Джейн Эйр / Jane Eyre

“Well, Pilot knows who I am,” I said, smiling, “and John and Mary know I’m here. I’ve brought your candles and water, sir.”

“It cannot be – it is a delusion,” he said, stretching out his hands. I reached out and touched them.

“It is her hand!” he said, and pulled me closer. “This is her shape! Jane… is it you? Am I dreaming?”

“And this her voice,” I added. “She is all here: her heart too.”

“Jane Eyre!…” was all he said.

“I am Jane Eyre. I have come back to you.”

My eyes were full of tears, and now they fell, splashing onto his hands and face. “I never will run away again,” I sobbed. “I will never leave you.”

And so we were reunited. He hugged me tightly and, kissing his face and his poor eyes, I told him where I had been, and how I had found my family, and become an independent lady. I told him I had thought I heard him calling, and come back to find him, and that I knew all about the fire.

“I have longed for you Jane,” he said. “And now I can marry you, if you will have me. But how could you want me, when I am so hideous, and you are a wealthy lady, who can have whatever she pleases?”

“It is you I want,” I said. “You are what pleases me. And anyway, you were not handsome before. I told you that once, remember?”

He laughed. “Then, Jane, will you marry me?”

Reader, I married him.

Chapter 35 – Conclusion

My tale draws to its close. I have now been married ten years. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am. We talk, I believe, all day long. We are precisely suited in character, and live in perfect concord at Ferndean. John and Mary live with us, Adèle is at school nearby, and we have two children of our own.

Mr. Rochester continued blind the first two years of our union, and I was then his vision. But one morning at the end of the two years, as I was writing a letter to his dictation, he came and bent over me, and said, “Jane, have you a glittering ornament round your neck?” I had a gold watch-chain. “‘And have you a pale blue dress on?” I had.

He and I went up to London. He had the advice of an oculist; and he eventually recovered the sight of one eye. He cannot read or write much; but he can find his way without being led by the hand. The sky is no longer a blank to him – the earth no longer a void. When his firstborn was put into his arms, he could see that the boy had inherited his own eyes, as they once were – large, brilliant, and black.

My Edward and I, then, are happy: and the more so, because those we most love are happy as well. Diana and Mary Rivers are both married. Once every year they come to see us. Diana’s husband is a captain in the navy, Mary’s is a clergyman, her brother’s friend.

And as for St. John, he left England: he went to India. He followed the path he had marked for himself. Firm, faithful, and devoted, full of energy, he worked for his race. He is unmarried, and he never will marry now. I thought that we did not need to weep for his death, as I believe even in his last hour his mind was unclouded and his hope was sure.

Vocabulary

abide терпеть, выносить

ablaze горящий, сверкающий; пылающий

absorbed поглощенный, увлеченный

accomplished с хорошими манерам

accomplishments хорошие манеры

accused обвиненный

adjust приспособиться

admit допускать

ado шум, суета

affection любовь, расположение

allegation обвинение

amber янтарного цвета

amble зд. пробежать

anguished испытывающий муки

announcement объявление

anxious тревожный

apothecary аптекарь

aptitude способность, одаренность

astonished удивленный, изумленный

at a loss в растерянности

attach прикреплять

avoid избегать

aware осознающий

awareness осведомленность

awkward неловкий, неуклюжий

babble журчать

banish выгонять, изгнать

banisters перила

barber парикмахер

batter бить, колотить

battlements зубчатые стены

bead украшать бусами

belching выбрасывающий дым

bellow рычать, орать

benefactress благодетельница

berate бранить, упрекать

bewitch околдовывать; заколдовать

bilberry черника

bizarre невероятный

black-clad в черных одеяниях

bleed кровоточить, обливаться кровью

blink прищуриться, зажмуриться

bloodcurdling чудовищный, душераздирающий

blunt резкий, прямолинейный

blush вспыхнуть, покраснеть

bog трясина, болото

bold смелый, дерзновенный

bolt засов; закрыть на засов

bonnet шляпа без полей

book-learned ученый

boulder валун

boundary граница

bound over зд. подбежать

bow поклониться

brat отродье, сопляк

briar терн

bride невеста

bridesmaid подружка невесты

brim наполнить, переполнить

brush past прошмыгнуть

bulky грузный

bully грубо обращаться, запугивать

bump into натолкнуться (на кого-л.)

bundle связка

burials похороны

bustle торопить, подгонять

bustle about суетиться