Jane Eyre

horror? and why had the Fury flown at him? What made him seek this quarter of the house at an untimely season, when he should have been asleep in bed? I had heard Mr. Rochester assign him an apartment below – what brought him here? And why, now, was he so tame under the violence or treachery done him? Why did he so quietly submit to the concealment Mr. Rochester enforced? Why
did
Mr. Rochester enforce this concealment? His guest had been outraged, his own life on a former occasion had been hideously plotted against; and both attempts he smothered in secresy and sank in oblivion! Lastly, I saw Mr. Mason was submissive to Mr. Rochester; that the impetuous will of the latter held complete sway over the inertness of the former: the few words which had passed between them assured me of this. It was evident that in their former intercourse, the passive disposition of the one had been habitually influenced by the active energy of the other: whence then had arisen Mr. Rochester's dismay when he heard of Mr. Mason's arrival? Why had the mere name of this unresisting individual – whom his word now sufficed to control like a child – fallen on him, a few hours since, as a thunderbolt might fall on an oak?
    Oh! I could not forget his look and his paleness when he whispered: »Jane, I have got a blow – I have got a blow, Jane.« I could not forget how the arm had trembled which he rested on my shoulder: and it was no light matter which could thus bow the resolute spirit and thrill the vigorous frame of Fairfax Rochester.
    »When will he come? When will he come?« I cried inwardly, as the night lingered and lingered – as my bleeding patient drooped, moaned, sickened: and neither day nor aid arrived. I had, again and again, held the water to Mason's white lips; again and again offered him the stimulating salts: my efforts seemed ineffectual: either bodily or mental suffering, or loss of blood, or all three combined, were fast prostrating his strength. He moaned so, and looked so weak, wild, and lost, I feared he was dying; and I might not even speak to him!
    The candle, wasted at last, went out; as it expired, I perceived streaks of grey light edging the window curtains: dawn was then approaching. Presently I heard Pilot bark far below, out of his distant kennel in the court-yard: hope revived. Nor was it unwarranted: in five minutes more the grating key, the yielding lock, warned me my watch was relieved. It could not have lasted more than two hours: many a week has seemed shorter.
    Mr. Rochester entered, and with him the surgeon he had been to fetch.
    »Now, Carter, be on the alert,« he said to this last: »I give you but half an hour for dressing the wound, fastening the bandages, getting the patient down stairs and all.«
    »But is he fit to move, sir?«
    »No doubt of it; it is nothing serious: he is nervous, his spirits must be kept up. Come, set to work.«
    Mr. Rochester drew back the thick curtain, drew up the holland blind, let in all the daylight he could; and I was surprised and cheered to see how far dawn was advanced: what rosy streaks were beginning to brighten the east. Then he approached Mason, whom the surgeon was already handling.
    »Now, my good fellow, how are you?« he asked.
    »She's done for me, I fear,« was the faint reply.
    »Not a whit! – courage! This day fortnight you'll hardly be a pin the worse of it: you've lost a little blood; that's all. Carter, assure him there's no danger.«
    »I can do that conscientiously,« said Carter, who had now undone the bandages; »only I wish I could have got here sooner: he would not have bled so much – but how is this? The flesh on the shoulder is torn as well as cut. This wound was not done with a knife: there have been teeth here!«
    »She bit me,« he murmured. »She worried me like a tigress, when Rochester got the knife from her.«
    »You should not have yielded: you should have grappled with her at once,« said Mr. Rochester.
    »But under such circumstances, what could one do?« returned Mason. »Oh, it was frightful!« he added, shuddering. »And I did not expect it: she looked so quiet at first.«
    »I warned you,« was his friend's answer; »I said – be on your guard when you go near her. Besides, you might have waited till to-morrow, and had me with you: it was mere folly to attempt the interview to-night, and alone.«
    »I thought I could have done some good.«
    »You thought! you thought! Yes; it makes me impatient to hear you: but,