CHAPTER XXIV 328
the rest of my species: to imagine such a lot befalling me is a fairy tale-- a day-dream."
" Which I can and will realise. I shall begin to-day. This morning I wrote to my banker in London to send me certain jewels he has in his keeping,-- heirlooms for the ladies of Thornfield. In a day or two I hope to pour them into your lap: for every privilege, every attention shall be yours that I would accord a peer ' s daughter, if about to marry her."
" Oh, sir!-- never rain jewels! I don ' t like to hear them spoken of. Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds unnatural and strange: I would rather not have them."
" I will myself put the diamond chain round your neck, and the circlet on your forehead,-- which it will become: for nature, at least, has stamped her patent of nobility on this brow, Jane; and I will clasp the bracelets on these fine wrists, and load these fairy-like fingers with rings."
" No, no, sir! think of other subjects, and speak of other things, and in another strain. Don ' t address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain, Quakerish governess."
" You are a beauty in my eyes, and a beauty just after the desire of my heart,-- delicate and aerial."
" Puny and insignificant, you mean. You are dreaming, sir,-- or you are sneering. For God ' s sake don ' t be ironical!"
" I will make the world acknowledge you a beauty, too," he went on, while I really became uneasy at the strain he had adopted, because I felt he was either deluding himself or trying to delude me. " I will attire my Jane in satin and lace, and she shall have roses in her hair; and I will cover the head I love best with a priceless veil."
" And then you won ' t know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any longer, but an ape in a harlequin ' s jacket-- a jay in borrowed plumes. I would as soon see you, Mr. Rochester, tricked out in stage-trappings, as