The room was dark from the cloudy day Bessie had left me a lantern and the fl ickering glow cast shadows that danced on the walls like a vision from another world I heard rushing in my head and knew it to be wings I felt something near me I ran to the door and fl ung myself against it kicking and pounding and screaming Miss Eyre are you ill Bessie asked when she opened the door Let me out I begged I saw a light A ghost What is this Mrs Reed stormed along the corridor I gave orders that Jane Eyre should be left in the red room until I came to her myself She screamed so loud ma’am Bessie pleaded Oh Aunt have pity Forgive me I begged I cannot endure it Silence she snapped You will stay here an hour longer until you can be perfectly still She thrust me back into the room and locked me in 8
Then with my back against the door and the darkness of the room closing in around me I passed out I awoke in my own bed Bessie stood nearby with the man who was sometimes called when the servants were sick Do you know who I am he asked I nodded and said Mr Lloyd Do you have any pain Can you tell me what happened to make you ill She had a fall Bessie said I was knocked down I told him insulted by the suggestion that I was a clumsy child who fell down But that didn’t make me ill I was shut up in a dark room where there is a ghost A ghost Mr Lloyd said with a smile You are afraid of ghosts Of Mr Reed’s ghost I am None of the servants will go into that room in the dark but they shut me up in there It was cruel Mr Lloyd continued to ask questions I told him that I was an orphan with cousins who 9
abused me and an aunt who punished me for the bad behavior of her own children Have you any relatives besides Mrs Reed he asked I don’t know Aunt Reed said I might have some poor relations called Eyre But she knew nothing about them If you had such relatives would you like to go live with them I thought about that I knew little of being poor only what my cousins said I believed all the poor to be ragged dirty hungry cold and given to terrible acts I was not brave enough to escape the Reeds that way so I shook my head Aunt Reed said they are all beggars I wouldn’t like to beg I said Would you like to go to school Mr Lloyd asked I thought about that John went to school and hated it but I did not let that trouble me 10
John liked very few things I knew you learned things at school and I liked that idea Yes I fi nally replied Well let us see what happens he said The child could use a change of air and scene Then he left to speak to Mrs Reed Afterward I learned that I would be sent to school as soon as possible 11
