One afternoon (I had then been three weeks at Lowood), as I was sitting with a slate in my hand, puzzling over a sum in long division, my eyes, raised in abstraction to the window, caught sight of a figure just passing: I recognised almost instinctively that gaunt outline; and when, two minutes after, all the school, teachers included, rose _en masse_, it was not necessary for me to look up in order to ascertain whose entrance they thus greeted. A long stride measured the schoolroom, and presently beside Miss Temple, who herself had risen, stood the same black column which had frowned on me so ominously from the hearthrug of Gateshead.
Una tarde (llevaba entonces tres semanas en Lowood), mientras me hallaba absorta en resolver en mi pizarra una larga cuenta, mis ojos, dirigidos al azar sobre una ventana, descubrieron a través de ella una figura que pasaba por el jardín en aquel instante. Casi instintivamente le reconocí y cuando, minutos después, las profesoras y alumnas se levantaron en masa, ya sabía yo que quien entraba a largas zancadas en el salón era el que en Gateshead me pareciera una columna negra y me causara tan desastrosa impresión: