During the past week scarcely a night had gone over my couch that had not brought with it a dream of an infant: which I sometimes hushed in my arms, sometimes dandled on my knee, sometimes watched playing with daisies on a lawn; or again, dabbling its hands in running water. It was a wailing child this night, and a laughing one the next: now it nestled close to me, and now it ran from me.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 21. Jane is having dreams about children, which she believes is a sign of trouble. She remembers her old nursemaid Bessie saying that “to dream of children was a sure sign of trouble, either to one’s self or one’s kin.” Jane is wakened from one of these dreams by a cry in the house. This is from Bertha Mason, Rochester’s secret wife who is locked in the attic. The next day Jane learns her cousin John Reed has died by suicide and her Aunt Reed is on her deathbed.