Merry days were these at Thornfield Hall; and busy days too: how different from the first three months of stillness, monotony, and solitude I had passed beh its roof! All sad feelings seemed now driven from the house, all gloomy associations fotten: there was life everywhere, movement all day long. You could not now traverse the gallery, once so hushed, er the front chambers, once so tenantless, without entering a smart lady』s-maid or a dandy valet.
The kit, the butler』s pantry, the servants』 hall, the entrance hall, were equally alive; and the saloons were only left void and still when the blue sky and hal sunshine of the genial spriher called their octs out into the grounds. Evehat weather was broken, and tinuous rai in for some days, no damp seemed cast over enjoyment: indoor amusements only became more lively and varied, in sequence of the stop put to outdaiety.
I wondered what they were going to do the first evening a ge of eai roposed: they spoke of 「playing charades,」 but in my ignorance I did not uand the term. The servants were called in, the dining-room tables wheeled away, the lights otherwise disposed, the chairs placed in a semicircle opposite the arch. While Mr. Rochester and the entlemen directed these alterations, the ladies were running up and down stairs ringing for their maids. Mrs. Fairfax was summoo give information respeg the resources of the house in shawls, dresses, draperies of any kind; aain wardrobes of the third storey were ransacked, and their tents, in the shape of brocaded and hooped petticoats, satin sacques, black modes, lace lappets, &c., were brought down in armfuls by the abigails; then a sele was made, and such things as were chosen were carried to the boudoir within the drawing-room.
Meantime, Mr. Rochester had again summohe ladies round him, and was seleg certain of their o be of his party. 「Miss Ingram is mine, of course,」 said he: afterwards he he two Misses Eshton, and Mrs. Dent. He looked at me: I happeo be near him, as I had been fastening the clasp of Mrs. Dent』s bracelet, which had got loose.
「Will you play?」 he asked. I shook my head. He did not insist, which I rather feared he would have done; he allowed me to return quietly to my usual seat.
He and his aids now withdrew behind the curtain: the other party, which was headed by el Dent, sat down on the crest of chairs. One of the gentlemen, Mr. Eshton, me, seemed to propose that I should be asked to join them; but Lady Ingram instantly ived the notion.
「No,」 I heard her say: 「she looks too stupid for any game of the sort.」
Ere long a bell tinkled, and the curtain drew up. Within the arch, the bulky figure of Sir Gee Lynn, whom Mr. Rochester had likewise chosen, was seen enveloped in a white sheet: before him, on a table, lay open a large book; and at his side stood Amy Eshton, draped in Mr. Rochester』s cloak, and holding a book in her hand. Somebody, unseen, rang the bell merrily; then Adèle (who had insisted on being one of her guardian』s party), bounded forward, scattering rouhe tents of a basket of flowers she carried on her arm. Then appeared the magnifit figure of Miss Ingram, clad in white, a long veil on her head, and a wreath of roses round her brow; by her side walked Mr. Rochester, and together they drew he table. They k; while Mrs. Dent and Louisa Eshton, dressed also in white, took up their stations behind them. A ceremony followed, in dumb show, in which it was easy the pantomime o