Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes

by Bronte Sisters

  ‘Do not mention these things just yet. I mean to write to Miss Wooler shortly. Good-bye. There is a strange half-sad feeling in making these announcements. The whole thing is something other than imagination paints it beforehand; cares, fears, come mixed inextricably with hopes. I trust yet to talk the matter over with you. Often last week I wished for your presence and said so to Mr. Nicholls — Arthur, as I now call him, but he said it was the only time and place when he could not have wished to see you. Good-bye. — Yours affectionately,

  ‘C. Brontë.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘April 15th, 1854.

  ‘My own dear Nell, — I hope to see you somewhere about the second week in May.

  ‘The Manchester visit is still hanging over my head. I have deferred it, and deferred it, but have finally promised to go about the beginning of next month. I shall only stay three days, then I spend two or three days at Hunsworth, then come to Brookroyd. The three visits must be compressed into the space of a fortnight, if possible.

  ‘I suppose I shall have to go to Leeds. My purchases cannot be either expensive or extensive. You must just resolve in your head the bonnets and dresses; something that can be turned to decent use and worn after the wedding-day will be best, I think.

  ‘I wrote immediately to Miss Wooler and received a truly kind letter from her this morning. If you think she would like to come to the marriage I will not fail to ask her.

  ‘Papa’s mind seems wholly changed about the matter, and he has said both to me and when I was not there, how much happier he feels since he allowed all to be settled. It is a wonderful relief for me to hear him treat the thing rationally, to talk over with him themes on which once I dared not touch. He is rather anxious things should get forward now, and takes quite an interest in the arrangement of preliminaries. His health improves daily, though this east wind still keeps up a slight irritation in the throat and chest.

  ‘The feeling which had been disappointed in papa was ambition, paternal pride — ever a restless feeling, as we all know. Now that this unquiet spirit is exorcised, justice, which was once quite forgotten, is once more listened to, and affection, I hope, resumes some power.

  ‘My hope is that in the end this arrangement will turn out more truly to papa’s advantage than any other it was in my power to achieve. Mr. Nicholls in his last letter refers touchingly to his earnest desire to prove his gratitude to papa, by offering support and consolation to his declining age. This will not be mere talk with him — he is no talker, no dealer in professions. — Yours affectionately,

  ‘C. Brontë.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘April 28th, 1854.

  ‘My dear Ellen, — I have delayed writing till I could give you some clear notion of my movements. If all be well, I go to Manchester on the 1st of May. Thence, on Thursday, to Hunsworth till Monday, when (D.V.) I come to Brookroyd. I must be at home by the close of the week. Papa, thank God! continues to improve much. He preached twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday, and was not tired; his mind and mood are different to what they were, so much more cheerful and quiet. I trust the illusions of ambition are quite dissipated, and that he really sees it is better to relieve a suffering and faithful heart, to secure its fidelity, a solid good, than unfeelingly to abandon one who is truly attached to his interest as well as mine, and pursue some vain empty shadow.

  ‘I thank you, dear Ellen, for your kind invitation to Mr. Nicholls. He was asked likewise to Manchester and Hunsworth. I would not have opposed his coming had there been no real obstacle to the arrangement — certain little awkwardnesses of feeling I would have tried to get over for the sake of introducing him to old friends; but it so happens that he cannot leave on account of his rector’s absence. Mr. C. will be in town with his family till June, and he always stipulates that his curate shall remain at Kirk-Smeaton while he is away.

  ‘How did you get on at the Oratorio? And what did Miss Wooler say to the proposal of being at the wedding? I have many points to discuss when I see you. I hope your mother and all are well. With kind remembrances to them, and true love to you, — I am, dear Nell, faithfully yours,

  ‘C. Brontë.

