Jane Eyre. An Autobiography / Джейн Эйр. Автобиография. Шарлотта Бронте

were closed and the girls examined. The lesson was about the rule of Charles I[21], and there were many difficult questions, and Burns was ready with answers on every point. I expected that Miss Scatcherd would praise her attention; but, instead, she suddenly cried out —

      “You dirty, disagreeable girl! you have never cleaned your nails this morning!”

      Burns made no answer: I wondered at her silence. “Why,” thought I, “does she not explain that she could neither clean her nails nor wash her face, as the water was frozen?”

      For some time I couldn’t observe Miss Scatcherd’s movements and words. When I returned to my seat, that lady was just giving an order to Burns who immediately left the class, and returned in half a minute, carrying in her hand a bundle of twigs tied together at one end. This awful tool she presented to Miss Scatcherd with a respectful curtsy; then she quietly, and without being told, unloosed her pinafore, and the teacher did on her neck a dozen strokes with the bunch of twigs. Not a tear rose to Burns’ eye.

      “Hardened girl!” exclaimed Miss Scatcherd; “nothing can correct you of your bad habits.”

      The play-hour in the evening I thought the most pleasant part of the day at Lowood: the bit of bread, the draught of coffee swallowed at five o’clock had revived us, though it had not satisfied hunger; the schoolroom felt warmer than in the morning – all that gave one a pleasant sense of liberty.

      On the evening of the day on which I had seen Miss Scatcherd flog her pupil, Burns, I wandered as usual among the tables and laughing groups without a companion.

      I made my way to one of the fire-places; there I found Burns, reading silently.

      “Is it still that book?” I asked, coming behind her.

      “Yes,” she said, “and I have just finished it.”

      And in five minutes more she shut it up. I was glad of this. “Now,” thought I, “I can perhaps get her to talk.” I sat down by her on the floor.

      “What is your name besides Burns?”

      “Helen.”

      “Do you come a long way from here?”

      “I come from a place farther north, quite on the borders of Scotland.”

      “Will you ever go back?”

      “I hope so; but nobody can be sure of the future.”

      “You must wish to leave Lowood?”

      “No! Why should I? I was sent to Lowood to get an education; and it would be of no use going away until I have done that.”

      “But that teacher, Miss Scatcherd, is so cruel to you?”

      “Cruel? Not at all! She is severe: she dislikes my faults.”

      “And if I were in your place I should resist her. If she struck me with that rod, I should get it from her hand; I should break it under her nose.”

      “But if you did, Mr. Brocklehurst would expel you from the school. It is far better to endure patiently a pain which nobody feels but yourself, and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.”[22]

      “But then it seems disgraceful to be flogged, and you are such a great girl: I am far younger than you, and I could not bear it.”

      “Yet it would be your duty to bear it: it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate.”

      I heard her with wonder: I could not understand this doctrine of patience.

      “You say you have faults, Helen: what are they? To me you seem very good.”

      “I am careless; I seldom put, and never keep, things, in order; I forget rules; I read when I should learn my lessons. This is all very provoking to Miss Scatcherd, who is naturally neat, punctual, and particular.”

      “And cross and cruel,” I added; but Helen Burns kept silence.

      Helen’s head sank a little lower as I finished this sentence. I saw by her look she wished no longer to talk to me, but rather to think her own thoughts. She was not allowed much time for that: a monitor, a great rough girl, presently came up —

      “Helen Burns, if you don’t go and put your drawer in order, and fold up your work this minute, I’ll tell Miss Scatcherd to come and look at it!”

      Helen sighed, and getting up, obeyed the monitor without reply.

      Chapter VII

      My first quarter at Lowood seemed an age.

      During January, February, and part of March, the deep snows, and, after their melting, the almost impassable roads, made us stay within the garden walls, except to go to church; but still we had to pass an hour every day in the open air. Our clothing didn’t protect us from the severe cold: we had no boots, the snow got into our shoes and melted there: our ungloved hands became numbed; my feet inflamed. Then the supply of food was hardly enough to keep us alive. This deficiency pressed hard on the younger pupils: whenever the hungry great girls had an opportunity, they would coax or menace the little ones out of their portion.

      Sundays were dreary days in that wintry season. We had to walk two miles to Brocklebridge Church. We set out cold, we arrived at church colder: during the morning service we became almost paralysed. It was too far to return to dinner, and some cold meat and bread was served between the services.

      At the close of the afternoon service we returned by a hilly road, where the bitter winter wind almost flayed the skin from our faces.

      I can remember Miss Temple walking lightly along our drooping line, and encouraging us.

      I have not yet told you about the visits of Mr. Brocklehurst. One afternoon, as I was sitting with a slate in my hand, puzzling over a sum, my eyes, raised to the window, caught sight of a passing figure: I recognized him; and two minutes after, all the school, teachers included, greeted him at the entrance. Yes, I was right: it was Mr. Brocklehurst, buttoned up in a surtout, and looking longer than ever.

      He stood at Miss Temple’s side; he was speaking low in her ear: I listened too; and as I happened to be seated at the top of the room, I caught most of what he said.

      “I suppose, Miss Temple, the thread I bought at Lowton will do. I forgot to tell Miss Smith about the darning needles: she is not, on any account[23], to give out more than one at a time to each pupil: if they have more, they may be careless and lose them. And, O ma’am! I went into the kitchen-garden and examined the clothes drying on the line; there was a quantity of black hose in a very bad state of repair: from the size of the holes in them I was sure they had not been well mended.”

      He paused.

      “Your directions shall be attended to, sir[24],” said Miss Temple.

      Mr. Brocklehurst nodded.

      “And there is another thing which surprised me; I find that a lunch, consisting of bread and cheese, has twice been served out to the girls during the past fortnight. How is this? I looked over the regulations, and I find no such meal as lunch mentioned. Who introduced this innovation? and by what authority?”

      “I must be responsible for the circumstance, sir,” replied Miss Temple: “the breakfast was so ill prepared that the pupils could not possibly eat it; and I dared not allow them to remain fasting till dinner-time.”

      “Madam, you are aware that my plan in bringing up these girls is, not to accustom them to luxury, but to make them hardy, patient, self-denying. When you put bread and cheese, instead of burnt porridge, into these children’s mouths, you may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their souls!”

      Mr. Brocklehurst, standing on the hearth with his hands behind his back, majestically surveyed the whole school. Suddenly his eye gave a blink; turning, he said —

      “Miss Temple, Miss Temple, what

21

Карл I, король Англии, Шотландии и Ирландии; казнён в Лондоне в 1649 г.

22

Библия учит нас отвечать добром на зло

23

ни в коем случае

24

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