My heart was a small bird in my throat, I swear, and a hot prickle of anxiety sprung out all the length of my body. I had already addressed myself to rebutting my cousin's chilly, passionless marital proposals. I had, indeed, asumed the matter quite closed between us.
It had taken the greatest resolve on my part, to rebut him: and not a small amount of cunning and womanly flattery, to maintain his amour-propre in good order, and relations between us still continuing amicable and cousinly. St. John was a man of great force of character: a little overmuch, at times, to be sure.
Were his addresses to be renewed, now, a resumption of the battle of wills between us? It seemed an offence against justice, unsportsmanlike: and my rebel heart prepared itself to stand and look all oncomers in the eye, spine straight and fists up.
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The Bird and the Net
RomanceSay that the 'honest work' that St. John found for Jane Eyre, was as governess to the children of Maria Crawford. By which means, she would escape the fatal lure of Rochester: and be drawn instead into the orbit of Henry Crawford... The title comes...
