He passed on and ascended the stairs, still holding my hand, and still beckoning the gentlemen to follow him, which they did. We mounted the first staircase, passed up the gallery, proceeded to the third story: the low, black door, opened by Mr. Rochester’s master key, admitted us to the tapestried room, with its great bed and pictorial cabinet.
“You know this place, Mason,” said our guide; “she bit and stabbed you here.”
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 26. Rochester is leading Jane up to the third floor of Thornfield to see his mad wife Bertha Mason, who is kept in a locked room. This passage evokes a very Gothic atmosphere, as Rochester’s skeleton in the closet is about to be revealed.