“Et cela doit signifier,” said she, “qu’il y aura le dedans un cadeau pour moi, et peut-etre pour vous aussi, mademoiselle.  Monsieur a parle de vous:  il m’a demande le nom de ma gouvernante, et si elle n’etait pas une petite personne, assez mince et un peu pale.  J’ai dit qu’oui:  car c’est vrai, n’est-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 Adele to put away books and work, and to run downstairs; for, from the comparative silence below, and from the cessation of appeals to the door-bell, I conjectured that Mr. Rochester was now at liberty.  Left alone, I walked to the window; but nothing was to be seen thence:  twilight and snowflakes together thickened the air, and hid the very shrubs on the lawn.  I let down the curtain and went back to the fireside.

In the clear embers I was tracing 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 entrance the fiery mosaic I had been piercing together, and scattering too some heavy unwelcome thoughts that were beginning to throng 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 much engaged 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 country.  You had better change your frock now; I will go with you and fasten it.  Here is a candle.”

“Is it necessary to change 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 fine to be worn, except on first-rate occasions.

“You want a brooch,” said Mrs. Fairfax.  I had a single little pearl ornament which Miss Temple gave me as a parting keepsake:  I put it on, and then we went downstairs.  Unused as I was to strangers, it was rather a trial to appear thus formally summoned in Mr. Rochester’s presence.  I let Mrs. Fairfax precede me into the dining-room, and kept in her shade as we crossed that apartment; and, passing the arch, whose curtain was now dropped, entered the elegant recess beyond.