Name: Jane Eyre by Charlotte BRONTË Chapter 02
Uploaded: 2023-07-18T22:28:10.000Z
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CHAPTER TWO of Jane Eyre This is a Librivox recording.

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Recording by Elizabeth Klett Jane Eyre by Charlotte BRONTË Chapter Two

I resisted all the way: a new thing for me, and a circumstance which

greatly strengthened the bad opinion Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed

The fact is, I was a trifle beside myself; or rather

_out_ of myself, as the French would say: I was conscious that a moment's

mutiny had already rendered me liable to strange penalties, and, like any

other rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go all lengths.

"Hold her arms, Miss Abbot: she's like a mad cat."

"What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your

"No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep.

There, sit down, and think over your wickedness."

They had got me by this time into the apartment indicated by Mrs. Reed,

and had thrust me upon a stool: my impulse was to rise from it like a

spring; their two pair of hands arrested me instantly.

"If you don't sit still, you must be tied down," said Bessie.

"Miss Abbot, lend me your garters; she would break

Miss Abbot turned to divest a stout leg of the necessary ligature.

This preparation for bonds, and the additional

ignominy it inferred, took a little of the excitement out of me.

"Don't take them off," I cried; "I will not stir."

In guarantee whereof, I attached myself to my seat by my hands.

"Mind you don't," said Bessie; and when she had ascertained that I was

really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot

stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as

"She never did so before," at last said Bessie, turning to the Abigail.

"But it was always in her," was the reply.

"I've told Missis often my opinion about the child, and Missis agreed

She's an underhand little thing: I never saw a girl of her age

Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she said--"You ought to

be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps

you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poorhouse."

I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to me: my very

first recollections of existence included hints of the same kind.

This reproach of my dependence had become a vague

sing-song in my ear: very painful and crushing, but only half intelligible.

"And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed

and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with

They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it

is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to

"What we tell you is for your good," added Bessie, in no harsh voice,

"you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have

a home here; but if you become passionate and rude, Missis will send you

"Besides," said Miss Abbot, "God will punish her: He might strike her

dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go?

Come, Bessie, we will leave her: I wouldn't have

Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself;

for if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to

come down the chimney and fetch you away."

They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them.

The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in, I might say

never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall

rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it

contained: yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the

A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with

curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre;

the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half

shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery; the carpet was red;

the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the

walls were a soft fawn colour with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe,

the toilet-table, the chairs were of darkly polished old mahogany.

Out of these deep surrounding shades rose high,

and glared white, the piled- up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread

Scarcely less prominent was an ample cushioned easy-chair

near the head of the bed, also white, with a footstool before it; and

looking, as I thought, like a pale throne.

This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because

remote from the nursery and kitchen; solemn, because it was known to be

The house-maid alone came here on Saturdays, to wipe

from the mirrors and the furniture a week's quiet dust: and Mrs. Reed

herself, at far intervals, visited it to review the contents of a certain

secret drawer in the wardrobe, where were stored divers parchments, her

jewel-casket, and a miniature of her deceased husband; and in those last

words lies the secret of the red-room--the spell which kept it so lonely

Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his

last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the

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Jane Eyre by Charlotte BRONTË Chapter 02

doubt

strike

demand

opinion