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on the conversation herself.
'Mr. Brocklehurst, I believe I intimated in the letter which I
wrote to you three weeks ago, that this little girl has not quite
the character and disposition I could wish: should you admit her
into Lowood school, I should be glad if the superintendent and
teachers were requested to keep a strict eye on her, and, above all,
to guard against her worst fault, a tendency to deceit. I mention this
in your hearing, Jane, that you may not attempt to impose on Mr.
Brocklehurst.'
Well might I dread, well might I dislike Mrs. Reed; for it was
her nature to wound me cruelly; never was I happy in her presence;
however carefully I obeyed, however strenuously I strove to please
her, my efforts were still repulsed and repaid by such sentences as
the above. Now, uttered before a stranger, the accusation cut me to
the heart; I dimly perceived that she was already obliterating hope
from the new phase of existence which she destined me to enter; I
felt, though I could not have expressed the feeling, that she was
sowing aversion and unkindness along my future path; I saw myself
transformed under Mr. Brocklehurst's eye into an artful, noxious
child, and what could I do to remedy the injury?
'Nothing, indeed,' thought I, as I struggled to repress a sob,
and hastily wiped away some tears, the impotent evidences of my
anguish.
'Deceit is, indeed, a sad fault in a child,' said Mr. Brocklehurst;
'it is akin to falsehood, and all liars will have their portion in the
lake burning with fire and brimstone; she shall, however, be
watched, Mrs. Reed. I will speak to Miss Temple and the teachers.'
'I should wish her to be brought up in a manner suiting her
prospects,' continued my benefactress; 'to be made useful, to be
kept humble: as for the vacations, she will, with your permission,
spend them always at Lowood.'
'Your decisions are perfectly judicious, madam,' returned Mr.
Brocklehurst. 'Humility is a Christian grace, and one peculiarly
appropriate to the pupils of Lowood; I, therefore, direct that
especial care shall be bestowed on its cultivation amongst them. I
have studied how best to mortify in them the worldly sentiment of
pride; and, only the other day, I had a pleasing proof of my
success. My second daughter, Augusta, went with her mama to visit
the school, and on her return she exclaimed: "Oh, dear papa, how quiet
and plain all the girls at Lowood look, with their hair combed
behind their ears, and their long pinafores, and those little
holland pockets outside their frocks- they are almost like poor
people's children! and," said she, "they looked at my dress and
mama's, as if they had never seen a silk gown before."'
'This is the state of things I quite approve,' returned Mrs.
Reed; 'had I sought all England over, I could scarcely have found a
system more exactly fitting a child like Jane Eyre. Consistency, my
dear Mr. Brocklehurst; I advocate consistency in all things.'