"Pass, Janet," said he, making room for me to cross the
stile: "go up home, and stay your weary little wandering feet
at a friend's threshold."

All I had now to do was to obey him in silence: no need
for me to colloquize further. I got over the stile without a
word, and meant to leave him calmly. An impulse held me
fast -- a force turned me round. I said -- or something in me
said for me, and in spite of me --

"Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I
am strangely glad to get back again to you; and wherever
you are is my home -- my only home."

I walked on so fast that even he could hardly have over-
taken me had he tried. Little Adèle was half wild with de-
light when she saw me. Mrs. Fairfax received me with her
usual plain friendliness. Leah smiled; and even Sophie bid
me "bon soir" with glee. This was very pleasant: there is
no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow-creatures,
and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.

I, that evening, shut my eyes resolutely against the future:
I stopped my ears against the voice that kept warning me
of near separation and coming grief. When tea was over
and Mrs. Fairfax had taken her knitting, and I had assumed
a low seat near her, and Adèle, kneeling on the carpet, had
nestled close up to me, and a sense of mutual affection
seemed to surround us with a ring of golden peace, I uttered
a silent prayer that we might not be parted far or soon; but
when, as we thus sat, Mr. Rochester entered, unannounced,
and looking at us, seemed to take pleasure in the spectacle
of a group so amicable -- when he said he supposed the old
lady was all right now that she had got her adopted daughter
back again, and added that he saw Adèle was "prete à cro-
quer sa petite maman anglaise" -- I half ventured to hope
that he would, even after his marriage, keep us together some-
where under the shelter of his protection, and not quite exiled
from the sunshine of his presence.

A fortnight of dubious calm succeeded my return to Thorn-
field Hall. Nothing was said of my master's marriage, and I
saw no preparation going on for such an event. Almost every
day I asked Mrs. Fairfax if she had yet heard anything de-
cided: her answer was always in the negative. Once, she said,

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