  ‘When you write, address me at Mrs. Gaskell’s, Plymouth Grove, Manchester.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘May 22nd, 1854.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — I wonder how you are, and whether that harassing cough is better. Be scrupulously cautious about undue exposure. Just now, dear Ellen, an hour’s inadvertence might cause you to be really ill. So once again, take care. Since I came home I have been very busy stitching. The little new room is got into order, and the green and white curtains are up; they exactly suit the papering, and look neat and clean enough. I had a letter a day or two since announcing that Mr. Nicholls comes to-morrow. I feel anxious about him, more anxious on one point than I dare quite express to myself. It seems he has again been suffering sharply from his rheumatic affection. I hear this not from himself, but from another quarter. He was ill while I was at Manchester and Brookroyd. He uttered no complaint to me, dropped no hint on the subject. Alas! he was hoping he had got the better of it, and I know how this contradiction of his hopes will sadden him. For unselfish reasons he did so earnestly wish this complaint might not become chronic. I fear, I fear. But, however, I mean to stand by him now, whether in weal or woe. This liability to rheumatic pain was one of the strong arguments used against the marriage. It did not weigh somehow. If he is doomed to suffer, it seems that so much the more will he need care and help. And yet the ultimate possibilities of such a case are appalling. You remember your aunt. Well, come what may, God help and strengthen both him and me. I look forward to to-morrow with a mixture of impatience and anxiety. Poor fellow! I want to see with my own eyes how he is.

  ‘It is getting late and dark. Write soon, dear Ellen. Goodnight and God bless you. — Yours affectionately,

  ‘C. Brontë.

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Haworth, May 27th, 1854.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — Your letter was very welcome, and I am glad and thankful to learn you are better. Still, beware of presuming on the improvement — don’t let it make you careless. Mr. Nicholls has just left me. Your hopes were not ill-founded about his illness. At first I was thoroughly frightened. However, inquiring gradually relieved me. In short, I soon discovered that my business was, instead of sympathy, to rate soundly. The patient had wholesome treatment while he was at Haworth, and went away singularly better; perfectly unreasonable, however, on some points, as his fallible sex are not ashamed to be.

  ‘Man is, indeed, an amazing piece of mechanism when you see, so to speak, the full weakness of what he calls his strength. There is not a female child above the age of eight but might rebuke him for spoilt petulance of his wilful nonsense. I bought a border for the table-cloth and have put it on.

  ‘Good-bye, dear Ellen. Write again soon, and mind and give a bulletin. — Yours faithfully,

  ‘C. Brontë.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘June 12th, 1854.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — Papa preached twice to-day as well and as strongly as ever. It is strange how he varies, how soon he is depressed and how soon revived. It makes me feel so thankful when he is better. I am thankful too that you are stronger, dear Nell. My worthy acquaintance at Kirk-Smeaton refuses to acknowledge himself better yet. I am uneasy about not writing to Miss Wooler. I fear she will think me negligent, while I am only busy and bothered. I want to clear up my needlework a little, and have been sewing against time since I was at Brookroyd. Mr. Nicholls hindered me for a full week.

  ‘I like the card very well, but not the envelope. I should like a perfectly plain envelope with a silver initial.

  ‘I got my dresses from Halifax a day or two since, but have not had time to have them unpacked, so I don’t know what they are like.

  ‘Next time I write, I hope to be able to give you clear information, and to beg you to come here without further delay
. Good-bye, dear Nell. — Yours faithfully,

  ‘C. Brontë.

  ‘I had almost forgotten to mention about the envelopes. Mr. Nicholls says I have ordered far too few; he thinks sixty will be wanted. Is it too late to remedy this error? There is no end to his string of parson friends. My own list I have not made out.’

  Charlotte Brontë’s list of friends, to whom wedding-cards were to be sent, is in her own handwriting, and is not without interest: —

  SEND CARDS TO

  The Rev. W. Morgan, Rectory, Hulcott, Aylesbury, Bucks. Joseph Branwell, Esq., Thamar Terrace, Launceston. Cornwall.

  Dr. Wheelwright, 29 Phillimore Place, Kensington, London.

  George Smith, Esq., 65 Cornhill, London.

  Mrs. and Misses Smith, 65 Cornhill, London.

  W. S. Williams, Esq., 65 Cornhill, London.

  R. Monckton Milnes, Esq.

  Mrs. Gaskell, Plymouth Grove, Manchester.

  Francis Bennoch, Esq., Park, Blackheath, London.

