Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle potx

CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
1

CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER COFFEE
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, by Clement
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Title: Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle
Author: Clement K. Shorter
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***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLOTTE BRONTE AND HER CIRCLE***
Transcribed from the 1896 Hodder and Stoughton edition by Les Bowler.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE AND HER CIRCLE
BY CLEMENT K. SHORTER
LONDON
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
27 PATERNOSTER ROW
1896
[Picture: CHARLOTTE BRONTE]
PREFACE
It is claimed for the following book of some five hundred pages that the larger part of it is an addition of
entirely new material to the romantic story of the Brontes. For this result, but very small credit is due to me;
and my very hearty acknowledgments must be made, in the first place, to the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls, for
whose generous surrender of personal inclination I must ever be grateful. It has been with extreme
unwillingness that Mr. Nicholls has broken the silence of forty years, and he would not even now have

consented to the publication of certain letters concerning his marriage, had he not been aware that these letters
were already privately printed and in the hands of not less than eight or ten people. To Miss Ellen Nussey of
Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, by Clement 2
Gomersall, I have also to render thanks for having placed the many letters in her possession at my disposal,
and for having furnished a great deal of interesting information. Without the letters from Charlotte Bronte to
Mr. W. S. Williams, which were kindly lent to me by his son and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Thornton Williams,
my book would have been the poorer. Sir Wemyss Reid, Mr. J. J. Stead, of Heckmondwike, Mr. Butler Wood,
of Bradford, Mr. W. W. Yates, of Dewsbury, Mr. Erskine Stuart, Mr. Buxton Forman, and Mr. Thomas J.
Wise are among the many Bronte specialists who have helped me with advice or with the loan of material.
Mr. Wise, in particular, has lent me many valuable manuscripts. Finally, I have to thank my friend Dr.
Robertson Nicoll for the kindly pressure which has practically compelled me to prepare this little volume
amid a multitude of journalistic duties.
CLEMENT K. SHORTER. 198 STRAND, LONDON, September 1st, 1896.
CONTENTS
PRELIMINARY
Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, by Clement 3
CHAPTER I
PATRICK BRONTE AND MARIA HIS WIFE
CHAPTER I 4
CHAPTER II
CHILDHOOD
CHAPTER II 5
CHAPTER III
SCHOOL AND GOVERNESS LIFE
CHAPTER III 6
CHAPTER IV
PENSIONNAT HEGER, BRUSSELS
CHAPTER IV 7
CHAPTER V
PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTE

CHAPTER V 8
CHAPTER VI
EMILY JANE BRONTE
CHAPTER VI 9
CHAPTER VII
ANNE BRONTE
CHAPTER VII 10
CHAPTER VIII
ELLEN NUSSEY
CHAPTER VIII 11
CHAPTER IX
MARY TAYLOR
CHAPTER IX 12
CHAPTER X
MARGARET WOOLER
CHAPTER X 13
CHAPTER XI
THE CURATES AT HAWORTH
CHAPTER XI 14
CHAPTER XII
CHARLOTTE BRONTE'S LOVERS
CHAPTER XII 15
CHAPTER XIII
LITERARY AMBITIONS
CHAPTER XIII 16
CHAPTER XIV
WILLIAM SMITH WILLIAMS
CHAPTER XIV 17
CHAPTER XV
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

