and—Believe me, dear papa, your affectionate daughter,

‘C. Brontë.’

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 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. Brontë.’

Miss Brontë 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. Brontë.’

In the autumn of 1853 Mrs. Gaskell returned Charlotte Brontë’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,

‘C. Brontë.’

But the friendship, which commenced so late in Charlotte Brontë’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 Brontë 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. Brontë, 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. Brontë 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. Brontë 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. Brontë, 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. Brontë’s ‘impetuous