You have saved my life: I have a pleasure in owning you so immense a debt. I cannot say more. Nothing else that has being would have been tolerable to me in the character of creditor for such an obligation: but you: it is different; – I feel your benefits no burden, Jane…I knew…you would do me good in some way, at some time; – I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you: their expression and smile did not…strike delight to my very inmost heart so for nothing. People talk of natural sympathies; I have heard of good genii: there are grains of truth in the wildest fable. My cherished preserver, good night!
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 15. Here Rochester displays intense emotion and shows the first signs of his affection for Jane. She has just rescued him from certain death or injury when an unknown attacker (his secret wife Bertha Mason) sets Rochester’s bed ablaze while he sleeps. In this intimate moment Rochester abandons sarcasm and gruffness to speak passionately of his emotional connection with Jane.