that will do. But after your mamma went to the Holy Virgin, as you say, with whom did you live then?’
‘With Madame Frédéric and her husband: she took care of me, but she is nothing related to me. I think she is poor, for she had not so fine a house as mamma. I was not long there. Mr Rochester asked me if I would like to go and live with him in England, and I said yes: for I knew Mr Rochester before I knew Madame Frédéric, and he was always kind to me, and gave me pretty dresses and toys: but you see he has not kept his word, for he has brought me to England, and now he is gone back again himself, and I never see him.’
After breakfast, Adèle and I withdrew to the library, which room, it appears, Mr Rochester had directed should be used as the schoolroom. Most of the books were locked up behind glass doors; but there was one bookcase left open containing everything that could be needed in the way of elementary works, and several volumes of light literature, poetry, biography, travels, a few romances, etc. I suppose he had considered that these were all the governess would require for her private perusal; and, indeed, they contented me amply for the present; compared with the scanty pickings I had now and then been able to glean at Lowood, they seemed to offer an abundant harvest of entertainment and information. In this room, too, there was a cabinet piano,15 quite new and of superior tone; also an easel for painting, and a pair of globes.
I found my pupil sufficiently docile, though disinclined to apply: she had not been used to regular occupation of any kind. I felt it would be injudicious to confine her too much at first; so, when I had talked to her a great deal, and got her to learn a little, and when the morning had advanced to noon, I allowed her to return to her nurse. I then proposed to occupy myself till dinner-time in drawing some little sketches for her use.
As I was going upstairs to fetch my portfolio and pencils, Mrs Fairfax called to me: ‘Your morning school-hours are over now, I suppose,’ said she. She was in a room the folding-doors of which stood open: I went in when she addressed me. It was a large, stately apartment, with purple chairs and curtains, a Turkey carpet, walnut-panelled walls, one vast window rich in stained glass, and a lofty ceiling, nobly moulded. Mrs Fairfax was dusting some vases of fine purple spar, which stood on a sideboard.
‘What a beautiful room!’ I exclaimed, as I looked round; for I had never before seen any half so imposing.
‘Yes; this is the dining-room. I have just opened the window, to let in a little air and sunshine; for everything gets so damp in apartments that are seldom inhabited: the drawing-room yonder feels like a vault.’
She pointed to a wide arch corresponding to the window, and hung like it with a Tyrian-dyed16 curtain, now looped up. Mounting to it by two broad steps, and looking through, I thought I caught a glimpse of a fairy place, so bright to my novice-eyes appeared the view beyond. Yet it was merely a very pretty drawing-room, and within it a boudoir, both spread with white carpets, on which seemed laid brilliant garlands of flowers; both ceiled with snowy mouldings of white grapes and vine-leaves, beneath which glowed in rich contrast crimson couches and ottomans: while the ornaments on the pale Parian17 mantelpiece were of sparkling Bohemian glass, ruby red; and between the windows large mirrors repeated the general blending of snow and fire.
‘In what order you keep these rooms, Mrs Fairfax!’ said I. ‘No dust, no canvas coverings: except that the air feels chilly, one would think they were inhabited daily.’
‘Why, Miss Eyre, though Mr Rochester’s visits here are rare, they are always sudden and unexpected; and as I observed that it put him out to find everything swathed up, and to have a bustle of arrangement on his arrival, I thought it best to keep the rooms in readiness.’
‘Is Mr Rochester an exacting, fastidious sort of man?’
‘Not particularly so; but he has a gentleman’s tastes and habits, and he expects to have things managed in conformity to them.’
‘Do you like him? Is he generally liked?’
‘Oh yes; the family have always been respected here. Almost all the land in this neighbourhood, as