Mr. Rochester, it seems, by the surgeon』s orders, went to bed early that night; nor did he rise soo m. When he did e down, it was to attend to business: his agent and some of his tenants were arrived, and waiting to speak with him.
Adèle and I had now to vacate the library: it would be in daily requisition as a reception-room for callers. A fire was lit in an apartment upstairs, and there I carried our books, and arra for the future schoolroom. I dised in the course of the m that Thornfield Hall was a ged plao longer silent as a church, it echoed every hour or two to a knock at the door, or a g of the bell; steps, too, often traversed the hall, and new voices spoke in different keys below; a rill from the outer world was flowing through it; it had a master: for my part, I liked it better.
Adèle was not easy to teach that day; she could not apply: she kept running to the door and looking over the bao see if she could get a glimpse of Mr. Rochester; then she ed pretexts to go downstairs, in order, as I shrewdly suspected, to visit the library, where I knew she was not wahen, when I got a little angry, and made her sit still, she tio talk incessantly of her 「ami, Monsieur Edouard Fairfax de Rochester,」 as she dubbed him (I had not before heard his prenomens), and to jecture resents he had brought her: for it appears he had intimated the night before, that when his luggage came from Millcote, there would be found amongst it a little box in whose tents she had an i.
「Et cela doit signifier,」 said she, 「qu』il y aura le dedans un cadeau pour moi, et peut-être pour vous aussi, mademoiselle. Monsieur a parle de vous: il m』a demande le nom de ma gouver si elle pas ue personne, assez mi un peu pale. J』ai dit qu』oui: car c』est vrai, -ce pas, mademoiselle?」
I and my pupil dined as usual in Mrs. Fairfax』s parlour; the afternoon was wild and snowy, and we passed it in the schoolroom. At dark I allowed Adèle to put away books and work, and to run downstairs; for, from the parative silence below, and from the cessation of appeals to the door-bell, I jectured that Mr. Rochester was now at liberty. Left alone, I walked to the window; but nothing was to be seen thewilight and snowflakes together thied the air, and hid the very shrubs on the lawn. I let down the curtain a back to the fireside.
In the clear embers I was trag a view, not unlike a picture I remembered to have seen of the castle of Heidelberg, on the Rhine, when Mrs. Fairfax came in, breaking up by her entrahe fiery mosaic I had been pierg together, and scattering too some heavy unwele thoughts that were beginning t on my solitude.
「Mr. Rochester would be glad if you and your pupil would take tea with him in the drawing-room this evening,」 said she: 「he has been so mugaged all day that he could not ask to see you before.」
「When is his tea-time?」 I inquired.
「Oh, at six o』clock: he keeps early hours in the try. You had better ge your froow; I will go with you and fasten it. Here is a dle.」
「Is it necessary to ge my frock?」
「Yes, you had better: I always dress for the evening when Mr. Rochester is here.」
This additional ceremony seemed somewhat stately; however, I repaired to my room, and, with Mrs. Fairfax』s aid, replaced my black stuff dress by one of black silk; the best and the only additional one I had, except one of light grey, which, in my Lowood notions of the toilette, I thought too fio be worn, except on first-rate o