Quotation from: Jane Eyre

Written by: Charlotte Bronte


"I have an answer for you -- hear it. I have watched you ever
since we first met: I have made you my study for ten months. I
have proved you in that time by sundry tests: and what have I
seen and elicited? In the village school I found you could perform
well, punctually, uprightly, labour uncongenial to your habits and
inclinations; I saw you could perform it with capacity and tact:
you could win while you controlled. In the calm with which you
learnt you had become suddenly rich, I read a mind clear of the
vice of Demas:- lucre had no undue power over you. In the resolute
readiness with which you cut your wealth into four shares, keeping
but one to yourself, and relinquishing the three others to the
claim of abstract justice, I recognised a soul that revelled in
the flame and excitement of sacrifice. In the tractability with
which, at my wish, you forsook a study in which you were interested,
and adopted another because it interested me; in the untiring assiduity
with which you have since persevered in it -- in the unflagging
energy and unshaken temper with which you have met its difficulties
-- I acknowledge the complement of the qualities I seek. Jane,
you are docile, diligent, disinterested, faithful, constant,
and courageous; very gentle, and very heroic: cease to mistrust
yourself -- I can trust you unreservedly. As a conductress of
Indian schools, and a helper amongst Indian women, your assistance
will be to me invaluable."

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