CHAPTER XXXVII 563 to be as happy as I can be on earth."
" Because you delight in sacrifice."
" Sacrifice! What do I sacrifice? Famine for food, expectation for content. To be privileged to put my arms round what I value-- to press my lips to what I love-- to repose on what I trust: is that to make a sacrifice? If so, then certainly I delight in sacrifice."
" And to bear with my infirmities, Jane: to overlook my deficiencies."
" Which are none, sir, to me. I love you better now, when I can really be useful to you, than I did in your state of proud independence, when you disdained every part but that of the giver and protector."
" Hitherto I have hated to be helped-- to be led: henceforth, I feel I shall hate it no more. I did not like to put my hand into a hireling ' s, but it is pleasant to feel it circled by Jane ' s little fingers. I preferred utter loneliness to the constant attendance of servants; but Jane ' s soft ministry will be a perpetual joy. Jane suits me: do I suit her?"
" To the finest fibre of my nature, sir."
" The case being so, we have nothing in the world to wait for: we must be married instantly."
He looked and spoke with eagerness: his old impetuosity was rising.
" We must become one flesh without any delay, Jane: there is but the licence to get-- then we marry."
" Mr. Rochester, I have just discovered the sun is far declined from its meridian, and Pilot is actually gone home to his dinner. Let me look at your watch."