Джейн Эйр / Jane Eyre

Rochester carried me in his arms over a plank to the land, and Sophie came after, and we all got into a coach, which took us to a beautiful large house, larger than this and finer, called an hotel. We stayed there nearly a week. I and Sophie used to walk every day in a great green place full of trees, called the Park; and there were many children there besides me, and a pond with beautiful birds in it, that I fed with crumbs.’

�Can you understand her when she runs on so fast?’ asked Mrs. Fairfax.

I understood her very well, for I had been accustomed to the fluent tongue of Madame Pierrot.

�I wish,’ continued the good lady, �you would ask her a question or two about her parents; I wonder if she remembers them?’

�Adèle,’ I inquired, �with whom did you live when you were in that pretty clean town you spoke of?’

�I lived long ago with mama; but she is gone to the Holy Virgin. Mama used to teach me to dance and sing, and to say verses. A great many gentlemen and ladies came to see mama, and I used to dance before them, or to sit on their knees and sing to them; I liked it.

She had finished her breakfast, so I permitted her to give a specimen of her accomplishments. Descending from her chair, she came and placed herself on my knee; then, folding her little hands demurely before her, shaking back her curls and lifting her eyes to the ceiling, she commenced singing a song from some opera. It was the strain of a forsaken lady, who, after bewailing the perfidy of her lover, calls pride to her aid; desires her attendant to deck her in her brightest jewels and richest robes, and resolves to meet the false one that night at a ball, and prove to him, by the gaiety of her demeanour, how little his desertion has affected her.

The subject seemed strangely chosen for an infant singer; but I suppose the point of the exhibition lay in hearing the notes of love and jealousy warbled with the lisp of childhood; and in very bad taste that point was; at least I thought so.

Adèle sang the canzonette[25 - Canzonette – короткая песенка (итал.).] tunefully enough, and with the naïveté of her age. This achieved, she jumped from my knee and said, �Now, Mademoiselle, I will repeat you some poetry.’

Assuming an attitude, she began, �La Ligue des Rats, fable de La Fontaine.’[26 - «Союз крыс», басня Жана де Лафонтена. (фр.