“And to bear with my infirmities, Jane:  to overlook my deficiencies.”

“Which are none, sir, to me.  I love you better now, when I can really be useful to you, than I did in your state of proud independence, when you disdained every part but that of the giver and protector.”

“Hitherto I have hated to be helped —­ to be led:  henceforth, I feel I shall hate it no more.  I did not like to put my hand into a hireling’s, but it is pleasant to feel it circled by Jane’s little fingers.  I preferred utter loneliness to the constant attendance of servants; but Jane’s soft ministry will be a perpetual joy.  Jane suits me:  do I suit her?”

“To the finest fibre of my nature, sir.”

“The case being so, we have nothing in the world to wait for:  we must be married instantly.”

He looked and spoke with eagerness:  his old impetuosity was rising.

“We must become one flesh without any delay, Jane:  there is but the licence to get —­ then we marry.”

“Mr. Rochester, I have just discovered the sun is far declined from its meridian, and Pilot is actually gone home to his dinner.  Let me look at your watch.”

“Fasten it into your girdle, Janet, and keep it henceforward:  I have no use for it.”

“It is nearly four o’clock in the afternoon, sir.  Don’t you feel hungry?”

“The third day from this must be our wedding-day, Jane.  Never mind fine clothes and jewels, now:  all that is not worth a fillip.”

“The sun has dried up all the rain-drops, sir.  The breeze is still:  it is quite hot.”

“Do you know, Jane, I have your little pearl necklace at this moment fastened round my bronze scrag under my cravat?  I have worn it since the day I lost my only treasure, as a memento of her.”

“We will go home through the wood:  that will be the shadiest way.”

He pursued his own thoughts without heeding me.

“Jane! you think me, I daresay, an irreligious dog:  but my heart swells with gratitude to the beneficent God of this earth just now.  He sees not as man sees, but far clearer:  judges not as man judges, but far more wisely.  I did wrong:  I would have sullied my innocent flower —­ breathed guilt on its purity:  the Omnipotent snatched it from me.  I, in my stiff-necked rebellion, almost cursed the dispensation:  instead of bending to the decree, I defied it.  Divine justice pursued its course; disasters came thick on me:  I was forced to pass through the valley of the shadow of death.  His chastisements are mighty; and one smote me which has humbled me for ever.  You know I was proud of my strength:  but what is it now, when I must give it over to foreign guidance, as a child does its weakness?  Of late, Jane —­ only —­ only of late —­ I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom.  I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker.  I began sometimes to pray:  very brief prayers they were, but very sincere.