four
o'clock a.m.
Bessie and I conversed about old times an hour longer , and then she was obliged to leave me : I saw her again for a few minutes the next morning at Lowton , while I was waiting for the coach . We parted finally at the door of the Brocklehurst Arms there : each went her separate way ; she set off for the brow of Lowood Fell to meet the conveyance which was to take her back to Gateshead , I mounted the vehicle which was to bear me to new duties and a new life in the unknown environs of Millcote . A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play ; and when I draw up the curtain this time , reader , you must fancy you see a room in the George Inn at Millcote , with such large figured papering on the walls as inn rooms have ; such a carpet , such furniture , such ornaments on the mantelpiece , such prints , including a portrait of George the Third , and another of the Prince of Wales , and a representation of the death of Wolfe . All this is visible to you by the light of an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling , and by that of an excellent fire , near which I sit in my cloak and bonnet ; my muff and umbrella lie on the table , and I am warming away the numbness and chill contracted by sixteen hours ' exposure to the rawness of an October day : I left Lowton at four o'clock a.m. , and the Millcote town clock is now just striking eight . Reader , though I look comfortably accommodated , I am not very tranquil in my mind . I thought when the coach stopped here there would be some one to meet me ; I looked anxiously round as I descended the wooden steps the `` boots '' placed for my convenience , expecting to hear my name pronounced , and to see some description of carriage waiting to convey me to Thornfield . Nothing of the sort was visible ; and when I asked a waiter if any one had been to inquire after a Miss Eyre , I was answered in the negative : so I had no resource but to request to be shown into a private room : and here I am waiting , while all sorts of doubts and fears are troubling my thoughts .