CHAPTER XV 18
CHAPTER XVI
LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS
CHAPTER XVI 19
CHAPTER XVII
ARTHUR BELL NICHOLLS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CHARLOTTE BRONTE Frontispiece PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTE facing page 120 FACSIMILE OF
PAGE OF EMILY BRONTE'S DIARY facing page 146 FACSIMILE OF TWO PAGES OF EMILY
BRONTE'S DIARY facing page 154 ANNE BRONTE facing page 182 MISS ELLEN NUSSEY AS A
SCHOOLGIRL ) MISS ELLEN NUSSEY TO-DAY ) facing page 207 THE REV. ARTHUR BELL
NICHOLLS facing page 467
A BRONTE CHRONOLOGY
Patrick Bronte born 17 March 1777 Maria Bronte born 1783 Patrick leaves Ireland for Cambridge 1802
Degree of A.B. 1806 Curacy at Wetherfield, Essex 1806 ,, Dewsbury Yorks 1809 ,, Hartshead-cum-Clifton
1811 Publishes 'Cottage Poems' (Halifax) 1811 Married to Maria Branwell 18 Dec. 1812 First Child, Maria,
born 1813 Publishes 'The Rural Minstrel' 1813 Elizabeth born 1814 Publishes 'The Cottage in the Wood' 1815
Curacy at Thornton 1816 Charlotte Bronte born at Thornton 21 April 1816 Patrick Branwell Bronte born
1817 Emily Jane Bronte born 1818 'The Maid of Killarney' published 1818 Anne Bronte born 1819 Removal
to Incumbency of Haworth February 1820 Mrs. Bronte died 15 September 1821 Maria and Elizabeth Bronte
at Cowan Bridge July 1824 Charlotte and Emily ,, ,, September 1824 Leave Cowan Bridge 1825 Maria
Bronte died 6 May 1825 Elizabeth Bronte died 15 June 1825 Charlotte Bronte at School, January 1831 Roe
Head Leaves Roe Head School 1832 First Visit to Ellen Nussey at The Rydings September 1832 Returns to
Roe Head as governess 29 July 1835 Branwell visits London 1835 Emily spends three months at Roe Head,
when Anne 1835 takes her place and she returns home Ellen Nussey visits Haworth in Holidays July 1836
Miss Wooler's School removed to Dewsbury Moor 1836 Emily at a School at Halifax for six months 1836
(Miss Patchet of Law Hill) First Proposal of Marriage (Henry Nussey) March 1839 Anne Bronte becomes
governess at Blake Hall, April 1839 (Mrs. Ingham's) Charlotte governess at Mrs. Sidgwick's at Stonegappe,
1839 and at Swarcliffe, Harrogate Second Proposal of Marriage (Mr. Price) 1839 Charlotte and Emily at
Haworth, 1840 Anne at Blake Hall Charlotte's second situation as governess with March 1841 Mrs. White,

Upperwood House, Rawdon Charlotte and Emily go to School at Brussels February 1842 Miss Branwell died
at Haworth 29 Oct. 1842 Charlotte and Emily return to Haworth Nov. 1842 Charlotte returns to Brussels Jan.
1843 Returns to Haworth Jan. 1844 Anne and Branwell at Thorp Green 1845 Charlotte visits Mary Taylor at
Hounsden 1845 Visits Miss Nussey at Brookroyd 1845 Publication of Poems by Currer, 1846 Ellis and Acton
Bell Charlotte Bronte visits Manchester with her father for Aug. 1846 him to see an Oculist 'Jane Eyre'
published (Smith & Elder) Oct. 1847 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Agnes Grey', (Newby) Dec. 1847 Charlotte and
Emily visit London June 1848 'Tenant of Wildfell Hall' 1848 Branwell died 24 Sept. 1848 Emily died 19 Dec.
1848 Anne Bronte died at Scarborough 28 May 1849 'Shirley' published 1849 Visit to London, first meeting
with Thackeray Nov. 1849 Visit to London, sits for Portrait to Richmond 1850 Third Offer of Marriage
(James Taylor) 1851 Visit to London for Exhibition 1851 'Villette' published 1852 Visit to London 1853 Visit
to Manchester to Mrs. Gaskell 1853 Marriage 29 June 1854 Death 31 March 1855 Patrick Bronte died 7
June 1861
PRELIMINARY: MRS. GASKELL
In the whole of English biographical literature there is no book that can compare in widespread interest with
the Life of Charlotte Bronte by Mrs. Gaskell. It has held a position of singular popularity for forty years; and
while biography after biography has come and gone, it still commands a place side by side with Boswell's
Johnson and Lockhart's Scott. As far as mere readers are concerned, it may indeed claim its hundreds as
against the tens of intrinsically more important rivals. There are obvious reasons for this success. Mrs. Gaskell
was herself a popular novelist, who commanded a very wide audience, and Cranford, at least, has taken a
CHAPTER XVII 20
place among the classics of our literature. She brought to bear upon the biography of Charlotte Bronte all
those literary gifts which had made the charm of her seven volumes of romance. And these gifts were
employed upon a romance of real life, not less fascinating than anything which imagination could have
furnished. Charlotte Bronte's success as an author turned the eyes of the world upon her. Thackeray had sent
her his Vanity Fair before he knew her name or sex. The precious volume lies before me
[Picture: First Thackeray Inscription]
And Thackeray did not send many inscribed copies of his books even to successful authors. Speculation
concerning the author of Jane Eyre was sufficiently rife during those seven sad years of literary renown to
make a biography imperative when death came to Charlotte Bronte in 1855. All the world had heard
something of the three marvellous sisters, daughters of a poor parson in Yorkshire, going one after another to

