Chapter 36 Heiress

1 When St John went, it was beginning to snow. The storm continued all night. An icy wind the next day brought fresh falls, and by evening it was almost impossible to move out of doors. My astonishment, therefore, was very great when the door suddenly opened and St John Rivers appeared, his tall figure almost covered with snow.

2 'Is there any bad news?' I asked. 'Has anything happened?'

3 'No. How very easily you are alarmed!' he answered, removing his coat and shaking the snow from his boots. 'I am spoiling your clean floor, but you must excuse me for once.'

4 'But why have you come?'

5 'Rather an awkward question to put to a visitor. I merely wished to have a talk with you. Since yesterday I have been experiencing the excitement of a person to whom a story has been half told, and who is impatient to hear its ending.'

6 He sat down, and I waited, but he seemed occupied with his thoughts. I went on with the reading which his entrance had interrupted. In a little while he took a letter from his pocket, looked at it in silence, and at last spoke.

7 'Leave your book a moment, and come a little nearer to the fire.'

8 Wondering, I obeyed.

9 'A little while ago,' he went on, 'I spoke of a half-finished story. I am going to repeat it to you. It is only fair to warn you that some of it will sound familiar.

10 'Twenty years ago, a poor priest—never mind his name—loved a rich man's daughter. She returned his love, and married him against the advice of all her friends. Before two years had passed, both were dead. They left a daughter, a friendless thing, unwillingly brought up by an aunt called Mrs Reed, of Gateshead. You move—did you hear a noise? The orphan passed at the age of ten to a place you know—Lowood School, where she left an honourable record as a pupil and a teacher. She became a governess at the house of a certain Mr Rochester.'

11 'Mr Rivers!' I interrupted.

12 'I have nearly finished. I know nothing of Mr Rochester, except that he pretended to offer honourable marriage to this young girl, and that at the last moment she found out that he had a wife still alive, though a madwoman. Soon after, an event happened which made inquiry after the governess necessary. It was then discovered that she had gone—no one could tell when, where, or how. All search after her was in vain. Yet it has become a matter of urgency that she should be found. Advertisements have been put in all the newspapers. I myself received a letter from a certain Mr Briggs, a lawyer, giving me these details.'

13 'But tell me,' I said. 'What about Mr Rochester? Is he well?'

14 'I have no knowledge of anything concerning Mr Rochester, except for his attempt to deceive the law.'

15 'But these people wrote to him?'

16 'Mr Briggs states that the answer to his application for information was signed by a lady: Alice Fairfax. This Mr Rochester must have been a bad man,' remarked Mr Rivers.

17 'You don't know him. Don't give an opinion on him,' I said.

18 St John took from his pocket a strip of paper marked with paint stains. I read on it, in my own handwriting, the words 'Jane Eyre', no doubt written in some careless moment.

19 'Briggs wrote to me of a Jane Eyre,' he said, 'and the advertisements demanded someone of that name. I knew a Jane Elliott, and I had my suspicions. This piece of paper told me the truth yesterday. You admit to your real name?'

20 'Yes, but where is Mr Briggs? Perhaps he knows more of Mr Rochester than you do.'

21 'Mr Briggs is in London, but I doubt whether he is interested in Mr Rochester. You do not inquire why he is interested in you—why he is searching for you?'

22 'Well, what did he want?'

23 'Merely to tell you that your uncle, Mr Eyre of Madeira, is dead, that he has left you all his property, and that you are now rich—merely that—nothing more.'

24 'I! Rich?'

25 'Yes, quite an heiress.'

26 There was silence.