 lit, and the curtains got on fire; but, fortunately, he awoke before the
bed-clothes or the wood-work caught, and contrived to quench the flame with the
water in the ewer.«
    »A strange affair!« I said, in a low voice: then, looking at her fixedly, -
»Did Mr. Rochester wake nobody? Did no one hear him move?«
    She again raised her eyes to me; and this time there was something of
consciousness in their expression. She seemed to examine me warily; then she
answered, -
    »The servants sleep so far off, you know, Miss, they would not be likely to
hear. Mrs. Fairfax's room and yours are the nearest to master's; but Mrs.
Fairfax said she heard nothing: when people get elderly, they often sleep
heavy.«
    She paused, and then added, with a sort of assumed indifference, but still
in a marked and significant tone, »But you are young, Miss; and I should say a
light sleeper: perhaps you may have heard a noise?«
    »I did,« said I, dropping my voice, so that Leah, who was still polishing
the panes, could not hear me, »and at first I thought it was Pilot: but Pilot
cannot laugh; and I am certain I heard a laugh, and a strange one.«
    She took a new needleful of thread, waxed it carefully, threaded her needle
with a steady hand, and then observed, with perfect composure, -
    »It is hardly likely master would laugh, I should think, Miss, when he was
in such danger: you must have been dreaming.«
    »I was not dreaming,« I said, with some warmth: for her brazen coolness
provoked me. Again she looked at me; and with the same scrutinizing and
conscious eye.
    »Have you told master that you heard a laugh?« she inquired.
    »I have not had the opportunity of speaking to him this morning.«
    »You did not think of opening your door and looking out into the gallery?«
she further asked.
    She appeared to be cross-questioning me; attempting to draw from me
information unawares: the idea struck me that if she discovered I knew or
suspected her guilt, she would be playing off some of her malignant pranks on
me; I thought it advisable to be on my guard.
    »On the contrary,« said I, »I bolted my door.«
    »Then you are not in the habit of bolting
