Mr. Rochester had give one week』s leave of absence: yet a month elapsed before I quitted Gateshead. I wished to leave immediately after the funeral, but Geiareated me to stay till she could get off to London, whither she was now at last invited by her uncle, Mr. Gibson, who had e down to direct his sister』s interment ale the family affairs. Geiana said she dreaded bei aloh Eliza; from her she got her sympathy in her deje, support in her fears, nor aid in her preparations; so I bore with her feeble-minded wailings and selfish lamentations as well as I could, and did my best in sewing for her and pag her dresses. It is true, that while I worked, she would idle; and I thought to myself, 「If you and I were destio live always together, cousin, we would eters on a different footing. I should not settle tamely down into being the forbearing party; I should assign you your share of labour, and pel you to aplish it, or else it should be left undone: I should insist, also, on your keeping some of those drawling, half-insincere plaints hushed in your ow. It is only because our e happens to be very transitory, and es at a peculiarly mournful season, that I sent thus to re so patient and pliant on my part.」
At last I saw Geiana off; but now it was Eliza』s turn to request me to stay another week. Her plans required all her time and attention, she said; she was about to depart for some unknown bourne; and all day long she stayed in her own room, her door bolted within, filling trunks, emptying drawers, burning papers, and holding no unication with any one. She wished me to look after the house, to see callers, and answer notes of dolence.
One m she told me I was at liberty. 「And,」 she added, 「I am obliged to you for your valuable services and discreet duct! There is some differeween living with su one as you and with Geiana: you perform your own part in life and burden no oo-morrow,」 she tinued, 「I set out for the ti. I shall take up my abode in a religious house near Lisle—a nunnery you would call it; there I shall be quiet and ued. I shall devote myself for a time to the examination of the Roman Catholias, and to a careful study of the ws of their system: if I find it to be, as I half suspect it is, the o calculated to ehe doing of all things detly and in order, I shall embrace the tes of Rome and probably take the veil.」
I her expressed surprise at this resolution nor attempted to dissuade her from it. 「The vocation will fit you to a hair,」 I thought: 「muay it do you!」
When we parted, she said: 「Good-bye, cousin Jane Eyre; I wish you well: you have some sense.」
I theurned: 「You are not without sense, cousin Eliza; but what you have, I suppose, in another year will be walled up alive in a French vent. However, it is not my business, and so it suits you, I don』t much care.」
「You are in the right,」 said she; and with these words we each went our separate way. As I shall not have occasion to refer either to her or her sister again, I may as well mention here, that Geiana made an advantageous match with a wealthy worn-out man of fashion, and that Eliza actually took the veil, and is at this day superior of the vent where she passed the period of her novitiate, and which she endowed with her fortune.
How people feel when they are returning home from an absence, long or short, I did not know: I had never experiehe sensation. I had known what it was to e back to Gateshead when a child after a long walk, to be s