《简·爱：自传》

When Brocklehurst left, pressing a religious tract about a lying child who died suddenly into Jane’s hand, Mrs. Reed ordered her back to the nursery. All the rage Jane had carried for years erupted: she told Mrs. Reed she did not love her, would never call her aunt again, would tell everyone at Lowood how cruel she was, that it was Mrs. Reed who was deceitful, not her. Mrs. Reed was shocked into silence, her work slipping from her lap, and Jane felt a brief, fierce surge of triumph at finally standing up to the woman who had tormented her for a decade. But the high faded fast, replaced by cold remorse: she knew she had ruined any chance of kindness at Gateshead, that there was no going back from her outburst. She wandered out into the frozen grounds, head hung, asking herself what she would do, until Bessie found her, called her in for lunch, and told her the good news: Mrs. Reed had decided to send her to Lowood in a few days, and she could have a small cake and pick whatever toys she wanted to take with her. Jane hugged Bessie tightly, the first warm moment she had had in months, and that evening Bessie sang her soft songs and told her sweet stories, leaving Jane with a flicker of hope for the new life waiting for her at the school, even as she dreaded the unknown.

第五章 / CHAPTER VII

The frigid predawn of 19 January found Jane Eyre already dressed, the last of the moon’s pale light slanting through her nursery window at Gateshead as she slipped out of bed half an hour before Bessie arrived with a candle. She had no appetite for the boiled milk and bread Bessie pressed on her, so the maid tucked biscuits into her bag, helped her into her pelisse and bonnet, and walked her out to the waiting coach. When Bessie urged her to bid Mrs. Reed goodbye, Jane shook her head, recalling the housekeeper’s cold dismissal the night before: “She has been my foe, not my friend,” she told Bessie, as they passed the lodge gates where her trunk already waited. The coach pulled up just after six, its lamps glowing through the fog of a thaw, and with a final hug from Bessie, Jane was lifted inside, watching the lodge lights fade as the coach rattled away toward the fifty-mile journey to Lowood.