their death with such melancholy swiftness, but leaving two of them, at least imperishable work behind
them. The old blind father and the bereaved husband read the confused eulogy and criticism, sometimes with
a sad pleasure at the praise, oftener with a sadder pain at the grotesque inaccuracy. Small wonder that it
became impressed upon Mr. Bronte's mind that an authoritative biography was desirable. His son-in-law, Mr.
Arthur Bell Nicholls, who lived with him in the Haworth parsonage during the six weary years which
succeeded Mrs. Nicholls's death, was not so readily won to the unveiling of his wife's inner life; and although
we, who read Mrs. Gaskell's Memoir, have every reason to be thankful for Mr. Bronte's decision, peace of
mind would undoubtedly have been more assured to Charlotte Bronte's surviving relatives had the most rigid
silence been maintained. The book, when it appeared in 1857, gave infinite pain to a number of people,
including Mr. Bronte and Mr. Nicholls; and Mrs. Gaskell's subsequent experiences had the effect of
persuading her that all biographical literature was intolerable and undesirable. She would seem to have given
instructions that no biography of herself should be written; and now that thirty years have passed since her
death we have no substantial record of one of the most fascinating women of her age. The loss to literature has
been forcibly brought home to the present writer, who has in his possession a bundle of letters written by Mrs.
Gaskell to numerous friends of Charlotte Bronte during the progress of the biography. They serve, all of them,
to impress one with the singular charm of the woman, her humanity and breadth of sympathy. They make us
think better of Mrs. Gaskell, as Thackeray's letters to Mrs. Brookfield make us think better of the author of
Vanity Fair.
Apart from these letters, a journey in the footsteps, as it were, of Mrs. Gaskell reveals to us the remarkable
conscientiousness with which she set about her task. It would have been possible, with so much fame behind
her, to have secured an equal success, and certainly an equal pecuniary reward, had she merely written a brief
monograph with such material as was voluntarily placed in her hands. Mrs. Gaskell possessed a higher ideal
of a biographer's duties. She spared no pains to find out the facts; she visited every spot associated with the
name of Charlotte Bronte Thornton, Haworth, Cowan Bridge, Birstall, Brussels and she wrote countless
letters to the friends of Charlotte Bronte's earlier days.
But why, it may be asked, was Mrs. Gaskell selected as biographer? The choice was made by Mr. Bronte, and
not, as has been suggested, by some outside influence. When Mr. Bronte had once decided that there should
be an authoritative biography and he alone was active in the matter there could be but little doubt upon
whom the task would fall. Among all the friends whom fame had brought to Charlotte, Mrs. Gaskell stood
prominent for her literary gifts and her large-hearted sympathy. She had made the acquaintance of Miss

