I looked, and had an acute pleasure in looking, – a precious yet poignant pleasure; pure gold, with a steely point of agony: a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts nevertheless.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 17. Jane feels something akin to a guilty pleasure when she looks at Rochester’s face following his return home after an absense of weeks. It is a tension-filled, passionate moment for Jane, as Rochester has arrived home with the beauty Blanche Ingram in tow. Jane likens the moment metaphorically to pure gold, and also a thirsty man drinking from a well that he knows is poisoned.