ently longed to do what was right; and only that. "Show me, show me
the path!" I entreated of Heaven. I was excited more than I had ever
been; and whether what followed was the effect of excitement the reader
shall judge.

All the house was still; for I believe all, except St. John and myself,
were now retired to rest. The one candle was dying out: the room was
full of moonlight. My heart beat fast and thick: I heard its throb.
Suddenly it stood still to an inexpressible feeling that thrilled it
through, and passed at once to my head and extremities. The feeling was
not like an electric shock, but it was quite as sharp, as strange, as
startling: it acted on my senses as if their utmost activity hitherto had
been but torpor, from which they were now summoned and forced to wake.
They rose expectant: eye and ear waited while the flesh quivered on my
bones.

"What have you heard? What do you see?" asked St. John. I saw nothing,
but I heard a voice somewhere cry--

"Jane! Jane! Jane!"--nothing more.

"O God! what is it?" I gasped.

I might have said, "Where is it?" for it did not seem in the room--nor in
the house--nor in the garden; it did not come out of the air--nor from
under the earth--nor from overhead. I had heard it--where, or whence,
for ever impossible to know! And it was the voice of a human being--a
known, loved, well-remembered voice--that of Edward Fairfax Rochester;
and it spoke in pain and woe, wildly, eerily, urgently.

"I am coming!" I cried. "Wait for me! Oh, I will come!" I flew to the
door and looked into the passage: it was dark. I ran out into the
garden: it was void.

"Where are you?" I exclaimed.

The hills beyond Marsh Glen sent the answer faintly back--"Where are
you?" I listened. The wind sighed low in the firs: all was moorland
loneliness and midnight hush.

"Down superstition!" I commented, as that spectre rose up black by the
black yew at the gate. "This is not thy deception, nor thy witchcraft:
it is the work of nature. She was roused, and did--no miracle--but her
best."

I broke from St. John, who had followed, and would have detained me. It
was _my_ time to assume ascendency. _My_ powers were in play and in
force. I told him to forbear question or remark; I desired him to leave
me: I must and would be alone. He obeyed at once. Where there is energy
to command well enough, obedience never fails. I mounted to my chamber;
locked myself in; fell on my knees;