Finding Purpose in Simple Service — Jane Eyre

Jane perseveres at Morton school until dull pupils become eager learners and farming families welcome her with cordial regard. She takes honest pride in the work, yet at night dreams of Rochester with such force that she wakes in despair before composing herself for the schoolroom. Rosamond Oliver rides up in purple habit during St. John's catechism lessons; Jane reads his repressed love and Rosamond's coquettish power over him.

Rosamond befriends Jane, finds French books and sketches in the cottage, and asks for a portrait. Mr. Oliver visits, praises Jane's teaching, and invites her to Vale Hall, where he regrets St. John's missionary plans and would not oppose a match with Rosamond. On a holiday Jane finishes Rosamond's miniature while St. John arrives with a volume of Marmion.

Seeing the portrait, Jane draws St. John into talk of Rosamond, urges him to marry her, and watches him yield to a quarter-hour of blissful fantasy at Vale Hall before condemning the vision as hollow. He insists Rosamond would not make a missionary's wife and will not relinquish his calling. After calling himself a cold, ambitious Christian philosopher, he covers the portrait, tears a narrow slip from the paper margin, and leaves abruptly. Jane finds nothing on the sheet but paint stains and cannot explain his look.