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two since, -- a good little child, whose soul is now in heaven.
It is to be feared the same could not be said of you were you to
be called hence."

Not being in a condition to remove his doubt, I only cast my eyes
down on the two large feet planted on the rug, and sighed, wishing
myself far enough away.

"I hope that sigh is from the heart, and that you repent of ever
having been the occasion of discomfort to your excellent benefactress."

"Benefactress! benefactress!" said I inwardly: "they all call
Mrs. Reed my benefactress; if so, a benefactress is a disagreeable
thing."

"Do you say your prayers night and morning?" continued my
interrogator.

"Yes, sir."

"Do you read your Bible?"

"Sometimes."

"With pleasure? Are you fond of it?"

"I like Revelations, and the book of Daniel, and Genesis and Samuel,
and a little bit of Exodus, and some parts of Kings and Chronicles,
and Job and Jonah."

"And the Psalms? I hope you like them?"

"No, sir."

"No? oh, shocking! I have a little boy, younger than you, who
knows six Psalms by heart: and when you ask him which he would
rather have, a gingerbread-nut to eat or a verse of a Psalm to
learn, he says: 'Oh! the verse of a Psalm! angels sing Psalms;'
says he, 'I wish to be a little angel here below;' he then gets
two nuts in recompense for his infant piety."

"Psalms are not interesting," I remarked.

"That proves you have a wicked heart; and you must pray to God to
change it: to give you a new and clean one: to take away your
heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

I was about to propound a question, touching the manner in which
that operation of changing my heart was to be performed, when Mrs.
Reed interposed, telling me to sit down; she then proceeded to
carry on the conversation herself.

"Mr. Brocklehurst, I believe I intimated in the letter which I
wrote to you three weeks ago, that this little girl has not quite
the character and disposition I could wish: should you admit her
into Lowood school, I should be glad if the superintendent and
teachers were requested to keep a strict eye on her, and, above
all, to guard against her worst fault, a tendency to deceit. I
mention this in your hearing, Jane, that you may not attempt to
impose on Mr. Brocklehurst."

Well might I dread, well might I dislike Mrs. Reed; for it was
her nature to wound me cruelly; never was I happy in her presence;
however carefully I obeyed, however strenuously I strove to please
her, my efforts were still repulsed and repaid by such sentences
as the above. Now, uttered before a stranger, the accusation cut
me to the heart; I dimly perceived that she was already obliterating
hope from the new phase of existence which she destined me to
enter; I felt, though I could not have expressed the feeling, that
she was sowing aversion and unkindness along my future path; I saw
myself transformed under Mr.

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