Jane Eyre - Page 317/412

The more I knew of the inmates of Moor House, the better I liked

them. In a few days I had so far recovered my health that I could

sit up all day, and walk out sometimes. I could join with Diana and

Mary in all their occupations; converse with them as much as they

wished, and aid them when and where they would allow me. There was

a reviving pleasure in this intercourse, of a kind now tasted by me

for the first time-the pleasure arising from perfect congeniality of

tastes, sentiments, and principles.

I liked to read what they liked to read: what they enjoyed,

delighted me; what they approved, I reverenced. They loved their

sequestered home. I, too, in the grey, small, antique structure,

with its low roof, its latticed casements, its mouldering walls, its

avenue of aged firs--all grown aslant under the stress of mountain

winds; its garden, dark with yew and holly--and where no flowers but

of the hardiest species would bloom--found a charm both potent and

permanent. They clung to the purple moors behind and around their

dwelling--to the hollow vale into which the pebbly bridle-path

leading from their gate descended, and which wound between fern-

banks first, and then amongst a few of the wildest little pasture-

fields that ever bordered a wilderness of heath, or gave sustenance

to a flock of grey moorland sheep, with their little mossy-faced

lambs:- they clung to this scene, I say, with a perfect enthusiasm

of attachment. I could comprehend the feeling, and share both its

strength and truth. I saw the fascination of the locality. I felt

the consecration of its loneliness: my eye feasted on the outline

of swell and sweep--on the wild colouring communicated to ridge and

dell by moss, by heath-bell, by flower-sprinkled turf, by brilliant

bracken, and mellow granite crag. These details were just to me

what they were to them--so many pure and sweet sources of pleasure.

The strong blast and the soft breeze; the rough and the halcyon day;

the hours of sunrise and sunset; the moonlight and the clouded

night, developed for me, in these regions, the same attraction as

for them--wound round my faculties the same spell that entranced

theirs.

Indoors we agreed equally well. They were both more accomplished

and better read than I was; but with eagerness I followed in the

path of knowledge they had trodden before me. I devoured the books

they lent me: then it was full satisfaction to discuss with them in

the evening what I had perused during the day. Thought fitted

thought; opinion met opinion: we coincided, in short, perfectly.