[00:00.87] Chapter 5.
[00:02.06] Lowwood.
[00:03.89] I left Gateshead Hall on the 6:00 coach, giving Bessie one last hug before we clattered away.
[00:09.63] Nobody else was there to say goodbye.
[00:12.94] We traveled all day and into the night.
[00:17.14] The coach stopped at last in rain and darkness, so I could see very little of Lowood.
[00:23.71] A young woman, one of the teachers, came to meet me, and hurried me through the corridors until we arrived in a long, wide room full of girls.
[00:33.06] They all wore very plain brown dresses and woolen stockings, and their hair was combed back severely from their faces.
[00:40.98] The youngest must have been nine, and the oldest 20.
[00:47.28] The teacher, Miss Miller, took her place at the end of the room.
[00:53.20] Monitors, she called, collect the books and fetch the supper trays.
[01:02.92] Four tall girls tidied away the books and brought in supper, which was a little drink of water from a shared mug and a tiny bit of biscuit.
[01:12.18] But I was too nervous to eat even that.
[01:15.64] Then we all went to a long room where we slept, two to each bed.
[01:22.55] The morning was still dark and bitterly cold when we had to rise, wash shivering in icy water, and go downstairs for prayers, which lasted for an hour.
[01:34.40] Having eaten so little the day before, I felt sick with hunger.
[01:39.44] Then, at last, we were sent to the refectory for breakfast.
[01:47.12] To my dismay, the breakfast smelt far from pleasant.
[01:51.86] The girls were wrinkling their noses in disgust.
[01:57.96] The porridge is burnt again, whispered someone.
[02:03.93] It tasted disgusting, and even I, who was starving, could not eat it.
[02:10.07] We went to our lessons hungry.
[02:14.82] We were all in one large school room.
[02:19.02] I was looking at the teachers, a stout one, a dark gloomy one, a foreign woman, and Miss Miller, when all the girls stood up.
[02:29.19] The head mistress was entering the room.
[02:33.85] Her name, I discovered, was Miss Temple.
[02:39.37] She was tall, pale, and dark-haired, and for some minutes she surveyed us gravely and silently.
[02:49.01] I saw kindness in her eyes, and dignity in her bearing.
[02:57.34] She spent the morning teaching the older girls, and at 12:00 she stood up and addressed the school.
[03:09.77] You had a breakfast this morning which you could not eat, she said.
[03:15.07] You must be hungry.
[03:18.34] I have ordered bread and cheese for you all.
[03:24.95] The other teachers looked shocked, but we were all delighted.
[03:31.73] As soon as we had finished the food, we were sent to the garden.
[03:38.62] It was freezing and foggy.
[03:41.78] The ground was soaking, and our thin dresses and cloaks were not enough to keep us warm.
[03:49.92] Cold, hungry, and alone, I looked at the miserable garden and wondered about my future here.
[04:00.10] Close to me, someone coughed.
[04:04.04] I looked round and saw a girl sitting on a bench reading.
[04:11.40] Here was somebody else who liked books.
[04:16.91] When she looked up, we began to talk, and I asked her who the house belonged to.
[04:26.28] Mr. Brocklehurst, she said.
[04:30.93] He buys all our food and clothes.
[04:35.40] Miss Temple is very good and very clever, but Mr. Brocklehurst makes the decisions.
[04:46.40] Her name was Helen Burns, and she was an orphan like me.
[04:53.42] By the time the dinner bell rang, I had a friend.
[05:01.19] Dinner was a vile smelling stew.
[05:07.76] And even though I was hungry, I only ate a little.
[05:12.80] More lessons followed, then coffee with a small scrap of bread, study, the usual supper of dry biscuit and a sip of water, and bed.
[05:27.17] Such was my first day at Lowood.