Come! we’ll talk over the voyage and the parting quietly half-an-hour or so, while the stars enter into their shining life up in heaven yonder: here is the chestnut tree: here is the bench at its old roots. Come, we will sit there in peace to-night, though we should never more be destined to sit there together.
Rochester invites intimacy under the stars while hinting at separation. The repeated deictics (“here is…”) make the moment tactile and safe. That safety will soon be broken, which the language quietly admits. The “voyage and the parting” compress both hope and dread. Nature witnesses human vows in Brontë’s world. The chestnut tree becomes a sacred site, then a wounded one. The scene sits at the story’s emotional crest. Its peace makes the coming storm ache more.