[00:01.23]Chapter 10.
[00:03.75]Leaving Lowood.
[00:06.82]The typhoid finally wore itself out, but news of it, and of the deaths at the school, had traveled.
[00:15.31]There was an inquiry, which brought to light the truth about Lowood with its wretched clothing, poor food, and bad conditions.
[00:24.52]Mr. Brocklehurst was disgraced.
[00:29.95]Lowood was put into the care of kind and sensible trustees, and both diet and clothing improved.
[00:38.53]I stayed for eight more years, six as a pupil, and two as a teacher.
[00:46.15]I grew up small, pale, and plain, but I had education.
[00:55.48]Miss Temple was a friend, mother, and teacher to me, but when I was 18, she married and left Lowood.
[01:07.89]It was time for a change.
[01:11.90]I grew restless, knowing I had seen hardly anything of the world outside school and Gateshead Hall, and I wanted freedom.
[01:22.75]Or as near freedom as I could find.
[01:28.92]I put an advertisement in the newspaper.
[01:34.79]Young woman teacher seeks employment as a governess, French, drawing, and music offered.
[01:48.02]A reply came from a lady called Mrs. Fairfax at Thornfield Hall, about 70 miles away.
[01:56.56]She wanted a governess for a little girl, and the pay was twice as much as my salary at Lowood.
[02:05.99]The trustees gave me an excellent reference, but as Mrs. Reed was still my guardian, I needed her permission to leave the school.
[02:16.94]They wrote to her, and she replied that, Jane Eyre may do as she pleases.
[02:24.15]I want nothing to do with her.
[02:29.97]I was free to go.
[02:33.99]I was much surprised to have a visitor on my last evening at Lowood when I was packing.
[02:41.83]Bessie, my aunt's servant, had come all that way to see me before I left.
[02:50.90]She was now married to the coachman, and had brought her little son Bobby to see me.
[02:57.49]She was delighted to find me happy and to see my drawings.
[03:04.94]She asked me to play the piano and insisted that I played better than my cousins.
[03:13.58]How are they?
[03:16.40]I asked.
[03:19.22]The young ladies are well, but they're always quarreling.
[03:25.29]Mrs. Reed is in good health, but Mr. John worries her.
[03:32.84]He was thrown out of college and he wastes money terribly.
[03:39.97]And did you know, miss, a gentleman came asking about you?
[03:47.66]What gentleman, Bessie?
[03:51.88]Your father's brother, Mr. Air, miss.
[03:57.71]He lives in a foreign country now and was visiting England.
[04:04.59]He was so disappointed when Mrs. Reed said you'd gone away to school, because his ship was to leave London in a day or two, and he hadn't time to look for you.
[04:18.12]He looked a real gentleman.
[04:26.31]Bessie and Bobby stayed at Lowood that night.
[04:31.70]Next morning, I set off for whatever awaited at Thornfield Hall.