CHAPTER XXXVII 542
front ; the windows were latticed and narrow : the front door was narrow too , one step led up to it . The whole looked , as the host of the Rochester Arms had said , " quite a desolate spot ." It was as still as a church on a week-day : the pattering rain on the forest leaves was the only sound audible in its vicinage .
" Can there be life here ?" I asked .
Yes , life of some kind there was ; for I heard a movement -- that narrow front-door was unclosing , and some shape was about to issue from the grange .
It opened slowly : a figure came out into the twilight and stood on the step ; a man without a hat : he stretched forth his hand as if to feel whether it rained . Dusk as it was , I had recognised him -- it was my master , Edward Fairfax Rochester , and no other .
I stayed my step , almost my breath , and stood to watch him -- to examine him , myself unseen , and alas ! to him invisible . It was a sudden meeting , and one in which rapture was kept well in check by pain . I had no difficulty in restraining my voice from exclamation , my step from hasty advance .
His form was of the same strong and stalwart contour as ever : his port was still erect , his hair was still raven black ; nor were his features altered or sunk : not in one year ' s space , by any sorrow , could his athletic strength be quelled or his vigorous prime blighted . But in his countenance I saw a change : that looked desperate and brooding -- that reminded me of some wronged and fettered wild beast or bird , dangerous to approach in his sullen woe . The caged eagle , whose gold-ringed eyes cruelty has extinguished , might look as looked that sightless Samson .
And , reader , do you think I feared him in his blind ferocity ? -- if you do , you little know me . A soft hope blest with my sorrow that soon I should dare to drop a kiss on that brow of rock , and on those lips so sternly sealed beneath it : but not yet . I would not accost him yet .