Chapter 23 Daylight

1 The candle at last went out, and a grey light outside showed that day was approaching. In a little while I heard the bark of the dog far below. Hope returned.

2 Five minutes later, Mr Rochester entered, and with him the doctor he had been to fetch.

3 'Now, Carter, be quick,' he said to the other. 'I give you only half an hour for attending to the wound, tying it up, getting the patient downstairs and all.'

4 'But is he fit to move, sir?'

5 'Yes, yes. It is nothing serious. He is nervous; he needs encouragement. Come, set to work.'

6 He approached Mason.

7 'Now, my good fellow, how are you?' he asked.

8 'She's finished me, I fear,' was the faint reply.

9 'Courage! You've lost a little blood, that's all. Carter, tell him there's no danger.'

10 'I can do that conscientiously,' said the doctor. 'But I wish I could have got here sooner. But how is this? This wound on the shoulder was not done with a knife: there have been teeth here!'

11 'She bit me,' murmured Mason. 'She attacked me like a wild cat, when Rochester got the knife from her. I did not expect it: she looked so quiet at first.'

12 'I warned you,' was his friend's answer. 'I told you to be careful when you went near her. Besides, you might have waited till tomorrow, and had me with you.'

13 'I thought I could have done some good.'

14 'You thought! You thought! Yes, it makes me impatient to hear you. However, you have suffered for not taking my advice. Carter, hurry! Hurry! The sun will soon rise, and I must have him away from here.'

15 'In a minute, sir; but I must look at this other wound in the arm. She has had her teeth here, too, I think.'

16 'She sucked the blood. She said she'd drain my heart,' said Mason.

17 I saw an especially strong expression of disgust, horror, hatred, pass across Mr Rochester's face, but he only said:

18 'Come, be silent, Richard, and never mind her nonsense. Don't repeat it. Jane,' he continued, turning to me, 'take this key. Go down to my bedroom, and bring a clean shirt. Then go into Mr Mason's room and find his coat.'

19 I obeyed. In a short time the wounded man was dressed and lifted on to his feet. By this time it was half-past five. Supported by Mr Rochester and the doctor, he seemed to walk fairly easily, and was got downstairs with as little noise as possible. Outside, a carriage was waiting.

20 'Take care of him,' said Mr Rochester, as Carter followed Mason into the carriage, 'and keep him at your house till he is quite well. Goodbye, Richard.'

21 'Rochester ... '

22 'What is it?'

23 'Let her be taken care of. Let her be treated tenderly. Let her ... ' he stopped, and burst into tears.

24 'I do my best, and have done it, and will do it,' was the answer. Mr Rochester shut the door, and the carriage drove away.

25 'I wish that God would put an end to all this!' he added.

26 He moved with slow step towards a door in the wall bordering the fruit garden. He opened it, and stood waiting for me.

27 'Jane,' he said. 'Come where there is some freshness for a few moments. That house is a mere prison, don't you feel it so?'

28 'To me it seems a splendid place, sir.'

29 'The charm of inexperience is over your eyes. Now here,' he said, pointing to the leafy enclosure that we had entered, 'all is real, sweet and pure.'

30 He wandered down a path edged with all kinds of flowers, as fresh now as a beautiful spring morning could make them. The sun was just appearing, and its light fell on the trees and the quiet walks beneath.

31 'Jane, will you have a flower?'

32 He gathered a half-open rose, the first on the bush, and offered it to me.

33 'You have passed a very strange night, Jane, and it has made you look pale. Were you afraid when I left you alone with Mason?'

34 'I was afraid of someone coming out of the inner room.'

35 'But I had fastened the door. You were safe.'

36 'Will Grace Poole live here still, sir?'

37 'Oh, yes! Don't trouble yourself about her.'

38 'Yet it seems to me that your life is hardly safe while she stays.'

39 'Never mind ... I will take care of myself.'

40 'Is the danger that you feared last night gone now, sir?'

41 'I cannot be certain till Mason is out of England, and not even then.'

42 'But Mr Mason seems a man who is easily influenced. Your influence, sir, is plainly strong with him. He will never purposely harm you.'

43 Mr Rochester laughed bitterly, hastily took my hand, and just as hastily threw it from him.

44 'Oh, no! He will not disobey me ... but without intending it, he might in a moment, by one careless word, cause me to lose, if not my life, yet my only chance of happiness. I must keep him from finding out that harm to me is possible. Now you look puzzled, and I will puzzle you further. You are my little friend, aren't you?'

45 'I like to serve you, sir, and to obey you in all that is right.'

46 'Exactly. I see you do. I see sincere contentment in your face when you are helping me in what you call "all that is right". But if I told you to do what you thought was wrong, my friend would then turn to me, quiet and pale, and would say, "No, sir, that is impossible." Well, you, too, have power over me, and may harm me, and I dare not show my weak place, for fear that, faithful and friendly though you are, you should strike me at once.'

47 'If you have no more to fear from Mr Mason than you have from me, sir, you are very safe.'

48 'God permit that it may be so! Here, Jane, is a seat. You don't hesitate to take a seat by my side, do you?'

49 I felt that it might be unwise to refuse.

50 'Well, Jane, I'll ask your advice. Suppose you were no longer a well-brought-up young girl, but a wild boy, spoilt from childhood. Imagine yourself in a distant foreign land. Suppose that you there make a serious mistake, one whose results must follow you all through life. Remember, I don't say crime: my word is mistake. Life becomes bitter and miserable: you wander here and there, trying to find happiness in idle pleasure. Weary and dissatisfied, you come home after many years. You meet someone different. You find, in this stranger, the good and bright qualities which you have been searching for in vain for twenty years. You feel purer feelings coming back to you, and you wish to begin a new life. In order to do this, would you be right to disregard a custom which neither your conscience accepts nor your judgment approves? Would it be right to dare the world's opinion in order to join yourself for ever to this gentle stranger?'

51 He paused for an answer, and what was I to say? Oh, for some good spirit to suggest a wise and satisfactory reply!

52 'Sir,' I answered. 'No man's improvement should depend entirely upon a fellow being. He should look higher than his equals for strength to lead a better life.'

53 'But the means! God, who does the work, chooses the instrument. I believe I have found the instrument for my own cure in ... '

54 He paused. The birds went on singing, and the leaves lightly moving. At last I looked up at the speaker. He was looking eagerly at me.

55 'Little friend,' he said, in quite a changed voice, while his face changed too, losing all its softness, and becoming hard and scornful—'you have noticed my tender feeling for Miss Ingram. Don't you think that if I married her, she would improve me?'

56 He got up instantly, went quite to the other end of the path, and when he came back he was whistling a tune.

57 'She's a rare one, isn't she, Jane?'

58 'Yes, sir.'

59 'A real beauty, Jane. Why, there's Dent and Lynn in the garden. Go back to the house by that side gate.'

60 As I went one way, he went another, and I heard him saying cheerfully to his guests:

61 'Mason was up before you this morning. He was gone before sunrise. I got up at four to see him go.'