aquiline steed, sir? We have no neighbours here--none to stare, and
pry, and prate, and slander."

I informed him that I was as ignorant as he what power had spirited me
to his house, but that so far as obvious means went, my old horse was
probably by this time fast asleep beside the green gate at which I had
entered. Jane stood on tip-toe and whispered in his ear, and, nodding
imperiously at him, withdrew into the house.

Complete silence fell between us after her departure. The woods stood
dark and motionless in the yellow evening light. There was no sound of
wind or water, no sound of voices or footsteps; only far away the
clear, scarce-audible warbling of a sleepy bird.

"Well, sir," Mr. Rochester said suddenly, "I am bidden invite you to
pass the night here. There are stranger inhabitants than Mr. and Mrs.
Rochester in these regions you have by some means strayed into--wilder
denizens, by much; for youth's seraphic finding. Not for mine, sir, I
vow. Depart again in the morning, if you will: we shall neither of us
be displeased by then to say farewell, I dare say. I do not seek
company. My obscure shell is enough." I rose. "Sit down--sit down
again, my dear sir; there's no mischief in the truth between two men
of any world, I suppose, assuredly not of this. My wife will see to
your comfort. There! hushie now, here he floats; sit still, sit
still--I hear his wings. It is my 'Four Evangels,' sir!"

It was a sleek blackbird that had alighted and now set to singing on
the topmost twig of a lofty pear-tree near by; and with his first note
Jane reappeared. And while we listened, unstirring, to that rich,
undaunted voice, I had good opportunity to observe her, and not, I