Ext. A midsummer dawn. Thornfield the grounds

JANE

Do not say it -

ROCHESTER

It is love.

JANE

STOP -

They are holding each other.

ROCHESTER

I was wrong to deceive you. It was

cowardly. I should have appealed to

your spirit - as I do now - should

have opened my life, described my

hunger for a better existence -

shown you my chains. I give you my

life. I give you my pledge. Please,

be my wife.

JANE

I can not.

ROCHESTER

You would be my equal.

JANE

How?

ROCHESTER

I would make it so.

JANE

You once told me that hiring a

mistress is the next worse thing

to buying a slave.

ROCHESTER

Not my mistress -

Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 99.

JANE

I would not degrade you by having

you live with a slave.

ROCHESTER

I said wife, my wife -

Jane tries to rise. Rochester keeps hold of her hand. He

gently pulls her down again. Comforts her.