简爱 Jane86 - Chapter 22 I Am No Longer Poor

　　简爱 Jane 86

　　PART FOUR - LIFE AT MOOR HOUSE

　　CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

　　I Am No Longer Poor

　　After St. John left me, it began to snow. It snowed all night and the next day. In the evening, I was sitting by the fire and had just begun to read when I heard a knock at the door. St. John came inside the house, covered in snow. "Is something wrong?" I asked. "No one should be outside in this terrible weather."

　　"There's nothing wrong," he answered calmly. "I just came to talk to you. Besides, I'd like to hear the rest of your story." He sat down. I had no idea what he meant. I wondered if this was connected to his strange actions with the piece of paper on my table. But he looked normal, and we talked of ordinary things for a while. However, he always seemed to be thinking of something else.

　　Finally he said, "Jane, when I arrived I said I wanted to hear the rest of your story. But perhaps it's better if I tell you a story. I think you have heard it before. Twenty years ago, a poor churchman and a rich man's daughter loved one another. She married him, and her family never spoke to her again. Sadly, less than two years later they were both dead. I have seen their graves. Their baby daughter was taken to live with her aunt, a Mrs. Reed of Gateshead. I don't know if the child was happy living with Mrs. Reed, but she stayed at Gateshead for almost ten years, until she went to Lowood School. You went to Lowood School yourself. In fact, it seems her life was just like yours," he said, looking at me closely. "This girl became a teacher at Lowood, as you did, and then became a governess in the house of a man named Mr. Rochester."