d reckless and feverish, I wished the wind to howl more wildly, the gloom to deepen to darkness, and the confusion to rise to clamour.
Jumping over forms, and creeping under tables, I made my way to one of the fire-places; there, kneeling by the high wire fender, I found Burns, absorbed, silent, abstracted from all round her by the companionship of a book, which she read by the dim glare of the embers.
'Is it still Rasselas?' I asked, coming behind her.
'Yes,' she said, 'and I have just finished it.'
And in five minutes more she shut it up. I was glad of this.
'Now,' thought I, 'I can perhaps get her to talk.' I sat down by her on the floor.
'What is your name besides Burns?'
'Helen.'
'Do you come a long way from here?'
'I come from a place farther north, quite on the borders of Scotland.'
'Will you ever go back?'
'I hope so; but nobody can be sure of the future.'
'You must wish to leave Lowood?'
'No! why should I? I was sent to Lowood to get an education; and it would be of no use going away until I have attained that object.'
'But that teacher, Miss Scatcherd, is so cruel to you?'
'Cruel? Not at all! She is severe: she dislikes my faults.'
'And if I were in your place I should dislike her; I should resist her. If she struck me with that rod, I should get it from her hand; I should break it under her nose.'
'probably you would do nothing of the sort: but if you did, Mr. Brocklehurst would expel you from the school; that would be a great grief to your relations. It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.'
'But then it seems disgraceful to be flogged, and to be sent to stand in the middle of a room full of people; and you are such a great girl: I am far younger than you, and I could not bear it.'
'Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say
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