"Do you read your Bible?"

"Sometimes."

"With pleasure? Are you fond of it?"

"I like Revelations，and the book of Daniel，and Genesis and Samuel，and a little bit of Exodus，and some parts of Kings and Chronicles，and Job and Jonah."

"And the psalms? I hope you like them?"

"No，sir."

"No? oh，shocking! I have a little boy，younger than you，who knows six psalms by heart: and when you ask him which he would rather have，a gingerbread-nut to eat or a verse of a psalm to learn，he says: "Oh! the verse of a psalm! angels sing psalms;" says he，"I wish to be a little angel here below;" he then gets two nuts in repense for his infant piety."

"psalms are not interesting," I remarked.

"That proves you have a wicked heart; and you must pray to God to change it: to give you a new and clean one: to take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

I was about to propound a question，touching the manner in which that operation of changing my heart was to be performed，when Mrs. Reed interposed，telling me to sit down; she then proceeded to carry on the conversation herself.

"Mr. Brocklehurst，I believe I intimated in the letter which I wrote to you three weeks ago，that this little girl has not quite the character and disposition I could wish: should you admit her into Lowood school，I should be glad if the superintendent and teachers were requested to keep a strict eye on her，and，above all，to guard against her worst fault，a tendency to deceit. I mention this in your hearing，Jane，that you may not attempt to impose on Mr. Brocklehurst."

Well might I dread，well might I dislike Mrs. Reed; for it was her nature to wound me cruelly; never was I happy in her presence; however carefully I obeyed，however strenuously I strove to please her，my efforts were still repulsed and repaid by such sentences as the above. Now，uttered before a stranger，the accusation cut me to the heart; I dimly perceived that she was already obliterating hope from the new phase of existence which she destined me to enter; I felt，though I could not have expressed the feeling，that she was sowing aversion and unkindness along my future path; I saw myself transformed under Mr. Brocklehurst"s eye into an artful，noxious child，and what could I do to remedy the injury?

"Nothing，indeed," thought I，as I struggled to repress a sob，and hastily wiped away some tears，the impotent evidences of my anguish.