Chapter XII Summary

Jane feels an emptiness and boredom with her new occupation, though she likes her student. She feels restless and unchallenged in her profession and her life and longs for something new. Jane offers to carry a letter to town and stops on her way to sit on a stile where she watches the horse and rider and large dog pass. The horse slips on the ice and both rider and horse on down. Jane goes and offers assistance, though the man declines her assistance or her fetching help. He asks who she is and why she is out at night. She helps him to his horse and they part with his admonishments to complete her errand quickly. She mulls over the man on her walk and when she returns, she is hesitant to enter the house and return to the dreariness...