CHAPTER III 21
CHAPTER III
The next thing I remember is , waking up with a feeling as if I had had a frightful nightmare , and seeing before me a terrible red glare , crossed with thick black bars . I heard voices , too , speaking with a hollow sound , and as if muffled by a rush of wind or water : agitation , uncertainty , and an all-predominating sense of terror confused my faculties . Ere long , I became aware that some one was handling me ; lifting me up and supporting me in a sitting posture , and that more tenderly than I had ever been raised or upheld before . I rested my head against a pillow or an arm , and felt easy .
In five minutes more the cloud of bewilderment dissolved : I knew quite well that I was in my own bed , and that the red glare was the nursery fire . It was night : a candle burnt on the table ; Bessie stood at the bed-foot with a basin in her hand , and a gentleman sat in a chair near my pillow , leaning over me .
I felt an inexpressible relief , a soothing conviction of protection and security , when I knew that there was a stranger in the room , an individual not belonging to Gateshead ., and not related to Mrs . Reed . Turning from Bessie ( though her presence was far less obnoxious to me than that of Abbot , for instance , would have been ), I scrutinised the face of the gentleman : I knew him ; it was Mr . Lloyd , an apothecary , sometimes called in by Mrs . Reed when the servants were ailing : for herself and the children she employed a physician .
" Well , who am I ?" he asked .
I pronounced his name , offering him at the same time my hand : he took it , smiling and saying , " We shall do very well by-and-by ." Then he laid me down , and addressing Bessie , charged her to be very careful that I was not disturbed during the night . Having given some further directions , and intimates that he should call again the next day , he departed ; to my grief : I felt so sheltered and befriended while he sat in the chair near my pillow ; and as he closed the door after him , all the room darkened and my heart again sank : inexpressible sadness weighed it down .