—from Jane Eyre(Chapter 37)
Charlotte Bront?
[1]“Will you have a little more water, sir? I spilt half of what was in the glass,”I said.
[2]“Who is it? What is it? Who speaks?”
[3]“Pilot knows me, and John and Mary know I am here.I came only this evening,”I answered.
[4]“Great God!—What delusion has come over me? What sweet madness has seized me?”
[5]“No delusion—no madness: your mind, sir, is too strong for delusion, your health too sound for frenzy.”
[6]“And where is the speaker? Is it only a voice? Oh! I cannot see, but I must feel, or my heart will stop and my brain burst.Whatever—whoever you are—be perceptible to the touch or I cannot live!”
[7]He groped; I arrested his wandering hand, and prisoned it in both mine.
[8]“Her very fingers!”he cried; “her small, slight fingers! If so there must be more of her.”
[9]The muscular hand broke from my custody; my arm was seized, my shoulder—neck—waist—I was entwined and gathered to him.
[10]“Is it Jane? What is it? This is her shape—this is her size—”
[11]“And this her voice,”I added.“She is all here: her heart, too.God bless you, sir! I am glad to be so near you again.”
[12]“Jane Eyre!—Jane Eyre,”was all he said.
[13]“My dear master,”I answered, “I am Jane Eyre: I have found you out—I am come back to you.”
[14]“In truth?—in the flesh? My living Jane?”
[15]“You touch me, sir,—you hold me, and fast enough: I am not cold like a corpse, nor vacant like air, am I?”
[16]“My living darling! These are certainly her limbs, and these her features; but I cannot be so blest, after all my misery.It is a dream; such dreams as I have had at night when I have clasped her once more to my heart, as I do now; and kissed her, as thus—and felt that she loved me, and trusted that she would not leave me.”
[17]“Which I never will, sir, from this day.”