  George Taylor, Esq., Stanbury.

  Mrs. and Miss Taylor.

  H. Merrall, Esq., Lea Sykes, Haworth.

  E. Merrall, Esq., Ebor House, Haworth.

  R. Butterfield, Esq., Woodlands, Haworth.

  R. Thomas, Esq., Haworth.

  J. Pickles, Esq., Brow Top, Haworth.

  Wooler Family.

  Brookroyd.

  The following was written on her wedding day, June 29th, 1854.

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Thursday Evening.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — I scribble one hasty line just to say that after a pleasant enough journey we have got safely to Conway; the evening is wet and wild, though the day was fair chiefly, with some gleams of sunshine. However, we are sheltered in a comfortable inn. My cold is not worse. If you get this scrawl to-morrow and write by return, direct to me at the post-office, Bangor, and I may get it on Monday. Say how you and Miss Wooler got home. Give my kindest and most grateful love to Miss Wooler whenever you write. On Monday, I think, we cross the Channel. No more at present. — Yours faithfully and lovingly,

  ‘C. B. N.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Haworth, August 9th, 1854.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — I earnestly hope you are by yourself now, and relieved from the fag of entertaining guests. You do not complain, but I am afraid you have had too much of it.

  ‘Since I came home I have not had an unemployed moment. My life is changed indeed: to be wanted continually, to be constantly called for and occupied seems so strange; yet it is a marvellously good thing. As yet I don’t quite understand how some wives grow so selfish. As far as my experience of matrimony goes, I think it tends to draw you out of, and away from yourself.

  ‘We have had sundry callers this week. Yesterday Mr. Sowden and another gentleman dined here, and Mr. and Mrs. Grant joined them at tea.

  ‘I do not think we shall go to Brookroyd soon, on papa’s account. I do not wish again to leave home for a time, but I trust you will ere long come here.

  ‘I really like Mr. Sowden very well. He asked after you. Mr. Nicholls told him we expected you would be coming to stay with us in the course of three or four weeks, and that he should then invite him over again as he wished us to take sundry rather long walks, and as he should have his wife to look after, and she was trouble enough, it would be quite necessary to have a guardian for the other lady. Mr. Sowden seemed perfectly acquiescent.

  ‘Dear Nell, during the last six weeks, the colour of my thoughts is a good deal changed: I know more of the realities of life than I once did. I think many false ideas are propagated, perhaps unintentionally. I think those married women who indiscriminately urge their acquaintance to marry, much to blame. For my part, I can only say with deeper sincerity and fuller significance what I always said in theory, “Wait God’s will.” Indeed, indeed, Nell, it is a solemn and strange and perilous thing for a woman to become a wife. Man’s lot is far, far different. Tell me when you think you can come. Papa is better, but not well. How is your mother? give my love to her. — Yours faithfully,

  ‘C. B. Nicholls.

  ‘Have I told you how much better Mr. Nicholls is? He looks quite strong and hale; he gained 12 lbs. during the four weeks we were in Ireland. To see this improvement in him has been a main source of happiness to me, and to speak truth, a subject of wonder too.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Haworth, August 29th.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — Can you come here on Wednesday week (Sept. 6th)? Try to arrange matters to do so if possible, for it will be better than to delay your visit till the days grow cold and short. I want to see you again, dear Nell, and my husband too will receive you with pleasure; and he is not diffuse of his courtesies or partialities, I can assure you. One friendly word from him means as much as twenty from most people.

  ‘We have been busy lately giving a supper and tea-drinking to the singers, ringers, Sunday-school teachers, and all the scholars of the Sunday and National Schools, amounting in all to some 500 souls. It gave satisfaction and went off well.

