PART THREE - A YOUNG WOMAN AT THORNFIELD
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mr. Rochester's Story

"Well, as you know, he decided to give my older brother everything. [-----1-----]. Without asking me, my father decided that I should marry Bertha Mason. She was the daughter of my father's rich friend Jonas Mason. I was young and foolish in those days. Wyhen I saw Bertha in the West Indies, she was beautiful. I thought I loved her and wanted to marry her. But after the wedding, I learned that Bertha's mother and younger brother were both mad. Bertha would probably become sick like them. Jane, my father knew all of this, but he did not tell me! Soon after our wedding, Bertha began to go mad. I lived with her in other places for four years. By now my father and brother were both dead, so I was rich. But I knew that I was really poor, because I was married to a mad woman, for the rest of my life!"

"I pity you, sir, I do pity you," I said sadly. I could not imagine how terrible his life with Bertha Mason must have been.
"Well, [-----2-----], but in the end I decided to bring Bertha to live at Thornfield Hall. She has lived here ever since. No one in this house knows the whole truth about her although Mrs. Fairfax knows she is here. But although I pay Grace Poole a lot of money to watch her, Bertha is still clever. She has escaped from her room at night, as you know. The first time, she tried to kill me in a fire. The second time, she visited you in your room. She must have wanted to know who you were. She must have remembered her own wedding day when she saw your dress."

"And what did you do, sir, after you had brought her here?"

"I traveled all over Europe, Jane. [-----3-----]--"

"But you couldn't marry, sir," I said.

Vocabulary Focus

pity：同情，此處用作動詞。