vol 2
Ch. 24 Summary
Jane is happy after Rochester's proposal but questions its reality.
Rochester promises marriage in four weeks, a European honeymoon, and lavish gifts.
Jane is uncomfortable with the gifts, feeling objectified and degraded.
She insists on living normally, maintaining her salary and simple clothes.
Jane asks Rochester about Blanche Ingram and his deceptive behavior.
Rochester says he could never marry Blanche due to her pride.
He admits to spreading rumors about his wealth to deter Blanche.
Rochester confesses he used Blanche to make Jane jealous, already being in love with Jane.
Mrs. Fairfax offers unenthusiastic congratulations, warning Jane about marrying above her social status.
Jane is insulted by Mrs. Fairfax's concerns.
Jane writes to her uncle, John Eyre, hoping to become his heir and improve her social standing relative to Rochester.
Rochester attempts to dress Jane in extravagant clothes, which she resists.
Jane warns Rochester against treating her as a kept woman or unequal partner.
Jane realizes she idolizes Rochester to a degree that it compromises her relationship with God.
Chapter XXV
The wedding is imminent, with preparations complete.
Jane's trunks are packed for her journey to London after the wedding.
She anticipates becoming "Mrs. Rochester," a person she doesn't yet know.
Jane hesitates to affix the "Mrs. Rochester" address labels, feeling the identity is not yet real.
Wedding garments have replaced Jane's plain Lowood frock in her closet.
She finds the wedding apparel ghost-like and unsettling.
Jane feels feverish due to the anticipation of the wedding and the new life ahead.
A "third cause" influences her mind, a strange and anxious thought about an event the previous night.
Mr. Rochester is away on business, tending to an estate 30 miles away, settling matters before leaving England.
Jane eagerly awaits his return to share her secret and seek his understanding.
Jane seeks refuge in the orchard, driven by a strong, gusty wind.
She observes a wrecked chestnut tree, split down the center but still connected at the roots.
The tree's condition symbolizes a ruin that is still whole, despite lacking vitality.
Jane speaks to the tree, noting that it holds fast to its roots and has a comrade in decay.
The moon appears momentarily, blood-red and half-overcast, casting a bewildering glance.
The wind briefly subsides around Thornfield, followed by a distant, melancholy wail.
Jane gathers fallen apples in the orchard, separating the ripe from the unripe, and stores them in the house.
She prepares the library for Mr. Rochester's return, lighting a fire and arranging his armchair and table.
Growing restless, Jane goes to the gates to meet Mr. Rochester, finding the road solitary.
She feels a puerile tear of disappointment and impatience.
The moon disappears, and rain begins to fall.
Jane experiences hypochondriac foreboding, fearing an accident or disaster, recalling the event of the previous night as a warning.
She decides to meet him on the road, preferring physical exertion to emotional strain.
Jane hears the tramp of hoofs and sees Mr. Rochester approaching on Mesrour, with Pilot running alongside.
Mr. Rochester expresses his delight and triumph at her eagerness to meet him.
He checks his excitement to ask if something is wrong.
Jane explains she couldn't bear to wait in the house because of the weather.
Mr. Rochester notes her feverish state and again asks about the matter.
Jane says she was afraid and unhappy but is no longer.
She promises to tell him later, but says he will probably laugh at her.
Mr. Rochester says he will laugh after tomorrow but not before because his prize is not yet certain.
He compares her to a slippery eel and a thorny briar-rose, now gathered up like a stray lamb.
Jane says she needed him but tells him not to boast.
At Thornfield, Mr. Rochester instructs John to take his horse and asks Jane to change into dry clothes and return to the library.
He asks her to promise not to be long, and she rejoins him in five minutes.
Jane finds him at supper.
Mr. Rochester says it is likely one of the last meals she will eat at Thornfield Hall for a long time.
Jane says she cannot eat and that everything seems unreal.
Mr. Rochester says he is substantial and exists.
Jane says he is the most phantom-like of all, a mere dream.
He places his hand close to her eyes, asking if it is a dream.
Jane says it is a dream even though she touches it.
Jane orders the tray to be taken away.
She takes a low seat at her master's knee.
Jane says it is near midnight.
Mr. Rochester reminds her that she promised to wake with him the night before their wedding.
Jane says she will keep her promise, for an hour or two at least.
Mr. Rochester confirms that all arrangements are complete on his part.
He adds that they shall leave Thornfield half an hour after returning from church.
Mr. Rochester comments on Jane's extraordinary smile, bright cheeks, and glittering eyes, asking if she is well.
Jane says she believes she is.
Mr. Rochester insists that she tell him what she feels.
Jane says no words could express what she feels and wishes the present hour would never end.
Mr. Rochester attributes her feelings to hypochondria and overexcitement or fatigue.
