CHAPTER XVIII 234
Because , when she failed , I saw how she might have succeeded . Arrows that continually glanced off from Mr . Rochester ' s breast and fell harmless at his feet , might , I knew , if shot by a surer hand , have quivered keen in his proud heart -- have called love into his stern eye , and softness into his sardonic face ; or , better still , without weapons a silent conquest might have been won .
" Why can she not influence him more , when she is privileged to draw so near to him ?" I asked myself . " Surely she cannot truly like him , or not like him with true affection ! If she did , she need not coin her smiles so lavishly , flash her glances so unremittingly , manufacture airs so elaborate , graces so multitudinous . It seems to me that she might , by merely sitting quietly at his side , saying little and looking less , get nigher his heart . I have seen in his face a far different expression from that which hardens it now while she is so vivaciously accosting him ; but then it came of itself : it was not elicited by meretricious arts and calculated manoeuvres ; and one had but to accept it -- to answer what he asked without pretension , to address him when needful without grimace -- and it increased and grew kinder and more genial , and warmed one like a fostering sunbeam . How will she manage to please him when they are married ? I do not think she will manage it ; and yet it might be managed ; and his wife might , I verily believe , be the very happiest woman the sun shines on ."
I have not yet said anything condemnatory of Mr . Rochester ' s project of marrying for interest and connections . It surprised me when I first discovered that such was his intention : I had thought him a man unlikely to be influenced by motives so commonplace in his choice of a wife ; but the longer I considered the position , education , & c ., of the parties , the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them , doubtless , from their childhood . All their class held these principles : I supposed , then , they had reasons for holding them such as I could not fathom . It seemed to me that , were I a gentleman like him , I would take to my bosom only such a wife as I could love ; but the very obviousness of the advantages to the husband ' s own happiness offered by this plan convinced me that there must be arguments against its general adoption of which I was quite ignorant :