"Indeed! Then she is not your daughter?"
"No, -- I have no family."
I should have followed up my first inquiry, by asking in what way
Miss Varens was connected with her; but I recollected it was not
polite to ask too many questions: besides, I was sure to hear in
time.
"I am so glad," she continued, as she sat down opposite to me, and
took the cat on her knee; "I am so glad you are come; it will be
quite pleasant living here now with a companion. To be sure it
is pleasant at any time; for Thornfield is a fine old hall, rather
neglected of late years perhaps, but still it is a respectable
place; yet you know in winter-time one feels dreary quite alone in
the best quarters. I say alone -- Leah is a nice girl to be sure,
and John and his wife are very decent people; but then you see
they are only servants, and one can't converse with them on terms
of equality: one must keep them at due distance, for fear of losing
one's authority. I'm sure last winter (it was a very severe one,
if you recollect, and when it did not snow, it rained and blew),
not a creature but the butcher and postman came to the house, from
November till February; and I really got quite melancholy with sitting
night after night alone; I had Leah in to read to me sometimes;
but I don't think the poor girl liked the task much: she felt it
confining. In spring and summer one got on better: sunshine and
long days make such a difference; and then, just at the commencement
of this autumn, little Adela Varens came and her nurse: a child
makes a house alive all at once; and now you are here I shall be
quite gay."
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