CHAPTER FIVE Mr. Brocklehurst’s Visit
It was hard to get used to the rules at Lowood, and to the extremely cold, hard winter. In January, February and March there was deep snow, but we still had to go outside for one hour every day. We had no warm boots or gloves, and my hands and feet hurt badly from the cold. We were growing children, and needed more food than we got. Sometimes the meaner big girls made us little ones give them our teatime bread or evening biscuit.
One afternoon, when I had been at Lowood for three weeks, a visitor came to see us. As the man entered the schoolroom all the teachers and pupils stood up . when I saw the visitor I felt afraid. It was Mr. Brocklehurst, the man who had talked to Mrs. Reed and I at Gateshead. I had been afraid he would come. I remembered that Mrs. Reed had told him I was a terrible child. He had promised her to tell all the teachers about me. If he spoke to the teachers, they would think of me as a bad child forever!
At first Mr. brocklehurst spoke very quietly to Miss Temple. I could hear him, because I was in the front of the class.
“Miss Temple,” he said, “I am told that you gave a lunch of bread and cheese to the girls recently. Why did you do that? It is not in the rules!”
“Well, sir,” said Miss Temple, “the breakfast was so badly cooked that the girls couldn’t possibly eat it, and they were hungry.”
“Miss Temple, listen to me. You know that these girls must become strong, patient and unselfish… If they do not have some little thing, do not give to them. Tell them to be brave and suffer, like Christ Himself. Remember what the Bible says. Man does not live by bread alone, but by the word of God! When you put bread into these children’s mouths, you feed their bodies but you starve their souls!”
Miss Temple said nothing. Her face was as cold and hard as marble. Mr. Brocklehurst was looking at us, and almost jumped in surprise.
“Who is that girl with red curly hair, Miss Temple?”
“That is Julia Severn,” said Miss Temple quietly. “Her hair curls naturally, you see.”
“Yes, Miss Temple, but it is God we obey, not nature! Miss Temple, that girl’s hair must be cut off. I have said again and again that the girls’ hair must be plain. I see other girls here with long hair. Yes, I shall send someone tomorrow to cut all the girls’ hair.”
“Mr. Brocklehurst…” began Miss Temple.
“To please God these girls must have short, straight hair and plain, simple clothes---“
Just then the door opened and three ladies came in. these ladies must not have known Mr. Brocklehurst’s thoughts about clothes and hair. They all wore expensive dresses and had long, beautiful curly hair. I heard Miss Temple greet them as the wife and daughters of Mr. Brocklehurst.
While Mr. Brocklehurst was talking, I hid my face behind my writing slate so that he would not see me. But suddenly the slate fell from my hand and broke in two on the hard floor! I knew what would happen next.
Mr. Brocklehurst looked at me coldly.
“Come here, child.”
I was too frightened to move, but two big girls pushed me towards him. Miss Temple whispered to me, “don’t be afraid, Jane. I saw it was an accident.” Her kindness made me feel better, but I knew that soon she would hear the lies about me, and then she would dislike me too.
“Put the child on that chair,” said Mr. Brocklehurst. Someone lifted me up on to a high chair, so that I was close to his nose. Frightened, I felt everyone’ s eyes on me.
“You see this girl?” said Mr. Brocklehust. “She is young; she looks like an ordinary child. But she is not. She is very wicked! Children, don’t talk to her, stay away from her. Teachers, watch her carefully. You must punish her body to save her soul--- if she has a soul. This child… I can hardly say it … this child is a liar!”
“How terrible!” said the two Brocklehurst daughters.
“I learned this,” continued the man, “from Mrs. Reed , the kind lady who cared for her. In the end, Mrs. Reed was so afraid of this child’s bad ways that she had to send her here. So, teachers, watch her carefully!”
The Brocklehurst family stood up and moved slowly out of the schoolroom. At the door, the man turned and said,
“She must stand half an hour longer on that chair, and nobody may speak to her for the rest of the day.”
So there I was standing on the chair. Feelings of shame and anger burned inside me, but just when I thought I would cry, Helen Burns walked past me and lifted her eyes to mine. Her look calmed me. What a smile she had! It was an intelligent, brave smile, lighting up her thin face and her tired eyes.
At five o’clock all the girls left the schoolroom. When I was sure no one could hear me, I climbed down from the chair and sat on the floor. I no longer felt strong or calm, and I began to cry bitterly. I had wanted so much to make friends and be happy at Lowood. Now nobody would believe me or perhaps even speak to me. Could I ever start a new life after this?
“Never!” I cried to myself. “I wish I were dead!” Just then Helen arrived, bringing my coffee and bread. I was too upset to eat or drink, but she sat with me and talked gently to me. She helped me to stop crying, and feel a little better. When Miss Temple came to look for me, she found us sitting quietly together.
“Come up to my room, both of you,” she said.
We went to her warm, comfortable room upstairs.
:Now tell me the truth, Jane,” she said. “You have been accused, and you must have the chance to defend yourself.”
And so I told her the whole story of my lonely childhood with the Reed family and of the terrible night in the red room.
“I know Dr. Lloyd, who saw you when you were ill,” she said. “I’ll write to him and see if he agrees with what you say. If he does, I shall tell everyone in the school you are not a liar. I believe you, Jane.” And she kissed me. Then she turned to Helen..
“How are you tonight, Helen? Have you coughed a lot today?”
“Not very much, ma’am.”
“And the pain in your chest?”
“It’s a little better, I think.”
Miss Temple examined Helen carefully, and sighed a little. Then she gave us some tea and toast. For a while I felt I was in heaven, eating and drinking in the warm, pretty room, with kind Miss Temple and Helen.
But when we reached our bedroom, Miss Scatcherd was checking the drawers.
“Burns!” she said. “Yours is far too untidy! Tomorrow, all day, you will wear a sign on your forehead saying UNTIDY!”
Helen said Miss Scatcherd was quite right, and wore the sign all the next day. But I was very angry, and at the end of the afternoon, I took it off her head and threw it in the fire.
A few days later, Miss Temple received a letter from Dr Lloyd. He wrote to her that what I had said was true, and she told the whole school that I was not a liar. Then I truly felt better. From then on I studied as hard as I could, and tried to make friends. |