Page:Jane Eyre (1st edition), Volume 1.djvu/288

280 very still and serene. The balcony was furnished with a chair or two; I sat down, took out a cigar,—I will take one now, if you will excuse me."

Here ensued a pause, filled up by the producing and lighting of a cigar; having placed it to his lips and breathed a trail of Havannah incense on the freezing and sunless air, he went on:—

"I liked bonbons too, in those days, Miss Eyre, and I was croquant—(overlook the barbarism) croquant chocolate comfits, and smoking alternately, watching meantime the equipages that rolled along the fashionable street towards the neighbouring opera-house, when in an elegant close carriage drawn by a beautiful pair of English horses, and distinctly seen in the brilliant city-night, I recognized the 'voiture' I had given Céline. She was returning: of course my heart thumped with impatience against the iron rails I leant upon. The carriage stopped, as I had expected, at the hotel door; my flame (that is the very word for an opera inammorata) alighted: though muffled in a cloak—an unnecessary