  ‘Papa, I am thankful to say, is much better; he preached last Sunday. How does your mother bear this hot weather? Write soon, dear Nell, and say you will come. — Yours faithfully,

  ‘C. B. N.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Haworth, September 7th, 1854.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — I send a French paper to-day. You would almost think I had given them up, it is so long since one was despatched. The fact is, they had accumulated to quite a pile during my absence. I wished to look them over before sending them off, and as yet I have scarcely found time. That same Time is an article of which I once had a large stock always on hand; where it is all gone now it would be difficult to say, but my moments are very fully occupied. Take warning, Ellen, the married woman can call but a very small portion of each day her own. Not that I complain of this sort of monopoly as yet, and I hope I never shall incline to regard it as a misfortune, but it certainly exists. We were both disappointed that you could not come on the day I mentioned. I have grudged this splendid weather very much. The moors are in glory, I never saw them fuller of purple bloom. I wanted you to see them at their best; they are just turning now, and in another week, I fear, will be faded and sere. As soon as ever you can leave home, be sure to write and let me know.

  ‘Papa continues greatly better. My husband flourishes; he begins indeed to express some slight alarm at the growing improvement in his condition. I think I am decent, better certainly than I was two months ago, but people don’t compliment me as they do Arthur — excuse the name, it has grown natural to use it now. I trust, dear Nell, that you are all well at Brookroyd, and that your visiting stirs are pretty nearly over. I compassionate you from my heart for all the trouble to which you must be put, and I am rather ashamed of people coming sponging in that fashion one after another; get away from them and come here. — Yours faithfully,

  ‘C. B. Nicholls.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Haworth, November 7th, 1854.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — Arthur wishes you would burn my letters. He was out when I commenced this letter, but he has just come in. It is not “old friends” he mistrusts, he says, but the chances of war — the accidental passing of letters into hands and under eyes for which they were never written.

  ‘All this seems mighty amusing to me; it is a man’s mode of viewing correspondence. Men’s letters are proverbially uninteresting and uncommunicative. I never quite knew before why they made them so. They may be right in a sense: strange chances do fall out certainly. As to my own notes, I never thought of attaching importance to them or considering their fate, till Arthur seemed to reflect on both so seriously.

  ‘I will write again next week if all be well to name a day for coming to see you. I am sure you want, or at least ought to have, a little rest before you are bothered with more company; but whenever I come, I suppose, dear Nell, under present circumstances, it will be a quiet visit, and that I sh
all not need to bring more than a plain dress or two. Tell me this when you write. — Believe me faithfully yours,

  ‘C. B. Nicholls.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Haworth, November 14th, 1854.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — I am only just at liberty to write to you; guests have kept me very busy during the last two or three days. Sir J. Kay-Shuttleworth and a friend of his came here on Saturday afternoon and stayed till after dinner on Monday.

  ‘When I go to Brookroyd, Arthur will take me there and stay one night, but I cannot yet fix the time of my visit. Good-bye for the present, dear Nell. — Yours faithfully,

  ‘C. B. Nicholls.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Haworth, November 21st, 1854,

  ‘Dear Ellen, — You ask about Mr. Sowden’s matter. He walked over here on a wild rainy day. We talked it over. He is quite disposed to entertain the proposal, but of course there must be close inquiry and ripe consideration before either he or the patron decide. Meantime Mr. Sowden is most anxious that the affairs be kept absolutely quiet; in the event of disappointment it would be both painful and injurious to him if it should be rumoured at Hebden Bridge that he has had thoughts of leaving. Arthur says if a whisper gets out these things fly from parson to parson like wildfire. I cannot help somehow wishing that the matter should be arranged, if all on examination is found tolerably satisfactory.

  ‘Papa continues pretty well, I am thankful to say; his deafness is wonderfully relieved. Winter seems to suit him better than summer; besides, he is settled and content, as I perceive with gratitude to God.

  ‘Dear Ellen, I wish you well through every trouble. Arthur is not in just now or he would send a kind message. — Believe me, yours faithfully,

  ‘C. B. Nicholls.’

  TO MISS ELLEN NUSSEY

  ‘Haworth, November 29th, 1854.

  ‘Dear Ellen, — Arthur somewhat demurs about my going to Brookroyd as yet; fever, you know, is a formidable word. I cannot say I entertain any apprehensions myself further than this, that I should be terribly bothered at the idea of being taken ill from home and causing trouble; and strangers are sometimes more liable to infection than persons living in the house.