"Is it still Rasselas?" I asked，ing behind her.

"Yes," she said，"and I have just finished it."

And in five minutes more she shut it up. I was glad of this.

"Now," thought I，"I can perhaps get her to talk." I sat down by her on the floor.

"What is your name besides Burns?"

"Helen."

"Do you e a long way from here?"

"I e from a place farther north，quite on the borders of Scotland."

"Will you ever go back?"

"I hope so; but nobody can be sure of the future."

"You must wish to leave Lowood?"

"No! why should I? I was sent to Lowood to get an education; and it would be of no use going away until I have attained that object."

"But that teacher，Miss Scatcherd，is so cruel to you?"

"Cruel? Not at all! She is severe: she dislikes my faults."

"And if I were in your place I should dislike her; I should resist her. If she struck me with that rod，I should get it from her hand; I should break it under her nose."

"probably you would do nothing of the sort: but if you did，Mr. Brocklehurst would expel you from the school; that would be a great grief to your relations. It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself，than to mit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides，the Bible bids us return good for evil."

"But then it seems disgraceful to be flogged，and to be sent to stand in the middle of a room full of people; and you are such a great girl: I am far younger than you，and I could not bear it."