Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she
said,—

"You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obliga-
tions to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you
off, you would have to go to the poor-house."

I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to
me: my very first recollections of existence included hints
of the same kind. This reproach of my dependence had
become a vague sing-song in my ear; very painful and
crushing, but only half intelligible. Miss Abbot joined in:—

"And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with
the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly
allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a
great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your place
to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them."

"What we tell you, is for your good," added Bessie, in no
harsh voice: "you should try to be useful and pleasant, then,
perhaps, you would have a home here; but if you become
passionate and rude, Missis will send you away, I am sure."

"Besides," said Miss Abbot, "God will punish her: he
might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then
where would she go? Come, Bessie, we will leave her: I
wouldn't have her heart for anything. Say your prayers, Miss
Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don't repent,
something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney
and fetch you away."

They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them.

The red-room was a spare chamber, very seldom slept in;
I might say never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of
visitors at Gateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to
account all the accommodation it contained: yet it was one
of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion. A bed
supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains
of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre;
the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down,
were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery;
the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was
covered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn
colour, with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-
table, the chairs were of darkly polished old mahogany. Out
of these deep surrounding shades rose high, and glared white,
the piled-up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread with a
snowy Marseilles counterpane. Scarcely less prominent was

-7-