Quotation from: Jane Eyre

Written by: Charlotte Bronte


I rose; I dressed myself with care: obliged to be plain -- for I
had no article of attire that was not made with extreme simplicity
-- I was still by nature solicitous to be neat. It was not my habit
to be disregardful of appearance or careless of the impression I
made: on the contrary, I ever wished to look as well as I could,
and to please as much as my want of beauty would permit. I sometimes
regretted that I was not handsomer; I sometimes wished to have rosy
cheeks, a straight nose, and small cherry mouth; I desired to be
tall, stately, and finely developed in figure; I felt it a misfortune
that I was so little, so pale, and had features so irregular and
so marked. And why had I these aspirations and these regrets?
It would be difficult to say: I could not then distinctly say it
to myself; yet I had a reason, and a logical, natural reason too.
However, when I had brushed my hair very smooth, and put on my black
frock -- which, Quakerlike as it was, at least had the merit of
fitting to a nicety -- and adjusted my clean white tucker, I thought
I should do respectably enough to appear before Mrs. Fairfax, and
that my new pupil would not at least recoil from me with antipathy.
Having opened my chamber window, and seen that I left all things
straight and neat on the toilet table, I ventured forth.

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