I felt Mr. Rochester start and shudder; he hastily flung his arms round me.  “Thank God!” he exclaimed, “that if anything malignant did come near you last night, it was only the veil that was harmed.  Oh, to think what might have happened!”

He drew his breath short, and strained me so close to him, I could scarcely pant.  After some minutes’ silence, he continued, cheerily —

“Now, Janet, I’ll explain to you all about it.  It was half dream, half reality.  A woman did, I doubt not, enter your room:  and that woman was —­ must have been —­ Grace Poole.  You call her a strange being yourself:  from all you know, you have reason so to call her —­ what did she do to me? what to Mason?  In a state between sleeping and waking, you noticed her entrance and her actions; but feverish, almost delirious as you were, you ascribed to her a goblin appearance different from her own:  the long dishevelled hair, the swelled black face, the exaggerated stature, were figments of imagination; results of nightmare:  the spiteful tearing of the veil was real:  and it is like her.  I see you would ask why I keep such a woman in my house:  when we have been married a year and a day, I will tell you; but not now.  Are you satisfied, Jane?  Do you accept my solution of the mystery?”

I reflected, and in truth it appeared to me the only possible one:  satisfied I was not, but to please him I endeavoured to appear so —­ relieved, I certainly did feel; so I answered him with a contented smile.  And now, as it was long past one, I prepared to leave him.

“Does not Sophie sleep with Adele in the nursery?” he asked, as I lit my candle.

“Yes, sir.”

“And there is room enough in Adele’s little bed for you.  You must share it with her to-night, Jane:  it is no wonder that the incident you have related should make you nervous, and I would rather you did not sleep alone:  promise me to go to the nursery.”

“I shall be very glad to do so, sir.”

“And fasten the door securely on the inside.  Wake Sophie when you go upstairs, under pretence of requesting her to rouse you in good time to-morrow; for you must be dressed and have finished breakfast before eight.  And now, no more sombre thoughts:  chase dull care away, Janet.  Don’t you hear to what soft whispers the wind has fallen? and there is no more beating of rain against the window-panes:  look here” (he lifted up the curtain) —­ “it is a lovely night!”

It was.  Half heaven was pure and stainless:  the clouds, now trooping before the wind, which had shifted to the west, were filing off eastward in long, silvered columns.  The moon shone peacefully.

“Well,” said Mr. Rochester, gazing inquiringly into my eyes, “how is my Janet now?”

“The night is serene, sir; and so am I.”

“And you will not dream of separation and sorrow to-night; but of happy love and blissful union.”