CHAPTER XX 275
" Sit ," he said ; " the bench is long enough for two . You don ' t hesitate to take a place at my side , do you ? Is that wrong , Jane ?"
I answered him by assuming it : to refuse would , I felt , have been unwise .
" Now , my little friend , while the sun drinks the dew -- while all the flowers in this old garden awake and expand , and the birds fetch their young ones ' breakfast out of the Thornfield , and the early bees do their first spell of work -- I ' ll put a case to you , which you must endeavour to suppose your own : but first , look at me , and tell me you are at ease , and not fearing that I err in detaining you , or that you err in staying ."
" No , sir ; I am content ."
" Well then , Jane , call to aid your fancy : - suppose you were no longer a girl well reared and disciplined , but a wild boy indulged from childhood upwards ; imagine yourself in a remote foreign land ; conceive that you there commit a capital error , no matter of what nature or from what motives , but one whose consequences must follow you through life and taint all your existence . Mind , I don ' t say a CRIME ; I am not speaking of shedding of blood or any other guilty act , which might make the perpetrator amenable to the law : my word is ERROR . The results of what you have done become in time to you utterly insupportable ; you take measures to obtain relief : unusual measures , but neither unlawful nor culpable . Still you are miserable ; for hope has quitted you on the very confines of life : your sun at noon darkens in an eclipse , which you feel will not leave it till the time of setting . Bitter and base associations have become the sole food of your memory : you wander here and there , seeking rest in exile : happiness in pleasure -- I mean in heartless , sensual pleasure -- such as dulls intellect and blights feeling . Heart-weary and soul-withered , you come home after years of voluntary banishment : you make a new acquaintance -- how or where no matter : you find in this stranger much of the good and bright qualities which you have sought for twenty years , and never before encountered ; and they are all fresh , healthy , without soil and without taint . Such society revives , regenerates : you feel better days come back -- higher wishes , purer feelings ; you desire to recommence your life , and to spend