At breakfast I announced to Diana and Mary that I was going a journey，and should be absent at least four days.

"Alone，Jane?" they asked.

"Yes; it was to see or hear news of a friend about whom I had for some time been uneasy."

They might have said，as I have no doubt they thought，that they had believed me to be without any friends save them: for，indeed，I had often said so; but，with their true natural delicacy，they abstained from ment，except that Diana asked me if I was sure I was well enough to travel. I looked very pale，she observed. I replied，that nothing ailed me save anxiety of mind，which I hoped soon to alleviate.

It was easy to make my further arrangements; for I was troubled with no inquiries- no surmises. Having once explained to them that I could not now be explicit about my plans，they kindly and wisely acquiesced in the silence with which I pursued them，according to me the privilege of free action I should under similar circumstances have accorded them.

I left Moor House at three o"clock p.M.，and soon after four I stood at the foot of the sign-post of Whitcross，waiting the arrival of the coach which was to take me to distant Thornfield. Amidst the silence of those solitary roads and desert hills，I heard it approach from a great distance. It was the same vehicle whence，a year ago，I had alighted one summer evening on this very spot- how desolate，and hopeless，and objectless! It stopped as I beckoned. I entered- not now obliged to part with my whole fortune as the price of its acmodation. Once more on the road to Thornfield，I felt like the messenger-pigeon flying home.

It was a journey of six-and-thirty hours. I had set out from Whitcross on a Tuesday afternoon，and early on the succeeding Thursday morning the coach stopped to water the horses at a wayside inn，situated in the midst of scenery whose green hedges and large fields and low pastoral hills (how mild of feature and verdant of hue pared with the stern North-Midland moors of Morton!) met my eye like the lineaments of a once familiar face. Yes，I knew the character of this landscape: I was sure we were near my bourne.