t befalling me is
a fairy tale--a day-dream."

"Which I can and will realise. I shall begin to-day. This morning I
wrote to my banker in London to send me certain jewels he has in his
keeping,--heirlooms for the ladies of Thornfield. In a day or two I hope
to pour them into your lap: for every privilege, every attention shall be
yours that I would accord a peer's daughter, if about to marry her."

"Oh, sir!--never rain jewels! I don't like to hear them spoken of.
Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds unnatural and strange: I would rather not
have them."

"I will myself put the diamond chain round your neck, and the circlet on
your forehead,--which it will become: for nature, at least, has stamped
her patent of nobility on this brow, Jane; and I will clasp the bracelets
on these fine wrists, and load these fairy-like fingers with rings."

"No, no, sir! think of other subjects, and speak of other things, and in
another strain. Don't address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain,
Quakerish governess."

"You are a beauty in my eyes, and a beauty just after the desire of my
heart,--delicate and aerial."

"Puny and insignificant, you mean. You are dreaming, sir,--or you are
sneering. For God's sake don't be ironical!"

"I will make the world acknowledge you a beauty, too," he went on, while
I really became uneasy at the strain he had adopted, because I felt he
was either deluding himself or trying to delude me. "I will attire my
Jane in satin and lace, and she shall have roses in her hair; and I will
cover the head I love best with a priceless veil."

"And then you won't know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any
longer, but an ape in a harlequin's jacket--a jay in borrowed plumes. I
would as soon see you, Mr. Rochester, tricked out in stage-trappings, as
myself clad in a court-lady's robe; and I don't call you handsome, sir,
though I love you most dearly: far too dearly to flatter you. Don't
flatter me."

He pursued his theme, however, without noticing my deprecation. "This
very day I shall take you in the carriage to Millcote, and you must
choose some dresses for yourself. I told you we shall be married in four
weeks. The wedding is to take place quietly, in the church down below
yonder; and then I shall waft you away at once to town. After a brief
stay there, I shall bear my treasure to regions nearer the sun: to French
vineyards and Italian plains; and she shall see whatever is famous in old
st