Quotation from: Villette

Written by: Charlotte Bronte


Graham did like it very well, and almost always got it. To do him
justice, he would have shared his prize with her to whom he owed it;
but that was never allowed: to insist, was to ruffle her for the
evening. To stand by his knee, and monopolize his talk and notice, was
the reward she wanted--not a share of the cake.


With curious readiness did she adapt herself to such themes as
interested him. One would have thought the child had no mind or life
of her own, but must necessarily live, move, and have her being in
another: now that her father was taken from her, she nestled to
Graham, and seemed to feel by his feelings: to exist in his existence.
She learned the names of all his schoolfellows in a trice: she got by
heart their characters as given from his lips: a single description of
an individual seemed to suffice. She never forgot, or confused
identities: she would talk with him the whole evening about people she
had never seen, and appear completely to realise their aspect,
manners, and dispositions. Some she learned to mimic: an under-master,
who was an aversion of young Bretton's, had, it seems, some
peculiarities, which she caught up in a moment from Graham's
representation, and rehearsed for his amusement; this, however, Mrs.
Bretton disapproved and forbade.

PREVIOUS GROUP HOME SITE HOME NEXT
Old Dominion University CS Dept
Designed by Joan A. Smith for the CRATE project
Created: 2007-2-22T12:35:29Z
Part of the CratePreservation Project
Change Tag: ~~ 0 ~~
Part of a series of experiments in web preservation under the direction of Michael L. Nelson, Ph.D.