CHAPTER VIII 88
" I am afraid I never shall do that ."
" Why ?"
" Because I have been wrongly accused ; and you , ma ' am , and everybody else , will now think me wicked ."
" We shall think you what you prove yourself to be , my child . Continue to act as a good girl , and you will satisfy us ."
" Shall I , Miss Temple ?"
" You will ," said she , passing her arm round me . " And now tell me who is the lady whom Mr . Brocklehurst called your benefactress ?"
" Mrs . Reed , my uncle ' s wife . My uncle is dead , and he left me to her care ." " Did she not , then , adopt you of her own accord ?"
" No , ma ' am ; she was sorry to have to do it : but my uncle , as I have often heard the servants say , got her to promise before he died that she would always keep me ."
" Well now , Jane , you know , or at least I will tell you , that when a criminal is accused , he is always allowed to speak in his own defence . You have been charged with falsehood ; defend yourself to me as well as you can . Say whatever your memory suggests is true ; but add nothing and exaggerate nothing ."
I resolved , in the depth of my heart , that I would be most moderate -- most correct ; and , having reflected a few minutes in order to arrange coherently what I had to say , I told her all the story of my sad childhood . Exhausted by emotion , my language was more subdued than it generally was when it developed that sad theme ; and mindful of Helen ' s warnings against the indulgence of resentment , I infused into the narrative far less of gall and wormwood than ordinary . Thus restrained and simplified , it sounded more