Preparing for Company — Jane Eyre

A week passes with no word from Mr. Rochester, and Jane catches herself feeling a sickening disappointment she immediately tries to correct. She lectures herself sternly: she has nothing to do with the master of Thornfield beyond her salary and duty, must keep to her caste, and must not make him the object of fine feelings he would despise. She frames employment advertisements in her head but does not check the thought. After more than a fortnight, Mrs. Fairfax receives a letter: Rochester will return on Thursday with a party of fine people from the Leas. Thornfield erupts into preparation. Jane helps with custards, cleaning, and arrangements while continuing to watch the mysterious Grace Poole on the third floor. Servants' talk confirms Grace receives unusually high wages and that Jane is deliberately excluded from some household secret.

Thursday arrives. Jane watches from behind a curtain as Rochester gallops up the drive on Mesrour with a lady in a purple riding-habit and streaming veil: Miss Ingram. Carriages follow with the rest of the party. That evening Jane is ordered to bring Adèle to the drawing room after dinner. She sits in what shade she can find behind the window-curtain, netting while the company assembles. Rochester enters last. Jane tries to fix her eyes on her work but cannot stop watching him. She compares him with the handsome guests and finds them empty beside him. Blanche Ingram positions herself opposite him at the mantelpiece and draws him into talk about Adèle and governesses. The ladies mock governesses as detestable, ridiculous incubi; Lady Ingram notices Jane behind the curtain and pronounces her full of the faults of her class. Blanche boasts of the tricks she and Theodore played on their governesses. Later, Blanche sings at the piano and Rochester joins her in a duet. Jane listens until the last vibration dies, then slips out through a side door.

In the hall Jane kneels to tie a loose sandal and meets Rochester face to face. He asks why she did not come speak to him in the room, whether she took cold the night she half drowned him, and observes she is paler and depressed. She denies it; he sees tears forming. He orders her back to the drawing room but excuses her for tonight, then commands that for as long as his visitors stay she must appear in the drawing room every evening. He sends her for Adèle, begins to say "Good-night, my" and stops mid-word, bites his lip, and leaves abruptly.