Bronte when the latter was on a visit to Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, in 1850; and a letter from Charlotte to
her father, and others to Mr. W. S. Williams, indicate the beginning of a friendship which was to leave so
permanent a record in literary history:
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
'20th November, 1849.
CHAPTER XVII 21
'MY DEAR SIR, You said that if I wished for any copies of Shirley to be sent to individuals I was to name
the parties. I have thought of one person to whom I should much like a copy to be offered Harriet Martineau.
For her character as revealed in her works I have a lively admiration, a deep esteem. Will you inclose with
the volume the accompanying note?
'The letter you forwarded this morning was from Mrs. Gaskell, authoress of Mary Barton; she said I was not
to answer it, but I cannot help doing so. The note brought the tears to my eyes. She is a good, she is a great
woman. Proud am I that I can touch a chord of sympathy in souls so noble. In Mrs. Gaskell's nature it
mournfully pleases me to fancy a remote affinity to my sister Emily. In Miss Martineau's mind I have always
felt the same, though there are wide differences. Both these ladies are above me certainly far my superiors in
attainments and experience. I think I could look up to them if I knew them I am, dear sir, yours sincerely,
'C. BRONTE.'
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
'November 29th, 1849.
'DEAR SIR, I inclose two notes for postage. The note you sent yesterday was from Harriet Martineau; its
contents were more than gratifying. I ought to be thankful, and I trust I am, for such testimonies of sympathy
from the first order of minds. When Mrs. Gaskell tells me she shall keep my works as a treasure for her
daughters, and when Harriet Martineau testifies affectionate approbation, I feel the sting taken from the
strictures of another class of critics. My resolution of seclusion withholds me from communicating further
with these ladies at present, but I now know how they are inclined to me I know how my writings have
affected their wise and pure minds. The knowledge is present support and, perhaps, may be future armour.
'I trust Mrs. Williams's health and, consequently, your spirits are by this time quite restored. If all be well,
perhaps I shall see you next week Yours sincerely,
'C. BRONTE.'
TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'January 1st, 1850.
'MY DEAR SIR, May I beg that a copy of Wuthering Heights may be sent to Mrs. Gaskell; her present
address is 3 Sussex Place, Regent's Park. She has just sent me the Moorland Cottage. I felt disappointed about
the publication of that book, having hoped it would be offered to Smith, Elder & Co.; but it seems she had no
alternative, as it was Mr. Chapman himself who asked her to write a Christmas book. On my return home
yesterday I found two packets from Cornhill directed in two well-known hands waiting for me. You are all
very very good.
'I trust to have derived benefit from my visit to Miss Martineau. A visit more interesting I certainly never paid.
If self-sustaining strength can be acquired from example, I ought to have got good. But my nature is not hers;
I could not make it so though I were to submit it seventy times seven to the furnace of affliction, and
discipline it for an age under the hammer and anvil of toil and self-sacrifice. Perhaps if I was like her I should
not admire her so much as I do. She is somewhat absolute, though quite unconsciously so; but she is likewise
kind, with an affection at once abrupt and constant, whose sincerity you cannot doubt. It was delightful to sit
near her in the evenings and hear her converse, myself mute. She speaks with what seems to me a wonderful
fluency and eloquence. Her animal spirits are as unflagging as her intellectual powers. I was glad to find her
health excellent. I believe neither solitude nor loss of friends would break her down. I saw some faults in her,
but somehow I liked them for the sake of her good points. It gave me no pain to feel insignificant, mentally
CHAPTER XVII 22
and corporeally, in comparison with her.
'Trusting that you and yours are well, and sincerely wishing you all a happy new year, I am, my dear sir,
yours sincerely,
'C. BRONTE.'
TO REV. P. BRONTE
'THE BRIERY, WINDERMERE, 'August 10th, 1850.
'DEAR PAPA, I reached this place yesterday evening at eight o'clock, after a safe though rather tedious
journey. I had to change carriages three times and to wait an hour and a half at Lancaster. Sir James came to
meet me at the station; both he and Lady Shuttleworth gave me a very kind reception. This place is exquisitely
beautiful, though the weather is cloudy, misty, and stormy; but the sun bursts out occasionally and shows the
hills and the lake. Mrs. Gaskell is coming here this evening, and one or two other people. Miss Martineau, I
am sorry to say, I shall not see, as she is already gone from home for the autumn.

