"I will put her to some test," thought I: "such absolute

impenetrability is past comprehension."

"Good morning, Grace," I said. "Has anything happened here? I

thought I heard the servants all talking together a while ago."

"Only master had been reading in his bed last night; he fell asleep

with his candle lit, and the curtains got on fire; but, fortunately,

he awoke before the bed-clothes or the wood-work caught, and

contrived to quench the flames with the water in the ewer.

"A strange affair!" I said, in a low voice: then, looking at her

fixedly--"Did Mr. Rochester wake nobody? Did no one hear him move?"

She again raised her eyes to me, and this time there was something

of consciousness in their expression. She seemed to examine me

warily; then she answered "The servants sleep so far off, you know, Miss, they would not be

likely to hear. Mrs. Fairfax's room and yours are the nearest to

master's; but Mrs. Fairfax said she heard nothing: when people get

elderly, they often sleep heavy." She paused, and then added, with

a sort of assumed indifference, but still in a marked and

significant tone--"But you are young, Miss; and I should say a light

sleeper: perhaps you may have heard a noise?"

"I did," said I, dropping my voice, so that Leah, who was still

polishing the panes, could not hear me, "and at first I thought it

was Pilot: but Pilot cannot laugh; and I am certain I heard a

laugh, and a strange one."

She took a new needleful of thread, waxed it carefully, threaded her

needle with a steady hand, and then observed, with perfect composure

"It is hardly likely master would laugh, I should think, Miss, when

he was in such danger: You must have been dreaming."

"I was not dreaming," I said, with some warmth, for her brazen

coolness provoked me. Again she looked at me; and with the same

scrutinising and conscious eye.

"Have you told master that you heard a laugh?" she inquired.

"I have not had the opportunity of speaking to him this morning."

"You did not think of opening your door and looking out into the

gallery?" she further asked.

She appeared to be cross-questioning me, attempting to draw from me

information unawares. The idea struck me that if she discovered I

knew or suspected her guilt, she would be playing of some of her

malignant pranks on me; I thought it advisable to be on my guard.




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