I was glad of this.

"Now," thought I, "I can perhaps get her to talk." I sat down by her on the floor.
"What is your name besides Burns ?" "Helen." "Do you come a long way from here ?" "I come from a place farther north, quite on the borders of Scotland." "Will you ever go back ?" "I hope so; but nobody can be sure of the future." "You must wish to leave Lowood ?" "No! why should I?
I was sent to Lowood to get an education; and it would be of no use going away until I have attained that object." "But that teacher, Miss Scatcherd, is so cruel to you ?" "Cruel?
Not at all! She is severe: she dislikes my faults." "And if I were in your place I should dislike her; I should resist her.
If she struck me with that rod, I should get it from her hand; I should break it under her nose." "Probably you would do nothing of the sort: but if you did, Mr.
Brocklehurst would expel you from the school; that would be a great grief to your relations.

It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil." "But then it seems disgraceful to be flogged, and to be sent to stand in the middle of a room full of people; and you are such a great girl: I am far younger than you, and I could not bear it." "Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you _cannot bear_ what it is your fate to be required to bear." I heard her with wonder: I could not comprehend this doctrine of endurance; and still less could I understand or sympathise with the forbearance she expressed for her chastiser.

Still I felt that Helen Burns considered things by a light invisible to my eyes.

I suspected she might be right and I wrong; but I would not ponder the matter deeply; like Felix, I put it off to a more convenient season.
"You say you have faults, Helen: what are they?
To me you seem very good." "Then learn from me, not to judge by appearances: I am, as Miss Scatcherd said, slatternly; I seldom put, and never keep, things, in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should learn my lessons; I have no method; and sometimes I say, like you, I cannot _bear_ to be subjected to systematic arrangements.