'Be kind enough to write by return of post and tell me how you are getting on and how you are. Give my kind
regards to Tabby and Martha, and Believe me, dear papa, your affectionate daughter,
'C. BRONTE.'
And this is how she writes to a friend from Haworth, on her return, after that first meeting:
'Lady Shuttleworth never got out, being confined to the house with a cold; but fortunately there was Mrs.
Gaskell, the authoress of Mary Barton, who came to the Briery the day after me. I was truly glad of her
companionship. She is a woman of the most genuine talent, of cheerful, pleasing, and cordial manners, and, I
believe, of a kind and good heart.'
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
'September 20th, 1850.
'MY DEAR SIR, I herewith send you a very roughly written copy of what I have to say about my sisters.
When you have read it you can better judge whether the word "Notice" or "Memoir" is the most appropriate. I
think the former. Memoir seems to me to express a more circumstantial and different sort of account. My aim
is to give a just idea of their identity, not to write any narration of their simple, uneventful lives. I depend on
you for faithfully pointing out whatever may strike you as faulty. I could not write it in the conventional
form that I found impossible.
'It gives me real pleasure to hear of your son's success. I trust he may persevere and go on improving, and give
his parents cause for satisfaction and honest pride.
'I am truly pleased, too, to learn that Miss Kavanagh has managed so well with Mr. Colburn. Her position
seems to me one deserving of all sympathy. I often think of her. Will her novel soon be published? Somehow
I expect it to be interesting.
'I certainly did hope that Mrs. Gaskell would offer her next work to Smith & Elder. She and I had some
conversation about publishers a comparison of our literary experiences was made. She seemed much struck
with the differences between hers and mine, though I did not enter into details or tell her all. Unless I greatly
mistake, she and you and Mr. Smith would get on well together; but one does not know what causes there
CHAPTER XVII 23
may be to prevent her from doing as she would wish in such a case. I think Mr. Smith will not object to my
occasionally sending her any of the Cornhill books that she may like to see. I have already taken the liberty of
lending her Wordsworth's Prelude, as she was saying how much she wished to have the opportunity of
reading it.

'I do not tack remembrances to Mrs. Williams and your daughters and Miss Kavanagh to all my letters,
because that makes an empty form of what should be a sincere wish, but I trust this mark of courtesy and
regard, though rarely expressed, is always understood Believe me, yours sincerely,
'C. BRONTE.'
Miss Bronte twice visited Mrs. Gaskell in her Manchester home, first in 1851 and afterwards in 1853, and
concerning this latter visit we have the following letter:
TO MRS. GASKELL, MANCHESTER
'HAWORTH, April 14th, 1853.
'MY DEAR MRS. GASKELL, Would it suit you if I were to come next Thursday, the 21st?
'If that day tallies with your convenience, and if my father continues as well as he is now, I know of no
engagement on my part which need compel me longer to defer the pleasure of seeing you.
'I should arrive by the train which reaches Manchester at 7 o'clock P.M. That, I think, would be about your
tea-time, and, of course, I should dine before leaving home. I always like evening for an arrival; it seems more
cosy and pleasant than coming in about the busy middle of the day. I think if I stay a week that will be a very
long visit; it will give you time to get well tired of me.
'Remember me very kindly to Mr. Gaskell and Marianna. As to Mesdames Flossy and Julia, those venerable
ladies are requested beforehand to make due allowance for the awe with which they will be sure to impress a
diffident admirer. I am sorry I shall not see Meta Believe me, my dear Mrs. Gaskell, yours affectionately and
sincerely,
'C. BRONTE.'
In the autumn of 1853 Mrs. Gaskell returned Charlotte Bronte's visit at Haworth. She was not, however, at
Charlotte's wedding in Haworth Church. {8}
TO MISS WOOLER
'HAWORTH, September 8th.
'MY DEAR MISS WOOLER, Your letter was truly kind, and made me warmly wish to join you. My
prospects, however, of being able to leave home continue very unsettled. I am expecting Mrs. Gaskell next
week or the week after, the day being yet undetermined. She was to have come in June, but then my severe
attack of influenza rendered it impossible that I should receive or entertain her. Since that time she has been
absent on the Continent with her husband and two eldest girls; and just before I received yours I had a letter
from her volunteering a visit at a vague date, which I requested her to fix as soon as possible. My father has

