"But I apprised you that I was a hard man," said he, "difficult to persuade."

     "And I am a hard woman,--impossible to put off."

     "And then," he pursued, "I am cold: no fervour infects me."

     "Whereas I am hot, and fire dissolves ice. The blaze there has thawed all the snow from your cloak; by the same token, it has streamed on to my floor, and made it like a trampled street. As you hope ever to be forgiven, Mr. Rivers, the high crime and misdemeanour of spoiling a sanded kitchen, tell me what I wish to know."

     "Well, then," he said, "I yield; if not to your earnestness, to your perseverance: as stone is worn by continual dropping. Besides, you must know some day,--as well now as later. Your name is Jane Eyre?"

     "Of course: that was all settled before."