CHAPTER XXVII 377
an obstacle : my head was still dizzy , my sight was dim , and my limbs were feeble . I could not soon recover myself . I fell , but not on to the ground : an outstretched arm caught me . I looked up -- I was supported by Mr . Rochester , who sat in a chair across my chamber threshold .
" You come out at last ," he said . " Well , I have been waiting for you long , and listening : yet not one movement have I heard , nor one sob : five minutes more of that death-like hush , and I should have forced the lock like a burglar . So you shun me ? -- you shut yourself up and grieve alone ! I would rather you had come and upbraided me with vehemence . You are passionate . I expected a scene of some kind . I was prepared for the hot rain of tears ; only I wanted them to be shed on my breast : now a senseless floor has received them , or your drenched handkerchief . But I err : you have not wept at all ! I see a white cheek and a faded eye , but no trace of tears . I suppose , then , your heart has been weeping blood ?"
" Well , Jane ! not a word of reproach ? Nothing bitter -- nothing poignant ? Nothing to cut a feeling or sting a passion ? You sit quietly where I have placed you , and regard me with a weary , passive look ."
" Jane , I never meant to wound you thus . If the man who had but one little ewe lamb that was dear to him as a daughter , that ate of his bread and drank of his cup , and lay in his bosom , had by some mistake slaughtered it at the shambles , he would not have rued his bloody blunder more than I now rue mine . Will you ever forgive me ?"
Reader , I forgave him at the moment and on the spot . There was such deep remorse in his eye , such true pity in his tone , such manly energy in his manner ; and besides , there was such unchanged love in his whole look and mien -- I forgave him all : yet not in words , not outwardly ; only at my heart ' s core .
" You know I am a scoundrel , Jane ?" ere long he inquired wistfully -- wondering , I suppose , at my continued silence and tameness , the result rather of weakness than of will .