybody, Jane? Why, there are oy people who hae heard you called so, and the world tains hundreds of llions.”
“But what hae I to do with llions? The eighty, I know, despise .”
“Jane, you are staken: probably not one in the school either despises or dislikes you: ny, I asure, pity you ch.”
“How they pity after what Mr. Brocklehurst has said?”
“Mr. Brocklehurst is not a god: nor is he een a great and adred n: he is little liked here; he ook steps to ke hielf liked. Had he treated you as an especial faourite, you would hae found enees, decred oert, all around you; as it is, the greater nuer would offer you syathy if they dared. Teachers and pupils y looldly on you for a day or two, but friendly feelings are cealed in their hearts; and if you perseere in doing well, these feelings will ere long appear so ch the re eidently for their teorary suppression. Besides, Jane”—she paused.
“Well, Helen?” said I, putting hand into hers: she chafed fingers gently to warthe a on—
“If all the world hated you, and belieed you wicked, while your own sce approed you, and absoled yui, you would not be without friends.”
“No; I know I should think well of self; but that is not enough: if others don’t loe I would rather die than lie—I ot bear to be solitary and hated, Helen. Look here; to gain so real affe froyou, or Miss Tele, or any other whoI truly loe, I would willingly subt to hae the bone of arbroken, or to let a bull toss , or to stand behind a kig horse, a dash its hoof at chest—”
“Hush, Jane! you think too ch of the loe of hun beings; you are too iulsie, too ehent; the sn hand that created your fra, and put life into it, has proided you with other resources than your feeble self, or thaures feeble as you. Besides this earth, and besides the raen, there is an inisible world and a kingdoof spirits: that world is round us, for it is eerywhere; and those spirits watch us, for they are issioo guard us; and if we were dying in pain and sha, if s ste us on all sides, and hatred crushed us, angels see our tortures, reise our innoce (if i we be: as I know you are of this charge which Mr. Brocklehurst has weakly and poously repeated at sed-hand froMrs. Reed; for I read a siure in your ardent eyes and on your clear front), and God waits only the separation of spirit froflesh to us with a full reward. Why, then, should we eer sink oerwheld with distress, when life is so soon oer, ah is so certain arao happiness— to glory?”
I was silent; Helen had cald ; but iranquillity she iarted there was an alloy of inepressible sadness. I fe the iression of woe as she spoke, but uld not tell whe d when, haing done speaking, she breathed a little fast anughed a shh, I ntarily fot own sorrows to yield to a ague for her.
Resting head on Helen’s shoulder, I put ar round her waist; she drew to her, and we reposed in silence. We had not sat long thus, when another person . So heay clouds, swept frothe sky by a rising wind, had left the on bare; and her light, streang in through a window near, shone full both on us and on the approag figure, which we at once reised as Miss Tele.
“I purpose to find you, Jane Eyre,” said she; “I want you in roo and as Helen Burns is with you, she y e too.”
We went; following the superinte’s guidance, we had to thread so intricate passages, and unt a staircase before we reached her apartnt; it tained a good fire, and looked cheerful. Miss Tele told Helen Burns to be seated in a low archair on one side of the hearth, and herself taking another, she called to her side.
“Is it all oer?” she asked, looking down at face. “Hae you cried yrief away?”
“I aafraid I neer shall do that.”
“Why?”
“Because I hae been wrongly aused; and you, ’a and eerybody else, will now think wicked.”
“We shall think you what you proe yourself to be, child. tio act as a good girl, and you will satisfy us.”
“Shall I, Miss Tele?”
“You will,” said she, passing her arround . “And now tell who is the dy whoMr. Brocklehurst called your beress?”
“Mrs. Reed, uncle’s wife. My uncle is dead, and he left to her care.”
“Did she not, then, adopt you of her own rd?”
“No, ’a she was sorry to hae to do it: but uncle, as I hae often heard the serants say, got her to prose before he died that she would always keep .”
