CHAPTER XXIII 314
enticed there by the light the now rising moon cast on this more open quarter , my step is stayed -- not by sound , not by sight , but once more by a warning fragrance .
Sweet-briar and southernwood , jasmine , pink , and rose have long been yielding their evening sacrifice of incense : this new scent is neither of shrub nor flower ; it is -- I know it well -- it is Mr . Rochester ' s cigar . I look round and I listen . I see trees laden with ripening fruit . I hear a nightingale warbling in a wood half a mile off ; no moving form is visible , no coming step audible ; but that perfume increases : I must flee . I make for the wicket leading to the shrubbery , and I see Mr . Rochester entering . I step aside into the ivy recess ; he will not stay long : he will soon return whence he came , and if I sit still he will never see me .
But no -- eventide is as pleasant to him as to me , and this antique garden as attractive ; and he strolls on , now lifting the gooseberry- tree branches to look at the fruit , large as plums , with which they are laden ; now taking a ripe cherry from the wall ; now stooping towards a knot of flowers , either to inhale their fragrance or to admire the dew-beads on their petals . A great moth goes humming by me ; it alights on a plant at Mr . Rochester ' s foot : he sees it , and bends to examine it .
" Now , he has his back towards me ," thought I , " and he is occupied too ; perhaps , if I walk softly , I can slip away unnoticed ."
I trode on an edging of turf that the crackle of the pebbly gravel might not betray me : he was standing among the beds at a yard or two distant from where I had to pass ; the moth apparently engaged him . " I shall get by very well ," I meditated . As I crossed his shadow , thrown long over the garden by the moon , not yet risen high , he said quietly , without turning -
" Jane , come and look at this fellow ."
I had made no noise : he had not eyes behind -- could his shadow feel ? I started at first , and then I approached him .