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I thanked her for her considerate choice, and as I really felt

fatigued withjourney, expressed my readiness to retire

She took her candle, and I followed her from the room First she

went to see if the hall-door was fastened; having taken the key from

the lock, she led the way upstairs The steps and banisters were of

oak; the staircase as high and latticed; both it and the

long gallery into which the bedrooed to a church rather than a house A very chill and vault-

like air pervaded the stairs and gallery, suggesting cheerless ideas

of space and solitude; and I was glad, when finally ushered into my

chamber, to find it of small dimensions, and furnished in ordinary,

ood-night, and I had

fastened azed leisurely round, and in some measure effaced

the eerie impression made by that wide hall, that dark and spacious

staircase, and that long, cold gallery, by the livelier aspect of my

little rooue and

mental anxiety, I was now at last in safe haven The iratitude swelled my heart, and I knelt down at the bedside, and

offered up thanks where thanks were due; not forgetting, ere I rose,

to i the

kindness which seemed so frankly offered me before it was earned

My couch had no thorns in it that night; my solitary room no fears

At once weary and content, I slept soon and soundly: when I awoke

it was broad day