“Well now, Jane, you know, or at least I will tell you, that when a al is;big;/big aused, he is always allowed to speak in his own defence. You hae been charged with falsehood; defend yourself to as well as you . Say whateer your ry suggests is true; but add nothing and eaggerate nothing.”
I resoled, in the depth of heart, that I would be st derate—srrect; and, haing reflected a few nutes in order therently what I had to say, I told her all the story of sad childhood. Ehausted by etion, nguage was re subdued than it generally was when it deeloped that sad the; and ndful of Helen’s warnings against the indulgence of rese, I infused into the narratie far less of gall and worood than ordinary. Thus restrained and silified, it sounded re credible: I fe as I went on that Miss Tele fully belieed .
In thurse of the tale I had ntioned Mr. Lloyd as haio see after the fit: for I neer fot the, to , frightful episode of the red-roo iailing whibsp; et was sure, in so degree, to break bounds; for nothinuld soften in lle the spasof agony which clutched heart when Mrs. Reed spurned wild supplication for pardon, and locked a sed ti in the dark and haunted chaer.
I had finished: Miss Tele regarded a few nutes in silence; she then said—
“I know sothing of Mr. Lloyd; I shall write to hi if his reply agrees with your statent, you shall be publicly cleared froeery iutation; to , Jane, you are clear now.”
She kissed , and still keepi her side (where I was well teo stand, for I deried a child’s pleasure frothe ption of her face, her dress, her one or two ors, her white forehead, her clustered and shining curls, and beang dark eyes), she proceeded to address Helen Burns.
“How are you to-night, Helen? Hae youghed ch to-day?”
“Not quite so ch, I think, ’a”
“And the pain in your chest?”
“It is a little better.”
Miss Tele got up, took her hand and eaned her pulse; theuro her ow: as she resud it, I heard her sigh low. She ensie a few hen rousing herself, she said cheerfully—
“But you two are isitors to-night; I st treat you as such.” She rang her bell.
“Barbara,” she said to the serant who answered it, “I hae not yet had te bring the tray and pce cups for these two young dies.”
And a tray was soht. How pretty, to eyes, did the a cups and bright teapot look, pced otle round table he fire! Hrant was the steaof the beerage, and the st of the toast! of which, howeer, I, to disy (for I was beginning to be hungry) dised only a ery sll portion: Miss Tele dised it too.
“Barbara,” said she, “ you n a little re bread and butter? There is not enough for three.”
Barbara went out: she returned soon—
“Mada Mrs. Harden says she has sent up the usual quantity.”
Mrs. Harde obsered, was the housekeeper: a won after Mr. Brocklehurst’s ow, de up of equal parts of whalebone and iron.
“Oh, ery well!” returned Miss Tele; “we st ke it do, Barbara, I suppose.” And as the girl withdrew she added, sling, “Fortunately, I hae it in  ower to supply deficies for this once.”
Haing inited Helen ao approach the table, and pced before each of us a cup of tea with one delicious but thin rsel of toast, she got up, unlocked a drawer, and taking froit a parcel ed in paper, disclosed presently to our eyes a good-sized seed-cake.
“I ant to gie each of you so of this to take with you,” said she, “but as there is so little toast, you st hae it now,” and she proceeded to cut slices with a generous hand.
We feaste;u藏书网;/ud that eening as oar and arosi and not the least delight of the eai was the sle of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our fashed appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.
Tea oer and the tray reed, she again suoned us to the fire; we sat one on each side of her, and now a ersation followed between her and Helen, which it was indeed a priilege to be adtted to hear.
Miss Tele had always sothing of serenity in her air, of state in her en, of refined propriety in her nguage, which precluded deiation into the ardent, the ecited, the eager: sothing which chastehe pleasure of those who looked on her and listeo her, by a trolling sense of awe; and such was feeling now: but as to Helen Burns, I was struck with wonder.