been much better during the last three or four days.
'When I know anything certain I will write to you again Believe me, my dear Miss Wooler, yours
respectfully and affectionately,
CHAPTER XVII 24
'C. BRONTE.'
But the friendship, which commenced so late in Charlotte Bronte's life, never reached the stage of downright
intimacy. Of this there is abundant evidence in the biography; and Mrs. Gaskell was forced to rely upon the
correspondence of older friends of Charlotte's. Mr. George Smith, the head of the firm of Smith and Elder,
furnished some twenty letters. Mr. W. S. Williams, to whom is due the credit of 'discovering' the author of
Jane Eyre, lent others; and another member of Messrs. Smith and Elder's staff, Mr. James Taylor, furnished
half-a-dozen more; but the best help came from another quarter.
Of the two schoolfellows with whom Charlotte Bronte regularly corresponded from childhood till death, Mary
Taylor and Ellen Nussey, the former had destroyed every letter; and thus it came about that by far the larger
part of the correspondence in Mrs. Gaskell's biography was addressed to Miss Ellen Nussey, now as 'My
dearest Nell,' now simply as 'E.' The unpublished correspondence in my hands, which refers to the biography,
opens with a letter from Mrs. Gaskell to Miss Nussey, dated July 6th, 1855. It relates how, in accordance with
a request from Mr. Bronte, she had undertaken to write the work, and had been over to Haworth. There she
had made the acquaintance of Mr. Nicholls for the first time. She told Mr. Bronte how much she felt the
difficulty of the task she had undertaken. Nevertheless, she sincerely desired to make his daughter's character
known to all who took deep interest in her writings. Both Mr. Bronte and Mr. Nicholls agreed to help to the
utmost, although Mrs. Gaskell was struck by the fact that it was Mr. Nicholls, and not Mr. Bronte, who was
more intellectually alive to the attraction which such a book would have for the public. His feelings were
opposed to any biography at all; but he had yielded to Mr. Bronte's 'impetuous wish,' and he brought down all
the materials he could find, in the shape of about a dozen letters. Mr. Nicholls, moreover, told Mrs. Gaskell
that Miss Nussey was the person of all others to apply to; that she had been the friend of his wife ever since
Charlotte was fifteen, and that he was writing to Miss Nussey to beg her to let Mrs. Gaskell see some of the
correspondence.
But here is Mr. Nicholls's actual letter, unearthed after forty years, as well as earlier letters from and to Miss
Nussey, which would seem to indicate a suggestion upon the part of 'E' that some attempt should be made to
furnish a biography of her friend if only to set at rest, once and for all, the speculations of the gossiping

community with whom Charlotte Bronte's personality was still shrouded in mystery; and indeed it is clear
from these letters that it is to Miss Nussey that we really owe Mrs. Gaskell's participation in the matter:
TO REV. A. B. NICHOLLS
'BROOKROYD, June 6th, 1855.
'DEAR MR. NICHOLLS, I have been much hurt and pained by the perusal of an article in Sharpe for this
month, entitled "A Few Words about Jane Eyre." You will be certain to see the article, and I am sure both you
and Mr. Bronte will feel acutely the misrepresentations and the malignant spirit which characterises it. Will
you suffer the article to pass current without any refutations? The writer merits the contempt of silence, but
there will be readers and believers. Shall such be left to imbibe a tissue of malignant falsehoods, or shall an
attempt be made to do justice to one who so highly deserved justice, whose very name those who best knew
her but speak with reverence and affection? Should not her aged father be defended from the reproach the
writer coarsely attempts to bring upon him?
'I wish Mrs. Gaskell, who is every way capable, would undertake a reply, and would give a sound castigation
to the writer. Her personal acquaintance with Haworth, the Parsonage, and its inmates, fits her for the task,
and if on other subjects she lacked information I would gladly supply her with facts sufficient to set aside
much that is asserted, if you yourself are not provided with all the information that is needed on the subjects
produced. Will you ask Mrs. Gaskell to undertake this just and honourable defence? I think she would do it
gladly. She valued dear Charlotte, and such an act of friendship, performed with her ability and power, could
only add to the laurels she has already won. I hope you and Mr. Bronte are well. My kind regards to
CHAPTER XVII 25