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and more rigid than ever.

I had my own reasons for being dismayed at this apparition; too
well I remembered the perfidious hints given by Mrs. Reed about my
disposition, &c.; the promise pledged by Mr. Brocklehurst to apprise
Miss Temple and the teachers of my vicious nature. All along
I had been dreading the fulfilment of this promise, -- I had been
looking out daily for the "Coming Man," whose information respecting
my past life and conversation was to brand me as a bad child for
ever: now there he was.

He stood at Miss Temple's side; he was speaking low in her ear: I did
not doubt he was making disclosures of my villainy; and I watched
her eye with painful anxiety, expecting every moment to see its
dark orb turn on me a glance of repugnance and contempt. I listened
too; and as I happened to be seated quite at the top of the room,
I caught most of what he said: its import relieved me from immediate
apprehension.

"I suppose, Miss Temple, the thread I bought at Lowton will do;
it struck me that it would be just of the quality for the calico
chemises, and I sorted the needles to match. You may tell Miss
Smith that I forgot to make a memorandum of the darning needles,
but she shall have some papers sent in next week; and she is not,
on any account, to give out more than one at a time to each pupil:
if they have more, they are apt to be careless and lose them. And,
O ma'am! I wish the woollen stockings were better looked to! --
when I was here last, I went into the kitchen-garden and examined
the clothes drying on the line; there was a quantity of black hose
in a very bad state of repair: from the size of the holes in them
I was sure they had not been well mended from time to time."

He paused.

"Your directions shall be attended to, sir," said Miss Temple.

"And, ma'am," he continued, "the laundress tells me some of the
girls have two clean tuckers in the week: it is too much; the
rules limit them to one."

"I think I can explain that circumstance, sir. Agnes and Catherine
Johnstone were invited to take tea with some friends at Lowton
last Thursday, and I gave them leave to put on clean tuckers for
the occasion."

Mr. Brocklehurst nodded.

"Well, for once it may pass; but please not to let the circumstance
occur too often. And there is another thing which surprised me;
I find, in settling accounts with the housekeeper, that a lunch,
consisting of bread and cheese, has twice been served out to
the girls during the past fortnight. How is this? I looked over
the regulations, and I find no such meal as lunch mentioned. Who
introduced this innovation? and by what authority?"

"I must be responsible for the circumstance, sir," replied Miss
Temple: "the breakfast was so ill prepared that the pupils could
not possibly eat it; and I dared not allow them to remain fasting
till dinner-time."

"Madam, allow me an instant. You are aware that my plan in bringing

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