CHAPTER III 28
Again I paused ; then bunglingly enounced -
" But John Reed knocked me down , and my aunt shut me up in the redroom ."
Mr . Lloyd a second time produced his snuff-box .
" Don ' t you think Gateshead Hall a very beautiful house ?" asked he . " Are you not very thankful to have such a fine place to live at ?"
" It is not my house , sir ; and Abbot says I have less right to be here than a servant ."
" Pooh ! you can ' t be silly enough to wish to leave such a splendid place ?"
" If I had anywhere else to go , I should be glad to leave it ; but I can never get away from Gateshead till I am a woman ."
" Perhaps you may -- who knows ? Have you any relations besides Mrs . Reed ?"
" I think not , sir ." " None belonging to your father ?"
" I don ' t know . I asked Aunt Reed once , and she said possibly I might have some poor , low relations called Eyre , but she knew nothing about them ."
" If you had such , would you like to go to them ?"
I reflected . Poverty looks grim to grown people ; still more so to children : they have not much idea of industrious , working , respectable poverty ; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes , scanty food , fireless grates , rude manners , and debasing vices : poverty for me was synonymous with degradation .