CHAPTER VII 82
Of my own accord I could not have stirred ; I was paralysed : but the two great girls who sit on each side of me , set me on my legs and pushed me towards the dread judge , and then Miss Temple gently assisted me to his very feet , and I caught her whispered counsel -
" Don ' t be afraid , Jane , I saw it was an accident ; you shall not be punished ." The kind whisper went to my heart like a dagger .
" Another minute , and she will despise me for a hypocrite ," thought I ; and an impulse of fury against Reed , Brocklehurst , and Co . bounded in my pulses at the conviction . I was no Helen Burns .
" Fetch that stool ," said Mr . Brocklehurst , pointing to a very high one from which a monitor had just risen : it was brought .
" Place the child upon it ."
And I was placed there , by whom I don ' t know : I was in no condition to note particulars ; I was only aware that they had hoisted me up to the height of Mr . Brocklehurst ' s nose , that he was within a yard of me , and that a spread of shot orange and purple silk pelisses and a cloud of silvery plumage extended and waved below me .
Mr . Brocklehurst hemmed .
" Ladies ," said he , turning to his family , " Miss Temple , teachers , and children , you all see this girl ?"
Of course they did ; for I felt their eyes directed like burning-glasses against my scorched skin .
" You see she is yet young ; you observe she possesses the ordinary form of childhood ; God has graciously given her the shape that He has given to all of us ; no signal deformity points her out as a marked character . Who would think that the Evil One had already found a servant and agent in her ? Yet