On a warm summer evening, Jane walks into the orchard. Mr. Rochester’s is already there. Jane tries to slink away, but he beckons her close. Mr. Rochester insinuatingly asks Jane if she feels at home at Thornfield. When Jane replies in the affirmative, he tells her that he’s found another governess position for her in Ireland. Jane cries, greatly distressed by the idea of being such as long way from England, Thornfield, and Mr. Rochester himself, and describes being parted from Mr. Rochester as a kind of death.

Mr. Rochester is battling some internal conflict he cannot reveal to Jane.

Suddenly, Mr. Rochester asks Jane to marry him. At first, Jane thinks he is mocking her and reminds Mr. Rochester about Blanche, but he declares, “My bride is here […] because my equal is here, and my likeness” (632). Overjoyed and suspicious at once, Jane asks Mr. Rochester to turn into the moonlight where she sees his face “very much agitated and very much flushed [with] strange gleams in the eyes” (634).

As the two of them declare their love, a storm descends over the orchard. They hurry inside out of the rain. Mr. Rochester helps Jane out of her wet coat and he kisses her repeatedly.