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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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201 course, must march straight to-the devil?’ ‘I hope not, sir; but I must seek another situation somewhere.’ ‘In course!’ he exclaimed, with a twang of voice and a distortion of features equally fantastic and ludicrous. He looked at me some minutes. ‘And old Madam Reed, or the Misses, her daughters, will be solicited by you to seek a place, I suppose?’ ‘No, sir; I am not on such terms with my relatives as would justify me in asking favours of them-but I shall advertise.’ ‘You shall walk up the pyramids of Egypt!’ he growled. ‘At your peril you advertise! I wish I had only offered you a sovereign instead of ten pounds. Give me back nine pounds, Jane; I’ve a use for it.’ ‘And so have I, sir,’ I returned, putting my hands and my purse behind me. ‘I could not spare the money on any account.’ ‘Little niggard!’ said he, ‘refusing me a pecuniary request! Give me five pounds, Jane.’ ‘Not five shillings, sir; nor five pence.’ ‘Just let me look at the cash.’ ‘No, sir; you are not to be trusted.’ ‘Jane!’ ‘Sir?’ ‘Promise me one thing.’ ‘I’ll promise you anything, sir, that I think I am likely to perform.’ ‘Not to advertise: and to trust this quest of a situation to me. I’ll find you one in time.’ ‘I shall be glad so to do, sir, if you, in your turn, will promise that I and Adele shall be both safe out of the house before your bride enters it.’ ‘Very well! very well! I’ll pledge my word on it. You go to-morrow, then?’ ‘Yes, sir; early.’ ‘Shall you come down to the drawing-room after dinner?’ ‘No, sir, I must prepare for the journey.’ ‘Then you and I must bid good-bye for a little while?’ ‘I suppose so, sir.’ ‘And how do people perform that ceremony of parting, Jane? Teach me; I’m not quite up to it.’ ‘They say, Farewell, or any other form they prefer.’ ‘Then say it.’ ‘Farewell, Mr. Rochester, for the present.’ ‘What must I say?’ ‘The same, if you like, sir.’ ‘Farewell, Miss Eyre, for the present; is that all?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘It seems stingy, to my notions, and dry, and unfriendly. I should like something else: a little addition to the rite. If one shook hands, for instance; but nothat would not content me either. So you’ll do no more than say Farewell, Jane?’ ‘It is enough, sir: as much good-will may be conveyed in one hearty word as in many.’ ‘Very likely; but it is blank and cool-“Farewell.”’ ‘How long is he going to stand with his back against that door?’ I asked myself; ‘I want to commence my packing.’ The dinner-bell rang, and suddenly away he bolted, without another syllable: I saw him no more during the day, and was off before he had risen in the morning. I reached the lodge at Gateshead about five o’clock in the afternoon of the first of May: I stepped in there before going up to the hall. It was very clean and neat: the ornamental windows were hung with |
