CHAPTER 7

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‘Come, eat something, 'she said; but I put both away from me, feeling as if a drop or a crumb would have choked me in my present condition. Helen regarded me, probably, with surprise: I could not now abate my agitation , though I tried hard; I continued to weep aloud. She sat down on the ground near me, embraced her knees with her arms, and rested her head upon them; in that attitude she remained silent as an Indian. I was the first who spoke—

‘Helen, why do you stay with a girl whom everybody believes to be a liar? ’

‘Everybody, Jane? Why, there are only eighty people who have heard you called so, and the world contains hundreds of millions.’

‘But what have I to do with millions! The eighty I know despise me.’

‘Jane, you are mistaken: probably not one in the school either despises or dislikes you; many, I am sure, pity you much.’

‘How can they pity me after what Mr. Brocklehurst said? ’

‘Mr. Brocklehurst is not a god: nor is he even a great and admired man: he is little liked here; he never took steps to make himself liked. Had he treated you as an especial favourite, you would have found enemies, declared or covert , all around you. ’

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‘If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.’

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