In a later afternoon walk, Rochester explains the mystery of Adèle’s origins. He recounts his youthful passion for the French opera-dancer Céline Varens, whom he installed in luxury in Paris, only to discover her infidelity with a brainless vicomte. In a jealous rage, he confronted the pair, broke with Céline, and fought a duel with the vicomte. Adèle, he believes, is likely his daughter, though he doubts it and notes no physical resemblance; he keeps and supports the child partly as a penance for his sins, on a “Roman Catholic principle” of expiation. He warns Jane that she may think differently of her position now that she knows Adèle’s mother was an opera-girl, but Jane replies that she will cling closer to the child for her very orphanhood and lack of family. Rochester seems gratified, and their relationship grows in ease and intimacy; Jane finds herself no longer pining for kindred, her health and spirits improving under his friendly, if imperious, companionship. Yet she does not mistake his faults: he remains moody, harsh to inferiors, and occasionally consumed by a dark anger that she attributes to some hidden cross of fate.
The deepening bond is tested one night when Jane is roused from sleep by a demoniac laugh, the smell of smoke, and the realization that Rochester’s chamber is on fire. She rushes in to find him senseless from smoke inhalation, the bed curtains ablaze, and with quick action she deluges the bed and its occupant with water from his ewer and her own jug, extinguishing the flames. Rochester awakens bewildered and furious, believing he has been drowned, and only gradually understands that Jane has saved his life. He refuses to rouse the household, insisting she say nothing of the incident, and directs her to stay while he investigates. He returns pale and grim, having traced the fire to arson—clearly the work of Grace Poole, whose strange laugh and erratic behavior have long been noted. Jane returns to her room, her nerves shaken but her heart buoyed by the strange energy of Rochester’s gratitude and the intimate bond forged in crisis. As dawn approaches, she lies awake, tossed between joy and anxiety, aware that a mysterious and dangerous force—embodied in the figure of Grace Poole—still haunts Thornfield, and that her own destiny, like Rochester’s, is caught in a channel fraught with rocks and breakers.
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