One afternoon (I had then been three weeks at Lowood)，as I was sitting with a slate in my hand，puzzling over a sum in long division，my eyes，raised in abstraction to the window，caught sight of a figure just passing: I recognised almost instinctively that gaunt outline; and when，two minutes after，all the school，teachers included，rose en masse，it was not necessary for me to look up in order to ascertain whose entrance they thus greeted. A long stride measured the schoolroom，and presently beside Miss Temple，who herself had risen，stood the same black column which had frowned on me so ominously from the hearthrug of Gateshead. I now glanced sideways at this piece of architecture. Yes，I was right: it was Mr. Brocklehurst，buttoned up in a surtout，and looking longer，narrower，and more rigid than ever.

I had my own reasons for being dismayed at this apparition; too well I remembered the perfidious hints given by Mrs. Reed about my disposition，etc.; the promise pledged by Mr. Brocklehurst to apprise Miss Temple and the teachers of my vicious nature. All along I had been dreading the fulfilment of this promise,- I had been looking out daily for the "ing Man," whose information respecting my past life and conversation was to brand me as a bad child for ever: now there he was.

He stood at Miss Temple"s side; he was speaking low in her ear: I did not doubt he was making disclosures of my villainy; and I watched her eye with painful anxiety，expecting every moment to see its dark orb turn on me a glance of repugnance and contempt. I listened too; and as I happened to be seated quite at the top of the room，I caught most of what he said: its import relieved me from immediate apprehension.

"I suppose，Miss Temple，the thread I bought at Lowton will do; it struck me that it would be just of the quality for the calico chemises，and I sorted the needles to match. You may tell Miss Smith that I forgot to make a memorandum of the darning needles，but she shall have some papers sent in next week; and she is not，on any account，to give out more than one at a time to each pupil: if they have more，they are apt to be careless and lose them. And，O ma"am! I wish the woollen stockings were better looked to!- when I was here last，I went into the kitchen-garden and examined the clothes drying on the line; there was a quantity of black hose in a very bad state of repair: from the size of the holes in them I was sure they had not been well mended from time to time." He paused.