CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Happiness
Ferndean Manor was a pretty old house in the forest. As I came near, the door of the house opened and Edward Rochester came out! As I watched him I felt both happy and sad. He looked as strong as before and his hair was still black, but in his face I saw a bitter, desperate look that was not there before. The blind man walked slowly along the path. Many times he looked up hopefully at the sky, but it was clear that he could see nothing. After a while he stopped walking. Rain fell on his bent head. Finally he walked slowly back to the house and closed the door. When I knocked at the door, Mr. Rochester’s old servant, John, opened it. He knew me immediately, and I asked to stay at the house that night. “But he may not want to see you, Miss Eyre,” said Mary, John’s wife. We were talking together in the kitchen. “He won’t see anyone except John and i.” she was lighting some candles. “Mr. Rochestser always wants candles in the sitting room, even though he’s blind”, “Give them to me, Mary,” I said, “I’ll take them to him”.
Mr. Rochester was sitting near the fire in the dark room. “Put down the candles, Mary,” he said.
“Here they are, sir,” I said.
“Wait… you are Mary, aren’t you?” he asked, listening carefully.
“Mary’s in the kitchen, sir.” I answered.
“What wonderful dream is this?” he cried suddenly. “Where are you, speaker? I can’t see, but I must know who you are, or my heart will stop! Let me touch you, or I can’t live!”
I held his hand in both of mine. “Is it Jane? This is her shape…” He touched my arm, shoulder, neck, and waist and held me close to him.
“She is here.” I said, crying with happiness, “and her heart too. I am Jane Eyre. I’ve found you and come back to you!”
“My living darling! So you aren’t dead! Is it dream? I’ve dreamed so often of you, only to wake up in the morning alone, my life dark!”
“I’m alive, and I’m not a dream. In fact, I’m an independent woman now. my uncle gave me five thousand pounds before he died.”
“Ah, that sounds real! I couldn’t dream that. But you must have many friends now, and don’t want to live in an old house with a blind man li8ke me.”
“Sir, I can do what I like now, and I want to be wherever you are. I’ll be your friend, your housekeeper, your neighbor. As long as I’m alive you’ll never be sad or lonely!”
For a moment he did not speak, and I did not know why. I had believed he would still want to marry me, and I wondered why he did not ask me.
“Jane,” he said sadly, “you cannot always be my nurse. It’s kind and generous of you, but you’re young and healthy, and one day you will want to marry. If I could only see, I’d try to make you love me again, but…” And he sighed.
But I knew he did not need to worry. Even if he was blind, I would always love him and stay with him. However, I decided to talk of other things and make him laugh a little. We talked for many hours that night. When it was time for bed, he asked me. “Jane, there were only ladies in the house where you lived, weren’t there?” When I went to bed I was still laughing. “Good! A little jealousy will make him stronger, and not so sorry for himself!”
The next day I took him for a long walk. I described the beautiful forest to him, as we sat under a tree.
“Tell me, Jane, what happened to you after you left me?” And so I told him my story. He wanted to know all about St. John, my cousin. “This St. John, do you like him?”
“He’s a serious, religious man, and a very good one. I do like him.”
“He’s perhaps an old man, about fifty years old?”
“St. John is only twenty-nine, sir.”
“And very stupid, I think you said? Not at all intelligent?”
I started laughing. “He has an excellent brain, sir.”
“Did you say he was rather plain, extremely ugly, in fact?”
“St. John is a very handsome man, tall and fair, with blue eyes.”
Mr. Rochester frowned, and swore loudly.
“In fact, sir,” I continued, “he asked me to marry him.”
“Well, Jane, leave me and go, Marry Rivers! Oh, until now I was so happy!”
“Well, sir, he did ask me to marry him, in fact. But I will never do that. He doesn’t love me, and I don’t love him. He’s a good man, but too cold! Don’t be jealous, sir. All my love is yours!”
He kissed me. “I’m no better than that old, broken tree at Thornfield.” He said. “I can’t expect to have a fresh young flower like you by my side, all my life!?
“You are still strong, sir, and young plants need a tree’s strength and safety to help them.” “Jane, will you marry me, a poor blind man with one hand, twenty years older than you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“My darling! We’ll be married in three days’ time, Jane, Thank God! You know I never thought much of religion” Well, last Monday night, I was sitting by an open window, praying for peace and happiness in my dark life. In my heart and soul I wanted you. I cried out ‘Jane!’ three times.”
“Last Monday night, around midnight?” I asked, amazed.
“Yes, but this is the strange thing. I heard a voice calling ‘I’m coming to you, wait for me!’ and ‘Where are you? Jane, it was your voice I heard. It was a sign from God!” I told him how I had spoken those words many miles away, in that exact night.
“I thank God!” said Edward Rochester, “and ask Him to help me live a better life in the future!” Together we returned to Ferndean Manor, Edward leaning on my shoulder.
We had a quiet wedding. I wrote to tell my cousins the news. Diana and Mary were very happy for me, but St. John did not reply to the letter.
Now it is ten years later, and we are very happy. I am Edward’s whole life, and he is mine. We are always together, and are never tired of each other. After two years his sight began to return in one eye. Now he can see a little. When our first child was born, he could see that the boy had his large, dark eyes!
Mrs. Fairfax no longer works, and Adele has grown into a charming young woman. Diana and Mary are both married, and we visit them once a year.
St. John, of course, went to India to be a missionary. After a while, be forgave me for not marrying him, Now he writes to me often. He has decided that he will never marry. He knows that he will die someday soon, but he is not afraid of death. He will find a place in Heaven. |