CHAPTER XXI 301
I knew Mrs . Reed had not spoken for days : was she reviving ? I went up to her .
" It is I , Aunt Reed ."
" Who -- I ?" was her answer . " Who are you ?" looking at me with surprise and a sort of alarm , but still not wildly . " You are quite a stranger to me -- where is Bessie ?"
" She is at the lodge , aunt ."
" Aunt ," she repeated . " Who calls me aunt ? You are not one of the Gibsons ; and yet I know you -- that face , and the eyes and forehead , are quiet familiar to me : you are like -- why , you are like Jane Eyre !"
I said nothing : I was afraid of occasioning some shock by declaring my identity .
" Yet ," said she , " I am afraid it is a mistake : my thoughts deceive me . I wished to see Jane Eyre , and I fancy a likeness where none exists : besides , in eight years she must be so changed ." I now gently assured her that I was the person she supposed and desired me to be : and seeing that I was understood , and that her senses were quite collected , I explained how Bessie had sent her husband to fetch me from Thornfield .
" I am very ill , I know ," she said ere long . " I was trying to turn myself a few minutes since , and find I cannot move a limb . It is as well I should ease my mind before I die : what we think little of in health , burdens us at such an hour as the present is to me . Is the nurse here ? or is there no one in the room but you ?"
I assured her we were alone .
" Well , I have twice done you a wrong which I regret now . One was in breaking the promise which I gave my husband to bring you up as my own child ; the other -- " she stopped . " After all , it is of no great importance ,