The refreshing al, the brilliant fire, the presend kindness of her beloed instructress, or, perhaps, re than all these, sothing in her own unique nd, had roused her powers withihey woke, they kindled: first, they glowed in the bright tint of her cheek, which till this hour I had neer seen but pale and bloodless; then they shone in the liquid lustre of her eyes, which had suddenly acquired a beauty re singur than that of Miss Tele’s—a beauty her of finlour nor long eyesh, nor pencilled brow, but of aning, of ent, of radiahen her soul sat on her lips, and nguage flowed, frowhat source I ot tell. Has a girl of fourteen a heart rge enough, igorous enough, to hold the swelling spring of pure, full, ferid eloquence? Such was the characteristic of Helen’s durse on that, to , rable eening; her spirit seed hastening to lie within a ery brief span as ch as ny lie during a protracted eistence.
They ersed of things I had neer heard of; of nations and tis past; of tries far away; of secrets of nature dered uessed at: they spoke of books: how ny they had read! What stores of knowledge they possessed! Then they seed so faliar with Frenas and French authors: but azent reached its cli when Miss Tele asked Helen if she sotis snatched a nt to recall the Latin her father had taught her, and taking a book froa shelf, bade her read and strue a page of Virgil; and Helen obeyed, an of eion epanding at eery sounding line. She had scarcely finished ere the bell announced bedti! no deuld be adtted; Miss Tele eraced us both, saying, as she drew us to her heart—
“God bless you, children!”
Helen she held a little lohan : she let her go re relutly; it was Helen her eye followed to the door; it was for her she a sed ti breathed a sad sigh; for her she wiped a tear froher cheek.
the bedroo we heard the oiiss Scatcherd: she was eaning drawers; she had just pulled out Helen Burns’s, and wheered Helen was greeted with a sharp reprind, and told that to-rrow she should hae half-a-dozen of untidily folded articles pio her shoulder.
“My things were indeed in shaful disorder,” rred Helen to , in a low oice: “I inteo hae arrahe but I fot.”
Miss Scatcherd wrote in spicuous characters on a piece of pasteboard the word “Sttern,” and bound it like a phyctery round Helen’s rge, ld, intelligent, and benign- looking forehead. She wore it till eening, patient, uful, regarding it as a desered punishnt. The nt Miss Scatcherd withdrew after afternoon school, I ran to Helen, tore it off, and thrust it into the fire: the fury of which she was incapable had been burning in soul all day, and tears, hot and rge, had tinually been scalding cheek; for the spectacle of her sad resignation gae an intolerable pain at the heart.
About a week subsequently to the is aboe narrated, Miss Tele, who had written to Mr. Lloyd, receied his answer: it appeared that what he said went trroborate at. Miss Tele, haing asseled the whole school, annouhat inquiry had beeo the charges alleged against Jane Eyre, and that she was st happy to be able to pronounce her pletely cleared froeery iutation. The teachers then shook hands with and kissed , and a rr of pleasure ran through the ranks of  anions.
Thus relieed of a grieous load, I frothat hour set to work afresh, resoled to pioneer way through eery difficuy: I toiled hard, and suess roportioo efforts; ry, not naturally tenacious, iroed with practice; eercise sharpened wits; in a few weeks I roted to a higher css; ihan two nths I was allowed to ence Frend drawing. I learhe first two tenses of the erb etre, and sketched firsttage (whose walls, by-the-bye, outrialled in slope those of the leaning tower of Pisa), on the sa day. That night, on going to bed, I fot to prepare in igination the Barcide supper of hot roast potatoes, or white bread and new lk, with which I was wont to ase inward gs: I feasted instead on the spectacle of ideal drawings, which I saw in the dark; all the work of own hands: freely pencilled houses and trees, picturesque rocks and ruins, Cuyp-like groups of cattle, sweet paintings of butterflies h oer unblown roses, of birds pig at ripe cherries, of wren’s s enclosing pearl-like eggs, wreathed about with young iy sprays. I eaoo, in thought, the possibility of eer being able to transte currently a certain little French story which Mada Pierrot had that day shown ; nor was that problesoled to satisfa ere I fell sweetly asleep.
Well has Solon said—“Better is a dinner of herbs where loe is, than a stalled o and hatred therewith.”
I would not now hae eged Lowood with all its priations fateshead and its daily luuries.
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