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


313

He shook his head. ‘What do you disapprove of, Mr. Rivers?’ I
asked.

‘You will not stay at Morton long: no, no!’ ‘Why? What is your
reason for saying so?’ ‘I read it in your eye; it is not of that
description which promises the maintenance of an even tenor in
life.’ ‘I am not ambitious.’ He started at the word ‘ambitious.’ He
repeated, ‘No. What made you think of ambition? Who is
ambitious? I know I am: but how did you find it out?’ ‘I was
speaking of myself.’ ‘Well, if you are not ambitious, you are-’ He
paused.

‘What?’ ‘I was going to say, impassioned: but perhaps you would
have misunderstood the word, and been displeased. I mean, that
human affections and sympathies have a most powerful hold on
you. I am sure you cannot long be content to pass your leisure in
solitude, and to devote your working hours to a monotonous
labour wholly void of stimulus: any more than I can be content,’ he
added, with emphasis, ‘to live here buried in morass, pent in with
mountains-my nature, that God gave me, contravened; my
faculties, heaven-bestowed, paralysed-made useless. You hear
now how I contradict myself. I, who preached contentment with a
humble lot, and justified the vocation even of hewers of wood and
drawers of water in God’s service-I, His ordained minister, almost
rave in my restlessness.

Well, propensities and principles must be reconciled by some
means.’ He left the room. In this brief hour I had learnt more of
him than in the whole previous month: yet still he puzzled me.
Diana and Mary Rivers became more sad and silent as the day
approached for leaving their brother and their home. They both
tried to appear as usual; but the sorrow they had to struggle
against was one that could not be entirely conquered or concealed.
Diana intimated that this would be a different parting from any
they had ever yet known. It would probably, as far as St. John was
concerned, be a parting for years: it might be a parting for life.

‘He will sacrifice all to his long-framed resolves,’ she said: ‘natural
affection and feelings more potent still. St. John looks quiet, Jane;
but he hides a fever in his vitals. You would think him gentle, yet
in some things he is inexorable as death; and the worst of it is, my
conscience will hardly permit me to dissuade him from his severe
decision: certainly, I cannot for a moment blame him for it. It is
right, noble, Christian: yet it breaks my heart!’ And the tears
gushed to her fine eyes. Mary bent her head low over her work.
‘We are now without father: we shall soon be without home and
brother,’ she murmured.
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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com Digital Library-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte



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