CHAPTER XXVI 369
" Sir-- sir," interrupted the clergyman, " do not forget you are in a sacred place." Then addressing Mason, he inquired gently, " Are you aware, sir, whether or not this gentleman ' s wife is still living?"
" Courage," urged the lawyer,-- " speak out."
" She is now living at Thornfield Hall," said Mason, in more articulate tones: " I saw her there last April. I am her brother."
" At Thornfield Hall!" ejaculated the clergyman. " Impossible! I am an old resident in this neighbourhood, sir, and I never heard of a Mrs. Rochester at Thornfield Hall."
I saw a grim smile contort Mr. Rochester ' s lips, and he muttered-
" No, by God! I took care that none should hear of it-- or of her under that name." He mused-- for ten minutes he held counsel with himself: he formed his resolve, and announced it-
" Enough! all shall bolt out at once, like the bullet from the barrel. Wood, close your book and take off your surplice; John Green( to the clerk), leave the church: there will be no wedding to-day." The man obeyed.
Mr. Rochester continued, hardily and recklessly: " Bigamy is an ugly word!-- I meant, however, to be a bigamist; but fate has out- manoeuvred me, or Providence has checked me,-- perhaps the last. I am little better than a devil at this moment; and, as my pastor there would tell me, deserve no doubt the sternest judgments of God, even to the quenchless fire and deathless worm. Gentlemen, my plan is broken up:- what this lawyer and his client say is true: I have been married, and the woman to whom I was married lives! You say you never heard of a Mrs. Rochester at the house up yonder, Wood; but I daresay you have many a time inclined your ear to gossip about the mysterious lunatic kept there under watch and ward. Some have whispered to you that she is my bastard half-sister: some, my cast-off mistress. I now inform you that she is my wife, whom I married fifteen years ago,-- Bertha Mason by name; sister of this resolute personage, who