CHAPTER XXXVII 546
" Is it Jane ? WHAT is it ? This is her shape -- this is her size -- "
" And this her voice ," I added . " She is all here : her heart , too . God bless you , sir ! I am glad to be so near you again ."
" Jane Eyre ! -- Jane Eyre ," was all he said .
" My dear master ," I answered , " I am Jane Eyre : I have found you out -- I am come back to you ."
" In truth ? -- in the flesh ? My living Jane ?"
" You touch me , sir , -- you hold me , and fast enough : I am not cold like a corpse , nor vacant like air , am I ?"
" My living darling ! These are certainly her limbs , and these her features ; but I cannot be so blest , after all my misery . It is a dream ; such dreams as I have had at night when I have clasped her once more to my heart , as I do now ; and kissed her , as thus -- and felt that she loved me , and trusted that she would not leave me ."
" Which I never will , sir , from this day ."
" Never will , says the vision ? But I always woke and found it an empty mockery ; and I was desolate and abandoned -- my life dark , lonely , hopeless -- my soul athirst and forbidden to drink -- my heart famished and never to be fed . Gentle , soft dream , nestling in my arms now , you will fly , too , as your sisters have all fled before you : but kiss me before you go -- embrace me , Jane ."
" There , sir -- and there !"'
I pressed my lips to his once brilliant and now rayless eyes -- I swept his hair from his brow , and kissed that too . He suddenly seemed to arouse himself : the conviction of the reality of all this seized him .