Page 348 (1/2)

"Whereas I am hot, and fire dissolves ice The blaze there has

thawed all the snow from your cloak; by the same token, it has

streamed on to my floor, and iven, Mr Rivers, the high cri a sanded kitchen, tell me what I wish to

know"

"Well, then," he said, "I yield; if not to your earnestness, to your

perseverance: as stone is worn by continual dropping Besides, you

must know some day,--as well now as later Your name is Jane Eyre?"

"Of course: that was all settled before"

"You are not, perhaps, aware that I am your namesake?--that I was

christened St John Eyre Rivers?"

"No, indeed! I re the letter E comprised in your

initials written in books you have at different times lent me; but I

never asked for what name it stood But what then? Surely--"

I stopped: I could not trust ht that rushed upon me--that e, solid probability