Page 343 - jane-eyre
P. 343

I declined accepting more than was my due. He scowled
            at first; then, as if recollecting something, he said—
              ‘Right, right! Better not give you all now: you would, per-
           haps, stay away three months if you had fifty pounds. There
            are ten; is it not plenty?’
              ‘Yes, sir, but now you owe me five.’
              ‘Come  back  for  it,  then;  I  am  your  banker  for  forty
           pounds.’
              ‘Mr. Rochester, I may as well mention another matter of
            business to you while I have the opportunity.’
              ‘Matter of business? I am curious to hear it.’
              ‘You have as good as informed me, sir, that you are going
            shortly to be married?’
              ‘Yes; what then?’
              ‘In that case, sir, Adele ought to go to school: I am sure
           you will perceive the necessity of it.’
              ‘To get her out of my bride’s way, who might otherwise
           walk over her rather too emphatically? There’s sense in the
            suggestion; not a doubt of it. Adele, as you say, must go to
            school;  and  you,  of  course,  must  march  straight  to—the
            devil?’
              ‘I hope not, sir; but I must seek another situation some-
           where.’
              ‘In course!’ he exclaimed, with a twang of voice and a
            distortion of features equally fantastic and ludicrous. He
            looked at me some minutes.
              ‘And old Madam Reed, or the Misses, her daughters, will
            be solicited by you to seek a place, I suppose?’
              ‘No,  sir;  I  am  not  on  such  terms  with  my  relatives  as

                                                     Jane Eyre
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