 of mind.«
    »Well, but, leaving his land out of the question, do you like him? Is he
liked for himself?«
    »I have no cause to do otherwise than like him; and I believe he is
considered a just and liberal landlord by his tenants: but he has never lived
much amongst them.«
    »But has he no peculiarities? What, in short, is his character?«
    »Oh! his character is unimpeachable, I suppose. He is rather peculiar,
perhaps: he has travelled a great deal, and seen a great deal of the world, I
should think. I dare say he is clever: but I never had much conversation with
him.«
    »In what way is he peculiar?«
    »I don't know - it is not easy to describe - nothing striking, but you feel
it when he speaks to you: you cannot be always sure whether he is in jest or
earnest, whether he is pleased or the contrary; you don't thoroughly understand
him, in short - at least, I don't: but it is of no consequence, he is a very
good master.«
    This was all the account I got from Mrs. Fairfax, of her employer and mine.
There are people who seem to have no notion of sketching a character, or
observing and describing salient points, either in persons or things: the good
lady evidently belonged to this class; my queries puzzled, but did not draw her
out. Mr. Rochester was Mr. Rochester in her eyes; a gentleman, a landed
proprietor - nothing more: she inquired and searched no further, and evidently
wondered at my wish to gain a more definite notion of his identity.
    When we left the dining-room, she proposed to show me over the rest of the
house; and I followed her up stairs and down stairs, admiring as I went: for all
was well arranged and handsome. The large front chambers I thought especially
grand; and some of the third story rooms, though dark and low, were interesting
from their air of antiquity. The furniture once appropriated to the lower
apartments had from time to time been removed here, as fashions changed; and the
imperfect light entering by their narrow casements showed bedsteads of a hundred
years old; chests in oak or walnut, looking, with their strange carvings of palm
branches and cherubs' heads, like types of the Hebrew ark; rows of venerable
chairs, high-backed and narrow; stools still more antiquated, on whose cushioned
tops were yet apparent traces
