"With Madame Frederic and her husband: she took care of me, but she

is nothing related to me. I think she is poor, for she had not so

fine a house as mama. I was not long there. Mr. Rochester asked me

if I would like to go and live with him in England, and I said yes;

for I knew Mr. Rochester before I knew Madame Frederic, and he was

always kind to me and gave me pretty dresses and toys: but you see

he has not kept his word, for he has brought me to England, and now

he is gone back again himself, and I never see him."

After breakfast, Adele and I withdrew to the library, which room, it

appears, Mr. Rochester had directed should be used as the

schoolroom. Most of the books were locked up behind glass doors;

but there was one bookcase left open containing everything that

could be needed in the way of elementary works, and several volumes

of light literature, poetry, biography, travels, a few romances, &c.

I suppose he had considered that these were all the governess would

require for her private perusal; and, indeed, they contented me

amply for the present; compared with the scanty pickings I had now

and then been able to glean at Lowood, they seemed to offer an

abundant harvest of entertainment and information. In this room,

too, there was a cabinet piano, quite new and of superior tone; also

an easel for painting and a pair of globes.

I found my pupil sufficiently docile, though disinclined to apply:

she had not been used to regular occupation of any kind. I felt it

would be injudicious to confine her too much at first; so, when I

had talked to her a great deal, and got her to learn a little, and

when the morning had advanced to noon, I allowed her to return to

her nurse. I then proposed to occupy myself till dinner-time in

drawing some little sketches for her use.

As I was going upstairs to fetch my portfolio and pencils, Mrs.

Fairfax called to me: "Your morning school-hours are over now, I

suppose," said she. She was in a room the folding-doors of which

stood open: I went in when she addressed me. It was a large,

stately apartment, with purple chairs and curtains, a Turkey carpet,

walnut-panelled walls, one vast window rich in slanted glass, and a

lofty ceiling, nobly moulded. Mrs. Fairfax was dusting some vases

of fine purple spar, which stood on a sideboard.

"What a beautiful room!" I exclaimed, as I looked round; for I had

never before seen any half so imposing.




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