"I acted precisely on this suggestion. My father and brother had not made my marriage known to their acquaintance; because，in the very first letter I wrote to apprise them of the union- having already begun to experience extreme disgust of its consequences，and，from the family character and constitution，seeing a hideous future opening to me- I added an urgent charge to keep it secret: and very soon the infamous conduct of the wife my father had selected for me was such as to make him blush to own her as his daughter-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 storey 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.