CHAPTER XXXVI 537
common to a deal of them nurses and matrons -- she KEPT A PRIVATE BOTTLE OF GIN BY HER , and now and then took a drop over-much . It is excusable , for she had a hard life of it : but still it was dangerous ; for when Mrs . Poole was fast asleep after the gin and water , the mad lady , who was as cunning as a witch , would take the keys out of her pocket , let herself out of her chamber , and go roaming about the house , doing any wild mischief that came into her head . They say she had nearly burnt her husband in his bed once : but I don ' t know about that . However , on this night , she set fire first to the hangings of the room next her own , and then she got down to a lower storey , and made her way to the chamber that had been the governess ' s -- ( she was like as if she knew somehow how matters had gone on , and had a spite at her ) -- and she kindled the bed there ; but there was nobody sleeping in it , fortunately . The governess had run away two months before ; and for all Mr . Rochester sought her as if she had been the most precious thing he had in the world , he never could hear a word of her ; and he grew savage -- quite savage on his disappointment : he never was a wild man , but he got dangerous after he lost her . He would be alone , too . He sent Mrs . Fairfax , the housekeeper , away to her friends at a distance ; but he did it handsomely , for he settled an annuity on her for life : and she deserved it -- she was a very good woman . Miss Adele , a ward he had , was put to school . He broke off acquaintance with all the gentry , and shut himself up like a hermit at the Hall ."
" What ! did he not leave England ?"
" Leave England ? Bless you , no ! He would not cross the door-stones of the house , except at night , when he walked just like a ghost about the grounds and in the orchard as if he had lost his senses -- which it is my opinion he had ; for a more spirited , bolder , keener gentleman than he was before that midge of a governess crossed him , you never saw , ma ' am . He was not a man given to wine , or cards , or racing , as some are , and he was not so very handsome ; but he had a courage and a will of his own , if ever man had . I knew him from a boy , you see : and for my part , I have often wished that Miss Eyre had been sunk in the sea before she came to Thornfield Hall ."
" Then Mr . Rochester was at home when the fire broke out ?"