in-law. Far
from desiring to publish the connection, he became as anxious to conceal it as
myself.
    To England, then, I conveyed her; a fearful voyage I had with such a monster
in the vessel. Glad was I when I at last got her to Thornfield, and saw her
safely lodged in that third story room, of whose secret inner cabinet she has
now for ten years made a wild beast's den - a goblin's cell. I had some trouble
in finding an attendant for her: as it was necessary to select one on whose
fidelity dependence could be placed; for her ravings would inevitably betray my
secret: besides, she had lucid intervals of days - sometimes weeks - which she
filled up with abuse of me. At last I hired Grace Poole, from the Grimsby
Retreat. She and the surgeon, Carter (who dressed Mason's wounds that night he
was stabbed and worried), are the only two I have ever admitted to my
confidence. Mrs. Fairfax may indeed have suspected something; but she could have
gained no precise knowledge as to facts. Grace has, on the whole, proved a good
keeper: though, owing partly to a fault of her own, of which it appears nothing
can cure her, and which is incident to her harassing profession, her vigilance
has been more than once lulled and baffled. The lunatic is both cunning and
malignant; she has never failed to take advantage of her guardian's temporary
lapses; once to secrete the knife with which she stabbed her brother, and twice
to possess herself of the key of her cell, and issue therefrom in the
night-time. On the first of these occasions, she perpetrated the attempt to burn
me in my bed; on the second, she paid that ghastly visit to you. I thank
Providence, who watched over you, that she then spent her fury on your wedding
apparel; which perhaps brought back vague reminiscences of her own bridal days:
but on what might have happened, I cannot endure to reflect. When I think of the
thing which flew at my throat this morning, hanging its black and scarlet visage
over the nest of my dove, my blood curdles -«
    »And what, sir,« I asked, while he paused, »did you do when you had settled
her here? Where did you go?«
    »What did I do, Jane? I transformed myself into a Will-o'-the-wisp. Where
did I go? I pursued wanderings as wild as those of the March-spirit
