CHAPTER XXXVI 536
" She was kept in very close confinement, ma ' am: people even for some years was not absolutely certain of her existence. No one saw her: they only knew by rumour that such a person was at the Hall; and who or what she was it was difficult to conjecture. They said Mr. Edward had brought her from abroad, and some believed she had been his mistress. But a queer thing happened a year since-- a very queer thing."
I feared now to hear my own story. I endeavoured to recall him to the main fact.
" And this lady?"
" This lady, ma ' am," he answered, " turned out to be Mr. Rochester ' s wife! The discovery was brought about in the strangest way. There was a young lady, a governess at the Hall, that Mr. Rochester fell in-- "
" But the fire," I suggested.
" I ' m coming to that, ma ' am-- that Mr. Edward fell in love with. The servants say they never saw anybody so much in love as he was: he was after her continually. They used to watch him-- servants will, you know, ma ' am-- and he set store on her past everything: for all, nobody but him thought her so very handsome. She was a little small thing, they say, almost like a child. I never saw her myself; but I ' ve heard Leah, the house-maid, tell of her. Leah liked her well enough. Mr. Rochester was about forty, and this governess not twenty; and you see, when gentlemen of his age fall in love with girls, they are often like as if they were bewitched. Well, he would marry her."
" You shall tell me this part of the story another time," I said; " but now I have a particular reason for wishing to hear all about the fire. Was it suspected that this lunatic, Mrs. Rochester, had any hand in it?"
" You ' ve hit it, ma ' am: it ' s quite certain that it was her, and nobody but her, that set it going. She had a woman to take care of her called Mrs. Poole-- an able woman in her line, and very trustworthy, but for one fault-- a fault