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crossing it at intervals as the moon looked out, it was a long pale
line, unvaried by one moving speck.
A puerile tear dimmed my eye while I looked- a tear of
disappointment and impatience; ashamed of it, I wiped it away. I
lingered; the moon shut herself wholly within her chamber, and drew
close her curtain of dense cloud: the night grew dark; rain came
driving fast on the gale.
'I wish he would come! I wish he would come!' I exclaimed, seized
with hypochondriac foreboding. I had expected his arrival before
tea; now it was dark: what could keep him? Had an accident happened?
The event of last night again recurred to me. I interpreted it as a
warning of disaster. I feared my hopes were too bright to be realised;
and I had enjoyed so much bliss lately that I imagined my fortune
had passed its meridian, and must now decline.
'Well, I cannot return to the house,' I thought; 'I cannot sit by
the fireside, while he is abroad in inclement weather: better tire
my limbs than strain my heart; I will go forward and meet him.'
I set out; I walked fast, but not far: ere I had measured a quarter
of a mile, I heard the tramp of hoofs; a horseman came on, full
gallop; a dog ran by his side. Away with evil presentiment! It was he:
here he was, mounted on Mesrour, followed by Pilot. He saw me; for the
moon had opened a blue field in the sky, and rode in it watery bright:
he took his hat off, and waved it round his head. I now ran to meet
him.
'There!' he exclaimed, as he stretched out his hand and bent from
the saddle: 'you can't do without me, that is evident. Step on my
boot-toe; give me both hands: mount!'
I obeyed: joy made me agile: I sprang up before him. A hearty
kissing I got for a welcome, and some boastful triumph, which I
swallowed as well as I could. He checked himself in his exultation
to demand, 'But is there anything the matter, Janet, that you come
to meet me at such an hour? Is there anything wrong?'
'No, but I thought you would never come. I could not bear to wait
in the house for you, especially with this rain and wind.'
'Rain and wind, indeed! Yes, you are dripping like a mermaid;
pull my cloak round you: but I think you are feverish, Jane: both your
cheek and hand are burning hot. I ask again, is there anything the
matter?'
'Nothing now; I am neither afraid nor unhappy.'
'Then you have been both?'
'Rather: but I'll tell you all about it by and by, sir; and I
daresay you will only laugh at me for my pains.'
'I'll laugh at you heartily when to-morrow is past; till then I
dare not: my prize is not certain. This is you, who have been as
slippery as an eel this last month, and as thorny as a briar-rose? I
could not lay a finger anywhere but I was pricked; and now I seem to
have gathered up a stray lamb in my arms. You wandered out of the fold
to seek your shepherd, did you, Jane?'
'I wanted you: but don't boast. Here we are at Thornfield: now