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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com Digital Library-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte


173

‘Go!’ ejaculated Miss Ingram, and the man went.
Excitement instantly seized the whole party: a running fire of
raillery and jests was proceeding when Sam returned.

‘She won’t come now,’ said he. ‘She says it’s not her mission to
appear before the “vulgar herd” (them’s her words). I must show
her into a room by herself, and then those who wish to consult her
must go to her one by one.’ ‘You see now, my queenly Blanche,’
began Lady Ingram, ‘she encroaches. Be advised, my angel girl-
and-’ ‘Show her into the library, of course,’ cut in the ‘angel girl,’ ‘It
is not my mission to listen to her before the vulgar herd either: I
mean to have her all to myself.

Is there a fire in the library?’ ‘Yes, ma’am-but she looks such a
tinkler.’ ‘Cease that chatter, blockhead! and do my bidding.’

Again Sam vanished; and mystery, animation, expectation rose to
full flow once more.

‘She’s ready now,’ said the footman, as he reappeared. ‘She wishes
to know who will be her first visitor.’ ‘I think I had better just look
in upon her before any of the ladies go,’ said Colonel Dent.

‘Tell her, Sam, a gentleman is coming.’ Sam went and returned.
‘She says, sir, that she’ll have no gentlemen; they need not trouble
themselves to come near her; nor,’ he added, with difficulty
suppressing a titter, ‘any ladies either, except the young and
single.’ ‘By Jove, she has taste!’ exclaimed Henry Lynn.

Miss Ingram rose solemnly: ‘I go first,’ she said, in a tone which
might have befitted the leader of a forlorn hope, mounting a breach
in the van of his men.

‘Oh, my best! oh, my dearest! pause-reflect!’ was her mama’s cry;
but she swept past her in stately silence, passed through the door
which Colonel Dent held open, and we heard her enter the library.
A comparative silence ensued. Lady Ingram thought it ‘le cas’ to
wring her hands: which she did accordingly. Miss Mary declared
she felt, for her part, she never dared venture. Amy and Louisa
Eshton tittered under their breath, and looked a little frightened.
The minutes passed very slowly: fifteen were counted before the
library-door again opened. Miss Ingram returned to us through the
arch.

Would she laugh? Would she take it as a joke? All eyes met her
with a glance of eager curiosity, and she met all eyes with one of
rebuff and coldness; she looked neither flurried nor merry: she
walked stiffly to her seat, and took it in silence.

‘Well, Blanche?’ said Lord Ingram.
‘What did she say, sister?’ asked Mary.
‘What did you think? How do you feel? Is she a real fortune-teller?’
demanded the Misses Eshton.
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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com Digital Library-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte



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