been buried with inferior minds. I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I light in, with an original, a vigorous, and expanded mind. I have known you Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel absolutely must be torn from you forever. I see the necessity of departure; and it is like looking on the necessity of death.
"Where do you see the necessity?" he asked, suddenly.
" Where? You, sir have placed it before me"
"In what shape In the shape of Miss Ingram, a noble and beautiful woman, your brid "
"My bride! What bride? I have no bride!"
"But you will have."
"Yes: I will! I will!" He set his teeth.
"Then I must go, you have said it yourself."
"No; you must stay! I swear it, and the oath shall be kept."
"I tell you I must go!" I retorted, roused to something like passio:
"Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? a machine without feelings? Do you think, because I am poo obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you, and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, or even of mortal flesh; it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal as we are!"
"As we are repeated Mr. Rochester so," he added, enclosing me in his arms, gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips; "so, Jane!"
"Yes, so, sir," I rejoined; "and yet not so; for you are a married man, or as good as a married man, and wed to one inferior to you to one with whom you have no sympathy whom I do not believe you truly love; for I have seen and heard you sneer at her. I would scorn such a union; therefore I am better than you- let me go.