Jane Eyre (Excerpt)
by Charlotte Bronte

The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in, I might say

never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall

rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it

contained: yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the

mansion. A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with

curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the center;

the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half

shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery; the carpet was red;

the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the

walls were a soft fawn color with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe,

the toilet-table, the chairs were of darkly polished old mahogany. Out

of these deep surrounding shades rose high, and glared white, the piled-

up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles

counterpane. Scarcely less prominent was an amply cushioned easy-chair

near the head of the bed, also white, with a footstool before it; and

looking, as I thought, like a pale throne.

This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because

remote from the nursery and kitchen; solemn, because it was known to be

so seldom entered. The housemaid alone came here on Saturdays, to wipe

from the mirrors and the furniture a week's quiet dust: and Mrs. Reed

herself, at far intervals, visited it to review the contents of a certain

secret drawer in the wardrobe, where were stored divers parchments, her

jewel-casket, and a miniature of her deceased husband; and in those last

words lies the secret of the red-room--the spell which kept it so lonely

in spite of its grandeur.

What was the secret of the room?