Jane asks if he feels calm and happy.
Mr. Rochester says he is not calm but happy to the heart's core.
He asks for her confidence and urges her to relieve her mind of any weight by sharing it with him.
He dismisses the idea she fears he will be a bad husband.
He questions whether she is apprehensive about the new sphere or new life she is entering.
He tells her that her look and tone of sorrowful audacity perplex and pain him and says that he wants an explanation.
Jane asks if he was from home last night.
Rochester says he knows he was and acknowledges that something has disturbed her.
He asks if Mrs. Fairfax said something or if she overheard the servants talking, wounding her sensitive self-respect.
Jane says no.
Jane waits until the clocks finish striking midnight before proceeding.
Jane says she was busy and happy in her ceaseless bustle all day and is not troubled by fears about the new sphere because she loves him and thinks it glorious to live with him.
She asks him not to caress her and to let her talk undisturbed.
She reiterates she trusted in Providence yesterday and believed events were working for their good.
She recalls the calmness of the air and sky that forbade any apprehensions regarding his safety or comfort on his journey.
She describes walking on the pavement after tea, thinking of him so vividly that she scarcely missed his presence.
She thought of the life that lay before her—his life—an existence more expansive and stirring than her own, like the depths of the sea compared to a brook's shallows.
She wondered why moralists call the world a dreary wilderness because for her it blossomed like a rose.
At or near sunset, the air turned cold, and the sky became cloudy.
Sophie called her upstairs to look at her wedding dress, which had just been brought.
In the box beneath the wedding dress, she found is a veil as a gift from him from London.
She smiled at the princely extravagance, resolving to tease him about his aristocratic tastes and efforts to mask his plebeian bride in the attributes of a peeress.
She had planned to bring a square of unembroidered blond she had prepared as a head covering, asking if it was inadequate for a woman who brought neither fortune, beauty, nor connections.
She imagined his impetuous republican answers, rejecting the necessity of augmenting his wealth or elevating his standing through marriage to a purse or a coronet.
Rochester interjects, remarking on how well she reads him.
He jokes, asking if she found poison or a dagger in the veil, which he asks because it is making her so mournful now.
She says besides the fabric she only found his pride in the veil which didn't scare her.
That evening, the wind rose, not wild and high like now, but with a sullen, moaning sound more eerie.
She says she wished he were home.
Entering the room, the empty chair and fireless hearth chilled her.
Unable to sleep, she says a sense of anxious excitement distressed her.
The rising gale seemed to mutter a mournful undersound, whether in the house or abroad she couldn't tell, but it recurred at every lull.
She eventually determined that it must be some dog howling at a distance and was glad when it ceased.
She continued dreaming of a dark and gusty night, wishing to be with him and feeling a regretful consciousness of a barrier dividing them.
In her first sleep, she followed the windings of an unknown road, enveloped in total obscurity, pelted by rain, and burdened with a little child too young and feeble to walk, shivering in her cold arms, and wailing piteously in her ear.
He was on the road far ahead, and she strained every nerve to overtake him and utter his name, but her movements were fettered, and her voice died away inarticulate, while he withdrew farther and farther every moment.
Rochester asks if these dreams weigh on her spirits now when he is close to her and asks her to forget visionary woe and think only of real happiness.
He repeats her remark that it is glorious to have hope of living with him and tells her it did not die inarticulate on her lips.
He makes her repeat that she loves him.
Rochester says it’s very strange but he is pained at the statement, questioning whether it is her earnest religious energy and upward gaze sublime faith that feels ghostly.
He asks her to look wicked she usually does it and do something about moving him over being saddened.
She promises to tease and vex him when she has finished her tale.
Rochester protests whether she has told him everything and thought she found the source of her melancholy in a dream.
Jane shakes her head and Rochester warns incredulity is coming with whatever she continues with.
She proceeds to share the rest of her dream where Thornfield Hall was dreary ruins and the retreat of bats and owls.
Nothing remained of the stately front but a shell-like wall, very high and fragile looking.
She wandered on a moonlight knight in grass-grown enclosure where stumbled fallen over marble hearth with an unknown child carrying around.
She heard gallop far of you afar with you departing many year long distant country, and tried to climb the thin wall.
But at risk of stone being loose, the child strangled her, and last you reached the summit but I saw you like a speck diminishing and i failed off the wall.
Rochester says that is all but Jane replies with oh on waking there was a candle and veil on the floor ripped.
Rochester wonders if the shape was Grace Poole.
She says it was no Grace because she recognized a new shape.
Height width new face hair and robe white and a sheet.
She describe the face as a devil with gaunt figure head and vampire head from Germany.
The veil also torn by them.
Later the eyes glared and caused unconsciousness.
