CHAPTER XXXIII 483
" Another time ."
" No ; to-night ! -- to-night !" and as he turned from the door , I placed myself between it and him . He looked rather embarrassed .
" You certainly shall not go till you have told me all ," I said . " I would rather not just now ." " You shall ! -- you must !" " I would rather Diana or Mary informed you ."
Of course these objections wrought my eagerness to a climax : gratified it must be , and that without delay ; and I told him so .
" But I apprised you that I was a hard man ," said he , " difficult to persuade ." " And I am a hard woman , -- impossible to put off ." " And then ," he pursued , " I am cold : no fervour infects me ."
" Whereas I am hot , and fire dissolves ice . The blaze there has thawed all the snow from your cloak ; by the same token , it has streamed on to my floor , and made it like a trampled street . As you hope ever to be forgiven , Mr . Rivers , the high crime and misdemeanour of spoiling a sanded kitchen , tell me what I wish to know ."
" Well , then ," he said , " I yield ; if not to your earnestness , to your perseverance : as stone is worn by continual dropping . Besides , you must know some day , -- as well now as later . Your name is Jane Eyre ?"
" Of course : that was all settled before ."
" You are not , perhaps , aware that I am your namesake ? -- that I was christened St . John Eyre Rivers ?"