Ext. A midsummer dawn. Thornfield the grounds

JANE

What does he want with me?

ST JOHN

Merely to tell you that your uncle,

Mr John Eyre of Madeira, is dead;

that he has left you all his

property and that you are now rich.

JANE

What?

ST JOHN

You are rich; quite an heiress.

Silence. Jane is flabbergasted.

ST JOHN (CONT'D)

Your fortune is vested in the

English funds; Briggs has the

will and all the necessary

documents. You can enter on

immediate possession.

At last, Jane looks questioningly up at him.

ST JOHN (CONT'D)

Your forehead unbends at last; I

thought you were turning to

stone. Perhaps now you will ask

how much you are worth.

JANE

How much am I worth?

ST JOHN

Oh a trifle. Twenty thousand

pounds - but what of that?

The news literally takes Jane's breath away.

JANE

Twenty thousand pounds?

St John begins to laugh at Jane's reaction. She has never

seen him laugh before.

Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 105.

ST JOHN

If you'd committed a murder and

I'd found you out, you could

scarcely look more aghast.

JANE

There must be some mistake. It's

two thousand, surely.

ST JOHN

It's twenty. You look desperately

miserable about it, I must say.

Jane still cannot take it in. She frowns in disbelief.