Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host. Every week, I will read you

an old story to help you relax, put the stressful day behind you, and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I will be reading Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

So lie down, close your eyes, and let me read you a story.

Chapter 1, April 13, 1848.

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning.

But since dinner, Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early,

the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre,

and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.

I was glad of it. I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons.

Dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight with nipped fingers and toes,

and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness

of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.

The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed. The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana

were now clustered round their mama in the drawing room.

She lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside,

...