《简·爱：自传》

第九章 — Spring at Lowood, the Typhus Epidemic, and Helen Burns’s Death / CHAPTER XI

The harsh privations of Lowood School ease with the arrival of spring: winter frosts melt, cutting winds soften, and the girls’ frostbitten, swollen feet begin to heal as April’s gentler air arrives. The school’s brown garden beds green over, half-holiday walks reveal blooming snowdrops, crocuses, and golden-eyed pansies by the roadside, and the once-frozen, turbulent beck that winds through the valley becomes a sparkling stream, while the skeletal elms and oaks surrounding the school regain their leafy life. But the damp, fog-filled valley that cradles Lowood is a natural breeding ground for pestilence, and as spring quickens, typhus breaks out in the crowded, undernourished school. Forty-five of the 80 enrolled girls fall ill, classes are suspended, rules are relaxed, and the healthy remaining pupils are granted near-unlimited freedom to roam the surrounding woods, with a more generous new matron providing extra rations of cold pie and bread and cheese for their woodland picnics. Jane forms a close, easy friendship during this time with Mary Ann Wilson, a witty, observant older girl who shares stories and gossip with her, but she remains deeply devoted to her friend Helen Burns, who has been moved to a separate room with consumption, not typhus, an illness Jane initially believes is mild and curable. She only catches distant glimpses of Helen, wrapped in shawls and seated under a verandah, until one June evening, when she and Mary Ann return late from a long walk in the woods, she learns from a nurse that Helen is dying. That night, Jane sneaks out of bed, barefoot and silent, to visit Helen in Miss Temple’s room, where the two share a quiet, tender conversation. Helen, calm and unafraid, tells Jane she is at peace, ready to return to God, and asks Jane not to grieve for her when she is gone. Jane falls asleep holding Helen, and wakes in the dormitory the next morning to learn Helen died during the night. Fifteen years after her death, Helen’s grave in Brocklebridge churchyard is marked with a grey marble tablet inscribed with her name and the word Resurgam. The public outcry over the inhumane conditions that enabled the typhus epidemic leads to sweeping Lowood reforms: wealthy local donors fund a new building in a healthier location, diet and clothing standards improve, a committee manages school funds, and Mr. Brocklehurst retains his role as treasurer but is aided by more compassionate, reasonable inspectors. Jane remains at the regenerated Lowood for eight more years, six as a top-ranked pupil and two as a teacher, but is devastated when her beloved mentor Miss Temple marries and moves away. Left without the stabilizing presence of her closest friend, Jane wanders the school grounds after Miss Temple’s departure, realizing she has grown weary of Lowood’s rigid routine and longs for a life beyond its walls. She prays first for liberty, then for change, then for “a new servitude,” and hits on the idea of advertising for a governess position in the local ——shire Herald. She mails the advertisement, listing her skills in teaching, French, drawing, and music, and receives a response from Mrs. Fairfax, housekeeper of Thornfield Hall near Millcote, offering a position teaching a 10-year-old French ward for a salary of 30 pounds per year. Jane secures glowing references from Lowood’s committee, and shortly before her departure, is visited by Bessie Leaven, the former servant from her childhood home Gateshead. Bessie shares updates on the Reed family: Georgiana attempted to elope with a young lord but was stopped by her mother, John Reed is a dissipated college student, and Mrs. Reed is distressed by her son’s reckless spending. Bessie also reveals that a wine merchant, whom Mrs. Reed turned away years prior, came to Gateshead looking for Jane, and was likely Jane’s paternal uncle bound for Madeira. Jane travels to Millcote via coach, arriving at the George Inn after a 16-hour cold October journey to find no one has been sent to meet her. Anxious and adrift, she waits in a private inn room adorned with portraits of George III, the Prince of Wales, and a depiction of Wolfe’s death, until a servant arrives to escort her to Thornfield Hall, a six-mile journey that takes nearly two hours. When she arrives, she is greeted by the warm, kind Mrs. Fairfax, a neat elderly widow who eases Jane’s fears that her new employer will be as cold and harsh as Mrs. Reed, gives her hot negus and sandwiches, and shows her to a cozy, simply furnished bedroom. The next morning, Jane explores the manor’s grounds, taking in the grey stone facade, the rookery, and the quiet surrounding hills, before Mrs. Fairfax explains that Thornfield is owned by the reclusive Mr. Rochester, that she is only the housekeeper, and that Jane’s pupil is Adèle Varens, Mr. Rochester’s young French ward brought to England from the continent six months prior, who has made the lonely house feel far more lively since her arrival. Jane begins her first lesson with the chattering, precocious Adèle, who sings a French canzonette and recites La Fontaine’s La Ligue des Rats with surprising fluency for her age, in the house library, where she is surprised to find a well-stocked collection of books, a new piano, and art supplies for her pupil. After the morning lesson, Mrs. Fairfax gives Jane a tour of the house’s grand public rooms, third storey, and attic, noting that the upper floors, full of antique furniture and old bedsteads, are rarely used. As they descend the dim, narrow hallway of the third storey, both women hear a strange, formal, mirthless laugh echoing through the empty rooms. Mrs. Fairfax attributes the sound to Grace Poole, a plain, red-haired servant who sews in the upper floors, and when Grace emerges from a nearby room, she curtseys silently after a mild reprimand before withdrawing. The conversation turns to Adèle, and the pair proceed to the warm, cheerful lower levels of the house, where dinner is waiting for them in Mrs. Fairfax’s sitting room.