CHAPTER XXIV 339
" She is far better as she is ," concluded Adele , after musing some time : " besides , she would get tired of living with only you in the moon . If I were mademoiselle , I would never consent to go with you ."
" She has consented : she has pledged her word ."
" But you can ' t get her there ; there is no road to the moon : it is all air ; and neither you nor she can fly ."
" Adele , look at that field ." We were now outside Thornfield gates , and bowling lightly along the smooth road to Millcote , where the dust was well laid by the thunderstorm , and , where the low hedges and lofty timber trees on each side glistened green and rain-refreshed .
" In that field , Adele , I was walking late one evening about a fortnight since -- the evening of the day you helped me to make hay in the orchard meadows ; and , as I was tired with raking swaths , I sat down to rest me on a stile ; and there I took out a little book and a pencil , and began to write about a misfortune that befell me long ago , and a wish I had for happy days to come : I was writing away very fast , though daylight was fading from the leaf , when something came up the path and stopped two yards off me . I looked at it . It was a little thing with a veil of gossamer on its head . I beckoned it to come near me ; it stood soon at my knee . I never spoke to it , and it never spoke to me , in words ; but I read its eyes , and it read mine ; and our speechless colloquy was to this effect -
" It was a fairy , and come from Elf-land , it said ; and its errand was to make me happy : I must go with it out of the common world to a lonely place -- such as the moon , for instance -- and it nodded its head towards her horn , rising over Hay-hill : it told me of the alabaster cave and silver vale where we might live . I said I should like to go ; but reminded it , as you did me , that I had no wings to fly .
"' Oh ,' returned the fairy , ' that does not signify ! Here is a talisman will remove all difficulties ;' and she held out a pretty gold ring . ' Put it ,' she said , ' on the fourth finger of my left hand , and I am yours , and you are mine ; and