She was awoken to daylight without the visitant.
The mystery troubles her most.
But He reassures her because all is well at last as God allowed the evil visitant was only evil to the veil and will not occur again after unifying the bonding.
He believes a ghost did appear though, and was Grace Poole who is mentally unstable, explaining their familiarity of interaction, disheveled hair, swollen black face, and exaggerated stature were merely imagination.
But he will explain why she keeps Grace there in a year and a day.
But she still did not feel solved with his explanation and he urged Adele had some room for you.
He asked Adele must rouse you before to make sure to dress this day.
He reassure no sombre thought as the night air are fallen whispering.
It turns clear where the moon shone peacefully as they stare to each other.
He said the night is serene and so am I as so he wants it and promises her to only dream happy things.
But she could not go to sleep in the same sentiment holding Adele til she kissed her as they did not seem together forever.
Chapter XXVI
Sophie comes to you at 7 because of Rochester impatience.
Mirror reveals so likeness is a stranger.
Told I could delay no longer being asked to come now fair as Lilly.
Ten mins to get ready and sent servant.
Checking the church and they there.
All luggage is packed and told is not church needed but wait in moment’s return.
And she asks if Jane is ready.
They pass to be stopped by a steel grap which holds her along, which tolerates less delay than wanted for my purpose, and to look Rochester in a fearful and steadfast eye.
As they pass she does not gaze into land or sky but eye seems to migrate into Rochesters. And Rochester asked about what the glance is.
He is surprised that she is out of breath but is not cruel.
And Rochester can call the house of God back a home she can call back again.
And she will find two figures of strangers strolling as they know the ceremony as they slip in right away to take there view in front.
And his face is drained of blood, but walks to his spot.
But the clergyman requires and charges them both that know know some thing should not unlawfully married at the dreadful day of judgement.
Clergyman is stunned, now he is stretching now he turns on to the answer.
The marriage cannot happen there is an impendence. This occurs when paused.
Rochester says proceed.
Clergyman asks to investigate.
There is an insuperable impediment to this marriage.
But Rochester does not show no movement but a clasp.
Is eye watches as if a wild beast.
But the clergman needs more so Rochester says the truth is that he has a wide.
Whom he married years ago.
His name has been Mr. Briggs, a solicitor. And reminds lady existence.
Which demands name parent adode.
Paper from breast has read Edward and Bertha mason has married
How is the woman still living? She has been living 3 months. Produce him quick.
And brings out mason.
He now has a tawny black eye.
Mason cries is it she now or not now.
The wife still at Thornfield said Mason, I saw her here at April
She is mad.
A devil is in it you can not answer.
At halls by God not wife but lunatic.
He says is broken and Bigamy is broken and is deserve the judgments of God.
They are true I have a women that am living, mad and she is Bertha and says a man heart and is also a woman.
Knew was legal all was true. So I was ensnared by partner
Front door a bigamist broke.
To the right says I want not of 15 too late.
And now see all meet with him again and up to store to come near with him.
You know Mason, here as he points with a lift hang to 2nd room.
Fire guards Grace bends. What beast being one touch on the 4th, she snatch growl cover and wild and face hide.
Grace reports tolerable at snap but rage as maniac gets and recognizes now face.
But can’t get to him Grace tries to.
Grace tries but she is cunning says mason say get away to hell say it with one cry and attack, rope with chair now can’t get out now stop you I must shut up now I am.
So he takes a leave.
You clear all with you uncle will great this what and you will die.
But your uncle that and my he and said the truth this what it too late and then good by
Reproof and all the in shut no and change this I think this come but what no now
What that is but and for it the 2, for me, for to and not with it and a
Chapter XXVI
spend your life more worthy of being immortalized but justified of costume neither convince by judgment.
Wandering should never depend on other and look higher for equal sole or strength.
He ordained the instrument I believe now to be my rest seeking.
Face changes again and a tender with violence with missingham with vengeance
The hand mysterious chamber all will soon be done will show all when to come a lovely thing.
Dent and Lynn are in stables and see off
Chapter XXI
Three combined will work out
So it has a thing will occur if happen soon dreams of are coming before
Then came sent of to hear a death announcement.
Family troubled with John died last week.
The life for all it given help and his head what not strong he was doing well
But his mother lost health. Then said fetch fetch now
This to leave the family and you must look but want and to soon leave
So he had that disturb person and and did it this this
Have you no relations but did not like all what will see can not look
Must not take her is that what for money. This to give but. Then has change then said money for and the
We'll short going then get over it.
She would leave soon, but with the bride so now what I know I’m getting ready.
Good will must see you this will not all you and can do good and good.
A time long with the 1 that way is not to all.
Now can’t go will to it but still at and so is if
Chapter XXI
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